Whitefield, Greater Manchester

Template:GBdot Whitefield is a town in Bury Metropolitan Borough in Greater Manchester, England.

Originally part of the Earl of Wilton's estate which cut a swathe across north Manchester from his home at Heaton Hall. Whitefield is still very green. Most of the rolling acres are private golf courses (Whitefield and Stand Golf Clubs) although there is greenbelt protection to the southwest.

From Park Lane there is access to Philips Park (not to be confused with the other Philips Park in East Manchester) which includes a young childrens' play area, a decent undesignated area of mown grass and the Orangery surrounded by what is left of the ornamental gardens. The original house occupied by the Philips family was demolished in the mid 20th century but Philips Park Hall which is used for private functions and public events still stands. It also includes a large local nature reserve -[1] Click here [2] to see a map of the park.

Whitefield has only ever been a residential town and is one of the few places in Manchester where you will find £1m mansions and £50,000 ex-council houses within half a mile of each other. In recent years there has been a fair amount of new build on in-fill sites. There is a strong local community but nearby Prestwich is where most shop. The local Philips High School rates slightly higher than the UK average with 56 per cent of pupils getting 5 A-C GCSEs.

Whitefield is much favoured by the Jewish community who have a large settlement in the district. The district's proximity to the M60 Orbital Motorway and City of Manchester has ensured that there are many flourishing industries as well as retail parks located locally. There are at least two theories for the origin of the placename. One is that the name comes from the Flemish weavers who used to lay out their fabrics to bleach in the sun; the other relies on the fact that historically Whitefield has been a farming community of open fields and that the name is a corruption of "Wheatfields. The village is dominated by the splendid Stand Church, (All Saints CofE Church), which was a so-called 'Waterloo Church' fund, having been built to celebrate Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. The old district of Stand is also located in Whitefield, and used to be evidenced not only by All Saints, but by Stand Grammar School for Boys (now demolished), Stand Girls Grammar School (now Philips High School), Stand Cricket Club and Stand Lane.

Whitefield has expereinced several new commercial developments in 2005 with the old shopping precict demolished making way for a new gym Total Fitness and several new outlets, some of which have been leased out. Planning permission for a new Morrisons supermarket have been submitted, being built on land currently taken up by the disused Brand Centre (formerly Safeway) along with a methodist church, conservative club and numerous residential houses.

One local newspaper that covers the area of Whitefield (as well as neighbouring Prestwich and Radcliffe) is The Advertiser, a weekly free paper, based in Salford. Template:Manchester-geo-stub