Land Adajacent to Chorlton New Mill, Cambridge Street, Manchester - Desk-based Assessment

Renaker has devised proposals for the redevelopment of land situated off Cambridge Street in the Chorlton-upon-Medlock area of Manchester (centred on NGR 383920 397430). In order to facilitate the process, Renaker commissioned Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) to carry out an archaeological desk-based assessment of the Site Area. The data generated from the assessment is intended to provide an informed basis regarding the significance of any buried archaeological remains within the site. The assessment has focused on sub-surface archaeological resource of the Site Area; impacts on the settings of adjacent standing buildings have not been assessed, as these are being considered in a separate report that is being prepared independently.
In total, 41 heritage assets have been identified in the wider study area, of which seven lie within the boundary of the Site Area. With the exception of the tentative projected course of a Roman road from Manchester to Buxton, all of the sites identified within the Site Area derived from the industrial development of Chorlton-upon-Medlock during the nineteenth century. In particular, most of the Site Area was developed initially in 1824 as a single-storey weaving shed, which was put into production in 1829. This is thought to have been the largest weaving shed in Manchester when built, and was amongst the earliest purpose-built weaving sheds to be established in the country. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that it was intended to serve Charles Macintosh’s pioneering rubber works on the opposite side of Cambridge Street, and housed the looms that wove the first waterproof textile goods.
None of the known heritage assets identified within the Site Area are afforded statutory designation, and are thus not considered to be of national importance that would require preservation in-situ. Moreover, it seems probable that all of the non-designated heritage assets identified within the Site Area have been damaged or destroyed during the various phases of demolition and redevelopment that occurred during the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries, reducing their archaeological value.