The Manchester Golf Club

The Manchester Golf Club sits at Hopwood Park in Middleton, on the northern edge of Greater Manchester where the city's built-up area gives way to the West Pennine Moors and the borough of Bury beyond. This is transitional country, suburban streets and light industry to the south giving way within a few miles to open moorland and Pennine foothill farmland, a pattern repeated all along Manchester's northern boundary from Bury through to Rochdale. Middleton itself has a long history as a weaving and cotton town, one of many Greater Manchester settlements whose growth was tied directly to the textile industry that dominated this part of Lancashire before county boundaries were redrawn. A club named for the city rather than the town it actually sits in reflects how closely bound Middleton became to Manchester's economic orbit during that period. Its position close to the M60 orbital motorway and the routes north towards Bury and Rochdale makes it accessible from across the conurbation, while the higher ground immediately to the north offers a markedly different, more rural backdrop than central Manchester itself.