The Park

Opened as a public park in 1928, Chorlton Park has been awarded Green Flag status since 2002 for its landscape diversity, recreational facilities and visual quality. Today, the site is primarily used for children's formal and informal recreational play, dog walking, football, bowling and for hosting community events. The park accommodates the annual "Unity Festival," Manchester's premier anti-racism celebration.

Predominant landscape elements include amenity grass, trees in grass, a naturalised grassland area, rose beds and shrub trees. In Autumn 2004, the Park Wardens Service along with local school parties planted 4,000 naturalising bulbs and 40 trees.

Chorlton Park was created as a result of mounting pressure to provide citizens with a local public park as the suburban building spread across the then Withington district in the 19th century. In the early 1900s, the newly structured Manchester Corporation chose a site for this, which bordered Chorlton Brook, Nell Lane and Barlow Moor Road, and which at the time was farmland previously owned by the Egertons of Tatton. Despite identifying the site, it was eleven years until a decision to purchase and develop the land into a public park was made.

Chorlton Park Regeneration Group are very active in their work to seek funding to further improve park facilities for users.

History

Before the 19th Century, Chorlton belonged to the Manor of Withington, and, as the suburbs spread in the 18th Century in response to rapid population growth in the area, it was decided after a great deal of public pressure, to create a public park on the western side of the district. An area bordering Chorlton Brook, Nell Lane and Barlow Moor Road was chosen as a suitable site - it had been farmland previously owned by the Egerton family of Tatton Park.

Facilities
Park office and visitors centre
Community meeting rooms
Bowling green and bowls pavilion
Children's playground for juniors and under 5s
Basketball court
Multi-use games area
Tennis courts
Dog free zone
Disabled parking
Toilets
Skills Wall
Natural habitat area
Rose garden
Green Flag Award (external site)
5 a-side football areas
Junior football pitches and changing facilties
Children's beehive / nursery.