Middleton Heritage – one evening three meetings

Yesterday was a busy evening at Middleton Heritage. First the Heritage Film Group met to discuss the progress of the Edgar Wood film.. over five hours of footage has now been filmed! There was lots of technical talk and discussion about buying a new Mac with a higher spec. computer to handle all the hi res…

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CLICK HERE for a post on an Edgar Wood Society study on Edgar Wood’s very first houses on Manchester Old Road, Middleton.

Alkrington Hall highlighted in article

Manchester Evening News has published an article about those historic houses in Greater Manchester which have preserved their character. Alkrington Hall is one of those highlighted. The hall was sensitively converted to four houses in the 1990s after a decade or more of decline. It was a last minute action which saved this amazingly early Palladian…

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Graffiti Survey of Parish Church – Report Published

Middleton Archaeological Society has completed the survey of historic graffiti at Middleton Parish church. Over 100 various marks on stone and wood were found, including apotropaic pentangles, vv symbols, mason and carpenters marks, tradesmens signatures and sharpening slots; possibly created by the famous Middleton archers. The full three part report can be found on the…

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More local War Memorials given listed status

More local War Memorials given listed status Historic England is running a war memorials project to list all the important war memorials across the country. In 2014 the arts and crafts style Middleton Memorial Garden was listed and now a batch are other local memorials are similarly being honoured and protected, including the Middleton memorials…

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Middleton Conservation Area Shops given a facelift

It’s good to see the local council continuing to support the shops of the conservation area… article HERE

Middleton Flood 1927 – DVD

Geoff Wellens is selling DVD copies of the film he presented at last month’s Middleton Archaeological Society meeting. It includes footage of the Middleton flood and a royal visit in 1945. Also a fantastic interview with Sarah Porter. Price is £10 – profits go to Middleton Archaeological Society. Contact Geoffwellens@aol.com…

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As if to conclude the Middleton Archaeological Society’s in depth study on Ye Olde Boar’s Head P.H., local artist Steve Whitworth has produced an illustration of how it looked when it was first built…  which is surprisingly like it does now! CLICK HERE to see the picture and post.

Middleton Archaeological Society has completed two reports on recent activities at Hopwood Millers Cottage 2015 and the pavement investigation at the Old Boar’s Head 2016. CLICK HERE to download them.

Digging for Britain – Starr Carr

Last Night’s Digging for Britain programme on the BBC covered the archaeological dig at Starr Carr which was the subject of one of the Middleton Archaeological Society’s lectures last year. The programme is a good catch-up to that lecture. Click Here to watch it on BBC iPlayer…

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Ye Olde Boar’s Head P.H.  – Excavation to Foundations

Tree Ring Dating Old Boar's HeadThe Middleton Archaeological Society research project on Ye Olde Boar’s Head P.H. is now heading towards some strong conclusions. The latest bit of the jigsaw slotted into place with an excavation of the pavement adjacent the building. Details are HERE.

Middleton History Research Group – Sunday 28th February

This was the third get together of Middleton’s researchers – six researchers attended with apologies from another five. Cliff reported on his work at Preston Record office and his new ability to read early documents. He has progressed work on the Ambrose Jackson, one of the graffiti contributors at the OBH. Ann Faloon is also…

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‘We built this city’ – Manchester Architects at 150

This exhibition about the last 150 years of the Manchester Architects Society has been running since December 2015 but closes on 18th March 2016 – so don’t miss it! OPENING TIMES – FREE ADMISSION Monday – Friday 10am – 4pm Thursday 10am – 7pm (term-time only) Saturday 12noon – 4pm (term-time only) Location – Special…

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Lasers reveal ‘lost’ Roman roads

Archaeologists are using Environment Agency laser mapping data to rediscover hundreds of kilometres of ‘lost’ Roman roads.

Since 1998 the Environment Agency has used lasers to scan and map the English landscape from above to help with work such as flood modeling and tracking changing coastlines. But these LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data are also publicly available and have been used to help with everything from building virtual worlds to managing forests. In particular, it is helping to find lost Roman roads across the north of England. Click Here for the article.