Newsletter 61

Roman Road in Atherton

You may find it difficult to believe but Atherton, despite its intense industrial background, and ever increasing urbanisation, may still retain something of its ancient past. Mark Hayword has been in the field again, researching a small valley lying between housing estates on the west side of Atherton. He thinks he may have stumbled on a section of the Roman Road running from Manchester to Wigan. The area itself is soon to be swallowed up by even more housing development, so Mark is keen to have his discovery confirmed and recorded before it disappears for ever. The two farms involved are Hatton Fold and Gadbury Fold, both of which are mentioned in the Reverend Sibson's 19th century account of the Road in that area. He describes the remains as being:

...very remarkable. The broad paved Causeway, across the bed of the stream, still remains. And here the ridge and stones of the Roman Road are very visible, near the garden hedge, which is set across the Road.

Mark has been checking the ground, particularly in the area where it may have crossed the stream as it runs down from the west side of Atherton. In the west bank of this stream, a little further down from the footbridge, he has identified what appears to be a good section of the Road. It is about nine metres wide and lies under about 30 cm of topsoil. In the section there are sandstone blocks placed end on and packed with smaller pieces of stone and gravel. At each end there are two larger stone blocks which could represent the kerbstone defining the edge of the Road.

A study of an aerial photo also reveals a possible crop-mark running across the field in roughly the right direction. But a word of caution here, this area has had its fair share of mining and ground disturbance in the 19th century. However, Mark is confident of his find and has drawn up the section, which has been sent to the archaeology Unit at Manchester. They are aware of the development in the area and have already conducted a desktop evaluation. Later this month contract archaeologists will carry a study in the field to determine the extent of any archaeology. In the mean time I hope to arrange a field trip and possibly some work of our own. The professionals will only be interested in the specific development areas and would leave sections on the periphery untouched and probably buried after landscaping. Please let me know if you are interested at the meeting.

Society Library

As mentioned at last month's meeting we are trying to establish a Society Library, which may be eventually located in a locked-up cupboard at our meeting place. At the moment, though, it will just be a virtual library in that it will exist purely as a list of available books that society members can borrow from. Could I ask, therefore, if anybody is willing to donate or perhaps loan books to the Society Library, please make a list and give it to Mandy Singleton. Details on the list will include title, author and a short summary of what the book is about.

Next Meeting

Wednesday 5th March at the BP Centre (Scout HQ) in Greenough Street, at 7.30 pm as usual. This month's speaker is Norman Redhead from the Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit. He is in charge of the Sites and Monuments Record there and will be updating us on all recent archaeological activities in the Greater Manchester area.

By the way please note that, dues to circumstances, we have had to switch the speakers round for May and September. Hope to see you at the meeting. B.A