Pages 165 and 168
" footmarks were discovered in the quarries at Weston and Higher Runcorn; and in them, says Mr. E. W. Binney, we have the earliest possible evidence of the existence of dry land. At Weston, about thirty feet from the surface, and in the higher part of the deposit, there is a thin bed of red clay about half or three quarters of an inch in thickness. This clay affords impressions of the footmarks of the cheirotherium, the rhyncosaurus, several other reptiles, and numerous worm-marks, besides lines of dessication similar to what a bed of clay would undergo under a hot sun at the present day" "in the course of experiments a cubic inch of the new red sandstone would bear a pressure of 2,185 lbs. weight before it crumbled into sand."
Page 2
"When the glaciers covered Cheshire they wiped away nearly all traces of previous life, however in some places like Higher Bebington, there was a seam of clay three to four feet thick set hard over the rock. In time this seam became exposed by the weather, revealing to primitive Stone Age man, the imprints of a twelve feet long dinosaur, who had enormous hind feet and much smaller front feet. These finds became the foundation of a legend that was passed down for thousands of years, that Cheshire had once been the land of giants and monsters. This legend was further reinforced, when during medieval times, new quarries uncovered other prehistoric beats such as the Labryinthodon at Lymm, and others at Storeton, Runcorn and Tarporley."
Page 33
"Bunter sandstone lies beneath Keuper SS and what is known as the Upper Mottled Bunter is extensively quarried at Runcorn. Lower Keuper is hard and although in time it weathers, it has more lasting qualities. The rugged tops of hills at Halton, Weston, are of this series. Runcorn stone was used for the inside piers of the Menai Tubular Bridge. In the large and important quarries at Storeton on the Wirral there are many estuarial deposits known locally as "footprint beds". In these beds, which are also found at Weston, Runcorn and Daresbury, there are numerous ripple marks, shales, pseudomorphis, or altered crystals of rock salt, sun cracks, worm casts, footmarks and tracks of creatures which walked about on the sandy shore before it hardened into rock."
Pages 3, 15
"The majority of (Cheshire) rocks belong to the upper Carboniferous system of the Primary period, as the Keuper and Bunter sandstones belong to the Triassic system of the Secondary period."
"The centre of the county although called a plain is by no means flat, for it contains the Delamere range, the Peckforton hills with Broxton, and the escarpments of Beeston, Alderley Edge, Runcorn and Frodsham heights, the abrupt sides of which show that at some time they faced the sea."
Page 27
"A people called the Ceangi or Cangi, it appears resided in this part of Cheshire, as early as the year 76. They were the servants of the Carnabii, and the attendants upon their cattle. They lived in the northern woods of their county, that skirted the marshy grounds, which then extended for many miles, by Norton, Runcorn and Frodsham, along the shore of the Mersey."
Pages 6, 10, 21, 132
"Drainage, except for areas adjacent to the Dee valley, is to the north or north west into the
Mersey estuary. The largest river, the Weaver, rises near Peckforton and from
Northwich is navigable and flows north west to the Mersey estuary."
"The Mid Cheshire Ridge, from 3 to 9 km (2 to 6 miles) in width extends from Runcorn and Frodsham in the north through Delamere and Tarporley to Malpas in the south. It is a variable region ranging from 250 to 750 feet O.D. and in relief from gently undulating landscapes, barely discernable from the surrounding plain, to very steep wooded and often rocky slopes."
"The succeeding Keuper marls and saliferous beds occur under the drift deposits of almost the whole eastern plain from Runcorn and Lymm southwards to the Salop border. The marls consist of approximately 760m (2,500 ft.) of calcareous red silty mudstones separated at two horizons by 60-120 m (200-400 ft.) of interbedded rock salt and mudstone."
"A thin patchy cover of till over red Keuper marl gives a complex pattern of reddish soils formed on both solid and drift deposits. It is of minor importance and occurs only in the north of the County east of Runcorn. The finer soils are well suited to grass and the farming pattern is identical to that on the adjoining deeper till soils."
Page 11
"The shore at Runcorn and round to Weston Point, is protected by a low ridge of rock, rising almost perpendicularly from the beach."
Pages 7-9, 14, 17
"There is a considerable flat at about 220 ft. which forms Higher Runcorn and the area towards Norton. Out of this Halton rises quite steeply to above 325 ft."
