Didsbury
Didsbury is a suburb of Manchester, England, on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 26,788.
Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, there are records of Didsbury existing as a small hamlet as early as the 13th century. Its early history was dominated by being part of the Manor of Withington, a feudal estate that covered a large part of what is now the south of Manchester. Didsbury was described during the 18th century as a township separate from outside influence. In 1745 a section of the Jacobite army including the Duke of Perth crossed the Mersey at Didsbury in the Jacobite march south from Manchester to Derby.
Didsbury was largely rural until the mid-19th century, when it underwent development and urbanisation during the Industrial Revolution. It became part of Manchester in 1904.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was formed in Didsbury in 1889.
History
Toponymy
Didsbury derives its name from the Anglo-Saxon Dyddi's burg, probably referring to a man known as Dyddi whose stronghold or township it was on a low cliff overlooking a place where the River Mersey could be forded. In the 13th century Didsbury was variously referred to as Dydesbyre, Dydesbiri, Didsbury or Dodesbury.Parish church
A charter granted in about 1260 shows that a corn-grinding mill was operating in Didsbury, along the River Mersey, but the earliest reference to Didsbury is in a document dating from 1235, recording a grant of land for the building of a chapel. The church was named St James Church in 1855. It underwent major refurbishment in 1620 and again in the 19th century, although most of the stonework visible today dates from the 17th century. A parsonage was built next to one of the two public houses that flanked the nearby village green, Ye Olde Cock Inn, so-called because of the cockfighting that used to take place there. The parsonage soon gained a reputation for being haunted; servants refused to sleep on the premises, and it was abandoned in 1850. Local alderman Fletcher Moss bought the house in 1865, and lived in it for more than 40 years. In 1902, he installed a gateway complete with wrought iron gates which he purchased from the soon to be demolished Spread Eagle Hotel in central Manchester which he once owned, at the entrance to the parsonage's garden, which, because of the building's reputation, became known locally as "the gates to Hell". The parsonage is now open to the community and used as exhibition rooms for various forms of art. The gardens are still open to the public. The area around St James' Church has the highest concentration of listed buildings in Manchester, outside the city centre.River Mersey
Didsbury was one of the few places between Stretford and Stockport where the River Mersey could be forded, which made it significant for troop movements during the English Civil War, in which Manchester was on the Parliamentarian side. The Royalist commander, Prince Rupert, stationed himself at Didsbury Ees, to the south of Barlow Moor. A section of the Jacobite army including the Duke of Perth crossed the Mersey at Didsbury in 1745 in the Jacobite march south from Manchester to Derby. Bonnie Prince Charlie crossed at Stockport.Immigration from Europe
Jewish immigrants started to arrive in Manchester from the late 18th century, initially settling mainly in the suburbs to the north of the city. From the 1890s onwards, many of them moved to what were seen as the more "sophisticated" suburbs in the south, such as Withington and Didsbury. The influx of Jewish immigrants led to West Didsbury being nicknamed "Yidsbury" and Palatine Road, a main road through West Didsbury, "Palestine Road".A growing population of German merchants and industrialists in the mid-19th century earned Manchester the nickname of "the German city". In the Didsbury area, the Souchays were a well-known merchant family of Huguenot descent with connections to Germany. John D. Souchay built Eltville House, a large residence on the corner of Fog Lane and Wilmslow Road. The house, named after Eltville in Germany, had a pair of gate lodges at its Wilmslow Road entrance and the Ball Brook ran through its large garden. Other members of the family, Charles and Adelaide Souchay, lived nearby at Withington House on Wilmslow Road. The Souchays were related to Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy, wife of the German composer Felix Mendelssohn. In the 1840s, Mendelssohn made several visits to Britain and stayed with the Souchays; he wrote a number of letter to friends with "Eltville House, Withington" as the return address. The Souchays were members of St Paul's Church, Withington; Mendelssohn gave a recital on the newly installed pipe organ there in 1847, and the first wedding to take place there was that of John Souchay's eldest daughter in 1850. The Souchays are buried in St Paul's churchyard. Eltville House was purchased by Jame Clayton Chorlton in 1888 and he renamed it Didsbury Priory. The Chorltons often opened their private garden to the public during springtime.
