Archaeology in Antiquity at Mellor
In around 1810, the Reverend Marriott, Vicar of Disley and local Antiquarian, excavated two Bronze Age barrows at Brown Low and Ludworth Intakes on the hill across the valley to the north. Unfortunately, as he acknowledged at the time, his excavations were poorly managed and did considerable damage to the site: 
" A mass of people rise up at once, procure an assent from the tenant and break into the sepulchre. All the dissolute and idle of the neighbourhood hover around the spot. When, lo! an admonition from the manorial court scatters the marauders."
Marriott wrote a book 'The Antiquities of Lyme'
in which he also mentioned a ditch found previously in the Churchyard.
" Some years ago, in sinking deep into the soil of the church yard for the construction of a vault, the progress of a cavern was discovered. It no longer, indeed remained hollow; but the line of it was as distinct as ever from the vein of factitious soil, which had been introduced, in opposition to the native stratum at that depth, for the reparation of the cavity.
The same vein was brought to light, many years before, in sinking the foundation of the adjacent dwelling house, now occupied as the residence of the clergyman of the place (The Old Vicarage) A deep fosse was constructed originally, for the inclosure of the position. In subsequent ages it had the fate to be filled up, and the name and place of it passed into oblivion."
Shaw Cairn on Cobden Edge
Much more recently, in the 1970's and 1980's amateur archaeologists partially excavated a Bronze Age Burial Site named Shaw Cairn, which is on Cobden Edge, the hill to the south of Mellor Church.
They found cremated bones and funerary pottery and kept a diary of their digs. Following the death of the leader of the group in 1999, there was a risk that this material would be lost, but fortunately it was rescued and passed to the Trust.
Food vessel found in Shaw Cairn
A full report was prepared by Victoria Mellor, a student on secondment to the Greater Manchester Archaeology Unit
