Clayton Vale is an area of green space in
Clayton, Manchester
Clayton is a suburb of Manchester, England, 3 miles east of the Manchester city centre, city centre on Ashton New Road.
Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, Clayton takes its name from the Clayton family who owned large par ...
, England, through which the
River Medlock
The River Medlock is a river in Greater Manchester, England, which rises near Oldham and flows south and west for to join the River Irwell in Manchester city centre.
Sources
Rising in the hills that surround Strinesdale just to the east of O ...
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.
Natural history
Fossils of plants and insects in the rocks of the area show a very different climate to what we see today. Swamp forests and luxuriant growth were encouraged by the warm moist air. At the start of the
Triassic Period
The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...
, Britain was largely covered by desert. The land sank producing a great salt lake over much of northern Britain, after which the desert conditions returned.
Clayton Vale pre-1986
The Vale landscape was somewhat different before the late 1970s. The valley was home to many buildings from Bank Bridge Works and Tannery to The
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
Hospital.
;Bank Bridge Works and Tannery
The chimney behind the Jewish Cemetery of
Philips Park is all that remains of the once extensive complex, which was once shown on Johnson's Map of 1820.
;The Smallpox Hospital
When the
Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...
opened, and the city became an inland port, an isolation hospital was required to nurse sailors with infectious diseases. Originally known as Clayton Infectious Diseases Hospital, it was shown on the
Ordnance Survey
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map of 1909. By 1933, it became known as Clayton Smallpox Hospital.
On the north bank of the River Medlock, opposite the site of the print works, the foundation stone is clearly visible along with brick walling on top of the stonework. To the south of the river stood the nurses home, known as Clayton House. The site also contained other associated buildings.
;The Old Print Works
Standing near Clayton Bridge, on the sharp bend of the river on the south bank was Clayton Vale Print Works. This was shown again on Johnson's Map of 1820, but by 1888 the
OS map shows the works as being disused and in 1909 the ten buildings of the complex were demolished leaving little to be seen today. However, foundation stone can be seen in the river bed.
;Culcheth Dye Works
Shown on the 1893
OS map as a collection of buildings with large reservoirs. Because the more modern dye works made a greater demand on the water supply than could be provided by the river, the industry, known as Failsworth Dyeing and Finishing Works, fell into disuse in the late 1960s. The site has since been landscaped. The works once stood next to the present day Visitors Centre.
;River Maintenance and Notable Bridges in the Vale
A bridge, situated where Edge Lane meets Berry Brow, is mentioned as far back as 1696. Today, a stone bridge stands, known as Clayton Bridge. Before this there was a ford, suggesting an ancient river crossing which might have been used since prehistoric times.
In 1872, the River Medlock rose suddenly and tore away part of the printworks complex, as well as washing away between 40 and 50 bodies from
Philips Park Cemetery. After this, the river was lined with red bricks to prevent such a disaster from happening again. It is because of the red brick lining that the river is sometimes called 'The Red River'. This type of
river engineering
River engineering is a discipline of civil engineering which studies human intervention in the course, characteristics, or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit. People have intervened in the natural course and b ...
can be seen from the bridge nearby.
In recent years, more river engineering has taken place further up the river bank, near the red brick bridge (known as Vale Street Bridge). The river course was changed in the early 1960s as steep stone walls were installed to prevent flooding.
;Coates Farm
Coates Farm held a summer gala for local children before the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, with races, tea and lemonade. The stone wall next to the river is probably one of the remaining walls of the farmhouse.
Edge Lane, Millstream Lane and Berry Brow is known locally as Pop Brew and the vale was also known locally as "the meddie". Coates farm was cleared by 1960 and a road was made taking Dustbin waste carts to a landfill site along the valley. The pig sty for the farm was demolished during World War Two and in its place stood an
ARP Warden hut. a new build visitor centre now stands near the site of the old farm.
Manchester Central Library
Manchester Central Library is the headquarters of the city's library and information service in Manchester, England. Facing St Peter's Square, it was designed by E. Vincent Harris and constructed between 1930 and 1934. The form of the building ...
online photo archive is a source, and can be accessed via a link below.
;The Bay Horse Inn and Clayton Bridge as a Hamlet
Originally a farm building, it became a pub in the 19th century - known then as The Grey Mare. The inn served the small hamlet of Clayton Bridge which sprang up in the 18th and 19th centuries as a result of the dye and print works. It was home to many dwellings, including Andrews Brew - once a small lane off Berry Brow, it housed thatched roof cottages which were pulled down in the early 1990s.
