Category: Salford

The RHS [Royal Horticultural Society] has come to Salford!  Even though I had read the news reports, it wasn’t until I visited the site of the RHS Garden Bridgewater that I appreciated the scale of the project to transform the 154 acre site near Worsley into a new garden.  Visits to the building site are being offered regularly and I would encourage anyone to book a tour.  It is a fantastic opportunity to see how the RHS are resurrecting this site and turning it into an amazing garden.

Worsley New Hall was a magnificent Victorian mansion surrounded by elegant gardens, with terraces and a lake.  Demolished in the 1940s and the site used by a garden centre and scout groups, the RHS are now making changes that remember and respect the past and also take horticulture and conservation into the future.

On our guided tour we began by looking across the site of the Welcome Building, where visitors will arrive when the gardens open.  In front of this will be a new lake and gardens that will lead you to the 11-acre walled gardens.  As building work is still very much ongoing our tour took a circuitous route around the site to stand in one corner of what will become the walled Paradise Garden.  Planting has now started on this site and we could begin to get a feel for what a stunning space this will be.  This walled garden area will also have a kitchen garden area, where food for the cafe / cafes will be grown.

Walking through the woodland we met the rare breed pigs who have been doing a tremendous job of clearing the ground for planting.  We reached the terraces that were once formal gardens below the hall and looked over the currently drained lake.  Our knowledgeable guide told us about the horticultural apprentice posts there will be here, the increasing biodiversity that will result from the planting and management, the links with the community that have been made and the educational opportunities the garden will provide.

We cycled to Worsley but negotiating the roundabouts to the M60 and the last section along Leigh Road are particularly busy and unpleasant.  We were told they hope to open up access from the canal and that will be much better for pedestrians and cyclists.

RHS Garden Bridgewater opens next year, although the whole site won’t be complete for many years.  That means you won’t need an excuse to visit every year and we will certainly be going along to see what it looks like when it isn’t a building site.

I regularly walk along Oldfield Road in Salford and when I do I always stop and look at the view over the river to Manchester.  The panorama takes in Beetham Tower, completed in 2006, and something of a novelty for some time.  I only took my camera the day it snowed in 2009 and you will notice the lack of tall cranes in the photograph.  This was the height of the economic downturn and it looked as if Beetham Tower might stand alone.  I always thought that if any area was crying out to be a green space it was this one and would imagine sitting on this gently sloping bank with a picnic looking across at the bustle of Manchester and this always changing and interesting view.

Middlewood Locks is part of the 15-mile long Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal which ran from Salford to Prestolee, near Little Lever, from where one arm ran to Bolton and another to Bury.  A spectacular breach in 1936 on the Bury arm led to the canal’s eventual closure.  There are long-term plans to eventually restore the canal and the first section from the River Irwell through the Middlewood Locks development is complete.  From there the line of the canal followed the railway line to Salford Crescent and Agecroft.

Instead of my dreamed-about park, the recession ended and the cranes returned.  Over the last few years the large site has been developed [along with many other sites in Salford] for housing [or a neighbourhood as the developers call it].  When complete the site will have blocks of flats, townhouses, gardens, offices, a hotel, restaurants, bars, shops, a gym and parking.

What makes this site attractive for a Salfordian is that, after being closed for access for so long,  we can now walk from East Ordsall Lane along the small section of canal through the development.  Eventually we should be able to walk from the River Irwell path to Middlewood Locks.  I could now sit and have that picnic by the canal.  The pictures below were taken recently along the pleasant landscaped path showing the views to Manchester and the lovely Ordsall Chord bridge.  Not all of Greater Manchester’s developments provide this sort of access and it is appreciated.

I have been watching the progress of the works around the side entrance and garden next to Salford Cathedral for some time.  We walk by the Cathedral regularly on our way into Manchester and on a recent walk I noticed the workers had finished.  The new piazza, that is now the entrance to the Cathedral, is completed and was officially opened on 6 July 2019.  This provides an entrance that is away from the pavement and busy Chapel Street and will be a lovely space for the congregation to gather after services.

Beyond the piazza is the Cathedral garden with the Onion Shelter at its centre.  Made from ten steam-bent oak wood planks, this open structure has a circle of seating.

Opened in 1848, Salford Cathedral on Chapel Street is dedicated to St John the Evangelist and is positioned north-south.  In 1854 the Great East Window was installed, a traditional and stunning stained glass window.  The stained glass was removed during the Second World War to protect it from bomb damage.  Along the base of the window are images that tell the story of the Catholic faith in England.

