Page 9 - THE QUIRKS OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY

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Nor were we

just Chorlton, because, as Letter from Marjorie 2010
the old name of Chorlton-cum-Hardy
suggests, some of us lived in Chorlton, others in

Hardy and some more in Martledge. Chorlton was the largest

hamlet and was situated around the village green on the edge

of the flood plain. As for the others, Hardy was out by the

Mersey, and Martledge was roughly a little north of the junction

of Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Roads.

The last cottages at Hardy were abandoned in the middle of

the 19th century, and Martledge disappeared during the

housing boom of the late 19th century.

So complete was Martledge’s disappearance under rows of

new houses and shops that the name also disappeared, and it
Pic needed

became known as New Chorlton, or the New Village, to

distinguish it from old Chorlton, which remained more rural.

But my friend Marjorie never took to New Chorlton, and

remained convinced that it would better to retain that older

name of Martledge.

And that, it seems to me, is the first of our interesting and

quirky bits of information, and holds out the promise that later

we will revisit this lost place, and make the connection between

Marjorie and those people she often dismissed as, “all fancy

cakes and silk knickers”.

1 Topping Peter, Simpson Andrew, Manchester Pubs, The Stories Behind the Doors, City
Centre, 2016, and Chorlton, 2017

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