LATHOM PARK TRUST
Before we came to the end of our Local Heritage Initiative
Phase 1 Project, we had already found that there was much more research to
carry out into the hidden mysteries of Lathom. In early 2005 we decided to apply for another grant from the
Heritage Lottery Fund (Local Heritage Initiative) for a Phase 2 Project.
The application was to fund continued excavations at Dutton's Farm in Lathom and was particularly aimed at providing training in archaeological excavations and 'finds' archiving techniques. Another Historic Lathom booklet was to be produced, together with technical reports and a dedicated web page. Informative newsletters and open days were arranged to report on progress.
Approval
was obtained in May 2005 and the excavation project began on 25th July 2005 and ran every weekday for 5 weeks until 31st August. Volunteers and Trust members and their
families and friends were guided by professional archaeologists into initial
fieldwalking and collection of sherds, excavation work and then on to sorting,
cataloguing and database archiving of the 'finds'.
Field work - studying some of the finds
Sometimes the weather was not too good – on other
days it was hot sunshine! This did
not deter any of the numerous volunteers and helpers – and a TV film crew
also arrived to capture scenes of everyone at work! We reached the conclusion of the project in autumn 2006,
when the cataloguing of one of the largest assemblages of twelfth to fourteenth
century pottery ever found in the north west of England was completed.
Ron Cowell, National Museums Liverpool,
working with volunteers on database archiving of 'finds'.