Miles Platting - History

History

No early records have been found of Miles Platting, and indeed the area seems not to have appeared on maps until the 1820s. Therefore the origin of the name remains uncertain, but one suggestion is that it may derive from the word platt, meaning a small piece of ground, with miles being a corruption of mills. Hence Miles Platting may mean "mills on a small piece of ground".

Miles Platting certainly did have many mills by the middle of the 19th century; Holland Mill, Victoria Mill and Ducie Mill being amongst the largest. By the 1870s a chemical works, timber yard, gas works and a tannery were also operating in the area alongside the many mills. This volume of industry in such a relatively small area inevitably led to the construction of densely packed back-to-back housing to provide homes for the necessary workforce. By the middle of the 20th century, with the decline in manufacturing industry and the closure of its local industries, Miles Platting had become a slum area inhabited by a deprived, largely white, community. Today, Miles Platting contains just under 2,000 housing units, many of them managed by Adactus Housing Association on behalf of Manchester City Council, including 12 multi-storey blocks. The area, once recognised as being amongst the most deprived in the UK, has benefited greatly from the very substantial urban regeneration scheme for east Manchester initiated in the late 1990s.

Miles Platting railway station lay at the junction of the lines from Manchester Victoria to Oldham and Stalybridge, but this closed in 1995, and the station was subsequently demolished. The railway line, which remains open for passenger traffic, separates Miles Platting from Collyhurst and Monsall.

Between 1839 and 1844, the area was also the location of Oldham Road railway station, the original terminus for the Manchester and Leeds Railway until the line was extended to Manchester Victoria station in the latter year. The station was then converted to become a major railway goods depot by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, remaining in use until the 1960s.