Old Trafford, Manchester

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Old Trafford is an area of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. It is mainly notable for the presence of two major sporting venues.

Old Trafford Football Stadium - Home of Manchester United F.C.
Old Trafford Cricket Ground - Home of Lancashire County Cricket Club.

The two stadiums are at either end of Warwick Road, two parts of which have been renamed Brian Statham Way (formerly Warwick Road) and Sir Matt Busby Way (formerly Warwick Road North). The interconnecting strip of road between the stadiums now retains the name Warwick Road and the southern section on the other side of the Metrolink line is called Warwick Road South.

1 Boundaries
2 History
3 Life in Old Trafford
4 Schools
5 Places of worship
6 Community resources/centres
7 Politics
8 Famous people
9 External links

[edit] Boundaries

Old Trafford is situated south-west of Manchester city centre along the parallel arteries of Kings Road, Ayres Road, Stretford Road, Chester Road and the Bridgewater Way. It is the area that falls between the two sports stadiums in the south and the neighbouring districts of Hulme and Moss Side to the north. The crossroads sites of two old toll gates also delineate the borders of the area: Brooks's Bar to the north and Trafford Bar to the south. Historically, Old Trafford was part of Stretford Borough Council. The term Stretford was often used to denote the combined area of Stretford and Old Trafford but it is now recognised as a separate locality. The locality of Firswood sits between Old Trafford and Stretford.

Old Trafford makes up the northern tip of Trafford Metropolitan Borough and adjoins St. Georges, Hulme and Whalley Range all of which are within the boundaries of Manchester City Council. Old Trafford is one of the parts of Trafford where the highest rates of deprivation are found.

[edit] History

Old Trafford was a crossing point over the River Irwell in ancient times; it became an urban area after the building of the Manchester Ship Canal in the 1890s.

Earlier in the Victorian era Old Trafford came to prominence as the site of the Royal Horticultural and Botanical Gardens which staged art treasures exhibitions in 1857 and 1887, the latter for Queen Victoria's Silver Jubilee. The Halle Orchestra was formed to participate in the first of these celebrations. The site was purchased by White City Limited in 1907 and used as an amusement park. In the 1950s and 60s White City Stadium was used as a greyhound racing track and for stock car racing. This site is now White City Retail Park.

The De Trafford family, who had owned much of the local land since feudal times, sold large tracts of it to the Manchester Ship Canal Company in the 1880s and urban Old Trafford grew up around this development and the ensuing Trafford Park Industrial Estate.

Trafford Park provided work for thousands in factories such as Kellogg's, Massey Ferguson, Metropolitan-Vickers, GEC and Proctor and Gamble. The Ford Motor Company opened a Model-T production plant at Trafford Park in 1911. At its mid-20th century peak, Trafford Park employed 75,000 workers. From 1939-45 Manchester was responsible for producing more war goods than anywhere else in Britain and much of this work was carried out at Trafford Park.

Employment was also provided on a smaller scale, notably by Duerrs Jams, Vimto, Arkady Soya Mill and Oppenheimer Mosaics.

During the slum-clearances of the post-war period much of the old Victorian housing stock in the area was demolished. However, after the perceived failure of the deck-access concrete crescents of Hulme, renovation was preferred to demolition by Old Trafford residents during the 1970s. For this reason there are still many Victorian terraced streets in the area.

In 1974 Stretford was subsumed into the newly formed Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. Before the administrative reforms of 1974 Stretford was a municipal borough of Lancashire.

By 1985 jobs at Trafford Park had nose-dived towards an all-time low of 24,500, as unemployment in the north-west soared above 30 per cent in some inner-city areas. Nearby Salford Docks, which had also been a major source of local employment, closed in 1982. As the revamped Salford Quays it has become an emblematic part of the regeneration of Manchester in general.

For the history of the two sports stadiums see links above.

[edit] Life in Old Trafford

Today, Old Trafford has approximately 13,000 residents and is multi-cultural in character. In fact, cultural diversity has been a feature of the area for over a century. Irish immigrants originally settled in the locality from the 1880s, coming to Manchester to work on the Ship Canal. Polish migrants arrived during and after the Second World War. The Afro-Caribbean community arrived and settled in the 50's and 60's. Since the 1980s Old Trafford has become home to two large South Asian communities - Gujarati Indians and Pakistani Urdu speakers - almost all being Muslim. There are three mosques in the area servicing the large Muslim community. There is also a smaller Sikh community, with its own Gurdwara. Micro-communities of Indonesian and Malaysian students also share the space.

Old Trafford is amongst the 10% most deprived wards in England, suffering problems of unemployment, poor housing and low educational achievement. It also has levels of youth crime well above the national average.

Ayres Road and its environs are the heart of Old Trafford and a walk down this road will give visitors a real flavour of the multi-cultural nature of the neighbourhood, with its variety of grocers' shops selling food stuffs from Europe, the Caribbean and South-East Asia; its Catholic church, St. Alphonsus, frequented by a predominantly Irish congregation, and Shizhan House, the Chinese Medicine Centre, on the site of the old Vimto offices. Something of this atmosphere is evoked by Manchester poet Lemn Sissay in his poem 'Ayres Road'.

[edit] Schools

Primary

·Old Trafford School - Stretford Road

·St. Alphonsus R.C. Primary - Hamilton Street

·Seymour Park School - Northumberland Road

There are no secondary schools in Old Trafford

[edit] Places of worship

Christian

·St. John the Evangelist, CofE - Ayres Road

·St. Bride’s, Cof E - Blair Street

·St. Alphonsus, R.C. - Powell Street

·Sharon Full Gospel Church, Pentecostal - Chorlton Road

·New Testament Church of God, Pentecostal - Brooks Bar

·The Bethel, Christadelphian - Henrietta Street

·United Reformed Church, Presbyterian/Congregational - Shrewsbury Street

·Kingdom Hall, Jehovah's Witness - Chorlton Road

Muslim

·Masjid-e-Hidayah – Humphrey Road

·Masjid-e-Noor - Stamford Street

·Masjid Imdadia - Blackburn Street

Sikh

·Sangat Bhatra Sikh Temple - Upper Chorlton Road

Buddhist

·Fo Kang Shang Buddhist Temple - Stretford Road

[edit] Community resources/centres

Local Council Office, Library, Community Centre - Shrewsbury Street
St. John's Centre - Ayres Road
Old Trafford Youth Centre - Seymour Park
Sharon Youth Association - Chorlton Road
St. Alphonsus Social Club - Powell Street
Scout and Guide Association - Alphonsus Street

[edit] Politics

Old Trafford is part of the parliamentary constituency of Stretford and Urmston. The current Member of Parliament is Beverley Hughes of the Labour Party.

[edit] Famous people

Famous people who were born or grew up in the area include artist L.S. Lowry, aviator John Alcock, Dodie Smith, author of 101 Dalmatians, opera singer Dame Isobel Baillie, broadcaster Terry Christian and Smiths frontman Morrissey.