Winter Hill to Castle Naze Alignment - the historic foundation of Manchester and Bolton...



Winter Hill to Castle Naze Alignment Map - 53.53 km - Source: Ordnance Survey  (Click for Detail - Large File Size)

In the Peak District there is an interesting triangular-shaped Iron Age hill fort called Castle Naze - it is located on the north-western tip of Combs Edge, in close proximity to the pre-historic centres of Buxton and Dove Holes.  Fifty three kilometres to the north-west is Winter Hill, a place already described in previous blog posts as being of ancient significance, meaning “Blessed Hill”...

These two sites are connected by an alignment that runs north west / south east - passing exactly through the old centres of both Manchester and Bolton, in close proximity to the churches on both sites (both having pre-Christian significations), as well as through other places of historic interest along the way; such as a Bronze Age tumulus, a stone row cairn, a straight stretch of the old Roman road from London to Manchester (the present day A6), and many others.

Since identifying this alignment and researching its various points of interest, I have concluded that the alignment may have been the foundation of both the town of Bolton, and the city of Manchester, as well as revealing clues as to the Mother Goddess worshipped by the local Celtic tribes...

Winter Hill to Castle Naze - alignment details:

Ref.	Marker Name	Location	OS Grid Ref.	Marker Type - see explanation
1	Winter Hill Summit	Winter Hill, West Pennine Moors	SD 6598 1493 (Trig. Point)	Natural Marker (Hill Top)
2	Counting Hill Stone Row Cairn	Counting Hill, Smithills Moor	SD 6700 1400	Secondary Artificial (possibly Bronze Age)
3	St. Peters Church	Bolton Town Center, Lancashire	SD 7205 0930	Subsequent Artificial (Christian) / Secondary Artificial (potentially Iron Age)
4	Haulgh Tumulus	The Haulgh, Bolton, Lancashire	SD 7242 0899	Secondary Artificial (Bronze Age)
5	St. Ann's Church	St. Ann’s Square, Manchester	SJ 8377 9836	Subsequent Artificial (Christian) / Secondary Artificial (Iron Age)
6	A6 Road Longsight	Stockport Road, Manchester,	SJ 8615 9624	Subsequent Artificial (Roman)
7	Castle Naze Hill Fort	Combs Moss, Peak District, Derbyshire	SK 0527 7848 (Westerly Tip)	Natural Marker (HIll Top) / Secondary Artificial (Iron Age Hill Fort)

 

The Natural start and end points of the alignment:

Winter Hill Summit - Natural Alignment Marker (map ref #1)

View from Winter Hill Summit Trig. Point, looking  south-east to Caste Naze on the horizon (indicated by red arrow) at the end of the alignment - (SD 6598 1493) - 456 m elevation

Winter Hill is the start of our alignment. As noted by Watkins in his book The Old Straight Track (1926), any true "Watkinsian-ley" requires it to have: 

"a start (or finish) point in the shape of a hill" 

Winter Hill is the most westerly point of the West Pennine Moors, and its situation commands spectacular views over the entire region. 

From the summit, surrounded by the TV transmitter buildings, you can clearly see across Manchester to the Peak District in the south-east.  The view spans clock-wise across the counties of Cheshire and Shropshire into Wales and to the Snowdonian Range (“Yr Wyddfa”) in the far west; including Anglesey (“Ynys Môn”) and the Great Orme in Llandudno (“Y Gorgarth”).  



Aerial View of Winter Hill - the antennae
is close to the summit

Leaving Wales, you can see over the Wirral Peninsula and Merseyside, with the view continuing along the Lancashire Coastal Plain and along the Fylde coast, over the River Ribble (or "Bellisama" as we explore below) to Morecambe, until reaching the southern part of the Lake District in Cumbria, just visible in the far north. 

Continuing the view clockwise, looking to the north and east from the summit provides closer views of the West Pennine Moors, including the famous Pendle Hill, returning to the Peak District again in the south east. 

Given the commanding aspect described, Winter Hill has a very obvious strategic significance.  It provides a perfect look out from which to control the entire region.  As noted by John Rawlinson in his book About Rivington (1969), it is believed that the Romans used the hill for these purposes:

“The ruins of a farm… had the strange name of the Comp, the only farm on Rivington Moor. Locally the name is said to be a corruption of the word "camp", and here the Romans are said to have had a camp for the soldiers who manned a signalling and observation post on the summit of Winter Hill.”

In more modern times, the hill was used as a beacon to warn against invasion; last used during the Napoleonic Wars.  The Rivington Pike, on the very western edge of Winter Hill, is also a well-known beacon hill; its old cast iron fire pit is now on display at the Last Drop Village, in Bromiley Cross.

