Cheetham is an

inner-city The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...

area and

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England, which in 2011 had a population of 22,562. It lies on the west bank of the

River Irk The River Irk is a river in the historic county of Lancashire in North West England that flows through the northern part of Greater Manchester. It rises to the east of Royton and runs west past Chadderton, Middleton and Blackley before mer ...

, north of

Manchester city centre Manchester city centre is the central business district of Manchester, England, within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way, which collectively form an inner ring road. The City Centre ward had a ...

, close to the boundary with

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

, bounded by Crumpsall to the north, Broughton to the west,

Harpurhey Harpurhey ( ) is an inner-city suburb of Manchester, England, 2.3 miles northeast of the Manchester city centre, city centre. Historically in Lancashire, the population at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census was 17,652. Areas of Harpurh ...

to the east, and

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...

and

Deansgate Deansgate is a main road (part of the A56) through Manchester City Centre, England. It runs roughly north–south in a near straight route through the western part of the city centre and is the longest road in the city centre at over one mil ...

to the south. Historically part of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, Cheetham was a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the parish of

and hundred of

. It was amalgamated into the Borough of Manchester in 1838, and in 1896 became part of the

North Manchester North Manchester was, from 1896 to 1916 a civil parish within the Poor Law Union of Manchester, in Lancashire, (now Greater Manchester) England. North Manchester was a local government sub-district used for the administration of Poor Law legisl ...

. Cheetham is home to a multi-ethnic community, a result of several waves of immigration to Britain. In the mid-19th century, it attracted

Irish people The Irish ( or ''Na hÉireannaigh'') are an ethnic group and nation native to the island of Ireland, who share a common ancestry, history and Culture of Ireland, culture. There have been humans in Ireland for about 33,000 years, and it has be ...

fleeing the Great Famine. It is now home to the Irish World Heritage Centre.

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s settled in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, fleeing persecution in

continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

. Migrants from

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

settled in the 1950s and 1960s, and more recently people from

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

and the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

. Heavily urbanised following the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

, Cheetham is bisected by Cheetham Hill Road, which is lined with churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, as well as

terraced house A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

s dating from its history as a textile processing district. Markets along the road trade in wares and foodstuffs from all over the world. The Museum of Transport in Manchester in Boyle Street, Cheetham, is part of Queen's Road bus depot.

Etymology

The name ''Cheetham'' is first attested in the late twelfth century, as ''Cheteham'', followed by thirteenth-century attestations including ''Chetam'' and ''Chetham''. The first element of the name comes from the

Common Brittonic Common Brittonic (; ; ), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, is a Celtic language historically spoken in Britain and Brittany from which evolved the later and modern Brittonic languages. It is a form of Insular Cel ...

word that survives in modern Welsh as ("woodland"). The second element is the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word ("settlement"). Thus there was once a place named, in Brittonic, for a nearby wood; Old English-speakers then coined a further name meaning "settlement at he place called''Cheet''"., s.v. ''Cheetham Hill''.. In the district also lies Cheetwood, whose name is first attested in 1489, as ''Chetewode''. This means "wood t the place called''Cheet''"; the wood in question was presumably the same one that originally gave the Brittonic name ''Cheet'' in the first place.

History

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

implements have been discovered at Cheetham Hill, implying human habitation 7–10,000 years ago.. Cheetham is not mentioned in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'' of 1086 and does not appear in records until 1212, when it was documented to have been a

thegn In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were ...

age estate comprising "a plough-land", with an annual rate of 1 mark payable by the tenant, Roger de Middleton, to

King John of England John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...

