Boggart Hole Clough Fishing Pond - geograph

Boggart Hole Clough is a large woodland and urban country park in

Blackley Blackley is a suburban area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, it is approximately north of Manchester city centre, on the River Irk. History The hamlet of Blackley was mentioned in the Domesday Book. The name derives from ...

, a suburb 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 ...

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 ...

. It occupies an area of approximately , part of an ancient woodland, with picturesque ''cloughs'' varying from steep

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.gullies A gully is a landform created by running water, mass movement, or commonly a combination of both eroding sharply into soil or other relatively erodible material, typically on a hillside or in river floodplains or terraces. Gullies resemble lar ...

. Clough is a local dialect word for a steep sided, wooded valley. Boggart Hole Clough was designated a Local Nature Reserve in 2008. Historically, local activists used Boggart Hole Clough for open air meetings but in 1896, when Manchester City Council acquired the land they tried to stop these meetings by fining speakers. The speakers rebelled by refusing to pay the fines and the publicity increased audiences from hundreds to tens of thousands. National figures began to attend, including

Keir Hardie James Keir Hardie (15 August 185626 September 1915) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party, and served as its first parliamentary leader from 1906 to 1908. Hardie was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire. ...

. A women's suffrage demonstration of 15,000 was held at Boggart Hole Clough on 15 July 1906 where a group of men caused a disturbance that was reported in the ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

''. Veteran suffragist campaigner

Elizabeth Clarke Wolstenholme Elmy Elizabeth Clarke Wolstenholme-Elmy (died 12 March 1918) was a life-long campaigner and organiser, significant in the history of women's suffrage in the United Kingdom. She wrote essays and some poetry, using the pseudonyms E and Ignota. Early ...

attended and wrote an account of being caught up in the scrum. The park stages a number of cross-country events and mountain bike rides, along with summer fundays and an annual bonfire and firework display. It also provides facilities for a number of other activities, ranging from boating to athletics. Boggart Hole Clough featured in the childhood memories of ex-

Manchester City 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 ...

footballer

Fred Eyre Stanley Frederick Eyre (born 3 February 1944) is an English former professional football player and coach. After retiring from the sport, Eyre became a successful businessman, author, after-dinner speaker and radio pundit. He is the father of ...

in his autobiography "Kicked Into Touch", who lived in the adjacent Clough Top Road. It has been claimed that the clough is haunted by a

boggart A boggart is a creature in English folklore, either a household spirit or a malevolent ''genius loci'' (that is, a geographically-defined spirit) inhabiting fields, marshes, or other topographical features. Other names of this group include ''bu ...

, a mischievous spirit found mainly 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 Lancas ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, perhaps in an attempt to explain the unusual name. In 2008, Boggart Hole Clough attained the

Green Flag Award The Green Flag Award is an international accreditation given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces, managed under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a UK Government department, by Keep Britain Tidy, ...

for the eighth consecutive year.

Boggart Hole Brook Boggart Hole Brook is a river in Blackley, Manchester, England, which a tributary of the River Irk The River Irk is a river in the historic county of Lancashire in the North West England that flows through the northern most Lancastrian tow ...

rises in the clough. The park is the centre of the action in the short story "The Boggart of Boggart Hole Clough" by Jake Curran-Pipe featured in anthology ''Once Upon a Winter: A Folk and Fairy Tale Anthology''.https://www.maclanternpublishing.com/shop/once-upon-a-winter-signed-by-editor-a-folk-and-fairy-tale-anthology-by-various-authors

References

Parks and commons in Manchester Local Nature Reserves in Greater Manchester {{greaterManchester-geo-stub