Didsbury building's reputation, became known locally as "the gates to Hell". The parsonage became a museum, now closed, but the gardens are still open to the public. The area around St James' Church has the highest concentration of listed buildings in Manchester, outside the city centre. Didsbury was one of the few places between Stretford and Stockport where the River Mersey could be forded, which made it significant for troop movements during the English Civil War, in which Manchester was on the Parliamentarian side. The Royalist commander, Prince Rupert, stationed himself at Didsbury Ees, to the south of Barlow Moor. It
Didsbury, Alberta group who came west in 1894. 1897 saw the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which pushed forward the town's development. The CPR constructed a station in the town in 1904. Didsbury was incorporated as a village in 1905 and as a town on September 6, 1906. Fires in 1914 and 1924 destroyed the early "boomtown" commercial streetscape and led to the passing by Town Council of a bylaw which required masonry construction for all new downtown commercial buildings. Many of these brick buildings stand today. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Didsbury