July 2005

In the late 1960’s, Alan Jennings was helping to dig a well on his father’s allotment in the Douglas Valley. In those days, although less than 50 metres from the River Douglas, the only way of getting clean water to that area was by creating your own supply. At about one and half metres down, however, Allan’s dad hit something that made him immediately stop digging and jumped out the trench. He told his son to start filling it in again and warned him not to mention it to anyone. What had spooked his dad all those years ago? Allan's dad, in fact, was convinced he had hit a lead coffin that was probably part of a large cemetery.

Thirty-odd years later, with Roman remains being found in the town centre and his dad long gone, Allan’s curiosity finally got the better of him. In May this year he made a formal approach to the society with a view to investigating his dad’s find. Things have changed quite a lot in the Douglas valley since those days. The allotments have gone and a considerable amount of landscaping has taken place, but Allan can still pinpoint the exact spot where his dad had excavated for the well. Overgrown privet hedges once bordering his father’s plot and a small depression was all Allan needed to convince him he was in the right place.

The site is on the east side of the River Douglas near the end of the street called Greatacre (Grid Ref. SD 5875 0645). On an early map¹ this area is referred to as the Bloody Mountains (strangely though, the Civil War skirmish called The Battle of Wigan Lane, occurred on the other side of the valley). 100 metres to the south is the road bridge over the river which carries the new inner ring road round the back of Tesco's supermarket on to Wigan Lane. 100 metres upstream is a footbridge where once stood the Sutton corn mill and where, up to the 19^th century, the small terraced-house community of Bottling Wood once thrived. Apart from the odd spring, however, nothing appears to have happened on the early maps in the area of investigation.    (click here for larger image)

Allan's contact with the society started a trail of enquiry which led us to find out who the landowner is and whether we could get permission to dig. As it happened this part of the Douglas Valley was subject to a study for a flood defence initiative which included a barrier spanning the Douglas valley just a few metres downstream from the find site. The land is in fact, owned by Wigan Council, who had already given a commission to United Utilities to install overflow tanks and a new drainage system as part of the first phase of the flood defences. It was therefore imperative for us to discover the extent of this work and whether it would affect our find site. Fortunately for us it turned out that the site lay just outside the work area and therefore did not come under their remit. Permission to dig was eventually secured by our chairman, Tom Glover, after negotiations with the council who gave us a day to carry out our investigation.    (click here for larger image)

A small excavator was hired for the day which was skillfully driven by Mark Hayward (his talents never fail to amaze). The first scraping of topsoil immediately uncovered a stone slab about 60cm square and 5cm thick. It had been carefully worked with what appeared to be a thin band of white marble inlay round the edge (strangely not accurate enough to be decorative).

Underneath the slab was a hole about 50cm in diameter and about a spade’s depth. The walling appeared to be made of wood and there was also evidence of an iron rim. As Mark cleared away the earth from around it, it became obvious that we had a wooden barrel complete with iron hoops holding it together. Allan was totally perplexed by this, as he remembered nothing of it on this spot (in fact when his dad had backfilled the hole, he had taken the opportunity to bury allotment rubbish including a van engine which he had been dismantling). The age of placement of this barrel could not have been long, however, as it was sat on top of a steel oil drum that had its top and bottom cut out. It was obvious that both the barrel and the drum had acted as liners for a well. We managed to get the barrel and drum out but the hole was filled with black slutch², too difficult to remove, so, thinking we might be in the wrong spot, the hole was quickly backfilled.

Click image for larger picture.	Click image for larger picture.

How could we miss a hole with an engine buried in it? Mark continued scraping away the ground in the vicinity in the available area between the trees (the subsoil in this area is a light brown clay which easily shows up signs of disturbance) but without success until we eventually ran out of space. We decide to investigate the area around the edge of the allotment where a large elderberry tree had grown. Allan said this was where they used to dump their rubbish against the fence of the allotment. Sure enough brick and stone debris began to emerge as soon as Mark put his bucket in (including one stone and one terracotta water trough). Underneath this however there was good evidence of disturbance in the form of a big blackish stain in the clay. 

To our surprise, to the side of this under more rubble, another hole appeared, again about 50cm in diameter and similarly lined with wood. This time, however, the wood was much thinner (no more than 1cm thick), parallel sided and held together with wooden strapping. We had found yet another well; this time it was filled with rubble, which we managed to remove to depth of about a metre (including a fair amount of black slutch that filled the bottom). The base of the well was just beyond our reach but Ken Stathem (our chief spade man) could feel something hard and hollow with his spade just below the surface of the slutch. My guess is that this maybe a culvert to aid water access and prevent the well from silting up. Mark continued digging through the black stain next to the well, uncovering as he went items of Victorian rubbish including a variety of footwear (boots and women’s shoes) and a complete stone jug (made in Leigh) with its stopper still intact. Before we could reach the bottom of the well we came upon the water table (lower than expected) which prevented us going any further. The hole was also at the limit of our capabilities without shoring. Even at this depth there were still quantities of Victorian pottery coming out from under the water. It was therefore decided to backfill, having established that the Victorians had been active even at this depth and that anything else would have probably been destroyed. When we had finished, the site was returned to the state in which we found it, minus the two wells which were made safe prior backfilling.

Click on image for larger picture.	Click on image for larger picture.

Allan could not understand what had happened to the hole his dad had dug and the engine and other rubbish they had used to backfill it. We know that after Allan’s dad gave up using the allotment he handed it over to his uncle. Our theory, therefore, is that his uncle went on to build the well on that spot after investigating what his brother had found for himself. We may never know what his father discovered and whether his uncle had later come across it but the stone slab we discovered covering the first well is made of slate which is very similar in colour to lead and could be mistaken for it. 

(At least Allan did not go away empty handed, as he now has an attractive antique wooden barrel in his front garden.)

¹  1894 25” OS map sheet XCIII-8.

²  Slutch - a local term, wetter than mud but not quite sludge.

Participants

Tom Glover   ...Organiser

Bill Aldridge ...Director

Mark Hayward ...Digger Driver

Ken Statham  ....Chief Digger

Adrian Morris  ...Digger

Gail Farrar and kids ...Moral support

Allan Jennings ...Finder