Bradford-with-Beswick

Bradford-with-Beswick is an area in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

The name Bradford-with-Beswick appears to have been coined by Christ Church, the 19th-century church that served the communities of those growing villages to the east of Manchester. Christ Church lay on the corner of Church Street and Cowper Street, on the boundary between the two villages, and it seems reasonable that the church authorities should use this name to describe them.

Bradford village

For administrative purposes, Bradford village was originally part of the Salford Hundred

Salford (hundred)

The hundred of Salford was an ancient division of the historic county of Lancashire, in Northern England. It was sometimes known as Salfordshire, the name alluding to its judicial centre being the township of Salford...

in the County Palatine

County palatine

A county palatine or palatinate is an area ruled by an hereditary nobleman possessing special authority and autonomy from the rest of a kingdom or empire. The name derives from the Latin adjective palatinus, "relating to the palace", from the noun palatium, "palace"...

of Lancaster. It is bordered by Miles Platting

Miles Platting

Miles Platting is an inner city district of Manchester, England. It is east-northeast of Manchester city centre, along the course of the Rochdale Canal and A62 road...

to the north and the River Medlock

River Medlock

The River Medlock is a river of Greater Manchester in North West England. It rises near Oldham and flows, south and west, for ten miles to join the River Irwell in the extreme southwest of Manchester city centre.-Source:...

and the Ashton Canal

Ashton Canal

The Ashton Canal is a canal built in Greater Manchester in North West England.-Route:The Ashton leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for through 18 locks, passing through Ancoats, Holt Town, Bradford-with-Beswick, Clayton, Openshaw, Droylsden,...

both run through it. The village name is ancient and in 1196 it was known as Bradeford, meaning "broad ford

Ford (crossing)

A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading or in a vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low.The names of many towns...

". Until the Industrial Revolution, Bradford Village was rural with woodland, pastures and streams. It is reported that wolves and eagles once inhabited the woodlands and that honey production was part of the local economy.

Bradford Village also formed part of the Parish of Manchester but it was still an independent township having its own parochial offices under the Manchester churchwardens. In 1841 all this changed and the township became a member of the Manchester Union of Poor Law Guardians, which was established under the Poor Law

Poor Law

The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...

Amendment Act of 1841. From the 13 April 1850, until its incorporation into the township of North Manchester in 1896, the village was a member of the Prestwich Union, constituted by order of the Poor Law Board in 1850. The Local Board was set up in 1863, under the Public Health Act of 1848.

Since the days of the Tudors

Tudor dynasty

The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...

(1485–1603), sufficient coal was mined at the village to supply most of the needs of Manchester but with the onset of the Industrial Revolution Bradford Colliery

Bradford Colliery

Bradford Colliery was a coal mine on the Central Manchester Coalfield in Bradford, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. Although part of the Manchester Coalfield, the seams of the Bradford Coalfield correspond more closely to the Oldham Coalfield...

, as it was then known, was rapidly expanded to provide fuel to power steam engines in the new cotton mills that were springing up in the neighbourhood. With the coming of the Ashton Canal in 1797, the colliery was connected to it by means of a private branch.

This canal branch also served the other large employer in Bradford Village, Richard Johnson & Nephew (Bradford Ironworks), who manufactured wire of all kinds.

In 1871, the owner of Bradford Colliery was R T Parker and the occupier, for rate purposes, was T & C Livesey. When deeper pit shafts were sunk, seams of fireclay were discovered and consequently a brickworks was built on the north side of the site to manufacture firebricks for use in lining furnaces. The brickworks had the same owner and occupier as Bradford Colliery. By 1896, the pit manager was H L Ward and the under-manager was George Bentley. At that time there were 404 underground workers and 125 surface workers. Four types of coal were mined: gas coal, household coal, manufacturing coal and steam coal. The brickworks was still operational in 1896 but by this time it was owned by Edward Williams. However, the only employees were three underground workers still extracting clay and two surface workers and this indicates a decline in the local firebrick manufacturing industry. Bradford Colliery remained open until September 1968 when it closed; not because its supply of coal was exhausted, but because of the subsidence that would have been caused by the exploitation of new coal seams.

In 1869, a giant gasholder or gasometer

Gasometer

A gas holder is a large container where natural gas or town gas is stored near atmospheric pressure at ambient temperatures. The volume of the container follows the quantity of stored gas, with pressure coming from the weight of a movable cap...

was built at the new Bradford Gas Works and this, along with the adjacent colliery, ironworks and cotton mills, was a dominant feature of the landscape.

Beswick village

Beswick

Beswick, Greater Manchester

Beswick is an area of the city of Manchester, in North West England. The River Medlock and the Ashton Canal both run through it. It neighbours the district of Bradford to the east and the two areas are sometimes referred to as Bradford-with-Beswick....

village is also ancient and around 1200–30 it was known as Bexwic, believed to be a combination of a personal name and a settlement or dwelling place. The River Medlock

River Medlock

and the Ashton Canal

Ashton Canal

both run through it.

Beswick village was originally smaller than Bradford village and it became part of the township of Manchester in 1838, being joined with Ardwick

Ardwick

Ardwick is a district of the City of Manchester, in North West England, about one mile east of Manchester City Centre.By the mid-19th century Ardwick had grown from being a village into a pleasant and wealthy suburb of Manchester, but by the end of that century it had become heavily industrialised...

to form a municipal ward in the new township. For poor law

Poor Law

The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...

purposes it was added to the Prestwich Poor Law Union, which was constituted by order of the Poor Law Board

Poor Law Board

The Poor Law Board was established in the United Kingdom in 1847 as a successor body to the Poor Law Commission overseeing the administration of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act...

in 1850. In 1896 it was among the townships consolidated to form the township of North Manchester for Poor Law purposes.

At the height of the Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

there was less industry here than in Bradford village and consequently back-to-back

Back-to-back houses

Usually of low quality and high density, they were built for working class people and because three of the four walls of the house were shared with other buildings and therefore contained no doors or windows, back-to-back houses were notoriously ill-lit and poorly ventilated and sanitation was of...

terraced houses abounded everywhere. Two open spaces were the David Lewis Play Ground and Bradford Recreation Ground.

Philips Park and Philips Park Cemetery

Philips Park is on the south side of the River Medlock, and Philips Park Cemetery is on the north side.

The park has the distinction of being Manchester's original public park and Mark Philips, who was the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

for Manchester, opened it in 1846. It was the first of its kind in Britain

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

and it set the standard for many others that soon followed in towns and cities throughout Britain. It was designed to have walks, expansive lakes and glasshouses for exotic plants. It is also famous for its annual Tulip Festival, which is still held every year.

Philips Park Cemetery was opened in 1863.

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