MIDDLEWICH ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY IN KING STREET 1968

by Dave Roberts

On a warm afternoon in the Summer of 1968 members of the Middlewich Archaeological Society work on one of the Society's digs in King Street.

This particular site, long since built over, was at the very top of the public footpath, known to us all in those days as 'Bill Hewitt's', which ran, and still runs, from King Street  past the 'Stone Houses'  and along the River Croco to a point just on the south-west corner of Harbutt's field where two footbridges take it, and the other footpath from King Street, across the river and canal at the Big Lock.

The existence of the Roman Fort at Harbutt's Field was not officially confirmed until 1993, when modern geophysical methods were brought into play, but was long suspected, not least by members of the Archaeological Society, of which my Dad was a founder member.

Excavations were made on the field in the early 1920s aimed at establishing the existence of  a permanent Roman fort, which had been the subject of speculation for many years previously, but no evidence of the fort was found.

The excavations the Society made in the years 1964-1969, under the direction of one John D Bestwick, centred around the King  Street area and discovered much evidence of salt, iron and leather manufacturing as well as Roman pottery and coins.

The point was, as my Dad used to tell us frequently, if there was not a major military Roman presence in the area, what was all that industry doing there? Who was it serving?

Several members of the Archaeological Society are pictured above, hard at work.

I suppose it might have been a good idea to line them up and take a proper picture of them for posterity, but they were a little bit touchy about being disturbed during their endeavours.

At least two of them are, it will be noticed, sporting the sleeveless pullover and shirtsleeves look as worn by Percy Thrower on Gardening Club during this period.

The gentleman in the light coloured jumper to the right of the trench is my Dad, Arthur Roberts, and also present on the day, among others, were Middlewich UDC surveyor Donald Stubbs and local schoolteacher Ken Laundon, who lived just across the road from this particular dig.

Behind the camera is the path leading 'down Bill Hewitt's' and the greenery just visible top left is part of the then unspoilt farmers' fields leading up to Harbutt's Field itself.

See also: ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1968 (2)

              ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1973

              The Heritage of  Middlewich THE JOHN BESTWICK ARTICLES

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG IN KING STREET 1969

The gent on the left in this picture is my Dad, Arthur, taking part in a Sunday afternoon dig in King Street in 1969. This was not the main dig, which was immediately behind our house at number 33  and was, many years later, to be the scene of the 'Community Dig' - see this posting,  but a subsidiary investigation into a piece of land further down King Street, where the road bends and the public footpath begins its course 'down Bill Hewitt's', past the 'stone houses' and the new housing developments, to run along the side of the River Croco, emerging at the bottom of Harbutt's Field.
It's likely that this small parcel of land would have been the site of another of those Roman iron works or salt works which lined the road running up to the Roman Fort.
The piece of land in question has now been built on, ruling out any further investigation in the foreseeable future..
Our picture illustrates the painstaking work involved in archaeology. Volunteers will spend long hours sifting inch by inch through soil and silt deposits to build up a picture of life as it was many centuries ago.
Many have criticised the Roman Fort site on the grounds that 'there's nothing there', but it's the fact that Harbutt's Field is just a large empty space which fuels the imagination and enables the past to be brought vividly back to life when the Roman Middlewich festivals are held there.