Old Trafford (area)

For the football stadium, seeOld Trafford.

Old Traffordis an area ofTrafford,Greater Manchester,England, which borders the cities ofManchesterandSalford.It is located two miles (3.2 km) south-west ofManchester city centrein thehistoric countyofLancashire.The area represents the north-eastern tip of theparliamentary constituencyofStretford and Urmston.It is roughly delineated by two old toll gates:Brooks' BarandTrafford Bar,to the east and west.

Old Trafford
Area
Old Trafford Football Stadium and Key West seen fromSalford Quays.
Old Trafford Location withinGreater Manchester
Population	13,000
OS grid reference	SJ825955
Metropolitan borough	Trafford
Metropolitan county	Greater Manchester
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MANCHESTER
Postcode district	M15, M16, M32
Dialling code	0161
Police	Greater Manchester
Fire	Greater Manchester
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Stretford and Urmston

Old Trafford is the site ofOld Trafford Cricket Ground,home ofLancashire County Cricket Club,andOld Trafford football stadium,the home ofManchester United,on opposite ends ofBrian Statham Way(formerly Warwick Road) andSir Matt Busby Way(formerly Warwick Road North). The road between them retains the nameWarwick Road,and the southern section on the other side of theMetrolinkline is Warwick Road South.

History

Old Trafford was a crossing point over theRiver Irwellin ancient times. The name Old Trafford possibly derives from the time when there were two Trafford Halls, Old Trafford Hall and New Trafford Hall. The old hall was close to what is now theWhite City Retail Park,and was said to have been the home of the de Trafford family since 1017, until the family moved to the new hall in what is nowTrafford Park,some time between 1672 and 1720.The name of the area around Old Trafford Hall may subsequently have become shortened to Old Trafford.The old hall was demolished in 1939.

In the 1820s, Manchester scientistJohn Daltonchose Old Trafford as the site for a Royal Horticultural and Botanical Gardens because of its clean, unpolluted air, and so began the area's association with sports and recreation. The popularity of the botanical gardens, which was similar toThe Crystal Palace,led wealthy people to build large houses in the area. In 1857, and again in 1887, the gardens staged exhibitions of art treasures, the former as part of theArt Treasures Exhibitionand the latter in celebration ofQueen Victoria's silver jubilee. TheHallé Orchestrawas formed to participate in the first of these exhibitions. The site of the botanical gardens was purchased by White City Limited in 1907, and it subsequently became an amusement park, although the name lives on in the street called Botanical Gardens. From the 1950s to the 1970s, White City Stadium was used as a greyhound racing track and for stock car racing. This site is now White City Retail Park. The front entrance is all that has been preserved of the old botanical gardens. Nearby, on the site of what is now theGreater Manchester PoliceHeadquarters, was Henshaw's Institute for the Blind, which originally opened as Henshaw's Blind Asylum in 1837. Next door on the same site was the Royal Institute for the Deaf, where the filmMandywas made.

Old Trafford expanded and became an urban area after the building of theManchester Ship Canalin the 1890s, and the subsequent development of nearbyTrafford Park Industrial Estate,in the early 20th century. Trafford Park provided employment for thousands of local residents. Employment was also provided on a smaller scale, notably by the railways (Trafford Park shedalone had over 300 staff),Duerr'sJams,Vimto,Arkady Soya MillandLudwig OppenheimerMosaics. TheRoyal Army Medical Corpsand theTerritorial Armyhave well-established bases in the area.

Slum clearancesduring the 1960s and early 1970s saw some of the oldVictorianhousing stock demolished. However, after the perceived failure of the deck-access concrete crescents of Hulme, Old Trafford's residents preferred renovation to demolition. As a result, there are still many Victorian terraced streets in the area.

By 1985, employment at Trafford Park had fallen to 24,500, as unemployment in the northwest soared above 30 per cent in some inner-city areas. NearbyManchester Docks,which had also been a major source of local employment, closed in 1982. As the revitalisedSalford Quaysit has become an emblematic part of the regeneration of Manchester in general.

