Clifton | |
---|---|
Housing on Rake Lane near the railway station | |
Location within Greater Manchester | |
OS grid reference | SD775035 |
Metropolitan borough | |
Metropolitan county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | MANCHESTER |
Postcode district | M27 |
Dialling code | 0161 |
Police | Greater Manchester |
Fire | Greater Manchester |
Ambulance | North West |
UK Parliament | |
Clifton is a suburb of Swinton, in the Salford district, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies along the edge of Irwell Valley in the north of the City of Salford. Historically in Lancashire, it was a centre for coal mining, and once formed part of the Municipal Borough of Swinton and Pendlebury.
Clifton is derived from the Old English clif and tun, and means the "settlement near a cliff, slope or riverbank". [1] Clifton was mentioned in the Pipe Roll of 1183–84. [2]
Clifton Hall Colliery was west of Lumns Lane, on the site now occupied by a domestic refuse and recycling site run by the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. The colliery was operating by 1820, and its tramway is shown on a parliamentary plan from 1830 and an 1845 map. It closed in 1929.
On 18 June 1885, an underground explosion at the colliery killed 178 men and boys. [3] The inquest and the official report concluded that explosion was caused by firedamp igniting on contact with a candle. [4] Blacksmith George Hindley (aged 16) and fireman George Higson, were part of a band of men who descended into the mine immediately after the explosion. They received an Albert Medal (2nd class) in recognition of their heroism.
Wet Earth Colliery in Clifton closed in 1928; its remains can still be seen in Clifton Country Park, close to the River Irwell and the Manchester-Preston railway line near the bottom of Clifton House Road, which runs uphill from the Irwell Valley to its junction with the A666 Manchester Road, opposite Clifton Cricket Ground.
The Pilkington's Lancastrian Pottery was established in 1892. The Chloride Electrical Storage Company opened its battery factory at Clifton Junction in 1893. Magnesium Elektron Ltd built a large factory at Clifton Junction to produce magnesium metal in 1936.
Clifton was a township in the ecclesiastical parish of Eccles in the hundred of Salford in Lancashire. [5] In 1866 Clifton became a separate civil parish, [6] on 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished to form Swinton and Pendlebury, part also went to Kearsley [7] and Clifton became part of the Municipal Borough of Swinton and Pendlebury and Kearsley Urban District. [8] In 1931 the parish had a population of 2928. [9]
Clifton lies five miles north west of Manchester on the A666 road (Manchester Road) to Bolton. The township covered 850 acres in the valley of the River Irwell, which forms the north east boundary. The Manchester-Preston railway line passes through and there was a junction with the line to Bury and Rossendale which opened to Rawtenstall in September 1846. The highest land rises to over 300 feet above sea level in the west of the township near the Worsley boundary and is moss land. The underlying rocks are New Red Sandstone between Clifton and Ringley while the rest of the township lies on the Middle Coal Measures of the Manchester Coalfield. [2] Much of Clifton's boundary with Pendlebury is defined by Slack Brook which flows eventually into the Irwell not far from where Agecroft Power Station once stood. Slack Brook has been largely culverted for many years under landfill tipping since the 1950s.
Clifton is served by Clifton railway station on the Ribble Valley Line. In earlier times, the station was known as "Clifton Junction" from its location at the junction of the Manchester and Bolton Railway and Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway lines. The Bury line left the station/junction and passed over Clifton Viaduct, known locally as "the thirteen arches", [10] [11] across the Irwell Valley. Clifton Junction was important in bringing workers to the three large factories in the area, Magnesium Elektron Ltd (M.E.L.), Chloride Batteries and Pilkington's Tiles. The Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal passed through Clifton. The Clifton Aqueduct carried the canal across the River Irwell. [12] and is preserved as a Grade II listed building. [11] There are plans to restore the canal for leisure use at a cost of over £50M.
The area is served by two Anglican churches. St. Anne's has stood on Manchester Road since its completion in 1874. St. Thomas's on Delamere Avenue, off Rake Lane, was built in 1974 to replace an earlier building on Rake Lane opposite the junction with Whitehead Road. The earlier church was built in 1898 as a mission church to serve a small community of outlying farms and cottages. Composed of corrugated metal sheeting, it became known affectionately as “Th'owd Tin Mission” rather than St. Thomas's.
Clifton has two primary schools and a pupil referral unit within its boundaries:
School | Locality | Description | Ofsted |
---|---|---|---|
Clifton Primary School | Wroe Street, Clifton, M27 6PF | Primary school | 105907 |
St Mark's R.C. Primary School | Queensway, Clifton, M27 8QE | Primary school | 105956 |
The Clifton Centre | Silverdale, Clifton, M27 8GW | Pupil referral unit | 130007 |
Clifton Library is located on Wynne Avenue (formerly part of Rake Lane) in the Clifton Community Centre.
Clifton Cricket Club play in the Premier Division of the recently established Greater Manchester Cricket League. The Club have gone through a recent period of success with winning the GMCLT20 competition 3 times and becoming regional T20 champions. They also reached the finals of both the National ECB Club Vitality Blast and the Lancashire Knock Out. The club's ground is on Manchester Road not far from junction 16 of the M60 motorway.
