Old Trafford, Manchester
Encyclopedia
Old Trafford is in Greater Manchester
, England, which lies south-west of Manchester
. The crossroads sites of two old toll gates roughly delineate the borders of the area: Brooks's Bar to the east and Trafford Bar
to the west.
Old Trafford is the site of two major sporting venues: Old Trafford Football Stadium
, home of Manchester United F.C.
and Old Trafford Cricket Ground, home of Lancashire County Cricket Club
.
The stadia 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 retains the name Warwick Road, and the southern section on the other side of the Metrolink line is called Warwick Road South.
in ancient times. The name Old Trafford possibly derives from the time when there were two Trafford Halls, Old Trafford Hall and New Trafford Hall. The old hall was situated close to what is now the White City Retail Park
, and was said to have been the home of the de Trafford family since 1017, until the family moved to the new hall in what is now Trafford Park
, some time between 1672 and 1720. The name of the area around Old Trafford Hall may subsequently have become shortened to Old Trafford. The old hall was demolished in 1939.
In the 1820s, Manchester scientist John Dalton
chose Old Trafford as the site for a Royal Horticultural and Botanical Gardens because of its clean, unpolluted air, and so began the area's association with sports and recreation. The popularity of the botanical gardens – which was a kind of northern Crystal Palace
– led wealthy people to build large houses in the area. In 1857, and again in 1887, the gardens staged exhibitions of art treasures, the former as part of the Art Treasures Exhibition and the latter in celebration of Queen Victoria's silver jubilee. The Hallé Orchestra was formed to participate in the first of these exhibitions. The site of the botanical gardens was purchased by White City Limited in 1907, and it subsequently became an amusement park. From the 1950s to the 1970s, White City Stadium was used as a greyhound racing track and for stock car racing. This site is now White City Retail Park. The front entrance is all that has been preserved of the old botanical gardens. Nearby, on the site of what is now the Greater Manchester Police
Headquarters, was Henshaw's Institute for the Blind, which originally opened as Henshaw's Blind Asylum in 1837. Next door on the same site was the Royal Institute for the Deaf, where the film Mandy was made.
Old Trafford expanded and became an urban area after the building of the Manchester Ship Canal
in the 1890s, and the subsequent development of nearby Trafford Park Industrial Estate
, in the early 20th century. Trafford Park provided employment for thousands of local residents. Employment was also provided on a smaller scale, notably by Duerr's Jams, Vimto
, Arkady Soya Mill and Ludwig Oppenheimer Mosaics. The Royal Army Medical Corps
and the Territorial Army have well-established bases in the area.
Slum clearances during the 1960s and early 1970s saw some of the old Victorian
housing stock demolished. However, after the perceived failure of the deck-access concrete crescents of Hulme, Old Trafford's residents preferred renovation to demolition. As a result, there are still many Victorian terraced streets in the area.
By 1985, employment at Trafford Park had fallen to 24,500, as unemployment in the northwest soared above 30% in some inner-city areas. Nearby Manchester Docks
, which had also been a major source of local employment, closed in 1982. As the revitalised Salford Quays
it has become an emblematic part of the regeneration of Manchester in general.
. In 1974, as a result of the Local Government Act 1972
, all of Stretford became a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford
, in Greater Manchester
. Since the realignment of Trafford's ward boundaries in 2004, Old Trafford has been divided between the Stretford area wards of Clifford and Longford, with the larger part of Old Trafford being in the Clifford ward.
is Kate Green
of the Labour Party
.
In 2005, Trafford Council proposed to the Boundary Commission for England that the three Stretford
wards of Gorse Hill, Longford, and Clifford – which include Old Trafford – should be moved into a new Salford and The Quays constituency, along with some other wards from Salford. At the subsequent public enquiry, in November 2005, Beverley Hughes opposed the change, as well as an alternative proposal to create a constituency of Salford and Old Trafford. The Boundary Commission rejected Trafford Council's proposals, noting that there was "strong opposition to the creation of a constituency that crossed the Manchester Ship Canal and ... that the Canal provided a clearly identifiable boundary which should not be breached".
Similarly, the southern boundary was the Black Brook, which was culverted at about the same time as the Cornbrook. Thus Upper Chorlton Road, under which it flows, does not seem to be a natural boundary. Both sides of the road look similar, and Darley Park, on the Trafford side, could easily fit into Whalley Range. Some small anomalies due to the brook's underground route were not amended until the late 1980s.
