Walk: The Fallowfield Loop Line (Fairfield-Fallowfield-Chorlton-cum-Hardy)

Categories

• North-West

There are two options for this walk. Both start at Fairfield Station with options for a 5-mile walk to Fallowfield, in time for lunch,  or a 7-mile walk with the addition of an afternoon extension continuing from Fallowfield to Chorlton-cum-Hardy. There are several opportunities for lunch in Fallowfield.

Meet at Fairfield Station at 10:05 following the arrival of the 09:51 departure (Northern train to Rose Hill Marple). Return to Piccadilly (or central Manchester) will be by the Metro from St Werburgh’s Road tram stop or, for the shorter walk, by bus from Fallowfield. There are several options for early departures during the walk.

The name (Fallowfield Loop Line) and location (suburban Manchester) suggest otherwise, but the line was part of major cross-country routes and at one stage looked to have a long term future after electrification of the Woodhead line in 1954. Other than the easternmost two miles of the line, the scheme to electrify the whole line was abandoned. Passenger services were withdrawn in 1958 and the line closed fully in 1988.

The double-track line was opened in 1892 by the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR). It linked the Manchester South District Line at Chorlton Junction (now the site of St Werburgh’s tram stop on the Manchester Metro) to the MS&L main line at Fairfield. there were four intermediate stations between Fairfield and Chorlton-cum-Hardy: Hyde Road, Levenshulme South, Fallowfield and Alexander Park (Wilbraham Road from 1923). The twenty-one weekday local stopping trains in the first few years had reduced to seven by 1903. However the line was used by a similar number of long-distance passenger trains. These included the Harwich-Liverpool boat trains and some trains from London Marylebone. Other long-distance trains ran to Sheffield and Leicester, and there was a Liverpool-Hull service. Trains running from Liverpool continued into the 1960s, despite the need for reversing at Manchester Central and the need for a locomotive change after the electrification of the Woodhead route. Through  passenger services ended with the closure of Manchester Central in 1969, but long-distance freight trains continued on the line for another 20 years. The line finally closed in 1988.

During the walk, the (separate) reasons for the decline of local services beginning soon after the line opened and the relative longevity of long-distance services (passenger and freight) will be discussed. There is one item of canal interest: the line crossed the Stockport Canal just north of the canal crossing the dam at Gorton Lower Reservoir – from this point, the alignment of the canal is now a footpath up to its former junction with the Ashton Canal. Further on is the site of the first public light rail demonstrations, prior to the construction of the Manchester Metro. The station buildings at Fallowfield and Levenshulme are still serving the community as retail outlets. The bridges along the route are extant and, other than at Fallowfield where a road has to crossed on foot, the trackbed is now a well surfaced continuous footpath and cycle way.

For further details, or with any questions, please contact the walk leader, Roger Brice (roger.brice@rchs.org.uk; or, 07702 303242)