Free Library and Technical School

Picture and information from Paul 

The present Library on Union Street was originally opened as a Free Library and Technical School in 1899. The children's library was opened later in 1931 by Thomas Middleton J.P. Date of the above picture around 1906

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The above set of pictures were taken by Dave Williams

The Queen in Hyde

 After discussing the Coronation crown in another thread in the past few days, I received this interesting article off Dave, our resident photographer, and thought it deserved an airing on here !

The Queen's visit 1968

Thanks Dave, as ever !

Nancy's Post

Up dated by 

Tom & Dave with help from T.D.

When Dave came up with this picture of the above Crown there was a discussion about when this picture was taken... there was a Crown exactly like this in Hyde Park for the Queens Coronation in 1953, then we thought of 1977.. but I did not recognised the policeman.. and at that time I thought I would have... Luckily we contacted one of Hyde's Finest' (now retired) who was able to throw some light on this...  he sent us this message. 

"I don`t think its 1977 - I came to Hyde in 1974 and by 1977 knew all the officers on the division- I don`t recognise this one. I think this was taken during the days when Hyde was Cheshire County Police. The coat he is wearing does not appear to be GMP issue, also the blue of the shirt collar is darker than those I wore. If he was a Hyde Officer in 1977 he would have the letter G on his epaulette above his number, he appears to have the Cheshire County Insignia on his right shoulder.  I might be wrong, but could it be 1968 when there was a royal visit to the Borough?"

After another discussion with Dave about this we now think that the above picture is from the Royal Visit in 1968... if there's any more pictures out there from this visit we'd love to see them...   my thank to T.D. for his help with dating this. 

I do like it when a post comes together like this..  Team work at it's best.. :O)  

Up-date 12/10/2013

Danny Ryan

I was a Police Constable, stationed at Hyde, from 1967 to 1969, I was on duty when the Queen visited Hyde in 1968 and was with other officers on crowd control on the market area opposite the Town Hall during HM's visit. I may be wrong, but the Police Officer in the photo with the crown may well be Constable Peter Brown who was stationed at Hyde also during that time. He is definitely wearing Cheshire Constabulary uniform with the Fleur de Lys epaulette badge alongside his number.

NTA Printers

Here are a few aeriel shots of NTA Printers before it became Ricky Hattons Gym.

The Building was known as  Andrew House officially.

I always thought they had the coolest phone number in Hyde - 368 0000. I wonder if the gym took over this number?

Taken from Market Street side

 Taken from Queen Street side

Taken from Market Street side looking uphill

I remember this site long before NTA Printers were there. 

I recall running the length of Queen Street , where my Nan lived, cutting across the spare ground that NTA was built on, behind the billboards and through the garages, to a grocers shop on Market Street called Wilds, to get a loaf of Champion bread and two bottles of sterilised milk and a treat if there was any change (there always was ) :)

Ahh .... happy days !!

The George Pub - "Now and Then".

 Todays post shows how the George Pub looks now and a comparison shot of how it used to look.





I used to love this pub.
It was a nice friendly place to meet friends, did great food and had some really excellent live music acts on.
Such a shame it was one that disappeared.

More Hyde Park..

 Here are a couple more photos of Hyde Park  from Tony.


View from the bottom gates ,winter 1952

The same view taken in 2011 
How much more overgrown it looks in the second photo !

Thanks as always ,Tony !

Hyde Shops

Can you name this shop?

What I'd like to do is a series of posts on Hyde shops... we all have certain memory's of our favourite shop, or shops that mum might have dragged you around whilst shopping. Maybe you or a relative worked there, or just shopped there. Whatever your memories are I would like to hear them... either in the comments of this post or even better by email at hydonian@gmail.com. What would be great is if you have any pictures of the shops or adverts about them. The shops might not be the subject of the photo you have but can be seen in the background.. that is fine we could still use it. 

Pictures are best sent scanned and attached in an email... or if you don't have access to a scanner let us know and we could arrange to scan them for you. I'm sure something could be sorted out.

Castle Steps in Hyde Park

A couple of "before and after" shots from Tony.


Hyde Park "castle" steps in 1952
Is the path in the background, going up the hill, still there?
I like the little flower beds, next to the stream.


..and in 2010

It is so much more overgrown in the later shot.

