I was working on trench one – the lake pavilion site going down to the lake edge – and in particular on the part where we dug a slit trench to explore the lake edge itself. This was very rewarding, the sloping edge of the pavilion’s paved area turned up on cue and then the actual edge detail of setts laid in sand, just as on the postcards, then the lake edge, which seems to have been made of a coloured cement probably over bricks, then the lake bottom also of cement falling away nicely for a couple of metres before changing colour and texture and gradient – the new pool bottom laid when the lake became a paddling pool I suppose. And above that lots of mixed up fill material with an extraordinary number of bottles – milk bottles, beer bottles etc but occasionally in tight piles as though they had originally been in a bag. It all seems to have been done without any kind of consideration for safety which is odd considering that this is a Park where children play, but above that was a layer of clinker and then the topsoil, so I suppose they reckoned that anything goes so long as it’s cheap! I was interested though by the bottom. There doesn’t appear to have been any attempt to break this up before backfill so that if the rest of the lake area is like this it would account for the problem that is very evident in this part of the Park in winter – it gets waterlogged.

The shallower end of trench one is where the pavilion was. From the postcards it appears to me that this was a timber structure, basically tee-shaped with the down-stroke pointing at the lake and the cross-stroke parallel with the path. The down-stroke part is higher than the two arms and ends in a semi-circular veranda facing the lake. The steep roof of this part is higher than that of the two arms which have hipped ends which become gables half way up. The increased height of the roof of the centre portion (the “up-stroke”) means that its span was greater than that of the two arms, and it also appears from some of the pictures that on the path side the slope of the roof of the side arms is carried through with a half gable end to the main roof above it. This makes for quite an imposing building with a very complicated roof. The debris found in the dig suggests that it had red clay tiles. This is all carried on timber posts with a corbel detail at the top of the six posts of the veranda. The walls were glazed panels above an integral bench seat which, on the ends and sides facing the lake, was on both inside and outside of the bottom part of the wall. There does not appear to have been any brickwork in this structure. This would account for the fact that the excavation found no strip footings but I was surprised that there was no clear evidence of padstones or bases on which to sit the timber posts which were carrying such a big and heavy roof. What we did find was a thick layer of clinker/ash beneath the rolled stone (sort of tarmac) floor. This seems to have extended outside to form the paved area shown in the photograph. Perhaps the posts in the walls were carried on a timber wall-plate sitting on top of the prepared and rolled base, but this does not account for the freestanding posts of the veranda. Maybe our excavation did not coincide with these positions.

The floor of the pavilion had been broken up, presumably when the remains of the building was cleared and prepared for top-soiling and seeding as part of the Park “re-design” work in 1954. I assume they wanted to provide drainage for the grass. But when the broken floor and clinker/ash base was excavated drain trenches appeared. At first it seemed that these might be connected to fittings inside the pavilion but it soon became clear to me that this was the remains of the field drainage that had been put in at the very beginning of the making of the Park. I remembered that the two gardens were separated by boggy ground associated with Rusholme Brook, and that Julian and I had been interested to see the first works described as “laying out and draining the Park”. Interestingly the drain trenches under the pavilion were filled with clay, which is inconsistent with this theory because that would impede the drainage function, but when we excavated under the paving close to the edge of the lake we found a continuation of this trench filled with clinker and loose material which would have provided the drainage down to the open jointed pipes that we subsequently found. So it seems that the builders of the pavilion dug out the clinker and replaced it with clay topped with clinker/ash and consolidated the lot to provide a firm platform for the timber pavilion.

