Platts Hall, Lostock Gralam Cheshire. Archaeological Evaluation Interim Report

In April 1998 Lancaster University Archaeological Unit carried out an archaeological evaluation at Platts Hall, Lostock Gralam, Cheshire, on behalf of P J Livesey Developments Ltd. The site lies within the Brunner Mond Lostock Gralam chemical works. The evaluation was part of a comprehensive programme of recording of Platts Hall, which was designed to accompany the dismantling of the structure, and the movement of materials from the west wing for re-erection at nearby Bostock Hall. The background to the project and details of the building survey have been presented in the fabric survey interim report (LUAU 1998).

The archaeological evaluation was undertaken after the demolition of the structure, and was confined to the footprint of the west wing (section 2). The west wing contained substantial remains of a timber framed house thought to date to 1655 (LUAU 1998, 3.5.3, 4.3). Documentary evidence has shown that there was a building on the site in 1631, prior to the construction date of the extant structure, and the evaluation was intended to demonstrate whether evidence for an earlier building survives below ground. The watching brief demonstrated that the principle facade of the building was reversed probably during the nineteenth century and consequently the original facade was on the eastern face of the west wing. The rear of the building would have been to the west of this wing and it has been postulated that an earlier, or an early extension to the building could have extended in the direction prior to the reversal of the principle facades. In particular an inventory (CRO WS 1680) of 1680 lists a kitchen, which was not represented within the surviving seventeenth century house and which may have been located to the rear (west) of this wing.