1930s houses at the end of Hardy Lane, Chorlton

Image: © Phil Champion Taken: 18 Dec 2011

These private houses were built sometime in the late 1930s. They are the very last houses on Hardy Lane. Prior to the 1920 Hardy Lane was a quiet rural lane leading to Hardy Farm and a handful of cottages on the edge of the floodplain of the Mersey. The road was substantially widened when Manchester Corporation built houses in the area in the 1920s/ 30s, with a small area of speculative private development near Hardy Farm. Hardy Lane is unusually wide, although at the Hardy Farm end the carriageway narrows, with a large area of verge in front this last block of houses. The planners had in mind a future extension across the river to Sale in mind, to form a significant arterial road. When the M63 Sale Eastern Bypass was being designed and constructed in the 1960s proposals were in place for a new link road, to be carried across the low lying land at Hardy Farm on a 20ft high embankment. This was never built, although the motorway junction (now M60 J6) was built with this in mind. Although spare from thundering traffic passing their front doors, these houses will in future have the frequent swish of trams, as the Metrolink line to Manchester Airport will run along Hardy Lane - the barriers seen here relate to works to move utilities in advance of the start of construction proper.

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