R is for Remembrance atDenton War Memorial, Manchester

Denton War Memorial stands in Victoria Park, near to the Victoria Street entrance. It commemorates the sacrifice of the 379 men of Denton and Haughton who lost their lives during the Great War. It was unveiled on 23 July 1921. On each of the four sides, there are four steps leading up to the memorial. At the front, the dates 1914 and 1918, surrounded by wreathes, are either side of a panel of names. Above, on the central column, it states:

IN GRATEFUL
AND
UNDYING
REMEMBRANCE OF
THOSE WHO GAVE
THEIR LIVES IN
THE GREAT WAR
1914 - 1918

THIS MEMORIAL HAS
BEEN ERECTED BY
THEIR FELLOW
TOWNSMEN
JULY 1921

These wreaths were laid on Remembrance Sunday, 9th November 2014 and these photographs were taken the next day.

A contribution to
Ruby Tuesday;
Our World Tuesday;
ABC Wednesday.

Nurse's House, Denton

In 1887 Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses was founded with the object of providing skilled nursing for the sick poor in their own homes. Subsequently, many provincial sick nursing associations were established that were affiliated to the Jubilee Institute for Nurses. In 1897 a meeting of the Subscribers of the Denton Sick Nursing Association was held after which it was announced that William Lees of Town Lane had promised £500 towards the cost of erecting a nurses home. It was resolved that Denton Urban District Council be asked for a suitable plot of land upon which to erect a nurses home. In 1898 William Lees, a Master Brewer by occupation, agreed to erect, at his own cost, a nurses home and vest the same in the Trustees.

The home on Market Street was occupied by a succession of nurses belonging to the Denton Sick Nursing Association. As built, the ground-floor accommodation of the Nurses Home consisted of two rooms, a kitchen and a storeroom, while the first floor accommodation consisted of five rooms and a WC. There was also a full-height cellar and in 2009 this still contained the original copper boiler used for washing laundry. Outside there was a WC and a garage but the latter may not have been an original feature. A small garden was also provided.

A stone tablet over the entrance reads:

NURSES HOME
ERECTED BY
WILLIAM LEES 1900

Much more on the history of Denton Nurses Home can be found on the PittDixon website.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Weekend Reflections:Market Avenue, Ashton-under-Lynr

Reflections in the rainsodden pavement of Market Avenue, Ashton under Lyne.

In the foreground are two metal bollards which were erected in 2008 to celebrate the reopening of the market hall, rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 2004.

On the right is a statue of a "street urchin" one of several dotted around the town.

More reflections too in the entrance to the market hall itself.


Market Avenue is a pedestrian walkway leading from Ashton market to Old Street. The amusement arcade on the right has a snack bar which is from where I took the first photograph.


This plaque on the left-hand bollard depicts a plan of Ashton Old Town as laid out in the 1740s by the 5th Earl of Stamford.


This is the plaque on the right-hand bollard.

For more bollards visit Bollards of Britain.

For more reflections visit Weekend Reflections.

ABC Wednesday:B is for Brewer's Dray

A Brewer's Dray is a waggon used by breweries to transport barrels of beer to their pubs. At one time they were drawn by horses but later motorised drays came to be used.


This one belongs to Stockport brewers, Frederic Robinson Ltd., and these photographs were taken in 2010 when Stockport was celebrating the 750th anniversary of its market.


The two and a half ton, 27 horse power vehicle was manufactured by Thorneycroft and first registered in Somerset in 1927. It had an average speed of 20-25 mph and fuel consumption was 6 mpg.


Robinson's acquired the vehicle in 1980 from the Irwell Street Metal Co.Ltd. of Ramsbottom and had it restored by Ollerton Engineering Services of Salmesbury Bottoms and painted in the livery carried by similar waggons owned by Robinson's at the beginning of the 20th century.


Back in the 1950s the vehicle was still down in Somerset. It belonged then to Mr A E Chedzoy from Martock, whose business was that of mobile ironmonger-cum-oil-merchant. The photograph above is used here courtesy of David Gibbs. Read about its earlier life in his article Mr Chedzoy's Oil Boy first published in A Miscellany of Merriott Memories (1989) and now available on the Merriot Local History Group website.

