March 2007

Sun 25 Mar 2007

A sunny day greeted us for our first field walk of the year. Fine weather brought out 21 walkers which was much better than last year! After a brief introduction we left the cricket field at White Coppice and headed towards the old and abandoned Whtie Coppice quarries. These used to be run by William Waring and some photographs were looked at of the quarry when it was being worked in 1927.

William Waring in The Great War

White Coppice quarry 1927

Siddow Fold barn. Thomas & Margaret Morris 1686

A steep climb up Stronstrey Bank took us to the top of the quarries and here we were able to view some partially completed millstones. We then followed a fence line to the south and towards Siddow Fold. Before reaching the road was a stone monolith with a mysterious triangular marking on the east face. At Siddow Fold we inspected the date stone on the Barn showing MTM 1686 referring to Thomas and Margaret Morris. Thomas was a Churchwarden at Rivington. Fortunately we had Jonathan Morris with up who provided the information and is a descendant of Thomas and Margaret. On the opposite side of the barn is another date stone. This had been cut into an old cheese-press stone and is build into the lean-to extension. The date is 1899 and is probably the date of the extension. The main building has a date of 1706 over the door and the initials JN, who was John Newton and was responsible for a large extension to the building at the time.

We then headed up the lane and across the moor to a stone pit and another part finished millstone. A short distance away were several old lead mine shafts on the Sun vein. Continuing up the moor we came to the site of one of Chorley Historical Societies first excavations, Jepson's Gate cairn. It was further excavated and surveyed by Lancaster University between 1983 and 1985. It probably dates to the Bronze age.

Sitting on Jepson's Gate cairn

by Pike Stones long chambered cairn.

The next stop was the remains of the Long Chambered Cairn at Pike Stones. At this point some returned via the road while the rest continued to Hurst Hill to see the recently re-located Ordnance Survey trig point. We descended to Dean Brook to another lead mine, this time a horizontal adit which had been partially blocked to prevent entry. The last climb of the day followed up to the ruins of Coppice Stile House. Nearby was another cheese press stone, this time with an Ordnance Survey bench mark cut in it. It is probably the one shown on the 1893 map. A descent down the main path took us back to the cricket field.

Tue 13 Mar 2007

Ian Miller of Oxford Archaeology (North) based in Lancaster visited the Society for the first time to give his excellent presentation about the history of glass manufacturing in England and some of the mills in Manchester.
Glass manufacturing was introduced to the country by the Romans but glass dates back to the Egyptians about 3000BC. When the Romans left the art of glassmaking was lost but re-introduced in the 14th century by the Venetians. In the early 1600s there were so many trees being cut down for the furnaces to make glass that James 1 banned glassmaking using wood in 1615. The north west of England became a centre for glassmaking because of our supplies of coal and the early 19th century saw a centre of manufacture established in Ancoates, Manchester. Of 25 know mills none remain. Ian showed photos and maps of the excavation of one of these mills and the marvellous foundations of the furnaces and outer domed structure.

Fri 09 Mar 2007

The Society held its annual dinner at the 'Seaview' Whittle-le-Woods.

An evening of good company and good food.

Mon 05 Mar 2007

On Monday evening 5th March four members of the Society attended the Leyland Historical Society meeting at Farrington Lodge. Apparently this was the first meeting they had held outside Leyland. It was a very palatial venue for a very special evening. They had managed to get Dr Mark Baldwin to give his excellent presentation about the German Enigma Machine that was used for encoding messages before and during the Second World War.

Dr Mark Baldwin presents.
The Enigma Machine and Bletchley Park.

The German Enigma machine.

The talk also covered the top secret decoding work done by the Poles and later by the British at Bletchley Park. Dr Baldwin had even brought an actual Enigma machine along to the meeting.

Fri 02 Mar 2007

Five members of the Society attended the Chorley Parish Church of St Laurence to hear a talk by the composer Clive Jenkins who spoke about his new composition 'The Mayflower Pilgrims'. The full performance in the north will be at Chorley Town Hall on Sat 31st March 2007. His talk began with an outline of the events surrounding the voyage on the Mayflower and some of the first problems with settling in America. He then went on to explain how he had found ideas to prepare his composition.

Clive Jenkins explains his composition

Clive Jenkins being introduced by Rector John Cree.