Download and print this double-sided guide to explore areas from the industrial period of Burnage as part of your daily exercise.

In 1800, Burnage Lane looked very different. There was no village centre and the landscape was made up of farms and fields with very few houses. Farmers grew potatoes, turnips and corn, and owned cows and horses which grazed around the grass. There…

Burnage Lane was a busy trade route, originally used to bring salt from Cheshire into the centre of Manchester, and cotton from the mills back out. Farmers would have also used the route for trade and Hyde Fold Farm, just off Burnage Lane, was…

In 1858, Lord Egerton presented a piece of land to build a school for the poor children of Burnage. The school was managed by a board including Lord Egerton, along with the rector and wardens of St Paul’s Church, Withington, which was the Parish…

The farm house of Hyde Fold Farm is still one of the largest houses in the area. Originally it was the home of farmer John Bibby, who lived with his wife Elizabeth and their eight children. In 1861 they had 30 acres of farmland (one acre is about the…

Shawbrook Villa was built in 1860 by Charles Lings. Charles was a cotton merchant, working in Reddish. There were a number of mills in Reddish, some of which still stand today. At the time of building the house, it’s said that Charles Lings and his…

In the late 1800s, Shawbrook Lodge was owned by a very influential industrialist. Captain W C Bacon had a very successful career as a ship broker – he was involved with the Manchester and Bombay Company which dealt in Indian, Canadian and British…

Pearn Lane was named after a man named Sinclair Pearn. Sinclair Pearn’s family had originally lived and worked in Devon on the South Coast. They were mariners, which means they worked on ships. Sinclair’s father, Richard Pearn moved away from Devon…