Water Street School

Here are two great photos sent to us by Marjorie Robinson.

They show different views of Water Street School.
This building was also the former Wesleyan Methodist School and the Art rooms for Greenfield Street Boys School at a later date. The upstairs rooms were the "dole office" aka social security office for "signing on" for benefits.
After the social security office moved to Beech Street sometime after 1978 it was also the home to Powerhouse Gym and Central Furnishing Company.

Marjorie also included this lovely story.

"After emailing you, I saw that it said Victoria Jubilee, Wesleyan Methodist Schools. My father was born in 1913 and often told me tales about the Headmaster, Mr Tickle. On one occasion, he came into the room and said to my father "What are you doing, Davies?" my father, who was not misbehaving at the time, replied, "Nothing, Sir." and was told "Come out. You should be working." He got caned for nothing at all and always thought it was unfair. Mary Tickle, the head's daughter, was on the same class. She taught me History later, at Hyde Grammar, and we kept in touch. She sent me a lovely letter when my father died.

I remember going in there with my mother when it was the dole office. It had that musty smell of old schools. I never knew it had been part of Greenfield St."

Front View


The Water Street side of Greenfield Street School shown to the left of the photo.


A photo  from the Jubilee Wesleyan School era

Many Thanks Marjorie. Great photos ,as always :)

Dales Shop corner

Here are a couple of "then and now" shots.
They show the area where Dales sweet shop used to stand.  

Dales was a wonderful shop owned by a kindly couple who had a lot of patience with the children when they went in to spend their pocket money. I remember they had a great selection of ice creams in an array of flavours, my favourite being rum and raisin. Dales was to the far left of the row. 

It is now car park to the now defunct Gee Cross Labour/Sports and Social club.



 
King Edward Road is to the right of the photo.

Looking over to Hattersley

A lovely quiet road.

Joel Lane

A postcard showing Joel lane,Gee Cross. A lovely view. A sililar view in 2011 Courtesy of Google Maps.

Godley Station

Here are two more great photos from Joe Lloyd via David Stafford.

 

The Cheshire Lines side of Godley Junction Station with the island platform in the foreground and the assembled staff on the CLC side if the V-shaped station buildings. On the extreme right are vans in the sidings on the up-side of the main line, behind which is the tall Signal Shop building completed in 1875.

The station name board reads – ‘’GODLEY – JUNCTION FOR GREAT CENTRAL & GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAYS AND OTHER LINES BEYOND’’

CLC Sidings at Godley  

GCR Loco No. 161 – one of 12 Class 12A engines built by the MSLR in 8/1885 – this one was originally No.541 and was renumbered 161 in October 1893, being scrapped in May 1915.

 Many Thanks to Joe and David. 
Much appreciated .

Godley School

Here are a couple of photos sent to us by Stephen Burton with the following text.

"My mother Florence Burton (Maiden name Houghton) was born and lived until marriage in Bottom Street near to Newton Station. She and her brothers went to Godley School on High Street..."

 Class IV 1924

Class 2 1927

Much appreciated, Stephen

View of St Stephens, Newton.

A postcard showing the now defunct St Stephens Church on Lower Bennett Street in Newton. The account below was written by Thomas Middleton in 1889 in the Annals of Hyde.

Godley train turntable.

 This fabulous photo was lent to us by Joe Lloyd and comes via David Stafford.

What a quality photo. I hadn't ever seen a train on the turntable before !
Am I right in thinking that men used to push the turntable by hand, as shown on the photo?



The CLC turntable in use at Godley Junction with much other activity. In one of the early air raids on the Manchester area, a bomb exploded some 25 yards to the right of the turntable, just in the field beyond the railway boundary fence. Extreme left behind the main line up-side sidings, stand the Signal Shop the building of which was authorized by the MS&LR Board in 1873 and completed in 1875. The newer brick building was Walls Meat Products Factory, now Kerry Foods and the extensive housing development on the skyline is the Hattersley Housing Estate built post-war by Manchester City Council.

Ladies day out

This photo was sent to us by Stephen Burton with the following text..

"Here is a photograph of a ladies day out taken on Commercial Street around 1950. 
My Grandmother is just to the right and slightly behind the lady holding a very large hat.

Hopefully somebody will be able to put names to a few of the faces" !

 

As with previous photos sent to us by Stephen I have included a thumbnail for you to click if you wish to see a larger version. Click the thumbnail then, once into photobucket, click the photo.




