Aspull Ring Ditch Progress
At long last we're back in the field at Aspull and making good progress. At last month's planning meeting, we set out our aims and priorities for the coming season, one of which was to investigate the two possible cist features. All agreed we would need professional advice for this as they may contain the primary burials. With this in mind we invited Ben Dyson to join us on our first visit on site once the covers had been removed. Ben spent some time talking us through how he would approach the task which was to open up trenches on either side of the feature. In the case of the circular kerb feature, this would be from the inside edge of the kerb. In this way its nature and depth of the feature would be better understood before we tackle the interior. We also needed to remove the rest of the cremated material from the two remaining burials, i.e.. the clay-lined pit and the burial found under Urn2.
For this burial though, we would need to first examine the block in which Urn2 had been extracted to get an idea of its position relative to the burial. The clay-lined pit however could be tackled right away and some progress has already been made in its micro-excavation. Another aim, although not a high priority, was to establish the extent of the stony layer on the northwest side. We had been able to detect the edge of the consolidated stony layer on the north side where it petered out into a scatter. The fist job therefore was to chase this edge towards the northwest. We also needed to re-examine Trench 1c which had been backfilled as it didn't seem to be fitting in with the results from either side of it. As usual you can follow our daily progress on our site diary here.
Grindleton Chapel
Last month Graham Mottershead had to pull out of the meeting due to a medical issue. However his colleague at Civic, Ollie Cook, stepped in at short notice to give Graham's talk on Roman Manchester, which was excellent. At the meeting Ollie mentioned a project he had been involved with, in search of this lost Chapel, and asked if we could help by carrying out a resistivity survey on the suspected site. Grindleton is just a few miles east of Clitheroe, in the Ribble valley. Local historian Tony Cann came across this sketch of the Chapel which was demolished in 1804. The Norman style architecture seems to suggest a 12th century date and through his documentary research, Tony has identified the field in which the Chapel likely stood.
Last week a small team (including Andrew Wilcock, Colin Russell and myself) took a break from our Aspull project to carry out the survey. We were joined by Ollie and his colleague Steve Tamburello, who brought a GPS machine along. This made our task of laying out the survey area much easier. Within a couple hours we had completed two scans stretching over the suspected area in the selected field. The result though, to be honest, wasn't as good as we expected, the underlying geology being most prominent. However there were some targets showing and Tony was quite enthusiastic about carry out further investigations included possible excavations.
Next Meeting
Wednesday 6th May – at the Real Crafty on Upper Dicconson Street, starting at 7.30pm as usual. This month we're having our ace investigator Jim Meehan, telling us about the fascinating history of Haigh Hall. As reported in February (Newsletter 284) the Hall is being transformed into what is hoped to be a cultural and heritage centre of national importance. At last months Heritage Network meeting Kate Brindley (Head of the Cultural Programme) announced that planning permission had been granted and contracts were being placed for the £30 million work on the interior. She also announced that the Plantation Gates would open to public on 4th July (one lodge will have an interpretive installation piece from local artists). We have had a number talks over the years on the Hall but Jim's research and in-depth knowledge adds much more to our understanding of this iconic site - hope to see you there BA.