Manchester's lost estate and the amazing reminders of what once stood there

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Until just a few years ago, it was simply an unassuming patch of empty grassland in east Manchester. But it was when the latest development work started on turning it in Abbey Hey, Gorton, that clues of the area's fascinating history truly came to life.

Now, the area is home to a £17m, state-of-the-art retirement village with a well-used community café and hair and nail salon which been hailed by residents. However, the finds that were discovered during excavation work gave a timely reminder of the fascinating history that the site known as Bellamy Court had.

The area first sprung to life in the early 19th century, when a series of three sprawling cotton mills opened in 1825 during the ‘Cottonopolis’ boom - where Manchester became the global centre of textile manufacturing and in turn the world’s first industrial city.

READ MORE: Remembering Gorton Tub, east Manchester's lost 'tropical' paradise

The mills were bought by legendary Mancunian entrepreneur John Rylands, who would go on to become the city's first multi-millionaire.

Eventually employing around 5,000 people, the Gorton mills - which was later renamed Rylands Mill - was the first site he owned in his own right, independent of his family’s business, and was key to him subsequently becoming the biggest and most successful cotton merchant in the country.

At its height, there was a school, library, and shop on-site to serve its huge workforce, hundreds of whom were children. It survived a huge blaze but Gorton Mills eventually closed and the site was cleared in the 1930s.

However, by the 1960s, the area was home to a hive of activity again when a new estate containing six blocks of council-owned and run maisonettes, of varying sizes, were built. This is where the