What is the Fallowfield Loop?
The Fallowfield Loop is an off-road cycle path, pedestrian and horse riding route from Chorlton through Fallowfield and Levenshulme to Gorton and Fairfield in Manchester (see map of route). It is part of a national cycle network of routes and paths devloped and built by Sustrans. The Fallowfield Loop is part of route 55 of this network. Look for the following signs: The Fallowfield loop was previously part of the old ‘Manchester Central Station Railway’, built in the 1890s and closed in 1988. Friends President Eddie Johnsons book on the line describes the Loop as it was when steam trains ruled the rails. The cover shows a view of Fallowfield station in about 1950. Copies of the book are still available in local bookshops or contact the Friends. The line had lain derelict for many years until the late 1990s, when a group of cyclists started campaigning for its conversion to a traffic free ‘greenway’ across south Manchester.
