A unique artistic and historical development on Albany Road in the heart of Chorlton opened yesterday

It is as Lord Bradley said a “unique partnership which has brought the history wall to Chorlton.”

I don’t think there is anywhere in the city where a developer a local artist and a historian have come together to tell the story of a place.*  And that is what McCarthy and Stone, Peter Topping and I have done.

McCarthy and Stone build “later life” properties and Peter  paints the pictures and I tell the stories.

So some months ago we decided to bring the story of Chorlton from its rural past to the present day touching as we went on the major developments in between.

And because we were on a building site it seemed sensible to design it as a walk.  So along the 80 meter stretch from Albany Road round on to Brantingham you can walk our history.

It starts on the green in the 16th century, moves on to Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Roads taking in many of the late 19th century buildings and finishes with the next phase in the history of Chorlton.

Peter called it a “history wall” and that aptly sums it up.  Here are stories of the old parish church, the Horse and Jockey and life in the village and on Beech Road.  There are also tales of the New Chorlton developed in the 19th century and references to our first cinema, Cosgrove Hall and the coming of the tram.

All of this is superimposed on Peter’s paintings of contemporary Chorlton, who began the project of recoding what the township looked liked “because it is changing so quickly”

And yesterday when the history wall was opened by Lord Bradley there were lots of people who came down to enjoy the fun, look at Peter’s paintings and read the stories.

Well there you have it, 80 meters of history pictures and paintings along Albany and Brantingham Roads and it’s free and will be up for 18 months.

Now that can’t be a bad deal.

Pictures; by Tom McGrath

* http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20the%20history%20wall