Three 1m square test pits were laid out and the locations recorded in relation to the adjacent reservoir structure, the location of which is shown on current Ordnance Survey digital mapping and on the survey of the site carried out in 1985 (Sharpe and Smith 1985, fig 1). The test pits were excavated by hand, initially down to the highest surviving archaeological layer. At the request of the Heritage at Risk Project Officer 0.5m square sondages were excavated in two of the pits to investigate whether further deposits lay below this. The relatively small area excavated in the three test pits allows only limited interpretation. It seems probable, however, that the stony layer (101) revealed across all three test pits (although only as a narrow surviving strip in test pit 1) is likely to represent a hard-standing or working surface laid across the forecourt of the former mill site, in the area between the wall enclosing the site on the south, towards the road, and the former reservoir on the north. It seems likely that the pale, gritty layers (102, (103) and (104) found in test pits 1 and 2 represent levelling / foundation deposits, probably made up of china clay waste, laid down prior to (101).
Graeme Kirkham (Thu,) studied this question.