Simon and Vicky on part of the Gorton Heritage Trail: "It celebrates local heritage amongst outstanding wildlife habitats."

Simon hasn’t always lived in Gorton. In fact, when he moved here from Whalley Range in south Manchester just three years ago he admits he had negative preconceptions about the place. “I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this house,” he says. “But it was the location that really sold it for me: the views and the amazing habitats right on the doorstep.”

Simon’s small cottage is part of a conservation area with some older houses nearby dating back to the Gorton Hall estate. He didn’t realise until he’d moved in that his new home was right next to the Gorton Heritage Trail. “One of the neighbours gave me a leaflet, and that was the first I’d heard of it.”

The Trail was established 10 years earlier in 1997, inspired by local councillor and one time Lord Mayor of Manchester, James Ashley. It was Ashley and a group of local people he brought together who first recognised the potential of celebrating local heritage within a trail that took in some outstanding wildlife habitats. The trail includes Richard Peacock’s Mausoleum (he of Beyer Peacock fame), the ‘Dissenters Graveyard’ at Brookfield Church, an old salt road and lots of clues to an old tannery.

With his fiancée, Vicky Evans, Simon joined in with the group’s efforts to maintain the trail. “As ecologists we are both interested in practical conservation work – we help with the Wildlife Trust as well – and we thought we could lend a hand with some of the hard work.” Content with weeding, litter picking and clearing paths, he wasn’t so keen at first on joining the organising committee.

“James Ashley had died a year or so before I moved here and the committee was becoming gradually disillusioned. They’d put in a massive effort over the first few years but needed new blood to take things forward. And so, despite paperwork not being a strong point, I reluctantly agreed to come on board.”

The timing was good, however. In early 2009 the Environment Team at New East Manchester contacted the group and asked how they could help.

“They asked how the trail was being used,” recalls Simon, “and how it could be developed further as a community asset. Groundwork was then commissioned to conduct a consultation which lasted several months.”

Exhibitions were set up locally in the library and the indoor market; there were door-to-door questionnaires; and walkers were stopped on the footpaths and quizzed about their use of the trail. “Groundwork produced a really detailed masterplan which captured everyone’s comments and ideas and set out funding opportunities and a whole list of medium and long-term goals.

“It’s really invigorated the committee,” enthuses Simon. “Since then we’ve won funding for tools and safety equipment for our clean-up days and new computer equipment for all our admin.”

But there’s a lot to do. “One of the long-term goals is to have a pedestrian crossing at the point where the footpath dissects the busy Hyde Road. That’s quite crucial to the future of the trail. New East Manchester are also applying for an ‘Access to Nature’ grant on our behalf so we could afford a part-time development worker. Yes, the last 18 months have been good, which has been down to the help we’ve had from New East Manchester.

“If I were able to see into the future I’d see the trail being used by lots more local people, being well sign-posted and being accessible to local schools and youth groups for things like pond-dipping and bug hunts. It’d be great!”

See the Gorton Heritage Trail website here

… or, as Gortonians say, the City of Manchester becoming part of Gorton! Now there is a new book that records the 12 months of passion and pride as well as some of the achievements of the last 100 years.

Out on the 27th March: the Gorton 100 celebration book

The book – Gorton 100: Best Viewed from Within – is an 80-page pictorial account of the area’s historical features such as Belle Vue, Crossley Motors and Beyer Peacock as well as capturing the people of Gorton at play during the centenary celebrations.

Some highlights include images of the K1 steam engine, the first Beyer-Garratt produced by Bayer Peacock, being transported from the Museum of Science and Industry to its birthplace in Gorton… and then cheered by former employees of the engine works. Brilliant.

Childhood recollections have also been recorded. This is from Maria Koudellas as she recalls her wartime evacuation to Macclesfield. “A hot meal waited for us and for afters was the most delicious creamy rice pudding I have ever tasted. ‘Made from a beaten fresh egg,’ said Mrs Johnson. Then it was bath and bed, what bliss. Coming from a small two-up, two-down in West Gorton, no bathroom, two boys and two girls sleeping in the same bedroom, I thought I was in heaven.”

