Whalley Range, Manchester
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Whalley Range is an area of
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, England, about southwest of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 15,430.
Historically History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
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 ...
, it was one of the earliest of the city's suburbs, built by local businessman Samuel Brooks.


History

Whalley Range was one of Manchester's first suburbs, built by Manchester banker and businessman Samuel Brooks as "a desirable estate for gentlemen and their families". In September 1834, Samuel Brooks bought 39 Lancashire acres of land from Robert Fielden, called Oak Farm in
Moss Side Moss Side is an Inner city, inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the Manchester city centre, city centre, It had a population of 20,745 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Cho ...
, also known locally as Barber's Farm. Brooks also bought 42 Lancashire acres from the Egerton Estate. This land is described in the deeds as being part of Hough Moss, but in the Egerton Estate's records as Fletcher's Moss. It was also known locally as Jackson's, Plant's or Woodall's Moss, and was part of the Manor of
Withington Withington is a suburb of Manchester, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it lies from Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Withington has a population of just ...
. In 1867, the area was given its own postcode by the
post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
- 'Manchester SW 16'. In 1894, the area north of the Black Brook was incorporated into the newly formed Stretford Urban District. Upon the sale of Manley Hall in 1905, a contiguous strip of land was added to the south and west of the estate for house building, formerly being a part of the township of
Chorlton-cum-Hardy Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of Manchester, England, southwest of the city centre. Chorlton ward had a population of 14,138 at the 2011 census, and Chorlton Park 15,147. By the 9th century, there was an Anglo-Saxon settlement her ...
. Because all of this land was covered in peat from a thickness of eighteen inches to three feet, Samuel Brooks drained it, and initially built villas for wealthy businessmen such as himself. He was born near Whalley,
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 ...
, after which he named his own home Whalley House, which may be the origin of the area's name. A toll gate guarded this exclusive area and the place where Chorlton Road and Withington Road meet is still known as Brooks' Bar. The toll-gate was first removed to the junction with Wood Road, and then the charging of tolls came to an end on 10 June 1896. The residents never tried to incorporate the area as a separate local authority, as in the age of light-touch government they saw no need. The area was more or less equally divided between the Moss Side and Withington Urban Districts (some existing street furniture remains from that period). The urban district councils in turn sub-contracted some functions to
Lancashire County Council Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. It consists of 84 councillors. Since the 2017 election, the council has been under Conservative control. Prior to the 2009 La ...
, notably policing (see 'Murder most foul' below). Additionally the residents paid for a private police force, to collect tolls and protect property. This arrangement seemed to be quite effective, as the area rarely appears in Victorian and Edwardian crime reports, with the one exception below. The private police survived the elimination of toll-charging and incorporation into the City, only becoming defunct with the manpower shortages of 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 ...
. Residents to the south of the area could also call on the
Cheshire Lines Committee The Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) was formed in the 1860s and became the second-largest joint railway in Great Britain. The committee, which was often styled the Cheshire Lines Railway, operated of track in the then counties of Lancashire a ...
Police and Manchester City Council maintained a park police. The unusual nature of the area has given rise to some myths, notably that no alcohol could be sold within it. Brooks was a High Church Anglican, so there was no religious reason for any restrictive covenants, rather a desire to keep up the tone of the area. Whalley Range had several private members' clubs (see the Carlton Club below), as well as a public hall and a cinema in Withington Road, at the end of Dudley Road. Also in Withington Road was the 'Caught on the Hop' pub on Withington Road, as well as the much older 'Whalley Hotel' at the Brooks's Bar corner of Upper Chorlton Road, and the 'Seymour', at the other end. All have now been either demolished or sold for other uses. The original plans for the area envisaged it as much larger. For instance, Hough End Crescent was meant to be an arc of very large houses, linking the ends of Alexandra and Withington Roads. This idea was made impossible by the difficulty of draining the area, and the later building of the railway. Drainage difficulties are a feature of the area, as it was crossed by a large number of streams, some being notable as open sewers. Many roads are in fact built over culverts, notably Upper Chorlton Road and Brantingham Road. As late as the 1930s significant drainage work had to be carried out in the Manley Road area. Clarendon Road was built on the site of clay pits, and needed remedial work on gable-ends due to subsidence in the 1980s. Even today the remaining open brooks are regularly worked on to prevent flooding. Incorporation shrank the area considerably, thanks to ward and constituency boundary changes. West Point was lost to Chorlton, and Darley Park to Old Trafford, as well as the eastern side at the north end of Withington Road. Postcode changes, made necessary by the inter-war development of the Egerton Estate, meant that the southern end of the area was lost. Whalley Range has had a large Polish community since the late 1940s. By the 1960s the area became synonymous with bedsit-land, the encroachment of property developers, and gained a poor reputation as a
red-light district A red-light district or pleasure district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, and adult theaters, are found. In most cases, red-light districts are particu ...
. There has been a recent return of this phenomenon. Estate agents took to describing it as 'Chorlton Borders', and the City Council made a short-lived attempt to rename it as East Chorlton. However, the area had two redoubtable female defenders: one of these was Ingeborg Tipping, the Chair of the Residents' Association, who made great efforts to ensure the area was properly policed, among many other matters. Kath Fry, the late City Councillor, was a highly pro-active champion of the area. In 1930 the Odeon cinema in Withington Road was opened as the "West End"; in 1937 it became part of the Odeon cinema chain. In 1962 it was converted into a bingo hall, but this closed in the late 1970s. It was once billed as "the largest luxury talkie theatre in Europe". After a period of dereliction it was demolished in 1986. On 24 June 2012 the
Olympic Torch The Olympic flame is a symbol used in the Olympic movement. It is also a symbol of continuity between ancient and modern games. Several months before the Olympic Games, the Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece. This ceremony starts the Olym ...
passed along the full length of Upper Chorlton Road on its nationwide tour.


