The Poulton Research Project

Over the past 10 days 3 new trenches have been opened up, well away from the main chapel site. One trench has already provided clear evidence for prehistoric activity. A ring-ditch of (as yet) indeterminate date has been uncovered. Within it pieces of very coarse handmade pottery (VCP) have been retrieved along with many fragments of cremated human bone.

Cremation was a common practice in the late Bronze Age/Iron Age period 1500BC - 43 AD. Several small circular features within the ring-ditch may point to the presence of cremation urns, suggesting (for Cheshire) a rare prehistoric burial site.

If a burial site for this period (or any other) does exist at Poulton, then a settlement site must exist nearby; once again a rarity. Many such sites have been located in North Wales (the Poulton excavation is barely 40 metres from the Welsh border).

At least one Roman ditch and several pits appear to cut through the earlier prehistoric material, in this trench. Geophysics (electrical probing for underground features such as walls and ditches) suggests that a substantial building (probably Roman) lies nearby. Previous Roman finds at the chapel site suggest a villa or possibly a rural temple complex. Archaeological patience is a byword and the Poulton team will have to wait until summer 2003 to further investigate and excavate a potentially very exciting site.