Saltworks Lane, Weston, Staffordshire. Archaeological Watching Brief.

In 2005 George Wimpey Midland Ltd submitted a planning application (planning reference 05/05368/OUT) for a domestic development of a c 3.2 ha brownfield site at Saltworks Lane, Weston, Staffordshire (NGR SJ 97640 26548). Development of the site, which is divided into eastern and western areas by an arm of the Trent and Mersey Canal and a contiguous access route, will involve the demolition of the existing modern structures on the site, together with considerable disturbance of subsoil deposits during, and in advance of, construction. A desk-based assessment, undertaken by Waterman CPM in 2005, identified that the site lies within an area of some archaeological potential, encompassing the location of a historically-important post-medieval salt works and, accordingly, the Staffordshire County Council
Archaeologist (SCCA) requested that a programme of archaeological evaluation be undertaken on the proposed development area. This evaluation, undertaken by OA
North in May 2007, identified at shallow depth highly-significant and well-preserved structural remains of the nineteenth-century industrial sites that had formerly occupied the site.
Due to the significance of these remains the SCCA issued a brief for a watching brief to be maintained on groundworks associated with the development. Following provision of a costed project design to meet the requirements of the SCCA brief, Waterman CPM, on behalf of George Wimpey Midland Ltd, commissioned Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) to undertake the programme of archaeological watching brief.
The watching brief, undertaken in June and July 2007, monitored the first phase of the groundworks on the site, comprising the removal of the concrete slabs that covered the vast majority of the development site. As such, groundworks rarely penetrated the underlying rubble make-up material beneath the slabs, and no significant remains
associated with the historic nineteenth-century industries were identified.