Oversley and Oversleyford (sometimes Oversley Ford) is a name used for some places in an area near Manchester Airport.
The name is first recorded in the 13th century as Vulverichelei and seems to come from Anglo-Saxon Wulfrīces lēah (Wulfrīc's clearing or meadow). [1] 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 A538 road before it was diverted for a runway extension.
Remains of a timber long house were found near at Oversley Farm during the building of Manchester Airport's second runway.[2][3] Oversley Farm has been described as "by far the most important prehistoric site within the boundaries of the twenty-first-century city ... [and] ... one of the most important in the North West".[4] It is the site of an Early Neolithic farming community, although it is now underneath runway two of Manchester Airport. The longhouse measured 10 metres (33 ft) by 7 metres (23 ft) with a central hearth. Material in the pit was radiocarbon dated to 3975BC to 3675BC.[4] The site was probably in use into the Late Bronze Age.[5]