Monument record MDR6509 - Prehistoric and Romano-British occupation, Whaley, Elmton

SK 51217212. A small Romano-British settlement site was found during fieldwork by A L Armstrong, probably in the late 1930s or early 1940s. It lies on the eastern slope of a small rocky nob, east of the rock face of Whaley II Rock Shelter. The site was established in the 2nd century and pottery, bone, and potboilers occur sporadically over an area 200yds across, but are concentrated in an area 15yds across. Five trial holes substantiated this, two holes, each one yard square, yielding 20 sherds and traces of walling. The sherds parallel those found in the Whaley II Rock Shelter (see SMR 5202). Down slope from the Romano-British site, numerous patinated flints were found in 1966, and before that by the late Mr Shacklock of Whaley Hall. Over 100 flint artefacts are known, including scrapers, and 2 petit tranchet derivative, 6 leaf-shaped and 2 barbed-and-tanged arrowheads. The bulk of the flints are Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, but the most interesting tool (illustrated) is an end-scraper, the nearest parallels being in the continental Upper Palaeolithic cultures. (1)