Patricroft is a suburb near
Eccles,
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
History
Patricroft may derive its name from 'Pear-tree croft', or more likely, 'Patrick's Croft'. In 1836, Scottish engineer
James Nasmyth
James Hall Nasmyth (sometimes spelled Naesmyth, Nasmith, or Nesmyth) (19 August 1808 – 7 May 1890) was a Scottish engineer, philosopher, artist and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer. He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, ...
, in partnership with
Holbrook Gaskell
Holbrook Gaskell (5 March 1813 – 8 March 1909) was a British industrialist, and an art and plant collector.
Early life
Gaskell was born in Wavertree, Liverpool. He was the eldest son of Roger Gaskell, a sailcloth manufacturer, from his mar ...
, built the
Bridgewater Foundry in Patricroft. Nasmyth chose Patricroft, located on the west side of Manchester, ‘because of the benefit of breathing pure air, realising that a healthy workforce is a more efficient workforce'. He named the works "Bridgewater Foundry" in memory of Canal Duke, the first canal maker in Britain. Bridgewater Foundry was located adjacent to the Bridgewater Canal and the Manchester to Liverpool railway line. The foundry soon expanded to become a major supplier of steam locomotives. During 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 ...
, the factory's production was mainly diverted to munitions work. At the start of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
it became a
Royal Ordnance Factory, producing shells, tanks and guns. The engineering works closed in 1989: the site is now part of a business and technology centre.
The area was part of the
municipal borough
Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...
of Eccles in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
until 1974 when it was incorporated into
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
, Greater Manchester.
Churches
*Christ Church
Christ Church on Liverpool Road is the Anglican Parish Church of Patricroft. Construction was begun by the Rev Samuel Dale, curate at Eccles and later first Vicar at Patricroft. The church was built to seat 750 worshippers and was designed by John Lowe, it was opened circa 1868.
*Holy Cross
The Church of the Holy Cross at Patricroft Bridge is the Roman Catholic Parish Church of Patricroft. It was opened in 1961.
*Patricroft Methodist Church
Patricroft Methodist Church (technically located in
Peel Green
Peel Green is a suburb at the western end of Eccles, Greater Manchester, England, in the historic county of Lancashire.
Transport
Peel Green is split by the M60 motorway, which runs north–south through its centre. It is served by the followi ...
) on the corner of Alexandra Road and Liverpool Road came into being from the merger of the Trinity Methodist Church and the Ebenezer Methodist Church in 1964. A new church was opened on the Trinity site in February 1972. Later the Barton Methodist Church and the Winton Methodist Churches merged in with them.
*United Reformed Church
The URC have a church on Shakespeare Crescent and their North Western Synod on Franklin Street.
Transport
The district is served by
Patricroft railway station
Patricroft railway station serving Patricroft in Greater Manchester, England. The station is on Green Lane, just north of the junction with Cromwell Road and just east of the Bridgewater Canal. It is situated west of Manchester Victoria on the ...
, which was opened on 15 September 1830 by the
Liverpool & Manchester Railway
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively ...
and is situated in Green Lane. A large steam
locomotive
A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...
running shed was situated immediately north of the line until closure in 1968.
Bus services in the area are provided by
, and
First Greater Manchester.
Routes are co-ordinated by
Transport for Greater Manchester
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is the public body responsible for co-ordinating transport services throughout Greater Manchester in North West England. TfGM is responsible for investments in improving transport services and facilities. ...
.
Notable people
Sir
Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe was born in Patricroft in 1877. He was the first Englishman to make a powered flight (in 1908 at
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...
), and the first Englishman to fly an all-British machine a year later, on
Hackney Marshes. He founded the
Avro
AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broad ...
company, one of the world's first aircraft manufacturers, in 1910.
Humphrey Verdon Roe, his brother, was co-founder of Avro and also co-founder of the first birth control clinic in Britain with
Marie Stopes
Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes (15 October 1880 – 2 October 1958) was a British author, palaeobotanist and campaigner for eugenics and women's rights. She made significant contributions to plant palaeontology and coal classification, ...
.
Frederick Powell
Frederick James Powell, (13 August 1895 – May 1992) was a British flying ace of the First World War, credited with six confirmed and nine unconfirmed aerial victories. He remained in the Royal Air Force post-war, serving until 1927, then ret ...
, a WW1 flying ace, also was born in Patricroft.
The campaigning journalist and editor
Harold Evans
Sir Harold Matthew Evans (28 June 192823 September 2020) was a British-American journalist and writer. In his career in his native Britain, he was editor of ''The Sunday Times'' from 1967 to 1981, and its sister title ''The Times'' for a year f ...
was born in Patricroft in 1928.
References
{{Authority control
Areas of Greater Manchester
Geography of Salford
Eccles, Greater Manchester