Mellor Heritage Project

This was unexpected as there had been virtually no previous evidence for the Iron Age or Romano-British periods in the Stockport Borough and only two native settlement sites in the whole of the Greater Manchester Area at Castle Steads in Bury and Great Woolden Hall Farm, Salford, both of which are fortified enclosures.

The closest Roman evidence in our area is the Fort and Vicus at Melandra and a possible site at Werneth Low.

The archaeology at Mellor suggests a relatively high status civilian occupation, with artefacts of personal adornment and Pottery


The Roman pottery dates from the late 1st Century through to the third Century and demonstrates that the site was occupied from the launch of the Roman campaigns into Brigantia and for some reason continues in use beyond that of some nearby sites from the Roman period.

Unfortunately Paleo-environmental evidence has been dissapointing and the acidic nature of the soil has a very adverse effect on bone remains, but quern stones, spindle whorls and loom weights all imply a domestic setting with a mixed economy.


These included quern stones used to grind corn,
the remains of 5 Roman Brooches,
Roman nails, 221 sherds of Romano-British pottery
and around 40 scraps of briquetage, used in the salt trade.


The vast majority came from the top two fills of the ditch, which seem to represent a deliberate back filling at some later date. Expert examination showed that the pottery, which included Samian ware, comprised a wide range of High Status types with date ranges from the late 1st Century to at least the mid 3rd Century and coming from distant sources including the Cheshire Plains, around Belper in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and possibly mortaria from Widerspool.

The nature of the Roman Occupation

It has not been possible to establish the purpose of the Roman occupation at Mellor. A Military occupation might have been anticipated given the stategic and topographic advantages of the site. Excavation has so far, however, found little structural evidence for such a settlement and certainly no characteristic dominating 'Roman  Footprint' Military occupation would also have been expected to have ended well before the 4th Century, possibly even to have been confined to the principal phase of military occupation of the North West (AD 70-125) and yet Mellor continues in use far beyond this period.

It seems therefore, that either the site was either civilian in character from the start, or that military occupation was either sited elsewhere on the hilltop or so temporary in nature that it only had a limited impact. The discovery of tile fragments suggests that buildings must have been erected during this period, although no structural remains have so far been found.

Only one securely dated feature has been uncovered which can be stratigraphically and artefactually assigned to the Roman period. This was one shallow ditch containing a sherd of Romano-British Derbyshire Ware pottery, dating from the 2nd Century AD, several stake holes cut into the edge of the ditch suggesting that it served as an enclosure boundary.