observer Posted February 23, 2018 Report Share Posted February 23, 2018 Are there any history buffs out there who could enlighten us on the early history of the Town ? The Mersey Valley was subject to periodic flooding and no doubt formed a natural boundary for British (celtic) tribes, such as the Brigantes. I believe however, that there were fords, and whether "Latch"ford or "Or"ford have some meaning in this regard, I don't know. Seems the Romans had a crossing point in the vicinity of the Parish Church, built a corduroy road over marsh ground by the river (Wilderspool Causway) and had a factory site in that area. The Saxons may have used the River as their boundary with the Viking Dane-Law ? The Normans had a Motte and Bailey in the vicinity of the Parish Church, and I guess early settlement would have been in that area, as the first bridge at "bridge foot" wasn't built until the middle ages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davy51 Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 There is a locally edited site on the history of Warrington complete with timeline & various sub topics. Apparently, in its time , the town has been privy to a few "firsts". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted February 25, 2018 Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 Warrington and it's surrounding villages has a fascinating past Obs. I have many a book in my possession (thanks to my mum who was obsessed with local history) which detail a lot of the history of the area. As you say the Wilderspool Causway area (near to Greenalls, Lousher Lane and over to Stockton Heath was a prime location for the Romans back in the day and many artefacts have been discovered to proves that from the says of Thomas May's excavations in the early 1900's right up to the excavations carried out on Stockton Heath Primary Schools land before the lovely old Edwardian School was demolished by the council against peoples wishes. The original Roman Road runs right through the site of the school and it was unearthed just below the surface during the archaeological dig which was carried out prior to demolition. They found remains of other Roman buildings, postholes, coins, jewelery, various kilns, pottery and even a most fantastic lined Roman Well and sadly intact cremation urns too which after testing were said to contain the remains of children among a lot more Even the archaeologist said they wished they had more time to investigate the site further but they were given a timescale and had to abide by it. What is sure though is that there was a huge Roman presence in this little local area back then and probably a whole lot more lying dormant still waiting to be discovered. I sometimes think that the council and developers don;t want to look to hard to find though as that throws a spanner in the works of 'progress' I could go on and on ...but I wont as I get quite cross about it all and the way it that Stockton Heaths Schools land was 'looked into', recorded but then presumably deemed 'so insignificant' despite all the fascinating finds that all mention was even taken of the schools website when it was revamped and the public eye had been taken away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted February 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 Tried looking for maps or even artistic impressions of the landscape of that period; but have only seen one, showing the line of the Roman road, which crossed the Mersey near the now parish church, then went north passed the area of Sainsburys. (no congestion of course in those days !). Haven't found any record of conflict with the British tribes (Brigantes), who I believe were clients of the Romans, under their Queen Cartumandua; although her husband didn't approve. Not sure of the extent of Celtic settlement in the area either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted February 25, 2018 Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 http://www.cheshirearchaeology.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/HTS_Arch_Assess_Warrington.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted February 28, 2018 Report Share Posted February 28, 2018 Obs, I get so frustrated regarding the lack of history from the medieval period through time to the early Victorian era, there has been more recorded on the Roman occupation than any other period in the towns history and little about the ordinary lives of industry and day to day life of the latter centuries, whether it is under lock and key in the library/museum vaults I have no idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted February 28, 2018 Report Share Posted February 28, 2018 Not exciting enough algy. Unless there are arms and legs flying off or juicy poisonings and the like not many are that interested. can you imagine the sort of life a peasant farmer led. Monday:- got up, fed the pigs, saw to the animals after that. ate breakfast. watched sun come up whilst fixing fence. had bite to eat around noon. mucked out the cows and milked the goat fed chickens, dug in some vegetables and then watched sun go down as i ate supper and then went to bed. Tuesday:- see monday but with rain. and so on and so forth with a break on thursday for market day once a month and the occasional visit from the local squire. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted February 28, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2018 Actually Alg; I'm surprised no one seems to have written a definitive history of the Town, perhaps the vague nature of a lot of the info is why ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stallard12 Posted March 1, 2018 Report Share Posted March 1, 2018 Didn't realize that the Romans had such a great spot to get to the rugby games. Bet they would have complained about the move to Halliwell Jones ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted March 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2018 Think the games they did have were slightly more rougher than RL Tex ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted March 2, 2018 Report Share Posted March 2, 2018 On 28/02/2018 at 6:11 PM, observer said: Actually Alg; I'm surprised no one seems to have written a definitive history of the Town, perhaps the vague nature of a lot of the info is why ? To be honest obs I don't think anyone has care about the town that much and still don't!