Category: North West
Down Our Street #5: Park Road, Dukinfield
A wander along a historical road of industrial importance
Park Road, Tame Valley, Dukinfield:
- Distance: 0.85 miles;
- Start: Crescent Road/Riverside, Dukinfield;
- Finish: Tame Street, Stalybridge;
- Bus: 346 (alight at Crescent Road).
Though with its semi rural origins, Park Road became an important connection with two major town centres at either end. It links the Tame Valley part of Dukinfield with Ashton-under-Lyne at its most westerly point, and Stalybridge in the east. In miniature, it documents the story of Tameside during the industrial revolution, its rise and its fall. Continue reading
The Lost Precinct: An A to Z of Defunct Retailers
Plus: References to branches which are now East of the M60 motorway
The Farnworth branch of Woolworths, prior to closure on the 06 January 2009. Photograph by Terry Wha (Creative Commons Attribution License).
This year and the last haven’t been a good one for retailers. This week has already seen the demise of Clintons Cards. In the last six months, we have seen Game close branches, news of fewer new Wetherspoon pubs opening the North of England and Greggs reporting a drop in sales. The rise of internet shopping may well be making a tangible affect on the retail trade as online shopping offers more convenience and choice.
Today, our streets are less diverse than they were 15 years ago. If you go back 25 to 30 years ago, they were even more diverse than in 1997. The chain stores had less than a national presence in 1982 compared with today’s high street. There was also regional chains with a clearly defined presence in certain parts of the United Kingdom.
For the purpose of this post, East of the M60 will take you on a stroll towards The Lost Precinct. The dark brown Austin Allegro is waiting outside your deck access Bison built flat. Continue reading
Stagecoach Manchester Chief Elected CPT Chairman
New chairman for North Western area of Confederation of Passenger Transport elected
The managing director of Stagecoach Manchester, Christopher Bowles, has been elected Chairman for the North Western area of the Confederation of Passenger Transport. His position, effective for a two year fixed term, involves the creation of policies and consultations affecting the North West’s bus network, such as regulations, practices, legislature and standards. His role represents the interests of 71 bus operators throughout our region, including 12,000 employees and 4,000 vehicles. Continue reading
Hills and Mills 2012: The Return of the New Mills Beer Festival
Chalkers’ Snooker Club, Newtown, New Mills, Derbyshire, 13 – 14 April 2011.
Photograph by PlentyOfAnts, April 2008. (Creative Commons Attribution License)
Back by popular demand is the North East Cheshire and High Peak CAMRA’s ‘Hills and Mills’ beer festival. With an excellent turnout on its first night last year, the local CAMRA branch covering Tameside, parts of Stockport and the High Peak have opted for a second one this month.
Lost Roller Coasters of the North West: The Not So Perfect Ten
A toast to absent gravity rides hitherto based in North West England
If you have children, no term time holiday is complete without the odd trip to a theme park or fairground. Sometimes we are likely to drive to Alton Towers or board a coach trip to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Sometimes, a travelling fairground may be erected closer to home for a week, with one example over the Easter Holidays being the Good Friday fair at Daisy Nook, between Ashton and Failsworth (buses: 168, 169 and 231 from Ashton-under-Lyne to Newmarket Road then a short walk down Stannybrook Road). Continue reading
Down Our Street #4: Tramway Road, Ashton-under-Lyne
One of Ashton-under-Lyne’s lesser known streets with an interesting past
The Eades Reversible double deck horse tram, a preserved example seen at Heaton Park. Further examples of which were seen at Cowhill Lane.
With the Metrolink due to reach Ashton-under-Lyne by 2014, few people would realise that Ashton was accessible by one of Greater Manchester’s earliest tram routes. Continue reading
Down Our Street #3: Melbourne Street, Stalybridge
How one of Stalybridge’s shopping streets got its name.
No visit to Stalybridge is complete without calling in The Tripe and Sandwich Shop. Marginally bigger than a disabled superloo, its butties are cheap, cheerful and fresh. Ditto the above with the tripe, available in honeycomb and cord varieties.
There are three main streets in the centre of Stalybridge. Prior to the last two decades, Market Street was its main one, with Grosvenor Street and Melbourne Street almost equal in status. Recent pedestrianisation saw most of the retail trade move to Melbourne Street and Grosvenor Street. Owing to the present day paucity of shops, the former has become the main one. Continue reading
Down Our Street #2: Foundry Street, Dukinfield
From the Crescent to Morrisons
- Length: 0.33 miles;
- Key Landmarks: Morrisons supermarket;
- Buses: 220 (Monday – Saturday evenings only), 346, 41, 217/218, 343/344 (Albion Hotel stop);
- Pubs: The Astley Arms and The Albion Hotel (both Frederic Robinson’s houses).
The last 40 years have seen Foundry Street take on the guise as part of an arterial route from Newton to Ashton-under-Lyne via Dukinfield. Much of this has been down to recent development.
Foundry Street until the mid 1970s played second fiddle to its more illustrious neighbour Town Lane. The original Town Lane met up with Birch Lane at the right side of The Albion Hotel by Jeffrey’s Drive (late Jeffrey Street) and continued to the junction of Crescent Road and Foundry Street. Today, Town Lane begins at the junction of Armadale Road North and Jeffrey’s Drive. Much of the old road was pedestrianised and renamed Concord Way. Continue reading
Down Our Street #1: Stamford Street, Ashton-under-Lyne
The start of a new regular feature on East of the M60
In 1999, there used to be two free newspapers cluttering up our buses. As well as today’s Metro, there was also the Manchester Metro News. Just to confuse things, there was already a Manchester Metro News doing the rounds in South Manchester before becoming the South Manchester Reporter – incidentally, both printed by the Guardian Media Group. For a brief period, the Metro published by Associated Newspapers was known as News North West (bearing the moniker of Northwest Tonight’s lunchtime bulletin back when Northwest Tonight was Look North West). As a compromise, the Manchester Metro News morning freesheet was merged with Associated Newspapers’ title with the GMG’s adverts and jobs sourced from the Manchester Evening News.
The defunct free newspaper had an excellent feature which looked at the history behind local streets. In each edition, readers were treated to 100 words or so of prose on, for example, Hanging Gate or Withy Grove.
Today, almost 13 years on, East of the M60 thought it was a good idea to revive this feature. Whereas Tameside, Oldham, Stockport and Rochdale street names were under represented in the aforementioned journal, EotM60 has decided to right this wrong.
Our first street was partly modelled on one in London. Continue reading
East of the M60′s Other Road to Wembley Part #2: FA Trophy Second Round Results
That’s it for another season… (at least for our clubs East of the M60)
For our sides East of the M60, it is game over for us in this competition as our only representative Stalybridge Celtic crashed out to Guiseley.
