Westhead to Bickerstaffe Pipeline, Lancashire. Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment and Watching Brief.

North in May and June 2004 on an area between Westhead (SD 44092 08248) and Bickerstaffe (SD 43723 04389), Lancashire. The work was commissioned by United Utilities following their submission of an application to lay a water mains pipe
between the two locations.
In total, 52 sites were identified during the desk-based assessment, of which 42 were already listed with the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR). With the notable exception of a stray find comprising a hoard of Roman coins (Site 12), all of the sites identified related to the post-medieval period and consisted mainly of domestic dwellings, farm buildings, field boundaries and wells. None of the sites held within
the SMR were considered likely to be affected by the proposed development and, of a further ten sites identified as part of the assessment, only two lay within its path,
comprising Site 43, a group of three field boundaries shown on the 1841 Bickerstaffe Tithe Map and Site 52, a field at Stuart’s Farm entitled ‘Pit Field’, which may be indicative of one or more pits in the immediate area.