ABC Wednesday: Bridge

Today's post for ABC Wednesday is B for Bridge.

Like last week's photo, this is another image showing the Ashton Canal. This location, on the boundary between Ashton and Audenshaw, shows a disused railway bridge crossing the canal.

In the background is Guidebridge Mill, the largest cotton mill to have been built in Ashton. The photo was taken last year before the trees shed their leaves!

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"Bridge" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "B" posts from around the world please follow this link.

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Theatre

"T" is for "Theatre" and today's photo shows Guide Bridge Theatre, which is situated in Audenshaw, just a few yards outside the boundary of Ashton.

At first sight the building looks more like a warehouse than a theatre, which is not surprising, as it was built as a warehouse for Fox's Glacier Mints!

Ashton Repertory Club was formed in 1942 and converted a store-room at the Co-op shop in Hillgate into a small theatre where 12 plays a year were staged! In 1971 the club bought the warehouse at Guide Bridge and transformed it into the theatre. The club re-named itself Ashton and Audenshaw Repertory Club but is now known simply as Guide Bridge Theatre. Major alterations were carried out in 1986 and the stage was renewed in 1996. In 2009 a new entrance corridor was created. Although the Theatre became a Limited Company in 2010 it is still completely run by volunteers.

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"Theatre" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "T" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Sky Watch: St Stephen's Church

Reaching for the sky this week is the steeple of St Stephen's Church at Guide Bridge. Although it is situated in Audenshaw, the church is just a few metres from the Ashton boundary.

St Stephen's Church was built in 1845 and like many English churches built at that time is in the early Gothic style with simple lancet windows rather than the elaborate tracery found on windows built in the later Gothic style.

The church, which is now a Grade 2 Listed Building, was built at a cost of £2,900 to accommodate a congregation of 750.

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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!

Guide Bridge Station

"G" is for "Guide Bridge Station" and today's photo shows this railway station which is on the western boundary of Ashton.

The train in the photo is on its way from Glossop to Manchester Piccadilly. At one time the line continued through Woodhead Tunnel to Sheffield. The Trans-Pennine Express trains pass through the station without stopping, turning left a quarter of a mile on, towards Stalybridge.

This station was the first railway station to open in Ashton and was originally called Ashton and Hooley Hill. It took its later name from the adjacent bridge over the Ashton Canal (not over the River Tame, as suggested in Wikipedia). The canal runs behind the trees on the left of the photo.

The station is a shadow of its former self, with the remaining platform-side buildings sealed up. Only the trains on the Glossop line stop here now. The regular service between Stalybridge and Stockport has been replaced with a so-called "parliamentary" train, running one journey a week in one direction only, from Stockport to Stalybridge, stopping at the platform on the "wrong" side here at Guide Bridge after emerging from the Stockport line.

A footbridge between the platforms burnt down five years ago and has not been replaced, necessitating a long walk round from one platform to the other.

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"Guide Bridge Station" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "G" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Corporation Arms

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This is the third week in a row that the "My World" image is of a building on Stockport Road, but today's is at the completely opposite end of the road from the previous two!

Today's photo shows the Corporation Arms and the road junction at Guide Bridge. The pub was opened in 1850 and was a beer house until it was fully licensed in 1857.

The road junction marks the boundary between Ashton and Audenshaw. The wall to the left of the pub is actually the parapet to the canal bridge which gives its name to this district. The same wall can be seen from the Ashton Canal in the first photo on this page, with the pub on the left of the picture.

This is a very busy road junction so it was remarkable that I was able to capture a moment when the road was empty!

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


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Sheldon Arms

The Sheldon Arms is a new pub near the boundary between Ashton and Audenshaw. It is situated, appropriately enough, on Lord Sheldon Way, the new road between the Snipe and IKEA.

The building is very traditional in design and from the front could be mistaken for a village pub at first glance.

The Sheldon Arms and Lord Sheldon Way are named after Robert Sheldon, now Baron Sheldon, who served as MP for Ashton under Lyne for 37 years. In Parliament he was the respected chairman of the Public Accounts Committee for 14 years, having previously been Financial Secretary to the Treasury for 5 years.

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Guide Bridge

Today's photo looks westwards along Stockport Road to Guide Bridge, on the boundary between Ashton and Audenshaw.

Guide Bridge itself is across the Ashton Canal, although you would have to look hard for it as you pass. The car heading this way is just crossing the bridge.

Ahead is St Stephen's Church, Audenshaw, built in 1845 in the early Gothic style. Guide Bridge railway station, the first station to serve the Ashton area, is round the corner to the left at the traffic lights.

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B & Q at the Snipe

The entrance to the B & Q store on the Snipe retail park between Ashton and Audenshaw. This was one of the first of B & Q's larger "Warehouse" stores and replaced the earlier B & Q store nearby, which is now Staples. In the distance, behind the Give Way sign, you can just see the recently-closed MFI store - another victim of the "downturn".

The Snipe retail park was built on the site of Ashton Moss Colliery (the "Snipe Pit"). The colliery was opened in 1875 and its second shaft, sunk in 1882, at 2,850 feet was the deepest in the world at that time. The Snipe retail park takes its name from the nearby Snipe Inn on Manchester Road.

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St Stephen's Church

A scene which looks to be many miles from Ashton but is in fact on the boundary between Ashton and Audenshaw. The spire of St Stephen's Church at Guide Bridge is seen rising above the trees that line the Ashton Canal.

Guide Bridge railway station is out of sight to the left, behind the trees. Mosy peopl epassing through the busy traffic junction at Guide Bridge are unaware that the canal passes below.

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