The village of Timperley once was in the county of Cheshire but now makes up part of the borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester.
It was considered to be in the parish of Bowdon until 1936 when Timperley was realigned and added to Altrincham instead. Timperley Village is popular now as a place to live in South Manchester because of its exceptional transportation links. The main road leads directly to Manchester ( A56) and there is a tramlink. These transport links were important in the history of Timperley, the Bridgewater canal passes through Timperley and served as a way of transporting heavy goods in the Victorian times
The name Timperley is believed to be derived from two words Timber and Leah, which is thought to mean wooded glade, the spelling may have been changed over the years.
The Timperley landscape was attractive to the Anglo Saxons that came from the South in the seventh century and they settled and would have mixed with the original Britons, and in the ninth century Norwegian and Swedish ( Norse) arrivals settled here also, these Norse people came from the Isle of Man and Ireland and in the tenth century Danes also came from the East. The Romans built roads and settlements all over the UK and the existing road ( A56) that runs through Timperley to Manchester is the original Roman road that connected Manchester to the roman fortress at Chester.
The area surrounding Timperley belonged to Thegn Alweard a Saxon ruler until the Norman Invasion in 1066 then it passed to Hamon de Massey and the lands remained in the de Massey family until 1340 when they were inherited by the Earl of Stamford.
For most administrative purposes Timperley is nowadays considered part of Altrincham and this came about in the 1900’s because of the housing expansion in Altrincham, Timperley had farmlands and was close by and so Timperley lost its farms to housing construction
Vestiges of Timperley’s farming heritage remain – in the mid 1700’s the area was famous for market gardening and was the principle provider of vegetables to Victorian Manchester. Timperley Rhubarb was named for the early rhubarb that could be harvested in January and February in the Northern cold , similarly Bowdon Down potatoes and Altrincham Carrots. Strawberries, onions, and celery were also very popular crops in the area. The Bridgewater Canal was instrumental in the market garden success of Timperley because it provided transportation of the crops. As much as 16 square miles of land around Timperley were market gardens in 1851 producing 8 tonnes of onions and potatoes per year.
With the appearance of the railways in the mid 19th century came an explosion in the population, the population of the area doubled in twenty years.
The Bridgewater Canal is today a leisure area and the tow paths have been renovated for cycling, walking and hiking and the canals provide fishing rowing and long boating. In Victorian times the canal was the first commercial canal in Britain and was constructed by the Duke of Bridgewater to carry coal from his mines in Worsley into Manchester. Forty miles long the canal is unusual because it has no locks along its length. In Victorian times all the market produce from Timperley as well as coal and other heavy commercial goods were transported by canal.