Between Peak and Plain: Excavations on a Multiperiod Site at Mellor, Stockport, 1998-2009

Between Peak and Plain, produced on behalf of the Mellor Archaeological Trust, presents the results of 12 seasons of community-based excavations carried out with the support of the former University of Manchester Archaeological Unit. Mellor is part of the metropolitan borough of Stockport in north-west England and lies in the foothills of the Peak District and southern Pennines. The excavations were centred on the Old Vicarage on a hilltop spur commanding extensive views westward over the Cheshire Plain. The investigations revealed a multiperiod site with evidence of activity from the Mesolithic to the post-medieval period. The principal remains were of the Iron Age and the medieval period. The Iron Age evidence included rock-cut ditches defining an inner enclosure and an extensive outer enclosure, ring-gullies, and linear gullies, with elements of material culture which included a regionally significant assemblage of pottery. The main medieval remains were the post pits of an aisled hall, which from historical evidence probably belonged to a forester of the royal hunting preserve of Peak Forest. The site also produced lithics of the Earlier and Later Mesolithic, a smaller Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age group which included a flint dagger and polished flint chisel, and an assemblage of pottery and other artefacts demonstrating Romano-British occupation. Radiocarbon dating points to activity in the early medieval period. From the post-medieval period the site produced an important assemblage of clay tobacco pipes. Findings from the excavations are considered in this volume within their wider regional context.