"It should be noted that the 50ft. and 100 ft. contours on the south west side of the Mersey estuary do not follow the easterly sweep taken by the present coastline but continue on directly towards the south east. The curve of the estuary towards Widnes and Runcorn is a purely surface phenomenon."
"No doubt because of an increase in ice thickness caused by the relative constriction between Higher Runcorn and Frodsham Hill there was considerable over deepening in this district, typical of such glacial conditions. Today the rock surface near the mouth of the river Weaver is 151 ft. below O.D. and near the A 56 road bridge over the Weaver it is as much as 235 ft. below O.D."
"Runcorn Gap was probably a meltwater channel between the Weaver and Warrington ice, and thus is of glacial origin, for the pre-glacial Mersey probably had a rock channel rather to the north of Widnes."
(Page 9 is a map of the Geomorphological features and a photocopy can be found as ‘illustration 1’ at the end of these extracts.)
"The inner Mersey estuary from Bootle to Runcorn has an area of nearly 30 square miles and consequently, with every tide, a very large volume of water must pour into it from the Irish Sea and empty out again."
(Page 17 contains, in figure 5, maps of Prehistoric and early medieval settlements and a photocopy can be found as ‘illustration 2’ at the end of these extracts.)
Page 2
"During the first century AD, a race of semi barbarians called Cangi lived in these woods; when they weren’t fighting each other, they fished for salmon etc., and hunted wild boar and wolves. Gradually, as they became more civilised, they became "attendants of cattle" for the Carnabii, a 'superior' tribe."
Page 1
"Geologists tell us that thousands of years ago the Mersey was deeper and wider than it is today, and at Runcorn the course ran north of the present one. Then came the Ice Age bringing glaciers from the north, huge masses of clay and boulders were deposited in the Mersey, completely blocking the channel. The river then made for itself a new channel – the one that exists today – to the sea.
At the dawn of British history Cheshire was thickly wooded and the population was very sparse, the marshy Gowy Valley and the forest in the Weaver Valley formed natural obstacles to migration and invasion. The richest evidence of prehistoric settlement has been found on the Central Ridge which runs from Helsby to Malpas, this high open ground would be more easily settled. There have also been finds on the Lower Ridge, this extends from Runcorn towards Knutsford. Local finds include a Bronze Age stone axe-hammer at Weston Point, a bronze palstave (a chisel edged implement shaped to fit into a split handle) at Runcorn, and a pre Roman coin at Halton.
At the time of the Roman invasion the people of Cheshire were probably a mixture of the original Bronze Age people and immigrant Iron Age celts. The dominant Celtic tribe in the area was probably the Cornovii, this was the name given to them by the Romans."
Page 2
"The basic geological structure of Cheshire is that of a broad shallow basin, between the Welsh mountains and the Pennines. The rocks forming this basin and ridge are of the Triassic age, i.e. about 200 million years old and were formed in hot arid conditions which resulted in the evaporation of the shallow sea which covered Cheshire at that time. The salt crystals from the evaporated sea water were deposited in layers on the sea floor and were the beginnings of the salt fields in and around Northwich. The sand and silts also deposited formed the red sandstones which predominate the area.
Subsequent earth movements caused the layers to warp and crack; along these cracks or faults great blocks of rock were forced up relative to the flaking land, thus forming the Cheshire ridge, still standing out above the plain after millions of years weathering and erosion. There are outcrops at Weston, Runcorn and Halton. Frodsham and Helsby hills are also local examples of this. After this period the county was affected by the advance and retreat of glaciers which generally left a relatively this patchwork of clay and sand covering the solid rocks."
Pages 10, 21, 27
"North of this moraine littered landscape lies the flat and near flat plain of northern and central Cheshire, draining via the rivers Weaver and Bollin and their tributaries into the Mersey. Although there are occasional outcrops of pre glacial geology, most markedly at and around Halton and at Bowdon, glacial till interspersed with low ridges of fluvioglacial origin cover the bulk of the land surface.
.....Recent discoveries have tended to be located on similar terrain to those already known, merely extending the existing pattern to such ridges of fluviogalcial origin as make up the core of the medieval parishes of Rostherne and Runcorn. On this evidence, the till plains of central Cheshire appear to have seen only low levels of land use and settlement during the Bronze Age.
