GREATER MANCHESTER PLACE NAMES

Compiled by Richard West
Cover image under licence from Alamy. Reference OY0101324868

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INTRODUCTION

It is now more than 50 years since the formation of Greater Manchester but there is still no full account of the place names of Britain’s second-most populous county. Harland’s gazetteer of 1862 gave the origins of many of the place names in the city of Manchester and Johnston’s Place-Names of England and Wales of 1915 gave a number of names in the Manchester area, but, until 1974, most of what is now Greater Manchester was included in Lancashire and Cheshire. The place names of these counties have been quite well documented but most of the books dealing with these place names either pre-date 1974 or ignore the 1974 boundaries and describe places as still being in Lancashire or Cheshire, despite the fact that Greater Manchester has existed for more than 50 years and now includes many places that did not even exist in 1974.

The present work explores the place names of Greater Manchester from the earliest, which probably date from the 7^th century, to those which have emerged in the 21^st century. It does not pretend to be comprehensive but is intended to be a first attempt to compile a guide to the many place names of our county. It is, however, very much a work in progress and it appears online so that others can contribute by filling the gaps and correcting the errors.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION

This enlarged version now contains over 1500 entries – an increase of more than 50%. Additions and corrections have been made in the light of feedback from Mancunians across the county, and I am deeply grateful for their contributions.

I have also revisited the places that were omitted from the first edition and nearly all of the towns, villages and suburbs included on modern maps have now been listed. Attention has also been given to the numerous rivers, streams, brooks, reservoirs and ‘flashes’ across the county which have generally been neglected by academic studies of place names in the region. The result is that the new edition can claim to be far more comprehensive than the first.

Contact: west46 [at] btinternet.com

ENTRIES

Each entry consists of the following:

Place name: There is no hard and fast definition of ‘place’ – most of the places included are settlements or natural features, but streets and individual buildings are generally not listed, although there are notable exceptions. The starting was the list of places and areas in the AZ Greater Manchester Street Atlas, and the origins of about 90% of these places have been traced and listed. Other places, particularly rivers, brooks and parks, have been added. Obvious or derived place names such as Salford Town Hall or West Didsbury are not included.

Location: Which metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester the place can be found in.

Date: When the place was first recorded, although many places may have existed for many years, even centuries, before we find any documentary evidence of their existence, typically in the first Ordnance Survey maps of the 19^th century.

Variations: Variant names and spellings are indicated briefly.

Meaning: The literal meaning of the name where this is not self-evident.

Etymology: The derivation of each name, with the language of origin or the personal name of an eponym where known. Where an etymology is uncertain, this is indicated, as are alternative possibilities.

Cross references to other place names in the book (marked in bold).

Appendices

	Appendix 1	Domesday Book entries for Greater Manchester
	Appendix 2	Lowry locations in Greater Manchester
	Appendix 3	Valette locations in Greater Manchester

GLOSSARY

Aspirational place names are names that are consciously chosen to reflect the hopes that the inhabitants have for their future lives in that place. An early example is Breightmet, meaning ‘beautiful meadow’ and recorded in 1257. Later on, it was often a hope to escape from the ‘dark satanic mills’ of the industrial revolution in Greater Manchester. Examples include Belle Vue, Fairfield, Flowery Field, Garden Suburb, Lark Hill and Hazel Grove.

Eponyms are words derived from the name of a person. Eponyms are widely used as place names across the world. In the Greater Manchester area many eponymic place names date from the Anglo-Saxon period. In these cases, their names have survived far longer than any memory or record of who they were or what they did. Some eponyms are much later, dating from the 18^th or 19^th centuries – Ashburys, Bridgewater Canal, Brooklands and Simister – and in most cases we know the name of the person they are named for and often a lot about their lives and why they have been commemorated in a place name. The person whose surname gives us the most eponyms in Greater Manchester is Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), a former prime minister and founder of the modern police force, who was born in Bury and who is commemorated in Peel Park, Peel Tower and (more obliquely) the Peel Centre in Stockport. However, eponyms can also be taken from a person’s forename. The most common are names of queens – Victoria and Alexandra – but there also examples from unknown people, mostly landowners or farmers (e.g. Bryan Hey, Dick Hill, Ellenor Brook, Mode Wheel, Norman Hill, Patricroft).

Etymology is the study of the origin and history of a word, tracing it back to its original language and form, and often the date when it was first recorded. Many place names in Greater Manchester can be traced back more than a thousand years, with places derived from Celtic or Old Welsh (including the first element of Manchester), a few from Latin (Viridor, the second element of Manchester), Old Norse, Old English, Norman French, Modern French (Belle Vue), Gaelic (Ducie Bridge), Spanish (Calamanco), Greek (Adelphi, Eccles), Hebrew (Jericho, Salem), Catalan (Montserrat) and Arabic (Etihad). In a good many cases the etymology may be uncertain or even unknown. In these cases, this is indicated and different theories or suggestions are given.

Folk etymology is a false derivation which may be commonly believed but which is not true or accurate. Examples from Greater Manchester include Adswood (often said to be ‘Adders’ wood’), Denton (‘Dane town’), Gorton (‘gore town’), Oldham (said to be derived from owls), Reddish (‘blood red’ from an ancient battle), Salford (‘salt’ + ‘ford’) and Wigan (said to be from the Wiggin tree). Most notably, it is often believed that the first element of Manchester is derived from ‘adult male’, despite its actual female origins, and there continue to be campaigns to change the name of the city or its football teams.

Folk etymology is sometimes included in and perpetuated by a place’s coat of arms. Examples in Greater Manchester include Bolton (said to derive from a crossbow bolt), Oldham (owl + ham) and Wigan (the coat of arms depicts a wiggin tree).

Gentrification Manchester was well aware of its grim industrial reputation and sometimes transferred place names from more affluent or fashionable and aristocratic areas in order to ‘gentrify’ a neighbourhood. This practice seems to have begun in the 16^th century, when Spring Gardens was developed in Manchester around the Fountain Street, and the surrounding streets were given names from those around Spring Gardens in London – Cheapside, Chancery Lane, Bow Lane, Half Moon Street and Milk Street. It was also common at the end of the 18^th century, when names such as Adelphi, Piccadilly, New Islington, Oxford Road, Grosvenor Square, Paddington and New Windsor were all adopted.

Hybrids are place names which are composed of elements from two or more different languages. The most conspicuous example is Manchester, in which the Celtic mamm (‘breast’) is combined with the Old English ceaster (‘Roman fort’) from Latin castra (‘camp’). Almost uniquely, Cheadle Hulme combines elements from three languages: Cheadle is a hybrid: the Celtic cēd, meaning ‘wood’, + Old English lēah (‘clearing’) + Old Danish hulme, meaning ‘raised ground in a marsh’.

Rationalisation is the process of altering the spelling of a place name so that it conforms to modern spelling and the name seems to become more transparent, even though it may have nothing to do with its actual etymology. A notable example is Strangeways, which is not derived from either ‘strange’ or ‘ways’. It is actually derived from Old English strang, ‘strong’, and waesce, meaning ‘flooding’, but this meaning was lost and the modern spelling was adopted as early as 1326 by those trying to find meaning in its name.

Reduplication is a process whereby two elements in the place name mean the same, usually because the meaning of the first element has been lost. An example is Platt Bridge, where Middle English platt means ‘bridge’ and the addition of Modern English bridge is tautologous. Other examples include Calderbrook, Cheadle, Glodwick, Pendlebury, Wardle and Whittle Hill.

Standardisation is the process by which disputed names or spellings become fixed or standardised by the need to choose one through a formal naming process. This process was especially notable in the 19^th century when the Ordnance Survey, the railway companies and the Post Office had to decide which name or spelling would be used. One example in Greater Manchester is Bramhall, where the 19th-century owner of the local country house insisted on Bramall without an H but the Manchester & Birmingham Railway chose Bramhall with an H when it named its station in 1845.

Transfer A number of place names in Greater Manchester have been transferred from places elsewhere. This may be because the original place had special significance (Blackfriars, Denzell Gardens, Kingston, Maine Road, New Manchester, Whalley Range, Bruntwood, Richmond Hill) or was the site of a military victory or defeat (Alma Park, Bunker Hill, Crown Point, Gallipoli Gardens, Gibraltar, Victory, Waterloo, Trafalgar Square), or, most recently, celebrates the twinning of towns in Greater Manchester with European towns (Armentieres Square, Peine Square).

TIMELINE OF GREATER MANCHESTER PLACE NAMES

The timeline below highlights the main eras and dates in the history of Greater Manchester and shows how place names across the county exemplify the naming practices of its inhabitants at those times. The names in bold are included as main entries in the dictionary.
THE CELTS c.750 BC onwards	The Celts were living in north-west England from about the 8^th century BC but they were either displaced or assimilated by later invaders. Few of their place names survive. As elsewhere in England, the names of many of the rivers of what is now Greater Manchester are possibly of Celtic origin: Calder, Douglas, Glaze, Goyt, Irk and Tame. The area would have been sparsely populated but several place names provide evidence of Celtic occupation around Wigan: Wigan itself, Bryn, Culcheth, Ince-in-Makerfield, Kenyon, Pemberton and Shevington, and Cheadle, Cheetham and Cheetwood all share the same Celtic root (cēd ‘wood’), suggesting that all were Celtic settlements at an early date, and it has been suggested that this area has one of the heaviest concentrations of Celtic names in England. The Celts are also recalled in Wallgate and Walton, both derived from the Anglo-Saxon term for the Celts – the wealh (i.e. the Welsh).
ROMANS AD 78 AD – 410	In AD 78-86 the Roman invaders built a fort that is usually said to have been named Mamucium, derived from the Celtic for ‘breast-shaped hill’. The name was later Anglicised as Manchester, preserving the Latin castra (‘camp’). The Roman legions abandoned their fort in about AD 410, but, despite this long occupation, there are no place names in Greater Manchester preserving the original Latin, although some seem to be translations of earlier Latin names. Suggestions that Manchester’s River Tib may have been named after the Tiber in Rome may simply be fanciful. Although there are no place names in Greater Manchester which are derived from Latin, there are several Anglo-Saxon names which acknowledge Roman forts: Alport, Castlefield, Castleshaw and Littleborough. Old English strǣt in Stretford and Trafford refers to the Roman road to Chester. It should be noted that Roman Lakes Leisure Park was a 19^th-century invention that had nothing to do with the Romans.
ANGLO-SAXONS c. AD 450 onwards	The majority of Greater Manchester place names recorded before the industrial revolution are derived from Old English – the language of the Anglo-Saxon invaders who spread over much of England from the 5^th century onwards. They generally constructed their place names from two or three elements: a generic element identifying the type of place it was and another element coming first to distinguish it from others with the same generic element. So, for example, Heaton (‘high village’) was distinguished from Lowton (‘low village’). The Anglo-Saxons used several main types of elements:
	¨	Eponyms Many Anglo-Saxon places were named after leaders, but, of course, we know little or nothing of the men and women who gave their names to Ardwick, Baguley, Cadishaw, Chorlton, Crumpsall, or Pilsworth. It is often easy to spot an Anglo-Saxon eponym as any name formed with -ing- (‘followers, people of’) + –tūn (‘village, estate, etc’) is likely to be named after an Anglo-Saxon leader – Brinnington, Dumplington, Partington, Pennington, Pilkington, Shevington, Torkington, Tottington, Withington and Worthington. For some reason, there are no longer any Greater Manchester names with -ing- + –tūn to compare with Birmingham, Nottingham or Sandringham (but see earlier spelling of Altrincham).
	¨	Topographical The second category of Anglo-Saxon place names is those derived from the geography of the area – the hills and valleys, rivers and streams, and moors and marshes. In the Greater Manchester area, these follow a clear pattern as the landscape changes from east to west:
		Moors		Moors are barren uplands that are generally unsuitable for agriculture. There are over 3000 listed places with moor as their final element, approximately half of them in Yorkshire. In Greater Manchester there are about 20 moor places nearly all in the east, on the edge of the Pennines and Peaks (Moorside). In the south of the county, the old Roman road to Buxton (the A6) marks a boundary, with Great Moor, Heaton Moor, Bramhall Moor and Woodsmoor along the road and contrasting with the nearby Shaw Heath to the west.
		Mosses		To the west and north-east of the county are the mosses – bogs or swamps that often made settlement or travel difficult. The name and the phenomenon are distinct to north-west England, as Daniel Defoe noted: ‘On the road to Manchester, we pass’d the great bog or waste call’d Chat Moss, the first of that kind that we see in England, from any of the south parts hither. It extends on the left-hand of the road for five or six miles east and west, and they told us it was, in some places, seven or eight miles from north to south.’ The element is found in at least twenty places as Barton Moss, Broadhead Moss, Chat Moss, Featherbed Moss, Hale Moss, Kearsley Moss, Kitt’s Moss, Little Moss, Moss Side, Mossley, Moston, Shadow Moss and, somewhat corrupted, Moses Gate.
		Brooks		As we have seen, most of the major rivers in Greater Manchester have names which are probably Celtic in origin, but these are fed by countless muddy brooks flowing from the east, most of which have Anglo-Saxon names. These brooks may flow down steep valleys or cloughs (Stoneclough), gentler dales (Rochdale) or long deans/-dens (Denton, Droylsden, Walkden) with paths or roads, or meander round a nook or halh (Bramhall, Crumpsall, Hale, Haugh) or a tongue (Tonge, Taunton). The rivers and brooks were crossed by fords (Salford, Stretford, Trafford) and later by bridges – Platt, meaning bridge, is found from 1212 and bridge itself occurs in Manchester’s Hanging Bridge, dating from 1343. Settlements were frequently established beside these fords and bridges.
		Woods		The flood plain of Greater Manchester between the moors to the east and the mosses to the west was originally heavily wooded, although much of the forest had been cleared by the time the Anglo-Saxons arrived. We find many places that have wood in their name (Woodley, Woodford, Woodhouses), but many more that are copses or shaws (Audenshaw, Openshaw, Shaw, Wythenshawe). Amongst the woods, settlements were established in clearings, and names with the element –lee/-leigh/-le meaning ‘woodland clearing’ are especially common (Leigh, Cheadle, Edgeley, Romiley, Stayley, Stalybridge, Worsley).
	¨	Vegetation There are many places named after different types of wood, although this is not always obvious – Ashton, Beech Hill, Birch, Firswood, Hollins (holly), Horwich (wych elm), Ogden (oak), Sale (willow), Salford (willow), Withington (willow), and Wythenshawe (willow). There are also names which are derived from the uses to which the wood was put – for making poles (Bollinhurst), brooms (Bramhall, Brimrod), staves (Stalybridge) and timber (Timperley). There are relatively few places named for other types of vegetation. Several places indicate that reeds or rushes, which could be used for thatching (Thatch Leach), could be found (Broadbent, Lever, Reddish, Sedgley). Some places are names after vegetables – celery (Agecroft), watercress (Kearsley, Kersal), and wild garlic (Ramsbottom) – and others indicate that cereal crops such as barley (Barlow Fold, Barlow Moor, Pemberton) and rye (Ryton, Ryecroft) were being grown.
	¨	Animals The Anglo-Saxons also named many places after animals and birds, especially deer (Hartshead, Hattersley, Roe Green), goats (Bucklow, Gatley), pigs (Boarshaw, Swinton), cranes (Cornbrook) and hawks (Hawkley). Perhaps surprisingly in a region with so many rivers, there are very few places named after fish (Compstall).
	¨	Directional While there are several names indicating the northern location of places (Norbury, Norley, Northenden, Northern Moor), compass points were also used for distinguishing purposes: Norden (= northern valley) and Sudden (= southern valley), Astley (east Leigh) and Westleigh, Haughton and Westhaughton.
CHRISTIANITY 6^th-7^th centuries onwards	Christianity spread to the area of Greater Manchester in the 6^th and 7^th centuries and evidence of this is found in place names across the county, although little or nothing is known of the monks commemorated in Monsall or Monton, the priests in Prestolee, Prestwich or Priestnall, the kirk at Kirkmanshulme or of any abbey in Abbey Hey. Rooden and possibly Blackrod retain the Old English rōd (meaning ‘cross’) before it was supplanted by the Gaelic or Norse cross, which is found in other, presumably later place names. Eccles is also thought to be a Celtic word derived from the Latin or Greek for an ecclesiastical gathering. The only person from this early period of whom we know anything is St Chad (c.634-672), the Bishop of Lichfield in Mercia, whose parish covered the Greater Manchester area until 1541. St Chad’s Church in Rochdale, parts of which date from the 13^th century and which may have been named in AD 673, is said to be the oldest church in the county, and St Chad is also commemorated in Chadkirk and possibly even Chat Moss. Some of the Anglican churches built in Manchester in the 18^th and 19th centuries (some of them no longer in existence) have given their names to districts (All Saints, St George’s), squares (St Ann’s, St Peter’s) and parks (Angel Meadows, St John’s Gardens, St Michael’s Flags). There are several places with Biblical names: Goshen dates from the 16^th century and the non-conformist churches which developed in the first half of the 19^th century also coined Biblical names (Jericho, New Earth and Salem). Several other places which originally had Anglo-Saxon names were later rationalised as if they had Christian origins (Abram, Moses Gate).
VIKINGS c. AD 900-1050	The Vikings settled in North-west England from the 8th century but sources differ as to whether Greater Manchester became part of the Danelaw or not. Certainly, the spread of the Vikings caused concern and legend has it that the Nico Ditch was built in 869-870 to guard against the Vikings: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in AD 923 ‘King Edward … ordered levies … to occupy Manchester in Northumbria, and had it repaired and garrisoned’ in order to meet the Viking threat. It also seems that Bury and at least some of the places with the –bury element (Bredbury, Norbury, Didsbury, Pendlebury and Littleborough) may have originally been fortified Anglo-Saxon settlements built to protect against the Vikings. There is little place-name evidence of large-scale Viking settlement in what is now Greater Manchester: there is a cluster of eponyms in western Manchester (Flixton and perhaps Urmston) but nowhere ending in –by, the most common Norse element (as in Derby or Grimsby), not one -toft (as in Lowestoft), only two occurrences of –thwaite (Laithwaite, Linfitt), and only one –thorpe (Thorp in Oldham). The only Viking name element that does occur with any frequency is –hulme (‘island, raised ground’): Hulme, Davyhulme, Levenshulme, Cheadle Hulme, Oldham (corrupted from Aldholme) and Wolstenholme. A hulme was an area of raised ground that would be particularly suitable for a settlement in an area susceptible to frequent flooding.
INTEGRATION & ASSIMILATION	Cheadle Hulme exemplifies Greater Manchester’s almost unique mixture of the three linguistic traditions – Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norse: Cheadle (Celtic cēd + Old English lēah) + Old Danish hulme. Such names show how, over time, peoples speaking different languages and with different cultures came to live in peace together.
NORMANS 1066 onwards	The Norman conquest of 1066 meant that the official language of England became French, and it remained so until Richard II was deposed in 1399. Despite this, and the fact that Norman lords were given estates across much of England, Norman French had very little impact on place names in mediaeval England. Many of these lords took English names from the lands they governed, but a few Norman names remain today – Darcy (of Darcy Lever), Darnel (of Darnhill), Massey (of Dunham Massey), Norris (of Heaton Norris), Molyneux (of Molyneux Brow) and, much later, Davenport (in Stockport) and Grosvenor (of Manchester’s Grosvenor Square). Also very much later is the use of -ville for housing estates in the early 20^th century (Chorltonville). However, the Normans impacted north-western place names in other ways, as can be seen from their Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1). William the Conqueror sent his agents throughout England to list all the towns, villages and property, so that he would know what taxes were due. Domesday recorded 13,418 settlements throughout England and Wales, about 600 in Cheshire and Lancashire, but fewer than 25 in what is now Greater Manchester. Two reasons are normally given for this: William’s agents did a poor job, simply omitting major places such as Stockport, Wigan and Bury. More likely, the Normans’ genocidal ‘harrying of the north’ in 1069-1070, in which up to 75% of the population of the north were slaughtered, left many places ‘Weaste’ – uninhabited or of little value. Nevertheless, 1400 saw the ‘triumph of English’ and the vast majority of modern place names can trace their origin to Old and Middle English rather than Latin, Norse or Norman French.
CIVIL WAR 1642-1651	Greater Manchester figured significantly in the Civil War: the war itself is often said to have begun when Royalists tried to capture the town and Richard Perceval of Levenshulme became the first casualty during street fighting on 15 July 1642. Oliver Cromwell is said to have passed through Trub Smithy at some point, and to have camped at Oliver Clough during the Siege of Manchester in 1643. In May 1644, the Royalist commander, Prince Rupert, camped on Barlow Moor before leading the Bolton massacre, in which 1500 Parliamentary troops and citizens were killed. On 25 August 1651 the Royalists were defeated in the Battle of Wigan Lane at a hamlet which became known as Battling Wood, which was later corrupted to Bottling Wood.
ENFRANCHISEMENT & CIVIL RIGHTS 17^th century onwards	The first MP for Manchester was not elected until 1654 but the constituency was abolished in 1660 on the restoration of the monarchy as Manchester had supported Oliver Cromwell and the parliamentarians in the civil war. This situation lasted throughout the 18^th century and in 1725 Defoe described Manchester as ‘the greatest meer village in England. It is neither a wall’d town, city or corporation; they send no members to Parliament’. Despite the Peterloo protests, parliamentary representation was not restored to Manchester until 1832 and the first MP, Mark Philips, is commemorated in Philips Park. The right to vote was dependent on property ownership and in the 1860s, John Platt, a mill owner and the mayor of Oldham, gave his employees the freehold of their houses so that they could vote. The right to vote was restricted to men until 1918, largely as a result of the suffragette movement formed by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, whose campaigning is celebrated at the Pankhurst Centre. A much earlier milestone in women’s rights is commemorated at Womanscroft Bridge in Bramhall, where, in 1637, a landowning woman who ‘had a house with a small croft and toft’ was given certain legal rights, including being a juror and being ‘exempt from the burden of repairing the bridge over Lady Brook, known as the Woman’s Croft bridge’. This is one of the few place names in England with ‘woman’ as an element.
JACOBITE REBELLION 1745-1746	In 1745-1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie led a Jacobite army into England in an attempt to regain the throne that his father, James II, had been forced to give up in 1688. He reached Manchester on 28 November 1745 and is thought to have stabled his horses in Stockport, before marching on to Derby and then retreating to defeat at the Battle of Culloden. Longsight and Tiviot Dale are both said to owe their names to the Bonnie Prince and his army. It has also been suggested that Scotland in central Manchester was named because the Jacobite troops camped there in 1745, but this seems unlikely.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION & COAL c.1760-1840	The term ‘industrial revolution’ was invented in 1799 by the Frenchman, Louis-Guillaume Otto, and was applied to Britain by Arnold Toynbee in 1881. The industrial transformation of Britain in the second half of the 18^th century and first half of the 19^th had several causes, but chief among these was the availability and application of coal. Several place names across Greater Manchester point to the early mining of coal and other minerals: Cinder Hill, Collyhurst, Coldhurst, Cowlishaw, Delph, Orrell, Pitses and Quarlton. Daniel Defoe, who toured Great Britain in 1724-1726, described the widespread mining of coal between Wigan and Bolton, but the mines of the area were mostly shallow, with horse-powered winding gear. This early mine equipment is captured in Gin Pit village, where Gin is short for engine. However, the depth of mines was limited by the dangers of flooding, which was addressed by the use of steam pumps. One of the first of these was installed in 1749 in Norbury colliery, which was frequently flooded by the Bollinhurst Brook. The other problem noted by Defoe was the remoteness from markets: ‘they are remote; and though some of them have been brought to London, yet they are so dear, by reason of the carriage, that few care to buy them.’ This problem was initially solved by canals, notably the Bridgewater Canal, which was built in 1759-61, halving the price of coal in Manchester, and becoming the forerunner of the national canal network. Coal not only powered the industries of Greater Manchester; the region became a centre for the manufacture of textile machinery, industrial equipment and railway locomotives. Some of the manufacturers and engineers gave their names to places in the county, e.g. Simon’s Bridge, Whitworth Park. The last coal mines in the county closed in the 1990s, leaving only the Lancashire Colliery Museum at Astley Green and a legacy of dereliction and pollution. However, much has been done to transform the industrial landscape into nature reserves and conservation areas, notably the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh, where flashes are a local word for surface flooding caused by the collapse of underground mine workings. The Three Sisters, now a recreation area, take their name from former waste heaps at a local colliery.
‘COTTONOPOLIS’	The term ‘Cottonopolis’ was invented in about 1851 but the textile industry started much earlier. The earliest mills, such as that at Bowdon, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1), or those at Milnrow (‘a row of houses by a mill’) and Quarlton (‘mill hill’) in the 13^th century, were almost certainly corn or flour mills. The textile industry seems to have been established well before the 14^th century, initially concentrating on flax (see Crossacres), wool (Walkden, Walkers) and linen (Bowker Vale, Gigg, Linfitt). The switch to cotton had begun by about 1725, when Daniel Defoe visited Bolton and noted ‘that the cotton manufacture reach’d thither’. The rapid and large-scale expansion of cotton manufacture came later in the century with mechanisation, notably the building of the first water-powered mills at Portwood on the Mersey in 1732, at Garret by the River Medlock in about 1760 and at Thorp in Royton in 1764, Crompton’s spinning mule, invented at Hall i’ th’ Wood in 1779, and Arkwright’s steam-powered mill at Shudehill in 1783. In all, over 2400 cotton mills were built in the area between 1732 and 1926. The earliest mills tended to be named for the places where they were built or the brooks that powered them, but many mills, and the villages and parks around them were named by and for their owners or their wives. Knott Mill, dating from 1509, is an early example and later examples include Bealey’s Goit, Drinkwater Park, Hallam Coronation Garden, Holt Town, Hope, Houldsworth, Langworthy and Eckersley. The First World War led to the loss of markets and the last mill in Greater Manchester and Lancashire – Elk Mill in Royton – was completed in 1926. Today, the only cotton mill remaining in production in the county is Tower Mill in Dukinfield.
RAILWAYS 1830-1880	The first railway in what is now Greater Manchester was the Bolton & Leigh, a 12-kilometre freight line opened in 1828 to connect Bolton to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Leigh. The Liverpool & Manchester, the world’s first intercity passenger railway, was opened in 1830 with its eastern terminus at Liverpool Road. In the next 50 years, about 200 stations were built in Greater Manchester. Most were named after existing locations, but some were opened for new suburbs opened up by the railways such as Altrincham, Chorlton-cum–Hardy and Sale, and others, such as Ashburys, Brooklands and Davenport, were opened to serve communities named after individuals. In many other cases, it seems that the railways standardised the names or spelling of places which were not officially agreed: Astley Bridge, Chequerbent, Guide Bridge, Hazel Grove, Heald Green, Howe Bridge, Mumps, Newton Heath, Rushford and Stoneclough.
VICTORIAN ERA 1837-1901	The reign of Queen Victoria coincided with the rise of Cottonopolis, and many places were named after Victoria herself (Victoria Bridge, Victoria Station, Victoria Park, Queen’s Park, etc), her husband, Prince Albert (Albert Bridge, Albert Square, Albert Park, etc), their son, the Prince of Wales (Clarence Park), and his wife, Princess Alexandra (there are at least four Alexandra Parks). Victoria’s golden jubilee in 1887 is commemorated in Jubilee Park, and Edward VII’s coronation in 1902 in Coronation Street.
PUBLIC PARKS 1846	It was in Greater Manchester that three of England’s first municipal parks – Peel Park, named in honour of Sir Robert Peel, Philips Park and Queen’s Park in Harpurhey – were opened to the public in 1846. Over the next 150 years, many country-house estates were donated or purchased and opened as public parks, ranging from the very small, such as Marie Louise Gardens in south Manchester to the enormous Heaton Park, acquired in 1902.
CITY OF MANCHESTER 1853	Manchester had lost its MP in 1660 because it had supported Cromwell in the civil war, and it was not until 1832 that parliamentary representation was restored. This was followed by the granting of city status in 1853. As a mark of civic pride, plans for a new town hall were announced in 1863 and, at the same time, Albert Square was laid out as a memorial to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, who had died in 1861. Also in 1853, the construction of the Free Trade Hall on the site of the Peterloo massacre of 1819 in St Peter’s Square was begun to mark the repeal of the corn laws in 1846. In 1853, the City Manchester reached its peak as a cotton manufacturing city, with 108 mills.
SLAVERY AND THE COTTON FAMINE 1861-1865	Most of Lancashire’s raw cotton was grown and picked by slaves in the southern states of the U.S. until the 1860s. There is, however, little evidence of this in the place names of Greater Manchester. Notable exceptions are Kingston in Tameside, which was named by a slave-owner to remind him of his life in Jamaica, and Elk Mill in Oldham, which takes its name from a river in Tennessee from where some of the earliest slave-harvested cotton came from at the end of the 18^th century. Despite this dependence on this cotton, there was early support in Manchester for the abolition of slavery. The issue was widely debated – the Manchester Movement for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade had been established in 1787 and Engels discusses slavery at several points in his 1845 study of the working class in Manchester. The supply of cotton became critical during the Lancashire ‘Cotton Famine, which occurred when the American Civil War cut off Greater Manchester’s cotton supplies from the southern states of the U.S. Despite the severe hardship, the Lancashire cotton workers supported the cause of the Union and in 1863 U.S. President Abraham Lincoln thanked them for their support for the abolition of slavery and his statue, with an extract from his letter, now stands in Lincoln Square. During the cotton famine, various projects were carried out to provide an income for the unemployed textile workers, notably Alexandra Park in Oldham, Queen’s Park in Bolton, the Cotton Famine Road in Rochdale, the Haigh estate (now Haigh Woodland Park) in Wigan and the Swineshaw reservoirs in Tameside.
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL 1894	The first attempt to connect Manchester to the Irish Sea was the Mersey & Irwell Navigation, which was built in 1721-1724 between Runcorn in Cheshire and Hunt’s Quay in the centre of Manchester. This was not a true canal but a waterway which improved navigation on the two rivers through a series of cuts and locks. The Manchester Ship Canal is a 58-kilometre artificial waterway between Runcorn in Cheshire and Salford. It was built in 1887-1893 and was opened by Queen Victoria at Mode Wheel on 21 May 1894. It led to a considerable increase in trade and industry, notably the development of Trafford Park, the world’s first industrial estate, in 1896.
WORLD WAR I 1914-1918	The military action of the First World War had little direct impact on Greater Manchester but there were Zeppelin bombing raids on Holcombe and Greenmount on 25 September 1916 and on Wigan on 12 April 1918. The Wigan raid killed seven people and a further nine were injured. However, the explosion at the Hooley Hill Munitions Factory on 13 June 1917 caused far more casualties, with 46 killed and hundreds injured. War memorials were erected after the war, as well as memorial parks such as Broadhurst Park in Moston, Dunwood Park in Crompton, Gallipoli Gardens in Bury, Tandle Hill Country Park in Royton, Woodbank Memorial Park in Stockport, and the Albert Hill VC Memorial Park in Denton.
URBAN RE-HOUSING 20^th century	Urban overcrowding and slums led most of the councils of what is now Greater Manchester to build estates to re-house large numbers of residents in improved accommodation. The first was perhaps the New Barracks estate in Salford, built in 1901-04, including Coronation Street, and several were built under the government-funded ‘Homes for Heroes’ scheme after World War I. Many more followed in the 1930s, and most adopted the names of the farms, mines or areas where they were built – Brushes, Johnson Fold, Langley, Linnyshaw Park and Limeside. In some cases, new aspirational names were coined, e.g. Abbey Hills. A third option was to take the name of a local hall or its grounds and apply it to the whole new housing estate, e.g. Polefield and Wythenshawe. As these estates expanded, older settlements were absorbed (Brownley Green, Crossacres, Poundswick, Royal Oak, Saxfield) and some have largely disappeared.
CITY OF SALFORD 1926	Salford was granted city status in 1926 but this was not marked by any new civic buildings. However, city status coincided with the announcement of plans to build the first of a new type of ‘super cinema’ outside London – the Ambassador.
WORLD WAR II 1939-1945	Between July 1940 and July 1942, Greater Manchester was subject to repeated German bombing raids, including the ‘Manchester blitz’ of 22-24 December 1940. 684 people were killed, 2364 were injured and there was widespread destruction. Many buildings were damaged, and St Augustine’s and All Saints churches were so badly damaged that they had to be demolished. Late in the war, on 24 December 1944, there were V-1 flying bomb attacks on Abbey Hills, Tottington, Davenport and Worsley which claimed 37 lives. Whitehead Gardens in Tottington commemorate these victims.
GREATER MANCHESTER 1 April 1974	The new county of Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 from parts of north-east Cheshire, south-east Lancashire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is composed of 10 Metropolitan Boroughs: Bolton, Bury, the City of Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, the City of Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. All of these except Tameside were pre-existing names dating from mediaeval times or earlier.
METROLINK & REGENERATION 1992 onwards	Greater Manchester, and the City of Manchester in particular, have undergone widespread regeneration since the 1990s, some of which have revived names that were fading from use (New Cross, New Islington). The Metrolink tram system, now the largest in the UK, was opened in 1992 and not only preserves the names of older parts of the county (Bess o’ th’ Barn, Pomona, Shadow Moss) and closed or disused railway stations (Cornbrook, Derker, Failsworth, Hollinwood, Milnrow, Oldham Mumps), but includes stops named after new areas (Anchorage, Etihad Campus, MediaCityUK, Salford Quays, Velopark). The new skyscraper area to the south of Manchester city centre is becoming known as “Manc-hattan”. However, regeneration has meant not just demolition and modernistic architecture. There has also been a movement towards the restoration and repurposing of mills and markets such as Manchester’s Mackie Mayor and Stockport’s Weir Mill, based on what has sometimes been called the ‘Altrincham model’.
CULTURES & LIFESTYLES	Perhaps the stereotypical images of Greater Manchester are captured in the artwork of L S Lowry (see Appendix 2) and P A Valette (Appendix 3), and the TV soap opera Coronation Street. However, in the years since the war and particularly since 1974, new communities and cultures have emerged, and some of these have given rise to new place names. These were initially unofficial but some have now been adopted officially: China Town, Curry Mile, Gay Village, Madchester and the Northern Quarter.
EXPORTED NAMES	The names of many settlements in Greater Manchester have been ‘exported’ or transferred to other countries overseas. This was often the result of colonial settlement, when British settlers wanted to commemorate their home towns. In other cases, and especially in the case of places named after Manchester, the inhabitants aspired to emulate the industrial innovation and success of Lancashire towns. However, several places turn out to be eponyms rather than transferred names, i.e. they are named after local worthies rather than English towns, so it is said that Manchester in Iowa was named by inverting the name of William Chesterman, one of its founders, and Oldham in Missouri was named after a Mr Asa Old who sold hams.
	Bolton		Connecticut, USA		Incorporated in 1720 and named by early settlers, many of whom came from Bolton in Lancashire.
			Illinois, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Iowa, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Kansas, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Maryland, USA		Bolton Hill: named after the estate of George Grundy, a Baltimore merchant who named his estate after his native Bolton in Lancashire.
			Ohio, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire by early settlers.
			Vermont, USA		Founded in 1763 and probably named by early settlers from Lancashire.
			Virginia, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
	Bury		Quebec, Canada		Named in 1803 after Bury in Lancashire.
	Didsbury		Alberta, Canada		Founded and named in 1902 after Didsbury in Lancashire.
	Edgeley		North Dakota, USA		Founded and named in 1886 by Richard Sykes, who was born in Edgeley in Cheshire.
	Heywood		Victoria, Australia		Surveyed in 1852 by Lindsay Clarke and named after Heywood in Lancashire.
	Manchester		Bolivia		Founded and named by Anthony Webster-James, a metallurgist from Manchester in Lancashire.
			Nova Scotia, Canada		Probably named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			California, USA		Established in 1871 and named by an early settler after his former home in Lancashire.
			Connecticut, USA		Settled in around 1672 as Five-Mile Tract and renamed in 1823 after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Georgia, USA		Founded in 1907 and named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Indiana, USA		The town was established in 1822 and probably named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Kansas, USA		Laid out in 1887 as Keystone but changed to Manchester by 1890.
			Kentucky, USA		Founded in 1807 as Greenville but changed to Manchester later that year as local business people aspired to Manchester’s industrial success.
			Maryland, USA		The town was incorporated in 1833 as Manchester Germantown, combining the names of two communities.
			Massachusetts, USA		Manchester-by-the-Sea: Originally named Manchester by colonists in 1629 after Manchester in Lancashire; renamed Manchester-by-the-Sea in 1989.
			Michigan, USA		Incorporated as a village in 1867 to take advantage of water power from the river and named after Manchester in Lancashire, which had pioneered water-powered industry.
			Missouri, USA		The village was incorporated in 1950 and named after Manchester by an English settler.
			New Hampshire, USA		Named in 1810 by Samuel Blodget, after visiting Manchester in England in the hope that it would emulate the industry of Lancashire.
			New Jersey, USA		Incorporated as a township in 1865 and named by William Torrey after Manchester in Lancashire.
			New York, USA		The town was settled in 1793 as Burt but changed to Manchester in 1822 in the hope that its textile mills would emulate those of Manchester in Lancashire.
			Ohio, USA		The settlement was founded in 1790 and named Massie’s Station after Nathaniel Massie, but was later renamed Manchester after the Lancashire town, which was Massie’s ancestral home.
			Oklahoma, USA		Possibly named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Pennsylvania, USA		The village was settled in 1814 and originally named Liverpool, but the name was later changed to Manchester.
			Tennessee, USA		The city was originally founded before 1817 and named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Washington, USA		The town was established in the 1860s as Brooklyn but in 1892 the name was changed to Manchester after the Lancashire city.
			West Virginia, USA		New Manchester: The town was originally laid out in 1810 as Manchester.
	Mersey		Nova Scotia, Canada		Mersey River is named after the English river and flows into the Atlantic at Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
			Tasmania, Australia		The Mersey River on the north-west coast of Tasmania flows into the Bass strait at Devonport.
	Oldham		Nova Scotia, Canada		The town was named by Joseph Howe after his ancestral home in Lancashire.
			Mississippi, USA		The town was probably named after Oldham in Lancashire.
			South Dakota, USA		Either named after Oldham Carrot, a local landowner, or named after Oldham in Lancashire, the home of an early settler.
	Rochdale		Massachusetts, USA		Named Rochdale in 1869 because some early settlers came from Lancashire and hoped that similar types of cloth could be manufactured in Massachusetts.
			Mississippi, USA		The town was named after Rochdale in Lancashire.
			Queens, New York, USA		This 1960s cooperative housing development was named after Rochdale in Lancashire, the birthplace of the cooperative movement.
			North Carolina, USA		The town was probably named after Rochdale in Lancashire.
	Saddleworth		South Australia		Saddleworth was built in the 1840s on land originally owned by James Masters, and named after his former home in West Yorkshire.
	Salford		Ontario, Canada		The place was originally called New Manchester, but in 1855 the name was changed and named after Salford in Cheshire.
			Pennsylvania, USA		The town was established in about 1727 and named after Salford in Lancashire.
	Stockport		South Australia		The small town was founded in 1845 by Samuel Stocks junior and named after his birthplace in Cheshire.
			Lake Ontario, Canada		Stockport Islands: The islands were named by early explorers after their birthplace in Cheshire.
			Iowa, USA		The town was settled in the late 19^th century and incorporated in 1902. It was probably named after Stockport in Cheshire.
			New York, USA		The town was established in 1833 and named by James Wild, who was originally from Stockport in Cheshire.
			Ohio, USA		The town was named in 1838 by its first postmaster, Samuel Beswick, after Stockport in Cheshire.

ABBEY HEY is a residential and recreational area of Gorton, east of Manchester city centre. The origin of the name is probably ‘an abbey in or with an enclosed field’, from abbey + Old English hecg or hege (‘a hedge’). While there is no archaeological or documentary evidence of an abbey or monastery in the area in mediaeval times, in 1309 the lord of the manor assigned land in the Gorton area to the Cistercian Abbey of Dore, explaining the name Abbey Hey.

ABBEY HILLS is a district in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. There is no abbey in the area, which was originally known as Wabbow Hills as it surrounded a farm of that name. It is assumed that Wabbow was the personal name of the original owner of the farmstead but no record can be found of him. In the 1930s a large housing estate was built in the area and the more aspirational name Abbey Hills was adopted.

ABBOTSFIELD PARK is a public park and miniature railway in Flixton in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. An Abbot family lived in the area in the mid-17^th century and streets and localities were named after them. In 1889 a local cotton mill owner, James Stott, built a large family residence and named it Abbotsfield, which was taken over as a civilian hospital during World War II. In 1945 the house was returned to its pre-war owners, the Conservative Club, but the local park, the Flixton Recreational Ground, was renamed Abbotsfield Park to commemorate the work of the hospital staff during the war. The park is also known as Chassen Park.

ABNEY HALL PARK is an 80-hectare public park in Cheadle in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The park is set in the grounds of Abney Hall, which was owned by Sir James Watts and who named the estate after Sir Thomas Abney (1640-1722), a banker and Lord Mayor of London who had offered a home to his father in Stoke Newington for many years. In 1958 Abney Hall was sold to the local authority, which used the hall as Cheadle town hall and opened the grounds to the public.

ABRAHAM MOSS is a Metrolink tram stop in Cheetham Hill in the City of Manchester which was opened on 18 April 2011. It serves various facilities in the area – a community school, and a library and leisure centre – all named after Abraham Moss (1888/89-1964), who was Lord Mayor of Manchester in 1953-1954 and President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews at the time of his death.

ABRAM is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded from 1199 as Hadburham, but Abraham is recorded in 1372 and the modern spelling is found from 1461. The meaning is ‘homestead or village of a woman called Eadburh’ from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Ēadburg + hām (‘homestead, village’). By the end of the 14^th century the name had been rationalised from the Anglo-Saxon to the Biblical Abraham, which was later shortened to Abram.

ABRAM FLASH is a 40-hectare nature reserve in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan that forms part of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh. It is on the site of Abram Colliery, a coal mine which opened in about 1870 and finally closed in 1956. It takes its name from the village of Abram and flash, a lake formed by subsidence.

ACKHURST BROOK is a 2-kilometre stream that flows north east to join the River Douglas near Crooke in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded in 1686 as Ackhurst Hall and means ‘hill with oak trees’, from the Old English āc (‘oak tree’) + hyrst (‘wooded hill’).

ACRES is an area in Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, formerly in Lancashire. The name and origin are not well documented, but there are several other places in the area with acre in their name, for example Crossacres and Greenacres. The origin, therefore, may well be Old English aecers (‘fields, plots of cultivated land’), which gives us the modern measure of land, which literally means ‘a measure of land which a yoke of oxen could plough in a day’.

ACRESFIELD See ST ANN’S SQUARE

ADAM’S CROSS is a rock formation in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It is said to be the site of pagan rituals but nothing is known of the origin of the name, which was recorded on the 1843 Ordnance Survey map, and both elements are opaque: there is no known link to the Biblical Adam or to any local person named Adam, and there is no record of a cross at the site. However, nearby is the Platt Memorial Cross at Ashway Gap, but the name has no connection to Adam’s Cross.

ADELPHI is a locality in the City of Salford west of Adelphi Street and within the U-shaped bend of the River Irwell. The area was developed in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. In 1793, Adelphi Weir was built to harness the waters of the Irwell for a cotton mill. In the following years, print, dye and bleach works were built in the area, as well as swimming baths, all taking the name Adelphi. The name is an example of gentrification – one of several areas in Salford and Manchester (e.g. Piccadilly) that adopted the names of fashionable areas of London. The original Adelphi area of London was designed and built by the famous architect, Robert Adam, and his three brothers in 1768-1772, hence the name, which is Greek for ‘brothers’. Parts of Adelphi in Salford seem to have been fashionable – Adelphi House was built in 1808 as the home of a wealthy businessman and it is now part of the University of Salford. However, over time Adelphi became increasingly grim and industrialised, but today the area has undergone urban regeneration and is fashionable once again.

ADSWOOD is a suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport and was part of Cheshire until 1974. The name is found from the mid-13^th century as Addiswode, meaning ‘Æddi’s wood’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Æddi + wudu. Suggestions that the name is shortened from Adders’ Wood, a snake-infested royal hunting ground in the reign of King Charles II (1625-1649), are probably folk etymology.

AFFETSIDE is a village in the western area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is not well documented but the current spelling is first found in 1504. It means ‘the boundary on the hill’ from the Old English ofes (‘border, boundary’) + side (‘hillside’). The hill is 270 metres high and the boundary is marked by Watling Street (not the old Roman road), which today marks the boundary between Bury and Bolton.

AFFLECK’S is an indoor market for independent traders in the City of Manchester’s Northern Quarter. It is housed in a building originally built in the 1860s as Affleck and Brown’s drapery store. The company was founded by John Brown (1824-1901) and fellow Scot Robert Affleck (1818-1888). The company closed in 1973 but the building was reopened as Affleck’s Palace in 1982. It closed in March 2008 but was again reopened under new management as Affleck’s in April 2008.

AGECROFT is a district of Pendlebury in the City of Salford. It is first recorded as Achecroft in 1394. There have been various suggestions for its name: one is that it is ‘field of wild celery’ from Old English ache + croft; others, perhaps more likely, are that the first element is edge, meaning ‘brink’, or Ecga, a personal name. Agecroft Hall, a Tudor country house, once stood in the area but it was auctioned off in 1925, dismantled and re-erected in Richmond, Virginia.

AIGGIN STONE is thought to be a mediaeval stone marking the old boundary between Lancashire and Yorkshire, north of Blackstone Edge. It was first recorded in 1800 and various suggestions have been put forward to account for its name: it might be a corruption of Edge Stone, a rendering of the Latin agger (‘pile, heap, mound’), or it could be derived from the French aguille (‘needle, sharp-pointed rock’).

AINSWORTH is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, also known as Cockey Moor. It is recorded in about 1200 as Haineswrthe, meaning ‘Ægen’s enclosure’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Ægen + Old English worth (‘enclosure, enclosed settlement’).

ALAN TURING MEMORIAL is a sculpture erected in 2001 in Sackville Gardens in central Manchester to commemorate Alan Turing (1912-1954), who lived and worked in Manchester from 1948 until his death in 1954. The inscription on the memorial reads, ‘Father of Computer Science, Mathematician, Logician, Wartime Codebreaker, Victim of Prejudice’.

ALBERT BRIDGE is an arched-bridge over the River Irwell, linking Salford to Manchester. It was built in 1843-1844 to replace the earlier New Bailey Bridge, and was named after Prince Albert (1819-1861), after his marriage to Queen Victoria in 1840 and the construction of Victoria Bridge in 1838-1839.

ALBERT HALL is a music venue in central Manchester that was originally built by the Manchester and Salford Wesleyan Mission in 1908 as the Albert Hall and Aston Institute. It was named after Prince Albert (1819-1861), the husband of Queen Victoria, and the principal donor, Edward Aston (1840-1911). It was closed in 1969 and in 1999 it was converted into a nightclub named Brannigan’s after the Irish policeman and boxer, James Christopher Brannigan (1910-1986). The club closed in 2011 and the building was refurbished as a music hall, re-opening as Albert Hall in 2013.

ALBERT HILL VC MEMORIAL PARK is a small public park and garden of remembrance in Denton in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It was opened on 22 May 1958 and commemorates Albert Hill (1895-1971), who lived in Denton from 1907 till 1923 and won the Victoria Cross during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

ALBERT PARK is a 6-hectare public park in Broughton in the City of Salford. It was opened in 1877 and named in memory of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, who had died in 1861.

ALBERT PARK is a residential area of West Didsbury in the City of Manchester, about 6.5 kilometres south of the city centre. The area was developed as an affluent housing area in 1862-70 and named after Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, who had died in 1861.

ALBERT SQUARE is a pedestrianised space in front of Manchester Town Hall. It was laid out in 1863-1864 as a memorial to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, who had died in 1861, and to provide a fitting location for a statue of Albert which had been commissioned the city. Victoria was invited to open the Square but declined, and she also declined to open the Town Hall when it was completed in 1877.

ALDER BARROW See OWLER BARROW

ALDER FOREST is a residential area in Eccles in the City of Salford that also includes the 8.23-hectare Alder Forest Playing Field. There is little documentation relating to the name and its derivation, but it clearly suggests the presence of alder forests in this area, the name probably coming from the Old English alor, meaning ‘an alder tree’.

ALDERMAN’S HILL and Alphin Pike are both hills in the Peak District overlooking Uppermill and the Tame valley in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Alderman’s Hill is recorded in 1817 and probably means ‘old man’, from Old English ald or eald + mann. According to local legend, Alder and Alphin were Saddleworth giants who fought a battle over a water nymph called Rimmon who lived in Chew Brook. They threw boulders across the valley (see Pots and Pans) and Alphin was killed, while Rimmon, who loved Alphin, killed herself.

ALDER ROOT is a residential area of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It is said to be recorded in the 16^th century but by 1826 it was linked with Cowhill as a small village. The name probably means ‘spur of land with alder trees’, from the Old English alor (‘an alder tree’) + wrot (‘snout; spur of land shaped like a snout’).

ALDPORT was a district in central Manchester to the south of what is now Deansgate (which was formerly known as Aldport Street). The name first appears in 1281 and can be explained as meaning simply ‘old town’, from Old English ald + port. However, the area was close to the old Roman garrison and it may be that port in this context meant ‘walled town or fort’. The area was demolished in the 1890s.

ALEXANDRA PARK, Edgeley is a 24-hectare park in the Borough of Stockport. It was laid out in the grounds of what had been Edgeley House and was opened to the public as Alexandra Park in 1870. It was named after Princess Alexandra (1844-1925), who married the Prince of Wales in 1863. On Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, he became King Edward VII and she became Queen Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA PARK, Moss Side is a 24-hectare public park in Whalley Range and Moss Side in the City of Manchester. The site was purchased by Manchester Corporation in 1864 from William Egerton and opened to the public in 1870. It was named after Princess Alexandra (1844-1925), who had married the Prince of Wales in 1863, and who became Queen Alexandra on Queen Victoria’s death in 1901.

ALEXANDRA PARK, Oldham is a 23-hectare public park in Glodwick in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It was laid out in 1863-1865 as a way of giving work to textile workers during the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861-1865, when cotton could not be imported from the southern United States because of the American Civil War. It was opened on 28 August 1865 and named after Princess Alexandra (1844-1925), who had married the Prince of Wales in 1863, and who became Queen Alexandra on Queen Victoria’s death in 1901.

ALEXANDRA PARK, Wigan is a 7-hectare public park in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It was laid out on land donated by Colonel Henry Blundell-Hollinshead-Blundell (1831-1906) and opened in April 1903. It was named after Queen Alexandra, who became queen in 1901 when her husband succeeded Queen Victoria as King Edward VII.

ALKRINGTON or ALKINGTON GARDEN VILLAGE is a suburb of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It is recorded in 1212 as Alkinton, meaning ‘the village of Alhhere’s people’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + Old English -ing- (‘belonging to; followers of’) + tūn (’enclosure, village’).

ALL SAINTS is a district in central Manchester, part of which now forms the All Saints Campus of Manchester Metropolitan University. It is one of the few place names in Greater Manchester with an overtly religious origin, taking its name from the Anglican All Saints Church, which was completed in 1820. The church was badly damaged in the blitz of December 1940 and was demolished in 1946. The graveyard had been made into a children’s playground in the 1930s and now forms part of the park in Grosvenor Square. (See Appendix 3 for Valette’s paintings of All Saints Square and other locations in Greater Manchester)

ALMA PARK is a residential area of the City of Manchester, south-east of the city centre. The name is not well documented but, along with numerous other places in Britain, it commemorates the Battle of Alma on 20 September 1854 during the Crimean War.

ALPHIN PIKE is a 470-metre hill in the Peak District in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name was recorded in 1468 as Alphenstone and in 1817 as Alfin Hill, probably from Old English elfen (‘elf, fairy’) + stān (‘stone’). In local legend, Alphin was a giant who fought Alderman for the love of the nymph Rimmon. Alphin Pike (from Old English pike, ‘pointed hill’) seems to be one of only a few hills in Greater Manchester called ‘pike’. See also ALDERMAN’S HILL

ALT is a village in the Borough of Oldham that was formerly in Lancashire. It is recorded in about 1190 and is said to take its name from the Celtic allt meaning ‘hill or hillside’, referring to Alt Hill. The name does not seem to be related to that of the River Alt in Merseyside.

ALTRINCHAM is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford that was formerly in Cheshire. It is recorded in 1290 as Aldringeham and with its modern spelling from 1321. It means ‘the village of Aldhere’s people’ from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + -inga- (‘followers of’) + hām (‘homestead, village’). Altrincham is one of the few places in Greater Manchester with the hām element.

The AMBASSADOR was a ‘super cinema’ and variety theatre in Pendleton in the City of Salford. The announcement of plans to build the new theatre – the first of a new generation of cinemas to be built outside London – coincided with the granting of city status to Salford in 1926. It opened on Christmas Eve 1928 and was, like many theatres and cinemas at the time, named the Ambassador. The original Ambassadors Theatre was built in London in 1913 and named after the first British ambassadors – the word dates from the 14^th century but it was only in 1893 that it was adopted as an official diplomatic title and theatres saw themselves as ambassadors for drama and the arts. The Ambassador in Salford became a bingo hall in 1961 and was demolished in 2004.

AMBERSWOOD is a 160-hectare nature reserve in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan that forms one of the sites of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh. It occupies the site of Amberswood Colliery, which began operations in 1855 and closed down as an opencast mine in 1988. The name is not well documented before the opening of the mine in 1855 and the railway station in 1872. The name may literally mean ‘wood where amber is found’, from the Norman-French aumbre + Old English wudu, but there are no place names in England listed with this derivation – the others are either eponyms or take their names from the Old English amore, meaning ‘bunting bird’.

ANCHORAGE is a Metrolink tram stop in Salford Quays which was opened on 6 December 1999. It takes its name from the Anchorage residential and commercial block located at the end of Erie Basin that was constructed in 1991. All the basins and localities in the redeveloped Salford Quays are named after places in North America, and so the Anchorage block is presumably named after Anchorage, Alaska. Anchorage in Alaska was originally named Anchor Point by Captain James Cook in 1778 but was later renamed Anchorage.

ANCOATS is an inner-city suburb of Manchester that was first recorded in 1212 as Einecote. Its original meaning seems to ‘lonely huts or cottages’ from Old English āna, ‘lonely’, + cot, ‘cottage’. The alternative theory that the original name was Annacots, meaning ‘Anna’s cottages’ or ‘the dwelling of Anna’ is now discounted.

ANGEL MEADOWS is a 3-hectare public park in central Manchester close to Victoria Station. It is set in what was an affluent area which took its name from St Michael and All Angels Church, which was built in 1788, but it became one of the city’s worst slums in the 19^th century. The area was cleared in the 1960s and Angel Meadows was laid out in 2004. See also St Michael’s Flags and Angel Meadow Park.

ANNIE LEE’S playing fields in Gorton are after named after Annie Lee, who was leader of the Openshaw Labour Party from the 1890s and, later, a Manchester alderman. She died in 1945.

AO ARENA See MANCHESTER ARENA

APETHORN BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises west of Gee Cross in Hyde in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside and flows north-west to empty into the Tame. The name is recorded in 1750 and Apethorn Farm is thought to date back to the 15^th century. The name probably means ‘thorny wild-rose tree’, from the Old English hēopa + thorn.

The APOLLO THEATRE is a theatre and music venue in Ardwick in the City of Manchester that was opened in August 1938. It is appropriately named after the Greek god Apollo, the god of music, dance, poetry and the arts.

ARDEN PARK is a residential area south-east of Brinnington and Reddish Vale in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in the 13^th century as Arderne or Hawardene, the family name of Sir John de Arderne and his descendants. The family built Arden Hall in about 1597 but this had become derelict by the mid-19^th century.

ARDWICK is an area of the City of Manchester about 1.5 kilometres south-east of the city centre. The name is first recorded in 1282 as Atheriswyke, an eponym meaning ‘Eadred or Æthelred’s farm or workplace’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + wīc (‘homestead, farmstead, workplace’).

ARMENTIERES SQUARE is a public retail and leisure area close to the Huddersfield Canal in central Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. Stalybridge was twinned with Armentières in northern France near the border of Belgium in 1995 and the square was named to commemorate this link. Armentières means ‘cattle for ploughing’ from the Gallo-Roman armentum.

ARMOURY BRIDGE is a road bridge over the main Manchester-London main line in Edgeley in Stockport. The original bridge was built in the mid-19^th century, presumably soon after Stockport station was opened by the Manchester & Birmingham Railway in 1843. It was replaced in 1958 and again in 2025. It takes its name from the nearby Stockport Armoury, built in 1862 as a military establishment and still in use as a Territorial Army centre.

ARNDALE CENTRE is a large retail centre close to central Manchester that was opened in 1975. Many Arndale Centres were built across Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, of which Manchester was the largest. The name Arndale was formed from the names of the owners of the company that owned it – Arnold Hagenbach and Sam Chippindale.

ASH BROOK, ASHBROOK HEY Ashbrook Hey is a residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, north-east of Rochdale town centre, which takes its name from Ash Brook, a tributary of the River Roch. There are several streams named Ash Brook in Britain, and all mean either ‘the east brook’, from Old English ēast + brōc ‘, or ’brook beside ash trees’, from Old English æsc + brōc. The village of Ashbrook Hey grew up around a farmhouse of that name dating from 1673, which adds Hey, from Old English hecge (‘a hedge’), to the name of the stream to indicate that it was enclosed with a hedge.

ASHBURTON is an area of Trafford Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is not well documented before 1886, when the Ashburton Road bridge was built over the Manchester Ship Canal. It is believed it is named after the 1^st Baron Ashburton (1731-1783), who was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1782 and who had taken his title from Ashburton in Devon. The name means ‘village by the stream where ash trees grow’, from the Old English æsc (‘ash tree) + burna (‘stream’) + tūn (‘village’). In 1973 there was a proposal to name the new metropolitan borough in south-west Greater Manchester Ashburton as it contained the letters of some of the main towns – Altrincham, Sale/Stretford, Hale, Bowdon, Urmston and Warburton. However, this proposal was rejected and the name Trafford was adopted in 1974.

ASHBURYS is a railway station in Openshaw, about 5 kilometres east of Manchester city centre. Ashburys takes its name not from a location but from the Ashbury Railway Carriage & Iron Company of Openshaw which originally paid for it to be built by the Sheffield Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester Railway in July 1855. The company was founded in 1837 by John Ashbury (1806-1866) and moved to Openshaw in 1847. It was closed down in 1928 and the works were demolished in the early 1930s.

ASHLEY HEATH is a residential area south-west of Hale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The village of Ashley in Cheshire is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Acelie. Several kilometres to the north is the village of Ashley Heath, formerly in Cheshire but now in Greater Manchester. This name is not recorded until 1746 and comes from the Old English æsc (‘ash’) + lēah (‘clearing; pasture’) + hāth (‘uncultivated land of heather’).

ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. There are several places called Ashton in Britain, all originally meaning ‘ash-tree farmstead or village’ and deriving their names from Old English æsc +tūn, but some have defining additions to distinguish them from other Ashtons. The situation was particularly confusing in the north-west as the Assheton family at one time owned what are now known as Ashton-under-Lyne, Ashton-on-Mersey, and Ashton-on-Ribble. The first record of Ashton-in-Makerfield is in 1212 as Eston. Most sources state vaguely that ‘in-Makerfield’ was added at a later date, but it was certainly in use by 1589, when the grammar school was founded. Makerfield is derived from an old Celtic name for a wall or ruin + Old English feld, meaning ‘open land’.

ASHTON MOSS is a residential area west of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is uncertain when the separate name evolved but the moss or bog land of the area was drained and cultivated in the 1830s and the Ashton or New Moss Colliery was opened in 1881. The colliery closed in 1959.

ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. There are several places called Ashton in Britain, all originally meaning ‘ash-tree farmstead or village’ and deriving their names from Old English æsc +tūn, but some have defining additions to distinguish them from other Ashtons. The situation was particularly confusing in the north-west as the Assheton family at one time owned what are now known as Ashton-under-Lyne, Ashton-on-Mersey, and Ashton-on-Ribble. Ashton-under-Lyne is first recorded in about 1160 simply as Haistune but is distinguished as Asshton under Lyme by 1305. Despite the spelling, lyme does not mean ‘lime’ but refers to the ancient Lancashire Forest and is ultimately thought to derive from the Celtic name for ‘elm’.

ASHTON UPON MERSEY There are many places in England named Ashton, all meaning ‘farm or village near ash trees’, and the situation was particularly confusing in the north-west as the Assheton family at one time owned what are now known as Ashton-under-Lyne, Ashton-on-Mersey, and Ashton-on-Ribble. It is necessary to distinguish them by identifying their location or some other identifying feature. Ashton upon Mersey is a residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford roughly 8 kilometres south of Manchester city centre. It lies on the south bank of the River Mersey, hence its name. It is first mentioned simply as Ayston in 1260 and Ashton from about 1284. In 1421 it is distinguished as Assheton super Mercy, as Ashton on Mersee Bank in 1577 and as Ashton super Merseybanke in 1584.

ASHWAY is an area in the Peak District National Park in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham that includes a number of locations and features. The name is not recorded until the early 19^th century but is probably much older. The basic meaning is ‘a road or track (Old English weg) where ash trees (Old English æsc) are found’. Ashway gives its name to Ashway Gap (Old Norse gap or Middle English gappe, referring to a gap in the hills, perhaps that created by Greenfield Brook), Ashway Hey (Old English hæg, meaning ‘enclosure’), Ashway Moss (Old English mos, ‘swamp, bog’) and Ashway Rocks (Old English rocc, referring to a pile of rocks). Ashway Gap was the site of Ashway Gap House, a hunting lodge built in about 1850 by John Platt (1817-72), who, with his brother James (1823-57), owned Platt Brothers textile machinery company. On 27 August 1857 James Platt, who was MP for Oldham, was killed in a shooting accident and a memorial cross was erected near the spot where the accident happened by his brother, who later also became MP for Oldham. The house was demolished in 1981.

ASHWORTH MOOR RESERVOIR is a large reservoir in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale constructed in 1898-1908. It takes its name from the nearby village of Ashworth in Lancashire. The name means ‘ash-tree enclosure’ and is first recorded as Esworde in about 1200 and as Asheworth in 1347. It is derived from the Old English æsc (‘ash tree’) + worth (‘enclosed settlement’).

ASPULL is a village north-east of Wigan. It is first recorded in 1212 as Aspul, meaning ‘hill where aspen-trees grow’, from the Old English æsp (‘aspen tree’) + hyll (‘hill’). The name provides evidence of aspens on high land in the area in mediaeval times, although today there are few trees.

ASTLEY and ASTLEY GREEN are residential areas in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded in about 1210 as Astelegh and with its modern spelling from 1479. It is derived from the Old English ēast (‘east’) + lēah (‘woodland clearing, glade’) and could mean simply ‘eastern wood or clearing’. However, it is located about 5 kilometres east of the town of Leigh and so it is likely that it actually means ‘east of Leigh’. Astley gives its name to Astley Green, a village to the south, which is divided between Higher Green and Lower Green by the Bridgewater Canal, and to Astley Brook, a tributary of the River Tonge. See also WESTLEIGH.

ASTLEY BRIDGE is a residential area of northern Bolton that was formerly in Lancashire. As the name suggests, it lies on Astley Brook, which rises near Halliwell and then flows east to meet Eagley Brook to form the River Tonge. Astley Bridge itself seems to have been known by various names, including Ashwood and Lower Sharples, until the second half of the 19^th century, and the name was possibly standardised by the opening of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway’s Astley Bridge station in 1877.

ASYLUM BROOK See MERE BROOK and MERE CLOUGH

The ATHENAEUM is a building, now part of Manchester Art Gallery, which was originally built in 1837 for the Manchester Athenaeum, ‘an institution for literary, political and scientific uses’ which included Richard Cobden, Frederick Engels, Charles Dickens and Benjamin Disraeli among its members and speakers. It was named after the London Athenaeum, founded in 1824, which in turn took its name from the Athenaeum in Rome built by the Emperor Hadrian (AD78-138), who named it after the temple of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, in Athens.

ATHERLEIGH is a district of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. Atherleigh was not an existing place name but was invented for estates that had been developed after World War I by combining the first element of Atherton with nearby Leigh. The name was standardised when the London Midland & Scottish Railway opened a station at Atherleigh in October 1935 to serve these residential areas.

ATHERTON is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, formerly in Lancashire. For much of the 19^th century the town was known as Chowbent, and this name apparently continues in local use. In 1888 the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway called its new station Atherton Central. The name is first recorded as Aderton in 1212 and the modern spelling was first used in 1322. There are two theories about the origin and meaning. One is that the name is means ‘a farm or village of a man named Æthelhere’, from the Old English personal name Ǣthelhere + tūn, meaning ‘farmstead or village’. The other is that it means ‘the farmstead or village (tūn) of the little brook (Old English adre)’, probably in reference to Atherton Brook, a tributary of Glaze Brook.

ATOM VALLEY is an industrial and commercial development zone in the north of Greater Manchester, including the Northern Gateway in Bury and Rochdale, Kingsway Business Park in Rochdale and Stakehill in Rochdale and Oldham. The name was inspired by Silicon Valley in California, and Atom refers to the original splitting of the atom by Ernest Rutherford at Manchester University in 1917.

AUDENSHAW is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, about 8 kilometres east of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded in about 1200 as Aldwynshawe, meaning ‘Aldwine’s copse’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Aldwine + sceaga (‘wood, copse’). The town lends its name to the three Audenshaw Reservoirs, which were built in 1877-82.

AUSTERLANDS is a suburb of Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham which was previously in West Yorkshire. The name is recorded as Osterlands in 1722 and probably means ‘cultivated lands (Old English land) with a sheep-fold (eowestre)’.

AVIVA STUDIOS is a 13,300 square-metre venue for cultural events, exhibitions and concerts close to the centre of Manchester. It was constructed on the site of the former Granada TV studios and took the name Aviva in 2023 following a sponsorship deal. Aviva PLC is a British insurance company whose name is a palindrome based on the Latin word viva, meaning ‘life, alive’.

AVRO HERITAGE MUSEUM is an aeronautical museum in Woodford in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It is built on the site of Woodford aerodrome and the factory of the Avro aircraft company. Avro was established in 1907 and took its name from those of its founders, the brothers Alliott Verdon Roe (1877-1958) and Humphrey Verdon Roe (1878-1949), who were both born in Patricroft. The company remained in production until 2011 and the museum opened on 13 November 2015.

BACKBOWER is a residential area of Hyde in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is recorded as Bower Fold in 1831 and as Bank Bower in 1842. Its derivation is from Old English banke (‘river bank, hillside’) + būr (‘cottage, dwelling’), so that Backbower means ‘cottage on a hillside’, referring to its position above Werneth Brook, a tributary of the River Tame. See also BOWER FOLD.

BACK O’ TH’ MOSS is a residential area north of Heywood town centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is not well documented but is recorded in the mid-19^th century. Moss in this case is said to refer to a large meadow that was used for textile tentering or bleaching rather than the usual bog or swamp, although perhaps it had been a marshy area that had been drained. The higher ground behind Moss became known as Back o’ th’ Moss.

BAG LANE is a small village in Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is not well documented before 1831, when the Bolton & Leigh Railway opened Bag Lane station to serve the village, which was close to a number of collieries. The origin of the name is obscure – there are no recorded textile or bag factories in the area. The most plausible suggestion is that the name is a corruption of Back Lane, usually a service lane running along the back of properties for access and to deliver goods or collect rubbish and waste. The name is found from the 15^th century and is common throughout England: there are 15 Back Lanes in Greater Manchester, including Back Lane in nearby Hulton, and over 200 street names including Back, e.g. Back Shakerley Road, which runs parallel to Shakerley Road in Tyldesley.

BAGSLATE MOOR is a residential area of Spotland in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in the 13^th century as Bagslade, meaning ‘Bacga’s valley’, from an Anglo Saxon personal name + Old English slœd (‘valley’). Bagslate Moor is 204 metres high and overlooks the valleys of the River Roch to the south and Naden Brook to the west.

BAGULEY is a residential area of Wythenshawe in the City of Manchester. It was formerly in Cheshire and is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Bagelei, from bacga or bagga, which may be a personal name or the name of a wild animal, possibly a badger, + lēah, meaning ‘woodland clearing’ or ‘enclosure’. It gives its name to Baguley Brook, a tributary of the River Mersey.

BAILEY See NEW BAILEY

BALDERSTONE is a district of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, south of Rochdale town centre. The name is recorded in 1323 as Baldreston, meaning ‘Baldere’s village’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + tūn (‘farm, village’). At some time after the 16^th century the second element was rationalised as ‘stone’ to give the modern spelling of the name.

BALDINGSTONE is a village north of Walmsersley in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is not well documented but the village is known to date back to the 12^th century and it may be an eponym derived from an Anglo-Saxon personal name + ingas- (‘people of, family of’) + tūn (‘farm, village’).

BAMFORD is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, west of the main town and north of the River Roch. The name is recorded in 1282 as Baunford and the modern spelling is found from 1284. The meaning is ‘ford with a beam’, referring to a wooden footbridge over a tributary of the Roch, from Old English beam (‘tree, beam’) + ford.

BAMFURLONG is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, south of Wigan town centre. It is recorded in 1442 as Banforthlang, meaning ‘furlong or strip of land where beans are grown’, from Old English bean + furh (‘furrow’) + lang (‘length’). Together, furh + lang gave the modern measure of a furlong (‘the distance an ox could plough without resting’). Bamfurlong is one of the few place names in Greater Manchester that makes reference to a food crop.

BANK BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on Castleshaw Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows south into Castleshaw Upper Reservoir. The origin and meaning are not well documented but would seem to be literal: ‘the stream that flows down a slope or bank (Old Norse banke)’

BARDSLEY is a suburban area of south Oldham that lies north of the River Medlock. The name is recorded in 1422 as Bardesley and Bardsley, meaning ‘the wood or clearing of someone called Beard or Beornrǣd’, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name + lēah.

BARDSLEY GATE is a village south of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in 1842 but is almost certainly far older, probably sharing its origin with Bardsley in Oldham.

BARFOOT BRIDGE or BARFOOT AQUEDUCT in Sale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford was built in 1765 to carry the Bridgewater Canal over the River Mersey. A second bridge was built alongside the first in 1898-1907 to take the Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway’s line across the Mersey. The name is recorded in the 12^th century as Barfotehalt, from the Old English baerfot (‘barefoot’) + halh (‘nook, corner of land’).

BARLEY BROOK is a tributary of the River Douglas that rises in Beech Hill and flows south to join the Douglas west of Wigan near Laithwaite, although it is culverted for much of its length. The name is recorded in 1908 and is probably quite literal: ‘the brook that flows through an area where barley is grown’.

BARLOW FOLD is an area south of Bury on the River Irwell. Barlow is recorded in 1254 as Barlowe, meaning ‘barley hill’, from Old English bere (‘barley’) + hlāw (‘hill’, usually an artificial mound). Fold may be a later addition, from Old English fald, ‘an enclosure for animals or people’ or fold, ‘a small group of cottages and farm buildings’.

BARLOW FOLD is a residential area north-east of Romiley in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in the 17^th century and most buildings date from the 18^th. The name means ‘an enclosure where barley is grown or stored’ from Old English bere (‘barley’) + hlāw (‘hill’) + fald, ‘an enclosure for animals or people’ or fold, ‘a small group of cottages and farm buildings’.

BARLOW MOOR is a locality in south Manchester that is named after the Barlow family, who came from Derbyshire, where the village of Barlow was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Barleie, meaning ‘boar clearing’ or ‘barley clearing’. The Barlows moved to Lancashire in the 13^th century and their manor house is referred to in 1254 as Barlowe. Their later home, Barlow Hall, was built in 1584 and now belongs to the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Golf Club. Barlow Moor is mentioned in May 1644, when Prince Rupert, the Royalist commander, camped his troops on Barloe More during the Civil War. Barlow Moor is mentioned as a ‘chapelry’ in 1870. An area beside the River Mersey is known as Barlow Ees, meaning ‘the land close to Barlow Moor liable to flooding’.

BARNES GREEN is a residential area of Harphurey in the City of Manchester, north of the city centre and east of the River Irk. It is recorded in 1443 as Berne Grene, meaning literally ‘the village green with or by some barns’, from Old English bern + grene.

BARNES HOSPITAL and BARNES VILLAGE Barnes Hospital in Cheadle in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport was built in 1871-1875 as a convalescent hospital with funding provided by Robert Barnes (1800-1871), a cotton mill owner who had been Mayor of Manchester in 1851-1853. The hospital closed in 1999 and from 2015 was converted into a residential development named Barnes Village.

“BARNEY’S STEPS” See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

BARNSFOLD is a hamlet south-west of Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. Barnsfold Manor Farm dates from 1659 and the name is eponymous: George Barns (died 1699) + Old English fald (‘enclosure for animals’).

BARRACK HILL is a residential locality in Romiley in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in 1780 no actual military barracks on a hill appears on 19th-century maps. Family records as far back as 1839 suggest that troops were stationed in this location at that date. However, the name may come from another early meaning of barrack – a simple or temporary shelter, not necessarily with any military association.

BARRACK PARK is 2.2-hectare public park and sports facility in Hulme in the City of Manchester. It takes its name from the Hulme cavalry barracks, which were built in about 1817 and housed the 15^th King’s Hussars, who took part in the infamous ‘Peterloo’ massacre in St Peter’s Field 1819. The barracks were demolished in 1914 and converted into a public park which was initially known as St George’s Park, but was renamed Barrack Park in 1994. See also NEW BARRACKS

BARROW BRIDGE is a village in Halliwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, formerly in Lancashire. The land was originally owned by the Barrow family, whose farm was divided by Dean Brook with a bridge connecting the two parts. Some of their land was sold in the late 18^th century to build a cotton mill. In 1830 the rest of the farm was sold, the mill demolished and two steam-powered mills were built. The workers were accommodated in a model village, which eventually became known as Barrow Bridge.

BARROW BROOK today is a distributary of the River Mersey, feeding water from the Mersey south of Chorlton-cum-Hardy to Sale Water Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name appears on the 1842 Ordnance Survey map but Sale Water Park was a by-product of the construction of the M60 motorway in the 1970s, suggesting that at one time it flowed into the Mersey. The name is thought to derive from Old English bearu, meaning ‘grove, small wood’, or bearg, meaning ‘a barrow pig, a castrated boar’.

BARROWSHAW is a small residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, north of the town itself. The name is not well documented but is recorded in 1633 as now spelled but divided into Further and Nearer Barrowshaw. Today the area is divided between Higher Barrowshaw in the north and Near Barrowshaw in the south. The derivation is uncertain, but may be Old English bearu (‘grove’) + sceaga (‘copse, small wood’).

BARTON MOSS is a residential area of Eccles in the City of Salford. It is recorded from 1196 simply as Barton, meaning ‘barley farm or village,’ from Old English bere + tūn. Moss, meaning ‘bog or swamp’, was added at a later date.

BARTON-UPON-IRWELL, also called BARTON-ON-IRWELL or simply BARTON, is a suburb of the City of Salford beside the River Irwell and the Manchester Ship Canal. It is recorded in 1196 simply as Barton but by 1277 it is found as Barton on Irrewelle. Barton means ‘barley farm or village,’ from Old English bere + tūn, and adding a reference to its location on the Irwell may distinguish it from Barton Moss or other Bartons in Lancashire.

River BEAL is a short river that rises north-east of Rochdale and flows about 15 kilometres north-west to join the River Roch at Belfield. The name is recorded in 1200 as Bole, which may be an old Celtic river name or a derivation of the Old English bēag, meaning ‘river bend’, which would aptly describe the meandering course of the river. The river gives its name to Belfield.

BEALEY’S GOIT is an artificial waterway east of Radcliffe in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It was built in about 1760 to take water from the River Irwell to Bealey’s bleaching works. It takes its name from the Old English goit (‘channel, stream’) cut to supply the works built by William Bealey (1683-1763). The works were demolished in 1980 but the Bealey family donated their estate to the people of Radcliffe in 1925 and this is now Close Park.

BEAT BANK CANAL was planned to link the Stockport Branch Canal with the coal mines of the hamlet of Beat Bank in Denton, a distance of about 5.5 kilometres. It was authorised in 1793 but abandoned in 1798 when about 60% had been built. The name of Beat Bank is recorded in 1645 and is thought to derive from Old English byht (meaning ‘a bend or curve’, referring to the meandering of the River Tame) + banke (‘bank, slope’).

BEDFORD is a suburb of Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The town of Leigh was formed in 1875 from the merger of Pennington, Westleigh and Bedford. Bedford itself is recorded in 1201 as Bedeford, meaning ‘Beda’s ford’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Bēda + ford, probably a ford across Pennington Brook, a tributary of Glaze Brook. Bedford also gives its name to Bedford Brook

BEECH HILL is a suburb of north-west Wigan. The name is not well documented but there was a large house called Beech Hill Hall in the area dating from the late 17^th century, and the area was heavily wooded even in the mid-19^th century. It therefore seems likely that the name can be taken literally to mean ‘beech tree hill’ from the Old English bēce + hyll.

BEESLEY GREEN is or was an area of Worsley in the City of Salford, and it now forms part of the Roe Green/

Beesley Green conservation area. The name seems to date from the late 16^th century, when a Thomas Beesley and his descendants farmed the area.

BEETHAM TOWER is a 47-storey commercial and residential skyscraper at the southern end of Deansgate in central Manchester. It was completed in 2006 and, at 169 metres, was at the time the tallest building in Britain outside London. It is named after its builders and owners, the Beetham Organisation, a property development company based in Liverpool.

BELFIELD is a district of Rochdale about 2 kilometres east-north-east of the town centre at the confluence of the River Beal and the River Roch. The River Beal gives its name to Belfield, which is recorded in 1310 as Belefeld, meaning simply ‘the field by the River Beal’. The derivation of the river name is uncertain but a possibility is the Old English bēag, meaning ‘river bend’, which would aptly describe the meandering course of the river.

The BELL is a greenbelt area west of Kitt Green in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It takes its name from Bell House Farm, but the derivation is uncertain: it may be the family name Bell, a reference to the local 17^th-18^th century bell-making industry of the Orrell and Markland (see Martland Mill) families, or a reference to the many bell pits that were employed to mine shallow seams of coal in the Wigan area from the 16^th to 19^th centuries.

BELLE VUE is now a district in eastern Manchester that takes its name from the large zoo and amusement park that stood in the area until November 1987. This was originally opened in 1834 as ‘Belle Vue Tea Gardens’, taking its name from the French for ‘beautiful view’. The site and its facilities were gradually extended but it went into decline in the 1970s and the last speedway event was held in 1987.

BENCHILL is a residential area of Wythenshawe in the City of Manchester, roughly 13 kilometres south of the city centre. Residential development started before World War II but the name dates from the start of the late 13^th century. It was recorded in 1289 as Bangengehull, meaning ‘the hill belonging to Bēage or Bǣga’, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name + -ing- (‘belonging to’) + hyll (‘hill’).

BENTCLIFFE was a mediaeval estate of Salford that is now recalled in Bentcliffe Park, a small neighbourhood in Eccles. Bentcliffe Mill was originally built before 1800 and was later part-owned by Friedrich Engels. The name is recorded from 1550 but was variously spelled Bentcliffe, Bencliffe, Beancliffe and Beaucliffe. The meaning is usually given as ‘the cliff where bent or coarse grass grows’, from the Old English beonet + clif, but clearly the meaning would change if an alternative spelling reflected the true origin.

BENTGATE is a residential area of Newhey in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale that is located north-east of a large bend in the River Beal. There are several places with this name in north-west England, none of them well documented. Given its location, it seems likely that its meaning is ‘curved road’, from Old English bend (‘bend, twist’) + Old Norse gata (‘road’).

BENT LANES BROOK was originally a tributary of the River Irwell but it now empties into the Manchester Ship Canal in Calder Bank in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It rises in Streford as Longford Brook and as Bent Lanes Brook it flows west and north-west through Davyhulme. While there is a Bent Lane in Prestwich named after the Bent family, who built Bent House in the mid-18^th century, the brook takes its name from an aptly-named crooked street in Urmston and appears on maps from the 1840s.

BESOM HILL is a 357-metre high hill north-east of Oldham that also gives its name to a 9.5-hectare country park and Besom reservoir. The hill is known to be a place of ancient habitation dating back to the Neolithic period 7000-10,000 years ago but the name is not well documented. It is said to be taken from the Old English besom, meaning ‘a broom made from twigs bound together round a handle’, probably because it was a location for the twigs used to make besoms. The hill gives its name to Besom Hill Reservoir, which was built in about 1860.

BESSES O’ TH’ BARN is a district of Whitefield in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, formerly in Lancashire. The name was originally that of an inn owned by a landlady called Bess that was either near a barn or looked like a barn. The inn was originally called the Dog Inn or Bowling Green but was renamed in 1821 and the name was gradually applied to the surrounding village. The name was standardised by the London Midland & Scottish Railway in 1931 when a station was opened to serve a large new housing estate in the area.

BESWICK is an inner-city area of Manchester on the River Medlock that was formerly in Lancashire. It was recorded as Beaces hlaw in 917. The Old English hlaw meant ‘mound or hill’, and Beac is thought to be a personal name. The name evolved to Bexwik by 1200-1223, with wīc meaning ‘settlement or farm’.

BEVIS GREEN is a residential area of Walmersley in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is little-documented before a cotton mill was built there in 1810, which, after it was demolished, became the site of a housing estate built in the 2020s. The name might be an eponym: the family name Bevis is said to derive either from the French town of Beauvais (from the Gaulish Bellovaci tribe) or from the old French bel + fiz, meaning ‘beautiful son’. However, Bevis Marks in London is an orthographic corruption of Bury’s (in this case referring to Bury St Edmunds) and so the possibility that Bevis Green was originally Bury’s Green cannot be ruled out until there is firmer research evidence of the name’s origin.

BEXLEY SQUARE is a public space in front of what was originally Salford town hall. It is named after Lord Bexley (1766-1851), who as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1823-1828 laid the foundation stone on 30 August 1825. The town hall was completed in 1827.

BICKERSHAW is part of Abram in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, approximately 5 kilometres south of the town centre. The name is recorded in about 1200 as Bikersah and Bikesah, meaning ‘bee-keepers’ copse or wood’, from Old English bicere + sceaga. It gives its name to the 247-hectare Bickershaw Country Park, which forms part of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh.

BILLINGE, BILLINGE HIGHER END or HIGHER END Billinge is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in Merseyside, but Billinge Higher End (or just Higher End) is an area in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester. Both were formerly in Lancashire but were separated in 1974. The name is recorded in 1202 as Billinḡ, meaning ‘settlement of the people on the pointed hill’, from the Old English billa (‘promontory, point of a sword’) + –ing (‘people of’). End is quite literal: the end of a settlement or village.

BILL O’JACKS PLANTATION is a forested area north west of Greenfield Brook and Yeoman Hey Reservoir in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It takes its name from William Bradbury, known locally as Bill O’Jack (i.e. the son of Jack), the 84-year old landlord of the Moor Cock Inn, who was murdered on 2 April 1832, along with his 46-year old son, Thomas (Tom O’Bill). The pub became known as Bill O’Jacks and when it was demolished in 1937 the name was adopted for the plantation.

BILLY GROUND is a rural area of Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1832 but its origin is uncertain: it is unlikely that it indicates that the land was once owned by someone called William; more likely is that it is from the Old Norse or Old English byle, meaning ‘rounded hill’.

BILLY PIT BROOK is a stream that flows into the Leeds & Liverpool Canal from near Crooke in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name originates from the Billy Pit, more properly the William Pit Colliery that was opened in 1803 but worked out and closed in 1846. The colliery may have been named after William Hustler, one of the Yorkshire Quakers who originally invested in the mine. Alternatively, it could have been named after William Ellam, the agent and manager.

BIRCH is an area north-west of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It is recorded in 1246 as Birches, meaning ‘birch trees’, from the Old English birce. This is one of the many landscape names indicating the types of trees growing locally in mediaeval times.

BIRCHEN BROOK or BIRCHEN CLOUGH is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on Saddleworth Moor and flows south into Dovestone Reservoir in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded on the 1843 Ordnance Survey map and means ‘the stream (Old English brōc) or ravine (clōh) where birch trees (birce) are found).

BIRCH MOSS COVERT NATURE RESERVE is a 6.1-hectare wildlife reserve in Broadheath in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. Birch Moss appears on an 1831 map and means ‘swamp where birch trees are found’, from Old English birce + mos. The area had been used for farming but was developed as a wildlife reserve from 1972 and was officially opened in 1980.

BIRKS is a small residential area north-east of Oldham, formerly in Lancashire. The name is not well documented but is said to derive from the Old Norse birki, meaning ‘birch tree’. This would be one of the many places in Greater Manchester taking its name from a type of tree.

BIRTENSHAW is an area in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is recorded in 1277 as Byrkenshaw, meaning ‘birch copse’, from Old English bircen (‘birch tree’) + sceaga (‘copse, small wood’), referring to the ancient once-wooded landscape of much of Greater Manchester.

BIRTLE is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, west of the town of Rochdale itself. It is recorded in 1246 as Birkel, meaning ‘birch tree hill’, from Old English birce (‘birch’) + hyll (‘hill’), referring to a 282-metre hill nearby. The name is one of many examples of place names taken from the landscape of pre-Norman Britain.

BLACK BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell which rises in Tottington in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and flows roughly east for 266 metres to join with Kirklees Brook. It is one of several streams called Black Brook in north-west England, all meaning literally ‘dark, black (Old English blæc) brook (brōc)’.

BLACK CHEW HEAD is a hill in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and, at 542 metres, the highest point in Greater Manchester. The name is recorded in 1468 as Blackchew-hede, meaning ‘black valley head’, from the Old English blaec (‘black’) + cēo (‘valley’) + hēafod (‘head, headland, river source’). The ‘valley’ refers to that of Chew Brook, which rises on its western slopes and flows to Dovestones Reservoir before joining the River Tame at Greenfield.

BLACKFORD BRIDGE is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury that lies on the River Roch just above its confluence with the River Irwell. The name is not well documented but it is thought that Blackford refers to an ancient ford across the Black Brook or dark river, i.e. the Roch, on the road between Manchester and Bury. The first bridge had been built by 1551 and the name Blackford Bridge is recorded in 1667. This bridge was replaced in the mid-18^th century and a new bridge was built in 1903.

BLACKFRIARS is a suburb of the City of Salford on the River Irwell. It takes its name from Blackfriars Bridge over the Irwell and connects Salford with Manchester. The first Blackfriars Bridge was built in 1761 to provide access to a theatre in Salford. There are two related theories about its naming. One is that it was named after Blackfriars Bridge across the Thames in London, which was built in 1760-1769 and was itself named for a 13^th-century Dominican monastery north of the Thamas. The second is that it was named after the old Blackfriars theatres in London, the first of which was built on the site of the Blackfriars monastery in 1576. The original Salford bridge was demolished in 1817 and replaced by the present bridge, which was opened in 1820. Blackfriars is an early example of a transferred name and one which seems to have been intended to gentrify parts of Salford and Manchester.

BLACK LANE is a residential area north of Radcliffe in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is not well documented. It is evidently named after its position on a road going north towards the moors and the name was standardised by the Lancashire & Yorkshire when it opened Black Lane station on 20 November 1848.

BLACKLEACH COUNTRY PARK is a 50-hectare nature reserve just north of Walkden in the City of Salford. The name is recorded in about 1250 as Blakelache, although the location is difficult to verify. The name means ‘black stream or bog’ from Old English blak + lache (‘boggy stream’). Modern Blackleach dates from 1778, when it was developed as an industrial site with chemical works. The polluted site was derelict by 1976 but was transformed into a nature reserve, which was opened in 2004.

BLACKLEY is a residential district on the River Irk in the City of Manchester, about 8 kilometres north of the city centre. Some sources state that Blackley is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, but the earliest record is usually put at 1282, when it is given as Blakeley, meaning ‘black or dark wood or clearing’, from Old English blæc + lēah.

BLACKMOOR is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded in about 1210 as Blakemore, literally meaning ‘black moor’, from Old English blæc + mōr. Blackmoor is further west than most of the other moors in Greater Manchester and it is likely that the original meaning here would have been ‘marshy land’ rather than ‘barren upland’.

BLACK MOSS COVERT NATURE RESERVE is a 2.1-hectare site of biological importance west of Altrincham in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It seemingly takes its name from Black Moss Farm, which appears on maps of 1831, although the name is probably much older. It is derived from the Old English blæc (‘black, dark’) + mos (‘marsh, bog’). ‘Covert’ is a mediaeval borrowing from French that is applied particularly to a thicket in which animals or game can hide.

BLACK MOSS RESERVOIRS are two reservoirs built in the early 19^th century to supply water to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. Black Moss Reservoir is in Kirklees in Lancashire, while Little Moss Reservoir is in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. They take their names from Black Moss, a moorland area to the east in the Peak District National Park. The name is derived from the Old English blæc (‘black, dark’) + mos (‘marsh, bog’).

BLACKROD is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, west of the town centre. It is recorded in about 1188 as Blacherode, meaning ‘dark clearing’, from Old English blæc + rodu, referring to the darkness of the clearing rather than the colour of the trees or the soil. A second, less likely theory is that the ‘rod’ might be the Holy Rood, the cross of Christ, from the Old English rod.

BLACKSHAW BROOK is a tributary of the River Croal which rises east of Bottom o’ the Moor and flows south and south-west to Pocket in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton where Middle Brook becomes the Croal. It gives its name to Blackshaw Brook, a 10.8-hectare woodland area. The name means ‘small black wood’, from Old English blæc + sceaga (‘copse’).

BLACKSTONE EDGE is a 472-metre escarpment in the Pennines in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale on the boundary between Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. It is recorded in 1291 as Blackesteyenegge and with its modern spelling from 1551. It gives its name to Blackstone Edge Reservoir, built in 1798 to supply water to the Rochdale Canal. The name literally means ‘black stone’ from Middle English blak + stān, referring to the colour of the gritstone of which it is composed, + ecg (‘edge’). This appearance struck Celia Fiennes, who rode up Blackstone Edge in 1698 and said that was ‘noted all over England for a dismal high precipice’.

BLATCHINWORTH is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in 1276 as Blackenworthe. It might mean ‘Blaeca’s enclosed settlement’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + -ingas- (‘belonging to’) + worth, or it could mean ‘bleaching area’, from Old English blǣcon (‘bleaching’) + worth.

BLEAK HEY NOOK is a hamlet of former weavers’ cottages on Saddleworth Moor north-east of Delph in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in baptismal records in 1813 and is descriptive, coming from Middle English blæc (‘bleak, dark’) + hæag (‘enclosure’) + nōk (‘nook of land; triangular plot’).

BLUE PITS or BLUE PITS VILLAGE was the original name for Castleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is not well documented until the late 18^th century, when the Rochdale Canal was being constructed and its highest lock was called Blue Pit from the blue clay extracted from a local quarry. The name of the village was changed to Castleton in 1875, when it became an urban district council.

BOARDMAN BROOK is a tributary of the River Irk. It rises north of Blackley in the City of Manchester and flows north-west to empty into the Irk east of Rhodes in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It takes its name from Boardman’s Tenement or Estate, which is recorded in 1808 as the site of Harpurhey Hall. The apostrophe suggests that it was named after a local family, but one source suggests that a ‘boardman’ was a tenant (i.e. a boarder) who paid rent in kind.

BOARSHAW is residential area in north-east Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale which also gives its name to Boarshaw Clough, a 6-hectare recreational area and nature site. The name is not well documented but, according to local legend, the area was once a forest that was home to wild boar and in the 15^th century Sir Ralph Assheton found a boar attacking Margaret Barton, a local heiress. He killed the boar and the two were later married. The event seems to have been commemorated in the name, derived from bar (‘a boar’) + sceaga (‘copse, small wood’). Clough comes from Old English clōh (‘deep valley’), referring to the valley of Whit Brook.

BOAR’S HEAD is a residential area in Standish in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, north of Wigan town centre. It is said to take its name from a local pub dating from the 13^th century and thought to be one of the oldest in England. Boar’s Head lies close to the River Douglas at a point where the roads to Preston, Chorley and Wigan meet. The name of the district was standardised when the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway and the Lancashire Union Railways opened a joint station named Boar’s Head on 1 December 1869.

BOARSHURST is a rural area of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham close to the moors of Saddleworth. The name is not well documented but is recorded in 1583 and presumably means ‘the wooded hill where boars are found’, from the Old English bar (‘a boar’) + hyrst (‘wooded hill’), referring to the local wildlife and landscape.

BOGGART HOLE CLOUGH is a 76-hectare country park in Blackley in the City of Manchester. The name is recorded in 1867, and in 1893, when Manchester Corporation purchased the land for health and recreational reasons. However, it is evident that some of its elements may derive from earlier times: a boggart is a dialect word for an evil goblin or sprite dating from 1570 according to the Oxford English Dictionary; Hole may well be the house that was haunted by the boggart rather than a lake; and it is said that in the 17^th century the area was known simply as ‘the clough’, referring to a wooded valley, from Old English clōh. Taken together, the name would mean ‘the wooded valley with a house haunted by an evil goblin’.

BOGGART STONES is a rock formation on Saddleworth Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The stones are said to be haunted by a boggart, a north-western dialect term for an evil or mischievous goblin. The landmark is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1843 but boggart is first recorded in 1570.

BOLHOLT is an area within the Metropolitan Borough of Bury that also gives its name to a 20-hectare country park. The name is not well documented, although Bolholt House is said to date from the early 17^th century. The name means ‘wood on a smooth, rounded hill’, from the Old English bol (‘rounded hill’) + holt (‘wood, thicket’). In 1969 Bolholt House and estate were converted into a country park.

River BOLLIN is a tributary of the Mersey which rises in the Derbyshire Peak District, flows through northern Cheshire and beneath Manchester Airport. It then forms the border between Cheshire and Greater Manchester before joining the Mersey at Rixton in Cheshire. The name is first found as Bolyn in about 1275. The origin of the name is unclear – one suggestion is Old English bōl + hlynn, meaning ‘a noisy river or torrent’. The river lends its name to Bollington in Cheshire: the tūn or ‘farm on the Bollin’. Apart from Cotterill Brook and the River Dean, all of the Bollin’s tributaries are in Cheshire.

BOLLINHURST BROOK is a tributary of the Mersey that rises in the Derbyshire Peak District and flows some 15 kilometres to its confluence with the Mersey near Cheadle. Its name changes at various points along the way. At its source it is Bollinhurst Brook, from the Middle English bolling (‘pollarding, the cropping of branches from the trunk for poles or wattles’) + hyrst, ‘a wooded hill’. It then becomes Norbury Brook (see Norbury), Bramhall Brook (see Bramhall), the Ladybrook (probably from ‘our Lady’, the mother of Christ) and finally the Micker Brook (perhaps Old English micel, ‘big, great’).

BOLSHAW OUTWOOD is a residential area of Heald Green in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was originally an area of waste or common ground that was enclosed as farmland in the early 19^th century. Bolshaw was recorded in 1380 as Bolshagh, meaning ‘pollarded copse’, from Old English bola (‘tree-trunk, a log, a plank’) + sceaga (‘small wood, copse’). Outwood is recorded in 1586 and means ‘outlying wood’, from Old English ūt + wudu. The combined name of Bolshaw Outwood is found from 1812.

BOLTON is a town, formerly in Lancashire, and a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester since 1974. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Bodeltun and as Bolton since 1307. Until 1838, the town was divided between Little Bolton and Great Bolton, with the two separated by the River Croal. In that year the two were amalgamated as a single municipality. The name is derived from the Old English bōthl, meaning ‘building, farmhouse’, + tūn, ‘settlement’. The name is quite common in northern England and is generally thought to mean ‘a new place’.

BOOTH’S BANK is a residential area to the east of Boothstown in the City of Salford. It lies to the north of the Bridgewater Canal. The name is not well documented but an estate called ‘The Booths’ is recorded in 1323, meaning ‘a place with small huts’, from the Old English both. Booth’s Bank Farm is recorded in 1786, with bank meaning ‘the slope of a hill’.

BOOTHSTOWN is a suburb of the City of Salford that was previously in Lancashire. The name first appears as Bothes man, referring to Booths Manor, in 1500 and seems to become Boothstown only in the late 18^th century with the extension of the Bridgewater Canal through Boothstown and the development of the coal trade. The original name of the Booths is derived from the Old English both, meaning ‘a small hut or enclosure’ used by a herdsman.

BORSDANE WOOD and BORSDANE BROOK Borsdane Wood is a 26-hectare nature reserve in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It was originally part of the great Lancashire forest and is mentioned in about 1215 as a stream named Ballesdenebroc, meaning ‘Boell’s valley stream’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Bœll + denu (‘long valley’) + brōc (‘stream’). Parts of the forest were acquired over the years but in 1931 a large area was donated to the local authorities and opened as Borsdane (sometimes spelled ‘Borsden’) Wood. Borsdane Brook rises east of Platt Bridge and flows south-west to join Hey Brook, which ultimately meets the River Glaze.

BOSDEN is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport to the east of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1233-1236 as Bosedun, meaning ‘Bōsa’s Hill’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + dūn (‘hill’).

