Sepia-tinted photographic postcard showing a view in the fernery at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Manchester. The Botanical and Horticultural Society of Manchester was founded in 1827, and created a botanical garden in Trafford in 1829. It fell into decline in the later 19th century, and in 1907 the site was sold to John Calvin Brown, who formed the White City Manchester Company and developed it as an amusement park. That company went bankrupt in 1912, and the Society held its last exhibition during the First World War. In 1927 the site was sold, and a greyhound racing track created