Last month saw our Society returning to an old favourite i.e. the Roman Road leading north out of Wigan. There has always been the question of Standish Wood Lane - was it the original route of the road? Many historians have thought so, as it lines up quite nicely with the road leading south out of Wigan on the other side of the Douglas valley.  The route also has good potential as it runs quite straight for some distance between Upper Wood Fold and Standish itself. There are also the remains of two medieval stone crosses on it providing a clue to its ancient origins. However, was it Roman? One point against it is that towards its southern end it goes into a deep gully (almost 4 metres) which is not something the Romans tended to do, unless it was to alleviate a steep incline. From our previous investigations we have always believed the route ran further to the east, leading from Standish through Prospect and Brimlow Farm.
However the lane route could belong to an earlier phase before the settlement at Wigan was established. Proof of the theory would be if the road could be shown to project south through the fields between and beyond the Upper and Lower Wood Folds.
It was with this point in mind that we set off last month to carry out resistivity surveys in these fields. A previous recci by Eric and I had established that the fields were owned by UK Coal Ltd and leased to local farmers (local but not living at either of the Wood Folds).
On the day we had a great turnout. After negotiating our way past a herd of inquisitive Bulls, we quickly established that the residence of the Wood Folds were very interested in our project and happy for us to carry out our work. The lady at the Lower Fold (which is now called Speckled Holly) even contacted the farmer to get permission for us (which was forthcoming as long as we didn't disturb the cattle). The cattle did pose a bit of a problem but expert handling by Mark and Frank managed to keep them under control (well sort of). Anyway we managed to complete a 40 x 25 metre square in the triangular shaped field just north of Speckled Holly (if the road did project through this field this square would capture it). The results however did not show evidence of a continuation of the road. What we did get however, was a continuation of the farm track leading into the field. We did get high resistivity on the west side of the survey area but this is off the alignment and most probably relates to a natural slope (or terrace) which ran across the field at this point. On the 1849 OS map (as always) there is evidence of early mining and in this field a mineral line (or tram road) is shown running parallel to our alignment as far as the Lower Fold, before turning south-east along the edge of the field. Little evidence for this could be found, except for a line of low resistance crossing the high res of the farm track. Probing the ground with a 1 metre steel probe seemed to confirm our findings, with a hard surface being detected in the area of the suspect track, but nothing anywhere else. Only excavation would confirm the age of the track which isn't shown on any map but whether we could get permission from the farmer is another thing. If you want to see more details of our findings visit the forum on our website. We plan to do further surveys in these fields so if you want to get involved contact myself or Eric at our next meeting.
Non-excavation Projects
We are proposing to start a number of projects which do not involve excavation, for those more inclined to do research and surveying rather than getting dirty hands in the bottom of a ditch.
Proposed projects include: Building Survey, Road Sign Survey (roadside furniture), Graveyard and Town Centre Surveys. If you are keen to know more, Eric will be discussing them at our next meeting after the talk.
Next Meeting
Wednesday 6th October in the concert room of the Upper Morris Street Working Men's Club (off Greenough Street), starting at 7.30 pm as usual. This month we have Carole Banks who will be talking about Haigh Hall and the people who lived there. As you may know, Haigh Hall is a large mansion house on the outskirts of Wigan with a history going as far back as the middle ages. There are many colourful characters associated with it, so Carole's talk is bound to be a fascinating one.
Hope to see you there - BA
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