Route Developer: Andrew Bennett
[1] Leave the centre, turning right along Selborne Road, and at the crossroads turn right onto Manchester Road East. Walk along the road for 600 yards until you reach Chorlton Baths.
(A) Chorlton Baths were one of the rewards for the township of Withington, which included Chorlton, voting in 1904 to join Manchester. Like the library, they were rather slow being built. Originally, in addition to there being swimming pools, there were also bathing facilities since the majority of smaller houses didn’t have bathrooms or large facilities for doing family clothes washing. The roads off Kensington Road are typical of the smaller terraced houses built at this end of Chorlton.
[2] Cross the road and walk down Kensington Road on your left, walking towards Firswood in Stretford.
An alternative route to avoid walking across a field on Firswood is to go left down Oswald Road, and then right into Longford Road and walk to the end of the road then continue from Waymark (4).
Here the houses were built in the late 1920s and 1930s. Builders were very keen at that time to build houses just outside the Manchester boundaries, since the Council rates in Stretford were much lower than in Manchester. Of course much poorer services were provided, but if you lived close to the border, you could go into Manchester for their much better services. An obvious example was that people from Firswood used Chorlton baths, although not the wash houses, since most of these semi-detatched house were built with a bath room and a clothes washing lean-to.
[3] The second left turning off Great Stone Road is Ryebank Road. Turn left here and walk to the end of the road. Go through the fence (be careful to avoid a metal spike sticking up out of the ground). Go straight across this rough ground on a reasonable path, almost to the end, then turn right into Longford Park, and then left to join a metalled track.
(B) This rough ground was once a very large clay pit and brick works. It was used up until the 1950s, when the owners discovered they could make more money selling a very, very, large hole in the ground, than to keep draining it to go on making bricks. The hole was bought by Manchester Council, and used for many many years as a place to dump domestic rubbish. Finally it was covered over, and was going to be a nature reserve. However very little has been done with it, although there are some crows nests in the trees.
[4] Coming along Longford Road, or coming off the rough ground, you arrive at the sports ground. View though the railings. Several Olympic competitors have trained here. Go round the outside of the ground, and then straight on towards the trees. Here is a small pool and nature area. Keep straight on and then bear left by the rock garden, and then right to the pets corner.
[5] From the pets corner head towards the red brick arch with a stone front.
(C) This used to be the entrance to Longford Hall, the home of John Rylands. John Rylands made a vast amount of money out of textiles; he was Manchester’s first millionaire, and his widow organised the building in Manchester of a memorial library to house a large collection of very valuable books. She also left the hall and park to Stretford Council, who neglected the hall and eventually pulled it down, just keeping the portico.
[6] Facing the portico turn right and walk past the other end of the sports ground, and out through East Gate. Turn left along Ryebank Road, and then right into Nicholas Road.
Notice a wide variety of houses along Ryebank Road.
[7] Walk straight along Nicholas Road. At the junction with Manchester Road East, cross over into Selborne Road to return to the centre.