"The peoples of the north west Midlands were among the outer periphery of tribes which did not produce a coinage. Nor, as far as can be judged, did they construct oppida(sites defined by massive earthworks). Finds of Corieltauvian coins at Halton castle and on the coastal plain of north Wales may reflect limited contact with that people, perhaps the result of local men(Roman) returning from mercenary service."
Pages 5, 10
"Cheshire ... ...has been divided by a central line of hills, of which the isolated rocks of
Halton and Beeston ....
....there are instances of stone or flint tools, Neolithic or the newer Stone Age which
came to an end in Britain about 2000 years BC. A hammer stone or maul, probably used in the working of the copper mines, was found at Alderley Edge and a stone axe at Weston Point.
Page 18
"We know that the seas once flowed over the beds of sandstone as some of the beds show the ripple marks that we see so often in the sands when walking by the sea shore. A fearful looking monster, with the equally terrible name of labyrinthodont, in appearance rather like a gigantic frog, has left his 'footprints in the sands' in the rocks near Lymm and Weston."
Page 24
"The Carboniferous strata are cut off along a fault that runs north-south through Bickerstaffe and Burscough where it joins another fault trending to the north east which also cuts off the Carboniferous strata. The continuation of the boundary fault runs south-south-east, as the Frodsham fault, to cross the Mersey estuary near Runcorn."
Pages 4-6
Merseyside itself is generally low-lying. On both sides of the estuary low Triassic sandstone plateaux reach summit levels around 200 feet above sea level which in places rise directly from the estuary giving a high, open outlook over Liverpool from the crests at Everton, Wavertree and Woolton, and on Wirral from Oxton, Bidston and the hills between Heswall and Thurstaston which recur on the south bank of the Mersey behind Runcorn.
On the south side of the Mersey it is more difficult to find a physical boundary to the region. With the exception of the 200 foot level at Runcorn, the main features are the prominent headlands overlooking the Mersey at Frodsham and Helsby rising to 479 feet and 462 feet respectively, which form the northern extremity of the mid Cheshire ridge.
Page 32
[July 1888] In excavating in soft material near Runcorn, an immense boulder of grey granite, weighing 6 tons, was unearthed, and has been the object of much interest
Pages 204-207
These are maps showing :- 1 –Geology(solid formations); 2 –Drift deposits; 3 –Physical features; 4 –major physical sub-regions.
Page 3
"So as early as the year AD 76 a tribe of people called the Ceangi or Cangi lived in Cheshire, and we are also informed that many of the race lived in the woods that grew by the side of the marshy tracts extending for miles along the shores of the Mersey by Norton, Runcorn, and Frodsham. These people lived in a semi-barbaric state, and were fierce and warlike. When not shedding each other’s blood they hunted the wild boar, chased the wolf to his lair, and fished in the streams and rivers. Tacitus mentions the Cangi as an ancient British tribe dwelling within sight of the Irish Sea."
Pages 2, 4, 5.
"On the Cheshire side the rock rises rapidly and is covered by about 18 feet of boulder-clay in the Runcorn streets."
Mr. Williams, C.E., former Surveyor to the Weaver Navigation, tells me that at Weston Point, in constructing the canal lock he came across a great number of boulders lying on the rock.
.... That at some time in the far-distant past the Mersey had a course north of its present one, and that it was a far wider and deeper river. There were dense forests covering the slopes above the water’s edge frequented by many species of wild animals which shared their domain in common with the rude savages of those days. When the glaciers were swept in this direction from the north they carried along with them huge masses of clay and boulders which they had borne in their chilly embrace for hundreds of miles. These they deposited in the old bed of the Mersey until it was completely filled up, and the water, driven to seek another passage to the sea, made for itself the present one through Runcorn Gap.
Page 8
"The geological foundation of the site consists of permo-triassic rocks with a partial overlay of glacial drift. The distribution of the different types of solid rock is largely determined by extensive faulting which has resulted in a north-south outcrop of keuper sandstone in the west and an east-west arrangement of fragmented outcrops of keuper sandstone and waterstones. North and west of these outcrops are extensive deposits of boulder clay and blown sand, with alluvium south of the Mersey between Runcorn and Moore. Most of the south eastern part of the site consists of keuper marl with some boulder clay and glacial sands and gravel. The geological structure of the site presents no major difficulties for the construction of the town."
