“My money is on that horse” ……. losing a packet at the Chorlton races

To be fair you have got to go back along time to have seen and bet on a horse race here in Chorlton.

Chorlton Park, 1933

Leaving aside the obvious trip to the bookies or watching it on TV, “the sport of Kings” last took place in Chorlton in 1701.

Now, not a lot of people know that, and I had to turn to the historian Thomas Ellwood who in 1885 wrote, “Barlow Moor is celebrated in the Isthmian annals of Manchester as the scene in the seventeenth century, of annual races and other games, prior to the establishment of the Manchester Races on Kersal Moor.  

All that remains to recall the racecourse is the field bounded by Barlow Moor-lane and the left of the lane leading to Hough-end Hall, still known as the “scaffold field” where there was formerly a low or mound which served as a vantage point from which to view the contests”.*

Scaffold Field in Chorlton Park, 1939

That field was right in the middle of what is now Chorlton Park, roughly running down from the playground to Barlow Moor Road and taking in the football pitches.

Scaffold Field shows up on the tithe map of 1839 under its own name and only ceased to exist when Chorlton Park was laid out in the late 1920s.

I went looking in the Annals of Manchester but failed to turn up a reference to the races, but other sources suggest that “The earliest known race meetings in Manchester were on Barlow Moor, first recorded in 1647, and again from 1697-1701".**

But I may be confusing the Isthmian annals of Manchester, with the Annals of Manchester which was compiled by William Axton in 1885 and is a “Chronological Record [of Manchester] from the earliest times to the end of  1885”.

Or I might just have missed the entry.

Scaffold Field, 1854

Either way I think we can be confident that Scaffold Field was the site of some sort of horse racing in a time long ago.

And as such will be an item for discussion tomorrow on the history walk through Chorlton Park.

It will start at 2 pm and is at the invitation of the Friends of Chorlton Park starting at Brookfield House which is that white building at the Nell Lane. entrance.

There will be plenty who remember the paddling pool, and the pets’ corner, but few who now know that beside the paddling pool there was a large open air swimming bath, a band stand with a covered seating area, and that during the last world war the park had its own air raid shelters.

Added to that the historic records suggest there was a racecourse and an observatory, which fit nicely with stories of Brookfield House, which dates back into the 18th century, and was once home to the son of Francis Deakin who had been brutally murdered in a beer house on Manchester Road in 1847.

Looking towards Scaffold Field from Nell Lane, undated

And for those who want more, the Friends of Chorlton Park have made the invitation as part of Chorlton Open Gardens and will be fundraising for the charity Freedom from Torture.

Location; Chorlton Park****

Pictures; Aerial view of Chorlton Park, 1933, N.S. Roberts, m72054, and Chorlton Park, City Engineers, m09588, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, looking across to Scaffold Field, undated, from the Lloyd Collection, Chorlton Park, 1853, ,from the 1853 OS for Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk 

* Badger and Bear Baiting, Chapter 7 December 19th 1885, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, South Manchester Gazette

**Heritage Gateway, https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1405558&resourceID=19191

***The Friends of Chorlton Park, https://www.facebook.com/groups/CholtonPark

****Chorlton Park, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20Park