Doughty Mill - Excavation

In the first edition of our monthly newsletter in February 1997 I reported the discovery of a second mill in the Arley valley.  It appeared on an early estate map (pre 1830), which Tony France had recorded in his research of the Balcarres papers.  It was referred to as the Doughty mill and seemed to straddle the millrace which runs to the other ‘Blacking Mill’ we have already recorded a few hundred yards further down stream.  In August last year we actually found the foundations of the mill (see newsletter No.6), lying on the north side of the millrace under 40cm debris.  The following month Bob Blakeman from the History Shop found references to a family living at the ‘Dooty Mill’ at Arley in the first national census of 1841 (newsletter No.7).  Since then and a few site visits later we have uncovered quite a bit more including sections of the sluice gate structure (newsletters No.9/10).  Last month myself, Adrian Morris and Tim McAvoy returned to the site to re-establish the findings and continue the work of recording the remains.  The foundations have now been exposed to a depth of over 1 metre but terminate at only 2 metres to the north of the millrace.  This would indicate that, as we suspected, the mill straddled the race. Despite extensive searches, however, on the south side, nothing as yet has turn up.  The structure of the building discovered so far, consist of a mix of brick and stone and indicate stages of construction; a bricked up entrance in the east wall and a brick flooring local to the north east corner.  Further work is planned in the near future to establish the extent of the mill to the east.

CBA Northwest

The annual autumn meeting of CBA Northwest is being held at the Woodlands Centre Southport Road Chorley on Saturday 31st October.  This is an all day event starting at 9.30pm, finishing at 3.45pm and includes lunch, coffee and tea.  There are five speakers including Mike Nevell who gave us an excellent talk on timber frame buildings in June this year.  The theme for this meeting is ‘Fire and Ritual’ and cost £8.00 for members, £10 for non-members and £5 for students.  If you are interested and want to book a place please see me at the meeting for a form and a full programme or contact Angela Thomas at the Bolton Museum on 01204 522311.

Nemes

For those avid Egyptologist among us the Nemes Egyptology Society are giving a series of talks in October and November at the Radcliffe Library.  On Thursday 29th October Joann Fletcher will be presenting ‘Amenhotep III (The Sun King)’.  This is her favourite and the one she gave to our society in April last year.  For anybody who missed it, I can highly recommend it.  On Thursday 26th November Jeanne Whithurst is presenting ‘Paws for Thought (Cats in Ancient Egypt)’.  The time of the meetings between 7.30 and 9.30 pm and the admission is £3.00 (£1.50 concessionary).  For more details ring 0161 724 0965.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of our society is on Wednesday 7th October at the history shop at 7.30 pm as usual. This month’s speaker is Dr Bain from Bolton who will be giving us a talk on The Palaeolithic History of Rivington and Anglezark.

Hope to see you at the meeting - B.A.