Crowcroft Park is located 3 miles south of Manchester City Centre and actually lies just south of the Longsight - Levenshulme border. It is bounded on the west by Stockport Road, on the north by East Road, on the east by Northmoor Road. The southern boundary is marked by a conglomeration of side streets and Crowcroft Park School. There are a number of entrances to the park from each of its boundary roads. Within, Crowcroft Park is an unremarkable recreational area. It does not have a boating lake or a stream flowing through it. It does, however, have a childrens' playground in the northeast corner and bowling greens along the East Road boundary. It once boasted a Victorian bandstand and a structure known as the Summer Shed, an open-sided shelter with a roof supported on columns made from tree trunks.

B - Stockport Road	A - East Road
C - Northmoor Road	D - Crowcroft Park School

The images of: East Road, the former police station on Stockport Road, and Crowcroft Park School are shown with the permission of Les cotton.

Before Crowcroft Park was opened to the public as a recreational area it appears that this piece of land had an industrial use. Early maps of the area show a cluster of buildings identified as a "Cotton Manufactury". By 1842 though all of the buildings had been demolished clearing the way for the construction, at the beginning of the 20th century of a park for the enjoyment of the residents of Longsight and Levenshulme. Early post cards of the park show that it had bowling greens and a rather ornate band stand.

The image below was contributed by Graham Todd




Here is the "Summer House" with the bandstand in the distance.

Picture by Les Cotton, Wednesday, March 24, 1999

Crowcroft Park was like a trip to the country for the kids on our street. We were never allowed to venture as far afield as Birch Park or the highly exotic Platt Fields, with its boating lake, but as a gang we would often head off with a bottle of dandelion and burdock, some butties, and a bag of Smith's crisps with the little blue twist of salt inside, to spend the day at Crowcroft. We usually entered by going up the steps at the corner of Stockport Road and East Road (above).

Easily entertained in those days, we competed for chances to drink from the water tap, although we were careful to let it run to avoid the germs from those kids who stuck their mouth around the tap.

Susan (Chester) Dickert donated these picture taken in Crowcroft Park. The one above shows her brother sitting in the Summer Shed. Note the intials carved into the post.The playground can be seen in the distance. The one below features Susan and her best friend Barbara Reece sitting in Crowcroft looking towards the North Road entrance. Susan says, "The house on the extreme right (side view) is one of the two police houses that sat on a small croft. We are wearing our very first grown up outfits and thought we were really quite smart. Notice Barbara has a pair of high heeled shoes, I was very jealous. Picture was taken in 1962 so we were all of 12!!!! but that didn't faze us as we were convinced we were dead grown up."

The well-preserved former stables and buildings in Crowcroft Park, behind the top bowling green. Photograph donated by Graham Todd.