Similarly, the inter-war development of Firswood is almost indistinguishable from its Chorlton-cum-hardy neighbours.
Old Trafford makes up the northern tip of Trafford and adjoins St. Georges, Hulme
, Whalley Range and Moss Side
– all of which are within the boundaries of the City of Manchester – and Ordsall
to the northeast, which is within the boundaries of the City of Salford
. At the crossroads of Brooks's Bar the boundaries between Old Trafford and Hulme, and Moss Side and Whalley Range meet.
The boundary passed through the playground of Loreto College, as was famously illustrated by a photo of girls straddling the line, in the 1970's Nuffield O-Level Geography Textbook.
On the western side of the area, the road named Seymour Grove has an interesting origin. In the 19th century, the people of Chorlton called it Trafford Road, and the people of Old Trafford called it Chorlton Road. Neither name was appropriate, as nearby roads already had those names. So the areas richest inhabitant, a millionaire grocer called Sir Thomas Seymour Mead, decided the road should be named after him.
Until the mid-20th century there were four cinemas in Old Trafford: the Imperial Picture Theatre in Chorlton Road, Brooks Bar, The Globe on Cornbrook Street, The Lyceum in City Road and the Trafford Picture House in Talbot Road. Three of the buildings have survived, although not now operated as cinemas. The Imperial opened in 1913, and for a brief period in the 1970s it became an Asian films cinema. It closed in 1979, and the building is now occupied by a timber and ironmongery business. The premises occupied by The Globe were originally part of the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company
's horse-drawn tramway depot. The cinema closed in the mid 1960s, and is now used as a warehouse. The Lyceum opened in 1915, and it also closed in the 1960s. Its building is now used for private functions. The Trafford Picture House opened in 1922, and closed in 1958. After a period when it was used as a vehicle auction room the building became derelict, and it was demolished in 1997.
immigrants settled in the locality from the 1880s, coming to Manchester to work on the ship canal
. Polish
and east European migrants arrived during and after the Second World War. The Afro-Caribbean
community arrived and settled in the 1950s and 1960s. People from the Indian sub-continent started to arrive during the 1960s but settled in more significant numbers from the 1980s onwards.
Old Trafford is among the 10% most deprived areas 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 modern day Old Trafford and a walk down this road gives 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.
, compared to 76% across Trafford as a whole, and 72% across England. This is reflected in the unusually high number of non Christian places of worship in the area.
Since the 1980s Old Trafford has become home to two large South Asian communities – Gujarati
Indians and Pakistani Urdu
speakers – almost all being Muslim
. Muslims represent the largest non-Christian religious group in the area, with 28% of the population, compared to 3% in the whole of Trafford. To service this community there are four mosques in the area; the Faizan-e-Islam mosque, the *Masjid-e-Hidayah, the Masjid-e-Noor and the Masjid Imdadia.
There is also a smaller Sikh
community, with its own Gurdwara
, the Sangat Bhatra Sikh Temple, Upper Chorlton Road. Sikhs account for 4% of the area's population, significantly above the less than 1% average for Trafford and England. To further add to the religious mix there is also a Buddhist temple, the Fo Kang Shang Buddhist Temple, although Buddhists are recorded as making up only 0.2% of the area's population, roughly the same proportion as for Jews.
Old Trafford is in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford, and the Church of England
Diocese of Manchester.
examination. There is only one secondary school
in Old Trafford; a private, female-only, Muslim
secondary school [ but there are three primary schools within the area.
used for women and children only.
The hospital and adjacent nurses' home were paid for by public subscription after the First World War.
Old Trafford has been the site of Manchester United Football Club
's Old Trafford
stadium since 1910. Lancashire County Cricket Club
's ground, which is also known as Old Trafford, is close by. Before the club's formation, in 1864, it had been the home of Manchester Cricket Club, who had moved here in 1856.
The ground of the Northern Lawn Tennis Club was in Old Trafford from 1882 to 1909 (near the cricket ground): this is commemorated in the name of Tennis Street. The move to West Didsbury in 1909 was prompted by the industrialisation of Trafford Park and consequent air pollution. The half-timbered pavilion was dismantled and then re-erected at the new ground.
of Joy Division
and his wife, the author Deborah Curtis, artist L. S. Lowry
, aviator John Alcock
, Dodie Smith
, the author of 101 Dalmatians
,. Opera singer Dame Isobel Baillie
lived in her large town house on Stretford Road until her death in the early 1980's., Broadcaster Terry Christian
, Buzzcocks drummer John Maher, Aniff Akinola of Backyard Dog and producer of A Guy Called Gerald
's "Voodoo Ray", Smiths
frontman Morrissey
and actress June Ritchie
.
