Post-excavation assessment : land at Land Gate, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, Greater Manchester

Burns, ML; Harvey, KM

Abstract

Bellway Homes Limited (Manchester Division) has obtained planning consent for a
large residential development at Land Gate, near Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan (centred
on NGR SD 57140 01220). The consented scheme allows for the construction of 157
dwellings, together with associated landscaping works and roads across 5.45 hectares of
agricultural land to the north of Ashton-in-Makerfield (Planning Ref:
A/17/84450/MAJOR). In view of the extensive earth-moving works required to deliver
the scheme, a condition was attached to planning consent that required an appropriate
programme of archaeological investigation to be carried out in advance of construction.
The potential for archaeological remains to survive across the development site was
highlighted in a desk-based assessment produced by The Environment Partnership (TEP)
that was prepared to support the planning application in 2017. This identified that the
projected course of the Roman road from Warrington to Wigan crossed the site, and
concluded that intrusive investigation to establish the presence or absence of
archaeological remains was merited. In the light of this conclusion, TEP on behalf of
Bellway Homes Limited, commissioned an appropriate programme of archaeological
investigation, which initially comprised a geophysical survey and subsequent trial
trenching that targeting the projected line of the Roman road.
Whilst the results obtained from the geophysical survey were inconclusive, a section of
the Roman road was exposed during the evaluation. Following consultation between
TEP and Greater Manchester Archaeological Advisory Service (GMAAS) it was
concluded that the eastern part of the site had potential to contain buried archaeological
remains of sufficient research interest to warrant more detailed investigation. GMAAS
recommended that detailed archaeological investigation of two areas targeted on the
course of the Roman road would constitute an appropriate strategy to mitigate the
ultimate loss of the archaeological remains.
The excavation was undertaken by Salford Archaeology between March and April 2018,
with invaluable support provided by members of the Wigan Archaeological Society,
together with a watching brief that monitored development ground works in May 2018.
The excavation revealed the fragmentary remains of the Roman road, together with its
associated drainage ditches, one of which contained two sherds of Roman pottery. The
upper fill of one of these ditches contained an assemblage of pottery, to which a 12th- to
14th-century date may ascribed, raising a possibility that the road remained in use for a
considerable period after the collapse of Roman administration in Britain. In addition, a
date returned from radiocarbon assay of material lying immediately beneath the Roman
road has indicated some activity on the site during the late Bronze Age.
A post-excavation assessment of the dataset has been carried out following the
completion of all elements of the fieldwork. This has concluded that whilst the results
obtained from the archaeological investigation are of regional importance and merit an
appropriate level of publication, the dataset has little potential for any further analysis.

Citation

Burns, M., & Harvey, K. (2019). Post-excavation assessment : land at Land Gate, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, Greater Manchester

• Report Type: Project Report
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Feb 19, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 19, 2020
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.17866/rd.salford.11871210
• Additional Information: Corporate Creators : The Environment Partnership; Access Information : Link above is to research outputs and data for this report