Early Chorlton Map Discovered by Richard Bond

It is generally accepted that the earliest Ordnance Survey 25 inch maps of Chorlton were surveyed in 1892 and published, as 'First Edition' maps, in 1894. 

Remarkably, an 1881 25 inch OS map of part of Chorlton has been discovered at Sale Library. 

The map first came to light last year when fellow Stretford resident David Brady was researching the New Longford Bowling Club, which was on Edge Lane near the border with Stretford. One of the staff at Trafford Local Studies pointed him to sheet CX1.1, dated 1881. 

When David shared his notes with me earlier this year, I went to Sale Library and found that the map did indeed show part of Chorlton in great detail. However, roughly half of the sheet was blank, all of the map to the west of the boundary with Stretford. 

Another member of staff then found another 1881 OS map, C1V.14. She apologised that it was largely blank - perhaps 90% - but showing a small part of Alexandra Road in Withington. 

This suggested the maps must have been specially produced for Withington Local Board, whose area in 1881 included Chorlton as well as Withington. I then found a report confirming this in the Manchester Guardian of 6th January 1881, which said the survey would cost the ratepayers £1500 or £2000. 

Next, I posted details on an OS map forum and within 24 hours, had a number of replies. 

I was astonished to find that the Withington survey comprised no less than 15 sheets, C1V.14-15 and CX1.1-11, 14-15. Of these, I have only found the two at Trafford Local Studies. I have checked with Manchester Central Library and Manchester University Library, and they have no copies of the 1881 survey. 

According to the OS map forum, the one place where copies would certainly be held is at the British Library, which would require a personal visit to see and be very expensive to copy. The Bodleian Library is also likely to have a set and their OS maps were digitised some years ago – but are not available online.

The Chorlton map which survives makes an interesting study compared to the version which was surveyed some 11 years later. Indeed, I have now hit on a new mystery, as the 1881 map shows a statue in gardens near the Lane End junction - the gardens were still there in 1892 but the statue was no longer there. The question is - who was the statue of?

Richard Bond © 2020

Location; Chorlton

Picture; the OS map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1881, courtesy of Trafford Local Studies

The origins of Ryebank Road ………. by Richard Bond

In Old Stretford, Bosdin Leech recalls that on Edge Lane, there were very few houses east of Stretford railway station around 1860. 

Advert, 1864

However, this soon began to change and two early examples were the large houses known as Rye Bank and Meadow Bank, which at a later date came to be separated by Rye Bank Road.

The rate books suggest they were built around 1862, being owned by John Wright and Samuel McCoy respectively.

Both houses were substantial – full details of Rye Bank, including a fernery, are given in an advert of 1864, while by 1867, the rate book recorded Meadow Bank as being ‘house, garden and billiard room’.

Plan of Longford Estate

Between 1877 and 1882, John Rylands sought to consolidate the eastern boundary of his estate in a series of transactions with the Lloyd family.

In 1876, he bought the area marked green on the plan, and covenanted to make a road (marked green and blue). In 1881, he bought the area in yellow and paid a fee to build a house.

His aim was to create a new eastern drive to Longford Hall and Rylands lost no time. Within two months, his 1881 estate map showed both the new drive to the hall and the new house, and his estate steward moved in to the house the following month.

The house still stands at the Ryebank Road entrance to the Park, on the right, though it has a modern extension. Incidentally, the steward was Michael Lofthouse and it was his architect son William Albert Lofthouse who designed Stretford Town Hall, or Public Hall as we know it now.

Two additional houses were built just inside the Ryebank entrance – which again still stand – around 1886. The house at the entrance must have been both a lodge as well as an estate office, with several stewards recorded in residence.

Plan of Longford Park Estate, 1881

Up to about 1901, the only houses on (or off) Ryebank Road were on the Longford estate. The 1901 census however records that ten houses were being built by the Chorlton Land & Building Co. These semi-detached houses, just north of the lodge, were advertised for sale or rent later that year, with the description ‘backs overlook Longford Hall’.

The 1905 OS map shows 14 houses north of the lodge, and that Ryebank Road had become a through road, with Nicolas Road and Longford Road both shown.

There was an important change in 1912, when Stretford Council opened Longford Park, with one access point being Ryebank Road.

Not long after, the Council was complaining that people were taking a shortcut from the Ryebank Road lodge to the Cromwell Road lodge, and damaging the grass.

A number of warnings were given, and in 1914 it was resolved to place a shrubbery near the Ryebank entrance, with barbed wire across the middle.

Richard Bond © 2020

Location; Longford Park

Pictures; advert, Rye Bank Edge Lane, Manchester Guardian, March 12th, 1964, plan of Ryebank Road and and Longford Park Estate, 1881, , https://luna.manchester.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/Manchester~91~1~112908~197978:Plan-of-Longford-Park-Estate?qvq=q%3Alongford&mi=1&trs=22, both  © University of Manchester