Pages 10, 11, 13, 37, 42, 68, 95, 98-100
Finds - Bucklow Hundred –
Weston – stone hammer
Runcorn (Ship Canal) – Palstave Halton castle – British coin
"At the time the Roman Legions arrived in Cheshire the Celtic nation was divided into tribes, more or less powerful. The Cornavii inhabited Cheshire and Shropshire; the Ordovices occupied North Wales with the Cangi on the sea-coast from the Dee to Carnarvon"
"A perforated stone hammer was recently discovered at Weston Point, near Runcorn, at the Mersey Brine Works."
Page 42 has an illustration of a flint scraper found at Sutton Weaver.
In the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, is a cast of a bronze palstave found near Runcorn in the Ship Canal Works about 1892 (an illustration is shown in Fig. 32 on page 68)
Halton Castle, Runcorn – Sir John Evans, in the supplementary volume to his “Coins of the Ancient Britons”, page 500 states – "Mr. C. Roach Smith informs me that he has seen a MS. note of a coin of this type found at Halton Castle, Runcorn, in 1795. I have no record of any other ancient British coin having been found in Cheshire"
Finds –
Near Runcorn – in Manchester Ship Canal. Palstave. Cast in Grosvenor Museum, Chester.
Sutton Weaver – flint scraper 1 1/2” by 1” found by G.A. Dunlop (1906) near towing path, right bank, River Weaver. In Warrington Museum
Weston Point – Perforated stone-hammer, 10 inches by 5 inches and 3 inches thick
Introduction; pages 1/2
The photograph in the introduction shows a striated boulder and a photocopy can be found as "illustration 3" at the end of these extracts.
The photograph on page 1 showing a pre-historic axe-hammer found at Weston Point a photocopy can be found as “illustration 4” at the end of these extracts.
With the last retreat of the Ice Age over ten thousand years ago, the bleak Arctic conditions in prehistoric Britain began to change and the polar landscape of Cheshire was during the passage of thousands of years, gradually transformed from icy tundra into a region of densely forest with areas of peat-moss and marsh. Oaks predominated, with the pendunculate oak thriving across most of the county whilst the durmast oak flourished on the well drained soils. The wych elm, the ash and the lime also proliferated, whilst everywhere scrublands of hazel became established.
The glaciers left deposits of debris across the landscape. Boulders, some of great size, had been carried by the ice from the mountains of Scotland and northern England. Smoothed and rounded by the movement and pressure of the ice, the granite boulders were left lying on the sandstone beds of north Cheshire. These alien stones, sometimes called “erratics” were deposited hundreds of miles away from their natural sites. Some of these striated boulders have been found in Runcorn and without doubt are the oldest items of historical interest in the district. One great white stone was until recently (1990) a feature of the gardens at the new Town shopping centre and other, smaller stones, some almost black in colour had been set into the ground to serve as fenders to protect gateposts and walls from damage caused by cart wheels.
The earliest man made objects found locally date from the period about 5,000 – 3,500 years BC. Flint tools have been discovered at Frodsham and struck flakes of flint have been found on Halton hill and in Norton village. During the archaeological excavations carried out in Norton village in the 1970s, a quantity of waste flints, together with one or two which had been worked to produce serrated blades were discovered. As flints do not occur naturally in any of Cheshire’s rocks but are associated with the chalk land in the south and east of England, it is certain that either the finished tools or the raw flints were imported into the county. Small quantities of flint were carried by the glacial ice from Northern Ireland and some flint tools which have been found in Wirral have their origin in Ireland. This suggests that prehistoric man had developed trade routes and communications far more complex than has previously been believed. Neolithic pottery shards of a type found in Cumbria have been excavated in Norton village.
The flint tools prove the presence of a primitive people who had not learned to cultivate the land but who relied on their fishing and hunting skills in order to provide their food and clothing. Some years ago a massive perforated axe-hammer of a later period was found at Weston Point. This polished tool or weapon was fashioned from sheared dolomite, an igneous rock which is to be found at Langdale Pike in Cumbria and at Penmaenmawr. A few years ago a similar axe-hammer was found at Dutton.
