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Friday 14 March 2008

The Family


The huge sculpture entitled "The Family" stands at the junction of Fletcher Street and Market Street in Ashton, facing the Market Hall. It is the work of sculptor Paul Margetts, who has a number of other works around the town. It was unveiled in 1995, after being commissioned by MAB (UK) the previous year, the "Year of the Family". Signs of the times in the background are "Superpound Store" on the left and "Dizzi Gothic" on the right.

16 comments:

  1. i remember when fletcher street was just houses apart from garland and blease opticians ,it certainly looks much better these days ,i knew the family that lived in the end house .. ,

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  2. the hurst circular and mossley buses used to pull in there after off loading outside henry moons, the smallshaw circular and the higher hurst buses used to go from facing what was the queens cinema later derek hartle, that was before the first bus station was erected .by the side of the end house was a dirt path that led you into old st ,you came out near harrops herbalist ,

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  3. When you compare the symmetry of the top two floors with the shop fronts - I think it is a disgrace that thy got planning permmision to alter them.

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  4. Strange thing. I've just looked up Fletcher Street in my 1962 A-Z map of Ashton but it is not mentioned. If this is the street where Burgess & Dysons stationers was on the corner with Market Street, then it is called Mulberry Street on the map - where the buses waited before going to Hurst. Or am I in the wrong area?
    I also notice on the map that Penny Meadow is called Katherine Street.

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  5. Old maps of Ashton show that this was always Fletcher Street. Mulberry Street was a continuation in the same direction after Swan Street. There is still part of Mulberry Street left between Old Cross Street and Glebe Street.

    Penny Meadow was originally part of Katherine Street. I don't know when the name was changed - maybe when Katherine Street was cut in half by the building of the Precinct?

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  6. Penny Meadow was always that, even before the precinct.
    jaywit

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  7. Sorry to disagree, Jaywit, but Penny Meadow was originally Katherine Street. You can see it on the map
    here.

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  8. also on my 1913 map say Katherine Street.
    What caught my attention today was the large picture in the window of the building office, of what the market hall will look like.

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  9. Son of Nomad
    Burgess and Dyson's used to be on the corner- they also had a shop in the Avenue. The Hurst buses used to wait in the street- always knew it as Fletcher St

    Katherine St continued across the front of the Town Hall and up what we know as Penny Meadow.

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  10. Hi Martin! I was just trying to make out whether the brown-fronted building, two doors this way from the yellow-painted Superpound Store at the end, has one of those old-style push-up wooden roller blinds or whether that's just regular closed venetian blinds?
    Just down from where I used to live on Ashton Old Road in Lr. Openshaw there was a Greengrocer, Bazaar and Butcher Shop which all had those and the store front was open to the elements! Rabbits hanging on hooks and all! LOL. I loved them - they all had sticky glue papers hanging over the foods!

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  11. joyce ,they look like venetian blinds to me ,mine are exactly like them ,you can see the tapes if you look closely ,,

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  12. Joyce and GG. They are metal security shutters. The shopkeeper pulls them down at night, to stop some Boundah smashing his shop window in.

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  13. I like the sculpture very much - I'd like to see some of his other stuff too sometime.

    Glasgow's full of pound shops too these days. Sign of the times, definitely!

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  14. How do the locals feel about the sculpture?

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  15. It seems to be popular with the local pigeons!

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  16. i think its a great statue its called the family its a nice area to have a sit down more so in summer you can have a chip muffin from the fishnet round the corner ,

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