Toponymy Chorlton probably means Ceolfrith's farm or settlement from the
Old English personal name and
tūn, an enclosure, farmstead or village. Hardy is derived from a personal name, Hearda, and
ēg,
Anglian for island or dry ground in a well-watered land. It has alternatively been suggested that Hardy may mean "by the woods", in reference to the ancient forest of Arden Wood that grew on both sides of the
River Mersey in the area. Chorlton was recorded as Chollirton in 1250, Chollerton from 1292 and as Chourton in 1572. It was also noted down as Chawerton on a map of the
Salford Hundred by John Speed in 1610. The ancient hamlets of Chorlton and Hardy, separated by the
Chorlton Brook, together with Martledge and
Barlow Moor, did not come under the combined name of Chorlton-cum-Hardy (
cum is Latin for "with") until the 18th century; local historian Cliff Hayes reports that he can find no mention of Chorlton-cum-Hardy before 1700. The name was adopted by Victorian property developers who arrived in the wake of the coming of the railway in 1880, to distinguish this Chorlton from
Chorlton-on-Medlock. The form Chorlton with Hardy was used to some extent from the early 19th century onwards and in the early years of the 20th.
Early history The district was part of the kingdom of
Northumbria from the 7th century, but settlement in the Mersey valley may well have been later. Thomas L. Ellwood suggested 610 AD as the date of founding the settlement, but John Lloyd in his 1972 history considered the period 610 to 900 AD more likely. The area now known as Chorlton-cum-Hardy comprises the ancient settlements of Chorlton along with Hardy and Barlow to the south on the north side of the Mersey The estimated population in 1640 was 85; in 1714 it was 325. The 1801 census recorded 513 inhabitants, and the 1811 census 619: by 1851 it had increased to 761. The
Tithe Commissioners' survey carried out in 1841 provides details of the size and tenure of every piece of land. The tithe map reveals the township had two major landowners: Wilbraham Egerton of Tatton owned 888 acres and George Lloyd 231, the rest was shared between 21 others. Most land was meadow and pasture while 490 acres was arable. Many small landowners owned orchards or market gardens. At this time the village consisted of its ancient halls and scattered farms centred on Chorlton Green and Beech Road and a few buildings on Barlow Moor Road. Its public houses were the Bowling Green, built in 1693, and the Horse and Jockey, which was licensed in the early 19th century.
Marl had been dug in Martledge since at least 1598; the disused pits filled with water gave the area its common name of the Isles. The Chorlton Brick Company was established there in the early part of the 20th century and continued producing bricks for about forty years. Turf-cutting was a significant industry in Martledge, as well as in the White Moss and Jackson's Moss areas.
Suburban growth Until the last quarter of the 19th century, Chorlton's population had increased slowly. When the railway reached neighbouring Stretford in 1849, upmarket villas were built on a flood-free area in Edge Lane and High Lane. Wilbraham Road was built in 1869 to connect the
Egerton holdings across Withington from Edge Lane to
Fallowfield. The
Midland Railway built a line from
Manchester Central through
Chorlton station which opened on 1 January 1880. Over the following decade land close to the station was developed for residential and commercial purposes centred on the Barlow Moor Road/Wilbraham Road crossroads, northeast of the old village centre. Houses built in the 1880s attracted more affluent residents who worked in
Manchester city centre to high quality homes in a more rural area. Now that there were two centres reference was sometimes made to Old Chorltonians and New Chorltonians for their respective residents.
Irish immigrants came to work in the expanding industries of Manchester, in small-scale horticulture and farming and
domestic service. They brought
Roman Catholicism, and by the first decade of the 20th century a church (St Augustine's) and convent school had been established on High Lane. Further growth was aided by the arrival of
Manchester Corporation's tramway before the First World War: a terminus was built on Barlow Moor Road a short distance south of the junction with High Lane.
Chorltonville was developed as a garden suburb south of
Chorlton Brook: the houses are mostly large and semi-detached and individual in design, standing on tree-lined roads.
Alexandra Park Aerodrome (1917–24), was Manchester's first major airfield located east of the Midland Railway overbridge on Mauldeth Road West. After the First World War came a period of residential development to the east of the new village on either side of Wilbraham Road and a council housing estate at
Merseybank. The
Ashby, a two-seater light car, was produced in Chorlton-cum-Hardy by Victor Ashby and Son from 1922 to 1924. From the 1960s onwards a council estate at Nell Lane near Southern Cemetery and patchy redevelopment in other areas were completed. There has been immigration particularly from the
Indian subcontinent and from
Poland; the Polish community arrived in the 1950s and 1960s. In 2025 a plan to redevelop the main Chorlton Cross shopping centre with 262 homes, in ten-, eight-, six-, and four-storey blocks was approved by
Manchester City Council. This would have 56 one-, 135 two-, and 15 three-bedroom apartments at market rates and 16 one-bed and 33 two-bed flats at affordable rates managed by the
Southway Housing Trust. ==Governance==