Site Event/Activity record ECH6399 - Former Manchester Metropolitan Campus, Alsager, Cheshire: Historic Building Survey

In May 2017 an historic building survey was undertaken at the former Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Campus prior to redevelopment of the site, including demolition of all existing buildings, site clearance and erection of 426 dwellings with associated parking, also laying out of new grass pitches and two artificial grass pitches, with associated infrastructure. This programme of work follows on from an archaeological desk-based assessment (see ECH4599) submitted with the outline planning application. This study identified the survival of some buildings within the campus associated with ‘Heathside Hostel’, which was constructed circa 1940 to house workers for the nearby Radway Green Royal Ordnance Factory during the Second World War. After the war, some of the more durable hostel buildings were incorporated into an emergency Teacher Training College which then became the university campus. The building survey was undertaken to a Level 1 Survey (rather than a Level 2 Survey), due to access and safety issues, which meant no access to the interiors of the buildings was possible. Three structures surviving from Heathside Hostel were identified and recorded within the campus site. All three are of brick construction, and provided day to day facilities and accommodation for the workers of the ordnance factory. The main accommodation buildings for the hostel were wooden Laing Huts, none of these survive, unsurprisingly, given the construction material and the temporary character of such buildings. The three surviving hostel buildings are constructed of brick laid in English Garden Wall bond, and contain the same form of elements such as windows, brick parapet, concrete string course and concrete sills and lintels, thus indicating that they are contemporary. The Central Communal Block survives essentially as it was constructed, although the northern part of the Eastern Projection has been removed. This is mainly a single-storey structure, apart from the east end which may have housed a boiler. The Hollinshead Building appears to have served a relatively utilitarian function as a laundry and possibly stores, although as there was no internal access for the survey, it was not possible to determine if that was the case. (1)