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).
The Wigan Archaeological Society
Project Blog
Hi,
We are Aussie tourists staying in Wigan (house sitting) for a fortnight. Today we walked along the canal from Wigan pier towards Leeds. We took a little side track up rabbit rocks, and the view was wonderful and well worth the climb. We’ve read that rabbit rocks is just a slag heap, but we were fascinated by finding many perfectly circular rocks that appear to be the bases or sections of columns. Being on the ridge of a slag heap we are wondering what on earth these dark stones were? Just wondering if any of you guys can satisfy our curiosity?
Thanks,
Ali
Hi Ali,
Glad you liked the view from Rabbits Rocks – looking north 150 years ago you would of seen one of the biggest iron and steel works in the country. The Rocks are the remains of a slag heap – the liquid slag was brought from the blast furnaces in huge circular tubs on railway lines and would have been tipped out onto the hill. However by the time the tubs reached the hill, the bottom section had begun to set (to the point where they would often have to use a ball and chain to bang it out) hence the circular stones you saw there.
We are currently investigating this site and you can see our progress on our Kirkless blog here http://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/blog/?page_id=347 (scroll down to the bottom to see the start in April 3013)