Source/Archive record SCH8825 - An Archaeological Watching Brief at the Former Council Offices, Watling Street, Northwich, Cheshire

A watching brief was undertaken on an intermittent basis between January and October in 2019 at the former Council Offices in Watling Street, Northwich. The watching brief comprised the monitoring of seven geotechnical test pits and works associated with the lifting of foundation slabs and ground reduction. The works on site revealed extensive deposits attesting demolition of buildings dating to the nineteeth and early twentieth centuries, as well as levelling up associated with construction and landscaping for the modern council offices. The only archaeological features revealed consisted of two culverts on the southern side of the site, a truncated portion of a former road surface on the northern side of the site and two walls of a cellar belonging to a building to the north-east of the former road, beyond the boundary of the former saltworks. Across the majority of the site a thick demolition deposit was encountered that represented the demolition of the Baron’s Croft saltworks that formerly occupied the site. The demolition event across the southern half of the site is known to date to the late nineteenth century, whilst demolition of the redesigned site further north did not take place until the mid-twentieth century. There was not such a clear divide in the composition of the demolition deposits encountered on site, but this could be explained by the impact of later development (i.e. the council offices) and a blending of the deposits. It is possible that further features or deposits are present on site but at depths beyond the construction level of the new development and under an unknown depth of demolition and ground levelling deposits.