Brick Wall

Today's view of the world of Ashton under Lyne shows you a brick wall. However, Ashton being an interesting town, you would expect this brick wall to be rather interesting.

It is the front wall of the former Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School on Mill Lane, which we saw back in October, and of which I promised to show you more.

The school was built in 1877 as indicated by the date stone and, as you would expect from a Victorian building, includes some fanciful decoration, which is in the form of inlaid stone bands, window pillars and keystones, along with arches formed from tapering bricks and stone hoodmoulds above to direct dripping rain away from the windows. The lettering "Wesleyan Methodist Schools" is carved into the stone band.

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

Decorative Window Surround

As promised, here is a close-up of some of the detail of the former Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School seen earlier this week..

These are the central windows on the ground floor of the western end of the building. Even with the windows boarded up, the decorative stonework and tapering brickwork look magnificent in the sunshine.

More to follow.

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Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School

Today's view of the world of Ashton under Lyne shows one of Ashton's splendid old buildings. Sadly it is one that has been disused for some years.

This is the former Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School on Mill Lane, just off Stamford Street, in Ashton town centre.

The school was built in 1877 but there just isn't the same demand for Sunday Schools these days. It is understood that the building has planning permission to be turned into apartments, which would be a good use of the building, as long as the attractive exterior is retained.

The building actually appears to be in a better state than when I photographed it in 2008. There is less foliage sprouting from the roof and many of the boards covering the windows have been renewed.

I will show some close-ups of some of the decorative brickwork in future posts.

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"Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School" is my contribution to this week's "My World" feature. Please check out the other blogs participating in this week's My World.

In The Way

"I" is for "In The Way" and today's photo shows a building that finds itself in the way of a new road.

The building was originally St Mary's RC Primary School and continued in use as such until 1970. The school relocated to a new building on Holden Street (now Our Lady of Mount Carmel School) and the old building was re-furbished and given a new life as the Markazi Jamia Mosque.

Now it is the Mosque's turn to move to a new building in Hillgate Street, just off Holden Street. When the new Mosque opens this building will be demolished to make way for Ashton's new Northern By-pass.

It would be difficult to describe it as an attractive building but it will still be a pity to see something with so many people's memories, as a place of education and a place of worship, become reduced to a pile of brick dust in the name of "progress"!

A view of this building from the other side of the railway cutting was seen here almost a year ago.

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Sky Watch: Old St Mary's School

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Today's photo looks southwards across the railway cutting from Albemarle Street. It's not a particularly artistic shot but I took it to try to capture the dramatic cloudscape. The photo is of interest because it shows a building that will not be there for much longer.

The large brick building on Newton Street was built as St Mary's school and continued to serve that purpose until around 1970, when the school was transferred to a new building on Holden Street (now Our Lady of Mount Carmel School).

Since the Catholic children moved out the building has seen a whole new life as the Markazi Jamia Mosque.

Now a brand new mosque is being constructed a short distance away at the junction of Hillgate Street and Holden Street. When the new mosque opens, the old building will be demolished to make way for a new Northern By-pass road. Construction of this road has already started between Ashton railway station and Cowhill Lane.

In the background is the spire of Albion 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!

Mossley on Monday: Blot on the Landscape

Anyone going to Mossley in recent weeks may well have noticed a rather large blot on the landscape appearing on the Micklehurst side of the valley. This is most prominently seen from Top Mossley or Roughtown, looking across the valley.

The work that is taking place is the construction of a spectacular new building for Mossley Hollins High School to replace the building on the existing cramped site.

Plans of the site layout and drawings of how the building will look can be seen on Tameside Council's website here.

The design of the building is complicated because of the sloping site. The building will have five levels and the entrance and reception area would appear to be on the third floor!

Of course, the site looks a mess while the work is at this stage, but when building is completed and the area landscaped it should look very different.

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Mossley on Monday: Mind the Steps!

A few weeks ago we saw a photo of a building known as "The Old School House". It was called that because the Baguley School was once situated in part of the building. But when it was built in the 1780s, there were four dwellings on the two lower floors and a large weaving room occupying the entire top floor.

I mentioned that this weaving room was accessed by steps at the back of the building, and here are those steps! This is a rear view of that building. I don't know whether there was originally some sort of handrail. Other similar weavers' cottages in the Pennines don't have handrails, but the external steps usually run up alongside a wall rather than at right angles! They certainly didn't have the same hang-ups about Health and Safety in the eighteenth century!

