32-38 Oldham Road, Ancoats, Manchester- Building Investigation Final Report

In July 2007, Oxford Archaeology North was commissioned by CgMs Consulting to carry out an archaeological building investigation of three properties fronting Oldham Road in Ancoats, Manchester (centred on NGR SJ 8475 9876). The survey was required to satisfy an archaeological condition attached to consent for a planning proposal to redevelop the land, which allows for the demolition of Nos 34–38 Oldham Road (Fig 1). The survey provided a rare opportunity to investigate archaeologically a series of early dwellings and small commercial premises in Ancoats; an important and expanding archaeological dataset for the development of the early steam-powered mills and workers’ housing in Ancoats has been generated from recent archaeological investigations in the area, although the present study has focussed on a type of building that has not attracted the same level of study.
Although only three buildings survive on the site, physical evidence for the recently demolished No 32 Oldham Road survives in the party wall of the adjacent building. This building was constructed prior to 1793, and included a cellar. No 34 Oldham Road, the western of the extant structures, was added shortly afterwards, before 1800, and although remodelled heavily during the subsequent two centuries, the survey revealed it to have been intended primarily as a dwelling. The position of the original fireplaces, internal walls and stairs were revealed, as were stairs leading from the pavement down into the cellar. No 36 Oldham Road had been built by 1821, and retains almost all of its 19th-century character on the upper two floors, although the ground floor had clearly been altered extensively. Whilst the first floor partition was brick, that on the second floor was timber, providing an insight into original construction techniques for such structures, which in the rare occasions they survive, have usually been modernised internally (as with No 34 Oldham Road). No 38 Oldham Road is of a later date, and represents an example of a 20th-century purpose-built shop and warehouse. Whilst unremarkable in its architectural style, it demonstrates a close architectural link to the larger industrial premises in the locality that it most probably served. Such structures are often overlooked in the archaeological record, so its inclusion within the survey provides a useful link with the more extensively researched warehouses of earlier and contemporary periods.