It’s 1892 and the Twentieth Century is about to overwrite the expansive green sward of Northstead and Newlands.
The Manor of Northstead consisted of a medieval manor house surrounded by fields and farms in the parish of Scalby in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The estate originally bordered the northern side of the ancient boundary of the Borough of Scarborough, following the line of Peasholm Beck. The estate passed into the ownership of the Crown during the reign of King Richard III. By 1600, the manor house had fallen into disrepair, being latterly occupied by Sir Richard Cholmeley’s shepherd until it finally collapsed
Walking the streets on a sunny Scarborough day, I was struck by the capricious cornucopia of interwar and postwar architectural styles. These are well kept well behaved homes, many of which were built as imposing apartment blocks, possibly for the seaside retirees, or the transient tourist.
The coast encourages a playful sense of design, referencing vernacular styles and including several decorative devices.
So let’s take a wander around, see what we can see.
It is with deepest regret that despite the best efforts of everyone involved, it has now been confirmed that Lynwood Convalescent Home will close at the end of 2025. Whilst it was previously hoped that Lynwood could remain open for a further period, unfortunately, there are insufficient funds required to keep the Home operating and a sale of the building is progressing.
The Yorkshire Miners’ Welfare Convalescence Home charity who owns the home is continuing to support beneficiaries and staff during this difficult period. The trustees of the Home are currently discussing how the charity will use the funds from the property sale to support beneficiaries going forward and plans will be communicated in the coming weeks and months.
We fully understand the disappointment and impact this decision will have on our beneficiaries and staff. Please be assured that the trustees remain committed to keeping all stakeholders informed about the future of the charity.
Hi, there are a few point that we feel need addressing, the WiFi kept going off. Both shower heads were very high and we could not adjust them. The grouting in the bathroom floor was broken, which made the tiles loose and needs attention. The toilet in the bathroom was loose and felt insecure. The cooker was not properly secured to the housing, it felt loose in the housing. The TV kept loosing signal and the picture would break up – thank God for youtube, as that was pretty good
Apart from the points mentioned the apartment was clean and tidy and very nice.
We have previously stayed at Manor Heath on four occasions and always enjoy it and look forward to our next visit. We stayed in apartment two, which was very comfortable, but would benefit from a coffee table or nest of tablets, so you could relax and put your drinks on it
Reviewed by Sharon 5.0 ★
Seaside Hideaway combines a fantastic North Bay location with comfortable rooms, delicious breakfasts and a warm personal welcome from your hosts, Jim and Sarah.
If you’re thinking about a spring break by the coast, take a look at our spring breaks in Scarborough guide for ideas on where to stay and what to do.
Manchester Guardian Printing Works owned by Taylor Garnett & Evans & Co. Ltd- a view of factory dated 1902.
Lithographic Printing Dept 1902.
CWS Printing Works – formerly the Guardian Print Works showing a view from the road dated 1972.
CWS Printing Works showing a rear view with canal in the foreground.
The Stockport Branch Canal was a five mile branch of the Ashton Canal from Clayton to Stockport.
An important cargo was the supply of grain to William Nelstrop & Company’s Albion Corn Mill at Stockport Basin.
In its early days there was passenger carrying on the Ashton Canal and one of the routes was between Manchester and Stockport.
Commercial carrying ceased in the 1930s but it lingered on into the 1950s’ as a barely navigable waterway. At one stage in the 1950s it was dredged but this improvement did not attract any traffic. Stockport Basin was the first section to be filled in but it was not until 1962 that the canal was officially abandoned by the British Transport Commission, who had been responsible for it since 1948.
It took many years to fill in and this was a disagreeable procedure for people living along its length.
From a very lavish production, printed of course by the CWS’s own Printing Works at Reddish, is a description of the new flagship department store for the Crawley Co-operative Society that was opened in 1959. The elevations and facade are very much of their day, quite ‘Festival of Britain in style, and the store was a prominent feature of the planned New Town’s centre.
The wide variety of printed material which the CWS required, created a need that could not be met locally by a single source, another large print works was required in Longsight.
Craven Brothers Works 2008
1900 – Further growth prompted the construction of the Vauxhall Works at Reddish, near Stockport. The company kept the works at Osborne Street, Rochdale Road, with about 500 employees, open until 1920. The 1915 O.S. map shows Vauxhall Engineering Works with its south-east corner on Osborne Street, Collyhurst, and bounded on the north by streets of terraced houses and to the south by the L&YR Manchester-Normanton line.
