Gorton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gorton is a district of the City of Manchester in North West England. It is located to the southeast of Manchester City Centre. Neighbouring areas include Longsight and Levenshulme.
A major landmark in Gorton is Gorton Monastery, a Franciscan 19th century High Victorian Gothic monastery.
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[edit] History
A derivation of the name of the township: "About the year 920 a battle took place between the invading Danes and the Saxons, when the former were routed on Winning Hill. The stream running through the township was discoloured with blood, hence the name Gore Brook, from which the town Gore Town (Gorton) is derived." This statement is explicit and definite and apparently fully worthy of credence. "Gore Brook" runs through the township to-day and through the centre of Sunnybrow Park situated between Hengist Street and Knutsford Road.
In mediaeval times the district was a township of the ancient parish of Manchester in the Salford Hundred of Lancashire.
Manchester City F.C. were founded as St. Marks (West Gorton) in 1880 by Anna Connell and two wardens of St. Mark's Church, who also worked in an iron factory in Gorton.
[edit] Railways
Gorton railway station opened in 1842. In 1849 a locomotive works was built for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, later the Great Central Railway. It was known locally as the 'Gorton Tank'. It carried out repairs and major overhauls, producing new boilers and all LNER castings. There was also a carriage and wagon works which had been built in 1881 which carried out light repairs. Both were closed in 1962[1]. Gorton was the home of the Beyer-Peacock locomotive Company, one of the company's partners, Richard Peacock subsequently became Liberal M.P for Gorton in the 1885 general election.
[edit] 20th century
Myra Hindley was born and grew up in Gorton.[2] She and Ian Brady lived there at the time of the first three Moors murders, before moving to Hattersley in 1964 where they committed two further murders and were arrested in October 1965. Their first victim, Pauline Reade (who died in July 1963 aged 16, but whose body was not found for 24 years), was also a Gorton resident, and was living in the same street as Myra Hindley when last seen alive.
More recently Gorton has suffered from serious deprivation, which has resulted in high crime levels and burglary. The popular television series Shameless (UK TV series), which is shown on Channel 4 is mainly filmed in Gorton.
Most of the 19th-century Victorian houses around Gorton were demolished during the 1960s, and many people were moved to new overspill housing estates in other parts of the city. However, some people remained in Gorton and were placed in new council houses and flats.
In 2006 the Motor Insurers' Bureau named West Gorton as the worst place in the UK for uninsured cars, with over six times the national average of drivers living there having no cover.[3] This is thought to be reflected in the high levels of car theft and break-ins across Gorton, which have caused drivers living in the area (particularly young males) to be subjected to exceptionally high insurance premiums.[citation needed]
[edit] Governance
The municipal borough of Manchester was created in 1838 and elevated to a city in 1853. Part of Gorton township was included in the city in 1890. The remaining part of the township became an Urban District of the administrative county of Lancashire in 1894. A small part of the urban district was transferred to the city of Manchester in 1901 and the remaining area was fully incorporated into Manchester in 1909.
Gorton forms part of the Manchester Gorton parliamentary constituency. The current MP is the Rt Hon Sir Gerald Kaufman. Gorton is split into two electoral wards - Gorton North and Gorton South.
[edit] Landmarks
Gorton is home to Gorton Monastery, a Franciscan, 19th-century High Victorian Gothic Monastery. Also Brookfield Unitarian Church on Hyde Road, built by Richard Peacock. See Brookfield Church Memorabilia
[edit] References
- ^ The Gorton railway works subsequently became an engineering and test centre for the computer division of Ferranti, later ICL
- ^ Murder on the Moors: The Ian Brady and Myra Hindley Story - Crime Library
- ^ Manchester declared UK's Number One Uninsured Driving Hotspot - MIB press release, 18 September 2006
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