Site Event/Activity record ECH3779 - Manchester Airport Second Runway, Oversley Farm Excavation: Post-Excavation Assessment Report

Excavations were undertaken at Oversley Farm and Altrincham Road between February and September 1998 as part of the programme of archaeological mitigation for the development of Runway 2 at Manchester Airport. The results of the work has demonstrated a complicated sequence of domestic activity on site spanning the last 6,000 years. Although traces of Mesolithic activity were identified on site, it is not until the Neolithic that permanent settlement was identified. This activity comprised three pits containing pottery and lithic material. Signs of in situ burning suggested the pits had functioned as hearths and palaeoenvironmental evidence also indicated the presence of cereal crops and species of cropweed, indicative of agricultural activity. Towards the end of the Neolithic and beginning of the Early Bronze Age a track/droveway was established along the west edge of the excavations and further pits filled with pottery and lithics (probably domestic debris) were found. The droveway continued in used into the Early Bronze Age and a midden deposit was recorded containing a large quantity of pottery and lithic material. The remains of two round houses with pits and hearths were present, along with a knapping floor for flint tool production. A cup-marked stone may be of ritual nature. Also, again the palaeoenvironmental evidence indicates the presence of cereal crops and cropweed. The droveway continued in use through the Late Bronze Age and into the Iron Age, and further pits and hearths were recorded. The remains of another round house and two four-post structures were identified showing continued settlement. In the Romano-British period a bow-sided building, dating to the first century AD, was constructed on the side of the droveway. This was superceded by a road during the second century AD which had a slightly different alignment to the prehistoric droveway. The period spanning circa 400 - 1400 AD was represented by a single D-shaped pit, thought to be a tree bole. Dating to the later Medieval period were two rectangular, ditched enclosures, along with a complex of gates/entrances, thought to relate to the movement of livestock. A further rectangular, timber building and a possible well were also recorded. Finally, additional enclosure ditches dating to the Post Medieval period were recorded, along with a succession of timber and brick buildings, the latest of which still stood on site at the beginning of the development. Two brick-lined wells and associated pits and postholes were also recorded. The work has demonstrated the continuity of settlement from the Early Neolithic to the present day on the runway site and has produced significant assemblages of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age artefacts. (1)