The Developement of Reddish – quite a number of Manchester firms are prospecting the neighbourhood of Reddish, writes a correspondent, while Messrs. Heywood are about to erect electrical engineering works in Sandfold-lane, and Messrs. Rowley and Co, boiler-makers, are fitting works in the neighbourhood. Messrs. Craven Brothers, engineers, of Salford, have purchased 14-acres of land near the Reddish Station, on the estate of Mr. H. P. Greg, on which they intend to erect large engineering works.
The first sod was cut on Thursday afternoon by Mr. William Craven, in the presence of his brother directors in 1900.
ARC began in 1995 at Greek Street, Stockport under the name of MAPS and moved to the Vauxhall Industrial Estate Craven Works building in early 1997. Arts for Recovery in the Community or ‘Arc’ was then launched in 2005. The Arc Centre in its current form, including gallery servung refreshments and public programme has been running since 2016.
Of course, we are sad to say goodbye to the old Craven Brothers factory and the Reddish community as our base. We are so grateful to the local residents and businesses who have supported us for so long. Please, don’t be strangers! We made the building our own over the years and take with us many, many great memories.
Looking to the future at Wellington Mill, we will have exclusive use of several rooms on the floor accessed via the A6 and Hat Works Museum shop. This will include a large art studio, ceramics studio, offices and storage spaces. We will also share the large cafe, events and retail space with the Hat Works museums team and work together to build a bigger audience for both organisations and hopefully a Stockport town centre creative arts hub.
And lo, it came to pass, from the onset of the Industrial Revolution to today, a whole world of work is dismantled. A transport infrastructure is literally filled in, and the former homes of industry demolished.
The CWS is no longer the global behemoth it once was, and print technology has changed beyond recognition.
With it goes a whole series of social relationships and identities bound up in shared occupations.
Our excavations at Vauxhall Industrial Estate, undertaken in advance of the redevelopment of the site by RECOM Solutions and Vauxhall Industrial Estate Ltd, revealed a number of features associated with the Craven Brothers’ Works. Two excavation areas were opened, targeted on features shown on historic mapping but no longer surviving: Area 1 in the north, targeting a small chimney and outbuildings adjacent to the machine shops; and Area 2 in the south targeting a chimney and part of the footprint of Building 3. In Area 1, the archaeological remains had been heavily truncated by the installation of chemical vats in the late 20th century after Craven Brothers closed; however, the foundations of the targeted outbuildings and the chimney were uncovered, as well as the remains of a railway track running alongside the machine shops, represented by in situ sleepers.
Vauxhall Trading Estate, formerly Vauxhall Industrial Estate, was a collection of dilapidated old industrial buildings, which have been demolished and new modern industrial units provided. RECOM provided project management services to demolish all previous buildings and prepare the site for the main contractor, achieve planning consent, enter a BAPA with Network Rail, tender and appoint the successful main contractor and then provide the Employer’s Agent service throughout the construction phase.
We worked with the design team to produce project specific Employer’s Requirements, ensuring that the client’s brief to provide high quality industrial units was delivered. We ensured the client’s interests were maintained throughout the project, making objective decisions that aligned with the client’s goals. In order to de-risk the project prior to entering into the main contract, we advised the client on what site investigations, enabling works and surveys needed to be undertaken. As the Employer’s Agent, we ensured that the conditions of the contract were adhered to, managing claims from the contractor,ensuring that the client’s position was protected.
Demolition works and embodied carbon created through construction works, is being offset against the sustainable energy created post occupation including: mix of air-source heat pumps and gas-fired radiant tube heating for heating and cooling, and photovoltaic solar panels installed on rooftops to generate green electricity for occupiers.
High above the streets of Stockport – zooming in to a cluster of cul de sacs branching out from Tithe Barn Road.
Cul de sac translates as bottom of the bag, the French do not use the term, preferring voie sans issue, literally a dead end.
In the slums of New York City, on the East River just below the Queensboro Bridge, wealthy people live in opulent and luxurious apartments because of the picturesque views of the river, while the destitute and poor live nearby in crowded, cockroach-infested tenements.
I assume that countless civic meetings and Estate Agents’ offices eschew the terminal term – dead end, in favour of the assumed elegance of the cu de sac.
Polanski’s second English-language feature, it follows two injured gangsters who take refuge in the remote island castle of a young British couple in the North of England, spurring a series of mind games and violent altercations.
I was informed by a local resident that the streets and houses had been used by film crews, firstly for ease of access, the location being closed off, and secondly as the period architecture aligns perfectly with the current penchant for mid-century styling.
Within the typology there area number of variants, bungalow, dormer bungalow, link detached, semi-detached and detached.
Very very few of the homes have retained their original features, the imperative of our age is to extend and improve.
