Mancpedia

Baguley

Baguley is a suburban area of Wythenshawe in south Manchester. It has been part of Greater Manchester since 1931, and in addition to its residential estates, Baguley is home to the Roundthorn Industrial Estate and Wythenshawe Hospital.

History

The earliest known reference to Baguley is in the Domesday Book (1086), when it was part of the Tunendune Hundred in Cheshire. Prior to the Norman conquest in 1066, the land was controlled by Anglo-Saxon thegns named Alward of Dunham, Pat, Sucga, and Woodman. Twenty years later (after the conquest), in 1086, Baguley was owned by Gilbert the Hunter and Hamon de Mascy.[1]

Baguley is recorded as being very roughly 180 acres (1.5 ploughlands), though this was calculated as the area that eight oxen could plough in a year so is very subjective. The Baguley estate was estimated to be worth 3 shillings annually to the lord.[1]

William de Bagele was a witness to a deed in Hale during the reign of Henry III (some point between 1216 and 1272), along with Allan de Tatton, Richard de Bromhall, Robert de Mascy, William de Karinton, Walter de Timperley, and Henry de Fulcha.[2]

Baguley is later seen on a 1660s map at the north-east boundary of the Bucklow Hundred, written as Baggeleigh.[3]

The Jacobite sympathiser Elizabeth Byrom details visiting with her uncle, Mr. Houghton of Baguley, numerous times in her 1745 diary.[4]

In the 1860s, the railway expanded to the Baguley area, connecting it to Manchester and further afield. This will have contributed to the rapid expansion of the area in the subsequent decades.

In 1930 the Manchester Corporation had a bill passed through Parliament, which expanded the boundary of Manchester to incorporate Wythenshawe and Northenden. This included the Baguley area, and so on 1st April 1931, Baguley went from being in Bucklow Rural District in the county of Cheshire to being part of Manchester in Greater Manchester.[5]

Toponymy

The name is Anglo-Saxon, and derives from Bagga- and -lēah. Bagga is an attested personal name, and lēah means a clearing in the woods. Therefore the meaning would have been Bagga's clearing in the woods, with a name roughly similar to Bagelei. Going deeper, Bagga is an Anglo-Saxon word for either 'badger' or a similar woodland creature, so the person was potentially named after animalistic traits, which was common in this era. There is an alternative explanation that it was a clearing full of badgers, but this is unlikely as the traditional Anglo-Saxon naming convention is the person's name followed by the description of their land.

Governance

During the middle ages, Baguley Hall was the residence of the lords of the manor, the Baguley family. They would have exercised manorial rights such as collecting rent and allocating land.

Public services

Policing

Baguley is policed by the South Manchester Division of Greater Manchester Police (GMP).[6] Historically, Baguley had its own police station on Hall Lane but this closed down and has since been re-developed into apartments. Currently the nearest police station is GMP Wythenshawe, but since February 2017 the public counter has been closed,[7] and so the nearest publicly accessible police stations are GMP Stretford and GMP Cheadle Heath.[8]

Healthcare

Baguley is served by the North West Ambulance Service, with the nearest ambulance stations in Altrincham, Sale and Sharston.[9] Baguley is also home to Wythenshawe Hospital, one of the major hospitals of the Greater Manchester region.

Boundaries

The western boundary is the Trafford border (neighbouring Altrincham, Timperley and Brooklands at Brooklands Roundabout). The eastern boundary is the south-eastern edge of Wythenshawe Park where it meets Junction 3A of the M56. The northern boundary is the southern edge of Wythenshawe Park. The southern boundary goes down to Manchester Airport, sticking to the west of the M56.

Transport

Tram

There are five Metrolink tram stops loosely in the Baguley area. They are Wythenshawe Park, Moor Road, Baguley, Roundthorn, and Martinscroft. The duration to ride a tram between each of these stops is only a minute or two.

Train

From the 1860s until the 1960, Baguley Railway Station served the local area. In modern-day the closest train stations would be Altrincham Railway Station, Navigation Road Railway Station and Gatley Railway Station, but these are a significant walk away.

Education

Sandilands Primary School and Dixons Brooklands Academy are in the Baguley area.

UK Parliament

Baguley is part of the Wythenshawe and Sale East parliamentary constituency, and has been represented by the Labour MP Mike Kane since 2014.[10]

Pubs

There are numerous pubs in the Baguley area, including the Jolly Butcher, the Gardeners Arms, the Black Boy, the Red Rose, the Firbank and Newall Green.

Roads

Altrincham Road is the main road running through Baguley, with Southmoor Road and Hall Lane heading south.

Watercourses

Baguley Brook and Fairywell Brook both run through Baguley, and meet at the north-west to become Sinderland Brook which runs through Timperley.

Sources

  1. Baguley, Open Domesday website, accessed 5th April 2026. ↩ ↩
  2. Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series Volume 56, The Pudsay Deeds: The Pudsays of Bolton and Barforth, and Their Predecessors In Those Manors (1916) ↩
  3. Blaeu Atlas Maior (1662-1665), Cestria Comitatvs Palatinvs ↩
  4. Richard Parkinson, The Journal of Elizabeth Byrom in 1745 (1857). ↩
  5. Stockport Advertiser, 3rd May 1935, Page 14. ↩
  6. Force Area Map, Greater Manchester Police, accessed 5th April 2026. ↩
  7. GMP to close public counters at ten police stations, Manchester Evening News, 6th December 2016, accessed 5th April 2026. ↩
  8. Find a police station, Greater Manchester Police, accessed 5th April 2026. ↩
  9. Our locations, North West Ambulance Service website, accessed 5th April 2026. ↩
  10. MPs Representing Wythenshawe and Sale East (Constituency) - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament, UK Parliament website, accessed 24th January 2026. ↩