The book will be launched on 27th March at Gorton Market from 12-2pm with a host of free entertainment including Manchester’s own exciting, colourful band of drummers and dancers, Bloco Novo, the multi-skilled street entertainers, Curious Eyebrow, and the foot-stomping sounds of Dr Butler’s Hatstand Medicine Band.

Also available, at £5, by calling Gorton 100 committee member Rose Cusack on 0161 231 3532.

The book, and many of the events, was made possible by generous funding from many organisations including the Heritage Lottery Fund, New East Manchester and Manchester City Football Club.

And here’s a ‘shout-out’ for anyone who lives, works, studies (or just visits) Gorton…

The ‘Gorton Heart’ Facebook group is at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=170456026552&ref=ts and is for all to share local and family history; highlight educational achievements and opportunities; showcase Gorton arts – from Gorton Visual Arts and Gorton Voice to music, dance and literature. Find out what’s on at the cinema or when the local pub quiz nights or karaoke evenings are taking place and explore local opportunities for training and personal development.

The Facebook group is an opportunity to promote any local event to the whole community.

I feel I’m witnessing the beginning of something special. Today Gorton people are coming together to celebrate the start of a motivational programme for young people and their families. I arrive at the indoor market in time to see dozens of young people being issued with clipboards and I LOVE GORTON T-shirts before being briefed

Clipboards at the ready

by Ruth Ibegbuna from Urbis, the programme co-ordinator for the ‘Gorton People Stronger Together’ programme. “Tell people about the money,” she says to volunteers, “and ask them what they’d like us to spend it on. Then invite them along to the Monastery for an afternoon of fun and entertainment.” (Not to mention the free food supplied by the Gorton Market traders).

The volunteers are split into teams, each given an area to canvas in the next couple of hours. “I’ll do the estate,” says one teenager who might expect to be still under the covers at this time on a Saturday morning. “I know it well, so I’ll get some good responses.”

We all love Gorton!

I follow the four-strong team heading for Hyde Road and Tesco and overhear enthusiasm (and occasional apathy) from their respondents towards the news that Gorton has won £450,000 from the central government’s Inspiring Communities programme.

Today is billed as ‘Gorton’s biggest ever community consultation’ and, as the completed questionnaires come rolling back to base at the market, it seems that plenty of people have a view on how the ‘win’ should be spent.

But this project is not starting from scratch. Already the Urbis team have run hugely-successful ‘Reclaim’ mentoring schemes for young people in Moss Side, east Bolton and north Manchester. (See http://www.reclaimproject.org.uk). The ‘Stronger Together’ programme will build on and extend the theme taking a wider approach by supporting young people as well as their families.

Plans already include Saturday classes for 11–14 year-olds (more early mornings!); a project to renovate unsafe open spaces, adding lighting, greenery and public art; and a Reclaim mentoring project for Gorton girls (the last one was just for young men).

Down at Gorton Monastery preparations are well in hand for the afternoon event. As the Bloco Nova samba band and dancers arrive, I set up a small studio near the café where I am to photograph local people soon to appear on posters and banners promoting ‘Gorton People Stronger Together’. Local MP, Gerald Kaufman is one of the first to arrive and, although he’s unlikely to appear on a banner, he is more than happy to pose in his Gorton T-shirt with some of his younger constituents.

The afternoon flies by. The word has got out that the photography sessions are informal and fun and soon there is a queue out the door. Young and old are captured and I even persuade the camera-shy to take a turn. Some of the pictures appear here but more will adorn Gorton in the coming months.

Before I know it, and with nearly 1000 images on my memory card, the event is over and I hear later about Gorton Visual Arts and their print-making workshop; the manifesto-writing and the young people getting up there on the ‘Gorton Plinth’ telling everyone about their achievements and aspirations. I don’t need to be told about the samba band because I heard their mesmeric beat down the corridor!

To get involved in Gorton’s exciting new project email inspiringcommunities@urbis.org.uk or call 0161 605 8218.