Thanks Tony, for sharing with us :)

Mount Pleasant, Barmhouse Lane, Godley

The following is an extract from an interview with a Mr Morris of Barmhouse Lane, Godley on March 19, 1985. The interviewer was Norma Woods, who was a member of the Hyde Historical Society. The society were very active in the researching of the local history of Hyde in the 1980's. They produced many booklets on the subject.

"The end cottage in Barmhouse Lane was originally a pub called the Mount Pleasant Inn, which closed some 130 years ago. The Lane originally started as Tetlow Fold Lane. In the cellar of the cottage was an old well, which presumably was used for cooling the beer. This has now been covered due to flooding.

The cottage has been in the family for 130 years since it closed as a pub. Godley reservoir was being made at the time and the railway line to Sheffield about the same time. There were a lot of men knocking about who patronised it.

Anne Wrigley built the house and opposite there were 5 more houses and when Manchester Corporation bought the property they knocked them down about 100 years ago. My mother remembered the houses but they were before my time.

My mother used to hear water rats in the cellar, splashing about. The Manchester Corporation put down broken glass and bars and they never came back again.

Mr Morris commented that Godley had never developed due to the narrow bridge over the railway and it would never amount to much until the bridge was widened. He said the field at the back of his cottage had been sold for £30,000 but they could not build on it yet because of the narrow bridge and if they had it widened they would not make any money on the house building."

As a researcher in Pub history I was surprised when I first read this, that I had missed one in my book. I have gone over all the directories of the time , but have been unable to find any reference to a Public house called the Mount Pleasant Inn. The only reference I could find was in 1869 when an Abraham Tetlow was indicated to be a shopkeeper at "Mount Pleasant". Maybe he sold beer as well, which many shopkeepers did at the time.

Looking back at old maps it appears that "Mount Pleasant" was the name for the area around the collection of cottages.

Tithe map of the area around 1840.

Map of the area around 1910.

Construction of the new bridge in the 1980's

Hyde Park 1953

We are very lucky to have received some wonderful photos from Tony Downend. His father was a semi professional photographer and took many photos around Hyde.

Here are a few to begin with...

To celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953....





Same view in 2010



The Coronation Crown outside Bayley Hall in Hyde Park 1953


Same view 2010



I haven't seen any other photos of this event so it makes it all the more special.


Thanks so much, Tony - I'm looking forward to showing off many more of your Fathers wonderful photographs on this blog!

Methodist New Connexion Chapel

The Methodist New Connexion Chapel was situated on Muslin Street (now known as Talbot Road) in Newton. It was originally known as the Muslin Street Methodist. The original chapel was built in 1815, but due to disrepair it was demolished and the building in the photo was and opened in 1884. In 1907 the church joined with the United Methodist Free Church and formed the United Methodist Church.  

Picture and information by Paul Taylor

If you have any information or memories of this building we be happy to included them here

Barry Lewis as sent in this picture which was taken in 1909... It shows exactly where the Methodist church stood on Muslin Street.. 

Buses Around Hyde

 We had a comment  from a Bill Crompton whose now living in Spain, he thanked us for the memories this site gives him. Bill mentioned the No.15 bus.. I know we have shown a picture of the No. 15 before, but thought I'd show it again for Bill and add a few more as well.. 

Bus in Hamnett Street at the side of Woolworths around the 1950s. The shop opposite was the U.C.P. cafe.

Single deck bus stoped outside of Woolworths in Hamnett Street, on it's way to Walker Fold.

A couple of old buses parked up in Hyde bus station around the early 1960s.

The 125 bus parked up in Hyde bus station. The bus is parked up in front of what was later to become the joint doctors surgery... Donnybrook House.

A No.4 double decker bus on its way to Hyde bus station from Carrbrook crossing the Bennett Street bridge over the old Great Central Railway line in Flowery Field.

A No. 125 bus parked up in the old Hyde bus station on George Street. The 125 was the faster of the two services to Manchester from Hyde, the other being the 210 service which reputedly stopped at every other lamp-post.

This photo is of a painting by my Dad, Jack Morris.
It is called "The last 210" and shows the 210 bus at the Market,outside the Town Hall. The painting was done circa 2003 and now resides in Utah ,USA !