New Bridgefield, Stockport, Greater manchester. Desk-based Assessment.

Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned by BDP to carry out an archaeological desk-based assessment of the proposed New Bridgefield development, Stockport (centred c NGR SJ 8935 9055). The principle aim of the assessment was to identify, as far as reasonably possible, the nature and significance of the archaeological and cultural heritage resource within the study area, and to inform and support a planning application for the development of the site.
Historically, the study area almost entirely comprised agricultural land bordering Heaton Lane (now Prince’s Street) until the late 18th and early 19th centuries when it
was developed as a suburb of the expanding town of Stockport, one of the main centres of the region’s cotton industry. A grid-iron of streets was now laid out within
the study area, which was largely developed with workers’ houses, with probable early shops on Heaton lane and a scatter of public houses, but which also contained a
number of industrial buildings, including cotton factories and an iron foundry. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the redevelopment of several sites on Heaton Lane,
which was renamed Prince’s Street to commemorate a royal visit to Stockport in 1908.
In the present day, buildings from these various stages of the study area’s development still stand on Prince’s Street. Buildings to the rear of Prince’s Street were demolished
in the late 20th century and their site largely redeveloped as car parks.