Last night the celebrations culminated in a Festive Finalé at Gorton Monastery with music, stalls, speeches and refreshments for all. At dusk, children and adults alike lit a lantern and paraded to Gorton Park for a fire display and fireworks.

Don’t forget to turn the volume up on your computer.

Music : Cedar Mount High School; Gorton Voice Choir; Bloco Novo
Lantern Procession: Artistic team led by Fiona Smith and Tess Hills
www.curiouscargo.com
Fire Performers: Circus Diaspora
Fire Garden Installation: Walk the Plank

Rev David Grey leads the service at the war memorial

It’s been Remembrance Day today: 91 years since the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany marked the end of the First World War. Now, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, thousands of services are being held up and down the country as people stop in their tracks to remember the fallen in conflicts past and present.

Respect from across the generations

I’ve come to Gorton Cemetery where schoolchildren from 17 primary and high schools are joining ex-servicemen, young men from the local training corps, serving police and fire officers and local families to commemorate the lives lost.

St Clements, Openshaw: “We’re here to remember everyone who has died.”

Sharon Adesiyan is here with her classmates from St Clements School in Openshaw. They have been learning about the Second World War at school. What, I ask, have you found out? “All the women took over the men’s jobs while they went off to fight,” she says. “And did they do a better job?” I ask, rather unfairly. “They did just as good a job as the men,” she replied, diplomatically.

A brass band from Wright Robinson College strikes up to signify the start of the service. “It’s not about us old folk”, says Rev. David Gray, “those who put their lives on the line did so for the world their children would inherit. Today is about you and about all of us honouring them by doing all we can in our time to build peace for you and with you for future generations.”

There are prayers, readings, more from the band and a procession of wreaths. Then, at 11 o’clock, the bearers lower their standards and their heads in silent contemplation.

Les Worthington: “This is the ninth year and each time we go from strength to strength.”

This event at the cemetery is relatively recent. Only since 2001 have local people gathered each November, all due to the efforts of Les Worthington, chair of the Belle Vue branch of the Royal British Legion. “There were only eight of us at that first remembrance service,” he recalls, “and only two of them were servicemen.” Since then, Les has built up the event to include local schools, and, judging by the turnout today, he has been extremely successful.

He allocates each school a section of the cemetery and after the service the children and their teachers investigate their portion on a map supplied by Les.

“We’ve been coming down for four years now,” Neil Flint, headteacher of Aspinall Primary School in Gorton tells me. “It’s incredibly useful in getting the children talking about the various conflicts and the sacrifices made. There are eight war graves in this section of the cemetery and for each one we find the age, rank and regiment of the fallen soldier.”

Each school marks the war graves in their section of the cemetery

As the standard bearers roll up their ceremonial flags, the schoolchildren scatter to all parts of the cemetery and place poppy crosses in front of the 157 war graves. They ask their teachers questions about each headstone, adding their own family’s experiences of great-grandfathers and grandfathers. Today is a day they will not forget.

“Every Sunday was disturbed by the whine of trail bikes tearing around,” recalls local resident, Alan G. “It was becoming a playground for bikers and a favourite spot for illegal tipping.”

Nutsford Vale

Fed up with their piece of countryside sinking into abandonment, Alan and some of his neighbours set up the Nutsford Vale Park Project more than 10 years ago to lobby for change. Now, after a decade of small grants and piecemeal improvements, the Vale has hit the jackpot: more than £300,000 will be spent in the next two years to create a valuable community resource.

The money comes from a £4.7 million initiative by the North West Development Agency to fund the remediation of 400 acres (equivalent to about 200 football pitches) of brownfield land in Merseyside and Greater Manchester. The ‘Setting the Scene for Growth’ programme aims to transform what were once municipal tips.

Jackson's Clay Pit, 1964

A generation ago the 40-acre Nutsford Vale was a known as Jackson’s Clay Pit, with lorries and heavy machinery working the relatively small patch between the densely populated housing. Once closed the pit was filled with council waste until 1978 when, presumably, it could hold no more.

