The bicycle racing at Manley Park started at the first Grand Amateur Athletic Gathering, which was held at Whitsun 1876 and three bicycle races were included. On Whit Saturday there was a one mile scratch race and a two miles handicap and on Monday, a five miles handicap race for £10, won by T Sabin of Coventry, riding a 54 inch wheel. The attendance at the event was over 6,000.
Manchester Athletic Club held their first annual sports on July 15th 1876 and include a two miles bicycle handicap race, won by A Smith of the Zephyr BC from five starters.
The hall was bought by Ellis Lever in 1875 for £175,000 and the Manley Hall Palace and Park Company was set up in 1876 to develop commercial summer and winter gardens attractions in the grounds and have events in the hall. The company share capital was £120,000 and they aimed to buy Manley Hall from Ellis Lever. After the first year the company made a substantial loss and had sold land for building purposes, raising £17,000. In January 1879, the company was compulsorily wound up.
At the Athletics Festival on 17th May 1879, a two miles bicycle handicap race was won very easily by Arthur Smith of Hulme. The grass course was described as being in a rough state. Choppy Warburton** ran in the four miles steeplechase event. This was the last bicycle race to be held at Manley Park.
The assets of the Manley Hall Palace and Park Company were sold off in 1879 and there was pressure in the press for the local authority to buy the park for public use at a cost of around £50,000, but this did not happen and much of the land was sold for housing.
** Choppy Warburton was a successful runner in his youth, but his athletic career was blighted by race fixing. After running, Choppy turned to coaching cyclists and signed up Arthur Linton and Jimmy Michael, who were two of the most famous track riders of the time. Jimmy Michael rode in the famous ‘Chain Wars' meeting at Catford in June 1896 where Warburton was suspected of doping Michael for race fixing purposes. Warburton and Michael were duly suspended by the NCU. Shortly after this, Arthur Linton, Warburton's other star rider, died and by the end of the following year, Warburton himself was dead from a heart attack, aged 52. Warburton's nickname 'Choppy' came from his father, a sailor, who always responded with ‘choppy' when he was asked what weather he had encountered on his voyage.