Skip to main content

Summer 2018Victorian buildings uncovered in Rochdale town centre

An archaeological dig in Rochdale Town Centre uncovered previously demolished Victorian buildings from John Street along Baillie Street and Kelsall Street, directly across from the Mecca Bingo building.

As work got underway for the new Riverside retail and leisure development, builders came to a halt when the three areas they dug at excavated back-to-back terraced rows of 19th century workers housing and the mid-19th century Milton Congregational Church, which was opened in 1854.

Along Kelsall Street, there was a coal chute in the wall, so the cellars were mostly, in this case, used for the storage of coal.

A supervising archaeologist from the University of Salford commented: “What we have found here is completely different to anything we have seen before.

“What we came here to excavate was the remains of some back-to-back housing which were partially cellared and a congregational church.

“One row of houses was fronted towards Mecca Bingo (on Kelsall Street) and the others back to these (on Baillie Street) were the ones that were partially cellared.”