November Meeting

Wednesday 4th November. Back to our usual day, this month we have Kerry Beeston who runs Finds Processing workshops in Manchester. She will be bringing along some of her choice finds for us to look at and I will bring some of ours for her to cast a professional eye over.

October Meeting

Thursday 7th October. Our speaker this month is Norman Redhead whose talk is entitled Archaeological Investigations in Salford’s Historic Core. As you probably know Norman runs the Archaeological Advisory Service for Greater Manchester and over the years the Service has overseen for a number of archaeological investigations in heart of Salford’s town centre. These investigations have been able to uncover Salford’s rich history dating back to the Medieval and Post-medieval periods. Please note the change of day. – this is due to unforeseen circumstances so apologies to those who can’t make it on that day.

September Meeting

Wednesday 2nd September.  At our meeting this month Steve Halliwell will be telling us the remarkable story of St Kilda. This remote island off the west coast of the Outer Hebrides has a long history of occupation but it all ended in 1930 when the last families were evacuated to the mainland. Now excavations on the island are being to reveal more about how this isolate community survived for so long.

July Meeting

Wednesday 1st July At short notice, our long term friend from Oxford Archaeology North, Ian Miller has agreed to give us a talk on the Cutacre site near Little Hulton. Excavations there in advance of major development and land reclamation have revealed both Prehistoric and Medieval activity (including Iron Age round houses).

June Meeting

Wednesday 3rd June. We are back to our usual day and this month we have Paul Knight who is a captain in the British Army. Paul served two tours in Iraq and whilst there studied its history and visited many of the famous historical site. Subsequently he has written a book on the Army in Iraq during the First World War.  He is a local lad and is currently involved with coordinating WWI centenary events in the North West. However he has taken time out to give us a talk on the British Army’s role in Mesopotamia during the First World War.

May Meeting

Friday 21st May. This month we are having Derek Winstanley as our guest speaker. Derek lives in the US and is only over here on a short visit – so that’s why we have had to move our meeting date (apologies to those who can’t make it). With help of our Society, Derek has been carrying out research on Wigan’s famous Pier. He has discovered some interesting aspects particularly with its association to the Canal Basin and Douglas Navigation which preceded it.

April Meeting

Wednesday 1st April. This month we have Ellon Souter, from Manchester University whose talk is entitled “Stone Tools and the People Who Made Them”. Ellon is studying the subject as part of her PhD dissertation at the University (certainly a fascinating subject).

March Meeting

Wednesday 4th March. This month David Ratledge gave a talk on is favourite subject, Roman Roads. As you probably know David used to work for Lancashire County Council and was responsible for the creation of the very useful Mario website. He last visited us in 2010 but a lot has happened in the Roman world since then. David brought us up to date with all the latest developments both nationally and locally, particularly in the use of Lidar in prospecting for new sites.

February Meeting

Wednesday 4th February.  This month it’s the AGM with the usual appointment of officers. However, after the formalities, Patrick Maloney, our chairman, will be giving us a talk on the progress of our Kirkless Iron and Steel Works project. Patrick gave a shortened version of this talk at last year’s Greater Manchester Federation day and apparently it was well received. Sounds like a good one.

December Meeting

Wednesday 3rd December. Our speaker this month is Steve Hewitt who used to run the Geology Department at Wigan Technical College. He also taught Archaeology to ‘O’ level standard there.   His talk therefore is not surprisingly entitled ‘The Geology of Archaeology’. Bound to be a great talk.