Oversleyford

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.

• Oversleyford Bridge, where the A538 road from Altrincham to Wilmslow crosses the River Bollin
• Oversley Lodge Farm (now occupied by an asbestos cleanup firm for training)
• Oversley Farm, and Oversleyford Brickworks, now obliterated by Runway 2 of 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.

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 10 metres (33 ft) by 7 metres (23 ft) with a central hearth. Material in the pit was radiocarbon dated to 3975BC to 3675BC.^[4] The site was probably in use into the Late Bronze Age.^[5]

• The Neolithic and Bronze Age Settlement at Oversley Farm, Styal, Cheshire: Excavations in advance of Manchester Airport’s Second Runway by D. J. Garner. ISBN 9781407300405. £40.00. xiv+170 pages

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. ^ "Revealing Cheshire's Past". Cheshire County Council. http://www.cheshire.gov.uk/Archaeology/RCP/files/rcp1.pdf. Retrieved 2010-05-20. 
3. ^ Nevell (2008), p. 11.
4. ^ ^{a b} Nevell (2008), p. 14.
5. ^ Nevell (2008), p. 15.