Queensmere Dam off Queensway is leased from the Forestry Commission by Swinton and Pendlebury Anglers. Queensway was only built (across what was farmland) in the early 1960s to directly link much of Rake Lane and Lumns Lane (at the former Bee Hive public house - now Holyrood private nursery) with Bolton Road (A666), Pendlebury at its junction with Station Road (B5231) instead of having to use nearby Billy Lane. Before this, Queensmere Dam was known locally as simply "the Dam".
There are currently three public houses within Clifton. These are the Oddfellows Arms, the Golden Lion and the Robin Hood, all along the same side of Manchester Road. On Rake Lane, at the junction with Queensway, stands the Holyrood nursery which was, until recent times, the Beehive public house.
The British Army's Territorial Army Centre on Manchester Road, very close to junction 16 of the M60 motorway, is known locally by its informal title of "Clifton Barracks".
The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal is a disused canal in Greater Manchester, England, built to link Bolton and Bury with Manchester. The canal, when fully opened, was 15 miles 1 furlong (24 km) long. It was accessed via a junction with the River Irwell in Salford. Seventeen locks were required to climb to the summit as it passed through Pendleton, heading northwest to Prestolee before it split northwest to Bolton and northeast to Bury. Between Bolton and Bury the canal was level and required no locks. Six aqueducts were built to allow the canal to cross the rivers Irwell and Tonge and several minor roads.
Pendlebury is a town in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,069. It lies 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Manchester, 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Salford and 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Bolton.
Swinton is a town in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. southwest of the River Irwell, 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Manchester, adjoining the town of Pendlebury and suburb of Clifton. In 2014, it had a population of 22,931.
Little Lever is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Within the Historic County of Lancashire, it is 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Bolton, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Radcliffe and 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Bury. In the 19th century, the population was employed in cotton mills, paper mills, bleach works, terracotta works, a rope works and numerous collieries.
Clifton railway station is a railway station in Clifton, Greater Manchester, England which was formerly called Clifton Junction. It lies on the Manchester–Preston line.
Kearsley is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 census was 14,212. Within the Historic County of Lancashire, it lies 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Manchester, 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Bury and 3+3⁄4 miles (6 km) south of Bolton.
Swinton and Pendlebury was a local government district of the administrative county of Lancashire, England. It was created in 1894 as an urban district and enlarged in 1934, gaining the status of a municipal borough.
Agecroft is a suburban area of Pendlebury, within the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It lies within the Irwell Valley, on the west bank of the River Irwell and along the course of the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal. It comprises a section of Pendlebury's high ground bisected by the A6044, its main thoroughfare; Kersal and Salford are across the river to the east. Agecroft Cemetery and HM Prison Forest Bank are in the area.
Irlams o' th' Height is a suburb of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, on top of the Irwell Valley, on higher ground than Pendleton, hence the name. The first part of the name derives from the Irlam family that ran the Pack Horse Inn in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Agecroft Colliery was a coal mine on the Manchester Coalfield that opened in 1844 in the Agecroft district of Pendlebury, Lancashire, England. It exploited the coal seams of the Middle Coal Measures of the Lancashire Coalfield. The colliery had two spells of use; the first between 1844 and 1932, when the most accessible coal seams were exploited, and a second lease of life after extensive development in the late 1950s to access the deepest seams.
Wet Earth Colliery was a coal mine located on the Manchester Coalfield, in Clifton, Greater Manchester. The colliery site is now the location of Clifton Country Park. The colliery has a unique place in British coal mining history; apart from being one of the earliest pits in the country, it is the place where engineer James Brindley made water run uphill.
Wardley is a suburban area of the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. It borders Linnyshaw, Walkden and Swinton.
Clifton Viaduct is a Grade II listed stone structure crossing the valley of the River Irwell in Clifton, Greater Manchester, and also the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal. It is known locally as the "13 Arches". It is currently disused and closed to the public.
Agecroft power station was a coal-fired power station between the eastern bank of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal and the western bank of the River Irwell at Pendlebury, near Manchester, England. It operated between 1925 and 1993, and was demolished in 1994. HM Prison Forest Bank has since been built on the site.
The Irwell Valley in North West England extends from the Forest of Rossendale through the cities of Salford and Manchester. The River Irwell runs through the valley, along with the River Croal.
Dixon Fold railway station was built on the Manchester and Bolton Railway, between Clifton Junction railway station and Kearsley railway station, in Clifton near Pendlebury. It opened in 1841. Maps of the area from 1848 give it the name Clifton Station, which should not be confused with the nearby Clifton railway station on Rake Lane, which opened in 1847. The station closed between 2 August 1926 and 7 March 1927, but was closed permanently on 18 May 1931. The station was demolished after closure.
Andrew Knowles and Sons was a coal mining company that operated on the Manchester Coalfield in and around Clifton near Pendlebury, in the historic county of Lancashire, England.
Matthew Fletcher was a mine owner and mining engineer in Lancashire, England.
Swinton and Pendlebury is a town in the City of Salford Metropolitan Borough, Greater Manchester, England. It contains 23 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, one is at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The listed buildings include houses, churches and items in churchyards, a public house, aqueducts, a railway viaduct, cemetery buildings, a bandstand and war memorials.
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