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 3, 2018 Report Share Posted March 3, 2018 3 hours ago, algy said: To be honest obs I don't think anyone has care about the town that much and still don't!. I do (well historically anyway). There is so much information (somewhere) and I often wonder why that Janice Hayes lady from the library/museum has not published a book about the archaeolgical finds and history of the town and surrounding villages as she's done loads about the working town and such like. You would think they would embrace the other stuff too. The archaeological dig at Stockton Heath Primary school unearthed some absolute gems but even that the full report isn't available for us mere mortals to see and reed nor are all the photos that were taken by the company who dd it for the council. I believe the full report (once edited to be more concise after being handed over to WBC) was deposited with the Journal of the 'somewhere or other' though and for a £price a copy can be bought if you are a member of the Journal society Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted March 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2018 Given the gaps in the evidence, perhaps the story of the Town could be told in fictional form, using stories of successive generations within their presumed historical setting. At least this could possibly bring the history to life and connect us with our heritage ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davy51 Posted March 3, 2018 Report Share Posted March 3, 2018 6 hours ago, observer said: Given the gaps in the evidence, perhaps the story of the Town could be told in fictional form, using stories of successive generations within their presumed historical setting. At least this could possibly bring the history to life and connect us with our heritage ? Good idea Obs, the Mighty Wire could be all conquering ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 4, 2018 Report Share Posted March 4, 2018 9 hours ago, observer said: Given the gaps in the evidence, perhaps the story of the Town could be told in fictional form, using stories of successive generations within their presumed historical setting. At least this could possibly bring the history to life and connect us with our heritage ? I do rather like the sound of that Obs...maybe it could be done Bringing history alive and awakening the imagination plus getting people (including of course youngsters and our future generation) interested could only be a good thing long term. I used to hate history at school but that's because it was taught in a boring way but bring some 'life' into it and cover the local 'on your own doorstep' stuff too and it suddenly becomes fascinating, interesting and addictive. It took me until I was in my 40's to realise that though ha ha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 4, 2018 Report Share Posted March 4, 2018 3 hours ago, Davy51 said: Good idea Obs, the Mighty Wire could be all conquering ! We can but live in hope again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted March 5, 2018 Report Share Posted March 5, 2018 Unfortunately youngsters don't seem to have an interest in history they are too busy either enjoying life or else totally immersed in providing for and bringing up their families to give a thought as to what was going on last week never mind hundreds of years ago I know I was and there is nothing wrong in that, it's not until later on in life that you realise that you are not immortal and there is a finite end to existence especially when you lose your grandparents and parents and you have no one to approach to answer those questions about your ancestors that you should have asked when they were here, but Hey! as Esther Ranzen say's "That's Life" folks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davy51 Posted March 5, 2018 Report Share Posted March 5, 2018 On 28/02/2018 at 6:11 PM, observer said: Actually Alg; I'm surprised no one seems to have written a definitive history of the Town, perhaps the vague nature of a lot of the info is why ? I think what your talking about Obs are the Dark Ages when virtually no history of Britain was recorded. I think that period was between the Romans & Alfred the Great. I watched a couple of programmes the other day about the Romans which explained the background to their civilisation & the logistics & infrastructure that supported their empire ,not to mention plenty of free labour from their conquered client states. Even their army was comprised of foreign mercenaries & regular soldiers who,on completion of military service would earn the right to be called Romans. I suppose the Roman Empire was the first global employer. Interestingly, it came across as the blue print for the EU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted March 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2018 Whilst considerable information exists about Roman and even Greek history, due to the fact that they were civilised enough to record it in their own histories; what were talking about here is the history of a specific area - IE Warrington. A degree of logic, would suggest, that the presence of the River Mersey, has a boundary has influenced that history throughout. EG: between the British tribes of the Brigantes and Cornovi; the post-Roman Romano-British Kingdoms; the later Saxon Kingdoms, and finally the Viking Danelaw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted March 8, 2018 Report Share Posted March 8, 2018 God help the poor sods that are around in a hundred years or so that wish to consult the history of Warrington over the last 20 or 30 years as there won't be much other than the IRA bombings to hold their interest, not much that I can think of on the positive front anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 11, 2018 Report Share Posted March 11, 2018 Maybe they will all somehow find this forum Algy. I'm not sure what they would make of it all if they dare venture out of the Local History of Photo's section though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted March 14, 2018 Report Share Posted March 14, 2018 On 11/03/2018 at 11:53 PM, Dizzy said: Maybe they will all somehow find this forum Algy. I'm not sure what they would make of it all if they dare venture out of the Local History of Photo's section though Known as 'The Safe Zone' Dizz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 14, 2018 Report Share Posted March 14, 2018 12 hours ago, algy said: Known as 'The Safe Zone' Dizz. Ha ha good name for it...maybe we should think about renaming all the forum categories to more reflect the moods and goings on in each Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted March 15, 2018 Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 GOINGS ON!!!! i say Mrs hope there are no goings on on this forum, this is a family forum we don't want any goings on here thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 15, 2018 Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 You really need help Evils Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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