Northern Moor

Moor Lane

Barry Road

Northern Moor is an area of Manchester, England, west of Northenden and east of Sale, 5 miles south of Manchester city centre. The Tatton family lived from 1540 to 1926 at Wythenshawe Hall, which is in Northern Moor; land around it is now Wythenshawe Park, which was a deer park from 1200 to 1540. In former centuries its name was spelled "Northen Moor" and meant "the moor area belonging to Northenden". Until the early 1900s Northern Moor was part of Cheshire, before Manchester expanded south of the River Mersey and the borders of Cheshire changed. Northern Moor and Northenden following the border changes has been part of Manchester instead of Cheshire. The current area called 'Northern Moor' now includes Lawton Moor, and the border of Northern Moor is now at the Sale moor border.

The area has grown since the 1930s and 1940s to cover the area of the old Tatton family estate and farms.

In 1926 Mr.Tatton (country squire at Wythenshawe Hall) sold much land in Wythenshawe, and it came into the hands of Manchester Corporation, which chose 4 farm fields in Northern Moor to be the Manchester (Wythenshawe) Aerodrome. Its runway opened in early 1929, with the old farm house used for offices. The airfield closed a few years later and moved to Eccles and became Barton Airport. The land was redeveloped with Rackhouse School opening in 1935, St. Michael's Church in 1937, St Aidan's Catholic School in 1938^[1] and many houses built in the 1930s and 1940s on the land. Northern Moor has grown further since and expands to the Sale border. The sale border which is now the kerscott estate was a former fruit farm with apple and plum trees. The area is now part of the Wythenshawe and Sale East Parliament constituency.

TV programmes[]

The ITV documentary seriesThe Duchess On The Estate, filmed between February and July 2009 in Northern Moor, was shown on TV on Tuesday 18 August and Tuesday 25 August 2009.

The ITV soapCoronation street was filmed for a number of weeks on location in Northern Moor including the Park Pub, the Pub car park and roads in the area. This was for the story line with Callum Logan and David Platt, in the run up to the live episode in September 2015.^[2]

Education[]

Primary schools in the area include Rack House Primary School (opened 1937 ^[3]), St. Aidan's Primary School (opened 1938) and Button Lane Primary School. Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United football player was a former student at Button Lane Primary School.

Manchester Health Academy is the nearest secondary school serving Northern Moor. It is located on the south border of the area.^[4]

Pioneer House High School is a special school located in the area.

Northern Moor is also home to the Northenden campus of The Manchester College. This was formally the Yew Tree High school. The College Campus is set to close in 2022.

Transport[]

Tram: Northern Moor has two tram stops: Northern Moor Metrolink station and Wythenshawe park Metro station, both on the Manchester Airport line, services every 12 minutes to Manchester Victoria tramstop.^[5] This line opened in 2015.

Northern Moor is on the 41 bus route linking Sale and Manchester. Northern Moor is also on the number 19 bus route (to Manchester Airport) and the 108 route (to Wythenshawe Hospital). Northern Moor has road links with both the M60 and M56 motorways. Manchester Airport is a 10-minute drive away.

Religion[]

The Quaker meeting house

Local churches include Lawton Moor Methodist Church, St. Michael's Anglican church (Lawton Moor), St Aidan's Roman Catholic church and Northern Moor Community Church.^[6]

St Aidan's Catholic school opened in 1938 with the church being built in 1955. St. Michael Church is a Grade II listed building and opened in 1937,^[7] the Church building was built in a shape of a star.

Economy[]

Northern Moor has two main shopping areas, a restaurant and 2 pubs. One shopping area is Sale Circle and the other is Moor Croft where the Tesco supermarket was opened in 2019.

Northern Moor is mainly a residential area and most working people who live there travel to Manchester Airport, Manchester, Sale or Warrington to work.