Sale, Greater Manchester
| Sale | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 | |
  Sale Location within Greater Manchester | |
| Population | 62,550 (Built up area, 2021)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SJ785915 |
| • London | 162 mi (261 km) SE |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SALE |
| Postcode district | M33 |
| Dialling code | 0161 |
| Police | Greater Manchester |
| Fire | Greater Manchester |
| Ambulance | North West |
| UK Parliament | |
Sale is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford of Greater Manchester, England.[2] It lies on the south bank of the River Mersey, 2 miles (3 km) south of Stretford, 3 miles (5 km) north-east of Altrincham and 5 miles (8 km) south-west of Manchester. Sale lies within the historic county boundaries of Cheshire and became part of Greater Manchester in 1974. At the 2021 census, the Sale built-up area, as defined by the Office for National Statistics, had a population of 62,550.
Evidence of Stone Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon activity has previously been discovered locally. Sale was historically a rural township in the parish of Ashton upon Mersey; its fields and meadows were used for crop and cattle farming. By the 17th century, Sale had a cottage industry manufacturing garthweb, the woven material from which horses' saddle girths were made.
The Bridgewater Canal reached the town in 1765, stimulating Sale's urbanisation. The arrival of the railway in 1849 triggered Sale's growth as an important town and place for people who wanted to travel to and from Manchester, leading to an influx of middle class residents; by the end of the 19th century, the town's population had more than tripled. Agriculture gradually declined as service industries boomed.
Sale became a separate ecclesiastical parish from Ashton upon Mersey in 1856 and a separate civil parish in 1866. It was administered as a local government district from 1867, which became an urban district in 1894. In 1930, Sale Urban District absorbed Ashton upon Mersey, and in 1935 it was raised to the status of a municipal borough. The borough of Sale was abolished in 1974, becoming part of the metropolitan borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester.
Since then, Sale has continued to thrive as one of the main urban centres of Trafford due to its proximity to the M60 motorway and the connections to Manchester and other areas by the Manchester Metrolink network.
History
[edit]Founding
[edit]A flint arrowhead discovered in Sale suggests a prehistoric human presence at the location,[3] but there is no further evidence of activity in the area until the Roman period. A 4th-century hoard of 46 Roman coins was discovered in Ashton upon Mersey, one of four known hoards dating from that period discovered within the Mersey basin.[4][5] Sale lies along the line of the Roman road which runs between the fortresses at Chester (Deva Victrix) and York (Eboracum), via the fort at Manchester (Mamucium);[4] the present-day A56 follows the route of the road through the town.[3]
Some local field and road names,[6] and the name of Sale itself, are Anglo-Saxon in origin, which indicates the town was founded in the 7th or 8th centuries. The Old English salh, from which "Sale" is derived, means "at the sallow tree",[7] and Ashton upon Mersey means "village or farm near the ash trees".[8] Although the townships of Sale and Ashton upon Mersey were not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, that may be because only a partial survey was taken.[9] The first recorded occurrences of Sale and Ashton upon Mersey are in 1199–1216 and 1260 respectively.[10] The settlements were referred to as townships rather than manors, which suggests further evidence of Anglo-Saxon origins as townships were developed by the Saxons.[11]
Early history
[edit]
The manor of Sale was one of 30 held by William FitzNigel, a powerful 12th century baron in north Cheshire. He divided it between Thomas de Sale and Adam de Carrington, who acted as Lords of the Manor on FitzNigel's behalf.[12] On de Sale's death, his land passed to his son-in-law, John Holt; de Carrington's land passed into the ownership of Richard de Massey, a member of the Masseys who were Barons of Dunham. Sale descended through the Holt and Massey families until the 17th century, when their respective lands were sold.[12] Sale Old Hall was built in about 1603 for James Massey, probably to replace a medieval manor house, and was one of the first buildings in northwest England to be made of brick.[13][14] It was rebuilt in 1840 and demolished in 1920, but two buildings in its grounds have survived: its dovecote, now in Walkden Gardens, and its lodge, the latter now occupied by Sale Golf Club.[13]