For more "B" posts visit ABC Wednesday

ABC Wednesday: K is for Kings Road, Audenshaw

Kings Road was constructed as an access during the building of the Audenshaw reservoirs in the 1880s. Kings Farm lay to the East (left) of Kings Road under the shadow of the #3 reservoir. When the M60 motorway was built, the #3 reservoir was reduced to allow the motorway to come through. The motorway embankment seen here is where the reservoir embankment used to be. When this photograph was taken in May 2009 the land on the right was "earmarked for development".


By the time I revisited in May 2010 construction of an estate of new houses had already begun. The rest of the photographs in the post are from a walk taken a few days ago starting in the opposite direction along Kings Road.


Another 12 months on and the new houses can be seen from near Fairfield Golf Course.


This shot shows the strip of land between Kings Road and the M60. Some 22 acres of land, originally reservoir embankment were used for grazing cattle.


On the West side of Kings Road lies Fairfield Golf Club and Gorton Upper Reservoir. on the other side of the reservoir lies the Wright Robinson Sport College. The school which preceded the college was built in 1961 on land previously part of the golf club. In compensation Manchester Corporation Water Works took 50 acres of land from Kings Road Farm and allocated it the golf club.


Cornhill Lane leads off Kings Road by the side of an electricity substation. To the North of the lane is the Eastern section of Fairfield golf course. Most of the land South of Cornhill Lane is occupied by Denton golf course.


Kings Road ends when it meets Debdale Lane where it crosses the South-eastern corner of Gorton Upper Reservoir.

I wrote about Gorton Lower Reservoir in February 2009 and again in October 2009. There is more I've learnt recently about these reservoirs but it will have to wait for another day.

More information about Kings Road Farm can be found on the Audenshaw Local History website.

You can view the 26 photographs that make up my walk last Monday (with a map and slideshow available) on the Geo-trip website.

More K posts can be found at ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday:U is for Upper Brook Street Unitarian Chapel

The Unitarian Chapel, Upper Brook Street, Manchester, a Grade II* listed building, was recently described by the Victorian Society as one of the ten most endangered Victorian buildings in England & Wales.


The former Unitarian Chapel has been owned by Manchester City Council since the 1970s. Opened in 1839 it is the first known example of a Gothic nonconformist chapel and believed to have been an early collaboration between Sir Charles Barry and AWN Pugin before they worked together on the Palace of Westminster. Yet despite its national significance, the chapel has been neglected for decades, resulting in 2005 in the removal of its roof. The chapel is now open to the elements and largely a ruin.


It was constructed between 1837 and 1839 out of sandstone, with a slate roof. It is in English neogothic style. The building has seven narrow bays, with buttresses and a lancet in each bay. The west end has a giant moulded archway, with an arched doorway at the ground floor with a window above. On the east end there is a rose window. The corners are square, with pinnacles. The inside of the chapel had galleries on three sides, and a ribbed, vaulted ceiling. The attached two-storey Sunday School is in the same style as the chapel, and has a triple-gabled north side, with large arched windows on the first floor. It also has a canted apse on the west end, and a lean-to porch.


The chapel was originally constructed for the Unitarians and was used for burial rites until at least 1857 (although the chapel has no graveyard), as well as baptisms until at least 1912, and marriages until at least 1916.


The chapel was sold in 1928 and subsequently used as a Welsh Baptist Chapel. It was then used as a Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall in the early 1970s. The most recent use of both the chapel and former Sunday School was for the Islamic Academy of Manchester between 1974 and 2006, when it was used as a mosque, teaching centre and for outreach work in the Asian community. The chapel is currently vacant, whilst the Islamic Academy still occupy the Sunday School.


Keith Williamson was there the same day as I but unbeknown to each other and took this view from the top floor of the Aquatics Centre Car Park.

More information and photos can be found on Wikipedia.

Visit ABC Wednesday for more U posts.

ABC Wednesday N is for Noirmont Point

The headland known as Noirmont Point was acquired by the States of Jersey on behalf of the public in commeration of those men and women of Jersey who perished in the Second World War 1939-1945.

Noirmont Tower (also known as La Tour de Vinde) was built on an offshore rocky outcrop below the point in 1811.

