Bury
Bury (pronounced "Berry") is a town and borough in Greater Manchester in the northwest of England, ten miles north of central Manchester. It’s a former textile-milling town, with a population in 2024 of 199,000.
Understand
[edit]
Bury grew rapidly from the 18th century as a textile town, at first for wool but later chiefly for cotton. Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) was born here to a wealthy textile family, and founded the modern police force and served as British prime minister. The lot of Bury's mill workers was less fortunate, as the 19th-century town became overcrowded, squalid and rife with disease. Still they scratched a living, until the mid 20th century when the cotton industry collapsed, and much of the town became derelict. Historically within Lancashire, in 1974 Bury became part of Greater Manchester, and it’s nowadays primarily a commuter town. The borough also includes the more affluent suburbs of Prestwich and Whitefield (with long-established Jewish populations), Radcliffe, and (the most scenic) Ramsbottom on the edge of the Pennines.
Bury produces and consumes black puddings in industrial quantities, and uses them as missiles at an annual contest in Ramsbottom.
Get in
[edit]See Manchester#Get in for long-distance travel routes. From Manchester Airport (MAN IATA) the tram runs all the way to Bury. Otherwise take the train or bus to Piccadilly then Bus 135 or tram.
By road
[edit]Bury lies at the junction of the A56 and A58. From M60, exit J17 to join the A56 (Manchester Road / Bury New Road). From M66, exit J2 to join A58 Bolton Road.
There's plenty of parking in and around town. Free parking is available for Metrolink users at most tram stops, so day-trippers can park up and ride into town.
By tram
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Bury has no mainline trains, but it’s a terminus of the Metrolink trams green and yellow lines. These run downtown via Whitefield and Prestwich to Manchester Victoria station. The yellow line forks south to Piccadilly station, while the green line crosses city centre westwards out to Old Trafford, Stretford, Sale and Altrincham. Change in city centre for trams to Salford Quays, Media City and Eccles, to Etihad Stadium and Ashton-under-Lyne, to Imperial War Museum and Trafford Centre, to Wythenshawe and the airport, and to East Didsbury.
Trams run every 15 min between 6AM and 11:30PM. See TGM Metrolink website for fare deals, service updates and travel planner. You must buy your ticket before boarding, pay at the stop, contactless accepted.
1 Bury Interchange off Haymarket Street is in Fare Zone 4, so a ride from city centre costs £4.60 single. The same ticket would bring you all the way from the airport, 90 min.
By bus
[edit]Bee Network Bus 135 runs from Manchester Piccadilly to Bury every 10 min, taking an hour via Cheetham and Heaton Park. It runs daily to midnight, with night buses from Shudehill late Th-Sa.
Bus 97 / 98 runs every 15 min from Shudehill via Prestwich.
Bus 471 runs from Bolton every 15 min, taking 30 min, and continues to Heywood and Rochdale.
Get around
[edit]
Most sights are within walking distance. See Manchester#Get around for ticket deals and passes for the bus and tram network.
By bicycle
[edit]Beeactive describes cycle routes around Manchester.
National Cycle Route 6 Passes through Bury, following the old railway lines to Greenmount and Ramsbottom.
By bus
[edit]Local routes include:
To Bolton: 471 via Breightmet, 480 via Greenmount, 511 via Ainsworth, 524 via Radcliffe.
To Rochdale: 467/468 via Fairfield Hospital, 471 via Heywood.
To Ramsbottom: 472 via Walmersley & 474 via Holcombe Brook, B1 via Summerseat.
To Manchester: 97 via Unsworth, 98 via Radcliffe, 135 via Whitefield, 163 via Middleton.
To Farnworth: 512 via Ainsworth, 513 via Radcliffe.
Others: 94 to NMGH, 95 to Salford, 469 to Tottington, 481 to Blackburn, 483 to Burnley.
By taxi
[edit]A dozen taxi firms ply around Bury and there’s a rank by the Interchange. They all get rotten reviews.
See
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- 1 Church of St Mary the Virgin, The Rock, Bury BL9 0AH. open W F Su. Anglican parish church on a high point just north of town centre. The previous 16th-century church was replaced in two stages, so the present spire dates from 1842 and the rest from 1876. Note the hammerbeam and tiebeam roof, mosaics, and stain-glass windows. It's a regimental church of the Lancashire Fusiliers, and in 2013 the military funeral of the murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby was held here.
- Bury Castle survives only as a wall below street level on Cooper St 100 yards west of St Mary’s church. It was a fortified manor house with a moat, built in 1469. But it only lasted until 1485 as the owner backed the losing side in the Wars of the Roses, and the vengeful Henry VII had it razed.
