28 November 2011, Prehistoric and Medieval Excavations at the M62 Interchange, Dr Ron Cowell

Dr Cowell explained that proposed new road routes are surveyed for possible archaeology sites and that excavations are timetabled into the construction of the road. He showed aerial photographs of the M62/M57 interchange and explained the various sites that were excavated. Soil creep had buried an earlier landscape and digging revealed prehistoric flints and arrowheads and also a pit containing burnt shells which were dated to 5000 BC showing the presence of an itinerant hunter gatherer community. Nearby a Roman farmstead had been excavated in 1993 and there they found stamped tiles and evidence of metalworking. Remnants of early ploughing (pre-medieval) were found under Ox Lane. At Windy Arbor Brow there was evidence of farms and cottages but they failed to find the leper hospital and chapel reputed to be there although they found much medieval pottery and metalwork.

They had been restricted to digging on the road route only and a lot of archaeology had been destroyed in the 70’s when the M62 was built.