Ardwick

Ardwick is a district of

Historically in Lancashire, by the mid-nineteenth century Ardwick had grown from being a village into a pleasant and wealthy suburb of Manchester, but by the end of that century became heavily industrialised.^[2][3] When its industries fell into decline so did Ardwick, becoming one of the city's most deprived areas. Substantial development has since taken place, including the construction of facilities for the 2002 Commonwealth Games at the nearby City of Manchester Stadium.

In the late nineteenth century, Ardwick had many places of entertainment, but the only remnant of that today is the

Before the Industrial Revolution, Ardwick was a small village just outside Manchester in open countryside. The principal residents were the Birch family, one of whom was a major general when Oliver Cromwell (briefly) instituted direct military rule.

One Samuel Birch was instrumental in providing a small

Grand terraces of regency houses (some of which still survive) were built either side of the church, and these were fronted by Ardwick Green, a private park for the residents, containing a pond. Similar housing developments to those around the Green took place along Higher Ardwick and the area known as the Polygon.

Early inhabitants included members of Sir Robert Peel’s family. Charles Dickens drew many of his characters from life, and was a frequent visitor to Manchester. It is said that Dickens based the character of the crippled Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol on the invalid son of a friend who owned a cotton mill in Ardwick.^[9]

Ardwick Cemetery was established in 1838 as a prestigious place for fashionable burials. By the time the cemetery closed in 1950, around 80,000 people had been buried there. John Dalton, the chemist and physicist best known for his advocacy of atomic theory, was amongst them. It was reported that some 100 coaches followed the funeral cortege to the cemetery on the day of his burial in 1844. Other notable interments, recorded on a plaque when the grounds were turned into a sports field in 1966, included Sir Thomas Potter, the first mayor of Manchester, who died in 1845, the Chartist Ernest Charles Jones, who died in 1869, and Buglar Robert Hawthorne, of the 52nd Light Infantry, who was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1857. Following the closure, the granite top of Dalton's tomb was relocated to the John Dalton building of Manchester Metropolitan University, where it lies beside a statue of the man.^[10]

The Grade II*listed Church of St Benedict on Bennet Street was erected in 1880 by the noted Gothic Revival architect J. S. Crowther. Although no longer in use as a place of worship, it still stands today and its tall red brick tower is visible for miles around.^[11]

Ardwick once had its own football team, Ardwick AFC, but following a meeting at the Hyde Road Hotel in 1894, it became Manchester City F.C. The Hyde Road ground, close to the maze of railway tracks extending outwards from Manchester Piccadilly station, was extended in a piecemeal fashion until it could hold crowds of 40,000, but the main stand was destroyed by a fire in 1923, and the club moved to a new stadium on Maine Road, Moss Side.^[12]

Industrial Revolution

During the nineteenth century, Ardwick became heavily industrialised and it was characterised by factories, railways and rows of

Close to the bridge, which has been replaced by a modern concrete structure, is a family-run business called Hyde Road Wheels and Tyres. In 2005 they abandoned their premises in the railway arches, which had become run down, and completed the construction of a new glass-fronted building in November 2005. The project was an unexpected recipient of a "Built in Quality" award in February 2006. Twelve awards are given annually, and the garage was awarded the recognition, despite there being over 2,600 other construction projects in Manchester which were considered.[16]

20th Century

In 1904, a new

• Historic architecture of Ardwick
• 
  The Italianate St Thomas's, Ardwick
• 
  The Gothic Revival St Benedict's Church
• 
  The Regency-style Fenton House on Higher Ardwick
• 
  Nicholls Hospital on Hyde Road
• 
  Regency houses on Manor Street

Governance

Ardwick

Ardwick railway station is on the Hope Valley line and is served by only one service every weekday from Manchester Piccadilly to Rose Hill Marple.

