A 'MASTERPLAN' has been put forward to tranform one of the Manchester's most important cultural and historical sites.
This is a shove in the right direction. A local non-profit organisation teaming up with city management bodies to draw up plans, slap them on the table and say 'how do you like that Castlefield?'
Unveiled by the Castlefield Forum and the Manchester Garden City initiative, the plans, designed by Building Design Partnersip, showcase a re-imagining of Castlefield’s presently uninspiring Roman Gardens on Liverpool Road.
The new plans, to open for a consultation period from Tuesday 15 July, reveal an ambitious project to modernise and brighten the area running along the original Roman road from Liverpool Road to Beaufort Street, in the green (and often muddy) space between the replica North Gate, the White Lion pub and The Oxnoble pub.
Designs include new Yorkstone feature paving, further exposure of cobbles, feature walls with seating, timber tops, fruit trees, flower beds, sloped grass mounds, a timber and concrete stage, bold lighting schemes and a Roman 'rain garden'.
Roman Gardens stage
Roman Gardens plans between White Lion and The Oxnoble
"It's one of the most important historical sites in the city centre," Carol Middleton, Chair of the Castlefield Forum, told Confidential. "Yet the area around what the Romans called Mamucium lays tired and unloved.
"We want to brighten up and open out the whole area for residents and visitors," Middleton continued. "Retain the Roman features but make it more accessible and permeable to avoid the muddy patches.
"Put in some low level staging, tables, chairs, grow boxes, lighting, gardens, fencing. We're even looking at the possibility of closing off the top of Stone Street and incorporating that area. If it were possible, we've also been advised there's the possibility to open up a new archaeological dig site in the area."
Roman Gardens terrace furniture
Proposed lighting in the Roman Gardens
Given the significance of the area (explained in the yellow box below), it's a shame it looks like a Parks Department afterthought at present. As with the world's first ever passenger railway station at the MOSI around the corner, Mamucium is another example of how Manchester can ignore its past to the detriment of development as a tourist city.
Hidden ancient masonryThe oldest example of Roman Castlefield masonry, from around 200AD (nearly a thousand years older than any other masonry in the city), sits locked and hidden away in a brick and metal fenced prison. See here.
Just another bit of the old stuff.
Mamucium shouldn't be.
Ok, the site is mostly replica and rebuilds buoyed by the odd information board and extraneous sheep statue (something to do with peace, which is ironic when you consider what noisy little gits they can be). Still, it should be honored as the site of the Manchester's birth. These plans to rejuvenate the area could see to that.
Currently the park looks shabby
Roman Gardens planned walls
It all looks a touch expensive, mind. Does Middleton worry the plans are overly ambitious?
"They might look it, but what we wanted was to get the project out there, make residents and interested parties aware of what the Forum and our partners at BDP and Manchester Garden City are trying to achieve."
"Obviously the project is subject to funding, reaching up to £2m in total, but we want to see if this project is possible for starters. We want to consult locally, are we heading in the right direction? Is there anything people particularly like, or are horrified by even?
"We've thought about the possibility of crowdfunding, applying for grants, the National Trust, the Lottery, that's what the consultation period is for," Middleton continued. "We just want to get it out there. Get the idea in people's heads."
Growboxes and seating
Some of the light schemes - look pricey
You have to admire the vision and intent.
This is a shove in the right direction. A local non-profit organisation teaming up with a city management body and a concerned private architectural practice to draw up plans, slap them on the table and say 'how do you like that Castlefield?'
The Forum Romanum was the beating heart of the Roman Empire, let's hope the Forum of Castlefield can secure funding and reinvigorate the decayed Roman heart of Manchester.
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Public consultations are Tuesday 15 July 6pm to 7pm at Dukes 92, Castle Street, Castlefield, and Saturday 19 July from 11am to 1pm at The Wharf pub on Slate Wharf, Castlefield.
More from the Castlefield Forum and the consultation here.
Roman Manchester
Mamucium (meaning ‘breast shaped hill’) was built by the Romans around 79AD to display Imperial authority, the fort stood 'on a sandstone bluff, capped in places by glacial sands and gravels, overlooking the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell'.
The fort also lay at the junction of several major Roman roads, one running from Chester to York, another running towards Hadrian's Wall from the South.
Originally a timber fort built for up to 500 infantry soldiers, in 160AD Mamucium was enlarged, probably to accomodate a line of granaries. Then around 200AD, the story goes, as the Emperor Septimius Severus (the first African-born Emperor of Rome, don’t ya know) was set to visit Mamucium in order to beat down a revolt, the fort was given a stone make-over.
When the Romans finally gave up on Britain around 410AD (attacked on all sides of the Empire they brought the soldiers back to fruitlessly defend Rome) the fort gradually fell into disrepair, eventually becoming a quarry for the Saxons as they moved into the area.
Still, ruins and ramparts remained, and even as railway viaducts and the construction of the Rochdale canal tore through the fort in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the area retained nuggets of original Roman features, becoming known as the 'Castlefield'.
Stone Street could be incorporated
