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.
