New Manchester

New Manchester, often known as “the City”, at the extreme eastern end of the TyldesleyFormer industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester. townshipDivision of an ecclesiastical parish that had civil functions., developed from scattered small farms and grew into an isolated mining community after pits were sunk to the shallow coal seams of the Manchester CoalfieldPart of the Lancashire Coalfield. Some easily accessible seams were worked on a small scale from the Middle Ages, and extensively from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution until the last quarter of the 20th century.. The Bridgewater TrusteesCoal mining company on the Lancashire Coalfield with headquarters in Walkden near Manchester. built cottages to house workers who came to work in the pits in the early 19th century. The village is accessed by City Road, the only road in and out of the village.

Geography

New Manchester lies on the Manchester Coalfield north of Mosley Common at the eastern end of the Tyldesley township. Coal seams outcropped across the area. The community lies west of a boundary stone at Ellenbrook
Residential suburb of Worsley in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. that marked the ancient boundary of the hundreds of Salford and West Derby, the boundary of Eccles and Leigh ancient ecclesiastical parishesAncient or ancient ecclesiastical parishes encompassed groups of villages and hamlets and their adjacent lands, over which a clergyman had jurisdiction., Tyldesley, Worsley and Little Hulton townships and the metropolitan districts of Wigan and Salford.^[1]

The Tyldesley LooplineRailway line built in 1864 to connect local collieries to the Liverpool–Manchester main line. opened in 1864 also passed south of the village. The only road into the village was an unmade road that crossed Mosley Common and passed under the railway. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway’s Manchester to Southport line was built to the north and the Bridgewater Collieries mineral line was built to the east. Only the Manchester to Southport line survives. The route of the Tyldesley Loopline is now followed by the Leigh to Ellenbrook guided busway The Leigh-Ellenbrook guided busway is part of the Leigh-Salford-Manchester bus rapid transit scheme in Greater Manchester, England. It provides transport connections between Leigh, Tyldesley and Ellenbrook and onwards to Manchester city centre on local roads. .^[2]

History

The route of a Roman road from Manchester to Wigan passed to the south of the village A horde of about 600 Roman coins was discovered on the Tyldesley Ellenbrook border in 1947.^[3] The isolated settlement of terraced cottages was started by 1803 to house miners who came to the area to work in the Duke of Bridgewater pits. They named the streets Shude Hill and Gatley Row after places in their home town, Manchester. The village was nicknamed “The City”, and City Road is the only road into the village.^[1]

The chapel built in 1868 by Primitive Methodists became the focal point for most of the village’s social and recreational life. They built the Sunday school in 1883, and extended it in 1907.^[1]

Coal mining

Coal was first mined where the coal seams of the Manchester Coalfield outcrop, and shallow ladder shafts were sunk where coal is not far below the surface. The Bridgewater Trustees owned the mineral rights. In the 1830s Shude Hill Pit had a steam winding engine. City Pit and Gatley Pit, in operation by 1838, were linked to the Worsley Navigable LevelsExtensive network of underground canals that drained the Duke of Bridgewater's coal pits emerge into the open at the Delph in Worsley, Greater Manchester. and the Ellenbrook tramwayA tramway built by the Bridgewater Trustees in the 1830s to transport coal to the Bridgewater Canal. and closed in 1877.^[4]

The last pit to be started in the village was the Ellenbrook Pit in 1864 on land owned by trustees of Dame Dorothy Legh’s charityBorn Dorothy Egerton (1565–1639), also known as Dorothy Brereton, Lady of the Manor of Worsley, was a coal owner and benefactor of Ellenbrook Chapel near her home in Worsley, Lancashire. at Common Head. It had two shafts to to the Crombouke mine, which was reached in 1865, and also accessed the Brassey and Seven feet mines. The pit was connected to the Ellenbrook tramway but had a short working life and closed in 1887, by which time the deep Mosley Common Colliery to the south of the Tyldesley Loopline was in production.^[5]