Saving Manchester's industrial past : regeneration and new uses of industrial archaeology structures in Greater Manchester, 1980 to 2018

Nevell, MD

Abstract

2020 marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of professional archaeology within the Manchester city region, with the creation of the Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit (GMAU) in 1980. This was the culmination of a decade of raising awareness of the archaeology and heritage of the Manchester city region. It saw the establishment of dedicated conservation officers in each of the ten new metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester (established in the local government re-organisation of 1974), a growth in the number of conservation areas and a significant rise in the number of historic buildings protected through the listing process, on the back of changes to the listing process in 1970. This paper looks at the particular impact of the growth of heritage protection and the role of conservation and re-use in retaining and understanding industrial buildings in the Manchester area. It examines the way in which industrial sites in the region have been preserved and displayed for the public over the last 38 years by heritage professionals, highlighting the impact of the Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit (and its successors), and its sister unit the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit. First, the range of industrial archaeology sites surviving in the area is briefly reviewed. Then, the next part of this paper studies the conservation of industrial buildings in the Manchester Area, which began in the late 1970s with a number of pioneering projects such as Samuel Oldknow’s canal warehouse in Marple. However, it was the purchase of the Liverpool Road Railway Station in Manchester in 1978 by the Greater Manchester County Council, and its subsequent restoration, that gave the conservation of industrial buildings the boost it needed. Since then canal warehouses, packing warehouses and textile mills have been conserved through conversion to offices, student accommodation or flats. Some of the problems encountered in this trend, in particular the lack of interest in particular types of sites, will also be looked at. The final part of this paper examines the way in which industrial sites around the Manchester city region have been preserved and displayed to the public. Liverpool Road Railway Station was the first such site and is home to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester (now part of the Science Museum Group). However, there are many smaller and local industrial archaeology sites which have been excavated and displayed since the early1980s through the work of GMAU. These range from textile mills and bleachworks to coal mining sites.

Citation

Nevell, M. (2019). Saving Manchester's industrial past : regeneration and new uses of industrial archaeology structures in Greater Manchester, 1980 to 2018. Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 111, 99-117

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 31, 2019
• Publication Date: May 30, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 11, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 14, 2019
• Journal: Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society
• Print ISSN: 0950-4699
• Volume: 111
• Pages: 99-117
• Publisher URL: http://www.landcas.org.uk/index.html