Site Event/Activity record ECH6606 - The King's School, Fence Avenue, Macclesfield: Archaeological Desk Based Assessment

Archaeological desk based assessment undertaken in 2015 for The King's School, Fence Avenue, Macclesfield. The study area encompasses 33.4 Acres (13.5 Ha) of land within the Hurdsfield area of Macclesfield, Cheshire, approximately 0.49 km to the north-east of Macclesfield at (NGR: SJ 92589 73845). Cartographic sources show that the study area was until the mid 19th Century relatively rural comprising small areas of housing around agricultural land. The land is shown as being owned and occupied by a number of individuals and the use of the land is listed as pasture, meadow and woodland. The first phase of development on the site occurred during 1909 when a new purpose built school was built on the site of The Fence House, this was a three-storey red brick building, this being the main building that can be seen on the site at present. The school went through numerous phases of building work in the following century, with extensions being added in 1922 and in 1935 a new dining room was built. The 1950’s-60’s saw an increase in the number of buildings in the study area with the new hall being built in 1956, a dining room block in 1957, the charter block in 1961 and the Walker block in 1963; during 1980 the Centenary block was opened. Once the land had been bought by The King’s School additional building were also added, such as the infants division which sits to the south but adjacent to the main school building, there has also been the addition of school pitches and tennis courts. (1)