Remembering the swimming baths …. Gilbury Marsh and Horsefield

The Chorlton History Wall is back.

Very soon the third of our projects where art meets history will appear on the builder’s boards at the site of the former Chorlton Swimming Baths and Leisure Centre.

Many will remember the 80-meter installation which told the story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy from 1500 to the 21st century.

It ran across 16 large panels along Albany Road and part of Brantingham Road, included Andrew’s stories, Peter’s original paintings, and became a tourist attraction.

You could walk from Chorlton Green just before Henry VIII walked up the aisle with Ann Boleyn and traverse the centuries discovering the changes to where we live, ending at the former Cosgrove Hall Productions, home of Danger Mouse, Chorlton and the Wheelies and Count Duckula.

No less bold was the wall telling the story of Denbigh Villas on High Lane, which mixed the story of the two houses with accounts of the surrounding area.

And now on Manchester Road at the invitation of the developers* and in conjunction with Chorlton Arts Festival which is part of  Chorlton Civic Society we have created three panels stretching 7.2 meters long. 

Together they describe the story of the former swimming baths with a look back to when this part of Chorlton was open fields with names like Gilbury Marsh and Horsefield, accompanied by tales of “dark doings” and culminating with our own Carnegie library and its links to the Titanic.

The panels will soon go up allowing the curious and the tourist another opportunity to walk Chorlton’s past.

Location; Manchester Road

Pictures; bits of the History Walk

*MSV HOUSING GROUP