SWINTON HERITAGE TRAIL

Many places have heritage trails, including a number of areas in Salford. Some are very prominent and hard to miss but when I speak to people about ours in Swinton, very often they are unaware of its existence. The reason for this is probably because the eleven bronze plaques that make up the trail are at ground level and people tend to walk over or past them without even realising they are there.

The trail was conceived by the Swinton Heritage Task Group, which is a community group of council representatives and local historians who currently meet quarterly online. Financing the trail was down to Section 106 money from Asda. When they built a car park for their new Swinton store, which opened in 2014, their development included building on the site of the burial ground of the former Unitarian Chapel that had been on Swinton Hall Road and for the privilege they were required to provide 106 money for community use.

Although people might overlook the plaques, there is a very prominent pink notice board near the Lancastrian Hall facing Salford Civic Centre that shows the locations of all the eleven plaques on the trail.

The plaques are located at the sites (or former sites) of:

Swinton Industrial School

St. Peter’s Church

Swinton Public Gardens*

Station Road Rugby Ground

Unitarian Church

Swinton Hall

St. Augustine’s Church

Clifton Hall Tunnel Collapse (Temple Drive)

Victoria Park

White Lion Pub

Chorley Road Rugby Ground

*The Swinton Public Gardens plaque is at the Garden’s entrance, which is on Chorley Road on the opposite side to the Police Station.

In the Gardens is a memorial to Noah Robinson (1826-1907) who has been referred to as the “founding father” of modern Swinton in a local history pamphlet written by Derek Antrobus, a member of Swinton Heritage Task Group. Noah, who occupied a number of key posts in our area, including being a Poor Law Guardian, a Chairman of Swinton Local Board and a Churchwarden at St. Peter’s Church, is also commemorated in several features of that church, including on its Lych Gate.

Sometimes there are opportunities to undertake guided tours of the trail, when further information relating to each of the locations can be shared, although each plaque has su cient information on it to encourage people to start to research our local Swinton heritage for themselves. There will be an opportunity for people to learn more about the heritage of this area, prior to its incorporation into the City of Salford in 1974, when Derek Antrobus mounts a free exhibition entitled “Celebrating Swinton and Pendlebury’s Story” at Swinton Gateway. This will commence 24th June and continue for about three months.

Written by Paul Sherlock AgeUk SWINTON & Irwell Valley History group