Manchester City Council

Birchfields Park was acquired by the City Council in 1887 for £9,930 from local landowner Sir William Anson for the creation of a public park, and formerly opened by Prince Albert in 1888.

Clearly divided by Gore Brook, the park has been transformed with an investment of £160,000 to create a new children's play area, new sports area, a skateboarding facility, new bins and benches as well as shrub clearance and tidying up the entrances and parkways. One of Manchester's first circular bowling greens was sited in Birchfields Park, an area today home to a stone garden and natural habitat.

The site's main landscape elements include a large area of amenity grassland enclosed by mature woodland, trees in grass, unimproved grassland, a wildflower meadow and a woodland garden. A definitive feature of the park is the lime tree avenue along Gore Brook, which makes a delightful walk when the trees are in flower and the air is heavily scented from the green-yellow lime tree blossoms.

A prominent fixture and a local mystery is the huge boulder weighing in at 13 tonnes. This boulder was uncovered during excavations by a building contractor on the local estate and was presented to the park as an object of curiosity. The park also houses the City of Stone, a building section set in a woodland scene signifying the coming together of the city and nature.

The densely populated local residential and student community use Birchfields Park primarily for skateboarding, informal football and basketball. The park has a dedicated and active Friends group, the Friends of Birchfields Park, who work with Manchester Leisure on the improvement and promotion of the site.