Whalley Range, Manchester
Whalley Range | ||
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Metropolitan county | ||
Region | ||
Country | England | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom | |
Post town | MANCHESTER | |
Postcode district | M16 | |
Dialling code | 0161 | |
Police | Greater Manchester | |
Fire | Greater Manchester | |
Ambulance | North West | |
UK Parliament | ||
Councillors |
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Whalley Range is an area of
History
Whalley Range, formally known as Whalley in the Range, was one of Manchester's first suburbs; it was built by Manchester banker and businessman
In September 1834, Brooks bought 39 Lancashire acres of land from Robert Fielden, called Oak Farm in
Upon the sale of Manley Hall in 1905, a contiguous strip of land was added to the south and west of the estate for house building, formerly being a part of the township of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Brooks drained it because all of this land was covered in peat from a thickness of eighteen inches to three feet; he built villas initially for wealthy businessmen such as himself.
Brooks was born near Whalley, Lancashire, after which he named his own home Whalley House, which may be the origin of the area's name. A toll gate guarded this exclusive area and the place where Chorlton Road and Withington Road meet is still known as Brooks' Bar.[3] The toll gate was first removed to the junction with Wood Road and the charging of tolls came to an end on 10 June 1896.
The residents never tried to incorporate the area as a separate local authority, as in the age of light-touch government they saw no need. The area was more or less equally divided between the Moss Side and Withington Urban Districts (some existing street furniture remains from that period). The urban district councils in turn sub-contracted some functions to
The unusual nature of the area has given rise to some myths, notably that no alcohol could be sold within it. Brooks was a High Church Anglican, so there was no religious reason for any restrictive covenants, rather a desire to keep up the tone of the area. Whalley Range had several private members' clubs (see the Carlton Club below), as well as a public hall and a cinema in Withington Road, at the end of Dudley Road. Also in Withington Road was the Caught on the Hop pub[nb 1] on Withington Road, as well as the much older Whalley Hotel, at the Brooks' Bar corner of Upper Chorlton Road, and the Seymour at the other end; all have now been either demolished or sold for other uses.
The original plans for the area envisaged it as much larger; for instance, Hough End Crescent was meant to be an arc of very large houses, linking the ends of Alexandra and Withington Roads. This idea was made impossible by the difficulty of draining the area and the later building of the railway. Drainage difficulties are a feature of the area, as it was crossed by a large number of streams, some being notable as open sewers.[nb 2] Many roads are in fact built over culverts, notably Upper Chorlton Road and Brantingham Road. As late as the 1930s, significant drainage work had to be carried out in the Manley Road area.[nb 3] Clarendon Road was built on the site of clay pits and needed remedial work on gable-ends due to subsidence in the 1980s. Even today, the remaining open brooks are regularly worked on to prevent flooding.
Incorporation shrank the area considerably, thanks to ward and constituency boundary changes. West Point was lost to Chorlton and Darley Park to Old Trafford, as well as the eastern side at the north end of Withington Road. Postcode changes, made necessary by the inter-war development of the Egerton Estate, meant that the southern end of the area was lost.
Whalley Range has had a large Polish community since the late 1940s.[4]
By the 1960s, the area became synonymous with bedsit-land; the encroachment of property developers and gained a poor reputation as a red-light district. There has been a recent return [5] of this phenomenon. Estate agents took to describing it as Chorlton Borders and the City Council made a short-lived attempt to rename it as East Chorlton. However, the area had two redoubtable female defenders: one of these was Ingeborg Tipping, the Chair of the Residents' Association, who made great efforts to ensure the area was properly policed, among many other matters; the other was Kath Fry, the late City Councillor, who was a highly proactive champion of the area.
In 1930, a cinema in Withington Road was opened as the West End; in 1937, it became part of the Odeon cinema chain. In 1962, it was converted into a bingo hall, but this closed in the late 1970s; it was once billed as "the largest luxury talkie theatre in Europe." After a period of dereliction, it was demolished in 1986.[6]
On 24 June 2012, the
Transport
Public transport was resisted until the whole area became incorporated into the
Stretford horse-drawn trams had to terminate at their stables at the corner of Cornbrook Road and Chorlton Road, until Stretford built up to Brooks' Bar, when they were allowed to terminate at the Withington Road side of the Whalley Hotel. Manchester trams ended at the Prince of Wales Hotel, at the corner of Moss Lane West and Upper Moss Lane, in Moss Side. As Alexandra Road became an important shopping street, the trams terminated at their stables at the end of Range Road. By the 1920s, however, Whalley Range was fully served and the Clarendon Road/Manley Park development had its own eccentric no. 86 motorbus route. The area also had its own ghost bus, which served the above station, timed to meet trains, for at least a decade after passenger services stopped. [nb 4] Taxi ranks were established outside the shops on Withington Road, as well as outside the Whalley and Seymour Hotels, which were at the southern end of Upper Chorlton Road).
