Council Chamber

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"C" is for "Council Chamber" and today's photo shows the council chamber used for meetings of Tameside Council.

The chamber is situated upstairs in Ashton Town Hall. The Mayor, the Council Leader and the Cabinet members, who have responsibility for Council departments, sit on the raised seats facing the camera, while the other councillors sit on the seats arranged in a curve.

"Council Chamber" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "C" posts from around the world please follow this link.

The Black Knight

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"K" is for "Knight" and today's photo shows the sculpture of The Black Knight situated under the atrium in Tameside Council offices public reception area.

The statue commemorates Ashton's most celebrated legend, that of The Black Knight, thought to be based on the character of Sir Ralph de Assheton, who for a time resided at Ashton Old Hall in the fifteenth century. He was said to have been a cruel tyrant and the local inhabitants feared the sight of him riding around the area, on his black horse, looking for hapless peasants to persecute.

It is said that he was shot dead one Easter Monday by a relative. His death was celebrated by the relieved townsfolk with a custom called Riding the Black Lad, where his effigy was paraded around the town on horseback, had lumps of earth thrown at it and then possibly burnt.

The custom went through various changes over the years and by the 20th century took the form of a procession through the town led by The Black Knight riding on horseback. Read more about this custom here.

When the Arcades shopping mall opened, a sculpture of The Black Knight was commissioned and placed in the central of the mall. Typically of Ashton folk, many were scornful of the sculpture for being brown rather than black! When the Arcades had a refurbishment the sculpture was put into storage and mysteriously disappeared.

It was subsequently found and the council offered to provide a home for it. It has been given a much blacker colouring than before and now sits in pride of place in the main concourse of the council offices.

"The Black Knight" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "K" posts from around the world please follow this link.

Town Hall Steps

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A familar location seen from an unusual angle this week. The view is looking down onto the steps of Ashton Town Hall from the window of the Tameside Council Chamber.

You can see one of the two canons that stand beside the steps. We are looking straight up Penny Meadow towards the distant hills that are sporting patches of snow. To the right is the Market Hall.

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


See Birds Eye View of this location.

Sky Watch: Council Offices

It is quite difficult (in my opinion) to argue that Tameside Council's offices on Wellington Road are situated in an attractive building. In fact, when it was first constructed it was widely referred to as "The Dustbin"!

So how do I take an attractive-looking photo of the building? My answer was to show it in silhouette against a colourful evening sky. It doesn't make the building look any prettier but it does distract the eye!

Sky Watch is the regular Friday feature on this photo blog. It will link 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!

See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.

Stalybridge Saturday: Brushes Valley

Today's photo looks down Huddersfield Road towards the Royal Oak and the junction with Grove Road in Millbrook. The road curves to the left at the bottom of the hill before heading uphill through Millbrook village towards Carrbrook and Mossley.

Straight ahead we are looking up the steep-sided Brushes Valley towards Walkerwood Reservoir (see Google or Live views below).

The traffic lights at the bottom of the hill have recently been installed because of the extra traffic emerging from Grove Road since the building of houses and apartments there.

In 1908 a single deck tram car ran away down this hill and crashed through a wall before plunging down a bank into a stream [see photo].

See Google Aerial View of this location.
See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.

Stalybridge Saturday: Waterloo Road

Think of Waterloo Road School these days and many people will think of the BBC drama series about a fictional school in Rochdale where the most unlikely series of events constantly occur. (But then, a programme that accurately depicted life in a real school would be too dull!)

However, this rather grand building in Stalybridge was once Waterloo Road Girls' Secondary School, until it was replaced by Copley High School.

The building has seen constant use since the schoolgirls moved out. For many years it housed Tameside's Teachers' Centre as well as council offices. More recently part of it has become Stalybridge Police Station.

Microsoft's bird's-eye views have only just been extended to include Stalybridge so, if you click the link below, you may be tempted to use it to explore Stalybridge a bit more!

See Google Aerial View of this location.
See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.

Mossley on Monday: Mossley Park

Some brand new gates have appeared at the entrance to Mossley Park on Old Brow this last week. They are painted in the green and gold of the civic colour scheme for Mossley (i.e. the lamp posts, litter bins, bollards, etc. are all in these colours).

