Newsletter 108

Grant Awarded

Great news - our society has been awarded its biggest grant so far, i.e. £1850, to carry out excavations at the St William's Primary School in Higher Ince. The investigation is part of our ongoing search of the Roman Road running from Manchester to Wigan. The money will pay for the hire of equipment and an excavator and also towards restoration work (as the site is on the school playing field). Our intention in this project is to involve the local schools as much as possible; however the extent of this will depend on our initial results. Last month's excavations at the Leaway site have posed some questions about the validity of the Roman Road crossing Ince at this point. However, irrespective of the findings, this will be a great opportunity for the children to see archaeology in action and to witness their own heritage lying directly under their feet. We should congratulate Tom Glover, our chairman, for his efforts in securing this award and also the council for their foresight in awarding it to us. Brian Parr is currently doing the background checks for services in the area. When these are through we will be able to proceed.

Boer War Memorial

We have been asked by the "Friends" of this memorial to help them locate it. Made from Carrara marble the statue once stood proudly in front of the Mesnes Park café but over the years weathering and vandals took their toll and in the 60's it was taken down and dumped (some say at the back of the park near the compost heap). Now there are plans for a replica to be made, hopefully from the original, if it can be found. Carol Littler from the "Friends" has approached us to see if our resistivity equipment can help in this process. It would be nice to see the restoration of this monument, - a tribute to the 100's of local men who fought and died for their country in the Boer War.

New Website

You may have noticed that our new website is up and running and has a totally new look. Dave Horrocks completed the transformation last month and I think you will agree it looks terrific. Dave has also taken over the hosting of the site from Andy Best who was also instrumental in the site's original creation. I would like to say a big thanks to Andy, on behalf of the society, for his efforts over the years in providing this service at no cost to us.

The Gossips

There has been some concern recently about a development of Abraham Guest School in Lamberhead Green. It was feared that the development would cause the disappearance of an area called the Gossips which lies between the end of Bradshaw Street and the Infant's School in Kershaw Street. There was a worry that the old Clarke's wagon road, which once carried one of the earliest steam engines, (Dalgish's Yorkshire Horse) would also be destroyed. It was thought that the line run across this area but studying the 1849 OS map, it is clear that the old railway, built in the late 18th century, ran further to the west. The map shows it crossing the main road at Oldham's Fold, passing through the allotments and on across the adjacent field towards Green Hey. The council have now issued a statement saying that the land called the Gossips will not be directly affected as it will be retained as a playing field. However, whether the wagon road will be affected or not is yet to be seen.

How old is Wigan?

The earliest mention of Wigan by name in official records comes from 1199 when the first Rector and Lord of the Manor was named. However S Floyd, a historian researching the family of Sir Joseph Banks (and its links with the Bankes of Winstanley), has come across a "de Wigan" dating to 1107. It appears in a document in the records of Merton Priory in the County of Surrey and reads: "and land of Botwei de Wigan of the fee of Richard de Luci.....and the thicket of the castle of the fee of Ruald son of Wigan." I have passed this information onto Bob Blakeman who thinks that it is of considerable importance for the history of Wigan. Ekwall, in his Place Names of Lancashire, associates Wigan with the home of a local Celt, citing another Wigan on Anglesey. More recent research by a Dr Breeze (see Newsletter 15) has refuted this having failed to locate the name there. However, he agrees that it has a Celtic origin, coming from the Welsh for village or settlement i.e. Gwigan (8th century) perhaps a British stronghold surviving through the Dark Ages.

Next Meeting

Wednesday 7th November at the District Scout HQ (Baden Powell Centre) in Greenough Street, starting at 7.30 pm as usual. Our speaker this month is Mark Barratt from English Heritage who will be presenting to us the OASIS project. This is a national initiative run by ADS (Archaeological Data Services). Its aim is to collect information on every archaeological site in the country and make it available to everybody via the internet. Mark will be showing us how this works, and how we can access this information. In the past Bournemouth University has been tasked with collecting all this information but accessibility has been shown to be difficult. As this new system will be "on-line" it should provide a very useful tool for anybody involved in research.

Hope to see you there - B.A.