HYDE CHESHIRE

Harry Rutherford's
Festival of Britain Mural




Sunday 16 June 2013

Construction of the M67 Motorway

Steve Hill sent us the following photos and note after the appeal yesterday about photos of the building of the M67.
They are fantastic !!
These are exactly the kind of photos that we are looking for..

"Here are a few more pictures of the M67 motorway under construction . Unfortunately they are not good quality as they are taken from Dennis Roylances film, the same film that the Ritz pictures came from but it does show the construction ".

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Love this one. It shows the two tower blocks of John Grundy House and Chartist House and don't they look close together. It also shows the building of the DHSS building on New Beech St. Hyde Department Store (now Morrisons) can also be seen middle,far left.

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The Astoria can just be seen middle,right of the picture.

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Hyde Department Store can be seen top right on this photo.

Thank you so much, Steve.
I have been looking for photos of the construction of the M67 for years !!

9 comments:

Jeff Sherwin said...

I remember the construction well,We returned to Hyde a couple of times then, My in laws ran an off license on High road, we spent a couple of hours each morning making bacon and egg butties for the work crews.

Clarence Darrow said...

Hate this motorway, it ripped the town in two. We also lost lots of our historical neighbourhoods and buildings. And what for, a road that ends at Hattersley which is chock a bloked almost everyday. If that's progress then why close the Woodhead route

Hydonian said...

I agree actually.
The motorway seemed to rip the heart out of Hyde and in doing so meant we lost many fine streets, shops and pubs and a bit of Hydes identity..
It wasn't progress at all really.

Still great photos though as they shows a part of Hydes history.

Tom said...

Great pictures... and sad as it was too loose such an area I'd not like to try and cross the road in Hyde centre if the motorway had not been built. Part of me hates the motorways for what was lost, but a part of me knows Hyde would be congested with cars, trucks and fumes without the M67...
What bugs me more is being in a place called 'Tameside' now that did and still does rip the heart out of our town and others.

Michael Gascoigne Parker said...

Tom, with a proper railway network in place and upto date sidings like they have at the docks for loading heavy goods traffic, more than half of the stuff carried by trucks along the motorway would disappear. Who in there right mind would build a road for it to end chock a block in some backwoods place like Hattersley.The old Woodhead route carried more than half of the goods that are now transported across the Pennines. As for Tameside, its a blot on the map, but who in the hell speaks out these days. And when people do speak the truth, their comments are cut by censors,a bit like your site really!

westarsteve said...

i am glad you like the pictures when i get a bit more time i will take some more pictures from the the film

Werneth Low said...

The railway had its chance at being the preferred way of goods transportation in this country many years ago and failed - hence the growth of road transport and motorways. In the old days, before the M67 was ever dreamt of, the centre of Hyde was always congested with heavy traffic. It was (and still is) on the A57 transPennine route after all. A bypass was the only solution, obviously. What I will never understand is how the chosen route of it was arrived at. It's ludicrous - when you join it at Denton, the sign says Sheffield and I pity the poor soul who isn't familiar with the local geography and finds himself gridlocked at the Mottram roundabout. Also, why is there no warning sign before the end of the motorway telling drivers of queuing traffic ahead? Surely there must have been a way to drive it through the Hattersley Estate instead - that would have solved a lot of other problems!

tigerboy said...

I remember the comming of the motorway

Which ever side of the argument regarding its construction it had a massive impact on Hyde and its people and I don't think it would have beeen constructed in such a manner today well I would like to hope so?

My dad lost his business to the Motorway, although not on the direct route of construction the building in which it was housed was demolished as part of the access wideing required at the bottom of Clarendon Rd

Compensation was next to nothing as hid did not own the building

I can still recall the streets around that area and some of the shops although very young at the time

tigerboy said...

I remember the comming of the motorway

Which ever side of the argument regarding its construction it had a massive impact on Hyde and its people and I don't think it would have beeen constructed in such a manner today well I would like to hope so?

My dad lost his business to the Motorway, although not on the direct route of construction the building in which it was housed was demolished as part of the access wideing required at the bottom of Clarendon Rd

Compensation was next to nothing as hid did not own the building

I can still recall the streets around that area and some of the shops although very young at the time