- 2 Bury Transport Museum, Castlecroft Rd, Bury BL9 0EY, ☏ +44 333 320 2830. W Th Sa Su 10AM-4PM. Collection of antique buses, trucks and trains in a Victorian warehouse. It’s run by East Lancs Railway so their ticket includes this museum. Adult £5, child £3.
- 3 Bury Art Museum, Moss St, Bury BL9 0DR, ☏ +44 161 253 5878. Tu-Sa 10AM-5PM. Small but impressive collection of pre-Raphaelite and neoclassical painting, plus new sculpture centre, and various exhibitions. Big names include JMW Turner's Calais Sands, Sir Edwin Landseer's The Random Shot, and John Constable's Hampstead Heath. Free.
- Fusilier Museum, Moss St, Bury BL9 0DF (opposite art museum), ☏ +44 161 763 8950. M-F 10AM-5PM, Sa 10AM-4PM. History of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Adult £5, conc £4, child £3.
- 4 Radcliffe is a village two miles south of Bury, on the same tram route. It's post-industrial and run-down, but see the 14th- to 15th-century Church of St Mary (Anglican) and the crumbling remnants of 15th-century Radcliffe Tower.
- 5 Ramsbottom is a well-preserved mill village six miles north of Bury, hemmed in by the steep Pennine slopes, where streams surged down to power the mills. Its 19th-century Grant family may have been the model for the Cheeryble brothers in Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby. They practised a rapaciously efficient "Truck System": employees were not paid in cash but in tokens that could only be spent on beer in the company-owned pub.
Do
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- The Met, Market St BL9 0BW (within Mill Gate shopping centre), ☏ +44 161 761-2216. This small space hosts theatre and comedy, but is mostly a live music venue.
- The Rock shopping centre has a cinema and 25-lane bowling complex.
- 1 Burrs Country Park is a park and caravan site on the riverside two miles north of town. It has canoeing, kayaking, angling, other water activities, climbing, ropes, adventure playground and obstacle course. Steam trains of the East Lancashire Railway chuff through.
- Irwell Sculpture Trail is a 30 mile footpath from Salford Quays to Bacup dotted with large sculptures. On the section around Bury find Trinity, Our Seats Are Almost Touching, the Outwood Colliery group, Nailing Home, the barge in the bulrushes, As if I Were a River, Seek and You Will Find, In the Picture, Remnant Kings, Whispering Wall, Gateway, Willow Tree, Bocholt Tree, and Logarhythms.
- 2 Peel Monument on Harcles (or Holcombe) Hill commemorates Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850); the 39 m tower has a viewing platform and you may be able to ascend further. Lots of footpaths with valley views all around. It’s usually called “the Peel Tower” though historians object that the term means a type of stubby medieval fort common across northern England and lowland Scotland.
- Hiking: lots of other hikes in the West Pennine Moors. Use OS Landranger map 109 Manchester and 103 Blackburn.
- 3 East Lancashire Railway, Bolton St, Bury BL9 0EY, ☏ +44 333 320 2830. Oct-Mar Sa Su, Apr-Sep W-Su 9AM-5PM. Heritage standard-gauge railway that plies between Heywood, Bury, Ramsbottom and Rawtenstall, a 12 mile run, often steam-hauled. They have occasional steam excursions on the GB mainline. Ticket includes admission to Bury Transport Museum. Adult day ticket £24, family (2+2) £57.
- Watch football but alas not at Bury FC, you'll have to head into Manchester. In 2019 Bury won promotion to League One, the third tier of English soccer, but they collapsed financially and were thrown out of the League before they'd even kicked a ball in the 2019/20 season.
- Rugby union: Sedgeley Park Tigers were relegated in 2026 and now play the 15-a-side game in National League 2 North, the fourth tier. They play at Park Lane in Whitefield.
- World Black Pudding Hurling Championships are held on the second Sunday of September outside The Oaks pub on Bridge St, Ramsbottom. A pile of Yorkshire puddings are mounted on a 20-foot plinth, and you hurl black puddings at them underarm to knock over as many as possible.
Buy
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- Mill Gate Shopping Centre is central in town, trading M-Sa 9AM-5:30PM, Su 10:30AM-4:30PM.
- Bury Market is held outdoors on Murray St, south side of Mill Gate, trading W & F Sa 9AM-4:30PM. The indoor market hall was closed as unsafe in 2023 when it was found to contain RAAC concrete.
- The Rock is a newer shopping centre 200 yards northeast of Mill Gate, trading M-Sa 9AM-7PM, Su 10:30AM-4:30PM.
Eat
[edit]- Racconto Lounge is within Rock Shopping Centre, open daily 9AM-10PM.
- Panko & Sushi within The Rock is open M-Th noon-3PM, 4:30-9PM, F-Su noon-9PM.
- Leckenby’s is a café within Mill Gate Shopping Centre, open daily 10AM-3:30PM.
