A forgotten river, an old railway track .... the Platt Brook, the Fallowfield Loop

By Withington Road Railway Bridge, 2009

Today I think we shall walk the Fallowfield Loop again

Now I first came across this disused railway line a few years ago and have been promising to take the route to Fallowfield with my botanist friend David Bishop, but in the way of these things our desire to start some serious walking has got there first.

We had been up in the Hope Valley and with the sun shining and the presence of plenty of ramblers we decided it was time to join them but more of that later.

In the meantime it is the Fallowfield Loop that has got me going on this bright sunny day at the end of April.

It is a cycle and walking track, which runs for six miles from St Werburghs in Chorlton to Debdale Park.

As you would expect there is much to see and I have already promised myself the Companion Book of Flowers, along with Trees to spot and enjoy and What was that bird?

Platt Brook and Ley Brook, 1841-53

But for me the exciting discovery of our first trip along the path was the Platt Brook which runs open along part of the track and is a constant reminder to me of the number of open water course which flowed through south Manchester.

Many now disappear in dark culverts lost to most of us but occasionally come out into the daylight.

So it is with the Platt Brook which is the Gore Brook earlier in its journey.  Like some of the other books it finally runs in to our own Chorlton Brook and on its course picks up even smaller ones like the Ley Brook which is almost hidden from view.

We missed it at first and I was only drawn to it by a small brick wall which stops the curious from falling down its banks.  But there it was running underneath the old track into the Platt Brook and visible as it snaked off southin the opposite direction  towards Fallowfield, Burnage and Withington.

Stretches of it had been put below ground by the 1840s.

Now I fight the romantic side of my character but I have to confess to a sheer bout of the emotion at finding these little water ways most of which are totally overlooked but are a powerful link to our rural past.

So a bit ironic really that it should be this old disused railway track that brings me back to south Manchester of the 1840s, where as many of you know I so often reside.

The line in 1905

The Fallowfield Loop Railway began in 1891 when the stretch between Chorlton and Fallowfield was opened, followed the next year with an extension up to Fairfield.

The line provided a new route for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway to run trains from Sheffield into Manchester, and local stopping services ran from Fairfield and Gorton on the Hope Valley line to Manchester Central via Hyde Road, Fallowfield and Chorlton-cum-Hardy before joining a section of line from Old Trafford into Manchester Central.

It had a chequered history and its demise was a slow decline marked by the closure of some of the stations in the 1930s and the rest in the 50s.   Its end as a passenger line came in 1969 with the closure of Central Station although it was still used for freight until 1988 when the line was finally closed.

The route remained an increasingly overgrown relic of our railway past until its reopening as a cycle and track way in 2001.

The Comet,  on the loop line in 1935

This brings me back to our resolve to do some serious walking and in turn leads me to a reflection on how you kit yourself out for a new hobby.

Like all new ventures we were in danger of going over the top and friends have gently smiled at the idea that we should use a compass, but it is all part of the fun.


So with that said I rather think it is time to make tracks.

Now I am always pleased to be corrected otherwise what ids the poinbt of trying to get thisngs right so Here are two corrections from Brian Roberston and Ed Allen.

Brian wrote, "I have to correct your blog on a couple of points, Andrew Simpson. Firstly, there were no station closures in the 1930s. All of the stations closed together on July 7th, 1958. Secondly, although some Hope Valley trains run through Gorton and Fairfield, these stations are very much on the Woodhead line. Incidentally, the building of this line necessitated the building of new stations at Gorton and Fairfield. The line's main claim to fame is that the blue Midland Pulman was a regular visitor as it rested at Reddish depot between turns."

And Ed Allen comented, "The first picture is not Withington Road but St.Werburghs looking South. The bridge was widened in 1929 to cater for widening the tracks...a scheme which never materialized. I grew up with the Loop at the end of the garden in Chelsfield Grove. I still live nearby, with the Metrolink now at the back of the house. Land was reserved for the widening, the long thin field behind our house, the cinema on the bridge had to be easy to demolish and the houses on the West side of Buckingham Road were built on reserved land. The Comet didn't run on the Loop but ran from Piccadilly/London Road to London Euston. It didn't run through Fallowfield and anyway, the station in the photo is somewhere else, Fallowfield' signal box was actually on the Westbound platform. The locomotive is an original Royal Scot class originally named Jenny Lind then The Rifle Brigade. Usually, steam locos running on the Loop were former Lner engines Long coal trains were run into manchester and the Manchester Central to Harwich boat train was a regular heading the other way. So many archive photos have been captioned wrongly in the past, I hop no-one minds a little correction now and then."