Transport

Public transport was resisted until the whole area became incorporated into the City of Manchester. No railway line was allowed through: the nearest station was at the southern end of Alexandra Road South, designed to serve the Alexandra Park Aerodrome at Hough End. The aerodrome ran a scheduled service to
Croydon Airport Croydon Airport (former ICAO code: EGCR) was the UK's only international airport during the interwar period. Located in Croydon, South London, England, it opened in 1920, built in a Neoclassical style, and was developed as Britain's main air ...
. The travel agent, Robinson's on Withington Road, would reassure nervous passengers' relatives, by sending round a messenger boy once news of a safe landing had been received telegraphically. The aerodrome, along with its ancillary landing-field at Turn Moss in
Stretford Stretford is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, south of Manchester city centre, south of Salford and north-east of Altrincham. Str ...
, closed in 1924. The station fell to Beeching's axe, although it had a one-day reprieve as Chorltonville station, for a
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showcase of Blues musicians staged at the site, on 7 May 1964. Stretford horse-drawn trams had to terminate at their stables at the corner of Cornbrook Road and Chorlton Road, until Stretford built up to Brooks's Bar, when they were allowed to terminate at the Withington Road side of the Whalley Hotel. Manchester trams ended at the Prince of Wales Hotel, at the corner of Moss Lane West and Upper Moss Lane, Moss Side. As Alexandra Road became an important shopping street, the trams terminated at their stables at the end of Range Road. By the 1920s, however, Whalley Range was fully served, and the Clarendon Road/Manley Park development had its own, eccentric, no. 86 motor-bus route. The area also had its own "ghost bus", which served the above station, timed to meet trains, for at least a decade after passenger services stopped. Taxi ranks were established outside the shops on Withington Road, as well as outside the Whalley and Seymour Hotels (the Seymour Hotel was at the southern end of Upper Chorlton Road).


Manley Hall

Manley Hall was built by the wealthy businessman Samuel Mendel (near the present-day Manley Park) in the 1860s. It was very grand and contained a fine art collection; the gardens were extensive. The cost of building was £120,000. After Lord Egerton, the lord of the manor, and
William Cunliffe Brooks Sir William Cunliffe Brooks, 1st Baronet, (30 September 1819 – 9 June 1900) was an English barrister, banker and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1869 and 1892. Life Brooks was the son of Samuel Brooks, a b ...
, Mendel was one of the richer residents. He converted from Judaism to High Church Anglicanism, and with the above two grandees worshipped at the Old Church of St Clement, Chorlton. Along with Brooks and Egerton he opposed the building of a new church for the expanding population. However the opening of the
Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
caused such problems for the Mendel trading business that he became a bankrupt and the hall was put up for sale. No buyer for something so grand could be found, (cf. the fate of nearby Longford Park, bought by the local authority), and it fell into disrepair. Until it was demolished in about 1905, it was used as a pleasure garden, its most famous visitor being " Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show"


