United Reform Church Relocation Site, School Brow, Bury, Greater Manchester. Archaeological Evaluation.

Following approval of proposals by Thornfield Properties PLC for the relocation of the Bury United Reformed Church (URC) to a site on School Brow, Bury (NGR SD 8050 1095), the Assistant County Archaeologist for Greater Manchester
recommended that, in order satisfy Condition 10 of the planning consent, the site be subject to a programme of evaluation prior to development to establish the presence or
absence of buried archaeological remains. Accordingly, Waterman CPM produced a specification for an archaeological evaluation and, following submission of costs and a project design, Oxford Archaeology North were commissioned to undertake the work.
A previous desk-based assessment, undertaken by Waterman CPM in 2005, indicated that there were no known archaeological sites of great antiquity within the bounds of the development area, although several archaeological remains have been identified in the vicinity, such as Early Bronze Age collared urns and a barrow, located to the south-west. The site appears not to have been developed until the early nineteenth century, when the construction of rows of houses built along the Parson’s Lane and School Brow street frontages took place. By the end of the twentieth century, these buildings were demolished and replaced by the current car-parking area.