Manley Hall
Manley Hall was built by the wealthy businessman Samuel Mendel, near to the present-day Manley Park, in the 1860s.[7] It was very grand and contained a fine art collection; the gardens were extensive and the cost of building was £120,000. After Lord Egerton, the lord of the manor, and William Cunliffe Brooks, Mendel was one of the richer residents. He converted from Judaism to High Church Anglicanism and, with the above two grandees, worshipped at the Old Church of St Clement, Chorlton. Along with Brooks and Egerton, he opposed the building of a new church for the expanding population;[8] however, the opening of the Suez Canal caused such problems for the Mendel trading business that he became a bankrupt and the hall was put up for sale. No buyer for something so grand could be found, (cf. the fate of nearby Longford Park, bought by the local authority) and it fell into disrepair.[9] Until it was demolished in about 1905, it was used as a pleasure garden, its most famous visitor being Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show [10][11]
PC Nicholas Cock
An infamous murder in the area occurred when it was at the height of its fashionable status in the 1870s. PC Nicholas Cock was a Lancashire Constabulary beat officer for the then sparsely-populated Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Firs Farm areas. At around midnight on 1 August 1876, he was talking to a Whalley Range private policeman at the corner of Rye Bank Road and Trafford Road (now Seymour Grove). They heard a suspicious noise coming from the house of Samuel Gratrix, a wealthy member of the Manchester Exchange. They separated to investigate the outside of the property and PC Cock was fatally shot; the bullet embedded itself in the boundary wall. The building, West Point, was later substantially extended on its eastern side to become the Seymour Hotel,[12] but the place in the wall where the bullet lodged was marked, and was visible on Woodside Road. The wall has since been demolished with the rest of the building.[13] PC Cock died on 2 August 1876 and was buried in Chorlton's Old Churchyard, although his elaborate gravestone, paid for by public subscription, was removed in 1956 to the Lancashire Constabulary HQ at Hutton near Preston.
Two local farm labourers living at nearby Firs Farm Cottages, the Habron brothers, were suspected; William Habron (aged 18) was tried and condemned for the murder, although there must have been some doubt, as the sentence was commuted. Some years later, an infamous criminal, Charles Peace, confessed to the murder before he was due for execution; because of this, Habron was released and given £1,000, held in trust by his former employer at Firs Farm, and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford, Herbert Vaughan. The intention was for Habron to buy a farm locally, which would have cost around £250, but he chose to return to County Mayo in Ireland, where he ran a beer shop for many years.[14][15]
Votes for Women
Whalley Range had another unusual feature for
Governance
The ward was until 2009 in Manchester Central Constituency represented by Tony Lloyd (Labour), it then became part of Manchester Gorton for the 2010 elections.[16] The seat has been represented in Westminster by Afzal Khan since June 2017.[17] The ward boundaries were redrawn in 2018. Some streets in the South West of the ward are now in Chorlton Park (ward) and a part of Moss Side is now included; the former part of the Moss Side ward is still part of the Manchester Central parliamentary constituency represented by Lucy Powell MP (Labour).