PC Nicholas Cock

An infamous murder in the area occurred when it was at the height of its fashionable status in the 1870s. PC Nicholas Cock was a
Lancashire Constabulary Lancashire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Lancashire in North West England. The force's headquarters are at Hutton, near the city of Preston. , the force has 3,088 police officers ...
beat officer for the then sparsely-populated Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Firs Farm areas. Around midnight on 1 August 1876, he was talking to a Whalley Range private policeman at the corner of Rye Bank Road and Trafford Road (now Seymour Grove). They heard a suspicious noise coming from the house of Samuel Gratrix, a wealthy member of the Manchester Exchange. They separated to investigate the outside of the property, and PC Cock was fatally shot, the bullet embedding itself in the boundary wall. The building, West Point, was later substantially extended on its eastern side to become the Seymour Hotel, but the place in the wall where the bullet lodged was marked, and was visible on Woodside Road. The wall has since been demolished with the rest of the building. PC Cock died on 2 August 1876 and was buried in Chorlton's Old Churchyard, although his elaborate gravestone, paid for by public subscription, was removed in 1956 to the
Lancashire Constabulary Lancashire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Lancashire in North West England. The force's headquarters are at Hutton, near the city of Preston. , the force has 3,088 police officers ...
HQ at Hutton near Preston. Two local farm labourers living at nearby Firs Farm Cottages, the Habron brothers, were suspected and William Habron (aged 18) was tried and condemned for the murder, although there must have been some doubt, as the sentence was commuted. Some years later, an infamous criminal,
Charles Peace Charles Peace (14 May 1832 – 25 February 1879) was an English burglar and murderer, who embarked on a life of crime after being maimed in an industrial accident as a boy. After killing a policeman in Manchester, he fled to his native Shef ...
, confessed to the murder before he was due for execution; because of this Habron was released, and given £1,000, held in trust by his former employer at Firs Farm, and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford,
Herbert Vaughan Herbert Alfred Henry Vaughan, MHM (15 April 1832 – 19 June 1903) was an English prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1892 until his death in 1903, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1893. He was th ...
. The intention was for Habron to buy a farm locally, which would have cost around £250. But he chose to return to
County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...
in Ireland, where he ran a beer shop for many years.


Votes for Women

Whalley Range had another unusual feature for
Victorian times In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardi ...
– enfranchised women. The Poor Law Unions linked representation with taxation: anyone with an interest in real property above a certain rateable value could vote on local matters, irrespective of gender. The successor
urban district council In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...
s continued this rule. In Moss Side, for instance, of the 55,000 approximate population, about 3,300 could vote. Married women could not vote, their property interests were subordinate to their husbands, but wealthy widows and single women (spinsters) could. This period of enfranchisement appears to end with incorporation. Women graduates of
Oxbridge Oxbridge is a portmanteau of Oxford and Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most famous universities in the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collectively, in contrast to other British universities, and more broadly to de ...
and, from 1918 seven other universities as the Combined English Universities could vote in both local and national elections, in the constituencies specifically set aside for those institutions.


Governance

The ward was until 2009 in Manchester Central Constituency represented by
Tony Lloyd Sir Anthony Joseph Lloyd (born 25 February 1950) is a British Labour Party politician who has discontinuously served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1983, currently as the MP for Rochdale since 2017. He was MP for Stretford from 1983 to 1 ...
(Labour), it then became part of
Manchester Gorton Manchester Gorton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Labour's Afzal Khan, who was elected at the 2017 general election. It is the safest Labour seat in Greater Manchester by numerical majority and ...
for the 2010 elections. The seat has been represented in
Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
by Afzal Khan since June 2017. The ward boundaries were redrawn in 2018. Some streets in the South West of the ward are now in
Chorlton Park (ward) Chorlton Park is an area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. Different parts of this ward are represented by different MPs following boundary changes in 2018; the majority of the ward is part of the Manchester Withington constituency bu ...
and a part of
Moss Side Moss Side is an Inner city, inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the Manchester city centre, city centre, It had a population of 20,745 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Cho ...
is now included; the former part of the Moss Side ward is still part of the Manchester Central parliamentary constituency represented by
Lucy Powell Lucy Maria Powell (born 10 October 1974) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2021. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for ...
MP (Labour). ;Councillors The area is represented in
Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three ...
by three
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
councillors:
Angeliki Stogia Angeliki Stogia is a British Labour Party politician, councillor for Whalley Range in the City of Manchester who was Executive Member for Environment, Planning and Transport, with a leading role in the Manchester Climate Change Partnership. She ...
, Mary Watson and Aftab Razaq. indicates seat up for re-election. indicates councillor defected.


Geography

Whalley Range is a suburban area in southwest Manchester, bordered by
Chorlton-cum-Hardy Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of Manchester, England, southwest of the city centre. Chorlton ward had a population of 14,138 at the 2011 census, and Chorlton Park 15,147. By the 9th century, there was an Anglo-Saxon settlement her ...
to the south and southwest,
Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
and
Firswood Firswood is a suburban area of Stretford in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. Geography Firswood borders Whalley Range, Old Trafford and Chorlton-cum-Hardy. It was largely occupied by Rye Bank Farm, which remai ...
to the north and west,
Moss Side Moss Side is an Inner city, inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the Manchester city centre, city centre, It had a population of 20,745 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Cho ...
to the northeast and
Fallowfield Fallowfield is a suburb of Manchester, England, with a population at the 2011 census of 15,211. Historically in Lancashire, it lies south of Manchester city centre and is bisected east–west by Wilmslow Road and north–south by Wil ...
to the southeast.


Topography

Whalley Range is characterised by large detached and semi-detached Victorian houses, many of which have been converted into flats, intermixed with late 20th century low-rise blocks of flats, with some early 20th-century housing to the west. Many of the roads and avenues are lined with trees. The district has limited shopping facilities, as these were felt to be unnecessary for the class of person envisaged as a resident: these are predominantly found on Withington Road and on Upper Chorlton Road. A peculiarity of Upper Chorlton Road is that along most of its length the two sides of the road are in separate metropolitan boroughs, with the boundary in the centre of the road; going southwards, the left side is in the City of Manchester and the right side in the Borough of Trafford. The street furniture is different. In the earlier 20th century the tramway systems were different;
Manchester Corporation Tramways Between 1901 and 1949 Manchester Corporation Tramways (known as Manchester Corporation Transport Department from 1929 onwards) was the municipal operator of electric tram services in Manchester, England. At its peak in 1928, the organisation ca ...
designs were faced by those of Stretford Urban District. Boundary anomalies along the route were only corrected in the late 1980s. Upper Chorlton Road was laid out so that the classical doorway of
Williams & Glyn's Bank Williams & Glyn's Bank Limited was established in London in 1970, when the Royal Bank of Scotland merged its two subsidiaries in England and Wales, Williams Deacon's Bank Ltd. and Glyn, Mills & Co. In 1985, Williams & Glyn's was fully absorbed ...
, on Chorlton Road in Old Trafford, was visible along almost all its length. The road had several drill halls on its length. The most obvious is the red-brick castellated building at the corner of Kings Road (in Old Trafford). It is dated 1903 and the design is influenced by Tudor architecture. It actually extended over a considerable area to the rear (now occupied by the M16 Postal Sorting Office, some open land and derelict buildings). It housed a
military police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...
unit and the
Air Training Corps The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British volunteer-military youth organisation. They are sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Air Force. The majority of staff are volunteers, and some are paid for full-time work – including C ...
, but in 2011 there is the 207 Manchester Field Hospital there. The ATC has moved to Hough End in Withington, a relic of its time as Alexandra Park Aerodrome. The
Yeomanry Yeomanry is a designation used by a number of units or sub-units of the British Army, British Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Army Reserve, descended from volunteer British Cavalry, cavalry regiments. Today, Yeomanry units serve in a variety of ...
had two depots on Upper Chorlton Road; one is now a housing estate, the other a Council depot. A largely redundant centre is still in partial use near the end of College Road, it formerly housed the
Royal Corps of Transport The Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) was a British Army Corps established to manage all matters in relation to the transport of men and material for the Army and the wider Defence community. It was formed in 1965 and disbanded in 1993; its units and ...
(now in Weaste), and the
Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...
. The area also had a feature that appears in many Victorian and Edwardian large-scale developments in Manchester: the entirely private road. Some can still be seen off Wilbraham Road, and the best example elsewhere in the area is Green Walk off Wood Road. Wellington Road was only adopted by the highway authority within living memory, and the stretch between Alness Road and Alexandra Road is still wholly owned by St Bede's College, as it bisects their campus. The area also has no 'streets', as these were a status indicator to Victorians. The few extant highways were renamed 'road' from 'lane', as this also indicated a certain status. This appears to be merely a fashion, however, as later Victorians appeared to favour the bucolic part of the 'rus in urbes' equation. Too bucolic, however, was not popular either: Doghouse Lane became Kingsbrook Road and Dark Lane became Clarendon Road.


Demographics

According to the 2011 census * White British – 38.7% * White Other – 7.0% * White Irish – 2.5% * Mixed Race – 5.3% * British Asian – 30.7% * Black British – 10.1% * Arab or other – 5.5%


Religion


Churches and chapels

Religion played a major role in Victorian life, and the size and number of religious buildings testifies to this. Although Brooks was a High Church Anglican, he allowed non-Anglican Christian denominations (Roman Catholics, Methodists, and other non-conformists) to buy and build on substantial plots, as long as these were on the fringes of the development. There are Anglican parish churches in Whalley Range: St Margaret's, significantly positioned in the heart of the original phase of development, on the corner of Whalley Road and Rufford Road, and St Edmund's on Alexandra Road South opposite Alexandra Park. The original St Edmund's Grade II listed building has been converted into apartments, and the church congregation now meets in the modern worship-centre next door. Also on Alexandra Road South is the Manchester
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
Church, and on Withington Road is Whalley Range
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
Church. Manley Park
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
Church is on Egerton Road North; the congregation began worshipping in a
tin tabernacle A tin tabernacle, also known as an iron church, is a type of prefabricated ecclesiastical building made from corrugated galvanised iron. They were developed in the mid-19th century initially in the United Kingdom. Corrugated iron was first us ...
in 1905 and the present building was opened in 1910. The Welsh Methodist congregation worshipped next door, in a smaller brick building. Near Hartley Hall is the English Martyrs Roman Catholic Church, built in 1895–96: the tall spire is its most remarkable feature. From the time of the school's move to Alexandra Road South, St Bede's College supported the nearby St Bede's
Mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
, and priests on the school's staff worked to provide for the spiritual needs of the
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
population in Whalley Range. In 1893 the Bishop of Salford,
John Bilsborrow John Bilsborrow was bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford from 1892 to 1903. Bilsborrow was born in Singleton, Lancashire on 20 March 1836. He was ordained priest on 26 February 1865 at the age of 28. Following his ordination, he was ...
, appointed Father James Rowan, a former teacher at the college, as priest-in-charge of the district. The new church was
consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...
on the Feast of the English Martyrs, 4 May 1922. There were also two convents; the Cenacle, on Alexandra Road, and Mount Carmel, on Whalley Road. Another Roman Catholic congregation meets in Deerpark Road. There are also New Testament Church of God (in Upper Chorlton Road, formerly a Nonconformist chapel, and lacking the upper part of the spire which was deliberately removed), and Spiritualist (in Alexandra Road South) churches.


Other places of worship

The Minhaj-ul-Qur'an Central Mosque is on Withington Road and the
British Muslim Heritage Centre The British Muslim Heritage Centre, formerly the GMB National College, College Road, Whalley Range, Manchester, is an early Gothic Revival building. The centre was designated a Grade II* listed building on 3 October 1974. History and descript ...
occupies what was formerly the Northern Congregational College in College Road. There are a number of smaller mosques. There is a
Hindu temple A Hindu temple, or ''mandir'' or ''koil'' in Indian languages, is a house, seat and body of divinity for Hindus. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together through worship, sacrifice, and devotion.; Quote: "The Hind ...
in a former chapel on the corner of Wilbraham Road and Withington Road; on Upper Chorlton Road near Brooks's Bar is a Sikh temple. A new £2 million
Gurdwara A gurdwara (sometimes written as gurudwara) (Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ''guradu'ārā'', meaning "Door to the Guru") is a place of assembly and worship for Sikhs. Sikhs also refer to gurdwaras as ''Gurdwara Sahib''. People from all faiths ...
(Sikh place of worship) and cultural centre has been constructed on Upper Chorlton Road. This opened on 14 March 2011. The Vairochana Buddhist Centre was once in Dudley Road but has moved to Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The
ISKCON The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu religious organization. ISKCON was founded in 1966 in New York City by A. C. Bhaktiv ...
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna may refer to: * International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a group commonly known as "Hare Krishnas" or the "Hare Krishna movement" * Hare Krishna (mantra) The Hare Krishna mantra, also referred to reverentially as the (" ...
movement has a centre on Mayfield Road.


Sport

Whalley Range AFC was founded in 1900 and is still going to this day. It is based at Kings Road, Whalley Range; the entrance gates are opposite Daventry Road. It has two pitches, clubhouse, changing rooms and an outside bar. Its first team plays in the Cheshire Football League on Saturdays. Whalley Range Lawn Tennis & Cricket Club was established in 1845.


Education

The
Lancashire Independent College The British Muslim Heritage Centre, formerly the GMB National College, College Road, Whalley Range, Manchester, is an early Gothic Revival building. The centre was designated a Grade II* listed building on 3 October 1974. History and descript ...
at College Road (1840–43) was established by the Lancashire Congregational Union to train ministers for service. The architects were Francis Chester and John Gould Irwin and the style is neo-Gothic. George Hadfield MP gave £2000 towards the building costs, and laid the foundation stone. It is the area's best-known building, and has been in continuous educational use since it was built. Following the Nazi takeover of Czecho-Slovakia in 1938, the
University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
used it to house refugee Czech academics and intellectuals. Ironically, in the German Invasion Handbook for
Operation Sea Lion Operation Sea Lion, also written as Operation Sealion (german: Unternehmen Seelöwe), was Nazi Germany's code name for the plan for an invasion of the United Kingdom during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. Following the Battle o ...
(Unternehmen Seelöwe) it was named as one of several large properties in the area suitable for use by the occupation authorities. It closed as a Congregational College in the late 20th century and has since been reused by the
General, Municipal and Boilermakers' Union The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom which has more than 460,000 members. Its members work in nearly all industrial sectors, in retail, security, schools, distribution, the utilities, social care, the National Health Service (N ...
(GMB) as a training centre for their trade union members. At the beginning of this century the union tried to sell it to developers. A successful protest movement was convened by Jeremi Palka-Zawadzki, a long-term resident, and others. It now operates as the
British Muslim Heritage Centre The British Muslim Heritage Centre, formerly the GMB National College, College Road, Whalley Range, Manchester, is an early Gothic Revival building. The centre was designated a Grade II* listed building on 3 October 1974. History and descript ...
(BMHC) and has undergone a multimillion-pound repair and renovation. The centre held its first public outdoor event – BMHC Family Day – on Sunday 1 May 2011.


Schools


Secondary schools

St Bede's College (on Alexandra Road South), a Roman Catholic independent school founded in 1876, was originally built as an aquarium but this was not a commercial success. The college acquired it after having been established in Manchester City Centre. It is built of red brick and terracotta and the frontage is very ornate. If the building appears asymmetrical, that is because the money ran out for a wing on the north side of the main entrance, built in the 1870s. It was only in the 1930s that the College gave up the land at the end of Mayfield Road, preferring to expand eclectically westwards toward Alness Road, then known as Albert Road. At the same time it sold its playing fields which had been between College Road and Burford Road, originally the site of Whalley Range Cricket Club, and where St Margaret's C.E. Primary now has its playing fields, acquiring the freehold of Whalley Farm. The area west of Withington Road became playing fields, the rest continued as a farm until the late 1960s, when it became the site of St George's RC High School. In the 1980s the Cenacle Convent's large red brick building on Wellington Road became part of the College's campus, along with the area freed by the demolition of several houses on that road.
William Hulme's Grammar School William Hulme's Grammar School is a mixed all-through school in Whalley Range, Manchester, England. History William Hulme (1631–1691) of Hulme Hall, Stockport, was the founder of "Hulme's Charity" later known as the Hulme Trust. Follow ...
(in Springbridge Road) was established as an
independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...
in 1887, became a
direct grant grammar school A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...
in 1946, and returned to full independence in 1976. In 2007, the school rejoined the state education sector, scrapping its annual tuition fees and selective admissions test in exchange for funding as an
academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
. The school's specialist subject is languages, and it will continue to select 10% of its pupils on the basis of their aptitude for modern languages. Hartley College further down Alexandra Road South was built as a Primitive Methodist College in 1879: it is now a Muslim school, Kassim Darwish Grammar School for Boys. Whalley Range High School and Business and Enterprise College is a large non-denominational secondary school for girls, on Wilbraham Road, where it moved in the 1930s from a smaller site on the corner of Burford Road and Withington Road (known then as 'Britannia Row', because of the large statue of
Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...
on the frontage of an annexe on Burford Road. The statue came from Manchester's old Town Hall on King Street). There was also a Preparatory Department at 'Crimsworth', now the site of Manley Park Junior School. The anomalous bulge and bend in Withington Road at this point is explained by the need for a carriage entrance to this building. Unusually, the school had begun as a boys' school on Graeme Street, before moving to this site. It only became a girls' school in 1891, as a counterpart to the two boys' schools mentioned above. Nowadays, the large majority of students is from minority ethnic backgrounds, many originating in
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. Almost all of the students in the sixth form are from minority ethnic backgrounds. The number of students whose first language is other than English is much higher than the national average, with the three most common languages spoken by students being
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
Somali and
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
. The school has specialist status as a business and enterprise college, and since 2007 has also been a designated sports college. The school was assessed as "good" in its March 2007
Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...
report.
Estelle Morris Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley, (born 17 June 1952), is a British politician and life peer who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2001 to 2002. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (M ...
, now Baroness Morris of Yardley, one-time Secretary of State for Education and Skills and Minister for the Arts, is a notable
alumna Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...
.


Primary schools

Our Lady's R.C. Primary School on Whalley Road was partly housed, until the 1990s, in the former Imperial German consulate, seized during the First World War by the Custodian of Enemy Property. Originally there was meant to be a third parallel road to York Avenue and Cromwell Avenue, called Woodlands Road, but the authorities noticed the large number of children now growing up in the area. The developer was therefore only allowed to build Bury Avenue, the rest of the plot was devoted to Manley Park County Primary School, and a recreation ground, now known as Manley Park, (colloquially known as 'the rec' until the 1980s). After the phase of further developments on the Egerton Estate, the school expanded into the Crimsworth Annexe, a large house and garden at the west end of College Road. St Margaret's CE Primary School on Withington Road occupies the pre-
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 ...
site of Whalley Range High School. The playing fields at the rear had formerly belonged to St Bede's College.


Hospitals

In Russell Road was the Spire Manchester Hospital (private), formerly run by BUPA. It moved to
West Didsbury Didsbury is a suburban area of Manchester, England, on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 26,788. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, there are ...
in 2016. The site once occupied by the Nello James Centre (named after
C. L. R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, '' The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are i ...
) had been a
Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
Hospital, dating from the First World War.


