Saltworks Lane, Weston, Staffordshire- Watching Brief

In 2005 George Wimpey Midland Ltd submitted a planning application (planning reference 05/05368/OUT) for a domestic development of a c 3.2 ha brownfield site at Saltworks Lane, Weston, Staffordshire (NGR SJ 97640 26548). Development of the site, which is divided into eastern and western areas by an arm of the Trent and Mersey Canal and a contiguous access route, will involve the demolition of the existing modern structures on the site, together with considerable disturbance of subsoil deposits during, and in advance of, construction. A desk-based assessment, undertaken by Waterman CPM in 2005, identified that the site lies within an area of some archaeological potential, encompassing the location of a historically-important post-medieval salt works and, accordingly, the Staffordshire County Council Archaeologist (SCCA) requested that a programme of archaeological evaluation be undertaken on the proposed development area. This evaluation, undertaken by OA North in May 2007, identified at shallow depth highly-significant and well-preserved structural remains of the nineteenth-century industrial sites that had formerly occupied the site.