Mary Street

Mary Street was the home of my paternal grandparents  Thomas and Sarah Wigley...... I can recall going there when my grandfather was alive so I was probably 3-4 years old at that time.. I recall sitting on his knee and his pocket watch and fob chain... He died in September 1962, 2 months after my 4th birthday. As for Mary Street I recall parts of the house and certain objects in it. I remember on the wall a picture of a coal mine... little did I realise it was Hyde Lane Pit... but more on that picture again. 

I recall these steps very well

View From Clarke Way

My cousin Joyce lived on Mary Street with Gran and Granddad.  The above picture was taken outside the family home when she was 8 years old, is now in her 70s. Joyce has a great memory and whenever the chance arises I gleam more information from her.  

All these 'up to date' are courtesy of our very own photographer Dave Williams  

  

This is the view looking back towards Clarke Way

On the left was Caxton Mill a building which had some beautiful features to it.

Great Norbury Street

Complete With cobbles and Gas Lamps

View from Field Street

Here is an interesting photo of St Stephen´s chuch in Flowery Field sent in by Rowan Hardman. It must have been taken around 1910 around  Field Street  Flowery Field. The old man is a relative of Rowan's, she says this is perhaps her great great great grandad. The markings on the church roof are very distinctive as is the shape of the steeple. This area where the chap stands would be where the school yard and car park for Hyde Technology is now.  THANK YOU Again for sharing this great picture of man and church.

Another great photo from Dave, this one he took last year and he has still managed the 'perfect' shot... ha!  cheers Dave.

Ridling Lane Social Club.

A membership card from the Ridling Lane Social Club.
The Ridling Lane Social Club was situated at 58, Ridling Lane, Hyde.


This is an aeriel view of where the club stood.
The star shows the site of the club before its demolition.

Unknown Hydonians

B-C-H NORTAN ENGLAND CHAMPIONS

I'm sure that 'Nortan' is dialect for Northern, I'd love to know what this group was the Champions of, and what the initials B-C-H stood for.  Any sugestions... anyone

The Iron Bridge.

The Iron Bridge stood over the railway lines at the end of Walker Fold and led to Bears Woods. I used to love running on to the bridge when a train was coming and stand over the passing train...The bridge was removed when the railway tracks were decommisioned and turned into part of the Pennine Trail.


The Iron Bridge with Thorsby Avenue houses in the background..


The bridge stood where the paths form a cross.

Hattersley High School

Hattersley High School stood on Fields Farm Road in Hattersley. It was the only High school in Hattersley and was operational until it was closed and replaced by Alder Community High School in Gee Cross in 2003. It closed due to a combination of falling pupil numbers ,which was partially because of the population drop in the mid 1990's ,and parents opting to send their children to other High Schools in the area. I'm proud to say both my children attended this school (and Alder when Hattersley closed) and both came away with a great education and outlook on life thanks to very good ,caring teaching staff.


Hattersley High School


The derelict site after demolition

North House Albert Road

Dave took these pictures a week of two back of this house at the far end of Albert Road, it bares the name of  'North House'. 

As can be seen here it is another gem of a house and comes complete with an old fashion stable/coach house block. The entrance faces Edna Street. These out buildings are very similar to the ones posted below by Nancy. It even looks like the woodwork is the same colour. I can't see a Dove Cote on this one, but the small arches are of interest, I think these would have housed glass but were bricked up at some time. All of us who have been involved in these posting realise buildings such as these are now a bit of a rarity in Hyde, and maybe now is the time to do them the honour of saving their charm and beauty in photographs and displaying them here for others to admire..... before they to are sold off as building plots. If you know of anything like this let us know... or get your camera out and write about the house, that way they can be seen by generations to come. 

Post Card From McKenzie's

 Our friend John T. was in McKenzie's Auto Repairers in Kirkley Street off Dowson Road, in their waiting room John saw an A4 paper scanned copy of a postcard of Hyde with a view of the paddling pool at Hyde Park, which we'd recently featured. John asked Mark McKenzie if he could borrow it to copy and send to us. It is a great post card and thank you John for thinking of the blog.

