Now, we have lost most of the features of our rural past, here in Chorlton.
But just occasionally there are still a few hints of that past.
Of these there is the Old Road which stretches out from Chorlton across Turn Moss and on to Stretford.
I call it the Old Road, but most people will know it as Hawthorn Lane, although on official documents from the mid-19th century it was called Back Lane, while parts of it were also referred to as the Cut hole Lane and Town’s Bank.
It is somewhere I have written about in the past and keep coming back to.*
Once it will have been used by farmers transporting produce to the Duke’s Canal and the raised roadway underneath the canal’s aqueduct, bears witness to the need to protect pedestrians from passing wagons.
Even now, if you walk the route there is a sense that you are walking a country lane, with the overhanding trees, the remnants of hawthorn fences and the twisty nature of the lane.
And it is filled with history, starting with the site of Sally’s Hole, a pond which dates to at least the 18th century was only filled in, sometime in the 1960s.
That said, the scene on either side bears little witness to what it would have one looked like.
The mass of trees, and bushes would have been absent and instead the area was very much open land with the od avenue of trees.
And had you walked the lane two centuries ago you might well have caught sight of the “marl men” engaged in extracting marl from pits which was used to spread on the land.
Marl which contains carbonate of lime was a cheap substitute for lime and spreading it on the land would enhance the land’s fertility for up to twelve years.
Writing in 1899, H T Crofton in his book on Stretford, drew on older authorities who recorded that “most of the old pitsheads yet extant in the fields have been quarries whence marl has been obtained.
In marling, the gaffer of the pit, who controlled the falls and excavations, was called ‘My Lord’. Passersby were solicited to contribute to the marling or shutting, or feast, at the conclusion of their laborer’s”.
These pits could be quite substantial and involved clearing the top soil and then "‘shooting the pace’ which involved “making a broad way of a very easie ascent and descent for the convenience of fetching out the marl”.**
The degree to which this was a lucrative business can be seen in one legal dispute concerning the extraction of marl during the 17th century and the large number of pits in the area around Oswald and Longford roads, which was known as the Isles due to the larger number of pits and lazy watercourses which stretched out across the land.
The 1853 OS map shows plenty of these, and according to H T Crofton the area around what was once Firs Farm was similarly dug.
Most filled with water, and in time must have been a source of concern for parents.
Next; Firs Farm
Pictures; The Old Road, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, the Old Road, circa 1900, from the Lloyd Collection and detail from the 1841 OS Map of Lancashire courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/
*The Old Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Old%20Road
**A History of the Ancient Chapel of Stretford H T Crofton, 1899
 |
| The Old Road, 2016 |
Of these there is the Old Road which stretches out from Chorlton across Turn Moss and on to Stretford.
I call it the Old Road, but most people will know it as Hawthorn Lane, although on official documents from the mid-19th century it was called Back Lane, while parts of it were also referred to as the Cut hole Lane and Town’s Bank.
It is somewhere I have written about in the past and keep coming back to.*
Once it will have been used by farmers transporting produce to the Duke’s Canal and the raised roadway underneath the canal’s aqueduct, bears witness to the need to protect pedestrians from passing wagons.
Even now, if you walk the route there is a sense that you are walking a country lane, with the overhanding trees, the remnants of hawthorn fences and the twisty nature of the lane.
And it is filled with history, starting with the site of Sally’s Hole, a pond which dates to at least the 18th century was only filled in, sometime in the 1960s.
 |
| The Old Road, circa 1900 |
The mass of trees, and bushes would have been absent and instead the area was very much open land with the od avenue of trees.
And had you walked the lane two centuries ago you might well have caught sight of the “marl men” engaged in extracting marl from pits which was used to spread on the land.
Marl which contains carbonate of lime was a cheap substitute for lime and spreading it on the land would enhance the land’s fertility for up to twelve years.
Writing in 1899, H T Crofton in his book on Stretford, drew on older authorities who recorded that “most of the old pitsheads yet extant in the fields have been quarries whence marl has been obtained.
In marling, the gaffer of the pit, who controlled the falls and excavations, was called ‘My Lord’. Passersby were solicited to contribute to the marling or shutting, or feast, at the conclusion of their laborer’s”.
 |
| Marl Pits, 1853 |
The degree to which this was a lucrative business can be seen in one legal dispute concerning the extraction of marl during the 17th century and the large number of pits in the area around Oswald and Longford roads, which was known as the Isles due to the larger number of pits and lazy watercourses which stretched out across the land.
The 1853 OS map shows plenty of these, and according to H T Crofton the area around what was once Firs Farm was similarly dug.
Most filled with water, and in time must have been a source of concern for parents.
Next; Firs Farm
Pictures; The Old Road, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, the Old Road, circa 1900, from the Lloyd Collection and detail from the 1841 OS Map of Lancashire courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/
*The Old Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Old%20Road
**A History of the Ancient Chapel of Stretford H T Crofton, 1899
Very interesting... maybe we should take a walk there next time I'm up!
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