Great Woolden Hall lies on the east bank of the Glaze Brook as it meanders southwards towards the Mersey.
It is an extensive farm which has developed across a large site since the middle ages, and is, according to rumour, haunted by the ghost of Captain Blood, of Crown Jewels fame.

However that is not why you are here. Great Woolden Hall is also the site of the first extensively excavated Iron Age and Romano-British farmstead in the northwest of England. The farmstead lies on a raised promontory overlooking the Glaze Brook, just west of the modern farm.

Despite initial appearances the site isn't a fort of any kind, though the deep river to the west and the wild mossland to the east may have offered some defensive benefits. Ditches have been identified on the eastern edge of the site which were probably more of an enclosure rather than a palisade.

The earliest evidence of human activity here is a number of worked flint pieces dating from neolithic times, which are unlikely to be associated with any actual settlement at the site. The people who first settled here permanently would have done so during the first millennium BC, most likely in the century before the birth of Christ. They would have been Iron Age Celtic people involved in some agriculture and animal husbandry. Occupation of the site continued for several hundred years, spanning a period including the Roman conquest and the subsequent assimilation of the people of this island into the Roman cultural sphere.

It is thought that a few circular buildings or enclosures were in use at the site during each period of occupation and several ovens and hearths have also been identified. Sadly extensive ploughing has destroyed many of the buried structures on the site but enough evidence was available to the archaeologists to enable a meaningful interpretation of life at the site to be made

Unfortunately it is not possible for you to access the site directly, but an excellent view is available from just east of the bridge on Woolden Road. This is where the coordinates will take you and, to claim this cache, you will need to post a photograph of yourself or your gps with the raised banks of the farmstead in the background.

As parking on Woolden Road is virtually impossible, an equally good view of the complex is available from the B5212 at N53° 26.224 W002° 28.157 if you prefer to take your photo from there.

I would also like you to answer the following questions, which may need a bit of online research, and should direct you to some interesting articles which give more information about the site (Michael Nevell's article from Archaeology North West Vol.3 will be of particular use). Please send the answers to me via email rather than posting them here.

1. Who first alerted Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit (GMAU) to the existence of this site, through an examination of aerial photographs of the area in 1986?

2. When was the site excavated by the Salford Archaeological Project?

3. Between what approximate dates was the final period of occupation, known as Phase IV?

4. Great Woolden Hall isn't the only Iron Age or Romano-British farmstead found in the northwest. Name two others.

5. The second-earliest form of pottery found at the site is known as "VCP" and is probably from the Nantwich / Middlewich area of Cheshire. What does VCP stand for?

6. What is the reason for the lack of organic material found during the excavation?