Along the Duke's Canal mixing the past with the present

I am a romantic and have long wanted to take a journey along the Duke’s Canal from Stretford into the heart of the city at Castlefield.

It is the same journey that some of our farmers and market gardeners would have taken in the 1840s and 50s.  Now in the absence of a barge Ben and I decided to walk it.  Ben is my eldest son and  it seemed a nice way to spend an August morning.

The Duke’s Canal had been built in the 1760s and by the early years of the 19th century was transporting large amounts of food from Altrincham and Stretford to the city where it would be sold in the Manchester markets.

We decided to do it properly so started on the old road which once upon a time ran all the way from Hardy Lane, down past the Brook, skirted the old parish church before heading out of the village and across Turn Moss to Stretford.  Now I have already written in the blog about the old road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20Roads
Stretford was an important staging point and handled food not only from our township but also the bigger market of Stretford, and the canal also offered a fast passage boat which transported passengers.  All of which can also be read in my book on Chorlton out in September.
Nor was this the only traffic for coming in the opposite direction was the night soil which had been collected from the city’s privies to be spread on the land as manure.

Now once on the towpath the walk was mostly along an industrial stretch with a few residential properties and on past United’s ground.  Had we done the same journey in the 1840s it would have been open farm land until we reached Throstle’s Nest with its Paper Mills and the River Irwell to the west and the Botanical Gardens to the east.  And I guess we might have just caught a glimpse of Henshaw’s Blind Asylum which would have been more welcoming than what was to follow.  For now we were reaching Cornbrook with its brick fields, chemical works and cotton mills.

But here were Pomona Gardens one of the big amusement parks on the edge of the city which was the last point where anything green dominated.  “Pomona Gardens was one of those boisterous gardens of fun. It boasted a similar mix of attractions to Belle Vue, including ‘the magic bridge, Gymnasium, flying swings, bowling green, rifle shooting, romantic walks and a promenade for both adults and juveniles as well as boat trips on the Irwell’.  In the summer of 1850 it pulled out the stops with its ‘Splendid representation of the ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS, as it occurred in 1849, the most terrific on record’. Here was the ‘magnificent Bay of Naples, painted and erected by the celebrated artist Mr A.F. Tait, and extends the whole length of the lake covering upwards of 20,000 yards of canvas and is one of the Largest ever Erected in England’*

Now with the passage of time much of that industry has gone and we passed open brown sites and blocks of modern city dwellings built for people who again wanted to live close to the city.

As luck would have it as finished the walk it rained.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*from Chorlton-cum-Hardy A Community Transformed http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton