Heritage
Heritage Centre Logo
St. Antony's Centre is a community based Centre serving the industrial, business and faith community of Trafford Park and the surrounding areas. alongside this, we are also home to Trafford Park Heritage Centre and archive and we are the only Centre that celebrates the heritage and cultural aspects of inductrial life in the Park.
The residential area of the Park had been known as the "Village" and consisted of twelve streets and four avenues accomodating a unique community with its own churches, library, working mens club, police station, clinic, schools and wash house.The area fell to development in the late 1980's and the last residents left the area in 1982.
As the residential community began to leave the Park, the Director of our Centre started to collect and record the history of the people who lived or worked in the Park. By doing so, we were able to relive this history of the area and tell the story of the Park when it had been at its height.
The industrial history of the Park is also unique. Trafford Park was home to the first Ford factory outside of North America and the Centenary of this has just passed. Between 1911 and 1931 over 300,000 Model T cars were produced in the plant. Other well known and large companies who chose to locate in Trafford Park include Metropolitan Vickers, GEC, Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), Kellogg's, Ciba Geigy, Carborundum, Proctor & Gamble, Glovers Cables and Kraft Foods. This turned the area into the largest industrial park in Europe.
The Centre continues to record the on-going history of Trafford Park with the help of Trafford Park Heritage Committee. The Committee is made up of former residents and representatives of local history societies who work to maintain the social and industrial legacy of Trafford Park and the surrounding areas.
As part of the heritage project, the Centre retains a permanent display of photographs, artefacts and memorbillia in its reception and corridoor area. We rely heavily on loans and donations from members of the public and are always looking to expand our collection of items relating to the history of Trafford Park. The archive of photographs is currently undergoing a cataloging process and therefore is not fully available to view however requests for information can be made by letter or email. A small charge is made for reproducing documents and for research and all proceeds go towards supporting the Trafford Park Heritage Project.
The Heritage Centre has staged some major exhibitions over the years including the Ship Canal Centenary, the Trafford Park Centenary and more recently, the Ford Centenary. A number of exhibitiions are held each each year and the theme always covers the history of Trafford Park.
The Centre carries a stock of Heritage publications and other Trafford Park memorobilia which can be purchased over the counter or via post, Cheques are to be made payable to St. Antony's Centre and postage costs will be extra, If you would like to view a sample of our current publications and sales items click here.