Site Event/Activity record ECH3766 - Draft Evaluation Report: Manchester Airport - Runway 2

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken in 1997 in relation to the development of a second runway at Manchester Airport. The evaluation comprised a landscape study, archaeological sample excavation and a palaeoenvironmental assessment of the Bollin Valley. (See also ECH3778, SCH3972-3 for a later report on this work produced in 1999). The results of the landscape study indicated that there were post medieval features of an agricultural nature surviving as earthworks in the development area (extraction pits, ridge and furrow, field boundaries, trackway). The results of the sample excavation indicated that part of the development site adjacent to Altrincham Road and Oversley Farm contained deposits/features of prehistoric date. Pottery and carbon 14 dating have suggested the majority of the archaeology is of early Bronze Age date, possibly a domestic settlement site, although Mesolithic, Roman and Medieval periods are also represented. The sample excavation also indicated features of prehistoric and post medieval date in the vicinity of Sugar Brook, although the features have been severely truncated by ploughing. The pottery for the prehistoric feature suggests an early Bronze Age date. Archaeological deposits, containing pottery, glass and metalwork, relating to the primary occupation of Hanson House during the sixteenth/seventeenth century, were recorded beneath the modern floor levels of the building. The results of the palaeoenvironmental assessment of the Bollin Valley indicated a sequence of four river channels spanning over 2000 years of the rivers' history from the late Iron Age to the present. The recovery of flint artefacts dating to the early Bronze Age within the river silts suggest the valley was being exploited by humans from this time. The watching brief across the development site has also elucidated several important discoveries, including an early eighteenth century timber trackway buried in the river silts of the Bollin Valley and a fourth century Roman coin found in the vicinity of the Sugar Brook. The results of the programme of archaeological work are presented in two volumes (R2273 and R2274). (Sources 1-2)