Castlefields Regeneration Scheme, Halton, Cheshire. Archaeological Assessment.

A desktop assessment was undertaken in July 2002 of the proposed development site of Castlefields Regeneration Scheme, at Halton in Cheshire (centred at SJ 545 829, Fig 1) by Oxford Archaeology North, on behalf of the Environment Partnership.
The assessment comprised a desk-based survey of available documentary and cartographic sources, together with a field identification survey; it has highlighted the archaeological resource within and around the study area at Castlefields, east of Norton Priory. Few Prehistoric or Roman sites were detected, none within the study area, but this does not rule out the existence of sub-surface remains, particularly in the light of recent excavations. In general, the identified archaeological material is of local importance, comprising typical examples of medieval through to post-medieval agricultural, parkland and industrial features. The most important site recorded is the potential medieval mill pond to the immediate west of Norton Priory, which existed until the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries.