Ryebank Fields, a naturally rewilded 11-acre haven in the heart of Greater Manchester’s conurbation, mean the world to their richly biodiverse wildlife inhabitants – flora and fauna – and to the local people who have tended them over four generations and are always delighted to show them and share them with any visitors to the area.
Some history
In the mid-1970s, on the condition that they be used only for sports and recreation, these public fields on the border of Manchester and Trafford were gifted by the people of the City of Manchester to the Manchester Polytechnic, which has now become the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). Previously the area included a clay pit for Jackson’s Brickworks; part of it then became an unregistered tip. The whole area was remediated in 1972 under the publicly funded ‘Operation Eyesore,’ to make it safe to walk and play on, as long as it remains undisturbed.
This is an ancient site. The Nico Ditch, referenced in the Domesday Book, runs through the middle of Ryebank Fields, which also comprise a magnificent Aspen Wood, very rare poplar trees, equally precious wild orchids, over 140 millenium oak saplings and trees, and all manner of other wildlife, so much biodiversity. Once you step onto Ryebank Fields you are surrounded by every shade of green, huge skies, quietness, and the noises of nature. There is a remarkably high air quality. All of this combines to offer a vital mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health and wellbeing sanctuary.
The problem at present
Since MMU abandoned Ryebank Fields in 1996, the surrounding Manchester and Trafford residents have looked after them with the tender and loving care necessary to ensure that all their treasures, of which there are many, are preserved in perpetuity.
Manchester Metropolitan University first tried to sell the fields in the 1990’s to developers, and in 2022 found a buyer hoping to develop the fields for executive housing.
A wide variety of visitors
There are many different groups of people committed to protecting Ryebank Fields, ensuring that they remain as they are, fully accessible to all manner of visitors. These range in age from the newborn to the very old. They range from picnickers to dog walkers, ramblers to ornithologists, singing troupes, women who want to walk safely at night, sunrise and sunset admirers, stargazers… the list is endless. Ecologists are fascinated by Ryebank Fields’ organic – and therefore irreplaceable – ecosystem that has evolved over the years
What all the individuals and groups that make up the Save Ryebank Fields Campaign have in common, however, is our understanding that Ryebank Fields are our local Amazon Rainforest that must be protected for current and future generations. This understanding is matched by our determination to stop the MMU Leader’s latest attempt to cash in this public land at the expense of wildlife and local people.
One local resident observes:
Since 1996, when the council first threw out a housing planning application, local people have been protecting this Local Green Space. Beyond their beauty and health-giving properties, natures’ treasures cannot speak for themselves and so we human beings must do that.
It is perfectly possible for Manchester to preserve and protect these naturally rewilded fields, as well as ensuring that there is enough accessible and affordable housing in Manchester. Pitting these two issues against one another is a completely unnecessary and clumsy attempt to divide and rule. We will be heard. They won’t succeed.
