Wednesday 4th December. This month we have Richard Sivill, a local historian, who will be giving us a talk on the Kirkless Hall Coal & Cannel Company which developed into the Ironworks eventually becoming the huge Wigan Coal and Iron Company. This will be really helpful to us as we continue our investigations on this site. In October I reported on our progress (see Newsletter 167) and hopefully, when the vegetation dies down, we will be able to return to continue our survey.

Wednesday 6th November. Norman Redhead from the GMAAS has agreed (at short notice) to give us an update on the Roman Archaeology of Greater Manchester. It’s 5 years ago since Norman came last to tell us about the archaeology of Roman Manchester. Since then there has been a number of significant discoveries include the Roman Altar found in excavations on Great Jackson Street in Manchester.  Norman will also be able to tell us about the section of Roman road recently uncovered in Eccles. This is the Manchester to Wigan road and the new section was discovered not far from the section we helped to uncover in Ellesmere Park in 2005 (see Newsletter 85)