. From the Middletons the estate of Cheetham passed to other families, including the Chethams and Pilkingtons. The Roman Catholic church of St Chad was opened in 1847. The Anglican churches as of 1955 were St Mark's (1794), St Luke's (1839), St John Evangelist's ( Paley & Austin, 1871), St Alban's (J. S. Crowther); at that time there was also a Presbyterian chapel and nine synagogues. St Mark's Church was built in 1794; in 1855 the chancel was enlarged and in 1894 a tower was added. St Luke's Church is in a Victorian variant of the

Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

style. St John Evangelist's was designed by Paley & Austin and built at the expense of Lewis Loyd. St Alban's (1857–64) was designed by J. S. Crowther in a Gothic revival style influenced by French Gothic and is a good example of his work. A cemetery for the Wesleyan Methodist Church was established on Thomas Street in 1815. The Cheetham Hill Wesleyan Cemetery was closed to new burials in 1966 and fell into neglect. The land was sold to property developers in 2003 for the construction of a new

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

superstore.

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been re ...

engaged contractors to exhume the remains of around 20,000 bodies to be re-interred in a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

in Bury. It was later reported that human remains were found at the Cheetham Hill building site and at a

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

site near

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

. A memorial garden near the Tesco store has retained a small number of the Victorian gravestones. The synagogues of Cheetham included the Central Synagogue (1927–28), a synagogue which was originally a Methodist chapel (in the neo-Classical style), the Great Synagogue (built of stone and brick in 1857), the New Synagogue (1889) and the United Synagogue which was originally a Roman Catholic chapel. The New Synagogue was known as the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Synagogue and after a period of disuse was converted into the

Manchester Jewish Museum The Manchester Jewish Museum is a Jewish museum, Jewish history museum, located on Cheetham Hill Road in Manchester, England. The museum occupies the site of a former Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, Jewish synagogue, the place of worship ...

. By the early 20th century, the southern end of Cheetham had a large Jewish population, and nine synagogues. Joseph Holt's Brewery was established on Empire Street, Cheetham in 1860. Michael Marks was a Jewish immigrant who lived in Cheetham Hill with his family. He and Thomas Spencer opened the first

Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...

store on Cheetham Hill Road in 1893. The business grew considerably over following years and in 1901 the company's first headquarters was built on Derby Street. During the Madchester phase of the history of Manchester, narcotic trade in the city became "extremely lucrative" and in the early 1980s a gang war started between two groups vying for control of the market in

– the Cheetham Hill Gang and The Gooch Close Gang, in Cheetham Hill and

Moss Side Moss Side is an Inner city, inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the Manchester city centre, city centre. It had a population of 20,745 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Cho ...

respectively.

Governance

Lying within the historic county boundaries of

since the early 12th century, Cheetham anciently constituted a

age estate, held by tenants who paid tax to the King. Cheetham during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

formed a

in the parish of

, and hundred of

. Governance continued on this basis until the

, when Cheetham and the neighbouring Manchester Township had become sufficiently urbanised and integrated to warrant an amalgamation into a single district: the then Borough of Manchester, in 1838. In 1866, Cheetham became a separate

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

. There was a Cheetham Committee of Manchester Borough Council until 1875. On 26 March 1896, the parish was abolished and merged with Beswick,

Blackley Blackley is a suburban area of Manchester, in the county of Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, it is approximately north of Manchester city centre, on the River Irk. History The hamlet of Blackley was mentioned in the Do ...

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, Clayton, Crumpsall,

, Moston and Newton to form

. North Manchester was a part of the County Borough of Manchester. Cheetham Town Hall was completed in 1855. In 1891, the parish had a population of 29,590. Following the

Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 76) (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the British Whig Party, Whig government of Charles ...

, Cheetham formed part of the Manchester

Poor Law Union A poor law union was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in Great Britain and Ireland. Poor law unions existed in England and Wales from 1834 to 1930 for the administration of poor relief. Prior to the Poor Law Amendment ...

from 1841 to 1850, Prestwich Poor Law Union from 1850 to 1915, and returned to Manchester Poor Law Union in 1915 until 1930. These were inter-parish units established to provide

social security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

. Cheetham is an

, and is part of the Blackley and Broughton parliamentary constituency. Blackley and Broughton is a new constituency created in 2010, replacing the former

Manchester Blackley Manchester, Blackley was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom located in Northern Greater Manchester which existed from 1918 to 2010. It elec ...

constituency, of which the Cheetham Hill area was also included in. The current MP is

Graham Stringer Graham Eric Stringer (born 17 February 1950) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician who has served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Blackley and Middleton South since the 2024 United Kingdom general e ...

of the Labour Party, first representing Manchester Blackley since 1997 and now Blackley and Broughton.

