Wet Day

It may come as a surprise to some of the regular visitors to this blog, but it does sometimes rain in Ashton.

Of course, I am more likely to go out to photograph something on a dry or even sunny day and I don't like to get my camera wet, so you do not often get to see photos here taken on wet days!

This particular rainy day image shows a corner of Ashton Market where some of the fruit and veg stalls are, with the Market Hall on the left and Market Avenue disappearing into the distance.

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

Weekend Reflections: Canalside Houses

Canals are often a good place to find reflections. As they have no noticeable flow the, unless the wind is blowing ripples across the water, the surface of the canal can be smooth and reflective.

These new canalside properties are in Mossley, four miles east of Ashton. The canal is the Huddersfield Narrow Canal which runs for 20 miles between Ashton and Huddersfield.

The photo would have been almost perfectly symmetrical had th elamp posts not been placed to one side of the footpath!

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See Bird's Eye View of this location.

For more Weekend Reflections from around the world, visit Newtown Area Photo.

Weekend Reflections: Mill Race

This delightful scene with its watery reflection is in the village of Delph, in Saddleworth, around 7 miles from Ashton.

The tranquillity of the scene belies its industrial origins. The waterway on the left is an artificial mill race or leat, created to provide power for a woollen mill a little further downstream.

The water comes from the River Tame, which runs unseen below the bank on the right of the photo. A couple of hundred yards upstream, just below Delph Bridge, a weir across the river helps to divert some of the water into the mill race. By the time the channel reached the mill, its height above the river meant that it was able to drive a water wheel that could power machinery.

Waterside mills were very common in the hilly area to the east of Ashton before coal-powered steam engines were able to power a greater number of machines, giving rise to the large multi-storey mills built in Ashton and other towns throughout the Victorian era.

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See Google Aerial View of this location.

For more Weekend Reflections from around the world, visit Newtown Area Photo.

Sky Watch: Roughtown

This picturesque scene beneath a nearly blue sky doesn't seem to match the title "Roughtown" but that is the name of the area of Mossley on the hillside. The spire of St John's Church, Roughtown, points skywards, already having a head start as it was built high on the valley side.

The Roughtown area of Mossley was in the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1847.

The water in the foreground, which reflects today's lovely blue sky, looks as if it might be part of a canal, but is in fact a pond that has formed in the old clay workings that were once here. A total of 32,350 cubic metres of clay from these pits was taken by a narrow gauge railway to construct the dam for Chew Valley Reservoir which at over 1500 feet above sea level was, at the time of its construction in 1912, the highest reservoir in England.

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See Bird's Eye View of this location.

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!

Weekend Reflections: Waterside Wander

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Where better for a Weekend Wander with the Autumn colours reflected in the water than along the bank of the disused Fairbottom Branch Canal? The canal runs along the boundary of Ashton under Lyne with Oldham, between Bardsley and Daisy Nook Country Park, where it joins the Hollinwood Canal.

It never fails to surprise me just what a haven of tranquillity exists between these two nearby industrial towns. The canal, of course, owns its existence to the area's industrial history, being built to transport coal from the pits that lined the river valley down to the cotton mills of Ashton and Manchester.

As the coal mines closed, so did the canal and, cut off from the waterway network, its route remains as a delight for anglers, walkers, cyclists and horse riders.

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

For more Weekend Reflections from around the world, visit Newtown Area Photo.