Day

Date

Title

Speaker

Friday

16th March 2007

Tombs with a view: The Neolithic Monuments of the Irish Sea

Forty people came to hear Vicki give a fascinating talk about early Neolithic tombs in eastern Ireland, west Welsh coastal areas and south west Scotland, and including the islands. Nearly all the 300 or so tombs that she has looked at seemed to be set in very special places, with views of both distinctive mountains and water such as sea, lochs or rivers. The tombs were built in about 3,800 -3,600 BC, so about 200 years after the first farmer arrived in these isles. She has suggested that their setting was very important to these people and probably had some spiritual significance to them.

Dr Vicki Cummings

Friday

20th April 2007

Excavations at Poulton, nr Chester (Bronze Age - Medieval)

On his presentation Mike Emery talked about the excavations at Poulton, three miles south of Chester, which featured on Time Team on April 1st when they were looking for the lost abbey. However, Mike gave a fascinating overview of 12 seasons of excavations which covered the Stone Age, through Bronze Age and Roman times to the Medieval period. Some Middle Stone Age (7,000BC) flints have been found, but the first structures date from the New Stone Age (3,300-2,500 BC), when a wooden circle or henge was built. This was rebuilt twice before it was made into a ring ditch in the late Bronze Age (about 1,500BC) and lasted into the early Iron Age. There are probably at least five other ring ditches, which have not been excavated yet. A lot of Roman pottery and some burials have been excavated, but the house or shrine from which they must have come has not been found. There are hundreds of late Anglo-Saxon and medieval graves, as well as the chapel that was seen on Time Team. Many of the students who excavate are trainee Crime Scene Investigators, and on at least two occasions foul play had occurred: one skeleton has a broken knife in the neck and another had an arrow head in the chest. The group will continue to excavate all phases of the site from July to September, and are still hoping they will find the lost abbey. People can visit, but should look on the website.

Mike Emery

Friday

18th May 2007

The Heronbridge Project (Dark Ages)

David gave a fascinating talk about excavations at Heronbridge, about a mile south of Chester. In the 1930s an attempt was made to determine if a conspicuous bank was the real line of the Roman road south from Chester. In fact, though the remains of Roman houses were found, these were earlier than the bank. Since then excavations have continued at various times until 2006. The houses formed a civilian, ribbon development, separate from the Legionary Fortress at Chester. They were long and narrow, with the narrow end onto the street forming a shop, but also included workshops and living accommodation. There was metal working and the goods found showed the people were well-to-do.

In recent excavations, the bank has been shown to be Dark Age. Inside the curve of the bank, and contemporary with it, there is a cemetery, with at least 120 burials. Some have been studied in detail. They were men between about 20 and 40 years old, and all show signs of severe wounds, some horrific with their skulls slashed right through, implying that they were war dead.. Carbon dating gives a date of about 620 AD, and in 616 AD Aethelfrith, King of Northumbria, is known to have beaten the north Welsh tribal kings in the Battle of Chester. As chemical analyses of teeth from two skeletons show that they came from east of the Pennines, it seems highly likely that these were men from the Northumbrian army. In this case it would be the earliest known battlefield site in England, predating the previous known one, the Battle of Maldon in Essex, by more than 350 years.

David Mason

Saturday

16th June 2007

Bolton Castle and Wensleydale

We were very lucky for our first excursion of 2007. It was the day after the first great flood in Yorkshire, and though we had some showers on our trip we had no downpours and had an enjoyable day.

Our first stop was Bolton Castle near Leyburn. The previous day the courtyard and lower rooms were under water, but the water had drained so we were able to visit them. The castle was built in late fourteenth century by Lord Scrope. Its most famous "visitor" was Mary Queen of Scots after she fled from Scotland. She stayed in the castle for five months with her entourage of 36 knights and ladies in waiting. However, there was always a risk of her escaping, so Queen Elizabeth decided that it would be better for Mary to move further south. The castle is relatively well preserved. One tower still has a roof and full set of rooms. Nearly every room has a guardrobe or en-suite latrine. The lower rooms were service rooms like kitchens, bake and brewing houses, and there are several fireplaces. One tower was deliberately damaged at the end of the civil war. After that the family built the more fashionable Bolton House two miles to the east. The current Lord Bolton is descended from the original owners, but not always directly through a legitimate male son.

In the afternoon we went to Crakenhall Mill east of Leyburn. It was built in the seventeenth century, and much of the machinery is nineteenth century. It was restored in 1970s, and for a while was open to the public and sold wholemeal flour. Now it needs further work on it, and though it can still grind grain, the millwheel needs mending. The present owners only show parties round by arrangement. We had an interesting explanation of the processes needed to produce stone ground flour from wheat.

Led by Janet Edmunds

Friday

20th July 2007

Evening walk round Ribchester

Sixteen intrepid members of the Lancashire Archaeological Society braved a wet and cold evening on Friday July 20th to go on a guided walk round Ribchester lead by Ben Edwards. Roman Ribchester was not just a fort, it had a large civilian settlement outside it. Local people saw the opportunity of making money, so would provide food and other goods that the soldiers could buy. Now, every time there is a house extension in the village, archaeologists keep a watch and more often than not something of interest will be found. However, a lot of the fort has not been dug as the centre is in the churchyard, and about a third has been washed away by the changing course of the Ribble. A part of the bank and ditch that surrounded the fort can be seen in the field to the west of the churchyard. The north east corner was found in the garden of the house next to the vicarage. This house has a carved stone that looks like a date stone possibly with numbers, but it was bought elsewhere and put in place recently. So date stones may not be accurate. The oldest one that appears to be genuine is 1680 and the Black Bull has one of 1700, but it is under a window not over the door. The White Bull has a stone of 1707 to the right of the door and also four columns that are said to have come from the fort. Some of the cottages were for hand loom weavers with third storey or basement windows where the weavers worked. The museum was closed in the evening, but it is well worth a visit.

Thanks to Ben Edwards

Saturday

8th September 2007

When water power was King! A walk round the mills of Knowle Green (2.00pm).

For most people, if they know of Knowle Green at all, it is merely as a name on a sign on the minor road between Longridge and Clitheroe. John Earnshaw's guided walk around the village was therefore an eye-opener for the dozen members of the Society who met there on Saturday. John showed us round the sites of five of the seven former water mills which at one time made this now-tranquil rural spot a hive of industry. A medieval corn mill on the fast-flowing deeply incised Cowley Brook had in the eighteenth century been replaced by one spinning cotton, while other water mills had been added later, mainly to provide power for lathes making the bobbins that the Lancashire Cotton Mills needed in such large numbers. The last of those we visited, Clay Hill Mill, now a romantic ruin in Fairy Glen, closed as recently as 1927. After a quick detour to inspect the line of the Roman Road heading from Ribchester up Jeffrey Hill, the visit ended at the Earnshaws' house, with tea and cakes. A truly memorable day, made more so by the fine late-summer weather.

Thanks to John Earnshaw

Friday

19th October 2007

Roman Wigan

Our first indoor meeting of the autumn was a fascinating talk about Roman Wigan. Wigan was the meeting place of the Roman road going north with one from Manchester. There were reports of Roman finds in the nineteenth century and further occasional ones, but until recently nothing more definite had been found. Wigan has been greatly altered, especially during the Industrial Revolution, and people wondered if anything early would be found. Excavation in the late 1980s revealed strip Roman buildings (long narrow ones, set end on to the road) that had been used for industry. More recently, a major new development meant there were further excavations. At first the only finds were Medieval and Roman rubbish pits; while these do give archaeologists a lot of information they are not very exciting for the general public. Towards the end of the dig, hypocaust tiles began to appear; these supported the floors in the underfloor central heating system. Further excavation revealed some piles of tiles, and the layout indicates that these were the hypocaust of the changing rooms of a Roman bath house. Only some of the bath house layout could be traced, but it is proof that the Romans were in Wigan. There is no evidence of a fort and it seems that, like Walton-le-Dale and Wilderspool (near Warrington), Wigan was a Roman industrial site, no doubt making the equipment needed by the military.

