River Crossing at Whittington, Lancashire: Summary Report on Archaeological Watching Brief

An archaeological watching monitored passing a drill string under the River Lune near Whittington Lancashire. The horizontal directional drilling was to facilitate the passage of a new cable beneath the river bed, and at each end of the duct run a pit was dug, one to launch and one to receive the drill. Only the retrieval pit was to be monitored by an archaeologist as this was on the eastern side of the river, adjacent to the south-western boundary of a Scheduled Ancient Monument, the Roman fort and civil settlement at Over Burrow.

The pit was machine excavated with a JCB and was 2.00m north/south, 3.50m east/west and 2.00m deep. A single alluvial deposit, probably made up of multiple episodes of flooding, was exposed beneath the topsoil and consisted of reddish pale-mid brown silty-sands with occasional to moderate rounded and sub-rounded gravels, pebbles and cobbles which were river rolled and thought to be granite. The deposits were sterile and no traces of human activity were found. It was assumed that on this side of the river deposition was still occurring or had recently taken place and that the course of the river may well have already destroyed any archaeology as it meandered around in this large valley.

The full report is available on the Archaeology Data Service website: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-700-1/dissemination/pdf/greenlan1-30946_1.pdf