George Leigh Street, Ancoats, Manchester. Archaeological Excavation Final Report.

Comet Estates has submitted a planning application (082225/FO/2007/N1) to Manchester City Council for the redevelopment of a plot of land situated at the eastern end of George Leigh Street, within the Ancoats area of Manchester (centred on NGR SJ 8509 9888). The land was used most recently as a car park, although an archaeological desk-based assessment carried out in 2007 traced its development from the late eighteenth century to the present day, and concluded that the site was likely to contain buried remains of local significance. In particular, it was considered likely that the remains of nineteenth-century workers’ dwellings would survive beneath the
modern ground surface.
Following on from the desk-based assessment, and in accordance with Conditions 5b and 5c attached to the planning consent, the County Archaeologist for Greater
Manchester, who provides planning advice to Manchester City Council, recommended that a programme of intrusive investigation was undertaken in advance of the development of the site. In the first instance, an archaeological evaluation was carried out, which was intended to establish the presence or absence of buried remains, assess their significance, and the potential impact of the proposed
development on the archaeological resource. The evaluation was carried out by OA North in February 2008, and comprised the removal of the modern surfacing over the maximum feasible area of the proposed development site. This confirmed that well preserved buried remains of archaeological interest survived in-situ, namely the
remains of early nineteenth-century workers’ dwellings. Following consultation with the County Archaeologist for Greater Manchester, it was recommended that a programme of further targeted investigation was carried out to compile a detailed archaeological record of the buried remains to mitigate their ultimate destruction as part of the development.