Governance

Old Trafford was formerly a hamlet in the township ofStretford.It was in theMunicipal Borough of Stretforduntil 1974. In 1974, as a result of theLocal Government Act 1972,it became part of theMetropolitan Borough of TraffordinGreater Manchester.Since the realignment of Trafford's ward boundaries in 2004, Old Trafford has been divided betweenCliffordandLongford wards,with the larger part being in the former.

Old Trafford is part of the parliamentary constituency ofStretford and Urmston,and represents the northeastern tip of Stretford. The currentMember of ParliamentisAndrew Westernof theLabour Party.

In 2005, Trafford Council proposed to the Boundary Commission for England that the wards of Gorse Hill, Longford, and Clifford – which includes Old Trafford – should be moved into a new Salford and The Quays constituency, along with some other wards from Salford.At the subsequent public enquiry in November 2005, Beverley Hughes opposed the change, as well as an alternative proposal to create a constituency of Salford and Old Trafford. The Boundary Commission rejected Trafford Council's proposals, noting that there was "strong opposition to the creation of a constituency that crossed the Manchester Ship Canal and... that the Canal provided a clearly identifiable boundary which should not be breached".

Geography

Old Trafford bordersFirswood,Gorse HillandTrafford Park.The area is effectively a peninsula, with its northern boundary the River Irwell, now canalised into the Manchester Ship Canal, and to the east a tributary of the Irwell, the Cornbrook, culverted as the area grew in the 19th century. The southern boundary, the Black Brook, was culverted at about the same time, under Upper Chorlton Road. Some small anomalies due to the brook's underground route were not amended until the late 1980s.

Old Trafford makes up the northeastern tip of Traffordand adjoins St. Georges,Hulme,Whalley RangeandMoss Side– all of which are in theCity of Manchester– andOrdsallto the northeast, which is in theCity of Salford.At the crossroads of Brooks's Bar, the boundaries between Old Trafford and Hulme and Moss Side and Whalley Range meet.

On the western side of the area, Seymour Grove is named after the millionaire grocer Sir Thomas Seymour Mead.

Landmarks

Old Trafford Football Stadium,home ofManchester United F.C.

Until the mid-20th century there were four cinemas in Old Trafford: the Imperial Picture Theatre in Chorlton Road, Brooks Bar, The Globe on Cornbrook Street, The Lyceum in City Road and the Trafford Picture House in Talbot Road. Three of the buildings have survived, although not now operated as cinemas. The Imperial opened in 1913, and for a brief period in the 1970s it became an Asian films cinema. It closed in 1979, and the building is now occupied by a timber and ironmongery business. The premises occupied by The Globe were originally part of theManchester Carriage and Tramways Company's horse-drawn tramway depot. The cinema closed in the mid 1960s, and is now used as a warehouse. The Lyceum opened in 1915, and it also closed in the 1960s. Its building is now used for private functions. The Trafford Picture House opened in 1922, and closed in 1958. After a period when it was used as a vehicle auction room the building became derelict, and it was demolished in 1997.

Present day

Today, Old Trafford has approximately 13,000 residents. Cultural diversity has been a feature of the area for over a century.Irishimmigrants settled in the locality from the 1880s, coming to Manchester to work on theship canal.Polishand east European migrants arrived during and after the Second World War. TheAfro-Caribbeancommunity arrived and settled in the 1950s and 1960s. People from theIndian sub-continentstarted to arrive during the 1960s but settled in more significant numbers from the 1980s onwards.

Old Trafford is among the 10% most deprived areas in England, suffering problems of unemployment, poor housing and low educational achievement. It also has levels of youth crime well above the national average.

Ayres Road and its environs are the heart of modern-day Old Trafford and a walk down this road gives a real flavour of the multi-cultural nature of the neighbourhood, with its variety of grocers' shops selling food stuffs fromEurope,theCaribbeanand Southeast Asia; itsCatholicchurch, St. Alphonsus, frequented by a predominantly Irish congregation, the vibrant and busySt John's Community Centreand Shizhan House, theChinese MedicineCentre, on the site of the old Vimto offices. Something of this atmosphere is evoked by Manchester poetLemn Sissayin his poemAyres Road.

Religion and community

Further information:List of churches in Greater Manchester

Only 45% of the residents of Clifford ward (the ward that contains the larger part of Old Trafford) reported themselves as being Christian in the2001 Census,compared to 76% across Trafford as a whole, and 72% across England.This is reflected in the unusually high number of non Christian places of worship in the area.

