Grand Arcade, Wigan, Greater Manchester. Archaeological Evaluation.

A proposal to erect a major new retail facility in Wigan, known as the Grand Arcade Shopping Development, has been submitted by Modus Properties. The proposed development area lies on the eastern fringe of the centre of Wigan (centred on SD 5836 0571), and incorporates part of the historic town (Fig 1). In order to secure archaeological interests, a condition was placed on the planning application, which, in
the first instance, allowed for a desk-based assessment of the proposed development area. The results of the desk-based study led to a requirement for an archaeological
evaluation of the site prior to development. This specified the excavation of 36 targeted trial trenches, which focused on nine areas of the site that were considered to have a potential to contain archaeological remains.
The programme of archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Oxford Archaeology North between November 2004 and February 2005. The results obtained from this work have identified three areas in particular that have significant in-situ
archaeological remains: Ship Yard (Area G3), Powell’s Yard (Area G7) and McEwan’s Yard (Area G10). In addition, the area along the foot of the escarpment to the west of Station Road (Areas G6 and G8) revealed some archaeological remains of significance, but seemingly in a lower density.