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More excavations are being planned over the next couple of months on the Fort in the Wood site, by Steve Baldwin and his team at Bluestone Archaeology. However these will not be on the fort site itself as this has now been scheduled (as reported in Newsletter 235). The main area of activity this season will be in the field to the west of the fort. This is where Steve and our Society have been carrying out geophysical surveys over the last couple of years (see Newsletter 237). The results have shown possible indications of the road leading west out of fort and features which could relate to the fort's vicus. Our resistivity scan also revealed some features overlaying this road feature which may indicate later medieval activity. Steve has advertised for volunteers for this site on his website details of which can be found here.
We've been asked this year to help specifically with locating the route of the road leading east out of the fort. Steve has two sites in mind. The first (Site B) is in the fort field just south of the scheduled area alongside Flax Lane. One theory is that the road may have turned south after leaving the fort before turning east again after Hobb Cross Lane, to head towards Wigan via Ashurst Beacon (this route is specifically favoured by David Ratledge as can be seen on his website here).
Evidence of a building turned up in this area when a field drain was installed in 2018. Brick courses mortared on to stone masonry suggest that this was unfortunately not a Roman structure. There was also evidence of burning and Steve thinks it could be the Flax Mill which burned down in the mid 19th century (research however suggest this building was perhaps closer to the Eller Brook). We carried out a resistivity survey on the site in 2019 but the results were disappointing. However when the location of the remains were placed on our layout, it seems we missed them by just a few metres.
The second site we've been asked to look at is Site D which is the meadow and woodland area on the east site of Flax Lane. It's called Scutcher's Acre and the projected line of the east road out of the fort crosses the Eller Brook as it passes through the woodland. It isn't clear whether we will be able to carry out a resistivity survey but the landowner is open to allowing an excavation if required.
As well as all this, we have more resistivity planned, as Steve has obtained permission from Historic England to do more geophysical surveys on the fort site itself. This can only start though once the crop has been taken. Work on the first two sites will start on the weekend 7-8th August so please let me know asap if you would like to get involved.
Summer Trip
I know we said we weren't going to have a trip this year due to the uncertainties of our current situation. However Kadie Gray, one of our new members, is a volunteer at the Lancashire Mining Museum at Astley Green near Tyldesley. She has been able to arrange, a tour of the museum for us with the curator, Steve Eckersley. The museum houses Lancashire's only surviving headgear and engine house, both of which now have listed building status. Inside is a unique 3,300 hp twin tandem compound steam winding engine which has been lovingly restored to full working order. The suggested date for the trip is Sunday 22nd August. Please let me know by email or at our next meeting if you are interested in going.
Next Meeting
We have a change of plan for this our first meeting out of lockdown. It will now be on Thursday 5th August, as our usual Wednesday is already booked (this is just a temporary arrangement as we will be returning to the usual first Wednesday of the month for future meetings). It will however be as planned at our new venue, the Real Crafty in Upper Dicconson Street (there's a free car park in front and plenty street parking nearby). It will be at our usual time of 7.30pm; however it won't be our AGM as previously reported as this has been postponed till next February when subscriptions will resume. For this meeting I will be giving a presentation of the progress of our on-line Douglas River and Town Centre projects.
Hope to see you then. B.A.
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