Search results for ""Author Christine Howard""

The Priory of St Mary was moved from Runcorn to Norton in 1134 by William fitz William, third baron of Halton. Despite a major fire in 1236, Norton grew in size and stature to become an abbey in 1391, and its abbot was a senior and much respected member of the Augustinian Order. The abbey met its end in April 1536 under Henry VIII's dissolution of religious houses, and in 1545 the site was sold to the Brooke family, who adapted parts of the abbot's quarters, kitchens and west range to provide a comfortable family home. In the mid-eighteenth century, much of the house was demolished to make way for a fashionable classically inspired mansion, which was occupied until 1921 and finally demolished in 1928. In 1966, the site was presented to Runcorn Development Corporation by Sir Richard Brooke. Ground-breaking excavations began in 1970, running until 1987, and exposing much of the site for investigation. The principal excavator, J Patrick Greene, published an excellent synthesis of the site in 1989, but the full stratigraphy and finds from the project remained unpublished. This book, funded by English Heritage, and supported by the Norton Priory Museum Trust, seeks to redress this, with a full account of the results of the excavations. Its production by Oxford Archaeology North drew together a team of specialists from a wide range of disciplines.

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Carlisle City Council redeveloped the Lanes from the mid-1970s, a densely built-up area in the north-east corner of the city’s historic core, crossed by 19 narrow ‘vennels’. These, together with most of the adjacent buildings, were swept away by the construction of the Lanes shopping centre. Previous archaeological work had confirmed complex Roman and medieval deposits on the site, most of which would be destroyed by the development, and many of the buildings were of historical and architectural interest. A programme of archaeological and historical investigation, including building recording, was therefore undertaken, principally funded by Carlisle City Council, the Department of the Environment (now Historic England), and the Manpower Services Commission, completed between 1978 and 1982. Historic England also funded the post-excavation analysis and this publication. The Lanes remains one of the largest and most significant archaeological projects ever undertaken in northern England.The project was split into the northern and southern Lanes, the results of the latter being published in 2000, though it only included a summary of the standing-building survey. This volume, the companion to the 2019 publication of the Roman remains at the northern site, presents the evidence for post-Roman activity. The site appears to have been abandoned by the fifth century, layers of ‘dark earth’ accumulating over the latest Roman levels. Several decades after Carlisle was re-established by William II, narrow burgage plots were created, extending from Scotch Street to the recently constructed city wall. These were intensively occupied from then on and yielded a wealth of evidence for the everyday lives of the inhabitants. Around the mid-thirteenth century, the lanes themselves were created between these plots, probably to improve access, and this distinctive pattern of land-use persisted until the modern redevelopment.

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The origins of Bewsey Old Hall, in the Royal Forest of Burtonwood, probably lie in the late twelth or early thirteenth century, when it was held by the influential Butler family, barons of Warrington. Although much altered and diminished, Bewsey Old Hall still stands, beginning its existence as an aisled hall, surrounded by out-buildings. It is not clear when the site was moated, but a local watercourse was probably diverted at an early stage. Badly damaged by fire in the fourteenth century, the hall was substantially rebuilt, wholly or partially in stone. Parts of this complex of medieval buildings survived into the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Having been owned by the Butlers until 1586, ownership passed briefly to the Earl of Leicester, but it was soon sold on to the Ireland family, later passing to their successors, the Athertons. In the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, a fashionable new brick house was built on the site, incorporating or reusing elements of the medieval hall. It was much enhanced in the seventeenth century by the creation of a formal terraced garden furniture, although the terracing had been levelled by 1724. Bewsey's remaining medieval structures were demolished during the eighteenth century, when the hall was extended, and landscaping works filled in parts of the moat and enlarged others as water features. In 1863, a 'New Hall' was built, and Bewsey Old Hall was left in the hands of tenants, until, in considerable disrepair, it was acquired by Warrington Development Corporation in 1974. During the late 1970s and until the mid-1980s, the site's development was traced through examination of the building, extensive excavation, and documentary research. This volume paints a vivid picture of Bewsey's development, the trials and tribulations of its inhabitants, and their relationship with the world around them.

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During the 1990s, Oxford Archaeology North (then Lancaster University Archaeological Unit) conducted a programme of evaluation, building recording, excavation and documentary research at Old Abbey Farm, Risley. This small moated site, now in Warrington Borough, was probably constructed after the sub-division of the manor of Culcheth in 1246; timbers dated by dendrochronology have suggested that a late thirteenth or possibly early fourteenth century aisled hall formerly stood on the moated platform. In the late medieval period the aisles were removed and new timber framing was built below the arcade-plates; the renovated hall was accessed by a substantial fifteenth century timber bridge. A crossing was added to the hall in the mid sixteenth century and the bridge across the moat was rebuilt in stone. From the seventeenth century, the house was subject to piecemeal underpinning and rebuilding in brick, and was extended in the mid eighteenth century. The project provided a rare opportunity to record a building during demolition and subsequently excavate below it, thereby maximising the information retrieval. The project was a runnerup in the British Archaeological Awards for 1996. The project has been generously supported by UK Waste Management Limited (Biffa Waste Services Limited) throughout.

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