What was originally the Blessed Sacrament chapel became the World War One Memorial Chapel in 1923.  The Cathedral has a light and airy interior with a central modern altar in white marble.  There are interesting floor mosaics and tiling that give the building a clean finish.

While we were looking around, a young woman approached me and asked if I would take her photograph outside the Cathedral [the three of us were the only visitors].  I did willingly and asked her where she was visiting from.  ‘Mexico’, she told me with a smile and exclaimed how beautiful the Cathedral was.  We chatted some more and I learnt that she was staying in London, Manchester and Dublin and hoping to learn more English.  The new piazza gives an elegance to Salford Cathedral that it lacked before and maybe more tourists will make the trip to see it.

It was a chilly winter morning when I last visited Agecroft Cemetery.  We wrapped up and walked along the River Irwell carrying a flask and biscuits in a rucksack and sat on a sheltered bench in weak sunlight looking over the gravestones.  A few other people were here tending to graves and, as always, the cemetery felt soothingly calm.

Agecroft Cemetery is Salford’s newest cemetery.  Designed by Manchester Architects Sharp and Foster and built by Gerrard’s of Swinton, the cemetery was opened in 1903.  More than 53,700 interments have been carried out within the cemetery’s 45 acres.

The cemetery has splendid ornate entrance gates on Langley Road.  Inside there are neatly arranged roads and rows of gravestones.  The buildings were all designed by Sharp and Foster; the crematorium building was converted from a Non-Conformist burial chapel in 1957 and there was also once a Roman Catholic chapel within the cemetery.  It is hoped to save the disused chapel with a clock tower and many stunning features that was abandoned in the 1980s and can be seen in the photograph.  Work is being carried out to protect this derelict gothic-revival chapel from the weather and there are plans to seek funding to restore it.   The group’s website has more information on the history of the cemetery.

Later I explored the graveyard, reading inscriptions on stones that took my eye.  I like to visit Salford’s cemeteries at this time of year as many of the graves have seasonal decorations and I find this makes the graveyard feel part of the spirit and movement of the seasons.  The cemetery has plenty of interesting burials, including Commonwealth war graves.  A stone memorial to the crew of a Lancaster bomber carrying a full bomb load that crashed nearby in 1944 is near the entrance.  All seven members of the crew and two civilians on the ground died in the crash.  Reports at the time said that around 80 people were injured.

The Stockport air disaster of 1967 killed 72 of the 84 people on board.  The passenger aircraft full of holidaymakers returning from Palma de Mallorca crashed near the centre of Stockport, just a short distance from Manchester Airport.  Astonishingly no one was killed on the ground.  Arthur and Elsie Kemp from Salford, who sadly died in the plane crash, are buried together at Agecroft Cemetery.

The opening of the Salford flood storage basin was a big deal.  Anyone who remembers the terrible floods of 2015 will be relieved to see improved flood prevention up and running.  The River Irwell has burst its banks many times over the centuries; notably in September and October 1946 5,300 homes were flooded.  The most recent flooding was on Boxing Day 2015; after a day and a half of constant rainfall 2,250 homes across Greater Manchester were flooded and over 500 businesses.  Water rushing into your home is devastating and for many of the families it took many months for their lives to get back to anything like normal.

The Salford Flood Basin opened in 2018.  I intended to visit earlier but other things got in the way and it was a fine but cold wintry day when I eventually got there.  I cycled along the River Irwell to the flood basin and entering along the path from Great Cheetham Street West.  Arriving at the flood basin I was firstly aware of  the size, it is huge (five hectares apparently).

At a cost of £10 million, we are told that the basin is big enough to hold more than 250 Olympic-size swimming pools of water and will protect almost 2,000 homes and businesses from flooding.  In addition, the scheme has created an urban wetland habitat and a green space for Salford residents.  A 2.5 km footpath runs around the periphery of the basin and on a sunny day this will be a peaceful place to stroll, well away from the bustle of the city.

The photograph at the top of the post shows one of the two kiosks on the site.  The colourful designs were decorated by Manchester graffiti artist, kELzO.

How does a flood storage basin work?

The basin is a sort of natural flood plain in the middle of the city.  Sitting within a sweeping meander of the River Irwell, the area was excavated and the soil used to create an embankment around the edge of the site.  This embankment is a flood defence in itself but if needed the storage basin can be flooded in a controlled way. through an inlet in one corner.  When the river levels are high excess water can be diverted into the storage basin where it will be stored and released back into the river when water levels have subsided.

It is hoped that this and the existing flood storage area at Littleton Road will prevent devastation like that seen on Boxing Day 2015 in the future.