- Pan.Dora Mealbox is at 36 Haymarket St, open M-Sa 11AM-8PM.
- Biaggio’s is at 17 Silver St, open Tu-F noon-2PM, 5:30-9PM, Sa noon-9:30PM, Su 1-7:30PM.
- Society at 11 Silver St does bottomless brunch Th-Su.
- 1 Forts of India, 7 Radcliffe New Rd, Whitefield M45 7QX, ☏ +44 161 766 5873. M-Sa 5-11PM, Su 1-9:30PM. Mostly good reviews for quality of food and price.
- 2 Roma, 268 Bury New Rd, Whitefield M45 8QS, ☏ +44 161 766 2941. Tu-F 8AM-4PM, Sa 9AM-4PM. Good for coffee and lunch.
- 3 Peppe's Pizzeria, 264 Bury New Rd, Whitefield M45 8GS, ☏ +44 161 766 2557. Th & Su 5-9PM, F Sa 5-10PM. A tiny, family-run Italian restaurant with good pizza & pasta.
- 4 Owens, 10 Railway Street, Ramsbottom BL0 9AL, ☏ +44 1706 821821. Food daily 9AM-8:30PM. Good restaurant serving English fare.
Drink
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- Broad Street Social is at 9 Broad St, open Tu-Th 2-11PM, F Sa noon-midnight, Su noon-9PM.
- The Bank, 18 Market St, Bury BL9 0AJ, ☏ +44 161 764 3867. M-Th 11AM-11PM, F Sa 11AM-3AM, Su noon-11PM. A large bar behind the Robert Peel statue. Fair selection of food and drinks at a good price, live TV sport.
- The Clarence at 2 Silver St is open daily noon-10PM.
- Wyldes at 4 Bolton St is open Su-Th noon-11PM, F Sa noon-midnight.
- The Robert Peel is a Wetherspoons pub at 5 Market Place, open daily 9AM-10PM.
- The Two Tubs at 19 The Wylde is open W-M noon-11PM.
- 1 The Duckworth Arms, 416 Whalley Road, Ramsbottom BL0 0EG, ☏ +44 1706 823336. Daily noon-11PM. Good country pub with decent eats.
- 2 Shoulder of Mutton, Lumb Carr Road, Ramsbottom BL8 4LZ, ☏ +44 1706 550792. Su-Th noon-10PM, F Sa noon-11PM. Trad pub with food, dog friendly, at the foot of the walk to the Peel Tower.
- 3 Irwell Works Brewery, Irwell St, Ramsbottom BL0 9YQ, ☏ +44 1706 825019. M 2-10PM, Tu-Sa noon-11PM, Su 11AM-10PM. In the former Steam, Tin, Iron and Copper works. Its products include Copper Plate, Steam Plate and Mad Dogs & Englishmen. Friendly, but it's a small bar and the place gets very full, difficult to get served.
- 4 Eagle & Child, 3 Whalley Rd, Ramsbottom BL0 0DL, ☏ +44 1706 824477. Daily noon-11PM. Slick country pub with beer garden and good food, has rooms.
Sleep
[edit]- Premier Inn Bury, 5 Knowsley Place, Bury BL9 0SW (200 yards south of town centre), ☏ +44 333 321 9231. Efficient chain hotel. B&B double £70.
- 1 Village Hotel, Waterford Business Park, Rochdale Rd, Bury BL9 7BQ (at Junction 2 of M66), ☏ +44 333 006 5222. Hotel with decent facilities, pool & gym, but no a/c. It’s on a riverside so some rooms are bosky with nice views, but most just get to look at the M66 traffic. B&B double £125.
- Travelodge is at Junction 3 of M66.
- Premier Inn Manchester Prestwich is on Bury New Road A56 by Junction 17 of M60.
- 2 Boholt Country Park Hotel (Best Western), Walshaw Rd, Bury BL8 1PU, ☏ +44 161 764 5239. Musty and showing its age. B&B double £85.
- Red Hall Hotel is at Junction 1 of M66, south edge of Ramsbottom.
- 3 Old Mill Hotel, Springwood St, Ramsbottom BL0 9DT, ☏ +44 1706 822991. Decent hotel with leisure club and spa. No a/c or lift. B&B double £90.
Connect
[edit]As of Aug 2026, Bury and its approach roads have 5G from all UK carriers.
Go next
[edit]All the sights of Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire are within an hour of Bury.
Leeds, Bradford, Brontë Country and Liverpool are little more than an hour away.
| Routes through Bury |
Burnley ← merges with  ← |
N  S |
→  → Central Manchester |
| Burnley ← Rossendale ← | N  SE |
→ Prestwich → Central Manchester |
| Wigan ← Bolton ← | W  E |
→ Rochdale → Leeds |
