Rolling to Mechanisation: Excavations at Lymm Slitting Mill

ABSTRACT An archaeological excavation at Lymm slitting mill in Cheshire was undertaken by Oxford Archaeology North in 2005 as a key component of the Lymm's Life Project, which was financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The slitting mill was established in the second quarter of the 18th century, and was one of a group of important iron-working sites in the area that were managed by a local Quaker family. The remains probably represent the best surviving example of a slitting mill in England, and one of a very small number that has been subject to archaeological study and consolidation. The slitting mill had been excavated by a local group between 1968 and 1974, although the site was eventually backfilled before a detailed survey was produced and a full synthesis of the results was never published. This paper discusses the archaeological work undertaken on this important early mechanised iron-working site, and places it in its context of 18th-century slitting mills in north-west England.