Pictures; on the Fallowfield Loop by Withington Bridge, August 2009, Phil Champion and  geograph.org.uk, map of the spot where the Platt Brook joins the Leigh [Ley Brook] from the OS of Lancashire 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ railway bridge close to Fallowfield Station, City Engineers, October 1905, m78399, the Comet  Manchester to London Express, pulled by Loco 6146, passing through Fallowfield at 5.30 pm 1935, m63467, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

Following the smelly Gorton Brook into Chorlton ………… and solving a puzzle

The year is 1926 and I thought we were standing just a little north east of Hough End Playing Fields, somewhere close to what is now Hough End Centre during construction work which will take the Red Lion Brook underground.

The Gore Brook looking north, 1926

In the distance is Hough End Hall, and this is about where the Red Lion Brook vanishes from sight before joining our own Chorlton Brook.

But the title of the picture confused me, because according to the Local History Image Collection this is the Gore Brook, which flows from Gorton through Fallowfield changing its name to the Platt Brook.

And as you do I questioned the title and suggested to Peter Topping that somewhere, somebody had got the name of the water course wrong, which was one of those little bouts of arrogance that I should watch.

Because on checking the notes on the Local History Image Collection there are two connected images which carry the full title of Rivers, Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking north, Culverting, Manchester and Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking south west, Culverting, Manchester.

The Gore Brook , looking south west, 1926

Added to which the stretch of the Red Lion Brook crossing close to what is now Hough End Centre had already been culverted by 1894, leaving me to fall back on the line of the Gore Brook/Platt Brook.

So, following later OS maps along with google maps , and looking at the size of the culverts we are at that pint where the Gore Book/Platt Brook and Red Lion Brook meet, which is pretty much where I thought we were.

Leaving me to apologies for getting to the point of the story in around a bit way, but does just allow me to conclude that during the 19th century the Gorton Brook did Chorlton no favours.

As earlier as the 1880s residents had been complaining at the state of Chorlton Brook, moving Thomas Turner in 1885 to write that “It is a great misfortune for the inhabitants of Chorlton-cum-Hardy that this foul brook continues such a nuisance to the neighbourhood.  Last week during the evenings it was more than ordinarily offensive.  

The Gore Brook/ Platt Brook, & Red Lion Brook become Chorlton Brook, 1894

All along Beech Road and Barlow Moor Road to the station, the atmosphere was charged with a nauseous odour [which] is really an outrage upon suburban life that a remedy must be insisted upon”.  Adding “we have taken up our abode at a distance from our great city to have our homes spoiled and our health impaired by these ‘Noxious vapours’”, concluding “turn the brook into a common sewer by covering it.”*

All of which was quite understandable given that five years earlier, the Withington Local Government Board had reported that one third of the sewage of the district flowed into “The Chorlton Brook near Chorlton village”.**

Added to which our brook also carried the muck from the Gorton Brook which throughout the last quarter of the 19th century and into the next was notorious for being little more than an open sewer.

And that is that.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking north, 1926, m60575, Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking south west, 1926, m60574, A C Tomlinson, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the point where the Red Lion Brook and the Platt Brook join Chorlton Brook, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Thomas Turner The Chorlton Brook, letter to the Manchester Guardian, July 2nd, 1885

**The Drainage of Withington, The Manchester Guardian, July 13th, 1880

Following the Gore Brook south from Gorton towards Chorlton

I am looking at some splendid pictures of the Gore Brook which were taken by JBS and posted on the facebook site MANCHESTER A PICTORIAL AND FILM HISTORY.

Now I know some people still deride social networking sites like facebook but they are a wonderful way of communicating with people across the planet and have that other benefit that they are almost instant.

What I also like about them is the opportunity that provide for people to post historical pictures which might not otherwise be seen by more than a handful of people.

The MANCHESTER A PICTORIAL AND FILM HISTORY site is particularly good because it also attracts those who want to share their own images.

And so to those of the Gore Brook by JBS, posted recently.

