Every day, thousands of people travel up and down Bury New Road on foot…in cars, buses and, if they’re very brave, on bikes. The stretch between the Arena and the M60 Junction in Prestwich is generally considered to be a clogged up, pollution infested but unfortunately necessary schlep in and out of Manchester town centre.
The route from Strangeways, along the stretch of warehouses to Higher Broughton, to Prestwich Village, doesn’t appear to have many remarkable buildings, nor many other roadside attractions…until a closer look and a sift through its history reveals the Road’s incredible links to cultural, artistic, political, sociological and sporting change…
Friedrich Engels, Mark E Smith, John Cooper Clarke, the Chartists, Mike Leigh, Morrissey, George Best, the Jacobites, New Order, Graham Gouldman, Bugzy Malone, Nico, David Beckham and the other Class of ’92s are just a few of the characters who have major connections with the Road…This project will be celebrating this amazing culture and asking ‘Why here?’
“It’s like a magnet for us bohemians” jokes John Cooper Clarke. But Bury New Road is definitely a magnet for something, being on one of the main ley lines in the country and standing as a psychogeographer’s dream…
Meanwhile, the physical sites of the Road are now changing, from the new Manchester College building in front of Strangeways, to the proposed huge regeneration of Prestwich Town Centre, which councils state would be a catalyst for further development. Higher Broughton itself has already changed beyond recognition, with house prices rocketing from affordable to unaffordable in a short space of time. It’s also about snapshotting the current everyday culture which is slowly disappearing…
This project, snappily titled Bury New Road, is about making those thousands of people who travel up and down the route every day appreciate its specialness. Hopefully, we’re going to point out the magic…
And everyone’s welcome to help…
See also:
Welcome To The Bury New Road Project – click here
What Is Bury New Road? – click here
Our Funders – click here
About Mary Burns Community Group – click here
Facebook: Bury New Road Heritage
Twitter: @new_bury
Instagram: Bury.NewRoad
Email: burynewrd@gmail.com
I used to go to Adelphi House convent school on The Crescent in Salford. My standard route home included catching the 95 or 96 from Victoria Bus Station, down Bury New Road to Kersal Bar at Moor Lane. It would have been around 1968-1970, when John Cooper-Clarke regularly caught the same bus, sitting on the top deck with his carrier bag full of poetry! He used to live in St Paul’s Rd., off Bury New Rd.
Here’s some other landmarks along BNR. Park Lane Police Station. Higher Broughton fire station. The Toll House on the corner with Moor Lane. “The house that Jack Built” higher Broughton BNR. The Greek Orthodox Church. The 96 and 95 bus from whitefield to East Didsbury. The George Pub. Bishopgate the bishop of Manchester residence . The GMP police college and conference centre. The Cliff petrol station and path down to the Kersal wetlands and river Irwell.
I could kick myself for not becoming aware of this website sooner! The first 50 years of my life were nearly all spent within a 5 minute walk of BNR.
Brilliant stuff about Engels’ addresses, but why did Roy Whitfield spoil his book by calling Engels “Frederick”?!