Land off Liverpool Road,Formby, Merseyside Metal Detecting Survey Report

Oxford Archaeology (OA) North was commissioned by Lanpro Services, acting on behalf of Morris Homes, to undertake a metal-detecting survey on land adjacent to Liverpool Road, Formby, Merseyside. The survey was required by Merseyside
Environmental Advisory Service as a condition of planning permission prior to the site’s development. The fieldwork was completed between 3rd and 5th April 2023.
In total, 682 find spots were recorded on the 2.1-ha site, which lay at Little Altcar, on the south-eastern edge of the existing settlement of Formby. The assemblage includes twenty-three coins dating from the late eighteenth century
onwards, and thirty-two buttons of a similar date range. There are various other dress fittings, items of horse tack, lead shot, and iron nails. In general, the objects represent a range of mundane utilitarian household and agricultural
items. Where objects are dateable, the majority can be attributed to the industrial period and/or the modern era (ie, 1750 onwards), with only a few items firmly dating to the post-medieval period (1538-1750). Just one item, a
lead token, might have dated to the late medieval period, but such items have a long currency extending into the industrial period.