Red Rose Forest, the partnership organisation charged with ‘greening’ Greater Manchester, submitted the successful bid after consultation with the residents’ group. “We’ve been working together for some years now,” says Hilary Wood from Red Rose. “We originally raised some funding through the Green Tips Project which meant we could fence off part of the site, and do a little planting.”

Matthew's Lane Corporation Tip, 1974

There’s a tarmac path that cuts across the thinnest part of the site, a convenient and popular shortcut with staggered barriers to deter the motorbikes. The entrances will be a priority once the work gets underway later this year and this path will have a hedgerow running alongside it.

“First, we’ll get rid of all the rubbish,” says Hilary, “then we’ll enhance the entry points and secure the boundaries by finishing off the fencing. We’ll consult with local people about what they’d like to see in the Vale. Maybe there could be a play facility, or a feature, some sort of attraction that would give people a reason to come.”

“Although we want to make it more accessible,” she continues, “we don’t want to lose the wilderness element. A wildflower area is a possibility and it certainly should still be a place where people can escape to.”

The first job will be to get rid of all the rubbish

Tony Hall, another resident and member of the friends’ group, agrees: “In the summer, with all the foliage out, you can hardly see any of the surrounding houses. You feel as if you’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“It has the potential to follow in the successful footsteps of Clayton Vale,” says Julie Lawrence, New East Manchester’s Environment Programme Manager. “There’s a strong ‘friends’ group which is essential to the long term success of the Vale and with the right sort of maintenance programme and support after the initial investment, there’s no reason why Nutsford Vale shouldn’t continue to prosper.”

Consultations will take place locally with interested groups to discuss plans for the Vale.

redroseforest.co.uk
nutsfordvale.wordpress.com

Archive images courtesy of Manchester Local Image Collection.

Pupils from Wright Robinson College show off their work inspired by Black Looks artist, Colin Yates. Their banner is displayed outside the Sportcity Visitor Centre on Ashton New Road.

Len Grant reports back from two exhibitions in east Manchester

Although it’s been on tour for ten years, this is the first appearance of the Black Looks exhibition in Manchester. And very welcome it is too. The 25 drawings, paintings and prints by artist Colin Yates, trace the contribution of Black and Asian professional footballers in Britain for more than a century.

Colin was motivated to produce his work whilst playing amateur football: ‘…I was witness to a series of racist incidents involving my Black and Asian teammates,’ says the exhibition introduction. ‘As a response to these verbal and physical attacks I decided to create an anti-racist football exhibition.’

Colin Yates' 'Black Looks' exhibition at Sportcity until the 26th

Colin accompanies the exhibition as it visits new cities, leading workshops with local schoolchildren as part of his continuing artistic response to racism in football. This week and last, he’s been motivating Wright Robinson High School students to create their own artwork based on the issues raised by the exhibition. Colin has worked with over 200 schools and community groups, educating through his art.

But what of the work? It’s powerful and full-on. Appropriately, Colin’s portrait of City’s Shaun Wright-Phillips kicks off the exhibition. It’s a beautifully-crafted copy of a photograph of W-P playing in a ‘friendly’ against Spain in Madrid. Behind him are Spanish fans, some on their feet, and you can almost see the verbal abuse hurled from the stand. The winger commented later, “That’s why I support the ‘Kick Racism out of Football’ campaign. It’s been going for 10 years but there is still a need for it, because you still hear the chants.”

Portrait of Shaun Wright-Phillips in Madrid

Colin’s exhibition also charts the rise of Black footballers in the British game. One piece, Black Explosion 1970-80, features 11 footballers including, Garth Crooks, Laurie Cunningham, Clyde Best MBE, Cyrille Regis MBE, and Viv Anderson MBE who, in 1979, was the very first Black footballer to play for England in a full international match.

Anderson’s achievement is further profiled in a poster-style piece with solid reads, blues, greens and yellows and the word LANDMARK below his portrait. Obama got a poster in the same style in the run-up to the presidential elections last year.

