Didsbury
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- This article is about the suburb in Manchester, England. For the town in Canada see Didsbury, Alberta.
Didsbury is a suburb of Manchester, England about 5 miles south of the city centre, intersected by the busy thoroughfare of Wilmslow Road. It lies south of Withington. The area is predominantly populated by young professionals, middle-class families and some students and is highly desirable in the property market.
The area is split into two wards of Manchester City Council: Didsbury East and Didsbury West.
Didsbury borders Burnage, Heaton Mersey, Northenden Gatley and Withington to the North.
History
During the English Civil War, Prince Rupert stationed himself at Didsbury Ees to the south of Barlow Moor. In the Jacobite march south from Manchester to Derby in 1745 it is likely that it crossed the old ford of the River Mersey at Didsbury.During the Victorian expansion of Manchester, Didsbury developed as a prosperous settlement and continues so to this day. The houses along Palatine Road, previously occupied by prosperous textile merchants and the like, now converted in many cases to multiple occupation or offices, are ample evidence of this.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries many immigrants from Spain, Portugal and Persia settled in the area. Their children and grandchildren have prospered and moved out to areas such as Bowdon, Hale and Hale Barns.
Daniel Adamson, promoter of the Manchester Ship Canal, lived at The Towers (blue plaque — now the Shirley Institute) on Wilmslow Road from 1874. His home (designed by Thomas Worthington) was also the venue for the 1882 meeting where it was agreed to promote the Ship Canal project.
The Fletcher Moss Botanical Gardens (named after a local alderman) is a pleasant recreational park of 85,000 square metres, near the centre of Didsbury.
From 1956 to 1969 Didsbury was home to the northern studios of ABC Television. These were actually converted from the Capitol cinema in Parrs Wood Lane. In 1969 ABC closed the site when it was merged with fellow ITV company Rediffusion to become London station Thames Television. For a short while the site was used by Yorkshire Television until their own facilities were ready. In 1970 it was sold to Manchester Polytechnic (later Manchester Metropolitan University) and eventually in the late 90's it was demolished to make way for a residental development. From this site part of ITV's history had been created - early episodes of The Avengers and Opportunity Knocks were made here.
Recreation
Didsbury is home to a great number of bars and restaurants. The centre of the village is very busy with students and young professionals at night and especially at weekends while West Didsbury is filled with a large variety of restaurants and eateries. One of the most famous, The Great Kathmandu, was voted the best Indian restaurant in the UK by the readers of The Observer newspaper. The Parrswood leisure complex comprises a bowling alley, cinema, gym, LaserQuest and a number of restaurants.
Once a year, at Didsbury Festival, local schools dress up to a theme and meet in the playground of St. Catherine's Primary School from where they parade to Didsbury park. At the end of the parade, prizes are awarded for various catagories. After the award ceremony, there is a fair and a number of stalls and attractions.
Sport
Didsbury has a variety of different sports clubs.
Didsbury Toc-H R.F.C is a successful rugby union squad in Didsbury, founded in 1924 with their 1st Team playing in North Lancashire League 1. The club runs four adult male teams who train at Ford Lane on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and a vibrant youth section who meet on Sunday mornings. The club run a 10-a-side competition every May as a charity fund raiser which has run every year since 1951. See http://www.didsburyrfc.co.uk/
Also at Ford Lane are Burnage Metro FC, who enter 5 teams in local leagues.
Old Bedians Sports Club is also based in Didsbury. This is primarily a rugby union club and along with the Football and Gaelic Football provides a broad range of sport to the area.
Didsbury Albion is a 5-a-side football club which plays at The Powerleague, in Stockport. The club first emerged in 2004, and have already gained four major honours; becoming Division Two Winners in 2005, as well as Division Two Runners-up in 2004, The Powerleague Cup Runners-up in 2004 and 2005, where they were beaten finalists twice. The club had folded but have now emerged once again in January 2006, and look to moving towards promotion, out of the newly-formed Division Two and back into the top flight.
Didsbury Cricket Club on Wilmslow Road is home not just to a cricket team but to Manchester Waconians Lacrosse Club and Didsbury Grey's Women's Hockey Team. It also holds regular jazz gigs.
The Northern Tennis Club is one of Manchester's foremost racquet clubs annually playing host to an ATP tournament in July.
Transport
Wilmslow Road provides Didsbury Village with an extremely regular bus service due to the very strong demand for travel by students along the corridor. These are cheap and very regular with passengers rarely having to wait more than 5 minutes.
The roads in the centre of Didsbury are often overcrowded but it is relatively easy to get to Manchester's motorway ring road - the M60 motorway.
The M60 also links Didsbury to Manchester International Airport with the journey often taking less than 20 minutes.
East Didsbury station is on the line between Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport and thereby provides a link to a number of minor suburban train staions along this route. Didsbury Village and West Didsbury were once served by train services that ran out of Central Station (now G-Mex) until that line shut in the 1960s.
The Manchester Metrolink's proposed extension to Stockport had been routed to run down the old railway cutting through Didsbury. However, this line is a lower priority than those to Manchester Airport, Ashton, Oldham and Rochdale that are due to be built in the next phase of Metrolink development. With these lines having fallen behind schedule due to the government refusing to meet costs that have escalated largely due to the government insisting the development is funded as a Private Finance Initiative, which is more expensive than a public grant as it protects the private sector against risk. The Didsbury line is now unlikely to be built within the next decade.
Local organisations
Didsbury is the home of the [Didsbury Women's Circle], a grassroots political organisation.External links
- [Didsbury Albion] Football Club
- [Didsbury Life Web Site] — articles of interest to those living in or visiting Didsbury.
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