:''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 Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those n ...

. * Oversleyford Bridge, where the

A538 road The A538 is a road in England linking Macclesfield, Cheshire to Altrincham in Greater Manchester, through Prestbury, Wilmslow and Hale and providing access to Manchester Airport and the M56 motorway. The road is a Primary route between the A3 ...

from

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

Wilmslow Wilmslow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England, south of Manchester city centre. The population was 24,497 at the 2011 Census. History Toponymy Wilmslow derives its name from Old ...

crosses the

River Bollin The River Bollin is a major tributary of the River Mersey in the north-west of England. It rises in Macclesfield Forest at the western end of the Peak District, and can be seen in spring form, from the Buxton to Macclesfield road. The stream t ...

* Oversley Lodge Farm (as at August 2011 occupied by an

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

cleanup firm for training) * Oversley Farm, and Oversleyford Brickworks, now obliterated by Runway 2 of

The name is first recorded in the 13th century as ''Vulverichelei'' and seems to come from

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

''Wulfrīces lēah'' (Wulfrīc's clearing or meadow). 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

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 A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from timber and often rep ...

were found near at Oversley Farm during the building of

's second runway.Nevell (2008), p. 11. Oversley Farm has been described as "by far the most important prehistoric site within the boundaries of the twenty-first-century city ... ndnbsp;... one of the most important in the North West".Nevell (2008), p. 14. It is the site of an

Early Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

farming community, although it is now underneath runway two of Manchester Airport. The longhouse measured by with a central hearth. Material in the pit was

radiocarbon dated Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

to 3975 BC to 3675 BC. The site was probably in use into the

Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

.Nevell (2008), p. 15.

References

Source *

Oversley Farm

References

Further reading