Between Peak and Plain, produced on behalf of the Mellor Archaeological Trust, presents the results of 12 seasons of community-based excavations carried out with the support of the former University of Manchester Archaeological Unit. Mellor is part of the metropolitan borough of Stockport in north-west England and lies in the foothills of the Peak District and southern Pennines. The excavations were centred on the Old Vicarage on a hilltop spur commanding extensive views westward over the Cheshire Plain. The investigations revealed a multiperiod site with evidence of activity from the Mesolithic to the post-medieval period. The principal remains were of the Iron Age and the medieval period. The Iron Age evidence included rock-cut ditches defining an inner enclosure and an extensive outer enclosure, ring-gullies, and linear gullies, with elements of material culture which included a regionally significant assemblage of pottery. The main medieval remains were the post pits of an aisled hall, which from historical evidence probably belonged to a forester of the royal hunting preserve of Peak Forest. The site also produced lithics of the Earlier and Later Mesolithic, a smaller Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age group which included a flint dagger and polished flint chisel, and an assemblage of pottery and other artefacts demonstrating Romano-British occupation. Radiocarbon dating points to activity in the early medieval period. From the post-medieval period the site produced an important assemblage of clay tobacco pipes. Findings from the excavations are considered in this volume within their wider regional context.
British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara
