In March 2010, 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 Bottling Wood, Wigan (centred on NGR SD 58820 06650). The archaeological investigation was required as part of a scheme of flood defence works that are being carried out by The Environment Agency along the course of the River Douglas. An element of this scheme allows for the construction of a dam and associated infrastructure on the site of a former settlement in Bottling Wood, which developed as an industrial hamlet during the nineteenth century. However, the hamlet formed part of a designated Unhealthy Area that was outlined for clearance in the late 1920s by the Insanitary Houses and Conversions Committee of Wigan Borough Council, and was ultimately demolished in 1927-8.