Today is one of those perfect days to embark on a walk over Smithills Moor, which is exactly what I did earlier this morning on behalf of Live from Worktown.
We’d been invited to attend an event organised by Smithills Woodland Trust as a part of their restoration of the Two Lads cairns. People of Bolton were invited to the now fenced off site to take part in an archaeological dig that forms part of the overall project.
I witnessed the first tranche of members of the public who were allowed to get their hands dirty by joining in the dig, which was preceded by an interesting talk on the pre-history of the area.
It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to see how an archaeological dig works and so it wasn’t a surprise to see that the event was being recorded.
One archaeologist was already hard at work!
Back at the Smithills Base Camp on the mast service road, there were plenty of friendly staff and volunteers on hand.
One of the stalls was set out with a lot of useful information about the project. I particularly found this drawing interesting, which shows how the site would have looked in the 1700s and gives an indication of how this historically important monument will look once the project completes.
Smithills Woodland Trust volunteer and long-time friend of Live from Worktown, Tony Greenwood (who devised the Trespass Trail that is available as a Worktown Walks audio walk) was on hand to explain the history of the area.
The Smithills team are also planning to bury a Time Capsule at the site and we’re delighted to say that a copy of our illustrated Bolton Observed anthology will be included. It seems fitting that this Mass Observation inspired publication commemorating Bolton being the Greater Manchester Town of Culture will be preserved this way, along with other artefacts.
The archaeologist giving the talk earlier explained that mesolithic tools have been found in the area so it’ll be nice to imagine that people some 4,000 years or so in the future may undertake a dig in this same spot and uncover the time capsule treasures that will be buried here later this month.
Everything was set up to be a wonderful day, so good luck to the Smithills team and their volunteers, we look forward to seeing how this exciting project progresses!
Thank you to Katie Thompson of the Smithills Woodland Trust for letting me take these photos.