I have previously explained that Winter Hill has pre-historic religious significance.  The very name Winter Hill has the potential etymological root "Gwyn-Týr-Hield", meaning "Blessed God Hill".  The suggested reason for this name is the hill's association with the River Ribble, which was worshipped as the River Goddess "Belisama" (meaning "the Brightest one") by the local Setantii Tribe in pre-Roman times.

The River Douglas (“Douglas” from Old Welsh “bubh”, meaning “black”, and “glas” meaning “stream”) is the closest tributary to the mouth of Belisama into the Irish Sea. The source of the River Douglas is "Douglas Springs", which is at the top of Winter Hill.  Accordingly, Winter Hill would have been worshipped as the "Mother" of the river, to be discussed below.

The River Irwell, which flows through Manchester, can also trace one if its major tributaries to Winter Hill.  Dean Brook rises on the south-east side of Winter Hill, on Smithills Moor below Counting Hill; this river supplies the River Croal, which flows through Bolton around St. Peter's church (also to be discussed later), ultimately filling the River Irwell.  Accordingly, the River Irwell is prescribed the same divine attributes as the River Ribble by the pre-Roman inhabitants of Manchester, which we will explore in more detail later in this essay.

Anne Ross noted in her book Pagan Celtic Britain (1967), Chapter 1. Sanctuaries, Temples and Cult Sites:



Aug. 2014 sunset looking to the Irish Sea in the distance,
the Pike Tower silhouetted in the foreground - note, the
reflection of  the light off the water, being the mouth of
the River Ribble or Bellisama - meaning "the brightest one"

"Springs, wells and rivers are of first and enduring importance as a focal point of Celtic cult practice and ritual. Rivers are important in themselves, being associated… with fertility and with deities such as the divine mothers and the sacred bulls...

That springs served as shrines in the northern region [of Britain] is [well] evidenced... For example, a certain well or spring… over which a… cult legend evolved, dealing with the patron deity of the well, or the source of a river, worship extending beyond the spring to embrace the flowing water itself...

It is not difficult to appreciate the psychology underlying the veneration of the source of a great river or of a powerful spring. The obvious and visible link with fertility and life itself would cause these natural features to become… tangible manifestations of the invisible powers they worshiped..."

Belisama is linked to the goddess "Brigantia", (meaning "the High One"). Brigantia represents nature, motherhood, fertility, creation, destruction, embodying the bounty of the Earth; often referred to as Mother Earth or Mother Nature.

Brigantia was the patron goddess of the Brigantes, a powerful tribe who controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England.   Territorially the largest and most powerful tribe in Britain, the Brigantes encompassed many sub-tribes (including the Setantii tribe who were located in the immediate vicinity of Winter Hill, in the western and southern littoral of Lancashire).

Winter Hill is the starting point of our alignment - a hill that commands strategic significance as a look out to control the entire region, and also has pre-historic religious significance as a source of the river goddess Belisama, personified as Brigantia, that refers to both the River Ribble in Lancashire and the River Irwell in Manchester.  Now lets take a look at the end point of our alignment, and see how this relates to Winter Hill.

Castle Naze Hill Fort Summit - Natural and Second Artificial Alignment Marker (map ref #7)


View from Castle Naze, looking north-west along the alignment to Winter Hill Summit on the horizon(indicated by red arrow) (SK 0527 7848) - 443 m elevation

At the other end of our alignment is Castle Naze, an Iron Age hill fort located on a westerly-pointing tip of Combs Moss, above the small town of Combs in Derbyshire.  In a Guide to Prehistoric England (1960), Nicholas Thomas noted that:

“[Castle Naze] fort occupies a triangular area of c. 2.5 acres. The N and S sides are protected by natural slopes. The E side is protected by 2 banks with a ditch beyond the outer... Not dated but probably late Iron Age.”

The site was surveyed in 1957 by students from a Nottingham University summer school and The Workers’ Educational Association of Buxton.  They established that the hill fort had undergone three phases of construction, two in the Iron Age period and one in the Medieval period.


A birds-eye view of Castle Naze hill fort
Google Maps

The late British Iron Age spanned from 800 BC to 100 AD, until it was supplanted by the Romanisation of Britain.  Accordingly, the hill fort is pre-Roman by definition (i.e. pre AD 43, or AD 47 for Northern Britain).

Much like Winter Hill, the site has obvious strategic significance; it's natural slopes provide protection anti-clockwise from the north to the south, and it's man-made banks provide protection from the east.  As can be seen in the image above, the view from the north-west tip of the fort is uninterrupted across present day Derbyshire and Manchester, all the way to the summit of Winter Hill (the start of our alignment, which is indicated by the red arrow in the magnificent image above). 