Other notable pieces works include a ‘neon’ Stan Collymore, a controversial figure who Colin says ‘joined the list of great footballing underachievers.’

The exhibition runs until Monday 26th October at the Sportcity Visitor Centre, Ashton New Road, near its junction with Alan Turing Way. Call 0161 227 3151 for opening times.

The second exhibition has sadly come and gone. Only staged for one day in the studio at The Angels Centre in Gorton, it was Peter Koudellas’ debut show. Twenty or so black and white prints were testament to Peter’s diverse artistic talent. As a member of the Gorton Visual Arts group, 52 year-old Peter, who has learning disabilities, has documented scenes from his travels around the country.

Peter's debut solo show at The Angels in Gorton

“He’s only been taking pictures for about 18 months,” explains his mother, Marie. “He takes photographs wherever he goes, he always has his camera with him.”

Peter is particularly keen on public art and has documented sculptures in Yorkshire, artwork at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff, the Eric Morecombe figure on the Flyde coast and, nearer to home, Colin Spofforth’s The Runner at the City of Manchester Stadium. Not to upset any footballing rivalries his exhibition also included the Best, Law and Charlton tribute at Old Trafford!

As part of the Gorton Visual Arts group, Peter has also contributed to the Belle Vue mosaic at Gorton Market and to the group’s many artistic endeavours. Artist Ian McKay, who inspires and co-ordinates the local amateur artists, says of Peter, “His application of paint is fantastic. He’s already where many professional painters would love to be.”

Growing your own has never been so popular. For many allotment holders it’s all about producing fresh, tasty organic food, with an eye on self-sufficiency and reducing their own carbon footprint.

Rev David Gray: "You don't need an allotment to keep hens."

At the Faith in the Community allotments in Gorton, they’ve taken it a step further. Here local people are being encouraged to not only use whatever space they have – back yard or window box – to grow vegetables and herbs, but they can now learn how to keep ex-battery hens.

“We’ve got 14 chickens, six ducks and five geese at the moment,” says Rev David Gray, whose wife Elaine, runs the allotment. “And all the chickens have been rescued from battery farms.” Apparently Britain’s 20 million battery hens only have an 18-month productive life before they are slaughtered. Increasing numbers are now being rescued by the Battery Hen Welfare Trust (they’re either given away or sold for up to 50p each) and found new homes. With a little ‘TLC’ the hens recover physically from their ordeal and reward their new owners with fresh eggs.

“Almost anyone can keep chickens,” explains Rev David, “you don’t need an allotment like this. It would be great to see people across the city building pens and keeping rescued birds.”

It’s a popular prospect for many. Already David and Elaine are offering workshops in ethical poultry care and fox-proof pen construction. “Over a generation we’ve lost many of our basic skills,” explains Rev David, “looking after animals and growing and preparing fresh food would have been second nature, but fewer people now know how to do it. We’re trying to pass on some of those skills before they are lost forever.”

Over the last twelve months Elaine has hosted sessions with local volunteers, schoolchildren and young people on probation, demonstrating how to grow fruit and vegetables from seed, and most of all, how to prepare food for the dinner table.

As part of this month’s Food and Drink Festival Open Day, one visitor, Pushpa Lad, has come along to see what’s what amongst the leeks and marrows. “I’ve never been on an allotment before,” she confesses. “My husband is very interested in starting one up and I’ve come to take a look. I can imagine we’d grow coriander, spinach, aubergines, all sorts.”

Pushpa Lad, centre, with allotment volunteer, Elaine Gray and John Steadman of Gorton Horticultural Society

“What we’re striving towards,” says Rev David, “is a whole network of local producers who can not only satisfy their own needs but have sufficient surplus to feed vulnerable people across the city. We’re making connections between different groups to achieve this, and the community allotment here is just a small part of that broader picture.”

To find out more about the network of producers helping to feed the vulnerable, visit the “Pharoahs Barn” group on Facebook or email Rev David Gray on david@fn4m.org

The Battery Hen Welfare Trust is at www.bhwt.org.uk

On Sunday evening [13th September] friends and families gathered at Urbis in the city centre to cheer on 30 young men, who, months earlier, had been at a crucial crossroads in their lives.

