Travel & Tourism

Manchester Half Marathon 2023 – road closures and timings ahead of huge race

Good luck to everyone running!

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 12th October 2023

The Manchester Half Marathon will return to the city this weekend, with thousands of runners ready to pound the pavements.

Spanning a length of the region south of the city centre that passes through Chorlton, Sale, Stretford, and Castlefield, the route takes in a lot of local landmarks.

Runners will be treated to on-course entertainment on Sunday 15 October to spur them on to the finish line, from DJs and choirs to a team of Pace Runners.

Science in Sport will be on hand handing out GO Energy gels at specific water stations along the route.

Manchester Half Marathon is loved globally for being the UK’s flattest course, making it even easier to hit a PB.

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There’s an event village with amenities and plenty of goodies handed out as you finish your 13.1 mile run.

The Manchester Half Marathon is a class event for the region – but it also comes with a number of associated road closures, with Manchester City Council now sharing a full list of the roads that will be impacted by the huge race.

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Some road closures on the half marathon route itself will start on Saturday, with more in place on Sunday.

The Manchester Half Marathon 2023 road closures mapped

Manchester Half Marathon 2023 estimated start times

  • Elite Wheelchair – 08:55
  • Elite – 09:00
  • White – 09:00
  • Red – 09:09
  • Red B – 09:18
  • Pink A – 09:27
  • Pink B – 09:36
  • Blue A – 09:45
  • Blue B – 09:54
  • Orange – 10:03

Manchester Half Marathon 2023 road closures in full

Road closures for Manchester Half Marathon 2023. Credit: Manchester Half Marathon
Road closures for Manchester Half Marathon 2023. Credit: Manchester Half Marathon

Schedule #1: No vehicles (road closed) 

Applies 8am Saturday 14 October until 6pm Sunday 15 October 

  • Brian Statham Way, Stretford along its entire length  
  • A5014 Talbot Road, Stretford from Great Stone Road to White City Way  
  • Warwick Road, Stretford from Barlow Road to A5014 Talbot Road 

Schedule #2: No waiting 

Applies 6pm Friday 13 October until 6pm Sunday 15 October 

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  • Brian Statham Way, Stretford along its entire length 
  • Warwick Road, Stratford along its entire length  
  • Railway Terrace and Buckingham Road, Chorlton from Manchester Road to Clarendon Road West 

Schedule #3: No vehicles (road closed) 