The natural shape of the hill fort (illustrated in the birds-eye image above) may have been an important aspect of the site for the local prehistoric people.  A triangular outcrop or horn ("naze" from Old English and Danish "næs", meaning a promontory or headland - a high point of land extending into a body of water, headland, or cliff - also the root of the modern English word "nose"), pointing like an arrow along our alignment towards Winter Hill.

The area surrounding Castle Naze contains an abundance of prehistoric sites.  Of primary importance is the Bull Ring Henge, a large Class 2 Neolithic earth work located in Dove Holes, 1.5 miles due east of the hill fort.  This was very obviously a most sacred site to the prehistoric peoples of the area, who invested considerable amounts of energy and wealth building the earthwork, as can be seen in the areal image of the site below. 



An aerial view of the Bull Ring Henge in Dove Holes,
Derbyshire - note Combs Moss in the background -
Copyright 2011 Hamish Fenton

In addition to the henge, there are various other prehistoric sites in the area, including standing stones, stone circles, burial mounds, etc.  The sheer number of prehistoric sites leads us to surmise that there must have been a thriving pre-historic population centre here.

Also close by is the famous spa town of Buxton, just 3 miles to the south of Castle Naze, under Combs Moss.  Here the Romans built a settlement known as "Aquae Arnemetiae" or the "Spa of the Goddess of the Grove", which is a reference to a local goddess that predates the Romans. 

Waters from the geothermal St. Anne's Well in Buxton rise at a constant temperature of 28°C, which would have been considered a divine attribute to prehistoric peoples.  Interestingly, the placing of Stone Henge in Wiltshire is attributed to a similar natural phenomenon, as it has been recently found that a pool close to Stone Henge was fed by a spring which keeps the waters warm at a constant 11°C, even during the depths of winter.  Sites such as these would have been of great importance during and immediately after the last Ice Age (which ended approximately 11,700 years ago) as the warm water would have attracted passing wildlife who migrated north as the ice retreated.

St. Annes Well in Buxton - Wikipedia

Many of the settlements built by the Romans across Britain were most likely founded upon existing indigenous Celtic sites.  I have previously postulated that the Romans would build their infrastructure in congruence with indigenous places of interest.  This is logical and in keeping with the Roman hegemon, as the indigenous people would likely place their settlements in the most economically efficient location.  Furthermore, it would be easier for the Romans to subjugate the indigenous population by replacing their infrastructure.  The assimilation of an indigenous culture is more easily achieved by taking their existing infrastructure, sacred sites, institutions and beliefs and subsuming them into the Roman way of life - Buxton may very well be a prime example of this, with an existing prehistoric population who worshipped the "Goddess of the Grove" in their sacred temples and divine water pools.  Here we also have an example of an indigenous Pagan sacred site being sanctified for Christian worship, with its rededication to a Christian Saint (I will explore this point further below).

Anne Ross notes in Pagan Celtic Britain (1967) that the Roman name for Buxton refers to the goddess "Arnemetia" which literally translates to "she who dwells over against the sacred grove".  Ross notes that this is most likely an ephitet given to all water nymph-like goddesses, not necessarily the name of the goddess herself.  Ross further notes that the well-known Brigantes goddess Brigantia is referred to as a water nymph-like goddess on various inscriptions.  Accordingly, it is highly likely that the water goddess worshipped in pre-Roman Buxton was the very same water goddess Brigantia, who we have previously noted as being worshipped on Winter Hill, as Belissama.

The pre-historic indigenous people who lived in the area around Castle Naze were the Cornovii tribe.  Their capital was most likely the hill fort known as The Wreakin, in Shropshire (from which, incidentally, you can clearly see Winter Hill).  Graham Webster in The British Celts and Their Gods Under Rome (1986) notes that the Cornovii tribe developed no known coinage, but that their control of the south-Cheshire salt-making industry and parts of its distribution network probably gave them a fair degree of wealth, and that since the early Iron Age they had had a network of paved and semi-paved roads good enough to transport their famous chariots.

Castle Naze is on the northern extremity of the Cornovii's territory, right on the border with the larger and more powerful Brigantes Tribe.  Little is know about the relations between these two tribes, but it is likely that they would have been cautionary trading partners.  It could be that the alignment between Winter Hill and Castle Naze was a salt trading route.  This is certainly in-line with Watkins' theories about the original purpose of ley-lines from The Old Straight Track (1926).  Furthermore, Watkins noted that patterns in naming conventions along ley lines could provide clues as to their original use.  Salt, he noted, was an important commodity and linked to placenames including the colour white... we have already noted that Winter Hill, being "Gwyn-Týr-Hield", means "Blessed God Hill"... however, "Gwyn" literally translates to "white" in Old welsh.

So, Winter Hill and Castle Naze - two undoubtedly sacred prehistoric sites, both with links to the water goddesses Brigantia, potentially represents a trading route between the ancient Brigante and Cornovii Tribes... let's now take a look at what other historic markers we find along this route that might add credence to this theory.


