Bradford Road, Ancoats, Manchester- Desk-based Assessment

Maryland Securities Group is devising proposals for a development of land on Bradford Road, in the Ancoats area of Manchester (centred at NGR SJ 8585 9872). In order to support the development proposals, and inform the planning process, Maryland Securities Group commissioned Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) to undertake an archaeological desk-based assessment of the application area. The principal aim of the assessment was to build on the results drawn from an earlier study of Brunswick Mill (Jenner 2006), and to identify, as far as possible, the nature and significance of the archaeological resource within the study area, and to establish the impact of development upon this resource. The resource has been examined to see if it includes Scheduled Monuments, Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas, Registered Parks and Gardens, and non-designated features of regional or local archaeological or historical interest and value.
Ancoats incorporates some 400 acres on the north-eastern edge of Manchester city centre, which, from the late eighteenth century, became one of the most intensely developed manufacturing centres in the world. The industrial prowess of the area was derived primarily from a large number of closely-packed steam-powered textile mills, although a variety of other industries were also established, together with a dense concentration of workers’ housing. The origins of this industrial townscape can be traced to the 1770s, when a grid-iron pattern of streets was laid out across part of Ancoats, and the intervening plots of land were sold to middlemen for development.