page_title: Whitefield, Greater Manchester
section_title: Transport
hierarchical_section_title: Whitefield, Greater Manchester / Transport
caption_attribution_description: Greater Manchester Metrolink number 1010, an Ansaldo T68 (Phase 1) tram arrives in the inbound platform at Whitefield tram station with a Bury to Altrincham service. Thursday 15th May 2008
context_page_description: Whitefield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It lies on undulating ground above the Irwell Valley, along the south bank of the River Irwell, 3 miles south-southeast of Bury, and 4.9 miles to the north-northwest of the city of Manchester. Prestwich and the M60 motorway lie just to the south.
  Historically a part of Lancashire, Whitefield has been suggested as lying on the path of an ancient Roman road leading from Mamucium in the south to Bremetennacum in the north. Throughout the Middle Ages, Whitefield was a division of the township of Pilkington, itself a part of the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham and hundred of Salford. Pilkington and Whitefield have historic associations with the Earls of Derby. Farming was the main industry of this rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system.
  The urbanisation and development of Whitefield largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution. The name Whitefield is thought to derive from the medieval bleachfields used by Flemish settlers to whiten their woven fabrics, or else from the wheat crop once cultivated in the district.
context_section_description: Public transport began some time in the early 19th century and in 1817 there were coach services being run through Whitefield between Manchester and Bury along Bury Old Road, which had been constructed in 1755. However, Wilson speculates that these were probably mainly for freight and states that the Coach & Horses public house at Kirkhams was the coaching inn.
  Bury New Road –a turnpike road, taking an alternative route between Bury and Manchester – was constructed in 1827. Toll bars for this newly constructed road were built at Kersal Bar, Besses o' th' Barn, Stand Lane and Blackford Bridge.
  In the 1860s and 1870s transport between Whitefield and Manchester consisted of a four-horse bus running at hourly intervals, with local passenger stops at the Bay Horse Inn at Chapelfield and at the Church Inn in the centre of the town. The firm which operated this service was called Turner, after which Turner Street was named.
  The Bury, Oldham and Rochdale Tramways Company operated a service of trams pulled by a steam engine from 1883. These ran until the end of the century between Bury and Kersal Bar, when they were replaced by electric trams leased by Salford Corporation between Bury and Manchester along both Bury Old Road and Bury New Road. The lease expired in 1926 and the trams between Whitefield and Manchester were then replaced by buses, also operated by Salford Corporation. In the same year, Bury Corporation provided buses to operate from Whitefield to Bury. A bus station, now demolished, was opened in 1931 just set back from the junction of Stanley Road and Bury New Road, behind the then Church Inn.
  In the 1920s the evening trams from Whitefield and Manchester had a letterbox fitted to their fronts, enabling letters to be posted at the tram stops in time to reach the last post collection at Manchester post sorting office.
  By 1905 electric trams were also running between Whitefield and Radcliffe along Radcliffe New Road.
  On 18 July 1872 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) gained an Act of Parliament to construct a railway between Manchester and Bury, via Whitefield and Prestwich. This opened in 1879 with a new station, known as Whitefield railway station.   The L&YR line was electrified in 1916 for which a power station was constructed near the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal at nearby Clifton, with substations at Radcliffe and at Victoria Station, Manchester. Electrification reduced the journey times between Manchester and Bury from 32 minutes to 24. The line is now used by the Metrolink, upon which services commenced on 6 April 1992. A station at nearby Besses o' th' Barn also serves the area, having been opened on 1 February 1933.
  All public transport is supervised by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive.
caption: Whitefield Metrolink station is on the Bury—Victoria Manchester Metrolink line
exif: {"Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "E-500", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "314", "Image YResolution": "314", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2008:05:16 20:43:06", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image XPComment": "[71, 0, 114, 0, 101, 0, 97, 0, 116, 0, 101, 0, 114, 0, 32, 0, 77, 0, 97, 0, ... ]", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Manual", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image GainControl": "Low gain up", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Hard", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 37, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "1336", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1882", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8924", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:05:15 17:12:49", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:05:15 17:12:49", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "925/256", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "8", "EXIF FocalLength": "21", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera"}