The Godfrey Ermen Playing Field is the only open access green space of its kind in Abbey Hey, with a one-hundred year history, the centre of local community action, and home to an abundance of wildlife…this space has many stories to tell.
For those not in the know, Abbey Hey is an area of Gorton in Manchester known for several parks, the Wright Robinson College, allotments and a local donkey sanctuary. This is where ‘Friends of Godfrey Ermen’ members Anne and Clare live, and where they share with me the importance of the playing fields to the local community and the fight they won in 2018 to preserve the land.
Anne is a long-time resident who grew up here, she tells me what the playing field means to her: “This field has been part of my life for most of my life, my house backs on to it, my parents house backed on to it. I’ve met so many people here on the field.
“When my mum died it helped so much to be able to focus on saving the field for future generations. It was so healing for me. Before we had the inquiry I was so nervous for it, but I’d been on the field that morning and it was so calming and so beautiful.”
You need not look any further than the 2018 council inquiry to understand exactly what this area means to residents. A 100-page document details the uses of the field by local families and individuals who created memories there for several decades.
When developers made a planning application in 2016 for the erection of 170 homes on the site, the community responded. Although Manchester Council rejected the planning application, residents were concerned that developers would try again and again to build on the meadow and so made their own application for Village Green Status - and won. Not least because of the 140 questionnaires completed by those living in Abbey Hey who cherished the open green space.
Clare tells me: “There is something really special about community spirit here. As an outsider coming in there seems to be a really organic way of coming together. People are keen to maintain the space for everyone else.”
The ‘Friends of Godfrey Ermen’ hired a pro-bono solicitor to represent them in their application for Village Green Status which took two years to achieve. Achieving this status meant proving the land had been used for public recreation for at least 20 years. It was intended to protect the area from development and gave local people the legal right to use the land for lawful sports and pastimes without permission, force, or secrecy.
The field was originally conveyed to the Trustees of the Manchester and Salford Playing Fields Society in 1928. The purchase money for the field came from a charitable gift left by a wealthy Manchester mill-owner, Godfrey Ermen, who was honoured in the naming of the field.
The field was given over to local residents for open access use and what followed was almost 100-years of dog walking, courting young couples, tree-climbing, gardening, bird-watching, bonfires, den-making, blackberry-picking, playing sports, entertaining children, and even falling in love.
As well as the residents who enjoy visiting the field, it also houses an impressive amount of wildlife. Species and plant-life that have been spotted over the years include: bats, butterflies, sparrowhawks, kestrels, parakeets, crows, badgers, foxes, robins, long-tailed tits, woodpeckers, sparrows, dragonflies, damselflies, snails, toads, newts, and bees. There have also been bluebells, apple trees, cherries, and the field is described as the ‘green lung’ of Abbey Hey because of its rich biodiversity.
The space is more than a retreat for residents, or a sanctuary for flora and fauna, it is also a community collective with volunteers from the local church and students from the University of Manchester offering their time to maintain the field. It is also used by local group Rainbow Haven to host gardening and social activities for refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants.
Clare says: “A lot of people come from [Rainbow Haven] who are new to the area and need somewhere to connect or belong, or somewhere to get to know their neighbours. It is an intergenerational space.
“You don’t get a lot of places like this where older people and younger people can come together and work together. Where they can do what they want with the space.”
The ‘Friends of Godfrey Ermen’ hope to continue their efforts to preserve the field and host monthly volunteering days, the next of which takes place on Sunday 4th August.
You can find out more and get involved on Facebook HERE
Or Instagram HERE
