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MONUMENT NO. 73074

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Earthwork remains of a bank in the grounds of Chaigeley School - possibly representing the remains of the defences of the burh documented at Thelwall.

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The building of a burh at Thelwall (Cheshire) in the reign of Edward the Elder is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronical (Ms "a"), and the event is dateable to AD 918 (a). (1)

Thelwall is now largely built up. No trace of the burh was found. (2)

SJ 65458740-65508748. An earthen bank in the grounds of the former Greenfield House has been suggested as part of the burh defences, but may be merely a landscape gardening feature. (3)

SJ 65538750. Two arms of an earthen bank averaging 1.2m high and 5.0m wide, meet at right angles. The NE arm is now 36m long its northern end having been destroyed by building construction. The SE arm is 115m long and terminates in old clay workings. There is no trace of any similar bank to the west. The SE bank has been disturbed during the construction of the gateway to Chaigeley School formerly Greenfield House). It is not possible to determine whether the feature is part of the Burh or of more recent origin.
Surveyed at 1:2500. (4)

(An Aethelfledan fort is shown at Runcorn on a map depicting West Mercian towns. Presumably this is to be equated with the site at Thelwall). (5)

The bank is as described by auth 4. The modern break in the corner is connected with the construction of a power generator set just within the angle. There is some suggestion of the feature continuing to the W right along Lymm Road and Bell Lane as a slight unsurveyable swelling, but this may equally be build up against the fence. These roads mark the S and W limits of the grounds of Green-field House, now Chaigeley School. To the N the grounds are bounded by a small valley, where a path terraced into the valley side has on its uphill side a 6' high retaining wall. If a bank ever followed the crest the valley here it has been destroyed. There is no indication of a return SE to meet up with the surveyed length of bank S of "The Cottages". However, if it is assumed that the bank originally continued along the course outlined above, the result is a rectangular enclosure of about 5 ha. The bank as it survives does not sit easily with Greenfield House (built c.1780) either as a boundary or landscape feature, and would seem to predate it. But it is impossible on the available evidence to say by how much. If the postulated enclosure is the Aethelfledan fort, by analogy we should expect an outer ditch, but there is no trace of one beyond the NE arm, and to the SE any ditch now lies beneath Lymm Road.

No change to 1:2500 survey. (6)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) General reference

The English Historical Review 53 1938 p199 (WS Angus)

( 2) Field Investigators Comments

F1 JR 04-FEB-64

( 3) General reference

Letter (KE Jermy 1.2.70) 8 Thelwall New Road, Thelwall.

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F2 MHB 23-APR-70

( 5) General reference

Mercian Studies 1977 p108 Map (Ed A Dornier)

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F3 HMJ 28-JUN-88

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