Louise Garman is delighted to be joining the Bury New Road Heritage Project.

The route from ‘Strangeways’ prison, along the ‘illegal designer’ stretch of warehouses, to the orthodox Jewish area of Broughton, to Prestwich village itself has no remarkable buildings, nor many other roadside attractions…until a sift through its history reveals the Road’s incredible links and legacy to cultural, artistic, political and sociological change…

Friedrich Engels, Mark E Smith, John Cooper Clarke, the Chartists, Morrissey, George Best, the Jacobites, New Order, Graham Gouldman, Bobby Charlton, David Beckham, Bugzy Malone, Nico and the Class of ’92 are just a few of the characters who have major connections with the Road…

This project, snappily titled Bury New Road, is about celebrating this culture…and making those thousands of people who travel up and down the route every day appreciate its specialness. Working in three community settings with specific groups on related issues…

Inmates at HMP Manchester – art or creative writing workshops on their relationship to the Road…

A Jewish women’s group, Alevai – to look at the history of immigration into the area and its cultural contribution…

A drop-in group from Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust to uncover stories linked with Prestwich village.

David Renwick, Director, England North, at The National Heritage Lottery Fund, said:

“We are thrilled to support the Bury New Road project with a £29,376 grant, to celebrate the remarkable social and cultural heritage of this area. This project will provide opportunities for the local community to better understand their own history and discover new elements in the process.”

The project has also received funding from the Granada Foundation.

There will also be open physical and online workshop events for the wider community to get involved, telling their stories and showing their photos and artefacts. There will also be interviews with those protagonists who are still alive…Peter Hook (New Order), John Cooper Clarke, Bugzy Malone, Graham Gouldman etc…

Louise Joins the team that includes former Coronation Street actor, Nigel Pivaro, (his father also managed the Whisky A Go Go Club on Bury New Road that had Jimmy Saville’s club above and was subsequently burnt down by gangsters).

Stephen Kingston – a music, lifestyle writer/investigative journalist who has written for The Times, Elle, Manchester Evening News (etc) and was the last journalist to interview Morrissey while he was still with The Smiths (about the Strangeways album). Books include High Flyers:ClubRavePartyArt, while he was also editor of the Salford Star for 15 years. Stephen has lived on and around Bury New Road for most of his life.

Alice Searle – written two sold out books about Kersal Moor, lives a few yards from Bury New Road and led the National Lottery funded Irwell Valley Mining Project which included a permanent monument for Agecroft Colliery.

For more info visit http://burynewroad.org