BOTANY BAY WOODS is a woodland area east of Eccles in the City of Salford – the largest wooded area in Greater Manchester. It was originally planted from about 1760 as a long-term source of wood for the Bridgewater Canal and the name was in use by the end of the century. The origin is uncertain and disputed, but one theory is that it was named after the Australian penal colony because of its remoteness at the time. Botany Bay in Australia was originally named Stingray Harbour by Captain James Cook in 1770 but he later changed this to Botany Bay because of the large number of botanical specimens obtained there.

BOTTLING WOOD is a 13-hectare woodland area and residential district in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, about 1 kilometre north-east of Wigan town centre to the east of the River Douglas. The Bottling Wood Colliery had been established by 1800 and a hamlet with the name was recorded in 1827. However, the name seems older and is usually said to be a corruption of Battling Wood. The reference is to the Battle of Wigan Lane, fought on 25 August 1651 during the Civil War on the east bank of the River Douglas.

BOTTOM OF WOODHOUSES See WOODHOUSES

BOTTOM O’ TH’ BROW is a residential area of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale on the south bank of the River Roch. The name is recorded in 1850 and its meaning is literal – the bottom of the brow, meaning ‘hill’ (Old English bru). Up the hill is Bridge Street, where the road runs over Wrigley Brook, and it was here that Heywood’s first water-powered cotton mill was built in 1777.

BOTTOMS is an area of Mossley in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. Historically, Mossley was divided between Top Mossley (see Brookbottom) and Bottom Mossley, and both names are still in use. However, Bottom Mossley was shortened to Bottoms, a name which seems to have come into use at the end of the 18th century: Bottoms Hall, which later became the apprentice house for Bottoms Mill, is recorded in 1787.

BOUNDARY PARK is a mixed-use sports stadium in Oldham and the home of Oldham Athletic football club. It was originally built in 1896 and named the Athletic Ground, but the name was changed at some point to reflect its position in north-west Oldham close to the town’s boundaries with Royton and Chadderton.

BOWDON is a suburb of Altrincham in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford that was in Cheshire until 1974. The name is first recorded as Bogedone in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is described as having a church and a mill (see Appendix 1). The name means ‘rounded hill’ from the Old English boga (‘curved, bow-shaped’) + dūn (‘hill’).

BOWER BROOK is a tributary of the River Irk which flows from Werneth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham to meet Hole Bottom Brook in Failsworth, forming Moston Brook. The name occurs on the Ordnance Survey maps of the area in the late 1840s and means ‘a stream flowing from or through a bower or a shady, leafy area (Old English būr)’.

BOWER FOLD is residential and recreational area south of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is recorded in 1840 as Boar Fold, meaning ‘enclosure for boars’, from the Old English bār + fald. By the 20^th century, the name was rationalised to Bower Fold, which is perhaps more genteel.

BOWGREEN is a residential and recreational area of south-west Altrincham in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is recorded as Bowgreen in 1647, probably referring to a farm round which the residential area developed in the 19^th century. Bowgreen lies on low-lying ground between Bowdon and the River Bollin and means ‘the green below Bowdon hill’, from Old English boga (‘rounded hill’) + grēne.

BOWKER VALE is a suburban area of Blackley on the River Irk in the City of Manchester. The name is not well documented but is said to date from mediaeval times when cloth was bleached on the banks of the River Irk using sunlight, rain, sour milk and urine from nearby Blackley village. The process was known as bowkering and gave its name both to the village and the surname.

BOWLEE is a village on the outskirts of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Bowlee is not well documented but is said to have been settled in mediaeval times. The name is found elsewhere in England and is probably derived from Bola + –lēah (‘wood, glade’). Bola could be a personal name or the Old English for a tree-trunk or log.

BOYSNOPE is an area of Eccles in the City of Salford on the north bank of the River Irwell and the Manchester Ship Canal with a tradition of waste disposal and, more recently, farming and recreation. The name is recorded in 1277 as Boylsnape and is thought to come from Middle English bole (‘bull’) + snape (‘pasture’).

BOZ PARK is a nature reserve in the Besses o’ th’ Barn district of Whitefield in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It was opened in the early years of the 21^st century on land donated by a local farmer in memory of his son, Colin ‘Boz’ Tracey.

BRABYNS PARK is a 36-hectare public park beside the River Goyt in Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It is laid out in a former estate that was inherited in 1749 by Elizabeth Brabyn (or Brabin). She and her husband, Dr Henry Brabyn, landscaped the grounds and built Brabyns Hall. Both grounds and hall were eventually purchased by Cheshire County Council in 1941 and the estate was opened as a public park in 1947.

BRADFORD is a district in east Manchester, about 4 kilometres north-east of the city centre. The name was first recorded in 1196 as Bradeford, from the Old English brād + ford meaning ‘broad ford’ across the River Medlock, and distinguishing the place from a narrower ford in neighbouring Beswick. It remained a rural area until industrialised in the 19^th century with collieries, an ironworks and brickworks. These all closed in the 1960s and the area went into decline but it has been regenerated since 2000 as Eastlands and the campus of the Etihad Stadium.

BRADLEY BROOK is a tributary of River Irwell which rises in the north of Philips Park in Prestwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It flows south-south-west through Mere Clough in the park and joins the Irwell south of the park in the Waterdale area of Prestwich. The name derives from the Old English brād (‘broad, wide’) + lēah (‘woodland clearing’).

BRADLEY FOLD is a residential and commercial area in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, approximately midway between Bury and Bolton. It is not well documented before the opening of Bradley Fold station by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1849, but the name is probably much older, deriving from the Old English brād (‘broad, wide’) + lēah (‘woodland clearing’).

BRADSHAW is a village in Turton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is first recorded in 1246 as Bradeshawe, meaning ‘broad, extensive wood or copse’ from the Old English brāda + sceaga.

BRADSHAW BROOK is a tributary of the River Tonge that takes its name from the village of Bradshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It rises in Lancashire as Cadshaw Brook but changes its name as it emerges from Wayoh (Old English weg meaning ‘way, path’ + hoh meaning ‘spur of a hill’) Reservoir. As Bradshaw Brook it flows into the River Tonge in Leverhulme Park near Bolton.

BRADSHAW CHAPEL is an outlying area of the village of Bradshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is recorded in 1610 but it is likely that the settlement dates back to Norman times as it developed round an older church or chapel uniquely dedicated to St Maxentius, a Norman saint.

BRAMALL HALL is a country house in Bramhall in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, parts of which date from the 14^th century, set in 20 hectares of land known as Bramhall Park. The earliest parts were owned by the Davenport family (who gave their name to neighbouring Davenport) but it was sold in 1877 and acquired in 1935 by the local council, which opened it to the public. The hall takes its name from Bramhall village but Charles Nevill, who owned the hall from 1883 until his death in 1916, claimed that the Bramall spelling without an H was closer to that used in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1).

BRAMHALL is a leafy suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport that was formerly in Cheshire. It was included as Bramale in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was said, ‘There is land for 6 ploughs. There is woodland half a league long and as much wide, and half an enclosure and 1 acre of meadow. He found it waste’ (see Appendix 1). This part of the village was below Bramall Hall at Bramhall Green where the Lady Brook bends but the opening of Bramhall station by the Manchester & Birmingham Railway in 1845 gradually drew development about 1.5 kilometres south. The name means ‘corner of land where broom grows’ from Old English brōm + halh, and the name is recorded as Bromhall as late as 1577.

BRAMHALL GREEN is an area of Bramhall in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport to the north of what is now the main village, although it is where much of Bramhall was originally located. The name is recorded from 1777. The green is in a meander (halh) of the Lady Brook, which once provided power for a corn mill close to Womanscroft bridge. The village gradually moved to its current location following the opening of the railway station in 1845.

BRAMHALL MOOR is a residential and commercial area of Bramhall in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport along the old Roman road to Buxton, now the A6. This was the main population centre of Bramhall until the 19^th century. Records refer to Bromhall Moore in 1632 and the name is one of several moors along the A6, including Heaton Moor, Great Moor and Woodsmoor.

BRANDLESHOLME is an area in Bury which dates from mediaeval times. The name is recorded as Brandolfholm in 1285 and some sources claim that this is from Brandlesholme, the family name of the landowner from the 12^th to the 16^th centuries. Others suggest that that name may be older – the holm (‘island, raised land’) of Uhtbrand, an Anglo-Saxon personal name that is found in many ‘Brand’ places in the Domesday Book of 1086.

BRANDWOOD is an area of Spotland in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is first recorded in about 1200 as Brendwood, meaning ‘the burnt wood’ or ‘the wood that has been cleared by burning’, from Middle English brend (‘burnt’) + wudu (‘wood’).

BREARLEY BROOK is a short tributary of the River Roch, which rises near Syke in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows west and then north-west to join Hollingworth Brook, which then merges with Ealees Brook to join the Roch at Littleborough. The name is not well documented. It takes its name from the isolated settlement of Brearley, west of Whittaker. It means ‘clearing among the briars’, from Old English brær/brēr (‘briar, bramble’) + lēah (‘woodland clearing’).

BREDBURY is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, about 3 kilometres east of Stockport itself and 13 kilometres south-east of Manchester. It is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Bretberie (see Appendix 1), meaning ‘a stronghold built of boards’, suggesting that it was an Anglo-Saxon fortification. The name comes from the Old English bred-, meaning ‘board, plank’, + byrig (‘fortified place’).

BREIGHTMET is a district in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, formerly in Lancashire. It is first recorded in 1257 as Brihtmede, at about the same time as workers from Flanders and the Netherlands moved into the area to establish a textile industry. The name comes from the Old English breorht, ‘bright, beautiful’ + mæd, ‘meadow’.

The BRICK COMMUNITY STADIUM is a mixed-use sports venue in Wigan and home to Wigan Athletic football and Wigan Wanderers rugby clubs. It was built in 1999 and opened as called the JJB Stadium after its original sponsor, which had been founded in Wigan by John Jarvis Broughton as a sportswear supplier in the early 1900s. It was renamed in 2024 after The Brick, a local charity.

BRIDGEWATER CANAL was the first industrial canal in Britain, and was built in 1759-1761 by the 3^rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803) to transport coal from his mines at Worsley to the centre of Manchester at Knott Mill. The canal was later extended from Worsley to Leigh and from Manchester to Runcorn in Cheshire. The dukes of Bridgewater took their title from Bridgwater in Somerset, a name which probably originally meant ‘Walter’s bridge’ rather than ‘the bridge over the water’.

BRIDGEWATER GARDENS are a 62-hectare public garden in the grounds of the former Worsley New Hall in the City of Salford opened by the Royal Horticultural Society in 2021. The name is taken from the Bridgewater Canal, which forms the southern boundary.

BRIDGEWATER HALL is a concert venue in central Manchester, opened in 1996. It is named after the Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803) who commissioned the nearby Bridgewater Canal.

BRIMMY BROOK is a short stream which probably takes its name from Brimmy Croft, a farmstead recorded in 1733. It flows south-west to join Lumb Hole Brook, which then meets the River Tame in Denshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name and origin are undocumented but two possibilities have been put forward: it could mean ‘the brook flowing from or along a brim or edge’ (Middle English brimme), or ‘the brook in an area overgrown with broom wood (Old English bromig).

BRIMROD is a locality in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It is first recorded in the 13^th century as Bromyrode, meaning ‘clearing among broomwood’ from Old English brom + –rod (‘clearing’).

BRINDLE HEATH is a residential area of Pendleton in the City of Salford between the River Irwell and the Manchester Ship Canal. It is recorded in 1324 as Brendlache meaning ‘a brown stream flowing through boggy land’, from Middle English brend-, meaning ‘burnt, brown’, + –lache, meaning ‘a stream flowing through boggy land’. Presumably this was a muddy brown stream or ditch flowing into the Irwell.

BRINKSWAY is an area of Cheadle in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport and also a network of caves that date from 1670, perhaps earlier. The name is taken from a road through the area from Cheadle Heath to Stockport meaning ‘road at the edge or boundary’, from the Middle English brink (‘edge, bank, border) + -weg (‘a path or road’). The road runs along the south edge of the Mersey valley, which explains its name.

BRINNINGTON is a suburb of Stockport north-east of the town centre. It is first recorded in 1248 as Bruninton but has its modern spelling by 1290. It means ‘the village of farmstead of Brӯni’s followers’, from the personal name Brӯni + -ing- (followers, people of) + –tūn (‘village, estate, etc’).

BROADBENT is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, north-east of Oldham town centre. The name is not well documented but the surname Broadbent, which is said to be derived from the village near Oldham, is common from the mid-16^th century. The name means ‘reeds that are broad and bent’, from the Old English brād + beonet (‘bent grass’).

BROADBOTTOM is a village on the River Etherow in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is first recorded in 1286 as Brodebothem, meaning ‘wide valley’, from Old English brād + bothm, which aptly describes the location of the village.

BROAD CARR is a rural area of Mossley in Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is not well documented but may take its name from a local farm. The likely meaning is ‘broad, rocky place’, from Old English brād (‘broad, wide’) + carr (‘rocky place’).

BROAD EES DOLE is a wildlife park and nature reserve north-east of Sale Water Park beside the River Mersey in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It was opened in 1987 and its name echoes its former uses: Old English brād (‘broad, spacious’) + ees (‘wetland’) + dole (‘common land shared out among local people’).

BROADFIELD is an area of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, formerly in Lancashire. It had a number of cotton mills in the 19^th century but the district has little early documentation. Its name is derived from the Old English brād, meaning ‘broad, spacious’ + feld, ‘field, area of land cleared of trees’.

BROADHALGH is a suburban area of Spotland in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in the 13^th century as Brodehalgh, meaning ‘the broad nook’, from the Old English brād (‘broad, wide’) + halh (‘nook or corner of land’), aptly describing its position on the meandering River Roch, which runs south of the area.

BROADHEAD MOSS is an upland area in the Peak District National Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Broadhead is recorded in 1730 and means ‘broad headland’, from Old English brād + hēafod. Broadhead Moss is recorded on the 1843 Ordnance Survey map, with moss coming from the Old English mos, meaning ‘bog, swamp’.

BROADHEATH is a suburban area of Altrincham in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is first recorded in 1831 and is composed of two modern English words describing its location and landscape. The area developed following the extension of the Bridgewater Canal to Altrincham and Broadheath in 1765 and was initially involved in the supply of vegetables to Manchester. In 1885 Harry Grey, the 8^th Earl of Stamford of Dunham Massey, gave a square kilometre of land to develop an industrial estate at Broadheath to attract engineering companies.

BROADHURST PARK is a recreational area in Moston in the City of Manchester. The land originally formed part of the estate of Moston Hall but in 1920 its owner, Sir Edward Tootal Broadhurst (1858-1922), a Manchester cotton manufacturer, donated 32 hectares to the City of Manchester to commemorate the First World War. United of Manchester built a football stadium in Broadhurst Park in 2015.

BROADLEY is an area of Spotland close to the River Spodden in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is first recorded in 1228 as Brodeleghbrok, meaning ‘a broad clearing by a brook’, from the Old English brād (‘broad, wide’) + lēah (clearing’) + brōc (‘brook, stream’), which describes its position on a small tributary of the Spodden.

BROAD MILLS HERITAGE SITE is a visitors’ attraction in Broadbottom in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It occupies the site of Broadbottom Mills, a large textile mill originally built in 1802-1824. The name was changed to Broad Mills in the early 1900s. Much of the mill was destroyed by fire in 1949 and the site was purchased by the council in the 1980s to develop as a tourist attraction.

BROAD OAK is an area of Worsley in the City of Salford that also gives its name to Broadoak Park. There are several places named Broad Oak in Greater Manchester and Lancashire, all deriving their names from the Old English brād (‘broad, wide’) + āc (‘oak’). The name literally means ‘broad oak’ but may be a reference to a particularly prominent oak tree that marked a boundary. Broadoak Park was originally the estate of Westwood Park and is now used as Worsley Golf Course.

BROADSTONE CLOUGH is a valley north-east of Pobgreen in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. A stream rises on Broadstone Hill on Broadstone Moss and flows west through the clough to join Wickens Brook, a tributary of the River Tame. The name is recorded in 1272 as Brodeston, meaning quite literally ’broad or large stones’ from Old English brād + stān. Clough means ‘deep valley, ravine’ from Old English clōh.

BROADWAY is a Metrolink tram stop in Eccles in the Metropolitan Borough of Salford. It was opened on 6 December 1999 and is named after a nearby road. The name of the road is recorded at least as far back as 1871.

BROCSTEDES was one of the hamlets that made up Ashton-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan but today it survives as the name of the ground of Ashton Athletic Football Club. The name is not well documented before the first half of the 19^th century, when cottages were built which were recorded on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps. The meaning would seem to be ‘pastures beside a brook’, perhaps referring to Down Brook or one of its tributaries flowing from the north. The name is derived from Old English brōc (‘brook, stream’) + stede (‘pasture, farmstead’).

BROMLEY CROSS in a village in Bradshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. This is an eponym, the name coming from the Bromley or Bromiley family, who were landowners in the area since the 16^th century. The village developed in the 19^th century but the name is older as the cross which is included in the name has long since disappeared. The family name would have originated from another Bromley, meaning ‘wood or clearing where broom wood grows’ from the Old English brōm + lēah.

BROOK BOTTOM or BROOKBOTTOM is a residential area to the west of Mossley in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, sometimes known as Top Mossley. The name clearly means ‘the settlement in the bottom of a valley of a brook’ and is recorded in 1755. Today the brook, a tributary of the River Tame, is partially culverted but it is of historical importance as it formerly marked the boundary between Lancashire and Yorkshire, and for this reason it is (or was) sometimes referred to as the County Brook.

BROOK BOTTOM BROOK is a stream which rises as New Gate Brook on the West Pennine Moors in Lancashire and becomes Brook Bottom Brook as it flows west into the Metropolitan Borough of Bury in Greater Manchester. It then continues west to join Dearden Brook and meet the River Irwell in Chatterton in Lancashire. The somewhat odd name may be derived from a settlement in the bottom of the valley of an originally-unnamed brook, which was later named Brook Bottom Brook by cartographers.

BROOKDALE PARK There are several places in Greater Manchester called Brookdale, all meaning ‘stream valley’ from Old English brōc (‘brook, stream’) + dæl (‘valley, hollow’). Brookdale Park in Newton Heath in the City of Manchester was originally developed as a personal estate beside the River Medlock by John Taylor JP in the mid-19^th century. The estate was purchased by Manchester Corporation in 1900 and converted into an 18-hectare public park, opened in 1904.

BROOK GREEN is a residential area of Gorton in the City of Manchester. The name seems to have originated in the 16^th century when marshland beside Gore Brook was converted into a green, i.e. a farm or small estate. During the 19^th century the area became more industrial, particularly with the opening of two railway works in Gorton in 1848 and 1855.

BROOKHEYS NATURE RESERVE is a 2.35-hectare woodland and area of special scientific interest north of Dunham Massey in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It takes its name from Brookheys Farm, which is recorded in the area in 1829. The name means ‘enclosures by a brook’, from the Old English brōc (‘brook, stream’) + hege or hæg, meaning ‘enclosure, hedge or hay’, probably referring to Sinderland Brook.

BROOKLANDS is an area of Sale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, approximately 9 kilometres south-west of Manchester city centre. Brooklands is an eponym, named after Samuel Brooks (1793-1864), who purchased land in the area in 1856. The name was unofficial at first but was standardised when the Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway opened a station named Brooklands on 1 December 1859.

BROOKSBOTTOMS is a residential location in Summerseat in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It lies on the north bank of the River Irwell at the point where the Irwell flows out of Gollinrod Gorge and where, a little downstream, Holcombe Brook meets the Irwell. The name is recorded in 1773 in reference to Brooksbottoms Mill, but is almost certainly much older, and on some 19^th-century maps it is spelled Brox Bottom. It means ‘the valley or bottom of one or more brooks’, referring to the Irwell and/or Holcombe Brook.

BROOMWOOD is a residential area south of Timperley in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford built by Altrincham Borough Council in the early 1950s. I can find no record of the name in this area prior to 1949 and it appears to be “mock Anglo-Saxon” – created from the Old English brōm (‘broomwood) + wudu (‘wood’) – to suggest that it was an ancient wooded settlement.

BROUGHTON is a suburb of the City of Salford on the east bank of the River Irwell, approximately 1.5 kilometres north-west of Manchester city centre. There are several places called Broughton in Britain and the origins of the name may be different and hard to distinguish. The name is first recorded at this location in 1177 as Burton, but the spelling Brughton was in use by the 16^th century. It is usually said to mean ‘fortified village’ from Old English burh (‘fortified place, stronghold’) + tūn (‘village, estate’). There are several places called Broughton in England, including at least four in Lancashire. All of these are usually said to mean ‘the settlement (tūn) by a stream (brōc)’, but this derivation is thought not to apply to Broughton in Salford.

BROWNHOUSE WHAM RESERVOIR was built in the 1860s to supply water to Rochdale. It takes it name from a house, probably a farmhouse, called Brownhouse in the area before it was built. Brownhouse is said to mean ‘house on a round hill’, from the Celtic bron. Wham is a small valley, especially a boggy hollow, from the Old Norse hwam.

BROWNLEY GREEN is an area of Wythenshawe in the City of Manchester. The name is recorded in 1260 as Brumleg, meaning ‘wood or clearing where broom wood grows’ from the Old English brōm + lēah.

BROWNLOW is a rural, wooded area of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, south-west of Wigan itself. There are several places called Brownlow in north-west England, none of them well documented. A school was built in Brownlow in Wigan in 1672 but the area was probably named long before that date. It means ‘brown hill’ from the Old English brūn + hlāw (‘hill, mound’). Brownlow is close to Billinge Hill, which is 179 metres high.

BROWNLOW FOLD is a residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, north-west of Bolton town centre. The name dates from the early 17^thcentury when the land was owned by the Brownlow family, the same family that owned Hall i’ th’ Wood. Fold refers to a small group of cottages and farm buildings. In the 19^th century the name became applied to a broader area as the neighbourhood expanded around a colliery and brickworks.

BRUN BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises east of Harrop Ridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows south-west through Brun Clough to join Diggle Brook, which then flows south to meet the Tame. The name is recorded in 1724 and is thought to derive from either Old Norse brún, meaning ‘moor’, or bruni, ‘a place cleared by burning’.

BRUNSWICK is a district in the City of Manchester, south of the city centre. It takes its name from Brunswick Street (now Brunswick Park), which lies a little to the north and was laid out in the 1880s with the expansion of the campus of the University of Manchester. Brunswick is the anglicised version of the city of Braunschweig (‘Bruno’s settlement’) in northern Germany. German influence in the city and the university was very strong at this time and the first use of this name was Brunswick Mill in Ancoats, which was completed in 1840.

BRUNTWOOD PARK is a 40-hectare public park in Cheadle in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name dates from 1860, when John Douglas, a Bradford wool merchant, purchased land in the area and laid out an estate and hall which he named Bruntwood, apparently celebrating his wife’s Scottish home in Bruntwood in Ayrshire. The local authority purchased the estate in 1944, using the hall as Cheadle and Gatley town hall and opening the grounds to the public as Bruntwood Park. The original name is thought to mean ‘burnt wood’.

BRUSHES is a residential area to the east of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside with housing estates developed between 1929 and 1939. It also gives its name to Brushes Reservoir, one of four built locally in the 19^th century, which was fed by Brushes Brook (formerly Leornardin Brook). The name is recorded in 1770 as Bruches, meaning ‘lands newly-cleared for cultivation’, from the Old English bryce.

BRYAN HEY RESERVOIR is a small reservoir north of Smithhills in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It was built in about 1921 for the local population and textile mills but is now a fishing spot. It takes its name from the nearby Bryan Hey Farm, which is recorded in the late 18^th century. The name seems to be a forename eponym: ‘the enclosed or hedged enclosure (Old English hæg) belonging to someone called Bryan’.

BRYN is a suburb of Ashton-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded in 1212 as Burnal, meaning ‘scorched land’, perhaps land cleared by burning the surrounding forest, from the Old English bryne (‘burning, fire’). Other sources suggest the name may be Celtic or Welsh in origin from bryn meaning ‘hill’.

BRYN GATES is a village and airfield north-east of Ashton-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is not well documented but Bryn Gates sits on the Bolton Road and it has been suggested that the name refers to turnpike gates on the road between Bolton and Bryn.

BRYN MARSH AND INCE MOSS is a 20.5-hectare water and wetland area of special scientific interest 3 kilometres south-east of Wigan that forms one of the seven sites of Wigan Flashes Nature Reserve. The area was formed at the turn of the 20^th century by subsidence caused by coal mining companies such as Bryn Hall and Ince Moss collieries. Mining came to an end in the 1960s and the area was set aside for conservation in 1989, becoming part of the Wigan Flashes Nature Reserve in 2022.

BUCKLEY is a suburb on the north-eastern edge of Rochdale beside Buckley Brook, a tributary of the River Roch. The name is recorded in 1246 as Bukele and is usually said to mean ‘the clearing or meadow of the bucks’, from Old English bucca (‘he-goat’) + lēah (‘clearing, meadow’). However, it has also been suggested that the name could be taken from Buckley family, who were resident in the area in the Norman period.

BUCKLEY WELLS is a suburb on the south-western edge of Bury, east of the River Irwell. The name appears on the tithe map of 1837 and again in 1856, when the East Lancashire Railway built a locomotive works there. The name is probably an eponym, meaning ‘the place where there are wells or springs on land belonging to someone called Buckley’.

BUCKLEY WOOD is a location north of Chadderton and the River Irk in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name first appears on the Ordnance Survey maps of the 1880s and probably refers to a wooded area belonging to the Buckley family, whose name appears as landowners on 19^th-century tithe maps.

BUCKLOW is a residential area that was split in 1974 between Cheshire and the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester. Bucklow was one of the 12 ancient hundreds of Cheshire and is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Bochelau Hd with a value of 18 hides, 6 virgates and 7 bovates. The settlement of Bucklow is recorded in 1240 as Boclou and various suggestions have been made for its origin: ‘beech hill’ from Old English bece (‘beech-tree’) + hlāw (‘mound’); ‘buck’s hill’ from bucca (‘he-goat’) + hlāw; or ‘Bucca’s hill’ from an Anglo-Saxon personal name + hlāw.

BUCKTON CASTLE was a Norman castle north-east of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside atop Buckton Hill, overlooking Buckton Moor and the Tame valley. It was probably built and then demolished in the 12^th century, and nothing is visible today but the thick sandstone foundations have been excavated. The name means ‘buck valley’ from Old English bucca (‘buck’) + denu (‘valley’).

BUERSILL is a residential area in eastern Castleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in 1228 as Brideshull, meaning ‘Bridd’s hill’, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name + hyll, referring to its position at the foot of a hill.

BUILE HILL PARK is a 35-hectare public park in Salford. The present park combines several earlier parks and estates: Seedley Park (opened in 1876), Buile Hill Mansion (opened in 1903), Springfield Villa (1927) and Hart Hill House (opened in 1938). The park includes Buile Hill House, originally built in 1827 as the home of Sir Thomas Potter, the first Lord Mayor of Manchester and co-founder of the Manchester Guardian, and now awaiting restoration. The name Buile Hill is not well documented before 1598, but it is likely that it is an eponym. The family name of Buile means ‘dweller among the birch trees’ and originated in France, but no one with this family name has been traced in the Salford area.

BULL HEY is a residential and recreational area of Wigan north of the town centre. The name is little-documented before a mention of Bull Hey Cottages before 1870 and so the origin and meaning are uncertain. One possibility is that the name is taken directly from the Old English bula (‘bull’) + hæg (‘enclosure’), meaning ‘an enclosure for bulls’ or ‘an enclosure owned by someone keeping bulls’.

BULLOCK SMITHY was the original name for what is now Hazel Grove in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. In 1560 a certain Richard Bullock leased some land from a Richard Torkington to establish a smithy, and the area became known as Bullock’s Smithy. The village acquired a bad reputation, known for gambling, cock-fighting and dog and bull baiting, so that John Wesley described it as ‘One of the most famous villages in the country for all manner of wickedness’. In 1835 the villagers decided to change the name to the more aspirational Hazel Grove.

BUNKER HILL, Rochdale and BUNKERS HILL, Stockport There are hills across England named Bunker Hill, Bunkers Hill or Bunker’s Hill, all believed to commemorate the costly British victory at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 during the American War of Independence. Bunker Hill in Massachusetts is named after George Bunker, a settler from Bedfordshire who was given the land in 1634.

BURNAGE is a suburb of the City of Manchester roughly 6.5 kilometres south of the city centre. It is first recorded in 1322 as Bronage and Brownegg, thought to mean ‘brown (Old English brūn) hedges (hegge)’, although these may in fact have been brown stone walls. It remained a rural village throughout the 19^th century and in 1894 George Bernard Shaw described Burnage as the prettiest village in Manchester. There was some industrialisation in the early 20^th century and the opening of Burnage station by the London & North Western Railway in 1910 led to suburban development.

BURNDEN is a suburb of Bolton about 2 kilometres south-east of the town centre. It is first recorded in 1285 as Bornden, meaning ‘the valley where the stream flows’ from the Old English burna– (‘brook’) + -denu (‘valley’). The stream is Burnden Brook, a tributary of the River Croal. The Bolton Wanderers’ football stadium was built in Burnden in 1894 but was moved to the Toughsheet Stadium in 1997.

BURNEDGE is a residential area south-east of Rochdale. The name is recorded as Brynege in 1609 and means ‘burnt edge’, from Old English brende (‘a burnt place, a place destroyed or cleared by burning’) + ecg (‘edge; the edge of a hill, an escarpment’), referring to its position above Sudden Brook.

BURNLEY BROW is a residential area of Oldham, north of the town centre. The name is not well documented and it is not clear why it is called Burnley. It is close to Burnley Lane, but this does not lead to Burnley in Lancashire. Of course, many roads are given names of places that have little relationship to the place after which they are named: “You must understand that an English town is a vast conspiracy to mislead foreigners” (George Mikes). Burnley means ‘clearing beside the River Brun’, from Old English Brun (probably from brūn meaning ‘brown’) + lēah.

BURRS COUNTRY PARK is a 36-hectare public park on the River Irwell north of Bury town centre. Textile mills were built at Burrs from 1792 and the last was demolished in 1982. In 1986 the area was purchased by the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and converted into a country park. The name is not well documented but comes from the Old English burh meaning ‘a fortified place’, referring to a late Iron Age fort dating from the 5^th century BC that was occupied by the Romans and, later, the Anglo-Saxons, who gave it its present name.

BURTON ROAD is a Metrolink tram stop in West Didsbury in south Manchester opened on 23 May 2013 and named after the Victorian street it is located on, which probably took its name from the earlier Burton Farm.

BURY is a town, formerly in Lancashire, on a finger of land between the rivers Irwell and Roch about 14.5 kilometres north-north-west of Manchester city centre. It became a metropolitan borough with the creation of Greater Manchester in 1974. The name is first recorded in 1194 as Biri and with its modern spelling in about 1190. It means ‘at the fort’, from the Old English burg, although it is not known which fortification is referred to. Bury gives its name to Bury in Quebec, Canada.

BUSK is a residential area in Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented before the construction of the Busk cotton mill in 1847, but would seem be much older. It may possibly derive from the Old Norse buskr or the Old English busc, both meaning ‘a bush, a shrub’.

BUTLER GREEN is a residential area of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, also known as Washbrook. The name is not well documented before 1863, when the Butler Green Cotton Mill was erected by the Butler Green Cotton Spinning Company of Chadderton, suggesting that the village took its name from that of the company.

BUTTERHOUSE GREEN was a hamlet on the border between Bredbury and Woodley in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is thought to date from 1348, when it is recorded as Buterales, meaning ‘butter nook’, from Old English butere + halh. A map of 1710 shows five coal pits in the area called The Great Buteras and the modern name was in use by the end of the 18^th century when the Butterhouse Green Tunnel was completed on the Peak Forest Canal. The name does not appear on modern maps.

BUTTERWORTH HALL is a suburb in south-eastern Rochdale that was originally a hamlet east of Milnrow. Butterworth Hall was built in the reign of King Stephen (1135-54) and is recorded in 1235 as Buterworth, meaning ‘butter or dairy farm’, from Old English butere (‘butter’) + worth (‘homestead, enclosure’). However, it is recorded as Buckworth (Old English bucc, meaning ‘buck, stag’) in the early 14^th century and the Butterworth family prefer to derive the name from Old English butta (‘mound, hill’). The hamlet gave its name to Butterworth Hall Brook, a 2-kilometre stream which flows into the River Beal in Milnrow.

The BUTTS today is a commercial area in the centre of Rochdale. It is not well documented but in the 19^th century it was an area on the north bank of the River Roch beside a ford across the river. It is believed to date from mediaeval times, when it was an area set aside for archery practice. The name comes from the middle English butt, which was derived from the Anglo-French bouter, meaning ‘expel’. The term originally meant the archery target itself but the meaning was extended to include an area used for archery, especially after a law of 1252 required every adult male to possess and become proficient in the use of a longbow.

CADISHEAD is a village in the City of Salford on the north bank of the Manchester Ship Canal near the confluence of the Glazebrook and Irwell. The name is first recorded in 1212 as Cadewalesate. There have been various suggestions as to the origin and meaning of the name, the most common being that it means ‘settlement or pasture (Old English –set) by the stream (-waella-) of someone called Cada’.

CADSHAW BROOK, with Cadshaw Brook waterfall, is a stream running off Turton Moors and flowing into Turton and Entwistle Reservoir, and then into Wayoh Reservoir. It then becomes Bradshaw Brook and flows into the River Tonge in Leverhulme Park near Bolton. Cadshaw Brook takes its name from the village of Cadshaw in Lancashire. The name is recorded in about 1200 as Cadeshoubroc and evolved into Cadshawe by 1617 – an eponym meaning ‘Cada’s copse’, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name + sceaga (‘small wood, copse’).

CALAMANCO was an industrial area of Flixton in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford that seems to have disappeared from the maps. The name originates from the water-powered Calamanco logging mill, which seems to have been built beside the River Irwell in the late 17^th or early 18^th century. The mill also produced a dye used in the production of calamanco, a woollen fabric that was produced from the late 16^th century. The Mersey & Irwell Navigation built a lock at Calamanco in about 1721 and this remained in use until the Manchester Ship Canal was completed in 1893. The origin of the word calamanco is obscure: it first appears in English in 1598 and may come from the Spanish calamaco, meaning ‘worsted wool’.

CALDER BANK or CALDERBANK is a residential and recreational area of Urmston in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It takes its name from Calderbank Farm, which was established in about 1717 and thought to take its name from its position on the banks of the Calder, a reference to the nearby River Irwell derived from the Celtic caled, meaning ‘rapid stream’. Part of the farm was developed into a housing estate in 1953.

CALDERBROOK is a village on the River Roch in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name of the village is first recorded in 1843 but it is found much earlier as the name of two rivers in Lancashire, and it has even been suggested that it is an older Celtic name for the River Roch. The origin is Celtic caled, meaning ‘rapid stream’ + the later Old English –brōc, meaning ‘brook, stream’. There are several examples of reduplication in the names in Greater Manchester, where a tautologous Old English element is added to an earlier Welsh or Celtic name, perhaps as an explanation for the original but forgotten meaning.

CALDERMOOR is a residential area in Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is not well documented but the original hamlet of Caldermoor is known to have grown up in the 18^th century around the Caldermoor inn, which was built in 1755. Caldermoor is in the valley of the River Roch and takes its name from the Celtic caled, meaning ‘rapid stream’, which is thought to be the ancient name for the Roch. The addition of moor refers to its position on the edge of the moors north-east of Greater Manchester.

CALDERSHAW is a residential area on the north-western edge of Rochdale on the River Spodden before its confluence with the River Roch. The name is not well documented but would seem to mean ‘copse in the valley’ referring to its position on Caldershaw Brook, which rises south of Caldershaw and flows north-east to empty into the Spodden north-west of the town centre. The Spodden is a tributary of the Roch, which is believed to have been called the Calder, from the Celtic caled, meaning ‘rapid stream’. Shaw comes from the Old English sceaga, meaning ‘a small wood’.

CALDWELL BROOK is a stream that rises west of Broadheath in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford and flows northward to join Sinderland Brook just below Covershaw Bridge to form Red Brook, which then drains into the Manchester Ship Canal. It is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1842 and means ’cold stream’, from Old English cald (‘cold’) + wella (‘stream, spring’).

CALE GREEN is a residential area in the south Stockport. At the beginning of the 19^th century the area was occupied by Cale Green Farm, although little is known about the owner, John Cale. There appears to have been some industrial development as it is known that William Carrington & Co., hat manufacturers, were operating in the area by 1800. The farm was purchased in 1883 and this, combined with the opening of the nearby station at Davenport in 1858, appears to have led to more urban development. Lacrosse and cricket grounds were created in the 1880s and Cale Green Park was opened to the public in 1894 (or 1902 – sources differ) as the second public park in Stockport.

CALICO BROOK is a tributary of the River Douglas that rises in Shevington Vale in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows westward to join the Douglas in Appley Bridge in Lancashire. The origin of the name is uncertain. One suggestion is that it was called Quitebrok (meaning ‘White Brook’) in the 14^th century but this was changed to Calico Brook, perhaps in the 18^th century, with the development of the local calico weaving cottage industry, which is also reflected in other places nearby – Calico Woods, Calico Farm and Calico Cottage. Calico is first recorded in English in 1540 and is derived from the city of Kozhikode on the west coast of India, an eponymous Tamil name meaning ‘the Fort of Kalliai’.

CAMPFIELD is a former name for Castlefield, along Liverpool Road in the St John’s area of the City of Manchester. It is said that it was originally a field used as a camp for Roman troops and it was used as such during the Civil War and during the Jacobite incursion into England in 1745-1746. At the start of the 19^th century, it was used for open-air fairs and markets but two covered market halls were built in the 1870s. The Lower Campfield Market Hall was converted into the Manchester Air and Space Museum in the 1980s, but this was closed in 2021 and both halls have now been repurposed as an innovation centre.

CAPPER BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises south-west of Pobgreen in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows north-west to meet Royle Brook. The two then become Pickhill Brook, which flows west to empty into the Tame in Uppermill. The name and derivation are not well documented, but one possibility is that it is named after a local family called Capper, who may originally have been capmakers.

CAPTAIN FOLD or CAPTAIN’S FOLD is an urban district of Hopwood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is not well documented but seems to be from the Captain Fold Colliery, which was owned by the Heywood Coal Company and operated between 1842 and 1854. The premises had been acquired by the Atkinson rope manufacturers by 1880. It is unlikely that it refers to a naval or military man with the personal name of Fold. It is more likely that ‘fold’ refers to part of a farm or a small community. Local records suggest that Captain Fold was once called Captain Hardman’s Fold, but it is not known who Captain Hardman was.

CARR is an area north of Diggle and Harrop Green in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1736 and is probably derived from the Old Norse kjarr, meaning ‘boggy area covered with dense undergrowth’.

CARR BANK is a residential area of Walmersley in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury west of Pigs Lee Brook, a tributary of the River Irwell. The name appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1891-93 and probably means ‘a slope (Old Norse/Old English banke) beside or above a marsh (kjarr)’.

CARR BROOK and CARR WOOD, Bramhall. Carr Brook is a short stream that rises in Bramhall in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It flows north-east through Carr Wood and joins Lady Brook in Bramhall Park. The name is recorded in 1842 and is usually said to derive from the Old Norse kjarr or Middle English ker, meaning ‘marsh overgrown with brushwood’.

CARRBROOK is a village east of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The development of Carrbrook as a village began with the building of Carr Mill in 1799, both mill and village taking their names from Carr Brook (a tributary of the River Tame) beside which they sit. The name is likely to have come from the Old English carr, meaning ‘rock’, hence ‘the rocky stream’.

CARRINGTON is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is first recorded in 1154 as Carrintona but it is found with its modern spelling from the early 13^th century. The derivation is uncertain. It is usually said to mean ‘the estate of someone called Cara’, from the Old English personal name + -inga- (‘belonging to’) + –tūn (‘estate’) but other suggestions are that the name may come from the Old English caring, meaning ‘tending, caring’, cǣring, meaning ‘river bend’, or carr, ‘rocky place’.

CARVER THEATRE is a small theatre in Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was founded in 1906 as the Marple Drama Society and later moved to the Carver Institute, a community centre built by Thomas Carver (1831-1903), a local mill owner and benefactor.

CASTLEFIELD is an inner-city urban-heritage site in the City of Manchester. It was the site of the Roman fort of Mancunium from about AD 79 but acquired its English name of Castle-in-the-field by the Middle Ages. It developed into the industrial area of Castlefield when it became the terminus for the Bridgewater Canal in 1764 and the Liverpool Road terminus of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1830.

CASTLE HALL is residential area east of Dukinfield and close to Cheetham Park and the River Tame in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It takes its name from Castle Hall, an Elizabethan-style ‘castellated mansion’ built by Sir William Dukinfield-Daniel (1725-1758). The hall was demolished in 1861 and the area became more urbanised as agricultural workers and immigrants sought work in the area’s textile mills.

CASTLE HILL, Bolton is in south Bradshaw overlooking Bradshaw Brook, north-east of Bolton town centre. Despite its name, there is not and probably never has been a castle on the site, and neither is it possible to see any castle from the top – Bolton Castle in about 130 kilometres to the north-north-east in Yorkshire. The origin of the name is usually said to be a mystery, but we might note that the official seal of Bolton, dating from 1799, and the coat of arms of 1890 both included an elephant with a castle on its back. This is said to commemorate a mediaeval link with the Diocese of Mercia, which had its seat in Coventry. The coat of arms of Coventry, granted in 1345, similarly includes an elephant and castle, the castle perhaps one originally built in 1137-43, but destroyed before the end of the 12^th century.

CASTLE HILL, Bowdon See WATCH HILL CASTLE

CASTLE HILL, Stockport is the site east of the town centre of Stockport Castle. It is believed it was built between 1135 and 1154, and is recorded as Castellum de Stokeporta in 1173 and as Castelhull in 1355. It was in ruins by 1535 and demolished in 1775.

CASTLESHAW or CASTLE SHAW is a small village in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham which was formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is recorded as Castlyshaw in 1544 and with its modern spelling in 1581. The name means ‘the fort or castle near a copse’ from the Old English castel + sceaga. The fort refers to a Roman fortress built in about AD 79 AD the Roman road from Chester and Manchester to York. The village lends its name to Castleshaw Upper and Lower Reservoirs, which were built in 1887-91 to supply water to Oldham.

CASTLE SHORE BROOK, CASTLE SHORE CLOUGH and CASTLE SHORE HILL are all features in the north-east of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and are believed to have originated as misspellings of Castle Shaw, the Roman camp and settlement which lies some way to the south-east.

CASTLETON is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale on the River Roch. The name is recorded in 1246 as Castelton, literally meaning ‘settlement by a castle’. This is believed to refer to a Saxon castle beside the River Roch. The settlement was originally Blue Pits Village and the name ‘Castleton’ was not adopted until 1875, when it became an urban district council.

CATLEY LANE HEAD is a village in Spotland in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, north-west of Rochdale itself. The name is recorded in 1418 as Catcloghgate, apparently meaning ‘wild-cat valley road’, from Old English catt + clōh (‘valley’) + Old Norse gate (‘street, road’), referring to a mediaeval route between Rochdale and Whalley Abbey in Lancashire, also known as Rooley Moor Road. The name had been rationalised to Catley Lane by 1597.

CENTRAL STATION See GMEX

CHADDERTON is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham about 10 kilometres north-east of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded in about 1200 as Chaderton and is said to mean ‘farm by the hill called Cadeir’. Cader is a Celtic word meaning ‘chair or hill’, with the Old English -tūn (‘farmstead, village’). This may be a reference to the nearby hill Hanging Chadder, which is about 250 metres high.

CHADKIRK is an area on the River Goyt in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport that also gives its name to a 24-hectare country park and nature reserve. The name is recorded in about 1306 as Chaddekirke in reference to the current Chadkirk chapel. The name means ‘St Chad’s church’, referring to the 7^th-century Bishop of Lichfield in Mercia.

CHADWICK is a village about 3 kilometres west of Rochdale. The name is first recorded in about 1180 as Chaddewyk, meaning ‘the wīc (village) of Ceadda, who is thought to be St Chad’. Chad was a 7^th-century Anglo-Saxon monk and Bishop of Lichfield in Mercia, and it is claimed that the original church on this site was dedicated to St Chad in AD 673, the year after his death.

CHAIN BAR is residential and recreational area in Moston in the City of Manchester, north-east of the city centre. It is not well documented but the name is found elsewhere in England and suggests that it was once a chained toll bar on one of the turnpike roads between Manchester and Rochdale. Turnpike trusts were established in the area in the 18^th and early 19^th centuries but were largely abolished in the late 19^th century.

CHAMBERHALL is an industrial estate in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, north-west of the town centre, opened in 2020. The site takes its name from Chamber Hall, a three-storey country house dating from 1611, where Sir Robert Peel was born in 1788. The house was demolished in 1909 or 1911 (sources differ) and an electricity power station was built on the site. The power station was closed down in 1969 and the site was later developed as a business park. ‘Chamber Hall’ is the name of several country houses across the region. The name is thought to mean either a house with a large chamber which can be used for official functions, or a multi-storeyed building with bed-chambers on the upper floors.

CHANTERS BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook/River Glaze which rises south of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows south-east to meet Hindsford Brook, which then flows west and ultimately joins Glaze Brook. The name comes from the chantry (a small chapel where monks or priests would chant), which was established in 1360.

CHAPELFIELD NATURE RESERVE is a 5.5-hectare local nature reserve in Radcliffe in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The original chapel is believed to be that of the Stand Lane Independent (later Congregational and now United Reform Church) chapel built in 1792 and the area had become known as Chapelfield by the end of the 19^th century. In 1915, the Radcliffe Paper Mill was established in Chapelfield and after this was closed down in 1998 the site was converted into the nature reserve.

CHAPELFIELDS is a residential area in east Hindley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name means literally ‘chapel in the fields’ and originated from Hindley Chapel, a Presbyterian chapel built in 1641 on land donated by George Green. The chapel passed to the Anglican Church in 1698 and was replaced in 1766. In 1878 it became All Saints Church.

CHARLESTOWN, Manchester is a residential area in Blackley about 8 kilometres north of the city centre close to Boggart Hole Clough. The name is recorded in 1818-19 and is probably named after Charles Booth, a member of a prominent landowning family. An earlier member of the family, Humphrey Booth, had built Booth Hall in Blackley in 1639-40.

CHARLESTOWN, Salford is a residential area of the city close to the River Irwell. The name is not well documented and is said to be a 19^th-century name for an area that had various names. It is believed that it is named after someone called Charles, but it is not known who this was.

CHARLESTOWN, Stockport See WOODSMOOR

CHASSEN PARK is a small public park with a miniature railway in Flixton in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It is officially known as Abbotsfield Park but is also known as Chassen Park. It takes this name from the adjacent Chassen Road. The road was originally called Abbots Lane, from a local family, but was changed to Penny Lane in about 1846. In about 1865 it was changed to Chassen Road, apparently from a local family, although no details can be traced.

CHAT MOSS is a very large peat bog extending over some 28 square kilometres across the City of Salford and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Wigan and Trafford. It is first recorded as catemosse in 1277 and Daniel Defoe was astounded when he first saw it in about 1727: ‘the great bog or waste call’d Chatmos…. The nature of these mosses, for we found there are many of them in this country… is indeed frightful to think of.’ Moss is an Old English word meaning ‘a bog, a swamp’ and is widely used across the region. Chat is usually explained as the Celtic ced, meaning ‘wood’, and Defoe noted that ‘under this moss, or rather in the very body of it, … those antient fir trees are found’. Alternatively, the root could be Old English ceat meaning ‘a piece of wet ground’ and, again, Defoe’s description might support such a derivation: ‘The surface … will bear neither horse or man, unless in an exceeding dry season.’ Other explanations are that Chat is a personal name, either Old English Ceatta or even St Chad, the 7^th-century Bishop of Lichfield in Mercia.

CHEADLE is a suburb or ‘village’ in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport that was previously part of Cheshire. Cheadle is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Cedde, where there is ‘woodland 1 league long and half wide, and an enclosure and a hawk’s eyrie’. The nameis a hybrid that comes from the Celtic cēd, meaning ‘wood’. Chedele is recorded from 1197, with the Old English lēah (‘clearing’) added to the Celtic element. This may describe the clearing in the forest or it may be an explanation of the older Celtic element. It has also been suggested that the name may have been derived from St Chad, the 7^th-century Bishop of Lichfield in Mercia, but this suggestion is usually discounted.

CHEADLE HEATH is a suburb of the Borough of Stockport, about 3 kilometres west of the town centre. Originally part of Cheadle, it seems to have developed a separate name by 1367, when it was recorded as Schedleheth, from a distorted rendering of Cheadle + Old English hǣth (‘uncultivated land’). The modern spelling is found from 1831.

CHEADLE HULME is a village suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, formerly part of Cheshire. Cheadle Hulme was originally part of Cheadle, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1). In the early 14^th century, Cheadle seems to have split into two: the northern part remained as Cheadle and the southern part became Cheadle Moseley or Cheadle Hulme. The separate name is recorded in 1345 as Chedle Hulm, with the modern spelling found from 1669. Cheadle is a hybrid: it comes from the Celtic cēd, meaning ‘wood’, + Old English lēah (‘clearing’). Hulme is Old Danish and is related to Old Norse holmr, meaning ‘raised ground in a marsh’.

CHEADLE ROYAL is a locality west of Cheadle town centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It takes its name from Cheadle Royal Hospital, which was originally founded as the Manchester Lunatic Hospital in what is now Piccadilly Gardens in 1766. It received royal sponsorship from King William IV in 1830 as part of Manchester Royal Infirmary, but was moved to Cheadle in 1850 and renamed Cheadle Royal Hospital in 1902.

CHEADLE SQUARE is a small public space close to the town hall in central Bolton. It was laid out in 1947 and named in honour of Frank Cheadle (1885-1940), who, as mayor of Bolton in 1928-1929, campaigned for the area to be set aside as a public space rather than being given over to industrial use.

CHEESDEN is a moorland hamlet in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded as Chesden in 1543 and is taken from the valley of the nearby Cheesden Brook, meaning ‘gravel valley’, from the Old English cis (‘gravel’) + denu (‘valley’). Cheesden Brook meanders south to meet Naden Brook, which flows into the River Roch near Heywood.

CHEETHAM and CHEETHAM HILL are neighbouring residential and light-industrial areas in the City of Manchester, north of the city centre. The name is recorded in the late 12^th century as Chetham, meaning ‘village by the wood called Chet’, from the Celtic cēd (‘wood’) + Old English hām (‘village, homestead’).

CHEETHAM PARK is a 12-hectare public park in Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The land was formerly the estate of John Frederick Cheetham (1835-1916), a mill owner and Stalybridge MP, and a relative, a Mrs Wimbush. The two estates were donated to the town of Stalybridge in 1931 and opened as a public park named after J F Cheetham in 1932 and Eastwood Nature Reserve, opened in 1931.

CHEETWOOD is a locality in Cheetham in the City of Manchester, north of the city centre, that was first recorded as Chetewood in 1489. It shares part of its name with Cheetham but wudu (‘wood’) has been added to the Celtic cēd- or cēto-, meaning ‘forest’, by way of explanation.

CHELBURN RESERVOIRS There are two reservoirs – Upper and Lower Chelburn – in Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The Upper Chelburn was built in 1799-1801 and the Lower Chelburn in 1816 by damming Chelburn Brook to supply water for the Rochdale Canal but they were purchased in 1923 by Rochdale and Oldham Corporation to provide drinking water. The derivation of Chelburn is uncertain – it could mean ‘cool stream’ or ‘gravelly stream’, either from Old English col (‘cool’) or cisel (‘gravel’) + burna (‘stream’). Chelburn is one of the few streams in Greater Manchester originally formed from burna rather than brōc, so that Chelburn Brook is tautologous.

CHEQUERBENT is a village east of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is not well documented before 1782, when reference is made to a coal mine in Chequerbent. The village is probably far older as the name is usually said to mean ‘Ceacca’s moorland grass’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + beonet (‘bent grass’), referring to the coarse moorland grass found in the vicinity. An alternative possibility is that the first element comes from Old English ceacce (‘a lump, applied to a hill’). The name of the village was standardised by the Bolton & Leigh Railway, which opened a station called Chequerbent for Hulton Park on 11 June 1831.

CHERRY CLOUGH is a rural area north-west of Denshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded from 1750 and means ‘cherry valley’, from Middle English chery or chiri + clough. Cherry Brook flows through Cherry Clough, joining Lumb Hole Brook, a tributary of the River Tame.

CHERRY TREE is a residential area of Romiley in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was one of the hamlets of Romiley that was shown on the 1831 Ordnance Survey map. It takes its name from Cherry Tree Farm, which was probably developed in the 1840s and named after a prominent cherry tree rather than a cherry orchard. The land was acquired by compulsory purchase after World War II and a housing estate was built in the early 1950s.

CHESHAM is a residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It is recorded in 1429 as Chesum, meaning ‘gravelly place’, from the Old English cis (‘gravel, heap of stones’) + hām (‘village, homestead’). Another possibility is that it derives from the Celtic cēd, meaning ‘wood’. See also FREETOWN.

CHESHIRE is the county to the south of Greater Manchester. The name is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 980 as Legeceasterscir, meaning ‘shire of the fort of the legions’, but by the time of the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) it had been reduced to Cestrescir (‘Chester-shire’). Chester itself is derived from the Latin castra, meaning ‘camp or fort’. The border between the counties of Cheshire and Lancashire was the River Mersey but the creation of Greater Manchester in 1974 moved the boundary south and parts of north-east Cheshire were moved into Greater Manchester – Altrincham, Dukinfield, Hyde, Stalybridge and Stockport.

CHETHAM’S LIBRARY is a free public reference library in central Manchester. The library, as well as a school, were established in 1653 through the will of Humphrey Chetham (1580-1653), making it the oldest public reference library in the English-speaking world. In 1698 Celia Fiennes described it as ‘a large Library 2 long walls full of books on each side; there is also the globes at the end and maps’. Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx worked together in the library in 1845 and published ‘The Communist Manifesto’ in 1848. The desk they worked at is exhibited in the library. The school became Chetham’s School of Music in 1969.

CHEW BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1325 as Choo, meaning ‘valley’, from ‘gap, fissure, cleft’ and hence ‘valley’, from Old English cēo (‘valley’) + broc’. Chew Brook rises on the western slopes of Black Chew Head and then empties into Chew Reservoir, which was built in 1912, and joins the Tame in Greenfield.

CHEW MOOR is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton that is first recorded as Chow More in the 16^th century. The name is said to derive either from the Old English cēo, meaning ‘fissure’ and hence ‘valley’, or the Chew or Chow family, who lived in the area in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, or perhaps the Cholle family, who can be traced back to 1322.

‘CHINA TOWN’ is an area of central Manchester around Faulkner Street with many Chinese restaurants, shops and supermarkets. The term is widely used in cities across the world and dates back as far as 1606. Manchester’s Chinatown was a post-war development dating from the opening of the first Chinese restaurant, the Ping Hong, in 1948 and immigration mostly from Hong Kong in the 1950s.

CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY is a suburb of south Manchester that was originally two settlements (see separately for Hardy) – Chorlton in the north and Hardy in the south, separated by Chorlton Brook. Chorlton is recorded in 1258 as Cholreton, but with the modern spelling in 1551. The name is an eponym – ‘Ceolferth’s farm or village’ from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Cēolferth (modern Charlton). The combined name of Chorlton-cum-Hardy – literally Chorlton with Hardy – is first recorded in 1700 but seems to have become more widely used in about 1880, when property developers used the term to distinguish it from Chorlton-upon-Medlock; the opening of the Midland Railway’s Chorlton-cum-Hardy station in that year standardised the name.

CHORLTON EES is a 58-hectare nature reserve on the south side of the River Mersey in the south of the City of Manchester. It takes its name from the nearby town of Chorlton + Ees, a local word for an area of dry woodland in a marshy area derived from the Old English ēg, meaning ‘island’.

CHORLTON FOLD is a suburban area of Eccles in the City of Salford. Chorlton was a common name in northern Cheshire and south Lancashire, and it was necessary to distinguish various places with this name. Chorlton Fold is not well documented but would seem to come from the Old English ceorl (‘a freeman of the lower class, a peasant’) + tūn (‘enclosure, village’) + fold (‘small group of cottages and farm buildings’).

CHORLTON-UPON-MEDLOCK or CHORLTON-ON-MEDLOCK is an inner-city suburb of the City of Manchester. It is recorded as Cherleton in 1177, meaning ‘farmstead of the freemen or peasants’, from the Old English ceorl (‘a freeman of the lower class, a peasant’) + tūn (‘enclosure, village’). In mediaeval times until 1618, the village was known as Chorlton Row, i.e. Chorlton Road, as it was beside the Roman road from Manchester to Buxton. The modern name of Chorlton-upon-Medlock is recorded from 1843, indicating the area’s position on the south bank of the River Medlock.

CHORLTONVILLE is a residential area within Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the City of Manchester. It was built as a private venture in 1910-11, inspired by the garden city movement. The name is aspirational, combining Chorlton with the French –ville, which was used by some housing-estate developers in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, perhaps because of American influence. This is the only such example in Greater Manchester.

CHOWBENT is an area of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan or an old, alternative name for Atherton which is still used locally. The name is first recorded in about 1350 as Chollebynt and Shollebent, and may be derived from an Old English personal name Cēola or ceole meaning ‘gorge’ + bent, ‘crooked land’, or beonet, meaning ‘coarse moorland grass’.

CINDER HILL There are many places called Cinder Hill across England, including at least two in Greater Manchester: Cinder Hill near Holcombe in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, first recorded in 1688, and Cinder Hill in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, first recorded in 1722. The name means ‘hill where cinder or slag is spread or found’, from the Old English sinder + hyll. As the names suggest, they are sites of mediaeval metal-working, probably iron.

CLAMMERCLOUGH is an area in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton that is especially known for Clammerclough (or Farnworth) tunnel, built by the Manchester & Bolton Railway in 1838. The area is not well documented before the construction of the tunnel but the name is possibly derived from Old English claeme + clōh, meaning ‘clayey or muddy ravine or valley’. The valley refers to that of the Rivers Croal and Irwell, which join in Clammerclough.

CLARENCE PARK is a 20-hectare public park in Bury. It was opened in 1883 as Walmersley Road Recreation Ground but renamed Clarence Park in 1888 when it was officially opened by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), who was also known as the Duke of Clarence.

CLARKE’S BRIDGE See KINGSTON

CLARINGTON BROOK is a tributary of the River Douglas that rises east of Whelley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows south-west to join the Douglas in Scholes. According to local sources, the name was originally Lorington Brook, presumably meaning ‘the settlement of Lora’s people’, derived from an Anglo-Saxon personal name. By the 19^th century, the name appears as Clarington Brook.

CLARKSFIELD is a suburban district of Oldham. The name is not well documented before 1821 and, as its name suggests, was an agricultural area. Presumably the name is an eponym, but it has not been possible to identify the Clark for whom it is named.

CLAYTON is a suburb of the City of Manchester in Droylsden, situated some 5 kilometres east of the city centre. The name is first recorded in about 1250 as Cleyton but its modern spelling is recorded as early as 1439. There are two versions of the origin of the place name. It could be from Old English clǣg + tūn, meaning ‘homestead on clayey ground`. Another, perhaps more likely suggestion, is that it is named after the Clayton family, who lived in this area and for whom the Clayton Hall was built in the 12^th century. This was replaced in the 15th century by the present Clayton Hall, which is now a museum.

CLEGG HALL is a rural area north of Milnrow in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in about 1200 as Clegg, probably from the Old Norse kleggi, meaning ‘haystack’ and hence ‘hill’, probably in reference to the 175-metre high Owl Hill, at the foot of which Clegg stands. The original hall was built in the 13^th century. A new hall was built in 1610-1618 and still stands as the centre of this sparsely-populated community.

The CLIFF is a residential and recreational area in the City of Salford. The name is not well documented before 1817, when Cliff House was erected on the heights above the River Irwell, giving the area its name. The area developed as a commuter suburb in the 19^th century and was also home to Manchester race course. Today, areas of the Cliff have been turned over to sports fields and a country park adjoining Kersal Dale.

CLIFTON is a suburb of Swinton in the City of Salford, about 8 kilometres north-west of Manchester. It is recorded as Clifton in 1184 and its name transparently means ‘settlement near a cliff or hillside’, from the Old English clif + -tūn, which describes its position along the steeply-sloping bank of the River Irwell. Clifton gives its name to the 48-hectare Clifton Country Park, which now occupies the site of the Wet Earth Colliery.

CLOSE BROOK is a tributary of the River Douglas that rises south of Marsh Green in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows east to meet the Douglas in Laithwaite. It is recorded on the Ordnance Survey maps of the late 1840s and probably means ‘the brook running through or beside an enclosed field’, although it has not been possible to identify which field this could refer to.

CLOSE PARK is an 11.2-hectare public park in Radcliffe in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The park is sited in the grounds of Close House, the estate of the Bealey family, a local family of textile bleachers. The estate was donated to the people of Radcliffe in 1925 and the grounds converted into a public park.

CLOUGH, Littleborough is a rural area north-west of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is not well documented but is one of many across Greater Manchester derived from the Old English clōh, meaning ‘ravine, deep valley’, referring to Long Clough Brook and Stony Brook, which meet in Clough

CLOUGH, Shaw is a rural area east of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented but comes from the Old English clōh, meaning ‘ravine, deep valley’.

CLOVER HALL is a village north-west of Milnrow in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is not well documented but seems to mean ‘clover nook’, from the Old English claefre (‘clover’) + halh (‘nook or corner of land’), referring to the sharp meander in the River Beal to the east of Clover Hall.

CLOWES PARK is a 10-hectare public park in Broughton in the City of Salford. The Clowes family acquired an extensive estate in Broughton in the 18^th century and the park was laid out by George Clowes in 1866. He later donated the park to the City of Salford.

COAL BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises west of Delph in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows roughly north for a short distance through Coal Clough to meet the Tame. The name is not well documented or dated but, as coal has been mined in the Delph area since the Middle Ages, it seems likely that it is literal, meaning ‘the stream where coal seams or outcrops can be found’.

COCKBROOK is a residential area of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It takes its name from Cock Brook, a tributary of the River Tame, which flows just south of Cockbrook. The name is not well documented before 1891, when Cockbrook Mill was opened, powered by water from Cock Brook. The origin of the name is also uncertain. Judging by other places with ‘cock’ as a first element, the origin could be Old English cocc meaning ‘a rooster‘ or cocc meaning ‘a hillock’.

COCKER HILL is a hill with a residential area at its foot north-west of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. Although the history of Cocker Hill is well documented, dating back to 1698, making it one of the oldest areas of Stalybridge, the origin of the name is uncertain. However, its position west of a bend in the River Tame makes it likely that it means ‘crooked hill’, from the Old Norse krokr, meaning ‘crook, bend, usually of a river’.

COCKEY MOOR is an area on the eastern side of Ainsworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is recorded in 1545 as Cokkaye Chapel Moor. The origin is uncertain: either Old English cocc, meaning ‘rooster’, or Anglo-Saxon personal name Cocca + hege (‘enclosure’). Taken together, the meaning could be ‘an enclosure for breeding birds or for cock-fighting’ or ‘Cocca’s settlement’. An alternative derivation is suggested by the Old Celtic kokka (‘red earth’) + Old English lēah (‘woodland clearing’).

COCK KNARR BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on Cock Knarr, east of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside and flows north-east into Swineshaw Brook, which then flows west to meet the Tame in Millbrook. The name means ‘hillock (Old English cocc) with a rugged rock (cnearr)’.

COFFIN LANE BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook that rises east of Bryn Gates in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, then flows east to meet Hey Brook and ultimately empties into Glaze Brook. The name is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1846, which also shows Coffin Lane, a track that today leads west from Bryn Gates but which was probably part of an old corpse road from Abram to the church in Ashton-in-Makerfield. Coffin or corpse lanes were common in mediaeval England as coffins had to be carried quite long distances to the nearest church or cemetery.

COLD GREAVE CLOUGH is a valley with a stream on the moors of the west Pennines in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale that flows into the Rooden Catchwater and feeds Rooden Reservoir. The name is recorded on Ordnance Survey maps of the 1840s and means ‘the ravine (Old English clōh) of or beside the bleak (Old English cald) grove (Old English grǣfe)’.

COLDHURST is a residential area in central Oldham. The name is not well documented before 1844, when an ecclesiastical parish was established. The origin of the name is uncertain but it is unlikely to be ‘cold, cool’. The first element is more likely to be Old English col, meaning ‘coal, especially charcoal’. The second element is Old English hyrst, (‘wooded hill’), so that the combined meaning would be ‘wooded hill suitable for charcoal-making or where charcoal is made’.

COLLIER BROOK is a 3-kilometre tributary of Glaze Brook that rises east of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and joins with Atherton Brook and Lilford Park Brook before their confluence with Glaze Brook. The name is taken from the Collier family, who owned Collier Brook Farm from the early 18^th century. It gave its name to the Collier Brook Bolt Works, which was built in 1856 on Bag Lane, opposite Collier Brook Farm. The site is now occupied by Collier Brook Industrial Estate.

COLLYHURST is an inner-city district of the City of Manchester, about 2.5 kilometres north-east of the city centre. The name is first recorded in 1322 with its modern spelling and means ‘wooded hill grimy with coal dust or soot’, from Old English colig (‘grimy, coal-like’) + hyrst (‘wooded hill’). There seems to be no history of coal-working in the area in the Middle Ages but coal was found nearby in the 19^th century, leading to the sinking of St George’s colliery in 1866.

COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE is a disused footbridge over the River Irk and the former sidings of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway connecting Collyhurst with Cheetham Hill. It was built in the 1890s and is also known as ‘Barney’s Steps’, as it overlooked a 1950s council dump called Barney’s Tip, the ‘Impossible Bridge’, or ‘Lowry’s Footbridge’ as it was painted by Lowry in 1938 (see Appendix 2).

COMPSTALL is a village on the River Etherow in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is first recorded in 1608 as Compstall Bridge, referring to a crossing over the Etherow. The derivation is uncertain but it is usually said to mean ‘valley fishing place’ from Old English cumb (‘valley’) + stall (‘a place for catching fish, fishery’). The Etherow is still known for its trout fishing.

CONEY GREEN is a residential area of Radcliffe in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It appears on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1891-93 but was previously mentioned in the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Act of 1877 authorising a line to Coney Green Farm. The name means ‘green or grassy area where rabbits are found or kept’, from Middle English coni.

CONTACT THEATRE is the University of Manchester’s arts venue on Oxford Road in the City of Manchester. It was started in 1972 as Manchester’s Young People’s Theatre but was renamed Contact in 1999 to highlight its mission to provide a point of contact between the university and the wider community.

COOKCROFT is a residential area south of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name appears on Ordnance Survey maps in the 1880s and probably means ‘the small enclosure or farm (croft) belonging the someone called Cook’.

COOPER TURNING is a hamlet at the junction of Chorley Road (A6) and Dicconson Lane (B5239) north-west of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name appears on Ordnance Survey maps of 1888-90 and the same maps show a ‘works’ there. It is tempting to conclude that there was a cooper’s works at this turning in the road but this cannot be confirmed.

COPLEY is a district of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, about 13 kilometres east of Manchester. The name is first recorded in 1345 as Coppelegh, probably meaning ‘clearing beneath a peaked hill’, from Middle English coppa (‘peaked’) + lēah (‘a clearing’). This would fit with Copley’s position at the foot of the Pennines. It is also possible that it means ‘Coppa’s place’, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name.

COPSTER HILL is a district in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham which takes its name from the nearby hill. It is first recorded in 1422 as Coppedhyrst, from copped, meaning ‘peaked’, and hyrst, meaning ‘wooded hill’.

CORNBROOK or CORN BROOK is a district in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford which takes its name from the Corn Brook, a tributary of the Irwell which now flows into the Manchester Ship Canal at Pomona docks. The name is recorded in 1322 and means ‘stream with cranes’ rather than ‘stream with corn’, derived from the Old English cran, cron or corn. The use of the name was perhaps standardised by a station with that name opened in 1856 by the Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway.

CORONATION STREET is a street on the New Barracks estate of the City of Salford. The estate was built in 1900-1904 and the street was named for the coronation of King Edward VII on 9 August 1902. The street gives its name to the long-running ITV soap-opera of that name.

CORRIDOR MANCHESTER See OXFORD ROAD

COTE GREEN is a residential area of Marple Bridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded from 1842. The origin of the name is uncertain but one possibility is Old or Middle English cot, meaning ‘cottage or hut’ + grēne.

COTTERILL CLOUGH NATURE RESERVE is a 5.6 hectare woodland area and site of special scientific interest south of the City of Manchester. It was purchased with funds raised by the public in memory of Thomas Alfred Coward (1867-1933), a naturalist from the University of Manchester. The name comes from the family name Cottrell + the Old English clōh, meaning ‘ravine, deep valley’ in reference to the valley of Cotterill Brook, a tributary of the River Bollin, which flows through the area. The surname Cotterill or Cottrell is thought to derive from the is Old or Middle English cot, meaning ‘cottage or hut’.

COTTON FAMINE ROAD is a cobbled road on Rooley Moor above Norden in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale built during the American Civil War in the 1860s, when slave-grown cotton from the Confederate States was boycotted by the Lancashire mill workers, causing a ‘cotton famine’ and extreme social hardship. To provide employment and relief, millworkers were paid to pave a mile-long section of the road with about a third of a million stone cobbles or ‘setts’. The road still exists today as a memorial to the Rochdale mill workers.

‘COTTONOPOLIS’ is a nickname for Manchester and the surrounding industrial areas of south Lancashire. It is first recorded in 1851 but seems to have been coined somewhat earlier, although no one seems to know when or by whom. The name is derived from cotton and metropolis.

Certain inhabitants of Cottonopolis were sometimes referred to as ‘Cottontots’. The term seems to have originated in the early 1840s when the children (tots) of cotton families made excursions to what was then northern Cheshire on the newly-built railways, annoying the local inhabitants. However, by the 1870s the term was used more approvingly to refer to cotton magnates who were known for their wealth, philanthropy and lavish homes in Bowdon and other towns in south Manchester.

The COUNTY BROOK See BROOK BOTTOM

COUNTY END is an area on the eastern side of Lees in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The area is at the point where the previous county of Lancashire met the former West Riding of Yorkshire, explaining the name.

COVERSHAW BRIDGE is a road bridge across Sinderland Brook from Dunham Massey into Carrington in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It is at this point that Sinderland and Caldwell Brooks join to form Red Brook, which then flows west into the Manchester Ship Canal. The bridge is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1842 and may mean ‘dove or pigeon copse’ from Old English culfre + sceaga.

COWHILL is a residential area of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1200 as Kuhill, literally meaning ‘cow’s hill’, from Middle English cou + hyll.

COWLISHAW is a residential area in the west of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded as Cowleshawe in 1558. The derivation is uncertain but it could mean ‘charcoal hill’ from Old English colig (‘charcoal; full of, or marked by, charcoal’) + sceaga (‘copse’).

COX GREEN is a residential area in the Egerton district of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It is recorded as Cosse 1108 but by 1248 it had become Cokksgrene, from the Old English cocc (‘hillock, hilltop’) + grene (‘grassy spot, village green’). However, over time the name was rationalised to ‘Cox’ as if it were an eponym referring to someone named Cox who owned or worked the land.

CRANKWOOD is a hamlet north-east of Golborne in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The place is not well documented before the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in the first half of the 19^th century. It takes its name from nearby Crank Wood but the origin is uncertain: possibilities are Old English cranus (‘crane’) + sceaga (‘copse’) or crumb (‘crooked, twisted’) + wudu (‘wood, forest’), so that the meaning might be ‘wood of the cranes’ or ‘crooked wood’.

CRIMBLE or CRIMBLES is a rural area on the River Roch north of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Crumles, from the Old English crӯmel meaning ‘a small piece (crumb) of land’.

CRIME LAKE is a small lake in Daisy Nook Country Park in Oldham. The lake was formed in 1794 or 1795 when a blocked culvert under the Hollinwood Canal resulted in flooding. The name is said to be derived from chrime, a dialect word for a meadow, or perhaps an eponym referring to someone who owned the meadow.

CRINGLE BROOK There are several places named Cringle across England, all derived from the Old Norse kringla, meaning ‘circle’, and often referring to the meandering of a river. Cringle Brook in Burnage in the City of Manchester is a tributary of the River Mersey that rises in Heaton Chapel and later joins Chorlton Brook. It is recorded in 1322 as Kringelbroke, meaning ‘the winding stream’, and later gave its name to the area through which it flowed and to Cringle Hall, built early in the second half of the 19^th century. Today Cringle Brook survives as the name of a school and gives its name to Cringle Park in Levenshulme.

River CROAL is a tributary of the River Irwell. It rises west of Bolton and then flows east for about 16 kilometres to meet the Irwell at Nob End in Kearsley. The name means ‘winding stream’ and is derived from the Old English croh (‘a nook of land in a river bend’, hence ‘winding’) + wella (‘stream’), referring to its meandering course. Despite its Old English form, the Croal is not recorded before 1836, when it is identified as forming the boundary between Great and Little Bolton. Before the 19^th century it is usually referred to as Mikelbrok, a form which is recorded in 1292 and which means ‘great stream’, from Old English mycel + brōc. Over time this was rationalised to Middlebrook.

CROFTS BANK is a residential area of the City of Salford. The name is not well documented but it is likely that it is derived from the Old English croft, meaning ‘small enclosed field’ + Old Norse or Middle English banke, meaning hill slope.

CROMPTON is part of the district of Shaw and Crompton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is first recorded in 1246 as Crumpton, meaning ‘settlement in a bend’ referring to Crompton’s position in a meander of the River Beal. The origin is the Old English crumb (‘crooked, twisted, bent’) + tūn (‘homestead, settlement, village’).

CROMPTON PLACE is a retail centre in Bolton. It was opened in 1971 as an Arndale Centre but was renamed in 1989 after the Bolton-born industrialist and inventor, Samuel Crompton (1753-1827), who invented his spinning mule for the manufacture of cotton and other fibres in in about 1779 while living in Hall I’ th’ Wood.

CROMWELL BRIDGE, originally CROMWELL ROAD BRIDGE, was built in 1880-1882 and crosses the River Irwell to connect Broughton with Pendleton in the City of Salford. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) had many associations with what is now Greater Manchester during and after the civil war, but it is not known precisely when or why Cromwell Road was named after him. There are 24 streets named after Cromwell in Greater Manchester.

CRONKEYSHAW COMMON is a 16.3-hectare area of public open space with trees in northern Rochdale. The name is recorded in 1470 as Crankshaw and there are various suggestions for its derivation. It may come from Old English cranus (‘crane’) + sceaga (‘copse’) or crumb (‘crooked, twisted’) + sceaga (‘copse’), so that the meaning might be ‘copse of the cranes’ or ‘crooked copse’.

CROOKE is a village on the River Douglas and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded in 1324 as Crok, probably from the Old Norse krokr, meaning ‘a crook, a bend’, usually referring land in the bend of a river, which aptly describes the village’s location in a meander in the River Douglas.

CROOK GATE RESERVOIR is one of a series of reservoirs north of Denshaw built in the 1880s to supply water for the population and industries of Oldham. The reservoir is fed by Readycon Dean Brook, which is a tributary of the River Tame. The origin of the name is unclear and undocumented but it is believed to be named after a toll gate located on a crook or bend in a road across the moors.

CROOKILLEY WOOD is a 4.57-hectare area of ancient woodland near Bredbury and Brinnington in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in 1259 as Crokuill but the origin is uncertain: it may be Old English croc (‘a shepherd’s crook) + lēah (‘clearing’).

CROSSACRES is a residential area of Wythenshawe in the City of Manchester. The name is first recorded in 1290 as Crosacres, meaning ‘fields or ploughed lands (Old English æcer) near a cross (cros)’. As the name suggests, this was sparsely-populated farmland noted for its flax, although the location of the cross is not recorded. In the 1930s the area was incorporated into the Wythenshawe development around Crossacres Road.

CROSS BANK is a village in the south of Oldham on the River Medlock. The village is thought to have been part of the lands granted to the Knights Templar in England in the 13^th century. The Knights Templar marked ownership of their territory by placing crosses in earth banks, which explains the name of Crossbank.

CROSS BANK BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell that rises south-east of Shuttleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and flows north-west to join the Irwell south-east of Stubbins in Lancashire. Its derivation is not well documented: the name could reference the fact that it crosses Bank Lane, or it may refer to an ancient cross that perhaps marked the eastern boundary of Ramsbottom.

CROSSFORD BRIDGE today carries the old Roman road from Manchester to Chester (the A56) across the River Mersey between Stretford and Sale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is recorded in 1295 as Crosford, meaning simply ‘the ford by the cross’, possibly referring to a cross that originally stood on the north bank of the Mersey. The ford became unusable in the Middle Ages and the original wooden bridge is said to have been built by 1367, but this was replaced by a stone bridge in 1578.

CROWCROFT PARK is a public park in Longsight and Levenshulme, south of the city centre of Manchester. In the 19^th century, the area was an industrial area engaged in cotton manufacture, but in 1900 Manchester Corporation took over the lease and laid the area out as a park. The first cotton mill had been started in Crowcroft by Thomas Knight in 1815 but it is likely that the name is older, meaning ‘small field where crows are found’ from the Middle English croue + croft.

CROWHILL is a residential area west of Waterloo in Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The residential development dates from the 1950s but it is assumed that the local area, commonly known as ‘The Moss’, was at some time named Crow Hill, from Old English cran (‘crane, heron or similar bird’) + hyll (‘hill’).

CROWN POINT is an area in Denton in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside which gives its name to the Crown Point retail shopping park, built in 2003 on the site of the Victoria Hat Works. The name goes back at least as far as 1817 and commemorates a battle in the northern part of what is now the American state of New York in 1759, when the British destroyed a French garrison known as Fort St Frédéric, which they then renamed Fort Crown Point, a translation of the French Pointe à la Chevelure.

CROWTHER STREET or CROWTHER STEPS is a steep cobbled street in the Underbanks district of Stockport made famous by two paintings by L S Lowry. The street is named after the Crowther family, who had silk works in both Stockport and Heaton Norris in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. The original houses on Crowther Street were demolished in the 1960s but restored early in the 2000s to approximate to those in Lowry’s paintings. (See Appendix 2)

CRUMPSALL is a suburb of the City of Manchester on the River Irk approximately 5 kilometres north of the city centre. The name is first recorded in 1235 as Corneshal and its modern spelling is recorded since 1552. It is usually said to be an eponym meaning ‘Crumb’s nook’, although it has also been suggested that it could mean ‘crooked piece of land’, from Old English crumb (‘crooked, bent’) + halh (‘nook of land’), from the large bend in the River Irk at this point.

CUDWORTH BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on Cudworth Pasture on the moors north of Castleshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows south through Cudworth Clough into Castleshaw Upper Reservoir. The name seems to be undocumented but is found elsewhere in England as an eponym meaning ‘Cuda’s or Cutha’s enclosure’, from an Old English personal name + Old English worth.

CULCHETH is a suburb of the City of Manchester close to Newton Heath. This Culcheth is not to be confused with Culcheth in the Metropolitan Borough of Warrington in Cheshire. Culcheth Hall in Manchester was the mediaeval seat of the Culcheth family, but they died out in 1621. It is assumed that these two places named Culcheth both originally meant ‘narrow wood’ or ‘nook of a wood’ from Celtic cūl (‘narrow’) + coed (‘wood’), but another possibility is that it is a corruption of Kershaw, meaning ‘church in a copse’, from Old Norse kirk + Old English sceaga.

CULVERT CLOUGH flows south-west from the west Pennine moors of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham to meet the Rooden Catchwater that feeds Rooden Reservoir in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is first recorded on Ordnance Survey maps of the late 19^th century and means ‘the ravine (Old English clōh) with a stream in or like a culvert’. Culvert first appears in English as an engineering term in 1774 and is usually said to be of unknown origin, although it has been suggested that it is of French or Dutch origin, or even an eponym named after a forgotten engineer.

CUNNINGHAM BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook that rises west of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It flows south and ultimately joins the River Glaze near Lately Common in Warrington. The name is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1892 and probably takes its name from a farm or field owned by a local family called Cunningham. The surname Cunningham is of Scottish origin from a place in Ayrshire meaning ‘the homestead or enclosure of the milk pail’, from the Gaelic cuinneag (‘milk pail’) + ham (‘enclosure, homestead’).

‘CURRY MILE’ is the nickname given to the stretch of Wilmslow Road passing through Rusholme, south of Manchester city centre. The area became a meeting place for the many people from the Asian subcontinent who settled in Manchester in the late 1950s and 1960s, and ‘Curry Mile’ became the nickname in the mid-1980s for the many restaurants that were opened. In January 2008 the name was standardised when Manchester City Council erected signs with the title. Curry comes from the Tamil kari.

CUTACRE COUNTRY PARK is a 226-hectare nature reserve across parts of Salford, Wigan and Bolton. It was opened in 2020 on the site of a massive slag heap formed in the early 20^th century when waste from Brackley and Mossley Common collieries was dumped in the valley of Cutacre Clough. Opencast mining ended in 2011 and the site was then landscaped and transformed into the country park. The name is not well documented but is possibly an eponym, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name such as Cutha + æcer, meaning ‘plot of land’. Cutacre lends its name to Cutacre Brook, a tributary of Glaze Brook.

CUTGATE is a residential area of Rochdale about 1.5 kilometres west of the town centre. It was recorded as Cut-Hays in 1562 and ‘gate’ is thought to derive from Old Norse gata, meaning ‘road’. It has been suggested that the first element is either a personal name or that it refers to the road being cut across the hillside.

CUTLER HILL is an area in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham on the disused Hollinwood Branch of the Ashton Canal. The name is not well documented before 1797, when Cutler Bridge was built over the newly-completed canal. The name would seem to come from cutler, either literally as being the site of a workshop where someone made or sold knives, or as an eponym from Cutler’s Hill.

CUTTING ROOM SQUARE is a residential and commercial public space in Ancoats in the City of Manchester opened in 2018 as part of a local regeneration project with new and repurposed buildings. Its name consciously echoes the area’s textile industry history and refers to the cutting rooms where the completed cloth was cut to make garments.

DACRES is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, south-west of Greenfield. The name is an eponym, taking its name from Dacre’s, the vicarage of Bartholomew Dacre (1785-1831), the vicar of St George’s Church in Mossley, which was built in 1819. It was enlarged in 1858 as Dacre Hall, a house which still stands. In 1928 the owner built a small housing estate adjacent to Dacres Hall.

DAISYFIELD is a residential area on the south-west edge of Bury. The name is probably literal – an area or field where daisies grew. The urban development of Daisyfield is not well documented before the 1840s, when the Hutchinson family built the Daisyfield textile mill and the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway built Daisyfield Viaduct over the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal and the River Irwell.

DAISY HILL is a residential area of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The origins of the name are uncertain and undocumented. In 1824 it was referred to as Daisey Hillock and it is assumed that the name was taken literally from a hill covered with daisies. The name was standardised with the opening of Daisy Hill station by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway on 1 October 1888.

DAISY NOOK is a village (also known as Waterhouses) and country park belonging to the National Trust in Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is taken from a book of ‘Lancashire Sketches’ by the Manchester weaver-turned-dialect writer, Ben Brierley (1825-96), originally written in 1867. In it he depicts an imaginary village called Daisy Nook where ‘Two Banks seemed to have opened to receive a group of neat whitewashed cottages and after filling them with happiness, surrounded them with a curtain of trees, to shelter them from the outside world’. Brierley’s description was based on the village of Waterhouses and the area has been known by this name ever since.

DAKIN’S BROOK is a tributary of Dean Brook and, ultimately, of the River Tonge, north of Barrow Bridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is not well documented but it may well be an eponym, so that the meaning would literally be ‘the stream named after a relative of David’. Dakin as a name is derived from a shortening of David + Old English cynn (‘family, relative’).

DALE is a village in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, although in the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. The name is recorded in 1732 and means ‘valley’, from the Old English dæl, probably referring to the valley of Hull Brook, a tributary of the River Tame.

DALES BROW is a residential area in south Swinton in the City of Salford. It is recorded in the 18^th century as a dairy farm with some cottages. The name is not well documented but presumably means ‘hill (brow) at the top of a valley (dale), referring to the valley of Deans Brook.

DANE BANK is a residential area of Denton in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, west of the town centre, known as Dane Shot (or Shott or Shutt) Bank before the 20^th century. According to local legend, it takes its name from a Danish chieftain who was shot by a Saxon archer and was then beheaded, but this is almost certainly folk etymology: the original name means ‘narrow field overlooking a valley’ is derived from Middle English denu (‘valley’) + shote (‘narrow strip of land’) + banke (‘bank, hillside’).

The DANELAW was originally just that – the law that was applied by the Danes or, more widely, the Vikings in the parts of England that they controlled between the late 9^th or early 10^th century and the Norman conquest in 1066. In the 19^th century, the term came to be applied to the areas where the Danelaw was applied. Whether what is now Greater Manchester was included in the Danelaw is a matter of some disagreement: some modern maps include all of Greater Manchester in the Danelaw but place-name evidence suggests that the Viking influence was limited to isolated settlements rather than widespread occupation.

DANGEROUS CORNER is a residential area east of Hindley Green in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan where Westleigh Lane meets the Atherton Road (now the A577). The name is recorded on a map of 1855 and, according to a local legend and poem, derives from an incident in which a horse-drawn hearse tipped over at the dangerous corner, spilling the corpse of a farmer’s wife, who awoke and survived for several more years.

DARBISHIRE or DERBYSHIRE PARK is an 8.9-hectare park north-west of Bolton town centre. The land was donated to the town in 1868 by Charles James Darbishire (1797-1874), who had been mayor of Bolton in 1838-1839, and his brother, Samuel Dukinfield Darbishire (c.1796-1870), a local solicitor. The park is popularly known as “Bobby Legs Park” after a tall park keeper named Robert.

DARCY LEVER is part of the area named Lever which consists of several settlements – Darcy Lever, Great Lever, Lever Edge and Little Lever – south of Bolton. The name Lever is recorded in 1212 as Lefre, from the Old English lefer (‘rush, reed’), so that the entire area would mean ‘where the rushes or reeds grow’ on the banks of the Irwell and Croal. Darcy Lever is recorded from 1509 as Darcye Lever, showing that it was now in the possession of the D’Arcy family. The family originated in Arcy in Normandy in France.

DARLEY PARK, Bolton, is a 1.53-hectare public park in Farnworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton beside the River Croal. The name is taken from Darley Hall, a mansion built by Benjamin Rawson (1758?-1843), a sulphuric acid manufacturer, in about 1806. The estate was purchased by the local council in 1911 and the house was demolished in about 1914. The name means ‘deer clearing’, from Old English dēor (‘deer’) + lēah (‘woodland clearing’). The park may suggest that this was previously an area where deer were kept or hunted.

DARLEY PARK, Firswood, is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford neighbouring Old Trafford and Whalley Range. It takes its name from Darley Hall, a Tudor-style mansion built in the mid-19^th century for Wilson Crewsdon (1790-1871), a local cotton manufacturer. The local council later purchased the property and demolished the house. The name means ‘deer clearing’, from Old English dēor (‘deer’) + lēah (‘woodland clearing’). The park may suggest that this was previously an area where deer were kept or hunted.

DARNHILL is a residential area of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It was a farming area centred around Darn Hill farm, but in the early 1960s it became the site for the construction of large-scale municipal housing for families from Manchester. The name is not well documented. The Darnhill family website suggests that the name means ‘a grower of darnel’, a type of ryegrass. Darnel is originally French but is found in English from the early 14^th century.

DAUBHILL is a south-western suburb of Bolton. The name is not well documented but is referred to as Daub Hill in 1815. It is derived from Middle English daube, meaning clay used in mediaeval building, as in ‘wattle and daub’, which was obtained locally.

DAVENPORT is a suburb of Stockport that takes its name from the Davenport family, who had owned Bramall Hall since the 14^th century and whose name came from their estate in Cheshire, which was recorded as Deneport in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name is said to derive from the River Dane (thought to come from the Celtic dafn meaning ‘a drop, trickle’) + Old English port meaning ‘market town’. Davenport in Stockport is much later: in the mid-19^th century a member of the family, Colonel William Davenport, persuaded the Stockport Disley & Whaley Bridge Railway to build a station to serve land owned by him and named after him. The station was opened on 1 March 1858, was closed in September 1859 and re-opened on 1 January 1862. The station led to the development of Davenport and the neighbouring area of Cale Green.

DAVENPORT GREEN is a village north-east of Hale Barns in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. Davenport Green farm and Davenport Green Hall probably date from Mediaeval times and take their name from Jurdan de Davenport, who was granted land in Hale by Hamon Massey of Dunham Massey in 1281.

DAVID LEWIS RECREATIONAL GROUND is an area of Peel Park in the City of Salford. The land was gifted to Salford in 1897 as a recreational area by merchant and philanthropist, David Lewis (1823-1885). He made his money from the Lewis’s chain of departmental stores, the first of which was opened in Liverpool in 1856 and the second in Manchester in 1877. On his death, he left money to promote health and welfare in Lancashire and the north-west.

DAVYHULME is a residential area of Urmston in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The original Davyhulme Hall was built by John de Hulme in 1154 but it seems that it was only in 1434 that it was known as Defehulme. There are several Hulmes in Greater Manchester, all derived from the Old Norse holm, meaning ‘raised ground in a marshy place’, and they needed to be distinguished, hence Cheadle Hulme, Levenshulme, etc). The origin of Davyhulme is uncertain and the usual suggestion is that it is Middle English deaf, meaning ‘deaf’ or ‘lonely’, perhaps the nickname of one of its residents that gradually became associated with the personal name Davy.

DEAN BROOK is a tributary of the River Tonge that rises on Smithills Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It flows south, joining other streams to form the Tonge at Meeting of the Waters in western Bolton. The name Dean comes from the Old English denu, meaning ‘valley’.

River DEAN rises at Longclough in Cheshire on the edge of the Peak District and joins the Bollin between Wilmslow and Styal. It then flows some 16 kilometres and meets the Mersey near Lymm. It is usually said that the name is shortened from ‘Dean Water’ and is derived from the Old English denu, meaning ‘a valley, especially a long valley’ + wæter.

DEAN CHURCH BROOK, also known as KIRK BROOK, is a small tributary of the River Croal that rises in Deane in south-west Bolton and flows north in Middle Brook. The addition of Church distinguishes it from other brooks named Dean (all derived from the Old English denu, meaning ‘valley’) and is taken from the Anglican Church of St Mary the Virgin in Deane.

DEANE is a residential area in south-west Bolton, south of the River Croal beside Deane Clough. Dean and Deane are common place names found across Britain, all meaning a place ‘in a valley’ from Old English denu. Deane in Bolton is recorded in 1292 as Dene.

DEAN HEAD BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises east of Bleak Hey Nook in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and joins Thorns Beck, which then flows into Diggle Brook and finally into the Tame. Dean Head is recorded in 1736 – probably a farm at the head (hēafod) of the valley (denu).

DEAN MILLS RESERVOIR was originally built in the late 18^th century by John and Robert Lord to supply water power for their Dean Mills. The reservoir is located on the south-western slopes of Winter Hill about 5 kilometres north of Bolton and the mills were located in what became Barrow Bridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The mills were converted to steam power in the 1830s and so the reservoir became redundant. The mills and reservoir took their name from the nearby Dean Brook, a tributary of the River Tonge.

DEANS BROOK or DEAN’S BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell that rises in Dales Brow in south Swinton in the City of Salford. It then flows south for about 3 kilometres into Folly Brook. The name is not well documented before the first Ordnance Survey maps of the early 1850s but probably means simply ‘the brook in the valley (Old English denu)’. It would seem that the brook gives it name to Deans, a residential area to the south of Swinton.

DEANSGATE is the main shopping and commercial thoroughfare through the City of Manchester. It is first recorded in 1389 as Denes-gate and is said to be Manchester’s oldest street. The second element is Old Norse gata, meaning ‘a road or street’, but the origin of the first element is uncertain. It has been suggested that it is a) named after the lost River Dene; b) the ‘Danes’ gate’; and c) most likely, named for the dean of an early church in the area.

DEARNLEY is a residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, north-east of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1324 as Dernylegh, meaning ‘hidden or solitary clearing’, from Old English derne + lēah (‘a wood, glade, clearing’). It is unclear why the clearing was hidden or solitary.

DEADWENCLOUGH See POLEFIELD

DEBDALE PARK is an 18-hectare public park in Gorton in the City of Manchester. The name is not well documented but it is said that the area was originally known as Deepdale, from the Old English dēop (‘deep’) + dæl (‘dale, valley’), and at some point it was reduced to Debdale. The area was originally the estate of a local hatter but was purchased by the local water company in the 1820s for two reservoirs. It was developed as a recreational area and park after World War I.

DELAMERE PARK is a public recreational area in Higher Openshaw in the City of Manchester. The park and the surrounding residential area were laid out at the end of the 19^th century or beginning of the 20^th. The name of the park and adjoining Delamere Street are probably derived from Delamere (Old French meaning ‘of the lake’) Lodge, a country house in Cheshire built in 1784 for the Wilbraham family. In the late 19^th century, the names of many streets in Manchester were associated with Wilbraham Egerton (1832-1909), who was, among other things, Chairman of the Manchester Ship Canal Company.

DELPH is a village in Saddleworth in West Yorkshire administered by the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1544 as Delf and the modern spelling is not found until 1817. The name means ‘the quarry’ and comes from the Old English delf, referring to the bakestone quarries north of the village.

DELPH HILL and DELPH RESERVOIR There are several places called Delph in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, all apparently originally associated with quarrying and derived from the Old English delf, meaning ‘a quarry’, and delvan, meaning ‘to dig’. Delph Hill is located on the southern slopes of Winter Hill on the outskirts of Bolton, west of Doffcocker and probably refers to 19^th-century collieries or fireclay quarries in the area. Delph Reservoir lies in the Turton district north-west of Bolton and was completed in 1921 on the site of Delph Hill hamlet, which was purchased by Bolton Corporation in 1907. There were sandstone quarries in the area and the hamlet consisted mostly of miners’ cottages.

DEMMINGS is an area of Cheadle in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport which today gives its name to an industrial estate, a school and at least two roads. The name is recorded in 1789 as Damings Print Works, which was spelled Demmings by the mid-19^th century. The name is said to be a rendering of ‘damming’ in reference to the damming of the Micker Brook to form a millpond for the local calico printing, bleach and dye works.

DENSHAW is a village in Saddleworth in West Yorkshire administered from the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester. The name is recorded in 1635 as Denshaw, meaning ‘the valley copse’, from Old English denu (‘valley’) + sceaga (‘copse, small wood’), referring to the village’s position close to the source of the River Tame.

DENTON is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, 8 kilometres east of Manchester city centre. It was formerly in Lancashire. The name is first recorded in 1255 as Denton and literally means ‘valley village’ from Old English denu (‘valley’) + –tūn (‘farmstead, village’), describing its position in the valley of the River Tame. It is sometimes said that Denton means ‘Dane town’, but there seems to be no evidence for this.

DENZELL GARDENS are a 4-hectare public park in Bowdon in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The gardens were originally the grounds of Denzell House, built by cotton magnate Robert Scott (1822-1904) in 1874 and apparently named by his Cornish wife, Maria, after Denzell Manor in Cornwall. The name is derived from the Cornish den, meaning ‘castle, fort’, + sel, meaning ‘hill’. The house was sold in 1904 to Samuel Lamb (1847-1936), a shipping merchant and Liberal politician. On his death, the house and grounds were donated to Bowdon Urban District Council. The grounds were opened to the public in 1938, while the house was put to various uses and is currently used as offices.

DEPLEACH HALL is all that remains of a 17^th-century tithe barn south of Cheadle town centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in 1366 as Depelache, meaning ‘deep boggy steam’, from the Old English dēop (‘deep’) + laecc (‘stream, bog’), in reference to the nearby Micker Brook.

DE QUINCEY PARK is a small public park south of Sinderland Brook in Timperley in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It was opened in 1936 by the Mayor of Altrincham, Alfred de Quincey, and named after him rather than his famous ancestor, Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859), who was brought up in industrial Manchester and chronicled childhood visits to Altrincham in his Confessions of an Opium Eater.

DERKER is a residential area in the north of Oldham. The name is not well documented before 1604 and its origin is unknown. At that time, it was spelled Dirtcar, but this is not thought to be related to a small rail wagon for carrying soil or other material, a word that originated in the USA in 1870.

The DEVISDALE is an area of Bowdon in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford with residential development around a public park. The area was originally common land known as Bowdon Downs, but the current name originated from the early 18^th century. It is thought to be a corruption of the family name Davis + Old English dole (‘common land shared out among local people’).

DERBYSHIRE is a county to the east of Greater Manchester. The name is first recorded in the 11^th century and is derived from the city of Derby (‘village where deer are found’) + scīr (‘district’). In 1974 a few places – Marple Bridge, Strines and Swineshaw – were transferred from Derbyshire to Greater Manchester.

