Fallowfield - History

History

The early medieval linear earthwork Nico Ditch passes through Platt Fields Park in Fallowfield; it was probably used as an administrative boundary and dates from the 8th or 9th century.

Early Fallowfield was an ill-defined area north of Withington until the mid-19th century. The first mention of Fallowfield is in a deed of 1317 (as "Fallafeld"). During the 14th century at least part of the land in Fallowfield was held by Jordan de Fallafeld. In 1530 it was mentioned as "Falowfelde". Withington formed a sub-manor within the large Manor of Manchester. The Platt Estate in the north was first owned by the Platts and later by the Worsleys. The building of Wilbraham Road to connect Fallowfield with Edge Lane in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1869 enabled development west of the Wilmslow Road crossing. Some wealthy people (e.g. Joseph Whitworth, "The Firs", and the Behrens family, "The Oaks") built mansions in the area and in the early 20th century the university began to establish halls of residence (the earliest being Ashburne Hall, 1910, in a house donated by the family of Behrens) which have since become very extensive. There was a second period of building houses by members of the prosperous middle class in the 1850s: these included Egerton Lodge, Norton House and Oak House, while the Manchester architect Alfred Waterhouse built Barcombe Cottage as his own home on Oak Drive.

Under the Poor Law Fallowfield formed part of the Chorlton Poor Law Union (administered from Chorlton-on-Medlock). From 1876 to 1894 Fallowfield was included in the area of the Withington Local Board of Health which was replaced by the Withington Urban District Council in 1894. (In 1895 Rusholme and the northern part of Fallowfield were incorporated into the city of Manchester. In 1904 the whole of the urban district was absorbed into the city of Manchester, though until 1914 there was a separate Withington Committee of the Corporation and rates were lower than in the rest of the city.

In 1891 Fallowfield railway station on the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway's line from Chorlton-cum-Hardy to Fairfield was opened. During the first half of the 20th century the Manchester Corporation tramway on Moseley and Wilbraham Roads provided access to other southern suburbs and via Princess Road to the city centre. In 1986 the UK's first drive-through McDonald's opened in Fallowfield and more recently a Sainsbury's supermarket has been opened on the site of the railway station.