B l o g
This picture is looking along Alderley Street, Hurst, towards Queens Road and the distant Pennine Hills. Cedar Mill once stood on the left, with the "Red School" beyond that.
Three storey terraced houses on Cranbrook Street, off Oldham Road, by the Hop Pole pub. This style of terraced house is unusual in Ashton.
The stone plaque on the front wall of Young's Takeaway reads "Lord's Field Place".
The National Gas Engine Company was opened in 1890 by Henry M. Bickerton at Wellington Works in Ashton. His engines ran on town gas and were used in cotton mills and other factories.
Bickerton had previously been involved with the Mirrlees-Bickerton & Day company, which had built the Mirrlees diesel engine. The National Gas Engine Company became the National Gas and Oil Engine Company in 1932. It was taken over by the successors of Mirrlees-Bickerton & Day and in 1966 the company changed its name to Mirrlees National. In 1977 it became Mirrlees-Blackstone, part of Hawker Siddeley, finally losing the "National" label.
The buildings are now rented out for warehousing and light industrial use.
The photo shows the back of the works, seen from across the railway, from the rear of the Hollywood Bowl, seen in yesterday's photo. On the walls, the original lettering "National Gas Engine Company" has, at some stage, been overwritten with "Mirrlees National".
More about National engines can be read here.
If you haven't been to Ashton for a long time you might be forgiven for not recognising this as a scene on Ashton Moss. Gone are the market gardens to be replaced by Hollywood Bowl and Cine World along with various chain eateries.
The building on Old Street shown in yesterday's photo was the Shepherds Inn. The present building was built in 1910 and, at the time, must have been a stunning example of ultra-modern Edwardian architecture!
A pub called the Brown Cow stood on the site from the early 1800s. This was re-named The Shepherd in 1846, later becoming the Shepherds Inn. The pub was re-built in 1910 with the present building, which continued as the Shepherds Inn until 1975.
The building was then used by a building society and now houses an estate agency and solicitors.
This splendid building on Old Street, with its decorative frontage, now accommodates an estate agent and a firm of solicitors. But do you know the original purpose of this building? I'll tell you the answer tomorrow!
Strangely enough, Ashton benefits from the high prices of life in London!
For a while now, the London Borough of Islington has had its housing benefits administration office at Portland Basin in Ashton. (In the photo, the car park was empty as it was Easter Sunday, when it had snowed!)
Now the housing officials are to be joined by Islington's parking administrators. This may seem to be a bizarre course of action but it would seem to make financial sense for Islington. They apparently have difficulty recruiting office staff in London. It seems existing staff will be invited to make the move north. (It doesn't always snow this far north, folks!) Any vacancies remaining will be easier to fill in Ashton because the cost of living and housing costs are lower.
GMB trade union officials claim Islington Council really wants to move the jobs in order to sell off their present prime office space.
Read more about it in this Islington Tribune report.
But Londoners won't have to come to Ashton to claim their housing benefits or pay their parking fines - only the administrative work will be done here!
Around the backs of many of the terraced streets in Ashton you will find some sort of back alley or ginnel. Nowadays many of these have security gates which can be locked at night.
Just off Newmarket Road in the Taunton area of Ashton is the delightful row of cottages known as "Sunnyside". As you can see, it really is!
Ashton's contribution to April's Theme Day on "Water" shows the Ashton Canal at Portland Basin. What other location in Ashton is more perfect for a watery picture? This wintry scene was captured only 9 days ago on Easter Sunday. (Click image to see a larger version.)
The stone arch bridge on the left carries the towing path across the entrance to the Peak Forest Canal. The bridge was built to be used by the boathorses that towed the narrow boats along the canal. Although the canal opened in 1796, the present bridge was only built in 1835. The canal was used for carrying coal from local mines down to Manchester.
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