Ribble to Bamber Bridge Electricity Cable - Lancashire - Watching Brief

Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) conducted a watching brief on six test pits
along the proposed route of an electricity cable, running along a disused railway
embankment to the south of Avenham Park on the south side of Preston (SD 5378 2849
– SD 5411 2742). The Lancashire Sites and Monuments Record (SMR 6611) suggested
that the railway embankment may have been built upon, and the site of an earlier viaduct
on the Preston to Blackburn line (Ordnance Survey 1849, Fig 2) which may have been
incorporated within it.
The test pits revealed successive layers of construction material, some of which had
varying amounts of demolition rubble within them. Only test pit 4 showed a distinct
concentration of demolition rubble, including brick and sandstone fragments, but no
structural remains of the viaduct were revealed.
The proposed development route for the electricity cable is unlikely to impact upon any
surviving archaeological remains of the viaduct within the parameters of excavation to a
depth of 1m for the laying of the cable. There is little evidence to suggest that the
viaduct survives at all. It is recommended that no further archaeological investigations
are necessary for this proposed development.