I was born & brought up on the Barlow Hall estate, living there 1944-66, so my mainmemories of the Meadows begin about 1951, when, on hot summer Sunday mornings, my parents& I would walk down Hardy Lane to Hurstville Rd, and then down the track through HardyFarm & The Meadows, across the bridge to "Jackson's Boat". They would have a drink while Iplayed on the bridge. Then, when I got a bike for my 8th birthday, my friend Leonard & I used to spend wholedays on the Meadows. I remember the farm, watching the farmer hand milking his cows. Hefarm-bottled the milk (unpasteurised) & sold it door-to-door. We didn't buy it - there wasa rumour that he watered it! Across the track from the farm was a barn, with an old orangebox nailed to the inside of its gable end, the middle plank knocked out. This was the barnowl's nesting box and it was used every year. Behind the barn was the orchard and, yes, wedid scrump apples. We were caught (but not apprehended) once. The farm looked exactly the same in 1900 (picture of postcard in "Chorlton-cum-Hardy: Britain in old photographs" by Cliff Hayes). Not far into the Meadows from the farm was a pond, full of frogs, newts & sticklebacks.However, the greatest feature of the pond was the large iron pipe stretching across it. I think it must have been some kind of sewage pipe as it aimed towards the Mersey end of thesewage works' wall that formed the western side of the Meadows. It was a point of honourto walk along the pipe across the pond. No, I never fell in. We would cycle all over the Meadows but we had self-imposed boundaries. We wouldn't gofurther downstream than "Thunder Bridge" (the iron railway bridge carrying the Altrincham line). We never went upstream very far. Rifle Road was unmetalled and we rode as far as Dane Road, then cut along a track parallel with the river until hitting a further trackwhich brought us back to the towpath. Within this rectangle near Jackson's Boat there werefabulous man-made hillocks to ride up & down. With hindsight, these were rubbish dumps andthe white, fluffy material scattered amongst them was probably asbestos! When I was eight, I joined the Cubs, 1st Chorltonville (52nd Manchester). We met 6-8pm ina wooden hut situated at the end of Brook Rd, in amongst the trees & overlooking theMeadows. I walked there from Floyd Avenue every Friday night on my own, winter & summer,for three years and no-one thought anything of it. If it was light, we Cubs were oftentaken for games on the Meadows. If you walked down Thorneycroft Avenue (off Darley Avenue) to the very end, there was aset of railings easily squeezed through (plus bike). This brought you into "Bluebell Wood", actually Barlow Wood. If we got really bored playing, we could walk throughBluebell Wood and watch a cricket match, Chorlton CC v. (whoever). Happy days - happy, happy days when the sun always shone.
Trevor G. James (ex-Judson Avenue)

This is one of the many species of Butterflies & Moths to be found on Hardy Farm Meadow, this one was photographed as it had landed in a residents garden. There have been over 600 sightings of Butterflies and Moths, on the meadows, recorded over a fifteen year period, some of which are extremly rare.

Please email me if you have seen or recorded any wildlife, the rarer the better.

Sunset over the meadows

24th September 2009

Bats on Hardy Farm Meadows

This was taken on the evening of Friday 11th September 2009.
At first we thought there was only one, but then the second one appeared.Have you any photographs or video footage of the wildlife that you have seen on the Meadow ?

Birds,Bats, Badgers,Owls,Frogs,Toads, Newts or anything else, please let me know , they can be added