Irby, Wirral, Merseyside, a late prehistoric and Romano-British site

A Roman site had been suspected at Mill Hill Road, Irby since the early 1980s when a Roman bowl, found in a garden during the Second World War, was drawn to the attention of Liverpool Museum archaeologists. Minor exploratory excavations were carried out by the Museum in the garden from 1987 to 1991 to locate occupation deposits and assess their survival. At the time, very few Romano-British rural sites had been excavated in the lowland north west of England and the site offered the potential to gain detailed information on site chronology, layout, and economy. By chance an undeveloped adjacent area was available for excavation and larger scale work in 1992 revealed that survival of deposits was exceptionally good for the region. The constraints of buildings, hedges, and gardens prevented open-area excavation but by April 1996 a total of over 40 small areas and separate trenches had been excavated in 8 separate gardens.

The main occupation dated to the late prehistoric and Romano-British periods. For part of its life, the site appears to have been enclosed by a ditch, and a probable entrance was located. The full extent of the site could not be determined but it extended for at least 100m by 70m, and the occupation focus seems to have shifted over time. The precise chronology of the Iron Age occupation is uncertain, although a steatite bead is datable on stylistic grounds to the 2nd century BC, while the Romano-British material spans the late-1st to later-4th century AD. We cannot yet tell whether occupation was continuous from the Iron Age to Roman period.

The site is one of a very few known rural sites in the lowland north west which has both Iron Age and Roman occupation and the sequence of structures is particularly well preserved, having escaped severe plough damage. Evidence for at least 6 main phases of occupation has been recovered. The earliest buildings are probably late prehistoric in date and appear to be oval or sub-rectangular although little remains of their plan. The earliest certain Roman buildings consist of 3 or 4 circular structures 11-12m in diameter rebuilt on virtually the same spot, using stone-packed postholes at 1-2m intervals. These post-built roundhouses were followed probably in the 2nd century AD by a circular building with a construction trench packed with sandstone blocks probably supporting wattle and daub panels. A probable clay-built oven belonged to the same phase and its collapse appears to have sealed a quantity of organic material which should provide good environmental information. The next phase consists of post-built structures of sub-rectangular or bow-sided plan, between 8 and 10m wide, probably of 3rd-century AD date. These in turn were succeeded by rectangular structures with low rubble foundations. The final phase consists of large rectangular post-pits supporting 1 or more massive timber buildings. At Irby the 'orthodox' pattern found on rural Romano-British sites in the north and Midlands where early Roman circular buildings are replaced by later Roman-period rectangular structures is complicated by an intervening phase of 2 or more bow-sided structures, perhaps constructed in the 3rd century AD.

Analysis of the finds will also make a valuable contribution to our understanding of the social status, exchange networks, and agricultural practices in the region. The prehistoric pottery forms one of the largest groups in the region, and the 7 or 8 fabrics include Cheshire Stony VCP as well as new types. Analysis of the fabrics and identification of the sources are a priority for a region which until recently was regarded as aceramic during the Iron Age. A saddle-quern and several rotary-querns together with surviving carbonised cereals indicate the preparation and consumption of grain. Some features were rich in organic material and the site has the potential to yield much-needed environmental data for the Iron Age and Romano-British periods. Analysis will allow an assessment of changes in the crops grown over the life of the settlement, and in the diet and crop-processing methods. Animal bone does not survive in the slightly acidic soils so we can learn little of animal husbandry practices.

The finds demonstrate the range of the activities and crafts practiced on the site. Smithing of iron is indicated by metal-working waste while loom-weights and spindle-whorls point to textile production. The ironwork includes a saw and barb spring padlock along with other tools and nails, suggestive of woodworking, together with domestic objects such as knife blades. The scarcity of Roman coins is common to rural sites in the north and west of England but throughout much of the life of the settlement the occupants had access to traded pottery and other items at local markets at Meols in north Wirral and Chester. The Romano-British pottery is fragmentary and dominated by Cheshire Plains and black-burnished wares but a small quantity of samian and other fine wares is present. The excavation has revealed new information on the exploitation of local and more distant resources. Coal from the site has shown for the first time Roman extraction from outcrops at Neston, south Wirral, 12 km away, while a number of sandstone querns may be locally produced. At a greater distance, the steatite for the Iron Age bead probably came from Anglesey, the nearest British source.

Outstanding questions which await analysis concern the origin and abandonment of the settlement. It will be important to test whether the datable artefacts give a true picture of its occupation span. Of particular interest is a late phase of timber buildings which may be either 4th century, or post-Roman. Refining the chronology of the Iron Age occupation and ceramic sequence will also be a regional priority. The excavation at Irby forms an element of a broader research programme into late prehistoric and Roman settlement in the lowland north west of England. A pattern is emerging of a small number of long-lived focal sites established within the landscape during the Iron Age which continue in occupation into the Roman period, while colonisation during the early Roman period increases the density of settlement, especially in river valleys such as the Mersey and Dee. Aerial photography and fieldwalking coupled with selective excavation on individual sites such as at Irby will contribute to the understanding of the development and use of the landscape in the Dee-Mersey Basin during the late prehistoric and Romano-British period.

The project was carried out by the Field Archaeology Section of Liverpool Museum; it was financed initially by the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside and this year by EH. From 1992-96 the site formed the core of a teaching excavation for archaeology undergraduates from the University of Liverpool.