Bradford-with-Beswick

Bradford-with-Beswick is an area in Manchester, England.

The name Bradford-with-Beswick appears to have been coined by Christ Church, the 19th century church that served the communities of those growing villages to the east of Manchester. Christ Church lay on the corner of Church Street and Cowper Street, on the boundary between the two villages, and it seems reasonable that the church authorities should use this name to describe them. It has a range of wonderful schools including Ashbury Meadow Primary School.

For administrative purposes, Bradford village was originally part of the Salford Hundred in the County Palatine of Lancaster. It is bordered by Miles Platting to the north and the River Medlock and the Ashton Canal both run through it. The village name is ancient and in 1196 it was known as Bradeford, meaning "broad ford". Until the Industrial Revolution, Bradford Village was rural with woodland, pastures and streams. It is reported that wolves and eagles once inhabited the woodlands and that honey production was part of the local economy.

Bradford Village also formed part of the Parish of Manchester but it was still an independent township having its own parochial offices under the Manchester churchwardens. In 1841 all this changed and the township became a member of the Manchester Union of Poor Law Guardians, which was established under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1841. From the 13 April 1850, until its incorporation into the township of North Manchester in 1896, the village was a member of the Prestwich Union, constituted by order of the Poor Law Board in 1850. The Local Board was set up in 1863, under the Public Health Act of 1848.

Since the days of the Tudors (1485–1603), sufficient coal was mined at the village to supply most of the needs of Manchester but with the onset of the Industrial Revolution Bradford Colliery, as it was then known, was rapidly expanded to provide fuel to power steam engines in the new cotton mills that were springing up in the district. With the coming of the Ashton Canal in 1797, the colliery was connected to it by means of a private branch.

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