There is a covenant in the deeds which prevents the building of border fencing – therefore the development retains its small-scale suburban American ambience.
In 1896 the area to the east of central Stockport is a potpourri of emergent industry, railways, a river and agriculture – a product of the second Ice Age, the subsequent formation of the Mersey Valley and the Industrial Revolution.
By 1911 there is an expansion in the housing stock.
A comprehensive history of the area cane be found here.
In 1918, the UK property landscape was dominated by private renters, who made up 75% of all households. At the time, only 25% of the population owned their own homes.Over the next few decades, home ownership gradually increased, reaching about 38% by 1958. This shift was accompanied by a decrease in private renting, which fell to 41% during the same period.
The most significant growth in home ownership occurred between 1958 and 2003. The percentage of owner-occupiers surged from 38% to 70%. This period saw a corresponding decline in both private renting, which fell to just 8% in 2003, and social renting, which peaked at 29% in 1978 before declining to 22% by 2003.
The pattern of home ownership has been determined by a number of factors –
The Property Owning Democracy – Coined by British MP Noel Skelton in 1920, the concept emphasised the terms ‘property-owning’ and ‘democracy’ as a conservative response to left-leaning ideas of liberalism and socialism.
Right to Buy scheme, introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s Housing Act 1980, allowed long-term council social tenants in England and Wales to buy their homes at a significant discount, fostering homeownership but drastically reducing the stock of affordable social housing, leading to ongoing housing shortages and debates over its legacy.
The Property Ladder which commodifies housing. Where once house and home were largely for life, the upwardly mobile homeowner wishes to continually acquire value and status through trading ever onwards and upwards.
Socially the role of the home has also changed over time, once a place to be outside of – working or playing, the home is now possibly a place of both work and play. A larger percentage of weekly earnings is now absorbed by housing costs, and the lure of the multi-channel Smart TV, gaming systems, take away food and supermarket lager, nails the residents’ slippers firmly to the laminate flooring.
This has gone hand in hand with the trend home improvements and extensions – fed by glossy magazines, design led property TV shows advocating a New England, Shabby Chic, Maxi/Minimalist Vibe.
Welcome to the new England.
It’s January 2026 and I have taken to the area between Mauldeth Road, Thornfield Road, Queens Drive and Didsbury Road.
What is actually going on in my locale? – The only way to find out is to go and take a good look around.
Symbol of middle-class aspiration, conservatism and compromised individualism, the semi-detached house is England’s modern domestic type par excellence.
Semi-detached houses are the most common property type in the United Kingdom. They accounted for 32% of UK housing transactions and 32% of the English housing stock in 2008. Between 1945 and 1964, 41% of all properties built were semis.
Semi-detached houses for the middle class began to be planned systematically in late 18th-century Georgian architecture, as a suburban compromise between the terraced houses close to the city centre, and the detached villas further out, where land was cheaper.
Although semi-detached housing is built throughout the world, it is generally seen as particularly symbolic of the suburbanisation of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The homeowners quest for the individual within a typology, no two doors the same, render re-rendered, period details largely erased, occasionally preserved, windows awash with white uPVC, along with the more recent incursion of one shade of grey, front gardens replaced by unimpressive pressed concrete car parking, cars and more cars, bay windows held at bay by red brick walls and well-trimmed beech hedges.
My pink half of the drainpipe Separates next door from me My pink half of the drainpipe Oh, Mama – belongs to me
My baby takes the morning train He works from nine till five and then He takes another home again To find me waitin’ for him
Sheena Easton
Welcome to the land of Terry and June – the seemingly complacent home to the newly aspirational classes, anathema to those thrill seeking Modernists, embracing the dynamism of the city, or those Ruralists protecting the integrity of the countryside.
Tradition has broken down. Taste is utterly debased, the town, long since degraded, is now being annihilated by a flabby, shoddy, romantic nature worship. That romantic nature worship is destroying also the object of its adoration, the countryside.
The growth of British towns and cities, from the onset of the Industrial Revolution, created a demand for new homes, the earliest developments were close to the centres of production and administration. Followed by the creation of outlying estates for the fleeing middle classes, as the smoke began to billow and the trains and buses began to run.
Originally the work of speculative private enterprise, followed by homes built by the local authority along with charitable institutions.
My own experience has taught me that Suburbia is architecturally diverse, socially less so, as various areas are segregated by class, and perhaps less so by ethnicity and/or culture.
The majority of the population live in Suburbia it seems, there now follows a selection of the suburban sites which I have visited in the last ten years or so.
In search of Suburbia.
There are areas of Victorian terraced housing Manchester which survived clearance – such as Jetson Street in Abbey Hey.
