page_title: Wilmslow Road
section_title: Turnpike trust
hierarchical_section_title: Wilmslow Road / History / Turnpike trust
caption_attribution_description: The milestone in Withington
context_page_description: Wilmslow Road is a major road in Manchester, England, running from Parrs Wood northwards to Rusholme. There it becomes Oxford Road and the name changes again to Oxford Street when it crosses the River Medlock and reaches the city centre.
  The road runs through the centres of Didsbury, Withington and Fallowfield, including the major student residential campus of Owens Park, to Rusholme. Oxford Road passes through the University of Manchester campus and the All Saints campus of the Manchester Metropolitan University. Several hospitals including the Christie Hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary have been built along the road. It also features several parks and gardens such as Fletcher Moss Gardens, Platt Fields and Whitworth Park.
  The road is part of a major bus corridor with bus movements of over one a minute at peak times and is a key centre for business, culture and higher education.
context_section_description: In 1753 the Manchester and Wilmslow Turnpike Trust was created by Act of Parliament, with powers to build, maintain, and improve the most northerly stretch of the Manchester to Oxford route, funded by the collection of tolls. In 1755 the trust built the first stone bridge over the Mersey. This collapsed in 1756 and was rebuilt in 1758. The bridge was replaced in 1780 and again in 1861.
  The improved transport links spurred the development of villages such as Rusholme and Withington along the route. These villages eventually merged and became part of the city of Manchester. Chorlton-on-Medlock, the district nearest the town centre, was developed as a residential suburb in 1793–94 by the three landowners. Most of the important streets were given impressive names, Oxford Street, Cambridge Street and Grosvenor Street being three of these. Over the next fifty years residential development spread southwards as far as High Street (the old name of Hathersage Road). The very few remaining dwellings of that period include Waterloo Place, 323, 325, 327 and 333 Oxford Road and Grove House (316–324).
  In 1861 the turnpike trust was threatened with abolition but survived by offering to build Palatine Road from Withington to West Didsbury. All turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were abolished by 1881. Until some time in the 1880s all of Oxford Road and Oxford Street was called Oxford Street (as far south as High Street). The present street and road with different series of house numbers were introduced so that Oxford Street ended at the old township border of the River Medlock. The Chorlton-on-Medlock section became Oxford Road and from Rusholme to Parrs Wood remained Wilmslow Road.
caption: A milestone in Withington which was placed by the Manchester Turnpike Trust; it stands opposite a public house named The Turnpike
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