Here is my latest video, part one of two, exploring the boundary between Sale and Stretford and the Crossford Bridge.
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Crossford Bridge
Recently I've been exploring the bridges of Sale. I’m not sure the Crossford bridge fits into that category but more on that later. Sale is a town in Greater Manchester. It lies within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, it’s located on the south bank of the River Mersey. Which is where we’re headed.
This is on Cross street in Sale, but if you’re looking for it, probably best to look for the A56. The name changes several times along its length. Just behind me here it's Washway Road and just a bit further on it changes to Chester Road. I’m not sure on its original name, but Chester Road would have certainly been part of its original purpose.
The Romans came here in 43 A.D. People that knew Jesus on a first name basis could have worked on these roads. This was one of the more important Roman roads. It connected the large forts in York and Chester, or should I say Eboracum et Deva Victrix and of course the fort just down the road here at Mamucium you may know it as Manchester.
A place name with chester in it means the Romans were there and if you’re looking for a Roman road in Britain your first clue would be these long straight roads. Your second clue would be a place name with the prefix stret the old English word for street. Just on the other side of our bridge is Stretford. Not only is one end of Crossford bridge in Stretford there’s something there that may holds an important clue to the origin of the bridges name.
Just over the bridge is Stretford, a historic market town in Greater Manchester. It’s between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal about 4 miles southwest of Manchester city centre. It’s within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire. The Mersey being the historic boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire. That’ll be important later on in this story. The origin of the name Stretford is no mystery. The old English word street and ford. A shallow place in a river or stream where you can cross. But knowing the Romans they probably had a proper bridge here, though there’s never been any evidence of it found.
This is the Great Stone. From a scientific point of view it’s a rock, it beats scissors but not paper. It’s what’s known as a glacial erratic. A glacially deposited rock differing from the type of rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, take their name from the Latin word errare (to wander). They’re carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundreds of kilometres. Erratics can range in size from pebbles to large boulders such as Big Rock that lies on the otherwise flat, relatively featureless, surface of the Canadian Prairies in Alberta. It weighs over 18,000 tons.
The Great stone was scraped of the land by a glacier somewhere else. As the ice age ended and the glaciers melted and retreated, the Great stone was dragged along and dropped around here somewhere, perhaps up to 13,000 years ago. I say around here because up until 1925 it was a little further along the A56 at the aptly named great stone road.
The Great Stone is at the northern entrance of Gorse Hill Park. The gates were originally the entrance gates to the Trafford Park Estate. The Estate contained the hall, its grounds, and three farms. It had three entrances like this. The only surviving one was moved to its present site in 1922.
Not the Trafford Park we know today but the same place. Trafford Park was a "beautifully timbered deer park". Almost 1200 acres of flat meadows and grassland, and an inner park containing a tree-lined avenue leading from this entrance lodge at Barton-upon-Irwell. It was the ancestral estate of the de Traffords, one of the most ancient families in England, and then one of the largest landowners in Stretford. The park was a dairy farm in the 1880's and occupied the fields on either side of Chester Road, it officially opened in 1923.
It’s such an odd thing in this stoneless landscape. It was probably very important to the prehistoric people. It may have had a religious or magical meaning to them? Stones were very important to stone age people as their name implies. They may have thought it was something left here by the gods or their ancestors. It could have marked the place where you could cross the river safely.
The Romans used it as a landmark. It does appear the Roman engineers positioned their road to pass by it or perhaps they moved it to the roadside. You have to imagine this place as grassland with a few trees here and there. This stone would have really stood out then. People have known about this stone for thousands of years and it’s held a special place for just as long.
There are several theories about the stone. The earliest is a bit of and Arthurian fantasy. Legend has it the stone was thrown by a Saxon giant called Tarquin who lived in the fort at ‘Castlefield’ in Manchester, the holes being for his finger and thumb. He was apparently killed in a battle by Sir Lancelot. In its former location it was gradually sinking into the earth, and it’s said that on its final disappearance, the destruction of the world will ensue. So, I think we’re safe for a while yet.
Another theory and in fact some locals call it by this name is the plague stone. We’ve talked about them before in the video about Eyam. Plaque visited this area several times over the centuries one took place in 1351, three near the close of the sixteenth, and half a dozen more times in the seventeenth century.
To prevent the infection spreading, the people of Stretford were confined within specified limits, marked by certain stones on the highways leading into town. The holes in the Great stone were filled with holy water and vinegar to provide protection from evil and to cleanse the coins they left here. The surrounding villagers would collect the coins in exchange for food and provisions. To assist the people of Stretford while they rode out the effects of the plaque.
There’s another story of the stone that predates the plague which says the stone was further down the road closer to Manchester on the opposite side of the road. The stone had a cross and bells, and was used as a mass stone or altar, the custom being for travellers to stop and perform their devotions. So, there are several stories of the stone being relocated.
It bears a striking resemblance to the base of Robin Hood's Picking Rods on Mellor Moor in Stockport. The two columns are believed to be a latter addition. This stone is thought to once have been the base of a stone cross. Likewise, the Great stone may have been the base for a cross located on the north side of the bridge. the two holes would have been sockets for a stone cross. Crossford bridge makes sense. Of course none of these stories about this stone overrule the others, it’s been here a long, long time. It could have been all these things. But I’m not so sure about the giant and Sir Lancelot.
Next time we’ll find out where Crossford Bridge really is. Why you could drink for an extra half hour in this place. What would happen if you got picked up on the other side of the bridge. We’ll do a bit more rock hunting and try to resurrect a strange old tradition.
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