The Forgotten Fields project has begun to explore the food heritage of Westwood Park area of Eccles, near Worsley.
Forgotten Fields is a project focused on the heritage of food production and availability in Manchester from 1750’s to present day. It concentrates on six communities from across Greater Manchester that have expressed a need to explore a particular food heritage.
Over two years, six inter-generational food heritage calendars are being created, in which, often passionate people with first-hand experience offer knowledge, potential archive material or share oral history testimonies about local food production - for example: Ashton Moss celery, Timperley Early Rhubarb, or Highfield Park pigs in Levenshulme. Westwood Park is the fourth community we are working with.
This community is now virtually cut off (by motorways) from neighbouring Chat Moss which was renowned for food production. This is also an area rich in transport history with the Bridgewater Canal (sometimes called the first English canal) playing a significant part to the east and with the Liverpool and Manchester railway (the world's first intercity passenger railway) crossing Chat Moss to the south.
Children, staff, parents and carers of Westwood Park School are helping, with the research and to interview local residents for their re-collections of farming and the availability of local food.
Topics of research and study include:
- The Bridgewater estate maps from 1764 which give indications of crops, show field names and land ownership.
- Census details from 1841 to find out about local farming families.(e.g Neild, Royle, Gatley and Hampson).
- Cleavleys, Gatley's, Kitepool, Westwood and Gee Farm at Winton with Grange Farm on edge of the 'Moss'.
- The influence of the canal e.g. transport of salad crops and vegetables to market and the role of night-soil transported by barge from Salford for use as fertiliser.
- Personal recollections of the local nurseries and market gardeners who supplied the markets or who sold their produce locally (eg. Willetts on New Lane.)
- Trade directories and local shops including Eccles and District Co-op.
- The significance of the mossland in terms of carbon capture and biodiversity with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the steps to take in protecting this unique and environmentally essential habitat whilst growing food at its edges.
If anyone has any information, no matter how small or would like to know more:
please email; fiona@kindling.org.uk or phone 07848 026257
Forgotten Fields is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.