The founding of Manchester and Bolton - Secondary and Subsequent Artificial Alignment Markers:

St. Ann's Square in Manchester (map ref #5)


St. Ann's Church, Manchester City Centre (SJ 8377 9836)



St Ann's Square is the official centre of Manchester City, with all road mileage markers being measured to the surveyor's benchmark found on the north-west cornerstone of St. Ann's Church (see image below). 



Our alignment, passing just 20m to
the north of St Ann's Church

The alignment between Winter Hill and Castle Naze passes within 20 metres of this marker point. 

The origins of Manchester's first churches are obscure, but it is believed that St. Ann's Church, consecrated in 1712, was built on or near the site of the first church in Manchester, an Anglo-Saxon church which was destroyed by Danish invaders in 923 AD. 

Although the dedication of the church is to St Anne (which would at first appear to be congruent with the well of the same name in Buxton), the spelling is slightly different, paying tribute to Lady Ann Bland, who was the financial patron of the church.  Accordingly, it is unlikely that there is an explicit link between this relatively modern name and it's more ancient namesake in Buxton - unless it can be found that the first church was also dedicated to St. Anne, in which case there may have been an explicit link.



Surveyor's Benchmark on St. Ann's
Church - marking the center of the city
Copyright © 2014 Hayley Flynn. 
All rights reserved

The area known today as St Ann's Square was originally called Acres Field, where an annual fair was held from the 13th Century until 1823, again hinting to its central position in the old town.  An old stone cross, called "Hyde's Cross", used to stand close to Acres Field, at the junction of Fennel Street, Hanging Ditch, Withy Grove and Todd Street.  In the 1840s, with the construction of Corporation Street, the cross was moved to its current location nearby at Chetham's Library.  This stone cross may be an example of the re-carving of an older standing stone, in order to sanctify a pagan sacred site in to Christianity, perhaps similar to the cross found at St. Peter's church in Bolton, and the rededication of the Pagan Goddess Arnemetiae to St. Anne in Buxton (to be discussed further below).

Following the destruction of the first church in 923 AD, a church dedicated to St. Mary was built by King Edward the Elder.  It is thought that St. Mary's was built on or near the location of present-day Manchester Cathedral, just 400 meters north of St. Ann's Church. 

In 1215, the church was abandoned and rebuilt by Robert Greslet, Lord of the Manor and 5th Baron of Manchester;  his new church eventually became Manchester Cathedral, formally called the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George (St. Mary paying homage to the original dedication of the church built by King Edward the Elder, and the later adages of St. George being the Patron Saint of England, and St. Denys being the Patron Saint of France - perhaps reflecting the French heritage of the De la Warre family, who inherited the estate through marriage from the Greslet family in 1311, or to King Henry V's claim on the French throne at the time).



The Angel Stone - dated AD 700 -
found embedded in the wall of the
Cathedral during restoration works in the
19th Century - author's own picture.

During restoration work on the Cathedral in the 19th Century,  a small carving of an angel with a scroll was found embedded in the wall of the original South Porch of the Cathedral. 

The "Angel Stone", as it has been dubbed, is dated to around 700 AD, and may be evidence of the original Anglo-Saxon church thought to have been built on or near the site of St. Ann's church. 

An Old English inscription on the stone states "into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit". 

This old stone relic may be further evidence of the sanctification of older pagan stones with Christian iconography, at a site located directly upon our alignment in St Ann's Square.

Although the historic facts identified at this site refer to Subsequent Artificial (Christian) Markers (i.e. not prehistoric), there are other factors in the immediate vicinity that may identify the older prehistoric importance of the area.



Mamucium - City of the Mother River Goddess

The name "Manchester" comes from the name given to the Roman fort built guarding a nearby crossing of the River Irwell and Medlock, in present day Castlefield.  The name of the fort was "Mamucium", which comes from a Latinisation of the original Brittonic name for the location - either from "mamm-" (meaning "breast", in reference to a "breast-like hill"), or from "mamma" (meaning "mother" in reference to the Mother River Goddess), both of which have the same connotation.  The suffix "-ium" is used in Latin place names denoting "place or city of ~".





The vallum and gatehouse of Mamucium Roman
Fort in Castlefield - reconstructed in 1982 as part of the
area's redevelopment

The fact that the Romans gave the fort this name is itself evidence that it was an extremely important place to the local Celtic population. "The City of the Mother River Goddess" is a strong place name, and bears striking relevance when considered in conjunction with the other water-goddess sites already identified on this alignment.

