are unclear. Flixton was a remote rural area with few transport links to nearby towns, the rivers Irwell and Mersey for the most part cutting off access to other areas. To the southwest, Carrington Old Bridge, removed in about 1840, was an old wooden structure too narrow to accommodate carts, which were forced to use a nearby ford. Another ford existed near Flixton Church and yet another near Shaw Hall. An omnibus service carried passengers to and from Stretford, where the nearest railway station was located, but it was the town's connection on 2 September 1873 to the UK's railway network, through the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (later the Cheshire Lines Committee) line from Manchester to Liverpool, which helped transform the area. A new bridge across the Mersey was built around 1906–1907, replacing the earlier structure nearer to Carrington. Flixton gradually became a middle-class railway suburb of Manchester. Governance Civic history In 1841 Davyhulme, Flixton and Urmston became part of the Chorlton Poor Law Union, until 1849 when, with Stretford, it was transferred to Barton upon Irwell Poor Law Union. An 1894 Act of Parliament created urban and rural district councils, and along with Carrington, Davyhulme, Dunham Massey, Hale, Partington, Timperley and Warburton, Flixton became part of Barton upon Irwell Rural District (Urmston gained an urban district council). Land was exchanged between Flixton and Irlam Urban District and Barton Moss civil parish. A further exchange of land occurred in 1920, with Carrington civil parish. In 1933 the civil parish became a part of Urmston Urban District. Political representation From 1918 to 1950 Flixton was a part of the Stretford Division of Lancashire and from 1950 to 1983 a part of the borough constituency of Stretford. From 1983 to 1997 it was included in the new constituency of Davyhulme and represented by the Conservative Party MP Winston Spencer-Churchill, grandson of Winston Churchill. The Davyhulme constituency was replaced in 1997 by Stretford and Urmston, whose first MP was Labour's Beverley Hughes. She won the 1997 General Election with 58.5 per cent of the vote, against the Conservatives' John Gregory with 30.5 per cent. She was replaced in 2010 by Kate Green, who won 48.6 per cent of the vote, compared to the Conservatives' Alex Williams with 28.7 per cent. The Liberal Democrats gained 16.9 per cent of the vote. Flixton elects three councillors to Trafford Council; as of the 2019 local