Whilst he was talking,  Mark related a story about the bottom left picture of the postcard that shows a view of The Lake at Pole Bank Hall. He said that a neighbour of his was taken to Pole Bank by his mother in the 1960's with a small red plastic battery operated boat. He launched the boat at on side of the lake and as it neared the far bank it sank! Last year whilst visiting his mother who was a resident in Pole Bank Nursing Home, he noted that the lake had been emptied and dredged and he wandered down with memories of the sad event over 40 years ago and lo and behold there was the red plastic boat on top of the pile of dredged mud and silt! Amazing. What a great story this is,John... I, too spent my happy times here as I know others from our group have. I saw the amount of silt which was removed last year... I read somewhere it was twice as much as was expected to be dredged out. 

Postcard from Hyde Park.

Here is a postcard of Hyde Park.
I've cropped the card and tried to enlarge the photos so as to get a bit more detail.







This one shows the dell in the woods complete with "castle top" bridge.




On the one above you can see the drinking water fountain in the background behind the paddling pool. This fountain used to stand on the corner of Hyde Market.

Old building on Chapel Street .

Walking down Chapel Street this morning I saw a building which I've never noticed before. Looks like it could have been a stables with a hayloft or maybe even a Smithy!It might be more modern than I think but if it was built at the same time as the houses to which it is joined then it would have been around 1890-1900

I'm happy to see this lovely old quaint building is still standing when a lot of old property around it is being demolished to make way for new housing!

Note the cobbles are still intact,too!

If anyone has any information about this building please get in touch and let us know.

View of Dove Cote

Hyde Park Paddling Pool

I spent many happy hours in this pool as a child, the place would have been full of children in the school holidays. All the mothers would be sat on the benches gossiping, some would be knitting and one or two would drop off for forty winks. All the children would be running about and the noise would have been very loud but still a chance for forty winks would have been gladly taken. Mums would have bought sandwiches and pop for a picnic... if we were good we'd get an ice cream from a van that would be parked up. Now and then as a rare treat we'd have our dinner in the cafe... normally when the gas or electric metre had been emptied and mum was a bit flush as she called it. We always got treated when the metres were emptied and we'd look forward to seeing the 'metre man' in the street.

Summer time in the park meant playing on the swings, and slide, making castles in the sand pit. watching crown green bowling, and brass bands playing on the bandstand, even running wild in woodlands. The thing I liked the most was the small train  which was kept in a shed at the far end of the play area, near the railings on Park Road. This was proper fun for a small boy... and if you were lucky the driver would let you wear his hat... Ha! I bet he always had 'nits' thinking back now. I was very sad when we visited the park and was told the train had gone. I am not sure if it is now at Manor Park, Glossop or a Garden Centre at Poyton... I must have heard that some where. I also remember the big drinking fountain near to the paddling pool... the water was always cold... most welcoming after running about in the sunshine. If you have pictures of the park please send them in so we can make a collection of them here... and as always your memories of the park would make the post that bit more special. . 

Farming In Godley

I bought a number of postcards and photo's from off Ebay a while back and this one had Farm Worker Godley Hyde on the back. Seeing as we have done a few posts from this area I wonder if anyone can throw some light on this.

Godley School

This charming photo was sent to us by Derek Deeley.
It shows Godley School in 1885. All the children dressed up in their finest clothes by the looks of things. A couple of faces look quite familiar - I wonder if I know any of their descendents?

Many Thanks Derek.

The Deeley family of Godley

Here is another article on Derek Deeleys family from Godley.
John Deeley was Dereks Grandfather.



John Deeley killed in Action 30/11/1917

The letter his widow recieved and the envelope.





A photo of Johns widow Maria Deeley pictured with Dereks Uncle Jack ,Uncle George and Dereks father Alfred who were all born in Godley.




It must have struck horror into the hearts of families to receive such letters during the war.

Thanks for sharing ,Derek.

Red Lion That Was

From the Red Lion to Plastic Fantastic 

The gable end on Clarkes Ways showing the name of the pub Red Lion and Robinson's .. I remember this being the Hyde Away... it did well for a while but attracted ... lets say the wrong crowd. I remember getting involved when some trouble started one night and ended up getting a bottle over my head. ... 

In the book  'A History Of The Pubs OF Hyde And District' by Paul Taylor, Paul mentioned it was on Rochfort Street originally... Clarkes Way is of course the name of the fly over. This was one of the pubs my Grand Father, Thomas Edward Wigley drank in... one the others was the Wheatsheaf.. Both pubs being within easy walking distance from his home on Mary Street at the far end of Rochfort Street and Elizabeth Street. 

