Archaeological evaluation : Skelhorne Street, Liverpool

Mottershead, SC

Abstract

Salford Archaeology was commissioned by Nexus-Heritage to undertake an
archaeological evaluation on a car park at Skelhorne Street and Bolton Street, Liverpool
(centred on NGR 335075 390430) as part of a redevelopment scheme. This report
consists of the results from the three evaluation trenches excavated during the course of
this work.
An archaeological assessment had demonstrated that the study area had the potential for
the survival of remains relating to an 18th century bath house, an 18th century steam
powered textile mill and a series of 18th and 19th houses depicted on mapping of 1803
and 1848.
The trenches within the current study area revealed that bedrock was very close to the
surface at the southern end of the site. Trench 2 uncovered the edge of a mid 19th century
brick built house that had been constructed over a former rock cut well that is likely to
have originally served the 18th century bath house. Both trenches 1 and 3 uncovered
remains of a 20th century bus station in the form of a ring beam, concrete floor slab,
column bases and a tiled floor. Trench 1, in the northern half of the site showed that the
area had used compacted rubble from the demolition of the bus station to level the site
prior to having tarmac laid down for the car park. The demolition material contained
possible ACMs and so progress in this area had to be ceased.
The results obtained from the evaluation trenches have indicated that the ground level,
originally a hill sloping downwards from southeast to northwest, had bee significantly
reduced in the southeast of the site, cutting into the bedrock by over 3m. The ground
reduction lessened downslope and the northwest corner of the area had been built up to
create a level car park. This meant that any remains in the east, southeast and south of the
site had been removed entirely. As the houses ran downslope to the northwest the chance
of cellars surviving increases with the floor of a cellar exposed in trench 2. It may be that
deeper cellars exist towards the northwest of the site area but the presence of possible
ACMs in the overburden precludes further excavation in this area at present.

Citation

Mottershead, S. (2016). Archaeological evaluation : Skelhorne Street, Liverpool

• Report Type: Technical Report
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jan 16, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 16, 2020
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.17866/rd.salford.11619579.v1
• Additional Information: Access Information : Link above is to research outputs and data