Chorlton

Chorlton-cum-Hardy, generally known as Chorlton, is a suburb around three miles southwest of Manchester city centre, on the north bank of the River Mersey. An Anglo-Saxon settlement existed here by the 9th century, and the ancient township covered around 1,280 acres of low-lying land bordering Stretford, Sale, Didsbury, Withington and Whalley Range. Chorlton stayed largely rural until the Midland Railway arrived in 1880, after which it grew quickly into a Victorian middle-class suburb; it became part of the City of Manchester in 1904. Chorlton Green, designated a conservation area in 1970, sits at the historic heart of the neighbourhood, with a Grade II listed lych gate at the old churchyard of St Clement's. Chorltonville, a 36-acre garden suburb of semi-detached houses on tree-lined roads built from 1911 south of Chorlton Brook, has its own conservation area status, granted in 1991. Beech Road, running off the green, is the area's best-known strip of independent shops, bars and cafes; Beech Road Park next to it opened in 1896 on land donated by Lord Egerton and hosted the Beech Road Festival from 1991 until 2011. The Midland Railway station that first connected Chorlton to the city closed in 1967. A Manchester Metrolink tram stop was built on the same site and opened in July 2011, giving the area its first rail link into the centre in 44 years; the line was later extended to East Didsbury in 2013 and Manchester Airport in 2014. Green space is a strong feature of the area: Chorlton Water Park, created from a former gravel quarry dug during construction of the M60 motorway in the 1970s, is now a Local Nature Reserve, and Chorlton Ees, on the former site of Withington sewage works (closed 1972), adds grassland and woodland trails along the Mersey. Southern Cemetery, which opened in October 1879 on the district's edge, was Britain's largest municipal cemetery when it opened and is the burial place of industrialist John Rylands and broadcaster Tony Wilson.

Photo: Chorlton Green by Phil Champion, CC BY-SA 2.0