- Councillors
The area is represented in Manchester City Council by three Labour councillors: Angeliki Stogia,[18] Muqaddasah Bano[19] and Aftab Razaq.[20]
Election | Councillor | Councillor | Councillor | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2004 | Joy Winder (Lib Dem) | Faraz Bhatti (Lib Dem) | John Grant (Lib Dem) | |||
2006 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Faraz Bhatti (Lib Dem) | John Grant (Lib Dem) | |||
2007 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Faraz Bhatti (Lib Dem) | John Grant (Lib Dem) | |||
2008 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Faraz Bhatti (Con)[21] | John Grant (Lib Dem) | |||
2010 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Faraz Bhatti (Con) | John Grant (Lib Dem) | |||
2011 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Aftab Razaq (Lab) | John Grant (Lib Dem) | |||
2012 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Aftab Razaq (Lab) | Angeliki Stogia (Lab) | |||
2014 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Aftab Razaq (Lab) | Angeliki Stogia (Lab) | |||
2015 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Aftab Razaq (Lab) | Angeliki Stogia (Lab) | |||
2016 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Aftab Razaq (Lab) | Angeliki Stogia (Lab) | |||
2018 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Aftab Razaq (Lab) | Angeliki Stogia (Lab) | |||
2019 | Mary Watson (Lab) | Aftab Razaq (Lab) | Angeliki Stogia ( Labour Co-op )
| |||
2021 | Muqaddasah Bano (Lab) | Aftab Razaq (Lab) | Angeliki Stogia ( Labour Co-op )
| |||
2022 | Muqaddasah Bano (Lab) | Aftab Razaq (Lab) | Angeliki Stogia ( Labour Co-op )
| |||
2023 | Muqaddasah Bano (Lab) | Aftab Razaq (Lab) | Angeliki Stogia ( Labour Co-op )
|
indicates seat up for re-election. indicates councillor defected.
Geography
Whalley Range is a suburban area in south-west Manchester; it is bordered by Chorlton-cum-Hardy to the south and south-west, Old Trafford and Firswood to the north and west, Moss Side to the north-east, and Fallowfield to the south-east.
Topography
Whalley Range is characterised by large detached and semi-detached Victorian houses, many of which have been converted into flats, intermixed with late 20th century low-rise blocks of flats, with some early 20th-century housing to the west. Many of the roads and avenues are lined with trees. The district has limited shopping facilities, as these were felt to be unnecessary for the class of person envisaged as a resident; these are predominantly found on Withington Road and on Upper Chorlton Road.
A peculiarity of Upper Chorlton Road is that along most of its length the two sides of the road are in separate metropolitan boroughs, with the boundary in the centre of the road; going southwards, the left side is in the City of Manchester and the right side in the Borough of Trafford. The street furniture is different. In the earlier 20th century, the tramway systems were different; Manchester Corporation Tramways designs were faced by those of Stretford Urban District.[22] Boundary anomalies along the route were only corrected in the late 1980s. Upper Chorlton Road was laid out so that the classical doorway of Williams & Glyn's Bank,[nb 5] on Chorlton Road in Old Trafford, was visible along almost all its length. The road had several drill halls on its length.
The most obvious is the red-brick castellated building at the corner of Kings Road (in Old Trafford). It dates from 1903 and the design is influenced by Tudor architecture.
The area also had a feature that appears in many Victorian and Edwardian large-scale developments in Manchester: the entirely private road. Some can still be seen off Wilbraham Road and the best example elsewhere in the area is Green Walk off Wood Road. Wellington Road was only adopted by the highway authority within living memory; the stretch between Alness Road and Alexandra Road is still wholly owned by St Bede's College, as it bisects their campus. The area also has no 'streets', as these were a status indicator to Victorians. The few extant highways were renamed 'road' from 'lane', as this also indicated a certain status. This appears to be merely a fashion, however, as later Victorians appeared to favour the bucolic part of the 'rus in urbes' equation. Too bucolic, however, was not popular either: Doghouse Lane became Kingsbrook Road and Dark Lane became Clarendon Road.
Demographics
According to the 2011 census[24]
- White British – 38.7%
- White Other – 7.0%
- White Irish – 2.5%
- Mixed Race – 5.3%
- British Asian – 30.7%
- Black British – 10.1%
- Arab or other – 5.5%
Religion
Churches and chapels
Religion played a major role in Victorian life, and the size and number of religious buildings testifies to this. Although Brooks was a High Church Anglican, he allowed non-Anglican Christian denominations (Roman Catholics, Methodists, and other non-conformists) to buy and build on substantial plots, as long as these were on the fringes of the development.
