New Wakefield Street, Manchester, Greater Manchester. Archaeological Desk-based Assessment.

In August 2009, Hodder & Partners Ltd, acting on behalf of SC Great Marlborough Street Limited, commissioned Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) to undertake an archaeological desk-based assessment of a site on the corner of New Wakefield Street and Great Marlborough Street in central Manchester (centred on SJ 84053 97437).
The study aimed to assess the potential for significant buried archaeological remains, and was required to support and inform a planning application for a redevelopment of
the site.
The putative route of the Roman road from Manchester to Buxton (Site 36) is projected to the south of the proposed development area. However, the exact location of the route through this area awaits confirmation. There is little evidence for any other activity in the study area until the late eighteenth century, when the industrial development that took place in Manchester at this time meant that the environs of the study area were developed rapidly with steam-powered textile mills and associated workers’ housing. This particular area of Manchester, south of Oxford Road and north of the river Medlock came to be known as Little Ireland during the nineteenth century as it had a very high population of Irish immigrants.