In June we went to an excavation at Poulton, just south of Chester. Finds here include Mesolithic flints (8,000-4,500 BC)- a Neolithic henge (about 3,500BC) reconstructed using birch posts - a Bronze Age (about 2,000-900BC) burial site and ring ditch - much Roman building material, pottery and a boundary ditch - and Saxon burials below the remains of a medieval chapel.

We then visited nearby Holt church, which has a lovely carved font dating from 1490 and a medieval bridge built in 1338.

In July, David Hunt took us to Leyland Parish church and Worden Park. He told us about the families who had owned the Hall and the fire that demolished most of it - Leyland now owns the grounds as a public park.

We finished at the Museum, next to the church, which was the seventeenth century grammar school and has an interesting exhibition about Leyland.

In September we had an excellent guided visit to Whalley Abbey and town.

The ruins of the abbey church have hollows under the choir stalls to amplify the voices.

The Assheton family, who acquired the abbey after the Dissolution, made the abbot's lodging into part of their Tudor mansion, preserving the enormous fireplaces in the kitchen.

We were told that the several pubs and The Swan coaching inn in Towngate are where the cattle market was held, that the old stone houses by the bridge are timber-framed wattle and daub inside, and we saw the large millwheel of the old mill.

Finally we looked at the church with its three Norse crosses, a Roman altar and the lovely carved stalls originally from the Abbey.

We have seven meetings a year with lectures and three excursions in the summer. Talks are on the third Friday of the month at 7.45pm, at the United Reformed Church on Symonds Road (between Blackpool Road and the Withy Trees), Fulwood, Preston.

All are welcome, entry £2.00 for non-members, free for members. Our next meeting is on Friday Oct 17, when Fraser Brown will talk on 'Ferry Fryston prehistoric burial ground - not just a chariot burial!' this is about the burials found when the A1-M62 junction was altered. Do come.

For further information please contact Mavis Shannon 01772 709187, Janet Edmunds 01772 856796 or visit our website: www.lancsarchsoc.org.uk

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