Since the 1980s Old Trafford has become home to two largeSouth Asiancommunities –PunjabiPakistanis – almost all beingMuslim.Muslims represent the largest non-Christian religious group in the area, with 28% of the population, compared to 3% in the whole of Trafford. To service this community there are fourmosquesin the area; the Faizan-e-Islam mosque, the Masjid-e-Hidayah, the Masjid-e-Noor and the Masjid Imdadia.

There is also a smallerSikhcommunity, with its ownGurdwara,the Sangat Bhatra Sikh Temple, Upper Chorlton Road. Sikhs account for 4% of the area's population, significantly above the less than 1% average for Trafford and England. To further add to the religious mix there is also a Buddhist temple, the Fo Kang Shang Buddhist Temple, although Buddhists are recorded as making up only 0.2% of the area's population, roughly the same proportion as for Jews. The former library on Stretford Road has been converted into a Chinese Cultural Centre, and a Chinese Medical Centre is on Ayres Road. For many years the numerous Polish community had a focal point in their ex-servicemen's club on Shrewsbury Street, now no longer there.

Old Trafford is in theRoman CatholicDiocese of Salford,and theChurch of EnglandDiocese of Manchester.

Education

Further information:List of schools in Trafford

Along with the rest of Trafford, Old Trafford maintains a selective education system assessed by the11-plusexamination. There is only onesecondary schoolin Old Trafford; a private, female-only,Muslimsecondary school but there are threeprimary schoolswithin the area.

Old Trafford Stadiums

Old Trafford

Lancashire County Cricket Club

Main articles:Old TraffordandOld Trafford (cricket ground)

Old Trafford has been the site ofLancashire County Cricket Club'sOld Traffordstadium since 1857. Before the club's formation, in 1864, it had been the home ofManchester Cricket Club,who had moved here in 1856.Manchester United F.C.'s ground, which is also known asOld Trafford,is close by.

The ground of the Northern Lawn Tennis Club was in Old Trafford from 1882 to 1909 (near the cricket ground): this is commemorated in the name of Tennis Street. The move toWest Didsburyin 1909 was prompted by the industrialisation of Trafford Park and consequent air pollution. The half-timbered pavilion was dismantled and re-erected at the new ground.

Notable people

Main article:List of people from Trafford

Famous people who were born or lived in the area include political and social activistSylvia Pankhurst,singerIan CurtisofJoy Divisionand his wife, the authorDeborah Curtis,artistL. S. Lowry,aviatorJohn Alcock,Dodie Smith,the author of101 Dalmatians.Old Trafford also produced twoVictoria Crosswinners in theFirst World War:Charles Coverdale,asergeantin theManchester Regiment,andJames Marshall,an officer in theLancashire Fusiliers.Rebecca Long-Bailey,MP for Salford and Eccles and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury was born in Trafford.

References

Bibliography

• 'Townships: Stretford', inWilliam, Farrer; J., Brownbill, eds. (1911).A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4.London: Constable and Company. p. 329.ISBN9781314557039.
• Massey, Samuel (1976).A History of Stretford.John Sherratt and Son.ISBN0-85427-046-9.
• Masterson, Vicki; Cliff, Karen (2002).Stretford An Illustrated History.The Breedon Books Publishing Company.ISBN1-85983-321-7.
• Nicholls, Robert (1996).Trafford Park: The First Hundred Years.Phillimore & Co.ISBN1-86077-013-4.
• Rendell, Douglas (1998).Cinemas of Trafford.Jarvis Print Group.ISBN0-9512560-1-7.
• Spencer, Reuben (1897).A Survey of the History, Commerce and Manufactures of Lancashire;... together with a biographical sketch of Reuben Spencer...Biographical Publishing Co.ISBN0-9512560-1-7.
• Trafford Council (June 1994).Trafford, Greater Manchester.The British Publishing Company. Trafford1994.

External links

• "Old Trafford News".Archived fromthe originalon 5 November 2007.Retrieved20 January2008.
• "Friends of Old Trafford".
• "Guided Walk round Trafford".
• "Art Treasures Exhibition 1857".Manchester City Art Gallery.