Dowson Road 1982

Taken from the end of Queen Street, Janet Howie's photograph from 1982 shows the junction of Market Street and Dowson Road.

Compare it with my photograph of 2009 on Hyde Daily Photo.

Kelly's fishing tackle shop has gone along with the three adjacent shops. The first recognisable building is Robinson's funeral directors. The whole junction has been widened up with a left hand filter and pedestrian crossings.

Diamond Row

Janet Howie sent me this photograph of the cottages known as Diamond Row. I'm not sure of the age of this; I'd guess circa 1920.

They used to stand on the corner of Stockport Road and Back Bower Lane.

The Diamond Row reservoir, which was behind them, has been covered and is now an open space.

Alfred Woolley in his Shop Doorway

Denys Meakin sent me this photograph of his wife's great grandfather, Alfred Woolley, sitting outside his grocery store at 284 Stockport Rd, Gee Cross, around 1900.


This second photograph is probably ten to twenty years later and shows the premises on the corner of Knott Lane. Denys' wife lived next door at 286 Stockport Road until their marriage in 1959.

With two-foot-thick walls, it dates back to around 1750 and was one of the earliest buildings in Gee Cross. At one time, it was apparently a pub, The Beeston Castle.

In the forties and fifties, the shop was Johnny Graham's barber shop.


This third photograph is © Denys Meakin and taken in 2003. Compare it with my own photograph from 2008.

Today the CDPB theme is Doorways: Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Orlando Oldhams Cork Cutters Factory

Janet Howie's photograph from 1984 is of the Orlando Oldhams cork cutters factory, latterly Ashworth's bag factory. The white building on the right is the Queen Adelaide.

The factory has since been demolished and an estate of modern houses, called Queen's Close, has been built on the site, as can be seen on Hyde Daily Photo.

More O posts at ABC Wednesday

Queen Adelaide 1982

Another of Janet Howie's photographs from 1982.

See how it looked in

• 2001
• 2006
• 2008

Whittiker's Whim

About a hundred years ago in the old quarry below the Werneth Hotel on Stockport Road was found what was known as Frederick Whittiker's Whim.

I've been unable to find much out about this, but it is mentioned in an obscure, rambling spoof poem by James Leigh

...
Just take a walk up o'er Werneth Low, and there you will behold
That grand and noble structure at the foot of yonder hill
An ever lasting monument of architectural skill.

We then besieged the palace of King Frederick the Great.
That tumble-down old building on the Back Bower Estate
But not a Godl(e)y soul we found in that ungodly place,
So we razed the building to the ground and left of it no trace

We then marched through the city of Gee Cross, but, strange to say,
The city's ancient glory has long since passed away;
The only ancients that we saw, beside old Freddie's whims
Was Robin and his brother Jam, the famous Gee Cross twins.

We halted on Mount Pleasant, and as we gazed around
We felt that we were standing upon historic ground,
For the foot of Treacle Hill stood gloomy, dark and grim,
The ruins of a temple, His Majesty's first Whim.

Each warrior bowed his crested head above Stone Pit wall,
And thus each one soliloquised upon the city's fall.

Oh, city of the ancients, we gaze upon you now,
Shorn of thy former glory how desolate art thou;
Thy Market Hall, without a roof, is crumbling to decay
Thy public park and pleasure grounds have long since passed away

But soon we noticed that the sun was sinking in the west,
And weather it was time or not, of course the sun knew best,
But we ourselves were very weary, though only half-past nine,
The heat is so oppressive in that Oriental clime.

We sought a refuge for the night at Doorbar's famous inn
...

Stone Pit is a reference to the reservoir now used for fishing and Doorbar's is a reference to the Grapes Hotel.

Now the old quarry is full of modern houses which you can see on Hyde Daily Photo and the quarry wall can be seen on Hyde DP Xtra.

The Lumn

This image is from The Annals of Hyde according to which

Probably the oldest house in Hyde is "The Lumn" homestead of the Shepleys. Purchased in 1612 from Sir Uryan Legh, of Adlington, "The Lumn" estate became the property of Richard Shepley, whose direct descendants continue to hold it. This estate is said to have received its somewhat uncommon cognomen from the fact that the homestead erected thereon was then the only house near that boasted a chimney. On that account it was named "The Lumn."

Precisely where it was located I don't know but the name survives in Lumn Road which runs from Mottram Road to Stockport Road, a length of which can be seen on Hyde Daily Photo.