Partington, Greater Manchester

infobox UK place
country = England
map_type= Greater Manchester
latitude= 53.42
longitude= -2.43
official_name= Partington
population= 7,327 (2001 Census)
metropolitan_borough= Trafford
metropolitan_county= Greater Manchester
region= North West England
constituency_westminster= Stretford and Urmston
post_town= MANCHESTER
postcode_area= M
postcode_district= M31
dial_code= 0161
os_grid_reference= SJ715915

Partington is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England.cite web |url= http://www.gmcro.co.uk/guides/gazette/gazframe.htm |title=A select gazetteer of local government areas, Greater Manchester County |author= |publisher=Greater Manchester County Records Office |accessdate=2007-09-26] It lies on the southern bank of the Manchester Ship Canal opposite Cadishead on the northern bank and about 10 miles to the southwest of Manchester city centre.

Historically a part of Cheshire, in the north eastern corner of the village is a gas storage facility that used to be a gasworks and provided employment for the area. The nearest village to the east is Carrington which used to be the site for Shell Petrochemicals.

On Wood Lane in Partington there is a paintworks. Partington was also the site of a paperworks more than 200 years ago.

Part of this town was also constructed as a Manchester overspill estate shortly after the World War II to rehouse people away from Victorian slums in areas such as Moss Side and Hulme.

It has an Anglican church, St Mary's, a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, a Methodist chapel, and a Pentecostal church called the People's Church.

The oldest school still standing in the village was opened in 1958 and used to be called Partington County Primary School. There are two other state primary schools at Moss View and Forestgate. There is also a Roman Catholic school - Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School on Lock Lane. There is a secondary school called Broadoak Secondary School.

History

Partington derives from Old English: the first element may be a personal name such as "Pearta" or "Pærta", or part "land divided up into partitions" and -"inga", meaning "people of". The suffix -"tun" means "farmstead". [Nevell (1997), p. 24.] Partington was first recorded in 1260. [Nevell (1997), p. 32.] Partington was in the medieval and post-medieval parish of Bowdon. [Nevell (1997), p. 27.] The village consisted of dispersed farmsteads and did not have a nucleated centre. It was surrounded by wetlands on all sides, reducing the amount of land available for agriculture. [Nevell (1997), p. 45] According to the hearth tax returns of 1664, Partington had a population of 99. [Nevell (1997), p. 59.]

In 1755 a paper mill was opened in Partington, it was the first factory established in Trafford and sat on the River Mersey. [Nevell (1997), p. 89.] The completion of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 made Partington a major coal-exporting port. The canal was widened to convert|250|ft for three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) to allow for the construction of a coaling basin, equipped with four hydraulic coal hoists. Partington became the nearest port to the Lancashire coal fields, and brought the south Yorkshire collieries convert|30|mi closer to the sea. Between 1898–1911, exports of coal accounted for 53.4% of the total export tonnage carried by the ship canal. The coal trade in turn resulted in Partington becoming a major railway depot, and attracted a range of other industries, including the Partington Steel & Iron Company, which was encouraged by the availability of coal to construct a steelworks. The works became a part of the Lancashire Steel Corporation in 1930, and dominated the economy of nearby Irlam until their closure in 1976. [Farnie (1980), p. 98.]

Governance

The civil parish parish of Partington was created in 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894 and has its own town council. [cite web |url=http://www.trafford.gov.uk/encompass/organisationinfo.asp?orgCode=876 |author= |title=Partington Town Council |publisher=Trafford MBC |accessdate=2007-11-30] [Nevell (1997), p. 95.] Partington became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in 1974 upon the borough's creation, but was previously in Bucklow Rural District. The village is part of the Bucklow St Martin electoral ward; [cite web |url=http://www.trafford.gov.uk/cme/live/dynamic/Download.asp?c=docman2&f=pdf&id=34AE84E5-0B03-417E-A406-54BC5784E9D1 |author= |title=Bucklow St Martin ward profile |format=PDF |publisher=Trafford MBC |accessdate=2007-11-30] the councillors for the Bucklow St Martin are Ian Platt, Dave Quayle, and John Smith, all Labour. [cite web |url=http://www.trafford.gov.uk/cme/live/dynamic/DemServWard.asp?ward_id=2D8B7D32-D80C-436A-A337-43DE177E3B14 |author= |title=Bucklow St Martin ward councillors |publisher=Trafford MBC |accessdate=2007-11-30] Partington is also a part of the Stretford and Urmston constituency is part of the North West England constituency of the European Parliament. Since its creation in 1997, the constituency has been represented by Beverley Hughes MP, who is a member of the Labour Party. At the 2005 General Election, Hughes won the seat with a majority of 7,851, representing 51.0% of the vote. The Conservatives won 30.4% of the vote, the Liberal Democrats 14.0%, the Respect Party 2.5%, and the United Kingdom Independence Party 2.2%. [cite web | title = Stretford and Urmston constituency election results | publisher = Guardian.co.uk | url = http://politics.guardian.co.uk/hoc/constituency/0,,-1347,00.html |accessdate=2007-08-04]

