Hartdale House, Cheadle, Greater Manchester: Archaeological Building Recording

Archaeological building recording undertaken on behalf of Oxford Archaeology North.

The elements making up Hartdale House are of considerable historic interest, and the connection between it and the adjoining mill and later bleach works has clearly had a great impact on its development. It is evident that the polite architecture at the front of the property has disguised to a large extent what appear to be industrial buildings or at least service wings to the rear. The curious arrangement and alignment of the buildings seems at least in part to be an illusion caused by the truncation of the west end and the difficult topography, which has forced the buildings to be aligned along the edge of the original river valley. The original west end of the structure would also have been in very close proximity to a wheel pit exposed during the excavation of the adjoining bleach works, and it is entirely conceivable that the building in fact originally comprised an early part of the mill, or a very closely associated building, perhaps a warehouse or similar. It is also very close to the other pit situated to the south on the east side of the boundary wall. It is also conceivable, however, that these structures were entirely domestic and the west end formed a stable and/or coach house, one is recorded in the Tithe Map schedule of 1846, although this is shown as being some distance to the west. The presence of this sealed basement, the adjoining pits and the arched culvert on the north side all suggest an industrial function.