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Ancient battle site in Wigan

Q

I wondered if you had any details on the below ancient battle site in Wigan. If you have any info can you e-mail it to me - cheers

NMR Number: SD 50 NE 28

COUNTY: Greater Manchester

DISTRICT: Wigan

PARISH: Wigan

Medieval Battlefield 1060 - 1070

Medieval Human Remains 1060 - 1070

Possible Medieval battle site indicated by human and horse remains located in 1735. The presence of so much horse suggests a date about the time of the Conquest, possibly the Norman ravishing of the North or a slightly earlier event.

A

You can find a reference to this battle in a book by C. Hardwick called 'Ancient Battlefields of Lancashire' published in 1882. In it Hardwick quotes the Reverend Whitaker, writing a hundred years earlier, who is trying to prove that King Arthur fought some of his battles in the Wigan area. Whitaker points to the fact that the Anglo-Saxon chronicler, Nenius, does actually say that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of Arthur's battles were fought on the banks of the Douglas. Here is the the relevant passage from Hardwick's book:

The defeated Saxons appear to have crossed the hill at Wigan, where another engagement took place. In forming the canal there about 1735, the workmen discovered evident indications of a considerable battle on the the ground. All along the course of the channel, from the termination of the dock to the point at Poolbridge from 40 to 50 roods in length and 7 to 8 yards in breadth, they found the ground everywhere containing the remains of men and horses, and 5 to 6 cwts, of horse shoes were collected.

The text goes on to describe one of the large spurs found there but others have pointed out that his description is more like a Norman spur than a Saxon one, so that is where the Norman date in the reference came from.

There is a corresponding reference in the Greater Manchester Sites and Monuments Record (No. 4197.1.0). This record gives the location as SD 5743 0515 which is roughly where Wigan Pier is now. The reference to the canal is misleading as the canal into Wigan was only completed in 1814. The river Douglas, however, was being canalised at about the time of Whitaker's report and it is likely that it was this work (probably the construction of the Wigan basin terminus) that is being referred to.