DICK HILL is a 308-metre hill north of Rough Bank and Higher Ogden in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and the Peak District National Park. The name appears on the first ordnance Survey maps of the area in the 1840s but the origin in unknown. It might come from the Old English dīc, meaning ‘embankment’, but it is more likely that it is a forename eponym, named after an unidentified farmer or landowner named Richard.

“DICKY BIRD” ESTATE is a residential area in Fern Grove east of Bury that was built in the 1930s. It was given the name because many of the roads have bird names – Linnet Drive, Chaffinch Drive, etc. ‘Dicky bird’ has been a colloquial or children’s term for a bird since 1744 and was popularised by the nursery rhyme ‘Two little dicky birds sat on a wall, One named Peter, one named Paul’. This was originally ‘There were two blackbirds sat on a hill, One named Peter, one named Gill’, but the wording was changed early in the 19^th century.

DIDSBURY is a suburb of the City of Manchester lying on the north bank of the River Mersey approximately 8 kilometres south of the city centre. It is first recorded in 1246 as Dedesbiry, meaning ‘Dyddi’s stronghold’, probably referring to an Anglo-Saxon leader who had a burh (‘fortified place’) overlooking a ford across the Mersey. Didsbury gives its name to Didsbury, Alberta, Canada.

DIGGLE is a village in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, although in the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. The name is recorded in the late 12^th century as Diggel and there are two theories about the derivation. One is that it is from the Old English degle, meaning ‘valley’. The other is that it means ‘ditch hill’ from Old English dīc + hyll. Diggle lends its name to Diggle Reservoir, which was built in about 1795-1800 to supply water for the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

DIMPLE is a village in the Ribble valley north of Egerton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is not well documented but is thought to come from Old English dumpel or dympel, meaning ‘a pit or a hollow’ and therefore ‘a pool’. The Old English word gives us modern ‘dimple’ and ‘dump’.

DIVISION BRIDGE See ROYAL GEORGE AQUEDUCT

DIXON FOLD is a residential area in Clifton in the City of Salford. The name is not well documented before 1841, when the Manchester & Bolton Railway opened its Dixon Fold station. The name would seem to be an eponym: Dixon may refer to a farming family who were involved in the textile industry in the 18^th century; Fold is taken from Old English fald, ‘an enclosure for animals or a small group of cottages’.

DOBB BROW is a village west of Westhoughton beside Pennington Brook in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It is named after John Dobb, who obtained the lease for the area in 1777 and let out plots for cottages, many to handloom weavers. Brow is from Old English bru meaning ‘a steep hill or bank that leads up from a river’.

DOBCROSS is one of the villages of Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham that was in the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. The name is recorded in 1662. One suggestion is that it is an eponym and that Dob is the name of an unknown person. Another is that it means ‘the place where horses cross’ from dob, a now obsolete word meaning ‘a muddy or stagnant pool, a deep pool in a river’. This might refer to an ancient crossing point over the local River Tame on a packhorse route across the Pennines between Lancashire and Yorkshire.

DOCTOR LANE HEAD is a hamlet at the head (i.e. the top) of Doctor Lane north-west of Uppermill in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Doctor Lane takes its name from Dr George Byrom (1589-1656), a member of the Byrom family of Salford after whom several streets in Salford and Manchester are named. Byrom was a doctor of divinity and the rector of Thornton-le-Moors in Cheshire. He purchased land in the area in 1639 and later moved there after falling foul of the puritan authorities because of his support for the royalists during the civil war.

DODGE HILL is an area west of Lancashire Hill in Stockport named after the Dodge family, 17 of whom were mayors of the town between 1433 and 1812. The name is recorded in the 15^th century, when William Doggerson held land in Stockport. Two Dodge brothers emigrated to America in 1629 and it is often said that Dodge City in Kansas and the Dodge Motor Cars company were founded by their descendants or relatives, but there is little hard evidence that either of these claims is true.

DOFFCOCKER is a residential and recreational area in north-west Bolton. The name is not well documented before 1874, when Doffcocker Lodge was built as a reservoir for local mills. There are two theories about the origin of the name. One is that it means ‘dark winding stream’, from the Celtic dubh (‘dark, black’) + cocr (‘winding stream’). More fancifully, it may recall a Scotsman who had to doff (‘remove’) his cockers (Scottish and Lancashire word for ‘stockings’ or ‘boots’) in order to cross the stream that flowed into Doffcocker Lodge. Doffcocker Lodge was created as a nature reserve in 1992.

DOG KENNEL BROOK See MAINE ROAD

DOG POOL BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook that rises south-east of Hindley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows south-west to join Borsdane Brook, which ultimately empties into Glaze Brook. The name does not appear on maps until the Ordnance Survey of the 1890s and the origin is uncertain – perhaps it rises in a pool that was known locally as Dog Pool and this name was applied to the stream.

DOLEFIELD today is a street in the Spinningfields area of the City of Manchester close to the River Irwell, but in the past it was an area in itself and was originally proposed as the terminus of the Bridgewater Canal. The place is not well documented before 1777 and means ‘a field in an area of common land’, from the Old English dole (‘common land shared out among local people’) + feld (‘open space, field’).

River DOUGLAS rises on Winter Hill, joins the River Yarrow and meanders to meet the River Ribble. It is first recorded in 1220 as the Douglis and takes its name from the Celtic Dubo-glais, meaning ‘black or dark stream’.

DOUGLAS GREEN is a former industrial area of Pendleton where William Douglas (1745-1810) established one of the first, if not the first, and largest cotton mill in Salford in 1781-1782.

DOVE BANK is a residential area north-west of Little Lever in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, beside Blackshaw Brook, a tributary of the River Croal. The name appears on the Bury tithe map of about 1845 as a field or property name. It is likely that the name means ‘the slope or hill (Middle English banke) where doves (Old English dūfe) are found or kept’, and local records confirm that dovecotes were used in the area in the 16^th century.

DOVER is a hamlet south of Abram in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is not well documented before the completion of the Leigh branch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, which was completed in December 1820, when a flight of four locks was built at Dover. The name is thought to be unrelated to Dover in Kent and to be derived from the Celtic dubr, meaning ‘water’.

DOVE STONE or DOVESTONE RESERVOIR lies above the village of Greenfield and west of Dove Stone Moss on Saddleworth Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The reservoir was completed in 1968 but takes its name from a local landmark, Dove Stone, which is recorded in 1771. The stone acquired its name from its shape, which was originally similar to a dove, but years of erosion have flattened the top and it is now sometimes referred to as “Duck Stone”.

DOWRY WATER and DOWRY RESERVOIR Dowry Water or Dowry Brook is a tributary of the River Tame, which originates from the waters emerging from Dowry and New Year’s Bridge reservoirs east of Denshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Dowry reservoir was built in 1876-83 but it is evident that the name of Dowry is much older. Its origin and meaning are unclear and undocumented – Dowry Green is recorded in 1724 and Dowry Castle was built in 1867. It is usually said that the name refers of a piece of endowed land, although this meaning is not given in the Oxford English Dictionary, rather than the marriage dowry of anyone in particular.

DRINKWATER PARK is a 62-hectare park on the River Irwell in Prestwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It was originally a country estate dating back to 1389 and was purchased in 1788 by Peter Drinkwater (1742-1801), a cotton manufacturer and textile merchant of Northwich. The estate became known as Drinkwater Park and was sold to Salford and Prestwich councils in 1902 for a smallpox isolation hospital. The hospital was closed in 1943 and the land was eventually converted into a public park, which is now administered by the Forestry Commission.

DROYLSDEN is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside on the River Tame, about 6.5 kilometres east of Manchester city centre. The name is first recorded in about 1250 as Drilisden and the modern spelling is found from 1619-1620. It may mean ‘valley of the dry stream or stream’, from Old English drӯge (‘dry, dried up’) + welles (‘stream, well’) + –denu (‘valley’) but it has also been suggested that it could mean ‘Drygel’s valley’ from an Anglo-Saxon personal name. Old English drӯgel means ‘a small person of dried-up appearance’.

DRY BROOK and DRY CLOUGH Dry Brook is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on Broadstone Moss in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows north through Dry Clough to meet South Brook, which then flows north -west into Diggle Brook, which joins the Tame near Diggle. The names are not well documented but are probably literal – ‘dry stream’ and ‘dry valley’.

DUCIE BRIDGE There are two bridges in central Manchester called Ducie Bridge: Ducie road bridge over the River Irk built in 1814-16 and a railway bridge over Great Ducie Street built by the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1842 as it extended its line to Victoria Station. Both are named after the Ducie family of landowners who inherited Strangeways Hall in the early 18^th century. Apart from owning land, the family seem to have had little to do with Manchester, although the 3^rd Baron Ducie (1739-1808) was an MP for Lancaster in 1784-1785. The family name originated in the 13^th century as an Anglicised version of the Gaelic O’Dubhghusa, a personal name meaning ‘black vigour’.

DUKINFIELD is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, although included in Cheshire until 1974. It lies on the south bank of the River Tame, east of Manchester city centre. The name was recorded in the 12^th century as Dokenfeld, meaning ’field of ducks’, from Old English dūcena (‘of ducks’) + feld (‘open space, field’). Presumably the ducks were on the River Tame but they could also refer to domesticated ducks.

DUMPLINGTON is a locality in Urmston in the City of Salford, about 9 kilometres south-west of Manchester city centre. The name is first recorded in 1229 as Dumplinton and its modern spelling is found from 1623. The meaning is usually given as ‘the village or enclosure by a pool’, from the Old English dympel- (‘a dip, pool’) + -ing- (‘associated with’) + –tūn (‘enclosure, village’). An alternative is that it means ‘the village or enclosure of the followers of Dumola’, from the personal name + -inga– (‘followers of, named after’) + –tūn.

DUNHAM MASSEY is a 17th-century stately home and 120-hectare estate with deer and other wildlife such as herons. It is located on the River Bollin south-west of Altrincham in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The nearby village of Dunham is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Doneham and means ‘homestead on a hill’ from the Old English dūn-, ‘hill’ + –hām, ‘village, homestead’, probably referring to what is now the village of Dunham Town. Massey was added as the name of the Anglo-Norman de Masci barons and is first recorded in 1362. The Massey line died out in the 14^th century but the house remained in private ownership until 1976, when it was left to the National Trust.

DUNHAM NEW PARK is a 14.6-hectare park owned by the National Trust as part of the Dunham Massey estate south-west of Altrincham in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The original park was part of the Dunham estate mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) but in 1765 the Earl and Countess of Stamford created the New Park. It was used as an American army camp and, later, a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II and was left to the National Trust in 1976.

DUNHAM TOWN See DUNHAM MASSEY

DUNHAM WOODHOUSES is a village north of the Dunham Massey estate in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford and it is likely that it was originally a settlement of estate workers’ cottages. Dunham means ‘homestead on a hill’ from the Old English dūn-, ‘hill’ + –hām, ‘village, homestead’. Woodhouses is recorded as Wodehouse in 1522 and means ‘houses in a wood’ from Old English wudu + hūs.

DUNISHBOOTH BROOK is a tributary of the River Spodden that rises north of Catley Lane Head in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in about 1180 and means ‘the small or temporary hut (Old Norse bōth/Middle English bothe) belonging to (Old English -ing) Dunning (Anglo-Saxon personal name)’. Today there are still farms at Higher and Lower Dunishbooth.

DUNSCAR is an area close to Egerton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, that was formerly in Lancashire. It is also the site of Dunscar Wood. The name was first recorded in the 12^th century as Dungecarre and means ‘dung marsh’ from the Old English dynge (‘dung’) + carr (‘swamp’).

DUNWOOD PARK is a 12-hectare public park in Crompton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The land was donated to Crompton council by Captain Abram Crompton, a local landowner, in 1911 and the park was opened in 1912. At the time the land was described as ‘a high hill, wooded in parts’, which fits its Old English derivation – dūn (‘hill’) + wudu (‘wood, forest’). In 1926 a fountain was erected in the park ‘as a mark of appreciation of the self-sacrifice and devotion of women of Crompton during the Great War’.

DURN is a village north east of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale located beside a road leading up to Blackstone Edge. The name is not well documented before the late 18th century, when Durn Lock and Durn Bridge on the Rochdale Canal were built. It is probably derived from Old English derne or dierne, meaning ‘hidden’ because it was covered with vegetation.

EAGLEY is a village in Turton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, formerly in Lancashire. The name is recorded only as Eagley Bridge until the early 19^th century, but the stream was harnessed to power cotton mills from 1796. The owners built a model village named simply Eagley for the workers. The mills were closed in the 1970s but have been converted into a residential complex. The name may derive from the Old English āc, meaning ‘oak’ + lēah, ‘woodland clearing’. Given its position on Eagley Brook, a tributary of the River Tonge, it is perhaps more likely that it comes from Old English ēa, meaning ‘river’, + lēah.

EALEES is a rural area south-east of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Ealees Hall is recorded in 1561 and the name means ‘clearings beside a brook or river’, from the Old English ēa (‘river’) + lēah (woodland clearing’). The reference is to Hollingworth Brook, which flows down the Ealees Valley, merges with Ealees Brook and flows into the River Roch at Littleborough.

EASTLANDS is a regenerated area 1.5 kilometres east of Manchester city centre that was formerly known as Bradford. The Eastlands name seems to have been first used in the early 1990s when, following the closure of Bradford colliery in 1969, the area was transformed for the hosting of the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The centrepiece was the stadium that is now known as the Etihad Stadium.

EASTWOOD NATURE RESERVE is a 4.7-hectare woodland area in Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside administered by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It takes its name from Eastwood House, the home of John Cheetham (1835-1916), a local cotton manufacturer. He bequeathed Eastwood and neighbouring Cheetham Park to the people of Stalybridge. Eastwood Nature Reserve was opened to the public in 1931.

EATOCK LODGE is a 1.21–hectare nature reserve in Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It was designated as a local nature reserve in 2004 and occupies part of the site of Eatock Colliery, which opened in 1890 but was shut down in 1936. The colliery was built on and took its name from Eatock Farm, which is recorded in 1739 as probably belonging in John Eatock. The origin of the family name Eatock is uncertain but it has been suggested that it may be Old English ēast (‘east’) + stoc (‘outlying settlement or farmstead’).

ECCLES is a town in the City of Salford, approximately 6.5 kilometres west of the centre of Manchester, previously in Lancashire. It is first recorded in about 1200 as Eccles and is thought to be derived from the ancient British word eclēs or eglēs, meaning ‘a church’, which may be related to the Latin ecclesia and the Greek ekklesia. Both mean ‘gathering’ and hence came to be related to ecclesiastical gatherings. However, there is no record of a church in the area before the 13^th century, and it has been suggested that the Anglo-Saxons, who invaded the area in the early 7^th century, understood the concept of the church and perpetuated the name, despite not being Christians.

ECKERSLEY MILL is a retail centre in Wigan that is being developed as part of the Wigan Pier conservation area. It takes its name from Eckersley Mills, a complex of cotton mills built between 1883 and 1920 for Nathaniel ffarington Eckersley and Co.. Many of the buildings were demolished in the 1960s.

The EDGE is a suburban area of Hollinwood in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented but would seem to refer to its position on the edge (i.e. the border) between Chadderton and Oldham. The name is recorded in 1713, when land ownership disputes were settled and this area of moorland was awarded to Oldham.

EDGELEY is a district in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is first recorded in 1287 as Edisheleg and is derived from the Old English edisc, meaning ‘enclosure’ and + lēah, ‘wood clearing’. Edgeley Park Stadium was built in 1891 for Stockport Rugby Club but since 1903 it has been the home of Stockport County Football Club. Edgeley gives its name to Edgeley, North Dakota, USA.

EGERTON is a commuter village about 5 kilometres north of Bolton town centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It was originally known as Walmsley after the family that owned the land. In 1663 the step-daughter of James Walmsley married Ralph Egerton and the area was then given his family name.

ELIZABETH GASKELL HOUSE is a museum on Plymouth Grove in the Chorlton-on-Medlock area of the City of Manchester dedicated to the life and work of the Victorian novelist, Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865). The house was built in 1835-1841 and Elizabeth Gaskell lived there from 1850 to 1865. It was auctioned off in 1913 on the death of Elizabth Gaskell’s daughter, Margaret Emily “Meta” Gaskell. It was purchased by the University of Manchester in 1969 and used for the university’s International Society until 2000, when it was acquired by the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust as a museum to commemorate Elizabeth Gaskell.

ELK MILL today is a shopping centre in Royton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It was built on the site of Elk Mill, the last cotton mill built in Lancashire or what is now Greater Manchester, which was completed in 1926. It was built by the Shiloh Spinning Company, which was formed in 1874 and took its name from Shiloh in Tennessee in the USA, from where the first shipment of raw cotton to Lancashire had come in the late 18^th century. The company named their Royton mill after the Elk River in Tennessee. Elk Mill was closed in 1998 and demolished.

ELLENBROOK is a suburb of Worsley in the City of Salford, about 11 kilometres west of Manchester city centre. Ellenbrook is first recorded in 1544 as Elynbroke and is named after the nearby Ellen Brook, a tributary of the River Irwell. Broke clearly means ‘brook, stream’ but sources often state that the first element is unknown. However, it has been suggested that it is the Old English ellern (‘elder tree’) or elri (‘alder tree’), describing the vegetation along the banks.

ELLESMERE PARK is a residential area of Eccles in the City of Salford. It dates from the late 19^th and early 20th centuries, when fields were laid out for spacious housing. The name is taken from the owner of the land, Francis Charles Egerton, 3^rd Earl of Ellesmere (1847–1914). The family took their title from Ellesmere in Shropshire, an eponym that dates from 1172 and means ‘Elli’s lake’.

ELLENOR BROOK is a short tributary of Glaze Brook that flows south through Astley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It then becomes Town Brook and ultimately joins the River Glaze near Lately Common in Warrington. It would seem to take its name from a field, farm or local landowner named Ellenor and there are references to Eleanor, Elennor and Elanor in the area in the 17^th-19^th centuries. There are records of an Eleanor Tyldesley (née Holcroft), whose family were landowners in the area in the 17th century, but there is no evidence that the brook was named after her.

ELTON is a suburb of Bury that lies on the River Irwell. It is first recorded in 1246 as Elleton and is said to mean ‘Ella’s village or farmstead’, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name + -tūn. The settlement gives its name to Elton Brook, a tributary of the Irwell, and to Lowercroft Reservoir, which was built in the mid-19^th century.

ENGINE FOLD is a residential area of Walkden in the City of Salford. The name is derived from fold – originally a small homestead established near a coal mine – + engine, as the site was originally an industrial works depot set up in 1878 to provide maintenance services for the engines and equipment of the collieries and railways of the Bridgewater Trustees. The facility was closed in 1986 and the area converted into a residential estate.

ERNOCROFT is a rural area of Compstall in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, and Ernocroft Wood forms part of Etherow Country Park. The name is recorded in 1226 as Arnwicroft and with its modern spelling in 1767. This is said to be an eponym derived from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Earnwīg + croft (‘small enclosed field’).

ETCHELLS is a historical area of north-east Cheshire. The name is recorded in 1154 as Hecheles and with its modern spelling from 1302. It is derived from the Old English ēcels, meaning ‘addition’, in the sense that this was land added to another place. From 1860 it was divided between Stockport Etchells and Northen (or Northern) Etchells, meaning land attached to Northenden. In 1931, Northen Etchells, including Brownsley Green, Crossacres, Heyhead, Moss Nook, Poundswick, Royal Thorn and Sharston, became part of Wythenshawe and transferred from Cheshire to Manchester. Stockport Etchells became what are now Gatley and Heald Green.

River ETHEROW is a tributary of the River Goyt that rises on Pikenaze Moor in the Derbyshire Peak District and flows through Longdendale to meet the Goyt north of Marple. The name is recorded in about 1226 as Ederhou, the name of a hill, meaning ‘stream hill-spur’, from ēdre (‘stream’) + hōh (‘hill-spur, slightly higher piece of ground’). Etherow is found with its modern spelling from 1767. The river gives its name to the 80-hectare Etherow Country Park in the Borough of Stockport, which was opened in 1968 as one of England’s first country parks.

ETHROP GREEN was a farm and hamlet in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford close to Manchester International Airport. It is recorded in 1535 as Athrop, from Old English throp or Old Norse thorp, both meaning ‘outlying farm’. However, the name was given as Aplethropp in 1558, suggesting it could mean ‘apple farm’, from Old English æppel. The farm was demolished when the airport was extended in 1989.

ETIHAD STADIUM was built as the City of Manchester Stadium for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in the area now known as Eastlands (formerly Bradford). In 2003, Manchester City Football Club moved to the stadium from their Maine Road ground and in 2011 a sponsorship agreement with Etihad (Arabic for ‘union, unity’) Airways led to a change of name for the stadium.

EXCHANGE was the Manchester trading centre for the exchange of cotton and other commodities. The first was built in 1727 and rebuilt in 1806-1809. This was enlarged in 1847-1849 and its name was changed to the Royal Exchange after a visit by Queen Victoria in 1851. The third Exchange was completed in 1874. It was vast and lavishly decorated but was finally closed in 1968 with the decline of Manchester’s cotton industry and was converted into the Royal Exchange Theatre.

EXCHANGE STATION was opened by the London & North Western Railway on 30 June 1884 and was closed by British Railways on 5 May 1969. It took its name from the nearby Manchester Cotton Exchange. It is now a covered car park named Deansgate North.

EYE PLATT BRIDGE and EYE PLATT NEW BRIDGE are road bridges south of Stretford in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford carrying the Chester Road over Kickety Brook, a tributary of the River Mersey. Eye Platt Bridge was built in 1577 and replaced an earlier wooden bridge. Eye Platt New Bridge was built in 1932. The name means ‘plot (Old English plat) of land in a dry patch of marshy ground (eye)’. Eye is a dialect form of Old English ēg, meaning ‘island or piece of dry woodland’. The usual dialect form in the Greater Manchester area is ees, but eye is also found further west in the Mersey valley near Warrington.

FAILSWORTH is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham approximately 6.5 kilometres north-east of Manchester city centre. The name is first recorded in 1212 as Fayleswrthe as is thought to possibly mean ‘fenced enclosure’ from Old English fegels (possibly ‘a hurdle, a fence’) + –worth (‘enclosure’), or, alternatively, to be an eponym from an Anglo-Saxon personal name Fegel or Fægel.

FAIRBOTTOM is or was a hamlet in Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, close to the border with Oldham. Fairbottom Farm is thought to date from the late 17^th century and Fairbottom Colliery was probably opened in the early 18^th century. The colliery was drained by an early Newcomen steam engine, which is believed to have been installed in about 1765 but which may have been obtained second-hand from Norbury colliery. The colliery lent its name to the Fairbottom Branch Canal, a short branch of the Hollinwood Branch Canal, opened in 1797 to transport coal. The canal was closed in 1932 but parts can still be seen in Daisy Nook Country Park. The steam engine was purchased by Henry Ford and taken to his museum in Dearborn in Michigan in 1929. The meaning of Fairbottom seems quite literal: it overlooks the ‘fair or beautiful valley bottom’ of the River Medlock.

FAIRFIELD is a suburb of Droylsden in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside that was part of Lancashire until 1974. Although there are other places in Britain with this name, Fairfield in Tameside dates only from October 1783, when Moravian refugees established a church and 22-hectare settlement with the aspirational name of Fairfield. The area originally overlooked a field, which may have been literally fair because of a crop of wheat, lilies or cloth that was being bleached. However, the origin may be Biblical: ‘the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field’ (Matthew 13:44). Similarly, a Moravian member, John Lees from Clarksfield, sold two of his coal mines in Oldham for £6000 to pay for the building of the village. The parable may have inspired the choice of name in religious settlements elsewhere, such as Fairfield in Connecticut, which was established by Puritan colonists in 1639.

FAIRYWELL BROOK is a 6-kilometre stream that rises north of Manchester International Airport and flows north-west to meet Baguley Brook in Timperley to form Sinderland Brook, a tributary of the River Mersey. Traditionally, it formed part of the boundary between Cheshire and the City of Manchester and today it marks part of the boundary between the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford and the City of Manchester. The name appears on the 1842 Ordnance Survey map and its meaning is thought to be quite literal – ‘the stream where fairies are found’. There are a number of places across England with ‘fairy’ as the first element but most are considered to reflect a wish to be romantic rather than any supernatural belief.

FALINGE is a location in Rochdale on the River Spodden that also gives its name to Falinge Park. The name is recorded in 1323 as Falynge, meaning ‘fallow land’, from the Old English fælging, meaning ‘fallow land’ or ‘newly-ploughed land’. Falinge Park was opened in 1906.

FALLOWFIELD is a suburb of Manchester some 5 kilometres south of the city centre. It is first recorded in 1317 as Fallafeld and is said to mean either literally ‘fallow field’ from the Old English faelh (‘fallow or newly-ploughed land that has not been planted’) or ‘fallow-coloured field’ from fealu (‘pale brown, yellowish’) + –feld.

FARNWORTH is a town on the River Irwell and River Croal in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, 3.2 kilometres south-east of Bolton itself and 13 kilometres north-west of Manchester. The name is first recorded in 1185 as Farnewurd but the modern spelling is found from 1278. The name means ‘fern enclosure’ from Old English fearn (‘fern’) + worth (‘enclosure’).

FAR WAIN STONES See WAIN STONES

FEATHERBED MOSS is an upland area of the Peak District National Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1843 and it is usually said that it refers to the softness of the swampy (Old English mos, ‘swamp, bog’) ground and white colour of the vegetation, which recalled those of a feather bed.

FEATHERSTALL is a locality in Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale that takes its name from Featherstall Brook, a tributary of the River Roch. The name is not well documented and there is little agreement as to its origin or meaning. One suggestion is that it could mean ‘place of feathers’ from Old English fether, another that it is an Old Norse personal name, and another that it could be Old English fodor (‘fodder, cattle feed’) + -stall (‘stable, cattle stall’). However, there is little evidence for any of these suggestions and none is thought particularly likely.

FENNY HILL is a suburb of Oldham, south-east of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1827 as a hamlet and in 1829 and 1832 as the site of collieries. Legend has it that it was originally named ‘Fanny Hill’ after a local woman named Frances Rogers, but it is more likely that the origin is more literal – ‘the hill beside or above a fen or marsh’ from Old English fennig.

FERN BANK is a residential area on the south-eastern edge of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The area was first developed in the early 1890s with large villas by a local builder, William Storrs (1828-94), who named the estate Fern Bank after the house on Mottram Road in which he had lived since at least 1881. The name would mean ‘the fern-covered bank or hill’.

FERNGROVE is a residential area of Bury popularly known as the Dicky Bird Estate. The estate was built in the 1930s but the name – in the 19^th century spelt both Fern Grove and Ferngrove – is recorded in baptismal records in 1830. The name means ‘the small wood (Old English grāf) where ferns (fearn) grow’.

FERNHILL or FERN HILL is an area of northern Bury. There are many places named Fern Hill or Fernhill in England, all meaning ‘fern-covered hill’ from the Old English fearn + hyll. Fern Hill in Bury is recorded in 1851.

The FESTIVAL THEATRE in Hyde in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside was originally built in 1903 as the Queen Alexandra Picture House, named after Queen Alexandra, the wife of the reigning king, Edward VII, and one of the earliest purpose-built cinemas in England. (The word cinema in the sense of ‘a building for showing films’ was not coined until 1911.) In 1951-53 it was rebuilt as the Festival Theatre, taking its name from the Festival of Britain, a nationwide celebration of the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and of Britain’s post-war industrial and artistic revival.

FIRGROVE is a residential area and business park in Milnrow in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is relatively recent and seems to derive from Firgrove Mill, which was built in 1870-73. Firgrove Bridge over the Rochdale Canal was built by 1804 and was originally called Wallhead Bridge but was renamed by the time it was rebuilt in 1906. The origin of Firgrove is not documented but it is a common name across England and is usually literal – in or by a grove of fir trees.

FIRSWOOD is a residential area of Stretford in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is recorded on Ordnance Survey maps at the beginning of the 19^th century and would seem to take its name from Fir Farm.

FIRWOOD FOLD is a hamlet on Bradshaw Brook 3.25 kilometres north-east of Bolton town centre. The earliest houses, including the birthplace of Samuel Crompton in 1753, date from the 16^th century and are said to be the oldest inhabited houses in Bolton. The origin of the name appears to be undocumented but is probably from the Old English fyre (‘fir’) or fierel (‘place where oak trees grow’) + wudu (‘wood’) + fald (‘enclosure for animals, farmstead’).

FIRWOOD PARK is a residential area of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name seems to originate in 1844, when James Cheetham built Firwood Mill beside the Rochdale Canal, but may have been the name of the area at an earlier date which had taken its name from the local vegetation. In 1990 the area was developed into a large housing estate which perpetuated the name of Firwood. Firwood Mill was demolished in 1960.

FISHPOOL is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury south of the town centre. The name is first recorded in 1843 as an agricultural area and was adopted for the residential district that developed in the late 19^th century. The name may refer to a local fish pond (one of the few place names referencing fish in Greater Manchester) or to a landowner or farmer by the name of Fishpool.

FITTON HILL is a residential area of Oldham, about 3 kilometres south of the town centre. The area was developed for residential purposes in the 1950s and 1960s on the land of Fitton Hill Farm, which had been occupied by the Fitton family since the early 17^th century.

The FLASHES OF WIGAN AND LEIGH is an 800-hectare nature reserve in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan composed of a chain of 8 sites, including Abram Flash, Amberswood, Bickershaw country park, Lightshaw Meadows, Pennington Flash country park, Three Sisters, Wigan Flashes and Viridor Wood. It takes its name from the towns of Wigan and Leigh + flash, meaning a lake formed by the subsidence of disused mine workings.

FLETCHER BANK is a residential area in Ramsbottom in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury on the east bank of the River Irwell. The name is recorded in the early 19^th century in reference to fields, a small settlement, quarries and even a type of sandstone used in building. It is thought to be an eponym derived from a family named Fletcher, who are known to have lived in the area from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Bank here means ‘slope, hillside’ along the valley rather than the actual bank of the Irwell.

FLETCHER FOLD is a residential area south of Bury and east of the River Irwell. The name is recorded in 1716 as the location of Fletcher Fold House, a property built for the Earl of Derby and probably means ‘the animal enclosure (Old English fald) belonging to someone called Fletcher’. The Fletchers seem to have been a prominent local family and a nearby estate at Hollins was leased to a Jacob Fletcher in 1756.

FLETCHER MOSS PARK is a 36-hectare botanical garden in Didsbury in the City of Manchester. It is named after Fletcher Moss (1865-1919), the son of a wealthy corn merchant, who purchased the area in 1912 and donated it to the City of Manchester in 1915.

FLETCHER’S CANAL was a 2.4-kilometre canal between the Wet Earth colliery and the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal in the City of Salford. It was built in 1790-1800 by Matthew Fletcher (1731/33-1808), a local mining engineer. The canal was closed in 1952 but parts of the original towpath remain in Clifton Country Park.

FLIXTON is a town in the Borough of Trafford, about 10 kilometres south-west of Manchester city centre. The name is an Old Norse-Old English hybrid, first recorded in 1177 with its modern spelling (although it was also recorded with other spellings) and meaning ‘Flik’s village or estate’, from the Norse personal name Flik or Flikke + Old English -tūn, suggesting Danish settlement in the area at an earlier period.

FLOW MOSS was an area or hamlet on Chat Moss south of Astley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The Liverpool & Manchester Railway opened a station with this name in 1830 but it was closed in 1842. The company opened another station named Flow Moss Cottage in about 1844 but this was later renamed Astley. The name seems to be a reduplication of Old Norse flói, meaning ‘marsh’, + Old English mos, also meaning ‘marsh’.

FLOWERY FIELD is an area of Hyde in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is aspirational and is first recorded in 1845. It is said to have been chosen by factory owner Thomas Ashton (1808-75), who provided good working and housing conditions for his employees.

FOGGBROOK is an area of Offerton in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is only recorded in 1849 when it referred to a village and a bridge over Poise Brook, a tributary of the River Goyt, but must date from mediaeval times as the suggested meaning is ‘grassy stream’, from Old English fogga- (‘long grass left standing in winter’) + brōc (‘stream’).

FOG LANE PARK is a 19-hectare public park in East Didsbury. The land was purchased by the local authority in 1926 and the park takes its name from Yorkshire Fog, a strain of grass that grows in the area. The name of the grass is first recorded in 1874 and is said to come from its appearance, which resembles that of the smoke billowing from the chimneys of Yorkshire factories. However, this may be folk etymology – fogga is an Old English word meaning ‘grass’.

FOLLY BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell. It rises in Monton in the City of Salford and flows about 9 kilometres north-east to join Worlsey Brook, which eventually joins the Irwell. The origin of the name is not well documented but is it likely that it comes from folly, an obsolete or dialect word meaning ‘clump of trees on a hill or in open ground’.

FORDOE BROOK is a tributary of the River Roch that rises on Knowl Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows south-east into Greenbooth Reservoir. The name is undated and undocumented, but Fordol and Foredole are found elsewhere in West Yorkshire, dating from the 14^th and 15^th centuries. The name in these cases probably means ‘a field in front of (Old English fore) a share of land (dāl)’, but this meaning and derivation cannot be confirmed.

FOUR GATES or FOURGATES is a hamlet north-west of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It is situated at the junction of four ‘gates’ (i.e. roads, from the Old Norse gata) – Dicconson Lane to Aspull, Chorley Road, Manchester Road and Lostock Road. The name is not well documented before 1691, when the Fourgates Inn or Hotel was opened.

FOUR LANE ENDS is a hamlet north-west of Tottington in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It takes its name from the four lanes that form the crossroads at the centre of the hamlet – Harwood Road and Bradshaw Road. The name is not well documented before 1800, when Four Lane End colliery was sunk.

FOX PLATT is a residential area on the south-east edge of Mossley in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It takes its name from Fox Platt Farm, which was purchased in 1925 in order to build a housing estate under the ‘Homes for Heroes’ scheme funded by the government after World War I. The farm had belonged to John Platt (1857-1918), a local landowner, although it is unclear why it was named ‘Fox Platt’.

FRED PERRY WALK is a 23-kilometre is a walking path spanning the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport from Reddish in the north to Woodford in the south. The path passes through Houldsworth Model Village and mill, the source of the River Mersey at the confluence of the Tame and the Goyt, Vernon Park, Woodbank Memorial Park and King George’s Field, and Happy Valley. It is named to commemorate Fred Perry (1909-95), who was born in Portwood and won the men’s tennis singles title at Wimbledon in 1934, 1935 and 1936.

FREEHOLD is a residential area in Werneth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name dates from the 1860s when John Platt, the mayor of Oldham and the owner of Platt textile machinery factory, purchased some freehold land and built houses for the company’s employees which enabled them to vote under the franchise laws of the time.

FREETOWN is a suburb of Bury that was previously known as Chesham. The name dates from the 1820s, when one Thomas Greenhalgh bought some land that included Chesham Mill and renamed it Freetown Mill because it was outside the parish boundaries and therefore free from tithes. The mill was demolished late in the 20^th century and the land is now occupied by Freetown Business Park.

FREE TRADE HALL was a concert hall in central Manchester close to St Peter’s Square built in 1853-1856 on the site of the Peterloo massacre. The Manchester historian A J P Taylor described it as the only building in the world named after an idea – that there should be free trade between nations without restrictions on imports or exports. It was built on land donated by Richard Cobden (1804-1865), a leader of the Free Trade movement, to commemorate the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 – one of the central demands of the movement. The Free Trade Hall was badly damaged in the Manchester blitz of December 1940, rebuilt after the war, closed in 1997 and again rebuilt as a hotel, retaining the original façade.

FRENCHES is an area of Greenfield south of Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It includes Frenches Wharf Marina, a waterside facility opened in 2013 as part of the restored Huddersfield Narrow Canal. The area is recorded in 1673 as Frenches Farm, thought to be named from the nickname (Frenchy) of Thomas Marralew, one of the French Huguenot Mallalieu family that had settled in Saddleworth in the 16^th century. Frenches Fulling Mill was built in 1715 or 1719, and Frenches Wharf dates from the construction of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal in 1794-1811.

FRIARMERE or FRIAR MERE is the former name of a hamlet in Delph in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham now known as Heights. A church was built in 1765 on a hillside overlooking Delph but the name is recorded in 1468 as Friar Mere from Old English frere (‘friar’) + mǣre (‘boundary’), probably referring to an outlying house belonging to the Black Friars from Roche Abbey in Rotherham that is said to have been built in Delph.

FRIEZLAND is a village south-west of Greenfield in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, about 6.5 kilometres east of the town of Oldham and part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. The name is recorded as Freesland in 1765 and with its modern spelling in 1783. It clearly relates to the northern Dutch province of Friesland but the nature of this relationship is uncertain and three different suggestions have been put forward. The first suggests that it is derived from Fresa, a Frisian descended from one of the original tribes who invaded England along with the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in the 5^th and 6^th centuries. The second is that it was applied to an area of Greenfield in the early 19^th century because many Dutch or Frisian immigrants had come to work at the Royal George Mills, but this is later than the first record of ‘Friezland’. The third and perhaps the most likely possibility is that the name comes from Friezland or Dutch Oats, which were introduced into Yorkshire in about 1740 and became popular with upland farmers because of their good yield.

FRODSHAM’S BROOK is a tributary of the River Douglas which rises south of Standish in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, then flows through Frodsham’s Wood and the Standish Park estate and joins the Douglas at Crooke. The name is little documented and any link with Frodsham in Cheshire is unclear. The name of the Cheshire market town is probably derived from the personal name Frod or perhaps from a ford across the River Weaver, but historians of the town state that it is the only place named Frodsham in England and make no mention of Frodsham’s Brook. However, it seems likely that there was a connection: Ralph de Standish (1418-34) owned estates in both Cheshire and Lancashire and a later member of the family, Bishop Henry Standish (c.1475-1535), left £20 in his will for the construction of a bridge to ‘keep the way clear’ between Frodsham and his home in Standish.

FULLWOOD is a rural area on the eastern edge of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is little documented but there are several places called Fullwood or Fulwood in England, all probably meaning ‘rotten or foul-smelling wood, usually in a marshy area’, from Old English fūl + wudu. Fullwood gives its name to Fullwood Brook, a tributary of the River Beal.

FUR LANE or FURLANE is a residential area of Greenfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Fur Lane farmhouse and cottage are said to date back to 1645 and are found beside an old packhorse route across the moors to the east. The name in all probability means ‘boundary road’, deriving from the Middle English marfur, ‘a boundary furrow’, and lane. The village itself lies on the boundary of Saddleworth parish.

GALE is a village north of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It is recorded in 1225 as Gail, from the Old Norse geil, meaning ‘a ravine’, referring to its position in the valley of the River Roch.

GALLIPOLI GARDENS is a 0.07-hectare public park and war memorial in Bury. The memorial commemorating those killed in the First World War was originally erected in 1922 at the Wellington Barracks in Bury but, following the closure of the barracks, was moved in 2009 to Sparrow Park in central Bury. The park was renamed Gallipoli Gardens in memory of the heavy losses incurred by the Lancashire Fusiliers during the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-1916. Gallipoli in Turkey is derived from the Greek Kallipolis, meaning ‘beautiful town’.

GARDEN SUBURB is a residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, approximately 3 kilometres south of the town centre. The area was built in 1909 as an experimental development with low-density housing, tree-lined roads and public gardens, all inspired by the ‘garden city’ movement of Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928). It was named after Hampstead Garden Suburb, which had been built in north London in 1907.

GARRET or GARRATT was an inner-city area of Manchester beside the River Medlock. According to Elizabeth Gaskell, ‘It derives its former name from an old black and white hall of the time of Richard III.’ Garret Hall had tall towers or turrets that gave it its name, from the Middle English garret meaning ‘watch tower’, as it overlooked and perhaps defended the confluence of the Medlock and Shooters Brook. The last parts of the hall were not demolished until 1910 but much of the area was industrialised by the end of the 18^th century and Garret Mill, believed to have been built in about 1760, is said to have been the first water-powered cotton mill in Manchester.

GARRICK THEATRE, Stockport See STOCKPORT GARRICK THEATRE

GATHURST is a village in Shevington, west of Wigan on the north bank of the River Douglas. The name is recorded in 1547 as Gateshurst. This is usually said to mean ‘wooded hill of the goats’ from Old English gāt + hyrst, but it has also been suggested it could mean ‘gate or pass by the wooded hill’, from Old English geat + hyrst because of its position beside the River Douglas.

GATLEY is a suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, 5 kilometres north-east of Manchester Airport. The name is recorded in 1290 as Gateclyve, meaning ‘a cliff or bank where goats are kept’, from Old English gāta + clife. The current spelling is found from 1602. It was formerly part of Cheshire.

GAYTHORN is an inner-city area of the City of Manchester, south of the city centre. Its origin is obscure but it is known that the Gaythorn Tunnel, which carries the Rochdale Canal beneath Deansgate, dates from 1794, and the Gaythorn Gas Works were built in the area in 1825 and operated for over 100 years. The Gaythorn family website suggests that the name may be a corruption of Heythorn, which itself is a corruption of Hawthorn, from the Old English haga + thorn.

‘GAY VILLAGE’ is an area of central Manchester ‘with a significant gay population and a high concentration of businesses catering primarily to this community’ (Oxford English Dictionary). The first recorded use of the term is from 1975, referring to Coconut Grove, Miami. It seems to have been used in Manchester from the early 1990s.

GEE CROSS is a village or suburb of Hyde in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside that was formerly part of Cheshire. It is said that the village centre dates back to the 11^th century, although it is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name first appears as Gee Crose in 1629 and takes its name from a cross erected by the Gee family, who lived in the area as far back as 1494.

GIANT’S SEAT is a wooded hill near Ringley in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, overlooking the River Irwell. Although thought to be the site of a prehistoric hill fort, the name is not recorded until the building of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal in 1791-1808, when two locks were called Giant’s Seat and the lock-keeper’s cottage was named Giant’s Seat House. It is likely that the name is taken from a local legend but I have been unable to trace any account of this. Since 1954 the hill has been a Scout camp site.

GIBRALTAR WORKS NATURE RESERVE is a 7.8-hectare wooded area alongside the River Tame in Denton in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It takes its name from Gibraltar Mill, which was built on the east bank of the Tame near Haughton in about 1790 and named to commemorate the British victory over the French and Spanish at the siege of Gibraltar of 1779-83. Gibraltar itself is named from the Arabic Jabal Tāriq, ‘the mountain of Tarik’, the Moorish general Tāriq ibn Ziyād, who crossed the strait from North Africa to capture the Rock in 711.

GIDLOW is a residential area north of Wigan, formerly in Lancashire. The name is an eponym recorded in 1246 as Guddelawe, meaning ‘Gidda’s hill’ from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + hlāw (‘hill’). There is also evidence that it is named after the Gyudelowe or Goodlaw family from nearby Aspull, who are known to have lived in the area in the 13^th century.

GIGG is a suburban area in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury that is home to Gigg Lane, Bury Football Club’s ground, originally built in 1885. The name Gigg comes from gigge, a hole in the ground with a fire used for drying flax in the linen-making process. Flax growing and linen making were common in Lancashire and are commemorated by Flax Moss near Haslingden and Gigg Road in Thelwall near Warrington.

GIGG BROOK is a tributary of the River Etherow that flows through the Compstall area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport to meet the Etherow near Compstall Bridge. The name is documented only from 1927 and the origin is uncertain: it may come from gigge, a hole in the ground with a fire used for drying flax in the linen-making process, and this suggestion is supported by the fact that the area was known for flax cultivation before the importing of cheap cotton in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

GILDA BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell that runs from north to south through Eccles in the City of Salford. It is first recorded in the 13^th century as le Guldenaleford. The derivation is uncertain but it may come from Old English gylden (‘covered with golden flowers such as marigolds’) + –halh (‘nook or corner of land’). Today the stream is mostly culverted but its name is retained in Gilda Brook Road in Eccles and nearby Hope (meaning ‘remote valley’) probably refers to Gilda Brook.

GILLBENT is a residential area of Cheadle in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in 1661 as Gilbent but the origin is uncertain. It has been suggested that it may be Old English cild (‘child, young person’) + beonet (‘bent-grass’) indicating that this was a grassy area (i.e. a common) belonging to or frequented by young people.

GILNOW is a residential area to the west of Bolton. The name is not well documented before the 18^th century, when it was generally spelled Gilnough. Its origin is usually said to be unknown, but it has been suggested that the first element may be from the Old Norse gil, meaning ‘valley, ravine’, in reference to Gilnow Brook, a tributary of the nearby River Croal.

GIN PIT is a village near Astley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan which takes its name from the Gin Pit Colliery in the Lancashire coalfield. The colliery began production in the 1840s and the village developed a few decades later. Gin is short for engine and describes the horse-powered winding gear in use in many British coalfields since the 18^th century. The first houses in the village were built in 1881. The colliery closed in 1958.

GLAZE BROOK or RIVER GLAZE is a tributary of the River Mersey. It rises south-east of Leigh as Glaze Brook and flows 35 kilometres into the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal at Cadishead as the River Glaze – the name changes at Lately Common in Warrington. For much of its length it forms the boundary between Greater Manchester and Cheshire. The name is first recorded in about 1195 as Glasebroc and gives its name to the village of Glazebrook in Cheshire. The name means ‘grey-green stream’, and probably derives from the Celtic glas, meaning ‘grey-green or blue’ + Old English brōc (‘stream’).

GLODWICK is a residential area of Oldham to the south-east of the town centre. It is first recorded in the 1190s as Glodic and the derivation is uncertain. Its meaning may involve reduplication – the first element may be related to the Celtic clawdd, meaning ‘ditch’, and the second element may be the Old English dic, also meaning ‘ditch or dyke’. This sometimes happened when the second element is added at a later date to explain the meaning of the first element. Glodwick is close to an old Roman road and the ditch may be a fosse beside the road.

GMEX or the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre is an exhibition, concert and conference centre in central Manchester. It started life as Manchester Central terminus, which was built by the Midland Railway and Cheshire Lines Committee in 1880 with the second largest span of any railway station in Britain. It closed in May 1969 and was converted into GMEX, which opened in 1982. Since 2007 it has been known simply as Manchester Central.

GOATS is a residential area in the north of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham on the River Beal. The origin and date of the name seem to be undocumented, but it does not appear before 1859, when Goats Mill in Woodend was built. There are several places in Greater Manchester that are derived from ‘goat’ (Gathurst, Gatley) and it is possible that the name refers to the keeping of goats in the area, but a more likely suggestion is that it is derived from Old English gota, meaning ‘stream’, referring to the confluence of Pencil Brook and Old Brook with the Beal in the area.

GODLEY is a suburb of Hyde in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is recorded in 1211 as Godel and Godeleigh, and with its modern spelling in 1364. It is an eponym derived from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Gōda and Old English –lēah, meaning ‘woodland clearing, pasture’. Godley lends its name to Godley Brook and Godley reservoir, completed in 1851 to supply water to Manchester.

GOLBORNE is a town in the Borough of Wigan, 22.5 kilometres west of Manchester city centre. The name is first recorded in 1187 as Goldeburn, meaning ‘stream where marsh-marigolds grow’, from Old English golde (‘marsh marigold’) + burna (‘stream’). The town now stands on Millingford Brook, a tributary of the Mersey, and it is assumed that the name changed to Golborne at some point.

GOLLINROD is a hamlet near Walmersley in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury that gives its name to Gollinrod Wood and Gollinrod Gorge. The River Irwell flows through Gollinrod Gorge as far as Brooksbottoms. The name is recorded in the mid-13^th century, when Nicholas of the Golynrode was given an estate in the area. It is thought that the name is an eponym meaning ‘Gollin’s clearing’, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name + Old English rod (‘clearing’).

GOOSE GREEN, Altrincham, is a former hamlet in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, approximately 13 kilometres south-west of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded in 1799 and is assumed to mean ‘village green where geese were grazed’.

GOOSE GREEN, Wigan, is a residential area south-west of the town centre. The name is not well documented but is assumed to have once been a village green where people grazed their geese.

GORE BROOK is a tributary of the Mersey that rises in Droylsden and flows west to Gorton Reservoir and Platt Fields Park, where it becomes Chorlton Brook, which then joins the Mersey close to Sale Water Park. Gore Brook gives its name to Gorton. In 1971, Manchester City Council approved an outline planning strategy for Gorton to develop the Gore Brook Valley Park into a conservation area linking Sunny Brow Park in the west with Debdale Park in the east, along the line of the Gore Brook. This was finally designated on 22 December 1993. The name was recorded in about 1250 as Gorbroke, from the Old English gor, meaning ‘dirt or mud’, + brōc, meaning ‘stream’.

GORSE HILL is a residential area of Stretford in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name originates from Gorse Hill Farm, which was built in the 18^th century and presumably named because of the local vegetation. The farm was purchased in 1934 to make way for residential development and was demolished in 1937.

GORSEY BANK today is an industrial and recreational area west of Stockport on the south bank of the Mersey. The name is recorded in 1844, when it was the site of cotton mills powered by the river. These had been demolished by 1935, when the large Gorsey Bank housing estate was built. This was cleared in the mid-1990s and the Aurora business park was established on the site from 2007. The name means ‘river bank where gorse grows’, from the Old English gorst.

GORTON is a suburb of Manchester, south-east of the city centre. It takes its name from Gore Brook, meaning ‘dirty stream’, which flows through the area. The name is first recorded in 1282 as Gorton, from the Old English gor, meaning ‘dirt or mud’, + tūn, meaning ‘settlement or farmstead’. Gor can also mean ‘gore, clotted blood’, and this has led to an alternative suggestion that it means ‘Gore Town’ from a bloody battle between the Saxons and the Danes, but this can be dismissed as folk etymology.

GOSHEN is a residential and recreational area south of Bury in a bend in the River Roch. The name is recorded as a croft in 1586 and is taken from the Bible, where Goshen is a region of Egypt described as the ‘best part of the land’ (Genesis 47:6) where there was ‘no hail’ (Exodus 9:26).

GOWER HEY BROOK is a left tributary of the River Tame. It rises north-west of Gee Cross in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside and then flows north-west through Gower Hey Woods to empty into the Tame east of Haughton Green. The name is recorded as Goer Hey in 1720, but Gore Hey in 1831, Gower Hay in 1889 and Gower Hey in 1917. The name means ‘woodland enclosure by or at a gore’, from the old English gāra (‘piece of higher ground in a valley’) + hæg (‘enclosure’).

River GOYT is a tributary of the River Mersey which rises on the moors west of Buxton in Derbyshire and flows north-west to join the River Tame at Stockport to form the Mersey. The name is first recorded in 1208 as the Guit and comes from the Celtic gwyth or, more likely, Old English gӯte or gota meaning ‘channel’.

The GRACIE FIELDS THEATRE is an entertainment venue near Oulder Hill in Greave in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It was named after and opened in 1978 by Dame Gracie Fields (1898-1979), the singer, actress and comedian born in Rochdale in 1898.

GRAINS BAR is a residential area north-east of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name means ‘toll gate on the road to/from Grains’, which is or was a village east of Diggle. Grains is derived from the Old English grein, meaning ‘a river fork or confluence’. The turnpike to/from Grains was built at the end of the 18^th century but the name Grains Bar can be dated to the 17^th century and refers to a toll bar erected on the road at the border between Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire.

GRANGE is a moorland hamlet in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, north east of Oldham itself. A grange was an outlying farm belonging to a monastery, from the Old French graunge, originally meaning ‘granary’. The present hamlet was originally recorded in 1452 as Castleshaw Grange. Like Friarmere, it was linked to Roche Abbey near Rotherham in South Yorkshire until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538.

GRASSCROFT is a village in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham that was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. The name is first recorded in 1728 with its current spelling and means simply ‘grass field’ from modern English grass + croft (‘small field’).

GRAVEL HOLE is an area of Thornham in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. There are several places called Gravel Hole or Gravelhole across Britain and all derive their names from gravel pits or quarries that were once found there. Most date from the 19^th century and Gravel Hole in Oldham is first recorded on the early Ordnance Survey maps of 1840-1845.

GREAT BOLTON See BOLTON

GREAT GRUFF is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on Sail Bark Moss in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows south-east to meet Rimmon Pit Brook, which then joins Greenfield Brook. The name derives from the Old Norse grof, meaning ‘stream; hollow or pit made by a stream’.

GREAT HORROCKS See HORROCKS

GREAT HOWARTH See HOWARTH CROSS

GREAT LEVER is part of the area named Lever which consists of several settlements – Darcy Lever, Great Lever, Lever Edge and Little Lever – south of Bolton. The name Lever is recorded in 1212 as Lefre, from the Old English lefer (‘rush, reed’), so that the entire area would mean ‘where the rushes or reeds grow’ on the banks of the Irwell and Croal. Great Lever is a suburb of Bolton, lying about 4 kilometres south of Bolton town centre. The name is recorded in Latin as Magna Leure in 1285 and in English as Great Leure in 1326.

GREAT MOOR is a suburb of Stockport, which was formerly in Cheshire. As far back as 1348, this area of southern Stockport was referred to as del Mor, from the Old English mor, meaning ‘a marsh or barren upland’. By the 19^th century it was divided into Great Moor and Little Moor.

GREATER MANCHESTER was formed as a county on 1 April 1974 from parts of south-east Lancashire, north-east Cheshire, and a few parts of Derbyshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Prior to 1974, governance of the area was divided between the four counties but there had long been demands for a unified authority to coordinate political and social affairs. The term Greater Manchester was invented in April 1935 by the Manchester Evening Chronicle. Under the headline ‘Greater Manchester – The Ratepayers’ Solution’, it noted the ‘increasing demands for the exploration of the possibilities of a greater merger of public services throughout Manchester and the surrounding municipalities’. It took until 1974 for Greater Manchester to be formed into a county with ten metropolitan boroughs – Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. Eight of these names – Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport and Wigan – were taken from the largest towns in the new boroughs, but Trafford was selected because of its sporting venues and historical associations, and Tameside was a newly-invented name taken from the River Tame that flows through the borough.

GREAT WHINNING GULF and LITTLE WHINNING GULF are feeder streams rising in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flowing south-west to form Culvert Clough, which feeds Rooden Reservoir in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The names are shown on Ordnance Survey maps of the 1880s and 1890s and both mean ‘the gorse-covered (Middle English whinny) ravine (Middle English gulf, from French golfe)‘. Although this meaning of gulf is recorded from about 1400 in the Oxford English Dictionary, it is extremely rare in place names and this use in Oldham is not found in academic studies of the place names of the counties of north-west England.

GREAVE is an area of Spotland in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It would seem that it takes its name from the Greave family, who are recorded as owning land in the area, beginning with Ottiwell Greave, who purchased a ‘messuage’ in 1569.

GREAVEFOLD is a residential area north-east of Romiley in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The village is thought to have been originally built in the mid-18^th century and the name is recorded in 1777. The name means the ‘grove in a fold’, from Old English grǣfe or grāf + fald, suggesting an enclosure for animals or people from the surrounding Pennine moors.

GREENACRES, GREENACRES HILL and GREENACRES MOOR are all residential areas in north Oldham, about 11.25 kilometres north-east of Manchester city centre. The names are not well documented before 1620, when a stone cross was noted on the edge of Greenacres Moor. The name literally means ‘green fields’, from the Old English grene + aecer (‘plot of cultivated land; measure of land which a yoke of oxen could plough in a day’).

GREENBOOTH RESERVOIR is a large reservoir north of Heywood and south of the Naden Reservoirs in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham supplying water to Rochdale. It was completed in 1963 and involved the submerging of the village of Green Booth, which was established in the 1840s, when a weaving mill was built there, perhaps on the site of an old corn mill. The name comes from the Old English grēne + Old Norse būth, meaning ‘a small or temporary shelter’. The ‘booths’ may have provided shelter for those looking after cattle.

GREEN END is a residential area of Burnage in the City of Manchester. The place appears as a rural hamlet on the boundary between Burnage and Heaton Mersey in 1819 but its earlier history is not well documented. In 1923 Manchester City Council purchased 31.6 hectares of land in Burnage and subsequently built several estates on this land, including 354 houses on Green End Estate. The two elements – green and end – are clear enough but their combined meaning is uncertain.

GREENFIELD is a small residential area north-east of Mossley on the edge of Saddleworth Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It shares its name with Greenfield Brook, which meets Chew Brook above the village of Greenfield and then flows into the River Tame, and with Greenfield Reservoir, which was built in the early 1870s. The name is recorded in 1323 as Grenefeld and literally means ‘green field’, or ‘green open land’.

GREENGATE is an inner-city suburb in the east of the City of Salford that is often said to be the heart or core of the city. Salford received its Borough Charter in 1230 and was at that time formed around three streets, one of which was Greengate, although it is not clear when the term came into use as early records call it Back Salford. The name evidently dates from mediaeval times as its name comes from the Old English grene (‘a grassy spot, a village green’) + Old Norse gata (‘a road, a street’), and would therefore mean ‘the street by or leading to the green’. Henry III gave Salford the right to hold a weekly market and an annual fair in 1228 and it is believed that these were held on a rectangular green on Greengate. In 1845 Engels suggested that the lanes of Greengate ‘have certainly never been cleansed since they were built’. The area is currently undergoing major regeneration.

GREEN GRAIN is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on the moor of the Peak District National Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows north-west into Chew Reservoir, which then joins the Tame at Greenfield. The name is little documented and probably means ‘green or grassy river fork’ from Old English grein, referring to the numerous tributaries of Chew Brook in this area.

GREENHEYS is an area south of Manchester city centre. It was formerly a residential area but it is now largely occupied by the Manchester Science Park. It takes its name from Greenheys, a house built it 1791 by Thomas Quincey, father of the famous Manchester author, Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859). The house was originally named ‘Greenhay Hall’ by Mary Quincy to reflect its rural surroundings at the end of the 18^th century. Elizabeth Gaskell opened her 1848 novel ‘Mary Barton’ by contrasting rural Green Heys Fields with the ‘bustling manufacturing town’ of Manchester: ‘Here in their seasons may be seen the country business of haymaking, ploughing, etc., which are such pleasant mysteries for townspeople to watch: and here the artisan, deafened with noise of tongues and engines, may come to listen awhile to the delicious sounds of rural life: the lowing of cattle, the milkmaid’s call, the clatter and cackle of poultry in the farmyards’. The Quincy house was demolished in 1852 and the area deteriorated until it was cleared in the 1960s and 1970s.

GREEN HILL Green Hill is a common place name in England and it clearly derived from being on or nearby a green hill. Green Hill in Wigan is a small residential area 2.3 kilometres north of the town centre. It dates from the mid-19^th century when there were just a few cottages on a green hill, one of them named Green Hill Cottage. The current urban development, which takes its name from the area surrounding the cottage, mainly dates from the 1930s.

GREENLOW CROSS, GREENLOW MARSH and GREENLOW HEATH were all at one time part of land named simply as Greenlow or Grindlelow in an area south and east of Manchester in what are now Chorlton-on-Medlock and Gorton. The name seems to date from the early 14^th century but was divided in 1609 into Greenlow Heath in what is now Chorlton-on-Medlock and Greenlow Marsh or Cross in Gorton. The name simply means ‘green hill’ from Old English grēne + hlāw. The alternative spelling, Grindlelow, seems to be merely a corruption of Greenlow.

GREENMOUNT is a village in Tottington in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is modern, dating from 1843, and is a re-spelling of Green Mount, which is thought to be a rationalisation of the older Greenhalgh. Greenhalgh gets a passing mention in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Greneholf, meaning ‘green hollow’, from Old English grene (‘a grassy spot’) + holh (‘hollow’). The area was also formerly known as Nailer’s Green.

GREENSIDE is a residential and recreational area west of Droylsden in the City of Manchester. The name is found as field names on maps of the 1830s, with Far Greenside, Near Greenside, Greenside Hey, Greenside Croft and Greenside Field all labelled along Greenside Lane. The name is fairly literal: the green or grassy hillside.

GREENVALE BROOK is a tributary of the River Roch that rises in the Littleborough area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Its course and name are not well documented. It is unnamed on early Ordnance Survey maps but Green Vale Mill appears by 1891 and Greenvale Business Park dates from the late 1990s or early 2000s. The name seems to be descriptive – ‘the stream in the green valley’.

GRINDLOW MARSH See LONGSIGHT

GRISTLEHURST is an area and a forest in Heywood on the River Roch in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, formerly in Lancashire. It is recorded in 1336 as Gristelyhyrst but Grislehurst in some 19^th-century accounts. The meaning is unclear. Old English hyrst means ‘a wooded hill’ and Old English gristle meant the same as modern English ‘gristle’, but why this was appropriate for the name of the settlement is uncertain.

GROSVENOR SQUARE, also known as All Saints Park, is a public garden in Chorlton-on-Medlock, south of Manchester city centre. Grosvenor Square and Grosvenor Street were laid out in about 1794 and named after Grosvenor Square in London as part of the gentrification process of the area, in which fashionable and aristocratic names were given to new streets. Grosvenor Street in London was developed in 1725-31 by Sir Richard Grosvenor (1689-1732), whose family name comes from the French meaning ‘large or fat hunter’. All Saints Church was built beside Grosvenor Square in 1820 and the churchyard and cemetery occupied much of Grosvenor Square until the 1930s.

GROTTON is a suburb of Oldham to the east of Oldham town itself. The name can be traced back at least as far as the 15^th century and means ‘gravelly place’, from Old English groten (‘sandy or gravelly soil’).

GUIDE BRIDGE is an area of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is said that its name comes from a bridge over the newly-built Ashton Canal in 1796. This bridge had a ‘guide post’ or sign post on it and this became the name of the surrounding village. The name was standardised in 1845 when the Sheffield Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester Railway adopted it for a station that was originally named Ashton & Hooley Hill.

The HAÇIENDA was a nightclub in Gaythorn in central Manchester which opened in 1982 and influenced what became known as the ‘Madchester’ music scene. The name was inspired by a slogan of the Situationist International, a radical social movement of the 1950s, 60s and 70s – ‘The Hacienda Must be Built’, a cry for social and urban change. The name was popularised by Tony Wilson, a music promoter and co-founder of Factory Records, which owned the club. The club was closed in 1997, demolished in 2002 and a block of flats called ‘The Haçienda Apartments’ built on the site.

HACKING KNIFE is a gritstone promontory above Hyde in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. Its name is thought to derive from its knife-like shape. It was formerly part of a farm owned by the Higham family but in 1920 62 hectares were purchased by Hyde Borough Council as a memorial to those killed in the First World War. An 8.4-metre granite obelisk was unveiled in 1921 and a plate commemorating those who died in the Second World War was added in 1963.

HAG FOLD is a residential area of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan built on the site of Hag Fold Farm in the 1930s. The name has been the source of much speculation and amusement but its origin has not been determined with any certainty. It is almost certain that it has nothing to do with witches and it seems likely, based on the names of other locations in Lancashire, that it comes from the Old Norse hǫgg or Old English hagga meaning ‘an area of trees to be felled or a clearing’ + Old English fald, ‘an enclosure for animals’.

HAGGATE is residential area of Royton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It shares its name with Haggate in Lancashire but is otherwise not well documented and its meaning is uncertain. Folk etymology suggests that the name comes from an old woman who sat on a gate, but it is more likely to be Old English hæc (‘hatch’) + geat (‘gate, gap, pass’), meaning a barred-gate that was the entrance to an estate or parish, or haga (‘hawthorn’) + Old Norse gata (‘a road, a street’).

The HAGUE is a hamlet south-east of Mottram in Longdendale in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is recorded as Haghe in 1339, Haigh in 1638 and The Hague in 1831. It is related in meaning and etymology to Haigh in Wigan and The Hague, the capital of the Netherlands – haga, meaning ‘a hedged enclosure’.

HAIGH is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is first recorded in 1194 as Hage but the modern spelling of Haigh is found from 1581. The name is derived from the Old English haga, meaning ‘a hedge’ and therefore ‘an enclosure’. The village gives its name to the 100-hectare Haigh Woodland Park, which was originally a mediaeval estate which was laid out as gardens and woodland in the 1860s to hide mining activities. These were purchased by Wigan Corporation in 1945 and opened to the public in 1947.

HALE is a suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford which was formerly part of Cheshire. It is recorded as Hale in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1), where it was said, ‘There is woodland 1 league long and a half wide, and an enclosure, and a hawk’s eyrie, and half an acre of meadow’. 0At that time, it also included Hale Barns. The name Hale is from the Old English halh meaning ‘nook or corner of land’, referring to areas of higher dry ground in the marshy areas along the River Bollin.

HALE BARNS is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford about 11 kilometres south-west of Manchester city centre. Hale Barns was included within Hale in mediaeval times but was sufficiently prosperous by the late 16^th century to be regarded as a separate settlement. The separate name is first recorded in 1616 as Halebarnes. The barns refer to the tithe barn that had been built to store the villagers’ tithes – a tenth of all farm produce that was donated to the local church. Tithes made in kind were legally abolished in 1836 and the original tithe barn was demolished in 1848.

HALE MOSS today is a residential and recreational area north of Hale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. While Hale itself is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1), Hale Moss is not recorded on maps of the area until 1790, where it appears as a flood plain formed by Timperley Brook. The name is formed from Hale (Old English halh meaning ‘nook or corner of land’) + Moss (mos, ‘marsh, bog’).

HALF ACRE is a residential area of Whitefield in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is recorded in parish records in 1849 but is thought to be named for a small group of weavers’ cottages around Half Acre Lane, referring to the approximate area of the plot on which they were built.

HALLAM CORONATION GARDEN is a small park in Davenport in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It is named after Ephraim Hallam (1812-1897), who built a cotton mill in Heaviley in 1859. He died in 1897 and bequeathed a small area adjacent to the mill to Stockport Council, which was laid out as Hallam Park in 1902. In 1953 the park was renamed Hallam Coronation Garden to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

HALL I’ TH’ WOOD is a museum in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It was originally a manor house built in the 16^th century by the Brownlow family and known as the Hall in the Wood, which was rendered as Hall i’ th’ Wood in the local dialect. The building was used as a house of multiple occupancy by industrial families. The most famous occupant was Samuel Crompton (1753-1827), who invented his spinning mule for the manufacture of muslin in about 1779 while living in the hall, and this was known as the Hall i’ th’ Wood wheel at the time. The house was purchased by William Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) in 1899 and donated to Bolton Corporation in 1902.

HALLIWELL is a residential district of Bolton, originally included in Lancashire. The name is first recorded in about 1200 as Haliwalle, from the Old English halig + wella, meaning ‘holy well’. This refers to an ancient spring which was found in the northern part of what is now Halliwell.

HALL LEE BROOK is a tributary of the River Mersey that rises west of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It flows through Hall Lee Bank Park and eventually joins the Mersey as the Glaze Brook. It takes its name from Lee Hall, the mediaeval home of the Leigh (or Lee, Leghe, Lighe) family.

HALO WEST is a 2.4-hectare logistics and industrial estate off Liverpool Road in Eccles in the City of Salford that was given planning approval in 2025. It is one of several such developments across the UK that have been given the name Halo, a term was first used in Kilmarnock in 2021. The name is taken from the Halo effect, a term coined in 1920 by Edward Thorndike, and defined by him as ’a marked tendency to think of the person in general as rather good or rather inferior and to colour the judgments of the qualities by this general feeling’. The term was initially used in educational psychology but it is now applied to regeneration initiatives where brownfield sites rise from the ashes of industrial waste and pollution.

HALSHAW MOOR is a residential area of Farnworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is not well documented but it is thought that by 1604 the land belonged to Robtus de Halsall, who gave his name to the village. The family took their name from Halsall, some 15 kilometres north-west of Halshaw, and the name may have been changed to Halshaw over time. A perhaps more straightforward derivation is that the name comes from the Old English halh (‘flat piece of land beside a river’) + shagh (‘woodland’).

HAMER is an area of Wardleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is first recorded in 1572 as Hamer, from the Old English hamor or Old Norse hamarr, meaning ‘steep rock, cliff’, which describes the location of the original village near a hill. Hamer lends its name to Hamer Pasture Reservoir, which was built in the 1860s.

HAMPSON GREEN is a hamlet north-west of Haigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The place is not well documented but it shares its name with Hampson Green, a village south of Lancaster, whose meaning is thought to be ‘the village of Pson, the son of Pusan’, from Old English hām + Anglo-Saxon personal name Pson.

HANGING BRIDGE is an ancient sandstone bridge across Hanging Ditch, which used to connect the Irwell and the Irk south of Manchester Cathedral. It is recorded as Hengand Brigge in 1343 although references to Hanging Ditch go back to 1316. The present bridge was built in 1421 on the site of an earlier bridge but the present bridge was covered over in 1682 and only uncovered in 1880. There are several theories for the origin of the name: that the original bridge was a Roman drawbridge hung from ropes; that it was an ancient public execution site (Old English hengen means ‘gallows’); or that it is sited on a slope (Old English hangende). Other suggestions are that the name could refer to the curved shape of the ditch, or to hens found nearby, but the exact origin remains uncertain.

HANGING CHADDER is a hilly area north of Royton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It is recorded in 1324 as Hengandechadre, meaning ‘steep hill’, from the Old English hangende (‘hanging; steep’) + the Celtic cader (‘chair, hill’). Nearby Chadderton probably takes its name from Hanging Chadder.

HANGING LEES RESERVOIR in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale was built in 1858-68 as one of the six reservoirs (Ogden, Kitcliffe, Piethorne, Hanging Lees, Rooden and Norman Hill) built in the Piethorne Valley in the second half of the 19^th century to supply water to Oldham. It takes its name from Hanging Lees Farm and Hanging Lees Brook, both of which appear on the first Ordnance Survey maps of the area in the 1850s. The name means ‘the steep (Old English hangende, ‘steep’) pastures (Old English lēah). The word reservoir first appears in English in 1686, borrowed from the French réservoir.

HANKINSON or ‘HANKY PARK’ was a residential area of Pendleton in the City of Salford. The area developed in the second quarter of the 19^th century and took its name from the local Hankinson family. Robert Hankinson was listed as a calico manufacturer in 1825 and other members of the family later established businesses in the area around what became Hankinson Street, which was known as “Hanky Park”. The area was flattened in the 1960s and high-rise blocks of flats built in place of the old terraced houses. Today only a street called Hankinson Way remains.

HAPPY VALLEY is a 17-hectare nature reserve along the Ladybrook valley between Norbury and Womanscroft Bridge in Bramhall in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. Happy Valley was a term applied to several areas Britain in Victorian times as places where industrial workers could enjoy fresh air and a natural landscape. The name is thought to have been applied to the Ladybrook valley in the late 19^th century, and is recorded in a report in a local newspaper in 1888.

HARBOUR CITY is an office and residential area in the regeneration area of Salford Quays alongside Erie Basin (formerly Wharf 9). It was originally planned in the 1980s but was not developed until the 1990s to be ready for the Harbour City Metrolink stop at Harbour City, which opened on 6 December 1999.

HARCLES HILL is a 371-metre flat-topped hill west of Ramsbottom in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It is also known as Holcombe Hill and is capped by the Peel Monument. The name is recorded in 1236 as Arkilis or Arkeles hou, from the Old Norse personal name, Arnkell, + haugr, meaning ‘hill’.

HARDY was a hamlet in south Manchester that was combined with nearby Chorlton to form Chorlton-cum-Hardy, i.e. Chorlton-with-Hardy. Hardy is recorded separately in 1555 as Hardey and is said to mean either ‘Hearda’s island’ from the Old English personal name Hearda + ēg (‘island, river meadow’) or ‘hard island’ from Old English heard + ēg. Although some claim that the combined name occurs as early as 1700, the date is usually given as 1842 and is said to have been promoted by Victorian residential property developers to distinguish Chorlton from Chorlton-on-Medlock.

HARE HILL PARK is a 4-hectare public park in the centre of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It goes back to 1774, when Lawrence Newall purchased Town House, which was renamed Hare Hill House at some point. The house was enlarged in 1870 but sold to Littleborough Urban District Council in 1900. The house became the town hall and the gardens became a public park. The name is believed to be literal – a hill where hares were found.

HARESHILL is a residential and commercial area of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded as Hayshill in 1847 and as Hareshill in 1890. The name is thought to be quite literal, meaning ‘the hill where hares are found’, from Old English hara + hyll.

HARPER GREEN is a neighbourhood of Farnworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, about 20 kilometres north-west of Manchester city centre. The name is taken from the landowning Harper or Harpur family, who lived in the area in the 18^th century and earlier. It is said that Green comes not from the Old English grēne, meaning ‘field, village green’, but a bleaching green, a field used in textile manufacture where cloth was laid out to be bleached by the sun.

HARPURHEY is an inner-city suburb of the City of Manchester, about 5 kilometres north-east of the city centre. The name is recorded in 1320 as Harpourley and means ‘Harpour’s enclosure’ from William Harpour, who owned the area in the 14^th century, + Old English hege or hæg, meaning ‘enclosure, hedge or hay’. The area remained rural until the second quarter of the 19^th century, when intensive cotton manufacture developed.

HARRIDGE PIKE is a 395-metre hill above the River Tame in Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded with its modern spelling in 1840 but may be older – perhaps a corruption of highridge, from Old English hēah (‘high’) + hrycg (‘ridge’) + pike (‘pointed hill’).

HARROP DALE, HARROP EDGE, HARROP GREEN and HARROP RIDGE are all rural localities to the north of Diggle in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Harrop is recorded with its modern spelling in 1274 and probably means ‘hare’s valley’ from Old English hara (‘hare’) + hop (‘small valley’).

HARROP EDGE is a rural area west of Mottram in Longdendale in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is recorded in 1360 as Harop, as Harroppe Edge in 1631 and with its modern spelling in 1831. It may mean ‘ridge in hare’s valley’ from Old English hara (‘hare’) + hop (‘small valley’) + ecg (‘ridge, escarpment’).

HART COMMON is a village in Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is recorded in 1541 and would seem to refer to the local Hart family, who lived in the area from the mid-15^th century. The family name is almost certainly taken from Old English heorot (‘hart, stag’) and indeed Hart Common golf club has a stag as its logo.

HARTSHEAD GREEN, originally HARTSHEAD, is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is first recorded in 1200 as Hertesheud, meaning ‘hart’s or deer’s hill’ from Old English heorot (‘hart’) + hēafod (‘hill’). The hill referred to is Hartshead Pike, which comes from the Old English pike (‘pointed hill’). The hill is thought to have been used as a beacon in mediaeval times and a tower was built near the top in 1751. The tower, or monument, was replaced in 1863 and now has a height of 290 metres.

HARWOOD and HARWOOD LEE are residential areas in northern Bolton. The name is recorded from 1212 as Harewode, meaning ‘grey wood’, from Old English hār (‘grey, old’) + wudu (‘wood, forest, timber’), or possibly ‘wood where hares are found’, from Old English hara + wudu. ‘Lee’ comes from Old English lēah, meaning ‘woodland clearing’.

HASLAM PARK is a 2.2-hectare public park and nature reserve in Deane in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It lies on part of a large estate donated to the borough in 1908 by Mary Haslam in memory of her father, John Haslam (1823-1899), and his brother, Joseph, who had been born in Bolton in 1821. The Haslam brothers owned a cotton-manufacturing business in Preston.

HATHERLOW is a hamlet between Romiley and Bredbury in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The settlement dates from 1705, when non-conformists were evicted from Chadkirk and bought land in Hatherlow, opening their new chapel in 1706. The name means ‘heather hill’ from Old English hǣddre (‘heather’) + hlāw (‘hill’).

HATHERSHAW is a residential area in Oldham, just south of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1280 as Halselinechaw Clugh, meaning ‘heather-wood valley’, from Old English hǣddre (‘heather’) + sceaga (‘small wood, copse’) + clōh (‘ravine, valley’).

HATTERSLEY is a residential area south of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, 16 kilometres east of Manchester. The name is recorded in 1248 as Hattirsleg, meaning ‘wood of the stags’, from Old English hēah-dēor (‘high deer’ i.e. ‘antlered-stag, hart’) + lēah (‘woodland, clearing’).

HAUGH is a small residential area east of Newhey in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in 1549 as le Halcht, meaning ‘enclosure’, from the Old English halh or haga. Haugh gives its name to Haugh Brook, a tributary of Piethorne Brook, which feeds the six reservoirs of the Piethorne Valley.

HAUGHTON is a residential area of eastern Denton, often divided into Haughton Green in the north and Haughton Dale in the south, in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in 1307 as Halghton, meaning ‘settlement in a nook’, from Old English halh (‘corner, nook’, often in reference to a hollow in a river bend) + tūn (‘village, enclosure’), referring to the bend in the River Tame, which Haughton overlooks.

HAULGH is a residential area in Bolton, often linked administratively and politically with Tonge. The name is recorded in 1332 as Halgh, from the Old English English halh (‘corner, nook’, often in reference to a hollow in a river bend), referring to the tongue (hence Tonge) of land between the Rivers Tonge and Croal on which both Tonge and Haulgh lie.

HAVELEY HEY was a rural area in Northern Etchells in Cheshire which was absorbed into Wythenshawe in the City of Manchester in the 1930s. The name is recorded in 1318 as Alveleyhey, meaning ‘enclosure at Ælfa’s clearing’, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name + lēah (‘clearing’) + haeg (‘enclosure’). Today, the name is retained in a park, a school and a road in Benchill.

HAWK GREEN is a village south of Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. A map of 1817 records the name as Half Green and this name survives in the street name Half Acre Terrace, presumably referring to a mediaeval farm or field. By 1840 the name was recorded as Hawk Green from the Old English hafoc (‘hawk’) + grēne, recalling an older name of Hawk Field and suggesting an area where hawks were found or kept, perhaps for hunting.

HAWKLEY is a residential area on the southern edge of Wigan. It is recorded in 1512 as Hawkley, meaning ‘hawk’s glade’, from Old English hafoc (‘hawk’) + lēah (‘woodland, clearing’). Hawkley shares its name with Hawkley Brook, a tributary of the River Douglas.

HAWKSHAW is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is recorded in 1218 as Hauekesheghe, meaning ‘hawk wood’, from the Old English hafoc (‘hawk’) + sceaga (‘small wood, copse’).

HAZEL GROVE is a suburb in the south of Stockport. The village was originally called Bullock Smithy, but it got a reputation for unruly behaviour and in 1836 the name was changed to the more aspirational Hazel Grove. There is disagreement as to whether the name literally means ‘a grove where hazels grow’ or whether it is a revival of an older name. The older name was Hesselgrove or Hesselgrave, which is recorded in 1690, a name meaning ‘the gravel pit belonging to someone called Hessel’. The name Hazel Grove was standardised in 1857 when the London & North Western Railway adopted it for the station built there.

HAZELHURST There are at least three places named Hazelhurst in Greater Manchester – in Ashton-under-Lyne, Ramsbottom and Swinton – all meaning ‘hill covered with hazel trees’, from Old English haesel (‘hazel-tree’) + hyrst (‘wooded hill’). Hazelhurst in Swinton is a residential area in the City of Salford and was recorded in 1325 as Haselhirst.

HEADY HILL is a village west of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name appears on a map of 1785 and is said to derive from the old English heafod, referring to a promontory or headland, or a piece of land that is the source (‘head’) of a stream.

HEALD GREEN is a suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, formerly in Cheshire. The name appears only in 1841 and was standardised when the London & North Western Railway opened a station there in 1909. The origins of the name are uncertain. One possibility is that it takes its name from Leuk del Helde, who was living in the area in 1289 and whose family name may be derived from the Middle English helde, meaning ‘slope’. Another theory is that the name comes from a heald or heddle, a weaving device that is first recorded in 1483. This theory is supported by the fact that there were known to be weavers’ cottages in the area from the late 18^th century.

HEALDS GREEN is a small village north of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded from 1789, when a Methodist chapel was built there. The origin of the name is uncertain, but, given the terrain, may be from Old English helde, meaning ‘a steep slope’. It has also been suggested that it could be an eponym: the village green belonging to someone called Heald.

HEALEY, HEALEY DELL NATURE RESERVE and HEALEY NAB. Healey is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale which was formerly in Lancashire. The name is first recorded as Helei in 1215 and means ‘the high lea’, from the Old English heah (‘a high place, a height’) + lēah (‘a glade, clearing’). Nearby are the Healey Dell Nature Reserve, through which the River Spodden flows, and Healey Nab, a 208-metre hill that takes its name from the Old Norse nabbi (‘a peak, a knoll, a hill’).

HEAP BRIDGE is an area in Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, formerly part of Lancashire. Heap was a township on the south bank of the River Roch and is first recorded in 1278 as Hep in 1226 and Hepe in 1278. The name is taken from Old English hēap meaning ‘heap or pile’ and, by extension, ‘hill’. Heap itself was absorbed into Heywood in 1894 but Heap Bridge survives as a locality. It is documented as Heipp brige in 1551 and the original bridge was replaced by a stone bridge in 1884.

HEATHFIELDS is a residential area east of Uppermill in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1724, although some of its buildings date from more than a century earlier. It means ‘open fields in the heath’ from Old English hǣth + feld.

HEATON There are several Heatons in Greater Manchester, all meaning ‘place on high land’ and taking their names from the Old English hēah, ‘high’ + tūn, ‘settlement’. The name is first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Hietun, but this seems to refer to what is now Heaton-with-Oxcliffe in the Lune Valley in what is still Lancashire.

HEATON or HEATON-UNDER-HORWICH is a residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The township was created in the 12^th century and is recorded as Heton in 1227 and Heton under Horewich in 1332. The latter name was and is used to distinguish it from other Heatons in the region.

HEATON CHAPEL is an area in Heaton Norris in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It received its name following the construction of St Thomas’s Anglican church in 1765.

HEATON MERSEY is the most western of the four Heatons in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, all north of the town itself. Heaton Mersey means ‘farm or enclosure on the high land overlooking the River Mersey’, which rises in Stockport and formerly separated Lancashire from Cheshire.

HEATON MOOR is one of the four Heatons in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. Heaton Moor Road was part of Heaton Norris that still runs north-east towards the moors to the east of Stockport.

HEATON NORRIS is a northern suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport and the oldest of the four Stockport Heatons. It is recorded as Hetton in 1196 and as Heton Norays in 1282. Heaton is derived from the Old English hēah (‘high’) and –tūn (farmstead), and Norris was a Norman landowner named William le Norreys, who owned the land overlooking the River Mersey in 1162-1180. Heaton Norris originally covered all four of the Heatons, but three evolved with separate names – Heaton Chapel, Heaton Mersey and Heaton Moor – in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and the separate names were standardised by their separate railway stations.

HEATON PARK is a 262-hectare public park – the largest in Greater Manchester and one of the largest in Britain. The park formerly formed the estate of Heaton Hall but was taken over by the City of Manchester and opened to the public in 1902. The park takes its name from the local township of Great Heaton, a name meaning ‘place on high land’, dating from about 1200, and is now a suburb of Bolton usually known simply as Heaton.

HEAVILEY is a suburb of eastern Stockport. It is recorded in 1283 as Hethylegh, meaning ‘heathy clearing’, from the Old English hǣthig (‘heathy’) + –lēah (‘clearing’). The meaning of the name suggests the origin of the settlement.

HEBERS and TOP OF HEBERS are both residential areas in north-western Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Hebers House dates from about 1750 and the Top of Hebers workhouse had been established by 1776. The name comes from the Heber family, who were prominent landowners in the area and residents of Hollins Hall in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. A later member of the family, unconnected to Middleton, was Reginald Heber (1783-1826), the second Bishop of Calcutta.

HEIGHTS is a hamlet formerly known as Friarmere overlooking Delph in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name describes its position about 366 metres above the Hull Brook valley and dates from the 18^th century: in 1765 St Thomas’s church was built in Friarmere and given the name Heights Chapel, and in 1767 the Punch Bowl pub (later the Royal Oak) was opened and this was also known as Th’ Heights.

HEMPSHAW BROOK is a tributary of the River Goyt that was historically also known as Stockport Brook. It is thought to rise in Hazel Grove and to join the Goyt in Stockport. The name is recorded in 1362 as Impeshagh and with its modern spelling from 1842. It means ‘sapling copse’, from Old English impa (‘young shoot, sapling’) + sceaga (‘copse’).

HESKETH PARK is a small park in Cheadle Hulme in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It is sited on land donated by William Bamford Hesketh, who built the Hesketh Arms Hotel (originally called ‘The Horse and Jockey’) in Cheadle Hulme in 1864. The hotel later became a pub.

HEY BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook that rises south-east of Wigan close to Bamfurlong. It flows south-east to Pennington Flash Country Park and then east to become Pennington Brook, which joins the River Glaze near Lately Common in Warrington. Hey comes from the Old English hæg meaning ‘an enclosure’ and is very common in place and street names across Greater Manchester, but it has not been possible to identify or date a particular hey that gives its name to Hey Brook.

HEYHEAD was a village in Northern Etchells, formerly in Cheshire, but was incorporated into the City of Manchester in 1931 and displaced by the expansion of Manchester International Airport in the 1990s. The name is recorded in the mid-17^th century and means ‘the top of an enclosure’ from Old English hæg (‘enclosure’) + hēafod (‘head, headland, end of a ridge’). The last few houses were demolished in the 1990s and the name then disappeared from modern maps.

HEYHEADS is in eastern Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is not well documented but means ‘the top of an enclosure’, from Old English hæg (‘enclosure’) + hēafod (‘head, headland, end of a ridge’), presumably referring to its position overlooking the valley of the River Tame.

HEYROD is a village in the Stalybridge area of the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is first recorded in 1246 as Heyerode, meaning ‘high clearing’, from Old English heah (‘high’) + rodu (‘clearing’), describing the village’s position in a forested area.

HEYSIDE is a residential area east of Royton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented but the original settlement dates from the Middle Ages and means ‘somewhere high (Old English hēah) on a hillside (side)’, referring to its position overlooking Royton.

HEYWOOD is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and was formerly in Lancashire. It is first recorded in 1246 as Heghwode. This name has been variously interpreted: the second element is clearly from the Old English wudu ‘wood’, but the first element might be Old English hēah, ‘high’ or hege, hæg, ‘hedge’, so that the name would mean either ‘high woods’ or ‘enclosed or fenced wood’.

HIGGINSHAW is an industrial area of north Oldham. The name is not well documented but it has been suggested that it means ‘Richard’s wood’, from Higg (a mediaeval diminutive of Richard) + sceaga (‘wood, copse’).

HIGH CROMPTON See CROMPTON

HIGHER BARROWSHAW See BARROWSHAW

HIGHER BLACKLEY See BLACKLEY

HIGHER BOARSHAW See BOARSHAW

HIGHER BROUGHTON See BROUGHTON

HIGHER CRUMPSALL See CRUMPSALL

HIGHER DUNISHBOOTH See DUNISHBOOTH

HIGHER END See BILLINGE

HIGHER GREEN See ASTLEY and ASTLEY GREEN

HIGHER HARTSHEAD See HARTSHEAD GREEN

HIGHER HURST See HURST

HIGHER INCE See INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD

HIGHER NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

HIGHER OPENSHAW See OPENSHAW

HIGHER RUSHCROFT See RUSHCROFT

HIGHER STAKE HILL See STAKEHILL or STAKE HILL

HIGHER SUMMERSEAT See SUMMERSEAT

HIGHER WOODHILL See WOODHILL

HIGHER OGDEN See OGDEN

HIGHER SWINESHAW RESERVOIR See SWINESHAW

HIGHFIELD, Farnworth, is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name describes the location and refers particularly to Highfield Farm, which is recorded in the 19^th century and remained as a working farm into the 1970s. Residential development of the area apparently dates from the 1930s.

HIGHFIELD, Pemberton, is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name literally describes the location, which overlooks Smithy Brook and the surrounding area. Some buildings in the area date back to the 16^th century but it is uncertain when the area was given its name. Highfield was developed as an industrial and residential from the late 18^th century.

HIGH LANE is a village on the Macclesfield Canal 8 kilometres south-east of Stockport and in Cheshire until 1974. The name is first recorded in 1690 as Ho Lane and with its modern spelling in 1842. Its original meaning was ‘the lane leading to the hill spur’, from the Old English hōh (‘a heel; a slightly projecting piece of ground’) + lane (‘secondary road’). The ‘hoe’ is the small hill on which Disley in Cheshire stands and this element was gradually rationalised to ‘high’. The ‘lane’ is now the A6 Buxton Road.

HIGH RID RESERVOIR is a small reservoir some 5 kilometres west of Bolton, built in 1892 to supply water to the town. It takes its name from the nearby High Rid Farm, which is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of the area in the 1850s. The meaning of Rid is uncertain, but suggestions are Old English rӯd, meaning ‘clearing’, or dialect rigg, ‘ridge’.

HIGHTOWN is a residential area of the City of Manchester north of Cheetham and bordering on Salford. The name seems to be modern and is difficult to find on maps before the 1950s. However, it is said to have been a centre for the Jewish community during the first half of the 20^th century. The name is quite literal, referring to the higher ground above inner-city areas such as Strangeways.

HILL TOP or HILL TOP MOSS is a residential and recreational area of Walkden in the City of Salford. The name seems to be taken from Hill Top Road, which ascends from Worsley to Bolton and describes the landscape of the area. Hill Top Farm is shown on the 1848 Ordnance Survey map and Moss Pit colliery was recorded as being sunk ’near Hill Top’ in 1799-1801.

HILTON HOUSE is a hamlet south of Horwich near Blackrod in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is first recorded in 1838, although the country house itself is said to have been built in the late 18^th century. The name was standardised when it was adopted as the name for a station by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1858. The house was originally owned by the Hilton family, who had been prominent landowners in the area since the Middle Ages. The house was extended and converted into a hotel in 2006 and renamed ‘The Georgian House’.

HILTON PARK is a recreational and residential area south of Prestwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is first recorded in 1838 with the building of Hilton House on Hilton Lane, which takes its name from the Hilton family, who had been landowners in the area in the Middle Ages. By 1857 the grounds of Hilton House were labelled as Hilton Park and, although the house had been demolished by 1932, the park remains, with much of it occupied by Prestwich golf course.

HINDLEY is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, about 5 kilometres east of Wigan town centre. It is recorded in 1212 as Hindele and with its modern spelling in 1479. The name means ‘wood or clearing of the hinds’ from Old English hind (‘hind, doe’) + lēah (‘clearing, meadow’).

HINDS and LOWER HINDS are located beside the River Irwell and the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal south of Elton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. They are not well documented before the end of the 18^th century: Hinds Mill was originally opened in the 1780s or perhaps earlier and Hinds Lane Wharf dates from the 1790s with the opening of the canal. The origin of the name is unclear: it could be an eponym but no Hind or Hinds family has been traced in the area, or, given the number of places named after deer in the north of Greater Manchester, it could be from Old English hind (‘hind, doe’).

HINDSFORD is a small residential area on the south-eastern edge of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is not well documented before the 1820s, when Hindsford House was built. Hindsford lies west of Hindsford Brook, a tributary of Glaze Brook and the River Mersey, and presumably takes its name from the stream. Hindsford Brook was formerly known Goderic Brook after a Saxon saint, but it cannot be confirmed when the name was changed. The name means ‘ford of the hinds or does’ from Old English hind + ford.

HOAR BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on Broadhead Moss in the Peak District National Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows north-west through Hoar Clough to meet North Brook, which then flows into Diggle Brook, meeting the Tame near Diggle. Hoar Clough is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1843 and means ‘grey (Old English hār) ravine (clōh)’.

HOCKERY BROOK is a tributary of the River Douglas which rises north of Hindley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, flows north-east and ultimately meets the Douglas. The name is a corruption of ocrie/ochrey, meaning ’like ochre, yellowish’ because it was stained yellow or orange by water pumped from iron mines in the area.

HODGE FOLD and HODGE LANE DYE VATS Hodge Fold is a rural area on the River Etherow in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in 1655 as Hodge Hall and the Hodge Lane Dye Vats date from the late 18^th century, when they were used for bleaching cloth at the Hodge Textile Works beside the Etherow. The origin of Hodge is uncertain but may be an eponym: Hodge was a mediaeval shortening of Roger that was originally used as a nickname for an agricultural labourer.

HOLCOMBE and HOLCOMBE BROOK are neighbouring villages in Ramsbottom in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. Both are situated on Holcombe Moor but take their name from the valley of Holcombe Brook – Old English hol (‘hole, hollow’) + cumb (‘valley’) – found in 1236 as Holecumbam, referring to the valley at the foot of nearby Holcombe Hill. On top of Holcombe Hill (also known as Harcles Hill) is Holcombe Tower, a monument to Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), prime minister and founder of the modern police (the ‘peelers’), who was born in Bury. Holcombe Brook, a tributary of the River Irwell, rises near Pot Green and flows south-east to join the Irwell at Brooksbottoms.

HOLDEN FOLD is a residential area of Royton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham where some of the earliest water-powered cotton mills were built in the 1790s. The name comes from the Holden family, who are known to have settled as landowners in the 16^th century. The family were still operating cotton mills in the late 19^th century.

HOLE BOTTOM BROOK is a tributary of the River Irk that rises north of Hollinwood in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and then joins Bower Brook in Failsworth to form Moston Brook, which eventually empties into the Irk near Smedley. The name is recorded on the first Ordnance Survey maps of the area in 1848-51 but is probably much older. It means ‘the stream (Old English brōc) flowing through a hollow (hol) in the bottom (botm) of the valley’.

HOLLIN BROWN KNOLL is found on Saddleworth Moor in the Peak District National Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1843 but the derivation is not completely clear: Hollin comes from the Old English holegn, meaning ‘holly’, and knoll from Old English cnoll, ‘hillock’, but the meaning of Brown is uncertain. It could literally mean ‘brown’ from Old English brūn, but perhaps more likely is that it is from Old Norse brún, meaning ‘brow, moor’, so that the meaning would be something like ’the brow of the hill where holly is found’.

HOLLINGWORTH is a village north-east of Hyde in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, about 20 kilometres east of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Holisurde and with its modern spelling by the end of the 13^th century. It means ‘an enclosure or homestead surrounded by holly trees’, from Old English holegn + worth. Hollingworth gives its name to Hollingworth Brook, which flows south into Hollingworth Lake.

HOLLINGWORTH LAKE is a reservoir and country park in Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, which is fed from the north by Hollingworth Brook and its tributaries. The name is recorded in 1278 as Holyenworth and with its modern spelling in 1843. The 53-hectare reservoir was originally built in 1800 to supply the Rochdale Canal, but was later developed as a recreational and tourist facility. It means ‘an enclosure or homestead surrounded by holly trees’, from Old English holegn + worth.

HOLLINS, Bury, along with HOLLINS VALE and HOLLINS BROOK, all lie north-west of Unsworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. Hollins itself is a suburb of Bury, south of the town centre, Hollins Vale is a local nature reserve with woodland planted in 1848-93, and Hollins Brook is a tributary of the River Roch. The name is recorded in 1756, when a Jacob Fletcher leased an estate known as The Hollins. Like many other places formerly in Lancashire, it is derived from Old English holegn, meaning ‘holly trees’.

HOLLINS and HOLLINS GREEN, Oldham, are localities south and south-west of the town. They share their name with other places that are or were in Lancashire, all derived from Old English holegn, meaning ‘holly trees’.

HOLLINS, Rochdale, is a residential area in north-west Middleton. The name is recorded in 1843 and is derived from Old English holegn, meaning ‘holly trees’.

The HOLLINS, Wigan is residential area of Hindley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It takes its name from the parsonage that was built there in the mid-18^th century and means ‘the holly trees’ from Old English holegn.

HOLLINWOOD is a residential area of Oldham, south-west of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1713, when Hollinwood Moor was divided between Oldham and Chadderton. The name means ‘holly wood’, from the Old English holegn (‘holly’) + wudu (‘wood, forest’).

HOLLY GROVE is a hamlet south-east of Diggle in the Saddleworth area of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in about 1272 as Holyngreue, as Hollingreave in 1723, and as Hollin Grove in 1771. The name means ‘holly copse’ or ‘holly thicket’ from the Old English holegn + grāf.

HOLLYWOOD END is a hamlet north of Mellor in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in 1433 as Holywodehede but as Hollywood End by 1650. Hollywood literally means ‘wood of holly trees’, from Old English holegn + wudu. The original -hede would probably come from the Old English heafod, which could mean ‘headland’ but, as the hamlet lies at the top of Hollywood Road, it is more likely that it would mean just ‘end, top’ of the road. This meaning would fit with the later and modern rendering of Hollywood End, again meaning ‘end or top of Hollywood Road’.

HOLLYWOOD PARK is a 4.9-hectare public park in Edgeley in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was originally the grounds of Hollywood House, a country house built in the late 18^th or early 19^th century. The house itself was demolished in 1897 but the grounds were opened to the public in 1893. The name is taken from the holly that is common in much of Greater Manchester and which is celebrated in so many place names.

HOLME BROOK and HOLME CLOUGH Holme Brook is a tributary of the River Tame that rises in West Yorkshire in the Peak District National Park and flows west through Holme Clough to join Greenfield Brook, which then goes on to meet the Tame. The name is recorded in 1468 as Holme-clogh-hede, meaning ‘the head (Old English hēafod) of the deep valley (Old English clōh) with river meadows (Old Scandinavian holmr, ‘raised ground in a marsh, river meadow’).

HOLT LANE END is a residential area on the edge of Failsworth at the end of Holt Lane in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented before 1865, when the Macedonia Church established a Sunday School there. The origin of the name is uncertain. One theory is that Holt Lane is named after David Holt (c.1764-1846), who may have built a cotton mill near Failsworth at the end of the 18^th century. However, no cotton mills are shown on 19^th-century maps of the area and the presence of Holt Lane Farm confirms that it was still a rural area. According to the second theory, the name is derived from the Old English holt, meaning ‘wood, thicket’.

