Two pictures that brought back many memories for me. This area was part of my 'playground' as a kid. The workmans hut was always unlocked and had a cast iron stove to keep you warm and to make a brew on. I used it a lot at one time while out and about or when skipping school.. which in my early teens was often.. I'd collect coal from these tracks to help out at home as a young lad, and rode the trains up and down between here and Godley now and then, jumping on the back of the guard vans. The right hand track was also the scene of the Great Cheetham Fold Train Robbery.. which is another story ha!
I was more scared of the farmer and his two doberman dogs who farmed some of the surrounding land than the railway police catching me. The farm is on the right of the bridge, and used to home to a herd of Holstein - Friesian Dairy and Beef cattle Alas now no cattle, the farm building is shut up and the farmer lives in a bungalow nearby. The stables and barns now rented out to house horses. I believe the farm and land did belonged to the Ashton Family at one time.
The arch to the left in the picture is going towards Hyde Central and beyond, while the one on the right did go towards Godley Junction and beyond, but now is part of the Trans Pennine walkway and forms the 3 mile + section from Apethorn to Godley. The T.P.W. trail stops at the bridge on Apethorn Lane and this last section from there to this right hand arch has been allowed to turn back to nature. It was alway a good place to shoot rabbits, must be even better now. '
Reports of a Train Crash that happened here
Dated January 1915
Dated March 1915