This was the last time the land opposite our house went under the plough. The year is probably 1894 and the field was Row Acre. I can be pretty sure that the chap at the plough was Alfred Higginbotham whose family had farmed here since the 1840s. Row Acre stretched down from Cross Road to what is now Acres Road and was divided into strips. Along with the Higginbotham’s parts of Row Acre were farmed by the Bailey family, Thomas White and John Brundrett, and perfectly echoed the medieval idea of a community each working a strip of land. And of course the plough reminds us that we were a farming community. The image was originally dated 1896 but that was the year the Rec was opened, so I think we can push the date back by two years
Picture; Ploughing Row Acre before it became the Recreation Ground, 1894 from the collection of William Higginbotham
I enjoyed reading about the Higginbotham family that farmed at Chorlton Green Farm. My Uncle Arthur Higginbotham and his wife, my Aunt Olive had the farm up to about the 1960's and I often used to visit them there.
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