Applies 3am until 6pm on Sunday 15 October 

  • A56 Bridgewater Way, Stretford from A56 Chester Road to A56 Chester Road  
  • A56 Chester Road, Stretford and Manchester from A56 Bridgewater Way to A56 Bridgewater Viaduct 
  • A56 Bridgewater Viaduct, Manchester from A56 Chester Road to A56 Deansgate.  
  • A56 Deansgate, Manchester from A56 Bridgewater Viaduct to John Dalton Street I Quay Street A56 Chester Road, Stretford from A56 Bridgewater Way to A56 Cross Street  
  • A56 Cross Street from A56 Chester Road to A56 Washway  
  • A56 Washway Road from Marsland Road to A56 Cross Street  
  • A5014 Talbot Road, Stretford from A56 Chester Road to A5104 Stretford Road  
  • A5067 Stretford Road, Stretford from A5104 Talbot Road to Henry Road  
  • A5104 Chester Road, Stretford from Bridgewater Way to A5104 Talbot Road  
  • A5063 White City Way from A5104 Talbot Road to A56 Chester Road  
  • Chester Road, Stretford from Bridgewater Way to A5104 Talbot Road  
  • A5067 Chorlton Road, Hulme from Royce Road to A56 Chester Road (Deansgate Interchange) 
  • Jackson Crescent, Hulme from A5067 Chorlton Road to Barrhill Close  
  • A57(M) Westbound off slip from (A57(M) to A56 Chester Road (Deansgate Interchange)  
  • A57(M) Eastbound off slip from (A57(M) to A56 Chester Road (Deansgate Interchange)  
  • Castlegate from A56 Chester Road  
  • Great Jackson Street from A56 Chester Road to Silvercroft Street  
  • Deansgate from A56 Deansgate to Owen Street  
  • Castle Street from A56 Deansgate to Duke Street  
  • 86469 Whitworth Street West from A56 Deansgate to Bugle Street  
  • Bridgewater Street from A56 Deansgate to Collier Street  
  • Trafford Street from A56 Deansgate to Century Street  
  • A6143 Liverpool Road from A56 Deansgate to Southern Street  
  • Great Bridgewater Street from A56 Deansgate to Watson Street  
  • Tonman Street from A56 Deansgate to Longworth Street  
  • Camp Street from A56 Deansgate to Longworth Street  
  • St John Street from A56 Deansgate to Longworth Street  
  • A34 Quay Street from A56 Deansgate to Little Quay Street  
  • A34 Peter Street from A56 Deansgate to Windmill Street  
  • A34 Oxford Street from A34 Peter Street to Portland Street  
  • Jerusalem Place from A34 Peter Street to Bootle Street  
  • Atkinson Street from A56 Deansgate to Little Quay Street  
  • Lower Moss Lane from A56 Chester Road to Bramfield Walk  
  • Barrack Street from A56 Chester Road to Tatton Street  
  • Hulme Hall Road from Ellesmere Street to A56 Chester Road  
  • Manson Avenue from A56 Chester Road to Malt Street  
  • Malt Street from A56 Chester Road to Manson Avenue  
  • Ellesmere Street from A56 Chester Road to Hulme Hall Road  
  • Trentham Street from A56 Chester Road to Dinton Street  
  • Princess Street from Bridgewater Way to Nancey Street 
  • Cornbrook Road from A56 Chester Road to Dinton Street  
  • A5063 Trafford Road from A56 White City Circle to Pamona Strand  
  • Pamona Strand from A5063 Trafford Road  
  • A5063 Trafford Road from Pamona Strand to Trafford Wharf Road  
  • A5081 Wharfside Way from Sir Matt Busby Way to Trafford Road (White City Circle)  
  • Davyhulme Road East, Stretford from Haig Road to A56 Chester Road  
  • Derbyshire Lane, Stretford from Cyprus Street to A56 Chester Road  
  • A5145 Edge Lane, Stretford from A56 Chester Road to Kingshill Road  
  • A5145 Kingsway, Stretford from Barton Road to Stretford Mall to A56 Chester Road  
  • A5181 Barton Road, Stretford from A56 Chester Road to A5145 Kingsway  
  • Chapel Lane, Stretford from Barton Road to A56 Chester Road  
  • Sandy Lane, Stretford from Elm Drive to Barton Road  
  • Chapel Road, Sale from A56 Cross Street to Tatton Place  
  • Ashfield Road, Sale from A56 Cross Street to Curzon Road  
  • Ashfield Road, Sale from Claremont Road to Tatton Road  
  • Woodlands Road, Sale from Broad Road to B5166 Northenden Road  
  • 85166 Northenden Road, Sale from Woodlands Road to School Road  
  • 85166 School Road, Sale from 85166 Northenden Road to Springfield Road  
  • B5166 Springfield Road Sale from Tatton Road to 90 metres south of School Road  
  • Tatton Road, Sale from Chapel Road to Springfield Road  
  • Tatton Place, Sale from Chapel Road to Tatton Road  
  • Broad Road, Sale from Northenden Road to Selworth Avenue  
  • Temple Road, Sale from Broad Road to Dane Road  
  • Dane Road, Sale from Amesby Avenue (west end) to A56 Cross Street  
  • Glebelands Road, Sale from Florence Street to A56 Chester Road  
  • Kings Road, Stretford from Edge Lane to Tresco Avenue  
  • Lime Road, Stretford from Edge Lane to Granby Road  
  • Ryebank Road, Chorlton from Edge Lane to Daresbury Road  
  • Hampton Road, Chorlton from Edge Lane to Daresbury Road  
  • A6010 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton from Edge Lane to Albany Road  
  • Oswald Road, Chorlton from Wilbraham Road to Vincent Avenue  
  • Whitelow Road, Chorlton from Wilbraham Road to York Road  
  • Manchester Road, Chorlton from Wilbraham Road to Nicolas Road  
  • Brundretts Road, Chorlton from Wilbraham Road to Groby Road  
  • B5217 Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton from Groby Road to B5217 Manchester Road 
  • Nicolas Road, Chorlton from Manchester Road to B5217 Manchester Road  
  • B5217 Manchester Road, Chorlton from Barlow Moor Road to Seymour Grove  
  • Longford Road, Chorlton from Manchester Road to Oswald Road  
  • Brantingham Road, Chorlton from Manchester Road to Keppel Road  
  • Claridge Road, Chorlton from Manchester Road to Oswald Road  
  • Ransfield Road, Chorlton from Manchester Road to Oswald Road  
  • Kensington Road, Chorlton from Manchester Road to Oswald Road  
  • Cheltenham Road, Chorlton from Manchester Road to Oswald Road  
  • Railway Terrace, Chorlton from Manchester Road to Clarendon Road West  
  • Buckingham Road, Chorlton, from Manchester Road to Clarendon Road West  
  • MacAuley Road Chorlton from Manchester Road to Crimsworth Avenue  
  • Stratton Rood, Chorlton from Manchester Road to Strathmore Avenue  
  • Woodside Road, Chorlton from Manchester Road to Stratton Road  
  • 85217 Seymour Grove from A5104 Talbot Road to Manchester Road  
  • B5218 Upper Chorlton Road, Stratford from Seymour Road to Egerton Road North  
  • Darley Road, Stretford from Seymour Grove to Chatham Road 
  • Rye Bank Road, Stretford from Seymour Grove to Northleigh Road  
  • Chatham Road, Stretford from Seymour Grove to Wellington Crescent  
  • Brooks Road, Stretford from Seymour Grove to Wordsworth Road  
  • Welney Road, Stretford from Seymour Grove to Basford Road  
  • Kings Road, from Wordsworth Road to Basford Road  
  • Ayres Road, Stretford from Auburn Road to Skerton Road  
  • Lime Grove, Stretford from Seymour Grove to Skerton Road  
  • Tennis Street, Stretford from Seymour Grove to Skerton Road  
  • Elsinore Road, Longford from Seymour Grove to Skerton Road 

Schedule #4: No waiting 

Applies 11pm Saturday 14 October until 6pm Sunday 15 October 

  • A5104 Chester Road, Stretford from A56 Bridgewater Way to A5104 Talbot Road  
  • 85217 Seymour Grove from A5104 Talbot Road to Manchester Road  
  • A56 Deansgate from Whitworth Street to King Street West  
  • A56 Cross Street from Glebelands to A56 Washway Road 
  • A56 Washway Road from A56 Chester Road to A56 Cross Street  
  • 85166 Northenden Road, Sale from Derbyshire Road to School Road  
  • 85166 School Road, Sale from Northenden Road to Tatton Road  
  • Tatton Road, Sale from Springfield Road to Tatton Place  
  • Tatton Place, Sale from Tatton Road to Chapel Road  
  • Chapel Road, Sale from Tatton Road to A56 Cross Street  
  • Broad Road, Sale from Northenden Road to Selworth Avenue  
  • Temple Road, Sale from Broad Road to Dane Road  
  • Dane Road, Sale from Amesby Avenue (west end) to A56 Cross Street  
  • A5145 Edge Lane, Stretford from A56 Chester Road to Wilbraham Road  
  • A6010 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton from Edge Lane to Barlow Moor Road  
  • 85217 Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton from Wilbraham Road to B5217 Manchester Road  
  • 85217 Manchester Road, Chorlton from Barlow Moor Road to Seymour Grove 

Featured image: Manchester Half Marathon

Travel & Tourism

Manchester Museum has been shortlisted for the 2024 Art Fund Museum of the Year

Danny Jones Danny Jones Manchester Museum shortlisted for Museum of the Year 2024

Another bit of very well-deserved recognition for our city as the Manchester Museum has been shortlisted for the 2024 Art Fund Museum of the Year.

Organised by the independent and membership-based British charity, which raises funds through the collection of important works and artefacts, it’s world the single largest museum prize in the world.

Shining as one of the crown jewels in Manchester’s cultural scene, the museum has been named among five other impressive finalists for this year’s award, which is evaluating inspiring projects from autumn 2022 through to winter 2023.

This wonderful news comes at a good time for Manchester Museum, which recently welcomed its one-millionth visitor since reopening to the public in February last year, following a £15 million values-led redevelopment. It really is back with a bang.

With Art Fund keeping audiences and communities at their heart, the highly revered accolade has a particular focus on community engagement, sustainable ways of working, and demonstration of ambition by reinventing what it means to be ‘the best’ museum for the audiences of today and tomorrow.

For context, the Manchester Museum (which sits as part of the University of Manchester) was the most visited indoor museum in the North of England throughout 2023, despite being shut for an entire month, welcoming a total of 790,332 people through their doors.

Speaking on this year’s selection, director Jenny Waldman, who heads up the 2024 judging panel, has applauded each of this year’s finalists for delivering “something for everyone” and keeping “community at the very heart of their programming.”

“Their commitment to innovative partnerships whilst operating within an extremely challenging funding environment is incredible”, she added. “I’m so pleased to see the way they support and centre young people through their work.

“Across a wide range of size and scale, these organisations are all real leaders in their field. I urge everyone to go and visit these extremely special spaces.” So do we.

name of the t-rex manchester museum
We’d recommend going along to Stand the T-Rex alone
manchester museum up for art fund annual award
You’ve got to see the giant Japanese spider crab
(Credit: Manchester Museum/Matthew via Flickr)

As for the museum themselves, Director Esme Ward said of the announcement: “Manchester Museum’s redevelopment was the result of 10 years’ collective endeavour, so being shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year is a moment of joy for everyone to share in, from staff and partners to our communities and Manchester itself.

