Ashton in Winter

Today's post shows another wintry scene from last week. Ashton had gone that far through winter without any snow, and the snow last week was far less than some other parts of the UK had been enduring.

However, it was enough snow to look pretty and the scene looking down Crickets Lane towards Ashton Parish Church does not disappoint. The snow-laden trees that line the left hand side of the road stand in the Memorial Gardens. Normally the road is much busier than this and it would not be wise to stand in the roadway taking a photo!

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

Ashton Parish Church

This week's view of My World shows a view of the interior of Ashton's historic Parish Church. This is the parish church of St Michael and All Angels and there was a church on this site before the Norman Conquest. The earliest parts of the present building date back to the 15th Century although most of what you see in the photo only dates back to Victorian times, when the church was given a major update.

The altar is at the far end, below the ancient flags and the huge east window. The church has boxed pews which all face the unusual three-tiered pulpit which can be seen half-way down the nave on the left hand side.

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

Albion Church

This week's Sky Watch shows Albion Church on Stamford Street East.

Ashton was a hotbed of non-conformist and independent worship in the 18th and 19th centuries, with a wide variety of churches attracting congregations. Albion United Reform Church opened in 1895 as a Congregationalist church, but it had its origins in a room in a house as early as 1780. A Refuge Chapel was opened on Penny Meadow in 1817, enlarged and rebuilt as Albion Chapel in 1834. When the present magnificent building was constructed, the congregation insisted that it be called a church rather than a chapel, as they refused to think of themselves as in any way inferior to their Anglican neighbours. This spirit of rivalry resulted in the spire being built two feet taller than the tower of the Parish Church!

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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!

St James' Church

This week's Sky Watch shows St James' Church on Cowhill Lane, which punctuates the sky with its twin spires.

The church of St James the Apostle, opened in 1865. The land was given by the Earl of Stamford and most of the £3,500 cost of building was met bt mill owner Oldham Whittaker.

There is a plaque commemorating John Bradford of Manchester, a Christian martyr burnt at the stake in 1555.

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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!

Albion Church

This week's view of My World shows Albion Church seen from the tower of Ashton Parish Church. Albion Church was the largest Congregationalist church in the north of England.

In the foreground is Ashton's telephone exchange and behind the church is Tameside College. Behind that is Ridge Hill, covered with houses and dwarfed by the bulk of the Pennine hills in the background.

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

Roughtown

This week's Sky Watch shows you a view along the Tame Valley towards the part of Mossley called Roughtown.

The view is from Mossley Hall, formerly a mill owner's house then later the local town hall. St John's Church, Roughtown, dominates the skyline with it steeple. To the right of that is the hill Wharmton, with a television mast on its summit.

In the middle distance the Manchester to Huddersfield railway line and the A635 road curve around the side of the valley. On the left is the former gatehouse to Mossley Hall and, behind it, the tower on the former Wesleyan Sunday School. This dramatic view is only 4 miles from the centre of Ashton.

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!

St Michael's Church

Today's Sky Watch image shows Church of St Michael and All Angels, the Parish Church of Ashton under Lyne.

There has been a church on this site before the Norman Conquest, as the Domesday Book of 1088 mentions a St Michael's Church in the east of the ancient parish of Manchester. Parts of the present building date from the fifteenth century but most of the structure was re-built in Victorian times.

The church is seen from the other side of Ashton town centre's bypass. The shiny pointed obelisk is a sort of sculpture to indicate that the building behind me (the former Labour Exchange) is now an apartment block known as The Point.

The obelisk and the points on the church tower all draw the eye to the sky with its thin, wispy clouds.

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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!

Albion Church

Today's Sky Watch image shows the roof and spire of Albion Church, near the town centre of Ashton.

The church was built as the largest Congregationalist church in the north of England. The Earl of Stamford had refused to sell the Congregationalists land to build their new church, so a Congregationalist member sold them this land which faced St Michael's C of E Parish Church across a slight dip. The spire was deliberately built to be 2 feet taller than the tower of the nearby Parish Church as a gesture of defiance!

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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!

St George's Church

Today's Sky Watch image shows St George's Church in Mossley, with its tower and steeply pitched roof reaching for the sky.

The first church here was built in 1757 for just £600! They got quite good value for money as the church lasted 120 years before it began falling apart.

It was replaced by the present church, which was opened in 1882, with the tower being completed 5 years later. St George's parish covers the part of Mossley that was historically in Lancashire. The church is situated in Top Mossley, close to the road coming over the hill from Ashton.

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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!

St James' Church

"J" is for "James" and today's photo shows the church of St James the Apostle in Ashton. St James' Church is notable for its twin spires and stands in a prominent position at the highest point of Cow Hill.

Another view of this church, featuring a closer view of the twin spires, was seen here two years ago.

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"St James' Church" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "J" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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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!

Dukinfield Old Chapel

"D" is for "Dukinfield Old Chapel" and today's photo shows this magnificent building situated at the top of Crescent Road in Dukinfield, less than a mile from Ashton under Lyne Parish Church.

