Smedley is an area of north

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 City of Salford, Salford to ...

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 ...

, on the banks 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 towns of the ceremonial county of Greater Manchester. It rises to the east of Royton and runs west past ...

between

Cheetham Hill Cheetham is an inner-city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, which in 2011 had a population of 22,562. It lies on the west bank of the River Irk, north of Manchester city centre, close to the boundary with Salford, bounded by Bro ...

to the west,

Collyhurst Collyhurst is an inner city area of Manchester, England, northeast of the city centre on Rochdale Road (A664) and Oldham Road (A62), bounded by Smedley, Harpurhey and Monsall to the north, Miles Platting to the east, Ancoats to the south, and ...

to the south,

Crumpsall Crumpsall is an outer suburb and electoral ward of Manchester, England, north of Manchester city centre, bordered by Cheetham Hill, Blackley, Harpurhey, Broughton, and Prestwich. The population at the 2011 census was 15,959. Historically p ...

to the north and

Harpurhey Harpurhey ( ) is an inner-city suburb of Manchester in North West England, three miles north east of the city centre. Historically in Lancashire, the population at the 2011 census was 17,652. Areas of Harpurhey include Kingsbridge Estate, Barn ...

to the east. In 1819,

Samuel Bamford Samuel Bamford (28 February 1788 – 13 April 1872) was an English radical reformer and writer born in Middleton, Lancashire. He wrote on the subject of northern English dialect and wrote some of his better known verse in it. Biography Bamfor ...

and Henry Hunt stopped at Smedley Cottage, before the

Peterloo Massacre The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliam ...

, and the Middleton contingent to the demonstration passed by it on their way into Manchester via Collyhurst Road. In the novel ''The Manchester Man'' by

Isabella Banks Isabella Banks (; 25 March 1821 – 4 May 1897), also known as Mrs G. Linnaeus Banks, was an English novelist and poet. Born in Manchester, England, Banks is most widely remembered today for her book '' The Manchester Man'', published in 18 ...

, the titular character, Jabez Clegg, is swept in infancy into the River Irk at Smedley Vale. Theresa Yelverton, a party to the

Yelverton case The Yelverton case was a famous 19th-century Irish law case, which eventually resulted in a change to the law on mixed religion marriages in Ireland. Under a Statute of King George II (19 Geo. 2. c. 13), any marriage between a Catholic (Popish) ...

, lived as a child at Merryfield House, at the corner of Queens Road and Smedley Road, overlooking the Irk Valley. In the early 1930s, Kennet House, a development of

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

flats, was built in Smedley. In 2019, a new footbridge across the Irk opened, linking Smedley to Collyhurst.A new way to Smedley Dip - Manchester's 'forgotten estate'
''Manchester Evening News'', 2 June 2019 Smedley Hotel, Smedley, Manchester - geograph

Smedley Hotel, Smedley, Manchester - geograph

References

External links

Smedley Dip and Hendham Vale

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 f ...

Areas of Manchester {{england-stub