The University of Manchester has partnered with local community group to promote biodiversity in inner city Manchester.

Friends of Medlock Valley (FOMV) is a grass-roots community group dedicated to promoting, improving and defending one of Manchester’s best-kept secrets. Since the 1960s, the lower reaches of the River Medlock have been quietly transformed from an industrial wasteland into thirty acres of mature woodlands, wildflower meadows and peaceful riverside habitats, all lying on public land just a stone’s throw from the city centre. When the group was founded in 2021, the area was neglected and unloved, blighted by pollution and antisocial behaviour. Their mission is to make it the city’s most cherished and ecologically important green space by improving infrastructure, increasing footfall and protecting its biodiversity for years to come.

If you visit the valley today you will find a sculpture trail, a network of new ponds and a community allotment, as well as landscaped areas with benches and a young orchard. Previously, FOMV have worked in partnership with Manchester City Council, Step Up MCR and One Manchester. They have recently embarked on a new collaboration with The University of Manchester as part of a project called “Rewilding our Industrial Past”, led by Dr David Bailey from the University’s School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. This project is funded via the University’s Faculty of Humanities Strategic Civic Engagement Fund, the Faculty’s flagship Social Responsibility funding scheme.  

Home to thousands of trees and open grasslands, the Medlock Valley is one of the city’s wildest and most ignored spaces, with few signs of the state or local authorities such as bins, benches or signage. This project addresses the real risk that the area will be destroyed or compromised before it has been given the chance to become widely appreciated, inviting neighbouring communities to examine their local history and connection to the area through litterpicking, digging, planting, growing, recycling and composting, whilst improving access to and promoting the valley to encourage a much greater number of visitors. Beyond helping to secure the valley’s future in this way, it also aims to support local communities to live more sustainably with the enhancement of an existing shared allotment in the middle of a social housing estate in Beswick, supported by an outdoor cookery class and the planting of an orchard designed for a changing climate. The project aims to showcase how the spontaneous rewilding of the valley over the past 60 years can inspire simpler, more mindful ways of living than those embodied by the industrial ruins lying below ground.

This project aims to bring the University’s expertise and resources to scale up the group’s initiatives, with a series of workshops on historical memory through soil and trees, an appraisal of its ecological assets by staff in Earth Sciences at the University, and a durable set of information boards, wayfinders and artistic installations to embed the partnership within the community for years to come.

How to get involved

This semester the work is focused on improving access, pathways, creating trails and installing waymarkers. On 14 December at 12pm there will be a guided walk around the valley to showcase the new/improved trails, when Dr Bailey will talk through the aims of the project and announce the full programme of events scheduled for the spring and summer months. This will depart from Aden Close, M12 6WH.

You can also visit the area yourselves in the meantime, to help increase footfall and see the works in progress. FOMV is focused on the area between Pin Mill Brow, Viaduct Street and Palmerston street in the M4 and M16 postcodes. The valley continues upstream until it reaches the Etihad campus with further large green spaces along the way. The allotment, open to all, is located behind Aden Close and the sculptures can be found around the valley. See the map on FOMV’s website for details.