The Wetlands of Greater Manchester

The wetness of the Greater Manchester region from the later prehistoric period onwards, and its subsequent key role in the early modern industrialisation of Britain, have conspired to make traditional archaeological survey difficult because of the low level of human activity from the Mesolithic to the medieval times has been masked rather than revealed by the recent and current land-use. The challenge of working in these conditions has stimulated the North West Wetlands Survey team and their helpers to explore every possible means of recovering evidence for past conditions and human activity, and we can be confident that the picture given here is representative.

One intriguing question raised by the results of the survey is that of the inter-relationship between the Manchester wetlands and the inception of industrialisation. Did the mires make a positive contribution, in the form of resources required by developing industries? Or did they simply, as large marginal areas not claimed by agriculture, provide a setting for development once the technological difficulties of transport and drainage has been mastered? These questions are not the normal concern of wetland archaeologists, but they are proper to the Manchester context, and they underline the individuality of the human response to wetlands in this region. Neither in prehistory nor in historic times have the Greater Manchester wetlands been perceived and exploited quite according to our general models which are based largely on evidence from the Fens and the Somerset levels.

In the long run, one of the most important results of the current survey will be the conclusive demonstration of the diversity of human responses to wetland environments in the past, responses influenced by the prevailing environmental conditions and compounded by the economic, technological, and social demands and capabilities of the local people.