Newsletter 197

Garstang Excavations Preview

As we speak, excavations are underway in a field on the outskirts of Garstang. They are being carried out by the Wyre Archaeology Group on a site which is thought to be on the line of the Roman road. The project is a follow up to the successful Geophysics survey carried out earlier in the year which showed several anomalies on the suspected line of the road. This line had earlier been identified by David Ratledge who used the LiDAR mapping technique to highlight the ridge running across the field. Three of our members have been involved (Rob, Ashley and Darren) and, although the excavations have not yet been completed, we are privileged to have a sneak preview of what they have found so far.

The excavations have revealed two cobbled surfaces running roughly parallel to each other at the depth predicted by the survey. However, David Ratledge says he's not 100% convinced it is the road. Dave Hampson, from the Wyre Group, says this is because the cobbled layers, which lie on a bed of sandy clay, are not very thick and have a large gap between them. The gap seems to contain nothing but undisturbed natural deposits. It could be that the surface has been robbed out in this area but if this is the case, it has been a very thorough job. However the cobbled surfaces do look convincing and hopefully the excavations this weekend will shed further light on these curious features.

December Meeting

Due to the success of last year's Christmas meal and Quiz, it has been decided to do it again. The date will be Wednesday 7th December and if you want to put your name down, please let us know as soon as you can. To give us all a chance with the quiz, this year it will be set by last year's winner Patrick (hope there won't be too many questions about Roman coins though).

Past Forward MAS Conference

'Celebrating Forty Years of Merseyside Archaeological Society' is the title of a two-day conference, to be held this next weekend (8th & 9th October) at the Museum of Liverpool. A wide range of eminent speakers will be reflecting on the achievements of the Society over the last 40 years. There will also be tours of the Old Docks and Liverpool Museum itself. If you are interest contact me for details.

Next Meeting

Wednesday 5th October - in the Standish Suite at the Brocket Arms (7.30pm as usual). The Medieval Graffiti Survey project was first established in Norfolk in 2010 and was the large-scale survey of early graffiti inscriptions in the UK. Entirely volunteer led, the project changed the way we look at our medieval church heritage. Here in the northwest, the number of medieval churches is limited. Therefore the project has evolved and been developed into the NW Historic Graffiti Project. This will look at any building of interest up to and including the 17th century. The project is being run by Carolanne King from the CBA NW and at our next meeting, she has agreed to come along and explaining how local groups can get involved. Project will include workshops and training session and already a number of groups in the northwest have had sessions and have carried out surveys. These include Middleton Arch Soc and the South Manchester Arch Research Team. It will be interesting to hear whether there could be an opportunity for our Society to get involved in this very interesting project.

Hope to see you there - B.A.