I finally took up a much-repeated offer from Peter Keen to come to one of the working parties excavating the cottage at Hulme Lock. Not a rusty bike or bedstead in sight. Even the canal could only be identified by the outline of the lock.

The excavation has been going on for some years now and by the time I got involved the basement rooms of the lock keeper’s cottage were revealed down to the brick and stone floor level. Peter had inferred that it was now a tidying up exercise and, being involved in the surveying profession, did I have any thoughts on how to measure up and interpret the results?

Although most of the layout was revealed there were small patches of overgrown banking not touched and maybe I could help Phil, James and Peter clear out the top six inches to see if anything was underneath?

As is often the case, the top six inches revealed the copings of a brick wall providing a clean edge to start excavating against. Before long I was involved in the clearing out of a large brick lined box full of cinders and domestic rubbish such as shoes and early glass bottles with a wide variety of stoppers.

The use of the brick box is not definite but the design appears to match that of a cess pit used to contain the sanitary waste prior to disposal. The box being waterproofed with puddling clay tends to indicate a holding rather than a filtration process.

Just one or two visits to see the cottage has turned into a regular monthly session that can either involve excavation work or consolidation of the surviving brick walls under the expert guidance of Dennis, our brick layer.

To illustrate that interpretation should be done with an open mind, the decision was taken to clear off a rough portion of infill within one of the basement room walls to make it more presentable. In so doing, a radius of brickwork was exposed, and the tidying-up exercise revealed yet another mystery. By the end of the afternoon a roughly circular structure had appeared with a brick base and the bottom two courses of a brick wall. The base of the structure was roughly at waist level and interestingly it was located behind a former range so it would have been concealed from view for many years.

After taking advice we are now certain that the structure is an early bread oven where faggots would be placed inside to heat the brickwork. The burnt wood would then be taken out and after sweeping clean the dough would be placed inside to bake.

The problem with the interpretation of this structure is that the oven has been sliced off just above base level during demolition, giving no clue as to what the top section looked like. We have two brick courses left that seems to indicate that brickwork came over to form a dome, but that is only a suggestion.

If anyone has any idea about what such an oven looked like it may be possible to restore it. Such an important feature should be made presentable for the public to see. Please contact a SCARS committee member if you have any such information.

The working party has got to the stage where finishing off works are taking place. It is surprising what effect a newly laid engineering brick coping has in transforming a ragged section of wall into a clearly defined basement wall. The group now leaves at the end of the day with a real sense of achievement and the hope that unrestricted public access will not be too far away.

If anything I hope this rambling from a newcomer will help to show that canal restoration is not a repetitive rubbish collecting exercise. There is the archaeological element of exposing the unexpected and the satisfaction of helping in the preservation of our history.

There is a dedicated small group of enthusiasts under the direction of Colin Greenall who turn out each time but there is plenty of work to do for other newcomers. Do not be shy or feel you are inexperienced. 'Restoration' is quite prominent in the Society’s title, the more people who get involved with Hulme Lock cottage the quicker it can be completed, and the next project started.

Roy Forshaw