Sutton Mill, Coppull Lane, Wigan. Archaeological Evaluation and Watching Brief.

In August 2008, Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned by Axis, acting on behalf of The Environment Agency, to carry out a programme of archaeological investigation in the vicinity of Coppull Lane, Wigan (centred on NGR SD 5878 0665). The investigation was required to inform a proposed scheme of flood defence improvements to the River Douglas, and its predicted impact on the archaeological resource of the area. The investigation was focused on the site of Sutton Mill, a former corn mill on the west bank of the River Douglas, but also examined an area in Bottling Wood, on the opposite side of the river, which had been exploited for small-scale mining purposes and was occupied by workers’ cottages
during the nineteenth century.
The first element of the archaeological investigation comprised a programme of documentary research. This concluded that the origins of Sutton Mill are unclear, and
whilst the possibility that the site was occupied by a fulling mill during the medieval period cannot be discounted, firm evidence is lacking. Sutton Mill is first depicted on a plan of c 1712, and is also shown on William Yates’ Survey of the County Palatine of Lancaster, which was published in 1786. Later, more detailed mapping shows it as
a rectangular structure with two additional out buildings, and an associated weir across the River Douglas. References to a corn mill on Coppull Lane in nineteenthcentury
trade directories occur from 1828 onwards, although it had been converted for use as a farm by 1909. The building, together with numerous dwellings on the opposite side of the river in Bottling Wood, formed part of a designated Unhealthy Area, which was outlined for clearance in the late 1920s by the Insanitary Houses and Conversions Committee of Wigan Borough Council.