Wickenhall to Newhey Pipeline, Piethorne, Greater Manchester- Rapid Desk-Based Assessment and Watching Brief

United Utilities has proposed the construction of a new pipeline from Wickenhall to Newhey, Piethorne, Greater Manchester (SD 9610 1250 to 9350 1080, Fig 1). As the scheme affects areas of archaeological potential, the County Archaeologist at Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit Sites and Monuments Record (GMAUSMR), recommended that a rapid desk-based assessment and permanent presence watching brief should be undertaken for previously undisturbed sections of the pipeline, and for areas where industrial remains are known to exist.
The rapid desk-based research was undertaken by OA North in January 2007. A total of 13 sites were identified through inspection of the GMAUSMR and other primary sources. The sites consisted of three findspots, one earthwork site, four industrial sites, five hydrological management features and one chapel building. Of these, two were prehistoric in origin, six were demonstrably post-medieval and a further three were of unknown date.
There was a great deal of disturbance of the landscape within the study area during the construction of the Oldham Loop railway, and municipal reservoirs and associated utility works, which were built in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These works may have resulted in the destruction of unknown archaeological deposits or features, which were not recorded.
Two stone culverts were observed during the watching brief and it would appear that these relate to the nineteenth century hydrological management of the landscape. The bulk of the finds assemblage which was recovered during the project comprised kitchenwares and tablewares of the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although one fragment of Cistercian-type ware, of seventeenth century date, was present.
There are no recommendations for any further work along the route of the pipeline