Demography

As of the 2001 UK census, Partington had a population of 7,327. For every 100 females, there were 92.3 males. The average household size was 2.29.cite web |title=Partington civil parish Neighbourhood Statistics |publisher=Statistics.gov.uk |url=http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=790591&c=Partington&d=16&e=15&g=356171&i=1001x1003x1004&o=1&m=0&r=1&s=1190726274083&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779 |accessdate=2007-09-25 ] Of those aged 16–74 in Partington, 65.1% had no academic qualifications or one GCSE, significantly higher than the figures for all of Trafford (40.8%) and in England (45.5%). [cite web |title=Trafford Metropolitan Borough key statistics |publisher=Statistics.gov.uk |url=http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=3&b=276784&c=Trafford&d=13&e=16&g=356269&i=1001x1003x1004&o=1&m=0&r=1&s=1197508310453&enc=1 |accessdate=2007-12-13 ] According to the census, 3.72% were unemployed and 36.69% were economically inactive. [cite web |title=Partington civil parish work and qualifications |publisher=Statistics.gov.uk |url=http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=790591&c=Partington&d=16&e=15&g=356171&i=1001x1003x1004&o=1&m=0&r=1&s=1190726274083&enc=1&dsFamilyId=783 |accessdate=2007-09-24 ] 23.08% of the population were under the age of 16 and 5.02% were aged 75 and over; the mean age of the people of Partington was 36.22. 62.55% of residents described their health as "good". [cite web |title=Partington civil parish census data |publisher=Statistics.gov.uk |url=http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=790591&c=Partington&d=16&e=15&g=356171&i=1001x1003x1004&o=1&m=0&r=1&s=1190726274083&enc=1&dsFamilyId=781 |accessdate=2007-09-24 ]

Population change

Transport

Partington's main road is the A6144 between Lymm and the Brooklands area of Sale. The Manchester Ship Canal also carries some industrial traffic. The nearest road crossing over the canal is at Warburton Bridge, one of the few remaining pre-motorway toll bridges in the UK, [Warburton (1970)] and the only one in Greater Manchester. [Nicholls (2004), p. 90.]

The town was served by a railway station to the north of the town, the Cheshire Lines Committee Glazebrook to Stockport Tiviot Dale Line. The station was opened in 1873, eight years after the line opened, and was in use until 30 November 1964. [Nevell (1997), p. 100.] [cite web |title=Station Name: PARTINGTON (2nd site) |work=Disused Stations Site Record |url=http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/p/partington/index1.shtml Retrieved on 30 October 2007.]

References

Notes

Bibliography

*cite book |last=Farnie |first=D. A. |title=The Manchester Ship Canal and the rise of the Port of Manchester |date=1980 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=0-7190-0795-X
*cite book |first=Mike |last=Nevell |year=1997 |title=The Archaeology of Trafford |publisher=Trafford Metropolitan Borough with University of Manchester Archaeological Unit |isbn=1870695259
*cite book |first=Robert |last=Nicholls |title=Curiosities of Greater Manchester |publisher=Sutton Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=0750936614
*cite book |last=Warburton |first=Norman |date=1970 |title=Warburton: The Village and the Family |publisher=Research Publishing Company |isbn=0705000079

External links

* [http://www.partington.org.uk/ Partington general information and history]