Cultural associations

The poet Jane Crewdson lived for part of her life in Whalley Range. The writer
Dodie Smith Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith (3 May 1896 – 24 November 1990) was an English novelist and playwright. She is best known for writing ''I Capture the Castle'' (1948) and the children's novel '' The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (1956). Other works ...
spent part of her early life at Claremont, Wood Road, as she records in her autobiography ''Look Back With Love'' (1974). The district has a number of cultural associations, including: * Steve Hopkins, record producer and keyboardist of
John Cooper Clarke John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet, who first became famous as a " punk poet" in the late 1970s. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he released several albums. Around this time, he performed on stage with se ...
, Nico,
the Invisible Girls The Invisible Girls were a British rock band, formed in Salford, Greater Manchester in 1978, to provide a musical backdrop to the recorded output of Salford punk poet John Cooper Clarke. The band's nucleus was Joy Division and New Order produc ...
and the Archangel Orchestra, lives in Whalley Range and has an art studio there. *
The Smiths The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerg ...
' eponymous album mentions Whalley Range in the song "Miserable Lie", with the lyrics "What do we get for our trouble and pain? / Just a rented room in Whalley Range". *
Nigel Pivaro Nigel Pivaro (born 11 December 1959) is an English actor and journalist. He is best known for playing Terry Duckworth, the son of Jack and Vera Duckworth in ''Coronation Street''. Career Pivaro was born in Manchester, England to an Italia ...
, actor and journalist, was baptised at English Martyrs RC Church in 1960. *
Les Dawson Leslie Dawson Jr. (2 February 1931 – 10 June 1993) was an English comedian, actor, writer, and presenter, who is best remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife. Early life Les Dawson w ...
, comedian and writer, died at the Spire Hospital on 10 June 1993. *
Michael McGoldrick Michael McGoldrick (born 26 November 1971, in Manchester, England) is a folk musician who plays Irish flute, uilleann pipes, low whistle and bodhran. He also plays other instruments such as acoustic guitar, cittern, and mandolin. Bands McGo ...
(born 26 November 1971,
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, England) is a
folk musician Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...
who plays
Irish flute The Irish flute is a conical-bore, simple-system wooden flute of the type favoured by classical flautists of the early 19th century, or to a flute of modern manufacture derived from this design (often with modifications to optimize its use in Ir ...
,
uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their ...
,
low whistle The low whistle, or concert whistle, is a variation of the traditional tin whistle/pennywhistle, distinguished by its lower pitch and larger size. It is most closely associated with the performances of British and Irish artists such as Tommy Make ...
and bodhran. McGoldrick is the composer of the very popular tune
Farewell to Whalley Range
which he has recorded with John McSherry on their album
At First Light
', and on the
Capercaille The western capercaillie (''Tetrao urogallus''), also known as the Eurasian capercaillie, wood grouse, heather cock, cock-of-the-woods, or simply capercaillie , is a heavy member of the grouse family and the largest of all extant grouse species. ...
album ''
Nadurra ''Nadurra'' is the eighth studio album by folk rock band Capercaillie ''Tetrao'' is a genus of birds in the grouse subfamily known as capercaillies. They are some of the largest living grouse. Taxonomy The genus ''Tetrao'' was introduced in ...
''.


Notable people

* John Prettyjohns VC, the first
Royal Marine The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...
to be awarded the
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
, was subsequently the Steward of the Whalley Range Bowling Club on Demesne Road. * Bishop Geoffrey Ignatius Burke MA (1913-1999) was an English Roman Catholic bishop. *The band
James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...
formed here in 1982. *Comedian
Jason Manford Jason John Manford (born 26 May 1981) is an English comedian, presenter, actor and singer. Manford was a team captain on the Channel 4 panel show ''8 Out of 10 Cats'' from 2007 until 2010 and has presented numerous television shows for the BBC a ...
grew up in Whalley Range and went to St. Margaret's Primary School on Withington Road. *
Noel Aspinall Noel Lake Aspinall (30 January 1861 – 17 June 1934) was Archdeacon of Manchester from 1916 to 1934. He was educated at St John's College, Oxford and ordained in 1886. He began his ecclesiastical career with curacies in Sheffield and Ecclesall. ...
, Archdeacon of Manchester; Rector of St Edmund, Whalley Range and of St George's, Hulme. *
Gillian Gilbert Gillian Lesley Gilbert (born 27 January 1961) is an English musician and singer, best known as the keyboardist and guitarist of the band New Order. Early life Gilbert's family moved from her birthplace, Manchester, to the nearby market town of ...
of New Order was born here.


See also

*
Listed buildings in Manchester-M16 Manchester is a city in Northwest England. The M postcode area, M16 postcode area is to the south of the city centre, and contains the area of Whalley Range, Manchester, Whalley Range. The postcode area contains 13 Listed building#England ...
* :People from Whalley Range


References

{{Authority control Areas of Manchester Manchester City Council Wards