West is Portelet Bay in the middle of which stands Janvrin Tower. It was built as a defense against French attack during the 1800s, but it stands above the tomb of a sailor called Philip Janvrin. On returning to the island from a trip to Nantes in the year 1721, Janvrin and his crew were not allowed to land, for fear that they might be infected with the plague that was afflicting the people of that area of France. They where ordered to stay in quarantine on their ship in the nearby Belcroute Bay. It's not known whether the crew were actually suffering from the plague, but sadly poor Janvrin died and his widow was still not allowed to bring his body ashore. Permission was finally given for his body to be interred on 'Ile au Guerdain', so that he would be within sight of his St. Brelade home.

Here we see the top of an underground German Command Bunker which extends to a depth of 40ft on two floors. It was the Command Post (Leitstand) for the naval coastal artillery battery Lothringen located here.

One of four built to a similar design in the Channel Islands, the bunker was surmounted by a range-finder and two periscopes to determine the direction and speed of sea targets. Sealed up for safety reasons shortly after the war, the bunker escaped the scrap-drive of the early 1950s, with the result that it is the only example of its type in the Islands to retain the impressive 7 inch-thick armoured cupolas. The bunker has been restored to a very high standard and provides a unique insight into the sheer scale and thoroughness of German military engineering.

Also here is a Coastal Artillery Observation Tower. This massive structure, with its brooding clifftop presence over the Island's sea approaches is, for many, one of the most potent symbols of the Occupation. The tower was, in fact, known as a Marine Peilstand or naval direction-finding tower, and is one of three constructed in Jersey, out of a planned total of nine.

The design of these towers is unique to the Channel Islands, and may take its inspiration from the 18th Century Round Towers that ring the local coastline. The observation slits, set in 2 metres of concrete, provide an impressive setting for the distant sea views towards France. On top of the tower is a mounting for a 2cm Flak Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun.

More photos and interesting stuff about Noirmont Point can be found on the blog German Bunker in my Garden

Also worth a look is the website of the Channel Islands Occupation Society, a non-political, voluntary organisation, dedicated to the preservation and recordal of all aspects of the German Occupation of Jersey during the Second World War.

For more N posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday: L is for The Ladysmith

The Ladysmith public house on Wellington Road, Ashton under Lyne, opened in 1860 as a beerhouse named the Railway Tavern. It became fully licensed in 1865 as the Railway Hotel. In 1983 it was renamed the Ladysmith after the former barracks in the town.



For more L posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Shadow Shot Sunday: Henry Street, Glossop

The shadows are falling over the Glossop Heritage Centre (and Tourist Information Centre).

It has been driven out of its 23 year old Henry Street home next door to Sandra's Florists.

According to the Trust's website

"All artifacts are in safe storage and will be re used when new premises are found."

For more shadows around the world visit Hey Harriet.

Friday Bench (27): Hyde Park

This bench is in Hyde Park, Hyde, Cheshire.

It is one of two benches in an area used to provide a setting for a memorial stone "Lest We Forget". The pillars are two of the four which are the only remains of Newton Lodge, the former home of the Ashton family who gave the park to the people of Hyde in 1902.

The setting was created when the park was refurbished in 2000. The stone had previously lain in one of the gardens.

The full setting can be seen on Hyde Daily Photo and the memorial stone on Hyde DP Xtra.

My favourite benches discovered recently include Rune's in Grimstad, Christchurch Photo Diary's by the Avon river, Leatherdyke's in Queen's Park and Julie's in Sydney.

ABC Wednesday - M is for Mayfield Station

Look South as you enter or leave Piccadilly Station, Manchester on the train and you will these old sheds. They are in fact the covers over the platforms at Mayfield Station.


Across Fairfield Street from Piccadilly is the once-grand entrance to Mayfield. A lower-resolution version of my photograph is included in the Wikipedia entry on the station.


As this photograph taken from Platform 14 at Piccadilly shows, the only building between the two stations is the Star and Garter public house.


Mayfield station was built alongside Piccadilly in 1910 to handle the ever increasing number of trains using the station. A short viaduct diverts away from the Piccadilly line into the terminus at Mayfield which was mainly used by suburban services to the south such as Buxton, Crewe and Macclesfield.


