The Wyre wetlands in transition
Fraser Brown
Oxford Archaeology

Oxford Archaeology is undertaking major excavations, on behalf of Highways England, in advance of the construction of a new stretch of the A585, at Pouton-le-Fylde, Blackpool, Lancashire. There, just inland of the Wyre esturary where it drains into Morecambe Bay, multiple sites have been revealed along the wetland edges of the, at times marine, Lytham-Skippool Valley and its tributaries. Many of these initially date to the the later part of the Mesolithic period, although frequently superimposed on them are activity phases associated with Carinated Bowl pottery, dating to the 38th centuries cal BC (preliminary radiocarbon dating). The impression gained is of an extensively settled landscape occupied by hunter-gatherers experiencing Neolithicization.

The road transects a lobe of land that extends into the valley, forming a discrete landscape unit. During the earliest Neolithic period, there was a distinction in how different parts of this lobe were inhabited. One area contained a waterside settlement, indicated by a structural footprint and associated middens, whereas another was the focus for multiple acts of ‘votive’ deposition, with quantities of stone axes, polissoirs, incised stones, flaked lithics and pottery being jettisoned into the fen.

The mosses of North Lancashire have been recognised as having great, but as yet untapped, archaeological potential, and the analysis of these sites promises to yield important new information regarding these regionally and nationally poorly understood periods. The results so far strongly hint at parallels with other sites further north along the Cumbrian seaboard, and it is probable that the Wyre communities were connected to others around the Irish Sea zone.