Land at Bank Farm, Martin Lane, Burscough, Lancashire. Archaeological Evaluation.

The construction of a new irrigation lake measuring 200m x 112m (planning reference 8/2004/1527) on land at Bank Farm, Martin Lane, Burscough, Lancashire (NGR SD 4188 1302) necessitated a programme of predetermination evaluation, as it was possible that important archaeological remains could be affected by the proposed development. Consequently, Mr David Gibbons commissioned Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) to carry out an archaeological evaluation in accordance with a formal brief issued by the Lancashire County Archaeology Service (LCAS).
The outlined development area is currently laid down to arable, and positioned to the east of bank farm,approximately 500m to the north of Gorst Lane and adjacent to Langley’s Brook. The area of the proposed lake is close to four separate findspots of prehistoric worked flint in the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) (PRN nos. 4156, 4158, 4159, 4161), and a Bronze Age stone axe hammer (PRN 2032). This has been taken to indicate occupation and use of the area during the Mesolithic through to the
Bronze Age period. In addition, a number of unidentified and undated cropmarks (PRNs 2810, 4443, 4444, 4445) are present, but are likely to relate to old field boundaries.