Vauxhall Gardens, Collyhurst - one day in September 1836
Perhaps the most persistent image of travel by hot air balloon that most of us have is that of Frank Morgan - aka the Wizard of Oz - lifting off from the Emerald City, leaving Dorothy and Toto to find their own way back to Kansas and Aunty Em. In 1900, when L. Frank Baum wrote the book upon which the Wizard of Oz film was based, the Wright brothers were still 3 years away from their first manned flight, so balloons were still not far from the cutting edge of aviation technology, but what about if we go back another 74 years, to 1836, a time when a hot air ascent could still draw huge crowds of spectators? Between Manchester and Blackley, to the left of Rochdale Road, is a patch of land that was once known as Vauxhall Gardens. The gardens had been opened at the end of the 18th century by Robert Tinker and they were at first known as Tinker's Gardens. In 1812 they were briefly called the Elysian Gardens, in honour of Wellington's Victory at Salamanca, but this did not catch on an...