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
, England, which lies south-west of 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...
. The crossroads sites of two old toll gates roughly delineate the borders of the area: Brooks's Bar to the east and Trafford Bar
Trafford Bar Metrolink station
Trafford Bar Metrolink Station serves the areas of Old Trafford and Whalley Range in Greater Manchester and lies at the junction of Talbot Road and Seymour Grove, it is also one of several stops used for Old Trafford Stadium and thus one of the busier on the line. Once the current construction of...
to the west.
Old Trafford is the site of two major sporting venues: Old Trafford Football Stadium
Old Trafford
Old Trafford commonly refers to two sporting arenas:* Old Trafford, home of Manchester United F.C.* Old Trafford Cricket Ground, home of Lancashire County Cricket ClubOld Trafford can also refer to:...
, home of Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
and Old Trafford Cricket Ground, home of Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
.
The stadia are at either end of Warwick Road, two parts of which have been renamed Brian Statham
Brian Statham
John Brian "George" Statham, CBE was one of the leading English fast bowlers in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast...
Way (formerly Warwick Road) and Sir Matt Busby Way
Sir Matt Busby Way
Sir Matt Busby Way is a road in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. It is the location of Manchester United's Old Trafford football ground. Formerly known as Warwick Road North, it was renamed in honour of the legendary Manchester United manager, Sir Matt Busby, in 1993. Busby died less than...
(formerly Warwick Road North). The interconnecting strip of road between retains the name Warwick Road, and the southern section on the other side of the Metrolink line is called Warwick Road South.
History
Old Trafford was a crossing point over the River IrwellRiver Irwell
The River Irwell is a long river which flows through the Irwell Valley in the counties of Lancashire and Greater Manchester in North West England. The river's source is at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup, in the parish of Cliviger, Lancashire...
in ancient times. The name Old Trafford possibly derives from the time when there were two Trafford Halls, Old Trafford Hall and New Trafford Hall. The old hall was situated close to what is now the White City Retail Park
White City, Manchester
The White City Retail Park is a retail park on the south side of Chester Road in the Old Trafford area of Trafford, Greater Manchester in England, at the southeast corner of the docks area and southeast of Manchester United's ground. It is the site of the former Manchester Botanic Gardens which...
, and was said to have been the home of the de Trafford family since 1017, until the family moved to the new hall in what is now Trafford Park
Trafford Park
Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Located opposite Salford Quays, on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, it is west-southwest of Manchester city centre, and north of Stretford. Until the late 19th century it was the...
, some time between 1672 and 1720. The name of the area around Old Trafford Hall may subsequently have become shortened to Old Trafford. The old hall was demolished in 1939.
In the 1820s, Manchester scientist John Dalton
John Dalton
John Dalton FRS was an English chemist, meteorologist and physicist. He is best known for his pioneering work in the development of modern atomic theory, and his research into colour blindness .-Early life:John Dalton was born into a Quaker family at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, Cumberland,...
chose Old Trafford as the site for a Royal Horticultural and Botanical Gardens because of its clean, unpolluted air, and so began the area's association with sports and recreation. The popularity of the botanical gardens – which was a kind of northern Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
– led wealthy people to build large houses in the area. In 1857, and again in 1887, the gardens staged exhibitions of art treasures, the former as part of the Art Treasures Exhibition and the latter in celebration of Queen Victoria's silver jubilee. The Hallé Orchestra was formed to participate in the first of these exhibitions. The site of the botanical gardens was purchased by White City Limited in 1907, and it subsequently became an amusement park. From the 1950s to the 1970s, White City Stadium was used as a greyhound racing track and for stock car racing. This site is now White City Retail Park. The front entrance is all that has been preserved of the old botanical gardens. Nearby, on the site of what is now the Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police is the police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England...
Headquarters, was Henshaw's Institute for the Blind, which originally opened as Henshaw's Blind Asylum in 1837. Next door on the same site was the Royal Institute for the Deaf, where the film Mandy was made.
