Last Sunday, despite the wind and rain, three brave members of our Society (plus Debbie the dog) ventured up on Heapey Fold Lane to see if they could find where Chorley Society excavated in the early 1960’s. Overlooking the Anglezarke reservoirs, this track is thought by many to be the Roman road to Ribchester (you can see more details of the trip here…).
December Meeting
Just a reminder it’s quiz night tonight in the Brocket – in the Standish Suite starting around 8.00pm. Hope to see you then BA (btw latest newsletter is on line here – http://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/content/News_Letters/news208.htm ).
More Toddington Lane Activity
Just when we though we had finished our work on this site more features turn up (see the details here).
October Meeting
Wednesday 4th October. John Pendlebury was an egyptologist, archaeologist and war hero. While fighting in Crete in the Second World War, he was captured by the Germans and legend has it that he was executed as a spy. He was born in London but his father was a Wiganer, the son of the owner of the famous Pendleburys department store on Standishgate. John worked for many years in Egypt at Amarna and Knossos in Crete where he enlisted when war broke out. John Johnson has been researching his fascinating life story and I’m sure his talk will be very interesting.
August Trip
Sunday 20th August. Ian Trumble has kindly arranged for us to visit Hall i’th Wood and Smithills Hall – both grade I listed buildings on the outskirts of Bolton. Please contact me direct on bill@wiganarchsoc.co.uk if you interested in going.
Hall i’th Wood is 16th century and famous for being the home of Samuel Crompton, who invented of the Spinning Mule. The oldest part of Smithill’s Hall dates to the early 14th century and was probably moated.
Ian will be opening Hall i’th Wood specifically for us in the morning but for Smithill’s Hall we will be joining a regular tour in the afternoon. Ian is also seeing if he can get us access to the Bolton Museum archive store which has over a million items in store.
Orkney Trip
Some more photos of our recent trip to the Orkneys here
Toddington Lane Activity
Over the last few weeks there has been much activity at our Toddington Lane site (Mrs Pendlebury’s Milestone), including the GM Festival of Archaeology where volunteers from the general public were invited to join in. We’ve even had 3D models made of our trenches, kindly produced by one of our volunteers, Lee McStein, who is a specialist with this sort of thing (3D-Trench 1 – 3D-Trench 3).
July Meeting
Wednesday 5th July. In the 1600s Wigan was only second to London for its Pewter industry and supplied much of the North as well as trading abroad through Liverpool. Caroline Heaven has been studying the subject over the last year or so and will be presenting her findings (and some examples). We’ll also be reporting on our excavations at Toddington Lane (more details here).
June Meeting
Wednesday 7th June. This month we have Karl Taylor from Oxford Archaeology North. Karl is their Geophysics expert and in his talk he will be demonstrating projects where geophysics has been used by the unit to detect the archaeology. As you may have seen over the last few years, geophysics has proved a very useful tool for our Society, so it will be interesting to see how this essential tool is used by the professionals.
May Meeting
Wednesday 3rd May. Mark Fletcher from Matrix Archaeology will be giving our Society a talk about Manchester’s ‘Mythical’ Castle. It was first mentioned in the late 12th and early 13th centuries but nobody knows exactly where it was or whether it really existed – could it have been just a ring-work around a Saxon burgh. Mark has been carrying out extensive excavations around the Cathedral area where it is was supposed to have been, so hopefully he will be able to cast more light on the mystery.