Linglongs Road, Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire: Post-excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by RPS Consulting Services, on behalf of Barratt Homes, to undertake archaeological excavation ahead of residential development on land located off Linglongs Road, Whaley Bridge, High Peak, Derbyshire A modern-day public footpath runs north-south through the site, and it has been suggested that this follows the route of a Roman road, possibly that which linked Roman Manchester (Mamucium) and Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae). Buried elements of this trackway had been exposed in previous evaluation trenching on the site, and the feature formed the focus of the present investigations. No evidence to confirm a Romano-British origin for the trackway was obtained, however. Instead, new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating results suggest that it may have been constructed at some point in the medieval period, although the majority of the deposits that made up the trackway appear post-medieval and modern. Five soil samples taken from deposits associated with the trackway were subjected to OSL dating; the chronological sequence of the results conforms to the stratigraphic order of the sampled deposits, which boosts confidence in their validity. The results range from the Mesolithic period through to the 18th century AD, and appear to preclude a Romano-British date for the main bulk of the trackway (i.e., it does not represent an agger of a Roman road), although they do not rule out such a date for some of deposits towards the base of the trackway sequence. Deposits beneath the trackway included a probable buried topsoil or turfline overlying a leached subsoil; the pre-trackway sequence returned OSL dates ranging between the Mesolithic and medieval periods. Traces of the proposed medieval trackway were confined to an alignment of gritstone blocks and an overlying layer of dirty mid- to dark grey clayish silt. The OSL dates bracket the laying of the gritstone blocks to, at the widest range, between the 9th and 15th centuries AD, and at the narrowest range, the 11th and 14th centuries AD. The post-medieval trackway was reasonably well-built, with stone kerbs and a metalled stone surface, an investment potentially due to it having a useful role linking the higher ground of the Goyt Forest, and the moorland beyond, and by this period, with the settlements and turnpike that followed the River Goyt.