The topography of prehistoric Manchester was dominated by two prominent hills - this is where the possible reference to "breast-like hills" comes from.  The first hill is situated at the meeting of the rivers Irk and Irwell, where Manchester Cathedral and Chetham's Library now stands.  The second is situated on a naturally defensible sandstone bluff between the rivers Irwell and Medlock, in present day Castlefield, roughly one mile to the south of the first fort. 

According to Gary Biltcliffe & Caroline Hoare in The Spine of Albion (2012):

"Early remains found on and around these hills indicate important settlements of the Brigantes.  When the Roman General, Agricola (AD 40 - 93) passed through here on his way to Chester, he obviously recognised the strategic importance of these hills, for he later built wooden stockades on both sites... [and later] a stone fort [was constructed at the more strategically important site] known today as Castlefield".

Castle Manchester is the historic name associated with the first fort, and was first referred to in 1184 AD and then again in 1215 AD as belonging to the Greslet family.  Manchester Cathedral is built upon this site, physical evidence of the old fort being a ringwork-like defensive earth structure upon which the Cathedral is now built.

Regarding the fort at Castlefield, J. Roby in The Traditions of Lancashire (1879) describes:

"Upon the site of Castlefied... [before the Romans] was originally erected a British fortress by the Sistuntii, the earliest possessors of Lancashire... this fell afterwards into the hands of the Brigantes... Upon the invasion of the Romans, Cereales, their General... freed the Sistuntii of Lancashire from [the Brigante] dominion."

A relief of the giant Tarquin eating a child - from the Audit
Room at Chethem's Library

There is an old folklore tale surrounding the fort at Castlefield that has an interesting connection to a folklore tale linked to Winter Hill.  After the Romans withdrew from Britain in AD 411, the Castlefield fort fell into disrepair.  John Horsley, in Britannia Romana (1732) noted:

"[The fort] is about a quarter of a mile out of the town, being south or south-west from it. The station now goes by the name of Giant's Castle or Tarquin's Castle, and the field in which it stands is called Castle Field ... the ramparts are still very conspicuous."

The legend relates to a giant named Tarquin, who lived in the fort at Castlefield.  The legend goes that Tarquin was a bad tempered foreigner, who would eat local children.  One day, during a quarrel with another giant in Stretford, he lifted a large stone from the River Medlock and threw it at the giant, but missed.  The stone in question is the "Great Stone" that can be found at the old entrance to the Trafford Park estate.  Local tradition has it that two depressions on the stone were left by the giant's thumb and forefinger when he threw it. 

There is also an Arthurian legend linked to the fort, regarding again the evil Knight Tarquin. Tarquin obtained the fortress through treachery, imprisoning the British keeper as well as some of the fabled Knights of the Round Table.  When Sir Lancelot heard of this, he travelled to Manchester and subsequently defeated the evil Knight and freed the prisoners.  It is hypothesised that this giant legend figuratively represents the invading Romans (being the evil foreigners), who defeated the indigenous Britons and figuratively imprisoned them under their yolk.

Tales of stone throwing giants missing their targets are familiar to English folklore; one such local legend is the Hanging or Giant's Stone on Turton Moor, close to Winter Hill.  Hampson, in Horwich: Its History, Legends, and Church (1883) noted that local tradition states:

"the [Giant's Stone] was thrown by a certain giant upon a certain occasion from Winter Hill... certain little hollows in the stone are the impressions made by the giant's hands".

Sound familiar?  Two very similar legends of a "giant" throwing a stone from the top of a hill.  Perhaps these stories are folklore relics of the alignment; a memory linking Winter Hill to Manchester, and beyond - perhaps clues of their ancient surveyors? Just a stones-throw away...

Winter Hill to Castle Naze alignment, passing through
St. Ann's Square in the centre, between the two
Brigante hill fort sites identified by green circles

The Winter Hill to Castle Naze alignment passes directly between these two hill fort sites in Manchester (see image on the left). 

Naturally encountering the major river Irwell on the alignment, the pre-historic inhabitants would have looked for the nearest convenient crossing point, which was found close to the confluence of the river Irwell and Medlock, where the Castlefield fort was built.

Edward Baines in his book "History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster" (1888) stated that:

"Near Ordsall Hall... by Woden's Ford and Woden's Den... was a paved causeway across the river Irwell (from Hulme Field, where the Medlock loses itself in the aforesaid river to the opposite bank), but now lost to every observer, since the Irwell was made navigable"

"Woden's Ford" may have originally been a natural ford that was located close to the present day Woden's Footbridge, that crosses the Irwell from St. George's Island, very close to the confluence of the river Medlock and Irwell, at a place known as Cornbrook.  According to Baines, the "Follower's of Woden, like the druids, worshipped in caverns and cliffs of rocks" and Woden's Den was one such place close to this ford, near to Ordsall Hall in Salford.