The Gore Brook is I think the longest of our small rivers staring at Gorton Reservoir and making its way south and west till it eventually joins our own Chorlton Brook but these are fed by smaller streams which rune in from Ashton, Denton and Droylsden*

All of which is less about showing off my knowledge of our water courses or for that matter representing the research of others and more about emphasising the large number of streams brooks and natural gutters which crisscrossed south and east Manchester.

These of course were vital when the area was still open fields and provided water and a natural set of boundaries.

Most are now buried deep underground and come up in short stretches.  Our own Chorlton Brook flows in the open from Hough End to the Mersey.  The Gore Brook or Platt Brook is also open for some of its length.

But all of them are lost for some of their journey, and a few are so completely lost that they have been forgotten about entirely.  The Rough Leech Gutter which meanders from Sandy Lane across Chorlton and out to Turn Moss is just one such water courses, others like those that flow across what is now Chorlton Park have vanished.  They may have dried up or bubbly away in some old brick culvert.

And some have yet to pass out of living memory.  The local historian Philip Lloyd remembered, that in the 1940s the Longford Brook flowed above ground by the Swimming Baths on Manchester Road, and again across part of Longford Park. And his mother told him that on quiet Sundays at the start of the twentieth century the enclosed Brook could be heard as it flowed under the road by Egerton Road North.

Pictures; between Old Hall Lane and Brighton Grove via St James Church Rusholme in Birch Park and the entrance to Birch Park ,Brighton Grove, courtesy of JBS, May 2013

*Dick Lane Brook from Aston, the Moss Brook from Droylsden and an unnamed one from Denton, Ashworth, Geoffrey, The Lost Rivers of Manchester, Willow Publishing, 1987.

The Fallowfield Loop

On the Fallowfield Loop by Withington Bridge, August 2009, Phil Champion

Now I am back with the Fallowfield Loop that disused railway line.*

It began in 1891 when the stretch between Chorlton and Fallowfield was opened, followed the next year with an extension up to Fairfield.

The line provided a new route for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway to run trains from Sheffield into Manchester, and local stopping services ran from Fairfield and Gorton on the Hope Valley line to Manchester Central via Hyde Road, Fallowfield and Chorlton-cum-Hardy before joining a section of line from Old Trafford into Manchester Central.

And today I want to feature the work being done on the stretch which has “created a linear park and wildlife corridor, linking parks and open spaces. It has an interesting flora – some of which may represent all that’s left of the lost, ancient rural landscape of South Manchester.”**

Now given that I always believe there is no pint in rewriting what has already been done very well I shall direct you to a fascinating article on the Loop from David Bishop on the Friends of Chorlton Meadows.

Picture; on the Fallowfield Loop by Withington Bridge, August 2009, Phil Champion


 *The Fallowfield Loop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/a-forgotten-river-old-railway-track-and.html

** Friends of Chorlton Meadows, http://friendsofchorltonmeadows.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-fallowfield-loop-and-greening.html

Picture; on the Fallowfield Loop by Withington Bridge, August 2009, Phil Champion

Back with the Gore Brook which becomes our own Chorlton Brook

Now I remain fascinated by water courses, rivers streams and ponds and write about them whenever the opportunity arises.

So I was very pleased when Barry of the History Team of Victoria Baths Trust wrote to me about one of my stories on the Gore Brook.

This is one of those special watercourses as it eventually becomes our own Chorlton Brook, so I shall do no more than quote his email and his pictures.

Map of the area circa 1920s

"Hi Andrew

 I’m attaching a scan of a map of the area through which Gore Brook runs in the pictures on your recent post (which I commented on). 

I estimate the map to be from the early 1920s, before Manchester Grammar School was built.

The drain for the ditch must have been culverted under the Grammar School or its playing fields. The Nico Ditch itself runs in a straight line along the length of Old Hall Lane (which now joins up with Old Hall Road near Slade Lane) and into Platt Fields. It can clearly be seen alongside Platt Chapel on Wilmslow Road and in Platt Fields Park.

© Barry Johnson

The attached picture 1612 was taken at the same location but pointing to the left and shows the Nico Ditch (discoloured water) draining into Gore Brook."

History Team

Victoria Baths Trust

Victoria Baths - Britain's Best Loved Restoration Project, open as a Heritage Visitor Attraction and also an arts, education and community venue, from April to November

Victoria Baths Trust, Victoria Baths, Hathersage Road, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester M13 0FE, 0161 224 2020
www.victoriabaths.org.uk

*Chorlton rivers, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20rivers