Llwyn Onn to Bronwylfa Pipeline
This Dee Valley Water project involved the laying of a 10 km long new water main from Llwyn Onn Water Treatment Works (WTW) to Bronwylfa Services Reservoir to the south of Wrexham. The proposed development was located within the Zone of Archaeological Potential.
Two Scheduled Ancient Monuments, Offa’s Dyke and Wat’s Dyke, were bisected by the proposed pipeline and the Grade I listed Erddig Park designed landscape and gardens was also crossed. As the appointed heritage consultants for the project, a comprehensive desk based Cultural Heritage Assets Survey was undertaken in advance of the works to ascertain the risk of impact to sites of archaeological and cultural heritage. This was followed by a walk-over and photographic survey. With this baseline data a cost-effective mitigation strategy was designed and agreed with Cadw. |
Permission for all work that might impact the monuments was obtained and archaeological monitoring of groundworks undertaken where necessary. Wat’s Dyke runs from Basingwerk on the Dee Estuary on the north coast of Wales to just south of Oswestry in Shropshire, England. The date of its construction is uncertain, although it is thought to have been built in the 8th century AD by the Mercian King Aethelbald and pre-dates Offa’s Dyke which is located some distance to the west that was constructed in the later 8th century AD by the Anglian King Offa also as a boundary between the kingdom of Mercia to the east and the British occupied land to the west.
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