“It is an affirmation of museums’ power to bring people together in building a more inclusive, hopeful future.”

Built on self-proclaimed values of “inclusion, imagination and care”, the museum’s recent reopening has positioned it at the forefront of the sector here in the UK, with new galleries, partnerships, visitor facilities, sector-leading programming and digital innovations.

These updates, along with their existing and award-winning South Asia Gallery – the largest and first permanent gallery in the UK to celebrate the experiences and contribution of the South Asian diaspora co-curated by members from the community itself – are what have helped put it in the running for this prestigious prize.

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Visitor numbers for the first year following reopening were up 157% on 2019/20, with 57% of those being new attendees and more than one in seven’s first trip to a museum ever.

The other four shortlisted museums are the Craven Museum in Skipton, North Yorkshire; Dundee Contemporary Arts, the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Young V&A – Victoria and Albert Museum, also in the capital.

The winning museum will be announced at a ceremony at the National Gallery in London on 10 July and will receive £120,000 to put towards internal projects and cultural work. Better still, £15,000 will be given to each of the four other finalists, so everyone’s a winner in a way.

Congratulations again to everyone at Manchester Museum and well done for all your incredible hard work – we can’t wait to be right about you again in a couple of months when we’re confident you’ll be rightly named as the winner of the 2024 Art Fund Museum of the Year.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Supplied/Matthew (via Flickr)

Travel & Tourism

Olicana Park – The log cabins near Manchester that capture apres-ski magic all year round

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

Roaring fires, bubbling hot tubs, stunning views, and even pairs of skis strapped to the walls – but this isn’t the French alps… it’s Yorkshire. 

Olicana Park is a beautiful holiday park right on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, just an hour’s drive from Greater Manchester.

Here, scattered around the banks of the River Wharfe, you’ll find a collection of luxury wooden cabins, traditional cottages, and classic static caravans.

But for us, it really is all about those cabins, which capture all the best bits of the apres-ski culture loved by snow-worshippers, all year round.

In winter, you can whack on your own log burger and cosy up on the sofas with a glass of red wine and a good book, while in summer you can throw open the bi-fold doors and sit out with a cocktail on your own gigantic roof terrace.

Each cabin has its own theme that plays in around the tasteful decor, which usually involves incredible wooden beams and stone floors.

The one our friends at The Hoot stayed in had an apres-ski theme, from the subtle (vintage wooden skis and piste markers used as wall art) to the clever (an old chair lift that had been turned into patio furniture).

The luxury apres-ski cabin at Olicana Park
The luxury apres-ski cabin at Olicana Park
A sauna inside the cabin
A sauna inside the cabin
The view from your own terrace
The view from your own terrace

There’s a huge hot tub perched on your own private decking too, where you can soak in the warm water while watching the river burble past at the end of your own driveway.

Upstairs in this particular cabin were two enormous double bedrooms with modern en suite bathrooms, one of which also had an enormous terrace attached with a view down to the river.

And then – wait for it – the cabin also came with its own sauna. Talk about luxury.

If you can’t tear yourself away from your own space, each cabin has a kitchen that’s perfectly kitted out with everything you need to whip up a tasty tea (or, if you’re like us, a cheese board for dinner).

Lunch dishes at Hamilton's the on-site restaurant at Olicana Park
Lunch dishes at Hamilton’s the on-site restaurant at Olicana Park
Breakfast at Hamilton's the on-site restaurant at Olicana Park
Breakfast at Hamilton’s the on-site restaurant at Olicana Park

But if you do venture out, there’s an on-site restaurant called Hamilton’s, where you can dig in to fresh salads, gyros, and burgers, and when you come back in the next morning you can feast on a menu of banging breakfasts and brunches.

Olicana Park actually used to be a traditional caravan park, but has been given some serious TLC since the new owners took over in 2016.

It was this team who decided to split the park into zones, with four cottages in one, five luxury cabins in another, and 29 static caravans in the third.

The cottages and cabins were all refurbished or constructed from scratch using British suppliers and local tradesmen.

The living rooms in an Olicana Park cabin. Credit: The Hoot Leeds
The living rooms in an Olicana Park cabin. Credit: The Hoot Leeds

It’s just a short stroll from Addingham village, and that’s only a short bus from the bustling town of Ilkley, which itself is only a short train ride from Leeds.

That means excellent pubs, restaurants and cafes within easy reach, as well as gorgeous countryside walks like a riverside amble to Bolton Abbey.

Surrounded by a plethora of long walks and country pubs, Olicana Park really is a perfect gateway to the Yorkshire Dales, and if you’re looking for something to kick off holiday season then we couldn’t recommend it more.

You can get 10% off your June holiday at Olicana Park with the code “THEHOOT”.

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Featured image: The Hoot Leeds

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