West-East Link Main to Winwick, Link Main Pipeline, Cheshire, Merseyside, and Greater Manchester: Rapid Desk-based Assessment

United Utilities proposed the installation of a link main pipeline through agricultural land and roads to the north-east of Winwick, in Cheshire (NGR SJ 61951 94737: central point). The landscape in the vicinity of the proposed pipeline is rich in terms of significant sites of archaeological interest, with numerous burial mounds having been identified. One of these barrows (Site 01), or tumuli, lies in the immediate vicinity of the proposed pipeline. As a result of the potential for negative impacts upon heritage assets of archaeological interest during the works associated with the pipeline, the development control archaeologist at Cheshire Archaeology Planning Advisory Services (CAPAS) advised that a programme of archaeological work should be undertaken. Consequently, United Utilities requested Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) undertake a rapid desk-based assessment of the immediate environs of the proposed pipeline to identify any heritage constraints.
The historic research enabled the compilation of a gazetteer of 20 sites of archaeological interest, with seven having been recorded within the historic environment records of Cheshire, Merseyside, and Greater Manchester. Of these sites, 14 are likely to lie within the vicinity of the proposed pipeline and associated easement. These are Kenyon Hall tumulus (Site 01), Golborne Mill (Site 02), field boundaries west of Rough Farm (Site 05), Winwick township boundary (Site 08), Houghton township boundary (Site 09), Southworth township boundary (Site 10), Newton township boundary (Site 11), Kenyon township boundary (Site 12), Lower Pit Field (Site 15), Stone Pit Field (Site 16), circular cropmarks (Site 17), sub-ovoid cropmarks (Site 18), Barrow Field (Site 19), and Barrow Lane (Site 20). Intrusive ground works associated with the proposed pipeline present the potential for negative impacts upon these sites, in the form of damage and destruction to the physical remains.