HOLTS is a residential area south-east of Oldham, east of the River Medlock. It is said that the area is named after the Holt family, who were landowners in the area from the 17^th century and who may have been related to the Holts of Rochdale, who purchased property in Spotland and Naden in the 1530s. In the 19^th century they owned Holts Mill, which processed cotton waste for explosives. The mill closed in 1918 and the Holts estate was built in the 1950s.

HOLT TOWN is an inner-city area of eastern Manchester within a bend on the River Medlock. It takes its name from David Holt (c.1764-1846), who established a complex of mills and workers’ housing in 1785 in what was then a rural area. Holt went bankrupt but the name Holt Town persisted. Holt Town is now planned as a regeneration area by the City of Manchester

HOME is an arts centre with cinemas and theatres close to Manchester city centre, opened in 2015. Before the opening, a survey was carried out to choose a name and the results showed that ‘Home was a word which recurred often when people were asked what the new organisation should be – a second home, somewhere you feel at home, the home of great work’. Outside is a statue of Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) to commemorate his contribution to exposing ‘The Condition of the Working Class in England’, a book he wrote in Manchester in 1842-1844.

HONKSFORD BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook. It rises north of Mosley Common in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows south-west to join Ellenor Brook. The name is not well documented. One possibility is that it is an eponym, taking its name from a ford on land owned by someone called Honk, but this cannot be confirmed.

HOOLEY BRIDGE is a small village on the banks of the River Roch near Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is not well documented but it is clear that the village takes its name from a bridge over the Roch that dates back at least as far as 1718. However, an earlier document refers to Wooley Bridge, which was repaired in about 1635. There are several places named Wooley or Woolley and it is said that the name usually means ‘wolves’ wood or clearing’, from Old English wulfa (‘of wolves’) + –lēah (‘wood or clearing’). Wolves are generally thought to have become extinct in England by about the start of the 16^th century, and the last were found in the forests of Lancashire and the Derbyshire Peak District, so that wolves might well have been found in the Roch valley in mediaeval times.

HOOLEY HILL is a locality in Audenshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is not well documented but it is recorded in 1795 as a village where several people were employed in hat manufacture, and various mills and factories were established in the 19^th century. The origin of the name is not clear but it is possible that it is an eponym as the family name Hooley was quite common in Lancashire and Derbyshire.

HOOTEN GARDENS is modern residential area on the south-eastern edge of Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It takes its name from Hooten Lane, which was formerly called Lancashires Lane after a local family. The derivation of Hooten is undocumented but it would seem to be a variation of Houghton, meaning ‘farm on a spur of a hill’, from Old English hōh + tūn.

HOPE is a locality in Eccles in the City of Salford. The name is first recorded as Le Hope in the 13^th century. It is taken from the Old English hop, meaning ‘a remote valley’ and indeed Gilda Brook, a tributary of the Irwell, flows through the area.

HOPE MILL THEATRE is located in the Ancoats area of the City of Manchester. It is situated in Hope Mill, a cotton and fustian mill originally built in 1824 by Joseph Clarke and said to have been named after his wife, Anne Hope Ames. The mill was derelict by the mid-20^th century but was then redeveloped as a heritage site and reopened as Hope Mill Theatre in November 2015.

HOPWOOD is a suburb of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is first recorded in 1278 as Hopwode and is thought to mean ‘wooded valley’ or ‘wood in a valley’, derived from Old English hop (‘remote valley’) + wudu (‘wood, forest’). Hopwood is located in Hopwood Clough, which is just such a wooded valley.

HORRIDGE BROOK is (or was) a tributary of the River Irwell. The stream rises in Farnworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton and flows east and north-east for 424 metres to meet the Irwell near Prestolee. The name is not well documented before the mid-19^th century but it may mean ‘brook by the muddy ridge’ from Old English horu (‘dirt, filth’) + ric (‘narrow ridge’).

HORROCKS is an area of Manchester north-east of the city centre, west of the River Irk. At one time it was divided between Great Horrocks and Little Horrocks, but only Great Horrocks appears on modern maps. The name is found first in 1836 with the opening of Dolphin public baths in Horrocks in Red Bank. The name is said to come from Old English hurrock, meaning ‘a piled-up heap of loose stones or rubbish’.

HORROCKS’ FLASH is a small man-made lake near Platt Bridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan that forms one of the seven ‘flashes’ of Wigan Flashes Nature Reserve. The flashes were all formed by mining subsidence at the beginning of the 20^th century. Horrocks’ Flash was used for waste tipping until the late 1980s but was then redeveloped and was opened as part of Wigan Flashes Nature Reserve in 2022. The origin of the name is uncertain and is not recorded on maps until about 1950. It has been said that Horrocks’ Flash was named after a local fisherman but it is more likely that Horrocks was a local landowner.

HORROCKS FOLD is a hamlet in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, north of Sharples and on the edge of the Pennine moors. It takes its name from Horrocks Fold Farm, which probably dates from the early 17^th century, which comes from the Old English hurrock, meaning ‘a heap of stones’, probably referring to the sandstone found in the quarries nearby. The name is shared with Horrocks Wood on the slopes of Winter Hill, and Horrocks Scout, a promontory on Smithills Moor. Scout comes from the Old Norse skiitt, meaning ‘jutting rock’.

HORWICH is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, some 24 kilometres north-west of Manchester city centre. The name is found in 1221 as Horewic, from the Old English hār (‘grey, hoary’) + wice (‘wych elm’). The area was forested in mediaeval times, so that Horwich would mean ‘the place of the grey wych elms’. An alternative derivation is the Old English horu + wīc, meaning ‘dirty farm’, perhaps because of the dark, peaty streams coming off the moors.

HOSKER’S NOOK is a residential area of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is recorded in 1841 as Hoscars Nook farm and is said to be named after the Hosker family – Richard Hosker and Nicholas Hosker were both resident in the area in 1664 and 1678 respectively. Nook comes from the Middle English nōk, meaning ‘a nook of land, especially a triangular plot’.

HOUGH END is a locality bordering Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Withington along Chorlton Brook, which runs through a ravine called Hough End Clough. The name occurs in 1323 as del Hogh and with its modern spelling of Hough End in 1587. The name comes from the Old English hōh (‘heel of land’) + ende (’border, boundary’) + clōh (‘steep valley, ravine’).

HOULDSWORTH MODEL VILLAGE was an industrial housing estate in Reddish in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was built in 1863-1865 and named after and by Sir William Henry Houldsworth (1834-1917) for the workers at his Houldsworth mill, at the time the largest cotton mill in the world. The area is now undergoing regeneration, retaining the Houldsworth name.

HOWARTH CROSS is a residential area of Rochdale north-east of the town centre, west of the River Roch. The name is recorded as Howord and Haword in about 1200 and is believed to be either an eponym derived an Old English or Old Norse personal name, or a topographical name derived from the Old English hōh (‘hill spur, heel of land’) + worth (‘enclosure’). The original cross is believed to have been erected in about 1645 so that a temporary market could be held there during the ‘Black Plague’ of Rochdale, but it has long since been built over. Great Howarth is north-west of Howarth Cross.

HOWE BRIDGE is a residential area of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It takes its name from the Howe railway bridge, which was opened by the London & North Western Railway on 1 September 1864. The settlement was developed in 1873-1875 when the Fletcher coal mining company built a model village near the bridge. The name was standardised in 1901 when the LNWR changed the name of the local station from Chowbent to Howe Bridge. There are two suggestions for the origin on the name. One is that it is an older settlement named Howe, from the Old English hōh meaning ‘heel or spit of land’ or Old Scandinavian haugr (‘hill, mound’). The second, less likely, refers to the construction method of the bridge, which may be a Howe truss, invented by William Howe of Massachusetts in 1840.

HOYLES PARK is 3.35-hectare public park in the Chesham area of Bury, approximately 2.4 kilometres east of the town centre. It was opened in 1888 on land donated by Henry Whitehead and takes its name from the local Hoyle family – Joshua Hoyle (1796-1859) established a firm of cotton manufacturers in Summerseat, while son Isaac Hoyle (1828-1911) inherited the mill and was a Liberal politician and M.P. for Heywood.

HULL BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that flows out of Castleshaw Lower Reservoir and then flows south-west to join the Tame in Delph in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented before 1843, although the settlement of Hull and Hull Mill, which was presumably powered by water from Hull Brook, are recorded in 1787. Like the city of Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull is derived from the Old English hyll, meaning ‘hill’.

HULLET HOLE BROOK is a tributary of the River Douglas which rises east of Shevington Vale in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows to meet Calico Brook, which then flows westward to meet the Douglas in Appley Bridge in Lancashire. The name is not well documented but hullet is said to mean ‘owlet’.

HULME is an inner-city residential area just south of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded in 1246 as Hulm, meaning ‘an island’, from the Old Norse holmr. This refers to its position as an area of raised ground amid the marshes formed by the waters of the rivers Irk, Medlock and Corn Brook that surround it.

HULTON was a district originally consisting of three ancient townships – Great or Over Hulton, Middle Hulton and Little or Nether Hulton. The name was recorded as Helghton and Hulton in 1235 but only Over Hulton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton and Little Hulton in the City of Salford remain today. The spelling Hilton was also used from an early date and this spelling reveals the meaning of the name – ‘settlement on a hill’ from Old English hyll + tūn.

HUMPHREY PARK is a residential area of Urmston in Manchester built in 1937-38. It was built off Humphrey Lane, which is said to have been named after Sir Humphrey de Trafford (1808-1886) of Trafford Hall.

HUNDERSFIELD is an area east of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale that does not usually appear on modern maps. It is recorded in 1202 as Hunnordesfeld, meaning ‘the field of Hunworth’. Hunworth is thought to be the name of an old but now lost place in the area, the name of which was formed by the Anglo-Saxon personal name Huna + worth (‘enclosure, enclosed settlement’). Feld (‘field, tract of land’) was later added to signify it was ‘the area surrounding Hunsworth’.

HUNGER HILL There are several places called Hunger Hill in England and Scotland. In some cases, the name seems to derive from the Old English hungor, meaning ‘hunger, famine’ in reference to a place where animals went hungry because of poor pasture. In other cases, it means ‘a sloping wood’ from Old English hangra. Hunger Hill in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton is a hill and residential area. The name is recorded in 1770 but the origin of the name in this case is disputed, but most sources suggest that the original name was Hanger Hill and that the ‘sloping wood’ meaning is more likely.

HUNT’S BANK today is a short street beside Victoria Station in Manchester – all that remains of a district that dates back to the Middle Ages. The origin of the name is uncertain. It is certain that a Hunt family lived in the area from the 14^th century and later built Hunt Hall. The area may also have been the location of older hunting grounds, which could be the original derivation. The ‘Bank’ refers to the steep banks of the River Irwell at this point, and it was here that the Mersey and Irwell Navigation terminated in 1724. In 1843, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway extended its line into central Manchester and built a new terminus that was to have been called Hunt’s Bank, but the station -name was changed to Victoria in honour of the Queen.

HURST is a suburb and parliamentary constituency in Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside which was formerly in Cheshire. Hurst here is derived from the Old English hyrst, meaning ‘wooded hill’. Hurst in Ashton-under-Lyne lies on high ground above the River Medlock.

HURST CROSS is a small area of Hurst in Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside and also the home of Ashton United football club’s stadium since 1879. A large stone cross was erected there 1868 but the name apparently pre-dates this and probably comes from its position around a crossroad.

HURSTEAD is a residential area of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It is recorded from the 13^th century as Housetedes, meaning ‘a homestead, the site of a building’, from the Old English hūs (‘house’) + stede (‘place, site’).

HURSTHEAD is a residential area of Cheadle Hulme in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in 1831 as Hirsthead, but the name is probably older, coming from the Old English hyrst (‘wooded hill’) + hēafod (‘headland’).

HYDE is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, 10 kilometres east of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded in the early 13^th century as Hida and comes from the Old English hīd, meaning ‘one hide of land’, i.e. the amount of ploughed land that could support one family or household (estimated at about 50 hectares).

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford overlooking the Manchester Ship Canal is the northern branch of the Imperial War Museum. The museum was originally opened in London in 1920 and the name ‘Imperial’ was chosen to reflect the contribution to World War I of all countries of what was then the British Empire. Imperial War Museum North opened in July 2002 in a building designed by the Polish-Jewish architect Daniel Libeskind, who envisaged it as a ‘constellation of three interlocking shards’ representing a shattered globe.

“IMPOSSIBLE BRIDGE” See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD There are several places call Ince in Britain, all derived from the Celtic ynys meaning ‘dry land, island’. In order to distinguish them, some have been given a second name. Ince-in-Makerfield is a suburb of Wigan in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and the name simply means that this Ince is part of neighbouring Makerfield. The name is first recorded as Ines in 1202 and Ins in Makerfield in 1332. The ‘dry land’ refers to its position above Ince Brook, a tributary of the River Douglas, and the surrounding swamp.

River IRK is a tributary of the Irwell that rises east of Royton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and then flows west to Rawtenstall in Lancashire, before flowing south to join the Irwell in the centre of Manchester. The name is recorded as the Irk in 1322. The origin of the name is unclear but it may be related to the Irwell and mean ‘the angry or winding little river’ from the Old English irre (‘angry, wandering, winding’) + –uc (‘little’). An alternative suggestion is that it comes from the Celtic iwrch meaning ‘roebuck’.

IRLAM is a suburb of the City of Salford that lies on the north bank of the River Irwell at its confluence with the River Mersey. The name is first recorded in about 1190 as Urwelham or Irwellham, meaning ’village by the River Irwell’, from the Old English irre (‘angry, wandering’) + wella (‘stream’) + hām (‘village, homestead’). This original form of the name makes its location by the river clear, but some transparency was lost by 1574, when the name had been reduced to Irelam.

IRLAMS O’ TH’ HEIGHT is a suburb of the City of Salford. The name seems to have developed in two stages. A village called the Height (Old English hēah + th) is recorded in 1180 in the parish of Eccles on high ground above Pendleton. Then, in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the Pack Horse Inn in the village was run by members of the Irlam family, so that the area became known as Irlams o’ th’ Height, i.e. Irlams on the Height. The name was maintained during the 19^th century as the village was occupied by handloom weavers and standardised when the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway opened Irlams o’ th’ Height station in 1888.

River IRWELL is the most important tributary of the River Mersey. It rises near Bacup in Lancashire and meanders 63 kilometres south-west to join the Mersey at Irlam. It flows through the cities of Manchester and Salford, forming the boundary between them. The name is first recorded in 1190 as the Urewel, meaning ‘winding stream’, from the Old English irre (‘angry, wandering’) + wella (‘stream’).

ISLINGTON See NEW ISLINGTON

JACKSON See NEW JACKSON

JACKSON’S BRIDGE is a footbridge over the River Mersey in Sale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. A timber bridge was built in 1816 and this was replaced by a wrought-iron one in 1881. The bridge, and a nearby pub called Jackson’s Boat Inn, take their names from a local farmer called Jackson who, in the 1730s, started a ferry service across the Mersey at this point. The area nearby is known as Jackson’s Boat Ees, meaning ‘the land beside Jackson’s ferry liable to flooding’.

JENNY GREEN is an area to the west of Irlam in the City of Salford. The name is recorded in 1865-66 with the building of St John the Baptist church. The origin of the name is uncertain but may parallel that of the ‘Spinning Jenny’, invented by James Hargreaves in 1783. The spinning jenny is sometimes said to be named after Hargreaves’ wife or daughters, but none was actually named Jennifer. In the same way, Jenny Green may also be eponymous, but no candidate has been identified. A more likely possibility for both the spinning jenny and Jenny Green is that ‘jenny’ is short for engine, and it is known that drainage engines were in use in the area around Irlam and Cadishead in the late 18^th century.

JERICHO is a residential area of Bury that is said to be named after the Biblical city of Jericho (Hebrew for ‘scented, fragrant place’) on the West Bank of the Jordan when John Wesley (1703-1791) preached in Birtle in 1778. There seems to be no documentary of evidence for this, but the local Methodists gave the name to their new chapel in 2003.

JJB STADIUM See The BRICK COMMUNITY STADIUM

JOHN LEIGH PARK is a 5-hectare area of parkland in the Broadheath district of Altrincham in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. Oldfield House and the land on which it stood were purchased in 1916 by John Leigh and initially used as a military hospital. In 1917 he donated the land to Altrincham District Council for use as a park in memory of his father.

JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY is a research institute and library on Deansgate in the City of Manchester. It was established in 1900 by Enriqueta Augustina Rylands (1843-1908) in memory of her husband, John Rylands (1801-1888), who was the largest textile manufacturer in Britain and a great philanthropist. In 1972 it became part of the University of Manchester.

JOHNSON FOLD is a residential area of western Bolton. The name is taken from Johnson Fold Farm, which dates back to the 17^th century, when the Earl of Derby gifted land to the Johnson family. Bolton Corporation bought the farm in the early 1930s and built a housing estate, originally called the Montserrat estate, which was expanded in the early 1950s.

JUBILEE is a village in Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham which claims to be the only settlement with this name in the UK. The name is not well documented before the 19^th century – the Jubilee pub was built in 1810 and the Jubilee Colliery was opened in 1845. It is unclear which jubilee is commemorated in the village’s name – George III was the first monarch to celebrate a jubilee when there were festivities for the 50^th year of his reign in 1809, but the term was used more generally before that date and perhaps the village is named for another anniversary. The mine was closed in 1932 and the site has been converted into the Jubilee Colliery Nature Reserve.

JUBILEE MARKET and JUBILEE PARK, Oldham. The original Jubilee Market or Jubilee Fountain Market was built by the Oldham Industrial Co-operative Society in 1888 and named to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. It was announced in 2023 that it would be demolished and the space used to form part of a new 2.2-hectare linear park named Jubilee Park in honour of the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in that year.

JUBILEE PARK is a 4.7-hectare public park in the centre of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It was opened in 1889 and named to celebrate the Golden (i.e. 50 years) Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1887.

JUMBLES COUNTRY PARK is a large country park surrounding Jumbles Reservoir in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name for the area outside Bolton seems to have been in use since at least the mid-19^th century, but a reservoir was built and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1971. The surrounding area was declared a country park in 1973. The name is a corruption of the Old English dumbel, meaning ‘a deep hollow, a ravine’ and describes the valley of Bradshaw Brook, which flows into and out of Jumbles Reservoir.

JUMBO is an area of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is first recorded in 1781 and it has been suggested that it may have an exotic origin related to mumbo-jumbo or even Jumbo the elephant. It actually comes from the Old English jumb, meaning ‘a deep pool in a stream’ and jumbel or dumbel, meaning ‘a deep hollow, a ravine’, describing Wince Brook, which flows through the area.

JUNCTION See MIDDLETON JUNCTION

KAY GARDENS is a small public park in central Bury, originally opened in 1908. It commemorates John Kay (1704-c.1780-81), the inventor of the flying shuttle which transformed the textile industry, who was born in Walmersley, north of Bury. The park includes a monument to Kay, ‘whose invention in the year 1733 of the fly shuttle
quadrupled human power in weaving’.

KEARSLEY is a town on the River Croal where it meets the Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, formerly in Lancashire. The name is recorded in 1187 as Cherselawe but the modern spelling can be seen in Kersleie, found in about 1220. It means ‘place where watercress grows’ from cærse (‘watercress’) + hlǣw (‘mound’) or lēah (‘clearing, water meadow’).

KEMPNOUGH BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell that runs south-east through Roe Green in Worsley in the City of Salford and flows into the Irwell in Salford. It takes its name from Kempnough Hall, a country house dating from the 14^th century. The name means ‘warrior’s nook’, from Old English cempa (‘warrior, champion’) + nough (corruption of northern dialect haugh, ‘piece of flat alluvial land beside a river’)’. Kempnough Hall survives and has recently been restored.

KENWORTHY is a residential area of the City of Manchester, west of Northenden. The name is recorded in 1286 as Kenworthin, meaning ‘Cēna’s enclosure’, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name + Old English worth or worthign (‘enclosed settlement’).

KENYON is a village, partly in Cheshire and partly in Greater Manchester in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is first recorded in 1212 as Kenien, meaning ‘Enion’s mound’ from the Celtic crūg (‘hill, mound’) + the personal name Eniōn, and referring to a Bronze Age barrow that may have been erected there.

KENYON FOLD is a residential area close to the River Roch south of Bamford in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The place is not well documented before 1765 but it seems likely that it means ‘the animal enclosure (Old English falod) belonging to someone called Kenyon’. The Kenyons were a prominent local family and Richard Kenyon, described as ‘a local farmer’, built a water-powered fulling mill on the Roch at nearby Crimble in 1750.

KERSAL is a suburb of the City of Salford, about 5 kilometres north-west of Manchester city centre. It is first recorded in 1142 as Kereshala, meaning ‘the nook where cress grows’, from Old English cerse (‘watercress’) + halh (‘nook or corner of land’). The nook would seem to refer to the bend in the River Irwell where Kersal is located.

KICKETY BROOK is a tributary of the River Mersey that rises south of Stretford in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford and flows east and then south to empty into the Mersey at Stretford Weir. It gives its name to the 4-hectare Kickety Brook woodland. The origin of the name is uncertain but may derive from Old English cicc, meaning ‘bend’, or Old Norse kikall, meaning ‘winding’.

KILN GREEN is a village to the east of Diggle, formerly in Saddleworth in West Yorkshire but now administered as part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented before 1785 and its origin is also undocumented, but it could literally mean ‘a kiln on or beside the village green’. Cyln was an old English word for a furnace that could be used for making many things – bread, lime, bricks, flax, etc.

KING GEORGE’S FIELD is a 6-hectare playing ground in Woodbank Memorial Park in Offerton in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The land was acquired by Stockport council in 1937 and named to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1936.

KINGSTON is a residential area with an industrial estate west of Hyde and close to the River Tame in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The place is recorded in 1748 and was established at about that time by Major Edward Hyde Clarke (1716-1776), who had inherited Hyde Hall. He and the family of his wife, Elizabeth Guthrie Haughton, had slave-operated estates in Jamaica, and this area of what was then Cheshire reminded them of Jamaica. Consequently, they named the settlement after Kingston in Jamaica, which had been named in 1692 after King William III (reigned 1689-1702). Several streets in the area and a bridge over the Tame are named after Captain Clarke and his family.

KINGSWAY RETAIL PARK and KINGSWAY BUSINESS PARK are commercial developments south-east of Rochdale town centre. Both take their names from Kingsway, a nearby major road that, together with Queensway, was built in the early 1930s and named after the reigning monarch – King George V. Kingsway Business Park is one of the sites of Atom Valley.

KIRKHAMS is a suburban area of Whitefield in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. There are several places with similar names in Lancashire and West Yorkshire, all meaning ‘church village’, derived from the Old Norse kirk + Old English hām. Kirkhams in Bury is recorded in 1485 as part of the Manor of Prestwich.

KIRKHOLT originated as a rural hamlet, shown on the 1851 Ordnance Survey map west of Balderstone in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In 1945 German prisoners of war built the largest housing estate in Rochdale in the area around Kirkholt. The name means ‘the church in the wood’, suggesting a Scandinavian origin: Old Norse kirkja (‘church’) + Old English holt (‘wood’).

KIRKLEES BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell that rises on Holcombe Moor north of Hawkshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and flows 10.5 kilometres south-east to meet the Irwell in Woodhill. The name means ‘church meadows’ from the Old Norse kirkja + Old English lēah. It takes its name from Kirklees Priory in West Yorkshire, which is recorded in 1275 as Kyrkeleys.

KIRKMANSHULME is an area of eastern Manchester close to the city centre that was once part of Newton Heath. It is first recorded in 1292 as Kyrdmannesholm, but this is thought to be a misspelling for something like Kyrkmannesholm, meaning ‘raised land belonging to a churchman’, from Old Norse kirkja (‘a church’) + Old English mann (‘person, man’) + Old Norse holmr (‘island, raised land in marsh’). It has been suggested that the land may have belonged to Manchester parish church in Saxon times.

KISSING ROCKS See WAIN STONES

KITCLIFFE RESERVOIR in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is one of the six reservoirs in the Piethorne Valley built in the 1870s to supply water to Oldham – Ogden, Kitcliffe, Piethorne, Hanging Lees, Rooden, and Norman Hill. The name is taken from Kitcliffe Farm, one of the few farms that was not demolished or flooded at the time of construction. The farm appears on the first Ordnance Survey maps of the 1840s and is probably an eponym: the hillside farm belonging to someone called Kit or Christopher.

KITT GREEN is a suburb of Wigan, west of the town centre. It is said that the name dates from the 17^th century and is believed to derive from a shortening of Christopher. Other places named ‘Kit’ – for example, Kitt’s Green in Birmingham and St Kitt’s in the West Indies – are derived from Christopher and date from the 15^th to 17^th centuries. An alternative derivation might be Middle English kite, referring to the bird of prey which can be found in north-west England.

KITT’S MOSS is a residential area of Bramhall in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in 1777 and by 1831 it is shown as Kits Moss, an area inhabited by textile workers. However, earlier court records dating from 1632 refer to Kitts Moor. The name is presumably an eponym – Kit is short for Christopher, but nothing is known of him. Moss is an Old English word for ‘bog, swamp, moor’.

KNIGHT’S BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook. It rises near Bag Lane in Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows south-west to meet Hindsford Brook and ultimately flows into the River Glaze, the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey. It is culverted for much of its length but its name survives in the Knightsbrook housing estate in Atherton. The name is said to derive from the mediaeval ownership status of Atherton, meaning that the knight holding the Atherton manor had to provide military service to the Barony of Warrington.

KNOLL HILL is a 420-metre hill near Naden in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It is recorded in 1771 as Knowle Top and is derived from Old English cnoll, meaning ‘knoll, hillock’. The addition of Hill is reduplication as the meaning would be ‘hill hill’.

KNOTT LANES is a rural area with farms close to Daisy Nook Country Park, south-west of Bardsley in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It is recorded in 1617 as a division of the parish of Ashton-under-Lyne. Knott is probably derived from Old Norse knott, meaning ‘rocky hill’, or Middle English knot, ‘a hill’. The lanes refer to the country roads to the west of the main Ashton-Oldham Road, which are still called ‘Knott Lanes’.

KNOTT MILL is an area of central Manchester that is currently scheduled for regeneration. It is first recorded in 1509 when a miller by the name of Knott built a water-powered corn mill on the site. The area became the Manchester terminus of the Bridgewater Canal in 1764 and industrial development followed. Knott Mill had been converted to a textile mill by 1809.

KNOWL MOOR is a hill on the moors outside Rochdale that is popular for hiking and walking. The name is not well documented but is said to come from Old English cnoll, meaning ‘knoll, hillock’.

KNOWLS LANE or KNOLLS LANE is a hamlet north-east of Holts in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Knowls Lane farmhouse dates from the early 18^th century. Knowls or Knolls is probably derived Old from English cnoll, meaning ‘knoll, hillock’, and Lane refers to Knowls Lane, which connects Grotton and Lees.

KNUTSFORD VALE See NUTSFORD VALE

KNUTSHAW BRIDGE is a small residential area south-west of Deane in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It is recorded in 1285 as Noteschaw but the spelling Knutshaw with a K seems to be much later, perhaps as late as the 20^th century. The bridge carries the road north-west from Manchester over Knutshaw Brook, a tributary of the River Croal. The straightforward meaning would seem to be ‘copse of nut-bearing trees’, from Old English hnutu (‘nut; nut-bearing tree’) + sceaga (‘copse’), but it has also been suggested that the first element may be an eponym from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Hnotta. The spelling with K has given rise to the suggestion that the personal name may have been Knut, i.e. Cnut or Canute, although it is not claimed that there is any connection with King Canute himself.

LADYBARN is a suburb of south Manchester, east of Withington. The name is recorded on maps of 1820 as Lady Barn Lane and Lady Barn House. Urban development had begun by the middle of the century and an independent school was established with the name in 1873. It is likely that Ladybarn refers to a barn where tithes were collected on Lady Day (25 March), but it has also been suggested that lady may refer to the Virgin Mary as the Abbey of St Mary-in-the-Marsh in Cockersand in Lancashire held land in the Withington area in mediaeval times.

LADYBRIDGE or LADY BRIDGE is a residential area of Cheadle Hulme in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in 1587 as Ladie Bridge and in 1671 as Ladies Bridge. The bridge crosses and takes its name from the Lady Brook, a tributary of the River Mersey. The name of the brook changes from the Lady Brook to the Micker Brook at Lady Bridge.

LADYBROOK or LADY BROOK is the name given to a tributary of the Mersey as it passes through Happy Valley in Bramhall in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It rises as Bollinhurst Brook near Disley in the Derbyshire Peak District, becoming Norbury Brook, Lady Brook, then Micker Brook before joining the Mersey in Cheadle Hulme. The name is recorded in 1637 as Lady Brook, but the origin is uncertain. It has been suggested that it is named after a Lady Davenport of Bramall Hall, who owned about 2.4 hectares of land in the Ladybrook valley. However, the occurrence of other Catholic names in the area – Ladybarn Crescent (the barn where tithes were collected on Lady Day) and Ladythorn Road (Our Lady of the Thorns, celebrated on 16 February) – makes a religious origin more likely.

LADYHOUSE is a residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale south of Milnrow. The name is taken from Lady House Farm, which previously occupied the area. A painting by Benjamin Charles Brierley (1857-1920) of Lady House shows a stone building, perhaps the farmhouse, with the date 1631 above the door. It is thought that it may be derived from the Old Norse hlatha, meaning ‘storehouse, barn’, rather than any aristocratic or religious use of lady. Over the years, hlatha was rationalised to lady.

LADYWELL is a Metrolink tram stop that takes its name from a hospital in the Weaste area of the City of Salford. It started in 1851-1852 as a workhouse but was rebuilt in 1890 as a hospital and training school for nurses. Today it forms part of Salford Royal hospital. The original hospital was endowed by the local de Trafford family and named after the Ladywell shrine, a 17^th century house and chapel with the Holy Well of our Lady in the grounds.

LAITHWAITE is a residential area of west Wigan. It is recorded in about 1200 as Leikeththeit and Leikestheith, meaning ‘barn on or near a forest clearing’, from the Old Norse hlatha (’barn’) + thwaite (‘meadow, forest clearing’).

LAMBERHEAD GREEN is a residential and recreational area of Orrell in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan on the border between Orrell and Pemberton and between Upholland in Lancashire and Wigan in Greater Manchester. It is recorded in 1519 as Londmerhede, from the Old English land-gemaere (‘boundary’) + heafod (‘hill’).

LANCASHIRE is a county in north-western England that until 1974 included much of what is now Greater Manchester. The name is recorded in 1140 as honor de Lancastre and as Lancastre-shire in the 14^th century. The name combines the city of Lancaster (Roman cæster or fort on the River Lune) with Old English scīr (‘shire, district’).

LANCASHIRE BRIDGE is a road bridge across the River Mersey in Stockport. It was originally built in 1282 to carry the old Roman Road between Manchester and Buxton across the river from Lancashire into Cheshire. It was demolished in 1745 to hinder Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite army as they marched south from Tiviot Dale to Derby. It was rebuilt in 1748 and replaced by the current bridge in 1891.

LANCASHIRE HILL is a residential and commercial area of Reddish, north of Stockport town centre. It is named because it is a hill on the Lancashire side of the River Mersey, traditionally the boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire. The name is not well documented and it is not clear when the name was first used. Its modern development dates from the building in 1793-1797 of Stockport Canal, which branched south from the Ashton Canal at Clayton and terminated at the top of Lancashire Hill. This led to the building of factories, mills and housing in the early 19^th century. It was developed further in the late 1960s as a high-rise housing estate.

LAND GATE or LANDGATE is a village north of Bryn in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. Although the name is recorded in 1212, it is not well documented or analysed. The ‘gates’ of Wigan are mediaeval roads leading out of the town, derived from the Old Norse gata, meaning ‘road, street’. Land Gate is close to the old Roman road from Wigan to Warrington and it has been suggested that Land Gate means the road (gata) to the rural or agricultural land.

LANDSLOW GREEN is a rural area north-west of Hollingworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. Landslow Green farmhouse dates from early/mid-18^th century but the area is not otherwise well documented. The name is probably derived from old English land (‘piece of land’) + hlāw (‘mound, hill’).

LANE BOTTOM or LANEBOTTOM is a hamlet east of Newhey in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The place is not much documented before 1860, when the Lanebottom Industrial Equitable Pioneers Society was established as an early member of the co-operative movement. The name is quite literal – the hamlet is located at the bottom of Ogden Lane, which leads up to the moors of Oldham and West Yorkshire.

LANE END or LANE ENDS There are several places called Lane End or Lane Ends in Greater Manchester. The name is usually literal – a place (often originally a farm) at the end of a lane (from the Old English) or at the junction of two lanes. A lane was usually a narrow roadway in a town or, more commonly in Greater Manchester, a rural road leading out of a town or connecting two hamlets or villages. It was less important and less well-built than a ‘street’, which was the word applied to Roman roads in Greater Manchester (e.g. Stretford). The inclusion of lane as an element in a name often suggests that it is mediaeval in origin, but this was not always popular with upwardly-mobile Victorians – most of the lanes in Sale were renamed as ‘roads’ in 1866-70.

LANE HEAD is a residential area south of Lowton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded in 1842, when Lowton Lane Head Primitive Methodist Chapel was completed at the junction of Winwick Lane, Newton Road, Kenyon Lane and what is now Church Lane, suggesting that the name was originally Lowton Lane Head, i.e. the place at the start (head) of the lane to Lowton.

LANE SIDE or LANESIDE is a small residential area on the eastern edge of Crompton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1786 and the meaning is quite literal – a small settlement beside the lanes that led (and, in some cases, still lead) up on to Crompton Moor.

LANGLEY is a suburb of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, approximately 9 kilometres north-east of Manchester city centre. There are many places named Langley in Britain but Langley in what was then Lancashire is first recorded in 1246 as Langele, meaning ‘a long wood or clearing’ from Old English lang (‘long’) + lēah (‘wood, clearing’). Langley was developed as a residential area for about 25,000 people by Manchester City Council in the 1950s.

LANGTREE is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan that forms the northern portion of Standish-with-Langtree. Although originally separate, they have long been seen as a single settlement. Langtree is recorded in about 1190 as Lonetre, meaning ‘tall or high tree’, from the Old English lang + trēo.

LANGWORTHY is a residential area of the City of Salford. The area developed in the last quarter of the 19^th century around Langworthy Road, which was built in the 1870s and named in honour of Edward Langworthy (1797-1874), a businessman who, with his brothers, owned a cotton mill in Greengate and who also became mayor of Salford and, briefly, a Salford MP.

LARK HILL is a common place name in England and there have been several places with this name in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire. Lark Hill in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a 21^st-century housing development south-west of Astley. It takes its name from Lark Hill House, a large house built in 1878 that is now a nursery. Assuming that the name goes back no further than 1878, it would seem to be aspirational, evoking birdsong on a hillside. Places elsewhere which date back to mediaeval times are derived Old English lawerce (‘lark.’) + hyll.

LAST DROP VILLAGE is a retail and hotel complex in Bromley Cross in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It is clustered around a number of 17^th century farm buildings originally called Orrell Fold in the Manor of Turton. These were purchased in 1963 and given the name ‘Last Drop’. The name has given rise to some fanciful suggestions – that the last drop refers to execution by hanging or punishment by ducking – but the reality is more prosaic: friends offered the new owner the last drop from a bottle of wine when he bought the farm and the name was applied to the development.

LEAD MINE CLOUGH is a tributary of the River Roch which rises south-east of Lydgate in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows north-west to meet Lydgate Clough, which goes on to join the Roch in Calderbrook in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Presumably the stream takes its name from a local lead mine, but, unlike Lead Mines Clough, a tributary of the River Yarrow in Chorley in Lancashire which has a well-documented history of lead mining in the 17^th and 18 centuries, there seems to be little record of lead mining south-east of Littleborough.

LECTURERS CLOSES is a residential and industrial in central Bolton, close to the site of the parish church, where there has been a church since Anglo-Saxon times. The name is not well documented but seems to have religious connotations derived from words with meanings which are now largely obsolete: from the 16^th century a lecturer was an assistant Anglican preacher, and a close was a precinct or cloister of a religious building, a term dating from the mid-15^th century.

LEE BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises north of Castleshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows south-west through Lee Clough into Castleshaw Upper Reservoir. The name is not well documented but may be taken from a local farm as the literal meaning is ‘stream running by or through a clearing’ (lēah), a pattern found elsewhere in Greater Manchester (see Hall Lee Brook, Oaken Lee Brook, Pigs Lee Brook, Tack Lee Brook).

LEES is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is first recorded in 1604 as the Leese, which is usually said to mean ‘woods or woodland clearings’, from the plural of Old English lēah (‘wood, clearing’). However, another theory is that it is named after John de Leghes, the 14^th-century Lord of the Manor. To the north-west is Leesbrook (i.e. the clearing beside the brook, which flows into the River Medlock just to the south), Leesfield (i.e. beside open country), and to the south-west is Nether Lees (i.e. Lower Lees).

LEESBROOK See LEES

LEESFIELD See LEES

LEIGH is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. Until 1974 it was part of Lancashire and it shares its name with other towns in England as well as numerous places ending in –leigh, –ley, –ly or –le. The name is first recorded in 1276 as Legch and is derived from the Old English lēah, meaning ‘wood, clearing or meadow’. Leigh is distinguished from Westleigh to the west and Astley (i.e. East Leigh) to the east.

LEVENSHULME is a suburb of the City of Manchester, about 5 kilometres south-east of the city centre. The name was recorded as Lewyneshulm in 1246 and is probably an eponym meaning ‘Lēofwine’s mound’. The first element is a personal name Lēofwine, meaning beloved friend’; the second is the Old Norse -holmr, meaning ’island, elevated ground in a marshy area’.

LEVER EDGE is part of the area named Lever which consists of several settlements – Darcy Lever, Great Lever, Lever Edge and Little Lever – south of Bolton. The name Lever is recorded in 1212 as Lefre, from the Old English lefer (‘rush, reed’), so that the entire area would mean ‘where the rushes or reeds grow’ on the banks of the Irwell and Croal.

LEVERHULME PARK is a 13.75-hectare public park and nature reserve in Bolton. It was donated to the people of Bolton in 1919 by Lord Leverhulme (1851-1925), the industrialist, philanthropist, politician and mayor of Bolton, and named after him.

LEY HEY PARK is a residential area west of Marple Bridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It is recorded in 1835 and was developed as an up-market residential area with the coming of the railways and the opening of Marple Bridge station in 1862 and Rose Hill Marple in 1869. The name means ‘pastured enclosure’ from Old English lēah (’pasture’) + hæg (‘enclosure’).

LEYLAND MILL BROW is an area south of Haigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan beside the River Douglas. Industrial development in the area began in the mid-18^th century but it is believed the name comes from John Leyland (1832-1883), who acquired or built a cotton mill on the Douglas. The brow (Old English bru) is the steep bank that leads up from the river.

LIGHTBOURNE GREEN is a residential area of Swinton in the City of Salford. The name is not well documented and there have been two suggestions as to its origin. It could mean ‘light or bright stream’, from Old English leoht + burna, but streams in Greater Manchester are mostly dark brooks and bournes are almost unknown. Alternatively, the area might be named after Robert Lightbourne, who is known to have lived and farmed there in the late 17^th or early 18^th century.

LIGHT HAZZLES RESERVOIR near Summit in Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale was built in 1807 to supply water for the Rochdale Canal but was purchased in 1923 by Rochdale and Oldham Corporations to provide drinking water for the two towns. It takes its name from its source, Light Hazzles Brook, which is a tributary of the River Roch, and Light Hazzles Edge, a nearby promontory. The name means ‘few hazel trees’ from Old English lyt (‘a little, a few’) + haesel (‘hazel-tree’).

LIGHTSHAW MEADOWS is an 18-hectare country park in Abram in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan that was opened in 2010 and now forms one site of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh. Lightshaw Hall was built in the 16^th century and is derived from Old English lihte (‘sparse’) + sceaga (‘copse’). Lightshaw Hall is still standing and Lightshaw Meadows were shaped by 20^th-century mining subsidence.

LILFORD is a residential and recreational area of Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is an eponym dating from the early 19^th century, when Thomas Atherton Powys (1801-1861), who owned estates at Atherton, inherited the title of Lord Lilford. The title was taken from Lilford in Northamptonshire, which either means ‘chattering (Old English lille) ford’ or ‘ford named after Lilla’. A later Lord Lilford donated the land for Lilford Park, which was opened in 1886 and enlarged in 1915. Lilford Park lends its name to Lilford Park Brook, a tributary of Glaze Brook.

LILY HILL is a residential and countryside area north of Whitefield in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is not well documented before 1866, when it was one of six hamlets combined to form the township of Whitefield. The name is thought to be quite literal – a hill covered with lilies (Old English lilie), reinforcing the suggestion that the meaning of Whitefield is ‘a field covered with white lilies’.

LILY LANES is a farm location between Alt Hill and Hartshead Green in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It lies at the junction of Lily Lane and Twirl Hill Road – hence the lanes element of the name. The first element is said to come from Old English lilie, meaning ‘lily’. Hartshead Green farmhouse on Lily Lane dates from the late 17^th century.

LIME FIELD is a recreational and residential area west of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Mid-19^th century maps suggest that it was an area where there was a lot of lime in the fields, probably revealing the underlying rock formation.

LIMEFIELD is a residential area of Bury in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is first recorded in 1843 and could mean ‘the field with a lime tree’ or ‘the field spread with lime’. The name seems to originate with a house with a small park, so perhaps the former meaning is more likely.

LIMEHURST is a former village which is now part of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, but formerly in Lancashire. The name is first recorded in 1292 and the modern spelling had been adopted by 1422. The name is unlikely to mean ‘lime forest’ and is more likely to mean ‘the forest (Old English hyrst) within the Lyme’. Lyme meant that the place was included in Lancashire proper, as opposed to outlying areas in neighbouring counties.

LIMESIDE is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, about 3 kilometres south of the town centre. The area was once occupied by Limeside village and Limeside Farm, probably meaning ‘the hillside where lime trees grow’, from Old English lim (‘lime’) + side (‘hillside’). The area was developed in the 1930s with a large housing estate and the 7-hectare Limeside Park.

LINCOLN SQUARE is a public space in the centre of Manchester that was laid out in 1981. In 1986, a statue of American President Abraham Lincoln, which had been erected in Platt Fields in 1919, was moved to Lincoln Square. The plaque misquotes Lincoln’s letter of 1863 to the working men of Manchester, expressing his appreciation for their support during the American Civil War and the resulting ‘cotton famine’ in Lancashire: ‘To the working people of Manchester 19th January 1863 / I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working people of Manchester / and in all Europe are called to endure in this crisis’.

LINFITTS and LINFITTS SLACK Linfitts is a hamlet north-west of Delph in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded as Lindthait at the end of the 12^th century and by 1208 as Lynthwait, a spelling that is retained in nearby Lynthwaite farm. However, the spelling was rationalised to Linfitts by the time Lindfitts Mill was built in 1775. The name means ‘flax clearing’ or ‘clearing where flax is grown’, from Old Norse or Old English lin, meaning ‘flax’, and Old Norse thwaite, meaning ‘clearing, farm’. The name is an early indicator of the textile industry before flax was supplanted by imported cotton. Linfitts Slack lies to the north-west of Linfitts and takes its name from the Old Norse slakke, meaning ‘shallow depression’.

LINGARD’S FOOTBRIDGE is a metal footbridge supported by water pipes over the Bridgewater Canal near Blackmoor in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The bridge seems to be of recent construction but it is uncertain if there were previous bridges at this site. The name ultimately means ‘flax enclosure’, from the Old English līn (‘flax’) + Old Norse garthr (‘enclosure’). However, it is likely that the name is an eponym that was taken from the locational surname of the Lingard family, who were major landowners in the area.

LINNET CLOUGH is a small reservoir west of Mellor in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, formerly in Derbyshire. It was originally built in 1793 as a mill pond for Mellor Mill in Marple and it took its name from the clough (Old English clōh) or valley of Linnet Brook, which empties into the River Goyt east of Marple. Linnet is from Old English línetwíge or a 16^th-century borrowing from Old French linette, and is related to modern English linen. Linnets were common in Derbyshire in the past as they feed on flax seeds.

LINNYSHAW is a residential area and industrial estate to the east of Walkden in the City of Salford. The name is not well documented before the second half of the 19^th century, when Linnyshaw Colliery was opened in 1865 and Linnyshaw Mills were built in 1874. The name means ‘small lime wood’, from Old English lind (‘lime-tree’) + sceaga (‘copse’). The colliery was closed and demolished in 1921, and has now been converted into Linnyshaw Park, while a disused railway line known as the Linnyshaw Loopline has been turned into a walking and cycling route between Little Hulton and Walkden.

LITTLE BOLTON See BOLTON

LITTLEBOROUGH is a town on the River Roch in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale about 21 kilometres north-east of Manchester city centre. The name is first recorded in 1577 as Littlebrough and means either ‘little town’ or ‘little fort’, from the Old English lȳtel + burh. It is thought that there may have been some sort of fortification on the nearby Roman road to Ilkley but there seems to be no record of this.

LITTLE CLEGG See CLEGG HALL

LITTLE HOUGHTON See WESTHOUGHTON

LITTLE HULTON See HULTON

LITTLE IRELAND was a slum area south of Manchester city centre around the north end of Oxford Road. Houses originally built in the early 19^th century were occupied by large numbers of Irish immigrants who came to work in the expanding textile industry. The area was described by Engels in the early 1840s: ‘the most horrible spot … two groups of cottages, built chiefly back to back, in which live about 4,000 human beings, most of them Irish. The cottages are old, dirty, and of the smallest sort, the streets uneven, fallen into ruts and in part without drains or pavement; masses of refuse, offal, and sickening filth lie among standing pools in all directions….. The race that lives in these ruinous cottages, behind broken windows, mended with oil-skin, sprung doors, and rotten door-posts, or in dark, wet cellars, in measureless filth and stench must surely have reached the lowest stage of humanity.’ Much of the area was vacated in 1845-47 to make way for the new Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway and its Oxford Road station headquarters. The area was demolished in about 1877.

LITTLE LEVER is part of the area named Lever which consists of several settlements – Darcy Lever, Great Lever, Lever Edge and Little Lever – south of Bolton. The name Lever is recorded in 1212 as Lefre, from the Old English lefer (‘rush, reed’), so that the entire area would mean ‘where the rushes or reeds grow’ on the banks of the Irwell and Croal.

LITTLE MOSS is an area of north-west Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It was established as a civil parish of Lancashire in 1894 but it is not clear if the name has older roots. Its meaning is literally ‘little moss’ (‘bog, swamp’) and it is one of the many ‘moss’ place names in Greater Manchester.

LITTLE PARK is a residential area on the north bank of the River Irk west of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It dates from the Middle Ages, when it formed one of two ‘parks’ of Middleton Hall – the large park was the estate surrounding the hall, probably with deer, while the Little Park was its garden. The larger park was sold off from the late 18^th century for the development of the town of Middleton.

LITTLE SCOTLAND is located in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, 5 kilometres south of Bolton itself. There are two theories for its derivation. One is that the Wigan section of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was mostly built by navvies from Aberdeen in the 1780s and the area where they lived became known as Little Scotland. Another is that the Earl of Balcarres and Crawford, who was a Scotsman, brought staff from Scotland for his new residence at Haigh Hall, which was built in 1827-1840.

LITTLE WHINNING GULF See GREAT WHINNING GULF

LIVERPOOL ROAD is a disused railway station located on Liverpool Road, west of Deansgate in central Manchester. It was opened on 15 September 1830 as the eastern terminus of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, and can claim to be the oldest surviving railway terminus in the world. It was closed to passengers on 4 May 1844, when the company’s line was extended to the newly-completed Manchester Victoria Station. It remained as a goods depot until 1975 but was sold to Greater Manchester Council in 1978 and converted into what is now the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, opened in 1983. Liverpool comes from the Old English lifer (‘thick water’) + pōl (‘pool, creek’).

LONDON ROAD STATION was the name of Manchester’s main railway terminus, which had been opened by the Manchester & Birmingham and Sheffield Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester railways as Store Street in 1842. The name was changed to London Road in 1847 and to Piccadilly in 1960. It took the name from London Road, which runs alongside the station to the south west. Although the Romans had built a road from Manchester to Buxton and London (what is now the A6), the name is given as Bank Top on maps until 1813.

LONGDENDALE is a valley in the Peak District and was adopted as the name of an urban district in Cheshire in 1936, but was absorbed into the new Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in 1974. The name was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Langedendele and means ‘the long (Old English lange-) valley (denu) dale (dala)’. See also MOTTRAM IN LONGDENDALE.

LONGDEN END BROOK is a watercourse that rises near Windy Hill on the boundary between West Yorkshire and the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It flows south-west through Rakewood Valley to Hollingworth Lake. The name is not recorded before the first Ordnance Survey maps of the area in the 1840s and probably means ‘brook (Old English brōc) at the end of a long valley (Old English denu)’, perhaps referring to the point at which the brook emerges from the upper valley on the moors into Rakewood Valley.

LONGFORD PARK is a 22-hectare public park in Stretford in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, and it also gives its name to an electoral ward of Trafford. The name is first recorded in 1320-1346 as the long ford, presumably a ford used by those on the Roman road from Chester to Manchester crossing the River Mersey in Stretford. The ford gave its name to a village and to the Longford family, who had lived in the area since the 11^th century. Their Longford Park estate eventually became the home of John Rylands in 1855, and was sold to Stretford Council in 1911, opening to the public in 1912.

LONGSHAW was a common place name across Lancashire, Yorkshire and Derbyshire, meaning ‘long or narrow wood’ from Old English lang (‘tall, long’) + sceaga (‘small wood, copse’). This Longshaw is a small agricultural and residential area west of Wigan. Neighbouring Longshaw Bottom and Longshaw Common are in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in Merseyside.

LONGSHOOT is a suburb of Wigan, east of the town centre. There have been fanciful suggestions for the origin of the name – it was an area where archers practised shooting their bows and arrows, or where the Parliamentarians set up their cannons to shoot at the Royalists during the Civil War in 1643. The origin is not well documented before 1827 but seems to be a remnant of the mediaeval system of dividing large open fields into smaller strips of various shapes and sizes known as ‘shoots’. In Wigan, Longshoot and nearby Middleshoot may have been part of a large field known as Scholes-Field.

LONGSIGHT is an inner-city area of the City of Manchester, approximately 5 kilometres south of the city centre, formerly known as Grindlow Marsh, which is recorded in 1282 meaning ‘green hill’, from Old English grēne + hlāw. The Longsight name is not well documented but it is usually said that Bonnie Prince Charlie or one of his officers stood outside the Waggon and Horses Inn during the 1745 Jacobite incursion into England, looked towards the city and said that it was a ‘long sight’ to Manchester. However, there was already a Longsight Cottage in the area, recorded in 1706. It has been suggested that the origin could be Middle English lang (‘tall, long’) + shote (‘corner of land, projecting piece of land’) or shut (‘hillside or slope’). Other sources suggest a date as late as 1843, which coincides with the opening of Longsight station by the Manchester & Birmingham Railway.

LORD’S BROOK is a stream which rises north-east of Woodhouses in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows approximately .75 of a kilometre south-west through Failsworth into the River Medlock. The name was taken from Lord William de Nevill, who held the local manor for King John at the start of the 13^th century. The brook either flowed through his property or formed a boundary to it. In 1794, Lord’s Brook was diverted under Hollinwood Canal at Crime Lake.

LOSTOCK is a residential area of western Bolton in the Croal valley, approximately 20 kilometres north-west of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded in 1205 as Lostok, meaning ‘pig-sty farm or hamlet’, from Old English hlōse (‘pig-sty’) + stoc (‘farmstead, hamlet’).

LOW CROMPTON See CROMPTON

LOWER BREDBURY See BREDBURY

LOWER BROUGHTON See BROUGHTON

LOWER CHELBURN See CHELBURN

LOWER CRUMPSALL See CRUMPSALL

LOWER DUNISHBOOTH See DUNISHBOOTH

LOWER FOLD is one of a series of hamlets, farmsteads or ‘folds’ beside the River Spodden north of Spotland in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Lower Fold is recorded in 1781. A fold is a small animal enclosure or farmstead with a few cottages and lower refers to its position in the Spodden valley, contrasting with Fold Head, a hamlet higher up the valley in Rossendale.

LOWER GREEN See ASTLEY and ASTLEY GREEN

LOWER HEALEY See HEALEY

LOWER HINDS See HINDS

LOWER INCE See INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD

LOWER IRLAM See IRLAM

LOWER KERSAL See KERSAL

LOWER NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

LOWER OGDEN See OGDEN

LOWER ROE CROSS See ROE CROSS

LOWER RUSHCROFT See RUSHCROFT

LOWER SUMMERSEAT See SUMMERSEAT

LOWER SWINESHAW RESERVOIR See SWINESHAW

LOWER WHITELEY DEAN BROOK rises south-east of Rakewood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows north to meet Longden End Brook, which eventually flows into Hollingworth Lake. Whiteley was an area north of Spotland that was recorded in about 1255 as belonging to Henry de le Wetelegh and in about 1280 as Wytelegh, both names meaning ‘bright or fair (Old English hwīt) clearing (lēah)’. The name survived on 19^th-century maps as a settlement as well as Whiteley Moor and Whiteley Fold, but then seems to disappear from 20^th-century maps. Lower Whiteley was a related settlement to the east which appears on 19^th-century Ordnance Survey maps and which gave its name to Lower Whiteley Dean Brook, meaning the stream (Old English brōc) which flows through the valley (denu) near or beside Lower Whiteley’.

LOW HALL NATURE RESERVE near Platt Bridge is one of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh. Low or Lowe Hall is recorded in 1377 as a country house, its name derived from Old English hlāw (‘hill, mound’). Low Hall colliery began working in 1847 and was finally closed in 1931. The polluted site, with flashes produced by the flooding of

land which had subsided during underground mining operations, was reclaimed and developed over a period of about 30 years before being designated as a nature reserve in 2009.

The LOWRY is a theatre and gallery centre in Salford Quays that was opened by Queen Elizabth II on 12 October 2000. It is named after the artist, L S Lowry (1887-1986), who was famed for his paintings of industrial buildings and landscapes in Greater Manchester and elsewhere. Many of Lowry’s paintings (see Appendix 2) are on now display at the Lowry gallery.

LOWRY’S STEPS or LOWRY’S FOOTBRIDGE See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

LOWTON is a residential area south of Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, which also gives its name to the outlying area of Lowton Common, Lowton St Mary’s and Town of Lowton. The name is recorded from 1202 as Lauton and this is said to mean ‘hill settlement or farmstead’, from Old English hlāw (‘hill, mound’) + tūn (‘village, farmstead’). Despite the suggestion of its modern spelling, Lowton sits on a slight hill.

LOWTON ST MARY’S is a residential area south-east of Lowton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. As Lowton’s population expanded in the 19^th century with mine and mill workers, an Anglican church named St Mary’s was built in 1859-61, so that the area became known as Lowton St Mary’s. The name was perhaps standardised by the opening of Lowton St Mary’s station by the Wigan Junction Railways in 1884.

LUDWORTH is an area of Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was originally part of Derbyshire, but was transferred to Cheshire in 1934 and to Greater Manchester in 1974. The name is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Lodeuorth but something close to the modern spelling was found in Luddeworthe in 1330. The name is an eponym meaning ‘Luda’s enclosure’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Luda + worth (‘enclosure’).

LUMB BROOK is a short tributary of the River Medlock which rises north of Droylsden in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside and flows north-west to join the Medlock. It means ‘deep hole in or by a stream’, from Old English Old English lumm (‘a pool’) + brōc (‘dirty stream’). ‘Lumb’ is a dialect word that is largely confined to places in West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and northern Cheshire.

LUMB HOLE BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on the moors north-west of Denshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It has two short tributaries, Cherry Brook and Brimmy Brook, and it meets the Tame in Denshaw. The name is not well documented but would seem to mean ‘the stream (Old English broc) with or originating in a deep pool (lumb) in a hollow (hol). The name is recorded in 1786-87, when Lumb Hole Mill was built.

LUZLEY is a village north of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is recorded on 1246 as Luseleg, probably from the Old English hlōse (‘pig sty’) + lēah (‘wood, clearing or meadow’).

LUZLEY BROOK is a residential area north-east of Royton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It developed in the early 19^th century as a hamlet around the Angel Inn, a pub on the Rochdale turnpike road built in 1810. The hamlet took its name from the nearby stream, which is a tributary of the River Irk. Luzley is usually said to derive from the Old English hlōse (‘pig sty’) + lēah (‘wood, clearing or meadow’), but the Luzley Brook is thought to have included a pen for stray cattle rather than pigs. However, the original meaning of hlōse was probably more general – simply a shed or a shelter, which could describe a pen for cattle.

The LYCEUM THEATRE is part of a cultural hub housed in the Lyceum Building in central Oldham. It was originally built in 1856 as centre for art, education and literature in the town, and the theatre was added in 1938. The name comes from the Greek lykeion, meaning ‘a centre for gymnastics and philosophy’. It was first adopted in English for the Lyceum Theatre in London in 1765 and lyceums were subsequently built in many English towns and cities.

LYDGATE There are several places called Lydgate across England, including at least two in Greater Manchester. The name is derived from the Old English hlid-geat, meaning ‘swing gate’ – a gate across a field or road to prevent cattle from straying or perhaps to collect tolls. Lydgate in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldam is recorded from the 16^th century. Lydgate gives its name to Lydgate Clough, a stream which flows north-west from Lydgate to meet the River Roch in Calderbrook.

LYME PARK is a country house and estate owned by the National Trust. It is officially in Cheshire but the postal address is in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester. The name is recorded in 1312 as Lyme and as parcum de Lyme in 1466. The name means ‘forest’ rather than ‘lime’, and refers to the ancient forest of Lancashire known as the Lyme, which gives its name to Ashton-under-Lyne and Limehurst.

MACKIE MAYOR is a retail area housed in the last remaining building of Smithfield Market in what is now the Northern Quarter of Manchester. The original building was opened in 1858 by Ivie Mackie (1805-1873), a Scotsman who was Lord Mayor of Manchester in 1857-1860 and whose name is inscribed above the entrance. The old Smithfield Market was closed in 1972 but the Mackie building was preserved.

“MADCHESTER” was the nickname given to describe the vibrant Manchester music scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s, much of which centred on the Haçienda nightclub in Gaythorn in central Manchester. The term was coined by Philip Shotton and Keith Jobling of Factory Records, and popularised by Factory Records director, Tony Wilson, and the Happy Mondays band with their 1989 album entitled ‘Madchester Rave On’.

MAIDENS’ BRIDGE is a road bridge over Gore Brook in Gorton in the City of Manchester. It was built in 1737 by George Ryder and is said to have been given its name because replaced a ford and so saved local women from lifting their skirts as they crossed the brook on stepping stones.

MAINE ROAD is a road south of Manchester city centre that runs west of and parallel to Oxford Road. The road gave its name to Manchester City Football Club’s stadium from 1923 to 2003, when it moved to the Etihad stadium. In the mid-19^th century the road was called ‘Dog Kennel Lane’ as it led south to Dog Kennel Farm near Platt Fields where the dogs of the Didsbury Hunt had once been kept. Some adjacent land was purchased by the local temperance society in the early 1870s, but the society felt the name was inappropriate and in 1876 the name ‘Maine Road’ was adopted in reference to the prohibition laws passed by the U.S. state of Maine in 1851. The dog kennels also inspired the name of Dog Kennel Brook, a stream, now largely culverted, which rises in Rusholme and flow south-west, passing close to what is now Maine Road. It then joins Chorlton Brook south of Mauldeth Road and eventually empties into the Bridgewater Canal. The American state of Maine was originally the colonial province of Maine, named in 1622 because of its Atlantic coastline and islands by the maine, i.e. the sea. It became a U.S. state in 1820.

MAKERFIELD is a town that was in Lancashire until 1974, but is now divided between the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester and the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in Merseyside. The name is recorded in 1121 as Macrefeld, which is usually interpreted as ‘open land by walls or ruins’, where Celtic macre seems to refer to the ruins of an older settlement in Wigan, but no further details are known. Alternatively, Macre could be a Celtic personal name. It gives its name to Ashton-in-Makerfield, Ince-in-Makerfield and Orrell-in-Makerfield.

MAMUCIUM or MANCUNIUM forms part of the Castlefield Urban Heritage Park, which was opened to the public in 1982. It includes the excavated archaeological remains of the Roman fort of Mamucium, as well as reconstructions of other parts.

“MANC-HATTAN” is a nickname for the regeneration area at the southern area of Deansgate where several skyscrapers have been built in recent years. The term is a portmanteau word from Manchester + Manhattan and seems to have been invented by Cale Green-based artist Eric Jackson in his 2019 poster ‘Manc-hattan – Just like New York, but so much more charming’. The poster shows skyscrapers towering above the ‘Peveril of the Peak’ pub in central Manchester (named after Sir Walter Scott’s 1823 novel) and the statue of Prime Minister William Gladstone (1809-1898) in Albert Square.

MANCHESTER is a settlement in north-west England that was historically in Lancashire until 1974, when it became one of the 10 metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester. It was established in about AD 79 as the Roman fort of Mamucium, a name probably taken from an older Celtic settlement meaning ‘breast-shaped hill’, from the Celtic mamm. The Roman legions abandoned their fort in about AD 410 but by the time of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at the end of the 9^th century, the name had evolved to Mameceaster, a hybrid with the Old English ceaster (‘Roman fort’) added to the Celtic root and a similar spelling of Mamecestre was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1). The modern spelling with N rather than M is found from 1480 and was used by Celia Fiennes in 1698 and Daniel Defoe in about 1725. Manchester did not get its first MPs until 1832 and it was granted city status in 1853. At much the same time, the importance of the textile trade led to the nickname of “Cottonopolis”. Since 1974 urban regeneration and the emergence of different cultures have seen new place names such as ‘Madchester’, China Town, Curry Mile, Eastlands, Gay Village, Manc-hattan, Northern Quarter, etc. A 2017 campaign to rename the city ‘Personchester’ because it was thought to be sexist foundered on its mistaken etymology. Manchester has lent its name to many places in the USA, including Manchester, New Hampshire.

MANCHESTER AIRPORT is an international airport some 11 kilometres south-west of the city centre. It was originally opened in 1938 and known as Manchester Ringway Airport but the name was changed to Manchester International Airport in 1975.

MANCHESTER ARENA is an entertainment and sporting venue in central Manchester. It was built in 1993-95 above Victoria Station, which has four platforms dedicated to traffic to and from the Arena. It has been known by various names relating to company sponsorship: NYNEX (New York New England Exchange) Arena, MEN (Manchester Evening News) Arena, the Phones 4u Arena, and, since 2020, the AO (Appliances Online) Arena.

MANCHESTER CENTRAL STATION See GMEX

MANCHESTER EXCHANGE STATION See EXCHANGE STATION

MANCHESTER MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY See LIVERPOOL ROAD

MANCHESTER OXFORD ROAD STATION See OXFORD ROAD

MANCHESTER PICCADILLY STATION See PICCADILLY STATION

MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL is a 58-kilometre man-made waterway linking Manchester with the Irish Sea at Liverpool. It was built in 1887-1893 as the largest and last canal built in Britain. It was opened by Queen Victoria at Mode Wheel on 21 May 1894. It went into decline in the last quarter of the 20^th century and the docks at Salford were purchased by Salford City Council from the Ship Canal Company in 1984 and developed as Salford Quays. The current owners of the canal plan to develop its potential for container traffic.

MANCHESTER VICTORIA STATION See VICTORIA STATION

MANLEY PARK is a residential area in Whalley Range in the City of Manchester and also a small park in the same area. It dates from 1857, when Samuel Mendel (1811-1884), a wealthy ship owner known as the ‘Merchant Prince’, built Manley Hall with 50 rooms and a very good art collection in 32 hectares of gardens and greenhouses. Mendel made his fortune carrying Manchester textiles to India and Australia round the Cape of Good Hope but lost it when the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave his competitors a commercial advantage. The estate had to be auctioned and the grounds were used as a pleasure park, but they were gradually sold off for urban development and the house was demolished in 1905. The park is all that remains of the original grounds. The name means ‘communal wood clearing’, from the old English mǣne (‘common, belonging to all men’) + lēah (‘woodland clearing’).

MARIE LOUISE GARDENS is a 2-hectare park between West Didsbury and Northenden in the City of Manchester. It is named after Marie Louise Bagshawe, who was the daughter of Johann Georg Silkenstadt from Bremen in Germany, a wealthy cotton merchant who emigrated to Manchester in about 1865. Marie Louise died in 1891 and the park was donated to the people of Manchester in her memory by her mother, Josephine Helene Silkenstadt.

MARK ADDY BRIDGE See WODEN FOOTBRIDGE

MARKLAND HILL is a residential area west of Bolton, formerly in Lancashire. The name is found elsewhere in Lancashire dating from the 13^th century. It would seem to mean ‘boundary area hill’, from Old English mearc (‘boundary, border’) + land (‘tract of land’) + hyll, perhaps marking the boundary between farms, villages or parishes.

MARLAND is a residential area in north-west Castleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in about 1200 as Merlande, meaning either ‘tract of land by a lake’, from Old English mere (‘lake’) + land, or ‘boundary land’, from Old English mǣre (‘boundary, border’) + land.

MARPLE is a town on the River Goyt in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, about 14 kilometres south-east of Manchester city centre. Until 1974 it was part of Cheshire. The name is recorded in 1122 as Merpille and with its modern spelling in 1355. The name means ‘boundary stream’, from Old English mǣre (‘boundary’) + pyll (‘pool in a river; stream’), referring to the River Goyt, which was traditionally the boundary between Cheshire and Derbyshire.

MARPLE BRIDGE is a residential area on the River Goyt north-east of Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It takes its name from the nearby village of Marple but is recorded separately as Marple Bridge in 1685. The bridge over the Goyt which gives the place its name was said to be in need of repair in 1621, so undoubtedly dated from much earlier. It seems that it was repaired but needed replacement by the 1790s. The new bridge was built in 1800 and this is the bridge that stands today, although it was widened in 1930.

MARSH GREEN is a suburban area north of Pemberton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It was recorded in the 19^th century as a village but was developed as a housing estate in the 1950s. The name seems to be quite literal – a grassy area in marshes north of the Close Brook, a tributary of the River Douglas.

MARSLAND GREEN is a village west of Astley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan beside the Bridgewater Canal. The name is recorded in the early 17^th century as Marsley Green and both names are recorded in the second half of the 19^th century, but Marsland Green seems to have become the preferred name in the 20^th. Marsley means ‘clearing in marshy land’, from Old English mersc + lēah, referring to the local swampland. Green refers to the pasture that was used for horses on the Bolton-Leigh turnpike and the Leigh extension of the Bridgewater Canal.

MARSLANDS is a village south-west of Diggle in the Saddleworth area of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is an eponym recorded in 1322-23 in reference to Robert de Merslande. The name is ultimately derived from the Old English mersc (‘marsh) + land (‘land, estate’), suggesting that it was a drained moorland peat bog.

MARTINSCROFT is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Warrington in Cheshire. The name is recorded in 1332 and is an eponym meaning ‘Martin’s enclosure or small farm’. In Greater Manchester today there is a Metrolink tram stop called ‘Martinscroft’ that was opened on 3 November 2014 and which takes its name from its position on Martinscroft Road. Martinscroft Road simply means ‘the road to Martinscroft’, which lies directly to the west.

MARTLAND MILL is an industrial area beside the River Douglas and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal on the edge of Wigan, north-west of the town centre. The name dates back to the 14^th century, when Martland Manor and its corn mill were first recorded. The name is taken from the Markland family, who were a prominent family in the Wigan area in mediaeval times. The mill seems to have gone out of use when the Douglas Navigation was built in 1738-42, cutting off its water supply. The manor house was not demolished until the 20^th century, when the land was cleared to make way for Martland Mill industrial estate. Markland is said to derive from Old English mearc (‘boundary’) + lanu (‘lane, road’) as this marked the boundary between the parishes of Wigan and Standish. Over time, Markelane was rationalised to Martland.

MARUS BRIDGE is a residential area of Goose Green in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is taken from a bridge in the town carrying the old Roman road from Wigan to Warrington and it has been given to a retail park nearby. The name is not well documented but local sources suggest that the bridge commemorates a Roman general named Marcus who was in command of the district in about 130 AD. Whether the bridge was originally built by Marcus or was named at a later date is unclear. It is thought that in time the name was corrupted from Marcus to Marus.

MARYLEBONE or MARRIEBONNE is a residential area east of Wigan. The spelling and origin of the name are uncertain and there have been many suggestions. It seems that the original name was Mariebonne – the first references seem to be Mariebonne House, which was built in 1855, and cottages built on Mariebonne Place in 1895-1914. However, the spelling Marylebone is also found on maps before the end of the 19^th century. Suggestions for the origin include farms called Merrybone or Marrowbone, or a church called St Mary-on-the-Bourne whose name may have been influenced by the Marylebone district of London, which similarly originated as St Mary’s bourne. Perhaps most convincing is that Mariebonne means ‘St Mary the Good’ and refers to a church or parish with this or a similar name.

MATLEY is a rural area south of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is recorded in 1211 as Mattel and as Mattlegh in 1316. The name is an eponym meaning ‘Matta’s clearing’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Matta + lēah (‘glade, woodland clearing’). Oak Farm in Matley may suggest the type of woodland that was cleared.

MAULDETH ROAD stretches from Chorlton in the City of Manchester to Heaton Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport and gives its name to a conservation area along the road. The name of the road is derived from Mauldeth Hall, built in 1832-1840 and later used as the first residence of the Bishop of Manchester, but it is likely that the name is much older. It means ‘marly earth’, from the Middle English marle + eorthe, referring to the clay in the soil in the area.

MAYFIELD PARK today is a 2.5-hectare public park sited on reclaimed land in central Manchester. Its name comes from the Old English mæddre, meaning ‘the mayweed or madder plant‘ (which, perhaps significantly, is used to produce a red dye, which may have been used in the textile industries) + feld, ‘field’. At the end of the 18^th century the area around what was then the small town of Manchester was surrounded by various fields and Mayfield was situated on the north bank of the River Medlock. In 1782, it was purchased by Thomas Hoyle, who built a large calico and printing works, including a dye house. The site was purchased by the London & North Western Railway for the new Mayfield station, which was opened in 1910 as a relief station for Manchester London Road (today, Manchester Piccadilly). Mayfield station was closed to passengers in 1960 and to all rail services in 1986. It gradually became derelict but in 2019 Depot Mayfield, a music venue, was opened, and in 2022 the southern part of the site was developed as Mayfield Park.

MEALHOUSE BROW is a street in central Stockport that appears in two paintings by L S Lowry (see Appendix 2). It was recorded in 1680 as Wynn Bank (‘winding hill’) and later as Dungeon Brow (as it was sited above the cells used for prisoners awaiting trial). It became known as Mealhouse Brow as it was the location for storing and selling grain or meal.

MEASUREMENTS HALT was a railway station opened in July 1932 by the London Midland & Scottish Railway to serve the Dobcross clock factory of Measurements Ltd. It was closed in May 1955 when the line from Oldham to Delph was shut.

MEDIACITYUK is a property development in the Salford Quays district of the City of Salford. It was built in 2007-2013 and named because major media companies, including both the BBC and ITV Granada, built studios and production facilities there.

River MEDLOCK rises in Saddleworth and flows south-west for 16 kilometres into the Irwell in Hulme in the centre of Manchester. The name is first recorded as the Medlak in 1292 and means ‘meadow stream’, from Old English mǣd ‘meadow’ + lacu ‘stream’. The form Medlok appears in about 1540 and seems to be influenced by a false association with the word ‘lock’.

MELLOR is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was originally in Derbyshire, then became part of Cheshire in 1936, before being included in Greater Manchester in 1974. The name is first recorded in 1130 as Melver or Meluer and is said to mean ‘the bare or smooth-topped hill’ from the Celtic moel (’bare, bald’) + bre (‘hill’).

MERCIA was one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, located in the Midlands of England. It was established in about AD 527 and extended as far north as the River Mersey, although its control extended north of the Mersey into Northumbria and what are now parts of Great Manchester at times, especially after the Mercians’ conversion to Christianity in the second half of the 7^th century. The name is, like that of the Mersey, derived from the Old English mǣre, meaning ‘boundary’ as the Mercians were thought of as ‘boundary people’.

MERE BROOK or MERE CLOUGH is a tributary of the River Irwell that rises in Waterdale in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and flows south-west through Philips Park to join the Irwell east of Prestwich. The name is recorded in about 1772, when a bleach works was built at the lower end of Mere Clough. The name comes from the Old English mere, meaning ‘lake, pond’ + brōc (‘stream’) or clōh (‘deep valley’). Mere Brook is also known as Asylum Brook as it flows past Prestwich Mental Hospital, which was opened in 1851 as the Lancashire County Lunatic Asylum.

River MERSEY is a major waterway of Greater Manchester. It is formed in Stockport through the confluence of the rivers Goyt and Tame and then flows westward. It joins the Manchester Ship Canal for some 6.5 kilometres but then separates near Warrington and flows into the Irish Sea at Liverpool, over 110 kilometres from its source. The name is first recorded in 1002 as Mærse, meaning ‘boundary river’ from the Old English gemære (‘boundary’) + ēa (‘river’). The Mersey formed the boundary between the old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria from about AD 600 and, later on, between Cheshire and Lancashire. Virtually all of the rivers and brooks across Greater Manchester are tributaries of the Mersey, and the river gives its name to at least two towns in the county – Ashton-upon-Mersey and Heaton Mersey.

The MERSEY & IRWELL NAVIGATION was constructed in 1724-1734 to provide a navigable route between the Mersey at Runcorn and the Irwell at Hunt’s Bank in Manchester. It was one of the first major man-made waterways in England but was not a true canal as it merely improved the existing rivers by eliminating meanders to straighten and shorten the route, and constructed weirs and locks to facilitate navigation. The word navigation in this sense dates from 1720, and the Mersey & Irwell Navigation Act of 1720 was one of the very first uses. Among the locks were Throstles Nest, Mode Wheel, Barton, Calamanco and Sandywarps. It was a great success for nearly 150 years but had largely fallen out of use by the time the Manchester Ship Canal was completed in 1894.

MERSEYSIDE is a county to the west of Greater Manchester that was created in 1974 in what was previously south-west Lancashire and parts of northern Cheshire. The name is first recorded in 1899 as a general term meaning ‘beside the River Mersey’ but was adopted as the name of the new county using the same model as counties and boroughs elsewhere in England, including Tameside in Greater Manchester.

MERSEY SQUARE is a pedestrianised shopping centre in Stockport. It was opened in 1970 and was one of the first shopping precincts in Britain. It is named after the River Mersey, which originates in Stockport and which runs deep beneath Mersey Square.

MESNES PARK See WORSLEY MESNES

MICKER BROOK See BOLLINHURST BROOK

MICKLEHURST is a district in Mossley in the Borough of Tameside that was formerly part of Cheshire. The name is recorded in 1345 as Mikelhourst, from the Old English micel, meaning ‘large or great’ + hyrst, meaning ‘wooded hill’. It gives its name to Micklehurst Brook, a tributary of the River Tame.

MIDDLEBROOK or MIDDLE BROOK is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is recorded in 1292 as Mikelbrok, meaning ‘great brook’, from the Old English micel (‘big, great’) + broc (‘brook, stream’). The brook gave its name to the settlement and, over the years, the names of both became rationalised to ‘Middlebrook’. The Middle Brook itself is a tributary of the River Croal and was the usual name for the Croal until early in the 19^th century.

MIDDLE HEALEY See HEALEY

MIDDLE HULTON See HULTON

MIDDLE NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

MIDDLETON is a town on the River Irk in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. There are many places called Middleton in Britain, all meaning ‘middle homestead, village or settlement’ and deriving from Old English middel + tūn. Middleton in Rochdale is recorded in 1194 as Middelton, and is thought to be a reference to its position midway between Manchester and Rochdale.

MIDDLETON JUNCTION is an area in Middleton in the Borough of Rochdale and Chadderton in the Borough of Oldham which was developed in the early 19^th century as an industrial area along the Rochdale Canal. The Manchester & Leeds Railway’s main line between the two cities was built in 1839 with a junction to Oldham Werneth and a station was opened on 31 March 1842. Initially named Oldham Junction, the station was renamed Middleton Junction in 1852. The station was closed in 1966 and demolished but the area surrounding it retains the name.

MIDLAND HOTEL is a large hotel in central Manchester opened in 1903 by the Midland Railway close to its Manchester Central station. It is said to have been the first building in Britain to be air-conditioned, and in 1904 Charles Rolls met Henry Royce there and formed the Rolls Royce car company.

MID REDDISH See REDDISH

MILE END is an area of Davenport in Stockport whose name means ‘place at the end of a mile’ from the centre of Stockport. The name is first recorded in 1587, when Alexander Lowe, the mayor of Stockport, was living in Mile End Hall, which stood on the main road from Manchester to London (now the A6).

MILES PLATTING is an inner-city suburb of Manchester lying approximately 2 kilometres north-east of the city centre. The name first appears in 1742 referring to a bridge that carried the Oldham Road over Newton Brook. The name comes from platting, a Lancashire dialect term for a ‘small bridge’, which was located a mile from the city centre.

MILL BROOK is a tributary of the River Douglas that rises north-east of Shevington in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows south to meet the Douglas near Crooke. The name is derived from 18^th century corn mills in the area, probably Standish Mill on what then became Mill Brook.

MILLBROOK is a village near Stalybridge in the Borough of Tameside. The name literally means ‘the mill by the brook’ and is recorded in 1831. The mills referred to were cotton mills that were built in the early part of the 19^th century and the brook is Swineshaw Brook (meaning ‘swine wood’), also first recorded in 1831, which flows through the village. The name was perhaps standardised when the London & North Western Railway opened a station called Staley & Millbrook in July 1886.

MILL BROW, Marple Bridge, is a hamlet north-west of Mellor in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It is believed that Ludworth Mill, a 13th-century corn mill which served the scattered farms of what was then western Derbyshire, was the mill that gave the hamlet its name. The mill was presumably at the foot of the brow in the valley of Mill or Mill Brow Brook (a tributary of the River Goyt) below Mill Brow itself. Mill Brow is recorded in 1857 but Ludworth Mill is found rather earlier in 1714.

MILL BROW, Worsley, is a residential area north of Boothstown in the City of Salford. The name is derived from a corn mill which stood at the bottom of the brow (Old English bru meaning ‘a steep hill or bank that leads up from a river’) and which was presumably powered by water from Stirrup Brook, which later becomes Ellen Brook, a tributary of the River Irwell. The corn mill is recorded in 1206 and was not finally demolished until 1904.

MILLERS BROOK is a short tributary of the River Roch. It rises north of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and then flows north-east through Queen’s Park to meet the Roch. The name is recorded in 1847, when Millers Brook Mill was erected, but may date back much further to the building of a water wheel to power a corn or textile mill.

MILLINGFORD BROOK is a 15-kilometre stream that rises near Billinge and flows south-west through Golborne in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, before turning west to join Newton Brook and then flowing into the River Mersey at Sankey Bridges outside Warrington. The name is not well documented before the 19^th century and it is thought that it was probably originally called Golborne. At some point it was renamed Millingford Brook – ‘the ford across the brook where milling takes place’ – probably referring to a mediaeval corn milling waterwheel rather than industrial cotton milling.

MILLS HILL is an industrial and residential area in east Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It lies on the Rochdale Canal and the River Irk. The name is not well documented and, although many textile mills were built in the area in the 19^th century, the name may be older and could refer to windmills or corn mills.

MILNROW is a town on the River Beal in the Borough of Rochdale that was part of Lancashire until 1974. The name is first recorded as Milnehuses in the 13^th century but had become Mylnerowe by 1554. The name means ‘row of houses by a mill’ from the Old English myln (‘mill’) + rāw (‘a row of houses, trees, etc’).

MIRRLEES FIELDS is a location in Hazel Grove in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport that includes the former factory site and recreational grounds of the Mirrlees Engineering Company. The company was established in Glasgow in 1840 but moved to Hazel Grove in 1908, producing diesel engines. It closed in 2000 and the land may be developed into a housing estate.

MITCHELL HEY is a residential area of Rochdale west of the town centre within a loop in the River Roch. The name is believed to be an eponym derived from the family name Mitchell + Old English hæg meaning ‘enclosure, hedged enclosure’. In 1859 the site was purchased from a Mr William Holt by the Rochdale Pioneers for a steam-powered weaving mill to be run on co-operative principles. The chairman at the time was J T W Mitchell (1828-1895), but the naming of the mill was coincidental. When the mill was demolished, a block of flats with the same name was erected on the site in the 1960s. In 2017 it was announced that this block would be demolished as part of a new housing scheme.

MODE WHEEL today is an industrial estate in the City of Salford beside the Manchester Ship Canal. The Mode Wheel locks were the last on the Manchester Ship Canal, lifting ships 4 metres to the level of Salford docks, and it was at the Mode Wheel locks that Queen Victoria officially opened the Manchester Ship Canal on 21 May 1894. The Mode Wheel locks pre-dated the Manchester Ship Canal by some 170 years, having originally been built in the late 1720s as one of the 8 sets of locks on the Mersey & Irwell Navigation, enabling ships to sail from Runcorn to Hunt’s Bank at Salford. The original Mode Wheel was a waterwheel that must have been constructed in the 16^th century or even earlier to power a corn mill. This was named Maud’s Mill but the name had been corrupted to ‘Mode Wheel’ by the 1720s. Maud cannot be identified with any certainty but a Maud de Worsley is known to have land in Pendleton, Woodhouses and Wallness in 1332.

MOLYNEUX BROW was a hamlet north-west of Clifton in the City of Salford. The name was recorded in the early 17^th century as Mullineux Brow and with its more modern spelling in 1853, when the East Lancashire Railway opened Molyneux Brow station, taking its name from a few cottages nearby. The name is assumed to be an Anglo-Norman eponym: a Norman from the town of Moulineaux (‘mill of the waters’) came over with William the Conqueror in 1066 and one of his descendants was given a manor in Sefton, outside Liverpool. The family were influential in Lancashire and two – Sir Thomas Molyneux and Sir William Molyneux – became sheriffs of the county in the late 15^th and early 16^th centuries.

MONKS HALL is a building in Eccles in the City of Salford. The original building is believed to date back to 1234 and took its name either from the monks of Whalley Abbey, who owned land in Eccles, or from the de Monks family, who are known to have lived in Eccles. Various buildings with various uses have stood on the site. The 17^th-century building was purchased by Eccles council in 1959 and converted into a museum, but this closed in the late 1980s. Much of the building was destroyed by fire in 2016 and there are currently plans to convert it into housing.

MONSALL is a suburb of Manchester, north-east of the city centre. The name was recorded as Monshalgh in 1546 and means ‘monk’s (Old English monke) corner or nook (halh)’.

MONTON is a residential area in the City of Salford, lying on Dean’s Brook, a tributary of the River Irwell. The name is recorded in 1190 as Mawinton, believed to be an eponym meaning ‘Mawinga’s or Mawa’s village or farmstead’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + tūn. An alternative suggestion is that the name may be derived from monk + tūn as it is known that there was a monastic community in the area in mediaeval times.

MONTSERRAT is a residential area north-east of Bolton. The name is Catalan, meaning ‘serrated or jagged mountain’. It is said that a row of cottages was built early in the 19^th century by an ex-soldier who had fought with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War in Spain. In 1811 and 1812 the monastery at Montserrat in Catalonia in north-east Spain was destroyed by Napoleon’s troops and the builder named the cottages to commemorate the monastery. In the 1930s the cottages were demolished and, after the war, an estate was built and given the name Montserrat. The estate now seems to be called Johnson Fold but Montserrat still appears on maps as the name of the area.

MOORCLOSE is a residential area of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It is not well documented before the 19^th century and, while the location is close to Rooley Moor, the name is thought to derive from being an area of the moors that was enclosed following they Middleton Enclosure Act of 1803. After World War II, a council housing estate was built in Moorclose using the labour of former prisoners from Slattocks prisoner-of-war camp.

MOOREND is a hamlet east of Mellor in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was originally part of Derbyshire but was transferred to Cheshire in 1936 and to Greater Manchester in 1974. The name is documented in 1640, when it marked the end of the farmland and settlements of Mellor and the start of the common land of the moors to the east.

MOORGATE is a residential area north of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, formerly in Cheshire. The name is recorded in 1831 and literally means ‘gateway to the moors’, referring to its location close to the moors of the Derbyshire Peak District to the east.

MOORSIDE is a suburb of north-east Oldham, close to the moors of Saddleworth. The name is recorded in 1843 as Moor Side, literally meaning ‘beside the moors’ of the west Pennines.

MORRIS GREEN is a residential area south of Daubhill in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is not well documented but is said to be an eponym meaning ‘the bleaching green belonging to someone named Morris’. This refers to the practice of laying newly-made cloth out on a grass plot to be bleached by the sun. The Oxford English Dictionary records the first use of green with this meaning in 1738.

MORTIN BROOK is a tributary of the River Etherow that rises north of Compstall in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport and flows south-east for about 3.2 kilometres through Mortin Clough (Old English clōh, ‘a steep-sided valley’) to join the Etherow. Mortin is probably a personal name and was recorded as both Mortin and Martin on maps from the early 19^th century but the spelling was later standardised as Mortin.

MOSES GATE is a residential area of Farnworth in the Borough of Bolton, about 4 kilometres south of Bolton town centre and 17.5 kilometres north-west of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded as Moss Gate in 1818 but is probably mediaeval in origin, deriving from Old English mos (‘a bog or swamp’) + Old Norse gata (‘a road, a street’). The original meaning would have been ‘the road across the swamp’, but was rationalised to Moses, despite having nothing to do with the Old Testament character.

MOSLEY COMMON is a residential area of Tyldesley in the east of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded in 1301 as Mosseld Yard, meaning ‘the woodland clearing near a swamp’, from Old English mos (‘marsh, swamp’) + lēah (‘wood, clearing’). The use of yard at this early date would probably be from Old English geard (‘an enclosure; a court-yard’). The use of common rather than yard is found in 1747, when Mosley Common was said to be 14 hectares in area.

MOSS BANK PARK is an 85-hectare public park in Bolton opened to the public in 1928. The site was formerly an estate belonging to Peter Ainsworth, a bleacher from Halliwell. The estate included a country house, Halliwell Hall, and fields which were used for the sun-bleaching of newly-made cloth. Moss Bank is a common name in the north-west, deriving from the Old English mos (‘marsh, swamp’) + banke (‘slope of a hill’).

MOSSBROW is a hamlet south of Partington in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is not well documented but seems to come from Moss Brow farm, situated on the brow or higher part of Moss Lane, which was covered with moss. Some of the buildings date from the 16^th century but it is unclear when the name came into use.

MOSS GATE is a residential area of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, lying south of Moss Gate, a 253-metre hill in the west Pennines. It takes its name from what is now called Moss Gate Road, which connects Rushcroft and Jubilee. The name is recorded in 1847, when a Methodist church was opened on Moss Gate Road, but the derivation – Old English mos (‘marsh, swamp) + Old Norse gata (‘road’) – suggests that it is probably much older.

MOSS HEY is a residential area of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, west of the River Beal. The name is not well documented before 1789, when Moss Hey cotton mill was constructed. The name means ‘enclosed area of swampy land’, from Old English mos (‘marsh, swamp’) + hæg meaning ‘enclosure, hedged enclosure’.

MOSSLEY is a town beside the River Tame in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, about 15 kilometres east of Manchester city centre. It was formerly divided between Lancashire, Cheshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, but in 1889 it was allocated wholly to Lancashire. In 1974 it was included in Greater Manchester. By the start of the 19^th century, the town was divided between Top Mossley (also known as Brookbottom) and Bottom Mossley (also known as Bottoms). The name is recorded in 1319 as Moselegh and with its modern spelling from 1422. It means ‘woodland clearing near a swamp’, from Old English mos (‘marsh, swamp’) + lēah (‘wood, clearing’).

MOSS NOOK is a residential part of Wythenshawe in the City of Manchester about 14.5 kilometres south of the city centre. Until 1931 it was a rural part of Northen Etchells in Cheshire known for its market gardening, but it underwent urban development after the Second World War. The name is recorded in the 12^th century as Moseknok, meaning ‘corner of marshy land’, from Middle English mos (‘bog, swamp, marsh’) + nok (‘corner of land’).

MOSS PARK GARDENS is a small public space in Timperley in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The area is referred to in 1765 as a ‘parcel of moss ground’, from the old English mos meaning ‘marsh, swamp’. By the 1830s it seems to have been drained as it is recorded as a farm and orchard. The land was sold to Altrincham Borough Council in 1940 and laid out as a small park in 1974.

MOSS SIDE is a residential area of Manchester, south of the city centre. The name is recorded in 1530 as Mossyde and with its modern two-word spelling in 1594, meaning ‘beside or edge of the swamp’, from Old English mos (‘marsh, swamp’) + side (‘beside’). The name describes the pre-industrial landscape of much of Manchester which shocked Daniel Defoe in about 1725: ‘The nature of these mosses, for we found there are many of them in this country … at a distance, looks black and dirty, and is indeed frightful to think of’.

MOSS SLACK BROOK rises near Windy Hill on the border between the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and Calderdale in West Yorkshire. It flows south-east to join Longden End Brook, which eventually empties into Hollingworth Lake. The name comes from Moss Slack, the moorland area where it rises, which means’ boggy hill slope’, from Old English mos, meaning ‘marsh, bog’ + Old Norse slakki, ‘a small shallow valley or hollow’, perhaps with the idea that the slope slackens and becomes less steep.

MOSTON is suburb of Manchester lying about 5 kilometres north-east of the city centre. The name Moston was first recorded in 1195 and is derived from Old English mos, meaning ‘bog or swamp’+ tūn, ’settlement or farm’.

MOSTON BROOK is a tributary of the River Irk which is formed through the confluence of Hole Bottom Brook and Bower Brook in Failsworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It then flows south-west for about 6 kilometres to empty into the Irk near Smedley in the City of Manchester. The name is derived from Old English mos, meaning ‘bog or swamp’+ tūn, ’settlement or farm’.

MOTTRAM IN LONGDENDALE is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, although part of Cheshire until 1974. The name is recorded in 1211 as Mottrum and in 1308 as Mottram in Longedenedale. Mottram is usually said to mean ‘place of the speakers’ or ‘place where meetings are held’, from the Old English mōtere (‘speaker at an assembly’) or mōt (‘meeting, assembly of people’) + rūm (‘room, space’). Another possibility is that Mottram comes from the Celtic moch (‘pigs’) + tref (‘homestead, village’). Longdendale was added to distinguish it from Mottram St Andrew in Cheshire, and refers to the long valley of the River Etherow.

MUDD or The MUDD is a hamlet in Mottram in Longdendale in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in 1845 but it is evident that there has been a settlement since mediaeval times. The name literally means ‘mud’, from the Old English mudde.

MUMPS is an area of Oldham which is said to take its name from the 17^th-century slang term mumper, meaning ‘a genteel beggar’. The name seems to have been standardised by a station originally built by the Manchester & Leeds Railway in July 1856 and perpetuated by a Metrolink tram stop named Oldham Mumps, which re-opened in 2014.

MYTHAM is a residential area in Little Lever in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton that also gives its name to Mytham Park. The name is not well documented but Mytham Farm is recorded in 1805. The name comes from the Old English gemȳthu + hām, meaning ‘village at the confluence of streams or rivers’, referring to confluence of the Croal and Irwell south-west of Little Lever.

NADEN BROOK is a tributary of the River Roch. It rises above Norden in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows southwards through Simpson Clough to join the Roch in Heywood. Naden Brook is recorded as Nauedenbrok in the 13^th century and means ‘meandering valley stream’, from Old English nædre (‘adder-like, meandering’) + denu (‘valley’) + brōc (‘stream’). The valley and the brook gave their name to settlements called Naden on the hillside above. Naden Brook feeds the three Naden Reservoirs – Lower Haden, Middle Naden and Higher Naden – which were constructed in 1846 north of what is now Greenbooth Reservoir.

NAILER’S GREEN or NAILER’S FIELD is the former name of the village of Greenmount in Tottington in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name was taken from a pub called the Nailer’s, but the pub was demolished and a local community group campaigned for the village to be renamed. A sign with the new name was unveiled in 2016.

NANGREAVE was an area of Stockport south-east of the town centre which once gave its name to a farm. The name is recorded in 1281 as Knavenegreue, meaning ‘the grove (Old English grǣfe) of the knaves or young people (cnafa)’. The name is still found in a prominent road in Heaviley.

NAN HOLES BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook that rises east of Ashton-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows east/south-east to Hey Brook, which then joins Pennington Brook. The name is a forename eponym that appears on Ordnance Survey maps at the turn of the 20^th century and probably means ‘the stream flowing from or through hollows belonging to someone called Anne or Agnes’.

NARROW GATE BROW is a hamlet north-west of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is mentioned in 1804, when John Cowper of Narrow Gate Brow was transported for possessing forged bank notes, but probably dates from a much earlier time. The name suggests a narrow (Old English nearu, Middle English narwe) road (Old Norse gata) at the top of a hill (Old English bru).

NAVIGATION ROAD is a street in Altrincham in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, and also a station, originally opened in 1931, that serves both Northern Rail trains and Metrolink trams. The name refers to the nearby Bridgewater Canal, which was originally referred to as a ‘navigation’. A navigation is a river that has been straightened and dredged to make it navigable, rather than a totally artificial canal. The word in this sense dates from 1720, and the Mersey & Irwell Navigation Act of 1720 was one of the very first uses.

NEAR BARROWSHAW See BARROWSHAW

NEAR WAIN STONES See WAIN STONES

NETHER LEES See LEES

NEWALL GREEN is a district in Wythenshawe in the City of Manchester, south of the city centre. The name is taken from Newall Green Farm, which is thought to go back at least as far as the 16^th century and which still exists today, although much of the farmland has been used for residential development since 1937. The name is recorded in 1841 as New Hall Green but the current spelling is found from 1842. It comes from the Old English nīwe + halh, meaning ‘new nook of land or new piece of dry ground’, perhaps referring to a newly-drained piece of land in an area with many streams.

NEW BAILEY was originally a prison in Salford, the largest in England at the time, built in 1787-1790 to the designs of John Howard (1726-1790), after whom the Howard League for Prison Reform is named. The jail was paid for by Thomas Butterworth Bayley (1744-1802), the High Sheriff of Lancashire, and named ‘New Bailey’ to distinguish it from the Old Bailey in London. The prison was closed in 1868 when the new Strangeways prison was opened. A bridge with the same name was built over the River Irwell in 1783-1785, but this too was demolished and replaced by the Albert Bridge in 1843-1844.

NEW BARNS was located in Weaste in the City of Salford on a site now occupied by MediaCityUK. It was notable as the location of Manchester Racecourse until its closure in 1963. The name appears on a 1786 map of Lancashire and is probably quite literal, referring to new barns built for Hulme Hall or another local estate.

NEW BARRACKS is a residential estate built by Salford Corporation in 1900-1904. It takes its name from the Salford Infantry Barracks, built in 1819 and closed down in 1896. The land was then purchased by Salford Corporation and transformed into one of the first housing estates in what is now Greater Manchester. Coronation Street was one of the streets on the estate. See also BARRACK PARK

NEWBOLD is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in about 1200 as Neubolt, but the modern spelling is found by about 1300. It means ‘new building’ from Old English nīwe (‘new’) + bold (‘building; dwelling’), but it is uncertain what buildings are referred to.

NEW CROSS is a residential and commercial area in the City of Manchester north-east of the city centre. The name is found from the late 18^th century and, while there was what was probably a market cross there by 1807, it seems more likely that it comes from its position around a major crossroads. The four roads that meet here are Oldham Street (probably named after Adam Oldham, a local hat and felt-maker), Oldham Road (originally called Newton Lane because it leads to what is now Newton Heath), Great Ancoats Street, and Swan Street (originally named New Cross Street by 1781 but renamed by 1806). The name tended to fall out of use in the 1960s but has recently been revived for a regeneration area as part of the Victoria North new town project.

NEW DELPH See DELPH

NEW EARTH is a residential and commercial area of Oldham beside New Earth Street and south-east of the town centre. The name is Biblical and refers to the ending of the world: ‘we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells’ (2 Peter 3: 13). The name seems to date from the 19^th century and was probably given by the Moravian church, who were established in Oldham in 1824 and named nearby Salem.

NEWHEY is a suburban village near Milnrow in the Borough of Rochdale. It seems to have developed from the enclosure of surrounding moorland and this is reflected in the ‘new’ part of its name, which was first recorded in 1828. The second element, hey, is older, probably from the Old English hæg, meaning ‘fence or enclosure’.

NEW ISLINGTON is an inner-city area of Ancoats in the City of Manchester that has recently undergone regeneration. The name is recorded in the late 18^th century, and in the 19^th century it was applied both to a street and a cotton mill dating from 1788. The name was originally a move to gentrify the area by adopting the name of the fashionable London district of Islington, but in the 19^th century the area acquired a reputation that was far from fashionable and the name fell out of use. Nevertheless, residents of the newly-regenerated area chose to resurrect the name after the millennium. Islington in London is a mediaeval eponymic name meaning ‘hill of a man called Gīsla’.

