I recently came across this photograph which I took from Werneth Low, probably in the 1980s, of the road works on Mottram Old Road to get rid of what was considered to be a dangerous bend near High Bank and Greenside Farm.
For comparison I've cropped a photograph taken from nearly the same spot in October 2010 to show the same part of that road.
11 comments:
I recall that bend very well, it certainly was a bad bend... the road used to have a 60 mile a hour limit way back.. yet I can't recall any accidents there.. but I'm sure there must have been to get money spent on it.
Back in the 70's my older sister used to keep her horse at Greenside Farm, or Gradwell's Farm as we knew it.
And, yes, there was quite a few incidents on that bend.
My sister was a police witness to one as she waited at the bus stop just outside the farm, can't remember the details but I think a lad died.
There was another death that I can remember involving a motorbike, but the one that sticks in my mind the most was a fully laden articulated lorry that ended up in the field right where the road works are in the photo, I think that driver died as well.
I can just imagine that vehicles might have previously crashed through the fence into the field on the left but now, as you can see from the more recent photograph, 'sheep may safely graze' (with apologies to Johann Sebastian Bach).
Did you take these from a low flying helicopter or something or have you just got a good camera?!!
Was the bend called 'Cock and Hen' or am I thinking of somewhere else?
Looking at the two photographs,am I right in saying that the old farm building that the road veered round has now been demolished. In which case the road would have been much simpler to straighten without it there.Just an observation.
@ Kevin
I think they wouldn't have known back in the 80's that 10 years later that house would no longer be there, but I think it wouldn't have made a difference either way.
The problem here as I saw it was a number of factors, firstly we had at the time a permitted speed limit of 60mph, combined with very long straight sections of road from either direction, and right in the middle we had the offending very sharp kink located at the top of a brow.
Even today with modern traffic flow road markings, speed cameras, and a 40mph speed limit, we still get accidents around there.
Incidentally, if I remember correctly that house burnt down some time in the 90's.
The photographs were taken using a 300mm telephoto lens from a spot close to the War Memorial on Werneth Low.
Good picture of Mottram Old Road past and present. My parents remember the road being very bad for accidents, including some fatalities. So changing the curve of the road did help reduce accident but idiots still like to use Mottram Old Road as a race track.
I can only just remember the old farm house became derelict in the early 90s and was pulled down.
I was also going to mention that it wouldn't have stopped the accidents at this black spot, but if the mandatory wearing of seatbelts would have been introduced earlier than 1983, we would have seen fewer deaths I'm sure at this section of road.
The ironic thing was only days after the bend had been straightened there was a fatal accident when a young man had taken a Jaguar for a test run from the garage where it had been repaired, driven it at speed and landed in the field just beyond the yellow gates. Unfortunately it was curtains for him as he had crashed at such a great speed.
There are 4 Greenside Farms and the Cottage. In the 1940's the bungalow was built as a retirement home for Mr Firth who was one of the people to buy part of the the Stamford estate when it was split out many years ago.
The house on the bad bend of course belonged to Fred Talbot. It was after he left the farm and went to a nursing home and the way was then open to demolish what was left of the house, after someone stole the roof tiles, and rebuild way back from the road. The farm is now known as Oak tree cottage.
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