The drain pipes are in good condition and apparently functional if not functioning. The drain pictured here is too shallow to extend very far but if others further up the Park are in similar condition perhaps they could be restored to help drainage of this area. I did not work on the bandstand area or on the path through the woods beyond it. The work on the bandstand must have been very trying! The bandstand enclosure was planted with a circle of trees whose roots were spread like the groins of a fan vault, interlocking and providing a great dis-incentive to going lower! It reminds us that when these structures were built most of the trees were small– young trees 2.5 metres tall I suppose. They are now 130+ years old in many cases and what, on the photograph seems to be a pleasantly tree lined enclosure is now thoroughly enclosed. But the substructure eventually turned up in another trench. The photographs show that the design was consistent with other structures in the Park. It seems to have been timber, with the same corbel detail as on the Pavilion veranda and with a similar sort of clay tiled roof.

 But unlike the Pavilion, the floor had to be raised to make the band visible above the audience. Hence this bandstand had a substructure, made of brick sufficiently thick to resist the load from the increased height on the inside of the structure. The above ground part of the bandstand looks to me from the photograph to have timber panelled facing. This would be consistent with the Observatory and I guess the path side of the pavilion.

The path turned up in a trench that was placed to examine the make up of the mound. We believe this to have been made out of the material excavated from the lake. The path is not very far down, having apparently been covered with topsoil when it was still in pretty good condition and again probably, part of the works done in 1954 when the “redesign” of the Park was done by the council. The path was topped with red shale and edged with hard blue bricks in perfect condition, with a gulley and drainpipes. The broken pipe on the photograph was broken to check whether the pipes were still viable and they are clear and apparently capable of working.

This may seem a boring preoccupation of mine, but poor drainage is one of the issues that arises in the Park whenever we have wet weather and to find an apparently sound drainage system raises hopes of there being a way to address this problem. I really enjoyed the work on this dig – the supervisors were incredibly patient with the large numbers of volunteers and schoolchildren that they had to organise – and my previous knowledge about the history of the Park made the findings even more interesting for me because things are never quite what you expect them to be. The lack of a substructure to the pavilion was a surprise which prompted me to look harder at the photographs and work out what the designer had done, and then to relate that to the other structures. And the finding of the land drainage, which clearly predated all of the lake work, raised all sorts of ideas about solving the drainage problems of the Park – reawakening ideas about finding out more about the culverted Rusholme Brook for instance. The way that the paddling pool was backfilled without making provision for drainage and the covering over of an, apparently good path, complete with a functional drainage system are other things that baffle me. I look forward to the next dig but before that to getting involved in the archive research that might start to give clues as to how, and why, these things happened in the way they did.

Our project features in this new film by the UniverCityCulture project, which aims to make research from the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures that is about Manchester’s culture and heritage, more visible to students, staff, and visitors.

Dr Melanie Giles with some of the finds used in the workshop.

All of the artefacts that we collected will be really useful for finding out the dates that different layers were deposited and finding out more about what people were doing in the park at different times. But before we can get that information from them there is a lot of work to do!

This work began the week after the excavation finished when local volunteers, people from the Friends of Whitworth Park and students from the University of Manchester all came together to undertake an intensive week of post-excavation work. This included washing all of the finds in water, brushing them clean with toothbrushes, dry brushing all of the metal artefacts, dividing up the finds by the material that they were made of (e.g. glass, ceramics, metal), drying any wet finds and then starting to catalogue each of the finds or groups of finds.

This part of the post-excavation process can seem a little overwhelming at times, especially when there are as many finds as we had to wash! However many hands made light work and the team washed almost all of the artefacts and started to catalogue them. The kinds of artefacts they began to identify already provide a fascinating snap shot of activities at the park. For example there are lots of marbles, including original marbles from codd bottles, and then more commercialised marbles with a coloured glass insert. These marbles and the “five stones” gaming pieces that we found, as well as later items such as a plastic toy plane, all resonate with the idea that Whitworth Park was at one point known as “The Children’s Park”, and must have been a place where all sorts of games were played. However we have also found other things – glass bottles, some perhaps for medicine, and ceramic dishes, such as serving dishes. These all point to other Victorian and Edwardian uses of the park, including as a place for respite from illness and a place to relax and take tea.

