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This is the name the newly refurbished History Shop will have when it reopens in a couple of month's time. The opening date is set for the 9th April and we have been given the honour of presenting its first temporary exhibition. It will be based on our work over the years in search of the Roman roads in the Wigan area. It will also display some of our other projects and activities we've been involved with. It has taken well over 12 months to refurbish the old building as it was found that the roof needed to be replaced. Built in 1878 the old library building was designed by the famous architect, Alfred Waterhouse who was also responsible for the Manchester Museum and the Natural History Museum in London. The whole of the ground floor has been given over to new displays reflecting all aspects of Wigan's history and heritage.
We have been given quite a large area on the ground floor for our displays and Lisa Key from the Wigan Leisure Dept. is quite confident the material we have provided will be a great showcase for our Society.
GM Federation
Last month Eric and I attended the third meeting of the Greater Manchester Federation where Norman Redhead updated us on the progress of the "Dig Greater Manchester Project". This will be going ahead despite of the lack of support from the government, albeit on a smaller scale than originally envisaged. Norman is confident, however, that the projects will be successful and be able to introduce archaeology to local communities for the first time. He will be informing us shortly of the site selected for our area.
Archaeological Forum
The Centre for North West Studies will be holding its 37th Annual Forum on Saturday 6th March at the Faraday Lecture Theatre, Lancaster University. There will be lectures on a wide range of subjects which will highlight recent archaeological research around the region. If you are interested I will have more details at the meeting.
Mesnes Playing Field
In December last year evaluation trenches were dug on the old Grammar School playing field in advance of the planning application on the site.. As you may know, controversial plans have been put forward by the charity 'OnSide' to build a Boys and Girls Sports Club. This is in spite of opposition from various groups who want the area to remain a green field site.
Unfortunately the archaeologists discovered little or no archaeology despite digging over 7 huge trenches across the whole site. This followed expectations as early maps show extensive sand quarrying here in the 19th century. The work was carried out by the North Pennines Archaeology Group from Durham (who have been carrying out the excavations over the last few years at Dilston Castle in Northumberland).
We were kindly invited to take part in the project and two members, Dot and Eric, helped with the digging (it was Dot who came across this dog burial).
Next Meeting
Wednesday 3rd February in the lounge of the Upper Morris Street Working Men's Club (off Greenough Street), starting at 7.30 pm as usual. This month it's our AGM at which we will be electing a new chairman (Eric Walter has kindly volunteered). After the necessary society business I will be giving a talk on our search for the Roman Roads in the North of Wigan. This has been a long-term project for us and we are hoping to revisit some of the sites in the coming months. I will be going over our past work and looking at possible new sites to investigate on both the route to Waltonle Dale and the direct route to Ribchester.
Hope to see you there - BA
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