page_title: Didsbury
section_title: 19th and 20th centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Didsbury / History / 19th and 20th centuries
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Didsbury Railway Station c.1910 with the memorial clock to Dr.J.Milson Rhodes (erected 1910) and horse-drawn cabs waiting outside
context_page_description: Didsbury is a suburban area of Manchester, England, on the north bank of the River Mersey, 4.5 miles south of Manchester city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 26,788.
  Historically a part of Lancashire, there are records of Didsbury existing as a small hamlet as early as the 13th century. Its early history was dominated by being part of the Manor of Withington, a feudal estate that covered a large part of what is now the south of Manchester. Didsbury was described during the 18th century as a township separate from outside influence. In 1745 Charles Edward Stuart crossed the Mersey at Didsbury in the Jacobite march south from Manchester to Derby, and again in the subsequent retreat.
  Didsbury was largely rural until the mid-19th century, when it underwent development and urbanisation during the Industrial Revolution. It became part of Manchester in 1904.
  The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was formed in Didsbury in 1889.
context_section_description: During the Victorian expansion of Manchester, Didsbury developed as a prosperous settlement; a few mansions from the period still exist on Wilmslow Road between Didsbury village and Parrs Wood to the east and Withington to the north, but they have now been converted to nursing homes and offices. The opening of the  Manchester South District Line by the Midland Railway in 1880 contributed greatly to the rapid growth in the population of Didsbury. Easy rail connections to Manchester Central were now provided from Didsbury railway station in Didsbury Village, and from Withington and West Didsbury on Palatine Road. Didsbury station was also served by Express trains from Manchester to London St Pancras. Further expansion of the railways ensued when the LNWR's Styal Line from Manchester London Road to Wilmslow opened in 1909, introducing two new stations to the area, East Didsbury and Parrs Wood and Burnage. In 1910, A stone clock tower and water fountain was erected outside Didsbury Midland Railway station in memory of local doctor and campaigner for the poor, Dr. J. Milson Rhodes. 
  On 28 April 1910, French pilot Louis Paulhan landed his Farman biplane in Barcicroft Fields, Pytha Fold Farm, on the borders of Withington, Burnage and Didsbury, at the end of the first flight from London to Manchester in under 24 hours, with one short overnight stop at Lichfield. Arriving at 5:30 am, Paulhan beat the British contender, Claude Grahame-White, winning a £10,000 prize offered by the Daily Mail. This was the first powered flight into Manchester from any point outside the city. Two special trains were chartered to the newly built but unopened Burnage railway station to take spectators to the landing, many of whom had stood throughout the night. Paulhan's progress was followed throughout by a special train carrying his wife, Henri Farman and his mechanics. Afterwards, his train took the party to a civic reception given by the Lord Mayor of Manchester in the town hall. A house in Paulhan Road, constructed in the 1930s near the site of his landing, is marked by a blue plaque to commemorate his achievement.
  In 1921, a war memorial was erected outside Didsbury Library, on the opposite side of the road to the Midland Railway station. Dedicated to the memory of the 174 local servicemen who fell in World War I, it was unveiled by Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby. After World War II, a further 67 names were added.
  Further transport enhancements came in the form of two new arterial roads which were constructed at the peripheral edges of Didsbury 1928-1930: Kingsway (named after King George V) through East Didsbury; and Princess Road through West Didsbury. Both were laid out as dual carriageways for motor vehicles with a segregated tram track along the central reservation. Manchester Corporation Tramways operated a tram line from Parrs Wood via Burnage into Manchester City Centre until 1949, when the service was closed.
  In the postwar years, passenger train services on the South District Line (now part of British Rail) were gradually reduced, and in 1967 the line was closed during the Beeching Axe. For some years the old station building was in use as Station Hardware and DIY store, before it was demolished in 1982.
caption: Didsbury Railway Station, photographed shortly after the erection of the Rhodes memorial clock, c.1910
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