246 Mr. W. H. Bailey on 



The old canoe, as I have stated, was found in the Irwell 

 valley, near to the Chat Moss basin, which I will now 

 describe, adding some observations on the causes which led 

 to the formation of the Moss. 



Pre-historic Chat Jlloss. 



Chat Moss is in the Irwell valley, bounded- on the north 

 and east by the highlands of Patricroft, Worsley, and 

 Astley, on the west by the river Glazebrook, and on the 

 south by the river Irwell, which immediately changes its 

 name to the Mersey. On the opposite side of the valley, 

 near Partington, is Carrington Moss, and similar moss lands 

 or lagoons exist extending along the south side of the 

 valley to the tidal estuary of the Mersey. St. Chad, of 

 Chester, was Bishop of Mercia in the year 669, and had 

 dominion over an extensive tract of country, from Man- 

 chester to Chester and all lands between the Mersey and 

 the Dee ; and it has been said that this is the origin of the 

 name Chat or Chatley Moss. 



Most writers assert, with but little evidence, that the 

 Moss was formerly an extensive forest. It is five miles 

 long from east to west, and about three miles broad from 

 north to south. 



According to Baines, the forest of Chatley must have 

 disappeared before the Norman conquest, as the Doomsday 

 Book only gives in the Hundred of Salford very much less 

 forest land than the entire of Chat Moss, as the forests of 

 Horwich and Blackley alone were equal to nine miles long 

 and five and a quarter miles in width, which is about the 

 area of forest lands of the district recorded in that survey. 



Underneath the Moss the soil is of a sandy nature, and 

 below this is found boulder clay ; and although I am not 

 in possession of sufficient information to lead to a definite 

 conclusion, I believe that a forest did not exist on Chat 

 Moss in the ancient days. We have sufficient evidence to 