Old Trafford expanded and became an urban area after the building of the Manchester Ship Canal
Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...
in the 1890s, and the subsequent development of nearby Trafford Park Industrial Estate
Trafford Park
Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Located opposite Salford Quays, on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, it is west-southwest of Manchester city centre, and north of Stretford. Until the late 19th century it was the...
, in the early 20th century. Trafford Park provided employment for thousands of local residents. Employment was also provided on a smaller scale, notably by Duerr's Jams, Vimto
Vimto
Vimto is a soft drink originating from the United Kingdom. It was first manufactured as a health tonic in cordial form, then decades later as a carbonated drink. It contains the juice of grapes, raspberries and blackcurrants , flavoured with herbs and spices...
, Arkady Soya Mill and Ludwig Oppenheimer Mosaics. The Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
and the Territorial Army have well-established bases in the area.
Slum clearances during the 1960s and early 1970s saw some of the old Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
housing stock demolished. However, after the perceived failure of the deck-access concrete crescents of Hulme, Old Trafford's residents preferred renovation to demolition. As a result, there are still many Victorian terraced streets in the area.
By 1985, employment at Trafford Park had fallen to 24,500, as unemployment in the northwest soared above 30% in some inner-city areas. Nearby Manchester Docks
Manchester Docks
Manchester Dock and similar can mean:*"Manchester Docks" is another name for Salford Docks in Greater Manchester, England*Manchester Dock , an old dock in Liverpool, England...
, which had also been a major source of local employment, closed in 1982. As the revitalised Salford Quays
Salford Quays
Salford Quays is an area of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. Previously the site of Manchester Docks, it became one of the first and largest urban regeneration projects in the United Kingdom following the closure of the dockyards in...
it has become an emblematic part of the regeneration of Manchester in general.
Civic history
Old Trafford was formerly a hamlet in the township of StretfordStretford
Stretford is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Lying on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, it is to the southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Salford and northeast of Altrincham...
. In 1974, as a result of the Local Government Act 1972
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
, all of Stretford became a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford
Trafford
The Metropolitan Borough of Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of 211,800, covers , and includes the towns of Altrincham, Partington, Sale, Stretford, and Urmston...
, in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
. Since the realignment of Trafford's ward boundaries in 2004, Old Trafford has been divided between the Stretford area wards of Clifford and Longford, with the larger part of Old Trafford being in the Clifford ward.
Parliamentary representation
Old Trafford is part of the parliamentary constituency of Stretford and Urmston. The current Member of ParliamentMember 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,...
is Kate Green
Kate Green
Katherine Anne 'Kate' Green OBE is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Stretford and Urmston since 2010.-Early life:Green was born in Edinburgh to Maurice and Jessie Craig Green...
of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
.
In 2005, Trafford Council proposed to the Boundary Commission for England that the three Stretford
Stretford
Stretford is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Lying on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, it is to the southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Salford and northeast of Altrincham...
wards of Gorse Hill, Longford, and Clifford – which include Old Trafford – should be moved into a new Salford and The Quays constituency, along with some other wards from Salford. At the subsequent public enquiry, in November 2005, Beverley Hughes opposed the change, as well as an alternative proposal to create a constituency of Salford and Old Trafford. The Boundary Commission rejected Trafford Council's proposals, noting that there was "strong opposition to the creation of a constituency that crossed the Manchester Ship Canal and ... that the Canal provided a clearly identifiable boundary which should not be breached".
Geography
The area is unusual in effectively being a peninsula. Its northern boundary was the River Irwell, now canalised into the Manchester Ship Canal. To the east was a tributary of the Irwell, the Cornbrook. This was culverted as the area grew in the 19th century. In fact, Victorian Hulme and Old Trafford seemed indistinguishable, as the hidden river made its way out of sight.Similarly, the southern boundary was the Black Brook, which was culverted at about the same time as the Cornbrook. Thus Upper Chorlton Road, under which it flows, does not seem to be a natural boundary. Both sides of the road look similar, and Darley Park, on the Trafford side, could easily fit into Whalley Range. Some small anomalies due to the brook's underground route were not amended until the late 1980s.
Similarly, the inter-war development of Firswood is almost indistinguishable from its Chorlton-cum-hardy neighbours.
Old Trafford makes up the northern tip of Trafford and adjoins St. Georges, Hulme
Hulme
Hulme is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. Located immediately south of Manchester city centre, it is an area with significant industrial heritage....
