Victoria Street

Today's photo shows the view looking down Victoria Street, from its junction with William Street, in Ashton's West End.

Victoria Street was built, unsurprisingly, in the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, around 170 years ago. It was a straight and broad street lined mostly with small terraced houses. Those houses were demolished during a slum clearance programme and have since been replaced by modern houses with gardens. The road has been made narrower to create more areas of greenery. The only building in this part of Victoria Street that dates back to Victorian times is the Trafalgar Inn on the right of the photo.

In the far distance you can see the steeple of St Stephen's Church at Guide Bridge.

See Google Street View of this location.

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"Victoria Street" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "V" posts from around the world please follow this link.

ABC Wednesday: Statue

Today's post for ABC Wednesday is S for "Statue" and the photo shows the statue of Hugh Mason which stands in Trafalgar Square in Ashton's West End.

Hugh Mason was a local mill-owner and social reformer. He owned the massive Oxford Mills complex, built by his father, not far from where his statue now stands. He built houses for his workforce, along with community facilities, and was the first local mill owner to give his workers Saturday afternoons off! He kept his employees in work during the "Cotton Famine" when some of his competitors were laying off their workers.

He became a Liberal councillor, mayor and eventually Member of Parliament for the town. When his wife Sarah died after only six years of marriage, he married her sister, Betsy. As this was illegal in Britain at the time, he obtained a special licence from the King of Denmark and was married in that country. He had one child with Sarah and four with Betsy before she died after just seven years.

The statue was originally at Chester Square but was moved after that square became a glorified traffic junction, as you saw in this recent post.

See Google Street View of this location.

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

Hamilton Street

The City Daily Photo theme for the beginning of December is "My Street". The photo shows Hamilton Street in Ashton's West End.

This is not the street where I live (stalkers, please take note) but I have chosen it for today's theme as it is so typical of the streets in Ashton under Lyne.

Like most of the housing built in the town 100 to 150 years ago, the street is made up of neat terraces of red brick houses. Even so, the houses are not all the same - those on the left have small front gardens. Those on the right have decorative stonework over the windows and doors.

The many rows of similar houses throughout Ashton were built to accommodate the workers of the cotton manufacturing mills that had sprung up around the town. The houses of Hamilton Street would have been built for the workers of Ryecroft Mill, seen in the background.

These days the cotton spinning machines have gone and the mill produces Weetabix rather than cloth.

See Google Street View of this location.

"Hamilton Street" is a contribution to the City Daily Photo theme day "My Street". Click here to see other streets from around the world.

The Other Trafalgar Square

This week's Sky Watch shows you the other Trafalgar Square - not the famous one in London, but the one here in Ashton under Lyne's very own West End.

Ashton's Trafalgar Square doesn't have a column with a statue of Nelson, but it does boast a statue of local Victorian mill-owner and social reformer Hugh Mason, who is seen here standing out against a warm and summery sky.

Hugh Mason is looking across towards the elegant terrace of twelve Victorian houses known as the "Twelve Apostles", which he had built for those of his workers who had large families.

See Google Street 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!

Oxford Mills

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This is a view of Oxford Mills, a complex of former cotton mills in Ashton's West End, seen from the Ashton Canal.

The mills were built around 1845 by Thomas Mason, the father of philanthropist and MP Hugh Mason.

The mills, like others in the area, were built alongside the canal to enable the easy delivery of coal and raw cotton to the mills and the easy dispatch of cotton cloth.

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


See Birds Eye View of this location.

Monochrome Moment: Trafalgar Square

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This week's Monochrome Moment is a view looking upwards in Trafalgar Square.

Before any of our visitors from distant places start to be confused, I should point out that this is not the Trafalgar Square in the West End of London, but the Trafalgar Square in the West End of Ashton!

You won't find Nelson's column or the National Gallery here, but you will find Hugh Mason's statue and the Twelve Apostles.

This photograph looks up at the facade of "The Twelve Apostles", a terrace of twelve grand Victorian houses that makes up the south side of Trafalgar Square.

See Birds Eye View of this location.

See Google Street View of this location.

This image is a contribution to Monochrome Weekend. Please follow the link to visit other sites taking part.

Monochrome Moment: Ryecroft Mill

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The bulk of Ryecroft Mill dominates the view along Hamilton Street in Ashton's West End.

Ryecroft Mill was built in 1837 as a cotton spinning mill. It was the second of a complex of four mills built close together in the area. It now produces Weetabix and other foods.

The neat terraced houses are typical of many such rows built in Ashton to house the mill workers.

See Birds Eye View of this location.

This image is a contribution to Monochrome Weekend. Please follow the link to visit other sites taking part.