Ernest Brereton, in an Irwell Gallery exhibition in Salford: Salford Local History Society (1978), notes that:

"[The Romans] built a ford with rectangular stone blocks at Cornbrook, which is thought to be the first man-made structure to span the river [Irwell]". 

This Roman-made stone ford was most likely built upon a natural ford crossing point.

The Mother River Goddess element already identified in the name "Mamucium" referrers to The River Irwell, being the major river flowing through Manchester.  As already discussed, a major tributary of the River Irwell is the River Croal,  which flows through Bolton around St. Peter's church (an alignment marker, discussed below), with one of its sources being Dean Brook, which we have already identified as rising from springs on the south-east side of Winter Hill, on Smithills Moor close to Counting Hill (also a marker on our alignment, discussed below).

In the same manner that the River Ribble was worshipped as the divine River goddess Belisama, the River Irwell would also have been given these divine attributes.  This is directly evidenced by the "Mother River Goddess" element in the name Mamucium.  These two rivers, both rising on Winter Hill, are seen as a personification of the same River Goddess Belisama, also known as Brigantia!

In conclusion, when travelling between Castle Naze and Winter Hill, the indigenous people would have encountered the major river and found a natural ford nearby, allowing them to cross.  Considering the river sacred, and recognising the ford as strategic, they subsequently built fortifications on the two naturally defensible hills in the area, which the Romans would later capitalise upon; thus sowing the seed for the growth of the modern city of Manchester.

Manchester, however, isn't the only large modern conurbation that appears to have been founded upon the alignment - next we will look at how the ancient centre of Bolton is situated there also.

Bolton - St. Peter's Church (map ref #3) 


St. Peter's Church, Bolton (SD 7205 0930)

The Church of St. Peter in Bolton stands on a steep eminence rising above the River Croal at the end of Churchgate, about 200 yards east of the old market-place. The River Croal has already been identified as an important tributary of the River Irwell, or "Mother River Goddess", and cognisant with Belisama, or Brigantia; similar to the River Ribble, both having a major source on Winter Hill.



Our alignment, passing exactly through
St Peter's Church

The alignment between Winter Hill and Castle Naze passes exactly through St. Peters church in Bolton. The present day church was built in 1866, in place of an older 15th Century church that had fallen into disrepair. During the demolition of the old church, several pre-Norman stones were found under the tower, including an ancient carved stone cross in three pieces (now repaired and placed inside the church - see image below). 

The amount and type of old stones found during the reconstruction showed that at least two stone churches of earlier date had existed on the same site, one Anglo-Saxon and one Norman.

St. Peter, from the Latin "petrus" meaning "rock", was one of the Twelve Apostles, being ordained by Jesus as the "Rock of my Church".  It is unknown whether the older churches on this site were also dedicated to St. Peter, but the dedication to a Saint who represents the bedrock, or foundation-stone, of a religion may be a tribute to the original church on the site being built upon older rocks, or standing stones, that were most likely worshipped by the Pagan population.

Anglo Saxon carved Cross in
St. Peter's Church, Bolton

During the reconstruction of the church, an Anglo Saxon cross was found under the tower of the old church.  It is possible that this is a prime example the indigenous Pagan sacred site being sanctified for Christian worship.

During the Christianisation of Britain in the 6th and 7th Centuries, we find many examples of the sanctification and re-dedication of pre-existing Pagan places of worship, in order to Christianise them; this was not dissimilar to the Roman's method of cultural assimilation.  Early Christian missionaries would travel across the lands searching for Pagans to be assimilated into the Christian flock, baptising them using the very pools and springs, and surrounded by the standing stones, that they had been gathering around and worshiping for thousands of years prior. 

A common type of sanctification often took the form of the re-dedication of a spring or a well to a Christian Saint (as we saw earlier with St Anne's Well in Buxton), or the re-carving of a standing stone into the form of a cross (as we potentially see here at St. Peter's in Bolton, as well as possibly with the Hyde Cross in Manchester).  This would have the effect of auto-Christianisation of the existing population, with little need for a change in their custom and ritual gatherings.  The Christianisation of pre-historic sacred places of worship results in many alignments being marked by churches and other Christian-based signs or monuments.

Other evidence of pre-historic settlement in the immediate vicinity of St. Peter's Church in Bolton is scarce (apart from the Haulgh Tumulus, discussed below), the only other indiciations being clues left in the place names of streets in the surrounding area.  The place name "Bolton" doesn't provide any clue, it's etymology being "bothl-tun", meaning "settlement with a dwelling" in Old English.




The Old Market Cross at Churchgate in Bolton -
with St Peter's church in the background -
Image Bill Boden on Flickr

However, a prime example of an interesting street name is Silverwell Street, located next to the church.  In Celtic Gaelic, place names including the word "Silver" are often found to be a result of the a corruption of the Celtic word "sealbhar" (pronounced "sealvar"), meaning "cattle". 