, Whalley Range and Moss Side
Moss Side
Moss Side is an inner-city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre and has a population of around 17,537...
– all of which are within the boundaries of the City of Manchester – and Ordsall
Ordsall, Greater Manchester
Ordsall is an inner city area of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. It is situated chiefly to the south of the A57 road and close to the River Irwell, the main boundary with the city of Manchester...
to the northeast, which is within the boundaries of the City of Salford
City of Salford
The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...
. At the crossroads of Brooks's Bar the boundaries between Old Trafford and Hulme, and Moss Side and Whalley Range meet.
The boundary passed through the playground of Loreto College, as was famously illustrated by a photo of girls straddling the line, in the 1970's Nuffield O-Level Geography Textbook.
On the western side of the area, the road named Seymour Grove has an interesting origin. In the 19th century, the people of Chorlton called it Trafford Road, and the people of Old Trafford called it Chorlton Road. Neither name was appropriate, as nearby roads already had those names. So the areas richest inhabitant, a millionaire grocer called Sir Thomas Seymour Mead, decided the road should be named after him.
Landmarks
Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company
The Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company was incorporated in 1880, the result of a merger of the Manchester Suburban Tramways Company and the Manchester Carriage Company, to provide horse-drawn tram services throughout Manchester and Salford, England, and surrounding districts...
's horse-drawn tramway depot. The cinema closed in the mid 1960s, and is now used as a warehouse. The Lyceum opened in 1915, and it also closed in the 1960s. Its building is now used for private functions. The Trafford Picture House opened in 1922, and closed in 1958. After a period when it was used as a vehicle auction room the building became derelict, and it was demolished in 1997.
Present day
Today, Old Trafford has approximately residents. Cultural diversity has been a feature of the area for over a century. IrishIrish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
immigrants settled in the locality from the 1880s, coming to Manchester to work on the ship canal
Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...
. Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
and east European migrants arrived during and after the Second World War. The Afro-Caribbean
British African-Caribbean community
The British African Caribbean communities are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily indigenous to Africa...
community arrived and settled in the 1950s and 1960s. People from the Indian sub-continent started to arrive during the 1960s but settled in more significant numbers from the 1980s onwards.
Old Trafford is among the 10% most deprived areas 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 modern day Old Trafford and a walk down this road gives a real flavour of the multi-cultural nature of the neighbourhood, with its variety of grocers' shops selling food stuffs from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and South-East Asia; its Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
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
Lemn Sissay
Lemn Sissay MBE is an award-winning British author and broadcaster of Ethiopian and Eritrean parents.He is known for performances of his poetry and also with jazz fusion groups. He is a playwright, and has worked on radio and television...
in his poem Ayres Road.
Religion
Only 45% of the residents of Clifford ward (the ward that contains the larger part of Old Trafford) reported themselves as being Christian in the 2001 CensusUnited Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
, compared to 76% across Trafford as a whole, and 72% across England. This is reflected in the unusually high number of non Christian places of worship in the area.
Since the 1980s Old Trafford has become home to two large South Asian communities – Gujarati
Gujarati people
Gujarati people , or Gujaratis are an ethnic group that is traditionally Gujarati-speaking and can trace their ancestry to the state of Gujarat in western India...
Indians and Pakistani Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
speakers – almost all being Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
. Muslims represent the largest non-Christian religious group in the area, with 28% of the population, compared to 3% in the whole of Trafford. To service this community there are four mosques in the area; the Faizan-e-Islam mosque, the *Masjid-e-Hidayah, the Masjid-e-Noor and the Masjid Imdadia.
There is also a smaller Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
community, with its own Gurdwara
Gurdwara
A Gurdwara , meaning the Gateway to the Guru, is the place of worship for Sikhs, the followers of Sikhism. A Gurdwara can be identified from a distance by tall flagpoles bearing the Nishan Sahib ....
, the Sangat Bhatra Sikh Temple, Upper Chorlton Road. Sikhs account for 4% of the area's population, significantly above the less than 1% average for Trafford and England. To further add to the religious mix there is also a Buddhist temple, the Fo Kang Shang Buddhist Temple, although Buddhists are recorded as making up only 0.2% of the area's population, roughly the same proportion as for Jews.
Old Trafford is in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford, and the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
Diocese of Manchester.
