Kersal Moor

Kersal Moor is a recreation area in Kersal, Greater Manchester, England which consists of eight hectares of moorland bounded by Moor Lane, Heathlands Road, St. Paul's Churchyard and Singleton Brook.

Kersal Moor, first called Karsey or Carsall Moor,Farrer, William and Brownbill, J. (editors) (1911). 'Townships: Broughton', ''A History of the County of Lancaster'': Volume 4, pp. 217–222. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41408. Date accessed: 20 February 2008 originally covered a much larger area, running down to the River Irwell. Evidence of activity during the Neolithic period has been discovered and the area was used by the Romans. It was the site of the first Manchester Racecourse and the second golf course to be built outside Scotland. It has been extensively used for other sporting pursuits, military manoeuvres and public gatherings such as the Great Chartist Meeting of 1838, prompting the political theorist Friedrich Engels and Salford during the 18th and 19th centuries, the moor became one of the remaining areas of natural landscape of interest to amateur naturalists, one of whom collected the only known specimens of the now extinct moth species ''Euclemensia woodiella''. It is now a Site of Biological Importance and in 2007 was designated as a Local Nature Reserve by English Nature.

Geography

Kersal Moor is one of the many fluvioglacial ridges that formed along the Irwell Valley during the melting of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age. Typically for this type of landform, the subsoil is composed of sand mixed with coarse gravel. The 19th century botanist Richard Buxton described this as "Mr. E.W. Binney's drift deposit no.2 ... a deposit of sharp forest sand, parted with layers of gravel composed of Azoic, Palaeozoic and Triassic rocks, well rounded, parted with layers of fine sand, and having every appearance of a regular deposit by water." Edward William Binney FRS FGS was a founder member of the Manchester Geological Society see: This deposit is overlaid with a thin topsoil supporting a range of mosses, heathers, grasses, ferns, common broom, gorse and some trees, which are predominantly oak with some rowan, cherry and other broadleaved species. The land to the south is elevated, rising to a high point towards the south-west. From this elevated position there are views across Manchester to the Derbyshire hills in the south, to the Pennines in the north east and across the Irwell Valley and Salford in the west. The land falls away to the north, ending with two drumlin-shaped hills on the northern edge, which were probably formed by sediment from the meltwater of the receding glaciers, in a process known as sedimentary fluting. The moor is criss-crossed with footpaths, many of which cut through to the sand and gravel below. Singleton Brook, to the north of the moor, denotes the boundary between Salford and Prestwich.

History

Flint scrapers, knives and other materials associated with neolithic humans were discovered on the moor in the late 19th and early 20th century by local antiquarians such as Charles Roeder. The Roman road from Manchester (Mamucium) to Ribchester (Bremetennacum) roughly followed the line of the A56 road (Bury New Road) which is just to the east of Kersal Moor. There was a Roman camp at Rainsough just to the west, and some have speculated that there may have been a second camp to the east, in the area known as Castle Hill, making a defensive line across the moor to protect the north of Mamucium.

The 18th century historian John Whitaker said of the moor:

''"The moor of Kersal was in the time of the Romans, perhaps in that of the Britons before them, and for many ages after both, a thicket of oaks and a pasture for hogs; and the little knolls, that so remarkably diversify the plain, and are annually covered with mingled crowds rising in ranks over ranks to the top, were once the occasional seats of the herdsmen that superintended these droves into the woods."''

However, the last of these trees were burnt around 1880.

Sport on the moor

The first Manchester racecourse was sited on the moor. The earliest record of horse-racing is contained in the following notice in the '' London Gazette'' of 2–5 May 1687:

On Carsall Moore near Manchester in Lancashire on the 18th instant, a 20£. plate will be run for to carry ten stone and ride three heats, four miles each heat. And the next day another plate of 40£. will be run for at the same moore, riding the same heats and carrying the same weight. The horses marks are to be given in four days before to Mr. William Swarbrick at the King's Arms in Manchester.

The racecourse is shown on the map of 1848 as a roughly oval-shaped course extending around the west, north and east of the moor, crossing Moor Lane and carrying on around the ground that is now the home of Salford City F.C., roughly following the line of what is now Nevile Road. John Byrom (1692–1763), the owner of Kersal Cell, was greatly opposed to the racing and wrote a pamphlet against it, but the racing continued for fifteen years until, probably through Dr Byrom's influence, they were stopped in 1746, the year of the Jacobite rising. After this there is known to have been at least one race in 1750; regular fixtures recommenced in 1759, and were then held every year until 1846, when they were transferred to the New Barns racecourse. Racing carried on there until the new Castle Irwell Racecourse was built, just across the river from the moor, in Lower Broughton in 1847. Today part of the course can still be seen as a wide, well-worn path stretching from east to west along the northern side of the moor.

During the 18th century the moor was also used for nude male races, allowing females to study the form before choosing their mates. Indeed, in 1796 Roger Aytoun, known as "Spanking Roger" (who was later a hero of the siege of Gibraltar) acquired Hough Hall in Moston through marriage to the widowed Barbara Minshull, after such a race.

The moor has also been used for a number of other sporting activities. In the 18th and early 19th century archery was still practised as a village sport, and the archers of Broughton, Cheetham and Prestwich were renowned countrywide. The Broughton archers practised their sport on Kersal Moor and in 1793 the Manchester writer, James Ogden, composed a poem in praise of them, which begins:

and ends with:

By 1830, however, archery had become the sport of gentlemen and an exclusive club called the "Broughton Archers" was formed, the membership of which included some of the most influential men in the town. They originally met at a public house nicknamed "Hard Backed Nan's" on the site of Bishopscourt where the Bishop of Manchester now resides, but after Bury New Road was built and the site became too public, they moved to the Turf Tavern on Kersal Moor.
In 1818 a golf course was founded on the moor for the Manchester Golf Club, a group of Manchester businessmen, some of whom had emigrated from Scotland. This was only the second course to be built outside Scotland. The course at that time consisted of only five holes and had no fairways or greens as the players had to share the ground with other users. The club was very exclusive and by 1825 a club house had been built on Singleton Road. By 1869 the course had increased to nine holes and the club continued playing on the moor until 1862 when a new course was built a few hundred yards away at Kersal Vale.

The archery ground became Kersal Cricket Ground in 1847 and in 1881 the Northern Tennis Tournament was staged there. In 1919 the ground became the home of Manchester's oldest rugby club, Manchester Football Club. When Manchester F.C. moved in 1968 they were replaced briefly by Langworthy Juniors and then Salford City F.C., who still lease the ground today.

Public gatherings and military use

As one of the largest open spaces close to Manchester, the moor has a history of use for army manoeuvres and large public gatherings. In his book ''The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844'', Friedrich Engels

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