By 1931 1.1 million council houses were built and 2.8 million privately owned homes.
Post WW2 the emphasis was on an expansion of social housing, along with a growth in privately owned property – detailed information and analysis of social housing can be found here at Municipal Dreams.
These homes were at times both temporary and of non-standard construction.
This prefabricated house was originally built for the good folk of Doncaster, later finding itself in Humberston Fitties
These Wythenshawe BISFHomes designed by Frederick Gibberd, the so-called Tin Town are still very much habitable homes.
Post war development was inextricably linked to the New Towns.
The new towns in the United Kingdom were planned under the powers of the New Towns Act 1946 and later acts to relocate people from poor or bombed-out housing following World War II. Designated new towns were placed under the supervision of a development corporation, and were developed in three waves. Later developments included the “expanded towns”: existing towns which were substantially expanded to accommodate what was called the “overspill” population from densely populated areas of deprivation.
I was walking around town, with a view to updating my Ardwick Walk.
Idle curiosity took me toward the Brunswick Estate – that pocket of housing nestle twixt the Mancunian Way/River Medlock, Ardwick Green, Brunswick Street and Upper Brook Street.
Back in 1813, a web of streets and enclosed fields, and more fields, along with small groups of higher status housing, but by the early 20th century it was very much a working class district, within which industry began to grow.
The population of Manchester expanded unstoppably throughout the nineteenth century.
Extensive slum clearance in the nineteen sixties saw the area and its street names change, some erased forever in the new build.
In Manchester, in a vast belt immediately outside the central area of the city, there still exist all too many remnants of a planless, knotted chaos of dark, dismal and crumbling homes. Many of these crossed the verge of uninhabit-ableness long before their most elderly inhabitants were born.
St Paul’s and St Luke’s Brunswick Street W Higham 1970
Lamport Court W Higham 1970
One of three nine-storey blocks, containing two hundred and nineteen dwellings; also including SilkinCourt and Lockton Court.
Litcham Close W Higham 1970
Harry Milligan 1903 – 1986 worked as the photographer at Manchester Central Library until his retirement in around 1968. He was instrumental in setting up the Manchester Region Industrial Archaeology Society in 1965. He volunteered at the North Western Museum of Science and Industry from 1968, assisting with reprographics requests. His knowledge of the history of photography in Manchester and the UK led to him taking on the role of Honorary Curator of Photography at the museum.
Panorama of Brunswick with UMIST in the background.
Hanworth Close area terraced housing and flats 1972.
Staverton Close
Melcroft Close
Wadeson Road
Helmshore Walk – Skerry Close
Cherryton Walk
Cray Walk
Wadeson Road
Hanworth Close
Pedley Walk
Cray Walk – note the decorative brick relief
King William IV
Former Chesters then Whitbread estate pub was built in 1967. Closed in 1996 when it was converted to residential property. It had a brief spell 1991 to 1995 as brewery premises for the Dobbin’s West Coast Brewery, during this period the interior was stripped out to accommodate the brewery paraphernalia.
I came along to take a look aroundin 2017 – at this point all of the homes are occupied.
Fast forward to 2025 and the estate looks very different, a minority of the blocks have been refurbished.
The remainder have been, or are to be demolished.
Rochdale’s 2021 planning statement for Lower Falinge is beguiling in its talk of ‘a better quality and mix’ of housing, better public space and better links with surrounding areas. It goes on to say that the ‘the delivery of market housing within this area is required to deliver this diversification and to ensure the sustainability of retained affordable housing in the area’ – a sentence containing the claim that a tenure mix of public and owner-occupied housing is a good in itself, whilst also acknowledging contradictorily that affordable housing (how affordable?) is only possible by cross-subsidy from market sales’
Some 560 new homes were proposed in Lower Falinge. The plans as a whole proposed the loss of 720 primarily social rent homes and their replacement by 560 new homes of indeterminate tenure.
The tenants in the refurbished blocks with whom I chatted were convinced that demolition was not the answer, further renewal could take place, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, despite a well prepared save our homes campaign thought not.
In March, we told you that we planned to demolish the six empty maisonette blocks – Ollerton, Newstead, Romsey, Quinton, Ullesthorpe, and Vaynor, in Lower Falinge, as well as the former RSPCA buildings and the former car wash on High Street, within the next 12 months. This will make way for the development of new family homes across a larger site that we will work with the community on designing.
Our beautiful mature greenery here on Lower Falinge is showcased in this wonderful video. We are proud of living here surrounded by all this nature – it really is like living in a park.
Unfortunately our urban oasis of calm is at risk of being destroyed if RBH demolish 128 homes and eventually build on the land.