In 1745, Crossford Bridge, which dated back to at least 1367, was torn down.[15] It was one of a series of bridges crossing the River Mersey destroyed by order of the government, to slow the advance of Jacobite forces during the Jacobite rising. The Jacobites repaired the bridge upon reaching Manchester, and used it to send a small force into Sale and Altrincham. Their intention was to deceive the authorities into believing that the Jacobites were heading for Chester. The feint was successful and the main Jacobite army later marched south through Cheadle and Stockport instead.[16]
The extension of the Bridgewater Canal to Runcorn was completed as far as Sale by 1765, and transformed the town's economy by providing a quick and cheap route into Manchester for fresh produce.[17] Farmers who took their wares to market in Manchester brought back night soil to fertilise the fields.[18] Not everyone benefited from the canal however; several yeomen claimed that their crops were damaged by flooding from the Barfoot Bridge aqueduct.[19]
The village of Cross Street was first referred to in 1586 and is believed to have originated around this time.[20] A 1777 map shows Cross Street, on the site of the road now of the same name, divided between the townships of Sale and Ashton upon Mersey.[21] The map also shows that Sale was spread out, mainly consisting of farmhouses around Dane Road, Fairy Lane, and Old Hall Road.[21]
About 300 acres (120 hectares) of "wasteland" known as Sale Moor was enclosed in 1807, to be divided between the landowners in Sale. This was part of a nationwide initiative to begin cultivation of common land to lessen the food shortage caused by the Napoleonic Wars.[22] Records of poor relief in the town start in 1808, a time when the region was in the grip of an economic depression.[23] Poorhouses, where paupers could stay rent-free, were built in the early-19th century, reflecting the poor state of the local economy.[24] In 1829, Samuel Brooks acquired 515 acres (208 hectares) of land in Sale – about a quarter of the township – from George Grey, 6th Earl of Stamford.[25] The area later became known as Brooklands after the land owner.[26]
Development
[edit]
The Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway opened in 1849,[27] and led to the middle classes using Sale as a commuter town, a residence away from their place of work.[28] This resulted in Sale's population more than tripling by the end of the 19th century.[29] The land in Sale Moor was the cheapest in the town because the soil was poor and difficult to cultivate, which was part of the reason the area was common land until the early 19th century. However, when the railway opened, Sale Moor was close to the station and became the most expensive area in Sale. Villas were built in Sale Moor, and a few in Ashton upon Mersey as the demand for land increased.[30] They were often decorated with stained glass or different coloured bricks in an attempt to make them "mansions in miniature" for the aspiring middle class.[31]
Pressure from an increasing population led to the town being supplied with amenities such as sewers, which were built in 1875–1880;[32] and Sale was connected to the telephone network in 1888.[33] As in the late-19th century, the early-20th century saw a great deal of construction work in Sale. The town's first swimming baths were built in 1914,[34] and its first cinema, the Palace, was opened during the First World War.[35] The end of the war in 1918 resulted in a rush of marriages, which highlighted a shortage of housing.[36] The local councils of Sale and Ashton upon Mersey took the initiative of building council housing, and rented it to the local population at below market rates. By the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Sale had 594 council houses.[36] The building programme was interrupted by the start of the war.[34]
Sale was never officially evacuated during the war, and even received families from evacuated areas, although it was not considered far enough from likely targets to be an official destination for evacuees.[37] The town's proximity to Manchester, an industrial centre directed towards the war effort, did result in a number of bombing raids. Incendiaries dropped on Sale in September 1940 caused no casualties, but did damage two houses on Norman Road. In a bombing incident the following November, four people were injured and a school was damaged; on 22 December 1940, twelve people were injured by bombs.[37] On the night of 23 December, much of Manchester suffered heavy bombing in what became known as the Manchester Blitz. Six hundred incendiary bombs were dropped on Sale in three hours. There were no injuries, but Sale Town Hall and St Paul's Church were severely damaged.[37] On 3 August 1943, at 11:50 pm, a Wellington Bomber on a training exercise crashed in Walton Park in the south-west of the town. Of the six-man crew, consisting of five members of the Royal Australian Air Force and one member of the Royal Air Force, the pilot and the bomb-aimer were killed.[38]
