Chorley Jubilee

This year Chorley Archaeological Society is 50 years old and to celebrate, Jack Smith, their long-standing chairman, has put together a special programme of events for the year. This includes a special anniversary dinner in March and an exhibition in Chorley Library in August. Also in November, there will be a special performance by local historian Lizzy Jones entitled “I am England (the story of Elizabeth the First).
Over the years the society has been very active in carrying out many fieldwork projects including excavations on sites ranging from the Prehistoric, Roman, Medieval and Industrial periods. Current projects include the cataloguing of all the Halls in and around Chorley, Lancashire milestones and researching the social development of Withnell Fold Village. Plans are also in hand this year, for a joint project with our society on the Roman Road at Hic Bibi Lane on the Coppull/Standish Border. Chorley have now got their own website, the address is www.chorleyhistorysociety.co.uk

Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month at the Blind Welfare Centre, Crown St, Chorley. If you want to find out more you can contact Jack Smith on 01772 601360

Website Update

By the way our society website has now been brought up to date and I would like to thank Adrian Morris and Andy Best for their efforts and time they have put in. The website now has all the newsletters for the past six years, including photographs and images. Andy has given Adrian access to publish, so updates will be more frequent in the future. The next stage will be to add the details our project both past and present. Even though the site has been out of date for the past two years it has been very successful, attracting over 300 hits every week and our ‘E-membership’ is growing all the time.

Rare Kiln Tiles

As a measure of the website’s success we recently received a complimentary letter from the Snowdonia National Park Study Centre, who said the site was  ‘excellent’. They were particularly interested in our project on the Standish Hall Corn Mill and the discovery of a number of perforated kiln tiles. The Study Centre has been investigating kiln tiles for a number of years now and have built up quite a large catalogue covering Wales and Cumbria. Their wide and varied collection consists mainly of tiles dating from the 19th century but they do have some earlier examples of which some are handmade. They were particularly excited, therefore, with the handmade tiles in our collection which are apparently quite rare. I will be sending some of our examples to the Centre for cataloguing and also perhaps to get a more accurate date.

Next Meeting (WAS)

Wednesday 4th February at the BP Centre (Scout HQ) in Greenough Street, at 7.30 pm. This is the AGM and as usual nominees for committee officers are required. After the proceedings, Adrian Morris has again agreed to give us a talk, this time on last years most successful trip to Angers.
Subscription
As you can see the rest of our programme is again looking quite impressive with eminent speakers from all over the North West.
Most of our speakers generously give their time for free or for minimum expenses, however the rising cost of things like insurance and equipment is making a dent in our funds and it has been suggest a rise in subscription might be in order. The suggested amount is £7.50 and £10 for family membership with a corresponding rise in entrance fee to £1.50 and £3 for non-members. This of course will have to be agreed at the meeting. Hope to see you there. B.A.