Rusholme
Encyclopedia
Etymology
Rusholme, unlike other areas of ManchesterManchester
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...
which have '-holme' in the place name is not a true '-holme'. Its name came from ryscum, which is the dative plural of Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
rysc "rush
Juncus
Juncus is a genus in the plant family Juncaceae. It consists of some 200 to 300 or more species of grassy plants commonly called rushes...
": "[at the] rushes". The name was recorded as Russum in 1235.
However, the suggestion of 'holme' in the name is appropriate, as the area is in low-lying land, close to areas like 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....
.
Early history
Late in the Roman occupation of Britain a hoard of about 200 gold coins was hidden in the valley of the Gore Brook. These coins date from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD and were found where Birchfields Road crosses the brook in the 1890s. They are now kept in the Manchester MuseumManchester Museum
The Manchester Museum is owned by the University of Manchester. Sited on Oxford Road at the heart of the university's group of neo-Gothic buildings, it provides access to about six million items from every continent and serves both as a resource for academic research and teaching and as a regional...
.
Records of the name Rusholme do not appear until the mid-13th century when "Russum" is mentioned; at this time it is known that a house existed at Platt which was replaced by a larger house of black and white construction which was the home of the Platts until the mid-18th century when the present classical building replaced it. An early record of the Platt estate mentions the Nico Ditch
Nico Ditch
Nico Ditch is a six mile long linear earthwork running between Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford in Greater Manchester, England. It may have been dug as a defensive fortification, but more likely it was intended to be a boundary marker...
, an Anglo-Saxon linear earthwork which runs east-west through the area and was probably used as an administrative boundary. It dates from the 8th or 9th century. Tales of battles between the Danes and the Normans associated with the road names of Danes Road and Norman Road are not accepted by historians. Another black and white hall existed at Birch; this was probably built in the 16th century.
The economy of the area was dependent on agriculture until the 18th century; however during the 17th and 18th centuries there was a growth of cottage industries such as spinning, weaving and brickmaking.
Social history
Over the Victorian eraVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, there were several different socio-political meanings of Rusholme. Primarily, it was a township based around a general area known as Rusholme since at least the thirteenth century. The area grew into a township, and by the beginning of the nineteenth century, it had its own government responsible for public health, roads, policing, poor relief, and other local government tasks. That Rusholme was originally a politically autonomous entity was vital to its self-conception as a discrete area even after it lost almost all political self-control upon incorporation into Manchester. The low-cost terraced housing built between 1880 and 1930 dominates the landscape, along with a sprawling council housing estate erected in the interwar era.
Political history
Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was married in the Congregational Church, Rusholme, in 1877, to Miss Helen Melland. Richard CobdenRichard Cobden
Richard Cobden was a British manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with John Bright in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League as well as with the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty...
, William Royle (author of a history of the township), and Thomas Lowe (1815–1892) were long-time residents. Lowe began working as a baker and became also a flour dealer and later a nurseryman and finally the proprietor of a dairy.
Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw
Kathleen Ollerenshaw
Dame Kathleen Mary Ollerenshaw, née Timpson, DBE is a British mathematician and politician. Deaf since the age of eight, she loved doing arithmetic problems as a child. As a young woman, she attended St Leonards School and Sixth Form College in St Andrews, Scotland where today the house of young...
was for twenty-six years one of the councillors for Rusholme on Manchester City Council before becoming Lord Mayor of Manchester from 1975–1976.
Other local politicians include ward councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
s Paul Shannon, a Liberal Democrat
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
and deputy leader of the Manchester City Council
Manchester City Council
Manchester City Council is the local government authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. It is composed of 96 councillors, three for each of the 32 electoral wards of Manchester. Currently the council is controlled by the Labour Party and is led by...
Liberal Democrat group. Rabnawaz Akbar was elected as Labour councillor for Rusholme ward in May 2010. Councillor Akbar serves on the Citizenship and Inclusion Committee. His end of term is 2014.
Cultural history
John RuskinJohn Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
gave the lectures later published as Sesame and Lilies (1865) at Rusholme Town Hall. Rusholme was the home of the second indoor ice skating rink in England, after the London Glaciarium
Glaciarium
The Glaciarium was the world's first mechanically frozen ice rink.An item in the 8 May 1844 issue of Littell's Living Age headed "The Glaciarium" reports that "This establishment, which has been removed to Grafton street East' Tottenham-court-road [sic],was opened on Monday afternoon...
, although this has since been replaced by a grocery store.
Film Studios Manchester opened their Dickenson Road studio in Rusholme in 1947, converting it from a former Wesleyan church. The first Manchester-made feature film to be released was called Cup-Tie Honeymoon
Cup-tie Honeymoon
Cup-Tie Honeymoon was the first motion picture to be filmed at the Dickenson Road Studios by the Mancunian Film Corporation in 1948, themed around football.-Plot summary:...
and starred Sandy Powell
Sandy Powell (comedian)
Sandy Powell MBE was an English comedian best known for his radio work of the 1930s and for his catchphrase Can You Hear Me, Mother?-Life and career:...
and Pat Phoenix
Pat Phoenix
Patricia "Pat" Frederica Phoenix was an English actress who became one of the first sex symbols of British television through her role of Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street.-Early life and career:Born in Ireland to Anna Maria Josephine Noonan and Tom Manfield, but moved to Manchester before...
as his wife. It was the first of many similar films to be made in at the site. From 1947 to 1954 it was the home of Mancunian Film Studios
Mancunian Films
Mancunian Films was a British motion picture production company organized in 1934.Founded by John E. Blakeley, the company originally produced films in London on extremely low budgets. Blakeley's first studio consisted of a single soundstage in a loft space above a taxi garage...
