Openshaw West, Clayton, Manchester. Archaeological Excavation.

In September 2010, Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned by WYG Environment, acting on behalf of Brookshaw Developments Ltd, to carry out a programme of archaeological evaluation at Openshaw West, Manchester (centred on NGR SJ 87460 98052). The archaeological investigation was required as part of a wider scheme of works intended to remediate and make safe the site in advance of the ultimate redevelopment of the area. In the first instance, the programme of archaeological investigation was intended to comprise the excavation of eight evaluation trenches, coupled with an additional three trenches placed across the historic core of the former Clayton Aniline Works. The evaluation trenches were
intended to identify and characterise the surviving evidence for the range of targets identified in an archaeological desk-based study of the site, and allow an informed
decision to be reached regarding the need for further excavation to record buried remains that may be destroyed during the course of development groundworks.
Excavation of the trial trenches demonstrated clearly that well-preserved structural remains survived in-situ across parts of the site, which merited further archaeological
investigation to mitigate their ultimate loss during development work. Following discussions with the County Archaeologist for Greater Manchester and WYG Environment, OA North was commission to carry out detailed excavation of five discrete parts of the site. The areas targeted for further excavation comprised: a group of nineteenth-century workers’ cottages, known as Cow Patch; a smaller group of
cottages, annotated on historical mapping as Ivy Cottage; the steam-power plant of a nineteenth-century textile mill; a terrace of nineteenth-century dwellings; and part of
the Clayton Aniline Works. The excavations were intended to inform a series of research objectives drawn from the initiatives for archaeological research defined for
the industrial and modern periods as stated in the current Archaeological Research Framework for North West England.