Gladman says no historic interest at Little Heath

There is nothing of archaeological interest on the Little Heath site where Gladman wants consent to build a new housing estate.

Experts have checked the Cheshire Historic Environment Record (HER), Cheshire County Record Office, Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, and Nantwich Library was also visited to examine historic maps and aerial photographs of the 5.5 acre site at Little Heath .

A survey by CgMs Consulting, in November last year, was conducted on behalf of Gladman Developments and found "no designated or undesignated archaeological assets (i.e. archaeological finds and features) on the site."

A 60-page report to Cheshire East planners says investigations found no recorded prehistoric or Roman archaeological assets within the study site or its surroundings.

It did find evidence of a 'chance' discovery of a stone axe-hammer at Dodcott-cum-Wilkesley in 1950 and of a bronze axe found at Newhall that suggests some prehistoric communities were present in the wider area from the early Bronze Age onwards, but argues that such limited evidence cannot be used to imply the presence of a prehistoric settlement at Audlem.

Other evidence of early settlement in the area included a possible Romano-British lead loom-weight found at Coole Hall Farm to the north of Audlem in the early 1980s, but its date is uncertain and the find does not prove the presence of a Romano-British settlement there.

Experts say Audlem is first mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086.

A translation from Medieval Latin reads:

In Warmundestrau (Nantwich) Hundred – Aldelime (Audlem). Osmer held it. 2 hides paying tax. Land for 5 plough wide; 2 enclosures. In Lordship 1; 1 slave; 1 villager, 1 rider and 1 smallholder with 1 plough. Meadow, 2 acres, woodland, 2 leagues long and a league wide; 2 enclosures; a hawk's eyrie. Value before 1066, so shillings, now 5 shillings; found waste.

The report points out that the Domesday Survey may record a small agricultural settlement at Audlem but does not give any clue about its location.

Audlem village is known to be one of Cheshire's ancient market towns with its first market recorded in 1294 when it acted as a trading post for the farms in the parish.

But, according to the desk-based assessment by CgMs, there are no designated heritage assets on the proposed housing site at Little Heath or anywhere nearby.

It finds no Post-Medieval assets within the study site, only a Royal Observer Corps World War II Monitoring Post located about 500 metres to the north

The 60-page report concludes: "There are no designated heritage assets on the site or particularly nearby and this desk-based assessment has established that the site has low/nil potential for evidence from the prehistoric, Roman, Medieval and Post-Medieval periods. In these circumstances no further archaeological works appears justified."

Gladman Developments Ltd has submitted the CgMs report as part of an application for outline planning consent to build 120 homes at Little Heath, on the outskirts of Audlem

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