13 Church Street, Ribchester, Lancashire: Archaeological Watching Brief

Following a planning application for the construction of a kitchen extension at 13 Church Street, Ribchester, a programme of archaeological monitoring was requested by Ribble Valley Borough Council, on the advice of Lancashire Archaeology Service. This was to comprise a watching brief, which was intended to preserve by a brief record any archaeological deposits disturbed or uncovered during construction works.

The watching brief was carried out by Chris Fern of Fern Archaeology on 6th and 7th June 2006 and 6th July 2006, involving the monitoring of three conjoined hand excavated wall-foundation trenches. The resultant ground disturbances revealed evidence for a cambered cobbled road of Roman date, which was preserved in situ.

The post-excavation work, which was managed by Greenlane Archaeology, revealed that the assemblage of Romano-British pottery could be dated to the late 1st /early 2nd to the mid 3rd-mid 4th century. Context 1002, which directly overlay the Roman road, also contained a short length of copper alloy chain and a green glass pin head, both of which were not closely dateable. This context was only partially sealed by a deposit of Romano-British date, and in most places lay directly beneath the topsoil. A single fragment of medieval pottery, dated to the late 12th to early 13th century, was recovered from the topsoil, together with larger quantities of post-medieval and Romano-British finds.

The results of the watching brief are consistent with the location of the site relative to other known remains of Roman date within Ribchester, not least the fort.

The full report is available on the Archaeology Data Service website: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-700-1/dissemination/pdf/greenlan1-37695_1.pdf