From the Bronze Age we have a single item. A socketted bronze axe was found at Runcorn in 1892 during the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal. The looped axe or palstave belongs to the middle bronze period and a suggested date is about 1000 BC.
The only other evidence of Iron Age man yet found in this immediate district is a late Celtic or Brigantian coin found near Halton castle.
This book, as the name suggests, is a series of maps of which the following are relevant :-
Vegetation 5500-2500 BC Oak woodland with pendunculate oak predominating
mixed with oak woodland with sessile oak predominating
Prehistoric Bronze axe, stone hammer and pre-Roman coins finds
Page 3
"One other minor feature remains to be noticed, a ridge of higher ground between the Bollin and the Weaver, extending from Runcorn in the west to Knutsford in the east; with its sandstone outcrops, gravel spreads and loamy soils, this formed a fairly open belt of ground between the Mersey and the Pennine slopes.
The Mersey must have presented a formidable barrier to communication between the lands to the north and south in prehistoric times. Its valley is wide and flat and was filled with swamps and thick woodland except where sand and gravel terraces provided a foothold for human occupation."
Pages 3, 4, 13, 14.
"West of what is called the Central Ridge of Cheshire, a belt of uplands running from Runcorn to Malpas, the basin is floored with Bunter Sandstones and Pebbles Beds. All are rocks derived from the destruction of adjacent land area in conditions of great heat, little rainfall, high evaporation and little or no life. All have the characteristic staining of various oxides of iron, red or yellow. Some yield building stone or even sand, but the Pebble Beds in particular are resistant to weathering, providing good building stone locally, and are water bearing; a fact of which the Romans at least made use."
Fig. 1 on page 13 is reproduced as “illustration 5” at the end of these extracts.
"The Weston – Knutsford Plateau – This belt of land above 200 feet separates the Weaver and Bollin basins, and, like all the other uplands in Cheshire, it is mixed in character. It comprises lightly wooded sandstone outcrops as at Weston and Halton, and even more open gravel spreads and light loamy soils not unlike those of the summit of the Central Plateau. It is important in that it constitutes a bridge of more open land connecting the Mersey estuary with the gravel terraces of the Pennine slope."
Pages 4,5,12, Figs. 24-27
"In the western half of Cheshire these(rocks) consist of the Lower Mottled Sandstone, a variegated sandstone streaked with red and yellow; the Bunter Pebble Beds, a harder sandstone containing rounded white pebbles of quartzite; and the Upper Mottled sandstone, hardly to be distinguished from the Lower."
"These plateaux are seen today in the ridges which exist on the west side of Wirral (Caldy and Thurstaston), on the east side of Wirral (Wallasey Village to Storeton) and more particularly in the Central Ridge which, running from Runcorn in the north to Bickerton in the south divides the Cheshire Plain in two, and gives that plain its most pronounced high ground."
"The Weston – Knutsford Plateau – This belt of land above 200 feet separates the Weaver and Bollin basins, and, like all the other uplands in Cheshire, it is mixed in character. It comprises lightly wooded sandstone outcrops as at Weston and Halton, and even more open gravel spreads and light loamy soils not unlike those of the summit of the Central Plateau. It is important in that it constitutes a bridge of more open land connecting the Mersey estuary with the gravel terraces of the Pennine slope."
Fig. 24(b) – The Primitive Vegetation of Cheshire is reproduced as “illustration 6” at the end of these extracts.
Schedule I – Flint and stone axes found in Cheshire-
Aston by Sutton adze kept at Warrington Museum
Schedule II – Perforated stone implements found in Cheshire –
Weston Point palstave kept at Runcorn Free Library
Schedule III – Bronze Age implements –
Runcorn (Ship Canal) looped palstave kept at Runcorn Free Library
Pages 2, 6, 18, 30, 31, 50, 54, 80, 89, 91, 92, 99, 103
Pages 2, 6, 18, 50, 80, 91 contain maps detailing physical features etc. for the whole of Cheshire; page 92 has illustrations of the types of finds. span style=" font-style: !important"These are not attached to these extracts.
"Where Chester Pebble Beds or the Helsby Sandstone Formation occur at or near the surface, red and pink sandstone has been extensively used for all types of building, the larger quarries, as at Runcorn, supplying first class stone to Liverpool.
