Rusholme
| Rusholme | |
| Lancashire | |
|---|---|
 Wilmslow Road in Rusholme | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SJ850953 |
| Location: | 53°27’16"N, 2°13’29"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 13,643 (2011) |
| Post town: | Manchester |
| Postcode: | M14 |
| Dialling code: | 0161 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Manchester |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Manchester Gorton |
Rusholme is a Lancashire village which has become a mere inner-city area of Manchester, about two miles south of the city centre. It has a large student population, with several student halls and many students renting terraced houses, and suburban houses towards the Victoria Park area.
Contents
Name
Rusholme, unlike other place names in Manchester with the suffix holme is not a true water meadow. Its name derives from ryscum the dative plural of the Old English rysc, a "rush", so the name means 'at the rushes'. The name was recorded as Russum in 1235, Ryssham in 1316 and Rysholme in 1551.[1]
History
Early history
Late in the Roman occupation of Britain a hoard of about 200 gold coins was hidden in the valley of the Gore Brook. These coins date from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD and were found where Birchfields Road crosses the brook in the 1890s. They are now kept in the Manchester Museum.[2]
Records of the name Rusholme do not appear until the mid-13th century when "Russum" is mentioned; at this time it is known that a house existed at Platt which was replaced by a larger house of black and white construction which was the home of the Platts until the mid-18th century when the present classical building replaced it. An early record of the Platt estate mentions the Nico Ditch, an Anglo-Saxon linear earthwork which runs east-west through the area and was probably used as an administrative boundary. It dates from the 8th or 9th century.[3] Tales of battles between the Danes and the Normans associated with the road names of Danes Road and Norman Road are not accepted by historians. Another black and white hall existed at Birch; this was probably built in the 16th century.[2]
The economy of the area was dependent on agriculture until the 18th century; however during the 17th and 18th centuries there was a growth of cottage industries such as spinning, weaving and brickmaking.[4]
Social history
The old township grew greatly in the Victorian era with the industrial expansion of Manchester, gaining all the civil attributes of a new industrial town, i Until these were absorbed by Manchester. The low-cost terraced housing built between 1880 and 1930 dominates the landscape, along with a sprawling council housing estate erected in the interwar period.
Churches
Churches in Rusholme include:
- Church of England:
- Holy Trinity, Platt[5]
- Holy Innocents Fallowfield
- St Chrysostom
- Seventh Day Adventists
- Roman Catholic: St Edward, built in 1861-62
At Birch in Rusholme is the, now disused, much older Anglican chapel, St James, now closed. The present building was built in 1845-46 to replace the earlier chapel of 1595. The architect was J.M. Derick and it is in Gothic revival style. The southwest tower is topped with a broach spire and the aisle arcades are of five bays.[6]
Culture and cultural references
John Ruskin gave the lectures later published as Sesame and Lilies in 1865 at Rusholme Town Hall.
Film Studios Manchester opened in a converted Wesleyan church on Dickenson Road in 1947. The first Manchester-made feature film was Cup-Tie Honeymoon starring Sandy Powell and Pat Phoenix. It was the first of many similar films made at the site. From 1947 to 1954 it was the home of Mancunian Film Studios, many of whose productions were filmed on local streets. In 1963 the BBC bought the studios as its northern base and on New Year's Day, 1964: the first edition of Top of the Pops was presented from there. It was used until 1971 when the BBC moved to studios in central Manchester.
Outside links
- Rusholme and Victoria Park Archive
- Friends of Platt Fields Park
- Rusholme Curry Mile Manchester
- Dynamo Bowden Athletic Football club
References
- ↑ Mills 1976, p. 129
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sussex (1984); p.3
- ↑ Nevell, Mike (1998), Lands and Lordships in Tameside, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council with the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit, pp. 40–41, ISBN 1-871324-18-1
- ↑ Sussex (1984); pp. 3–4
- ↑ Holy Trinity, Platt
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: Pevsner Architectural Guides
- Anderson, Bruce (2012). "Rusholme & Victoria Park Archive". Dale Street, Manchester.: author. http://rusholmearchive.org. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
- Mills, David (1976), The Placenames of Lancashire, Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-5236-6
Books
- Cronin, Jill & Rhodes, Frank (2006) Rusholme and Victoria Park. Stroud: Tempus ISBN 0-7524-4198-1
- Royle, William (1905) Rusholme Past and Present, being a gossipy talk of men and things. Manchester: Wm. Hough & Sons
- --do.--(1914) History of Rusholme, with a gossipy talk of men and things. Manchester: Printed at the W. Morris Press
- Royle, D. K. (1924) William Royle of Rusholme. Manchester: Sherratt & Hughes
- Sussex, Gay & Helm, Peter (1984) Looking back at Rusholme & Fallowfield. Altrincham: Willow