There are Anglican parish churches in Whalley Range: St Margaret's, significantly positioned in the heart of the original phase of development, on the corner of Whalley Road and Rufford Road, and St Edmund's on Alexandra Road South opposite Alexandra Park. The original St Edmund's Grade II listed building has been converted into apartments, and the church congregation now meets in the modern worship-centre next door. Also on Alexandra Road South is the Manchester
Near Hartley Hall is the English Martyrs Roman Catholic Church, built in 1895–96: the tall spire is its most remarkable feature. From the time of the school's move to Alexandra Road South,
There are also New Testament Church of God (in Upper Chorlton Road, formerly a Nonconformist chapel, and lacking the upper part of the spire which was deliberately removed), and Spiritualist (in Alexandra Road South) churches.
Other places of worship
The Minhaj-ul-Qur'an Central Mosque is on Withington Road and the
Sport
Whalley Range AFC was founded in 1900 and is still going to this day. It is based at Kings Road, Whalley Range; the entrance gates are opposite Daventry Road. It has two pitches, clubhouse, changing rooms and an outside bar. Its first team plays in the Cheshire Football League on Saturdays.
Whalley Range Lawn Tennis & Cricket Club was established in 1845.[32]
Education
The
Following the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1938, the University used it to house refugee Czech academics and intellectuals. Ironically, in the German Invasion Handbook for Operation Sea Lion (Unternehmen Seelöwe), it was named as one of several large properties in the area suitable for use by the occupation authorities. It closed as a Congregational College in the late 20th century and has since been reused by the General, Municipal and Boilermakers' Union (GMB) as a training centre for their trade union members. At the beginning of this century the union tried to sell it to developers. A successful protest movement was convened by Jeremi Palka-Zawadzki, a long-term resident, and others.
It now operates as the British Muslim Heritage Centre (BMHC) and has undergone a multimillion-pound repair and renovation. The centre held its first public outdoor event, BMHC Family Day, on Sunday 1 May 2011.[33]
Schools
Secondary schools
Hartley College
Primary schools
Our Lady's R.C. Primary School on Whalley Road was partly housed, until the 1990s, in the former Imperial German consulate, seized during the
Originally, there was meant to be a third parallel road to York Avenue and Cromwell Avenue, called Woodlands Road, but the authorities noticed the large number of children now growing up in the area. The developer was therefore only allowed to build Bury Avenue; the rest of the plot was devoted to Manley Park County Primary School and a recreation ground, now known as Manley Park.[nb 6]. After the phase of further developments on the Egerton Estate, the school expanded into the Crimsworth Annexe, a large house and garden at the west end of College Road.
St Margaret's CE Primary School on Withington Road occupies the pre-
Hospitals
The
Cultural associations
The poet Jane Crewdson lived for part of her life in Whalley Range. The writer Dodie Smith spent part of her early life at Claremont, Wood Road, as she records in her autobiography Look Back With Love (1974).
The district has a number of cultural associations, including:
- Steve Hopkins, record producer and keyboardist of John Cooper Clarke, Nico, the Invisible Girls and the Archangel Orchestra, lives in Whalley Range and has an art studio there.[40]
- The Smiths' eponymous album mentions Whalley Range in the song "Miserable Lie", with the lyrics "What do we get for our trouble and pain? / Just a rented room in Whalley Range".
- Nigel Pivaro, actor and journalist, was baptised at English Martyrs RC Church in 1960.
- Les Dawson, comedian and writer, died at the Spire Hospital on 10 June 1993.
- bodhran. McGoldrick is the composer of the very popular tune "Farewell to Whalley Range which he has recorded with John McSherry on their album At First Light, and on the Capercaille album Nadurra.
- Philomena Lynott (1930-2019), Irish mother of Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott, ran the Clifton Grange Hotel (on the corner of Wellington Road and Alness Road)[41] from 1966 to 1980.[42] On visits to Manchester, Phil Lynott would stay, and wrote songs about the colourful 'showbiz' clientele who would frequent the hotel.[42] The Thin Lizzy songs Clifton Grange Hotel, Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy The Weed and The Boys Are Back in Town were inspired by characters and events in the hotel.[42]
Notable people
- Royal Marine to be awarded the Victoria Cross, was subsequently the Steward of the Whalley Range Bowling Club on Demesne Road.
- Bishop Geoffrey Ignatius Burke MA (1913-1999) was an English Roman Catholic bishop.
- The band James formed here in 1982.[43]
- Comedian Jason Manford grew up in Whalley Range and went to St. Margaret's Primary School on Withington Road.
- Noel Aspinall, Archdeacon of Manchester; Rector of St Edmund, Whalley Range and of St George's, Hulme.
