The lost secret garden …….in the heart of Chorlton

If I am honest, it’s not really a garden nor is it lost or in the heart of Chorlton, but then when ever has accuracy got in the way of a good story?

Looking into the secret garden, 2022

The patch in question is just north of the old swimming baths, guarded by a fence of wire mesh and obscured by the brick wall of the bridge over the tram lines.

A hint of bricks, 2022

I will have passed it countless times over the last 46 years and never given it much thought, but today I looked more closely and became intrigued by the mix of wild undergrowth, trees and the remains of a brick structure.

OS maps from the 1940s and 50s hint at a building of some sort which may explain the bricks and which could be connected to the Thirlmere Aqueduct which comes out into the light of day to cross the old railway lines before going back underground. 

I thought the brick structure might be part of the railway but there is no indication that this is so.

Of course, there will be someone who remembers it in its former glory, but so far I have drawn a blank.

That said while digging for answers I also discovered the eastern side had been a set of allotments and this strip of land continued all the way to the site of the former Chorlton-cum-Hardy Railway Station.

According to John Lloyd our own local historian, this was railway land bought in expectation that further railway lines would be laid alongside the existing track.

Today aerial pictures from Google maps show the strip as overgrown with vegetation and trees, which begs the question of when the allotments were given up, who owns the land and how it could be developed.

The Thirlmere Aqueduct, comes out into the daylight, 2022

All of which will have to wait a visit to the Archives and Local History Library, and perhaps a request to those residents on Buckingham Road whose gardens about the former allotments.

At which point I caution the curious not to go looking for a way onto the plot which looks to be very uneven.

And that is that.

The spot,  1952

Location: Chorlton

Pictures; the lost secret garden and  the Thirlmere Aqueduct, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson