What to See in Sale - Top Sights and Attractions

Ski area in Stretford, England. Chill Factore is the UK's longest indoor ski slope; a £31M real snow centre located in the Trafford Park area of Trafford, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom. Designed by FaulknerBrowns Architects, the centre opened in November 2007 at which time it was the widest in the world, at 180 metres long and 100 metres wide at its widest point.

In 2010, former Sales and Marketing Director of Alton Towers Morwenna Angove joined Chill Factore as CEO (Chief Executive Officer)

In 2011, the Guinness World Record for the longest chain of skiers to travel 100m without breaking, was recorded at Chill Factore.

In May 2011, Chill Factore hosted the UK's first Snowbombing event.

In 2018, Chill Factore rebranded as BEYOND, a new retail, experiential and leisure mix, which will bring additional restaurants and businesses to complement resident brands.

In March 2020, Chill Factore announced that it's owners Extreme Cool Limited and U&I PLC had sold the company to Snow Centre's who currently operate The Snow Centre in Hemel. They also announced that Morwenna Angove - CEO would be replaced by Ian Brown as Managing Director. Snow Centre took over at the end of March and have already spend £500,000 on renovations.^[1]

Country park in Sale, England. Sale Water Park is a 152-acre area of countryside and parkland including a 52-acre artificial lake in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. Opened in 1979 and owned by Trafford council, the water park lies in an area of the green belt running through the Mersey river valley between Sale and Stretford, located between the river and the M60 motorway. The lake was formed in the 1970s by the flooding of a gravel pit excavated to provide material for the construction of an embankment raising the motorway 34 feet above the Mersey's floodplain. The pit was excavated to a depth of around 115 feet, making the lake about 90 feet deep in places.

The land occupied by the water park was formerly within the grounds of Sale Old Hall, demolished in 1920. All that remains of the hall today is its former lodge, now the club house for Sale Golf Club, and its dovecote, which has been restored and relocated to the nearby Walkden Gardens.

Sale Water Park provides important recreational facilities and wildlife reserves, as well as forming part of the flood defences for the surrounding area of Trafford.^[2]

Town in England. Stretford is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, 3.8 miles south of Manchester city centre, 3.0 miles south of Salford and 4.2 miles northeast of Altrincham. Stretford borders Chorlton-cum-Hardy to the east, Moss Side and Whalley Range to the southeast, Hulme to the northeast, Urmston to the west, Salford to the north, and Sale to the south. The Bridgewater Canal bisects the town.

Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, in the 19th century Stretford was an agricultural village, known locally as Porkhampton due to the large number of pigs produced for the Manchester market. It was also an extensive market-gardening area, producing more than 500 long tons (508 t) of vegetables each week for sale in Manchester by 1845. The arrival of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894, and the subsequent development of the Trafford Park industrial estate, accelerated the industrialisation that had begun in the late 19th century. By 2001 less than one per cent of Stretford's population was employed in agriculture.

Stretford has been the home of Manchester United Football Club since 1910, and of Lancashire County Cricket Club since 1864. Notable residents have included the industrialist, philanthropist, and Manchester's first multi-millionaire John Rylands, the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, the painter L. S. Lowry, Morrissey, Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, pop singer Andy Gibb, and Jay Kay of Jamiroquai.^[5]

Longford Cinema is a former cinema in Stretford, Manchester. It is also known as The Longford Essoldo, The Top Rank Club, and "The Cash Register" as it is colloquially known.

Designed by the architect Henry Elder, it was the height of Art Deco fashion when it was opened by the Mayor of Stretford on 12th October 1936. The unusual "cash register" shaped frontage was intended to symbolise the business aspect of show business. The Longford's debut feature was Tudor Rose starring Nova Pilbeam.

The building incorporated many modern features, such as sound-proofing and under-seat heating, and it was also the first cinema in Britain to make use of concealed neon lighting. It had a seating capacity of 1,400 in the stalls and 600 in the circle, with a further 146 seats in the café area. The foyer featured large murals by Frederick Harry Baines depicting contemporary cinema scenes. When built, the cinema had a short pedestrian approach to the facade, but this was removed when the A56 was widened.

During the Second World War the building was used for concerts, including one given by a young Julie Andrews. It also played host to the Hallé Orchestra after the orchestra's own home, the Free Trade Hall, was bombed and severely damaged during the Manchester Blitz of 1940. The orchestra performed twelve concerts at the cinema in the 1942-3 season and more under Barbirolli the following season.

After a change of ownership in 1950, the cinema was renamed the Stretford Essoldo. It continued to operate as a cinema until 1965, when it was converted into a bingo hall, which it remained until its closure in 1995. The building was purchased by a new owner in January 1997 but has remained unused since then. It was designated a Grade II listed building in 1994.^[9]