ABC Wednesday: Guidebridge Mill

Today's post for ABC Wednesday is G for Guidebridge Mill.

This building, on South Street in Guide Bridge, is Guidebridge (or Guide Bridge) Mill Number 2. It was built by the Guide Bridge Spinning Company in 1884, alongside Mill No 1. It was the largest mill in Ashton, although boundary changes mean that it is now in Audenshaw. Mill Number 1 was built in 1876 but was demolished around 1938. Mill Number 2 is no longer used for cotton manufacturing.

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"Guidebridge Mill" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "G" posts from around the world please follow this link.

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Theatre

"T" is for "Theatre" and today's photo shows Guide Bridge Theatre, which is situated in Audenshaw, just a few yards outside the boundary of Ashton.

At first sight the building looks more like a warehouse than a theatre, which is not surprising, as it was built as a warehouse for Fox's Glacier Mints!

Ashton Repertory Club was formed in 1942 and converted a store-room at the Co-op shop in Hillgate into a small theatre where 12 plays a year were staged! In 1971 the club bought the warehouse at Guide Bridge and transformed it into the theatre. The club re-named itself Ashton and Audenshaw Repertory Club but is now known simply as Guide Bridge Theatre. Major alterations were carried out in 1986 and the stage was renewed in 1996. In 2009 a new entrance corridor was created. Although the Theatre became a Limited Company in 2010 it is still completely run by volunteers.

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Motorway

"M" is for "Motrway" and today's photo shows the M60 motorway as it sweeps through the Guide Bridge area on the western edge of Ashton.

In the background to the left of the photo is the blue roof of Assheton House, near the bus station. To the right of that are Portland House, Welbeck House and Margaret House.

The tower of St Peter's Church is just visible hiding behind the chimney and tower of "Tudno" Mill (Ryecroft Mill No. 3). The top of the tower of the Old Baths can just be seen behind the new houses that stand on the site of the Birch Hotel. To the right are Grosvenor House and Rycroft House, off Stckport Road.

In the far distance looms Alphin Pike and the high Pennine moorland to the east of Mossley and Stalybridge.

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"Motorway" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "M" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Limited Outlook

"L" is for "Limited Outlook" and that's exactly what the occupants of this house can enjoy!

This well-cared-for semi-detached house in on Stockport Road in Ashton, almost at Guide Bridge. Above the doorway is a fanlight window and a semi-circular arch of tapering bricks with a a stone keystone.

There is also a brick single bay window allowing splendid views of, er... the back of a bus shelter!

I'm not sure how long the bus shelter has been here, as I seem to remember the bus stop being closer to the Corporation Arms a few years ago. I don't know whether the occupants had any say in the matter or whether they drew back the curtains one morning and there it was!

Of course, as Stockport Road is a very busy thoroughfare they may have welcomed the shelter as a screen although I must say I would find it somewhat claustrophobic myself.

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"Limited Outlook" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "L" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Trans-Pennine Express

Today's photo shows the Trans-Pennine Express passing through Guide Bridge Station at the western boundary of Ashton. The train is heading for Manchester's Piccadilly Station. Being an express, the train doesn't actually stop here at Guide Bridge, but has to slow down where the line from Stalybridge joins the line from Glossop. (The junction can be seen in the distance if you look at the larger version of the photo.)

We saw a view of the station from the road bridge a couple of weeks ago.

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"Trans-Pennine Express" is my contribution to this week's "My World" feature. Please check out the other blogs participating in this week's My World.

Sky Watch: St Stephen's Church

Reaching for the sky this week is the steeple of St Stephen's Church at Guide Bridge. Although it is situated in Audenshaw, the church is just a few metres from the Ashton boundary.

St Stephen's Church was built in 1845 and like many English churches built at that time is in the early Gothic style with simple lancet windows rather than the elaborate tracery found on windows built in the later Gothic style.

The church, which is now a Grade 2 Listed Building, was built at a cost of £2,900 to accommodate a congregation of 750.

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Sky Watch is a regular weekly feature on this photo blog. It links with websites all over the world with the general theme each week of looking upwards. Please take the opportunity to visit some of these other sites. I hope some new visitors have found their way here today, watching the skies!

Guide Bridge Station

"G" is for "Guide Bridge Station" and today's photo shows this railway station which is on the western boundary of Ashton.

The train in the photo is on its way from Glossop to Manchester Piccadilly. At one time the line continued through Woodhead Tunnel to Sheffield. The Trans-Pennine Express trains pass through the station without stopping, turning left a quarter of a mile on, towards Stalybridge.

This station was the first railway station to open in Ashton and was originally called Ashton and Hooley Hill. It took its later name from the adjacent bridge over the Ashton Canal (not over the River Tame, as suggested in Wikipedia). The canal runs behind the trees on the left of the photo.

The station is a shadow of its former self, with the remaining platform-side buildings sealed up. Only the trains on the Glossop line stop here now. The regular service between Stalybridge and Stockport has been replaced with a so-called "parliamentary" train, running one journey a week in one direction only, from Stockport to Stalybridge, stopping at the platform on the "wrong" side here at Guide Bridge after emerging from the Stockport line.

A footbridge between the platforms burnt down five years ago and has not been replaced, necessitating a long walk round from one platform to the other.

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"Guide Bridge Station" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "G" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Corporation Arms

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This is the third week in a row that the "My World" image is of a building on Stockport Road, but today's is at the completely opposite end of the road from the previous two!

Today's photo shows the Corporation Arms and the road junction at Guide Bridge. The pub was opened in 1850 and was a beer house until it was fully licensed in 1857.

The road junction marks the boundary between Ashton and Audenshaw. The wall to the left of the pub is actually the parapet to the canal bridge which gives its name to this district. The same wall can be seen from the Ashton Canal in the first photo on this page, with the pub on the left of the picture.

This is a very busy road junction so it was remarkable that I was able to capture a moment when the road was empty!

"Corporation Arms" is my contribution to this week's "My World" feature. Please check out the other blogs participating in this week's My World.


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Cotton Mill

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This week's Monochrome Moment shows Guide Bridge Mill, alongside the Ashton Canal on the town's western boundary.

In fact, the mill shown was Guide Bridge No. 2 Mill. Built in 1884, this five storey cotton spinning mill was the largest in Ashton. It had more than 150,000 spindles all powered by a Musgrave steam engine with a 32 foot diameter flywheeel.

Guide Bridge No 1 Mill, built in 1876, was demolished around 1938 but No. 2 Mill still stands although is used for other purposes than the manufacture of cotton cloth. It is one of just over a dozen mills that survive out of over 80 that once operated in Ashton as part of its thriving cotton industry.

This is actually a sepiafied version of a recent photo but a photo taken a hundred years ago at this spot would not have looked so different except that you would have seen No 1 Mill in the background to the right and you might have caught a horse-drawn narrow boat pulling away from the wharf at the side of the mill or a train crossing the bridge behind the tree!

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This image is a contribution to Monochrome Weekend. Please follow the link to visit other sites taking part.