Proud mum, Liz Shaw, spoke emotionally of the effect the innovative Reclaim programme has had on her son, Callum. “He was hanging around with all the wrong people, he just wanted to be a gangster,” she said. “It was very upsetting, I felt I was losing him. His school suggested he enrolled on the project and I was all for it, although Callum wasn’t sure at first.

Liz Shaw: "He's a different person."

“Now it’s as if he’s a different person, he’s changed dramatically. He’s just so grown-up and he’s a pleasure to be with. Reclaim has given me my son back.”

Reclaim is a leadership and mentoring scheme, designed and delivered by the exhibition centre, Urbis. In 2007 it began working with 13-14 year-old boys from Moss Side and followed that with a programme for girls from the same area. The Gorton Reclaim project started in February with 30 Year 8 boys.

At the start of each programme the young people come together and write their own ‘manifesto’ for their area: things they want done and a set of principles to follow. Heading the Gorton manifesto is a plea for ‘more facilities and activities’ as the participants – and others – feel Gorton is often overlooked when public funds are allocated. ‘Police to mix more with the community’, and ‘Don’t carry weapons or you’ll get yourself hurt’ give some indication of the choices these young men face in one of the city’s most disadvantaged communities.

Distributed around their area by the group themselves, the manifesto becomes a pledge for the next six months of intense activity. Reclaim pairs each boy with an adult mentor who supports them throughout the programme. Over the months the participants undertake personal and physical challenges, hear from motivational role models, get immersed in positive community activity and meet and lobby decision-makers from MPs to police chiefs.

Ruth Ibegbuna: "It doesn't stop here."

Since the 2007 Moss Side programme, Reclaim has been showered with awards. Developed by Ruth Ibegbuna, Community and Learning Director at Urbis, the project has won the Philip Lawrence Award and the National Crimebeat Award. Ruth herself has won Manchester Evening News’ Peace Activist of the Year Award.

At Sunday’s celebrations, Ruth reiterated to the ‘graduates’ that the six month project was, for them, just the beginning. “You don’t know this yet,” she said, “but we’ve teamed you all up with prestigious local employers in the area who will, for a day a week, give you work experience for the next two years.”

The Reclaim project will continue in Gorton after winning £450,000 this summer from the Government’s Inspiring Communities fund. Over two years the money will be spent on improving the educational prospects and employment opportunities of young people in Gorton South, and involving them in how their area is run.

For more information about Reclaim visit www.reclaimproject.org.uk

Reclaim has been supported by Manchester City Council, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Oglesby Charitable Trust, High Sheriff’s Police Trust, Learning and Skills Council, and the BBC, amongst others.

“Do you have any mousetraps?” asks one of Khalid’s regular customers. “You know, the old-fashioned kind. It’s for my son, he’s got a restaurant on one side of him and a takeaway on the other. He’s overrun with them.”

Despite being called Electrical Land, stallholder Khalid Anwar does indeed have wooden mousetraps amongst the stacks of CDs, scart leads and mobile phone accessories.

“Tell your son to use chocolate instead of cheese,” I suggest as the money changes hands. Khalid nods in agreement. “Chocolate? Are you winding me up?” exclaims his customer. “Do you know that from experience?”

It’s not the sort of conversation I could imagine having at the Tesco Extra checkout on the other side of the new car park, but here at the indoor Gorton Market it seems wholly appropriate to offer some friendly advice. And yes, I know from experience that chocolate works better than cheese.

Armed with her mousetraps, Dorothy Guy from West Gorton tells me she’s been coming to the market for as long as she can remember. This time last year she’d have done her shopping in the crumbling indoor market hall and what was left of the rickety outdoor stalls. All that is now parent and child spaces. This hall, with it’s 30-odd stalls, was formerly a Co-operative supermarket but converted by the City Council to a market hall as part of the new-look Gorton centre. Not everyone has been happy with the change.

