Gorton Heritage Trail is located approximately 3 miles from the centre of Manchester, England. [1] The trail has been designed to promote and conserve the heritage and wildlife of Gore Brook Valley. It lies mainly within the Gore Brook Conservation area. There are eight listed buildings and other places of interest along the trail.
The trail runs through what is still a surprisingly rural and environmentally diverse area; it has a meadow area along Gore Brook and a Butterfly Garden which give an ecological dimension to the trail.
Gorton Heritage Trail Action Group (GHTAG) was founded in 1997 by local residents who were inspired to protect, enhance and maintain the area, and bring attention to its sites. [2]
Named after Sunny Brow Farm, which was originally on this site. It became a park in 1905 [3]
This Romanesque style parish church was opened in 1908 to serve the new houses being built in this area. [4]
Planted by Richard Peacock, the founder of Gorton's famous locomotive works, in memory of his wife. [5]
Originally the entrance to the grounds of Gorton Hall, built in the 17th century and demolished in 1906. The lodge bears the initials of Richard Peacock who occupied the hall from 1865. [6]
The original bridge was built over Gore Brook in 1737 to save local women having to raise their skirts as they crossed the brook on stepping stones, as local legend has it. [7]
Once called Fir Lane or Further Lane, this was the original road into Manchester before Hyde Road was built in the 1820s. It still has its eighteenth-century cottages with numbers 46–50 dating from 1782. [8]
This is now a wildlife area through which the landscaped 'Peacock's Walk' was originally laid for its namesake to walk to church. The site of the Dissenters' chapel is in the area of the burial ground to the rear of Brookfield Church. [9]
This ornate marble and stone tomb is the resting place of the industrialist, benefactor and Gorton's first MP who died in 1889. [10]
Brookfield is a fine Grade II Listed Victorian Gothic Church, opened in 1871, built by Thomas Worthington, and commissioned by Richard Peacock of the powerful local Peacock and Beyer engineering and locomotive building firm. Known in its time as the "Unitarian Cathedral", it has a peel of eight bells in its tall steeple – all named for members of Peacock family.
Before its construction, in times of religious dissension and persecution, worshippers met secretly in an upstairs room of a house nearby at the junction of Abbey Hey Lane and Cross Lane. [11]
The original pub on this site, dated to 1833, was later owned by John Jennison, the creator of Belle Vue Zoological Gardens. The present building dates from 1936. [12]
The trail crosses Hyde Road (A57) and enters an area planted specifically with Butterfly gardening in mind. [13]
Part of an ancient route going north from the salt mines of Northwich. [14] The 'salt road' crosses the brook runs past the 'Vale Cottage' pub and then through foxfold, a wilder section of the trail!
Originally 18th-century cottages, it became a roadside inn when the Salt Road was in use. [15]
Site of an old tannery which closed in 1959 using the water of Gore Brook. Cottages 56–60* were built in the 18th century for tannery workers. [16]
Spring Bank Farm, opposite the Tannery cottages of Tan Yard Brow, dates from 1780. The farm house, which was originally thatched, still exists today but is the private property of Spring Bank Farm Kennels, a Boarding Kennels and Cattery. [17]
Constructed in the 1820s to supply water to Manchester's rapidly expanding population. Amongst the first municipal reservoirs to be built in the country it is now used for recreation. [18]
The land was originally purchased by Manchester City Council in the 1870s for further possible work around the reservoir. In time it became a recreation area and in 1929 a municipal park. [19]
Built by Robert Grimshaw in the 1790s. He was the first person to try and introduce mechanised weaving looms, but Luddites burned down his factory, and he went bankrupt. A hat-making factory and some workers’ cottages were built behind the house and over the next xx years a number of different families lived there. For some years it was used to house a girls’ boarding school, then one for boys, and then a successful engineering company. In 18 the Manchester City Council bought the house and surrounding land in case it was necessary to extend the reservoirs. It was rented to tenants, and later housed the Park Keeper and his Deputy, before being used as offices. The building has stood empty for many years and, although it has been listed by English Heritage, it is now in a dangerous condition. [20]
Opened in 2015 featuring plants that were used in local historical textile industries. [21]
These mark the entrance to the Grimshaw's estate; they have now been partly restored with one as a Visitor Centre.
