The Museum of Science and Industry, Liverpool Road, Manchester. Archaeological Watching Brief Final Report.

Between June 2009 and March 2010, Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) carried out an archaeological watching brief on behalf of The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester within and adjacent to the Lower Byrom Street Warehouse,
which forms part of the museum’s premises on Liverpool Road (centred on NGR SJ 83172 97870). The warehouse is a Grade II listed building, and the archaeological watching brief was required as a condition of listed building consent to carry out a proposed scheme of improvements to the premises. The watching brief was also required to assess the nature of the sub-surface archaeological resource of the study
area. In particular, it aimed to establish the presence or absence of any surviving Roman remains, as the site lies close to the focus of Roman activity in Manchester, which was centred on the Roman fort at Castlefield.
It was proposed that the archaeological watching brief monitored the excavation of two trial pits for geo-technical purposes adjacent to the south-facing elevation of the
Lower Byrom Street Warehouse, and another trial pit that was to be excavated through the floor of the basement of the building. These were intended to ascertain the nature
of the sub-surface deposits in the areas adjacent to the south-facing elevation of the Lower Byrom Street Warehouse, and beneath the floor of the basement, in preparation
for the addition of two lifts and an internal stairway. In addition, dynamic window samples were taken from the area to the south of the warehouse, and these demonstrated that the solid bedrock lies at depths ranging from 2.60 – 2.90m below
the modern ground surface. The window samples also indicated that the solid geology was overlain by a layer of sandy-clay, and sealed by deep deposit of made ground,
which was up to 2.5m thick.