Excursions

Saturday 14^th September: Visit to Oswestry Castle
CAS members visited the excavation of Oswestry Castle mound, now in its third season. The visit included an introductory talk, an opportunity to view a selection of the finds and a tour of the excavation itself.

Saturday 3^rd August: Moel Arthur Open Day

CAS members attended CRAG’s Open Day. CRAG is investigating a new area adjacent to that excavated in previous seasons and it is hoped that this will give further insights into past activity on the hillside.

Tour of Liverpool Old Dock Monday 15^th July 2019

We met in the vestibule of the Maritime Museum at Albert Dock but were then intrigued to be led across Strand Street into Liverpool One. The group paused to watch the line of fountains which commemorate the work of William Hutchinson, who, for thirty years from 1764, kept a detailed twice-daily tide record at a fixed point on the wall of Liverpool Old Dock. These fountains are located in Thomas Steers Way, Steers being the engineer who designed the Old Dock and oversaw its construction.
Still mystified we then taken through a locked door into a service area in the retail complex, along a passageway, through another locked door, through a lobby and finally down a stairway. Our destination was a viewing gallery suspended over the sandstone bed of the Old Dock, and within touching distance of its brick walls.
Rock and brick have never before been so interesting! Whether it was the lively narrative delivered by our two guides or the suspense created by the approach through the bowels of Liverpool One but the whole experience of the tour was both fascinating and curiously moving, since the construction of the Old Dock was the precursor to Liverpool becoming one of the world’s great ports.

Visit to Ecton Copper Mine Saturday 6^th July 2019

We travelled to Ecton, situated in the White Peak National Park, through heavy rain and low cloud. However, once underground, surface conditions were left behind, and any water dripping on us came from the limestone rock above.
We were led into Ecton Deep Pit, at its peak in the second half of the eighteenth century the deepest mine in Britain. Walking along Salt Level, laboriously tunnelled out between 1804-06, we saw the hand-drilled shotholes made to hold gunpowder for blasting away the rock. We were told that the powder was funnelled in using the quill from a feather and tamped in place using the volcanic clays which appear between some of the limestone rock layers.
Traces of azurite, malachite, hematite and galena on the rock surface were pointed out to us as we walked towards the cavity where the ‘pipe’ of ore had been extracted, mainly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Looking up, the wooden ladders used by the miners could still be seen suspended over a heart-stopping drop. We saw the Deep Shaft which had been cut to accommodate the two kibbles used to carry ore to the surface.
The Deep Shaft extends above Salt Level, and in the afternoon we walked up the hill to see where it appears on the surface close to the Engine House. The Engine House accommodated the Watts and Boulton steam powered rotary engine which came into use after 1788. This innovative engine shows how much the Dukes of Devonshire were prepared to invest in the mine which, between 1760 and 1790, earned them a fortune.
As well as the restored Engine House, our tour on the surface took us past the dressing floors, smelters, Powder House and several adits where other mine shafts had been sunk.
Our tour was led by volunteer guides whose knowledge and enthusiasm were outstanding. They were supported by a team from the National Trust and the Ecton Mines Educational Trust who all made us very welcome. Photographs taken by Frances Bagnall appear on the CAS Facebook page.

Tour of Chester Amphitheatre on Wednesday 26^th and Thursday 27^th June 2019

Peter Carrington led tours of the amphitheatre on consecutive days as part of the Chester Heritage Festival. ‘The amphitheatre, prequel and afterlife: Chester’s history in a nutshell’ covers the latest ideas about the amphitheatre and the surrounding area from Stone Age and Iron Age discoveries, right through to the nineteenth century.

Visit to a Medieval Pottery Site, Saturday 8^th June 2019

Members of Chester Archaeological Society joined the Clwydian Range Archaeology Group (CRAG) on a visit to a privately owned medieval pottery site close to Chester.

Visit to the Lion Salt Works, Saturday 6^th April 2019

Photographs taken in the course of our visit to the Lion Salt Works reflect the keen interest of members in the information supplied by Lisa, the Trust’s Education Officer, who acted as our guide. An engrossing history of salt making from prehistoric times to the present day was presented as we toured the five pan houses with their stove houses, as well as the brine shaft and tank, pump house, railway siding and ancillary buildings.
Lion Salt Works was the last working open pan salt works in the UK, closing as recently as 1986. This is well within living memory and consequently the Museum has been able to conjure up a vivid picture of the working lives of ‘lumpers’, ‘wallers’ and ‘lofters’, in addition to amassing a collection of work-related artefacts.
Archaeological investigation on the site and in adjacent areas continues. After restoring the ‘nodding donkey’, the Lion Salt Works Trust hopes to establish a new working salt pan.
The brilliant April sunshine encouraged some of our members to take the footpath along the Trent and Mersey Canal to the Anderton Boat Lift, to add another archaeological feature to the day’s itinerary.