| Northenden |
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Northenden is located at the southernmost edge of Manchester seven miles from the city centre, South of the River Mersey, and was incorporated into the City in 1931 along with Bagueley and Northenden Etchells, all of which had previously been in the County of Cheshire. It is located on the edge of a large council estate in Wythenshawe , with two major motorways (the M56 and M60) runnning alongside. Manchester International Airport is approximately 4 miles away. Regeneration and expansion of the Sharston Industrial Estate next to the area has attracted a host of new companies and employment. HISTORY Lying as it does on a major (and very old) crossing of the Mersey on the Salt Road from Cheshire to Manchester, it prospered in medieval times. The ford was an important passageway north out of and into Manchester, (now Ford Lane) and Bonnie Prince Charlie marched his army over it in 1745 in his abortive attempt to seize the crown of England. There was also a ferry across the river here, known as Jackson's Boat (near the present day Boat Lane), and it survived until the building of the footbridge in the 1870s. Its distance from Manchester enabled Northenden to avoid the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, and it remained partially rural to this day even though it has the M56 and M60 motorways on either end of the village. The nearest it came to industrialisation was in the establishment of a cottage industry in the spinning of flax. In the 1980s the area became part of the Mersey Valley Park, and the banks of the river form part of the Mersey Valley Trail. Even though Northenden is referred to as a village by the locals, it has been subject to substantial residential development with the building of the large Wythenshawe housing estate adjacent. Northenden responded by rapidly developing a shopping centre along Palatine Road to service the new neighbourhood with all the necessities of life - hotels, shops, schools, churches, small businesses and service industries. Eventually, Wythenshawe acquired its own shops and commercial centre, and the motorways bypassed the village so that it was able to return to the (more-or-less) sleepy village it had always been. In 2004 a public house on Royle Green Road; The Jolly Carter was raised to the ground in a suspected arson attack. Some believe this was a deliberate ploy to approve planning permission for apartments and townhouses, however this was never proved. NOTABLE FEATURES Northenden is home to the largest Jehovah's Witness Assembly hall in the local area and the town itself contains a large population of the faith. The Northenden Social Club is unique in that rather than construct a new social club after World War II the townsfolk simply converted the village air-raid shelter into a new social club, in front of the club stands the Northenden War Memorial. The area is maintained by Manchester City Council and villagers in the Northenden Civic Society. |
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