Gloucester Place

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

Gloucester Place is the grand name given to this fine pair of houses on Portland Street in Ashton. On the gable wall above the doorways is a stone bearing the name Gloucester Place and the date 1880.

The houses are in a part of Ashton which is mostly made up of small terraced houses so these larger semi-detached houses come as a surprise. There are two other pairs of semi-detached houses here, each pair of a different design, all facing Holy Trinity Church.

Some of the terraced houses close by are also of a larger and grander design than usual. It is possible that, while most of the houses were built for the mill workers, these houses may have been built for those of slightly higher status, although not of sufficiently high status as to be able to afford to live in a house with gardens.

The three pairs of semi-detached houses on Portland Street, although they have no front gardens, do have fairly long back gardens, which is unusual for this part of Ashton, where a small yard is the norm.

See Google Street View of this location.

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

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

Riversvale Bridge

"B" is for "Bridge" and today's photo shows Riversvale Bridge, which crosses the River Medlock to the north of Ashton.

If you thought that Ashton under Lyne was completely made up of cotton mills and terraced brick houses then it may come as a surprise to find that this picture was taken within the boundary of Ashton.

The bridge at one time carried the winding main carriage road between Ashton and Oldham across the River Medlock, between Taunton and Bardsley, before the straight Turnpike road was built through Waterloo, taking a direct route.

These days the road across the bridge is used only by walkers, cyclists and horses making use of the network of paths in Daisy Nook Country Park. To the right of where I was standing to take the photo once stood the imposing Riversvale Hall demolished in the 1940s.

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

See Birds Eye View of this location.

"Riversvale Bridge" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "B" posts from around the world please follow this link.
Please leave a comment below and click on the 5 stars to rate the photo.

Sky Watch: Heyrod

The village of Heyrod is on the side of the Tame Valley, halfway between Stalybridge and Mossley, just over the hill from Ashton.

The photo shows the houses on John Street, with Wakefield Road just visible running behind them. On the skyline are the hills overlooking Mossley and Greenfield, with Noon Sun Hill in the centre of the photo, the Buckton Castle hilltop to the right and Wharmton to the left.

The hills draw the eye upwards, making the sky a part of the landscape of the valley. Although a fairly sunny day, a dark cloud casts a shadow over Buckton Castle and Carrbrook to the right.

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

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!

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.

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

See Birds Eye View of this location. See Google Street View of this location before the replica was sited here.

"Ashton Parish Church" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "A" posts from around the world please follow this link.
Please leave a comment below.

Henrietta Street

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

Henrietta Street is a residential street very close to the town centre of Ashton under Lyne. It starts near the Market Hall and runs to the Old Ball Inn at the junction of Smallshaw Lane.

The houses start off as brick-built terraced houses nearer the town, progressing to substantial brick semi-detached properties, such as this one, as the distance from town increases.

Henrietta Street is the main route leading out to Ashton's northern suburbs. It was named after Henrietta Cavendish-Bentinck, wife of George Harry Grey, 5th Earl of Stamford, the major landowner in the area. The name was originally given to the new street in the town centre that was then re-named Stamford Street.

See Google Street View of this location.

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

"Henrietta Street" 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: Tails and Trails

This week's "Sky Watch" image shows a couple of horses grazing in a field at Tonguebottom on the slopes of Hartshead Pike.

The horses are posing in such a way that their tails cannot be seen. However, that is more than made up for by the aircraft trails in the sky.

One recent vapour trail is still clearly seen, with another starting to spread out. Some strange atmospheric quirk that afternoon meant that trails from earlier in the day, rather than vanishing, had spread out into thin curtains.

The tower on top of Hartshead Pike can be seen in the centre of the image. Tongebottom, where the photo was taken, is the upper part of the valley in which Knott Hill Reservoir is situated. Before Knott Hill Reservoir was built to supply Ashton with water, a small reservoir (of which there is now very little trace) was situated at Tongebottom (or Tom Bottom, as it was known at that time), behind the present Hartshead Inn. Eventually the catchment area of the valley was not great enough to satisfy Ashton's demand for water, and the supply was pumped through from Brushes Valley and Swineshaw Reservoirs in Millbrook.

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

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!

Pedestrian Zone

"Z" is for "Zone" or, in this case, "Pedestrian Zone" and today's photo shows the start of the the pedestrianised area in Fletcher Street in Ashton town centre.

Ashton has been a much more agreeable place for shoppers since traffic has been excluded from many of the shopping streets. It is hard to remember now that buses and cars used to go along Warrington Street, up the side of the Market Ground.

Market Street, running alongside the Market Hall in the photo, was once a busy two-way street. Fletcher Street, where this photo was taken, was always a side street but was still used by buses, some of which terminated here before the bus station was built.

A little square has been created at the bottom of Fletcher Street, with seating and planters arranged around a piece of sculpture entitled "The Family", making good use of the space created by removing traffic.

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

See Birds Eye View of this location.

"Pedestrian Zone" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "Z" posts from around the world please follow this link.
Please leave a comment below.

No Way In!

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

Sometimes you see odd things when you are photographing your world. Today's My World photo shows a little mystery in Raynham Street in Ashton.

The photo was taken last year and has been waiting around for an opportunity for me to use it. I was intrigued by the puzzle of three garages behind a palisade fence with clearly no way for the garages to be used. Speaking to a neighbour I got the impression that there may have been some sort of dispute over ownership of the land or payment of ground rent or something of that sort. It may just have been that the land has been sold and fenced off.

I shall have to go back and see whether anything has changed. It is adjacent to the site of the new mosque that will replace the one just off Penny Meadow so this parcel of land may have been part of the land involved in the site acquisition.

I only hope that there isn't someone wanting to get their car out of one of the garages!

See Google Street View of this location.

"No Way In!" 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: Canal Reflections

This week's "Sky Watch" image shows the wintry sunset reflected in the canal in Mossley, four miles from Ashton.

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal is mostly frozen over but there is a slight flow of water around the lock (behind the camera) ensuring that the water in the foreground remains liquid! This makes it possible to enjoy the sunset being reflected on the ripples that move out from the water outlet.

The photo was taken during the recent snowy spell while I was enjoying a bracing wintry walk!

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

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!

Ye Olde Vaults

"Y" is for "Ye Olde Vaults" and today's photo shows a pub in Ashton town centre that once bore that name. It is situated on Old Street which was the original road from Manchester running through the town.

The first written records of a pub on this site are from 1808 when it was known as Heap's Vaults and Robert Heap was granted a full licence for the premises. However, it is thought to have existed, perhaps as a beer house, from around 1791. The pub seems to have been rebuilt or substantially altered in 1860, as shown by the date stone above the ground floor windows. The Heap family ran the pub for 109 years until 1900, when Walter Newton took over and changed the name to Ye Olde Vaults. (Some sources say "Ye Old Vaults" but in old photographs the sign shows the word "Olde".)

In recent years the pub has been re-named again to "Chambers" and the board outside advertised "Good cheap beer all year. Thursdays all drinks £2, Doubles add £1, 7pm - close." However, when this photo was taken, the pub was "between landlords".

Just below the roof, flaking black paint reveals that the brewery Tetley Walker were at one time the owners.

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

See Birds Eye View of this location. See Google Street View of this location before the replica was sited here.

"Ye Olde Vaults" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "Y" posts from around the world please follow this link.
Please leave a comment below.