Among the other German industrialists in Didsbury was Johann Georg Silkenstadt, a cotton merchant who moved to the area from Bremen in 1865. He and his wife Josephine Helene built Rose Bank on Palatine Road in West Didsbury in 1872. Their only daughter, Marie Louise, married William Murray Caldwell Greaves Bagshawe of Ford Hall in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire. The Silkenstadts built for Greystoke Hall as a wedding present for them next to their family home. Marie Louise died of peritonitis in 1891, and her father died the following year. The grieving Josephine Silkenstadt created a public botanical garden opposite their house, named Marie Louise Gardens in memory of her late daughter, and bequeathed it to Withington Urban District Council. The gardens and the Lodge were designed by the civil engineer Joshua Cartwright, and were formally opened in June 1903 by James Kenyon.
The German industrialist Henry Gustav Simon migrated from Prussia to settle in Manchester. He and his family lived on Palatine Road in West Didsbury, before building Lawnhurst, a large house on Wilmslow Road. One of Simon's sons was Ernest Simon, who with his wife Shena Simon became established as noted social reformers in Manchester.
19th and 20th centuries
During the Victorian expansion of Manchester, Didsbury developed as a prosperous settlement; a few mansions from the period still exist on Wilmslow Road between Didsbury village and Parrs Wood to the east and Withington to the north, but they have now been converted to nursing homes and offices. The opening of the Manchester South District Line by the Midland Railway in 1880 contributed greatly to the rapid growth in the population of Didsbury. Easy rail connections to were now provided from Didsbury railway station in Didsbury Village, and from Withington and West Didsbury railway station on Palatine Road. Didsbury station was also served by Express trains from Manchester to London St Pancras. Further expansion of the railways ensued when the London & North Western Railway's Styal Line from Manchester London Road to opened in 1909, introducing two new stations to the area, East Didsbury & Parrs Wood and. In 1910, A stone clock tower and water fountain was erected outside Didsbury Midland Railway station in memory of local doctor and campaigner for the poor, Dr John Milson Rhodes.On 28 April 1910, French pilot Louis Paulhan landed his Farman biplane in Barcicroft Fields, Pytha Fold Farm, on the borders of Withington, Burnage and Didsbury, at the end of the first flight from London to Manchester in under 24 hours, with one short overnight stop at Lichfield. Arriving at 5:30 am, Paulhan beat the British contender, Claude Grahame-White, winning a £10,000 prize offered by the Daily Mail. This was the first powered flight into Manchester from any point outside the city. Two special trains were chartered to the newly built but unopened Burnage railway station to take spectators to the landing, many of whom had stood throughout the night. Paulhan's progress was followed throughout by a special train carrying his wife, Henri Farman and his mechanics. Afterwards, his train took the party to a civic reception given by the Lord Mayor of Manchester in the town hall. A house in Paulhan Road, constructed in the 1930s near the site of his landing, is marked by a blue plaque to commemorate his achievement.
In 1921, a war memorial was erected outside Didsbury Library, on the opposite side of the road to the Midland Railway station. Dedicated to the memory of the 174 local servicemen who fell in World War I, it was unveiled by Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby. After World War II, a further 67 names were added.
Further transport enhancements came in the form of two new arterial roads which were constructed at the peripheral edges of Didsbury 1928–1930: Kingsway through East Didsbury; and Princess Road through West Didsbury. Both were laid out as dual carriageways for motor vehicles with a segregated tram track along the central reservation. Manchester Corporation Tramways operated a tram line from Parrs Wood via Burnage into Manchester city centre until 1949, when the service was closed.
In the postwar years, passenger train services on the South District Line were gradually reduced, and in 1967 the line was closed as part of the Beeching cuts. For some years the old station building was in use as Station Hardware and DIY store, before it was demolished in 1982.
Governance
Civic history
In the early 13th century, Didsbury lay within the manor of Withington, a feudal estate that also included the townships of Withington, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Moss Side, Rusholme, Burnage, Denton and Haughton, ruled by the Hathersage, Longford and Tatton families, and within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire. Didsbury remained within the manor of Withington for several centuries.By 1764, Didsbury was described as a township in its own right. It was also a chapelry in Manchester parish. It became a civil parish in 1866, and in 1876 was incorporated into the Withington Urban Sanitary District, superseded in 1894 by the creation of Withington Urban District. The district was administered from Withington Town Hall, Lapwing Lane, following its construction in 1881. Withington Urban District was a subdivision of the administrative county of Lancashire, created as part of the provisions of the Local Government Act 1894. In 1904, Withington Urban District was amalgamated into the city and county borough of Manchester, and so Didsbury was absorbed into Manchester, although it remained a civil parish until 1 October 1910 when it was abolished and merged with South Manchester. In 1901 the parish had a population of 9234. Following the Local Government Act 1972, Manchester became a metropolitan borough of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.