“You’ve got to move with the times, haven’t you?” says Dorothy philosophically. “There’s still a good atmosphere here, there’s always plenty of banter.”

Khalid is less optimistic. “Before it was better,” he says, “more people came to the old place. I think there was more variety then.”

I remember visiting the old market in its final days and photographing the small businesses as they closed down, some for the last time. There was a lot of history on that site, a lot of good memories, but it looked dreadful… it was on its knees.

Sheila Goodwin: "I can carry much more stock and offer a better variety.”

Sheila Goodwin, who has run Goody Two Shoes with her husband since 1982, certainly prefers the new environment. “There’s no more loading and unloading, no more setting up and getting ‘weathered’. I can carry much more stock and offer a better variety.”

But, I ask, what about the customers? “We’ve lost a few and gained a few,” she says, “people don’t like change, do they? But this is the new way of shopping.”

Market Manager, Keith Payne, knows something about the ‘new way of shopping’. Although he’s only been here since the relaunch, he has an impressive track record. On his laptop in his back office he shows me graphs of monthly ‘footfall’ – it’s up for February – and outlines his plans to make Gorton a shopping destination.

“We’ve introduced an antique and craft table-top market on Wednesdays and Sundays,” he says, “and, in the service yard outside, there’s now a car boot sale every Sunday.”

After consulting with local businesses and residents he’s also considering launching an outdoor specialist street market. “It would add some colour and atmosphere to the overall shopping experience,” he says. “It’s got to be good for the community.”

Tesco, he suggests, should be seen as an opportunity rather than a threat. “Customers coming to the superstore are also impressed with what we have to offer, so that’s all positive.”

I have to admit I’m a supermarket man myself. I guess my shopping habits contribute to  what is, nationally, a downturn for markets. Although I hate the idea of giving yet more money to the big retailers, my distaste is outweighed by the in-out, grab-and-go opportunity. I’d love more chocolate versus cheese discussions but there just isn’t time.

Tesco’s influence on trade at the market is debated. Café owner, Pete Savori of the Manchester ice cream family, is unsure whether there are now more mouths to feed. His strategy is to offer something special: “We prepare simple, home-cooked food that’s fairly priced. Yes, we could always do with more customers but the market hasn’t been open a year yet, it’s still a work in progress.” His fish and chips are mouth-watering, better than any I’ve tasted in any supermarket café.

André Janjic: "Tesco has brought in new customers."

From stall to stall, it soon becomes clear than there are as many different opinions on the new market hall as there are traders. André Janjic took over his cooked meats business from his previous boss, John Singleton. “We still keep the name,” he says, “but I now own the business and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I love it. We’re in a good position here, just off the car park, and business has been good. Tesco has brought in new customers, there’s no doubt about it.”

The fish stall is not doing as well but, as Trevor Marshall of Hills Fish and Poultry explains, it’s more to do with the product itself. “The younger generation just don’t want to be bothered handling fresh fish,” he says. “Most of them just want a bag they can pop in the microwave: ping and ding, job done.” I feel my cheeks go the colour of the red snapper in front of me. Yes, I think I’m a ‘ping and dinger’. Trevor has been on the market for over 30 years, so he’s seen the trends. “There’s no way I could have stood here on a Friday chatting to you… there’d be a queue as long as you like…”

Trevor Marshall of Hills Fish: "It's just ping and ding nowadays."

What the markets have over their rivals – whether regular shops or supermarkets – is the atmosphere, the chat and the personal relationships that are established between shopper and trader. Ivy Buckley is in line to be served by her butcher, George Wiltshire, who is giving his customers an analysis of Man City’s performance last night. “Robinho was unlucky with that one off the bar, wasn’t he?”

“Oh, they’re all very pleasant and friendly,” Ivy says to me later, “in the supermarkets it’s all quick service and it never looks as fresh as in here.

“What do I get for doing this interview,” she quips, as she drops her sausages into her shopping bag, “… a leg of lamb!”

Link to Manchester Markets website