Accordingly, the name Silverwell could allude to a well used to feed cattle.  Other street names in the vicinity of the church are Well Street and Water Street, both having obvious links to the location of an old Well in the area, as well their proximity of the River Croal, being an important tributary of the River Irwell, having risen on Winter Hill.

The modern-day town centre of Bolton is located some 500 meters east of St. Peter's church. Given the evidence of ancient churches being built upon the site of the banks by the River Croal, it is safe to assume that this was the original centre of the town, which subsequently grew eastwards, away from the river banks, to where the old market place was subsequently located at Churchgate (a charter to hold a market in Churchgate was granted on by King Henry III in 1251 - where an Old Market Cross is located), and later spreading further east to where the modern Victoria Square is today.


Other markers along our Alignment :
 
Counting Hill Stone Row - Secondary Artificial (Bronze Age) Marker (map ref #2)

Close to Winter Hill, near the start of our alignment, on Smithills Moor there is a row of stones that are located within 100m of our alignment.



A fine day at Counting Hill Stone Row (SD 6700 1400) - 
the stone row is shown above the modern dry wall

David Aspinall notes in Smithills Ancient Monuments (2014) that:

"There's a superb little stone row above Counting Hill, at the top of the moor, that should beautifully demonstrate the winter solstice sun setting into the sea behind Holy Island on Anglesey (if it wasn't for the smog from Ellesmere Port) and which is probably the origin of the placename 'Winter Hill'. It's a double row of stones, with most of them still in place, though collapsed, with the largest of them now designated as a county boundary marker. This stone was carved in the thirteenth century with both a cross and the letter A - for Agnes."

In the image above, the stone row is shown pointing almost due south-west, across the Lancashire Plain, roughly in the direction identified by David Aspinall.



Counting Hill Stone Row (SD 6700 1400) - 
boundary marker marked with the letter "A"

The second image shows the boundary marker with a carved letter "A", also noted by Aspinall. On closer examination, it would appear there are two letter "A"s carved into the rock, as a mirror image of eachother.

The origins and usage of this stone row are not clear, but it may represent an astronomical alignment as theorised by Aspinall, which would make it a potential Bronze Age site (potentially older). In any event, this represents a Secondary Artificial marker on our alignment, as I believe it would have been placed here due to specific knowledge of the alignment existing, whereas the carved letter "A" is a Subsequent Artificial marker, most probably carved by a landowner to stake their claim, without any explicit knowledge of the alignment.

Another interesting feature in the vicinity of Counting Hill is Dean Ditch. David Lane in Winter Hill Scrapbook (2007) notes: 

"[A] dry stone wall follows the route of an ancient ditch which... was originally called Dane or Danes Ditch... [indicating] that the Danes once settled in this part of Lancashire".  

This ancient earthwork, the length of which may be over 3 kilometres long, could potentially mark the Danelaw boundary between the incumbent Anglo-Saxons and the invading Danes. Other place names in the local area also demonstrate a Danish influence, such as Smithills Dean, and Dean Brook. 

Dean Brook has already been identified as an important source of the River Croal, rising on the south-east side of Winter Hill, below Counting Hill.  Accordingly, the area around the Counting Hill Stone Row would have been considered sacred to the Setantii and Brigante tribes who lived along the banks of the Irwell, in Manchester.

As a final note on this site, I do not know who this "Agnes" was, referred to by David Aspinall - but my romantic view is that "A" could stand for ængli-seaxe... Anglo-Saxon... marking out the Danelaw boundary. Unfortunately, this term is not an endonym, as was rarely used by the Anglo-Saxons themselves, making this view highly improbable.

The Haulgh Tumulus - Secondary Artificial (Bronze Age) Marker (map ref #4)

Alignment hunting is often a thankless task.  Identifying a potential alignment between two points on a map is the easy bit; the hard work comes researching its path, finding all the subsequent markers that promote the alignment from a fanciful interest into statistical relevance. But sometimes, you just so happen upon that golden nugget that substantiates your hard work.

Our alignment, passing exactly through The Haulgh
Tumulus (SD 7242 0899), indicated by the green circle

When searching through endless lists of pre-historic sites in Bolton, and plotting them on a map, I found this site which just so happened to fall exactly upon the path of our alignment, as it leaves Bolton towards Manchester, in a place called the Haulgh (pronounced locally as "the hoff").

In Man and the Changing Landscape (1982) Bernard Barnes quotes the findings of local Bolton historian Mathew Dawes writing in ‘British Burial Places near Bolton’ (1852):

“Near Haulgh, about a quarter of a mile south-east from Bolton Parish Church, on a piece of high flat land, on the east bank of the Croal, and about fifty feet above the river, was a tumulus, about thirty feet in diameter, and four feet deep, consisting of small boulders…

It was discovered in September, 1826, in forming a branch of the new road leading from Bolton to Bury. It was probably much depressed in its formation and was covered with a few inches of mound.

