Search Results - Stretford

Stretford has been the home of Manchester United Football Club since 1910, and of the Lancashire County Cricket Club since 1864. Notable residents have included the industrialist, philanthropist, and Manchester's first multi-millionaire John Rylands, the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, the writer Dodie Smith, the painter L. S. Lowry, Morrissey of The Smiths, and Jay Kay of Jamiroquai.

The origin of the name Stretford is "street" (Old English stræt) on a ford across the River Mersey.^[1] The principal road through Stretford, the A56 Chester Road, follows the line of the old Roman road from Deva Victrix (Chester) to Mancunium (Manchester), crossing the Mersey into Stretford at Crossford Bridge, built at the location of the ancient ford.^[2]

The earliest evidence of human occupation around Stretford comes from Neolithic stone axes found in the area, dating from about 2000&_160;BC. Stretford was part of the land occupied by the Celtic Brigantes tribe before and during the Roman occupation, and lay on their border with the Cornovii on the southern side of the Mersey.^[3] By 1212, there were two manors in the area now called Stretford. The land in the south, close to the River Mersey, was held by Hamon de Mascy, while the land in the north, closer to the River Irwell, was held by Henry de&_160;Trafford.^[4] In about 1250, a later Hamon de&_160;Mascy gave the Stretford manor to his daughter, Margery. She in turn, in about 1260, granted Stretford to Richard de Trafford at a rent of one penny. The de&_160;Mascy family shortly afterwards released all rights to their lands in Stretford to Henry de&_160;Trafford, the Trafford family thus acquiring the whole of Stretford, after which the two manors descended together.^[2]