Panel 11: “The Gift” (1922-1931) Shena on the Council and Barry Parker’s Plan

Panel 9: “Beginnings” (1912-1922) Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress

From the late 1940s Wythenshawe had greatly surpassed its earlier garden city predecessors Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City and was now growing exponentially, with its population reaching 53,000 by 1953. A number of fi rms had made Wythenshawe their home too. In the same year there were twenty fully operational factories making products ranging from biscuits, scientifi c instruments, to insulation. A notable local employer was the high-tech manufacturing company Ferranti which opened a new factory on the Moss Nook industrial estate.

The rush to build homes and the need to economise following the war had a detrimental effect on the garden city nature of Wythenshawe however. Some green spaces left for recreational purposes by Barry Parker were being built on to meet the demand for homes and grass verges by roads were omitted from plans. Despite this shortcoming, a sense of community which had struggled to come into existence when Wythenshawe was fi rst being developed in the thirties had clearly emerged too. There were a number of youth, social and sports clubs; plays were put on by residents alongside evening dances, and Wythenshawe’s inhabitants even partook in Morris dancing. During the 1950s an annual Civic Week festival was organised that included scores of different events including a beauty pageant, a big parade, concerts, and a fun fair in Wythenshawe Park. There was also a realisation that more public houses were needed too and the planners and licensing offi cers in the Town Hall went to considerable effort to try to build new pubs in suitable locations.

The most architecturally striking new building in Wythenshawe in this period was St Anthony’s church designed by Adrian Gilbert Scott. Shown here nearing the end of construction in June 1960. Source: Manchester Archives+.

(Above) The density of housing in parts of Wythenshawe was increasing in the 1950s in a shift from the building of cottages to blocks of three storey walk-up fl ats. Source: The Municipal Journal, 30 July 1954.

(Below) Source: Manchester Archives+. In 1953 the Town Hall published an illustrated leafl et entitled Wythenshawe: Plan and Reality, to promote the area. It claimed that “Wythenshawe is regarded as an outstanding example of planning”. According to the leafl et, the ultimate aim was to see 90,000 people living in Wythenshawe in 30,000 houses and fl ats.