Blackburn Concessionary Supplies, Briercliffe, Lancashire.

United Utilities proposed the installation of a concessionary supplies water pipeline
on agricultural land to the west of Extwistle Moor, in Briercliffe, Lancashire (SJ
89000 34330, central point). The area contains many sites of archaeological interest,
including numerous prehistoric monuments and settlements of prehistoric and/or
Romano-British date. Four such sites, all of which are legally protected as Scheduled
Monuments, lay within 100m of the proposed pipeline route. Consequently, the
Planning Archaeologist at Lancashire County Archaeological Service (LCAS) advised
that a programme of archaeological work should be undertaken. United Utilities
commissioned Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) to undertake historical and
archaeological research and a walkover survey of the immediate environs of the
pipeline. This resulted in the compilation of a gazetteer of 22 sites of archaeological
interest, of which five were threatened with potential damage by the pipeline works.