More information : Bruera is one of the few shrunken villages in north-west Cheshire.
APs show a number of house platforms aligned along Chapel Lane almost
opposite the moat (SJ 46 SW 20), while a hollow way coming across the
fields from the west to join the Lane a little south of the moat also
has disturbed ground and low house platforms along it, some of them
being the sites of farm buildings shown on 19th and early 20th
century maps. Around this complex of existing and formerly existing
buildings may be seen the long, curving narrow ridge and furrow of
former strip fields. (1)
Post medieval settlement remains at Bruera are centred at SJ 4378
6062 at about 18m above OD. The earthworks mentioned by authority 1
opposite the moat are amorphous and slight, but would seem to
represent the site of a farm shown on the Tithe Award map of 1840
(2a). The same map shows other properties fronting Chapel Lane
between Platts Lane and the church (SJ 46 SW 11), although no
earthworks survive here. Buildings are also shown on the other side
of Chapel Lane immediately south of the moat in a ditched close still
surviving as earthworks, but these might have been reused ancillary
structures originally forming part of the moat complex. Further
slight settlement earthworks comprising an east-west ditch and a
slight curving bank lie south and south-east of the church.
Authority 1's hollow way running into Chapel Lane from the west is
presumably the former Boat Lane (SJ 46 SW 44). Although buildings are
shown at the junction of these two routes on early mapping as
described, this area of settlement was then called Buerton (2b).
These buildings had gone by 1874 (2c) to be replaced by a modern
house called 'The Bungalow' recently demolished; its site is now
uneven ground, which may be the disturbed ground referred to by
authority 1.
The earthworks around the moat and church at Bruera, but not those on
the site of the Bungalow at what was formerly Buerton, were surveyed
by RCHME at 1:1000 scale; see plans and descriptive text held in NMR.
(2) |