First the demolition, soon comes the building, but at the moment the site of Wigan’s Galleries shopping centre is in the hands of archaeologists. More than 25 exploratory trenches have been dug on the large tract of land between Market Place and New Market Street as experts bid to unearth historical treasures.

Such excavations are a standard part of the process in larger developments such as the Galleries25 project.

Chances to seek out buried artefacts and remnants of old roads and buildings are few and far between so they have to be seized upon. And Wigan is ancient enough to have the potential to yield up all kinds of secrets from the past.

The town centre has been there for hundreds of years and played a key part in the English Civil War of the 17th century and Roman remains have also been recovered from sites nearby, leading experts to speculate that this is the empire’s settlement known on maps of the time as Coccium.

But so far the works, which are of course delaying the start of construction of a major new complex incorporating leisure, hospitality, retail and accommodation, have proved rather disappointing.