It was a fascinating heritage walk around Seedley and Buile Hill Parks that sparked my interest in Caroline Birley.  She lived in a house, no longer standing, that looked over Seedley Park on Seedley Terrace and we were told she kept her huge collection of fossils and rocks in a building that was constructed on the back of the house that she called the Seedley Museum.  She opened this home-museum to the public in 1888.

Born in Manchester in 1851 [or 1852] Caroline came from a wealthy family that made money from textiles and rubber in Manchester.  She was the youngest of four and had an early passion for science and despite having no formal education was lucky enough to be able to follow interests that were considered the realm of men at that time.  She travelled widely collecting specimens; between 1887 and 1907 she travelled across the world from Denmark to North America and South Africa with her friend Louisa Copland.  A number of fossil species were named after her and although Caroline collected and catalogued her own finds publication about her findings had to come from a man, Dr Henry Woodward, the Keeper of Geology at the British Museum.

She left Salford and moved to London in 1896 and her collection moved with her so didn’t make it in to the Salford Natural History Museum in Buile Hill House.  Before she moved she made a will stating that she wished her collection to be given to the London Natural History Museum and The Manchester University Museum.  During her lifetime Caroline also gave many specimens to Oxford University.  Her executors wanted to see some museums in the north-west of England benefit after her death and so her collection was further fragmented as specimens were sent to Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Radcliffee and Warrington and the Manchester Grammer School museum.

Between 1879 and 1898 Caroline Birley also wrote several children’s books, including the intriguingly titled Jessamine and her Lesson Books, and How She Missed the Gypsy Tea in 1887.

Caroline returned to Salford just before her death in 1907 at the age of 55-years.  She had not married and had no children.  Her obituary, published in The Geological Magazine, said of her:

‘By the death of Miss Caroline Birley, a most ardent and enthusiastic student has been lost to the science of Geology, one who from her childhood to the end of her life never wavered in devotion to this her cherished pursuit, nor thought any fatigue or personal sacrifice too great in order to visit places of geological interest and obtain specimens for her beloved museum’

Blackfriars Road in Salford crosses Trinity Way, going under the railway line.  From the Chapel Street junction this becomes Blackfriars Street and continues up to the River Irwell where Blackfriars Bridge crosses the river in to Manchester.  Along Blackfriars Street a few impressive buildings from old Salford remain.

The sandstone three-arched Blackfriars Bridge replaced a previous wooden footbridge and was opened in 1820.  The tollbooth on the bridge was removed in 1848.

On the corner of Blackfriars Bridge and chapel Street is the Black Lion Hotel, where John Cooper Clarke gave early performances and the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain was born.  This organisation was founded at the UK Van Dwellers Protection Association in 1889 to protect the rights of fairground workers and changed its name in 1917.  The Guild represents travelling funfair businesses and I remembering finding their lovely and moving memorial in the National Memorial Arboretum that remembers the Guild members who died in the First and Second World Wars.

The splendid building in the photograph is the former Baerlein’s warehouse and was built in 1877.  The building is listed and today it has been converted to residential use and is known as Textile Apartments.  Baerlein & Co were an engineering company that made machinery for the textile industry.

This is surely one of the most attractive police stations you have ever seen.  The old police station on Chapel Street in Salford is near to the junction with Blackfriars Road and on the junction of Chapel Street and Salford Approach.  The latter went to the former railway station.  This is the historic core of Salford and at one time this police station would have faced the busy Flat Iron Market place, a bustling area of second-hand clothing stalls and auctioneers with lively patter and a fairground with roundabouts, shooting galleries and a boxing booth.  A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4  originally published by Victoria County History, London in 1911 described the market as a ‘sort of rag fair.’

This charming red brick building was built in 1888 and above the door you can still make our the ‘Police Station’ sign.  The single-storey building has an unusual curved end with a short spire above it and a decorative baluster around the roof line.

For a time the old Police Station was boarded up and its future looked dismal.  Today, despite being surrounded by new build offices and flats the building appears to be safe at least in the short-term, it is listed and is now used as offices.  Apparently between its life as a police station and its current use it was also used as a tram ticket office.

Salford City Council plan to improve this part of Salford, known as Greengate, in their Chapel Street East Scheme.  The proposals include cycle and pedestrian friendly routes which can only be an improvement on the area which is currently a nightmare for those on foot and two wheels.  The Greengate Regeneration Strategy states:

‘The Vision of the Strategy is to deliver a dynamic
residential and commercial place with an exceptional
public realm. Greengate will be a focus of cultural
activity for both residents and visitors alike, building
on the current strong brands within the area and
developing new exciting opportunities. The area
will witness the regeneration of important historical
aspects of the Collier Street Baths and the Market
Cross.’