Oversleyford Explained

There are places called Oversley elsewhere in England.Oversley and Oversleyford (sometimes Oversley Ford) is a name used for some places in an area near Manchester Airport.

The name is first recorded in the 13th century as Vulverichelei and seems to come from Anglo-Saxon Wulfrīces lēah (Wulfrīc's clearing or meadow).[1] The ford was probably a few yards north of the modern main road Oversleyford Bridge, where a minor road bridges the Bollin; that minor road is now a back entry to a hotel's front yard but was part of the A538 road before it was diverted for a runway extension. The name Oversleyford is at the middle of the south edge of this old Ordnance Survey map.

Oversley Farm

Remains of a timber long house were found near at Oversley Farm during the building of Manchester Airport's second runway.[2] [3] Oversley Farm has been described as "by far the most important prehistoric site within the boundaries of the twenty-first-century city ... [and] ... one of the most important in the North West".[4] It is the site of an Early Neolithic farming community, although it is now underneath runway two of Manchester Airport. The longhouse measured 10m (30feet) by 7m (23feet) with a central hearth. Material in the pit was radiocarbon dated to 3975 BC to 3675 BC.[4] The site was probably in use into the Late Bronze Age.[5]

References

Source

Further reading

53.3431°N -2.2774°W

Notes and References

  1. John Dodgson, in The Place-Names of Cheshire 1, p. 230; he says that the ford was at the south end of Wulfrīc's land.
  2. Web site: Revealing Cheshire's Past . Cheshire County Council . 2010-05-20 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100509042021/http://www.cheshire.gov.uk/Archaeology/RCP/files/rcp1.pdf . 2010-05-09 .
  3. Nevell (2008), p. 11.
  4. Nevell (2008), p. 14.
  5. Nevell (2008), p. 15.