NEW JACKSON is a regeneration area in central Manchester and Hulme described by the developers as a ‘new community’ or a ‘skyscraper district’. The ‘new’ name is recorded in 2024 but dates back to a farm in the 16th or 17^th centuries or even earlier. ‘Mr Jackson’s Farm’ appears on a map of 1831 but the urbanisation and industrialisation of the area were already under way by that date: Jackson’s grain warehouse was built in 1836 and a police station was built on Jackson Street (later renamed Great Jackson Street) in 1843. The regeneration project was initially known as the Great Jackson Street scheme, but this morphed into ‘New Jackson’ once the project had been approved and is now part of what is sometimes called Manc-hattan.

NEW MANCHESTER is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It dates from the early 19^th century, when miners moved here from Manchester to work in the Duke of Bridgewater’s collieries and transferred the names of the streets from the City of Manchester to the village.

NEW MOSTON See MOSTON

NEW SIRS See OLD SIRS

NEW SPRINGS is a suburb in Wigan, north-east of the town centre, with a housing estate built in the 1970s. While some of the buildings may be as old as the 16^th century, the name seems to date from the mid-19^th century, when a new community was established and a Primitive Methodist chapel was opened there in 1868. The name references the area of south-east Wigan known as Springs, from the large number of springs and wells in the area. The Wigan Branch Railway Act of 1830 authorised the Northern Union Railway’s Springs branchline, which connected to the collieries of the area, including Springs Colliery, when it opened in the early 1840s. See also SPRING VIEW

NEW TAME See OLD TAME

NEWTON is the most common place name in England, with at least 87 towns or villages carrying the name. All mean ‘the new settlement’ from the Old English nīwe + tūn.

NEWTON, Tameside is an area of Hyde that was formerly in Cheshire. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Neweton and with its modern spelling in 1320.

NEWTON BROOK is a tributary of the River Medlock that rises south-west of Newton Heath, from where it takes its name. It flows south-west through Miles Platting to join Shooters Brook north-east of Ancoats in the City of Manchester.

NEWTON HEATH is a residential area of the City of Manchester, 4.5 kilometres north-east of the city centre. The name Newton is recorded in 1322 but much of Newton was absorbed into Miles Platting in the 19^th century and the name fell into disuse. The remaining portion was given the name Newton Heath, meaning ‘the heath beside Newton’. The full name Newton Heath dates from 1843 and was standardised by the opening of Newton Heath station by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway on 1 December 1853.

NEW WINDSOR See WINDSOR

NEW YEAR’S BRIDGE RESERVOIR east of Denshaw was built in 1876-83 to supply drinking water for Oldham. It is fed by Dowry Water and the water that flows from the southern end of the reservoir forms the starting point of the River Tame. It is evident that the bridge pre-dates both the building of the reservoir and of New Year’s Bridge Mill (which was built in about 1786 and now lies under the waters of the reservoir) by a considerable period. The origin of the name is unclear but it has been suggested that the bridge was used as a meeting point, perhaps for the payment of tithes or taxes due on new year’s day.

NICO DITCH is a 10-kilometre defensive ditch and fortification between Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford. It is believed to have been constructed at some time between the 5^th and the 11^th centuries, and parts can still be seen today. According to legend, it was built in just one night in AD 869-870 to guard against Viking invaders. It is recorded in 1190 as Mykeldiche, meaning ‘large or great ditch’, from the Old English micel (‘big, great’) + dīc. Over time, the name became corrupted to ‘Nico’. It is said that Reddish, meaning ‘reedy ditch’, refers to Nico Ditch, which at one time formed the northern border of the settlement.

NIMBLE NOOK is a residential area south-west of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1825 but is probably much older. Middle English nok means ‘a triangular plot of land’, but the derivation and meaning of Nimble are unclear.

NOB END is a 9-hectare nature reserve near Little Lever and Kearsley in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is recorded in 1824 as the village of Knob End, from the Middle English knob or nob, meaning ‘a knoll, round-topped promontory’, and referring to the shape of a nearby small hill some 10 metres high at the confluence of the Rivers Croal and Irwell. Later in the century, between 1850 and 1870, the site was used as a toxic tip for alkali waste. The name is sometimes considered vulgar and the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal preferred Prestolee Locks to Nob End Locks.

NOMA is an 8-hectare commercial, residential and recreational redevelopment project in the City of Manchester, north of the city centre, close to Victoria Station and the River Irk, and including Angel Meadows. NOMA is a portmanteau word created in 2011 from NOrth MAnchester and was inspired by the SOMA (SOuth of MArket) development in San Francisco.

NOOK is a residential area of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. There are several places in Greater Manchester with nook as one element of their name, all derived from Middle English nōk (‘nook of land; triangular plot’). Nook in Shaw is unique in that it is a singleton – there is no preceding element to give further definition. It is recorded on a map of 1786 as a few buildings at a road junction east of Shaw.

NORBURY is a district and former mining village in Hazel Grove in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport which was formerly included in Cheshire. It appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Nordberie, from the Old English nord, meaning ‘north’ and burh, meaning ‘settlement’. The southern equivalent would be Sudbury. Sudbury in Derbyshire is about 80 kilometres south-east of Norbury and is also mentioned in the Domesday Book.

NORDEN is a village on the western edge of the town of Rochdale on the north bank of the River Roch. The name is said to be recent but its origin is uncertain. One suggestion is that it is a corruption of Naden, from Old English Old English nædre (‘adder-like, meandering’) + denu (‘valley’), as Naden Brook rises nearby. More plausibly, it describes its location and means ‘northern valley’, deriving from the Old English north + denu. On the opposite bank lies Sudden, meaning ‘southern valley’.

NORDEN ETCHELLS or NORTHERN ETCHELLS See ETCHELLS

NORLEY is a residential area west of Wigan. The name is recorded in 1293 as Nortlegh and means ‘northern clearing’, from the Old English north + lēah (‘wood, clearing’). The Norley estate was built in the late 1940s and 1950s on the site of Norley Colliery, which occupied much of what had been Norley Hall, a mediaeval country house owned by the Le Norrey family.

NORMAN HILL RESERVOIR in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is one of the chain of six reservoirs – Ogden, Kitcliffe, Piethorne, Hanging Lees, Rooden and Norman Hill – built in the Piethorne Valley in 1858-66 to supply water to Oldham. The reservoir takes its name from nearby Norman Hill, first recorded on the Ordnance Survey maps of the area in the 1850s. The name seems to be an example of the forename eponyms which are common in the area – Dick Hill, Ben Heys and Nicholas Pike are all found in this part of Rochdale.

NORRIS BANK and NORRIS Hill are residential areas to the west of Heaton Norris in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. Norris Bank takes its name from a house with that name built in about 1840, and the urban development that took place around it later in the 19^th century led to the creation of Norris Bank parish in 1899. The Norris element is taken from nearby Heaton Norris, which is named after the 12^th century Norman landowner, William le Norreys. The bank refers to the slope down to the River Mersey, which lies to the south of the Heatons.

NORTH BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame which rises on Rocher Moss in the Peak District National Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows south-west through North Clough to meet South Brook and then join Diggle Brook, which then joins the Tame near Diggle. The name is recorded in 1468 as Northclogh-hede, meaning ‘the top or head (Old English heafod) of the north (Old English nord) ravine (clōh)’.

NORTHENDEN is a southern suburb of the City of Manchester. It was formerly in Cheshire and lies on the southern banks of the River Mersey, which was the traditional border between Lancashire and Cheshire. Northenden was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Norwordine, and was recorded simply as Northern as late as 1577. The name comes from the Old English north + worthign, meaning ‘northern enclosed settlement’. The Stockport Timperley & Altrincham Junction Railway opened Northenden station in February 1866 and the railway, together with the development of housing estates following its absorption by the City of Manchester in 1931, saw the area develop from a rural into a suburban community.

NORTHERN MOOR is a residential area of the City of Manchester, approximately 8 kilometres south of the city centre. It was previously in Cheshire and seen as part of Northenden, which lies to the east. The name is not well documented but was formerly spelled ‘Northen Moor’, meaning ‘the moor of Northenden’, but over time the name was rationalised to ‘Northern’.

NORTHERN QUARTER is an entertainment and commercial area of Manchester city centre north of Piccadilly Gardens in the area formerly occupied by Smithfield Market. The name was given in the 1990s by local people to identify the vibrant cultural lifestyle and nightlife of the area.

NORTH MOOR or NORTHMOOR is a south-western suburb of Oldham. The name is not well documented before 1868, when the North Moor Wesleyan Church was opened, although it is known that the North Moor Primitive Methodist Society had meetings in a cellar for several years previously. The residents of North Moor Road are listed in the 1851 and it may be that North Moor Road led west to Westwood, which is built on a hillside known as North Moor.

NORTH REDDISH See REDDISH

NORTHUMBRIA was one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, and included all of what is now Greater Manchester. The name is recorded in the 10^th-century Anglo Saxon Chronicle, which states that ‘In this year (AD 923), in late autumn, King Edward the Elder (son of Alfred the Great) went … to occupy Manchester in Northumbria, and had it repaired and garrisoned’. The name means ‘north of the Humber’ – the River Humber was the boundary in the east but in the west the River Mersey marked the boundary between Mercia and Northumbria.

NUTHURST was a mediaeval hamlet near Moston in what is now north Manchester, north-east of the city centre. Great Nuthurst Hall is recorded in 1200 and the name means ‘hill with nut trees’, perhaps hazelnuts or sweet chestnuts, from Old English knutu (‘nut’) + hyrst (‘wooded hill’). The name survives in Nuthurst Park, which was opened in 1915.

NUTSFORD VALE today is a country park in east Manchester close to Gorton, Levenshulme and Longsight. Early in the 19^th century it was a farm spelled Knutsford Vale but later in the century various factories were built and the spelling became Nutsford Vale. By the 1980s it had become a landfill site, which was transformed into a country park by 2017. The name is clearly linked to Knutsford in Cheshire in some way, although the modern spelling somewhat obscures this. Knutsford is an eponym derived from the Viking personal name Knut + Old English ford. It is sometimes said that Knut was King Canute, but this is probably folk etymology.

NUTTALL PARK is a 10.7-hectare park on the River Irwell close to Ramsbottom town centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It takes its name from the former village of Nuttall, which is recorded in 1256 as Noteho, meaning ‘bare or nut hill’, from the Old English hnott (‘bare, bald’) or hnutu (‘nut’) + hōh (‘heel; spur of land’), referring to a hill to the west of the Irwell on which the village stood. The original Nuttall Hall was built in the 14^th century by the De Notogh family. A new hall was built in 1817 and demolished in 1908, but its grounds were opened in 1928 as Nuttall Park.

OAKENBOTTOM is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, formerly in Lancashire. The name is recorded in 1246 as Akinbothun, meaning ‘oaks in the valley bottom’, from Old English acen (‘oaken: growing with oak-trees’) + botm (‘a broad river-valley’).

OAKEN LEE BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on Oaken Hill north of Castleshaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows west and then south-west through Oaken Lee Clough into Castleshaw Upper Reservoir. Oaken Hill is recorded in 1750 and Oaken Lee Brook means ‘the stream (Old English brōc) that flows through the wood or glade (lēah) covered with oak trees (ācen)’.

OAK MEADOW PARK is a small park in the centre of Cheadle Hulme in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It stands on the site of a Victorian residence, Oak Cottage, which took its name from a large tree in the garden. Oak Cottage had been demolished by 1937 and Oak Meadow Park was laid out on the site, apparently still with the original large oak tree.

OCHRE FLASH is one of the seven subsidence lakes or ‘flashes’ of Wigan Flashes Nature Reserve. It is located south-east of Hindley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and was created by mining subsidence early in the 20^th century. The name is recorded on Ordnance Survey maps of 1954 but it is likely that the lake was known locally as Ochre or Ochery Flash before that date. The name refers to the ochre-coloured water from iron-stained water from mines and chemical works in the area.

OCHRELEY BROOK is a tributary of the River Goyt that rises in Torkington in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport and flows south through Offerton to join the Goyt near Marple Bridge. The name seems to be a corruption of Hockley, a name that is found as an area of Poynton in Cheshire and as a farm near the brook. The name is recorded in the 13^th century and means ‘the clearing on or near a hill’, from Old English hocer (‘rounded hill’) + lēah (‘clearing’).

OCTAGON THEATRE is a theatre in Bolton that opened in 1967. The auditorium is actually hexagonal, but there was already a theatre in Reading called ‘The Hexagon’ and so the new Bolton theatre was named ‘The Octagon’.

OFFERTON is a south-eastern suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport that was in Cheshire until 1974. There are several places in England named Offerton, but the first record of Offerton in Cheshire dates from 1226 as Offirtun. The name is said to be an eponym consisting of a personal name such as Offa or Oftfōr + tūn, meaning ‘farmstead or village’.

OGDEN is a hamlet in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale that is divided between Higher Ogden and Lower Ogden. It also gives its name to Ogden Reservoir – one of the chain of six reservoirs (Ogden, Kitcliffe, Piethorne, Hanging Lees, Rooden and Norman Hill) in the Piethorne Valley – which was built in 1878 to supply drinking water to Oldham. The name is first recorded in 1246 as Akeden, meaning ‘oak valley’ from the Old English āc, meaning ‘oak’ + denu, ‘valley’.

OGDEN BROOK is a tributary of the River Etherow. It rises on the moors of the Peak District National Park and flows south and south west, forming the border between Tameside and High Peak for much of its length before joining the Etherow in Broadbottom in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name appears on maps of the early 19^th century but its derivation suggests that it is probably much older – Old English English āc, meaning ‘oak’ + denu, ‘valley’.

OLD BIRTLE See BIRTLE

OLD EES BROOK or OLD EEA BROOK is a tributary of the River Mersey that rises south of Urmston in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford and flows south-west for several kilometres to join the Mersey south-east of Flixton. Ees is a local word for a water meadow derived from the Old English ēg, meaning ‘island’, often a piece of firm land in an area liable to flooding.

OLDFIELD BROW is a residential area on the western edge of Altrincham in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The original village of Oldfield is recorded in about 1293 as Aldefeld and means ‘the old open-field’, from Old English ald (‘ancient, long-used’) + feld (‘open country; land cleared of trees’). The name is later found in Oldfield Hall, which was built in 1616 and some of the land in which it stood was donated to Altrincham Council in 1917 as John Leigh Park. In the 1920s, the Oldfield Brow estate was built in the area.

OLDHAM is a town and, since 1974, one of the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester. It was formerly part of Lancashire. Its name is first recorded in about 1227 as Aldholm, meaning ‘old promontory’, from Old English ald, meaning ‘old’ + Old Norse holmr, ‘dry land, promontory’. ‘Old’ may refer to an older settlement or may mean that the site had been occupied for a long time. Suggestions that Oldham was named because of the local presence of owls are folk etymology, although owls have become the town’s symbol and feature in its coat of arms.

OLD MILL BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook that rises north of Tyldesley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows south-west to join Shakerley Brook, another tributary of Glaze Brook. The name is recorded in 1845-46 and comes from Shakerley Corn Mill, an early 17^th-century mill built for Shakerley Old Hall, which took its power from Old Mill Brook. It was converted into a carding and spinning shed in the early 19^th century

OLD SIRS and NEW SIRS are residential and recreational areas of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The names are said to derive from the family name of John and Richard de Sire, who were recorded as being resident in the area in 1332.

OLD TAME is a hamlet south-west of Denshaw to the west of the River Tame, from which it takes its name. Both Old Tame and New tame, a smaller settlement on the eastern side of the Tame valley, were originally outlying estates of Roche Abbey. The names are recorded in 1729 but probably date from much earlier.

OLD TRAFFORD is a district of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford which lends its name to Lancashire County Cricket Club’s ground (opened in 1857) and Manchester United’s football stadium, which was opened in 1910. The name Trafford is first recorded in 1786 and is a variation of the neighbouring Stretford, both meaning ‘ford over the Roman road’, from strǣt, ‘street, especially a Roman road’, + ford, ‘ford’ across the River Mersey. The ‘old’ part of the name is thought to refer to the older of the two Trafford Halls. The original or Old Hall is believed to have been built in about 1017, but was replaced by the New Hall in the last quarter of the 17th century or the first quarter of the 18^th.

OLIVER CLOUGH is a small valley in Boggart Hole Clough country park in Blackley in the City of Manchester. It is a forename eponym, said to be named after Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), whose Parliamentarian troops camped in the area during the siege of Manchester in 1643 in the Civil War.

OOZEWOOD is a residential area of Royton north of the River Irk in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The place and name are not well documented, although nearby Oozewood Clough and lower Oozewood Farm suggest a mediaeval origin. One possible origin is Old English waesse, meaning ‘riverside land liable to flood’. Alternatively, Oozewood might share its origin with Oozebooth in Blackburn, which is thought to derive from the Viking personal name, Ulf.

OPENSHAW is a suburb of the City of Manchester, about 5 kilometres east of the city centre. The name is first recorded in 1276 as Openshawe, meaning ‘open wood’, i.e. one that is not enclosed, referring to a park belonging to the Lord of Manchester, Robert Grelley. It is composed of the Old English open, meaning ‘open or unenclosed’ + sceaga, ‘wood, copse’.

OPENSHAW PARK is a public park of about 5 hectares in Pimhole, outside Bury town centre. The park was established with land and funds donated by Thomas Openshaw, a local wool manufacturer, and named after him. The park was opened in July 1888 by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), who also held the title Duke of Clarence.

ORDSALL is a suburb of the City of Salford. The name is first recorded in 1177 as Ordeshala, meaning ‘Ord’s or Ordric’s nook’. Ord is a personal name and the second element is –halh, meaning ‘a corner or nook’. This comes from the position of Ordsall within a large bend in the River Irwell.

ORLANDO BRIDGE is a road viaduct that carries Orlando Street across the railway in Bolton town centre close to the station. The bridge was originally built by the Manchester & Bolton Railway in 1838 and both street and bridge were named after Sir Orlando Bridgeman, a 17^th-century lawyer from nearby Great Lever. The bridge was rebuilt in 2016.

ORRELL is a suburb of Wigan, sometimes known as Orrell-in-Makerfield. The name is first recorded in 1202 as Horhill but Orell is found before the end of the 13^th century. Orrell means ‘ore hill’ from Old English ōra + hyll, believed to be a reference to ancient iron ore workings rather than coal mining.

ORRELL POST or ORREL POST is a residential area north of Orrell in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan around a landmark known as the Orrell Post, a stone column 3.3 metres tall outside the Stag Inn recorded in 1607. The original purpose of the post is uncertain: some people suggest it was a tethering post for Stag Inn patrons, but it is usually said to be turnpike marker stone at or near a crossroads.

OTTERSPOOL BRIDGE is a road bridge that carries the A627 across the River Goyt in Romiley in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The bridge was in use by 1606 and in 1611 the name was recorded as Awterspoole, literally meaning ‘pool where otters are found’, from the Old English oter + pōl. A weir to power a cotton mill was built in about 1825-30 but the mill was never built. In 2012 the weir became the site of a small-scale municipal hydro-electricity generator.

OULDER HILL is an area west of Greave in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in 1860 but probably dates from an earlier period. The name is descriptive and said to come from ouler (a dialect word for an alder tree) + hill (Old English hyll).

OUSEL BROOK is a tributary of the River Mersey that rises south of Stretford in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford and flows west and then north to join Old Ees Brook south of Urmston. The name comes from the Old English osle, meaning ‘a blackbird’.

OUTWOOD is district of Radcliffe in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury that also gives its name to Outwood Country Park. The name dates back to around 1200 and was known as Outwood of Pilkington. It means ‘outlying wood’ or ‘wood on the outskirts’ and refers to land on the banks of the River Irwell. The name is derived from the Old English ūt, meaning ‘outside, on the outskirts’ + wudu, ‘wood, coppice’.

OVER HULTON See HULTON

OWENS PARK was a large hall of residence complex in the Fallowfield area south of Manchester city centre. It was built by the University of Manchester in 1964-1965 but shut down in 2021 and demolished in 2024 for redevelopment. It was named after John Owens (1790-1846), who was a Manchester merchant and one of the principal donors who founded the university (initially called Owens College) in 1824.

OWLER BARROW or ALDER BARROW is a residential area west of Bury. The place and name are not well documented. The area is said to be post-mediaeval and appears as Alder Barrow on 19^th-century maps, but the spelling is altered to Owler Barrow by the late 19^th century and early 20^th century. In fact, the spelling change does not alter the meaning as owler is a dialect word for an alder-tree. The name, therefore, would mean ‘alder wood’, from Old English Old English alor (‘an alder’) + bearu (‘wood, grove’).

OXFORD PARK is a 3-hectare recreation ground in the Guide Bridge area of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name originates in the late 18^th or early 19^th century, when Oxford Street was built between the main Stockport Road and the newly-built Ashton Canal. In 1845 Thomas Mason (1782-1868) built the first of his Oxford Mills, which were later run by his son, Hugh Mason (1817-1886). In 1870, Hugh Mason presented the mills’ sports ground to the town. Hugh Mason’s statue was later erected close by in Trafalgar Square and the mills were destroyed by fire in 2019.

OXFORD ROAD is a main road through Chorlton-on-Medlock from Manchester city centre at St Peter’s Square to Whitworth Park. It was originally named in 1793-1794, when Chorlton was gentrified and adopted prestigious names such as Oxford, Cambridge and Grosvenor for its principal streets. The opening of Oxford Road station by the Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway in 1839 and Owens College (now the University of Manchester) in 1873 led to what has become known as the ‘Oxford Road Corridor’, with educational institutions, hospitals and cultural venues. It is planned to develop this area further as ‘Corridor Manchester’ by the mid-2020s.

OX RAKE BROW is hill on Saddleworth Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The meaning is probably ‘the hill (Old English bru) on or near the track (Old English hraca) over which oxen (oxa) were taken’.

PACKER SPOUT GARDENS is a small public park south-west of Rochdale town centre. The gardens were opened in 1934 and laid out round Packer Spout, a fountain in an oval-shaped pool fed by a natural spring (Middle English spoute). The spring fed a reservoir built in 1760 which was used to supply water from drinking and also to power a corn mill until it was demolished in 1934. The name is a shortening of packhorse, as horses stopped there to drink in earlier times.

PADDEN BROOK is a tributary of the River Goyt which runs through Romiley in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It then joins Chadkirk Brook before emptying into the Goyt. The name is little documented but might come from the Old English patte, meaning ‘mud, marsh’.

PADDINGTON is a residential area of Pendleton in the City of Salford. It is not well documented before 1846, when it was created as a parish. The name would seem to be an example of gentrification – when a prestigious name of a district of London is adopted in an attempt to elevate the reputation of an area. Paddington in London is recorded in about 1045 and means ‘the farm or homestead belonging to Padda’.

PAINSWICK PARK is a public park in Woodhouse Park in Wythenshawe in southern Manchester. It was originally a farm that was taken over in the late 1950s as a landfill site. In 1962, it was acquired by Manchester Corporation and opened in 1968 as a park with an artificial lake. The name is not well documented but may have been transferred from Painswick in Gloucestershire, which is an eponym derived from the personal name Pain + wiche (‘a farm, especially a dairy farm’).

PALATINE BRIDGE is a road bridge across the River Irwell between Salford and Manchester. It was built in 1864 to provide better access to Victoria Station, which had been opened in 1843. It was sited beside and so took its name from the Palatine Hotel and the Palatine Buildings, which were named after the County Palatine of Lancaster. Lancashire was made a county palatine in 1351 to indicate that it was administered by the Duke of Lancaster through powers conferred by the palace (Latin palatium), i.e. by the monarch.

PANKHURST CENTRE is a museum and women’s centre in Chorlton-on-Medlock in central Manchester commemorating the life and work of Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) and the suffragette movement. The centre is housed in a pair of villas in Nelson Street. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Sylvia, Christabel and Adela lived in No. 62 from 1898 and established the suffragette movement there in 1903. The centre was opened in 1987. A statue to Emmeline Pankhurst was unveiled in St Peter’s Square in 2018.

PARK BRIDGE is a village north of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It takes its name from the Park Bridge Ironworks, which were established in 1786 and developed as a village in the second quarter of the 19^th century as housing was provided for the workers. The name of the company came from nearby Lyme Park and a bridge over the River Medlock beside the works. The company made rivets for the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Titanic, but closed in 1963 and the site is now the Park Bridge Heritage Centre.

PARK BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell that rises east of Ramsbottom in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and flows west into the Irwell in Nuttall Park, from which it takes its name.

PARKFIELD is an area of Middleton, about 9 kilometres north-east of Manchester in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name originated with Parkfield House, which was built by a local magistrate, Thomas Ashton, and apparently named to reflect the house’s landscaped grounds. Middleton became a municipal borough in 1886 and it acquired Parkfield House as its town hall in 1925. The house was demolished in 1978.

PARR BROOK is a tributary of the River Roch. It rises in Unsworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and flows north-west to join the Roch at Blackford Bridge. The name is found on 19^th-century maps but the origin is uncertain: it could come from Old English paerr or peru, meaning ‘pear tree’ and suggesting that pears grew locally, or from Old English pearr, meaning ‘an enclosure’, indicating that it was a stream that flowed through or beside enclosed land.

PARR BROW is a small residential area east of Tyldesley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It sits on a slope (Old English bru) named for the Parr family, who were wealthy landowners and traders who are recorded as living in the area from the 17^th century – John Parr died in 1663. Parr Brow gives its name to a railway cutting built in the 1860s by the London & North Western Railway as part of the Tyldesley loopline.

PARR FOLD PARK is a 7.4-hectare public park in Walkden in the City of Salford. The name appears as Parrfold Farmhouse in the late 17^th or early 18^th century and is probably an eponym, but it is not known who the Parr was who owned the fold – the name for a small farmstead, many of which later had coal mines. In 1905 Worsley Urban District Council purchased the land on which the farmstead stood and opened it as a public park.

PARRS WOOD is a residential area of East Didsbury in south Manchester. The name is said to be recorded in 1587 and it would seem to be an eponym, but who the Parr was that owned the wood is unclear. There were several Parr families in the area but none can be traced as far back as the late 16^th century. It has even been suggested that they may have been related to Henry VIII’s sixth wife, Catherine Parr (1512-48), but there would seem to be no proof of this.

PARSONAGE GARDENS is a small garden in the centre of Manchester just off Deansgate. The site was originally known as Parsonage Croft and dates from 1635 as the site of the home of the parson of the original St Mary’s Church. A new church was built on the site in 1756 but was demolished in 1891, followed by Parsonage House in 1897. The site then became Parsonage Gardens and has remained a tranquil garden, apart from the detonation of an IRA bomb on 3 December 1992.

PARTINGTON is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford about 16 kilometres south-west of Manchester city centre on the south bank of Manchester Ship Canal. It was part of Bowdon parish in Cheshire until 1974. The name is first recorded in 1260 as Partinton and with its modern spelling in 1577. It means the ‘the farm (-tūn) of the people of followers of (-inga-) Pearta’.

PASSMONDS is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, north-west of the main town centre. The name is recorded as Passmans in 1765, Parsmans in 1851 and Passmonds in 1891, although Parsmans remained in use until well into the 20^th century. The name seems to be an eponym and members of a Passman family have been traced in the area as far back as 1637. There are several theories about the origin of the family name but as the spelling varies so much there is little agreement and no theory is particularly compelling.

PATRICROFT is a suburb of the City of Salford. Patricroft was a bridging point on the earliest section of the Bridgewater Canal when it was opened on 17 July 1761. It was also a bridging point for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830, and Patricroft station was opened on 15 September of that year, making it one of the earliest railway stations in the world. It soon developed into an industrial area because of its position by the canal and railway, and also because it had clean air it was felt to be healthier than the centre of industrial Manchester. Croft means ‘enclosure, enclosed field’, while Patri- may be from the Middle English pertre (‘pear-tree’) or, more likely, a version of the personal forename Patrick.

The PEAK DISTRICT is a hilly area mostly in Derbyshire but with parts in Cheshire, Staffordshire, South and West Yorkshire and eastern Great Manchester. The name is eponymous: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of the late 9^th century refers to the area as the Peaclond, meaning the land of the Pecsætan tribe. The tribe’s name means ‘hill dwellers’, from Old English pēac (‘peak, pointed hill’) + sǣte (‘dwellers, settlers’). Interestingly, only one of the peaks in the Peak District is actually called a ‘peak’ – Calver Peak (Old English calf (‘calf’) + ofer (‘slope, ridge’), meaning ‘a hillside where calves and cattle are kept’) in Derbyshire. Much of the Peak District is in the 1420 square-kilometre Peak District National Park, which was created in 1951 as England’s first national park.

PEAR MILL or PEAR NEW MILL is a retail location in Bredbury in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was originally built as a cotton spinning mill in 1908-1913 and was possibly the last textile mill in Stockport to go into production. It was built beside the River Goyt on the site of Pear Tree Farm, from which it takes its name. The name is celebrated by a gigantic concrete pear-shaped dome on the roof. The mill was closed in 1978 and converted into retail outlets.

PEARSON’S FLASH is a man-made lake south-west of Ince-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan that forms one of the seven subsidence ‘flashes’ of Wigan Flashes Nature Reserve. It was formed on 6 April 1889 when the Leigh branch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal broke its banks. It takes its name from the local coal-mining and industrial company of Pearson & Knowles, which was originally founded in 1840 by Thomas Pearson (1824-83), who later became mayor of Wigan.

PEEL is a residential area of Worsley in the City of Salford, which includes a park, which is not to be confused with Peel Park in Salford. The name is taken from Peel Hall, a stately home previously known as Wicheaves Hall. Wicheaves is recorded in 1323 and means ‘the edge of the elm wood’, from Old English wice (‘wych-elm’) + efes (‘an edge or border, especially of a wood’). Wicheaves Hall was renamed Peel Hall at the end of the 18^th century, referring back to a 12^th century name, Peel, from the Old English peel, ‘a palisade, a fortified enclosure’.

PEEL CAUSEWAY was the name for part of what is now Hale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It is recorded as Peel Causeway Farm in 1701, although a place named Peel was found in the area in 1462. It is probably derived from the Old English peel, ‘a palisade, a fortified enclosure’, and the causeway was part of what is now Ashley Road. The name was standardised as Peel Causeway when the Cheshire Midland Railway opened a station with this name in 1862 but the name of the village was dropped when in was incorporated into Hale in 1900 and the station name was also changed to Hale in 1902.

PEEL CENTRE is a retail area close to the centre of Stockport town centre. It was first developed in 1987 and expanded in 2010. It was built by the Peel Group, a property company founded in the 1960s by John Whittaker, who came from Bury and was so inspired by Bury-born prime minister Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) that he named the company after him. The company also now own the Manchester Ship Canal.

PEEL GREEN is a residential and recreational area west of Eccles in the City of Salford. Some sources suggest that Barton Moss railway station, which was opened in 1832, was described as being at Peel Green, but this cannot be verified. However, the name does appear on the first Ordnance Survey map of the area in 1848. It was named in honour of Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), a former prime minister who had promoted the nearby Peel Park, which was opened in 1846. The Green refers to the green open spaces along Worsley Brook, a tributary of the Mersey which flows through Peel Green.

PEEL HALL is a suburb of the City of Manchester on the eastern side of Wythenshawe, about 14.5 kilometres south of Manchester city centre. It takes its name from a mediaeval moated country house originally built in the 14^th century by Sir John de Arderne named The Peele, from the Middle English peel, meaning ‘a moated and fortified house’. The house was derelict by the 1960s and was demolished.

PEEL PARK is a large park in Salford opened in 1846 and named after Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), a former prime minister who did a lot to promote and fund public parks in Victorian England. In 1850, the Salford Museum and Art Gallery was built overlooking the park. In 1896 Salford Royal Technical Institute was opened and this now forms part of the Peel Campus of the University of Salford.

PEEL TOWER or PEEL MONUMENT is a 39-metre memorial on Holcombe Hill in Ramsbottom in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It was built in 1850-1852 to commemorate Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), a former prime minister and founder of the modern police force, who was born in Bury. There are also places in Australia, Canada and New Zealand named after Peel.

PEINE SQUARE is a public space in front of the civic centre in Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The square is named after the German town of Peine in Lower Saxony, with which Heywood has been twinned since 1967. Peine is said to be named after Berthold von Pagin, a 12^th century knight.

PEMBERTON is a suburb of Wigan on the banks of the River Douglas. The name is first recorded in 1212 as Penberton, meaning ‘barley hill settlement’ from the Celtic penn (‘hill’) or Old English penn (‘enclosure’) + Old English bere (‘barley’) + tūn (‘enclosure, village’). Pemberton is found at the foot of a 95-metre hill named Orrell, which gave its name to the nearby suburb of Orrell.

PENCIL BROOK is a tributary of the River Beal that rises in Higher Rushcroft in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows north-east to meet the Beal in Goats. The origin and date of the name are undocumented, but there have been several suggestions. There seems to be no record of pencil manufacture in the area but the stream is straight for much of its present course and it has been suggested that this could be the origin of the name. More likely is that it derives from Old English pensel or pensil, meaning ‘a small pen or enclosure’.

PENDLEBURY is a town in the City of Salford about 6 kilometres north-west of Manchester. The name is recorded as Penelbiri in 1202 but the modern spelling was not adopted until after 1567. The name means ‘fort on a hill’, with reduplication of Celtic and Old English elements meaning ‘hill’, from the Celtic pen (‘hill’) + Old English –hyll (‘hill’) + burh (‘fort’).

PENDLETON is an inner-city suburb north-west of the City of Salford. The name is first recorded in 1200 as Penelton, meaning ‘the tūn or village of or near Penhill’. Pendleton is on a 70-metre ridge and it is believed that this must at one time have been called Penhyll from Celtic pen (‘hill’) + Old English –hyll (‘hill’).

PEN LEACH BROOK or PENLEACH BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook that rises north-east of Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows south-east to join Bedford Brook, and ultimately meets the River Glaze near Warrington. The name is recorded on the Ordnance Survey maps of the late 19^th century but its origin and meaning are uncertain. A literal interpretation of its elements suggests ‘a muddy stream (Old English laecc) below a headland (Celtic penn) or beside an animal enclosure (Old English penn)’, but this meaning and derivation cannot be verified.

The PENNINES are a range of hills running along the spine of England and some of the places in north-eastern Greater Manchester can be said to be on the slopes of the Pennines. The name was not coined until about 1757, when Charles Julius Bertram fraudulently claimed to have found it in a 14^th century manuscript. The name is thought to have been influenced by or copied from the Apennines, the Italian mountain chain. The origin of this name is usually given as the Celtic penn, meaning ‘mountain top’.

PENNINGTON is a suburb of Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is first recorded in 1246 as Pinington, usually said to mean ‘a village or farmstead paying a penny rent’, from Old English pening + tūn. Alternatively, it could be an eponym meaning ‘a settlement belonging to a man named Pinna’. Pennington gives its name to Pennington Flash Country Park and Pennington Brook, a tributary of Glaze Brook.

PENNINGTON FLASH COUNTRY PARK is a 490-hectare recreational area near Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan which forms part of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh. The park, opened in 1981, is centred on Pennington Flash, a 70-hectare lake created in the early 20^th century by subsidence from Bickershaw colliery. The name comes from the nearby township of Pennington + flash, a lake formed by subsidence. Pennington Brook is a 3.5-kilometre stream that flows out of Pennington Flash before joining Glaze Brook.

PENNINGTON GREEN is a village south of Aspull in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It takes its name from Pennington Hall, which was owned by the Pennington family from the 13^th century. The hall was demolished in 1964 but much of the estate had been transformed into a public park in 1920.

‘PERSONCHESTER’ is a name that has been suggested (despite the etymology and Manchester’s record in promoting women’s rights) as a non-sexist version of Manchester. The suggestion goes back at least as far as 1977 but a 2017 campaign to change the name of Manchester United football club came to nothing. However, another campaign was later launched in 2023 to change the name of the city.

PHILIPS PARK, Bradford, is a 12.5-hectare public park of east Manchester. It was opened on 22 August 1846 as one of the first municipal parks in the world and was named after Mark Philips (1800-1873), who was one of Manchester’s first two MPs and who campaigned for public parks in the industrialised towns and cities of Victorian England.

PHILIPS PARK, Prestwich, is a 52-hectare nature reserve and forms part of Prestwich Forest Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It was originally a mediaeval deer park, established in 1291 by the Pilkington family. It was purchased in 1785 by Thomas Philips (1728-1811), a local businessman. In 1830 his nephew, Robert Philips (1760-1844), a textile-mill owner, built the family home in ‘the park’. Philips Park was purchased by Whitefield and Prestwich Councils in 1946, and opened as a public park in 1948.

PICCADILLY is a district in central Manchester. The name was first applied in 1780 to a street that had previously been known as Lever’s Row, and was then used for the surrounding district, which had been called Daub Holes (see Daubhill), by about 1812. The name came from the affluent area of Piccadilly in London and is another example of gentrification – trying to improve the image of an area by transferring a fashionable or aristocratic name from elsewhere. In time, the name was applied to the nearby Piccadilly Gardens and Piccadilly station. Piccadilly in London took its name in the mid-17^th century from the French piccadill, a kind of stiff collar that was made in the area.

PICCADILLY GARDENS are a public open space with a bus station in central Manchester. The gardens were laid out in the 1930s after the demolition of the original Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1910, and named after the nearby street of Piccadilly.

PICCADILLY STATION is Manchester’s principal railway station. It was opened on 8 May 1842 by the Manchester & Birmingham and Sheffield Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester railways as Store Street. The Manchester & Birmingham’s successor, the London & North Western Railway, renamed it London Road in 1847. In 1960, following electrification and modernisation, it was renamed Piccadilly after the nearby Piccadilly Gardens.

PICKHILL BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that is formed west of Pobgreen in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham through the confluence of Royle Brook and Capper Brook. It then flows west to meet the Tame in Uppermill. The name is not well documented before the 19^th century and derives from Middle English pightel, meaning ‘a small enclosure, croft’.

PICKLEY GREEN is a village about 3.2 kilometres north of Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is not well documented before the opening of a colliery in 1804 but the village church dates from the 12^th century. There are different suggestions for its origin. One is that it is an eponym: Anglo-Saxon personal name Pic or Picco (perhaps related to pike, the mediaeval weapon) + Old English lēah (‘woodland clearing’). Perhaps more likely is Middle English pightle, meaning ‘a small field or enclosure, a croft’.

PIETHORNE BROOK is a tributary of the River Beal that rises on the moors at Rock Stones Hill, south-east of Littleborough, and flows south-west through a series of reservoirs (Ogden, Kitcliffe, Piethorne, Hanging Lees, Norman Hill and Rooden Reservoirs) constructed in 1858-1878 to meet the Beal at Milnrow. The name is not well documented before the 19^th century but it is said come from Middle English pie (‘magpie’) + thorn (‘hawthorn-tree’), both of which are found in the area.

PIGS LEE BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell that rises east of Walmersley in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and then flows west and south-south-west 507 metres to meet the Irwell near Burrs Country Park. The name is thought to take its name from a settlement meaning ‘a clearing (lēah) where pigs are kept’.

PILKINGTON is (or was) a residential district of Prestwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury beside the River Irwell where it meets the River Croal. The name is recorded in 1202 as Pulkinton and with its modern spelling in 1246. It is an eponym, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Pilheard or Pileca + inga (‘belonging to’) + tūn (‘enclosure, farmstead, village’).

PILSWORTH is a residential area of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is recorded in 1243 as Pylesworth, an eponym meaning ‘Pil’s settlement’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Pil or Pilheard + Old English worth (‘enclosure, settlement’).

PIMHOLE is a residential area east of Bury town centre to the west of the River Roch. The name is recorded in 1650 but is not well documented. It may be derived from the Old English pimb, meaning ‘wood, tree’ + hole, meaning ‘hollow, valley’, so that the meaning could be ‘the valley (of the River Roch) where wood grows’.

PINGOT QUARRY WATERFALL is a small waterfall near Lamberhead Green in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name seems to have originated as The Pingot, a dialect word meaning ‘a small croft or enclosure of land’. It originally referred to a spring of pure water which supplied nearby Pemberton, but this was closed down in 1880. Late in the 19^th century the name was applied to a sandstone quarry on Crompton Moor that was closed down during the 1970s. Water that cascades off the moor into the quarry is known as the Pingot Quarry Waterfall, and this then forms the Old Brook, which eventually flows into the River Beal.

PITSES is a small residential area close to the River Medlock and east of Alt in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Pitses goes back to mediaeval times and it has been suggested that it may be a reduplicated plural of pits, perhaps indicating early coal workings in the area.

PLANK LANE is a residential area on the western edge of Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is not well documented before the building of Plank Lane Lock on the Leigh branch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in 1819, but the name may refer to an earlier wooden or plank bridge across marshy or flooded land from the Middle English plank or plaunke.

PLATT BRIDGE is a residential area of Wigan, about 3 kilometres south-east of the town centre. The name is found in 1212 as Platte and as Plat Bridge in 1599. The name is an example of reduplication as Middle English plat actually means ‘a footbridge’, presumably referring to a bridge over the nearby Borsdane Brook.

PLATT FIELDS PARK is a 2.4-hectare park in Rusholme, south of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded in 1150, when the ‘lands of Platt’ were given to the Knights of St John. This suggests that the name is an eponym and the Platt family are known to have owned an estate in this area from the 13^th to the 17^th centuries. The estate was purchased by the City of Manchester in 1908 and opened to the public as Platt Fields Park in 1910.

The PLAZA is a cinema and theatre off Mersey Square in Stockport. It was built in an extravagant art deco style with a rising organ and opened on 7 October 1932. It was named the Plaza – a popular name for cinemas in the north-west of England at the time, derived from the Spanish for space or market. It closed as a cinema on 31 December 1966 and was converted to a bingo hall. In March 2000 it was sold to the Stockport Plaza Trust, refurbished and re-opened as a cinema and theatre on 7 October 2000. It now has Grade II listing and is frequently used for period films and TV dramas.

PLUMPTON WOOD There are several places called Plumpton in what was Lancashire and elsewhere in England, all meaning ‘farmstead or village where plums grow’, from the Old English plume + tūn. Plumpton Wood north of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is recorded in 1826, when it was the scene of a notorious murder. It also gives its name to Plumpton Wood Brook, a short tributary of the River Roch that flows through Plumpton Wood to meet the Roch east of Hooley Bridge.

POBGREEN or POB GREEN is a hamlet east of Uppermill in the area of Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1725 but it is known that the church and adjoining settlement date back to mediaeval times. The origin of the name is obscure, but may derive from the dialect term pob, meaning ‘waste material from the manufacture of flax or other textiles’, but this cannot be confirmed. It is known that textile production, including flax, was carried out in the area from the 18^th century and perhaps earlier.

POCKET or The POCKET is a residential and industrial area in Deane on the outskirts of Bolton. It appears on a map of 1850 as a pocket of land south of the River Croal. Croal means ‘winding stream’ and Pocket seems to have to developed in one of its many meanders. The term ‘pocket’ is being perpetuated with the laying out of ‘pocket parks’ along the banks of the Croal.

POISE BROOK is a tributary of the River Goyt which rises in High Lane in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It then flows through Poise Bank Local Nature Reserve in north-west Offerton to join the Goyt in Woodbank Memorial Park in eastern Stockport. The name is first recorded in about 1350 as Puysclogh, meaning ‘pease valley or valley where peas grow’, from the French pois or Middle English pease + clōh (‘deep valley’).

POLEFIELD is a residential area of Prestwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The location seems to date from the early 16^th century, when it is said to have been called Deadwenclough (‘Dead women in a stream’). The name Polefield seems to have been adopted later in the century and was the site of Polefield House and Polefield Hall. The name was derived from Old English pol (‘a pole or beacon, especially one used for communication’) + feld. Polefield Hall was demolished in the 1930s and the land was used to build a housing estate.

POMONA ISLAND and POMONA DOCKS Pomona Island is an island on the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford that was originally named Strawberry Island. In 1845 the island was developed into a leisure centre and renamed Pomona Gardens after the Roman goddess of fruit and gardens. In 1875 a huge concert hall was built, the Royal Pomona Palace, the largest in Victorian England and capable of seating more than 30,000 people. In June 1887, an explosion at a nearby chemical factory badly damaged the Royal Pomona Palace – it was closed and sold for docks on the Manchester Ship Canal. The canal was completed in 1894 and Pomona Docks were opened in 1903. The docks were closed in 1982 and fell into decline, but there are plans for development around the Metrolink tram stop of Pomona, which was opened in December 1999.

POOLSTOCK is a residential area of Wigan about one kilometre south-west of the town centre, close to the River Douglas and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. The name is recorded in 1520 as Pulstoke and means something like ‘place near or beside a pool’, from the OId English pull (‘pool’) + stoc (‘place, outlying settlement’). It has been suggested that Poolstock was an outlying settlement used for summer grazing by the River Douglas for cattle from elsewhere. Poolstock Brook is a tributary of the River Douglas, which rises near Poolstock and flows north-west to meet to Douglas south of Wigan.

The PORTICO is an independent subscription library in Mosley Street in central Manchester that was opened in 1806. It takes its name both from its architecture, with a Greek-style portico as its main entrance, and because it was intended to be a gateway to knowledge and literature. William Gaskell, the husband of Elizabeth Gaskell, was its chairman for 30 years. Peter Mark Roget was its first secretary and began writing his Thesaurus there. The library is now housed on the first floor. The ground floor is occupied by a pub called ‘The Bank’, recalling the days when it was leased to the Bank of Athens.

PORTLAND BASIN WAREHOUSE is a canal museum near Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is located at the junction of the Ashton and Huddersfield Canals in a warehouse built in 1834 beside the wharves of Portland Basin, which was opened in the 1820s and named after the 3^rd Duke of Portland (1738-1809). Canal traffic ceased in the 1960s and much of the warehouse was destroyed by fire in 1972, but the canal and warehouse have been restored and the museum opened in 1985 and expanded in 2005.

PORTWOOD is a residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport that was in Cheshire until 1974. The name is recorded as Portwode in 1337, from Old English port + wood, meaning ‘the wood by the port’, apparently referring to a wood close to Stockport. Port here means ‘town, market’ rather than ‘harbour’. Portwood Hall, which was built in 1546 and stood on the banks of the Mersey, was noted for its orchards, gardens and deer park. In 1732, a silk mill was built at Portwood which can claim to be the first water-powered textile mill in north-west England.

POT GREEN is a small residential and conservation area south-west of Ramsbottom in the Metropolitan Bury of Bury. The settlement dates from the 17^th century but the origin of the name seems to be undocumented. However, it seems likely that the derivation is similar to that of nearby Holcombe Brook, where hol means ‘hole’ or ‘hollow’. Similarly, the pot of Pot Green could be a depression or hollow in the landscape.

POTS AND PANS is a landmark on top of Alderman’s Hill in the Peak District overlooking Uppermill and the Tame valley in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It consists of a pile of hollowed-out boulders resembling pots and pans. The name is recorded in 1843 but the rocks are said to have been thrown by two Saddleworth giants named Alder and Alphin in an ancient battle.

POUNDSWICK was a rural area of Northern Etchells which since the 1930s has largely been swallowed up by Wythenshawe in south Manchester. The name is recorded in 1280 as Pundesok, from the Old English pund (‘pound, enclosure for animals’) + āc (‘oak’).

POWNALL GREEN is an area of Bramhall in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport which was included in Cheshire until 1974. The name is first recorded in the 12^th century as Pohenhale, meaning the ‘nook of land (halh) belonging to someone called Pohha’ and in 1297 a Richard de Pounale is recorded as a farmer in the Wilmslow area of north Cheshire but the Bramhall Pownalls were descended from Humphrey Pownall, who leased land from the Davenports of Bramall Hall and who died in 1604.

PRESTOLEE is a village in Kearsley on the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, which was formerly in Lancashire. The name is first recorded in 1618 as Prestall Lee and it was often written as two words until later in the century. The name means ‘the clearing or meadow (–lēah) of the hall of the priests (prēost)’. The priests’ hall refers to the nearby oratory at Farnworth.

PRESTWICH is a town on the northern bank of the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, about 5 kilometres north of Manchester city centre. It is first recorded in 1194 as Prestwich, meaning ‘priest’s farm or village’ or even ‘parsonage or rectory’, from Old English prēost + wīc.

PRETTYWOOD is a small area west of Heywood overlooking the River Roch on the border between the metropolitan boroughs of Rochdale and Bury. It is not documented before 1850 and then developed in the second half of the 19^th century, with Prettywood road bridge over the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway built in about 1875 and the nearby Railway Inn in 1883. The name is apparently aspirational.

PRICKSHAW BROOK is a tributary of the River Spodden that rises east of Whitworth in Lancashire and flows south-east to Spring Mill Reservoir. It then flows east to meet the Spodden north-east of Catley Lane Head in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in 1292 as Prikkeschagh, meaning something like ‘the thorny (Old English prica) enclosure (Old English hæg)’ or ‘the enclosure surrounded by thorns’

PRIESTNALL is a residential and recreational area of Heaton Mersey in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded as Priestnall in 1696 and there have been various suggestions for its origin. The first element is generally assumed to be priest; the second may be Old English halh (‘nook of land’), cnoll (‘hillock’) or cnyll (‘knell’).

PRIMROSE BANK is a residential area of south-west Oldham. The name is not well documented before 1800 and it is recorded as a hamlet in 1829. The name of the primrose flower is first recorded in 1425 and was valued as a source of evening-primrose oil. In 1964 Oldham Council started a major regeneration of the Primrose Bank estate.

The PRINCE’S BRIDGE was originally a road bridge across the River Irwell between Salford and Manchester. It was built in 1859-1863 and named after Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, who had died in 1861. It was rebuilt 1905 and demolished in 2015. It was replaced by a new Prince’s Bridge, a footbridge opened in 2023.

The PRINTWORKS is an entertainment complex in central Manchester with a large cinema, bars, clubs and restaurants. It takes its name from the Hulton newspaper printworks that were housed on the site from 1873 until 1988. The site was then sold off, redeveloped and re-opened in 2000.

PRIORY GARDENS are a 6-hectare public park in Sale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford that take their name from Sale Priory, a country house built in 1711 as the home of Thomas White, a Manchester lawyer. The house later passed to his son, also Thomas White, a distinguished surgeon, and then to his son, Dr Charles White (1728-1813), the co-founder of Manchester Royal Infirmary (see Cheadle Royal). The Whites gave their name to White’s Bridge over the Bridgewater Canal. The estate was sold to Sale Council in 1923 and the priory was demolished, but the grounds were laid out as a park which is also linked to Sale Water Park.

The PUNGLE is a residential area south of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is little-documented and its origin is obscure. It is recorded as Pungle in 1841 but as Pingle Closes in 1849. One suggestion is that it is a corruption of Pound Hill, with pound meaning an enclosure for stray cattle. Another is that it is a corruption of the Middle English pingel, meaning ‘a small enclosure’.

QUARLTON is a village in the north of Bolton that was formerly in Lancashire. The name is recorded in 1246 as Querendon, meaning ‘mill hill’ or ‘hill where millstones were obtained’, from the Old English cweorn (‘mill, millstone’) + dūn (‘hill’). The type of mill referred to is unclear and it may refer to a windmill, a water mill or simply a millstone. The idea that cweorn may refer to millstones may be supported by the fact that the hard millstone grit found locally is known to have been used for millstones.

The QUEEN ALEXANDRA PICTURE HOUSE See The FESTIVAL THEATRE

QUEEN’S PARK, Bolton is an 8.9 hectare public park north-west of the town centre. It was laid out to provide work for destitute mill workers during the cotton famine and initially named Bolton Park when opened in 1866 but was renamed Queen’s Park in 1897 to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria.

QUEEN’S PARK, Harpurhey is a 37-hectare public park in the City of Manchester. The land was purchased by the city in 1845 and laid out in 1846 as one of the first public parks in England. It was named after Queen Victoria.

QUEEN’S PARK, Heywood is an 18-hectare public park in Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It was opened in 1879 and named after Queen Victoria, who had given money to the town to purchase the estate of Charles Martin Newhouse (1837-73), a local cotton manufacturer who had died without making a will.

QUICK is an old name for Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Saddleworth is now the term in general use but Quick survives in various place names in the locality – Quick, Quickmere, Quick Edge and Quickwood. The derivation is uncertain. A Victorian suggestion that Quick appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ‘Thoac’ or ‘Tohac’ has now been discounted as the Domesday entry is thought to refer to Upperthong near Holfirth. More recent suggestions for the origin of Quick are that it may represent a Norman pronunciation of the Old English wic, meaning ‘a dwelling, a building or collection of buildings, a farm’, or that it is derived from Old English cwic, meaning the wiggin tree or mountain ash. Perhaps the most-widely accepted proposal is that it is derived from Old English cwic, meaning ‘a quickset hedge’, a type of hedge created by planting quick (i.e. live) cuttings, typically hawthorn, so that they grow into a boundary hedge. Quick gives its name to Quick Edge and Quick Wood, both south-south-west of Quick in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside.

RACKHOUSE is a residential area of Wythenshawe west of Northenden in the City of Manchester. It is recorded as Rack House on a map of 1831 of Cheshire. Rackhouse Farm was part of the area purchased by the City in 1926 and in 1929 it was chosen as the site of Manchester’s first airport, but it closed in 1930 when Barton airport was opened and the area became a school. The derivation of ‘rackhouse’ is not documented, but the name is found elsewhere in England meaning ‘a house or barn where things were stored on wooden racks’. The word is not included in the Oxford English Dictionary but it is still used in the USA for structures where whiskey barrels are stored while the bourbon matures.

RADCLIFFE is a town on the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury 11 kilometres north-west of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Radeclive, meaning ‘red cliff’ and referring to the red sandstone cliff beside the Irwell (see Appendix 1). It is taken from the Old English read (‘red’) + clif (‘cliff’).

RADCLIFFE EES is a 41-hectare area of wetland on the north bank of a meander in the River Irwell east of the town of Radcliffe in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. Ees is a local word for a water meadow derived from the Old English ēg, meaning ‘island’, often a piece of firm land in an area liable to flooding.

RAG HOLE BROOK is a short stream that rises on Dick Hill in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows south through Rag Hole Clough into the north-west corner of Ogden Reservoir. The name is not recorded before the mid-20^th century and its origin is obscure. Local sources suggest it is from the dialect rag, meaning ‘hoar frost’, but it could also come from OE ragge (‘rough stone’, hence ‘ragged’).

RAIKES CLOUGH is a 14-hectare wooded area beside the River Croal south-west of Darcy Lever in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. There are several places named ‘Raikes’ in the Bolton area – Raikes Bleach Works dates back to the 18^th century. The origin is thought to be Old Norse rák or Middle English rake, meaning ‘a lane, path, track’, particularly one leading to pasture.

RAIN SHORE or RAINSHORE is a hamlet and housing estate to the west of Greenbooth Reservoir in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The settlement is not well documented but local farmhouses have 1709 and 1777 on their datestones. The origin of the name is uncertain but it probably has nothing to do with either ‘rain’ or ‘shore’: it might mean ‘steep bank (Old English scoren) beside a small stream (rynel)’. The stream could be Fordoe Brook, which powered 19^th-century wool and dye mills in Rainshore.

RAINSOUGH is an open space and residential area in Prestwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It is also the site of an Iron Age and Roman fort atop Rainsough Hill, although no remains are visible today. The name is not well documented before 1716, when a poorhouse was built nearby. The name is said to have originally been Raineshaw, suggesting that it might have been derived from Old English hræfn (‘raven’) + sceaga (‘copse’).

RAKEWOOD is village south of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It is not well documented before the building of a church by the Methodists in 1867 and Rakewood Lower Mill, which is believed to date from the 18^th century. The name means ‘wood in a narrow valley’, from the Old English hraeca (‘mouth of a narrow valley’) + wudu. The valley is probably that of Hollingworth Brook or Longden End Brook.

RAMSBOTTOM is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury on the banks of the River Irwell. The name is recorded in 1324 as Romesbothum and means ‘valley bottom where wild garlic grows’ from the Old English hramsa + bothm, suggesting that the herb may have grown along the valley. A less likely possibility is that it actually means ‘ram’s valley bottom’ from the Old English ramm (‘ram’).

RAMS BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises south of Slackcote in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows north-east into the Tame. Rams Clough is recorded in 1739 and the name may literally mean ‘the valley of the rams’ (Old English ramm) or, less likely, may be derived from Old English hræfn, so that the meaning would be ‘valley of the ravens’.

RAVEDEN BROOK and RAVEDEN CLOUGH Raveden or Ravden Brook is a tributary of the River Tonge that rises on the Pennine moors and flows through Smithills Country Park to join Dean Brook to form Astley Brook. The name is recorded in 1429 as Rapeden but its origin is unclear. It may be from the Old Norse hrapi, meaning ‘small shrubs’, or hrapa, meaning ‘rushing’. A third possibility is that it is an eponym, either from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Hraefn or the later Raphe or Ralphe. The second element is the Old English dēnu, meaning ‘valley’.

RAVENSTONE ROCKS and RAVENSTONE BROW are found on Broadstone Moss in the Peak District National Park east of Diggle in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The names are recorded on the Ordnance Survey of 1843 and presumably suggest that ravens were found in the area or, less likely, the rocks are shaped like a raven.

RAYNER PARK is a public park in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The park was opened on 15 November 1924 by Mrs Ann Alice Rayner, who gave the land to the local authority and asked that it be named after her husband, John Edward Rayner (1851-1918), who owned several collieries in the area.

READYCON DEAN BROOK and READYCON DEAN RESERVOIR The reservoir was completed in 1883 as the highest of a series in the Denshaw area built to supply the growing population and industries of Oldham. The reservoir is fed by streams from Readycom Hill and Readycon Dean Brook flows out of the western end of the reservoir and eventually feeds Crook Gate, Dowry and New Year’s Bridge reservoirs. The water flowing out of these reservoirs then form the River Tame. The name is recorded in 1468 as Redokindenhede, meaning ‘red oak valley’, from the Old English rēad (‘red’) + ācen (‘oak’) + denu (‘valley’).

RED BANK is a residential area north of the River Irk north of Manchester city centre and Victoria station. The name is recorded in 1557 as a street running north-east from the north bank of the Irk and takes its name from the red sandstone on which it is built and which was used in the construction of Manchester Cathedral, Chetham’s Library and other buildings. It developed as a middle-class residential area in the late 18^th and early 19^th century but had degenerated into an industrial slum area by the middle of the 19^th century, described (but not actually named) by Engels as ‘utterly uninhabitable’ in 1845, asking, ‘How can people wash when they have only the dirty Irk water at hand?’, but overlooking the fact that the Dolphin Baths (the first in Manchester) had been opened in Horrocks in Red Bank in 1836. The slums were demolished in the 1930s and the area is currently undergoing regeneration as part of the Victoria North new town project.

RED BROOK is a stream that is formed by the confluence of Sinderland Brook and Caldwell Brook just below Covershaw Bridge in Carrington in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It then flows westward and empties into the Manchester Ship Canal opposite Glaze Brook. Although the stream is mentioned as far back as the 13^th century, the current name is thought to be much more recent. There are a good many Red Brooks across England and they often take their name from their iron oxide content, giving them a distinct colouration, but this cannot be confirmed in this case.

REDDISH is a suburb of Stockport, about 7.5 kilometres south-east of Manchester. The name is recorded in 1212 as Rediche but the modern spelling is found from 1577. It is usually said to mean ‘ditch where reeds grow’, from Old English hrēod (‘reed’) + dīc (‘ditch’). Another possibility is that it means ‘red ditch’ from read + dīc. In both cases, the dīc probably refers to Nico Ditch. Suggestions that the ‘red ditch’ was the site of an ancient and bloody battle are probably folk etymology.

REDISHER WOOD is a 14-hectare local nature reserve on Holcombe Moor, west of the village of Holcombe in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is recorded in 1797 as Reddisher Wood and in 1848 as Radisher Wood. There are two theories as to the origin of the name. One is that it means ‘reed ditch’, from Old English hrēod + dīc, referring to Holcombe Brook, which flows through the wood. The other is that it means ‘red ditch’, from Old English read + dīc, referring to the red or ochre deposits of iron bedrock which discolour the soil and groundwater.

RED LUMB is a village on the moors north-west of Rochdale. The name is not well documented but Lumb is a common place name dating back to mediaeval times across Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Cheshire. It is derived from the Old English rēad, referring to the local red clay + lumm, meaning ‘a pool’.

RED MOSS is a 47-hectare nature reserve south of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It was set aside as a nature reserve in 1999 to preserve the wildlife of the ancient moss wetland. Mos is the Old English for swamp or marsh, and ‘red’ presumably refers to the colour of the vegetation.

REDVALES is a suburb of Bury close to the River Irwell. The name is an eponym which is first recorded in 1185 as Rediveshale, meaning ‘the nook of land belonging to the lady Rēdgifu’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + halh (‘nook or corner of land’), referring to the large bend in the Irwell to the south-west of the current district of Redvales. The modern spelling suggests a rationalisation of the name in the belief that it comes from red + vale.

REEBOK STADIUM See TOUGHSHEET COMMUNITY STADIUM

REGENT BRIDGE is a road bridge across the River Irwell connecting Hulme in the City of Manchester and Salford. It was opened in 1808 but the chronology of the name is difficult to determine as the building pre-dates the Regency period (1811-20, when the Prince of Wales, the future George IV, acted as regent as his father, George III, was incapacitated) and it seems that the bridge was originally known as Quaker Hall’s bridge as it was built by a local Quaker named Hall who charged a ha’penny toll.

RHODES and nearby RHODES GREEN and RHODES RAVINE are areas east of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in 1332 as Rodes, from Old English rod meaning ‘a clearing’.

RHODES BANK is a residential area of Oldham, west of the town centre. The name is recorded in parish records of 1828 as Rhodesbank but the name is probably much older, meaning ‘the hillside of the Rhodes family’.

RICHMOND HILL is, or was, a street and residential area on a low rise in the City of Salford. The name is not well documented before the construction of the Richmond Independent Chapel in Richmond Hill in 1845. The name would seem to have been transferred from Richmond Hill in Richmond-on-Thames in what was then Surrey. Richmond-on-Thames was formerly called Sheen but was renamed by order of Henry VII after Richmond in North Yorkshire. The name means ‘strong hill’ from the Old French riche + mont.

RIDGE HILL or RIDGEHILL is a residential and recreational area of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is not well documented before 1848. It comes from the 362-metre Pennine hill overlooking Stalybridge and describes the shape of the hill.

RIDING GATE is a location in Bolton, about 6.5 kilometres from the town centre. The name is not well documented but is thought to mean ‘the cleared road’, from Middle English ridden (‘to clear a way’) + Old Norse gata (‘a road, an entrance to a field’). Over time, the original meaning seems to have been forgotten and the name was rationalised to Riding Gate.

The RIGHTON GALLERY is an art gallery in central Manchester belonging to Manchester Metropolitan University. It occupies the Righton Building, originally opened in 1905 as a draper’s shop built for William Righton (1855/56-1923). It late became a builders’ merchants’ showroom but was purchased by Manchester Corporation in 1969.

RIMMON PIT BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame which rises in the Peak District National Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows through Rimmon Pit Clough (from Old English clōh, meaning ‘ravine, deep valley’) to meet Holme Brook, which then meets Greenfield Brook and goes on to join the Tame. In local folklore, Rimmon was a river nymph loved by two giants, Alder and Alphin. The two giants fought for her love by hurling boulders at each other and Alphin was killed. Rimmon, who loved Alphin, killed herself. Pit comes from Old English pytt, meaning ‘a pit or hollow’. See also ALDERMAN’S HILL

RINGLEY is a residential area on the east bank of the River Irwell near Kearsley in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The early history of the name is not well documented but in 1420 it appears as Ryngleys, meaning ‘round clearing’, from the Old English hring (‘ring, a circle; something circular’) + lēah (‘clearing, glade’).

RINGWAY is a village, formerly in Cheshire, which was transferred to the City of Manchester in 1974. The name is recorded in 1260 as Ringheye and means ‘circular hedged enclosure’ and comes from the Old English hring (‘ring, circle’) + haeg (‘enclosure’). Manchester Airport is located in Ringway. It was opened in 1938 as Manchester Ringway Airport but the name was changed to Manchester International Airport in 1975.

RIVERSVALE ARBORETUM is an arboretum (a wooded area devoted to the study and display of plants and trees) on the south bank of the River Medlock in Limehurst in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name originates from Riversvale Hall, a country house built in 1843-47 but destroyed by fire in 1947. The name seems to be a modern coinage – river + vale (‘valley’) – rather than that of a previous settlement or site. The grounds and the arboretum became part of Daisy Nook Country Park in 1976.

ROACHES is an area to the north of Mossley in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. There are several places named Roach or Roaches in England, notably The Roaches, an escarpment in Staffordshire. Most are recorded in the Middle Ages and derive from the French Roche, meaning ‘rock’. This may be the origin of Roaches in Mossley, and quarrying in the area may support this possibility. However, the name is recorded only with the opening of Roaches Lock and Roaches Bridge with the opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal in 1811, suggesting that the name could be an eponym. Church records show that there was a Roach family in Mossley at the start of the 19th century but this cannot be confirmed as the origin of the place name.

ROAD END is a residential area between Greenfield and Boarshurst in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is thought to date from the early 19^th century when the Chew Valley turnpike road came to an end at this point before being extended north-west later in the century after tolls were ended in 1885. The toll house in Road End dates from around 1827.

River ROCH is a tributary of the River Irwell that rises in the Pennines south of Todmorden and joins the Irwell east of Radcliffe. The name is evidently linked to that of the town of Rochdale, but the link is unclear. It is recorded as Rach in the 12^th century and it is usually said to be derived from the name of the town, which is spelled Rachedal in 1190. See also CALDERBOOK

ROCHDALE is a town 16 kilometres north of Manchester city centre that became a metropolitan borough in 1974. The origin of the name is complex. It appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Recedham (see Appendix 1) but Rochedale is found from 1276. Although Rochdale lies on the River Roch, it is believed that the town gave its name to the river rather than vice versa. The original name was derived from Old English ræced (‘building, hall’) + hām (‘homestead’), meaning ‘homestead with a hall’, but hām was soon replaced by dæl (‘valley’), referring to the valley of the River Roch, which had acquired its name by the 13th century. When Daniel Defoe visited the town in about 1725, he described it as a ‘very considerable’ manufacturing town but ‘so remote, so out of the way, and so at the very foot of the mountains, that we may suppose it would be but little frequented’.

ROCHDALE PIONEERS MUSEUM and PIONEERS MARKET In December 1844 the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society was established in a building in Toad Lane in Rochdale and, although not the first such society in Victorian England, it became the model for the co-operative movement around the world. The original building was purchased by the Co-operative Union in 1925 and opened as a museum in 1931. The Rochdale Pioneers are also commemorated in the new market which opened in January 2025.

ROCHER VALE is a nature reserve in the valley of the River Medlock close to Bardsley in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. In the past it was the site of the Rocher Vale colliery but it now forms part of the Park Bridge Heritage Centre. The name is not well documented but rocher, from the Old French for ‘rock’, is found in a number of place names in what was the West Riding of Yorkshire.

ROEACRE BROOK is a tributary of the River Roch which rises west of Castleton, flows north west to meet Millers Brook and then flows into the Roch south of Crimble in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The brook would seem to take its name from the hamlet of Roeacre, which is little documented before the construction of Roeacre Mill in 1886. The name would seem to mean ‘land where deer are found’, from the Old English rā (‘roebuck deer’) + æcer (‘arable or cultivated land’), and there are many places in Greater Manchester that are named after deer (Darley Park, Hartshead, Hattersley, Hindley, Hindsford, Roe Cross, Roe Green), but roe as a place-name element is often a corruption with another meaning and so further research is required to confirm the origin of the name.

ROEBUCK LOW BROOK is a tributary of the River Medlock which rises on the moors north of Austerlands in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, flows south-west and then south into Strinesdale reservoir and on into the Medlock. There is a village in Rossendale in Lancashire called Roebuck Low, but with no apparent connection to Roebuck Low Brook in Oldham, although both would seem to mean ‘the hill (Old English hlāw) where roe (Old English rā) buck (bucc) are found’.

ROE CROSS is a village north of Mottram in Longdendale in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in 1842 but it is probably older. It means ‘roebuck cross’, from Old English rā (‘roebuck deer’) + cros (‘cross’), perhaps in reference to its position on a crossroads.

ROE GREEN is a residential area of Worsley in the City of Salford. The name is not well documented but is recorded in 1585 as Rowe Green, derived from Old English rā (‘roebuck deer’) + grene (‘village green, grazing area’). Roebuck are the most common species of deer in England and are found across the north-west.

ROMAN LAKES LEISURE PARK is a private tourist attraction outside Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The ‘lakes’ originated as a series of millponds formed when the River Goyt was diverted to provide power for Mellor Mill, built in 1792. The mill was burnt down in 1892 and the area was converted into a pleasure park by the mill manager, Edwin Furness, who invented the spurious name to give the idea that the ‘lakes’ had been built by the Romans.

ROMILEY is a suburban village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Rumelie, meaning ‘the roomy clearing’, from the Old English rūm or rūmig (‘roomy, broad, spacious’) + lēah (‘clearing, glade’). Despite its name, it was recorded as having a population of zero.

ROODEN RESERVOIR was built in 1894-1901 as one of six reservoirs fed by Piethorne Brook (Ogden, Kitcliffe, Piethorne, Hanging Lees, Rooden and Norman Hill) and the tributaries of Rooden Catchwater to supply water for Oldham. All six took their names from farms that were abandoned or submerged, and Rooden Farm was named after a local hill. The name is recorded in 1340 as Roden, meaning ‘hill with a cross’, from Old English rōd (‘rood, cross’) + dūn (‘hill’).

ROOLEY MOOR is a moorland area north of Rochdale that was formerly known as Shore Moor in Lancashire. The name is said to have been changed in the 18^th century when a Mr Rowley (later corrupted to Rooley) took up residence in a local inn. An alternative suggestion is that it is a corruption of Roelow, meaning ‘the hill (Old English hlāw) of the roebuck deer (Old English rā).

ROSCOW FOLD is a hamlet west of Breightmet in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It originated as a square of eleven cottages built in about 1800 and named after an Alice Roscoe. Roscoe is a common name in the Bolton area and there are records of Alice Roscoes as far back as about 1578. A fold is a small farmstead, often named after the owner.

ROSE BRIDGE is a suburb of Wigan east of the main town centre. It takes its name from Rose Bridge, which carries the main road between Manchester and Wigan over the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, which was completed in 1816. The bridge itself was built in 1817-19 but the origin of its name seems to be unknown.

ROSE HILL is a district west of Marple in the Borough of Stockport, formerly in Cheshire. The name originally applied just to a house, Rose Hill House, but the opening of a station by the Marple Bollington & Macclesfield Railway in 1869 under the name Marple (Rose Hill) led to the development of a community named Rose Hill. The original Rose Hill House was demolished in 1945.

ROUGH BANK is a rural area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale north-east of Newhey. The name is recorded with its modern spelling in 1598 and as a local farmhouse dated 1607. It means ‘rough hill’, from the Old English ruh + bank.

ROUGHTOWN is a residential area in the north of Mossley in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside overlooking the River Tame and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. The name seems initially to have been unofficial, found in Old Roughtown Mill of 1820 which was powered by the local stream, Roughtown Spout, and in the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway’s Roughtown overbridge of 1845-49. It was standardised in 1865 with the opening of Roughtown School and was then used in official records. There are two theories about the origin of the name. The more common is that it came from the rough behaviour of the workers at the nearby Glossop quarries. The other is that the area was difficult to build because of the rough and stony ground.

ROUNDTHORN is an industrial estate and residential area developed in the mid-1950s in Wythenshawe in south-west Manchester. Roundthorn Farm is shown on a map of 1831 and the name was later applied to the estate that was built over it. Roundthorn is a place name found across northern England, derived from Anglo-French rounde + Old English thorn. There is no species of hawthorn called ‘roundthorn’ and the name refers to a circular enclosure or animal pasture surrounded by hawthorns as a sort of fence.

ROWLANDS is a village east of Summerseat and within a meander of the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It is not well documented before the building of a Wesleyan chapel in 1830. It is said to be an eponym and that the area was once owned by a man named Rowland.

ROWTON BROOK and ROWTON CLOUGH Rowton Brook is a tributary of the River Medlock which seems to rise south of Holts in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flow south-west through Rowton Clough to join the Medlock. The name is not well documented but there are other places named Rowton elsewhere in England and these suggest that Rowton was once a settlement that gave its name to the brook. Different derivations have been suggested for different places named Rowton – either Middle English routen, ‘to roar’, or Old English rūh, ‘rough’, + tūn, meaning ‘enclosure, village’.

ROXBURY is a residential area in south-east Oldham. The name is recorded in 1841 as the site of the New Earth Colliery. Its origin is uncertain but may parallel that of Roxbury in Massachussetts, which was founded in 1630 as Rocksbury – ‘the burh of rocks’, referring to the local sedimentary rocks.

ROYAL ALBERT EDWARD INFIRMARY is an NHS hospital in north Wigan. It takes its name from the Prince of Wales, Prince Albert Edward (1841-1910, later King Edward VII), who, with his wife, the Princess of Wales (1844-1920, later Queen Alexandra) opened the hospital in 1873.

ROYAL EXCHANGE See EXCHANGE

ROYAL GEORGE AQUEDUCT or DIVISION BRIDGE is a stone aqueduct near Mossley in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside and Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It was built in 1794-97 to carry the Huddersfield Narrow Canal over the River Tame. It was named after the nearby Royal George Mills that were built in 1786 and named in honour of King George III (reigned 1760-1820). The alternative name of Division Bridge indicates its position on the boundary between Saddleworth and Mossley.

ROYAL OAK is a residential area of Baguley in the City of Manchester. It takes its name from the Royal Oak pub, which was built in 1936 but there is said to have been a pub on the site since the 16^th century. Its original name was recorded as ‘The Oak in Baguley’ in 1580 but it was changed to the Royal Oak after the restoration of King Charles II to the throne in 1660. Many pubs were given this name at that time to celebrate the restoration by recalling the time when Charles, then Prince Charles, escaped capture by the parliamentary army after the Battle of Worcester by hiding up an oak tree.

ROYALTHORN was a rural area of northern Cheshire in Northen Etchells, now in the City of Manchester. The first element was recorded in the mid-13^th century as Ryale, meaning ‘rye hill’, from Old English ryge + hyll. The second element, from Old English thorn (‘thorn tree’), is recorded in 1536 but the name was rationalised to Royalthorn by 1831. An inn named the Ryle Thorn gave its name to the Royal Thorn pub in Wythenshawe the 1930s, but this was demolished in 2001. The name is retained today by several roads in Sharston.

ROYDS BROOK is s stream that rises north of Red Lumb in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows south-east into Greenbooth Reservoir. The name is not well documented but is said to derive from the Old English rod, meaning ‘woodland clearing’.

ROYLE BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises north of Pobgreen in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows west through Royle Clough to meet Wickens Brook and Pickhill Brook, which then joins the Tame in Uppermill. Royle Clough is recorded in 1747 as Rie-holes, probably meaning ‘hollow where rye is grown’, from Old English rӯge + hol. Royle Brook flows south of a farm name Ryefields, which is reached from Ryefields Drive, confirming the growing of rye and the name of the brook.

ROYLEY is a residential area of Royton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1325 as Rylegh, meaning ‘clearing where rye is grown’, from the Old English rӯge (‘rye’) + lēah (‘woodland clearing’).

ROYTON is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, close to the River Irk and 13 kilometres north-east of Manchester city centre. It is recorded in 1226 as Ritton and with its modern spelling from 1577. The name means ‘farm or village where rye is grown’ from the Old English rӯge (‘rye’) + tūn (‘farm, village’). This is one of the few place names in Greater Manchester that refers to an agricultural crop. It could be said that Greater Manchester’s cotton industry began and ended in Royton – the first water-powered cotton mill in what was then Lancashire was Thorp Mill, built in 1764, and the last was Elk Mill, completed in 1926.

RUINS is a residential area of Harwood in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton centred on a street called ‘Ruins Lane’, which was the site of a wood and grain mill built in the last quarter of the 18^th century. The mill collapsed in the 1940s, although the lane seems to have been named much earlier, perhaps in the 19^th century.

RUMWORTH is a neighbourhood in the Borough of Bolton that was in Lancashire until 1974. It is recorded in 1205 as Rumwrth and as Rumworth in 1278. The name probably means ‘the broad farm’ from Old English rūm (‘broad, spacious’) + worth (‘an enclosure’). Rumworth lends its name to Rumworth Lodge Reservoir, which was built in 1849.

RUNNING HILL HEAD is a hamlet on the western edge of Saddleworth Moor and east of Diggle and Uppermill in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1722 and probably refers to the many streams, such as Broadstone Brook and Royle Brook, which run off the hill. This use of run is much earlier than its application to human movement.

RUSH BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell that rises in Belle Vue in the City of Manchester and then flows west through Kirkmanshulme and Rusholme to meet Corn Brook in Moss Side. It has been suggested that Rush Brook lent its name to Rusholme. The name seems to date from mediaeval times and is quite literal: ‘the brook (Old English brōc) with rushes (rysc)’.

RUSHCROFT Higher and Lower Rushcroft are residential areas north-west of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented before the mid-19^th-century, when maps of the area show Rushcroft Farm, and by the end of the century Higher and Lower Rushcroft appear as hamlets. In the 1950s, estates were built to relieve Oldham’s housing shortage. The name means ‘an enclosure (Old English croft) with rushes (rysc)’, perhaps in reference to rushes in nearby Pencil Brook.

RUSHFORD PARK is a residential conservation and recreational area in Levenshulme, about 5 kilometres south-east of Manchester city centre. The name is first mentioned as Rushford Bridge, which was probably built in 1751. The name means ‘the ford with rushes’, from the Old English rysc + ford, perhaps referring to an earlier ford across what is now the Levenshulme Road Brook. The building of the Manchester & Birmingham Railway line to Crewe and the opening of a station at Rushford in 1840 led to residential and commercial development, but the closure of the station in 1843 limited further development until the end of the century.

RUSHOLME is a suburb of the City of Manchester about 3.5 kilometres south of the city centre that was formerly in Lancashire. The name is first recorded as Russum in 1235 and means ‘(the place at) the rushes’, from the Old English ryscum. The spelling with -holme is from the 16^th century and seems to be an assimilation to the ‘-holme/-hulme’ suffix found elsewhere in Greater Manchester.

RYDER BROW or RIDER BROW See WINNING HILL

RYECROFT is a locality in the west of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Borough of Tameside that was formerly in Lancashire. The name first appears as Rycroft in 1283 and means ‘rye field’ from Old English ryge (‘rye’) + croft (‘small enclosed field’).

SACKVILLE GARDENS is a small park in central Manchester that takes its name from nearby Sackville Street. The street appears on a map of 1807 and is named after Lionel Cranfield Sackville (1688-1765), the Duke of Dorset, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The land was purchased by Manchester City Corporation in 1900 and opened as a public park, originally named Whitworth Gardens.

SADDLEWORTH is a moorland area of the western Pennines that was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974 but is now administered as part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in the late 12^th century as Sadelwrth and with its modern spelling from 1572. It is usually said to mean ‘enclosure on a saddle-shaped ridge’ from Old English sadol (‘saddle; saddle-shaped’) + worth (‘enclosure; enclosed settlement’), but no such saddle-shaped hill has been identified. An alternative suggestion, given Saddleworth’s terrain and position on the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire, is that it could mean ‘boundary-hill settlement’, from Old English scead (‘boundary’) + hyll + worth.

SADLER’S YARD is a 300-square-metre pedestrian square in central Manchester which was opened in 2015. It is named after James Sadler (1753-1828), who was the first Englishman to make a balloon flight. Following his first ascent in Oxford on 4 October 1784, he made a further flight on 12 May 1785 from what is now Balloon Street in central Manchester to Radcliffe.

SAIL BARK MOSS and SAIL BARK ROCKS are found on Saddleworth Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The names are recorded on the 1843 Ordnance Survey map and probably mean ‘willow bark’, from the Old English salh, which means ‘sallow or willow tree’, + Old Norse börkr, meaning ‘bark’.

ST ANN’S SQUARE is a pedestrianised space in the centre of Manchester. It is named after the nearby Anglican St Ann’s Church, which was completed in July 1712, but it also acknowledges the current monarch, Queen Ann (1665-1714) and its patron, Lady Ann Bland (1662-1734). The Act of Parliament that authorised the construction of the church stipulated that an adjacent area 30 yards wide should be set aside for a regular farmers’ market for the buying and selling of animals in what was previously known as Acresfield. This name is thought to have been derived either from a 13^th-century priest called Aca or from the acreage of the field. The fair continued on the site until 1820.

ST GEORGE’S is a residential and recreational area of Hulme in the City of Manchester. It takes its name from St George’s Church, built in 1826-1828 as one of 612 Anglican churches built across Britain to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo of 1815 and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The church was closed in 1984 and converted into flats in 2000-2002, but the name lives on as the name of the district. The name was also celebrated in St George’s Park in Hulme, but this was renamed Barrack Park in 1994.

ST GEORGE’S PARK See BARRACK PARK

ST JOHN’S GARDENS is a park in central Manchester. It lies on the site of the Anglican St John’s church and cemetery. The church was completed in 1769 but demolished in 1931. St John’s Gardens were opened in 1932.

ST MARY’S PARK, Prestwich, is a 6.8-hectare public amenity in the centre of Prestwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It is laid out on land that formerly belonged to St Mary’s Church which was purchased by the local council in 1927 and formally opened to the public in 1931.

ST MARY’S PARK, Walkden, is a 6.5-hectare playing ground in Walkden in the City of Salford. It was originally established by a local colliery as an employees’ recreation ground in 1842 and was opened to the public in 1894. There was no church in the vicinity in the 19^th century but there are references to a chapel in Worsley going back to the 13^th century and these may refer to the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Ellenbrook.

ST MICHAEL’S FLAGS and ANGEL MEADOW PARK is a 3-hectare public park close to the centre of Manchester. The name originates with St Michael and All Angels’ Church, which was built in 1788-1789. By the mid-19^th century the area was known for its poverty and disease, and the Manchester Guardian wondered ‘Why one of the ugliest churches in Manchester, situated in one of the most crowded and notorious parts of the city, should have so long enjoyed the pleasant sounding name St Michael’s Angel Meadow is beyond understanding’. In 1855 a law was passed to cover the graves with flagstones to prevent people from digging up the soil to sell as fertilizer. The area was walled off in 1888 and Angel Meadow became a popular park and football pitch. The church was demolished in 1935 and since 2001 the area has undergone regeneration. See also ANGEL MEADOW

ST PETER’S SQUARE is a public square in central Manchester named after St Peter’s Anglican church, which was built in 1788-1794. The area was originally known as St Peter’s Field and was the site of the massacre on 16 August 1819 when yeomanry attacked a crowd of 60,000 protesters demanding the reform of the House of Commons. It is usually said that 18 people were killed and 700 injured. Five days later James Wroe, the editor of the Manchester Observer, coined the term ‘Peterloo’ to compare the massacre with the Battle of Waterloo. In 1907 St Peter’s church was demolished and St Peter’s Square was laid out and was soon surrounded by large buildings – the Midland Hotel in 1898-1903, the YMCA in 1909, the Central Library in 1934 (painted by Lowry – see Appendix 2) and the Town Hall Extension in 1938.

ST WERBURGH’S ROAD is in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the south of the City of Manchester. The road and the Metrolink tram stop take their name from the nearby St Werburgh’s church. The originally church dated back to the 7^th century and was named after a Saxon abbess (AD 650-700) who became the patron saint of Chester.

SALE is a town in the Borough of Trafford on the south bank of the River Mersey. It was originally in Cheshire until 1974. The town is said to date from the 7^th or 8^th century but it is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 and it is not recorded until about 1200. Its name comes from the Old English salh, which means ‘sallow or willow tree’. Nearby is Sale Ees, derived from the Old English ēg, meaning ‘island’, often a piece of firm land in an area liable to flooding by the Mersey.

SALEM is a residential area south-east of Oldham. The area takes its name from a church founded in 1824 by members of the Moravian church at Fairfield in Tameside. Salem is mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 14: 18) as form of Jerusalem and means ‘peace’ in both Hebrew and Arabic.

SALE WATER PARK is an area of parkland with an artificial lake and water sports centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It was formed from a 35-metre-deep gravel pit excavated during the construction of the M60 motorway and opened in 1980.

SALFORD is a city and a metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester. It was formerly in Lancashire and was created as a city in 1926. The name appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Salford, meaning ‘ford across the River Irwell where sallow or willow trees grow’. The original ford was replaced by a bridge in the 14^th century.

SALFORD QUAYS is a regeneration area of the former Manchester Docks in the City of Salford. In 1984 Salford City Council purchased the docks from the Manchester Ship Canal Company and renamed it Salford Quays, planning its redevelopment as a commercial, retail, media and residential area in the 1990s. The former wharves of the docks were given names that reflected the former trade links with North America – Huron Basin, Erie Basin, Ontario Basin, St Peter Basin, St Louis Basin, St Francis Basin, Winnipeg Quay, Vancouver Quay and Detroit Bridge.

SALTEYE BROOK is a short stream in Eccles and Barton in the City of Salford. It was originally a tributary of the River Irwell but now flows from the north into the Manchester Ship Canal. The name is recorded in 1235 as Salteye but its origin does not seem to have been documented. It may be that it means ‘salt island’ from Old English salt + ēg or īeg (‘island, dry land in a marshy area’).

The SALUTATION INN is a pub in Hulme dating back at least as far as 1844 in an area described by Mrs Gaskell as ‘one of numerous similar streets of small monotonous-looking houses, in a suburb of the town.’ The word ‘salutation’ was originally a religious greeting but was used more generally for any kind of greeting by the time of Shakespeare in the 16^th century. Its claim to fame is that Charlotte Brontë stayed there in 1846 when she accompanied her father to Manchester for a cataract operation, describing it as ‘a not-pleasant-at-all small brick house facing a timber yard.’ While staying there she started to write Jane Eyre. Today it is owned by Manchester Metropolitan University.

SAM BAMFORD MEMORIAL is an obelisk monument in Middleton cemetery in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale that was erected in 1877 to commemorate Samuel Bamford (1788-1872), a radical writer born in Middleton who was imprisoned for treason for his part in leading the Peterloo protests. The inscription on the obelisk reads, ‘Bamford was a reformer when to be so was unsafe, and he suffered for his faith’.

SANDBED is a residential area in Mossley in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It was formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire and was recorded as Sandybed-Yate in 1726, but with its modern spelling in 1817. The name would seem to refer to the sandy soil in the bed of the nearby brook (see Brook Bottom), which flows into the River Tame.

SANDHILLS PARK is a 5.6-hectare public recreational area in Collyhurst in the City of Manchester. It takes its name from the red sandstone hill or outcrop east of the River Irk. The area was used as a quarry and it is believed that the sandstone for Castlefield’s Roman fort and Manchester Cathedral came from here. It was set aside as uncultivated green space in the 1970s and now forms part of the Victoria North regeneration. The name is relatively recent as it does not appear on 19^th-century maps.

SANDYWARPS is part of a recently-built residential area in Irlam in the City of Salford. The development has several streets commemorating the Mersey & Irwell Navigation – Calamanco Way, Ferrymasters Way, Sandywarps, Strickens Lock Lane (named after Stickens or Stickings lock), and Powder Mill Close (from Powder Mill lock, which took its name from the nearby Thelwall Gunpowder Mill). Sandywarps lock was built in about 1760 to bypass a meander in the River Mersey below the confluence with the Irwell in the hamlet of Sandywarps. The name is not well documented. The first element is from the Old English sandig, referring to the sandy soil which is so common – sand/sandy is the most common first element in the street names of Greater Manchester. Old English wearp has several meanings but probably refers to the hairpin bend or ‘warp’ in the Mersey at this point.

SAXFIELD was a settlement in northern Cheshire that was absorbed into Wythenshawe in the City of Manchester in the 1930s and is now retained only as a street name. The name is recorded in about 1290 as Saxefeld, meaning ‘Saxons’ open land’, an area thought to have been occupied by Saxons rather than Angles.

SCHOLES is an area of Wigan, formerly in Lancashire. The name is first recorded as Scoles in 1332 and comes from the Old Norse skáli or Old English scale, meaning ‘hut or temporary shelter’, and is one of the few Norse names in Greater Manchester.

SCHOOL HILL is an area of Bolton that takes its name from the nearby St George’s Church in Little Bolton. The church was consecrated on 19 August 1796 and an associated Church of England primary school was built at a later date. The church was closed in 1975 but the bells were removed and transported to Wangaratta in Australia.

SCOTLAND and SCOTLAND BRIDGE Scotland was originally an area on the north bank of the River Irk in central Manchester close to Victoria Station, but today all that remains is a street called Scotland and a bridge over the Irk. Various suggestions have been made as to the origin of the name: that Bonnie Prince Charlie camped his Scottish troops here during the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 or that it was used by 19^th-century farmers who had brought their cattle from Scotland and grazed them here before selling them for slaughter. However, the name seems to be older than either of these suggestions as Scotland Bridge appears on a map of 1741. The most likely derivation is Middle English scot, meaning ‘tax, payment’ + land (‘land, area’), and the explanation is that the banks of the Irk were used for grazing and fabric drying, and so a tax or tithe had to be paid to the landowners, i.e. they could not ‘get away scot free’.

SCOT LANE END is a village south-east of Blackrod in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is literal – it lies at the top end of Scot Lane where it meets Manchester Road. The name is little-documented before the opening of Scot Lane Colliery in the 1850s but there are several possible explanations for the name: Scot Lane might have been used as part of a road from Scotland, it might have been used as a route from Aspull to Little Scotland, which lies north-west of Blackrod, or it may have been a road that charged a scot (i.e. a payment or toll) for its use.

SCOTMAN’S FLASH or SCOTSMAN’S FLASH is one of several man-made lakes (flashes) in the Wigan Flashes Local Nature Reserve, most of which were created by mining subsidence at the turn of the 20^th century. The origin of the name is uncertain. One local account mentions that two Scotsmen drowned in the lake at one point. Perhaps more convincing are newspaper reports from 1895 and 1902 suggesting that winter sports were popular in the area and curling was introduced on the frozen lake by Scotsmen living in nearby Worsley Mesnes.

SCOUTHEAD is a village on the edge of Saddleworth moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1625 and means ‘the head of a promontory’, from Old Norse skúti (‘a projecting or overhanging rock’) + Old English heafod or Old Norse hofuth (‘head, headland’).

SEDDON’S FOLD or SEDDON FOLD is an area in Prestolee in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in a tongue of land formed where the Irwell and Croal join. The name comes from Seddon farm, which dates from the late 15^th century, and it is known that it was owned by Ralph Seddon in 1553. Seddon Fold Bridge dates from the building of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal, which was completed in 1796.

SEDGLEY PARK is a suburban area of Prestwich in Bury. It was formerly part of Lancashire but early occurrences of the name are not well documented. It is said to mean a swampy area surrounded by woodland, from the Old English secg, ‘sedge, reed, rush’ + lēah, ‘wood, clearing’.

SEEDFIELD is a residential area north of Bury. The name is found in about 1850, when Seedfield House or Seedfields was built as a mansion with extensive grounds, although it was probably taken from an earlier farm in the area. The name is probably literal: a field where seeds were found or grown, perhaps flax or hemp seeds for the local textile industry.

SEEDLEY is a suburb of Salford. The name is not well documented before 1876, when Seedley Park was opened as a public park, followed by Seedley Park station, opened by the London & North Western Railway in May 1882. The origin of the name is uncertain but may be Old English set, meaning ‘home’ or ‘stable’ + lēah, ‘wood, clearing’.

SEVEN ACRES COUNTRY PARK is a 32-hectare nature reserve about 3.25 kilometres east of Bolton town centre. It was originally an agricultural area, some or all of which was known as Kindor Bank after John Kindor (1728-1801), the local farmer. The area was recorded on a map of 1764. Its area of 32 hectares equates to 79 acres, and the 7 acres in the name of the park is derived from the area of water that was available to feed a mediaeval corn mill and, much later, the bleaching industry. The area was designated as a country park in 2004.

SEYMOUR PARK is a 6-hectare recreational area south of Old Trafford in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It is laid out on land given by Sir Thomas Seymour Mead in 1906 for recreational use for dogs and children. It is located beside Seymour Grove, a major road through the area that was named by and for Sir Thomas, a local millionaire who owned a chain of grocery stores across the north west of England.

SHADOW MOSS is an area in south-eastern Wythenshawe in the City of Manchester, formerly in Cheshire. The name is first recorded in the early 13^th century as Shadoke mosse, meaning ‘the oak at the boundary of the bog’, referring perhaps to a tree that marked the boundary between Macclesfield and Bucklow. The name is derived from Old English scead (‘boundary’) + ac (‘oak tree’) + moss (‘bog, swamp’). In time the name became rationalised to Shadow Moss, which is recorded from 1613. It seems quite likely that pubs or restaurants called ‘Shady Oak’ may also celebrate boundary oaks rather than shady spots under tall trees.

SHAKERLEY is a north-western suburb of Tyldesley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded in about 1210 as Shakerlee and means ‘robber’s clearing’ from the Old English scēacere (‘robber’) + lēah (‘clearing, glade’). The second element refers to a clearing in the surrounding oak forest but nothing is known of the robber after whom the place is named. Shakerley lends its name to Shakerley Brook, a tributary of Glaze Brook.

SHAMBLES SQUARE is a pedestrianised area beside the cathedral in central Manchester. It was laid out in 1999, when the Old Wellington Inn, which dates from 1552 but was renamed in 1845, was moved there after the 1996 IRA bombing. The name celebrates the Old Shambles area, which is recorded in 1657 as the ‘flesh shambles’. It is derived from the Middle English flesshchameles, meaning ‘place where meat is sold’ and provides the name for ‘Shambles’ in other towns and cities in England, notably York. A schamel was a bench for displaying butchers’ meat.

SHARON is small residential area on the southern edge of Grasscroft in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The origin of the name is uncertain but it is sometimes said to be Biblical, from the plain of Sharon in Israel noted for its cattle grazing (1 Chronicles 27: 29) and flowers (Song of Solomon 2: 1). There are a number of Biblical place names in the north of the county, mostly dating from the spread of non-conformist churches at the beginning of the 19^th century. The name is recorded in 1832 but I can find no record of a non-conformist community in the area at that time, although Sharon formed part of the parish of St Anne, Lydgate, whose Anglican church was built in 1787-88. It should also be noted that two of the streets in Sharon are Sharon Avenue and Charlotte Lane, and so the original settlement may simply have been named after a family member of a landowner or builder.

SHARPLES is a residential area of Bolton on the River Tonge, about 4 kilometres north of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1212 as Charples and with its modern spelling in 1259. The area features a steep hill and the name may be derived from this sense of Old English scearp (‘pointed; steep’) + lās (‘meadow’) or lēas (‘woods; meadows’).

SHARSTON is a residential area and industrial estate in Wythenshawe in the south of the City of Manchester. The name is recorded in the 13^th century as Sharston, meaning ‘notched stone’, from Old English scearda (‘notched’) + stān (‘stone’). The name is a reference to a glacial boulder called the Shar Stone in nearby Northenden. This was moved to its present location in 1892 but its previous history has not been ascertained.

SHAW is part of the district of Shaw and Crompton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, which lies on the River Beal about 14 kilometres north-east of Manchester city centre. Shaw is recorded in 1555 as Shaghe, meaning ‘copse, small wood’, from Old English sceaga. Slightly to the south-west are Shaw Side and Shaw Edge.

SHAWCLOUGH is a residential area of Rochdale, north of the town centre. The name is not well documented before the early 19^th century, when Shawclough Brook, a tributary of the River Spodden, provided water power for felt and textile mills on its banks. Shawclough Mill itself was established in 1869 but the name of the stream is probably much older. It means ‘wooded valley’, from Old English sceaga (‘small wood, copse’) + clōh (‘deep valley’).

SHAWFIELD is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, north-west of Rochdale town centre. It is recorded in 1561 as Shagfeld, meaning ‘copse in or beside open land’ from Old English sceaga + feld. It originally developed along Shawfield Lane, which was described as a right of way for ‘horsemen and fotemen, cart and carriage’.

SHAWHALL, Hyde, is a residential area in Lower Matley in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in 1845 as Shaw Hole but with its modern spelling by 1860. The meaning could be ‘hollow beside a small wood’, from the Old English sceaga (‘copse, small wood’) + hol (‘hollow’), and it has been suggested that the hollow could have been a stone quarry or coal mine. Another possibility is that is an eponym, taking its name from the Shaw family, who built most of the properties in the Newton area in the 19^th century, including Shawhall Mill, which is known to have been in operation by 1818.

SHAW HALL, Oldham, is, with SHAW HALL BANK, an area of Grasscroft and Greenfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It takes its name from Shaw Hall, a country house built in the early 14^th century by the Shaw family. It is said it may have been demolished in the 1790s and the Farrars Arms, a pub that is still in use, built on the site. However, the pub claims to date from 1702 and so the dates don’t fit. A ‘farrar’ is an old term for a farrier, a maker and fitter of horseshoes, as is shown by the horseshoes in the coat of arms on the pub sign.

