Andrew Simpson: Grass and open fields return to Mayfield …….

Sunday, 17 August 2025

Grass and open fields return to Mayfield …….

It is a long time since anyone paddled in the River Medlock at Mayfield but that was what was happening yesterday in the sun.

Rivers and glowers, 2025

Mayfield is that old bit of Manchester which borders the River Medlock a little south of Piccadilly Railway Station.

Mayfield, 1819

Mayfield, 1849

In the early 19th century, it was still fields, but it was already being encroached on all sides by houses factories and foundries.

Mayfield, 1950

And the signs were not good for either Mayfield or the land beyond the River Medlock which in 1819 was still marked as Chapel Field.

Mayfield, 2025

Within three decades both areas had been built over, with a network of mean terraced houses stretching down from the railway station only halted by the presence of the Hanover Mill, the Fairfield Print Works, the Ardwick Dye Works and the Chapelfield Dye Works which clung to both sides of the River Medlock.

And that was still the case a century later, so while swathes of terraced housing had gone the industry remained in that pocket of land bisected by the river.

Nor was that all because in the course of that century the river itself was taken away, hidden in culverts, and doomed to flow in the dark.

Flowers, football and the Medlock, 2025

But the deindustrialization of the late 20th century offered up a new chance for Mayfield, and the story of the bold plan to create the first new park in the city is there to read.

So never one to pinch other’s work I suggest you follow the links below to read about the project and its fruition.*

To which I can my own progress report which occupied the blog during 2021 and 2022.**

Leaving me just to include some pictures taken yesterday of the new park accompanied by the old maps.

Location, Mayfield

Pictures; Mayfield Park, 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Mayfield over the centuries, from Johnson’s map of Manchester drawn in 1819, the OS map for Manchester, 1849, courtesy of courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1950 and Myfield 2025, courtesy of Google Maps