ANCIENT LYMM....
The discovery
of the ancient settlement at Warburton by archaeologist James Balme has
prompted him to turn his attention towards Lymm village itself.
Three years ago James became aware of various caves around the centre
of Lymm village and his discovery of a large Roman steelyard weight close
to the caves alerted him to the possible roots of Lymm village being founded
by the Romans back in the 1st century AD.
Due to the
intensive work James has been carrying out at Warburton he has had little
time to investigate his findings in Lymm, but as he awaits the excavation
of the Roman fortlet that he found at Warburton which will be dug later
this year he has decided to concentrate on solving the mystery of the
Lymm cave complex.
James Said " following on from my success at Warburton it became
clear that there seemed to be a link between the caves in Lymm village
and the Warburton site.
The caves
have never really been fully investigated or understood and I fully intend
to put this right.
Pepper street
which runs through the village is a well known Roman road name and if
you draw a straight line from Pepper street towards Warburton it passes
straight through the Roman fortlet."
" There
are many clues to Roman activity in Lymm and hopefully I can repeat the
success that I had at Warburton "
I strongly
believe that Lymm was a place for Roman worship and I am sure that a shrine
once existed here dedicated to the goddess Minerva who was the Roman goddess
of War & Wisdom and being placed somewhere near to the natural springs
which run under the village and now feed the dam.
Other evidence
of Roman activity in Lymm include a bronze Roman statue being found on
farmland in the village some years ago as well as documentary evidence
for possible Roman quarrying in the village close to the caves.
It is also
rumoured that the sandstone base of the cross is part of the original
shrine to Minerva and I will be following up these clues throughout this
year .
One other interesting feature is some very unusual carvings made in the
cliff face itself and I will be recording these as they come to light
".
"If
the investigations show evidence of ancient activity at the caves then
it is highly probable that we will reopen at least one of the caves at
a later date as at present most of them are sealed ".
Ancient Lymm
will follow the work that James and the Warburton Heritage Fund are carrying
out around the village and these pages will be added to and updated on
a regular basis as the results of the research develop.
All finds
of ancient artefacts and features will be made available within these
pages and it is hoped that we will be able to prove that the village of
Lymm was once occupied by the Romans.
James A.
Balme
Copyright 2002.