- Gillian Gilbert of New Order was born here.
See also
Notes
References
- ^ "City of Manchester ward population 2011". Retrieved 5 January 2016.
- ^ "Whalley Range Conservation Area" (HTTP). Manchester City Council. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
- ISSN 0033-8834.
- ^ Burgess, Marissa "Sto lat!" (Barbakan delicatessen): The Big Issue in the North; no. 505, Feb. 23-29, 2004; pp. 18-19
- ^ Manchester Evening News, 17 January 2012
- ^ AM Weekend (Manchester); 15 August 1986
- ^ "Manley Park". Manchester Public Parks & Gardens. Manchester 2002. Archived from the original on 22 September 2007. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ Lloyd (1972); p. 100-02
- ^ Manchester Local Images Collection
- ^ Manchester Evening News; [specify] date
- ^ Lloyd, John (1985) Looking Back at Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Altrincham: Willow; p. [36]
- ^ "Andrew Simpson: The Seymour on Upper Chorlton Road ........ the one we missed out". Andrew Simpson. 1 June 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
- ^ "Grove demolition sparks sorrow". Manchester Evening News. 29 April 2005. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
- ^ Lloyd (1972); pp. 95–97
- ^ Lloyd, John (1985) Looking Back at Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Altrincham: Willow; p. [40]
- ^ Wright, Susannah. "Battlefield Withington". South Manchester Reporter. No. 8 April 2010. pp. 1, 5.
- ^ "Afzal Khan MP". parliament.uk. UK Parliament. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ "Councillor Angeliki Stogia". democracy.manchester.gov.uk. Manchester City Council. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
- ^ "Councillor Muqaddasah Bano". democracy.manchester.gov.uk. Manchester City Council. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
- ^ "Councillor Aftab Razaq". democracy.manchester.gov.uk. Manchester City Council. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
- ^ "Defection puts Tory in town hall". Manchester Evening News. Trinity Mirror. 3 January 2008. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
- ^ Yearsley, Ian (1962) The Manchester Tram. Huddersfield: Advertiser Press; pp. 109, 140, 150–51
- ^ Hartwell, Clare, et al. (2004) Lancashire: Manchester and the South-east. New Haven: Yale University Press; p. 655
- ^ datashine.org.uk/#table=QS203EW&col=QS203EW0025&ramp=YlOrRd&layers=BTTT&zoom=11&lon=-0.2444&lat=52.5626
- ^ Glendinning, Amy "The 'tin tabernacle' turns 100", in: South Manchester Reporter; June 10, 2010, p. 15
- ^ Parish of the English Martyrs, Manchester. "English Martyrs Parish Church".
- ^ Qadeer, Mashhood. "Zakariyyah Masjid & Madrassah Prayer Times Whalley Range". Mosque Finder UK. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
- ^ "Whalley Range mosques". Retrieved 7 July 2011.
- ^ "First stone laid for new Sikh temple". M.E.N. Media. 19 August 2010.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 March 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Non-Conformist Christian Churches, Non-Christian, Temples, Chapels, Meeting Places & Organisations". Manchester UK. Papillon Graphics. 2002. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
- ^ "The History of Whalley Range Lawn Tennis & Cricket Club". Whalley Range. 2 April 2017. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
- ^ "British Muslim Heritage Centre". Retrieved 7 July 2011.
- ^ From 1934, Hartley Victoria College and later used as a hall of residence for the Royal Northern College of Music
- ^ "Home page". Kassim Darwish Grammar School for Boys. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ History of Whalley Range School for Girls, 1920
- ^ "Guardian Unlimited". London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Archived from the original (HTTP) on 23 January 2005. Retrieved 15 April 2007.
- ^ "Spire Manchester Hospital". Retrieved 20 April 2010.
- ^ "Former Spire Hospital set to be demolished". Place North West. 28 January 2019.
- ^ "Steve Hopkins Web: Home". www.lumifont.co.uk.
- ^ (staff writer) (17 November 2020). "The bizarre Whalley Range hotel full of "pop stars, magicians, ventriloquists, and other random entertainers"". manchestersfinest.com. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
- ^ a b c Taylor, Paul (28 February 2011). "Phil Lynott's mother recalls exciting days in Manchester". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
- ^ "Manchester band James thrilled fans with acoustic set at HMV". 21 March 2016.