Thanks go to Dave for the pictures, and of course Paul for the information 

The Maypole Dairy

This charming postcard was sent to us by John F. It shows the Maypole Dairy in Godley. This stood on the site of Otto Monsteds Margarine Factory on Mottram Road. A lovely building indeed. The Maypole Dairy ,was in turn, taken over by the Wall's Meat Company circa 1925.

I think the Olive Tree Pub is still in existence here and shown far left of the picture.It was closed down around 1922 and later demolished.
Thanks John for sharing the postcard.

Old Road - Bennet Street and Field Street.

Out and About With Dave and his Camera

We recently did a post about a family called Rowbottom - Rowbotham who lived in this area which can be viewed here: Rowbottom/Rowbotham   Dave saw the post and went out for us and took this great set of  pictures of how the area looks now.

 The 'Chip Shop' at No. 65 

 The rest of that row of houses looking towards Field Street 

 Field Street at the junction with Old Road 

 St Stephen's Church in the background 

 The only 2 remaining houses on Field Street - Nos. 18 and 16 

 Field Street where it meets Bennett Street 

Old Road looking towards the Chip Shop

 Taken from the junction with Bennett Street 

 Bennett Street looking towards St Stephen's Church 

 Taken in front of Rosemount Church with Old Road on the left 

  The Chip Shop row from opposite Field Street  

Thank you again Dave.. sets such as these will one day be very much sought after I'm sure.  

Sad Sight

The above picture was one that Dave Williams took a while back for a post on the Lads Club... after going to the Lads Club in my teens to see this as all that remained was sad enough. But to see the picture below is even sadder. 

This was sent in today by John T.

John said

 "Sorry to send this photograph of the remnants of the stone that marked the site of Hyde Lads Club. I took the photograph this afternoon. Let’s hope that it's reinstated."

Nancy and I echo that statement and tomorrow I will try to find out just what has happened to the stone work.

Dave went down today and took these which shows the damage that as been done... the old stone work as broke as can be seen. I have been in touch with our local councillor who I knew would show interest in this. I had a very prompt reply, saying he intends going down to view it tomorrow morning and will get back to me about it. So I will update this as soon as I can.

Up Date

Dave and I contacted one of our local Councillors Philip Fitzpatrick about this, me to tell him about it and to send him a photo of the damage. Dave our photographer went down to take pictures and noticed the plaque was still there and removed it for safe keeping which he informed Councillor Fitzpatrick of.  Today I was contacted again from Councillor Fitzpatrick... 

  Hi Tom  

     I have been down and arranged for the site to be cleared. I will do my best to make sure it      is rebuilt as soon as possible. I will contact David and arrange to pick up the plaque. Many thanks for letting me know.

Philip M Fitzpatrick

T.M.B.C  

I would just like to say thank you to John T, for bringing this to our attention, and Dave for going down there and securing the plaque, and a big thank you to Councillor Fitzpatrick for acting promptly to get the rest cleared up and the stone work removed to safety. Lets hope it can be fixed up and replaced.

Annie Deeley and Family.

The following story was sent in to us by Derek Deeley.
Annie Deeley was his Great Aunt.

Annie Deeley was born on 4th August 1891. She was the second daughter of George and Sarah of Godley; it is probable that when her father died in 1904 she had just started work as a weaver. Before her marriage it is known that she worked at a mill in Broadbottom, several miles journey from Godley, walking was a fact of life for a great many people in the 19th Century. Annie often recalled one memorable walk she made with some of her brothers, given the chance to travel through the long Woodhead tunnel they crouched on the coal in the tender of a steam train. Arriving at the other end no doubt looking a little dirtier than they did at the start, they had to make their own way back! But she insisted that the long trek was well worth it.

On another occasion during a very hot summer, the children decided to make their own paddling pool. They did this by damming up the stream which flowed past the cottages in the hollow (306) before it went through a culvert under Godley Hill Road to what was then the margarine works. Their efforts were very successful and they made a lovely deep pool to splash around in. Suddenly they were aware of several irate men approaching. The men had become aware that the water supply was no longer flowing into the works and had gone through the culvert in an effort to find the blockage.

I can just imagine the workers faces when they realised why the water had stopped running :)

Thanks for the memories, Derek.