The hillside location of the park offers stunning views across the valley towards the moors. However, the children who enjoy the extensive play area (when the weather is warmer) probably don't spend a lot of time admiring the view!

The photo in last week's "Sunday Stroll" was taken from a spot directly behind the gold spike above the letter "M" on the gate. It was looking towards Noonsun Hill, which is on the left of today's photo. Buckton Castle is on the hill top above the letter "Y".

See Google Aerial View of this location.

Stalybridge Saturday: Market Hall

The splendid facade of Stalybridge's Victoria Market Hall masks a shameful secret - the Market Hall no longer houses a market! While Stalybridge's market hall was never as busy as that of its neighbour, Ashton, it was always quietly buzzing and had a friendly, personal feel. However, when the council decided that the hall needed refurbishment, plans to move the stallholders to temporary premises came to nothing and the market simply shut.

The inside of the building is now a very attractive space, but no longer a market. It is used for community events but this means that the hall is empty for most of the time. Luckily the rear of the building has been made into offices and smaller meeting rooms and these are made good use of.

Outside the hall is one of the ornamental fingerposts that Tameside seems to have bought in bulk. The fingers read: North, Mossley, Ashton under Lyne, Droylsden, Audenshaw, Dukinfield, Denton, Hyde, Longdendale. The globe inside the crown lights up at night, and looks very nice, as can been seen in this photo of the one outside Ashton's Market Hall.

See Google Aerial View of this location.

Central Library

This is the Central Library and Art Gallery on Old Street in Ashton. It is the answer to yesterday's "where is this?" puzzle. The carved Viking boat is near the top of the face of the tower, high above the entrance steps.

The building dates from around 1890 and was built as the Heginbottom Technical School by the trustees of the late George Heginbottom, a local mill owner.

Following the 1880 Libraries Act, Ashton Corporation had opened a free library in Ashton Town Hall. Then in 1893 the library was moved to new purpose-built accommodation in the new Technical School building, where it remains to this day, as Tameside's Central Library. The remainder of the former school accommodation is now used for other library services, such as the reference and music libraries, and the upper floor is now Tameside's Art Gallery.

See Google Aerial View of this location.
See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.

Stalybridge Saturday: Railway Station

You would be forgiven if you didn't immediately recognise this location, as this is the brand new face of Stalybridge Station. This is the first in a series of weekly visits to Stalybridge, Ashton's next-door neighbour, just 2 miles to the east.

At a cost of £675,000 a new glass-fronted entrance has been built with seating area and departure information shown on hi-tech screens. This part of a £1.5 million scheme to improve the station which has included improved toilets and shelters.

On the down side, the number of car parking spaces on the immediate forecourt has been reduced from 13 to 6 plus 2 taxi spaces and two disabled spaces. Other spaces are available on the ramp alongside the station building and on a plot opposite, but more parking will need to be provided if more people are to use the station as a "park-and-ride" facility.

See Google Aerial View of this location before the modernisation.

Ashton Open Market

A view of Ashton's Open Market ground on the run-up to Christmas. The walls of the newly re-opened Market Hall bear Christmas decorations and the banner on the clock tower proclaims that the Market Hall is now open.

See Live Search Birds Eye View of this location before the Market Hall re-opened.

All lit up!

Although the Christmas lights in Dukinfield may be modest by comparison with those in some places, I think the scene in front of Dukinfield Town Hall looks rather attractive as darkness falls.

There are twin Christmas trees there and lights in all the trees on the forecourt.

See Google Aerial View of this location.
See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.

Early Snow

It's been a few years since we had snow in early December, but this morning saw an inch or two. This caused the usual chaos to traffic as many drivers no longer seem to know how to drive in snow! In fact, many drivers stayed at home as shown by this photo, taken on the usually busy A635 Manchester Road in front of Mossley Railway Station at around 9.00 am today.

Click on the photo to see a larger version.

See Google Aerial View of this location without the snow.

Market Hall Re-opens

It's open at last! After four and a half years, Ashton's Market Hall once again thronged with shoppers.

Every stall was occupied by traders and it seemed as if every inch of floor space was occupied by shoppers! The bareness of the modern decor seen in the preview photos a couple of weeks ago has been replaced by a mass of colour and life.