The pure silica sands at Chelford and Moore are in demand as refractory and moulding materials....
Finds –
Aston – Polished axe, badly damaged, fine-grained grey rock at Warrington Museum Acc. No. 216.09
Runcorn – damaged; greywacke at Weaver Hall Museum Acc. No. 3428 1978
Runcorn – Late palstave, looped, plain, low flanged. 141 mm long. Cast in Grosvenor Museum
"Northern England and Scotland preserved a more archaic tradition both in type and in technology, with tin-bronze as standard. Despite the adoption in the south of axes with socketed haftings, palstaves remained the dominant type of axe; late ones characterised by their narrow form, low flanges, and projecting stop ridge. A Cheshire example is known from Runcorn."
Page 4
"Real settlement of this part of Cheshire would seem to be dated from the Bronze Age – indicated by tumuli (burial mounds) – circa 1750-1550 BC, although there is some evidence of Neolithic habitation (e.g. flints from Helsby). Bronze implements have been found on the Central Ridge and also at Runcorn, namely an axe-hammer at Weston Point. The fact that the landscape consisted chiefly of marshy valleys and thick woodland, thus hindering easy settlement, is the principal reason why both Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples would have chosen hill sites. Certainly the discovery of a later Iron Age habitation at Helsby would give additional weight to the possibility that Halton was also used during this period."
Pages 4, 5.
"Two of these nations were settled in Cheshire, - one, the Cangii, a tribe of little importance, and of whom still less is known; the other, the Carnavii, or Carnabii which subsequently extended itself into a large portion of the neighbouring country."
"The Cangi, 'a nation that has been so long and so much sought for', Camden supposes, were also situated in Cheshire, and he supports his opinion by reference to some 'twenty sowes of Lead' that had been found on the shores of the Mersey near Runcorn and Rocksavage. Others, similar to these, had been previously found on the shores of the Dee; and they all bear an inscription commemorative of a [Roman] victory over the Cangii."
Page 56
[Perforated hammers] ... "it is possible that the perforated stone hammers of Cheshire represent the lines of route by which the Beaker folk reached Wales from the Pennines. In this connection it is worth while making a special note of their distribution (a) along the Mersey Valley; (b) across country from the Bollin to join the above near Runcorn; (c) in the Beeston Gap; (d) near the entrance to the Vale of Llangollen."
Pages 85, 88, 89
Copy at end of this section
Pages 61, 62, 80
Copy at end of this section
Pages 326, 327.
Copy at end of this section
Pages 68, 85
"Palaeolithic Age - The remains of reindeer, wild ox and several small Arctic rodents have been found.... And there are records of mammoth and other remains being found near
Runcorn ..."
"During the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal a looped palstave, about 5 1/2 inches long, was recovered near Runcorn about 1892."
Page 17
Plate I on is a map showing the routeway, sites and finds of the Megalithic period in East Cheshire and South Lancashire. The relevance is the routeway over the Knutsford Ridge ending at Runcorn.
"Notes of Footprints from the Keuper Part I" - paper by F. T. Maidwell 1911 Liverpool Geological Society
"Notes of Footprints from the Keuper Part II" – paper by F. T. Maidwell 1914 Liverpool Geological Society
"Notes on Footprints from the Trias" – paper by G. A. Dunlop with contributions by Beasley, Maidwell and Sollas
"Intertidal Sediment and Trace Fossils from the Waterstones, Scythian, Anisian at Daresbury, Cheshire" - paper by R. J. Ireland, J. E. Pollard, R. J. Stell, and D. B. Thompson
"The Runcorn Quarries and the Footprint Finds of the 1940s” – paper by Geoffrey Tresise 1994. Geologists Association
"Dinosaurs leave their mark on nature park"" - Runcorn World 12th August, 1999
"Ancient reptile on Runcorn Hill" – Runcorn Weekly News 20th August, 1999
"Boulder from ice Age had disappeared" - Runcorn Weekly News 1st March, 2001
A small scale excavation at Norton Priory in September, 2013 found a flint from Neolithic times and some bones, yet to be dated. This could put back by 5,000 years the occupation of the Priory site.
CAC/1.11.13