In the late 50s, it was used as an overspill during electrification and modernisation work at Piccadilly Station. When work was complete all trains used Piccadilly and Mayfield closed for good.

It was converted into a parcels depot in 1970 when Royal Mail constructed a sorting office on St Andrews street on the far side of Piccadilly. An overhead conveyor bridge connected the two buildings. The parcels depot was closed in 1986; Mayfield has stood silent ever since.


This view is from the bridge over the River Medlock on Baring Street. Although signs and street maps name it Baring Street, the plaque on the bridge commemorates the reconstruction of the Boardman Street Bridge by the Corporation of Manchester in 1907. An internet search for Boardman Street only revealed a reference to Boardman Street in this area in a 19th century census.

This last photograph from inside Mayfield Station is © Copyright Phill Davison and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. There are many more photographs on Phill's account of The Ghost Station of Manchester.

For more M posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday - K is for Knightstown

We visited Knightstown on Valentia Island (NOT Valencia Island as marked on some maps) in April 1999. We were staying at Kenmare in County Kerry and had set off across country. The rain in Ireland can be fierce and as we drove into the town of Caherciveen the water was bouncing 18 inches high as it hit the road. We didn't take the ferry across but drove several miles to Portmagee where there is a bridge across to the island. We kept on driving until we arrived at Knightstown. Here we found a little cafe. We parked outside and decamped into it as quickly as we could. After refreshing ourselves I took this quick photograph looking down into town with its clock tower by the ferry to Caherciveen.


We returned in September 2000 on a sunny day and explored in more comfort.

The first transatlantic cable to achieve long term success was laid from Foilhommerum, Valentia Island to Hearts Content, Newfoundland on the 13th July 1866 by the largest ship of that time, 'The Great Eastern.' Queen Victoria and President Andrew Johnson exchanged congratulatory messages via the transatlantic cable on July 29, 1866 just two days after the Great Eastern arrived at Heart's Content.

A cable station in Knightstown opened on September 20, 1868 and was closed in 1966 by Western Union International. The cable station is now a factory and the cable houses are now private homes. The buildings are situated on the lower road from Knightstown to Chapeltown.

There is more information about this on the Atlantic Cable website.

Later we went back to Portmagee and took a boat out to the Skelligs from the Skellig Experience Centre but that's a tale for another day.

For more K posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday - J is for Jet Amber Fields

Jet Amber Fields between St Anne's Road, Denton and Dunkirk Lane, Hyde was landscaped in the 1980s having previously been used as a refuse tip.

In the 19th century the area was used for mining.

More recently it has been used for kite flying.

For more J posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday - D is for Donkey Stone Wharf

Donkey Stone Wharf, as it is known, is part of the Ashton Old Wharf at the end of the Ashton Canal before it links into the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. This is where Eli Whalley founded his company in the 1890s to manufacture donkey stones, which were produced in huge quantities to meet the demand for the mainly northern tradition of donkey-stoning stone steps, windowsills and the area of pavement outside (known as the 'flags' or 'front').

Donkey stones were about the size of a large bar of soap and when being used they needed to be wetted as they were scoured over stone surfaces. This was a regular chore performed by generations of housewives at the terraced houses of Lancashire and Yorkshire.


Donkey stones took their name from the image of a donkey used by the largest 19th century manufacturer. On the other hand, Eli Whalley used a lion as his trademark and the inspiration for this came from childhood visits to Belle Vue Zoo at Gorton, Manchester.

Eli Whalley's company reached its peak during the 1930s when it was producing around 2.5 million donkey stones every year. By 1973 the owners of the company were Gilbert Garside and his son, Harry, but, by this time, production had shrunk to about 720,000 stones a year. However, it outlived all other manufacturers to become the world's last surviving donkey stone manufacturer and Eli Whalley & Company remained in business until 1979.


In recent years a new entrance has been created on Lower Wharf Street with gates and a sculpture designed by Paul Margetts.


The sculpture is Flying Geese Wind Vanes. They are 5.5 metres high and turn in the lightest breeze.


A blue plaque celebrating the life of Eli Whalley has been fitted in the gable of his bothy.

For more about Eli Whalley see the Eli Whalley website.

Fore more information about Donkey stones see Pony Brand Cleaning Stones

For more D posts visit ABC Wednesday.