The station opened in 1842 and was operated by a number of railway companies over the years. There were plans to close it in the 1980s and its future looked bleak for a long period after that, but closure plans were finally scrapped in 2006. The current service is operated by Northern. The station consists of a waiting shelter on a single island platform between the tracks, access to which requires the use of steps.^[26] The station is the site of a memorial to Paul McLaughlin, who died there on 13 December 1997.^[27]

Buses

Bus services in the area are provided by Stagecoach Manchester. The following routes serve Ardwick:

• 192: Manchester – Longsight – Levenshulme – Stockport – Stepping Hill Hospital – Hazel Grove
• 201: Manchester – Gorton – Denton – Hyde – Hattersley
• 202: Manchester – Gorton – Denton – Haughton Green – Hyde – Gee Cross
• 203: Manchester – Reddish – Belle Vue – Stockport
• 205: Manchester – Ardwick – West Gorton – Gorton – Dane Bank
• 219: Manchester – Openshaw – Guide Bridge – Ashton-under-Lyne – Stalybridge
• 220: Manchester – Openshaw – Audenshaw – Dukinfield – Stalybridge
• 221: Manchester – Openshaw – Audenshaw – Dukinfield

Present day

Ardwick Green Park has recently been refurbished, and though the pond is no more, it still contains an interesting

(According to 2011 census[33])

• White British – 35.5%
• White Irish – 2.4%
• White Other – 5.4%
• Black or Black British – 17.7%
• Asian or Asian British – 27.4%
• Other – 5.5%
• Mixed Race – 6.0%

Notable people

• Nellie Beer Lord Mayor of Manchester
• Samuel Birch
  (1735–1811), military officer, was owner of the Ardwick estate (1780–1795)
• Stephen Bradbury. Artist and illustrator. Born and brought up as a boy in Ardwick. Heywood House, Bennet Street.
• Edward Brotherton, 1st Baron Brotherton, businessman and philanthropist
• Joe Brown (1930–2020), climber, was born in Ardwick
• Edward Evans, the last of the five
  Ian Brady in Hattersley.^[34]
• Edmund Peck, the illegitimate son of Sir Edmund Buckley. Peck later took the surname Buckley and became Sir Edmund Buckley, 1st Baronet
• Tom Chantrell, designer of many film posters including The Sound of Music and Star Wars^[35]
• Elizabeth Gaskell, lived in Gaskell House^[36]
• J. Milton Hayes, actor and poet, best known for his 1911 dramatic monologue "The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God"
• Samuel Hibbert-Ware geologist
• Leslie Lever, Baron Lever, lawyer and politician, MP for Ardwick
• Johnny Marr, guitarist, most notably of the Smiths^[37]
• Arthur Moreland, political cartoonist and artist^[38]
• John Howard Nodal, journalist and philologist
• John Rylands, businessman and philanthropist
• Bill Tarmey (né William Piddington), actor and singer best known for his portrayal as Jack Duckworth in Coronation Street^[39]
• Ellen Wilkinson, MP, the Ellen Wilkinson High School, was named after her.
• Harry H. Corbett Actor - moved to Ardwick after mother's death in Burma.^[40]

See also

• Listed buildings in Manchester-M12

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Fletcher, Tony (2013). A Light That Never Goes Out - The Enduring Saga of the Smiths. Random House.
  ISBN 978-0-09-953792-2
  .
• Nicholls, Robert (2004). Curiosities of Greater Manchester. Stroud: Sutton.
  ISBN 978-0-7509-3661-3
  .
• Wickens, David C (1987). The Instruments of Samuel Green. Palgrave Macmillan.
  ISBN 978-1-349-09061-7. Archived
  from the original on 17 October 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2020.

Further reading

• Frangopulo, N. J. (1962) Rich Inheritance. Manchester: Education Committee; pp. 270–271 contain: "The history of a district, e.g. Ardwick", a list of documents held at Manchester Central Library
• Makepeace, Chris (1995). Looking Back at Hulme, Moss Side, Chorlton on Medlock & Ardwick. Timperley: Willow Publishing.
  ISBN 978-0-946361-34-2
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ardwick.

• A School in Ardwick