Digging for history

Photo: Picture, Darren Robinson

Staff and students from Oasis Academy visit the site.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS are painstakingly unearthing history at the site of one of Oldham’s new academies to save it from being lost.

An old brick kiln at the site of Oasis Academy in Hollinwood is being surveyed by Oxford Archaeology North.

The academy will be built on the site of the Brook Mill in Millgate, which has been demolished, and should open in 2012-13. The mill was built by Oldham Twist Company in 1883 but production stopped in 1970.

Results of the excavation, costing almost £15,000, will be published in the Greater Manchester Archaeology Unit’s “Past Revealed” series.

Pupils from the academy could also be involved in producing interpretation boards to display in the new building.

Two other historic remains, the Oak Colliery boiler house and the Albert Pit, will not be excavated as they are unlikely to be disturbed by the building work.