Highfield Country Park is a area of open land, situated on the east side of

Levenshulme Levenshulme () is an area of Manchester, England, bordering Fallowfield, Longsight, Gorton, Burnage, Heaton Chapel and Reddish; it is approximately halfway between Stockport and Manchester city centre on the A6. Levenshulme is predominant ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, that stretches to the east of Broom Avenue across to the rear of Reddish Golf Course and to the junction of Longford Road,

Reddish Reddish is an area in Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. south-east of Manchester city centre. At the 2011 Census, the population was 28,052. Historically part of Lancashire, Reddish grew rapidly in the Industria ...

and Nelstrop Road, Levenshulme. Prior to 2004, the park was jointly maintained by Manchester City Council and a group of volunteers called The Friends of Highfield Park. In July 2004 the park came to the attention of the Prudential Grass Roots campaign (run by the

BTCV The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) is a British community volunteering charity focused on environmental conservation through practical tasks undertaken by volunteers. Until 1 May 2012, it traded as BTCV – British Trust for Conservation Volunt ...

conservation charity). Over a 12-month period the park was transformed from a dreary, vandalised wasteland into a country park with a picnic area and mapped out country walks. In 2008 Highfield Country Park was designated a Local Nature Reserve, providing a protected habitat for many animal and plant species.

History of the site

The land was used to extract clay for the manufacture of bricks for the building industry. The

clay pit A clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement. Quarries where clay is mined to make bricks are sometimes called brick pits. A brickyard or brickworks is ...

and

brickworks A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for ...

existed at the start of the 20th century, and by the 1950s was being operated by the Jackson Brick Company. In the 1970s, it was designated as a country park by the council, but at the time it was little more than a landfill site and sometime site of the UCP

tripe Tripe is a type of edible lining from the stomachs of various farm animals. Most tripe is from cattle, pigs and sheep. Types of tripe Beef tripe Beef tripe is made from the muscle wall (the interior mucosal lining is removed) of a cow's st ...

factory, Levenshulme Dye and Bleach works, High Field Farm, and Jackson's brickworks. The latter's clay pit was much used by local children as a play area known as "The Brickie". “The excavations were dotted with numerous ponds & small lakes, and it is likely that some children were badly injured while playing there”

References

External links

Highfield Country Park
{{coord, 53.4406, -2.1790, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Areas of Manchester Country parks in Greater Manchester Local Nature Reserves in Greater Manchester simple:Levenshulme