Although it is in effect a brand new state-of the art building constructed within the walls of the old market hall, the designers have tried to bring to it some of the character that the old market had. Instead of the broad, straight aisles found in modern market halls elsewhere in the region, Ashton's new market hall still has some nooks and crannies. There are curves and angles with some passages narrower than others. But the place has a feeling of lightness and openness brought about by the removal of the old internal walls and the design of the high vaulted roof with its rows of windows that let the light flood in.

There are two new web pages with more than 30 photos of the inside of the Market Hall to be found here.

I will post further photos of the market on this blog. Don't forget that you can see larger versions of the photos on this blog by clicking on them, although you will need to use your "back" button the return here.

See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location while the Market Hall was still being re-built.

Over The Top

This was the main A635 Manchester Road through Bottom Mossley last weekend. The road was closed off for 24 hours while a giant crane was set up to help put a replacement footbridge into position across the railway.

The railway lines runs behind the houses, which is why such a large crane, which was capable of lifting 80 tonnes, was needed.

The old and new bridges were not lifted over the houses, though. At around 3.00 am the old bridge was lifted down onto bogies on the railway track and moved along to the station yard 300 yards away, where a smaller crane lifted it off.

On Sunday afternoon the new bridge (which had arrived at the station yard by lorry) was lifted onto the bogies and moved along the track to the bridge site. The large crane in the photo then lifted it from the bogies, rotated it and placed it onto the bridge piers.

The railway line was closed to trains through much of the weekend, although some freight trains moved through very slowly late on Saturday night. The road closure caused disruption to cars and bus services. Some of the drivers of the rail replacement coaches seemed uncertain as to which way they should go to get to the next station at Stalybridge!

Hopefully the new bridge will last another 150 years!

See Google Aerial View of this location.

Room with a View

The view out across Ashton's open market from one of the new offices in the re-built Market Hall. (Click photo to see a larger version and click Back to come back here.)

What a fascinating location! I think I'll rent that office, sit and stare out of the window all day and not do any work!

Market Hall Revealed!

In just two weeks time, Ashton Market Hall, re-built after the 2004 fire, opens its door once again to shoppers!

For those of you who can't wait to see what the inside looks like (or who are too far away) here is a preview for you! Of course, it will look a lot more colourful once the stalls are full of items for sale!

Every stall will be occupied so there will be plenty for shoppers to find. The aisles are wider than in the original building, however, a new basement contains all the services and storage areas so that the maximum of space can be occupied by traders. There is also a new mezzanine level running around two sides of the building housing offices.

I will post further photos here over the next few days. Smaller versions of the photos can be seen on two new web pages showing the Market Sales Floor and Behind the Scenes.

Colonel Duckenfield

This statue of Colonel Robert Duckenfield stands outside the entrance to Dukinfield Town Hall, King Street, was erected in 2007.

Colonel Duckenfield lived from 1619 to 1689 and was High Sherrif of Cheshire. He was Lord of the Manor of Dukinfield, living at the now-demolished Dukinfield Hall, where he established up the first independent chapel in England (Old Hall Chapel - the oldest Nonconformist chapel). He fought for the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War and led thew forces that captured the Isle of Man.

See Google Aerial View of this location.

The Word is On The Street!

For today's Theme Day on "Books" we pay another visit to Maurice Miner, whom we met coming up for air last Sunday.

He is one of a series of light-hearted scupltures to have been put up in the area to celebrate the forthcoming re-opening of the old Ashton Market Hall after the 2004 fire.

This miner celebrity has dropped in here in Market Avenue in Ashton. He is seen here amusing himself with some down to earth reading. He is a mine of information and tried to floor me with a few questions. He told me that life has been the pits recently but these days things were looking up!

See Google Aerial View of this location.

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Alphabet Friday - Stockport Road

S is for Stockport Road, which is the main A6017 road from Ashton towards Guide Bridge, Denton and, of course, Stockport.

This photo is looking along Stockport Road towards the centre of Ashton from the bus stop in Trafalgar Square. The tower of St Peter's Church is seen in the centre of the photo. The Twelve Apostles terrace is out of shot to the right.

See Google Aerial View of this location.