Warburton – A Site of National Importance.

My discovery of the ancient settlement of Warburton has proved to be far more important than originally thought.

It is considered to be a site of national importance due to the fact that sites of this magnitude do not normally occur in the north of England, it is unique in the fact that the site has been occupied continuously from the Neolithic period circa 5000BC right through to the present day and artefacts have been recovered from the Neolithic, bronze age, Iron age, roman and Saxon periods of occupation.

This in itself has implications for the history of Cheshire in general and the north of England and history books may well have to be rewritten once full excavations have taken place at the site.

Roman occupation sites which produce materials and artefacts of such high status are rare at the best of times and this site has produced some amazing roman artefacts to date.

A Senior Archaelogist from Manchester Archaelogical Unit stated back in May 1999 that " this could be the first Roman villa ever found in the area and what is particularly significant is the amount of Roman metalwork . "

He also said " In the context of the North West where little metalwork has been unearthed, This is a large collection and rare ".

Since 1999 I have continued to unearth Roman metalwork in quantity and the quality of these finds has been tremendous.

Recently I recovered a Polden Hill brooch cast in bronze and still retaining inlaid silver in a classical pattern, again these are unusual finds.

Also to be taken into account is the discovery made on site of an extremely rare early bronze age diminutive axe in pristine condition and identical to axes found in the richest bronze age burial site in Britain namely Bush barrow in Wiltshire which is part of the Stonehenge complex.

Many flint tools have also been recovered from the site to date and it is expected that many more await discovery.

Questions have to be answered as to why an artefact of this magnitude should be found at a site which according to scarce historical records held was no more than open farmland although due to the quantity of artefacts recovered to date we now know this not to be true.

We need to establish if the site had any other links to Stonehenge and if trade was taking place between other countries with imports of bronze, amber etc.

It is a distinct possibility that the axe has come from a burial context and bronze age burials are likely to be found on site during excavations.

Based on all the evidence that I have recovered to date and the seriousness of the University in supporting the excavations an undertaking has been given to support investigations at the site for the next five years with equipment and assistance as well as archaeologists and experts from various fields.

As the founder of the Warburton Heritage Fund I have applied in conjunction with the University for Heritage lottery funding to assist with the cost of the work required over the next five years.

The excavations will be fronted by the Warburton Heritage Fund throughout the five years.

 James Balme.