Sale's shopping centre was redeveloped during the 1960s, as part of the town's post-war regeneration. In 1973, the shopping precinct in the town centre, which had grown up in the mid-19th century, was also redeveloped and pedestrianised in an attempt to increase trade.[34] The construction of the M63 motorway (subsequently renamed the M60) in 1972 led to the creation of Sale Water Park. To minimise the risk of flooding, the new road was built on an embankment, for which the necessary gravel was extracted from what is today an artificial lake and water-sports centre.[39] Opportunities for leisure were increased when the old swimming baths, demolished in 1971, were replaced in 1973 by a new complex built on the same site.[34]
Transport
[edit]The first turnpike road in the area was the latter-day A56 Chester Road between Manchester and Crossford Bridge (on the border between Sale and Stretford). Turnpike trusts collected tolls from road users and used the proceeds to maintain the highway. There was a toll booth on the Sale side of Crossford Bridge. Another section of road between Altrincham and Crossford Bridge was turnpiked in 1765.[40]
The commencement of swift packet services on the newly opened Bridgewater Canal in 1776 made commuting from Sale into Manchester both practical and convenient, with boats travelling at a relatively swift 10 mph (16 km/h).[41] However, the arrival of the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway in 1849 [27] sounded a death-knell for both the canal packet services and turnpike trusts. Many trusts went into terminal decline, mirroring a national trend.
By 1888, almost all roads and highways were the responsibility of the local authority.[40] Sale's railway station, originally named Sale Moor,[27] was renamed to Sale in 1856.[42] Three years later, Brooklands railway station was opened, followed in 1931 by the opening of Dane Road railway station along with the electrification of the entire line.[43] The line was renovated in the early 1990s and is now part of the Metrolink.[43]
Following the completion of a tramway between Manchester and Stretford in 1901, the British Electric Traction Company applied to Parliament for an extension to Sale. The proposal was amended to continue the line further south, into Altrincham. The line through Sale was owned by Sale Urban District Council and leased to the Manchester Corporation. Services to Sale commenced in 1907. A branch along Northenden Road from the line to Sale Moor was created in 1912. Sale Moor's line had only a single track which, in 1925, resulted in a head-on collision between two tramcars, injuring eight passengers.[44]
Bus services were first introduced to the area in the 1920s, but became more widespread in the 1930s.[45] The buses did not suffer the drawback of being limited to tracks and were therefore more practical than the tram services which, from the 1930s, went into decline. The tram lines along Northenden Road were removed between 1932 and 1934, and throughout Sale in the 1940s.[44]
Governance
[edit]There is one main tier of local government covering Sale at metropolitan borough level, which is Trafford Council. The council is a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which is led by the directly-elected Mayor of Greater Manchester. For national parliamentary elections, Sale straddles the two constituencies of Altrincham and Sale West and Wythenshawe and Sale East.[46]
Administrative history
[edit]Historically, Sale was a township in the ancient parish of Ashton upon Mersey, which formed part of the Bucklow Hundred of Cheshire. In 1836 the township also became part of the Altrincham Poor Law Union.[2][47][48]
From the 17th century onwards, parishes were gradually given various civil functions under the poor laws, in addition to their original ecclesiastical functions. In some cases, including Ashton upon Mersey, the civil functions were exercised by each township separately rather than the parish as a whole. In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so Sale also became a civil parish.[49] In terms of ecclesiastical parishes, Sale was separated from Ashton upon Mersey in 1856, following the completion of St Anne's Church in 1854.[50] The ecclesiastical parish was subsequently divided as more churches were built.[51]
The Sale township was made a local government district in 1867, administered by an elected local board.[52] Such districts were reconstituted as