Cheers! New medieval finds at Radcliffe Tower

A new report by Salford University has confirmed the finding of previously unknown medieval remains next to Radcliffe Tower.

And to help celebrate, Radcliffe’s family-run micro-brewery Brightside Brewing Company have released a commemorative beer.

The six-week Big Dig of October/November 2013, led by Salford University's Centre for Applied Archaeology, exposed the foundations of the 17th Century Tower Farm. It also revealed the foundations of 19th Century cottages on Tower Street. Disappointingly it found few medieval remains - until right at the end of the dig, in a corner of the site, some stonework and tile and pottery fragments were unearthed.

It was therefore decided to schedule a return to the site to take a close look at this part of the site. This one-week follow-up dig took place in September 2014 and unexpectedly revealed a doorway and flagstone floor extending under the remains of 19th century cottages on Tower Street. It also found the stone plinth bases for the main timber posts of the great hall that abutted the once three-storey tower. The report of this investigation dates these remains as being from the 15th Century or earlier.

Given the importance of these new finds, the Centre for Applied Archaeology has decided that the site merits further investigation and proposes to include Radcliffe in its ongoing Dig Greater Manchester programme. So, in March/April 2015, it will dig underneath the former Tower Street cottages to find the extent of the medieval floor remains.

Councillor Jane Lewis, Bury Council's cabinet member for communities and culture, said: “We know this is a regionally important site and that a great hall and manor house once stood next to the tower. Salford University and a lot of local volunteers put a huge amount of work into digging and researching the site, so it was a bit disappointing that the 2013 dig didn't give us the outline of the medieval buildings. It seemed the remains had been destroyed, but then came the excitement of finding what could be the floor of the manor house, a bit further from the tower than we expected.” 

Sara Hilton, the Regional Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund, which is helping fund the work said “The HLF saw the Radcliffe project as being about the local community investigating and enjoying its important heritage. It’s great that the site has provided the discoveries to support this.”

Once the archaeological investigations are complete it is intended to carry out conservation work to the tower and landscape the site in a way that helps interpret it; the outlines of buildings will be picked out and information panels installed.

It is also planned to create a heritage trail incorporating the Tower site, the adjacent (and also medieval) St Mary's Church, the tithebarn and the the site of the Bealey's Close House (now Close Park).

The overall project is being grant aided by £266,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the work to the tower will benefit from £57,413 from landfill tax credit distributor WREN. It is hoped that the landscaping scheme will be funded by the Veolia Trust, which will determine a grant application in December.

  
• The commemorate Radcliffe Tower beer will shortly be available at Village Greens in Prestwich and other local outlets. More about the company at http://www.brightsidebrewing.co.uk/

ENDS

Press release issued: 1 December 2014.

Picture: A flagstone floor under the remains of 19th Century houses on Tower Street.