Our post-excavation work continues on a weekly basis, with student volunteers continuing to wash, sort and catalogue artefacts. We hope this work will be completed by Christmas time and in the future the artefacts will go to a specialist who will be able to tell us lots more about them. We look forward to telling you more about it in the future!

Throughout yesterday and today, we were very lucky to have the support of Andy Gay from Manchester Contract Department, and his team: Dave Price, Martin Hussey, Andy Mulcahy and Brian Grayson. Dave brought his ‘cherry picker’ to provide us with some first class site photographs, enabling us to photograph the whole of Tr. 1 from an elevated viewpoint. We also took a photo of the site team! We then watched gratefully as Andy Mulcahy, the JCB driver, saved us hours of back-breaking work back-filling the trenches, overseen and directed by Martin. Brian meanwhile, used his years of knowledge to tell us about some exciting features he had come across whilst replacing aspects of the park infrastructure… he even brought his metal detector along! Throughout the project, we have been advised, supported and inspired by the Park team… Kylie Ward (Central Area Parks Manager), Ria Page (Whitworth Park Warden), and her colleague, Dave Delaney. Further staff support and fencing was provided through ‘Parks and Open Spaces’, part of ‘Events, Leisure and Tourism’ in Manchester. We have been extremely fortunate to be supported throughout by the Manchester City Council, and we were particularly delighted to welcome Councillor Mike Amesbury (Executive Member for Culture and Leisure) to the site, who spent a couple of hours sharing our discoveries. However, none of this would have been possible without the Friends of Whitworth Park, in particular, Chairman and (it turns out!) accomplished digger, Ken Shone, as well as the financial support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. To all of these people, we owe our grateful thanks.

 Hannah takes the final photos from Dave’s cherry picker, and Andy backfills Tr.1, under the watchful eye of Martin

 After a late lunch, the team divided into two: one to ferry finds, tools and records back to the Department, and the other to complete the backfilling and re-turfing. The heavens opened and it was muddy, tiring, wet work. Thanks especially the final hard-core team who finished on-site at 6.30pm. Some of us enjoyed an end-of-dig drink and meal together – a festive send-off for a successful first season.

The site team 2011 in Tr. 1: Whitworth Park

Next year we will be back, to explore the lake underneath the paddling pool, find more of the bandstand, and discover the original land surface under the artificial mound. If we have time, we will also explore some of the other interesting historic features of the Park. Once more, we will be running schools events, receiving community volunteers, and hosting an Open Day. In between then and now, we will be working on the finds and the records (post-excavation), producing reports, giving talks and conducting more oral history. If you have memories ofWhitworthPark, however recent they may seem, please do let us know! And if you have comments about the Project, the Blog or things you would like to see in the future, please leave us a comment…

Ruth Colton, on behalf of The Whitworth Park History and Archaeology Project Team

 

Name: Gill Reddick                                                                                                             Role: Volunteer from the Friends of Whitworth Park

“Inspirational. Amazing that so many people are involved. A wonderful educational experience… everyone feels as if they are part of something important. I really like the change in dynamics… one minute there is great activity and the next, we’re doing painstaking work… And aged 70, I am surprised I can spend all day on my knees and it’s fine!”

(See Gill’s account of the dig below!)

Digging is for dogs too! Nick greets one of our canine visitors whilst Sian takes one of the final lunchtime tours (with the help of Mae and Pryanka, two of our undergraduate students)

 The project directors took a final walk-round to decide what to focus on next year, and the site manager and supervisors began checking up on records and identifying priorities for recording, in advance of our final day on site. There is an air of both urgency and wistfulness at the sense of the end of the excavation… something I suspect is common to many community projects like this, which have been immensely rewarding, hard work with a small team. We shan’t miss the winds and the rain but we shall miss the Park!

Hannah and Mohsin finish the recording

The night before the dig was due to start I got an email from the group organising the dig – bring stout boots, preferably with steel toe caps, thick gloves, a kneeling mat, plenty of water …  It sounded ominously serious and after a couple of weeks of sunny weather the weather  forecast was very autumnal.  New York was experiencing a hurricane.   Mmm….