Many thanks, Stephen ! :)

Mottram Old Road

 Here is a postcard of Mottram Old Road, just below Werneth Low.
I wouldn't like to see kids playing in the middle of the road nowadays !!

Postcards from Hyde

Here are four wonderful postcard shots lent to us by John Bloor.

Quite a few disappeared shops on them such as Prices the bakers, Harrops furniture shop, Greenwoods the mens outfitters,Crossleys, UCP Restaurant and Middletons. Also, two disappeared banks - William Glyns (now Royal Bank of Scotland) and the Midland Bank (HSBC).

The roads are so quiet !









Many Thanks, John - Much appreciated ! :)

Demolition of Queen Street,

Here is a photo that is quite dear to my heart as my Nan lived on Queen Street.

I spent most of my childhood playing around this area.
She lived in one of the three houses that were attached to Norths Yard at the Lumb Road end of Queen Street.( The far left of the photo)





A similar view, looking down what was Queen Street and is now home to Greenfield Primary School.

Courtesy of Google maps.

The Commercial Pub

Here is another fine photograph sent to us by Stephen Burton.

The photograph shows his grandfather in a group of men outside the Commercial public house on the corner of Commercial Brow and Bottom Street. 

I see the landlords name is William Bradley. I wonder if he is any relation to Joshua Bradley?

 As before I have put a thumbnail on so a bigger picture can be seen. Press the thumbnail to go to photobucket, then press the photo in photobucket to see the larger image.






Many thanks, Stephen :)

Godley School Classes From The 1920's

This photograph is a wonderful insight into school classrooms in the 1920s. The school shown is Godley School on High Street.

This picture was sent to us, with some others, from Stephen Burton who tells us that his mums older stepbrother is in the photo and sadly he passed away not many years later.

Many thanks to Stephen

Zion Whit Walks

Here is a  photo showing the Zion Church Whit Walks circa 1966.

Me and my older sister Jane are the little girls in matching dresses, Linda Shepley is the little girl next to us and she is walking with her Mum, Aunt and little brother John who is in the pushchair. Gladys Hodgson is the lady in the hat at the front leading us. A lovely lady, who was one of the Sunday School teachers.

Williams Glyns Bank can be seen on the corner next to Greenwoods Mens Outfitters and the Town Hall is to the right of the picture.

Adverts from another era

Further to the cast iron crane plaque shown on the blog the other day, here are two adverts for Adamsons, one showing the type of work they did.

The firm of Joseph Adamson was established in 1874 by Joseph Adamson in partnership with Harry Booth, who retired in 1887. Adamson's two sons were then taken into partnership in 1902. The business was carried on by the sons after Adamson's death in 1920 until 1925, when the partnership was dissolved leaving the eldest son, Daniel, as sole proprietor of the business, assisted by his two sons, G.H.Adamson and J.Adamson

 

Thanks to Jeffrey Stafford for the information.

Thanks to Elsie Dee for the adverts. 

Much appreciated ! :)

Tranquil spot.

 With all the upheavel with the market being redeveloped, I just thought I'd show this shot which shows the Cenotaph on Werneth Low overlooking all the mayhem !
Such a place of tranquility !

 

As Tufty Club said, if you're not from Hyde you might have trouble spotting it, so I've zoomed in :)

Hyde Chapel Postcard

The history of Hyde Chapel goes back to before 1708, when the congregation built the first Christian place of worship in Hyde. A new church replaced the former building in 1846. This second chapel is still in use today, its high steeple, a noted landmark, is also a Grade II, listed building.

Beatrix Potter's mother and aunt were both married at Hyde Chapel. The Rev. Charles Beard married her mother, Helen Leech, and Rupert Potter in August 1863, while her aunt, Elizabeth Leech, married Walter Potter in May 1862. The Potter family grave is in the churchyard.


Thanks to http://www.unitarian.org.uk/ecu/HydeChapel/

Joseph Adamsons.

Perusing Ebay this week,  I saw this interesting article for sale.

As Joseph Adamsons played a huge part of Hyde's past history I should imagine this will be extremely collectable. ....

LARGE CAST IRON PLAQUE FROM WORKS CRANE .

DATED 1942.

Joseph Adamson and Company were, at one time, known all over the world for their engineering skills and products. Boiler making was just one of their specialities.. 

