A49 Goose Green to Westwood Park Link Road, Wigan, Greater Manchester. Archaeological Trial Trenching, Earthwork Survey and Photographic Survey

Wigan Council has obtained planning permission to construct the A49 Goose Green to Westwood Park Link Road (Planning Ref A/07/67989). A condition of the planning consent requires a programme of archaeological work on those sites that will be
impacted by the proposed development. Four areas of archaeology or potential archaeology were described as being of low or medium value in a desk-based assessment undertaken by the University of Manchester Archaeology Unit (UMAU),
as part of an environmental statement for the development (Hyder Consulting 2006).
Jacobs were subsequently commissioned by Wigan Council to manage the programme of archaeological evaluation and mitigation works. The areas under investigation include: the projected line of the Roman road from Warrington to Wigan, which is located across the route of the proposed link road, at the site of former allotment gardens at Goose Green (SD 5677 0395); the former Winstanley Colliery Railway (SD
5688 0391); the Smithy Brook mill race (SD 5681 0380); and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, where it was formerly bridged by the Pemberton Loop railway (SD 5749 0398).
Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned to undertake the archaeological investigation of these four sites which comprised: trial trenching of the allotment gardens to assess the presence or absence of the Roman road; an earthwork survey of the remains of the former Winstanley Colliery Railway; excavation of a section through the former Winstanley Colliery Railway; and a photographic survey of
sections of the Smithy Brook mill race and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Only the trial trenching, earthwork survey and photographic survey were undertaken within this phase of work, by OA North in October 2009. The excavation of a section through the former Winstanley Colliery Railway will be undertaken at a later date, due to access constraints.