Flint Glass Works, Jersey Street, Manchester, Greater Manchester. Post-Excavation Assessment.

The Percival, Vickers & Co Ltd British and Foreign Flint Glass Works on JerseyStreet, Manchester, was established in 1844, and a purpose-built factory equipped with two glass furnaces, an annealing house, and associated workshops was erected on leased land in Ancoats (centred on SJ 8518 9869). The factory was one of an important group of glass works that was established in Manchester during the 19th century, and, by 1863, had become the largest of the city’s glass factories, with a total workforce of 373 (Yates 1987). By 1880, the works had been expanded to include a third furnace, reflecting an increased demand for press-moulded wares in addition to traditional fine cut and engraved tablewares. However, the premises had been sold by 1914; the former office and warehouse building along the Jersey Street frontage was occupied subsequently by a clothing manufacturer, whilst the area to the rear was cleared of structures associated with the glass works and redeveloped.
During the 1990s, the site was assessed as part of English Heritage’s Monuments Protection Programme (MPP), which recommended that the survival of buried remains should be investigated in the event of redevelopment. In accordance with this recommendation, an archaeological condition was attached to planning consent for a recent joint proposal by Urban Splash Ltd and Lever Street Properties Ltd to erect
modern apartments on the site. In the first instance, the planning condition required a programme of archaeological evaluation and watching brief to assess the level of the
survival of the glass works in advance of redevelopment. This work was undertaken by Oxford Archaeology North in October 2003.