This volume presents the findings of the largest campaign of archaeological investigation yet undertaken along Liverpool's historic waterfront, by Oxford Archaeology North and the National Museums Liverpool Field Archaeology Unit. This work centred on the areas of Mann Island, Pier Head, and the Central Docks, all places that either fall within, or are directly adjacent to, the Liverpool - Maritime Mercantile City World Heritage Site, and it formed a prelude to the construction of a commercial development and the Museum of Liverpool, and also the extension of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The investigations uncovered numerous remains relating to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century dock building and land reclamation, as well as concomitant evidence for the use and occupation of the waterfront, and the wider town, during these periods. The archaeological evidence has been complemented by detailed historical research, which together provide significant insights into the dynamic and evolving system of dock and quayside development, occurring between the early eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. This development was integral to Liverpool's wider history, and the archaeological remains reflect the port's nascent post-medieval growth, commercial zenith during the nineteenth century, and eventual twentieth-century decline, prior to the extensive schemes of urban regeneration which now characterise the present-day waterfront. Moreover, this extensive campaign of investigation indicates how archaeology along the waterfront represents an important technique for uncovering the nuances of an area that was integral to the rise and success of Liverpool, and which also continues to exert a significant sway on Liverpool's cultural and economic identity.

A chance find of Roman pottery in a garden at Irby, Wirral in the 1940s led in 1987 to the discovery of an important and long-lived settlement site by archaeologists from National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside (now National Musuems Liverpool). Excavating from 1987 to 1996 in a series of suburban gardens, they found evidence for a long sequence of occupation from the mesolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Romano-British, early medieval and later medieval periods. This book presents the evidence of the structures, artefacts and plant remains from this long-lived settlement. Key discoveries include regionally important buildings from the middle Bronze Age and from the Viking period, as well as extensive Roman and late medieval occupation, which contributes significantly to our understanding of settlement and economy in Wirral and the wider region during these periods.