"Hell Upon Earth": The Archaeology of Angel Meadow

Reports excavations in Angel Meadow, Manchester, undertaken during the NOMA regeneration project. The work reveals workers' housing and the remains of Manchester's earliest steam-powered cotton mill, illuminating the city's pioneering industrial townscape.

Manchester''s phenomenal rise as the world''s leading manufacturing centre brought a new industrial townscape that was dominated by steam-powered cotton mills, associated factories, warehouses, and swathes of low-cost housing built for the workers that flocked to the burgeoning town. The rejuvenation of 20 acres of land on the western edge of the city centre as part of the NOMA regeneration project has enabled the evolution of this pioneering industrial townscape to be investigated archaeologically. In particular, excavations carried out by Oxford Archaeology North on behalf of The Co-Operative Group have provided a fascinating insight into the development of workers'' housing that once formed part of Angel Meadow, together with the remarkable remains of Manchester''s earliest steam-powered cotton mill.