CIIAI-. VII. <J1!0\VTII OF MANCIIKSTK1I. 4lM 



however, for places of business and habitations for the 

 population. Now the central districts are almost ex- 

 clusively occupied for business purposes, and houses for 

 dwellings linvr rapidly extended in all directions. The 

 now populous districts of Broughton, Higher and Lower, 

 did not exist thirty-five years ago. They contained 

 110 buildings excepting Strangeways Hall and a few 

 cottages which lay scattered beyond the bottom of the 

 workhouse brow. 



But pastures, corn-fields, and gardens rapidly disap- 

 ] H/ared before the advance of streets and factory buildings. 1 

 The suburban districts of Ardwick, Hulme, and Cheet- 

 liam, with their hamlets, became altogether absorbed in 

 tlir great city. Stretford New Eoad, a broad straight 

 street nearly a mile and a half long, forms the main 

 highway for a district which has sprung up during the 

 life of the present generation, and alone contains a popu- 

 lation greater than that of many cities. Not fifty years 

 ago, a few farm-houses and detached dwellings were 

 all the buildings it contained, and Chester road, the 

 principal one in the district, was a narrow winding lane, 

 with hedges on either side. Less than thirty years since, 

 Jackson's Lane was a mere farm-road through corn- 

 fields. Within that time it has been converted into a 

 spacious street, now dignified with the name of Great 

 Jackson Street. 2 The portion of Hulme nearest Man- 

 chester was occupied by tea and ginger-beer gardens, the 



1 The growth of Manchester and is a single-storey building, covered 



the sister borough of Salfbrd will be with gray flags, and standing in an 



more readily appreciated, perhaps, by oblique recess situated on the left- 



a glance at the population at different I hand side about half-way between 



periods than by any other illustra- 

 tion : 



In 1774. 1801. 1821. 1861. 



41,032 84,020 187,031 460,028 



- A relic of rural 1 1 ill me is to be 

 srrn in a ivimiant of the buildings 

 formerly known as " ,l;icks<>n's Farm," 



which #i\v a name first in the " lane." period as " Geary's Farm.' 

 and subsequently to the " street." Jt 



Chester Road and the recently formed 

 City Eoad. Higher up, near the end 

 of Upper Jackson Street, at the junc- 

 tion of Chapman Street with Preston 

 Street, are still standing, but without 

 any field near, the buildings, also 

 covered with gray flags, which were 

 known within a comparatively recent 



