An Urmston Home Page

Welcome to the home pages of Douglas Ian & Christine Smith !

Why Urmston ?

It's where we live !
The name is believed to come from Ormr's tun ( or Orme's tun ) where Ormr ( or Orme ) was a Danish personal name and tun is a Saxon word for a farmstead or settlement

What is Urmston ?

Urmston is a suburban centre some of which has been settled since medieval times.
Although a Bronze age burial mound was reported in early books about the area ( Supposedly somewhere between the modern sites of St Clements church and the Queens Road Cemetary ) there is some doubt about this now.
The "D shaped" or curvilinear graveyard of St Michaels Church, Flixton could indicate a Saxon settlement there.

Where is Urmston ?

Until 1974, Urmston was an independent town of over 40,000 people, situated in the very southernmost part of Lancashire, England. It encompassed the towns/villages of Flixton and Davyhulme together with the area now known as Trafford Park.
From 1974, Urmston was merged into a souless 'Metropolitan Borough of Trafford' within the county of 'Greater Manchester' and is now a suburb rather than a separate town.

Well, where exactly is Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme ?

The area is between the River Mersey to the south and the River Irwell ( now Manchester Ship Canal ) to the north and west. To the east Urmston leads into Stretford and Lostock. Urmston town centre is in the valley of the River Mersey about 6 miles ( 10km ) WSW of Manchester City Centre, about 2 miles from Old Trafford Cricket ground and of course Manchester United football club.
Good connections via rail ( Urmston station is on the Manchester Airport-Warrington line ), road ( direct access to the M60 ( formerly M63 ) motorway and to the entire UK Motorway network ) and 10 minutes from Manchester International Airport.

Any maps or photos ?

Photos of the Urmston, Flixton & Davyhulme areas ( updated irregularly ! )

• Churches
• Libraries
• Landmarks
• Urmston Meadows
• Schools
• Pubs

and the main roads in the Urmston area

• Church Road & Chassen Road
• Queens Road & Station Road
• The Davyhulme (Nags Head) circle area
• Crofts Bank Road & Old Crofts Bank
• Flixton Road & Railway Road

and events in the Urmston area

• May Day Steam fair at Abbotsfield Park, Chassen Road which is held every year over the May Day bank holiday weekend. This is jointly organised by the Lancashire Traction Engine Club and the Urmston and District Model Engineering Society. My photos of the May Day Steam are here
• Flixton, Urmston and Davyhulme Carnival Sadly this was last held in 2000
• A Victorian Christmas in 2000 followed in subsequent years by several Victorian themed days in the modern centre of Urmston!

Any famous past or present residents ?

• Owen Chadwick, who designed the WWII Lancaster bomber, came from here.
• Prof. Tom Kilburn who worked on the Manchester Mark I computer ( the world's first stored program electronic computer ) lived here until his death in 2001.
• Suzanne Charlton
• Several Manchester United players of the 1950s and 1960s lived here
• John Bethell
• Peter Noone ( once Herman from Herman's Hermits ) was here too !
• Ian McShane grew up here
• Judy Loe
• Matthew Kelly who is also the President of the Urmston Musical Theatre
• Eileen Derbyshire
• ...and Victoria Wood's BBC comedy series dinnerladies included an occasional character Babs with the catchphrase "I come from Urmston"

References

The following books give more details of aspects of the archaeology, geology and history of the Urmston area ( ISBN references are given where available ) :

Any other erm...fascinating Urmston links

We thought you'ld never ask !!

• On 5th August 1963 at Abbotsfield Park there was `A Twist And Shout Dance' Festival, with The Beatles, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, the Dennisons, and Johnny Martin and the Tremors.
• On the 29th November 1963 there was a concert at the old Urmston Baths by The Rolling Stones.
• Curzon Cinema
• Citiens Advice Bureau
• The Trafford Centre
• Urmston Musical Theatre
• Urmston Cricket, Hockey, Bowls, Tennis & Social Club
• Stretford Fire Service
• Once there was a good local newspaper ( The Stretford and Urmston Journal ) but the coming of "free" newspapers caused its demise. The best of the freesheets is the Stretford and Urmston Messenger which operates the This is Urmston web site which I highly recommend.
• and finally the excellent Urmston.net which includes interactive forums for all things Urmston.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Francis Buckley for correcting errors in the history of the area as given in a previous version of this page.

Read my Dreambook! Sign my Dreambook!

[D.I.Smith][A.C.Smith]

Please send any other links about Urmston to