On a misty morning last month Andy Wilock and I visited a site on the edge of Chat Moss near Glazebury. We had been invited there by Marlene Nolan of Culcheth History Society who had spotted the site while field walking. It seemed to her to be some kind of defensive earth work, lying at a strategic point on the banks of the River Glaze.
You may be wondering why she asked us to look at this site so far away from Wigan - surprising as it may seem however, quite a lot of Chat Moss does actually lie within the Wigan Borough. The site is located north of Moss Lane, which branches off from Hey Shoot Lane, about 200m east of the Glaze Brook. It's surrounded on three sides by a large bank with a ditch on the south side. The interior is flooded up to a point where a cut in the bank allows the water to escape. Judging from the maturity of the trees we perceive the site must be at least 200 years old but a quick check on the 6 OS map of 1846 gives no indication of its origin. The history of the area suggests a possible Civil War connection, as apparently there was some action in the vicinity.
Another slight possibility is that it could be much older as an Iron Age site turned up a few years ago only about one mile south of here. More likely however it's the product of some pre-Victorian industrial activity such as sand, stone or clay extraction - a trench across the embankment may give the answer but we would need to get permission before we could do this.
GM Archaeology Day
The GM Federation has organised another day school at the Friends Meeting House in Manchester as before. The idea, once again, is to keep everybody informed of current archaeological activities around the borough. The date is Saturday 24th November and there will be a full range of talks from professional bodies and amateur groups. It's open to everyone and the cost is £10 (lunch not included) - see attached for details.
CBA NW Autumn Conference
This year's theme is The Archaeology of Industrialisation and will be held at Wilmslow Parish Hall next Saturday - 10th November. The charge is £15 (+ £6 if you want lunch). There are a number of interesting talks including 'The Excavations of Liverpool Old Docks' and 'The Archaeology of Trafford Park'. There will also be a tour of the Pickled Cottage at Quarry Bank Mill. If you are interested in going contact me at the meeting.
Rectory Update
 Surprisingly, we are still managing to carry on working at this site despite the weather.
As reported in July (Newsletter 156) our intention was to cut through the cobbled surface to see if we could detect the 'V'-shaped ditch feature encountered in the adjacent trench. This we have done but to see the full extent of the feature we will need to cut back into the embankment. This will require some effort. In the mean time Andy detected a large black object at the bottom of the deep ditch in the adjacent trench (protruding under the concrete). It turned out not to be the end of a cannon, which someone suggested, but a large cast iron pipe. Seemingly the rest of it had been salvaged at some point but this section lay inaccessible under the concrete. Before we back-filled this trench we extended it as far as we could to expose as much as we could of the 'V' shape ditch. This showed it to be at least 60cm deep. Hopefully we'll be able to expose more of it when we extend the other trench.
Next Meeting
Wednesday 7th November - in the Standish Suit at the Brocket Arms (7.30pm as usual).
This month Norman Redhead, from the new Greater Manchester Archaeological Advisory Services (GMAAS), will be giving us a talk on the Historic Landscape Characterisation project. This huge database links historic, geographic and social records together with maps (historical and modern). Controlled by a sophisticated Graphical Information System, it can be used to display all kinds of useful information. Norman will be bringing a version on his laptop to demonstrate the finer points. He will also be explaining the role of the new GMAAS and how we can help with scrutinising planning applications.
It's guaranteed to be a fascinating talk - hope to see you there – BA.
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