Carrington Moss Carrington Moss was an area of 1100 acres of virgin moss with underlying peat fields alongside the Manchester Ship Canal. Manchester Corportation purchased the for £38,000 in 1886 and turned the area into a most useful and profitable enterprise. Before the purchase of Carrington Moss and the buidling of the sewage works, the outpourings of over 65,000 water closets would end up in the River Irwell, giving it the dubious title of being one of the most sluggish and loathsome streams in all of England ! After the sewage of the city that was not made into guano was carried by rail to Carrington and treated in the sewage works. Between 200 to 300 tons of night soil, street sweepings and similarly offence matter which all towns are glad to be rid of, were sent daily to the Moss and spread over the peat. Further transformation of the area was wrought by the corportation, once a barren wilderness became a charming expanse of farm and garden of which every yard proved to be extremely fertile, a hundred acres of potatoes alone were grown and sold in 1889. The corporation also established a nursery growing dozens of acres of birch, larch, rhododendron, scotch and spruce fir, which were used to furnish the parks, gardens and cemeteries of Manchester, including ours ! Clover and moss grow in abundance and this too is utlised, being cut, bagged and sent to the 300 horses in the corporations employ. The farming plant included, well laid spacious roads, ditches which carried off all superfluous moisture, strong fences, buildings and no less than 11 miles of cartways. Included also was a railway sidings, a pair of locomotives and over 300 wagons that traversed nine or ten miles of permanent way. Peat Cutting on the Moss in 1916
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 19:44:26 +0000
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