Water Street Dye Works, Water Street, Manchester - Excavation

Renaker Build Ltd has obtained planning consent to erect a new block of apartments
on land off Water Street, Manchester (centred on SJ 8267 9765). An earlier
archaeological evaluation had demonstrated that the site contained locally significant
archaeological remains relating to activity dating from the late eighteenth century
onwards. The construction works required for the proposed new apartment block will
necessitate considerable earth-moving works, which will inevitably have a negative
impact on the buried archaeological remains contained at the site. Given this, the
Greater Manchester Archaeological Advisory Service (GMAAS), which provides
archaeological advice to Manchester City Council, recommended that an
archaeological excavation should be carried out.
In March 2014, Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned by
Renaker Build Ltd to undertake the required scheme of archaeological excavation.
This comprised the excavation of a single open-area trench, which targeted remains
relating to the dye works and a smallwares factory that lay to its south-west.