Town Hall

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"T" is for "Town Hall" and today's photo shows Ashton under Lyne's Town Hall today on a rather wintry November afternoon, with a thin coating of snow covering the ground.

Last week we had a view of the Mayor's staircase inside the Town Hall.

The main part of the building, with its Corinthian columns, was opened in 1840, with extensions built to the left and to the rear in 1878.

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"Town Hall" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "T" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Late Leaves

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Today's My World photo shows, a little belatedly, a leafy Autumn scene in Ashton.

The view is looking down Holden Street, in the Hurst Brook area of the town, towards Canterbury Street. On the right is the Kingsfield Residential Care Centre. To the left, out of shot, is the Hurst Laundry, occupying the former Water Street Hat Works, which was seen in a photo last year.

I should have shown the photo a few weeks ago - there is not much left of the leaves now and we have had the first very thin coating of snow in the last day or so. It seemed a shame not to make use of the photo, though,and the colours look very warming as I sit and shiver on this wintry evening!

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

Stairway

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"S" is for "Stairway" and today's photo shows one of the stairways inside Ashton Town Hall.

There is a grand staircase leading up from the entrance foyer to the main public hall itself, but these are the back stairs, linking the Mayor's Parlour with the Council Chamber. The wall alongside the staircase is lined with photographs of the Mayors of Tameside.

The photo shows Councillor John Sullivan, who was Mayor of Tameside at the time I visited as one of his guests. No doubt his portrait has since appeared on the wall!

The stairs downwards lead to Sentantii, a museum about the people who have lived in the Tameside area over the centuries. Sentantii, another S word, was the name of a British tribe who lived in the area before the time of the Roman invasion.

"Stairway" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "S" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Site of Market Cross

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Today's My World photo shows what might, at first glance, appear to be an uninteresting corner of Ashton. This is the junction of Old Street and Crickets Lane.

For hundreds of years, this junction was the bustling heart of old Ashton, with lines of ancient cottages running along Old Street and up Crickets Lane. The market was held at the junction of the two roads, for more than 500 years, from 1284 until it was moved to the present Market Place in 1829. For all that time a market cross stood here (not always the same one - it was replaced several times over those years).

The most recent cross now stands in Stamford Park, as we saw a few weeks ago, while a plain replica stands a few yards from here, as we saw last week.

The exact spot where the cross stood is marked by a flat inscribed stone lying in the road, as can be seen in the centre of the photograph above. The photo below shows the words "Site of old cross" inscribed on the stone.

Because of the location of the stone, most people who drive or walk past this sport are completely unaware of it! Apart from the stone, the site of the old cross is also recalled in the name of nearby Old Cross Street.


Close-up of the stone.

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"Site of Market Cross" is my contribution to this week's "My World" feature. Please check out the other blogs participating in this week's My World.

Sky Watch: Branching Out

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After the windy weather of a few days ago, this tree has been completely stripped of its leaves, allowing a view through its branches to the Pennine moorland in the distance.

Not a terribly marvellous composition, but the light was rather stunning that morning, as the mists cleared, so I thought that it was worth sharing.

The solitary bird sitting in the tree seems to add to the bareness of the branches!

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!

Replica Cross

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"R" is for "Replica Cross" and today's photo shows a replica of Ashton's historic market cross.

The replica stands a few yards away from the spot where Ashton's market cross stood for hundreds of years, near the junction of Old Street and the appropriately-named Old Cross Street.

Of the various market crosses which have stood here, only one still remains, and was seen here three weeks ago at its present location in Stamford Park.

The replica was erected in this spot six months ago. I don't know where it stood before that! A plaque says that it is a replica of the cross erected in 1723, which now stands in Stamford Park. Yet, as we saw in the photo of the old cross, it bears carved lettering saying it was erected in 1798! It is possible that the plaque on the replica refers mistakenly to the date of one of the earlier crosses. Another explanation could be that the 1723 cross was moved in 1798, with the lettering on it referring to the date of its re-erection. Are there any historians reading who know more about these crosses, who can help solve this mystery?

Whether or not this is a replica of the cross in Stamford Park, or of an earlier one, it is much plainer and less attractive than that cross, so not really that convincing as a replica!

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"Replica Cross" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "R" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Carpet of Leaves

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Today's photo shows the carpet of leaves that surrounded this bench in King George's Park in Ashton. You can almost hear the crunch of the crisp leaves would make if you walked through them!

The park is more accurately called King George V Playing Field, but it is a park in the normal sense of the word in an urban setting, with children's play area, bowling greens and an all-weather sports court as well as football pitches and areas of grass and trees.

It is a pity that the seat is deserted but I haven't got the nerve to creep up and take a picture of someone sitting on a bench!

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"Carpet of Leaves" 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: 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.

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

Quickwood

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"Q" is for "Quickwood" and today's photo shows the historic row of houses of that name in Mossley, just over the hill from Ashton.

The three storey building on the left was Quick Manor, which was also called Mossley Manor. This was built in the 17th century as the manor house of Quickmere, one of the four divisions of Saddleworth. At that time, this part of Mossley was in Yorkshire along with Saddleworth.

The two storey cottages that join on to it were added in phases between around 1760 and 1820. The area was very rural at that time, although mills were beginning to be built along the valley bottom after the canal was built. The church of St John the Baptist was built on the hill behind Quickmere in 1878.

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"Quickwood" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "Q" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Sunday Stroll: Winterford Woods

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Suddenly Autumn is upon us with a vengeance, and the winds have removed many of the browning leaves from the trees over the last week or so.

You don't have to go far to find colourful autumn scenes, and this delightful stroll was through Winterford Woods, between Micklehurst and Woodend in Mossley. The path runs down from the former Micklehurst Loop railway line to Winterford Lock on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. The water of the canal can be seen through the trees on the right, at the foot of a steep slope.

The name Winterford comes from the old track that crossed the valley long before the canal and turnpike road were built, which found a suitable place to ford the river, even in the winter when other crossings were too boggy. The route of the old track crosses the canal next to the lock and can still be followed up across Manchester Road, although there is a convenient bridge for getting across the river these days!

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Sky Watch: Watching the Sun Go Down

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Standing on a hill watching the sun go down is one of life's pleasurable experiences! Not only that, but it is free and in full colour!

I am often drawn to the hills above Ashton to watch the sun set and, as you can see, I am not alone in this!

Today's photo was taken near Lily Lanes on the slopes of Hartshead Pike, looking across towards Winter Hill and Bolton.

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!

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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Margaret Street

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Today's photo shows part of Margaret Street and the area south of Katherine Street.

This area was re-built in the 1960s as part of part of Ashton's slum clearance programme. The area had previously been occupied by rows of cramped terraced houses and the multi-storey flats and maisonettes built here were a big improvement at the time.

The buildings have had some re-modelling in recent years, with the leaky flat roofs of the maisonettes being replaced with new curved roofs. Security gates and other measures have given the residents more privacy than before.

On the left is the five-storey maisonette block of Welbeck Terrace, with the three-storey Margaret Terrace to the right. Behind that is the 13-storey Welbeck House, with Portland House in the distance.

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