SHAW HEATH is a suburb of Stockport, south of the main town centre. The name is first recorded in 1712 and means ‘copse heath’ from Old English sceaga (‘copse, small wood’) + hǣth (‘heath, uncultivated land’).

SHELDERSLOW is a hamlet in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It appears in the early 14^th century as a family name, Childreslaue, and as the place name in 1531 as Skelderslow, from the Old Norse skjaldari (‘shield maker’) + Old English hlāw (‘mound, hillock’).

SHENA SIMON COLLEGE was built in central Manchester in 1897-1901 as the Central Higher Grade School but was renamed Shena Simon College in 1982 after Shena Simon (1883-1972), the Labour politician, feminist and mayoress of Manchester who had much to do with the planning of Wythenshawe. The college closed in September 2025 and it is planned to convert it into a hotel.

SHEVINGTON is a village on the north bank of the River Douglas in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, about 5 kilometres west of the town centre. The name is recorded in about 1225 as Shefinton, meaning ‘the settlement at Chevin’, derived from the Celtic cevn or cefn, meaning ‘ridge’ + Old English tūn (‘enclosure, farmstead, village’). The name refers to a nearby ridge of high ground on the edge of Shevington Moor.

SHOLVER is a residential area of Oldham, about 3.5 kilometres north-east of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1202 as Solhher and with its modern spelling from 1278. It is said to mean ‘sloping hill pasture or temporary hut’, from the Old English sceolh (‘twisted, sloping’) + Old Norse erg or ǣrgi (‘temporary hut, hill pasture’). The name refers to the steeply-sloping ground nearby and the Norse practice of building temporary huts or shielings in hill pastures. Alternatively, the name could be an eponym meaning Skjolgr’s pasture.

SHOOTERS BROOK is a minor tributary of the River Medlock in central Manchester that is now fully culverted beneath Store Street. It rises in Newton Heath and flows south-west to join the Medlock in what used to be called Garret (or Garratt) close to Brook Street, which derives its name from Shooters Brook. The name is recorded in AD 967 as Scytres, from the Old English scite, meaning ‘dirt, dung’. It was a pleasant meadow waterway whose name had been sanitised to ‘Shooters Brook’ in the 18^th century but had become heavily industrialised and polluted by the end of the century, and became known as “Shitters’ Brook”, thus returning to its Old English origin.

SHORE is a village north-west of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded with its modern spelling in 1324 and means ‘dangerous slope’ from Old English scora. The reference is to the steep hillside nearby. Shore gives its name to Shore Lane Brook, which flows west above Whittaker golf course to meet Hollingworth Brook, which then empties into Hollingworth Lake.

SHORE EDGE is a hamlet overlooking Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham on the edge of Crompton Moor. The land east of Shaw rises to a height of 391 metres and this explains the name Shore Edge, which has little to do with either Shaw or the modern meaning of ‘shore’. The name means ‘the edge or escarpment (Old English ecg) of a dangerous slope (Old English scora)’.

SHORESWORTH is an ancient part of Pendlebury on the banks of the River Irwell in the City of Salford, although the name seems to have fallen out of use in the 20^th century. It is recorded in about 1085 as Scoreswurthin, meaning ‘settlement on a steep slope’, from the Old English scora (‘dangerous or steep slope’) + worth (‘enclosure; settlement’), referring to the bank or shore of the Irwell.

SHUDEHILL is an area in central Manchester around Shudehill Street that was originally known as Withy Grove (i.e. willow grove). The present name dates from 1554 and seems to be taken from the word shude meaning ‘the husk of oats’, but the reason for this has not been established. Richard Arkwright’s Shudehill Mill of 1782 is said to have been the first steam-powered cotton mill in Manchester.

SHUTTLEWORTH is a village north-east of Ramsbottom in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is recorded in 1227 as Suttelsworth, meaning ‘barred or gated enclosure’, from the Old English scyttels (‘a bar; a barred-gate’) + worth (‘enclosure; settlement’). The village gives its name to Shuttleworth Brook, a tributary of Cross Bank Brook, which is itself a tributary of the River Irwell.

SIDDAL MOOR is an area south of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in 1548 as Sydall, meaning ‘wide nook moor’, from Old English sīd (‘wide’) + halh (‘nook, corner of land’) + mōr.

SIDDOW COMMON is an industrial area south of Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded in the early 14^th century as Sydale, meaning ‘wide nook’, from Old English sīd (‘wide’) + halh (‘nook, corner of land’).

SIDE OF THE MOOR or SIDE O’ TH’ MOOR is a hamlet north of Harwood in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is recorded in the 1841 census and the first Ordnance Survey map of the area of 1848-50 labels Side o’ th’ Moor Colliery (also known as Hardie’s Colliery). The meaning is quite literal – the settlement on the side of Harwood Moor, which is part of the West Pennines Moors.

SIMISTER is a suburb of Bury, south-east of the main town centre. The name is an eponym, taking the name of a James Simister or Somister (1722?-1780), who had an estate and three farms in the area at the beginning of the 18^th century.

SIMPSON CLOUGH is hamlet north of Heywood in the Metropolitans Borough of Rochdale. It takes its name from the deep valley (Old English clōh) through which Naden Brook and Cheesden Brook flow to meet the River Roch. The name appears in parish records in 1773 and is eponymous – ‘the valley owned or occupied by someone called Simpson (the son of Simon)’, but nothing more is known of the Simpson family.

SIMON’S BRIDGE is a footbridge across the River Mersey in Didsbury. It was built in 1901 as a gift to the people of Didsbury from Henry Simon (1835-1899), a German-born engineer who came to Manchester in 1860 and founded a company manufacturing industrial equipment.

SINDERLAND GREEN is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford that was formerly part of Cheshire. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Sundreland, when it was said to be unpopulated. The spelling and origin are shared with Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, but its modern spelling is found from 1639. It is derived from the Old English sundor-land, meaning ‘private land; land set aside for some particular purpose’, although it is unclear what that purpose may have been and it may simply refer to its status as private land.

SINDSLEY is a suburb of north-west Salford. The name seems to be falling into disuse but is retained in Sindsley Brook (a tributary of the River Irwell), which forms the boundary between Worsley and Swinton. The name is not well documented before 1758, when it was recorded as Singeley. The modern spelling was in use by 1832, when Sindsley Mills were built in Swinton. The origin seems unclear, but it may be derived from Old English scingol, meaning ‘a shingle; roofing tile’, or schingled (‘having a shingled roof’).

SINGLETON BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell. It rises in Kersal in the City of Salford, then flows south-west, forming the historic boundary between Prestwich and Salford, and meets the Irwell in Agecroft. The name is not well documented but there is known to have been a settlement in or near Prestwich called Singleton in the 19^th century. Elsewhere in Lancashire Singleton means ‘a settlement with shingled roofs’, from Old English scingol, meaning ‘a shingle; roofing tile’, + tūn (‘enclosure, village’). It is also possible that this Singleton was named after a local family.

SLACK BROOK is a short tributary of the River Irwell. It rises in Pendlebury in the City of Salford, flows south-east and joins the Irwell a little upstream from the Agecroft Road Bridge near Rainsough. The name is not well documented but is probably derived from the Old Norse slakke or Middle English slack, meaning ‘a small valley’.

SLACKCOTE is a village in the Saddleworth district of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented before the building of Slackcote wool mill in 1780-1781 but is almost certainly far older. It is derived from the Old Norse slakke, meaning ‘shallow depression’, + dialect cote (‘shed, temporary shelter for animals or tools’). There are a number of other places across north-west England derived from slakke and most are recorded from the 13^th century.

SLADE HALL is a country house in Rusholme in the City of Manchester that gives its name to the surrounding area that is sometimes known as Slade. The original house dated from about 1160 but the present one was built by Edward Siddall in 1585, making it probably the oldest house in Manchester. The house is recorded in 1322 as Milkewalslade, meaning ‘the valley with the milky spring or well’, from Old English meoluc (‘milk’) + wælla (‘well, spring’) + slœd (‘valley, glade’). By 1600, the name was reduced simply to Slade.

SLADEN is a hamlet near Summit in Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale on the Rochdale Canal. It is recorded in 1246 as Slaneden, although the exact derivation and meaning are uncertain. One possibility is that it means ‘the pasture in the valley’, from Old English denn (‘woodland pasture’) + slœd (‘valley’).

SLATTOCKS is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, south of the main town centre. The name is not well documented and there are differing theories about its origin. One is that the second element is ac, meaning ‘oak tree’, but with no plausible explanation for the first element. Perhaps more convincing is that the name means ‘small valley’, from the Old English slœd (‘valley, glade’) + oc (‘small’).

SLADES is an area in the west of Saddleworth Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham where several places with the name are found – Slades Rocks, Slades Pits and Slades Barn, all accessed from Slades Lane. The name is recorded in 1817 and means ‘valleys’, from Old English slæd, referring to the valleys of the streams in the area, such as Broadstone Brook and Royle Brook.

SMALLBRIDGE is a residential area on the River Roch outside Rochdale in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is first recorded in 1843 and is explained by its growth around a small bridge over the River Roch.

SMALLSHAW is a residential area of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, north-east of the town centre. There are several places in England called ‘Smallshaw’, all meaning ‘small copse’, from the Old English smael (‘small, narrow’) + sceaga (‘copse, wood’).

SMALLSHAW BROOK is a tributary of the River Spodden that rises north-east of Catley Lane Head in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows south-east through Smallshaw Wood to join the Spodden. The name is not well documented before the 20^th century. It is derived from Old English smael (‘small, narrow’) + sceaga (‘copse, wood’).

SMEDLEY is a suburb of Manchester, north-east of the city centre, where, according to Isabella Banks in her novel The Manchester Man of 1876, “the Irk was clear and bright”. The name is recorded as Smedelegh in 1226 and with its modern spelling in 1282. It probably derives from Old English smith (‘blacksmith’) + lēah (‘clearing, glade’).

SMITHFIELD MARKET was a large market in Shudehill in central Manchester, east of the city centre in what is now the Northern Quarter. It was started in about 1820 and given its name in 1822. It may have been named directly after Smithfield Market in London, which dates from 1174, but by the mid-17^th century the word was more widely used for any cattle market. The original Manchester market was covered in 1853 and was nearly 2 hectares in area by the end of the 19^th century. It was closed in 1972 and New Smithfield Market was built in Openshaw, but one building was preserved and is now Mackie’s Mayor food hall and retail outlet. Smithfield is derived from the Old English smeeth (‘smooth’) + feld (‘field’), i.e. a flat field where animals can be kept and fattened before being sold or slaughtered.

SMITHILLS is a residential area of Bolton, 5 kilometres north-west of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1322 as Smythell, meaning ‘smooth hills’, from Old English smēthe + hyll, referring to the moorland landscape. Smithills Hall dates from the 14^th century and was purchased by Bolton Corporation in 1938 and opened to the public as a museum. The estate is now an 809-hectare country park, which was opened to the public in 2016.

SMITHY BRIDGE is a suburb of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It is first recorded in 1841 and its location on the Rochdale Canal explains its name – a bridge over the canal with a smithy nearby for canal boats and the horses that towed them.

SMITHY BROOK is a tributary of the River Douglas that rises in Poolstock in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and flows north-east to meet Poolstock Brook, which then flows north-west to meet the Douglas south of Wigan. Presumably it is named after a local smithy or blacksmith working beside the brook.

SMITHY GREEN is a place name found in many places across England meaning ‘the green where the smithy is found’, from the Middle English smithie (‘smithy, smith’s workshop’) + grēn (‘field, village green’). Smithy Green in Cheadle Hulme in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is recorded from 1844.

SNAPE HILL is a wooded hill on the edge of the west Pennine moors in Whitefield in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury that gives its name to the 41-hectare Snape Hill Wood. Snape Hill Farm is recorded before 1730 and probably means ‘the hill with poor pasture’, from Old Norse snap or Old English snæp.

SNYDALE is a residential area of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is recorded in 1212 as Slinehal but it is spelled Snythehill with an N by 1278. This difference of spelling makes any derivation difficult – the second element is Old English hyll, referring to the nearby Snydale Hill and the first element may be snite or snyde, meaning ‘snipe’.

SOURACRE is a village north of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in the early 13^th century and means ‘muddy field or field covered with excrement’ from Old Norse saurr or Middle English sour + Old English aecer.

SOUTH BROOK, SOUTH CLOUGH and SOUTH CLOUGH MOSS South Brook is a tributary of the River Tame which rises on Broadhead Moss in the Peak District National Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows north-west below South Clough Moss through South Clough to meet North Brook and then join Diggle Brook, which then joins the Tame near Diggle. The name is recorded in 1468 as Southclogh-hede, meaning ‘the top or head (Old English heafod) of the south (sūth) ravine (clōh)’.

SOUTH REDDISH See REDDDISH

SPA BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on Castleshaw Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows south through Spa Clough into Castleshaw Upper Reservoir. The origin and date seem to be undocumented but places named ‘spa’ are fairly common in what was the West Riding of Yorkshire, mostly dating from the mid-19^th century. They are often located near places called ‘spring’ and ‘spout’, making a transfer from the Belgian town of Spa quite possible. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of spa in English was in 1565. The etymology of the Belgian watering-place is uncertain but is generally thought to come from the Latin spargere, meaning ‘sprinkle, moisten’.

SPINNINGFIELDS is an area of central Manchester west of Deansgate. The name appears on a 1772 map of Manchester. Many of the streets were originally named ‘fields’ and Spinningfields was named for the dominant occupation of the textile works who lived there. In the 19^th century, Spinningfields was renowned as a place of grime and crime, but, after the IRA bombing of 1996, it was designated for regeneration. In 2013, much of the area was bought up and developed into a residential, retail and financial district.

River SPODDEN or SPODDEN BROOK is a river that rises on Shawforth Moor in Lancashire and flows 12 kilometres to join the River Roch in Spotland in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is first recorded in the 13^th century as Spotbrok but its modern spelling is found from 1577. The derivation is uncertain but may be Middle English spoute (‘a spout, a gutter, the mouth of a water-pipe’), so that the meaning might be ‘spouting brook’.

SPOTLAND is an area of Rochdale on the River Spodden in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Spotland is first recorded in about 1180 and may just mean ‘a spot or small piece of land’, but, perhaps more likely, it may take its name from the River Spodden, which flows through Spotland, where it joins the River Roch. The Spodden is said to take its name from the Middle English spoute (‘a spout, a gutter, the mouth of a water-pipe’), so that Spotland would mean ‘the land beside the spouting brook’.

SPRINGFIELD PARK is a 17-hectare public park in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It was donated to the borough of Rochdale by Frederick Lye (1860-1948) in order to provide a municipal golf course, which was duly opened on 2 April 1927. The name Springfield came from Springfield House and the Springfield Estate on which the park and golf course were laid out. The exact derivation of the name in this location has not been ascertained, but Springfield is a common place name found in many parts of Britain and usually literally means ‘a field with a spring’.

SPRINGHEAD is now a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, east of the town centre. The name is not well documented before 1894, when an urban district was created with the name ‘Springhead’ rather than ‘Quickmere’, which had previously been used. It is said that the name came from a house in the village named Springhead House because it had a spring in the garden, and the name came to be applied to the whole village.

SPRING MILL RESERVOIR was built in the late 1880s to supply water to Rochdale. It is fed from the north by Prickshaw Brook in Rossendale in Lancashire, and Prickshaw Brook then flows out from the south to join the River Spodden, which forms the boundary between Lancashire and Greater Manchester at this point. It takes its name from Spring Mill, a fulling mill probably built in the late 18^th or early 19^th century, which was presumably flooded when the reservoir was built.

SPRING VIEW is a residential area south of Ince-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is quite literal as it overlooks the area south-east of Wigan known as ‘Springs’, which has many wells and springs, some of which supplied drinking water in the 19^th century. It is not known when the name came into use, but the Wigan Branch Railway Act of 1830 authorised the Northern Union Railway’s Springs branchline, which connected to the collieries of the area, including Springs Colliery, when it opened in the early 1840s. See also NEW SPRINGS

STABLE BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises on Rocher Moss on the edge of the Peak District National Park. It flows south-west through Stable Clough to meet Diggle Brook, which then flows west to meet the Tame near Diggle in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Stable Clough is recorded in about 1272 as Stabliclough, meaning ‘the deep valley (Old English clōh) where there are stables (Middle English stable) or shelter for domestic or farm animals (not necessarily horses)’.

STAKEHILL or STAKE HILL and HIGHER STAKE HILL are commercial and industrial areas of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, north-west of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1246 as Stakehull and with its modern spelling in 1322. It literally means ‘a hill where a stake is found’, from Old English staca + hyll. The name is also common in West Yorkshire and it has been suggested that the stake refers to a boundary marker. Stakehill is one of the sites of Atom Valley.

STALYBRIDGE is a town on the River Tame in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, about 13 kilometres east of Manchester city centre. It is recorded with its modern spelling in 1687 and simply means ‘the bridge over the River Tame at Stayley’. The hamlet of Stayley is much older, recorded in the early 13^th century as Stavelegh, meaning ‘clearing where staves are found or made’, from Old English stæf (‘staff, stave’) + lēah (‘clearing’).

STAMFORD PARK is a 26-hectare public park on the borders of Stalybridge and Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The land on which it stands was acquired in 1688 by the Earl of Stamford. In 1872 local mill workers purchased some of the estate and the Earl of Stamford also donated some land. The park was opened to the public on 12 July 1873, retaining the earl’s title of Stamford, which originally came from the town in Leicestershire meaning ’stone (Old English stān) ford’.

STAND is a residential area of Whitefield in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is not well documented but comes from the old English stand, meaning ‘a stand, a place from which to observe game’. This refers to Stand’s position overlooking Pilkington Deer Park (now Philips Park).

STANDEDGE is a gritstone escarpment in the Pennines between West Yorkshire and the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester. There has been a moorland crossing at Standedge since Roman times but it presented a major barrier to modern forms of communication. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal opened a tunnel under Standedge in 1811 which is still the highest and longest canal tunnel in Britain. The London & North Western Railway built three tunnels through Standedge in 1848, 1871 and 1894 to connect Manchester with Huddersfield. The name derives from the Old English stān + ecg, meaning ‘stony edge’, accurately describing Standedge as a ‘stony escarpment’.

STANDISH is a village on the River Douglas in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, north-west of the town centre, that was part of Lancashire until 1974. The name is recorded in 1178 as Stanesdis, from the Old English stān (‘stone’) + edisc (‘enclosure’), so the meaning would be ‘stony enclosure’, probably for keeping cattle or, more likely, deer. See also LANGTREE

STANLEY GREEN is a trading estate in Cheadle in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded as early as 1831 and is taken from the Stanley family of nearby Handforth in Cheshire. Stanley as a forename or family name is ultimately derived from the Old English place name Stān-lēah, meaning ‘stony wood or clearing where stone is found’.

STANNEY BROOK is a tributary of the River Roch which rises in Burnedge and flows north through Milnrow and Rochdale to join the Roch at Newbold. It is recorded in 1294 as Stonneybeck, meaning ‘stony stream’, from Old English stanig + Old Norse bekkr. This use of beck is almost unique in Greater Manchester and the more common Old English brōc replaced it during mediaeval times.

STANYCLIFFE is a suburb of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, north of the town centre on Whit Brook. It is recorded in the 13^th century as Stanicliffe, meaning ‘stony river bank’, from Old English stān + clif.

STARLING is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, west of the main town centre. It stands at the junction of an old Roman road from Manchester to the town of Ribchester in Lancashire and the 1836 turnpike from Ainsworth to Bury. The name is not documented but at the beginning of the 19^th century Starling and a row of houses named ‘Linnet Hall’ stood at the road junction, suggesting that the village was named after the bird – both starlings and linnets are native to this part of north-west England.

STAYLEY is or was the original area from which Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside gets its name. It is recorded in 1272 as Stauley and the modern spelling is found in 1560. It means ‘place where the wood for staves is found’ and it shares its derivation with that of Stalybridge – Old English stæf (‘staff, stave’) + lēah (‘clearing’).

STEPHENSON’S BRIDGE, Castlefield is the first of several railway bridges in Manchester and Salford built by George Stephenson (1781-1848). It was completed in August 1830 to carry the Liverpool & Manchester Railway over the River Irwell into Liverpool Road, the original eastern terminus of the line.

STEPHENSON’S BRIDGE, Victoria Station is one of several railway bridges in Manchester and Salford built by the ‘Father of Railways’, George Stephenson (1781-1848). In 1844 Stephenson engineered the Manchester & Leeds Railway’s route from Victoria Station east to the city of Leeds. The lines into Victoria were carried over Victoria Street on Stephenson’s Bridge, which in 1884 was incorporated into the longest railway platform in Europe, which connected Victoria with the new Exchange Station.

STEPPING HILL was a district south-east of Stockport in the 19^th century but in 1901-1905 Stepping Hill hospital was built on the site. It appears as a farm on early maps, extending north-east of its present location. The name is not well documented but seems to mean a hill with a set of stepping stones or a set of steps.

STEVENSON SQUARE is a pedestrianised public space in central Manchester in what is now the Northern Quarter. It takes its name from William Stevenson, a property speculator who purchased 10 hectares of land in 1780. His aim was to create an elegant suburb by selling plots to other wealthy developers, who often named streets after themselves. Stevenson Square became a focus for radical politics in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, with the Chartists and Suffragettes using it as a meeting place.

STIRRUP BROOK is a tributary of Glaze Brook which rises as Ellen Brook near Hollinwood in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and becomes Stirrup Brook in Boothstown in the City of Salford. The name is little documented and no suggestions for its origin can be found. It may be that it is derived from the Old English for stirrup (stiġrāp, meaning ‘climbing rope’) as, for example, is Styrrup in Nottinghamshire, but why this description was thought relevant is not apparent.

STOCK BROOK is a residential area of south-west Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It is recorded in 1776 but the name comes from Stock Brook, a tributary of the River Irk, which is almost certainly older. The origin is probably Old English stocc, meaning ‘a tree trunk or stump, a log of wood’.

STOCKPORT is a town 13 kilometres south-east of Manchester city centre. Until 1974, Stockport was divided between Cheshire and Lancashire, with the River Mersey, which is formed in Stockport, as the dividing line. Since 1974 it has given its name to the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, one of the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester. The name is recorded in 1188 as Stokeport and with its modern spelling from about 1274. The meaning is generally said to be ‘a market place (Old English port) at a secondary, dependent or outlying settlement’ (Old English stoc). There have, however, been alternative suggestions for both elements: Stock may refer to a stockade, from Old English stoccen, and the fact that the name was recorded as Stockford in 1283 would be consistent with there being a ford across the river before the Goyt and Tame combine to form the Mersey, and Stopford was in use as the spelling as late as 1610. Stockport gives its name to Stockport, New Jersey and Stockport, South Australia.

STOCKPORT BROOK See HEMPSHAW BROOK

STOCKPORT 8 is a commercial and residential regeneration project in west Stockport close to the railway viaduct, the new bus terminal and Weir Mill announced in 2025. It takes its name from its area, which covers eight acres.

STOCKPORT ETCHELLS See ETCHELLS

STOCKPORT GARRICK THEATRE was established by an amateur dramatic club on 24 October 1901. The club named itself after the great actor, David Garrick, who was born in 1719 and died at the Adelphi Theatre in 1779. The club acquired it first playhouse in 1905 and moved to its present theatre in the centre of Stockport in 1920.

STOCKPORT VIADUCT See VIADUCT

STOLLER HALL is a 482-seat concert hall at Chetham’s School of Music (see Chetham’s Library) completed in 2017. It is named after its principal benefactor, Sir Norman Stoller, who was High Sheriff of Greater Manchester in 1999-2000.

STONE BREAKS is a hamlet north of Grotton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1625 and therefore pre-dates Stone Breaks quarry, which dates from the 17^th or 18^th centuries. The hamlet lies in the Medlock Valley east of the 260-metre Stone Breaks Hill and probably derives from Old English stān (‘stone’) + Old Norse brekka (‘slope’).

STONECLOUGH is a suburban district of Kearsley on the banks of the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is derived from Old English stān, meaning ‘stony’, and clōh, meaning ‘deep valley’, referring to the red sandstone found along the Irwell at this point. The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway built a station at Stoneclough Bridge and the choice of this name standardised the name Stoneclough.

STONEYFIELD is a residential area south of Rochdale town centre north of Sudden Brook. The name appears on tithe and Ordnance Survey maps of the 1840s but suggests a much older Anglo-Saxon field or farm derived from the Old English stān + feld.

STORE STREET STATION was the name of Manchester’s principal railway terminus that is now Piccadilly. It was built by the Manchester & Birmingham and Sheffield Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester railways and opened on 8 May 1842. It took its name from its main entrance on Store Street, a thoroughfare that had been laid out in about 1805, when Shooters Brook was culverted beneath it. It was named Store Street because Manchester’s main grain store was located here, close to the Ashton Canal, which had been completed in 1797, and to the corn mills situated to the east on Mill Street. The station was rebuilt and renamed London Road in 1847 and, following electrification and modernisation, it was renamed Piccadilly in 1960.

STRANGEWAYS is an inner-city district of Manchester with a well-known prison, which was built in 1868 to replace the New Bailey jail. It lies on a strip of land between the rivers Irwell and Irk, and as such means ‘place subject to strong flooding’. The name is recorded in in 1322 as Strangwas and is derived from the Old English strang, ‘strong’, and waesce, meaning ‘flooding’, but the spelling was changed as early as 1326 by those trying to find meaning in its name. However, the name is recorded as the family name of John de Strangeways as early as 1304.

STRAWBERRY ISLAND See POMONA ISLAND

STREET BRIDGE is a location north of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1851 but both elements of the name refer to earlier infrastructure. The Street is the Roman road from Manchester to Castleshaw via Hollinwood and Oldham which is still referred to locally as ‘the Roman Road’. The Bridge is the one carrying the road over the Hollinwood branch of the Ashton Canal, which was built in 1792-97.

STREET END is a residential area of Failsworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1620 and refers to the end or junction of a road with a street, i.e. a Roman Road (which is still labelled on modern maps), specifically the Roman road from Manchester to Castleshaw via Hollinwood and Oldham.

STRETFORD is a township in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The town lies on the Roman road from Chester to Manchester where it crosses the River Mersey. The name is first recorded in 1212 as Streetford and means the same as Stratford – ‘a ford on a strat or strǣt’, with strǣt referring in particular to a Roman road. Nearby is Stretford Ees, derived from the Old English ēg, meaning ‘island’, often a piece of firm land in an area liable to flooding by the Mersey.

STRINE DALE and STRINESDALE RESERVOIR Strine Dale is a village and location north-east of Oldham and Strinesdale was the name given to two reservoirs built in the 19^th century – the first in 1828 and the second in 1838. Dale refers to the valley of the River Medlock and Roebuck Brook, which feed the reservoirs. Strine is often said to come from an Old English word meaning ‘boundary’ as the former boundary between Lancashire and Yorkshire ran along the valley, but this meaning cannot be confirmed from other sources and the usual meaning of strine or strind – ‘stream, waterway’- would seem to be applicable.

STRINES is a village in the Goyt valley in Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, formerly in Derbyshire. A station was opened in 1866 by the Marple, New Mills & Hayfield Junction Railway and the village and its railway are believed to have inspired Edith Nesbit’s 1906 novel, The Railway Children. The village name is recorded as Stryndes, Strindes and Strendes in the late 13^th century and is said to be derived from the Middle English strinds meaning ‘streams’, from the tributaries of the Goyt above the village.

STROMFORD BROOK is a tributary of the River Mersey that rises north of Ashton upon Mersey in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford and flows south-west to join the Mersey south-west of Urmston. The origin is uncertain but Stromford is thought to mean ‘ford across a stream’, from Old Norse straumr. If correct this derivation would be the only example of the Old Norse for a ‘stream’ in Greater Manchester. The addition of brook is reduplication as the meaning would be ‘the stream of a ford across a stream’.

STUBLEY is a residential area west of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in 1330, when Nicholas John de Stubley sold Stubley Hall to John de Holt, and it is said that the hall was originally built in 1277. The hall was sold to Rochdale Council in 1930 and it seems that much was demolished in 1967, although parts survive, along with Stubley New Hall, which was built in about 1830. The name comes from Old English stubb, meaning ‘tree stump’, + lēah (woodland clearing).

STUBSHAW CROSS is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan north-east of Ashton-in-Makerfield. The name ‘Stubshaw’ means ‘the copse with or beside tree stumps’, and is a hybrid from the Old Norse stubbi (‘tree-stump’) + Old English sceaga (‘copse’). A cross was erected there in 1630, giving rise to the modern name, but the ‘Stubshaw’ settlement and name pre-dated the cross.

SUDDEN is a hamlet south-west of Rochdale on the south bank of the River Roch. The name is recorded in the 13^th century as both Sothden and Sudden, meaning ‘southern valley’, from the Old English sūth (‘south’) + denu (‘valley’). The valley is that of Sudden Brook, which joins the Roch at Sudden. Sudden lies opposite Norden, which lies on the north bank of the Roch.

SUMMER HILL BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises east of Old Tame in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows south-west to join the Tame north of Slackcote. The origin and date of the name are uncertain: it may simply to be an agreeable name but, more likely, it means ‘a hill used for grazing livestock in summer’, from Old English somer (‘summer’) + hyll (‘hill’).

SUMMERSEAT is a village in the Borough of Bury on the River Irwell. It was part of Lancashire until 1974. The name is first recorded in 1556 as Sumersett and is derived from the Old English sumor or Old Norse sumarr, meaning ‘summer’, + set or sæt, ‘a hut used while looking after animals’.

SUMMIT, Heywood, is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It takes its name from the Summit Inn, which was originally on the Rochdale to Edenfield toll road that was built in 1795. When the Bury New Road was opened in the mid-19^th century, it was moved brick by brick to its current location on the north-western edge of Heywood.

SUMMIT, Littleborough, is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It is on the border with West Yorkshire and was in the county of Lancashire until 1974. Its name refers to its position as the highest point between Littleborough and Todmorden in Yorkshire, and the crossing point for both the Rochdale Canal (opened in 1804) and the Manchester & Leeds Railway, whose Summit Tunnel was completed in 1841. The name is not well documented before 1804 and the area was known as ‘Charlestown’ until late into the 19^th century.

SUMMIT, Thornham, is a residential area north of Royton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It takes its name from its position at or near the summit of the main road between Oldham and Rochdale.

SUN HILL is a residential area north of Lees in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1742 and may have originally been a hill where cattle or sheep were grazed in the summer.

SWINESHAW is an area north of Glossop in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in what was Derbyshire before 1974. The name is taken from Swineshaw Brook, a tributary of the River Tame, and was recorded in 1831. Swineshaw gives its name to the Lower and Higher Swineshaw Reservoirs, which were built to supply drinking water to Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge in 1864-70, employing mill workers put out of work by the ‘cotton famine’ caused by the American Civil War. Swineshaw probably means ‘swine wood’ and is derived from two Old English elements: swīn + sceaga.

SWINLEY is a residential area of Wigan, north of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1283 as Swyneley, meaning ‘clearing where pigs are found or kept’, from the Old English swin (‘swine, pig’) + lēah (‘woodland clearing’).

SWINTON is a town in Salford that was in Lancashire until 1974. It was first documented as Suinton in 1258. The name consists of two Old English elements: swīn + tūn, meaning ‘pig farm’ or ‘place where pigs are fed’. This is one of the many references to animals in the place names of Greater Manchester.

SYKE is a village on the northern outskirts of Rochdale, also known as Nook Farm. The name is recorded in 1843 as Syke, from the Old English and regional English sīc, meaning ‘small stream’. There are several streams running off the moors above Syke, including Syke Brook, Fanny Brook, Buckley Brook and Hey Brook, all tributaries of the River Roch.

SYKES PILLAR was originally erected in 1948 as an Ordnance Survey mapping trig point on Broadstone Hill in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It has been named to commemorate Frank Sykes (1943-99), a local walker and fell-runner.

TACK LEE BROOK is a short tributary of the River Roch which rises south of Birtle and flows south-east to join the Roch north of Bottom o’ th’ Brow in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name, its origin and meaning are little documented but it is suggested that it might mean ‘clearing where lambs are kept’ from Old English tacca (‘young sheep’) + lēah (‘woodland clearing’). Coincidentally, there is a Tack Lee Bridge in Yapton, near the Sussex Downs, formerly an area well-known for raising sheep. The Sussex Bridge was built in 1823 across the Portsmouth to Arundel Canal.

TALLEYRAND was an area in east Levenshulme south-east of Manchester city centre which was named after the infamous French diplomat, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838), who is reported to have stayed in the area during a period of exile in Britain, either in 1792-1794 or 1834-1838 (sources differ). The name does not appear on modern maps but is recalled in the Talleyrand pub on the Stockport Road.

River TAME is a tributary of the River Mersey that rises on Denshaw Moor on Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham where the waters flowing out of Dowry and New Year’s Bridge reservoirs form the Tame. It then flows south-west to join the River Goyt to form the Mersey in Stockport. The name appears as Tome in 1292 and Tame in 1322, but its origin is unclear. It seems likely that it is Celtic in origin – there are rivers with similar names across Britain, including the Thames, Taff, Tamar and Thame. The name may simply mean ‘river’, but it has also been suggested that it could mean ‘dark river’ or ‘dark one’. The river gives its name to the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside.

TAMER LANE END is a small residential area west of Westleigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1892 but is probably much older. Like many of the ‘lane end’ places in Greater Manchester, it lies at road junction at the end of a lane – in this case Smith’s Lane. The origin seems to be undocumented and there have been several suggestions, including the central-Asian war lord Tamerlane (Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Tamburlaine the Great’) and the Biblical Tamar, the daughter of King David (2 Samuel 13). The most convincing is that there was a smithy at the end of Smith’s Lane and, as the name is pronounced ‘t’ammer’ or ‘Tammer’, it is likely that it is a reduced form of ‘the hammer’, the tool of a smithy.

TAMESIDE is one of the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester, which was formed in 1974 from Dukinfield, Hyde and Longdendale in Cheshire and Ashton-under-Lyne, Mossley, Audenshaw, Denton and Droylsden in Lancashire. The borough takes its name from the River Tame, which crosses the borough from north to south. The name was chosen in 1974 after a consultation exercise and a vote on 30 possibilities.

TAME WATER is a village south of Dobcross in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1723 and the meaning is quite literal: the settlement beside the waters of the River Tame.

TAMYON BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises east of Mossley and flows south-west to join Micklehurst Brook, which then meets the Tame north of Stalybridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The origin of the name is unclear, but it has been suggested that it could have been a rationalisation of Tameden or Tameton from Tame (i.e. the River Tame) + Old English denu (‘valley’) or tun (‘enclosure, farm, village’).

TANDLE HILL and TANDLE HILL COUNTRY PARK Tandle Hill is a 222-metre hill near Royton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Its name means ‘fire hill’ from the northern dialect tandle, ‘a large fire in the open air, a bonfire’. The name dates from 9 September 1513 when the hill was used as a beacon during the Battle of Flodden Field. The surrounding area was donated to the people of Royton in 1919 as a war memorial and it was opened as Tandle Hill Country Park in 1971.

TANG and TANGSHUTT are adjacent areas of Romiley in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The names are recorded in 1849 and both refer to the land extending south into a meander of the River Goyt – Tang comes from the Old English tang, meaning ‘tongue’, and Shutt is from Old English scēat, also meaning ‘projecting piece of land’.

TANNERS is a residential area of Ramsbottom in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is recorded in 1702, when the hamlet of Tanners surrounded the tanner’s yard on Tanners Street. The name is one of a small group of occupational names in Greater Manchester.

TARDEN is a rural area east of Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, which was part of Derbyshire until 1974. It is recorded in 1285 as Toardin and with its modern spelling in 1545, but the meaning and etymology are unclear.

TAUNTON is a town north of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is first recorded in 1246 as Tongton but the modern spelling is found from 1422. The name is derived from the Old English tang (‘fork of a river’) + tūn (‘enclosure, village’), describing Taunton’s position on a long tongue of land where Taunton Brook meets the River Medlock.

TENTERSFIELD is an urban area in western Bury to the east of the River Irwell. The name is recorded in 1813 when the New Tentersfield Methodist Church was built, but the settlement, and perhaps the name, date to mediaeval times. The name means ‘a field where tenter frames were set out to stretch and bleach newly-milled fabric’, from the Middle English tentour + feld.

THATCH LEACH is a village on the western edge of Oldham. The name is recorded from the 13^th century and the meaning may be quite literal: a place where straw for thatch is soaked or leached.

THICKETFORD BROW is a suburb of Bolton, north-east of the town centre on Bradshaw Brook. The name is recorded in the 18^th century as Th’ igh gate ford meaning ‘ford over the high road’ (to Ramsbottom, presumably), from Old English hēah (‘high, chief’) + Old Norse gata (‘road’). The name was rationalised to ‘Thicketford’ by the end of the 19^th century.

THOMASSON PARK is a 2-hectare public park in Bolton. It was opened on 23 October 1890 and named after John Pennington Thomasson (1841-1904), a cotton industrialist, who purchased Mere Hall and its estate in 1889 and donated it to the people of Bolton ‘as a playground and garden’.

THORNHAM is a residential area divided between the Metropolitan Boroughs of Oldham and Rochdale. The name is first recorded in 1246 as Thornham, meaning ‘homestead or village where hawthorns grow’ from Old English thorn + hām (‘village, homestead’).

THORN HILL is a residential area south-east of Standish in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan above the west bank of the River Douglas. The name appears on 19^th-century Ordnance Survey maps and literally means ‘hill with thorn bushes’, from the Old English thorn + hyll.

THORNLEY BROOK is a tributary of the River Medlock which rises west of Grotton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It then flows south-west through Springhead and Lees, before joining the Medlock in Pitses. The name is recorded in 1662 as Thorneley, meaning ‘thorny place’, from Old English thorn + lēah.

THORNS BROOK and THORNS BECK together form a tributary of the River Tame that rises as Thorns Beck east of Bleak Hey Brook in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows south-west through Thorns Clough to Join Diggle Brook in Diggle. Diggle Brook then continues south to meet the Tame south-east of Dobcross. The name is not well documented but may come from the Thorns, probably a farm, which is recorded in 1726. The thorn element is probably literal and suggests a stream flowing through an area with thorn bushes. The use of beck (Old English bece) is an almost unique survivor in Greater Manchester as the more common brōc mostly replaced it during mediaeval times.

THORP is a suburb of Oldham, north of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1260 with its modern spelling and means ‘village’, from the Old Norse thorp. Thorp Mill, built in 1764, was the first water-powered cotton mill in Lancashire, using water from Thorp Clough, a tributary of the River Irk.

The THREE SISTERS RECREATION AREA is a 44-hectare nature reserve in Bryn in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name comes from three spoil heaps from the Garswood Hall coal mine, which was originally built in 1867 or earlier. By the time the mine closed in 1958 the heaps were over 50 metres high and were known as the ‘Wigan Alps’ or the ‘Three Sisters’. The heaps were levelled and the area was converted into a recreation area and wildlife reserve, opened to the public in 1978. The Three Sisters Recreation Area forms a gateway to the Wigan Flashes Nature Reserve.

THROSTLE NEST BRIDGE today is a small footbridge across the Bridgewater Canal in Trafford. There was an older Throstle Nest Bridge over the River Irwell that was demolished when the Manchester Ship Canal was built in 1887-1893. Both took their names from an area of Trafford Park estate which was recorded as a ‘rural retreat’ in the 1760s, but the name was also given to Throstle’s Nest Lock in Old Trafford – the last lock on the Mersey & Irwell Navigation, which was built in the 1720s. The name comes from the Old English throstle, meaning ‘song thrush’. The name was also applied to deer’s antlers, which were large enough to hold a thrush nest, but, although Trafford Park did have deer, this definition is recorded only from 1785 and so is unlikely to be the meaning here.

THURSTON CLOUGH and THURSTON CLOUGH BROOK Thurston Clough is a hamlet east of Dobcross in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The brook rises on the moors south-west of Delph, flows east through the clough (Old English clōh, ‘deep valley, ravine’) and joins the River Tame near Greenfield. The name is recorded with various spellings in the 18^th century and is thought to be an eponym meaning ‘Thurston’s land’, referring to an Old Norse name.

River TIB is a long-culverted tributary of the River Medlock that rises at a spring called Coopers Pit in Miles Platting and flows for a few kilometres before joining the Medlock at Gaythorn near Deansgate station. A recent but unlikely suggestion is that the name was given by Roman legionnaires to remind them of the River Tiber in Rome, but shortened to reflect the size of the Tib in Manchester. An alternative suggestion is that it comes from the Celtic dubr, meaning ‘water’ which, coincidentally, is also cited as the origin of the Tiber in Italy.

TIGER’S CLOUGH WATERFALL is a small waterfall in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton near the village of Rivington in Lancashire. Clough comes from the Old English clōh, meaning ‘ravine, deep valley’, and refers to the valley of the River Douglas. It is thought to take its name from an illicit 19^th-century drinking place known as The Tigers, which had a sign outside depicting two tigers’ heads. The drinking establishment has long gone but its name lives on.

TIMBERCLIFFE is a small residential area near Summit in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is not well documented before the 1920s, when houses were built for local mill workers. The meaning would seem to be quite literal – ‘wood-covered slope’, from Old English timber + clif.

TIMPERLEY is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, but formerly in Cheshire. The name is first recorded in 1211-1225 as Timperleie, meaning ‘clearing where timber is obtained’, from the Old English timber + lēah (‘glade, clearing’).

TIN BROOK is a culverted tributary of the River Mersey that joins the Mersey under Mersey Square in Stockport. It is recorded in 1759 but there is disagreement about its course, variant names and derivation. Different sources state that it rises in Woodsmoor, Great Moor, Heavily or Hazel Grove, and that it may or may not be part of Hempshaw Brook. The name may be derived from Old English tyned, meaning ‘enclosed’, or it may be more literal, taking its name from the tin works that were once located along its banks or the waste products from these works.

TINKER’S GARDENS See VAUXHALL GARDENS

TIVIOT DALE is a retail and residential area in Stockport, although the name seems to be falling into disuse. The name is said to have been given to the area in 1745, when Prince Charles Stuart (‘Bonny Prince Charlie’) camped in northern Stockport. His Jacobites derived the name from Teviotdale in Roxburghshire in their native Scotland. This is derived from Scottish Gaelic Tibhiot, a name which simply means ‘river’, but it has also been suggested that it could mean ‘dark river’ or ‘dark one’. The name may be related to other ancient river names, including the Tame, Tamar and the Thames. The Scottish spelling was maintained in Teviot Dale, the original name of the station opened by the Stockport Timperley & Altrincham Railway on 1 December 1865, but the spelling was changed to Tiviot Dale in about 1874.

TOMMYFIELD MARKET is an indoor market in the centre of Oldham. It was established in 1788 in fields owned by Thomas (‘Tommy’) Whittaker.

TONGE is an area to the west (Tonge Moor) and south (Tonge Fold) of Bolton, both on the River Tonge, which is a tributary of the Croal and the Irwell. The name is first recorded in 1212 as Tange, but the modern spelling is found by 1226. Tonge means ‘tongue of land’ or ‘fork in the river’, from the Old English tang or tunge, describing Tonge’s position between the River Tonge to the west and Bradshaw Brook to the east, just before their confluence.

TONTINE There are several streets and buildings in Greater Manchester and across England named Tontine, but this village west of Orrell on the border between Lancashire and the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan seems to be the only settlement with the name. The name of the village is recorded in 1870 but it could be older as the word was in use in Britain from as early as 1765. It is derived from Lorenzo Tonti (c.1602-c.1684), a Neapolitan banker who devised the form of insurance scheme or friendly society that is named after him. Tontines were fairly common in 19^th-century Britain among immigrant communities, but it has not been possible to discover the origin of the name for the village of Tontine.

TOP LOCK is a residential area beside the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It stands at the top of a flight of 23 locks which raise the canal by 56 metres in about 4 kilometres. The locks were opened in 1816.

TOP MOSSLEY See BROOK BOTTOM or BROOKBOTTOM and MOSSLEY

TOP OF HEAP See HEAP BRIDGE

TOP OF HEBERS See HEBERS

TOPPINGS is a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It is first recorded in 1843 and is a dialect word meaning ‘hill top’ from the Old English topp (‘the top of a hill, etc’).

TORKINGTON is a district in the Borough of Stockport that was formerly part of Cheshire. The name was recorded in 1181 as Torkinton and with its modern spelling in 1249. It consists of three Old English elements: Turec, a personal name, -ing-, ‘belonging to’ or ‘the followers of’, and tūn, ‘settlement or farmstead’, so that together the name would mean ‘the village of Turec’s people’. Nothing is known of anyone called Turec and it is not recognised to be an English name, but, coincidentally, in 1560 a Richard Bullock leased some land from a John Torkington to set up a smithy nearby in what became Bullock’s Smithy, now Hazel Grove.

TOTTINGTON is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is first recorded in 1212 as Totinton, and is usually said to mean ‘the village of Totta’. Totta was a common Anglo-Saxon personal name, -ing– means ‘belonging to, associated with’ and tūn means ‘enclosure, village’. However, the village is on a 272-metre hill and so the name could derive from Old English tōt, meaning ‘hill-top look-out’.

TOUGHSHEET COMMUNITY STADIUM is a mixed-use sports stadium in Bolton and home to Bolton Wanderers football club. The club moved from Burnden when the new stadium was built in 1997. It was originally named the Reebok stadium by its American footwear sponsor, whose name is taken from the Afrikaans rhebok antelope. Since 2024 it has been known as the Toughsheet Community Stadium after the local manufacturer of recycled plastic building materials.

TOWN HOUSE BROOK is a tributary of the River Roch. It rises in Clough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows south east to meet the Roch near Littleborough. It is clearly named after a place or building known as ‘Town House’ and this seems to refer to a farm shown on 19^th-century maps. The name probably means the main house of a farmstead, which is one of the meanings derived from Old English tūn.

TOWN LANE is a small residential area south of Blackmoor in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name does not seem to have been documented until the end of the 19th century but it probably simply indicates its position on a lane to a local town, probably Tyldesley or Leigh. It is possible that Town Lane lends its name to nearby Town Brook, a tributary of Glaze Brook.

TOWN OF LOWTON See LOWTON

TOWNSGATE is a residential area beside the Manchester Ship Canal in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is not well documented and does not appear on 19^th-century maps or the 1894 Ship Canal map of the area. The name seems to be taken from Towngate Farm and may be derived from an older but unrecorded name meaning ‘the road (Old Norse gata) to the town’, presumably referring to Irlam as Irlam Road cuts through Towns Gate. The name and meaning contrast with Land Gate, meaning ‘the road to the rural or agricultural land’.

TRAFALGAR SQUARE is a residential area around a small green in the Guide Bridge area of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The area itself dates from around the 1840s but the buildings of Trafalgar Square were built in 1881. The square is named after the British naval victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

TRAFFORD is a district in Stretford that gives its name not only to Old Trafford, Trafford Centre retail outlet and Trafford Park industrial area but also to the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford that was created in 1974. The name is first recorded in about 1200 as Trafford, and is a corruption of Stratford or Stretford, meaning ‘the ford (across the river Mersey) on the Roman road (stræt) between Manchester and Chester’. The loss of the initial S- is said to be a feature of Anglo-Norman but may also be a way of distinguishing Trafford from neighbouring Stretford. In 1974 Trafford was chosen for the name of the new borough because of its famous sports venues and the Trafford Park industrial estate, as well as historical associations, but only after various alternative proposals – Altrincham Stretford and Sale, Chesford, Crossford, Watlingford and Mercia – had been rejected.

TRAFFORD PARK was originally the estate of Trafford Hall. The name is recorded in 1843 but in 1896 it was sold off and developed as the world’s first industrial park, sited on the south side of the Manchester Ship Canal.

The TRANS PENNINE TRAIL is a coast-to-coast route for walkers and cyclists, starting in Southport in Lancashire, crossing the Pennines to Hornsea in East Yorkshire. The idea originated in 1989 and the full trail was completed and opened in 2004. The trail is 346 kilometres long, with over 50 kilometres passing through Greater Manchester, including Sale, Chorlton, Didsbury, Stockport and Hyde.

TRINITY BRIDGE is a 78.5-metre footbridge across the River Irwell between Salford and Manchester. It was designed by the Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava and was opened in 1995. It takes its name from the nearby Sacred Trinity church, that was built in 1635 as the first parish church in Salford.

The TRINNACLE is a landmark consisting of three pillars of gritstone about 10 metres high on Saddleworth Moor above Dovestone Reservoir in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not listed as a word in the Oxford English Dictionary and seems to date from the second half of the 20^th century. It is a portmanteau word formed from the prefix tri- and the second half of pinnacle.

TRUB SMITHY or TRUB is a village south of Castleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Trub Hall is recorded in the mid to late 17^th century and Trub Farm and Trub Brook are also recorded. Thrub is thought to derive from Old English throp or Old Norse thorp, both meaning ‘outlying settlement’. The name is shared with Trub Brook, a tributary of the River Irk. According to local legend, Oliver Cromwell led his Parliamentarian troops through the area during the Civil War and the owner of Trub Hall provided a smithy to reshoe one of his horses.

TUNSHILL is a hamlet north-east of Milnrow in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is not well documented before 1793, when a small Roman statue was uncovered at Tunshill Quarry on Tunshill Farm. The name is probably much older as the family name of Tunshill dates back to 1273, and probably means ‘enclosure by or near a hill’ from Old English tūn + hyll.

TUNSTEAD is a hamlet in the Saddleworth area of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. There are several places with this name in England, all meaning ‘farmstead place’, from the Old English tūn (‘farmstead, village’) + stede (‘place’). This Tunstead is recorded in 1399 as Tunstede.

TURF HILL is a residential area of Rochdale, south-east of the town centre. A housing estate was built there in the early 1920s but its history is not well documented. The area between Rochdale and Oldham has several places named Turf Lane, referring to the rough grassy hills of this part of Greater Manchester.

TURF LEA is a hamlet south-east of Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The hamlet is thought to have mediaeval origins and the name is recorded in 1770 as Turf Lee but an 1831 map gives Tufleys. The meaning is literal – a clearing (Old English lēah) where the soil grows with grass (Old English turf). Turf was used as roofing in mediaeval times.

TURNER’S FLASH is a man-made lake south of Ince-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan that forms one of the seven subsidence ‘flashes’ of Wigan Flashes Nature Reserve. Turner’s is recorded on the 1849 Ordnance Survey map as a field name, indicating that it was owned by someone named Turner. It has not been possible to identify who this Turner was, although it seems unlikely that there is any connection to the company of Turner Brothers, who manufactured asbestos in Wigan and Rochdale. It is believed the flash was formed by mining subsidence at the turn of the 20^th century.

TURN MOSS is a 39-hectare public area of woods and meadows close to the River Mersey between Stretford in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford and Chorlton in the City of Manchester. It is recorded in 1612 as ‘low lying meadows or ees’ (see Broad Ees Dole) and it seems it was originally called Turf Moss, from the Old English turf + mos (‘marsh, swamp’). The name was rationalised to ‘Turn Moss’ and by 1840 the area had been drained and turned into Turn Moss Farm. Nearby is Turn Moss Ees, derived from the Old English ēg, meaning ‘island’, often a piece of firm land in an area liable to flooding by the Mersey.

TURTON is an area between Bolton and Blackburn that is divided between the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester and Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire. The name is first recorded in 1185 as Thirtun but its modern spelling is found from 1212. The name is an eponym meaning ‘Thorr’s or Thori’s farmstead or village’, from the Old Norse personal name Thorr + Old English tūn (‘farm, village’).

TWIRL HILL or TWARL HILL is a hill above Lily Lanes and between Alt Hill and Hartshead Green in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside that formed a parish boundary where tithes had to be paid until the 1830s. On the road is a tithe stone which marked the collection point, and the inscription on the stone states that it was inscribed in 1840, indicating that the stone itself was much older. The name comes from the Old English twirl/twyrl, meaning ‘a fork, split or division’, referring to the boundary line.

TYLDESLEY is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan that is also known as Tyldesley cum Shakerley. The name is first recorded in about 1210 as Tildesleia and means ‘Tilwald’s clearing’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Tilwald + lēah (‘wood, clearing’).

UNDERBANKS is a district in central Stockport surrounding the mediaeval streets known as Great and Little Underbank. The name is recorded in 1497, when Underbank Hall was built. The name derives from the position of the area – Stockport is built on a hill and Underbank describes the area beneath the bank, an Old Norse word that originally meant ‘steep hill’, close to the River Mersey. This hill can be clearly seen at Crowther Street.

UNITY BROOK is a tributary of the River Irwell which rises near Moses Gate/Kearsley Moss and then flows south to meet the Irwell near Ringley in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name appears on early Ordnance Survey maps of the 1840s and pre-dates the opening of the Unity Brook Colliery in the late 1860s or early 1870s. The origin and meaning are not recorded, but it is probable that the name reflects the stream’s topography as it is formed where several tributaries meet and unite.

UNSWORTH is a residential area of Bury, about 11 kilometres north of Manchester city centre. The name is first recorded in 1291 as Hundesworth and means ‘enclosure or place of the hounds’ from the Old English hundes + worth.

UPPER CHELBURN See CHELBURN

UPPERMILL is a village on the River Tame in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, although historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The name is first recorded in 1730 as Upper Mill, which coincides with the beginnings of the industrial revolution and the construction of two mills in the area – a lower and an upper mill. The upper mill was originally a corn mill but was converted for scribbling wool around 1780. It continued in use until the 1930s, when it was demolished.

URMSTON is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is first recorded in 1194 as Wermeston, although Urmeston is found by 1212. It has been suggested that the name is an eponym from the Viking personal name Urm + Old English tūn, but it is now thought that it is from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Wyrm or Orme. Nearby and close to the River Mersey are Urmston Meadows (Old English mǣd) and Urmston Ees (Old English ēg, meaning ‘island’, often a piece of firm land in an area liable to flooding).

VAUXHALL GARDENS were originally a 9-hectare pleasure garden in Collyhurst on the banks of the River Irk in the City of Manchester. They were created in the 1790s by Robert Tinker (c.1766-1836), the owner of a local coffee house and tea gardens. They were initially known as the Elysian Gardens after Elysium, the afterlife in Greek mythology, although popularly known as ‘Tinker’s Gardens’. In 1814 he changed the name to Vauxhall Gardens after London’s Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, and under this name they continued in use until about 1852. They then fell into disrepair, and the land was used for sand quarrying. In the 1970s the land was set aside as a public recreational space and renamed Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in 2012. Vauxhall in London is recorded as Faukeshale in 1279 and takes its name Faukes de Bréauté, who built a house there in the early 13^th century. The name was adopted for pleasure gardens in Birmingham, New York and St Petersburg, as well as Manchester.

VELODROME in Clayton, about 5 kilometres east of Manchester city centre, was opened in 1994 as the National Cycling Centre with an Olympic-standard indoor racing track for training and competitions. The name comes from the French vélodrome, from vélo (‘bicycle’) + -drome (‘a place for running or racing’) and first appeared in English in 1902. Metrolink opened the Velopark tram stop on 11 February 2013.

VERNON PARK is a 6-hectare country park in Stockport, east of the town centre. It was opened on 20 September 1858 on land donated to Stockport Corporation in 1842 by George John Warren, Lord Vernon (1803-66), and named after him. It was sometimes known as “Pinch Belly Park” or “the People’s Park” because of the poverty among local mill workers.

VIADUCT PARK is a 0.8-hectare rooftop park atop the Interchange bus station and transport hub in Stockport town centre. It was opened in 2024 and takes its name from the nearby Stockport Viaduct, which carries the main Manchester to London railway line over the River Mersey. The viaduct was built by the Manchester & Birmingham Railway in 1839-1840 using about 11 million bricks. It was one of the earliest viaducts and, at that time, it was the largest viaduct in the world. In 1839, the word ‘viaduct’ was new – it had been coined only in 1816.

VICTORIA BRIDGE is a single-arch road bridge across the River Irwell between the cities of Salford and Manchester. It was built in 1838-1839 and named after Queen Victoria (1819-1901).

VICTORIA NORTH is one of the twelve new towns announced by the government in September 2012. The plan is to build an inner-city new town on 155 hectares of brownfield north-east of Manchester city centre, with 15,000 homes and 46 hectares of green space to be named City River Park. The area includes parts of New Cross, Collyhurst, Red Bank, Vauxhall Gardens, Sandhills Park and Smedley. It takes its name from the nearby Victoria Station and ultimately from Queen Victoria (1819-1901).

VICTORIA PARK, Denton is a 2-hectare public park in Denton in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The land was purchased in 1886 but the park was not opened until 1913. The park is adjacent to Victoria Street, which takes its name from Queen Victoria.

VICTORIA PARK, Rusholme is a suburb of Manchester lying about 3 kilometres south of the city centre between Longsight and Rusholme. Its name comes from the Victoria Park Company, which was established in 1836 to build a residential area with large houses for prosperous and professional families.

VICTORIA PARK, Stockport is a 6-hectare park in the Heaviley district of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was opened in the late 19^th century, probably to commemorate the 60^th year of the reign of Queen Victoria.

VICTORIA PARK, Swinton is a 6-hectare public park in Swinton in the City of Salford. It was opened in 1897 to commemorate the 60th year of the reign of Queen Victoria.

VICTORIA STATION was opened in 1843 by the Manchester & Leeds Railway. In 1844 the Liverpool & Manchester Railway extended its lines to Victoria and closed its Liverpool Road terminus. The new station was originally to have been called Hunt’s Bank, but was instead named after Queen Victoria. In 1846 the Manchester & Leeds merged with other local companies to form the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway and established its headquarters at Victoria. The station has been rebuilt in various ways in the past: several platforms were converted into a Metrolink tram station in 1992 and in 1992-94 the new Manchester Arena stadium was built above some of the northern end.

VICTORY is a residential area north-east of Bolton. It is said to be named after HMS Victory, the flagship of Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), and streets in the area were name after Nelson’s victories at Nile and Trafalgar, as well as after Nelson himself.

VIMTO PARK is a small park in central Manchester that takes its name from the soft drink, Vimto, which was first manufactured on the site on Granby Row in 1908. The drink was at first named ‘Vim Tonic’, because it was said to give the drinker vim and vigour, but this was shortened to Vimto in 1912. The park includes a wooden sculpture of a Vimto bottle and all its fruit ingredients.

VIRIDOR WOOD is a 96-hectare country park in Bamfurlong in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan that forms part of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh. It is on the site of Mains Colliery, which was opened in about 1870 and closed in 1960. It then became a landfill site owned and operated by a waste disposal company named Viridor, which is the Latin for ‘to become green’. The site was purchased by the Forestry Commission in 2001 and transformed into a country park.

WAIN STONES Near Wain Stones and Far Wain Stones are rock formations on Saddleworth Moor in the Peak District National Park in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Academic sources give the origin as Old English wægn, meaning ‘wagon’, but offer no explanation. Local sources derive the name from Old English wanian, meaning ‘to howl’, in reference to the sound the wind makes as in blows through the rocks. Wanian can also mean ‘to lament’ and it is suggested that the rocks may have some significance as a place of mourning. Two of the rocks are known as the Kissing Rocks from their shape, which resembles two heads close together as if kissing.

WALKDEN is a town in the City of Salford about 11 kilometres north-west of Manchester city centre. The name is first recorded in 1325 as Walkeden and this is usually said to mean ‘Walca’s valley’ from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Wealaca + denu (‘valley’). However, an alternative interpretation is that the origin is the Old English Wealaca, meaning ‘a fuller’ – someone who shrinks and thickens woollen cloth by moistening, heating, and pressing it by walking on it. This might suggest that Wealaca was a fuller or took his name from the occupation. This would fit with Walkden’s history as a textile manufacturing centre.

WALKDEN GARDENS are a 2-hectare public park and open-air theatre in Sale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The site was originally developed as a nursery by Harry Walkden, but on his death in 1949 it was bequeathed to Sale Borough Council and named in his memory.

WALKER FOLD is a rural woodland area north-west of Bolton. It is not well documented and is assumed to be an eponym meaning ‘the animal enclosure (Old English fald) belonging to someone called Walker’.

WALKERS is a residential area north-west of Grotton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1738 as Walker’s and is probably derived, directly or indirectly, from the Old English wealcere, meaning ‘someone who treats woollen cloth by treading on it in a tub of caustic soda’. This definition of a walker or ‘fuller’ pre-dates the modern meaning of ‘walker’ and is the origin of the common surname. Walkers in Oldham may therefore mean ‘land where walking or fulling took place’ or may be an eponym signifying land belonging to someone called Walker.

WALKER’S FIELD or MISS WALKER’S FIELD is a public recreational area in Bury. In the 19^th century the land belonged to the Walker family, who were Lancashire landowners, cotton manufacturers and bankers. The last of the family, a Miss A Walker, died in the early 1950s and donated the land to Bury Council.

WALKERWOOD RESERVOIR is one of the four Swineshaw reservoirs – Lower Swineshaw, Higher Swineshaw, Brushes and Walkerwood – built in 1864-70 to supply drinking water to Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge in what is now the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name was taken from a local settlement which was recorded on the 1842 Ordnance Survey map but has disappeared from modern maps. The derivation is uncertain but is probably a surname eponym, meaning ‘the wood belonging to someone named Walker’.

WALLGATE is an urban area in the centre of Wigan that takes its name from the area around the mediaeval street of Wallgate and Wigan Wallgate railway station. Wallgate is one of the Wigan ‘gates’, all of which were (and many still are) streets dating from the Middle Ages, and perhaps much earlier as ‘gate’ is derived from the Old Norse gata, meaning ‘road, street’. Wallgate means ‘Welsh road’, from the Old English walh or wealh, suggesting it was the road west to Wales. The others are Standishgate (the road to Standish), Hallgate (the road to Wigan Hall), Millgate (the road leading to a watermill on the River Douglas) and Stairgate (the road to the River Douglas via a set of steps).

WALL HILL is a hamlet in the Saddleworth area of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in 1624 but no explanation is offered. The name could be quite literal and refer to the dry stone walls found across Saddleworth hillsides. Another theory is that the ‘wall’ could be the rows of stone tenter posts erected by flannel manufacturers above the hamlet which might look like walls, although the current ones date only from about 1840.

WALLNESS is a residential area of north-west Salford and includes Wallness Bridge across the River Irwell. The name is recorded in 1261 as Walneys, from the Old English hwæl, meaning ‘round hill’ + ness (‘promontory, headland’), referring the land inside the long meander in the Irwell at this point. The name had been rationalised to Wallness by the beginning of the 19^th century, although the spelling ‘Walneys’ is found in burial records as late as 1852.

WALLSUCHES is a residential district of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is not well documented before 1777, when brothers Thomas and John Ridgway moved from Dog Hill in Bolton to a site east of Horwich and established the Wallsuches Bleachworks. It is said that the name comes from the Old English wella, meaning ‘stream’, + soc, meaning ‘to soak’. This derivation could refer to the numerous streams running off the moors to the east which would provide the water for the bleaching of cloth on the banks.

WALMERSLEY is a suburb of north Bury. The name is recorded in 1262 as Walmeresley and is said to mean ‘the clearing of Waldmer or Walhmer’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + lēah (‘woodland clearing’). Alternatively, it could mean ‘lake by a wood’, from Old English wald (‘woodland, forest’) + mere (‘pool, lake’).

WALSHAW is a village north-west of Bury. The name is recorded in 1311 as Wolleshagh, meaning ‘the small wood by a stream’, from Old English wælla (‘stream’) + sceaga (‘copse, small wood’). The stream is the nearby Walshaw Brook, a tributary of the River Roch, which would seem to take its name from the village rather than vice versa.

WALTON PARK is a 5-hectare public park in Sale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford that was formerly in Cheshire. The land was acquired by the local authority in 1938 and opened to the public in 1939. Walton is a common place name in England and usually means ‘the farmstead or settlement of the Welsh or Britons’, from the Old English walh + tūn. The name suggests that there had been an earlier Celtic settlement on or close to the site.

WARBURTON is a village on the south bank of the River Mersey in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Wareburgetune and Warburgetone, meaning ‘the estate or village (tūn) of a woman called Wǣrburg’.

WARBURTON GREEN is a residential area of Hale Barns in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is believed to derive from the Warburton family, as one Peter Warburton (1618-78) leased 4 hectares of land at ‘the Greene’, but other sources trace the name as far back as 1572.

WARDLE is a town north-east of Rochdale. The name is recorded as Warhul in 1193 and with its modern spelling in 1580. The meaning is ‘look-out hill’, from Old English weard (‘watch, look-out’) + hyll, referring to Brown Wardle Hill, a 400-metre-high hill north-west of the town. The name of Brown Wardle Hill suggests that modern English hill reduplicates Old English hyll because it had been reduced to -le and its meaning forgotten.

WARDLEWORTH is a residential area of Rochdale, formerly in Lancashire. It is recorded in about 1200 and is said to mean ‘the enclosed settlement (worth) close to Wuerdle’. See also WARDLE and WUERDLE

WARDLEY is a suburb in the north-west of the City of Salford. The name is recorded in 1148 as Weardeleige and means ‘clearing or wood (lēah) near a fortified place’ (warde, ‘protection’).

WARHILL or WAR HILL is a hamlet in the Mottram-in-Longdendale area of the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in 1360 as le Wharell, which academic sources derive from the Middle English quarrelle, meaning ‘a quarry’. However, according to local legend, the hill was the site of a battle in 1138 in the Anarchy War between Stephen and Matilda for the English throne. Stephen (reigned 1135-54) was victorious but Matilda’s son eventually succeeded King Stephen as Henry II (reigned 1154-89). The church of St Michael and All Angels is said to have been erected on Warhill to commemorate the battle.

WARLOW PIKE and WARLOW BROOK Warlow Brook, a tributary of the River Tame, rises on Warlow Pike and flows north to meet the Tame near Mossley in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. Warlow Pike is recorded in 1468 as Harelowe, from Old English hār (‘grey’ or ‘boundary) + hlāw (‘hill’), and Pike comes Old English pic, meaning ‘a point’, as on the mediaeval weapon, and so ‘a pointed hill’. It has been suggested that Warlow Pike marked the ancient boundary between Cheshire and Saddleworth, and the boundary was marked with grey stones so that hār came to mean ‘boundary’.

WARTH FOLD is a residential and recreational area south-west of Bury. The name is not well documented and literally means ’animal enclosure animal enclosure’ – an example of reduplication as Old English worth and fald both mean ‘animal enclosure’.

WATCH HILL CASTLE is mediaeval castle in Bowdon in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford also known as Castle Hill. The site is located north of the River Bollin, overlooking a ford by which the old Roman road from Manchester to Chester crossed the river. The name is apparently not recorded until the 19^th century, but it evidently means ‘look-out hill’ from the Old English waecce (‘a watch, look-out’) + hyll. The earlier name of Castle Hill was recorded in 1481 as Le Castell Milne (i.e. Castle Mill) but in 1535 as Castill Hill.

WATERDALE is a residential and parkland area in Whitefield in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is recorded in the 1780s when a series of reservoirs was constructed for the Waterdale Bleach & Dye Works, although it may have been a farm name at an earlier date. The works was demolished in the 1970s and the area was used for waste spoil during the construction of the M62 motorway, but is has since been regenerated as a nature reserve. The name means ‘the valley (Old English dæl) of the waters (wæter)’, referring to the waters of Mere Brook and Bradley Brook.

WATERGROVE RESERVOIR is a reservoir in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, which was completed in 1938. It takes its name from the former village of Watergrove, which was evacuated and submerged when the reservoir was built. The village had originally developed in the 1840s to provide housing for Watergrove Mill, which was built in 1841.

WATERHEAD is a residential area of north-east Oldham. The name is recorded in 1648 as Watergate Mill but as Waterhead in 1844, when it was created as a parish. Both gate and head here mean ‘the source of a river or stream’, which could refer to any of the streams that rise in this area on the edge of the moors.

WATER HEYES is a residential area of north-east Wigan beside the River Douglas. The name is not well documented before the mid-19^th century and its origin does not seem to have been explored. Given its position, it is likely that it means ‘enclosures beside the water’, from Old English wæter (referring to the Douglas) + hǣg (‘enclosure’). It is a coincidence that the Water Heyes Electrical Company was founded by brothers William and Lancelot Heyes at the turn of the 20^th century.

WATERHOUSES is a village (also known as Daisy Nook) and country park in Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It takes its name from The Waterhouse, the former name of Medlock Hall, a country house dating from the 15^th century.

WATERLOO is a residential area of Ashton-under-Lyne in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is recorded in 1823 and takes its name from Wellington’s victory at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium in June 1815. The name of the original Belgian village means ‘watery clearing’, from the Middle Dutch water + loo (‘forest, clearing’). A number of streets in the Ashton Waterloo are named after officers in the victorious army.

WATERS BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame which rises north of Bleak Hey Nook in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows south west through Waters Clough to meet Hull Brook, which then flows south west to join the Tame in Delph. The name Waters is found in several places locally: Waters Farm is recorded in 1722 and Waters Gate marks the entry to Waters Lane, which leads to Waters Farm. The names all seem to refer to the various headwaters of the Tame that meet in the area.

WATERSHEDDINGS is a residential area of north-east Oldham, formerly in Lancashire. It is recorded in 1102 as Watersdeles, a name that means ‘the dividing of the waters’, i.e. the watershed at the top of Pendle Hill. The name comes from Middle English water + shadel (‘parting’), a name and spelling that are still found in Watersheddles Reservoir in Lancashire, built in 1877. The modern word ‘watershed’ is not found in English until 1764, and it seems likely that the name of the village was rationalised at some point to align with the modern term.

WATER’S NOOK is a residential area of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It is not well documented before 1891. Its name is derived from its position in nook of land north of the V-shaped confluence of the waters of Hall Lee Brook with another, apparently-unnamed stream flowing from the north-east. Nook comes from the Old English nōk (‘nook of land; triangular plot’).

WEASTE is an inner-city suburb of the City of Salford, previously in Lancashire. The name comes from the Old French wast or waste, meaning ‘uncultivated or common land’. The word is used throughout the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) in its Latin form, wasta, for uninhabited land for which dues and taxes would not be paid, but Weaste in Lancashire is not mentioned. Although the name would seem to date from mediaeval times, Weaste is not well documented. A map of 1675 calls what is now Weaste Lane ‘Brewers Lane’. Weaste Hall dates from 1831.

“WEATHERFIELD” is a fictional town in Greater Manchester which since 1974 has been the location for the Coronation Street soap opera. According to Corriepedia, it was originally a farming area called Bellwether Field, meaning ‘the field of the wethered ram around whose neck a bell was hung’, from the Old/Middle English belle (‘bell’) + wether (‘castrated ram’) + feld (‘field, farm’). Over time, this was simplified to Wetherfield and ultimately rationalised to Weatherfield.

WEDNESHOUGH is a location in Hollingworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in 1795 with its modern spelling but its origin is disputed: it is often said that Wedneshough Green was an ancient religious site named after the Anglo-Saxon god Woden + Old Norse skógr (‘a wood’) or Old English hōh (spur of land’), but the first element could also be Old English withign (‘willow’) or wēoden (‘covered with weeds’).

WEIR MILL or WEAR MILL is a repurposed cotton mill in Stockport that is now a residential and retail centre. The Tame and the Goyt meet in central Stockport to form the River Mersey, which then flows west towards Brinksway. In this short stretch five water-powered cotton mills were built in the 1790s, each with its own weir. One of those on the south bank was named, appropriately, Weir Mill, although it had been converted to steam by 1834. One of the arches of the Stockport Viaduct was built over it in 1840 and part of the upper floor was demolished when the viaduct was doubled in 1888-1889. It ceased production in the 1970s and was restored in 2024 as part of Stockport’s regeneration plans.

WELL GREEN is a residential area on the edge of Hale Barns in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford close to Fairywell Brook. It is recorded in 1831 as Waugh Green but with its modern spelling in 1841. Its meaning and derivation are thought to be literal: ‘the green by a well, spring or stream’, from Old English wella + grēne.

WELLINGTON BRIDGE is an 11-arch road bridge in Stockport that carries Wellington Road, the modern A6 and a rerouting of the old Roman Road from Manchester to Buxton, over the valley of the River Mersey. The bridge was built in 1824-1826 and was named after the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), the victor at the Battle of Waterloo of 1815 and later prime minister.

WERNETH is a residential area of Oldham, formerly in Lancashire, about 1.5 kilometres west-south-west of Oldham town centre. It is recorded in 1226 as Vernet, meaning ‘place where alder trees grow’ and is derived from the Celtic verno, meaning ‘alder trees’. It is a rare survivor of a Celtic place name and reflects the wooded landscape of the time.

WERNETH BROOK is a stream and tributary of the River Tame in Hyde in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, formerly in Cheshire. It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Warnet, meaning ‘place where alder trees grow’ from the Celtic verno, meaning ‘alder trees’.

WERNETH LOW is a 279-metre hill on the boundary between the Metropolitan Boroughs of Stockport and Tameside, north-east of Romiley. It is recorded in about 1620 as Wernith Low, meaning ‘the hill (Old English hlāw) where alder trees (Celtic verno) grow’.

WEST DIDSBURY See DIDSBURY

WEST GORTON See GORTON

WESTHOUGHTON is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, 6 kilometres south-west of Bolton itself and 21 kilometres north-west of Manchester city centre. The name is recorded in about 1240 as Westhalcton and with its modern spelling from the 16^th century. It means ‘the western settlement in a nook of land’, from Old English west (‘west, western’) + halh (‘nook, corner of land’) + tūn (‘enclosure, village’). The West was originally to distinguish it from Little Houghton, a village name that seems to have vanished, and the nook may refer to a bend in nearby Water’s Nook.

WEST HULME or WESTHULME is, as its name suggests, a residential area west of Oldham. It is not well documented before the mid-19^th century, with West Hulme isolation hospital built in the 1870s, and even on the 1882 Ordnance Survey map it appears as a separate hamlet. The name combines Old English west with the Old Norse element holmr (‘dry land, promontory’) which originally formed part of Oldham’s 13^th-century name – Aldholm.

WESTLEIGH is a suburb of north-west Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The name is recorded in 1238 as Westlegh, from Old English West + Old English lēah, meaning ‘wood, clearing or meadow’. The West distinguishes it from Leigh itself. See also ASTLEY. Westleigh gives its name to Westleigh Brook, a tributary of Glaze Brook, a tributary of the River Mersey which flows from north to south through the town.

WEST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE was until 1974 one of the three ridings (i.e. third-ings) of Yorkshire, the ancient county named after the city of York. Since 1974, the West Riding has become simply West Yorkshire, although parts of the old West Riding around Saddleworth were transferred to the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester.

WESTWOOD is a residential area of western Oldham. The name is first recorded as Westewood in the late 13th century, from the Old English west + wudu, meaning ‘place to the west of a wood or forest’ or ‘a forest to the west of a settlement’.

WESTWOOD FLASH is one of the seven ‘flashes’ or lakes mostly created by mining subsidence early in the 20^th century that make up the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh. The name originates with Westwood (i.e. ‘western wood’) Hall, a country house built in about 1785 south-west of Ince-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. Westwood Power Station was built nearby in 1948-50 but closed and demolished in 1989. The cooling water for the power station formed a man-made lake which is now Westwood Flash, while the site of the power station has been developed as Westwood Business Park and the estate of Westwood Hall is now Westwood Park Gardens.

WESTWOOD PARK is a residential area south-east of Worsley in the City of Salford. The area was originally the site of Westwood Park, a country house with formal gardens dating from the 18^th or 19^th century, presumably named because it was a wooded area west of the main townships of Salford at the time. The house has been demolished but the estate is now Broadoak Park.

WET EARTH COLLIERY was a coal mine in Dixon Fold in the City of Salford. It was first opened in 1756 and was originally called Gal Pit from the Galloway ponies that were used there. It had to be closed because of flooding but an ingenious drainage system was devised and it re-opened in the 1760s, although the flooding problems were recalled in its name. The mine was painted by Lowry in 1925 (see Appendix 2) and was closed in about 1928, but the site was later converted into Clifton Country Park, which opened in 2005.

WHALLEY RANGE is an inner-city area in Moss Side and Withington in the City of Manchester, previously in Lancashire. It was one of the earliest suburbs of Manchester, built in the 1830s by local banker and businessman Samuel Brooks (1793-1864) (see also BROOKLANDS). He named the area after his birthplace, Whalley near Blackburn in Lancashire. Whalley is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the site of the great battle of Hwælleage in April 798 and takes its name from the Old English hwæl, meaning ‘round hill’ + lēah, ‘clearing or settlement’.

WHARFSIDE is a regeneration area in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal opposite Salford Quays and including Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium and the Imperial War Museum. The name is taken from the location beside the wharves of the Manchester Ship Canal and seems to have been devised at the time the Metrolink tram stop (originally to have been called Manchester United) was opened on 22 March 2020 with the name ‘Wharfside’.

WHELLEY is a residential area of Wigan, north-east of the town itself. The name is recorded in about 1160 as Quelley and with its modern spelling from 1553. It means ‘round settlement’, from Old English hweol (‘wheel; water-wheel; anything round, such as a stone circle or a curving valley or hill’) + lēah (‘clearing or settlement’).

WHIT BROOK is a tributary of the River Irk that rises south of Rochdale and flows south to join the Irk west of Middleton. The name is not well documented but means simply ‘white stream’ from the Old English hwīt + brōc.

WHITE BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame which rises at White Brook Spring south east of Heathfields and flows about 830 metres north west to meet the Tame at Uppermill in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is recorded in the 13^th century as Wytibroke and Whitebrok, literally meaning ‘white brook’ from Old English hwīt + brōc.

WHITE BROW is a residential area on the banks of the River Roch in Hollins in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is recorded on Ordnance Survey maps surveyed in the mid-1840s and means ‘the pale hill’, from the Old English hwīt + bru. The brow refers to the slope rising from the River Roch and the white could be the pale rock or soil, white flowers or fields.

WHITEFIELD is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury that was formerly part of Lancashire. The name is first recorded in 1292 as Whitefeld, meaning ‘white field or land’, from Old English hwīta + feld. There are several theories about what the ‘white’ element might mean: long-lying snow, white flowers such as lilies (see Lily Hill), fabric laid out for bleaching or wheat fields.

WHITEGATE and WHITEGATE END are nearby residential and industrial areas of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Whitegate is recorded in 1556 but the name is not well documented. Gate, from Old Norse gata, means ‘road’, and End suggests that both places were at one time at the end of a road. Why this road was White is not known but it might be that it was the road to White Moss.

WHITEHEAD BROOK See WHITEHEAD HALL MEADOWS

WHITEHEAD GARDENS is a public park and war memorial in Tottington in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. It is named after Mr and Mrs S D Whitehead, who gave the garden to the people of Tottington in remembrance of the seven people who were killed when an air-launched V1 flying bomb landed on Chapel Street on 24 December 1944.

WHITEHEAD HALL MEADOWS is a 5.58 hectare nature reserve in Astley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The original Whitehead Hall was a mediaeval farmhouse in the area of Worsley and Tyldesley, apparently named after the Whitehead family. The farm survived until the 1950s, when it became the site for colliery waste from nearby coal mines. In 2000 this was cleared and designated as nature reserve. Whitehead Brook, a tributary of Glaze Brook, which forms part of the boundary between Wigan and Salford, also takes its name from the Whitehead family.

WHITE ISLES BROOK rises north of Windy Hill in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows west to join Longden End Brook, which then flows south-west through Rakewood Valley to empty into Hollingworth Lake. The name is not recorded on 19^th-century maps and its origin and meaning are uncertain. White may refer to light soil or white flora such as sedge. Isles may be a corruption or rationalisation of Ealees, a name found to the north-west of White Isles Brook and meaning ‘clearings or ‘islands’ of land beside a brook or river’, from the Old English ēa (‘river’) + lēah (woodland clearing’).

WHITELEY See LOWER WHITELEY DEAN BROOK

WHITE MOSS is a rural and recreational area north of Charlestown in the City of Manchester spreading across parts of Middleton and Chadderton, with part now occupied by Blackley golf course. The place is not well documented: moss refers to the large areas of peat bog across the east of Greater Manchester, and, while such swampland can be covered with white moss flowers, this cannot be confirmed as the origin of the name.

WHITE’S BRIDGE is a road bridge over the Bridgewater Canal in Sale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It was built in 1816 and named after Dr Charles White (1728-1813), co-founder of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, who lived nearby at Sale Priory (see Priory Gardens).

WHITLEY is a residential area of Wigan north of the town centre. It takes its name from Whitley Hall, which is recorded as being rebuilt in about 1584. It was demolished sometime before the 1940s but the grounds included a large lake, which is now Whitley reservoir. The name means ‘white clearing or meadow’ from the Old English hwīt + lēah, but why the place was described as ‘white’ is uncertain.

WHITTAKER is a village south-east of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale that gives its name to Whittaker Woods, a 4.65-hectare area of woodland, and to Whittaker Spout Gutter, a stream which rises to the east and flows west to join Shore Lane Brook, which ultimately flows into Hollingworth Lake. The name is not well documented but literally means ‘white field’ from Old English hwīt + æcer. Whittaker Spout Gutter is more complex: Spout comes from Middle English spoute (‘spout, spring’) and Gutter could come either from Old English gota (‘water course, stream’) or Middle English goter (‘small brook, channel’, from the Old French gutiere). This is the only occurrence of gutter in Greater Manchester, but it is more common in Lancashire: the Ribble/Douglas rivers have six tributaries including gutter as an element in their name.

WHITTLE HILL is a residential area of Egerton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. It takes its name from the 470-metre high hill nearby. It is first recorded in 1292 as Quitful and with its modern spelling in 1612. It means ‘white or bright hill’ from the Old English hwit + hyll. Over time, the second element (hill) was reduced to –le, and so the meaning was reduplicated by adding another ‘Hill’.

WHITWORTH PARK is a public park with an art gallery south of Manchester city centre. The park and Whitworth Art Gallery were laid out on land purchased from the will of Sir Joseph Whitworth (1803-1887), the engineer known for his standard screw threads. The park and gallery were donated to the City of Manchester and opened in 1890.

WICHEAVES See PEEL

WICKENS BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises north of Pobgreen in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows through Wickens Clough to meet the Tame south of Uppermill. Wickens and Wickens Clough are recorded in 1725 and the name means ‘wiggin or mountain ash trees’ from Old English cwicen.

WIGAN is a town on the River Douglas and, since 1974, a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester. The name is first recorded in 1199 as Wigan and is probably an eponym meaning ‘the dwelling or homestead of Wigan’, from the Celtic personal name Wigan. An alternative possibility is that it is from the Old English wicum, meaning ‘at the dwellings’. According to folk etymology, the town’s name is derived from the wiggin tree, a variant of the rowan or mountain ash, and a wiggin tree is included on Wigan’s coat of arms. ‘Wiggin’ is a dialect variant of Middle English quiken, which is also found in Wickenlow in Lancashire.

WIGAN FLASHES NATURE RESERVE is a 260-hectare country park in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan that forms one of the 8 sites of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh. It consists of seven wetlands mostly formed by the subsidence of colliery workings at the turn of the 20^th century – Bryn Marsh, Horrocks’ Flash, Ochre Flash, Pearson’s Flash, Scotman’s Flash, Turner’s Flash and Westwood Flash. It was opened as a nature reserve and site of special scientific interest in 2022. A flash is a mining term for a lake formed by subsidence (a meaning not included in the Oxford English Dictionary).

WIGAN PIER was originally a wharf on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in Wigan. It was probably built sometime in the 18^th century, when the main meaning of the word pier was an industrial wharf or jetty rather than an entertainment facility built by the sea. Wigan Pier became a music-hall joke and featured in a song by George Formby, as well as the title of George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, a 1937 study of the social conditions of Lancashire’s working classes. Orwell explained the joke: ‘At one time, on one of the muddy little canals that run round the town, there used to be a tumble-down wooden jetty; and by way of a joke someone nicknamed this Wigan Pier. The joke caught on locally, and then the music-hall comedians got hold of it, and they are the ones who have succeeded in keeping Wigan Pier alive as a byword’. The original Wigan Pier was demolished in about 1929 but nearby warehouses continued in use. In the 1980s they were converted into a museum of Victorian life but this closed in 2007 and current plans are to convert the buildings of Wigan Pier and Eckersley Mill for residential, retail and entertainment use.

WILBRAHAM ROAD is a long road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Fallowfield in south Manchester, originally built in the 1860s with large houses. It was named after Wilbraham Egerton (1832-1909) of Tatton Park, who was MP for North Cheshire and the second chairman of the Manchester Ship Canal.

WILDERSWOOD is a 9.7-hectare woodland north east of Horwich and south of Wilders Moor in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is recorded in 1322 as Wilderhirst, from Old English wilder, meaning ‘wild animal, especially a deer’.

WILDHOUSE is an area in Butterworth in south-eastern Rochdale. A property called ‘Wyld House’ is recorded in the area in the late 15^th century, its name literally meaning the house or home of the Wyld or Wylde family, who are known to have lived in the area since the late 13^th century.

WILL BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame which rises on Rocher Moss in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and flows west through Will Clough to join Brun Brook, which then flows into the Tame as Diggle Brook. The name and its origin seem to be undated and undocumented. Possible derivations are Old English wilig (‘the stream beside willow trees’) or wylla/wyll (‘the stream that comes from a well or spring’).

WILLOWS is a residential area north of Daubhill in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton dating from the 1930s. It takes its name from the nearby Willows Lane, which is recorded in 1762 as part of the St Helens to Bolton turnpike. The lane also formed the boundary between Bolton and Rumworth. Willow comes from the Old English wilig or welig.

WILSON BROOK is a tributary of the River Tame that rises as Godley Brook and flows west and then south to join the Tame in Hyde in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in 1800, when the Ashton family operated a mill at Godley beside Wilson Brook. The name is thought to be an eponym, perhaps from the local Wilson-Patten family, one of whom, John Wilson-Patten (1802-1892) was MP for Lancashire and, later, North Lancashire from 1830 to 1874.

WINCE BROOK is a 5.1-kilometre tributary of the River Irk which rises south of Middleton Junction and flows north east to join the Irk in Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is not well documented before the mid-19^th century but it is known that it was formerly called Wink’s Brook. The name probably means either ‘a swiftly moving brook’, from Middle English wincen (‘to turn or move swiftly’), or ‘sharply-turning brook’, from Old English wince/wincel (‘sharp bend, corner’). The brook lends its name to Wince Brook Nature Reserve, which has been established since 2011.

WINDLEHURST is a small village south of Marple in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The name is recorded in 1759 with its modern spelling and means ‘wooded hill where coarse grass grows’, from the Middle English windle (shortened from windel-strēaw, meaning ‘coarse grass used for making windles or woven baskets’) + hyrst (‘wooded hill’).

WINDSOR is an area of Pendleton in the City of Salford, although the name seems to be falling out of use. The name is not well documented before the end of the 18^th century, when Windsor Wharf was built, the Windsor Castle pub was opened in 1791, a road bridge was built over the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal, and the New Windsor chapel was opened in 1797. The area seems to have originally been called ‘New Windsor’ and the name was transferred from Windsor in Berkshire, the name of which means ‘a slope with a windlass’, from the Old English windels (‘winding-gear, a winch, a windlass’) + ōra (‘a slope, shore’). Adopting the name of a fashionable or affluent town in the south of England was especially popular in the 1790s as a process of gentrification.

WINDY ARBOUR or WINDY HARBOUR is, with various spellings, found in several parts of England. There are two in Greater Manchester: Windy Arbour, a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, south-west of Wigan itself, and Windy Harbour, a location east of Diggle in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The meaning in each case is ‘windy shelter’ or ‘shelter from the wind’, from Old English windig (‘windy’) + here-beorg (‘shelter’). It used to be thought that the reference was to a resting place for legionnaires along a Roman road, but this theory has been challenged and it may refer simply to an exposed shelter. It seems that Windy Arbour in Wigan is not close to any Roman road, but Windy Arbour near Diggle is on the route of the Roman road from Manchester to Castleshaw.

WINDY HILL is a 389-metre hill in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in the South Pennines, close to the border with West Yorkshire and the traditional border between Lancashire and Yorkshire. The name is first recorded in the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps of the 1840s-1850s but is almost certainly much older. The name is quite literal: an exposed hill well-known for its winds and gales up to 200 kph. The M62 crosses the area in Windy Hill Cutting and the Pennine Way Footbridge crosses the cutting at the eastern end in West Yorkshire.

WINGATES is a village north of Westhoughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The name is recorded in 1272 as Windyates, meaning ‘wind gate, a gate for the wind’, referring to a pass through which the wind is funnelled, from Old English wind + geat (‘hole, opening, gap, pass, gate or gateway’). The village is in an area exposed to the wind.

WINNING HILL is now a residential area of Gorton in the City of Manchester which is also known as Ryder Brow. Gorton and nearby Nico Ditch are said to have been the site of battles between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes in the late 9^th and early 10^th centuries, and it is tempting to think that the name commemorates a decisive victory. However, it is also possible that is it derived from the Middle English win, in the sense of reclaiming marshland or woodland for cultivation, or whin, meaning ‘gorse’. 19^th century maps also give the name Ryder Brow or Rider Brow as an alternative to Winning Hill, but the Ryder spelling seems to have been standardised with the opening of Ryder Brow railway station in 1985. Ryder is thought to derive from George Ryder, who oversaw the building of Maidens’ Bridge over Gore Brook in 1737.

WINSTANLEY is a suburb of Wigan that was part of Lancashire until 1974. The name is recorded in 1206 as Unstanesle but its origin and modern spelling are more clearly seen in Wynstaneslegh, recorded in 1252. The name means ‘Wynstan’s clearing in a forest’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Wynstan + lēah. The personal name may be derived from the Old English wynn (‘joy’) + stan (‘stone’) and the mediaeval village is thought to be the origin of the ‘Winstanley’ family name.

WINTER HILL is a 457-metre-high hill in Bolton. It is recorded in the 13^th century as Wintyrhold and Wintyrheld, literally meaning ‘winter hill’ or ‘winter slope’. It has been suggested that the slopes (Old English -helde) are sometimes covered with cotton grass, making it look as if they are covered in snow, even in summer.

WINTON is a residential area on the western edge of the City of Salford. The name is recorded in 1284 as Wythynton and as Wynton in 1535. It means ‘settlement among willow trees’, from Old English withig (‘willow tree’) or withigen (‘growing with willows’) + tūn (‘enclosure, village’).

WITHINGTON is a suburb of Manchester, 6.5 kilometres south of the city centre. The name is recorded in 1212 as Withington, from Old English withig (‘willow tree’) or withigen (‘growing with willows’) + tūn (‘enclosure, village’), one of many places named after the willows that once grew there.

WODEN FOOTBRIDGE or WODEN STREET BRIDGE over the River Irwell between Ordsall in Salford and Cornbrook in Manchester was built in 1873 on the site of Woden’s Ford, an ancient crossing point that took the Roman road from Manchester to Wigan over the river. The ford took its name from the nearby Woden’s Den, a cave in the sandstone river bank that was said to be a temple to the Saxon god Woden, and later a Christian hermitage. The cave was destroyed in 1808 as its owner wanted to prevent travellers from visiting it for luck before crossing the river. The bridge is also known as ‘Mark Addy’s Bridge’ after Mark Addy (1838-1890), a Salford innkeeper and champion rower who was awarded the Albert Medal (forerunner of the George Cross) for rescuing 50 people from the Irwell.

WOLSTENHOLME is a residential area west of Rochdale. The name is recorded in about 1180 as Wolstonholme, an eponym meaning ‘Wulfstan’s raised land in a swampy area’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + Old Norse holmr. Earlier suggestions that the name is derived from the Old English for ‘wolf’ are now discounted.

WOMANSCROFT is a locality in north-east Bramhall close to Bramhall Green and Happy Valley in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. Womanscroft Bridge across the Ladybrook was built in 1931 and replaced one from the early 18^th century. However, an earlier bridge is recorded in 1637, when a landowning woman who ‘had a house with a small croft and toft’ was given certain legal rights, including being a juror and being ‘exempt from the burden of repairing the bridge over Lady Brook, known as the Woman’s Croft bridge’.

WOODBANK MEMORIAL PARK is a 20-hectare public park in Offerton in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport overlooking the River Goyt. It takes its name from Woodbank Farm, which was purchased in 1812 by Peter Marsland, a local cotton manufacturer who built an estate and villa on the land. In 1920 these were sold to Sir Thomas Rowbotham, who donated the land to Stockport Council as a war memorial.

WOODEND or WOOD END is a common place name across England and Greater Manchester. The name is usually literal: ‘where the wood (Old English wudu) ends (ende)’ or ‘the place at the end of the wood’. Woodend Mill in Mossley in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside was built in 1830-40 but the settlement and its name may be older.

WOODFORD is a village outside of Stockport that was in Cheshire until 1974. It is recorded in 1248 as Widford and with its modern spelling from 1430. It means ‘the ford in or by a wood’ from the Old English wudu + ford, and refers to a crossing of the River Dean in a forest. Woodford Aerodrome was opened by the aircraft manufacturer Avro in 1924 and closed in August 2011. Part of the former airfield now houses the Avro Heritage Museum.

WOODGATE HILL is a residential area north-east of Bury town centre. The name is recorded in parish registers in 1766 and means ‘the hill (Old English hyll) by a road (Old Norse gata) through a wood (Old English wudu)’, presumably referring to its position at the junction of Bell Lane/Rochdale Old Road and Castle Hill Road.

WOODHEYS HALL is a housing development in Ashton upon Mersey in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The estate dates from 1931 but the Woodheys name, meaning ‘wood enclosures’ from the Old English wudu + hæg, is recorded in 1831.

WOODHEYS PARK is a 7.5-hectare public park in west Timperley north of Sinderland Brook in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. It was opened in the 1970s on land that was formerly Woodheys Farm. The farm was recorded on the 1831 Ordnance Survey map of the area and means ‘wood enclosures’, from the Old English wudu + hæg.

WOODHILL and WOODHILL FOLD are residential areas north-west of Bury. The name is recorded in 1563 as Wyddell, meaning ‘wide nook of land’, from the Old English wīd + halh, referring to a meander in the nearby River Irwell. Over time, the name was rationalised to ‘Woodhill’.

WOODHOUSE GREEN See WOODHOUSES, Oldham

WOODHOUSE LANE BROOK is a tributary of the River Spodden which rises on Rooley Moor west of Catley Lane Head in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows north and east to join the Spodden in Broadley in Rossendale in Lancashire. It takes its name from Woodhouse Lane, which runs parallel with it in the early part of its course. A house named Woodhouse is recorded in the area in 1709.

WOODHOUSE PARK is a residential area on the southern edge of Wythenshawe in south Manchester. It was formerly a ‘gentleman’s residence’ with its own grounds but it was purchased by Manchester Corporation in 1949 and developed for housing and recreational areas. Woodhouse is recorded in 1675 and literally means ‘the house in or by the woods’.

WOODHOUSES, Oldham, is an area south-east of Failsworth, about 8 kilometres north-east of Manchester city centre. It is recorded before 1390 as Woodheyes, meaning ‘an enclosure surrounded by woods’, from Old English wudu (‘wood, forest’) + haga (’enclosure, property’). The original meaning probably became forgotten and the name was rationalised to ‘Woodhouses’. The village of Bottom of Woodhouses is located south-west of Woodhouses.

WOODHOUSES, Trafford, is a residential area north-west of Timperley and north of Sinderland Brook. The name probably comes from Woodhouses Lane, a road which (with various name changes) connects to Dunham Woodhouses. The original name meant ‘houses in a wood’, from Old English wudu + hūs.

WOODLANDS is a residential area north-west of Mottram in Longdendale in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The area takes its name from Woodlands, a country house built in the late 1850s or 1860s by Robert Platt (1802-1882), a local mill owner and philanthropist. The name seems to be a modern descriptive coinage. Platt and his wife later rented Dunham Massey before purchasing Dean Water, a house built in 1837 beside the River Dean in Woodford.

WOODLEY is a suburb of Stockport, north-east of the town centre. The name is recorded in 1326 as Wodley or Wodlegh and with its modern spelling from 1615. It means ‘clearing in the wood’ from Old English wudu + lēah.

WOOD PARK or WOODPARK is a rural and recreational area west of Bardsley in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is descriptive and is recorded from 1860, referring to Woodpark Colliery, Wood Park Farm and Wood Park Clough.

WOODS END or WOODSEND is an area north-west of Flixton in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The name is recorded in 1818 as Woodsend Farm and it has been suggested that it was located at the end of a road from an area known as Wood, but this cannot be confirmed.

WOODSMOOR or WOODS MOOR is a suburb of Stockport, which was part of Cheshire until 1974. In the early 14^th century the area was known as Snibbs Moor, from Snibb, another word for bog. However, it is also known that it was wooded in mediaeval times, so that Woods Moor, first recorded in 1764, probably means ‘the woods by the moor’. Until the late 19^th century, the area was known as Charlestown, probably after a Bramhall farmer named Charles Croft who died in 1792. A map of 1830 shows both Charlesworth and Woods Moor but the name survives today only as Charlestown Road, which leads to what is now Woodsmoor.