Joseph's uncle, Daniel Adamson, was the founder of the Manchester Ship Canal. Adamsons was a big employer at one time, but, like a lot, it fell by the wayside and it has now been split into units, shops and a transport yard which are now collectively known as Adamsons Industrial Estate.

Gower Hey Wood.

 Here are a few recent photographs of Gower Hey Woods showing the ongoing work that is being done by the Gower Hey Conservation Group. They are doing a great job with the new pond and the woods look so much cleaner and nicer.


Any idea what species of tree this is? The bark is quite distinctive .


The new pond is looking good. Such an improvement on the dank, dark wetland that stood there before the pond was made.



The entrance to the woods via the Trans Pennine trail between Stockport Road and Apethorn Lane..

Last year , after visiting the woods to see the important work done by the Conservation Group, MP Jonathan Reynolds said  

"Members of the Gower Hey Wood Conservation Group have worked hard to ensure the local community can fully appreciate the natural and industrial heritage of the Gower Hey Wood area. And their commitment and effort should be congratulated."

...and so say all of us !

A big thank you to everyone for their continued sterling work ! :)

Leigh Street Infants.

A couple more photographs from Joyce Pattison here.
Leigh Street Infants circa 1965/1966.

I recognise a few old friends on these including Christine Worthington, Martin Pattison (r.i.p.) , Christine Lanigan, Susan Aris, Sandra Lee and John Hampson.

I will endeavour to list them all when I have some time (and help) !




Mrs Shaws classroom in the background.

I loved her class. She gave you sweets for reading the cards without any mistakes (probably why I learnt to read so early and easily) and there was always a little fire burning in the grate. I even remember my coat peg symbol which was an umbrella !! Aww...happy days !

Many thanks, Joyce . Great to see them again. :)

This week we received these photos and this letter off Meglet....

"Hi All @ Hydonian Blog

This is more of an alert rather than a trip down memory lane.

But, this is a 'Heads up' I think all those who visit the blog should know about.

I've known for a number of years Kerry Foods have been in negotiation with Tameside Council, to create a new access road for their factory at Godley.

No one who knows Godley Hill Road, can deny they desperately need it.

The narrow, curved, single lane, they have at the moment has been inadequate for decades, and the precarious traffic light system they operate from the security lodge is problematic at best.

Well, now planning permission has been given the go ahead, and groundwork has already started, but the plans approved means that one of the least known, but possibly the most awe inspiring, remaining buildings of Hyde's history is about to be demolished.

I know Godley Hill Road, and the current access road have been captured by 'Google Street View', but the old railway sheds on the car park approach can only fleetingly be seen.

So, I have included some quick snaps I took recently, and one from Godley East Station from 1979, where the side of the sheds can be seen in the distance.

I must admit that I know really nothing of the building other than what is seen in the photos.

The building was part of the old railways sidings and marshalling yards of the long closed Godley East Railway Station, and as you can see, it stretches the full length of the Kerry Foods car park approach road, about 100 meters in length.

To me it looks very much like a fortification, with it's tightly packed small stone blocks construction, and so, gives off a wonderful aura of indestructibility and history. So, I was not surprised at all when I spoke to a very old Walls' (now Kerry Foods) employee who told me, that when he was a young lad at the factory he was told that the building was used, during both World Wars, to store munitions prior to transportation.

It's generally considered by those I have asked that the building was built around 150 years ago, which I feel also.  It's roof is in very poor shape, and it has evidently had some repairs done with standard bricks over the years, but it is still very awesome to look at.

At the moment (July 2012) the only work that has commenced is the clearing of trees around the building, as can be see in one of the photos.

I believe work is due to begin proper in October 2012, and the whole project will take 12 months to complete, as the access road is planned to carry on through and up towards Hattersley.

If this building is to be razed then I will try and get as much video & photos of it as I can from all sides, but I'm not sure how much access I will be able to get.

I think the inside will be well off limits, and dangerous, but I would love to explore it.

If anyone is in the vicinity, I recommend you take a look in person, it is a magnificent structure.  There is no problem walking up the road, but walking into the car park around the back of the sheds is not advisable, as they are under CCTV.

Anything on the building true history and function would be fantastic to know, I will update about the demolition process when it happens."

 



Many thanks for letting us know, Meglet. :)

If anyone else knows anything else about the demolition of this building or any other building around the Hyde area , please let us know !!