, many of whose productions were filmed on local streets.
In 1963 the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
bought the studios as their northern base and on New Year's Day, 1964, Jimmy Savile
Jimmy Savile
Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile, OBE, KCSG was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality, best known for his BBC television show Jim'll Fix It, and for being the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops...
presented the first edition of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
music chart television programme Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
from there. The centre was in use until 1971 when the BBC moved to purpose-built colour television studios in central Manchester. Rusholme was mentioned in the song "Rusholme Ruffians" by Manchester band The 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...
on their 1985 album Meat Is Murder
Meat Is Murder
Meat Is Murder is the second studio album by the English alternative rock band The Smiths. It was released in February 1985 and became the band's sole number one album in the UK charts during the band's lifetime, staying on the chart for 13 weeks. It reached number 110 in the US...
. Additionally, Mint Royale
Mint Royale
Mint Royale is a big beat electronic music act from Manchester, England. They were originally founded by the duo Neil Claxton and Chris Baker in 1997; the latter left the band in 2004, but Claxton continues to produce music using the Mint Royale name.-Career:...
's 1999 album On the Ropes contained a track titled "From Rusholme with Love". The suburb is also home to MCR's politically conscious reggae collective Black Star Dub Collective whose forth coming Split 12" with Manchester Dub-Punkers Autonomads "From Rusholme With Dub" features tracks that discuss the areas social concerns from an anarchist/socialist perspective.
The cricket writer and music critic Neville Cardus
Neville Cardus
Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus CBE was an English writer and critic, best known for his writing on music and cricket. For many years, he wrote for The Manchester Guardian. He was untrained in music, and his style of criticism was subjective, romantic and personal, in contrast with his critical...
was born in Rusholme, as was musician Roy Harper
Roy Harper
Roy Harper is an English folk / rock singer-songwriter and guitarist who has been a professional musician since the mid 1960s...
. The actress Tina O'Brien
Tina O'Brien
Tina O'Brien is an English actress. She is best known for playing the role of Sarah-Louise Platt in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.-Acting career:...
was also born here.
Churches
The AnglicanAnglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
Church of the Holy Trinity
Holy Trinity Platt Church
Holy Trinity Platt Church , is in Platt Lane, Rusholme, Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Hulme, the archdeaconry of Manchester, and the diocese of Manchester. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building...
is on Platt Lane. At Birch in Rusholme is the much older chapel of St James, now disused. In Thurloe Street is the Roman Catholic Church of St Edward.
Social and economic conditions
Social conditions
There are a number of purpose-built student halls in the area (for example Hulme Hall), and a large number of students who rent privately. There is a large, mostly MuslimMuslim
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...
South Asian community as well as a dwindling community of working class white people.
Rusholme is one of the areas in south Manchester, including Longsight
Longsight
Longsight is an area of Manchester, England, about south of the city centre. Its population is about 16,000.-History:Longsight has been known over the past for its gang related violence, similar to that of nearby Moss Side. Most of the violence came from tensions between 2 gangs; The Longsight...
, 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....
, 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...
, and Old Trafford that have suffered a problem with gang-related gun crime, although shooting incidents have declined significantly in recent years.
Wilmslow Road
Curry MileRusholme is acclaimed as home of the largest number of South Asian (India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) restaurants in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The Curry Mile is the stretch of Wilmslow Road in central Rusholme: it boasts at least 70 restaurants, take-aways and kebab houses specialising in the cuisines of South Asia and the Middle East.
This led Wilmslow Road to be dubbed the "Curry Mile
Curry Mile
The Curry Mile is a nickname for the part of Wilmslow Road running through the centre of Rusholme in south Manchester, England. The name is earned from the large number of restaurants, take-aways and kebab houses specialising in the cuisines of South Asia and the Middle East, thought to be the...
". It is said that the Curry Mile has the largest concentration of South Asian restaurants anywhere in the world outside the Indian Subcontinent; there are more than seventy curry houses and kebab shops on the road.
Wilmslow Road
Wilmslow Road is part of the B5117 which transverses the campuses of the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
and Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...
. It also forms part of what is the busiest bus route in Europe, with many bus stops being serviced by one bus from one of many different bus companies every 60 to 90 seconds during peak times.
Further reading
- Royle, William (1905) Rusholme past and present, being a gossipy talk of men and things. Manchester: Wm. Hough & Sons
- --do.--(1914) History of Rusholme, with a gossipy talk of men and things. Manchester: Printed at the W. Morris Press
- Royle, D. K. (1924) William Royle of Rusholme. Manchester: Sherratt & Hughes
- Sussex, Gay & Helm, Peter (1984) Looking back at Rusholme & Fallowfield. Altrincham: Willow