Education
Along with the rest of Trafford, Old Trafford maintains a selective education system assessed by the Eleven PlusEleven plus
In the United Kingdom, the 11-plus or Eleven plus is an examination administered to some students in their last year of primary education, governing admission to various types of secondary school. The name derives from the age group for secondary entry: 11–12 years...
examination. There is only one secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
in Old Trafford; a private, female-only, Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
secondary school [ but there are three primary schools within the area.
Hospital
The Stretford Memorial Hospital (formerly the Stretford Practitioners' Hospital) is in Seymour Grove. In its early days it was a cottage hospitalCottage Hospital
The original concept of a cottage hospital was a small rural hospital having up to 25 beds. One advantage of such a hospital in villages was the familiarity the local physician might have with their patient that may affect their treatment...
used for women and children only.
The hospital and adjacent nurses' home were paid for by public subscription after the First World War.
Communal facilities
- Local Council Office, Library, Community Centre – Shrewsbury Street
- St. John's Centre – Ayres Road
- Old Trafford Youth Centre – Seymour Park
- Old Trafford Sports Barn – Seymour Park
- Sharon Youth Association – Chorlton Road
- St. Alphonsus Social Club – Powell Street
- Scout and Guide Association – Alphonsus Street
- Old Trafford Football Club – Lancashire and Cheshire League
Sports
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
's Old Trafford
Old Trafford
Old Trafford commonly refers to two sporting arenas:* Old Trafford, home of Manchester United F.C.* Old Trafford Cricket Ground, home of Lancashire County Cricket ClubOld Trafford can also refer to:...
stadium since 1910. Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
's ground, which is also known as Old Trafford, is close by. Before the club's formation, in 1864, it had been the home of Manchester Cricket Club, who had moved here in 1856.
The ground of the Northern Lawn Tennis Club was in Old Trafford from 1882 to 1909 (near the cricket ground): this is commemorated in the name of Tennis Street. The move to West Didsbury in 1909 was prompted by the industrialisation of Trafford Park and consequent air pollution. The half-timbered pavilion was dismantled and then re-erected at the new ground.
Notable people
Famous people who were born or lived in the area include singer Ian CurtisIan Curtis
Ian Kevin Curtis was an English singer and lyricist, famous for leading the post-punk band Joy Division. Joy Division released their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, in 1979 and recorded their follow-up, Closer, in 1980...
of Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
and his wife, the author Deborah Curtis, artist L. S. Lowry
L. S. Lowry
Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist born in Barrett Street, Stretford, Lancashire. Many of his drawings and paintings depict nearby Salford and surrounding areas, including Pendlebury, where he lived and worked for over 40 years at 117 Station Road , opposite St...
, aviator John Alcock
John Alcock (aviator)
Sir John William Alcock KBE, DSC was a Captain in the Royal Air Force who, together with navigator Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown, piloted the first non-stop transatlantic flight from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Connemara, Ireland.-Biography:Jack Alcock was born on 5 November 1892 at...
, Dodie Smith
Dodie Smith
Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith was an English novelist and playwright. Smith is best known for her novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Her other works include I Capture the Castle and The Starlight Barking....
, the author of 101 Dalmatians
The Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Hundred and One Dalmatians, or the Great Dog Robbery is a 1956 children's novel by Dodie Smith. A sequel entitled The Starlight Barking continues from the end of the first novel....
,. Opera singer Dame Isobel Baillie
Isobel Baillie
Dame Isobel Baillie DBE was a Scottish soprano, popular in opera, oratorio and lieder. She was regarded as one of the 20th century's great oratorio singers.Isobel Baillie was born in Hawick, Scottish Borders, in 1895...
lived in her large town house on Stretford Road until her death in the early 1980's., Broadcaster Terry Christian
Terry Christian
Terry Christian is a British television and radio presenter whose credits include Channel 4's late night Youth Entertainment show The Word and ITV1 moral issues talk show It's My Life...
, Buzzcocks drummer John Maher, Aniff Akinola of Backyard Dog and producer of A Guy Called Gerald
A Guy Called Gerald
A Guy Called Gerald is the stage name for the musician, record producer and DJ Gerald Simpson ....
's "Voodoo Ray", Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
frontman Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
and actress June Ritchie
June Ritchie
June Ritchie is a British actress. She is perhaps best known for starring in the role of Ingrid Rothwell opposite Alan Bates in the 1962 film adaptation of A Kind of Loving...
.