A58 BLACKBROOK DIVERSION, St Helens, Merseyside Topographic Survey and Evaluation.

Following a request by Rob Goldup of Colin Buchanan and Partners, Oxford Archaeology North (OA North), undertook a topographic survey and evaluation, in January and March
2004, of the proposed A58 Blackbrook Road Diversion, St Helens, Merseyside (SJ 538 970). This report follows on from an earlier Environmental Impact Assessment completed
in 1993 by AC Archaeology, and an Archaeological Assessment in 2002 by OA North that informed an Environmental Statement on the same proposed development route (The Environment Partnership 2002).
A detailed earthwork survey was undertaken of those upstanding features that will be directly affected by the construction of the proposed road. This included the extant remains of the inclines, for the Stanley Copper Works and the Garswood and Pewsfall collieries, extending through the area and the spoil heaps and shaft associated with the Garswood colliery.
In total, 48 evaluation trenches were excavated over a two and a half week period from 15th March to 31st March 2004. The trenches revealed widespread evidence of the industrial
past of the proposed route, through the discovery of a number of structures, and also through the widespread dumping of waste material associated with the industrial processes previously undertaken in the area.
A significant number of substantial drains and culverts were revealed during the course of the evaluation, presumably relating to the past industry of the area, and a number of brick structures were also discovered. A substantial circular brick structure, possibly a flue, was uncovered in Trench 42, in close proximity to another brick-built structure, possibly another flue. Two sections were excavated across the Garswood-Pewfall Incline (Trenches
25 and 26), which recorded its manner of construction and a further trench (38), adjacent to the Stanley Bank pond, revealed the incline as a cutting. A substantial wooden platform was revealed in two trenches (22 and 42); this was adjacent to the Garswood-Pewfall incline and there was a possibility that it was related.
Three cropmarks, which had been identified from aerial photographs, were examined by the evaluation, but no evidence linking the cropmarks to any significant archaeology was uncovered; indeed two of them appeared to relate to relatively recent dumps of clay.
It is recommended that the northern part of the site, where formerly the Garswood colliery existed, should be subject to a watching brief during the construction phase of the road. In addition, a number of sites should be investigated in more detail. In particular, the wooden platform (Trenches 22 and 44), a circular brick structure (Trench 42), a rectangular brick foundation (Trench 33), and the area around the surviving section of Stanley Bank incline
(Site 07) in the area of the Garswood Colliery.
The Garswood-Pewfall Incline (Site 08)has limited upstanding survival, but part of this will be cut by the proposed road. It is recommended that care be taken to minimise the
disturbance to the extant earthwork during the construction of the road.