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Timperley is a suburban village in the borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Cheshire, it is approximately six miles southwest of central Manchester. The population at the 2011 census was 11,061.
Meanwood is a suburb and former village in north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
Westhoughton is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, 4 miles (6 km) southwest of Bolton, 5 miles (8 km) east of Wigan and 13 miles (21 km) northwest of Manchester.
Gorton is an area of Manchester in Greater Manchester, North West England. It is to the southeast of Manchester city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw.
Warburton is a village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Cheshire, Warburton lies on the south bank of the River Mersey between the borough of Warrington and Greater Manchester. In the 21st century, the village remains predominantly rural. Altrincham is the nearest town. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 286.
Anglezarke is a sparsely populated civil parish in the Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England. It is an agricultural area used for sheep farming, also site of reservoirs that were built to supply water to Liverpool. The area has a large expanse of moorland with many public footpaths and bridleways. The area is popular with walkers and tourists, it lies in the West Pennine Moors in Lancashire, sandwiched between the moors of Withnell and Rivington, and is close to the towns of Chorley, Horwich and Darwen. At the 2001 census it had a population of 23. At the 2011 census the population is included within Heapey civil parish. The area was subjected to depopulation after the reservoirs were built.
Newall Green is an area in the Wythenshawe district of Manchester, England. It is on the west side of the M56 motorway, approximately 1 mile from Wythenshawe Town Centre.
Clayton Vale is an area of green space in Clayton, Manchester, England, through which the River Medlock flows. Redeveloped in 1986, the land has a rich industrial and social history. Today the area is a natural habitat for wildlife and it has been designated a Local Nature Reserve.
Edgworth is a small village within the borough of Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire, England. It is north east of North Turton between Broadhead Brook on the west and Quarlton Brook in the south east. The ground ranges from 650 feet (200 m) to 1,100 feet (340 m) above sea level.
Drinkwater Park is situated in the Irwell Valley on the western border of Prestwich, near Manchester, bounded by the River Irwell to the west, Agecroft Road and Rainsough Brow (A6044) to the south, Butterstile Lane and Carr Clough estate to the east and Bunkers Hill to the north. The park is administered by Forestry England and is part of Prestwich Forest Park, which also incorporates Philips Park, Mere Clough, Prestwich Clough, Forest Bank Park in Pendlebury and Waterdale Meadow.
Gorton Locomotive Works, known locally as Gorton Tank, was in West Gorton in Manchester, England and was completed in 1848 by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway.
Midhopestones is a village in the civil parish of Bradfield within the Stocksbridge and Upper Don electoral ward in the borough of the City of Sheffield, England.
New Moston is a suburb of Manchester, England.
Eddington was a village in Kent, South East England to the south-east of Herne Bay, to the west of Beltinge and to the north of Herne. It is now a suburb of Herne Bay, in Greenhill and Eddington Ward, one of the five wards of Herne Bay. Its main landmark for over 100 years until 2010 was Herne Bay Court, a former school which once possessed one of the largest and best-equipped school engineering workshops in England; it later became a Christian conference centre.
The Peacock Mausoleum is a Victorian Gothic memorial to Richard Peacock (1820–1889), engineer and Liberal MP for Manchester, and to his son, Joseph Peacock. It is situated in the cemetery of Brookfield Unitarian Church, Gorton, Manchester. The mausoleum was designed by the prolific Manchester architect Thomas Worthington. It was listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England on 3 October 1974.
Brookfield Unitarian Church, Gorton, Manchester, England is a Victorian Gothic church. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella body for British Unitarians.
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Manchester is a city in Northwest England. The M18 postcode area is to the southeast of the city centre, and contains the area of Gorton. The postcode area contains 14 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, three are listed at Grade II*, the middle grade of the three grades, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The area is now mainly residential, and the listed buildings include houses, churches, a mausoleum, a public house, a war memorial, and a former school.