Handforth is a town and civil parish in Cheshire, England, 9 miles (14 km) south of Manchester city centre. The population at the 2021 census was 9,784. In the 1960s and 1970s, two overspill housing estates, Spath Lane in Handforth, and Colshaw Farm nearby in Wilmslow, were built to re-house people from inner city Manchester. It lies between Wilmslow, Heald Green, Stanley Green and Styal and forms part of the Greater Manchester Built-up Area.