Site Event/Activity record ECH3678 - Manchester Airport Second Runway: Archaeological Field Survey for Manchester Airport PLC

Report detailing the first phase of archaeological investigations, undertaken in 1996, within the area of the proposed second runway at Manchester Airport. The investigations included field survey, the geophysical survey of an area of six hectares (see ECH 3677/SCH 4046), also a palaeoenvironmental survey of a pond cluster near Woodend Farm. The geophysical survey targeted five sites sampling the area affected by the proposed development. The survey identified a possible structure at Woodend, former field boundaries, ridge and furrow cultivation, trackways and an infilled marl pit. The palaeoenvironmental assessment of the pond cluster near Woodend Farm indicated that they were former marl pits and were probably of post medieval date. Analysis of samples taken from the ponds indicates that they had infilled naturally with organic deposits of relatively recent depostion over a period of no more than a few hundred years. (1)