Constructed in 1840 as a re-building of Dukinfield's older Unitarian chapel, the building is strikingly tall for its footprint. Built at the highest point in the central part of Dukinfield the chapel made a landmark clearly visible on the skyline from Ashton and is in a far more prominent position than the nearby St John's Church of England church. This reflects the competition and politics that went on between the established and non-conformist denominations at that time.

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"Dukinfield Old Chapel" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "D" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Ashton Parish Church

"A" is for "Ashton Parish Church" and today's photo shows the south side of that church.

Ashton's Parish Church is the church of St Michael and All Angels. It is said that all churches of this name are built on hills, and this church is no exception, although the hill is only evident from the south, as there is only a slight rise in ground level from Stamford Street on the north side.

There has been a church on this site before the Norman Conquest, as the Domesday Book of 1088 mentions a St Michael's Church in the east of the ancient parish of Manchester.

Parts of the present building date from the fifteenth century but most of the structure was re-built in Victorian times. The building has external buttresses, required to support the walls due to the perpendicular style with its large window areas. The tower is 145 feet high and has a peel of thirteen bells.

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"Ashton Parish Church" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "A" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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The Point

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"P" is for "Point" and today's photo shows "The Point", which is a building that formerly housed Ashton's Labour Exchange and County Court, but has now been converted into apartments.

The building was empty for a number of years until a developer took on the challenge to spend £2 million on converting the building. Unfortunately the company ran into financial difficulties and the project was halted. Luckily another company saw the merit in the scheme and completed the work. Read more about it here.

This is the view from the Point, looking across Park Parade (Ashton's by-pass) to the Parish Church.
(That's enough Ps for one Photo - Ed.)

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"The Point" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "P" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Old Man

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"0" is for "Old Man" and today's photo shows the grave stone of a former resident of Ashton under Lyne who would have been considered very old in his time!

The stone, in the church yard of Ashton Parish Church, was carved with the words:
"Here Resteth the Body of John Leech of Hurst Buried the 16 day of October 1689 aged 92 years whereby Anne his wide has issue 12 Children and in his Lifetime was Father to 12 Grandfather to 75 Great Grandfather to 92 Great Great Grandfather to 2 in all 181 Persons"

The grave stone has been moved at some stage from its original location to this upright position near the churchyard entrance and someone has added the word "Near" above the words "Here Resteth..."

These days attaining the age of 92 does not seem to be such a remarkable achievement but it certainly was back in the 17th century, when he lived through the period of the Great Plague. Even at the time of his death the average life expectancy in England was only around 39! There must have been something in the ale in Hurst!


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"Old Man" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "O" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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St Peter's Church

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Today's photo shows St Peter's Church in Ashton's West End. Last week I showed a photo of the Albion Church, the size of which indicates the popularity of the Non-Conformist religious movement in the Ashton area. St Peter's Church answered this by providing an Anglican church for the people in the growing West End of Ashton.

The church opened in 1824 and is a Grade 2 star listed building. Unusually it had a gallery around three sides. The tower, built in a gothic style, is 128 feet high. It is a very grand-looking building which, in many towns, you would have expected to have been the parish church. Ashton, however, already had the much older St Michael's Church fulfilling that position.

After the Napoleonic Wars and the victory at Waterloo, Parliament gave the Church of England a million pounds to erect a number of magnificent churches in thanks for the victory. St Peter's Church was one of the churches that resulted. The first vicar was John Hutchinson, who had been the assistant curate at St Michael's.

Most of the working people of the area saw the Church of England as being the church for the rich and the bosses and continued to go to the Non-Conformist churches in the area.

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

Albion Church

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Today's image is another look at the Albion Church in Ashton, the largest Congregationalist Church in Northern England. It is seen beyond the ornate gateway from the Memorial Gardens.

On the left of the photo is the former Parochial School that served the Parish Church. The school now has a modern building and the old building is now a nursery.

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

Kings Road

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"K" is for "Kings Road" and today's photo shows part of Kings Road in the Hurst Cross area of Ashton.

Kings Road was originally called Hurst Lane and was the route from Ashton to Hurst Cross and Higher Hurst. From Hurst Cross travellers could head eastwards towards Mossley and Yorkshire or northwards along a maze of lanes towards Park Bridge and Oldham.

On the right is the much re-branded Co-op "local" store, once the Co-op "Late Shop" but now "Co-operative Food".

On the left, behind the former Church Inn (now itself a shop) is the spire of St John's church.

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

Boulder

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"B" is for "Boulder" and today's photo shows the a large boulder which is situated in the grounds of St Peter's Church, Ashton.

The inscription reads "This bowlder was placed here by Alderman Isaac Watt Boulton J.P. of Stamford House Ashton under Lyne in affectionate remembrance of his eldest son Thomas Boulton who was for 9 years a warden of this church born November 5th 1844 and died at sea February 5th 1880 on board the H.M.S.S. Kinfauns Castle whilst on a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope to recruit his health. His remains were committed to the deep in Lat 11° 30' south Long 2° 30' west February 6th 1880. Lord have mercy on my soul and take me to thee."

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"Boulder" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "B" posts from around the world please follow this link.

Wisps and Trails

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An evening walk along the side of Luzley Brow showed this dramatic view towards Mossley Parish Church (St George's) on the skyline, below a veil of wispy aircraft trails.

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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. You are most welcome!