Excavation of St. Mary’s Rectory Garden, 2005

Excavation of St. Mary’s Rectory Garden,  September 2005

Kieran Power, University of Manchester Archaeology Unit.

Summary.

An archaeological excavation was conducted by the University’ of Manchester Archaeological Unit (UMAU) and Prestwich Heritage Society (PHS) on land to the west of St Mary’s Church Rectory garden, Church Lane, Prestwich, Greater Manchester.

The excavation was commissioned by Bury Metropolitan Borough Council working to a brief provided by the Greater Manchester Archaeology Unit (GMAU) and aimed to re-excavate and expand two archaeological trenches examined by the Prestwich Archaeological Group in the 1980s.

Although the topographic nature of the site, located on a promontory escarpment, suggested it might be associated with an Iron Age bank and ditch, the excavation did not reveal any evidence for prehistoric activity. The archaeological remains included a series of metalled surfaces, formerly connected to the present pathway, along the eastern perimeter of the church. This path previously known as ‘the bunks’ had once been a road leading to the main church entrance then sited to the south. In addition to the metalled surfaces, a number of modem garden features/pits were also discovered.

(Click on the diagram to enlarge it.)

Introduction.

Between the 10″ September and 16′h September 2005 The University of Manchester Archaeological Unit and members of the Prestwich Heritage Society carried out an archaeological excavation on land situated against the western edge of the rectory garden opposite the churchyard. The project was funded by a grant provided by Bury Metropolitan Borough Council and undertaken according to a brief provided by Norman Redhead, Assistant County Archaeologist, GMAU.

The site is considered an area of historic and archaeological potential and was possibly a place of habitation in antiquity. Although no evidence has yet been produced it is thought that the present churchyard may occupy a much earlier settlement, possibly a late prehistoric and Romano-British promontory site, similar to the scheduled site at Castlesteads near the Burrs and the one at Rainsough.

Methodology

A total of two trenches were manually excavated within the rectory garden to a maximum depth of cl.5m revealing the natural soil horizons across the site. The position of the trenches was determined by the location of areas previously excavated and backfilled by the Prestwich Archaeological Group in the 1980s (Fig. 2).

Following the removal of the vegetation and infill of the earlier trenches each trench was cleaned by hand, photographed and recorded in measured section and plan. Photography of all features was undertaken in colour slide and digital formats. Plans were drawn at 1:20 and 1:50 with contexts enumerated. Sections were drawn at a scale of 1:20 or 1:10 with at least one long section drawn for each trench, as appropriate. All plans, sections and profiles were related to Ordnance Datum.

On completion of the archaeological record each trench was backfilled by hand to the pre-excavation ground levels.

The Finds.

All artefacts were recorded by context and trench where appropriate. The artefact assessment and analysis has been carried out by number count and where possible a date for the artefact has been attributed.

Some 24 pottery sherds were excavated from the two trenches. There were, in addition, 27 clay pipe and bowl fragments, 7 glass fragments and 3 ferrous objects. The majority of finds from the assemblage can be dated to the 19th century. The unstratified red coated slip ware is 181h century and at least one of the body sherds of dark glazed earthenware can be attributed to the late 17`h — early 18′h century. One highly corroded crescent-shaped ferrous object recovered from metalled surface (15) was suspected, due to its size and morphology, to form the remains of an oxen shoe. It was, therefore, submitted to the School of Archaeological Science, University of Bradford, for X-ray analysis (Appendix 2). The results remain inconclusive.

Discussion.

The re-excavation of the two trenches in the Rectory garden, originally excavated by the Prestwich Archaeological Group in the 1980s, revealed no evidence of Iron Age or Romano-British activity.

The existing path that separates the graveyard of St Mary’s church from the rectory garden now skirts the eastern perimeter of the church. This pathway once known as ‘the bunks’, (P. Corbley, pers comm), led to the former main entrance of the church to the south. Cartographic evidence suggests the path or roadway was once five to six metres wide. The excavation of the two trenches revealed a series of five metalled surfaces. These surfaces (03), (05), (08), (11) follow the curve of the existing path and appear to fade out of the two east facing sections. Context (15) was the earliest surface and was associated with a possible oxen shoe. Further bedding sands, (12) and (16) and wind blown layers (09) and (14) probably represent successive resurfacing of the path/roadway.

Context (18), identified in Trench 1, may be the partial remains of a wall defining the original limits of the garden. Three features were excavated to the east of the wall. Context [20] would seem to represent a modern pit or garden feature. Context [28] was a shallow pit in which a piece of modern plastic piping was found, while [24] to the south-east of (18) appeared to be a tree bole with later root and animal activity.

The excavation has shown that the boundary wall of the church yard path does not mark the line of a prehistoric ditch. If such a ditch exists, then it presumably lies closer to the church particularly as no evidence for it was found during the excavation of Church Field by UMAU and Prestwich Heritage Society in 2002.


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