BACK to the obelisk on Smithills Moor - and an answer!

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago Mr F Woodward, of Sheep Cote Green Farm, Smithills, asked if anyone could identfy an obelisk on the side of Winter Hill.

A couple of readers later thought they might have clues, but the definite answer has come from Ian Ratcliffe, who is the Bolton Countryside Ranger for the Smithills area.

He tells me the obelisk mentioned is not an obelisk after all-- but a well which has been capped over with concrete, and stands about 3ft high. "It appears in the 1908 and later maps," he says, and he gives the Grid Reference 68031321. So the mystery is solved, it seems.

I have also received a letter from David Aspinall, in Newcastle, who doesn't say what his connection is with Bolton, but obviously knows this area well.

"I am a time-served mason (among other things)," he writes, "and would define 'obelisk' as a 'tapering stone pillar'. There's a large one on the Embankment in London, called Cleopatra's Needle - there's nothing at all like that, bar the gateposts, in Smithills. Your mention of the map and the map reference given disagree by about 300m. However . . .

"There is a small pointed boulder to the SW of the Dean Mills Reservoir, with an inscription 'RG'. This is probably the signature of the person who built the lodge, as well as the other one (now drained) beside it. The style of the lettering is consistent with the date of construction.

"The two letters are on the middle-right of the stone but, more interestingly, at the top left are a couple of scratches that look as though someone has started to inscribe a pattern, maybe prehistorically, and then given up.

"There are many ancient stones on Smithills Moor, some of them carved, but these await 'official' confirmation. I've found three stone rows, from the bronze age, may standing stones, two robbed barrows (a heap of earth placed over one or more prehistoric tombs), and what seems to be a small barrow in pristine condition.

"Two of these rows, which are similar to stone circles but straight rather than circular, are about 85m in length. One has eight stones, the other 100. The third stone row is about 20m long and has about 20 stones in it. Two of them have been 'Christianised' with carved initials and a rude cross, probably by Saxon farmers. This little row is oriented on Adam Hill -- or rather the prominent mound on top of it, and is situated at SD 673 141.

"I found the first stone row more than a year ago, and notified the County Archeology Unit. This low, below Green Nook, in the middle of a field, comprises of eight boulders, five of them rather large. Three of them have characteristic carved grooves, and one of them, 2m by 1m by 1m are carved with parallel grooves.

"I admit that finding all these prehistoric sites in Smithills is akin to finding a unicorn in one of the fields, but that does not mean they are not there. It doesn't help that the archaeology unit surveyed Smithills in 1996 and found very little. They discounted a barrow as a bell pit spoil heap and even archaeology undergraduates know that bell pits don't produce much spoil. I've turned my finds over to the Bolton Archaeology Society recently, and this will (or should) expedite their recognition. All the sites are recorded on the modern antiquarian website.

"The initialled stone tablet probably marked the completion of a pair of river regulating reservoirs built in mid-Victorian times. These held water after rainfall and released it to the brook when the water flow was slow.

"The water was used to supply Dean Mills, in Barrow Bridge, with process water for bleaching, mainly.

"Now that we are experiencing extreme spates, with consequent downstream floods, it should be expedient to reinstate these, and other, regulating reservoirs, with the aim of taking the sting out of the vicious flows. Sadly, the skills are almost lost, and there is little incentive."

Well, there you are folks, many details hinting at the long history of Smithills. I hope that you found it interesting. Even if the obelisk in question turns out to be a well.