Monday arrived, cold and wet so it was with little enthusiasm that I made a packed lunch and put on wet weather gear.  Arriving in the Park I was amazed to see about 20 very enthusiastic people – students and staff from the University- a couple of containers for use as storage and an office and several portaloos: nothing had been forgotten and it seemed there was no escaping.  And it started to rain.

After a lecture about the aims of the dig, the social history of the park, health and safety and the need for records, the students started to dig.  It was amazing to see their energy and the speed with which spades were dispensed, topsoil removed and carefully stacked for its return at the end of the 2 weeks.  Carefully avoiding being given a spade I found I was stacking the turf.  As with all exercise it looked easy at first but after 4 hours I had pain in muscles which I didn’t know existed!  

Then, onto the layers underneath; there was no escape.  Which of the 3 sites would I like to work on I was asked.    I chose to scrape away at the topsoil in the area where the lake used to be – close to the old pavilion. Kneeling, bending down, scraping away, filling the bucket, then walking to the soil heap and back to the trench.  And I was hooked!  My knees were fine, my back was not a problem – just sore shoulders and hands where I held the scraper.  And who worries about a torrential downpour when they are having fun?

What was a revelation was the professionalism and care taken of the site and its workers. During the second week school children joined the site and were given careful briefings and meticulously trained to scrape away at the topsoil carefully.   When the remains of the hurricane arrived and the wind got bad, we had to wear hard hats (mine kept on falling off when I leant down) to protect us from the falling tree branches.  The friendliness of everyone on the site made this ‘oldie’  feel part of the team and even that I -a complete novice- was doing something that mattered.

When the first pieces of clay pipe were unearthed together with bits of glass, a chamber pot, coins and a coronation medal dated 1902, I was as excited as if we had found a body in the bog or a hoard of Viking jewellery.  In deeper layers we unearthed old culverts and drains, tried to find post holes of the pavilion, saw where the lake used to be and gradually had an insight into what it all must have been like when the Park was first built.

As I lay in my bath at the end of each day I imagined the band playing on the bandstand, children being pushed round the park on a Sunday afternoon or crowds of people massing for the start of a rally – anti nuclear,  or against the gulf war.  And I felt privileged to have been able to join with this fantastic group of people who made me feel so at home.  I never had to use the excuse of the sore knees or bad back because I was having such a great time!

A variety of activities were organised to celebrate the park and the recent excavation being done by Manchester University students and experts to uncover the social and natural history of the park. 

Activities included guided tours of the excavation site, an opportunity to see images and maps indicating how the park has changed over time, mini digs for children to experience archaeology for themselves, and object handling.  One family arrived equipped with their own trowels for excavating.

Visitors had the opportunity to see and touch some artefacts that had been excavated only days before.  These objects included a variety of Victorian artefacts which ranged from ceramic fragments, to jam jars shards, pipes, marbles, buttons and evidence of the game knuckle bones. 

A selection of The Manchester Museum’s collections were also on display which included animals that might be found in the park such as a bat, mole and magpie; and more complete examples of the kinds of objects that have been found in the dig such as pipes and Codd glass bottle with marble stopper.

Objects and pictures were triggering lots of memories and people were encouraged to share their memories of the park with The Manchester Museum’s Youth Board, who recorded oral histories.

 Chris Searle, director of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre, and a published poet, read aloud some children’s poems about parks and then encouraged the pupils to write their own, thinking about what parks mean to them today, both positive and negative. The resulting poems were fantastic, especially as many of the children had English as a second language and we were proud to show a selection of the poems at the Whitworth Park Open Day, Saturday 10^th September.

 Here are a few snippets:

‘The leaves rustle and the trees sway, As the children play on the soft green grass’

‘The teenagers, just like wolves hunting and destroying’

‘Flowers smell like honey’

‘Why are we them children that are scared to go in the park because they think that they will get shot?’

‘It was the breeze waking up the trees’