Monton

Geography and administration

Historically in Lancashire, Monton was administered by the municipal borough of Eccles until its abolition in 1974. The name Monton is of Saxon origin.

A conservation area includes Monton Green; the Unitarian Church and a former school with caretaker’s house; a lodge, built in 1875 to the Earl of Ellesmere’s former estate, and a club-house with bowling green. The Green, once used as common land, is now formally laid out as gardens and lawns.

Community

The community is represented by the Monton Village Community Association, originally named the Monton Traders' Association, it was renamed to include both residents and traders.

The association has a gardening group that maintains the flowerbeds and greens on a voluntary basis. The association organises an annual themed festival on the first Saturday of July each year and a parallel music festival which was in 2008 from 26 June to 6 July. The festival presents all genres of music from classical to Indie. The Monton Music Festival was then combined into the larger Salford Music Festival. Recently alongside the gentrification of Salford a number of popular bars and restaurants have opened up in the village attracting new trade into the village from the surrounding areas.

Churches

The Anglican church in Monton is dedicated to St Paul the Apostle.

The present Unitarian Church is the fourth church on the site. It was built in the early 1870s and is renowned for its stained glass windows. The south Transept shows the Sermon on the Mount with four smaller windows beneath depicting

The north transept shows Jesus and Children-‘Suffer the Little Children’; and Jesus and Peter – ‘Feed my Sheep’. The clerestory windows on the north side show famous men from the Greek, Roman, Renaissance and Modern periods. On the south side, the clerestory windows show representatives from the Early Christian, Roman Catholic, Anglican and nonconformist traditions.

After the Act of Uniformity 1662 Edmund Jones, Vicar of Eccles, was an ejected minister. He and others continued to meet in the Eccles area including Monks Hall. He was imprisoned for his non-conformity and his congregation reported to the local magistrate. He died in 1674.

When William and Mary acceded to the throne, the Act of Toleration was passed which allowed nonconformity to be practised under licence. The Eccles Presbyterians appointed a minister and met in a series of private buildings. In 1698 the Lomax and Fildes families, long-term members of the congregation, bought a plot of land at Monton Green. A simple chapel was built and licensed in July 1698.

In the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion a band of over 100 Jacobites, supporters of the Old Pretender, ransacked the church, having previously destroyed Cross Street Chapel in Manchester. The congregation claimed compensation from the government and rebuilt a bigger and better church. The Rev. Jeremiah Aldred was minister until his death in 1729. His tombstone can be seen in the churchyard.

The congregation's religious views changed from Calvinism through Arianism to the appointment of their first Unitarian minister Harry Toulmin in 1786. In 1813 Unitarianism was legalised and the Nonconformists' Chapels Act 1844 secured the places of worship to Unitarians, allowing the congregation at Monton to officially call themselves Unitarians.

The second chapel was demolished around 1800. The third chapel was built in 1802 and survived until 1875 when the present church was built.

Transport

There was a railway station in Monton called Monton Green, which was part of the Tyldesley Loopline, running from Eccles through Worsley and Leigh to Roe Green. The station opened on 1 November 1887 and was closed under the Beeching Axe on 5 May 1969. Monton Green Station was located on an embankment, just off Monton Green, the railway running parallel with the Bridgewater Canal. All traces of the station have long since been removed. However, the embankment on which the station was situated is still there and now forms the starting point of the Recreation Pathways scheme, run by Salford City Council. The loopline now forms part of cycle route 55.

The village of Monton is now served by rail services passing through the railway stations at Patricroft and at Eccles, along the Manchester Victoria-Liverpool Lime Street railway line.

Bus services also serve the village, while the nearest Metrolink station is in Eccles (approximately 15 minute walk).

Landmarks

The local landmarks include the Unitarian Church and the locally named "Old Man's Shelter"

both on Monton Green. The Monton Shelter was completed in June 1930 following a campaign by the local vicar and a local Councillor for a shelter where 'Veterans of Industry' could meet during inclement weather. A more recent addition is the Lighthouse built in recent years next to the Bridgewater Canal.

Sport

Monton & Weaste Cricket Club play in Ellesmere Park.