Ian Miller

Friday

16th November 2007

Medieval towns in the North West - our understanding and ignorance

Dr Crosby, a well known author of Lancashire history, gave a fascinating talk on "Medieval Towns in the North West - our understanding and our ignorance". He pointed out that the major medieval towns, such as Manchester, Warrington, Preston, Penrith, Appleby and Carlisle, were on or near Roman sites. This does not mean that there was continuous occupation since Roman times, but rather they were on good sites for towns. Each probably already had a church by the time of the Norman Conquest, was where major land or water routes met and had an early market. Towns are places where goods were exchanged and commerce flourished and so all had a market, though some places with a market, such as Newburgh near Ormskirk, did not grow into towns.

Early markets were usually near the church and market day was Sunday - that is until the thirteenth century, when the Church forbade trading on Sundays. In Preston the original market place was on the north side of the Minster, immediately outside the graveyard wall, which is now the widest part of the road where Fishergate and Church Street meet.

Manchester was a flourishing medieval town, and did not just start with the industrial revolution, as some people think. Liverpool was founded by King John as a port to reach Ireland. Many towns were boroughs, with a more formal status and with burgesses, men who were responsible for some of the town's affairs. Some were Incorporated Boroughs, with a Corporation, Mayor and Aldermen, and had a lot of freedom in governing themselves. Preston, Wigan, Liverpool and Lancaster were Incorporated Boroughs, but not Manchester, which continued to be under the authority of the Lord of the Manor. Many medieval towns later became important during the industrial revolution, and this often led to rebuilding and destruction of the original buildings. So we often know little about the details of the medieval towns, but the streets in Preston running south from Fishergate, such as Stoneygate, Bolton's Court, Avenham Street, Main Sprit Weind and Glovers Court, follow the line of the streets laid out in the Middle Ages.

Dr Alan Crosby

Friday

18th January 2008

Annual Dinner at Longridge Golf Club, catering by Ribchester Catering Company

The Society ended its successful 2007-8 programme with a social evening and dinner, brightening the gloomy time after Christmas. A delicious Christmas menu was served, accompanied by an appropriate choice of wine and beer, and an enjoyable time was had by all.

Friday

15th February 2008

Annual General Meeting and Members' evening.

The usual brief AGM took place, the only major point to note being the observation by the Treasurer that the Society is seeing a small but steady increase in attendance at the evening meetings. This was followed by short presentations from five members.

Mavis Shannon spoke about the approximately 550,000 year old fossil mammoth and flint tools that have been found as the Norfolk coast is eroded during winter storms; they will be shown in Norwich Museum.

Peter Sheppard showed how he had worked out where Woodplumpton Hall used to be and made suggestions about an unusual dated tile of 1667 that could commemorate when the Warren family regained possession of the Hall after it had been mortgaged.

Mike Turner displayed a cannon ball that had been given to him by the farmer of Fishwick Hall; he gave a brief description of the Battle of Preston, when Cromwell's Parliamentarian army beat the Royalists at London Road Bridge, and explained how the cannon ball could have ended up near Fishwick Hall. Strangely it has a hole bored through the centre, for which there is no obvious explanantion.

Janet Edmunds showed some slides taken on her holiday in the Dordogne area of France, with pictures of 16th century Frescoes of the Nativity in a 14th century church, a 14th century communal bread oven, and a 14th century fortified monastic mill: fortified so as to prevent the grain being stolen by the English in the Hundred Years War, or by peasants during times of famine.

Bill Shannon talked about some boundary stones that were placed on the moor between Wiswell and Pendleton following a dispute in 1618 over the position of the boundary. As the moor was open, the boundary was marked with stones at intervals. He wondered why the exact position of the boundary was so important for a small portion of moor with poor grazing.