Didsbury Road". During the Victorian expansion of Manchester, Didsbury developed as a prosperous settlement; a few mansions from the period still exist on Wilmslow Road between Didsbury village and Parrs Wood to the east and Withington to the north, but they have now been converted to nursing homes and offices. The opening of the Midland Railway line in 1880 contributed greatly to the rapid growth in the population of Didsbury, with stations at Didsbury and Withington and West Didsbury offering easy rail connections to Manchester Central. The line closed in 1967, although Didsbury station building remained standing until its demolition in
New Moston Road and Nuthurst Park. The archaic district of Theale Moor, lying partly in Chadderton, was also in this area. During the Middle Ages Theale Moor was the location of a violent land dispute that was only resolved when boundary stakes were set up on the common moorland. The name 'New Moston' originated in 1850 when the name was chosen by a building society which formed, purchased and laid out 57 acres of land to create a residential hamlet. It initially occupied an area on the eastern border of the historic township of Moston, bordering the Whitegate area of Chadderton and