Heatley Weir, Warburton, Greater Manchester- Evaluation

In October 2008, Royal Haskoning UK Ltd, acting on behalf of the Environment Agency, commissioned Oxford Archaeology North to carry out a programme of archaeological evaluation of land adjacent to the River Bollin near Warburton, Greater Manchester (centred on SJ 7030 8870). The evaluation was required to establish the presence or absence of any buried remains of archaeological interest prior to the construction of a fish passage creating a diversion around Heatley Weir.
The site of Heatley Weir lies within an area of known archaeological potential forming part of the water management for Warburton Mill, which occupied the west bank of the River Bollin. The former corn mill has been recorded as a site of archaeological interest, with traces of the mill building dating to the fourteenth century. Warburton Mill is also mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, although it is possible that this earlier mill occupied a different site.
The archaeological evaluation comprised the excavation of a single trench, measuring 19.5m long and 1.8m wide. No archaeological deposits or features were encountered in the excavated trench, the simple stratigraphic sequence comprising the natural clay geology and topsoil. It is concluded that the construction of the proposed fish passage will not have any impact on any sub-surface archaeological resource of the area.