The cop or fence crossed it in a north and south direction. About the centre of this tumulus was a cist-vaen, about four feet six inches long and one foot deep, formed of four upright stones and a coverer, and its length was nearly north and south. In this cist-vaen was a skeleton, with the legs doubled up, and the head to the north.

Near the head, and on the west side, was found an urn, inverted, four and a half inches in the widest diameter, and three and a quarter inches high, and perforated by four small holes in the widest part. On the other side of the head was a bronze spear-head, four and three-eighths inches long, and one and three-eighths inch wide, of which the point was bent back, and a piece of the side chipped away. The urn and spear-head were taken to the Countess of Bradford, the Earl of Bradford being the owner of the land.”

There is no physical evidence left of this pre-historic site in the Haulgh, due to the encroachment of urbanisation in the Industrial Revolution. However, from the explanation provided by Dawes, it would appear to be a Bronze Age Round Barrow. I class this as a Secondary Artificial Market, as its builders would have placed the barrow at this site due to explicit knowledge of the alignment.

A6 Road in Longsight - Subsequent Artificial (Roman) Marker (map ref #6)
 


Our alignment shown in congruence with a stretch of the
modern A6 through Longsight, which followed the old
Roman Road to London

The A6 is one of the main historic north-south roads in England. It runs from Luton in Bedfordshire to Carlisle in Cumbria, and is the fourth longest numbered road in Britain.

Much of the modern A6 in the North of England follows the same path as the old Roman road from London to Carlisle that preceded it. 

In Longsight, South Manchester, the A6 is known as Stockport Road and later turns into Buxton Road and London Road, paying homage to its ancient destination. 

Our alignment perfectly lines-up with this stretch of the A6 in Longsight, which adds further evidence to the theory that the Romans were not the first to build straight roads across Britain and Europe. 

Graham Robb's book The Ancient Paths: Discovering the Lost Map of Celtic Europe (2014) proves that the Celts had their own road system on which the Romans later based theirs.  In an interview for the Telegraph, Robb points out that:

“It has often been wondered how the Romans managed to build the Fosse Way, which goes from Exeter to Lincoln. They must have known what the finishing point would be, but they didn’t conquer that part of Britain until decades later. How did they manage to do that if they didn’t follow the Celtic road?”

Robb's research involved the Heraklean Way, an ancient Roman road that runs for 1,000 miles from the Iberian Peninsula to the Alps; as well as the Celtic settlements arranged at intervals along the route, known as Mediolanum.  Robb discovered that the entire Via Heraklea runs as straight as an arrow along the angle of the rising and setting sun at the solstices, and that plotting lines through the Mediolanum settlements result in lines that match sections of Roman road, which themselves point to Celtic Forts along the way, not to Roman towns.

In light of these corroborating findings, the fact that the course of the A6 Roman road lines-up with our ancient alignment is further evidence as to it being an ancient navigation path that pre-dated the Romans.

In Conclusion

Winter Hill at the start of our alignment was worshipped by the local Setantti and Brigante tribes as the "Blessed God Hill", being a source of the mighty River Ribble and the River Irwell; both worshipped as the personification of the Mother River Goddess Belisama, or Brigantia - often referred to as Mother Earth or Mother Nature.

The foundations of the ancient centres of Manchester and Bolton can be found exactly upon our alignment; the former being St. Ann's Square and the latter St. Peter's Church ,on the banks of the River Croal. Manchester takes its name from the Roman fort of "Mamucium", literally meaning "City of the Mother River Goddess", in reference to the sacred River Irwell, which is fed by the River Croal. It has also been shown that Manchester's two main hills were important sites to the local Setantii and Brigante tribes, later becoming Roman forts. 

Then finally, Castle Naze at the end of our alignment, in close proximity to the Roman "Aquae Arnemetiae" or "Spa of the Goddess of the Grove" in Buxton; the name deriving from the local Celt goddess "Arnemetia", literally translating to "she who dwells over against the sacred grove", which is in fact an ephitet given to all water-nymph-like goddesses, and a common reference for Belisama, also known as Brigantia - the Mother River Goddess!

The ancient markers identified along our alignment all have an association with the Mother River Goddess - the alignment itself may have been a personification of Mother Nature - the hill points at the start and end representing her nurturing breasts, the waters flowing from them her milk, which enriched the fertile region at the centre, being her womb, and the local Setantii and Brigante tribes, her children.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog - it has taken me a long time to research and write - please comment below and give me your thoughts.  Let me know if you have any alternative theories, or please suggest any further areas for research. Thank you!