The Central Waste Treatment Facility, Lancashire Business Park, Leyland, Lancashire- Watching Brief

Following a proposal by Waste 2 Resources to construct a Central Waste Treatment Facility at the Lancashire Business Park in Leyland, Lancashire (SD 537 234; planning references 07/04/0968 and 07/03/0001), Lancashire County Archaeology Service requested that a programme of archaeological monitoring should be undertaken in those areas of the site considered to have potential for the preservation of archaeological remains. The main area of archaeological interest related to the site of the medieval moated manor of Lower Farington Hall, located close to the south-west corner of the site and, accordingly, an archaeological watching brief was maintained on groundworks associated with the diversion of a culvert in this area.
The monitored groundworks consisted of a trench measuring 187m in length by 2m wide with a maximum depth of 6.4m. The L-shaped trench ran north to south for 111m and then to the east for 76m. The trench was excavated through thick deposits of made ground, up to 5.5m in depth at the northern end and 4.5m deep at the southern. This made ground, a mix of redeposited sandy clay soil and topsoil with inclusions of building rubble and discarded industrial waste, sealed a relict soil horizon, which in turn sealed the natural geology. There were no finds excavated from either the made ground or the relict soil horizon, and no archaeological features were revealed cutting the natural geology during the excavation of the culvert. As such, it seems likely that any significant remains associated with Lower Farington Hall lie outside, and to the south-west, of the present development area.