Saint Cuthbert
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( – 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Nor ...
Church was also erected around this time, but has since been demolished.
Other Victorian terraced houses lined the west side of Berry Brow as it rose to the level crossing at Clayton Bridge railway station, the east side still being occupied by fields into the 1950s.
;Clayton Bridge Railway Station
Clayton Bridge railway station
Clayton Bridge railway station, Manchester, was a railway station that served the locality between 1846 and 1968.
Construction, opening and ownership
The station was built by the Ashton, Stalybridge and Liverpool Junction Railway and opened on ...
on the line between Manchester and
Stalybridge
Stalybridge () is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 23,731 at the 2011 Census.
Historic counties of England, Historically divided between Cheshire and Lancashire, it is east of Manchester city centre and no ...
opened in April 1846 and became a victim of the
Beeching Axe
The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...
, closing in 1968. The station buildings were to the west of Berry Brow, the signal box was on the opposite side on the north of the line and was also used to manually operate the level crossing gates. Nothing remains of the station.
;Railway branch line
In 1904, a railway branch line was completed which ran south through Clayton Vale to the
Stuart Street Power Station
Stuart Street Power Station was a coal-fired power station in Bradford, Manchester, England.
History
The station was built in 1900, and equipped with six Yates and Thom, 2,500 hp steam engines, each engine driving an Electrical Co. Ltd, 1,50 ...
. The line was later extended in 1916, across Ashton New Road into the
Clayton Aniline Company
The Clayton Aniline Company Ltd. was a British manufacturer of dyestuffs, founded in 1876 by Charles Dreyfus in Clayton, Manchester.
Early history
Charles Dreyfus was a French emigrant chemist and entrepreneur, who founded the Clayton Aniline Co ...
works. For many years,
waste coal ash from the power station was transported on the line and dumped as landfill into Clayton Vale.
Clayton Vale post 1986
Before the mid-nineteen eighties, the land was heavily polluted with recent landfills and general neglect, and the buildings of the vale had either been vandalised or demolished. Redevelopment of the land went under way, known as the
Medlock Valley Scheme Medlock may refer to:
* Medlock (surname)
* River Medlock, a river of Greater Manchester
* 19704 Medlock, an outer main-belt asteroid
* Chorlton-on-Medlock
Chorlton-on-Medlock or Chorlton-upon-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, Engl ...
. The area has been described as a shining example of urban country parkland and a haven for wildlife by The Heritage Trail. Trees were planted in the mid-1980s and after two decades stands a semi-mature forest, home to black-and-white blackbirds and squirrels in the taller trees.
Silver birch
''Betula pendula'', commonly known as silver birch, warty birch, European white birch, or East Asian white birch, is a species of tree in the family Betulaceae, native to Europe and parts of Asia, though in southern Europe, it is only found ...
,
ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
,
sycamore
Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the ancient Greek ' (''sūkomoros'') meaning "fig-mulberry".
Species of trees known as sycamore:
* ''Acer pseudoplata ...
,
willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...
and
poplars
''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood.
The we ...
line to the top of the dell.
See also
*
Clayton, Manchester
Clayton is a suburb of Manchester, England, 3 miles east of the Manchester city centre, city centre on Ashton New Road.
Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, Clayton takes its name from the Clayton family who owned large par ...
*
Newton Heath
Newton Heath is an area of Manchester, England, north-east of Manchester city centre and with a population of 9,883.
Historically part of Lancashire, Newton was formerly a farming area, but adopted the factory system following the Industrial Re ...
References
Further reading
* ''East Manchester Remembered'' Frank Pritchard
* 1923
Ordnance Survey
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Map
External links
*Friends of Clayton Vale - https://archive.today/20121224024144/http://www.friendsofclaytonvale.org.uk/index.htm
*Manchester City Council - https://web.archive.org/web/20031205212846/http://www.manchester.gov.uk/leisure/parks/east/claytonvale.htm
*Medlock Valley - https://web.archive.org/web/20070223041623/http://www.medlockvalley.info/
*Eastserve
*Manchester Central Library Online Photo Archive http://www.images.manchester.gov.uk/
{{coord, 53, 29, 29, N, 2, 10, 34, W, type:landmark, display=title
Parks and commons in Manchester
Local Nature Reserves in Greater Manchester