This is a significant building in Mossley's heritage as it reflects the time when the production of woollen cloth was an important cottage industry in the area.

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Mossley on Monday: Old School House

"The Old School House" is situated on Carrhill Road in Mossley. The name is a little misleading , as this building was originally built (some time before 1790) as weavers' cottages, at a time when wool weaving was a major cottage industry in the Mossley area. There were four dwellings in the building, occupying the first two storeys. The whole of the top floor was a weaving room, accessed by stone steps from the rear (photo another time).

This large top floor room became a small school at some point in the early nineteenth century. It was called Baguley School, as this part of Mossley was known as Baguley.

In 1848 a group of local Chartists met in the school room to plan their part in an uprising in nearby Ashton under Lyne. During the course of that uprising, James Bright, a policeman, was shot dead near the Red Lion on Old Street. Six of the men from Mossley were later found guilty of taking part in the disturbance. You can read more about the uprising here.

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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!

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Adam Street

Looking up Adam Street, off Mossley Road, towards the back of the http://ashton-under-lyne.blogspot.com/2009/02/albion-sunday-school.html, seen from another angle yesterday.

The plain styles of the houses, with little more decoration than fancy brick or stonework over the windown and doors, contrasts with the exotic decoration and banding on the Sunday School building.

The tall windows on the upper floor of the school show where the 1000-seat hall was located.

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Albion Sunday School

As Sunday Schools go, Albion Sunday School in Ashton was pretty big! When it was opened in 1862, it was the largest in England!

It was opened to serve the needs of the families of the independent church movement in Ashton, which had started in 1780, meeting in various rooms and then a small chapel in Penny Meadow. This was replaced with the larger Albion Chapel in 1834. The Albion School was built alongside this chapel, but in 1895 the chapel was too small again and closed when the magnificent Albion Congregationalist Church was opened opposite the junction of Stamford Street and Mossley Road. [More history.]

The Sunday School boasted a large assembly room that could seat 1000 people. It also had an infants' room, eleven classrooms and a lecture room. From 1869 until 1926 the building was a day school, and for all but the last 7 years had the same headteacher - one Abraham Park!

In recent years the building has been used as a retail carpet warehouse and an office furniture showroom.

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Mossley on Monday: St George's Church

It's not St George's Day yet but today's photo has a lot of St George about it! This is a view of St George's Parish Church in Mossley, seen looking across the yard of St George's Primary School. You will also see the flag of St George fluttering from the pole at the top of the church tower.

The first church here was built in 1757 for the bargain price of £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.

The school was opened in 1873 and claims to be the oldest primary school in Tameside. It has had various extensions over the years, most recently in 2007.

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Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School

The former Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School is on the corner of Mill Lane and Crown Street (originally Church Street) in central Ashton.

Built in 1877, the building has been empty for some time, as can be seen by the trees growing from the roof. It has been bought by a company that has converted other old buildings into apartments, so there is a possibility that the building may be retained, although it seems unlikely that anything will happen during the present economic climate.

New Term - New Charter (2)

Yesterday's photo showed the "New Charter Academy" sign at the former Hartshead High School. Today we see the sign at the former Stamford High School on Mossley Road. This sign reads "New Charter Academy, Silver Springs Campus".

It is to this building that all of the new intake of Year 7 pupils will come today to begin their secondary education. In two years' time they will move to a brand new building off Broadoak Road.

New Term - New Charter

A sign of the times - observant travellers along Lees Road in Ashton may have noticed that the sign that previously announced Hartshead School now says "New Charter Academy, Greenhurst Campus".

Hartshead and Stamford High Schools have technically closed and been replaced by a new "Academy". A new state-of-the-art building is being constructed off Broadoak Road. but, in the meantime, the 1350 pupils will use the two existing buildings.

Hartshead School is to be known as Greenhurst Campus, named after nearby Greenhurst Clough, while Stamford School will be Silver Springs Campus, named after the local beauty spot. Samuel Laycock Special School is also to be integrated into the new Academy site.

The new intake of Year 7 pupils start on Thursday at Silver Springs, and the Year 10 pupils at Greenhurst, with the remaining years starting on Friday at the buildings they previously attended.

When the new building opens in 2010 it will include a 300-place sixth form. New Charter Academy is the first to be sponsored by a housing association.

Latchford Street

Looking east along Latchford Street towards Elgin Street and Canon Johnson school.

Canon Johnson School

Canon Johnson Church of England Primary School, on Elgin Street, is one of the two primary schools that serve Christ Church on Oldham Road.