WOOLDEN is a rural area north-west of Cadishead alongside the Glaze Brook valley in the City of Salford. In the past, Great Woolden and Little Woolden were mosses that formed part of Chat Moss. The name is recorded in 1299 as Vuleden, probably from the Old English wulf + denu (‘valley’), so that the meaning might be ‘valley of the wolves’. Great Woolden is an Iron Age roundhouse site and Little Woolden Moss forms part of Cadishead and Little Woolden Moss Nature Reserve.

WOOLFOLD is a residential area south-east of Tottington in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The name is not well documented before about 1840, when dye works had already been established there. The area is particularly noted for Woolfold Viaduct, which was originally built in 1882 to carry the Bury & Tottington District Railway over Kirklees Brook. It was demolished in 1974 but replaced with a new viaduct for walkers and cyclists in 2012. Early forms of the name are not recorded but, given the history of wool textiles in the Bury area, it seems likely that it is derived from Old English wull (‘wool’) + fald (‘a small enclosure for animals, a small herding settlement’).

WOOLLEY BRIDGE is a small residential area on the edge of Hollingworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. It is recorded in 1286 as Woleg and as Woolley from 1400. The first record with Bridge is 1842. It means ‘clearing of wolves’, from Old English wulf + lēah.

WORSLEY is a village in the City of Salford about 10 kilometres west of the centre of Manchester. The Bridgewater Canal originally terminated at Worsley when it was opened in 1761 but it was later extended westward to Runcorn in Cheshire. The name is recorded in 1196 as Werkesleia, meaning ‘the woodland or clearing (Old English -lēah) belonging to a woman called Weorcgӯth or a man called Weorchæth’.

WORSLEY HALL is a residential area west of Wigan built after World War II on the site of a country house or hall that probably dated from the 18th century. Details of the house, its name and its owners are sparse – it was probably built by a family called Worsley, but with no connection with Worsley or Worsley Hall in Salford, and demolished in the late 19^th or early 20^th century.

WORSLEY MESNES is a suburb of Wigan, south of the town centre. The name is not well documented but it can be traced back at least as far as the 17^th century, when a country house with this name is recorded. It consists of three elements. The third is from the Anglo-Norman demesnes, meaning ‘the domain or manor of’ a particular landowner. The first and second are presumably far older, coming from the Old English Anglo-Saxon personal name Weorcgӯth + -lēah (‘clearing’). The area includes Mesnes Park, a large public park opened in 1927.

WORTHINGTON is a thinly-populated area about 6.5 kilometres north of Wigan which also gives its name to the three Worthington Lakes reservoirs and Worthington Lakes Country Park. The name is recorded in 1210 as Worthinton, an eponym meaning ‘Worth’s village’, from the Anglo-Saxon personal name + ing (‘named after, belonging to’) + tūn (‘enclosure, village’). The three reservoirs are fed by the River Douglas and were built in the mid-19^th century to supply Wigan and now form part of the 20-hectare country park.

WORTHINGTON PARK is a 6.5-hectare public park in Sale in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. At the end of the 19^th century the local authority wanted to develop a public park in Sale to celebrate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee but the funding was not approved. However, Mary Worthington of Sale Old Hall provided the funding and on 30 June 1900 she opened the park, which was named Sale Park. In 1950, 50 years after the park was opened, it was renamed in her memory Mary Worthington.

WRIGLEY BROOK is a short, culverted tributary of the River Roch that rises south of Heywood in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and flows northwards to its confluence with the Roch at Bottom o’ th’ Brow. The name is recorded in 1777, when it powered Wrigley Brook Mill, the first cotton mill in Heywood. The name comes from the Wrigley family, who were prominent in the West Riding of Yorkshire and Hopwood in south-east Lancashire from the 15^th century.

WUERDLE is a residential area west of Littleborough in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. The name is recorded in about 1180 as Werdull, possibly meaning ‘the clearing where troops are stationed’, from Old English weorod (‘army’) + lēah (wood, clearing’). Nearby Wardle means ‘look-out hill’ and it has been suggested that the troops keeping watch on Wardle Hill were stationed in Wuerdle.

WYTHENSHAWE is today a district in south Manchester which was formerly in Cheshire. The name is recorded in the 13^th century as Witenscawe and with its modern spelling in 1548. It means ‘willow copse’, from the Old English wīthign (‘withy tree, willow’) + sceaga (‘copse, small wood’). The name originally applied only to a country house dating from about 1540 called Wythenshawe Hall, but in 1925 this was purchased, along with 100 hectares of farmland, by Ernest Simon (son of Henry Simon) and Shena Simon, and donated to the City of Manchester. The City then purchased an additional 1000 hectares in 1926 to build a garden city. In 1931, the whole area was transferred to the City of Manchester and collectively became known as ‘Wythenshawe’. In the 1930s it was the location for large-scale development, forming a council housing estate over 2000 hectares in area – the largest in Europe at the time. Over time, the Wythenshawe estate absorbed several of the farms and hamlets in the area – Baguley, Brooklands, Northenden, Sharston and Woodhouse Park.

YELLOW BROOK is a stream which rises in Haigh Woodland Park and flows west to join the River Douglas in Wigan. It takes its name from its yellow colour, which comes from the iron in the water as it drains from mine workings.

YEOMAN HEY RESERVOIR is one of four reservoirs in the Peak District in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham fed by Greenfield Brook and supplying water to the towns of what is now Tameside. The four are Yeoman Hey, completed in 1880, Greenfield (1902), Chew (1912) and Dove Stone (1968). Yeoman Hey is said to take its name from Yeoman Hey Cottage, a late 18^th century stone cottage that is now a listed building, but the origin of the name is uncertain.

YEW TREE is a residential area of Dukinfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside. The name is recorded in 1830, when it was described as ‘an old farm named after a huge old yew that grew beside it’. The name ‘yew’ is derived from the Old English īw or ēow. Yews are the oldest trees in England but relatively few places are named after them (but see Yorkshire).

YORKSHIRE is the traditional name for the county in north-east England that was previously divided into three Ridings (i.e. thirdings) – North, East and West. In 1974, it was divided into four counties – North Yorkshire, East Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire – although some parts of Saddleworth in West Yorkshire are now administered as part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester. Yorkshire is derived from the city of York + Old English scīr (‘district’). York itself dates from about AD 150 and probably means ‘place of the yew trees’.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & SOURCES

This book has largely been compiled through extensive desk research – gathering the work of earlier scholars rather than carrying out any original field or documentary research. The works of the standard authors on the place names of Britain and north-west England over the past 150 years have all been consulted. These are listed below and I readily acknowledge my great debt to them. However, many smaller and more recently-named places are not included in these books and so I have spent countless hours searching countless websites to explore such place names. Especially useful were those of the many local historians, archaeologists and conservationists who have researched the place names of Greater Manchester in great detail and depth. This is not intended to be a scholarly reference work and these websites are too numerous to list here, but particular mention should be made of the following: Aidan O’Rourke, Allan Russell, Andrew Simpson, the Bolton News, British History Online; the English Dialect Dictionary, the English Place Name Society, the Gazetteer of British Place Names, the Greater Manchester Archaeological Advisory Service, Grace’s Guide, the Lancashire Online Parish project, the Manchester Evening News, National Heritage List for England, the Oxford English Dictionary, Saddleworth Historical Society Bulletin, Surname DB, Wikipedia.

It might be expected that AI would have been a major tool in the compiling of this dictionary, but in fact AI proved to be of very limited use. Various AI tools were used to collect and check basic factual information, but they proved of limited use in the research and drafting of entries. It was found that AI not only offered little evidence as to the origin of place names, but theories and suggestions were often geographically, historically or linguistically incorrect. In extreme cases, AI tools offered absurd ‘facts’- that Peel Causeway, for example, stretched from north Cheshire across the Irish Sea to Peel on the Isle of Man! In other cases, alternative or even contradictory suggestions were made by the same AI tool at different times. AI, it seems, has some way to go before it can be a reliable aid in place-name research.

I should particularly like to thank Dr Ann Cole, Dr Wendy Scarlin and Judith Fell for scrutinizing and correcting the original text, and for their invaluable advice and contributions. All errors and omissions are my own responsibility.

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Cameron, Kenneth	1959	The Place Names of Derbyshire, Part I	Cambridge: University Press
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Crosby, Alan G	2010	Unofficial place-names in nineteenth- and twentieth-century South Lancashire	Nomina 33, pp. 45–64
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APPENDIX 1: DOMESDAY BOOK ENTRIES FOR GREATER MANCHESTER

Following the conquest of 1066, William I ordered a survey of the whole of England to record all settlements and properties to determine what taxes would be due. This was completed as the Domesday Book in 1086-1087 and recorded 13,418 places in total. Approximately 600 were in what are now Cheshire and Lancashire, but only 23 were in Greater Manchester. It is sometimes said that William’s surveyors were less than diligent when it came to the north of England, but it is more likely that the genocidal ‘harrying of the north’ of 1069-1070, in which William’s armies killed up to 150,000 people, left much of the north west ‘waste’ – uninhabited and of little value – as can be seen from many of the entries below.

The overall picture is of sparsely-populated woodland and ploughed arable land, with details of the dimensions and taxable value. The reduced values are another indication of the effects of the harrying. There are several mentions of hawks’ nests – a sign of the earls’ love of hunting.

BAGULEY (Bagelei) Ranulph and Hamo hold Sinderland Green and Baguley. Aleard and Sucga and Wudumannm and Pat held it as 4 manors and were free men. There is 1 hide paying geld. There is land for 1½ ploughs. The whole is waste. [Before 1066] it was worth 3s.

BOLTON (Bodeltun) 6 carucates

BOWDON (Bogedone) The same Hamo holds Bowdon. Alweard held it and was a free man. There is land for 2 ploughs. There 2 Frenchman have 1 plough. There is priest and a church to which half of his hide belongs. There is a mill rendering 16s. it is worth 3s. It was waste and he found it so.

BRAMHALL (Bramale) The same Hamo holds Bramhall. Brun and Hakun held it as 2 manors and were free men. There is 1 hide paying geld. There is land for 6 ploughs. There 1 radman and 2 villans and 2 bordars have 1 plough. There is woodland half a league long and as much wide, and half an enclosure, and 1 acre of meadow. It was worth 32s; now 5s. He found it waste.

BREDBURY (Bretberie) The same Richard de Vernon holds Bredbury, and Wulfric holds of him, who is also a free man. There is one hide paying geld. There is land for 3 ploughs. There 1 radman and 6 villans and 2 bordars have 1 plough. There is woodland 1 league long and half a league wide and 3 enclosures and 1 hawk eyrie. [Before 1066] it was worth 10s; now the same.

CHEADLE (Cedde) Gamal holds Cheadle of the earl. His father held it as a free man. There are 2 hides paying geld. There is land for 6 ploughs. In desmesne is 1 plough and 2 oxmen; and 4 villans and 3 bordars with 2 ploughs. There is woodland 1 league long and half wide, and an enclosure and a hawk’s eyrie, and 1 acre of meadow. It was and is worth 10s. The whole manor is 2 leagues long and 1 wide.

CRIMBLES (Crimeles) In Preston …. Crimbles 1 carucate

DUNHAM (MASSEY) (Doneham) The same Hamo holds Dunham. Alweard held it and was a free man. There is 1 hide paying geld. There is land for 3 ploughs. In demesne is 1 plough and 2 oxmen, and 2 villans and 1 bordar, and 1 acre of woodland, and in the city 1 house. It was worth 12s; 10s. It was waste.

GREENHALGH (> GREENMOUNT) (Greneholf) In Preston … Greenhalgh 3 carucates

HALE (Hale) The same Hamo holds Hale. Alweard held it. There is 1 hide paying geld. There is land for 2½ ploughs. There 3 villans with 1 radman have 2 ploughs. There is woodland 1 league long and a half wide, and an enclosure, and a hawk’s eyrie, and half an acre of meadow. [Before 1066] it was worth 15s; now 12s. He found it waste.

HOLLINGWORTH (Holisurde) The earl himself holds … Hollingworth at 1 virgate.

LONGDENDALE (Langedenedale) In Longdendale … had 4 bovates of land to the geld. … The whole of Longdendale is waste. There is woodland, not for pasture but suitable for hunting. The whole is 8 leagues long and 4 leagues broad. [Before 1066] it was worth 40s.

LUDWORTH (Lodeuorde) In Ludworth Brun had 4 bovates of land.

MANCHESTER The Church of St Mary and the Church of St Michael held in Manchester 1 carucate of land quit of every customary due except geld.

NEWTON (Neweton) In Newton Leofric and Leofnoth had 3 carucates of land to the geld. There is land for 5 ploughs. There is now 1 plough in demesne, and 13 villans and 4 bordars having 5 ploughs. There is a priest having 1 bordar, and 7 acres of meadow. There is woodland pasture 1 league long and a half broad. [Before 1066] worth £4; now 30s. Ralph holds it.

NORBURY (Nordberie) The same Bigod holds Norbury. Brun held it and was a free man. There is 1 hide paying geld. There is land for 4 ploughs. There is one radman with 3 bordars has 1 plough. There is 1 acre of meadow, woodland 5 leagues long and 3 leagues wide, and 5 enclosures there. It was worth 10s; now 3s. He found it waste.

NORTHENDEN (Norwordine) Ranulph and Bigod hold of the earl Northenden. Wulfgeat held it as 1 manor and was a free man. There is 1 hide paying geld. There is land for 2 ploughs. It is waste. There is a church and 2 furlongs of woodland. It is worth 3s. [Before 1066] it was worth 10s.

RADCLIFFE (Radeclive) King Edward held Radcliffe as a manor. There is 1 hide and another hide belonging to Salford.

ROCHDALE (Recedham) Gamal, holdiomg 2 hides in Rochdale, was quit of his customs except these 6: housebreaking, highway robbery, breach of the king’s peace, breach of a due date set by the reeve, continuance of fighting after the oath was made. For these he paid a fine of 40s.

ROMILEY (Rumelie) The earl himself holds …Romiley at 1 virgate …. The whole was and is waste.

SALFORD King Edward held Salford. There are 3 hides and 12 carucates of waste land and forest 3 leagues long and as much broad and there are several enclosures and a hawk’s eyrie…. The whole manor of Salford with the hundred rendered £37.4s.

SINDERLAND (Sundreland) See Baguley above.

WARBURTON (Wareburgetune) Rawn held it and was a free man. There is half a hide paying geld. There is land for 1 plough. There is 1 radman and 2 villans and 1 bordar with half a plough. It was worth 5s [before 1066]; now 2s. It was waste.

APPENDIX 2: LOWRY LOCATIONS IN GREATER MANCHESTER

Of all the cities in Britain, 20^th-century Manchester is probably the best documented, largely through the work of Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976). Lowry was born in Stretford and spent his youth in Rusholme, but the family moved to Pendlebury in 1909. He studied at the Manchester School of Art, where he was taught by the French Impressionist, Adolphe Valette (see Appendix 3), and later at the Royal Technical Institute in Salford. Although he was recognised as an accomplished artist during his lifetime, he continued to work for a property company until his retirement in 1952. He moved to Mottram in Longdendale in 1948 and died in hospital in Glossop at the age of 88.

Many of Lowry’s works are ‘composites’, combining elements from different places with imaginary scenes. However, many do depict actual identifiable places in what is now Greater Manchester. These locations are listed below.

LOCATION	TITLE	DATE	NOTES
ADELPHI	The River Irwell at the Adelphi	1924
AGECROFT	Agecroft Regatta	1949
ANCOATS	Great Ancoats Street	c.1929
	Great Ancoats Street, Manchester	1930
	Ancoats Hospital Outpatients’ Hall	1952
	Ancoats Hospital Outpatients’ Hall	u/d
ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE	Industrial Landscape	1952
BROUGHTON	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Broughton	1925
BROUGHTON	Houses in Broughton	1937
BURNDEN	Going to the Match	1953	Bolton Wanderers’ football ground
CHEADLE HULME	The Drive, ‘Oaklands’	1947
	Portrait of a House	c.1947
	Portrait of a House	1954
CHORLTON-ON-MEDLOCK	David Lloyd George’s Birthplace	1958	House demolished 1957
CLIFTON	Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton	1925	Now Clifton Country Park
	Clifton Junction, Morning	1910
	Clifton Junction, Evening	1910
	A Footbridge	1944	Pack Saddle or Roving Bridge
COLLYHURST	A Footbridge	1938	Also known as ‘Barney’s Steps’
CORONATION STREET, Salford	Coronation Street	1957
CRIME LAKE	Crime Lake	1942
CROWTHER STREET, Stockport	Crowther Street, Stockport	1930	Original houses demolished in the 1960s but restored early in the 2000s
CROWTHER STREET, Stockport	Crowther Street, Stockport	1934
DAISY NOOK, Droylsden	Lancashire Fair, Good Friday, Daisy Nook	1946
	The Fairground	1949
	Fairground at Daisy Nook	1956
DIXON FOLD	Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton	1925	Now Clifton Country Park
ECCLES	Eccles Railway Station	1963
EXCHANGE STATION	Station Approach	1960
EXCHANGE STATION	Station Approach	1962
FAILSWORTH	Old Road, Failsworth	1957
FAILSWORTH	Children Playing, Old Road, Failsworth	1957
FAIRFIELD	The Canal Bridge	1944
GATLEY	The Empty House	1934
	Old House	1936
	Old House, Gatley	1937
GAYTHORN	Oldfield Road Dwelling	1927
GAYTHORN	Oldfield Road Dwellings	1929
River IRWELL	The River Irwell at the Adelphi	1924
	A View of the River Irwell from Peel Park	1924
	River Irwell at Salford	c.1924
	River Scene/Industrial Landscape	1935
	The Lake	1937
	River Scene	1942
	River Irwell at Salford	1947
	A River Bank	1947
	The Agecroft Regatta	1948
MANCHESTER	St John’s Church, Deansgate	1920
	Sketch of St John’s, Manchester	c.1920
	St John’s Church, Manchester	1928
	The Viaduct, Store Street, Manchester	1929
	St John’s Church	1938
	A Footbridge	1938	Collyhurst footbridge
	After the Blitz	1942
	Manchester Blitz/St Augustine’s Church, Hulme	1943
	Going to Work	1943	Mather & Platt Works
	Going to Work	1944	Mather & Platt Works
	St Augustine’s Church, Manchester	1945	Destroyed in Manchester blitz
	Industrial Landscape	1955	Mather & Platt Works
	Reference Library	1972	Now Manchester Central Library
MIDDLETON	Old Church and Steps	1960
MOTTRAM-IN-LONGDENDALE	Agricultural Fair	1949
MOTTRAM-IN-LONGDENDALE	The Hat Rack	1966	Lowry’s home:
PEEL PARK, Salford	Peel Park Sketch	1919
	Peel Park Sketch	1920
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1924
	A View of the River Irwell from Peel Park	1924
	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Manchester	1924
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1925
	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Broughton	1925
	The Terrace, Peel Park, Salford	1927
	Peel Park, Salford	1927
	Peel Park, Sketch	c.1927
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1928
	The Steps, Peel Park, Salford	1930
	The Bandstand, Peel Park	1931
	Peel Park, Salford	1944
	The Park	1946
	The Bandstand, Peel Park	c.1954	Date tbc
PENDLEBURY	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1920
	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1924
	Old Farm in Pendlebury	1925
	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1930
	Pendlebury Scene	1931
	Street Scene	1935	Acme Mill
	View in Pendlebury	1936
	Figures in a Lane	1936
	The Procession	1937	Annual Whit-Thursday procession
	Albion Mill	1941
	Winter in Pendlebury	1943
	The Mill, Pendlebury	1943
	Mill Scene with Figures	1944
	Iron Works	1947
	Street in Pendlebury	1948
	Pendlebury Market	u/d
	The Railway Platform	1953
PICCADILLY	Piccadilly	1930
	Piccadilly Gardens	1954
	Piccadilly, Manchester	c.1957
POLICE STREET, Eccles	The Arrest	1927
PRESTWICH	Prestwich Clough	1914
RAMSBOTTOM	The Railway Steps, Ramsbottom	1945
RAMSBOTTOM	The Steps	1957
RICHMOND HILL, Salford	Richmond Hill, Salford	1925
RICHMOND HILL, Salford	Richmond Hill, Salford	1957	Date tbc
ST MICHAEL’S FLAGS & ANGEL MEADOW PARK	Playground	c.1927
	The Steps, Irk Place	1928
	Lancashire Street	1929
	St Michael’s Church and All Angels – Study	1933
	View of a Town	1936
	St Michael’s Church and All Angels	1941
	Street Scene	1941
	Britain at Play	1943
	Street Scene with Figures	1944
	Street Scene	1947
ST PETER’S SQUARE	Reference Library	1972	Built 1930-34; now Central Library
SALFORD	Salford Street Scene	1922
	The Flat Iron Market	c.1925
	Belle Vue House, Leaf Square, Salford	1925
	Behind Leaf Square	1925
	The County Court	1926
	The Tower, Leaf Square	1926
	An Old Lamp, Behind Leaf Square	1926
	By Christ Church, Salford	1926
	By the County Court, Salford	1926
	By St Philip’s Church, Salford	1926
	Hulme Place, Salford	1926
	Dwelling, Ordsall Lane, Salford	1927
	A Street Scene, St Simon’s Church	1927
	St Simon’s Church	c.1927
	A Street Scene, St Simon’s Church	1928	Church demolished in 1927
	Salford Street Scene	1928
	The Gateway	1931
	The Corner Shop	1943	Islington Square
	A Footbridge	1944	Pack Saddle or Roving Bridge
	The Old House, Grove Street, Salford	1948
	The Factory Gate	1951
	Early Morning	1954
	St Stephen’s Church, Salford	1956
	Chapel, St Stephen’s Church, Salford	1956
	North James Henry Street, Salford	1956
	Christ Church, Salford	1956
	Francis Terrace, Salford	1956
	Francis Street, Salford	1957
	Sunday Afternoon	1957
	Man Going to Work/Figure in a Gateway	1964
	Church in Salford/St Philip’s Church	1965
STOCKPORT	The Stepped Street	1929
	Mealhouse Brow	1929
	Crowther Street, Stockport	1930	Original houses demolished in the 1960s but restored early in the 2000s
	Crowther Street, Stockport	1934
	Stockport Viaduct	1942
	Stockport Viaduct	1943
	Stockport Viaduct	1944
	The Viaduct, Stockport	c.1950s
	Old Steps, Mealhouse Brow	1969
SWINTON	Arden’s Farm	c.1909
	Wardley Farm, Swinton Moss	1913
	St Mary’s Church, Swinton	1913
	Swinton Moss	1922
	Swinton Industrial Schools	1930
	St Mary’s Church, Swinton	1960
TOMMYFIELDS MARKET, Oldham	Selling Oilcloth on the Oldham Road	1914
TOMMYFIELDS MARKET, Oldham	The Lino Market	1955
WARDLEY	Wardley Farm, Swinton Moss	1913
WIGAN	Industrial Landscape/Landscape in Wigan	1925

References

Sandling J & M Leber (2000), Lowry’s City – A Painter and His Locale, Salford: Lowry Press

Saywell, David, Artists and Places: L S Lowry in Salford and Industrial Towns in Greater Manchester (accessed 13/09/2024)

APPENDIX 3: VALETTE LOCATIONS IN GREATER MANCHESTER

Pierre Adolphe Valette (1876-1942) was born in Saint-Étienne in France and was already something of an established painter when he came to London in 1904. In 1905 he moved to Manchester and initially designed cards and calendars for a printing company but in 1907 he obtained a teaching post at the Manchester Municipal School of Art, where he famously taught L S Lowry. Over the next 10 years he painted a series of pictures of the streets, squares, stations and bridges of foggy Manchester. In about 1917 he changed his style, preferring portraits and landscapes to the grimy cityscapes of Manchester. He resigned his teaching post in 1920 and returned to France in 1928, where he died in 1942. The locations of Valette’s Manchester paintings are listed below.

LOCATION	PICTURE TITLE	DATE	NOTES
ALBERT SQUARE, Manchester	Albert Square, Manchester	1910
ALL SAINTS/GROSVENOR SQUARE	Hansom Cab at All Saints	1910	All Saints church was damaged in the blitz of 1940 and demolished in 1946
	Old Cab at All Saints	1911
	Presbyterian Church, All Saints	tbc
CENTRAL STATION	Central Station	1910-11
River IRWELL	Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1909	Actually depicts Irwell Street Bridge
	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
	Bailey Bridge	1912
	Under Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1912	Actually depicts Irwell Street Bridge
MANCHESTER	Rooftops, Manchester	Tbc
	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
	Plymouth Grove, July	1909
	Street Scene, Manchester	1912
	York Street Leading to Charles Street	1913
	Manchester Street in the Fog	c.1910
	Manchester Suburban Scene	tbc
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL	Ship Canal, Sunset	c.1908
	Manchester Ship Canal and Warehouses	1908
	Trafford Road Swing Bridge	c.1910
	Trafford Bridge and Pomona Dock	tbc
	Tug on a Canal in Manchester	tbc
River MEDLOCK	India House	1912
NEW BAILEY BRIDGE	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
NEW BAILEY BRIDGE	Bailey Bridge	1912
OXFORD ROAD, Manchester	Oxford Road, Manchester	1910
OXFORD ROAD, Manchester	Houses on Oxford Street, Sunset	c.1910
PLYMOUTH GROVE, Manchester	Plymouth Grove, July	1909
ROMILEY	Romiley	1916
ST PETER’S SQUARE, Manchester	St Peter’s Square, Manchester	tbc
SALE	Sale, near Manchester	1907
SALFORD	Castlegate, Salford	1912
WINDSOR BRIDGE	Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1909	Both paintings in fact depict the Irwell Street Bridge, not Windsor Bridge
WINDSOR BRIDGE	Under Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1912

References

Martin, Sandra (2007), Adolphe Valette – A French Impressionist in Manchester, London: Scala Publishers

Webb, Poul, Arts and Artists: Adolphe Valette (accessed 23/11/2024)

GREATER MANCHESTER PLACE NAMES

Compiled by Richard West

Cover image under licence from Alamy. Reference OY0101324868

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION

Contact: west46 [at] btinternet.com

ENTRIES

Each entry consists of the following:

Location: Which metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester the place can be found in.

Variations: Variant names and spellings are indicated briefly.

Meaning: The literal meaning of the name where this is not self-evident.

Cross references to other place names in the book (marked in bold).

Appendices

	Appendix 1	Domesday Book entries for Greater Manchester
	Appendix 2	Lowry locations in Greater Manchester
	Appendix 3	Valette locations in Greater Manchester

GLOSSARY

TIMELINE OF GREATER MANCHESTER PLACE NAMES

The timeline below highlights the main eras and dates in the history of Greater Manchester and shows how place names across the county exemplify the naming practices of its inhabitants at those times. The names in bold are included as main entries in the dictionary.
THE CELTS c.750 BC onwards	The Celts were living in north-west England from about the 8^th century BC but they were either displaced or assimilated by later invaders. Few of their place names survive. As elsewhere in England, the names of many of the rivers of what is now Greater Manchester are possibly of Celtic origin: Calder, Douglas, Glaze, Goyt, Irk and Tame. The area would have been sparsely populated but several place names provide evidence of Celtic occupation around Wigan: Wigan itself, Bryn, Culcheth, Ince-in-Makerfield, Kenyon, Pemberton and Shevington, and Cheadle, Cheetham and Cheetwood all share the same Celtic root (cēd ‘wood’), suggesting that all were Celtic settlements at an early date, and it has been suggested that this area has one of the heaviest concentrations of Celtic names in England. The Celts are also recalled in Wallgate and Walton, both derived from the Anglo-Saxon term for the Celts – the wealh (i.e. the Welsh).
ROMANS AD 78 AD – 410	In AD 78-86 the Roman invaders built a fort that is usually said to have been named Mamucium, derived from the Celtic for ‘breast-shaped hill’. The name was later Anglicised as Manchester, preserving the Latin castra (‘camp’). The Roman legions abandoned their fort in about AD 410, but, despite this long occupation, there are no place names in Greater Manchester preserving the original Latin, although some seem to be translations of earlier Latin names. Suggestions that Manchester’s River Tib may have been named after the Tiber in Rome may simply be fanciful. Although there are no place names in Greater Manchester which are derived from Latin, there are several Anglo-Saxon names which acknowledge Roman forts: Alport, Castlefield, Castleshaw and Littleborough. Old English strǣt in Stretford and Trafford refers to the Roman road to Chester. It should be noted that Roman Lakes Leisure Park was a 19^th-century invention that had nothing to do with the Romans.
ANGLO-SAXONS c. AD 450 onwards	The majority of Greater Manchester place names recorded before the industrial revolution are derived from Old English – the language of the Anglo-Saxon invaders who spread over much of England from the 5^th century onwards. They generally constructed their place names from two or three elements: a generic element identifying the type of place it was and another element coming first to distinguish it from others with the same generic element. So, for example, Heaton (‘high village’) was distinguished from Lowton (‘low village’). The Anglo-Saxons used several main types of elements:
	¨	Eponyms Many Anglo-Saxon places were named after leaders, but, of course, we know little or nothing of the men and women who gave their names to Ardwick, Baguley, Cadishaw, Chorlton, Crumpsall, or Pilsworth. It is often easy to spot an Anglo-Saxon eponym as any name formed with -ing- (‘followers, people of’) + –tūn (‘village, estate, etc’) is likely to be named after an Anglo-Saxon leader – Brinnington, Dumplington, Partington, Pennington, Pilkington, Shevington, Torkington, Tottington, Withington and Worthington. For some reason, there are no longer any Greater Manchester names with -ing- + –tūn to compare with Birmingham, Nottingham or Sandringham (but see earlier spelling of Altrincham).
	¨	Topographical The second category of Anglo-Saxon place names is those derived from the geography of the area – the hills and valleys, rivers and streams, and moors and marshes. In the Greater Manchester area, these follow a clear pattern as the landscape changes from east to west:
		Moors		Moors are barren uplands that are generally unsuitable for agriculture. There are over 3000 listed places with moor as their final element, approximately half of them in Yorkshire. In Greater Manchester there are about 20 moor places nearly all in the east, on the edge of the Pennines and Peaks (Moorside). In the south of the county, the old Roman road to Buxton (the A6) marks a boundary, with Great Moor, Heaton Moor, Bramhall Moor and Woodsmoor along the road and contrasting with the nearby Shaw Heath to the west.
		Mosses		To the west and north-east of the county are the mosses – bogs or swamps that often made settlement or travel difficult. The name and the phenomenon are distinct to north-west England, as Daniel Defoe noted: ‘On the road to Manchester, we pass’d the great bog or waste call’d Chat Moss, the first of that kind that we see in England, from any of the south parts hither. It extends on the left-hand of the road for five or six miles east and west, and they told us it was, in some places, seven or eight miles from north to south.’ The element is found in at least twenty places as Barton Moss, Broadhead Moss, Chat Moss, Featherbed Moss, Hale Moss, Kearsley Moss, Kitt’s Moss, Little Moss, Moss Side, Mossley, Moston, Shadow Moss and, somewhat corrupted, Moses Gate.
		Brooks		As we have seen, most of the major rivers in Greater Manchester have names which are probably Celtic in origin, but these are fed by countless muddy brooks flowing from the east, most of which have Anglo-Saxon names. These brooks may flow down steep valleys or cloughs (Stoneclough), gentler dales (Rochdale) or long deans/-dens (Denton, Droylsden, Walkden) with paths or roads, or meander round a nook or halh (Bramhall, Crumpsall, Hale, Haugh) or a tongue (Tonge, Taunton). The rivers and brooks were crossed by fords (Salford, Stretford, Trafford) and later by bridges – Platt, meaning bridge, is found from 1212 and bridge itself occurs in Manchester’s Hanging Bridge, dating from 1343. Settlements were frequently established beside these fords and bridges.
		Woods		The flood plain of Greater Manchester between the moors to the east and the mosses to the west was originally heavily wooded, although much of the forest had been cleared by the time the Anglo-Saxons arrived. We find many places that have wood in their name (Woodley, Woodford, Woodhouses), but many more that are copses or shaws (Audenshaw, Openshaw, Shaw, Wythenshawe). Amongst the woods, settlements were established in clearings, and names with the element –lee/-leigh/-le meaning ‘woodland clearing’ are especially common (Leigh, Cheadle, Edgeley, Romiley, Stayley, Stalybridge, Worsley).
	¨	Vegetation There are many places named after different types of wood, although this is not always obvious – Ashton, Beech Hill, Birch, Firswood, Hollins (holly), Horwich (wych elm), Ogden (oak), Sale (willow), Salford (willow), Withington (willow), and Wythenshawe (willow). There are also names which are derived from the uses to which the wood was put – for making poles (Bollinhurst), brooms (Bramhall, Brimrod), staves (Stalybridge) and timber (Timperley). There are relatively few places named for other types of vegetation. Several places indicate that reeds or rushes, which could be used for thatching (Thatch Leach), could be found (Broadbent, Lever, Reddish, Sedgley). Some places are names after vegetables – celery (Agecroft), watercress (Kearsley, Kersal), and wild garlic (Ramsbottom) – and others indicate that cereal crops such as barley (Barlow Fold, Barlow Moor, Pemberton) and rye (Ryton, Ryecroft) were being grown.
	¨	Animals The Anglo-Saxons also named many places after animals and birds, especially deer (Hartshead, Hattersley, Roe Green), goats (Bucklow, Gatley), pigs (Boarshaw, Swinton), cranes (Cornbrook) and hawks (Hawkley). Perhaps surprisingly in a region with so many rivers, there are very few places named after fish (Compstall).
	¨	Directional While there are several names indicating the northern location of places (Norbury, Norley, Northenden, Northern Moor), compass points were also used for distinguishing purposes: Norden (= northern valley) and Sudden (= southern valley), Astley (east Leigh) and Westleigh, Haughton and Westhaughton.
CHRISTIANITY 6^th-7^th centuries onwards	Christianity spread to the area of Greater Manchester in the 6^th and 7^th centuries and evidence of this is found in place names across the county, although little or nothing is known of the monks commemorated in Monsall or Monton, the priests in Prestolee, Prestwich or Priestnall, the kirk at Kirkmanshulme or of any abbey in Abbey Hey. Rooden and possibly Blackrod retain the Old English rōd (meaning ‘cross’) before it was supplanted by the Gaelic or Norse cross, which is found in other, presumably later place names. Eccles is also thought to be a Celtic word derived from the Latin or Greek for an ecclesiastical gathering. The only person from this early period of whom we know anything is St Chad (c.634-672), the Bishop of Lichfield in Mercia, whose parish covered the Greater Manchester area until 1541. St Chad’s Church in Rochdale, parts of which date from the 13^th century and which may have been named in AD 673, is said to be the oldest church in the county, and St Chad is also commemorated in Chadkirk and possibly even Chat Moss. Some of the Anglican churches built in Manchester in the 18^th and 19th centuries (some of them no longer in existence) have given their names to districts (All Saints, St George’s), squares (St Ann’s, St Peter’s) and parks (Angel Meadows, St John’s Gardens, St Michael’s Flags). There are several places with Biblical names: Goshen dates from the 16^th century and the non-conformist churches which developed in the first half of the 19^th century also coined Biblical names (Jericho, New Earth and Salem). Several other places which originally had Anglo-Saxon names were later rationalised as if they had Christian origins (Abram, Moses Gate).
VIKINGS c. AD 900-1050	The Vikings settled in North-west England from the 8th century but sources differ as to whether Greater Manchester became part of the Danelaw or not. Certainly, the spread of the Vikings caused concern and legend has it that the Nico Ditch was built in 869-870 to guard against the Vikings: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in AD 923 ‘King Edward … ordered levies … to occupy Manchester in Northumbria, and had it repaired and garrisoned’ in order to meet the Viking threat. It also seems that Bury and at least some of the places with the –bury element (Bredbury, Norbury, Didsbury, Pendlebury and Littleborough) may have originally been fortified Anglo-Saxon settlements built to protect against the Vikings. There is little place-name evidence of large-scale Viking settlement in what is now Greater Manchester: there is a cluster of eponyms in western Manchester (Flixton and perhaps Urmston) but nowhere ending in –by, the most common Norse element (as in Derby or Grimsby), not one -toft (as in Lowestoft), only two occurrences of –thwaite (Laithwaite, Linfitt), and only one –thorpe (Thorp in Oldham). The only Viking name element that does occur with any frequency is –hulme (‘island, raised ground’): Hulme, Davyhulme, Levenshulme, Cheadle Hulme, Oldham (corrupted from Aldholme) and Wolstenholme. A hulme was an area of raised ground that would be particularly suitable for a settlement in an area susceptible to frequent flooding.
INTEGRATION & ASSIMILATION	Cheadle Hulme exemplifies Greater Manchester’s almost unique mixture of the three linguistic traditions – Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norse: Cheadle (Celtic cēd + Old English lēah) + Old Danish hulme. Such names show how, over time, peoples speaking different languages and with different cultures came to live in peace together.
NORMANS 1066 onwards	The Norman conquest of 1066 meant that the official language of England became French, and it remained so until Richard II was deposed in 1399. Despite this, and the fact that Norman lords were given estates across much of England, Norman French had very little impact on place names in mediaeval England. Many of these lords took English names from the lands they governed, but a few Norman names remain today – Darcy (of Darcy Lever), Darnel (of Darnhill), Massey (of Dunham Massey), Norris (of Heaton Norris), Molyneux (of Molyneux Brow) and, much later, Davenport (in Stockport) and Grosvenor (of Manchester’s Grosvenor Square). Also very much later is the use of -ville for housing estates in the early 20^th century (Chorltonville). However, the Normans impacted north-western place names in other ways, as can be seen from their Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1). William the Conqueror sent his agents throughout England to list all the towns, villages and property, so that he would know what taxes were due. Domesday recorded 13,418 settlements throughout England and Wales, about 600 in Cheshire and Lancashire, but fewer than 25 in what is now Greater Manchester. Two reasons are normally given for this: William’s agents did a poor job, simply omitting major places such as Stockport, Wigan and Bury. More likely, the Normans’ genocidal ‘harrying of the north’ in 1069-1070, in which up to 75% of the population of the north were slaughtered, left many places ‘Weaste’ – uninhabited or of little value. Nevertheless, 1400 saw the ‘triumph of English’ and the vast majority of modern place names can trace their origin to Old and Middle English rather than Latin, Norse or Norman French.
CIVIL WAR 1642-1651	Greater Manchester figured significantly in the Civil War: the war itself is often said to have begun when Royalists tried to capture the town and Richard Perceval of Levenshulme became the first casualty during street fighting on 15 July 1642. Oliver Cromwell is said to have passed through Trub Smithy at some point, and to have camped at Oliver Clough during the Siege of Manchester in 1643. In May 1644, the Royalist commander, Prince Rupert, camped on Barlow Moor before leading the Bolton massacre, in which 1500 Parliamentary troops and citizens were killed. On 25 August 1651 the Royalists were defeated in the Battle of Wigan Lane at a hamlet which became known as Battling Wood, which was later corrupted to Bottling Wood.
ENFRANCHISEMENT & CIVIL RIGHTS 17^th century onwards	The first MP for Manchester was not elected until 1654 but the constituency was abolished in 1660 on the restoration of the monarchy as Manchester had supported Oliver Cromwell and the parliamentarians in the civil war. This situation lasted throughout the 18^th century and in 1725 Defoe described Manchester as ‘the greatest meer village in England. It is neither a wall’d town, city or corporation; they send no members to Parliament’. Despite the Peterloo protests, parliamentary representation was not restored to Manchester until 1832 and the first MP, Mark Philips, is commemorated in Philips Park. The right to vote was dependent on property ownership and in the 1860s, John Platt, a mill owner and the mayor of Oldham, gave his employees the freehold of their houses so that they could vote. The right to vote was restricted to men until 1918, largely as a result of the suffragette movement formed by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, whose campaigning is celebrated at the Pankhurst Centre. A much earlier milestone in women’s rights is commemorated at Womanscroft Bridge in Bramhall, where, in 1637, a landowning woman who ‘had a house with a small croft and toft’ was given certain legal rights, including being a juror and being ‘exempt from the burden of repairing the bridge over Lady Brook, known as the Woman’s Croft bridge’. This is one of the few place names in England with ‘woman’ as an element.
JACOBITE REBELLION 1745-1746	In 1745-1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie led a Jacobite army into England in an attempt to regain the throne that his father, James II, had been forced to give up in 1688. He reached Manchester on 28 November 1745 and is thought to have stabled his horses in Stockport, before marching on to Derby and then retreating to defeat at the Battle of Culloden. Longsight and Tiviot Dale are both said to owe their names to the Bonnie Prince and his army. It has also been suggested that Scotland in central Manchester was named because the Jacobite troops camped there in 1745, but this seems unlikely.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION & COAL c.1760-1840	The term ‘industrial revolution’ was invented in 1799 by the Frenchman, Louis-Guillaume Otto, and was applied to Britain by Arnold Toynbee in 1881. The industrial transformation of Britain in the second half of the 18^th century and first half of the 19^th had several causes, but chief among these was the availability and application of coal. Several place names across Greater Manchester point to the early mining of coal and other minerals: Cinder Hill, Collyhurst, Coldhurst, Cowlishaw, Delph, Orrell, Pitses and Quarlton. Daniel Defoe, who toured Great Britain in 1724-1726, described the widespread mining of coal between Wigan and Bolton, but the mines of the area were mostly shallow, with horse-powered winding gear. This early mine equipment is captured in Gin Pit village, where Gin is short for engine. However, the depth of mines was limited by the dangers of flooding, which was addressed by the use of steam pumps. One of the first of these was installed in 1749 in Norbury colliery, which was frequently flooded by the Bollinhurst Brook. The other problem noted by Defoe was the remoteness from markets: ‘they are remote; and though some of them have been brought to London, yet they are so dear, by reason of the carriage, that few care to buy them.’ This problem was initially solved by canals, notably the Bridgewater Canal, which was built in 1759-61, halving the price of coal in Manchester, and becoming the forerunner of the national canal network. Coal not only powered the industries of Greater Manchester; the region became a centre for the manufacture of textile machinery, industrial equipment and railway locomotives. Some of the manufacturers and engineers gave their names to places in the county, e.g. Simon’s Bridge, Whitworth Park. The last coal mines in the county closed in the 1990s, leaving only the Lancashire Colliery Museum at Astley Green and a legacy of dereliction and pollution. However, much has been done to transform the industrial landscape into nature reserves and conservation areas, notably the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh, where flashes are a local word for surface flooding caused by the collapse of underground mine workings. The Three Sisters, now a recreation area, take their name from former waste heaps at a local colliery.
‘COTTONOPOLIS’	The term ‘Cottonopolis’ was invented in about 1851 but the textile industry started much earlier. The earliest mills, such as that at Bowdon, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1), or those at Milnrow (‘a row of houses by a mill’) and Quarlton (‘mill hill’) in the 13^th century, were almost certainly corn or flour mills. The textile industry seems to have been established well before the 14^th century, initially concentrating on flax (see Crossacres), wool (Walkden, Walkers) and linen (Bowker Vale, Gigg, Linfitt). The switch to cotton had begun by about 1725, when Daniel Defoe visited Bolton and noted ‘that the cotton manufacture reach’d thither’. The rapid and large-scale expansion of cotton manufacture came later in the century with mechanisation, notably the building of the first water-powered mills at Portwood on the Mersey in 1732, at Garret by the River Medlock in about 1760 and at Thorp in Royton in 1764, Crompton’s spinning mule, invented at Hall i’ th’ Wood in 1779, and Arkwright’s steam-powered mill at Shudehill in 1783. In all, over 2400 cotton mills were built in the area between 1732 and 1926. The earliest mills tended to be named for the places where they were built or the brooks that powered them, but many mills, and the villages and parks around them were named by and for their owners or their wives. Knott Mill, dating from 1509, is an early example and later examples include Bealey’s Goit, Drinkwater Park, Hallam Coronation Garden, Holt Town, Hope, Houldsworth, Langworthy and Eckersley. The First World War led to the loss of markets and the last mill in Greater Manchester and Lancashire – Elk Mill in Royton – was completed in 1926. Today, the only cotton mill remaining in production in the county is Tower Mill in Dukinfield.
RAILWAYS 1830-1880	The first railway in what is now Greater Manchester was the Bolton & Leigh, a 12-kilometre freight line opened in 1828 to connect Bolton to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Leigh. The Liverpool & Manchester, the world’s first intercity passenger railway, was opened in 1830 with its eastern terminus at Liverpool Road. In the next 50 years, about 200 stations were built in Greater Manchester. Most were named after existing locations, but some were opened for new suburbs opened up by the railways such as Altrincham, Chorlton-cum–Hardy and Sale, and others, such as Ashburys, Brooklands and Davenport, were opened to serve communities named after individuals. In many other cases, it seems that the railways standardised the names or spelling of places which were not officially agreed: Astley Bridge, Chequerbent, Guide Bridge, Hazel Grove, Heald Green, Howe Bridge, Mumps, Newton Heath, Rushford and Stoneclough.
VICTORIAN ERA 1837-1901	The reign of Queen Victoria coincided with the rise of Cottonopolis, and many places were named after Victoria herself (Victoria Bridge, Victoria Station, Victoria Park, Queen’s Park, etc), her husband, Prince Albert (Albert Bridge, Albert Square, Albert Park, etc), their son, the Prince of Wales (Clarence Park), and his wife, Princess Alexandra (there are at least four Alexandra Parks). Victoria’s golden jubilee in 1887 is commemorated in Jubilee Park, and Edward VII’s coronation in 1902 in Coronation Street.
PUBLIC PARKS 1846	It was in Greater Manchester that three of England’s first municipal parks – Peel Park, named in honour of Sir Robert Peel, Philips Park and Queen’s Park in Harpurhey – were opened to the public in 1846. Over the next 150 years, many country-house estates were donated or purchased and opened as public parks, ranging from the very small, such as Marie Louise Gardens in south Manchester to the enormous Heaton Park, acquired in 1902.
CITY OF MANCHESTER 1853	Manchester had lost its MP in 1660 because it had supported Cromwell in the civil war, and it was not until 1832 that parliamentary representation was restored. This was followed by the granting of city status in 1853. As a mark of civic pride, plans for a new town hall were announced in 1863 and, at the same time, Albert Square was laid out as a memorial to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, who had died in 1861. Also in 1853, the construction of the Free Trade Hall on the site of the Peterloo massacre of 1819 in St Peter’s Square was begun to mark the repeal of the corn laws in 1846. In 1853, the City Manchester reached its peak as a cotton manufacturing city, with 108 mills.
SLAVERY AND THE COTTON FAMINE 1861-1865	Most of Lancashire’s raw cotton was grown and picked by slaves in the southern states of the U.S. until the 1860s. There is, however, little evidence of this in the place names of Greater Manchester. Notable exceptions are Kingston in Tameside, which was named by a slave-owner to remind him of his life in Jamaica, and Elk Mill in Oldham, which takes its name from a river in Tennessee from where some of the earliest slave-harvested cotton came from at the end of the 18^th century. Despite this dependence on this cotton, there was early support in Manchester for the abolition of slavery. The issue was widely debated – the Manchester Movement for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade had been established in 1787 and Engels discusses slavery at several points in his 1845 study of the working class in Manchester. The supply of cotton became critical during the Lancashire ‘Cotton Famine, which occurred when the American Civil War cut off Greater Manchester’s cotton supplies from the southern states of the U.S. Despite the severe hardship, the Lancashire cotton workers supported the cause of the Union and in 1863 U.S. President Abraham Lincoln thanked them for their support for the abolition of slavery and his statue, with an extract from his letter, now stands in Lincoln Square. During the cotton famine, various projects were carried out to provide an income for the unemployed textile workers, notably Alexandra Park in Oldham, Queen’s Park in Bolton, the Cotton Famine Road in Rochdale, the Haigh estate (now Haigh Woodland Park) in Wigan and the Swineshaw reservoirs in Tameside.
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL 1894	The first attempt to connect Manchester to the Irish Sea was the Mersey & Irwell Navigation, which was built in 1721-1724 between Runcorn in Cheshire and Hunt’s Quay in the centre of Manchester. This was not a true canal but a waterway which improved navigation on the two rivers through a series of cuts and locks. The Manchester Ship Canal is a 58-kilometre artificial waterway between Runcorn in Cheshire and Salford. It was built in 1887-1893 and was opened by Queen Victoria at Mode Wheel on 21 May 1894. It led to a considerable increase in trade and industry, notably the development of Trafford Park, the world’s first industrial estate, in 1896.
WORLD WAR I 1914-1918	The military action of the First World War had little direct impact on Greater Manchester but there were Zeppelin bombing raids on Holcombe and Greenmount on 25 September 1916 and on Wigan on 12 April 1918. The Wigan raid killed seven people and a further nine were injured. However, the explosion at the Hooley Hill Munitions Factory on 13 June 1917 caused far more casualties, with 46 killed and hundreds injured. War memorials were erected after the war, as well as memorial parks such as Broadhurst Park in Moston, Dunwood Park in Crompton, Gallipoli Gardens in Bury, Tandle Hill Country Park in Royton, Woodbank Memorial Park in Stockport, and the Albert Hill VC Memorial Park in Denton.
URBAN RE-HOUSING 20^th century	Urban overcrowding and slums led most of the councils of what is now Greater Manchester to build estates to re-house large numbers of residents in improved accommodation. The first was perhaps the New Barracks estate in Salford, built in 1901-04, including Coronation Street, and several were built under the government-funded ‘Homes for Heroes’ scheme after World War I. Many more followed in the 1930s, and most adopted the names of the farms, mines or areas where they were built – Brushes, Johnson Fold, Langley, Linnyshaw Park and Limeside. In some cases, new aspirational names were coined, e.g. Abbey Hills. A third option was to take the name of a local hall or its grounds and apply it to the whole new housing estate, e.g. Polefield and Wythenshawe. As these estates expanded, older settlements were absorbed (Brownley Green, Crossacres, Poundswick, Royal Oak, Saxfield) and some have largely disappeared.
CITY OF SALFORD 1926	Salford was granted city status in 1926 but this was not marked by any new civic buildings. However, city status coincided with the announcement of plans to build the first of a new type of ‘super cinema’ outside London – the Ambassador.
WORLD WAR II 1939-1945	Between July 1940 and July 1942, Greater Manchester was subject to repeated German bombing raids, including the ‘Manchester blitz’ of 22-24 December 1940. 684 people were killed, 2364 were injured and there was widespread destruction. Many buildings were damaged, and St Augustine’s and All Saints churches were so badly damaged that they had to be demolished. Late in the war, on 24 December 1944, there were V-1 flying bomb attacks on Abbey Hills, Tottington, Davenport and Worsley which claimed 37 lives. Whitehead Gardens in Tottington commemorate these victims.
GREATER MANCHESTER 1 April 1974	The new county of Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 from parts of north-east Cheshire, south-east Lancashire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is composed of 10 Metropolitan Boroughs: Bolton, Bury, the City of Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, the City of Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. All of these except Tameside were pre-existing names dating from mediaeval times or earlier.
METROLINK & REGENERATION 1992 onwards	Greater Manchester, and the City of Manchester in particular, have undergone widespread regeneration since the 1990s, some of which have revived names that were fading from use (New Cross, New Islington). The Metrolink tram system, now the largest in the UK, was opened in 1992 and not only preserves the names of older parts of the county (Bess o’ th’ Barn, Pomona, Shadow Moss) and closed or disused railway stations (Cornbrook, Derker, Failsworth, Hollinwood, Milnrow, Oldham Mumps), but includes stops named after new areas (Anchorage, Etihad Campus, MediaCityUK, Salford Quays, Velopark). The new skyscraper area to the south of Manchester city centre is becoming known as “Manc-hattan”. However, regeneration has meant not just demolition and modernistic architecture. There has also been a movement towards the restoration and repurposing of mills and markets such as Manchester’s Mackie Mayor and Stockport’s Weir Mill, based on what has sometimes been called the ‘Altrincham model’.
CULTURES & LIFESTYLES	Perhaps the stereotypical images of Greater Manchester are captured in the artwork of L S Lowry (see Appendix 2) and P A Valette (Appendix 3), and the TV soap opera Coronation Street. However, in the years since the war and particularly since 1974, new communities and cultures have emerged, and some of these have given rise to new place names. These were initially unofficial but some have now been adopted officially: China Town, Curry Mile, Gay Village, Madchester and the Northern Quarter.
EXPORTED NAMES	The names of many settlements in Greater Manchester have been ‘exported’ or transferred to other countries overseas. This was often the result of colonial settlement, when British settlers wanted to commemorate their home towns. In other cases, and especially in the case of places named after Manchester, the inhabitants aspired to emulate the industrial innovation and success of Lancashire towns. However, several places turn out to be eponyms rather than transferred names, i.e. they are named after local worthies rather than English towns, so it is said that Manchester in Iowa was named by inverting the name of William Chesterman, one of its founders, and Oldham in Missouri was named after a Mr Asa Old who sold hams.
	Bolton		Connecticut, USA		Incorporated in 1720 and named by early settlers, many of whom came from Bolton in Lancashire.
			Illinois, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Iowa, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Kansas, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Maryland, USA		Bolton Hill: named after the estate of George Grundy, a Baltimore merchant who named his estate after his native Bolton in Lancashire.
			Ohio, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire by early settlers.
			Vermont, USA		Founded in 1763 and probably named by early settlers from Lancashire.
			Virginia, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
	Bury		Quebec, Canada		Named in 1803 after Bury in Lancashire.
	Didsbury		Alberta, Canada		Founded and named in 1902 after Didsbury in Lancashire.
	Edgeley		North Dakota, USA		Founded and named in 1886 by Richard Sykes, who was born in Edgeley in Cheshire.
	Heywood		Victoria, Australia		Surveyed in 1852 by Lindsay Clarke and named after Heywood in Lancashire.
	Manchester		Bolivia		Founded and named by Anthony Webster-James, a metallurgist from Manchester in Lancashire.
			Nova Scotia, Canada		Probably named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			California, USA		Established in 1871 and named by an early settler after his former home in Lancashire.
			Connecticut, USA		Settled in around 1672 as Five-Mile Tract and renamed in 1823 after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Georgia, USA		Founded in 1907 and named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Indiana, USA		The town was established in 1822 and probably named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Kansas, USA		Laid out in 1887 as Keystone but changed to Manchester by 1890.
			Kentucky, USA		Founded in 1807 as Greenville but changed to Manchester later that year as local business people aspired to Manchester’s industrial success.
			Maryland, USA		The town was incorporated in 1833 as Manchester Germantown, combining the names of two communities.
			Massachusetts, USA		Manchester-by-the-Sea: Originally named Manchester by colonists in 1629 after Manchester in Lancashire; renamed Manchester-by-the-Sea in 1989.
			Michigan, USA		Incorporated as a village in 1867 to take advantage of water power from the river and named after Manchester in Lancashire, which had pioneered water-powered industry.
			Missouri, USA		The village was incorporated in 1950 and named after Manchester by an English settler.
			New Hampshire, USA		Named in 1810 by Samuel Blodget, after visiting Manchester in England in the hope that it would emulate the industry of Lancashire.
			New Jersey, USA		Incorporated as a township in 1865 and named by William Torrey after Manchester in Lancashire.
			New York, USA		The town was settled in 1793 as Burt but changed to Manchester in 1822 in the hope that its textile mills would emulate those of Manchester in Lancashire.
			Ohio, USA		The settlement was founded in 1790 and named Massie’s Station after Nathaniel Massie, but was later renamed Manchester after the Lancashire town, which was Massie’s ancestral home.
			Oklahoma, USA		Possibly named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Pennsylvania, USA		The village was settled in 1814 and originally named Liverpool, but the name was later changed to Manchester.
			Tennessee, USA		The city was originally founded before 1817 and named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Washington, USA		The town was established in the 1860s as Brooklyn but in 1892 the name was changed to Manchester after the Lancashire city.
			West Virginia, USA		New Manchester: The town was originally laid out in 1810 as Manchester.
	Mersey		Nova Scotia, Canada		Mersey River is named after the English river and flows into the Atlantic at Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
			Tasmania, Australia		The Mersey River on the north-west coast of Tasmania flows into the Bass strait at Devonport.
	Oldham		Nova Scotia, Canada		The town was named by Joseph Howe after his ancestral home in Lancashire.
			Mississippi, USA		The town was probably named after Oldham in Lancashire.
			South Dakota, USA		Either named after Oldham Carrot, a local landowner, or named after Oldham in Lancashire, the home of an early settler.
	Rochdale		Massachusetts, USA		Named Rochdale in 1869 because some early settlers came from Lancashire and hoped that similar types of cloth could be manufactured in Massachusetts.
			Mississippi, USA		The town was named after Rochdale in Lancashire.
			Queens, New York, USA		This 1960s cooperative housing development was named after Rochdale in Lancashire, the birthplace of the cooperative movement.
			North Carolina, USA		The town was probably named after Rochdale in Lancashire.
	Saddleworth		South Australia		Saddleworth was built in the 1840s on land originally owned by James Masters, and named after his former home in West Yorkshire.
	Salford		Ontario, Canada		The place was originally called New Manchester, but in 1855 the name was changed and named after Salford in Cheshire.
			Pennsylvania, USA		The town was established in about 1727 and named after Salford in Lancashire.
	Stockport		South Australia		The small town was founded in 1845 by Samuel Stocks junior and named after his birthplace in Cheshire.
			Lake Ontario, Canada		Stockport Islands: The islands were named by early explorers after their birthplace in Cheshire.
			Iowa, USA		The town was settled in the late 19^th century and incorporated in 1902. It was probably named after Stockport in Cheshire.
			New York, USA		The town was established in 1833 and named by James Wild, who was originally from Stockport in Cheshire.
			Ohio, USA		The town was named in 1838 by its first postmaster, Samuel Beswick, after Stockport in Cheshire.

ACRESFIELD See ST ANN’S SQUARE

ALDER BARROW See OWLER BARROW

ANNIE LEE’S playing fields in Gorton are after named after Annie Lee, who was leader of the Openshaw Labour Party from the 1890s and, later, a Manchester alderman. She died in 1945.

AO ARENA See MANCHESTER ARENA

ASYLUM BROOK See MERE BROOK and MERE CLOUGH

BAILEY See NEW BAILEY

“BARNEY’S STEPS” See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

BEESLEY GREEN is or was an area of Worsley in the City of Salford, and it now forms part of the Roe Green/

Beesley Green conservation area. The name seems to date from the late 16^th century, when a Thomas Beesley and his descendants farmed the area.

BOTTOM OF WOODHOUSES See WOODHOUSES

BRIDGEWATER HALL is a concert venue in central Manchester, opened in 1996. It is named after the Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803) who commissioned the nearby Bridgewater Canal.

CASTLE HILL, Bowdon See WATCH HILL CASTLE

CENTRAL STATION See GMEX

CHARLESTOWN, Stockport See WOODSMOOR

CLARKE’S BRIDGE See KINGSTON

CLOUGH, Shaw is a rural area east of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented but comes from the Old English clōh, meaning ‘ravine, deep valley’.

CORRIDOR MANCHESTER See OXFORD ROAD

The COUNTY BROOK See BROOK BOTTOM

DEADWENCLOUGH See POLEFIELD

DIVISION BRIDGE See ROYAL GEORGE AQUEDUCT

DOG KENNEL BROOK See MAINE ROAD

DOUGLAS GREEN is a former industrial area of Pendleton where William Douglas (1745-1810) established one of the first, if not the first, and largest cotton mill in Salford in 1781-1782.

DUNHAM TOWN See DUNHAM MASSEY

FAR WAIN STONES See WAIN STONES

GARRICK THEATRE, Stockport See STOCKPORT GARRICK THEATRE

GOOSE GREEN, Wigan, is a residential area south-west of the town centre. The name is not well documented but is assumed to have once been a village green where people grazed their geese.

GREAT BOLTON See BOLTON

GREAT HORROCKS See HORROCKS

GREAT HOWARTH See HOWARTH CROSS

GRINDLOW MARSH See LONGSIGHT

HEATON CHAPEL is an area in Heaton Norris in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It received its name following the construction of St Thomas’s Anglican church in 1765.

HIGH CROMPTON See CROMPTON

HIGHER BARROWSHAW See BARROWSHAW

HIGHER BLACKLEY See BLACKLEY

HIGHER BOARSHAW See BOARSHAW

HIGHER BROUGHTON See BROUGHTON

HIGHER CRUMPSALL See CRUMPSALL

HIGHER DUNISHBOOTH See DUNISHBOOTH

HIGHER END See BILLINGE

HIGHER GREEN See ASTLEY and ASTLEY GREEN

HIGHER HARTSHEAD See HARTSHEAD GREEN

HIGHER HURST See HURST

HIGHER INCE See INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD

HIGHER NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

HIGHER OPENSHAW See OPENSHAW

HIGHER RUSHCROFT See RUSHCROFT

HIGHER STAKE HILL See STAKEHILL or STAKE HILL

HIGHER SUMMERSEAT See SUMMERSEAT

HIGHER WOODHILL See WOODHILL

HIGHER OGDEN See OGDEN

HIGHER SWINESHAW RESERVOIR See SWINESHAW

HOLLINS, Rochdale, is a residential area in north-west Middleton. The name is recorded in 1843 and is derived from Old English holegn, meaning ‘holly trees’.

“IMPOSSIBLE BRIDGE” See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

ISLINGTON See NEW ISLINGTON

JACKSON See NEW JACKSON

JJB STADIUM See The BRICK COMMUNITY STADIUM

JUNCTION See MIDDLETON JUNCTION

KISSING ROCKS See WAIN STONES

KNUTSFORD VALE See NUTSFORD VALE

LEESBROOK See LEES

LEESFIELD See LEES

LITTLE BOLTON See BOLTON

LITTLE CLEGG See CLEGG HALL

LITTLE HOUGHTON See WESTHOUGHTON

LITTLE HULTON See HULTON

LITTLE WHINNING GULF See GREAT WHINNING GULF

LOW CROMPTON See CROMPTON

LOWER BREDBURY See BREDBURY

LOWER BROUGHTON See BROUGHTON

LOWER CHELBURN See CHELBURN

LOWER CRUMPSALL See CRUMPSALL

LOWER DUNISHBOOTH See DUNISHBOOTH

LOWER GREEN See ASTLEY and ASTLEY GREEN

LOWER HEALEY See HEALEY

LOWER HINDS See HINDS

LOWER INCE See INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD

LOWER IRLAM See IRLAM

LOWER KERSAL See KERSAL

LOWER NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

LOWER OGDEN See OGDEN

LOWER ROE CROSS See ROE CROSS

LOWER RUSHCROFT See RUSHCROFT

LOWER SUMMERSEAT See SUMMERSEAT

LOWER SWINESHAW RESERVOIR See SWINESHAW

land which had subsided during underground mining operations, was reclaimed and developed over a period of about 30 years before being designated as a nature reserve in 2009.

LOWRY’S STEPS or LOWRY’S FOOTBRIDGE See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

MANCHESTER CENTRAL STATION See GMEX

MANCHESTER EXCHANGE STATION See EXCHANGE STATION

MANCHESTER MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY See LIVERPOOL ROAD

MANCHESTER OXFORD ROAD STATION See OXFORD ROAD

MANCHESTER PICCADILLY STATION See PICCADILLY STATION

MANCHESTER VICTORIA STATION See VICTORIA STATION

MARK ADDY BRIDGE See WODEN FOOTBRIDGE

MESNES PARK See WORSLEY MESNES

MICKER BROOK See BOLLINHURST BROOK

MIDDLE HEALEY See HEALEY

MIDDLE HULTON See HULTON

MIDDLE NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

MID REDDISH See REDDISH

MONSALL is a suburb of Manchester, north-east of the city centre. The name was recorded as Monshalgh in 1546 and means ‘monk’s (Old English monke) corner or nook (halh)’.

NEAR BARROWSHAW See BARROWSHAW

NEAR WAIN STONES See WAIN STONES

NETHER LEES See LEES

NEW DELPH See DELPH

NEW MOSTON See MOSTON

NEW SIRS See OLD SIRS

NEW TAME See OLD TAME

NEWTON is the most common place name in England, with at least 87 towns or villages carrying the name. All mean ‘the new settlement’ from the Old English nīwe + tūn.

NEWTON, Tameside is an area of Hyde that was formerly in Cheshire. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Neweton and with its modern spelling in 1320.

NEW WINDSOR See WINDSOR

NORDEN ETCHELLS or NORTHERN ETCHELLS See ETCHELLS

NORTH REDDISH See REDDISH

OLD BIRTLE See BIRTLE

OVER HULTON See HULTON

The QUEEN ALEXANDRA PICTURE HOUSE See The FESTIVAL THEATRE

REEBOK STADIUM See TOUGHSHEET COMMUNITY STADIUM

ROYAL EXCHANGE See EXCHANGE

RYDER BROW or RIDER BROW See WINNING HILL

ST GEORGE’S PARK See BARRACK PARK

SOUTH REDDISH See REDDDISH

STOCKPORT BROOK See HEMPSHAW BROOK

STOCKPORT ETCHELLS See ETCHELLS

STOCKPORT VIADUCT See VIADUCT

STRAWBERRY ISLAND See POMONA ISLAND

TINKER’S GARDENS See VAUXHALL GARDENS

TOMMYFIELD MARKET is an indoor market in the centre of Oldham. It was established in 1788 in fields owned by Thomas (‘Tommy’) Whittaker.

TOP MOSSLEY See BROOK BOTTOM or BROOKBOTTOM and MOSSLEY

TOP OF HEAP See HEAP BRIDGE

TOP OF HEBERS See HEBERS

TOWN OF LOWTON See LOWTON

UPPER CHELBURN See CHELBURN

VICTORIA PARK, Swinton is a 6-hectare public park in Swinton in the City of Salford. It was opened in 1897 to commemorate the 60th year of the reign of Queen Victoria.

WEST DIDSBURY See DIDSBURY

WEST GORTON See GORTON

WHITEHEAD BROOK See WHITEHEAD HALL MEADOWS

WHITELEY See LOWER WHITELEY DEAN BROOK

WICHEAVES See PEEL

WOODHOUSE GREEN See WOODHOUSES, Oldham

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & SOURCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Fiennes, Celia	c.1682-c.1712/1984	The Illustrated Journeys of Celia Fiennes	London: Macdonald & Co.
Francis, James F	2004	Harwood Hill Farms and Riding Gate	Turton Local History Society
Frangopulo, N J	1977	Tradition in Action – The Historical Evolution of the Greater Manchester County	Wakefield: EP Publishing
Garmonsway, G N (translator)	1953	The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle	Letchworth: Aldine Press
Gelling, Margaret	1994	Place-names in the Landscape	London: J M Dent
Gelling, Margaret	1997	Signposts to the Past	Chichester: Phillimore
Gelling, M & Ann Cole	2000	The Landscape of Place Names	Stamford: Shaun Tyas
Goodall, Armitage	1913	Place-Names of South-West Yorkshire	Cambridge: University Press
Harland, John (ed)	1862	Mamecestre: being chapters from the early recorded history of the Barony of Manchester	Chetham Society, vol III
Insley, John	1986	Toponymy and Settlements in the North West	Nomina 10, pp. 169-76
	2022	Eilert Ekwall and Lancashire Place Names	Lancashire Place Name Survey Newsletter, September 2022, pp3-10
Johnston, James	1915	The Place-Names of England and Wales	London: John Murray
Kenyon, Denise	1991	The Origins of Lancashire	Manchester: University Press
Leech, Geoffrey	2006	The unique heritage of place-names in North-West England	https://www.lancaster.ac.uk > leechg > leech_2006
Lewis, William	2011	What’s in an English Place-Name?	Abingdon: Brazen Head Publishing
March, Henry Colley	1880	East Lancashire Nomenclature and Rochdale Names	London: Simpkin
Mikes, George	1946	How to be an Alien	London: Penguin Books
Miller, David	2018/2022	Altrincham Area History	https://www.altrinchamheritage.com
Mills, David	1976	The Place Names of Lancashire	London: B T Batsford
Mills, A D	1991	A Dictionary of English Place Names	Oxford: University Press
Moorman, F W	1910	Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire	Leeds: Thoresby Society
Mullineux, C Elsie & Frank Mullineux	1990	Origins of Street Names – Worsley and Little Hulton	Little Hulton: Streetgate Printing and Stationery
Parkinson-Bailey, John	2000	Manchester – An Architectural History	Manchester: University Press
Potter, Simeon	1955	Cheshire Place Names	Liverpool: Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire
Potter, Simeon	1959	South-West Lancashire Place-Names	Liverpool: Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol III, pages 1-23
Poulton-Smith, Anthony	2012	Cheshire Place Names	Ross-on-Wye: Fineleaf
Reaney, P H	1964	The Origin of English Place Names	London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Room, Adrian	1988/1993	Dictionary of Place-Names of the British Isles	Leicester: Bookmart
	1985	A Concise Dictionary of Modern Place Names in Great Britain and Ireland	Oxford: Oxford University Press
	1989	Dictionary of World Place Names Derived from British Names	London: Routledge
Royle, William	1914	History of Rusholme	Manchester: William Morris Press
Sephton, J	1913	A Handbook of Lancashire Place-Names	Liverpool: H Young & Sons
Slater, Terry R	2004	Planning English medieval ‘street towns’: the Hertfordshire evidence	https://www.researchgate.net › publication › 27174965…
Stewart, George R	1970	A Concise Dictionary of American Place-Names	New York: Oxford University Press
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Smith, A H	1956a	English Place-Name Elements, Part I	Cambridge: University Press/English Place-Name Society
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	1986	The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Part II Osgoldcross and Agbrigg Wapentakes	Cambridge: University Press/English Place-Name Society
Swain, N V	1987	A History of Sale	Wilmslow: Sigma Press
Watts, Victor	2004	The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names	Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Waugh, Edwin	1855 & 1857	Lancashire Sketches	Manchester: John Heywood
Wyld, Henry & T Oakes Hirst	1911	The Place Names of Lancashire: their Origin and History	London: Constable & Co.

APPENDIX 1: DOMESDAY BOOK ENTRIES FOR GREATER MANCHESTER

BOLTON (Bodeltun) 6 carucates

CRIMBLES (Crimeles) In Preston …. Crimbles 1 carucate

GREENHALGH (> GREENMOUNT) (Greneholf) In Preston … Greenhalgh 3 carucates

HOLLINGWORTH (Holisurde) The earl himself holds … Hollingworth at 1 virgate.

LUDWORTH (Lodeuorde) In Ludworth Brun had 4 bovates of land.

MANCHESTER The Church of St Mary and the Church of St Michael held in Manchester 1 carucate of land quit of every customary due except geld.

RADCLIFFE (Radeclive) King Edward held Radcliffe as a manor. There is 1 hide and another hide belonging to Salford.

ROMILEY (Rumelie) The earl himself holds …Romiley at 1 virgate …. The whole was and is waste.

SINDERLAND (Sundreland) See Baguley above.

APPENDIX 2: LOWRY LOCATIONS IN GREATER MANCHESTER

LOCATION	TITLE	DATE	NOTES
ADELPHI	The River Irwell at the Adelphi	1924
AGECROFT	Agecroft Regatta	1949
ANCOATS	Great Ancoats Street	c.1929
	Great Ancoats Street, Manchester	1930
	Ancoats Hospital Outpatients’ Hall	1952
	Ancoats Hospital Outpatients’ Hall	u/d
ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE	Industrial Landscape	1952
BROUGHTON	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Broughton	1925
BROUGHTON	Houses in Broughton	1937
BURNDEN	Going to the Match	1953	Bolton Wanderers’ football ground
CHEADLE HULME	The Drive, ‘Oaklands’	1947
	Portrait of a House	c.1947
	Portrait of a House	1954
CHORLTON-ON-MEDLOCK	David Lloyd George’s Birthplace	1958	House demolished 1957
CLIFTON	Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton	1925	Now Clifton Country Park
	Clifton Junction, Morning	1910
	Clifton Junction, Evening	1910
	A Footbridge	1944	Pack Saddle or Roving Bridge
COLLYHURST	A Footbridge	1938	Also known as ‘Barney’s Steps’
CORONATION STREET, Salford	Coronation Street	1957
CRIME LAKE	Crime Lake	1942
CROWTHER STREET, Stockport	Crowther Street, Stockport	1930	Original houses demolished in the 1960s but restored early in the 2000s
CROWTHER STREET, Stockport	Crowther Street, Stockport	1934
DAISY NOOK, Droylsden	Lancashire Fair, Good Friday, Daisy Nook	1946
	The Fairground	1949
	Fairground at Daisy Nook	1956
DIXON FOLD	Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton	1925	Now Clifton Country Park
ECCLES	Eccles Railway Station	1963
EXCHANGE STATION	Station Approach	1960
EXCHANGE STATION	Station Approach	1962
FAILSWORTH	Old Road, Failsworth	1957
FAILSWORTH	Children Playing, Old Road, Failsworth	1957
FAIRFIELD	The Canal Bridge	1944
GATLEY	The Empty House	1934
	Old House	1936
	Old House, Gatley	1937
GAYTHORN	Oldfield Road Dwelling	1927
GAYTHORN	Oldfield Road Dwellings	1929
River IRWELL	The River Irwell at the Adelphi	1924
	A View of the River Irwell from Peel Park	1924
	River Irwell at Salford	c.1924
	River Scene/Industrial Landscape	1935
	The Lake	1937
	River Scene	1942
	River Irwell at Salford	1947
	A River Bank	1947
	The Agecroft Regatta	1948
MANCHESTER	St John’s Church, Deansgate	1920
	Sketch of St John’s, Manchester	c.1920
	St John’s Church, Manchester	1928
	The Viaduct, Store Street, Manchester	1929
	St John’s Church	1938
	A Footbridge	1938	Collyhurst footbridge
	After the Blitz	1942
	Manchester Blitz/St Augustine’s Church, Hulme	1943
	Going to Work	1943	Mather & Platt Works
	Going to Work	1944	Mather & Platt Works
	St Augustine’s Church, Manchester	1945	Destroyed in Manchester blitz
	Industrial Landscape	1955	Mather & Platt Works
	Reference Library	1972	Now Manchester Central Library
MIDDLETON	Old Church and Steps	1960
MOTTRAM-IN-LONGDENDALE	Agricultural Fair	1949
MOTTRAM-IN-LONGDENDALE	The Hat Rack	1966	Lowry’s home:
PEEL PARK, Salford	Peel Park Sketch	1919
	Peel Park Sketch	1920
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1924
	A View of the River Irwell from Peel Park	1924
	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Manchester	1924
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1925
	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Broughton	1925
	The Terrace, Peel Park, Salford	1927
	Peel Park, Salford	1927
	Peel Park, Sketch	c.1927
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1928
	The Steps, Peel Park, Salford	1930
	The Bandstand, Peel Park	1931
	Peel Park, Salford	1944
	The Park	1946
	The Bandstand, Peel Park	c.1954	Date tbc
PENDLEBURY	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1920
	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1924
	Old Farm in Pendlebury	1925
	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1930
	Pendlebury Scene	1931
	Street Scene	1935	Acme Mill
	View in Pendlebury	1936
	Figures in a Lane	1936
	The Procession	1937	Annual Whit-Thursday procession
	Albion Mill	1941
	Winter in Pendlebury	1943
	The Mill, Pendlebury	1943
	Mill Scene with Figures	1944
	Iron Works	1947
	Street in Pendlebury	1948
	Pendlebury Market	u/d
	The Railway Platform	1953
PICCADILLY	Piccadilly	1930
	Piccadilly Gardens	1954
	Piccadilly, Manchester	c.1957
POLICE STREET, Eccles	The Arrest	1927
PRESTWICH	Prestwich Clough	1914
RAMSBOTTOM	The Railway Steps, Ramsbottom	1945
RAMSBOTTOM	The Steps	1957
RICHMOND HILL, Salford	Richmond Hill, Salford	1925
RICHMOND HILL, Salford	Richmond Hill, Salford	1957	Date tbc
ST MICHAEL’S FLAGS & ANGEL MEADOW PARK	Playground	c.1927
	The Steps, Irk Place	1928
	Lancashire Street	1929
	St Michael’s Church and All Angels – Study	1933
	View of a Town	1936
	St Michael’s Church and All Angels	1941
	Street Scene	1941
	Britain at Play	1943
	Street Scene with Figures	1944
	Street Scene	1947
ST PETER’S SQUARE	Reference Library	1972	Built 1930-34; now Central Library
SALFORD	Salford Street Scene	1922
	The Flat Iron Market	c.1925
	Belle Vue House, Leaf Square, Salford	1925
	Behind Leaf Square	1925
	The County Court	1926
	The Tower, Leaf Square	1926
	An Old Lamp, Behind Leaf Square	1926
	By Christ Church, Salford	1926
	By the County Court, Salford	1926
	By St Philip’s Church, Salford	1926
	Hulme Place, Salford	1926
	Dwelling, Ordsall Lane, Salford	1927
	A Street Scene, St Simon’s Church	1927
	St Simon’s Church	c.1927
	A Street Scene, St Simon’s Church	1928	Church demolished in 1927
	Salford Street Scene	1928
	The Gateway	1931
	The Corner Shop	1943	Islington Square
	A Footbridge	1944	Pack Saddle or Roving Bridge
	The Old House, Grove Street, Salford	1948
	The Factory Gate	1951
	Early Morning	1954
	St Stephen’s Church, Salford	1956
	Chapel, St Stephen’s Church, Salford	1956
	North James Henry Street, Salford	1956
	Christ Church, Salford	1956
	Francis Terrace, Salford	1956
	Francis Street, Salford	1957
	Sunday Afternoon	1957
	Man Going to Work/Figure in a Gateway	1964
	Church in Salford/St Philip’s Church	1965
STOCKPORT	The Stepped Street	1929
	Mealhouse Brow	1929
	Crowther Street, Stockport	1930	Original houses demolished in the 1960s but restored early in the 2000s
	Crowther Street, Stockport	1934
	Stockport Viaduct	1942
	Stockport Viaduct	1943
	Stockport Viaduct	1944
	The Viaduct, Stockport	c.1950s
	Old Steps, Mealhouse Brow	1969
SWINTON	Arden’s Farm	c.1909
	Wardley Farm, Swinton Moss	1913
	St Mary’s Church, Swinton	1913
	Swinton Moss	1922
	Swinton Industrial Schools	1930
	St Mary’s Church, Swinton	1960
TOMMYFIELDS MARKET, Oldham	Selling Oilcloth on the Oldham Road	1914
TOMMYFIELDS MARKET, Oldham	The Lino Market	1955
WARDLEY	Wardley Farm, Swinton Moss	1913
WIGAN	Industrial Landscape/Landscape in Wigan	1925

References

Sandling J & M Leber (2000), Lowry’s City – A Painter and His Locale, Salford: Lowry Press

Saywell, David, Artists and Places: L S Lowry in Salford and Industrial Towns in Greater Manchester (accessed 13/09/2024)

APPENDIX 3: VALETTE LOCATIONS IN GREATER MANCHESTER

LOCATION	PICTURE TITLE	DATE	NOTES
ALBERT SQUARE, Manchester	Albert Square, Manchester	1910
ALL SAINTS/GROSVENOR SQUARE	Hansom Cab at All Saints	1910	All Saints church was damaged in the blitz of 1940 and demolished in 1946
	Old Cab at All Saints	1911
	Presbyterian Church, All Saints	tbc
CENTRAL STATION	Central Station	1910-11
River IRWELL	Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1909	Actually depicts Irwell Street Bridge
	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
	Bailey Bridge	1912
	Under Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1912	Actually depicts Irwell Street Bridge
MANCHESTER	Rooftops, Manchester	Tbc
	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
	Plymouth Grove, July	1909
	Street Scene, Manchester	1912
	York Street Leading to Charles Street	1913
	Manchester Street in the Fog	c.1910
	Manchester Suburban Scene	tbc
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL	Ship Canal, Sunset	c.1908
	Manchester Ship Canal and Warehouses	1908
	Trafford Road Swing Bridge	c.1910
	Trafford Bridge and Pomona Dock	tbc
	Tug on a Canal in Manchester	tbc
River MEDLOCK	India House	1912
NEW BAILEY BRIDGE	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
NEW BAILEY BRIDGE	Bailey Bridge	1912
OXFORD ROAD, Manchester	Oxford Road, Manchester	1910
OXFORD ROAD, Manchester	Houses on Oxford Street, Sunset	c.1910
PLYMOUTH GROVE, Manchester	Plymouth Grove, July	1909
ROMILEY	Romiley	1916
ST PETER’S SQUARE, Manchester	St Peter’s Square, Manchester	tbc
SALE	Sale, near Manchester	1907
SALFORD	Castlegate, Salford	1912
WINDSOR BRIDGE	Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1909	Both paintings in fact depict the Irwell Street Bridge, not Windsor Bridge
WINDSOR BRIDGE	Under Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1912

References

Martin, Sandra (2007), Adolphe Valette – A French Impressionist in Manchester, London: Scala Publishers

Webb, Poul, Arts and Artists: Adolphe Valette (accessed 23/11/2024)

GREATER MANCHESTER PLACE NAMES

Compiled by Richard West

Cover image under licence from Alamy. Reference OY0101324868

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION

Contact: west46 [at] btinternet.com

ENTRIES

Each entry consists of the following:

Location: Which metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester the place can be found in.

Variations: Variant names and spellings are indicated briefly.

Meaning: The literal meaning of the name where this is not self-evident.

Cross references to other place names in the book (marked in bold).

Appendices

	Appendix 1	Domesday Book entries for Greater Manchester
	Appendix 2	Lowry locations in Greater Manchester
	Appendix 3	Valette locations in Greater Manchester

GLOSSARY

TIMELINE OF GREATER MANCHESTER PLACE NAMES

The timeline below highlights the main eras and dates in the history of Greater Manchester and shows how place names across the county exemplify the naming practices of its inhabitants at those times. The names in bold are included as main entries in the dictionary.
THE CELTS c.750 BC onwards	The Celts were living in north-west England from about the 8^th century BC but they were either displaced or assimilated by later invaders. Few of their place names survive. As elsewhere in England, the names of many of the rivers of what is now Greater Manchester are possibly of Celtic origin: Calder, Douglas, Glaze, Goyt, Irk and Tame. The area would have been sparsely populated but several place names provide evidence of Celtic occupation around Wigan: Wigan itself, Bryn, Culcheth, Ince-in-Makerfield, Kenyon, Pemberton and Shevington, and Cheadle, Cheetham and Cheetwood all share the same Celtic root (cēd ‘wood’), suggesting that all were Celtic settlements at an early date, and it has been suggested that this area has one of the heaviest concentrations of Celtic names in England. The Celts are also recalled in Wallgate and Walton, both derived from the Anglo-Saxon term for the Celts – the wealh (i.e. the Welsh).
ROMANS AD 78 AD – 410	In AD 78-86 the Roman invaders built a fort that is usually said to have been named Mamucium, derived from the Celtic for ‘breast-shaped hill’. The name was later Anglicised as Manchester, preserving the Latin castra (‘camp’). The Roman legions abandoned their fort in about AD 410, but, despite this long occupation, there are no place names in Greater Manchester preserving the original Latin, although some seem to be translations of earlier Latin names. Suggestions that Manchester’s River Tib may have been named after the Tiber in Rome may simply be fanciful. Although there are no place names in Greater Manchester which are derived from Latin, there are several Anglo-Saxon names which acknowledge Roman forts: Alport, Castlefield, Castleshaw and Littleborough. Old English strǣt in Stretford and Trafford refers to the Roman road to Chester. It should be noted that Roman Lakes Leisure Park was a 19^th-century invention that had nothing to do with the Romans.
ANGLO-SAXONS c. AD 450 onwards	The majority of Greater Manchester place names recorded before the industrial revolution are derived from Old English – the language of the Anglo-Saxon invaders who spread over much of England from the 5^th century onwards. They generally constructed their place names from two or three elements: a generic element identifying the type of place it was and another element coming first to distinguish it from others with the same generic element. So, for example, Heaton (‘high village’) was distinguished from Lowton (‘low village’). The Anglo-Saxons used several main types of elements:
	¨	Eponyms Many Anglo-Saxon places were named after leaders, but, of course, we know little or nothing of the men and women who gave their names to Ardwick, Baguley, Cadishaw, Chorlton, Crumpsall, or Pilsworth. It is often easy to spot an Anglo-Saxon eponym as any name formed with -ing- (‘followers, people of’) + –tūn (‘village, estate, etc’) is likely to be named after an Anglo-Saxon leader – Brinnington, Dumplington, Partington, Pennington, Pilkington, Shevington, Torkington, Tottington, Withington and Worthington. For some reason, there are no longer any Greater Manchester names with -ing- + –tūn to compare with Birmingham, Nottingham or Sandringham (but see earlier spelling of Altrincham).
	¨	Topographical The second category of Anglo-Saxon place names is those derived from the geography of the area – the hills and valleys, rivers and streams, and moors and marshes. In the Greater Manchester area, these follow a clear pattern as the landscape changes from east to west:
		Moors		Moors are barren uplands that are generally unsuitable for agriculture. There are over 3000 listed places with moor as their final element, approximately half of them in Yorkshire. In Greater Manchester there are about 20 moor places nearly all in the east, on the edge of the Pennines and Peaks (Moorside). In the south of the county, the old Roman road to Buxton (the A6) marks a boundary, with Great Moor, Heaton Moor, Bramhall Moor and Woodsmoor along the road and contrasting with the nearby Shaw Heath to the west.
		Mosses		To the west and north-east of the county are the mosses – bogs or swamps that often made settlement or travel difficult. The name and the phenomenon are distinct to north-west England, as Daniel Defoe noted: ‘On the road to Manchester, we pass’d the great bog or waste call’d Chat Moss, the first of that kind that we see in England, from any of the south parts hither. It extends on the left-hand of the road for five or six miles east and west, and they told us it was, in some places, seven or eight miles from north to south.’ The element is found in at least twenty places as Barton Moss, Broadhead Moss, Chat Moss, Featherbed Moss, Hale Moss, Kearsley Moss, Kitt’s Moss, Little Moss, Moss Side, Mossley, Moston, Shadow Moss and, somewhat corrupted, Moses Gate.
		Brooks		As we have seen, most of the major rivers in Greater Manchester have names which are probably Celtic in origin, but these are fed by countless muddy brooks flowing from the east, most of which have Anglo-Saxon names. These brooks may flow down steep valleys or cloughs (Stoneclough), gentler dales (Rochdale) or long deans/-dens (Denton, Droylsden, Walkden) with paths or roads, or meander round a nook or halh (Bramhall, Crumpsall, Hale, Haugh) or a tongue (Tonge, Taunton). The rivers and brooks were crossed by fords (Salford, Stretford, Trafford) and later by bridges – Platt, meaning bridge, is found from 1212 and bridge itself occurs in Manchester’s Hanging Bridge, dating from 1343. Settlements were frequently established beside these fords and bridges.
		Woods		The flood plain of Greater Manchester between the moors to the east and the mosses to the west was originally heavily wooded, although much of the forest had been cleared by the time the Anglo-Saxons arrived. We find many places that have wood in their name (Woodley, Woodford, Woodhouses), but many more that are copses or shaws (Audenshaw, Openshaw, Shaw, Wythenshawe). Amongst the woods, settlements were established in clearings, and names with the element –lee/-leigh/-le meaning ‘woodland clearing’ are especially common (Leigh, Cheadle, Edgeley, Romiley, Stayley, Stalybridge, Worsley).
	¨	Vegetation There are many places named after different types of wood, although this is not always obvious – Ashton, Beech Hill, Birch, Firswood, Hollins (holly), Horwich (wych elm), Ogden (oak), Sale (willow), Salford (willow), Withington (willow), and Wythenshawe (willow). There are also names which are derived from the uses to which the wood was put – for making poles (Bollinhurst), brooms (Bramhall, Brimrod), staves (Stalybridge) and timber (Timperley). There are relatively few places named for other types of vegetation. Several places indicate that reeds or rushes, which could be used for thatching (Thatch Leach), could be found (Broadbent, Lever, Reddish, Sedgley). Some places are names after vegetables – celery (Agecroft), watercress (Kearsley, Kersal), and wild garlic (Ramsbottom) – and others indicate that cereal crops such as barley (Barlow Fold, Barlow Moor, Pemberton) and rye (Ryton, Ryecroft) were being grown.
	¨	Animals The Anglo-Saxons also named many places after animals and birds, especially deer (Hartshead, Hattersley, Roe Green), goats (Bucklow, Gatley), pigs (Boarshaw, Swinton), cranes (Cornbrook) and hawks (Hawkley). Perhaps surprisingly in a region with so many rivers, there are very few places named after fish (Compstall).
	¨	Directional While there are several names indicating the northern location of places (Norbury, Norley, Northenden, Northern Moor), compass points were also used for distinguishing purposes: Norden (= northern valley) and Sudden (= southern valley), Astley (east Leigh) and Westleigh, Haughton and Westhaughton.
CHRISTIANITY 6^th-7^th centuries onwards	Christianity spread to the area of Greater Manchester in the 6^th and 7^th centuries and evidence of this is found in place names across the county, although little or nothing is known of the monks commemorated in Monsall or Monton, the priests in Prestolee, Prestwich or Priestnall, the kirk at Kirkmanshulme or of any abbey in Abbey Hey. Rooden and possibly Blackrod retain the Old English rōd (meaning ‘cross’) before it was supplanted by the Gaelic or Norse cross, which is found in other, presumably later place names. Eccles is also thought to be a Celtic word derived from the Latin or Greek for an ecclesiastical gathering. The only person from this early period of whom we know anything is St Chad (c.634-672), the Bishop of Lichfield in Mercia, whose parish covered the Greater Manchester area until 1541. St Chad’s Church in Rochdale, parts of which date from the 13^th century and which may have been named in AD 673, is said to be the oldest church in the county, and St Chad is also commemorated in Chadkirk and possibly even Chat Moss. Some of the Anglican churches built in Manchester in the 18^th and 19th centuries (some of them no longer in existence) have given their names to districts (All Saints, St George’s), squares (St Ann’s, St Peter’s) and parks (Angel Meadows, St John’s Gardens, St Michael’s Flags). There are several places with Biblical names: Goshen dates from the 16^th century and the non-conformist churches which developed in the first half of the 19^th century also coined Biblical names (Jericho, New Earth and Salem). Several other places which originally had Anglo-Saxon names were later rationalised as if they had Christian origins (Abram, Moses Gate).
VIKINGS c. AD 900-1050	The Vikings settled in North-west England from the 8th century but sources differ as to whether Greater Manchester became part of the Danelaw or not. Certainly, the spread of the Vikings caused concern and legend has it that the Nico Ditch was built in 869-870 to guard against the Vikings: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in AD 923 ‘King Edward … ordered levies … to occupy Manchester in Northumbria, and had it repaired and garrisoned’ in order to meet the Viking threat. It also seems that Bury and at least some of the places with the –bury element (Bredbury, Norbury, Didsbury, Pendlebury and Littleborough) may have originally been fortified Anglo-Saxon settlements built to protect against the Vikings. There is little place-name evidence of large-scale Viking settlement in what is now Greater Manchester: there is a cluster of eponyms in western Manchester (Flixton and perhaps Urmston) but nowhere ending in –by, the most common Norse element (as in Derby or Grimsby), not one -toft (as in Lowestoft), only two occurrences of –thwaite (Laithwaite, Linfitt), and only one –thorpe (Thorp in Oldham). The only Viking name element that does occur with any frequency is –hulme (‘island, raised ground’): Hulme, Davyhulme, Levenshulme, Cheadle Hulme, Oldham (corrupted from Aldholme) and Wolstenholme. A hulme was an area of raised ground that would be particularly suitable for a settlement in an area susceptible to frequent flooding.
INTEGRATION & ASSIMILATION	Cheadle Hulme exemplifies Greater Manchester’s almost unique mixture of the three linguistic traditions – Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norse: Cheadle (Celtic cēd + Old English lēah) + Old Danish hulme. Such names show how, over time, peoples speaking different languages and with different cultures came to live in peace together.
NORMANS 1066 onwards	The Norman conquest of 1066 meant that the official language of England became French, and it remained so until Richard II was deposed in 1399. Despite this, and the fact that Norman lords were given estates across much of England, Norman French had very little impact on place names in mediaeval England. Many of these lords took English names from the lands they governed, but a few Norman names remain today – Darcy (of Darcy Lever), Darnel (of Darnhill), Massey (of Dunham Massey), Norris (of Heaton Norris), Molyneux (of Molyneux Brow) and, much later, Davenport (in Stockport) and Grosvenor (of Manchester’s Grosvenor Square). Also very much later is the use of -ville for housing estates in the early 20^th century (Chorltonville). However, the Normans impacted north-western place names in other ways, as can be seen from their Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1). William the Conqueror sent his agents throughout England to list all the towns, villages and property, so that he would know what taxes were due. Domesday recorded 13,418 settlements throughout England and Wales, about 600 in Cheshire and Lancashire, but fewer than 25 in what is now Greater Manchester. Two reasons are normally given for this: William’s agents did a poor job, simply omitting major places such as Stockport, Wigan and Bury. More likely, the Normans’ genocidal ‘harrying of the north’ in 1069-1070, in which up to 75% of the population of the north were slaughtered, left many places ‘Weaste’ – uninhabited or of little value. Nevertheless, 1400 saw the ‘triumph of English’ and the vast majority of modern place names can trace their origin to Old and Middle English rather than Latin, Norse or Norman French.
CIVIL WAR 1642-1651	Greater Manchester figured significantly in the Civil War: the war itself is often said to have begun when Royalists tried to capture the town and Richard Perceval of Levenshulme became the first casualty during street fighting on 15 July 1642. Oliver Cromwell is said to have passed through Trub Smithy at some point, and to have camped at Oliver Clough during the Siege of Manchester in 1643. In May 1644, the Royalist commander, Prince Rupert, camped on Barlow Moor before leading the Bolton massacre, in which 1500 Parliamentary troops and citizens were killed. On 25 August 1651 the Royalists were defeated in the Battle of Wigan Lane at a hamlet which became known as Battling Wood, which was later corrupted to Bottling Wood.
ENFRANCHISEMENT & CIVIL RIGHTS 17^th century onwards	The first MP for Manchester was not elected until 1654 but the constituency was abolished in 1660 on the restoration of the monarchy as Manchester had supported Oliver Cromwell and the parliamentarians in the civil war. This situation lasted throughout the 18^th century and in 1725 Defoe described Manchester as ‘the greatest meer village in England. It is neither a wall’d town, city or corporation; they send no members to Parliament’. Despite the Peterloo protests, parliamentary representation was not restored to Manchester until 1832 and the first MP, Mark Philips, is commemorated in Philips Park. The right to vote was dependent on property ownership and in the 1860s, John Platt, a mill owner and the mayor of Oldham, gave his employees the freehold of their houses so that they could vote. The right to vote was restricted to men until 1918, largely as a result of the suffragette movement formed by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, whose campaigning is celebrated at the Pankhurst Centre. A much earlier milestone in women’s rights is commemorated at Womanscroft Bridge in Bramhall, where, in 1637, a landowning woman who ‘had a house with a small croft and toft’ was given certain legal rights, including being a juror and being ‘exempt from the burden of repairing the bridge over Lady Brook, known as the Woman’s Croft bridge’. This is one of the few place names in England with ‘woman’ as an element.
JACOBITE REBELLION 1745-1746	In 1745-1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie led a Jacobite army into England in an attempt to regain the throne that his father, James II, had been forced to give up in 1688. He reached Manchester on 28 November 1745 and is thought to have stabled his horses in Stockport, before marching on to Derby and then retreating to defeat at the Battle of Culloden. Longsight and Tiviot Dale are both said to owe their names to the Bonnie Prince and his army. It has also been suggested that Scotland in central Manchester was named because the Jacobite troops camped there in 1745, but this seems unlikely.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION & COAL c.1760-1840	The term ‘industrial revolution’ was invented in 1799 by the Frenchman, Louis-Guillaume Otto, and was applied to Britain by Arnold Toynbee in 1881. The industrial transformation of Britain in the second half of the 18^th century and first half of the 19^th had several causes, but chief among these was the availability and application of coal. Several place names across Greater Manchester point to the early mining of coal and other minerals: Cinder Hill, Collyhurst, Coldhurst, Cowlishaw, Delph, Orrell, Pitses and Quarlton. Daniel Defoe, who toured Great Britain in 1724-1726, described the widespread mining of coal between Wigan and Bolton, but the mines of the area were mostly shallow, with horse-powered winding gear. This early mine equipment is captured in Gin Pit village, where Gin is short for engine. However, the depth of mines was limited by the dangers of flooding, which was addressed by the use of steam pumps. One of the first of these was installed in 1749 in Norbury colliery, which was frequently flooded by the Bollinhurst Brook. The other problem noted by Defoe was the remoteness from markets: ‘they are remote; and though some of them have been brought to London, yet they are so dear, by reason of the carriage, that few care to buy them.’ This problem was initially solved by canals, notably the Bridgewater Canal, which was built in 1759-61, halving the price of coal in Manchester, and becoming the forerunner of the national canal network. Coal not only powered the industries of Greater Manchester; the region became a centre for the manufacture of textile machinery, industrial equipment and railway locomotives. Some of the manufacturers and engineers gave their names to places in the county, e.g. Simon’s Bridge, Whitworth Park. The last coal mines in the county closed in the 1990s, leaving only the Lancashire Colliery Museum at Astley Green and a legacy of dereliction and pollution. However, much has been done to transform the industrial landscape into nature reserves and conservation areas, notably the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh, where flashes are a local word for surface flooding caused by the collapse of underground mine workings. The Three Sisters, now a recreation area, take their name from former waste heaps at a local colliery.
‘COTTONOPOLIS’	The term ‘Cottonopolis’ was invented in about 1851 but the textile industry started much earlier. The earliest mills, such as that at Bowdon, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1), or those at Milnrow (‘a row of houses by a mill’) and Quarlton (‘mill hill’) in the 13^th century, were almost certainly corn or flour mills. The textile industry seems to have been established well before the 14^th century, initially concentrating on flax (see Crossacres), wool (Walkden, Walkers) and linen (Bowker Vale, Gigg, Linfitt). The switch to cotton had begun by about 1725, when Daniel Defoe visited Bolton and noted ‘that the cotton manufacture reach’d thither’. The rapid and large-scale expansion of cotton manufacture came later in the century with mechanisation, notably the building of the first water-powered mills at Portwood on the Mersey in 1732, at Garret by the River Medlock in about 1760 and at Thorp in Royton in 1764, Crompton’s spinning mule, invented at Hall i’ th’ Wood in 1779, and Arkwright’s steam-powered mill at Shudehill in 1783. In all, over 2400 cotton mills were built in the area between 1732 and 1926. The earliest mills tended to be named for the places where they were built or the brooks that powered them, but many mills, and the villages and parks around them were named by and for their owners or their wives. Knott Mill, dating from 1509, is an early example and later examples include Bealey’s Goit, Drinkwater Park, Hallam Coronation Garden, Holt Town, Hope, Houldsworth, Langworthy and Eckersley. The First World War led to the loss of markets and the last mill in Greater Manchester and Lancashire – Elk Mill in Royton – was completed in 1926. Today, the only cotton mill remaining in production in the county is Tower Mill in Dukinfield.
RAILWAYS 1830-1880	The first railway in what is now Greater Manchester was the Bolton & Leigh, a 12-kilometre freight line opened in 1828 to connect Bolton to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Leigh. The Liverpool & Manchester, the world’s first intercity passenger railway, was opened in 1830 with its eastern terminus at Liverpool Road. In the next 50 years, about 200 stations were built in Greater Manchester. Most were named after existing locations, but some were opened for new suburbs opened up by the railways such as Altrincham, Chorlton-cum–Hardy and Sale, and others, such as Ashburys, Brooklands and Davenport, were opened to serve communities named after individuals. In many other cases, it seems that the railways standardised the names or spelling of places which were not officially agreed: Astley Bridge, Chequerbent, Guide Bridge, Hazel Grove, Heald Green, Howe Bridge, Mumps, Newton Heath, Rushford and Stoneclough.
VICTORIAN ERA 1837-1901	The reign of Queen Victoria coincided with the rise of Cottonopolis, and many places were named after Victoria herself (Victoria Bridge, Victoria Station, Victoria Park, Queen’s Park, etc), her husband, Prince Albert (Albert Bridge, Albert Square, Albert Park, etc), their son, the Prince of Wales (Clarence Park), and his wife, Princess Alexandra (there are at least four Alexandra Parks). Victoria’s golden jubilee in 1887 is commemorated in Jubilee Park, and Edward VII’s coronation in 1902 in Coronation Street.
PUBLIC PARKS 1846	It was in Greater Manchester that three of England’s first municipal parks – Peel Park, named in honour of Sir Robert Peel, Philips Park and Queen’s Park in Harpurhey – were opened to the public in 1846. Over the next 150 years, many country-house estates were donated or purchased and opened as public parks, ranging from the very small, such as Marie Louise Gardens in south Manchester to the enormous Heaton Park, acquired in 1902.
CITY OF MANCHESTER 1853	Manchester had lost its MP in 1660 because it had supported Cromwell in the civil war, and it was not until 1832 that parliamentary representation was restored. This was followed by the granting of city status in 1853. As a mark of civic pride, plans for a new town hall were announced in 1863 and, at the same time, Albert Square was laid out as a memorial to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, who had died in 1861. Also in 1853, the construction of the Free Trade Hall on the site of the Peterloo massacre of 1819 in St Peter’s Square was begun to mark the repeal of the corn laws in 1846. In 1853, the City Manchester reached its peak as a cotton manufacturing city, with 108 mills.
SLAVERY AND THE COTTON FAMINE 1861-1865	Most of Lancashire’s raw cotton was grown and picked by slaves in the southern states of the U.S. until the 1860s. There is, however, little evidence of this in the place names of Greater Manchester. Notable exceptions are Kingston in Tameside, which was named by a slave-owner to remind him of his life in Jamaica, and Elk Mill in Oldham, which takes its name from a river in Tennessee from where some of the earliest slave-harvested cotton came from at the end of the 18^th century. Despite this dependence on this cotton, there was early support in Manchester for the abolition of slavery. The issue was widely debated – the Manchester Movement for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade had been established in 1787 and Engels discusses slavery at several points in his 1845 study of the working class in Manchester. The supply of cotton became critical during the Lancashire ‘Cotton Famine, which occurred when the American Civil War cut off Greater Manchester’s cotton supplies from the southern states of the U.S. Despite the severe hardship, the Lancashire cotton workers supported the cause of the Union and in 1863 U.S. President Abraham Lincoln thanked them for their support for the abolition of slavery and his statue, with an extract from his letter, now stands in Lincoln Square. During the cotton famine, various projects were carried out to provide an income for the unemployed textile workers, notably Alexandra Park in Oldham, Queen’s Park in Bolton, the Cotton Famine Road in Rochdale, the Haigh estate (now Haigh Woodland Park) in Wigan and the Swineshaw reservoirs in Tameside.
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL 1894	The first attempt to connect Manchester to the Irish Sea was the Mersey & Irwell Navigation, which was built in 1721-1724 between Runcorn in Cheshire and Hunt’s Quay in the centre of Manchester. This was not a true canal but a waterway which improved navigation on the two rivers through a series of cuts and locks. The Manchester Ship Canal is a 58-kilometre artificial waterway between Runcorn in Cheshire and Salford. It was built in 1887-1893 and was opened by Queen Victoria at Mode Wheel on 21 May 1894. It led to a considerable increase in trade and industry, notably the development of Trafford Park, the world’s first industrial estate, in 1896.
WORLD WAR I 1914-1918	The military action of the First World War had little direct impact on Greater Manchester but there were Zeppelin bombing raids on Holcombe and Greenmount on 25 September 1916 and on Wigan on 12 April 1918. The Wigan raid killed seven people and a further nine were injured. However, the explosion at the Hooley Hill Munitions Factory on 13 June 1917 caused far more casualties, with 46 killed and hundreds injured. War memorials were erected after the war, as well as memorial parks such as Broadhurst Park in Moston, Dunwood Park in Crompton, Gallipoli Gardens in Bury, Tandle Hill Country Park in Royton, Woodbank Memorial Park in Stockport, and the Albert Hill VC Memorial Park in Denton.
URBAN RE-HOUSING 20^th century	Urban overcrowding and slums led most of the councils of what is now Greater Manchester to build estates to re-house large numbers of residents in improved accommodation. The first was perhaps the New Barracks estate in Salford, built in 1901-04, including Coronation Street, and several were built under the government-funded ‘Homes for Heroes’ scheme after World War I. Many more followed in the 1930s, and most adopted the names of the farms, mines or areas where they were built – Brushes, Johnson Fold, Langley, Linnyshaw Park and Limeside. In some cases, new aspirational names were coined, e.g. Abbey Hills. A third option was to take the name of a local hall or its grounds and apply it to the whole new housing estate, e.g. Polefield and Wythenshawe. As these estates expanded, older settlements were absorbed (Brownley Green, Crossacres, Poundswick, Royal Oak, Saxfield) and some have largely disappeared.
CITY OF SALFORD 1926	Salford was granted city status in 1926 but this was not marked by any new civic buildings. However, city status coincided with the announcement of plans to build the first of a new type of ‘super cinema’ outside London – the Ambassador.
WORLD WAR II 1939-1945	Between July 1940 and July 1942, Greater Manchester was subject to repeated German bombing raids, including the ‘Manchester blitz’ of 22-24 December 1940. 684 people were killed, 2364 were injured and there was widespread destruction. Many buildings were damaged, and St Augustine’s and All Saints churches were so badly damaged that they had to be demolished. Late in the war, on 24 December 1944, there were V-1 flying bomb attacks on Abbey Hills, Tottington, Davenport and Worsley which claimed 37 lives. Whitehead Gardens in Tottington commemorate these victims.
GREATER MANCHESTER 1 April 1974	The new county of Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 from parts of north-east Cheshire, south-east Lancashire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is composed of 10 Metropolitan Boroughs: Bolton, Bury, the City of Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, the City of Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. All of these except Tameside were pre-existing names dating from mediaeval times or earlier.
METROLINK & REGENERATION 1992 onwards	Greater Manchester, and the City of Manchester in particular, have undergone widespread regeneration since the 1990s, some of which have revived names that were fading from use (New Cross, New Islington). The Metrolink tram system, now the largest in the UK, was opened in 1992 and not only preserves the names of older parts of the county (Bess o’ th’ Barn, Pomona, Shadow Moss) and closed or disused railway stations (Cornbrook, Derker, Failsworth, Hollinwood, Milnrow, Oldham Mumps), but includes stops named after new areas (Anchorage, Etihad Campus, MediaCityUK, Salford Quays, Velopark). The new skyscraper area to the south of Manchester city centre is becoming known as “Manc-hattan”. However, regeneration has meant not just demolition and modernistic architecture. There has also been a movement towards the restoration and repurposing of mills and markets such as Manchester’s Mackie Mayor and Stockport’s Weir Mill, based on what has sometimes been called the ‘Altrincham model’.
CULTURES & LIFESTYLES	Perhaps the stereotypical images of Greater Manchester are captured in the artwork of L S Lowry (see Appendix 2) and P A Valette (Appendix 3), and the TV soap opera Coronation Street. However, in the years since the war and particularly since 1974, new communities and cultures have emerged, and some of these have given rise to new place names. These were initially unofficial but some have now been adopted officially: China Town, Curry Mile, Gay Village, Madchester and the Northern Quarter.
EXPORTED NAMES	The names of many settlements in Greater Manchester have been ‘exported’ or transferred to other countries overseas. This was often the result of colonial settlement, when British settlers wanted to commemorate their home towns. In other cases, and especially in the case of places named after Manchester, the inhabitants aspired to emulate the industrial innovation and success of Lancashire towns. However, several places turn out to be eponyms rather than transferred names, i.e. they are named after local worthies rather than English towns, so it is said that Manchester in Iowa was named by inverting the name of William Chesterman, one of its founders, and Oldham in Missouri was named after a Mr Asa Old who sold hams.
	Bolton		Connecticut, USA		Incorporated in 1720 and named by early settlers, many of whom came from Bolton in Lancashire.
			Illinois, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Iowa, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Kansas, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Maryland, USA		Bolton Hill: named after the estate of George Grundy, a Baltimore merchant who named his estate after his native Bolton in Lancashire.
			Ohio, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire by early settlers.
			Vermont, USA		Founded in 1763 and probably named by early settlers from Lancashire.
			Virginia, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
	Bury		Quebec, Canada		Named in 1803 after Bury in Lancashire.
	Didsbury		Alberta, Canada		Founded and named in 1902 after Didsbury in Lancashire.
	Edgeley		North Dakota, USA		Founded and named in 1886 by Richard Sykes, who was born in Edgeley in Cheshire.
	Heywood		Victoria, Australia		Surveyed in 1852 by Lindsay Clarke and named after Heywood in Lancashire.
	Manchester		Bolivia		Founded and named by Anthony Webster-James, a metallurgist from Manchester in Lancashire.
			Nova Scotia, Canada		Probably named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			California, USA		Established in 1871 and named by an early settler after his former home in Lancashire.
			Connecticut, USA		Settled in around 1672 as Five-Mile Tract and renamed in 1823 after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Georgia, USA		Founded in 1907 and named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Indiana, USA		The town was established in 1822 and probably named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Kansas, USA		Laid out in 1887 as Keystone but changed to Manchester by 1890.
			Kentucky, USA		Founded in 1807 as Greenville but changed to Manchester later that year as local business people aspired to Manchester’s industrial success.
			Maryland, USA		The town was incorporated in 1833 as Manchester Germantown, combining the names of two communities.
			Massachusetts, USA		Manchester-by-the-Sea: Originally named Manchester by colonists in 1629 after Manchester in Lancashire; renamed Manchester-by-the-Sea in 1989.
			Michigan, USA		Incorporated as a village in 1867 to take advantage of water power from the river and named after Manchester in Lancashire, which had pioneered water-powered industry.
			Missouri, USA		The village was incorporated in 1950 and named after Manchester by an English settler.
			New Hampshire, USA		Named in 1810 by Samuel Blodget, after visiting Manchester in England in the hope that it would emulate the industry of Lancashire.
			New Jersey, USA		Incorporated as a township in 1865 and named by William Torrey after Manchester in Lancashire.
			New York, USA		The town was settled in 1793 as Burt but changed to Manchester in 1822 in the hope that its textile mills would emulate those of Manchester in Lancashire.
			Ohio, USA		The settlement was founded in 1790 and named Massie’s Station after Nathaniel Massie, but was later renamed Manchester after the Lancashire town, which was Massie’s ancestral home.
			Oklahoma, USA		Possibly named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Pennsylvania, USA		The village was settled in 1814 and originally named Liverpool, but the name was later changed to Manchester.
			Tennessee, USA		The city was originally founded before 1817 and named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Washington, USA		The town was established in the 1860s as Brooklyn but in 1892 the name was changed to Manchester after the Lancashire city.
			West Virginia, USA		New Manchester: The town was originally laid out in 1810 as Manchester.
	Mersey		Nova Scotia, Canada		Mersey River is named after the English river and flows into the Atlantic at Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
			Tasmania, Australia		The Mersey River on the north-west coast of Tasmania flows into the Bass strait at Devonport.
	Oldham		Nova Scotia, Canada		The town was named by Joseph Howe after his ancestral home in Lancashire.
			Mississippi, USA		The town was probably named after Oldham in Lancashire.
			South Dakota, USA		Either named after Oldham Carrot, a local landowner, or named after Oldham in Lancashire, the home of an early settler.
	Rochdale		Massachusetts, USA		Named Rochdale in 1869 because some early settlers came from Lancashire and hoped that similar types of cloth could be manufactured in Massachusetts.
			Mississippi, USA		The town was named after Rochdale in Lancashire.
			Queens, New York, USA		This 1960s cooperative housing development was named after Rochdale in Lancashire, the birthplace of the cooperative movement.
			North Carolina, USA		The town was probably named after Rochdale in Lancashire.
	Saddleworth		South Australia		Saddleworth was built in the 1840s on land originally owned by James Masters, and named after his former home in West Yorkshire.
	Salford		Ontario, Canada		The place was originally called New Manchester, but in 1855 the name was changed and named after Salford in Cheshire.
			Pennsylvania, USA		The town was established in about 1727 and named after Salford in Lancashire.
	Stockport		South Australia		The small town was founded in 1845 by Samuel Stocks junior and named after his birthplace in Cheshire.
			Lake Ontario, Canada		Stockport Islands: The islands were named by early explorers after their birthplace in Cheshire.
			Iowa, USA		The town was settled in the late 19^th century and incorporated in 1902. It was probably named after Stockport in Cheshire.
			New York, USA		The town was established in 1833 and named by James Wild, who was originally from Stockport in Cheshire.
			Ohio, USA		The town was named in 1838 by its first postmaster, Samuel Beswick, after Stockport in Cheshire.