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

was Liberal MP for the area early in his political career (some years before he re-crossed the floor to the Conservative Party).

Councillors

Three councillors serve the ward: Shazia Butt (Lab), Shaukat Ali (Lab), and Naeem Hassam (Lab). indicates seat up for re-election.

Geography

At (53.504°, -2.231°), Cheetham is northeast of

. To the north, it is bordered by Crumpsall, to the west by Broughton in

, to the east and the southeast by

and Collyhurst, and by Manchester City Centre to the south. Cheetham Hill lies on "rising ground". and is completely urbanised.

Demography

The ward had a population of 22,562 at the 2011 census. Its population accounted for 4.2% of the city of

's in 2010. In November 2011, 68.5% of residential properties were classified as private, while 31.5% were classified as social housing. House prices remain below the Manchester average.

Notable people

* Don Arden — music promoter and manager of the

Small Faces Small Faces were an English Rock music, rock band from London, founded in 1965. The group originally consisted of Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston, with Ian McLagan replacing Winston as the band's keyboardist in 1966 ...

, ELO (born Harry Levy), father of

Sharon Osbourne Sharon Rachel Osbourne (; born 9 October 1952) is an English-American television personality, music manager, and author. She is married to heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and came to prominence while appearing on '' The Osbournes'' (2002–2 ...

was born in Cheetham Hill * Jon Ashworth, Labour Party politician, spent three childhood years in Cheetham Hill *

Frances Hodgson Burnett Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924) was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' (1886), ''A Little Princess'' (1905), a ...

—author of ''

The Secret Garden ''The Secret Garden'' is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialisation in ''The American Magazine'' (November 1910 – August 1911). Set in England, it is seen as a classic of English c ...

'' and '' A Little Princess'' was born in Cheetham * Saira Choudhry (born 1982), actress, born in Cheetham Hill * Sandra Douglas — athlete, a member of the Olympic 4 x 400 metre bronze medal-winning team in Barcelona 1992 * Efan Ekoku — former Premier League and Nigeria striker, was born in Cheetham Hill * Jessie Fothergill (1851–1891), novelist, was born in Cheetham Hill * Sir Edward Holt, 1st Baronet — brewer * Abraham Hyman — survivor of the

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

liner disaster, opened a delicatessen in Cheetham Hill, where it remains to this day * Howard Jacobson — author, was born and raised in Cheetham Hill * George Augustus Lee (1761–1826), industrialist, lived in Cheetham Hill * Bugzy Malone — grime artist * Lois Maynard — footballer for FC Halifax Town. *

Jack Rosenthal Jack Morris Rosenthal (8 September 1931 – 29 May 2004) was an English playwright. He wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV (TV network), ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' and over 150 screenplays, including original television plays, featur ...

— playwright, known for '' The Evacuees'', '' Bar Mitzvah Boy'' and early episodes of ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

'' * Benny Rothman — political activist, famous for taking part in the

Mass trespass of Kinder Scout The mass trespass of Kinder Scout was a trespass protest at Kinder Scout in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England, on 24 April 1932. The protest sought to highlight that walkers were denied access to areas of open countryside which had been fenc ...

in Derbyshire * F. L. Tavaré — landscape painter and antiquarian * J. J. Thomson — English physicist who discovered the

electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...

and won the

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

was born in Cheetham Hill

References

Works cited

* * {{Manchester Areas of Manchester Manchester City Council Wards Lancashire places with etymologically Brittonic names Former civil parishes in Greater Manchester