ACRESFIELD See ST ANN’S SQUARE

ALDER BARROW See OWLER BARROW

ANNIE LEE’S playing fields in Gorton are after named after Annie Lee, who was leader of the Openshaw Labour Party from the 1890s and, later, a Manchester alderman. She died in 1945.

AO ARENA See MANCHESTER ARENA

ASYLUM BROOK See MERE BROOK and MERE CLOUGH

BAILEY See NEW BAILEY

“BARNEY’S STEPS” See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

BEESLEY GREEN is or was an area of Worsley in the City of Salford, and it now forms part of the Roe Green/

Beesley Green conservation area. The name seems to date from the late 16^th century, when a Thomas Beesley and his descendants farmed the area.

BOTTOM OF WOODHOUSES See WOODHOUSES

BRIDGEWATER HALL is a concert venue in central Manchester, opened in 1996. It is named after the Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803) who commissioned the nearby Bridgewater Canal.

CASTLE HILL, Bowdon See WATCH HILL CASTLE

CENTRAL STATION See GMEX

CHARLESTOWN, Stockport See WOODSMOOR

CLARKE’S BRIDGE See KINGSTON

CLOUGH, Shaw is a rural area east of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented but comes from the Old English clōh, meaning ‘ravine, deep valley’.

CORRIDOR MANCHESTER See OXFORD ROAD

The COUNTY BROOK See BROOK BOTTOM

DEADWENCLOUGH See POLEFIELD

DIVISION BRIDGE See ROYAL GEORGE AQUEDUCT

DOG KENNEL BROOK See MAINE ROAD

DOUGLAS GREEN is a former industrial area of Pendleton where William Douglas (1745-1810) established one of the first, if not the first, and largest cotton mill in Salford in 1781-1782.

DUNHAM TOWN See DUNHAM MASSEY

FAR WAIN STONES See WAIN STONES

GARRICK THEATRE, Stockport See STOCKPORT GARRICK THEATRE

GOOSE GREEN, Wigan, is a residential area south-west of the town centre. The name is not well documented but is assumed to have once been a village green where people grazed their geese.

GREAT BOLTON See BOLTON

GREAT HORROCKS See HORROCKS

GREAT HOWARTH See HOWARTH CROSS

GRINDLOW MARSH See LONGSIGHT

HEATON CHAPEL is an area in Heaton Norris in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It received its name following the construction of St Thomas’s Anglican church in 1765.

HIGH CROMPTON See CROMPTON

HIGHER BARROWSHAW See BARROWSHAW

HIGHER BLACKLEY See BLACKLEY

HIGHER BOARSHAW See BOARSHAW

HIGHER BROUGHTON See BROUGHTON

HIGHER CRUMPSALL See CRUMPSALL

HIGHER DUNISHBOOTH See DUNISHBOOTH

HIGHER END See BILLINGE

HIGHER GREEN See ASTLEY and ASTLEY GREEN

HIGHER HARTSHEAD See HARTSHEAD GREEN

HIGHER HURST See HURST

HIGHER INCE See INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD

HIGHER NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

HIGHER OPENSHAW See OPENSHAW

HIGHER RUSHCROFT See RUSHCROFT

HIGHER STAKE HILL See STAKEHILL or STAKE HILL

HIGHER SUMMERSEAT See SUMMERSEAT

HIGHER WOODHILL See WOODHILL

HIGHER OGDEN See OGDEN

HIGHER SWINESHAW RESERVOIR See SWINESHAW

HOLLINS, Rochdale, is a residential area in north-west Middleton. The name is recorded in 1843 and is derived from Old English holegn, meaning ‘holly trees’.

“IMPOSSIBLE BRIDGE” See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

ISLINGTON See NEW ISLINGTON

JACKSON See NEW JACKSON

JJB STADIUM See The BRICK COMMUNITY STADIUM

JUNCTION See MIDDLETON JUNCTION

KISSING ROCKS See WAIN STONES

KNUTSFORD VALE See NUTSFORD VALE

LEESBROOK See LEES

LEESFIELD See LEES

LITTLE BOLTON See BOLTON

LITTLE CLEGG See CLEGG HALL

LITTLE HOUGHTON See WESTHOUGHTON

LITTLE HULTON See HULTON

LITTLE WHINNING GULF See GREAT WHINNING GULF

LOW CROMPTON See CROMPTON

LOWER BREDBURY See BREDBURY

LOWER BROUGHTON See BROUGHTON

LOWER CHELBURN See CHELBURN

LOWER CRUMPSALL See CRUMPSALL

LOWER DUNISHBOOTH See DUNISHBOOTH

LOWER GREEN See ASTLEY and ASTLEY GREEN

LOWER HEALEY See HEALEY

LOWER HINDS See HINDS

LOWER INCE See INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD

LOWER IRLAM See IRLAM

LOWER KERSAL See KERSAL

LOWER NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

LOWER OGDEN See OGDEN

LOWER ROE CROSS See ROE CROSS

LOWER RUSHCROFT See RUSHCROFT

LOWER SUMMERSEAT See SUMMERSEAT

LOWER SWINESHAW RESERVOIR See SWINESHAW

land which had subsided during underground mining operations, was reclaimed and developed over a period of about 30 years before being designated as a nature reserve in 2009.

LOWRY’S STEPS or LOWRY’S FOOTBRIDGE See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

MANCHESTER CENTRAL STATION See GMEX

MANCHESTER EXCHANGE STATION See EXCHANGE STATION

MANCHESTER MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY See LIVERPOOL ROAD

MANCHESTER OXFORD ROAD STATION See OXFORD ROAD

MANCHESTER PICCADILLY STATION See PICCADILLY STATION

MANCHESTER VICTORIA STATION See VICTORIA STATION

MARK ADDY BRIDGE See WODEN FOOTBRIDGE

MESNES PARK See WORSLEY MESNES

MICKER BROOK See BOLLINHURST BROOK

MIDDLE HEALEY See HEALEY

MIDDLE HULTON See HULTON

MIDDLE NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

MID REDDISH See REDDISH

MONSALL is a suburb of Manchester, north-east of the city centre. The name was recorded as Monshalgh in 1546 and means ‘monk’s (Old English monke) corner or nook (halh)’.

NEAR BARROWSHAW See BARROWSHAW

NEAR WAIN STONES See WAIN STONES

NETHER LEES See LEES

NEW DELPH See DELPH

NEW MOSTON See MOSTON

NEW SIRS See OLD SIRS

NEW TAME See OLD TAME

NEWTON is the most common place name in England, with at least 87 towns or villages carrying the name. All mean ‘the new settlement’ from the Old English nīwe + tūn.

NEWTON, Tameside is an area of Hyde that was formerly in Cheshire. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Neweton and with its modern spelling in 1320.

NEW WINDSOR See WINDSOR

NORDEN ETCHELLS or NORTHERN ETCHELLS See ETCHELLS

NORTH REDDISH See REDDISH

OLD BIRTLE See BIRTLE

OVER HULTON See HULTON

The QUEEN ALEXANDRA PICTURE HOUSE See The FESTIVAL THEATRE

REEBOK STADIUM See TOUGHSHEET COMMUNITY STADIUM

ROYAL EXCHANGE See EXCHANGE

RYDER BROW or RIDER BROW See WINNING HILL

ST GEORGE’S PARK See BARRACK PARK

SOUTH REDDISH See REDDDISH

STOCKPORT BROOK See HEMPSHAW BROOK

STOCKPORT ETCHELLS See ETCHELLS

STOCKPORT VIADUCT See VIADUCT

STRAWBERRY ISLAND See POMONA ISLAND

TINKER’S GARDENS See VAUXHALL GARDENS

TOMMYFIELD MARKET is an indoor market in the centre of Oldham. It was established in 1788 in fields owned by Thomas (‘Tommy’) Whittaker.

TOP MOSSLEY See BROOK BOTTOM or BROOKBOTTOM and MOSSLEY

TOP OF HEAP See HEAP BRIDGE

TOP OF HEBERS See HEBERS

TOWN OF LOWTON See LOWTON

UPPER CHELBURN See CHELBURN

VICTORIA PARK, Swinton is a 6-hectare public park in Swinton in the City of Salford. It was opened in 1897 to commemorate the 60th year of the reign of Queen Victoria.

WEST DIDSBURY See DIDSBURY

WEST GORTON See GORTON

WHITEHEAD BROOK See WHITEHEAD HALL MEADOWS

WHITELEY See LOWER WHITELEY DEAN BROOK

WICHEAVES See PEEL

WOODHOUSE GREEN See WOODHOUSES, Oldham

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & SOURCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ashworth, Geoffrey	2023	The Lost Rivers of Manchester	Altrincham: Willow Publishing
Baines, Edward	1888	The History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster	Manchester: John Heywood
Billington, W D	1982	From Affetside to Yarrow: Bolton Place Names and their History	Bolton: Ron Anderson Publications
Bradshaw, L D	1985	Origins of Street Names in the City Centre of Manchester	Manchester: Neil Richardson
Buckley, Mike	2017	‘The origins and evolution of a Pennine township: medieval and early modern settlement in Saddleworth’, chapter 11 of Smith, Nigel (ed), History of the South Pennines: the legacy of Alan Petford,	Hebden Bridge: Local History Society
Cameron, Kenneth	1959	The Place Names of Derbyshire, Part I	Cambridge: University Press
Cole, E Ann	2015	Plants, Place Names and Habitats	Ashmolean Natural History Society Journal, vol 6, pp. 94-102
Clark, David	1973	Greater Manchester Votes: A Guide to the New Metropolitan Authorities	Stockport: Redrose
Crosby, Alan G	2010	Unofficial place-names in nineteenth- and twentieth-century South Lancashire	Nomina 33, pp. 45–64
Crosby, Alan G	2019	Place-names and the medieval landscape in the Manchester area	Manchester Memoirs, 157, pp.55-64
Defoe, Daniel	1724-26/ 1991	A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain	New Haven: Yale University Press
Dodgson, J McN		The Place Names of Cheshire	Cambridge: University Press/English Place-Name Society
	1970a	Part I Macclesfield Hundred
	1970b	Part II Bucklow and Northwich Hundreds
	1981	Part V 1:i City of Chester; the Elements of Cheshire Place-Names A-Gylden
	1981	Part V 1:ii The Elements of Cheshire Place-Names Haca-Yolden
	1997	Part V 2 Introduction, Linguistic Notes and Indexes
Ekwall, Eilert	1922/2019	The Place-Names of Lancashire	Manchester: University Press (Alpha Editions)
	1960	The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Place Names, 4^th edition	Oxford: Clarendon Press
Engels, Friedrich	1845/1987	The Condition of the Working Class in England	London: Penguin Books
Fiennes, Celia	c.1682-c.1712/1984	The Illustrated Journeys of Celia Fiennes	London: Macdonald & Co.
Francis, James F	2004	Harwood Hill Farms and Riding Gate	Turton Local History Society
Frangopulo, N J	1977	Tradition in Action – The Historical Evolution of the Greater Manchester County	Wakefield: EP Publishing
Garmonsway, G N (translator)	1953	The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle	Letchworth: Aldine Press
Gelling, Margaret	1994	Place-names in the Landscape	London: J M Dent
Gelling, Margaret	1997	Signposts to the Past	Chichester: Phillimore
Gelling, M & Ann Cole	2000	The Landscape of Place Names	Stamford: Shaun Tyas
Goodall, Armitage	1913	Place-Names of South-West Yorkshire	Cambridge: University Press
Harland, John (ed)	1862	Mamecestre: being chapters from the early recorded history of the Barony of Manchester	Chetham Society, vol III
Insley, John	1986	Toponymy and Settlements in the North West	Nomina 10, pp. 169-76
	2022	Eilert Ekwall and Lancashire Place Names	Lancashire Place Name Survey Newsletter, September 2022, pp3-10
Johnston, James	1915	The Place-Names of England and Wales	London: John Murray
Kenyon, Denise	1991	The Origins of Lancashire	Manchester: University Press
Leech, Geoffrey	2006	The unique heritage of place-names in North-West England	https://www.lancaster.ac.uk > leechg > leech_2006
Lewis, William	2011	What’s in an English Place-Name?	Abingdon: Brazen Head Publishing
March, Henry Colley	1880	East Lancashire Nomenclature and Rochdale Names	London: Simpkin
Mikes, George	1946	How to be an Alien	London: Penguin Books
Miller, David	2018/2022	Altrincham Area History	https://www.altrinchamheritage.com
Mills, David	1976	The Place Names of Lancashire	London: B T Batsford
Mills, A D	1991	A Dictionary of English Place Names	Oxford: University Press
Moorman, F W	1910	Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire	Leeds: Thoresby Society
Mullineux, C Elsie & Frank Mullineux	1990	Origins of Street Names – Worsley and Little Hulton	Little Hulton: Streetgate Printing and Stationery
Parkinson-Bailey, John	2000	Manchester – An Architectural History	Manchester: University Press
Potter, Simeon	1955	Cheshire Place Names	Liverpool: Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire
Potter, Simeon	1959	South-West Lancashire Place-Names	Liverpool: Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol III, pages 1-23
Poulton-Smith, Anthony	2012	Cheshire Place Names	Ross-on-Wye: Fineleaf
Reaney, P H	1964	The Origin of English Place Names	London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Room, Adrian	1988/1993	Dictionary of Place-Names of the British Isles	Leicester: Bookmart
	1985	A Concise Dictionary of Modern Place Names in Great Britain and Ireland	Oxford: Oxford University Press
	1989	Dictionary of World Place Names Derived from British Names	London: Routledge
Royle, William	1914	History of Rusholme	Manchester: William Morris Press
Sephton, J	1913	A Handbook of Lancashire Place-Names	Liverpool: H Young & Sons
Slater, Terry R	2004	Planning English medieval ‘street towns’: the Hertfordshire evidence	https://www.researchgate.net › publication › 27174965…
Stewart, George R	1970	A Concise Dictionary of American Place-Names	New York: Oxford University Press
Sussex, Gay, Peter Helm & Andrew Brown	1987	Looking Back at Levenshulme and Burnage	Altrincham: Willow Publishing
Smith, A H	1956a	English Place-Name Elements, Part I	Cambridge: University Press/English Place-Name Society
	1956b	English Place-Name Elements, Part II	Cambridge: University Press/English Place-Name Society
	1986	The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Part II Osgoldcross and Agbrigg Wapentakes	Cambridge: University Press/English Place-Name Society
Swain, N V	1987	A History of Sale	Wilmslow: Sigma Press
Watts, Victor	2004	The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names	Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Waugh, Edwin	1855 & 1857	Lancashire Sketches	Manchester: John Heywood
Wyld, Henry & T Oakes Hirst	1911	The Place Names of Lancashire: their Origin and History	London: Constable & Co.

APPENDIX 1: DOMESDAY BOOK ENTRIES FOR GREATER MANCHESTER

BOLTON (Bodeltun) 6 carucates

CRIMBLES (Crimeles) In Preston …. Crimbles 1 carucate

GREENHALGH (> GREENMOUNT) (Greneholf) In Preston … Greenhalgh 3 carucates

HOLLINGWORTH (Holisurde) The earl himself holds … Hollingworth at 1 virgate.

LUDWORTH (Lodeuorde) In Ludworth Brun had 4 bovates of land.

MANCHESTER The Church of St Mary and the Church of St Michael held in Manchester 1 carucate of land quit of every customary due except geld.

RADCLIFFE (Radeclive) King Edward held Radcliffe as a manor. There is 1 hide and another hide belonging to Salford.

ROMILEY (Rumelie) The earl himself holds …Romiley at 1 virgate …. The whole was and is waste.

SINDERLAND (Sundreland) See Baguley above.

APPENDIX 2: LOWRY LOCATIONS IN GREATER MANCHESTER

LOCATION	TITLE	DATE	NOTES
ADELPHI	The River Irwell at the Adelphi	1924
AGECROFT	Agecroft Regatta	1949
ANCOATS	Great Ancoats Street	c.1929
	Great Ancoats Street, Manchester	1930
	Ancoats Hospital Outpatients’ Hall	1952
	Ancoats Hospital Outpatients’ Hall	u/d
ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE	Industrial Landscape	1952
BROUGHTON	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Broughton	1925
BROUGHTON	Houses in Broughton	1937
BURNDEN	Going to the Match	1953	Bolton Wanderers’ football ground
CHEADLE HULME	The Drive, ‘Oaklands’	1947
	Portrait of a House	c.1947
	Portrait of a House	1954
CHORLTON-ON-MEDLOCK	David Lloyd George’s Birthplace	1958	House demolished 1957
CLIFTON	Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton	1925	Now Clifton Country Park
	Clifton Junction, Morning	1910
	Clifton Junction, Evening	1910
	A Footbridge	1944	Pack Saddle or Roving Bridge
COLLYHURST	A Footbridge	1938	Also known as ‘Barney’s Steps’
CORONATION STREET, Salford	Coronation Street	1957
CRIME LAKE	Crime Lake	1942
CROWTHER STREET, Stockport	Crowther Street, Stockport	1930	Original houses demolished in the 1960s but restored early in the 2000s
CROWTHER STREET, Stockport	Crowther Street, Stockport	1934
DAISY NOOK, Droylsden	Lancashire Fair, Good Friday, Daisy Nook	1946
	The Fairground	1949
	Fairground at Daisy Nook	1956
DIXON FOLD	Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton	1925	Now Clifton Country Park
ECCLES	Eccles Railway Station	1963
EXCHANGE STATION	Station Approach	1960
EXCHANGE STATION	Station Approach	1962
FAILSWORTH	Old Road, Failsworth	1957
FAILSWORTH	Children Playing, Old Road, Failsworth	1957
FAIRFIELD	The Canal Bridge	1944
GATLEY	The Empty House	1934
	Old House	1936
	Old House, Gatley	1937
GAYTHORN	Oldfield Road Dwelling	1927
GAYTHORN	Oldfield Road Dwellings	1929
River IRWELL	The River Irwell at the Adelphi	1924
	A View of the River Irwell from Peel Park	1924
	River Irwell at Salford	c.1924
	River Scene/Industrial Landscape	1935
	The Lake	1937
	River Scene	1942
	River Irwell at Salford	1947
	A River Bank	1947
	The Agecroft Regatta	1948
MANCHESTER	St John’s Church, Deansgate	1920
	Sketch of St John’s, Manchester	c.1920
	St John’s Church, Manchester	1928
	The Viaduct, Store Street, Manchester	1929
	St John’s Church	1938
	A Footbridge	1938	Collyhurst footbridge
	After the Blitz	1942
	Manchester Blitz/St Augustine’s Church, Hulme	1943
	Going to Work	1943	Mather & Platt Works
	Going to Work	1944	Mather & Platt Works
	St Augustine’s Church, Manchester	1945	Destroyed in Manchester blitz
	Industrial Landscape	1955	Mather & Platt Works
	Reference Library	1972	Now Manchester Central Library
MIDDLETON	Old Church and Steps	1960
MOTTRAM-IN-LONGDENDALE	Agricultural Fair	1949
MOTTRAM-IN-LONGDENDALE	The Hat Rack	1966	Lowry’s home:
PEEL PARK, Salford	Peel Park Sketch	1919
	Peel Park Sketch	1920
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1924
	A View of the River Irwell from Peel Park	1924
	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Manchester	1924
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1925
	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Broughton	1925
	The Terrace, Peel Park, Salford	1927
	Peel Park, Salford	1927
	Peel Park, Sketch	c.1927
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1928
	The Steps, Peel Park, Salford	1930
	The Bandstand, Peel Park	1931
	Peel Park, Salford	1944
	The Park	1946
	The Bandstand, Peel Park	c.1954	Date tbc
PENDLEBURY	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1920
	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1924
	Old Farm in Pendlebury	1925
	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1930
	Pendlebury Scene	1931
	Street Scene	1935	Acme Mill
	View in Pendlebury	1936
	Figures in a Lane	1936
	The Procession	1937	Annual Whit-Thursday procession
	Albion Mill	1941
	Winter in Pendlebury	1943
	The Mill, Pendlebury	1943
	Mill Scene with Figures	1944
	Iron Works	1947
	Street in Pendlebury	1948
	Pendlebury Market	u/d
	The Railway Platform	1953
PICCADILLY	Piccadilly	1930
	Piccadilly Gardens	1954
	Piccadilly, Manchester	c.1957
POLICE STREET, Eccles	The Arrest	1927
PRESTWICH	Prestwich Clough	1914
RAMSBOTTOM	The Railway Steps, Ramsbottom	1945
RAMSBOTTOM	The Steps	1957
RICHMOND HILL, Salford	Richmond Hill, Salford	1925
RICHMOND HILL, Salford	Richmond Hill, Salford	1957	Date tbc
ST MICHAEL’S FLAGS & ANGEL MEADOW PARK	Playground	c.1927
	The Steps, Irk Place	1928
	Lancashire Street	1929
	St Michael’s Church and All Angels – Study	1933
	View of a Town	1936
	St Michael’s Church and All Angels	1941
	Street Scene	1941
	Britain at Play	1943
	Street Scene with Figures	1944
	Street Scene	1947
ST PETER’S SQUARE	Reference Library	1972	Built 1930-34; now Central Library
SALFORD	Salford Street Scene	1922
	The Flat Iron Market	c.1925
	Belle Vue House, Leaf Square, Salford	1925
	Behind Leaf Square	1925
	The County Court	1926
	The Tower, Leaf Square	1926
	An Old Lamp, Behind Leaf Square	1926
	By Christ Church, Salford	1926
	By the County Court, Salford	1926
	By St Philip’s Church, Salford	1926
	Hulme Place, Salford	1926
	Dwelling, Ordsall Lane, Salford	1927
	A Street Scene, St Simon’s Church	1927
	St Simon’s Church	c.1927
	A Street Scene, St Simon’s Church	1928	Church demolished in 1927
	Salford Street Scene	1928
	The Gateway	1931
	The Corner Shop	1943	Islington Square
	A Footbridge	1944	Pack Saddle or Roving Bridge
	The Old House, Grove Street, Salford	1948
	The Factory Gate	1951
	Early Morning	1954
	St Stephen’s Church, Salford	1956
	Chapel, St Stephen’s Church, Salford	1956
	North James Henry Street, Salford	1956
	Christ Church, Salford	1956
	Francis Terrace, Salford	1956
	Francis Street, Salford	1957
	Sunday Afternoon	1957
	Man Going to Work/Figure in a Gateway	1964
	Church in Salford/St Philip’s Church	1965
STOCKPORT	The Stepped Street	1929
	Mealhouse Brow	1929
	Crowther Street, Stockport	1930	Original houses demolished in the 1960s but restored early in the 2000s
	Crowther Street, Stockport	1934
	Stockport Viaduct	1942
	Stockport Viaduct	1943
	Stockport Viaduct	1944
	The Viaduct, Stockport	c.1950s
	Old Steps, Mealhouse Brow	1969
SWINTON	Arden’s Farm	c.1909
	Wardley Farm, Swinton Moss	1913
	St Mary’s Church, Swinton	1913
	Swinton Moss	1922
	Swinton Industrial Schools	1930
	St Mary’s Church, Swinton	1960
TOMMYFIELDS MARKET, Oldham	Selling Oilcloth on the Oldham Road	1914
TOMMYFIELDS MARKET, Oldham	The Lino Market	1955
WARDLEY	Wardley Farm, Swinton Moss	1913
WIGAN	Industrial Landscape/Landscape in Wigan	1925

References

Sandling J & M Leber (2000), Lowry’s City – A Painter and His Locale, Salford: Lowry Press

Saywell, David, Artists and Places: L S Lowry in Salford and Industrial Towns in Greater Manchester (accessed 13/09/2024)

APPENDIX 3: VALETTE LOCATIONS IN GREATER MANCHESTER

LOCATION	PICTURE TITLE	DATE	NOTES
ALBERT SQUARE, Manchester	Albert Square, Manchester	1910
ALL SAINTS/GROSVENOR SQUARE	Hansom Cab at All Saints	1910	All Saints church was damaged in the blitz of 1940 and demolished in 1946
	Old Cab at All Saints	1911
	Presbyterian Church, All Saints	tbc
CENTRAL STATION	Central Station	1910-11
River IRWELL	Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1909	Actually depicts Irwell Street Bridge
	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
	Bailey Bridge	1912
	Under Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1912	Actually depicts Irwell Street Bridge
MANCHESTER	Rooftops, Manchester	Tbc
	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
	Plymouth Grove, July	1909
	Street Scene, Manchester	1912
	York Street Leading to Charles Street	1913
	Manchester Street in the Fog	c.1910
	Manchester Suburban Scene	tbc
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL	Ship Canal, Sunset	c.1908
	Manchester Ship Canal and Warehouses	1908
	Trafford Road Swing Bridge	c.1910
	Trafford Bridge and Pomona Dock	tbc
	Tug on a Canal in Manchester	tbc
River MEDLOCK	India House	1912
NEW BAILEY BRIDGE	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
NEW BAILEY BRIDGE	Bailey Bridge	1912
OXFORD ROAD, Manchester	Oxford Road, Manchester	1910
OXFORD ROAD, Manchester	Houses on Oxford Street, Sunset	c.1910
PLYMOUTH GROVE, Manchester	Plymouth Grove, July	1909
ROMILEY	Romiley	1916
ST PETER’S SQUARE, Manchester	St Peter’s Square, Manchester	tbc
SALE	Sale, near Manchester	1907
SALFORD	Castlegate, Salford	1912
WINDSOR BRIDGE	Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1909	Both paintings in fact depict the Irwell Street Bridge, not Windsor Bridge
WINDSOR BRIDGE	Under Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1912

References

Martin, Sandra (2007), Adolphe Valette – A French Impressionist in Manchester, London: Scala Publishers

Webb, Poul, Arts and Artists: Adolphe Valette (accessed 23/11/2024)

GREATER MANCHESTER PLACE NAMES

Compiled by Richard West

Cover image under licence from Alamy. Reference OY0101324868

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION

Contact: west46 [at] btinternet.com

ENTRIES

Each entry consists of the following:

Location: Which metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester the place can be found in.

Variations: Variant names and spellings are indicated briefly.

Meaning: The literal meaning of the name where this is not self-evident.

Cross references to other place names in the book (marked in bold).

Appendices

	Appendix 1	Domesday Book entries for Greater Manchester
	Appendix 2	Lowry locations in Greater Manchester
	Appendix 3	Valette locations in Greater Manchester

GLOSSARY

TIMELINE OF GREATER MANCHESTER PLACE NAMES

The timeline below highlights the main eras and dates in the history of Greater Manchester and shows how place names across the county exemplify the naming practices of its inhabitants at those times. The names in bold are included as main entries in the dictionary.
THE CELTS c.750 BC onwards	The Celts were living in north-west England from about the 8^th century BC but they were either displaced or assimilated by later invaders. Few of their place names survive. As elsewhere in England, the names of many of the rivers of what is now Greater Manchester are possibly of Celtic origin: Calder, Douglas, Glaze, Goyt, Irk and Tame. The area would have been sparsely populated but several place names provide evidence of Celtic occupation around Wigan: Wigan itself, Bryn, Culcheth, Ince-in-Makerfield, Kenyon, Pemberton and Shevington, and Cheadle, Cheetham and Cheetwood all share the same Celtic root (cēd ‘wood’), suggesting that all were Celtic settlements at an early date, and it has been suggested that this area has one of the heaviest concentrations of Celtic names in England. The Celts are also recalled in Wallgate and Walton, both derived from the Anglo-Saxon term for the Celts – the wealh (i.e. the Welsh).
ROMANS AD 78 AD – 410	In AD 78-86 the Roman invaders built a fort that is usually said to have been named Mamucium, derived from the Celtic for ‘breast-shaped hill’. The name was later Anglicised as Manchester, preserving the Latin castra (‘camp’). The Roman legions abandoned their fort in about AD 410, but, despite this long occupation, there are no place names in Greater Manchester preserving the original Latin, although some seem to be translations of earlier Latin names. Suggestions that Manchester’s River Tib may have been named after the Tiber in Rome may simply be fanciful. Although there are no place names in Greater Manchester which are derived from Latin, there are several Anglo-Saxon names which acknowledge Roman forts: Alport, Castlefield, Castleshaw and Littleborough. Old English strǣt in Stretford and Trafford refers to the Roman road to Chester. It should be noted that Roman Lakes Leisure Park was a 19^th-century invention that had nothing to do with the Romans.
ANGLO-SAXONS c. AD 450 onwards	The majority of Greater Manchester place names recorded before the industrial revolution are derived from Old English – the language of the Anglo-Saxon invaders who spread over much of England from the 5^th century onwards. They generally constructed their place names from two or three elements: a generic element identifying the type of place it was and another element coming first to distinguish it from others with the same generic element. So, for example, Heaton (‘high village’) was distinguished from Lowton (‘low village’). The Anglo-Saxons used several main types of elements:
	¨	Eponyms Many Anglo-Saxon places were named after leaders, but, of course, we know little or nothing of the men and women who gave their names to Ardwick, Baguley, Cadishaw, Chorlton, Crumpsall, or Pilsworth. It is often easy to spot an Anglo-Saxon eponym as any name formed with -ing- (‘followers, people of’) + –tūn (‘village, estate, etc’) is likely to be named after an Anglo-Saxon leader – Brinnington, Dumplington, Partington, Pennington, Pilkington, Shevington, Torkington, Tottington, Withington and Worthington. For some reason, there are no longer any Greater Manchester names with -ing- + –tūn to compare with Birmingham, Nottingham or Sandringham (but see earlier spelling of Altrincham).
	¨	Topographical The second category of Anglo-Saxon place names is those derived from the geography of the area – the hills and valleys, rivers and streams, and moors and marshes. In the Greater Manchester area, these follow a clear pattern as the landscape changes from east to west:
		Moors		Moors are barren uplands that are generally unsuitable for agriculture. There are over 3000 listed places with moor as their final element, approximately half of them in Yorkshire. In Greater Manchester there are about 20 moor places nearly all in the east, on the edge of the Pennines and Peaks (Moorside). In the south of the county, the old Roman road to Buxton (the A6) marks a boundary, with Great Moor, Heaton Moor, Bramhall Moor and Woodsmoor along the road and contrasting with the nearby Shaw Heath to the west.
		Mosses		To the west and north-east of the county are the mosses – bogs or swamps that often made settlement or travel difficult. The name and the phenomenon are distinct to north-west England, as Daniel Defoe noted: ‘On the road to Manchester, we pass’d the great bog or waste call’d Chat Moss, the first of that kind that we see in England, from any of the south parts hither. It extends on the left-hand of the road for five or six miles east and west, and they told us it was, in some places, seven or eight miles from north to south.’ The element is found in at least twenty places as Barton Moss, Broadhead Moss, Chat Moss, Featherbed Moss, Hale Moss, Kearsley Moss, Kitt’s Moss, Little Moss, Moss Side, Mossley, Moston, Shadow Moss and, somewhat corrupted, Moses Gate.
		Brooks		As we have seen, most of the major rivers in Greater Manchester have names which are probably Celtic in origin, but these are fed by countless muddy brooks flowing from the east, most of which have Anglo-Saxon names. These brooks may flow down steep valleys or cloughs (Stoneclough), gentler dales (Rochdale) or long deans/-dens (Denton, Droylsden, Walkden) with paths or roads, or meander round a nook or halh (Bramhall, Crumpsall, Hale, Haugh) or a tongue (Tonge, Taunton). The rivers and brooks were crossed by fords (Salford, Stretford, Trafford) and later by bridges – Platt, meaning bridge, is found from 1212 and bridge itself occurs in Manchester’s Hanging Bridge, dating from 1343. Settlements were frequently established beside these fords and bridges.
		Woods		The flood plain of Greater Manchester between the moors to the east and the mosses to the west was originally heavily wooded, although much of the forest had been cleared by the time the Anglo-Saxons arrived. We find many places that have wood in their name (Woodley, Woodford, Woodhouses), but many more that are copses or shaws (Audenshaw, Openshaw, Shaw, Wythenshawe). Amongst the woods, settlements were established in clearings, and names with the element –lee/-leigh/-le meaning ‘woodland clearing’ are especially common (Leigh, Cheadle, Edgeley, Romiley, Stayley, Stalybridge, Worsley).
	¨	Vegetation There are many places named after different types of wood, although this is not always obvious – Ashton, Beech Hill, Birch, Firswood, Hollins (holly), Horwich (wych elm), Ogden (oak), Sale (willow), Salford (willow), Withington (willow), and Wythenshawe (willow). There are also names which are derived from the uses to which the wood was put – for making poles (Bollinhurst), brooms (Bramhall, Brimrod), staves (Stalybridge) and timber (Timperley). There are relatively few places named for other types of vegetation. Several places indicate that reeds or rushes, which could be used for thatching (Thatch Leach), could be found (Broadbent, Lever, Reddish, Sedgley). Some places are names after vegetables – celery (Agecroft), watercress (Kearsley, Kersal), and wild garlic (Ramsbottom) – and others indicate that cereal crops such as barley (Barlow Fold, Barlow Moor, Pemberton) and rye (Ryton, Ryecroft) were being grown.
	¨	Animals The Anglo-Saxons also named many places after animals and birds, especially deer (Hartshead, Hattersley, Roe Green), goats (Bucklow, Gatley), pigs (Boarshaw, Swinton), cranes (Cornbrook) and hawks (Hawkley). Perhaps surprisingly in a region with so many rivers, there are very few places named after fish (Compstall).
	¨	Directional While there are several names indicating the northern location of places (Norbury, Norley, Northenden, Northern Moor), compass points were also used for distinguishing purposes: Norden (= northern valley) and Sudden (= southern valley), Astley (east Leigh) and Westleigh, Haughton and Westhaughton.
CHRISTIANITY 6^th-7^th centuries onwards	Christianity spread to the area of Greater Manchester in the 6^th and 7^th centuries and evidence of this is found in place names across the county, although little or nothing is known of the monks commemorated in Monsall or Monton, the priests in Prestolee, Prestwich or Priestnall, the kirk at Kirkmanshulme or of any abbey in Abbey Hey. Rooden and possibly Blackrod retain the Old English rōd (meaning ‘cross’) before it was supplanted by the Gaelic or Norse cross, which is found in other, presumably later place names. Eccles is also thought to be a Celtic word derived from the Latin or Greek for an ecclesiastical gathering. The only person from this early period of whom we know anything is St Chad (c.634-672), the Bishop of Lichfield in Mercia, whose parish covered the Greater Manchester area until 1541. St Chad’s Church in Rochdale, parts of which date from the 13^th century and which may have been named in AD 673, is said to be the oldest church in the county, and St Chad is also commemorated in Chadkirk and possibly even Chat Moss. Some of the Anglican churches built in Manchester in the 18^th and 19th centuries (some of them no longer in existence) have given their names to districts (All Saints, St George’s), squares (St Ann’s, St Peter’s) and parks (Angel Meadows, St John’s Gardens, St Michael’s Flags). There are several places with Biblical names: Goshen dates from the 16^th century and the non-conformist churches which developed in the first half of the 19^th century also coined Biblical names (Jericho, New Earth and Salem). Several other places which originally had Anglo-Saxon names were later rationalised as if they had Christian origins (Abram, Moses Gate).
VIKINGS c. AD 900-1050	The Vikings settled in North-west England from the 8th century but sources differ as to whether Greater Manchester became part of the Danelaw or not. Certainly, the spread of the Vikings caused concern and legend has it that the Nico Ditch was built in 869-870 to guard against the Vikings: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in AD 923 ‘King Edward … ordered levies … to occupy Manchester in Northumbria, and had it repaired and garrisoned’ in order to meet the Viking threat. It also seems that Bury and at least some of the places with the –bury element (Bredbury, Norbury, Didsbury, Pendlebury and Littleborough) may have originally been fortified Anglo-Saxon settlements built to protect against the Vikings. There is little place-name evidence of large-scale Viking settlement in what is now Greater Manchester: there is a cluster of eponyms in western Manchester (Flixton and perhaps Urmston) but nowhere ending in –by, the most common Norse element (as in Derby or Grimsby), not one -toft (as in Lowestoft), only two occurrences of –thwaite (Laithwaite, Linfitt), and only one –thorpe (Thorp in Oldham). The only Viking name element that does occur with any frequency is –hulme (‘island, raised ground’): Hulme, Davyhulme, Levenshulme, Cheadle Hulme, Oldham (corrupted from Aldholme) and Wolstenholme. A hulme was an area of raised ground that would be particularly suitable for a settlement in an area susceptible to frequent flooding.
INTEGRATION & ASSIMILATION	Cheadle Hulme exemplifies Greater Manchester’s almost unique mixture of the three linguistic traditions – Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norse: Cheadle (Celtic cēd + Old English lēah) + Old Danish hulme. Such names show how, over time, peoples speaking different languages and with different cultures came to live in peace together.
NORMANS 1066 onwards	The Norman conquest of 1066 meant that the official language of England became French, and it remained so until Richard II was deposed in 1399. Despite this, and the fact that Norman lords were given estates across much of England, Norman French had very little impact on place names in mediaeval England. Many of these lords took English names from the lands they governed, but a few Norman names remain today – Darcy (of Darcy Lever), Darnel (of Darnhill), Massey (of Dunham Massey), Norris (of Heaton Norris), Molyneux (of Molyneux Brow) and, much later, Davenport (in Stockport) and Grosvenor (of Manchester’s Grosvenor Square). Also very much later is the use of -ville for housing estates in the early 20^th century (Chorltonville). However, the Normans impacted north-western place names in other ways, as can be seen from their Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1). William the Conqueror sent his agents throughout England to list all the towns, villages and property, so that he would know what taxes were due. Domesday recorded 13,418 settlements throughout England and Wales, about 600 in Cheshire and Lancashire, but fewer than 25 in what is now Greater Manchester. Two reasons are normally given for this: William’s agents did a poor job, simply omitting major places such as Stockport, Wigan and Bury. More likely, the Normans’ genocidal ‘harrying of the north’ in 1069-1070, in which up to 75% of the population of the north were slaughtered, left many places ‘Weaste’ – uninhabited or of little value. Nevertheless, 1400 saw the ‘triumph of English’ and the vast majority of modern place names can trace their origin to Old and Middle English rather than Latin, Norse or Norman French.
CIVIL WAR 1642-1651	Greater Manchester figured significantly in the Civil War: the war itself is often said to have begun when Royalists tried to capture the town and Richard Perceval of Levenshulme became the first casualty during street fighting on 15 July 1642. Oliver Cromwell is said to have passed through Trub Smithy at some point, and to have camped at Oliver Clough during the Siege of Manchester in 1643. In May 1644, the Royalist commander, Prince Rupert, camped on Barlow Moor before leading the Bolton massacre, in which 1500 Parliamentary troops and citizens were killed. On 25 August 1651 the Royalists were defeated in the Battle of Wigan Lane at a hamlet which became known as Battling Wood, which was later corrupted to Bottling Wood.
ENFRANCHISEMENT & CIVIL RIGHTS 17^th century onwards	The first MP for Manchester was not elected until 1654 but the constituency was abolished in 1660 on the restoration of the monarchy as Manchester had supported Oliver Cromwell and the parliamentarians in the civil war. This situation lasted throughout the 18^th century and in 1725 Defoe described Manchester as ‘the greatest meer village in England. It is neither a wall’d town, city or corporation; they send no members to Parliament’. Despite the Peterloo protests, parliamentary representation was not restored to Manchester until 1832 and the first MP, Mark Philips, is commemorated in Philips Park. The right to vote was dependent on property ownership and in the 1860s, John Platt, a mill owner and the mayor of Oldham, gave his employees the freehold of their houses so that they could vote. The right to vote was restricted to men until 1918, largely as a result of the suffragette movement formed by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, whose campaigning is celebrated at the Pankhurst Centre. A much earlier milestone in women’s rights is commemorated at Womanscroft Bridge in Bramhall, where, in 1637, a landowning woman who ‘had a house with a small croft and toft’ was given certain legal rights, including being a juror and being ‘exempt from the burden of repairing the bridge over Lady Brook, known as the Woman’s Croft bridge’. This is one of the few place names in England with ‘woman’ as an element.
JACOBITE REBELLION 1745-1746	In 1745-1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie led a Jacobite army into England in an attempt to regain the throne that his father, James II, had been forced to give up in 1688. He reached Manchester on 28 November 1745 and is thought to have stabled his horses in Stockport, before marching on to Derby and then retreating to defeat at the Battle of Culloden. Longsight and Tiviot Dale are both said to owe their names to the Bonnie Prince and his army. It has also been suggested that Scotland in central Manchester was named because the Jacobite troops camped there in 1745, but this seems unlikely.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION & COAL c.1760-1840	The term ‘industrial revolution’ was invented in 1799 by the Frenchman, Louis-Guillaume Otto, and was applied to Britain by Arnold Toynbee in 1881. The industrial transformation of Britain in the second half of the 18^th century and first half of the 19^th had several causes, but chief among these was the availability and application of coal. Several place names across Greater Manchester point to the early mining of coal and other minerals: Cinder Hill, Collyhurst, Coldhurst, Cowlishaw, Delph, Orrell, Pitses and Quarlton. Daniel Defoe, who toured Great Britain in 1724-1726, described the widespread mining of coal between Wigan and Bolton, but the mines of the area were mostly shallow, with horse-powered winding gear. This early mine equipment is captured in Gin Pit village, where Gin is short for engine. However, the depth of mines was limited by the dangers of flooding, which was addressed by the use of steam pumps. One of the first of these was installed in 1749 in Norbury colliery, which was frequently flooded by the Bollinhurst Brook. The other problem noted by Defoe was the remoteness from markets: ‘they are remote; and though some of them have been brought to London, yet they are so dear, by reason of the carriage, that few care to buy them.’ This problem was initially solved by canals, notably the Bridgewater Canal, which was built in 1759-61, halving the price of coal in Manchester, and becoming the forerunner of the national canal network. Coal not only powered the industries of Greater Manchester; the region became a centre for the manufacture of textile machinery, industrial equipment and railway locomotives. Some of the manufacturers and engineers gave their names to places in the county, e.g. Simon’s Bridge, Whitworth Park. The last coal mines in the county closed in the 1990s, leaving only the Lancashire Colliery Museum at Astley Green and a legacy of dereliction and pollution. However, much has been done to transform the industrial landscape into nature reserves and conservation areas, notably the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh, where flashes are a local word for surface flooding caused by the collapse of underground mine workings. The Three Sisters, now a recreation area, take their name from former waste heaps at a local colliery.
‘COTTONOPOLIS’	The term ‘Cottonopolis’ was invented in about 1851 but the textile industry started much earlier. The earliest mills, such as that at Bowdon, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1), or those at Milnrow (‘a row of houses by a mill’) and Quarlton (‘mill hill’) in the 13^th century, were almost certainly corn or flour mills. The textile industry seems to have been established well before the 14^th century, initially concentrating on flax (see Crossacres), wool (Walkden, Walkers) and linen (Bowker Vale, Gigg, Linfitt). The switch to cotton had begun by about 1725, when Daniel Defoe visited Bolton and noted ‘that the cotton manufacture reach’d thither’. The rapid and large-scale expansion of cotton manufacture came later in the century with mechanisation, notably the building of the first water-powered mills at Portwood on the Mersey in 1732, at Garret by the River Medlock in about 1760 and at Thorp in Royton in 1764, Crompton’s spinning mule, invented at Hall i’ th’ Wood in 1779, and Arkwright’s steam-powered mill at Shudehill in 1783. In all, over 2400 cotton mills were built in the area between 1732 and 1926. The earliest mills tended to be named for the places where they were built or the brooks that powered them, but many mills, and the villages and parks around them were named by and for their owners or their wives. Knott Mill, dating from 1509, is an early example and later examples include Bealey’s Goit, Drinkwater Park, Hallam Coronation Garden, Holt Town, Hope, Houldsworth, Langworthy and Eckersley. The First World War led to the loss of markets and the last mill in Greater Manchester and Lancashire – Elk Mill in Royton – was completed in 1926. Today, the only cotton mill remaining in production in the county is Tower Mill in Dukinfield.
RAILWAYS 1830-1880	The first railway in what is now Greater Manchester was the Bolton & Leigh, a 12-kilometre freight line opened in 1828 to connect Bolton to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Leigh. The Liverpool & Manchester, the world’s first intercity passenger railway, was opened in 1830 with its eastern terminus at Liverpool Road. In the next 50 years, about 200 stations were built in Greater Manchester. Most were named after existing locations, but some were opened for new suburbs opened up by the railways such as Altrincham, Chorlton-cum–Hardy and Sale, and others, such as Ashburys, Brooklands and Davenport, were opened to serve communities named after individuals. In many other cases, it seems that the railways standardised the names or spelling of places which were not officially agreed: Astley Bridge, Chequerbent, Guide Bridge, Hazel Grove, Heald Green, Howe Bridge, Mumps, Newton Heath, Rushford and Stoneclough.
VICTORIAN ERA 1837-1901	The reign of Queen Victoria coincided with the rise of Cottonopolis, and many places were named after Victoria herself (Victoria Bridge, Victoria Station, Victoria Park, Queen’s Park, etc), her husband, Prince Albert (Albert Bridge, Albert Square, Albert Park, etc), their son, the Prince of Wales (Clarence Park), and his wife, Princess Alexandra (there are at least four Alexandra Parks). Victoria’s golden jubilee in 1887 is commemorated in Jubilee Park, and Edward VII’s coronation in 1902 in Coronation Street.
PUBLIC PARKS 1846	It was in Greater Manchester that three of England’s first municipal parks – Peel Park, named in honour of Sir Robert Peel, Philips Park and Queen’s Park in Harpurhey – were opened to the public in 1846. Over the next 150 years, many country-house estates were donated or purchased and opened as public parks, ranging from the very small, such as Marie Louise Gardens in south Manchester to the enormous Heaton Park, acquired in 1902.
CITY OF MANCHESTER 1853	Manchester had lost its MP in 1660 because it had supported Cromwell in the civil war, and it was not until 1832 that parliamentary representation was restored. This was followed by the granting of city status in 1853. As a mark of civic pride, plans for a new town hall were announced in 1863 and, at the same time, Albert Square was laid out as a memorial to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, who had died in 1861. Also in 1853, the construction of the Free Trade Hall on the site of the Peterloo massacre of 1819 in St Peter’s Square was begun to mark the repeal of the corn laws in 1846. In 1853, the City Manchester reached its peak as a cotton manufacturing city, with 108 mills.
SLAVERY AND THE COTTON FAMINE 1861-1865	Most of Lancashire’s raw cotton was grown and picked by slaves in the southern states of the U.S. until the 1860s. There is, however, little evidence of this in the place names of Greater Manchester. Notable exceptions are Kingston in Tameside, which was named by a slave-owner to remind him of his life in Jamaica, and Elk Mill in Oldham, which takes its name from a river in Tennessee from where some of the earliest slave-harvested cotton came from at the end of the 18^th century. Despite this dependence on this cotton, there was early support in Manchester for the abolition of slavery. The issue was widely debated – the Manchester Movement for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade had been established in 1787 and Engels discusses slavery at several points in his 1845 study of the working class in Manchester. The supply of cotton became critical during the Lancashire ‘Cotton Famine, which occurred when the American Civil War cut off Greater Manchester’s cotton supplies from the southern states of the U.S. Despite the severe hardship, the Lancashire cotton workers supported the cause of the Union and in 1863 U.S. President Abraham Lincoln thanked them for their support for the abolition of slavery and his statue, with an extract from his letter, now stands in Lincoln Square. During the cotton famine, various projects were carried out to provide an income for the unemployed textile workers, notably Alexandra Park in Oldham, Queen’s Park in Bolton, the Cotton Famine Road in Rochdale, the Haigh estate (now Haigh Woodland Park) in Wigan and the Swineshaw reservoirs in Tameside.
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL 1894	The first attempt to connect Manchester to the Irish Sea was the Mersey & Irwell Navigation, which was built in 1721-1724 between Runcorn in Cheshire and Hunt’s Quay in the centre of Manchester. This was not a true canal but a waterway which improved navigation on the two rivers through a series of cuts and locks. The Manchester Ship Canal is a 58-kilometre artificial waterway between Runcorn in Cheshire and Salford. It was built in 1887-1893 and was opened by Queen Victoria at Mode Wheel on 21 May 1894. It led to a considerable increase in trade and industry, notably the development of Trafford Park, the world’s first industrial estate, in 1896.
WORLD WAR I 1914-1918	The military action of the First World War had little direct impact on Greater Manchester but there were Zeppelin bombing raids on Holcombe and Greenmount on 25 September 1916 and on Wigan on 12 April 1918. The Wigan raid killed seven people and a further nine were injured. However, the explosion at the Hooley Hill Munitions Factory on 13 June 1917 caused far more casualties, with 46 killed and hundreds injured. War memorials were erected after the war, as well as memorial parks such as Broadhurst Park in Moston, Dunwood Park in Crompton, Gallipoli Gardens in Bury, Tandle Hill Country Park in Royton, Woodbank Memorial Park in Stockport, and the Albert Hill VC Memorial Park in Denton.
URBAN RE-HOUSING 20^th century	Urban overcrowding and slums led most of the councils of what is now Greater Manchester to build estates to re-house large numbers of residents in improved accommodation. The first was perhaps the New Barracks estate in Salford, built in 1901-04, including Coronation Street, and several were built under the government-funded ‘Homes for Heroes’ scheme after World War I. Many more followed in the 1930s, and most adopted the names of the farms, mines or areas where they were built – Brushes, Johnson Fold, Langley, Linnyshaw Park and Limeside. In some cases, new aspirational names were coined, e.g. Abbey Hills. A third option was to take the name of a local hall or its grounds and apply it to the whole new housing estate, e.g. Polefield and Wythenshawe. As these estates expanded, older settlements were absorbed (Brownley Green, Crossacres, Poundswick, Royal Oak, Saxfield) and some have largely disappeared.
CITY OF SALFORD 1926	Salford was granted city status in 1926 but this was not marked by any new civic buildings. However, city status coincided with the announcement of plans to build the first of a new type of ‘super cinema’ outside London – the Ambassador.
WORLD WAR II 1939-1945	Between July 1940 and July 1942, Greater Manchester was subject to repeated German bombing raids, including the ‘Manchester blitz’ of 22-24 December 1940. 684 people were killed, 2364 were injured and there was widespread destruction. Many buildings were damaged, and St Augustine’s and All Saints churches were so badly damaged that they had to be demolished. Late in the war, on 24 December 1944, there were V-1 flying bomb attacks on Abbey Hills, Tottington, Davenport and Worsley which claimed 37 lives. Whitehead Gardens in Tottington commemorate these victims.
GREATER MANCHESTER 1 April 1974	The new county of Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 from parts of north-east Cheshire, south-east Lancashire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is composed of 10 Metropolitan Boroughs: Bolton, Bury, the City of Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, the City of Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. All of these except Tameside were pre-existing names dating from mediaeval times or earlier.
METROLINK & REGENERATION 1992 onwards	Greater Manchester, and the City of Manchester in particular, have undergone widespread regeneration since the 1990s, some of which have revived names that were fading from use (New Cross, New Islington). The Metrolink tram system, now the largest in the UK, was opened in 1992 and not only preserves the names of older parts of the county (Bess o’ th’ Barn, Pomona, Shadow Moss) and closed or disused railway stations (Cornbrook, Derker, Failsworth, Hollinwood, Milnrow, Oldham Mumps), but includes stops named after new areas (Anchorage, Etihad Campus, MediaCityUK, Salford Quays, Velopark). The new skyscraper area to the south of Manchester city centre is becoming known as “Manc-hattan”. However, regeneration has meant not just demolition and modernistic architecture. There has also been a movement towards the restoration and repurposing of mills and markets such as Manchester’s Mackie Mayor and Stockport’s Weir Mill, based on what has sometimes been called the ‘Altrincham model’.
CULTURES & LIFESTYLES	Perhaps the stereotypical images of Greater Manchester are captured in the artwork of L S Lowry (see Appendix 2) and P A Valette (Appendix 3), and the TV soap opera Coronation Street. However, in the years since the war and particularly since 1974, new communities and cultures have emerged, and some of these have given rise to new place names. These were initially unofficial but some have now been adopted officially: China Town, Curry Mile, Gay Village, Madchester and the Northern Quarter.
EXPORTED NAMES	The names of many settlements in Greater Manchester have been ‘exported’ or transferred to other countries overseas. This was often the result of colonial settlement, when British settlers wanted to commemorate their home towns. In other cases, and especially in the case of places named after Manchester, the inhabitants aspired to emulate the industrial innovation and success of Lancashire towns. However, several places turn out to be eponyms rather than transferred names, i.e. they are named after local worthies rather than English towns, so it is said that Manchester in Iowa was named by inverting the name of William Chesterman, one of its founders, and Oldham in Missouri was named after a Mr Asa Old who sold hams.
	Bolton		Connecticut, USA		Incorporated in 1720 and named by early settlers, many of whom came from Bolton in Lancashire.
			Illinois, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Iowa, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Kansas, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
			Maryland, USA		Bolton Hill: named after the estate of George Grundy, a Baltimore merchant who named his estate after his native Bolton in Lancashire.
			Ohio, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire by early settlers.
			Vermont, USA		Founded in 1763 and probably named by early settlers from Lancashire.
			Virginia, USA		Probably named after Bolton in Lancashire.
	Bury		Quebec, Canada		Named in 1803 after Bury in Lancashire.
	Didsbury		Alberta, Canada		Founded and named in 1902 after Didsbury in Lancashire.
	Edgeley		North Dakota, USA		Founded and named in 1886 by Richard Sykes, who was born in Edgeley in Cheshire.
	Heywood		Victoria, Australia		Surveyed in 1852 by Lindsay Clarke and named after Heywood in Lancashire.
	Manchester		Bolivia		Founded and named by Anthony Webster-James, a metallurgist from Manchester in Lancashire.
			Nova Scotia, Canada		Probably named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			California, USA		Established in 1871 and named by an early settler after his former home in Lancashire.
			Connecticut, USA		Settled in around 1672 as Five-Mile Tract and renamed in 1823 after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Georgia, USA		Founded in 1907 and named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Indiana, USA		The town was established in 1822 and probably named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Kansas, USA		Laid out in 1887 as Keystone but changed to Manchester by 1890.
			Kentucky, USA		Founded in 1807 as Greenville but changed to Manchester later that year as local business people aspired to Manchester’s industrial success.
			Maryland, USA		The town was incorporated in 1833 as Manchester Germantown, combining the names of two communities.
			Massachusetts, USA		Manchester-by-the-Sea: Originally named Manchester by colonists in 1629 after Manchester in Lancashire; renamed Manchester-by-the-Sea in 1989.
			Michigan, USA		Incorporated as a village in 1867 to take advantage of water power from the river and named after Manchester in Lancashire, which had pioneered water-powered industry.
			Missouri, USA		The village was incorporated in 1950 and named after Manchester by an English settler.
			New Hampshire, USA		Named in 1810 by Samuel Blodget, after visiting Manchester in England in the hope that it would emulate the industry of Lancashire.
			New Jersey, USA		Incorporated as a township in 1865 and named by William Torrey after Manchester in Lancashire.
			New York, USA		The town was settled in 1793 as Burt but changed to Manchester in 1822 in the hope that its textile mills would emulate those of Manchester in Lancashire.
			Ohio, USA		The settlement was founded in 1790 and named Massie’s Station after Nathaniel Massie, but was later renamed Manchester after the Lancashire town, which was Massie’s ancestral home.
			Oklahoma, USA		Possibly named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Pennsylvania, USA		The village was settled in 1814 and originally named Liverpool, but the name was later changed to Manchester.
			Tennessee, USA		The city was originally founded before 1817 and named after Manchester in Lancashire.
			Washington, USA		The town was established in the 1860s as Brooklyn but in 1892 the name was changed to Manchester after the Lancashire city.
			West Virginia, USA		New Manchester: The town was originally laid out in 1810 as Manchester.
	Mersey		Nova Scotia, Canada		Mersey River is named after the English river and flows into the Atlantic at Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
			Tasmania, Australia		The Mersey River on the north-west coast of Tasmania flows into the Bass strait at Devonport.
	Oldham		Nova Scotia, Canada		The town was named by Joseph Howe after his ancestral home in Lancashire.
			Mississippi, USA		The town was probably named after Oldham in Lancashire.
			South Dakota, USA		Either named after Oldham Carrot, a local landowner, or named after Oldham in Lancashire, the home of an early settler.
	Rochdale		Massachusetts, USA		Named Rochdale in 1869 because some early settlers came from Lancashire and hoped that similar types of cloth could be manufactured in Massachusetts.
			Mississippi, USA		The town was named after Rochdale in Lancashire.
			Queens, New York, USA		This 1960s cooperative housing development was named after Rochdale in Lancashire, the birthplace of the cooperative movement.
			North Carolina, USA		The town was probably named after Rochdale in Lancashire.
	Saddleworth		South Australia		Saddleworth was built in the 1840s on land originally owned by James Masters, and named after his former home in West Yorkshire.
	Salford		Ontario, Canada		The place was originally called New Manchester, but in 1855 the name was changed and named after Salford in Cheshire.
			Pennsylvania, USA		The town was established in about 1727 and named after Salford in Lancashire.
	Stockport		South Australia		The small town was founded in 1845 by Samuel Stocks junior and named after his birthplace in Cheshire.
			Lake Ontario, Canada		Stockport Islands: The islands were named by early explorers after their birthplace in Cheshire.
			Iowa, USA		The town was settled in the late 19^th century and incorporated in 1902. It was probably named after Stockport in Cheshire.
			New York, USA		The town was established in 1833 and named by James Wild, who was originally from Stockport in Cheshire.
			Ohio, USA		The town was named in 1838 by its first postmaster, Samuel Beswick, after Stockport in Cheshire.

ACRESFIELD See ST ANN’S SQUARE

ALDER BARROW See OWLER BARROW

ANNIE LEE’S playing fields in Gorton are after named after Annie Lee, who was leader of the Openshaw Labour Party from the 1890s and, later, a Manchester alderman. She died in 1945.

AO ARENA See MANCHESTER ARENA

ASYLUM BROOK See MERE BROOK and MERE CLOUGH

BAILEY See NEW BAILEY

“BARNEY’S STEPS” See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

BEESLEY GREEN is or was an area of Worsley in the City of Salford, and it now forms part of the Roe Green/

Beesley Green conservation area. The name seems to date from the late 16^th century, when a Thomas Beesley and his descendants farmed the area.

BOTTOM OF WOODHOUSES See WOODHOUSES

BRIDGEWATER HALL is a concert venue in central Manchester, opened in 1996. It is named after the Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803) who commissioned the nearby Bridgewater Canal.

CASTLE HILL, Bowdon See WATCH HILL CASTLE

CENTRAL STATION See GMEX

CHARLESTOWN, Stockport See WOODSMOOR

CLARKE’S BRIDGE See KINGSTON

CLOUGH, Shaw is a rural area east of Shaw in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. The name is not well documented but comes from the Old English clōh, meaning ‘ravine, deep valley’.

CORRIDOR MANCHESTER See OXFORD ROAD

The COUNTY BROOK See BROOK BOTTOM

DEADWENCLOUGH See POLEFIELD

DIVISION BRIDGE See ROYAL GEORGE AQUEDUCT

DOG KENNEL BROOK See MAINE ROAD

DOUGLAS GREEN is a former industrial area of Pendleton where William Douglas (1745-1810) established one of the first, if not the first, and largest cotton mill in Salford in 1781-1782.

DUNHAM TOWN See DUNHAM MASSEY

FAR WAIN STONES See WAIN STONES

GARRICK THEATRE, Stockport See STOCKPORT GARRICK THEATRE

GOOSE GREEN, Wigan, is a residential area south-west of the town centre. The name is not well documented but is assumed to have once been a village green where people grazed their geese.

GREAT BOLTON See BOLTON

GREAT HORROCKS See HORROCKS

GREAT HOWARTH See HOWARTH CROSS

GRINDLOW MARSH See LONGSIGHT

HEATON CHAPEL is an area in Heaton Norris in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It received its name following the construction of St Thomas’s Anglican church in 1765.

HIGH CROMPTON See CROMPTON

HIGHER BARROWSHAW See BARROWSHAW

HIGHER BLACKLEY See BLACKLEY

HIGHER BOARSHAW See BOARSHAW

HIGHER BROUGHTON See BROUGHTON

HIGHER CRUMPSALL See CRUMPSALL

HIGHER DUNISHBOOTH See DUNISHBOOTH

HIGHER END See BILLINGE

HIGHER GREEN See ASTLEY and ASTLEY GREEN

HIGHER HARTSHEAD See HARTSHEAD GREEN

HIGHER HURST See HURST

HIGHER INCE See INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD

HIGHER NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

HIGHER OPENSHAW See OPENSHAW

HIGHER RUSHCROFT See RUSHCROFT

HIGHER STAKE HILL See STAKEHILL or STAKE HILL

HIGHER SUMMERSEAT See SUMMERSEAT

HIGHER WOODHILL See WOODHILL

HIGHER OGDEN See OGDEN

HIGHER SWINESHAW RESERVOIR See SWINESHAW

HOLLINS, Rochdale, is a residential area in north-west Middleton. The name is recorded in 1843 and is derived from Old English holegn, meaning ‘holly trees’.

“IMPOSSIBLE BRIDGE” See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

ISLINGTON See NEW ISLINGTON

JACKSON See NEW JACKSON

JJB STADIUM See The BRICK COMMUNITY STADIUM

JUNCTION See MIDDLETON JUNCTION

KISSING ROCKS See WAIN STONES

KNUTSFORD VALE See NUTSFORD VALE

LEESBROOK See LEES

LEESFIELD See LEES

LITTLE BOLTON See BOLTON

LITTLE CLEGG See CLEGG HALL

LITTLE HOUGHTON See WESTHOUGHTON

LITTLE HULTON See HULTON

LITTLE WHINNING GULF See GREAT WHINNING GULF

LOW CROMPTON See CROMPTON

LOWER BREDBURY See BREDBURY

LOWER BROUGHTON See BROUGHTON

LOWER CHELBURN See CHELBURN

LOWER CRUMPSALL See CRUMPSALL

LOWER DUNISHBOOTH See DUNISHBOOTH

LOWER GREEN See ASTLEY and ASTLEY GREEN

LOWER HEALEY See HEALEY

LOWER HINDS See HINDS

LOWER INCE See INCE-IN-MAKERFIELD

LOWER IRLAM See IRLAM

LOWER KERSAL See KERSAL

LOWER NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

LOWER OGDEN See OGDEN

LOWER ROE CROSS See ROE CROSS

LOWER RUSHCROFT See RUSHCROFT

LOWER SUMMERSEAT See SUMMERSEAT

LOWER SWINESHAW RESERVOIR See SWINESHAW

land which had subsided during underground mining operations, was reclaimed and developed over a period of about 30 years before being designated as a nature reserve in 2009.

LOWRY’S STEPS or LOWRY’S FOOTBRIDGE See COLLYHURST FOOTBRIDGE

MANCHESTER CENTRAL STATION See GMEX

MANCHESTER EXCHANGE STATION See EXCHANGE STATION

MANCHESTER MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY See LIVERPOOL ROAD

MANCHESTER OXFORD ROAD STATION See OXFORD ROAD

MANCHESTER PICCADILLY STATION See PICCADILLY STATION

MANCHESTER VICTORIA STATION See VICTORIA STATION

MARK ADDY BRIDGE See WODEN FOOTBRIDGE

MESNES PARK See WORSLEY MESNES

MICKER BROOK See BOLLINHURST BROOK

MIDDLE HEALEY See HEALEY

MIDDLE HULTON See HULTON

MIDDLE NADEN RESERVOIR See NADEN

MID REDDISH See REDDISH

MONSALL is a suburb of Manchester, north-east of the city centre. The name was recorded as Monshalgh in 1546 and means ‘monk’s (Old English monke) corner or nook (halh)’.

NEAR BARROWSHAW See BARROWSHAW

NEAR WAIN STONES See WAIN STONES

NETHER LEES See LEES

NEW DELPH See DELPH

NEW MOSTON See MOSTON

NEW SIRS See OLD SIRS

NEW TAME See OLD TAME

NEWTON is the most common place name in England, with at least 87 towns or villages carrying the name. All mean ‘the new settlement’ from the Old English nīwe + tūn.

NEWTON, Tameside is an area of Hyde that was formerly in Cheshire. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (see Appendix 1) as Neweton and with its modern spelling in 1320.

NEW WINDSOR See WINDSOR

NORDEN ETCHELLS or NORTHERN ETCHELLS See ETCHELLS

NORTH REDDISH See REDDISH

OLD BIRTLE See BIRTLE

OVER HULTON See HULTON

The QUEEN ALEXANDRA PICTURE HOUSE See The FESTIVAL THEATRE

REEBOK STADIUM See TOUGHSHEET COMMUNITY STADIUM

ROYAL EXCHANGE See EXCHANGE

RYDER BROW or RIDER BROW See WINNING HILL

ST GEORGE’S PARK See BARRACK PARK

SOUTH REDDISH See REDDDISH

STOCKPORT BROOK See HEMPSHAW BROOK

STOCKPORT ETCHELLS See ETCHELLS

STOCKPORT VIADUCT See VIADUCT

STRAWBERRY ISLAND See POMONA ISLAND

TINKER’S GARDENS See VAUXHALL GARDENS

TOMMYFIELD MARKET is an indoor market in the centre of Oldham. It was established in 1788 in fields owned by Thomas (‘Tommy’) Whittaker.

TOP MOSSLEY See BROOK BOTTOM or BROOKBOTTOM and MOSSLEY

TOP OF HEAP See HEAP BRIDGE

TOP OF HEBERS See HEBERS

TOWN OF LOWTON See LOWTON

UPPER CHELBURN See CHELBURN

VICTORIA PARK, Swinton is a 6-hectare public park in Swinton in the City of Salford. It was opened in 1897 to commemorate the 60th year of the reign of Queen Victoria.

WEST DIDSBURY See DIDSBURY

WEST GORTON See GORTON

WHITEHEAD BROOK See WHITEHEAD HALL MEADOWS

WHITELEY See LOWER WHITELEY DEAN BROOK

WICHEAVES See PEEL

WOODHOUSE GREEN See WOODHOUSES, Oldham

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & SOURCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Baines, Edward	1888	The History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster	Manchester: John Heywood
Billington, W D	1982	From Affetside to Yarrow: Bolton Place Names and their History	Bolton: Ron Anderson Publications
Bradshaw, L D	1985	Origins of Street Names in the City Centre of Manchester	Manchester: Neil Richardson
Buckley, Mike	2017	‘The origins and evolution of a Pennine township: medieval and early modern settlement in Saddleworth’, chapter 11 of Smith, Nigel (ed), History of the South Pennines: the legacy of Alan Petford,	Hebden Bridge: Local History Society
Cameron, Kenneth	1959	The Place Names of Derbyshire, Part I	Cambridge: University Press
Cole, E Ann	2015	Plants, Place Names and Habitats	Ashmolean Natural History Society Journal, vol 6, pp. 94-102
Clark, David	1973	Greater Manchester Votes: A Guide to the New Metropolitan Authorities	Stockport: Redrose
Crosby, Alan G	2010	Unofficial place-names in nineteenth- and twentieth-century South Lancashire	Nomina 33, pp. 45–64
Crosby, Alan G	2019	Place-names and the medieval landscape in the Manchester area	Manchester Memoirs, 157, pp.55-64
Defoe, Daniel	1724-26/ 1991	A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain	New Haven: Yale University Press
Dodgson, J McN		The Place Names of Cheshire	Cambridge: University Press/English Place-Name Society
	1970a	Part I Macclesfield Hundred
	1970b	Part II Bucklow and Northwich Hundreds
	1981	Part V 1:i City of Chester; the Elements of Cheshire Place-Names A-Gylden
	1981	Part V 1:ii The Elements of Cheshire Place-Names Haca-Yolden
	1997	Part V 2 Introduction, Linguistic Notes and Indexes
Ekwall, Eilert	1922/2019	The Place-Names of Lancashire	Manchester: University Press (Alpha Editions)
	1960	The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Place Names, 4^th edition	Oxford: Clarendon Press
Engels, Friedrich	1845/1987	The Condition of the Working Class in England	London: Penguin Books
Fiennes, Celia	c.1682-c.1712/1984	The Illustrated Journeys of Celia Fiennes	London: Macdonald & Co.
Francis, James F	2004	Harwood Hill Farms and Riding Gate	Turton Local History Society
Frangopulo, N J	1977	Tradition in Action – The Historical Evolution of the Greater Manchester County	Wakefield: EP Publishing
Garmonsway, G N (translator)	1953	The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle	Letchworth: Aldine Press
Gelling, Margaret	1994	Place-names in the Landscape	London: J M Dent
Gelling, Margaret	1997	Signposts to the Past	Chichester: Phillimore
Gelling, M & Ann Cole	2000	The Landscape of Place Names	Stamford: Shaun Tyas
Goodall, Armitage	1913	Place-Names of South-West Yorkshire	Cambridge: University Press
Harland, John (ed)	1862	Mamecestre: being chapters from the early recorded history of the Barony of Manchester	Chetham Society, vol III
Insley, John	1986	Toponymy and Settlements in the North West	Nomina 10, pp. 169-76
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Johnston, James	1915	The Place-Names of England and Wales	London: John Murray
Kenyon, Denise	1991	The Origins of Lancashire	Manchester: University Press
Leech, Geoffrey	2006	The unique heritage of place-names in North-West England	https://www.lancaster.ac.uk > leechg > leech_2006
Lewis, William	2011	What’s in an English Place-Name?	Abingdon: Brazen Head Publishing
March, Henry Colley	1880	East Lancashire Nomenclature and Rochdale Names	London: Simpkin
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Miller, David	2018/2022	Altrincham Area History	https://www.altrinchamheritage.com
Mills, David	1976	The Place Names of Lancashire	London: B T Batsford
Mills, A D	1991	A Dictionary of English Place Names	Oxford: University Press
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Parkinson-Bailey, John	2000	Manchester – An Architectural History	Manchester: University Press
Potter, Simeon	1955	Cheshire Place Names	Liverpool: Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire
Potter, Simeon	1959	South-West Lancashire Place-Names	Liverpool: Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol III, pages 1-23
Poulton-Smith, Anthony	2012	Cheshire Place Names	Ross-on-Wye: Fineleaf
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Royle, William	1914	History of Rusholme	Manchester: William Morris Press
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Smith, A H	1956a	English Place-Name Elements, Part I	Cambridge: University Press/English Place-Name Society
	1956b	English Place-Name Elements, Part II	Cambridge: University Press/English Place-Name Society
	1986	The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Part II Osgoldcross and Agbrigg Wapentakes	Cambridge: University Press/English Place-Name Society
Swain, N V	1987	A History of Sale	Wilmslow: Sigma Press
Watts, Victor	2004	The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names	Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Waugh, Edwin	1855 & 1857	Lancashire Sketches	Manchester: John Heywood
Wyld, Henry & T Oakes Hirst	1911	The Place Names of Lancashire: their Origin and History	London: Constable & Co.

APPENDIX 1: DOMESDAY BOOK ENTRIES FOR GREATER MANCHESTER

BOLTON (Bodeltun) 6 carucates

CRIMBLES (Crimeles) In Preston …. Crimbles 1 carucate

GREENHALGH (> GREENMOUNT) (Greneholf) In Preston … Greenhalgh 3 carucates

HOLLINGWORTH (Holisurde) The earl himself holds … Hollingworth at 1 virgate.

LUDWORTH (Lodeuorde) In Ludworth Brun had 4 bovates of land.

MANCHESTER The Church of St Mary and the Church of St Michael held in Manchester 1 carucate of land quit of every customary due except geld.

RADCLIFFE (Radeclive) King Edward held Radcliffe as a manor. There is 1 hide and another hide belonging to Salford.

ROMILEY (Rumelie) The earl himself holds …Romiley at 1 virgate …. The whole was and is waste.

SINDERLAND (Sundreland) See Baguley above.

APPENDIX 2: LOWRY LOCATIONS IN GREATER MANCHESTER

LOCATION	TITLE	DATE	NOTES
ADELPHI	The River Irwell at the Adelphi	1924
AGECROFT	Agecroft Regatta	1949
ANCOATS	Great Ancoats Street	c.1929
	Great Ancoats Street, Manchester	1930
	Ancoats Hospital Outpatients’ Hall	1952
	Ancoats Hospital Outpatients’ Hall	u/d
ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE	Industrial Landscape	1952
BROUGHTON	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Broughton	1925
BROUGHTON	Houses in Broughton	1937
BURNDEN	Going to the Match	1953	Bolton Wanderers’ football ground
CHEADLE HULME	The Drive, ‘Oaklands’	1947
	Portrait of a House	c.1947
	Portrait of a House	1954
CHORLTON-ON-MEDLOCK	David Lloyd George’s Birthplace	1958	House demolished 1957
CLIFTON	Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton	1925	Now Clifton Country Park
	Clifton Junction, Morning	1910
	Clifton Junction, Evening	1910
	A Footbridge	1944	Pack Saddle or Roving Bridge
COLLYHURST	A Footbridge	1938	Also known as ‘Barney’s Steps’
CORONATION STREET, Salford	Coronation Street	1957
CRIME LAKE	Crime Lake	1942
CROWTHER STREET, Stockport	Crowther Street, Stockport	1930	Original houses demolished in the 1960s but restored early in the 2000s
CROWTHER STREET, Stockport	Crowther Street, Stockport	1934
DAISY NOOK, Droylsden	Lancashire Fair, Good Friday, Daisy Nook	1946
	The Fairground	1949
	Fairground at Daisy Nook	1956
DIXON FOLD	Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton	1925	Now Clifton Country Park
ECCLES	Eccles Railway Station	1963
EXCHANGE STATION	Station Approach	1960
EXCHANGE STATION	Station Approach	1962
FAILSWORTH	Old Road, Failsworth	1957
FAILSWORTH	Children Playing, Old Road, Failsworth	1957
FAIRFIELD	The Canal Bridge	1944
GATLEY	The Empty House	1934
	Old House	1936
	Old House, Gatley	1937
GAYTHORN	Oldfield Road Dwelling	1927
GAYTHORN	Oldfield Road Dwellings	1929
River IRWELL	The River Irwell at the Adelphi	1924
	A View of the River Irwell from Peel Park	1924
	River Irwell at Salford	c.1924
	River Scene/Industrial Landscape	1935
	The Lake	1937
	River Scene	1942
	River Irwell at Salford	1947
	A River Bank	1947
	The Agecroft Regatta	1948
MANCHESTER	St John’s Church, Deansgate	1920
	Sketch of St John’s, Manchester	c.1920
	St John’s Church, Manchester	1928
	The Viaduct, Store Street, Manchester	1929
	St John’s Church	1938
	A Footbridge	1938	Collyhurst footbridge
	After the Blitz	1942
	Manchester Blitz/St Augustine’s Church, Hulme	1943
	Going to Work	1943	Mather & Platt Works
	Going to Work	1944	Mather & Platt Works
	St Augustine’s Church, Manchester	1945	Destroyed in Manchester blitz
	Industrial Landscape	1955	Mather & Platt Works
	Reference Library	1972	Now Manchester Central Library
MIDDLETON	Old Church and Steps	1960
MOTTRAM-IN-LONGDENDALE	Agricultural Fair	1949
MOTTRAM-IN-LONGDENDALE	The Hat Rack	1966	Lowry’s home:
PEEL PARK, Salford	Peel Park Sketch	1919
	Peel Park Sketch	1920
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1924
	A View of the River Irwell from Peel Park	1924
	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Manchester	1924
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1925
	A View from the Window of Royal Technical College, Salford, Looking towards Broughton	1925
	The Terrace, Peel Park, Salford	1927
	Peel Park, Salford	1927
	Peel Park, Sketch	c.1927
	Bandstand, Peel Park	1928
	The Steps, Peel Park, Salford	1930
	The Bandstand, Peel Park	1931
	Peel Park, Salford	1944
	The Park	1946
	The Bandstand, Peel Park	c.1954	Date tbc
PENDLEBURY	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1920
	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1924
	Old Farm in Pendlebury	1925
	St Augustine’s Church, Pendlebury	1930
	Pendlebury Scene	1931
	Street Scene	1935	Acme Mill
	View in Pendlebury	1936
	Figures in a Lane	1936
	The Procession	1937	Annual Whit-Thursday procession
	Albion Mill	1941
	Winter in Pendlebury	1943
	The Mill, Pendlebury	1943
	Mill Scene with Figures	1944
	Iron Works	1947
	Street in Pendlebury	1948
	Pendlebury Market	u/d
	The Railway Platform	1953
PICCADILLY	Piccadilly	1930
	Piccadilly Gardens	1954
	Piccadilly, Manchester	c.1957
POLICE STREET, Eccles	The Arrest	1927
PRESTWICH	Prestwich Clough	1914
RAMSBOTTOM	The Railway Steps, Ramsbottom	1945
RAMSBOTTOM	The Steps	1957
RICHMOND HILL, Salford	Richmond Hill, Salford	1925
RICHMOND HILL, Salford	Richmond Hill, Salford	1957	Date tbc
ST MICHAEL’S FLAGS & ANGEL MEADOW PARK	Playground	c.1927
	The Steps, Irk Place	1928
	Lancashire Street	1929
	St Michael’s Church and All Angels – Study	1933
	View of a Town	1936
	St Michael’s Church and All Angels	1941
	Street Scene	1941
	Britain at Play	1943
	Street Scene with Figures	1944
	Street Scene	1947
ST PETER’S SQUARE	Reference Library	1972	Built 1930-34; now Central Library
SALFORD	Salford Street Scene	1922
	The Flat Iron Market	c.1925
	Belle Vue House, Leaf Square, Salford	1925
	Behind Leaf Square	1925
	The County Court	1926
	The Tower, Leaf Square	1926
	An Old Lamp, Behind Leaf Square	1926
	By Christ Church, Salford	1926
	By the County Court, Salford	1926
	By St Philip’s Church, Salford	1926
	Hulme Place, Salford	1926
	Dwelling, Ordsall Lane, Salford	1927
	A Street Scene, St Simon’s Church	1927
	St Simon’s Church	c.1927
	A Street Scene, St Simon’s Church	1928	Church demolished in 1927
	Salford Street Scene	1928
	The Gateway	1931
	The Corner Shop	1943	Islington Square
	A Footbridge	1944	Pack Saddle or Roving Bridge
	The Old House, Grove Street, Salford	1948
	The Factory Gate	1951
	Early Morning	1954
	St Stephen’s Church, Salford	1956
	Chapel, St Stephen’s Church, Salford	1956
	North James Henry Street, Salford	1956
	Christ Church, Salford	1956
	Francis Terrace, Salford	1956
	Francis Street, Salford	1957
	Sunday Afternoon	1957
	Man Going to Work/Figure in a Gateway	1964
	Church in Salford/St Philip’s Church	1965
STOCKPORT	The Stepped Street	1929
	Mealhouse Brow	1929
	Crowther Street, Stockport	1930	Original houses demolished in the 1960s but restored early in the 2000s
	Crowther Street, Stockport	1934
	Stockport Viaduct	1942
	Stockport Viaduct	1943
	Stockport Viaduct	1944
	The Viaduct, Stockport	c.1950s
	Old Steps, Mealhouse Brow	1969
SWINTON	Arden’s Farm	c.1909
	Wardley Farm, Swinton Moss	1913
	St Mary’s Church, Swinton	1913
	Swinton Moss	1922
	Swinton Industrial Schools	1930
	St Mary’s Church, Swinton	1960
TOMMYFIELDS MARKET, Oldham	Selling Oilcloth on the Oldham Road	1914
TOMMYFIELDS MARKET, Oldham	The Lino Market	1955
WARDLEY	Wardley Farm, Swinton Moss	1913
WIGAN	Industrial Landscape/Landscape in Wigan	1925

References

Sandling J & M Leber (2000), Lowry’s City – A Painter and His Locale, Salford: Lowry Press

Saywell, David, Artists and Places: L S Lowry in Salford and Industrial Towns in Greater Manchester (accessed 13/09/2024)

APPENDIX 3: VALETTE LOCATIONS IN GREATER MANCHESTER

LOCATION	PICTURE TITLE	DATE	NOTES
ALBERT SQUARE, Manchester	Albert Square, Manchester	1910
ALL SAINTS/GROSVENOR SQUARE	Hansom Cab at All Saints	1910	All Saints church was damaged in the blitz of 1940 and demolished in 1946
	Old Cab at All Saints	1911
	Presbyterian Church, All Saints	tbc
CENTRAL STATION	Central Station	1910-11
River IRWELL	Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1909	Actually depicts Irwell Street Bridge
	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
	Bailey Bridge	1912
	Under Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1912	Actually depicts Irwell Street Bridge
MANCHESTER	Rooftops, Manchester	Tbc
	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
	Plymouth Grove, July	1909
	Street Scene, Manchester	1912
	York Street Leading to Charles Street	1913
	Manchester Street in the Fog	c.1910
	Manchester Suburban Scene	tbc
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL	Ship Canal, Sunset	c.1908
	Manchester Ship Canal and Warehouses	1908
	Trafford Road Swing Bridge	c.1910
	Trafford Bridge and Pomona Dock	tbc
	Tug on a Canal in Manchester	tbc
River MEDLOCK	India House	1912
NEW BAILEY BRIDGE	Manchester Cathedral, Looking up the River Irwell from Bailey Bridge	1909
NEW BAILEY BRIDGE	Bailey Bridge	1912
OXFORD ROAD, Manchester	Oxford Road, Manchester	1910
OXFORD ROAD, Manchester	Houses on Oxford Street, Sunset	c.1910
PLYMOUTH GROVE, Manchester	Plymouth Grove, July	1909
ROMILEY	Romiley	1916
ST PETER’S SQUARE, Manchester	St Peter’s Square, Manchester	tbc
SALE	Sale, near Manchester	1907
SALFORD	Castlegate, Salford	1912
WINDSOR BRIDGE	Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1909	Both paintings in fact depict the Irwell Street Bridge, not Windsor Bridge
WINDSOR BRIDGE	Under Windsor Bridge on the Irwell	1912

References

Martin, Sandra (2007), Adolphe Valette – A French Impressionist in Manchester, London: Scala Publishers

Webb, Poul, Arts and Artists: Adolphe Valette (accessed 23/11/2024)