Once home to the Highland Laddie pub which closed in 2010.
The remainder of the estate remains in limbo.
Next door the new homes have been built.
A major housing regeneration scheme which includes the construction of 30 energy efficient, affordable homes is breathing new life into the Lower Falinge neighbourhood in Rochdale.
The project is being carried out for Rochdale Boroughwide Housing by Rochdale-based main contractor The Casey Group with OMI Architects. This is the largest of 3 schemes that Casey has carried out for RBH.
In 1870 the street pattern has yet to be established, between the South Junction railway and Chester Road. The area is occupied by a Nursery. Pomona Gardens sits beside the river, and the Corn Brook is clearly visible. To the right are the Hulme Barracks, closed and demolished in 1914.
Corn Brook Textile Street 1947
In 1884 there is new housing to the right of Chester Road.
In 1904 the Pomona Docks have been established and the are around Hadfield Street fully developed.
Pomona Docks 1923
This is an aerial view from 1930, there area is now a dense network of streets to the north of Chester Road, transport infrastructure, housing and industry sit side by side.
2025 the street pattern is still extant – but what has survived?
The Empress Brewery as seen on the previous Chester Road post.
The Empress Brewing Company was established by Charles Dawes in c. 1880, the brewery closed in 1955.
The building was converted into offices in 1992 as part of the development of the Empress Business Centre, which saw new office and business units built to form a courtyard.
24 Design Ltd Hadfield Street – an exhibition design and build practice, working extensively within the museum and heritage sector.
Glancy Fawcett Lund Street, A project-based, luxury lifestyle supplier delivering exquisite homeware for superyachts, residences and private jets.
Concept Life Sciences Hadfield Street, your trusted partner from concept to clinic. We are your integrated drug discovery and development partner for complex challenges, renowned scientific knowledge, and strategic execution across all modalities from small molecule and biologics to cell and gene therapies.
They seem to have left the building.
J Parker‘sLtd Hadfield Street, Dutch bulb importers – competitive prices across all our garden plant and bulb ranges, huge range, unbeatable prices, established 1933.
Empress Mill latterly Orchid Point Empress Street.
Built between 1903 and 1909, it echoes the industrial character of the larger industrial buildings on Chester Road and Empress Street. The property is listed as a smallware factory in the occupation of Woolf & Higham manufacturers of small wares, upholsterers’ trimmings, worsted bindings, woven venetian ladder tapes, cotton and linen venetian blind webs, spindle bandings, window blind cords, carpet bindings, bed laces. The works is shown on the Ordnance Survey of 1955 as an Engineering Works – Printing Machinery.
Local Heritage List
In 2011, FreshStart Living purchased the building, alongside others nearby, as part of a £9 million development ‘breathing new life’ into this corner of Old Trafford with 116 one and two-bedroom apartments. But, on the inside, leaking roofs, mould, exposed electrical wires and a dodgy gas connection paint a completely different picture.
Not long after purchasing it, we discovered the entire building was being powered by a generator.
Empress Mill was turned into an apartment block as part of a development called Orchid Point. It is understood some residents were allowed to move in twelve years ago, but these residents were asked to move out after a number of years due to safety issues.
On February 20th 2023, the Empress Mill was one of a number of buildings described as unsafe and unsecure by Trafford Council.
The emergency services were called to Empress Mill at 5.15am on Friday. Ten appliances from across the region, including specialist appliances called a stinger and a scorpion, attended the abandoned mill turned apartment block off Chester Road and firefighters battled the blaze into the afternoon.
Officers from Trafford Council have taken firm action to put a stop to anti-social behaviour at a vacant block of flats in the Old Trafford area.
Drug addicts and thieves have descended on Aura Court since much of it was closed in August 2020 by Greater Manchester Fire Service due to a decaying non-compliant fire escape.
The site along with Venos and Progress House is up for sale.
A rare development opportunity in Central Manchester with excellent access to Manchester City Centre Close to Salford Quays, Old Trafford Football and Cricket Grounds along with White City Retail Park The total site covers an area of approximately 2.10 Acres, historic planning consents granted on the site for in excess of 200 flats plus additional commercial accommodation.
Duckworth’s specialised in the manufacture of concentrated soluble essences, essential oils and colours supplied to the aerated water trade – local ‘pop’ men. They were leaders in the field, supplying flavours and essences around the world and developing products tailored to specific markets.
Duckworth & Co was acquired by Cargill Flavor Systems Ltd in 2003, the company vacated the Chester Road premises in 2006.
After buying the building in 2007 for a reported £3.6m, the Church of Scientology planned to re-open the building by either 2010 or 2011.
Leaders of the religious group have submitted a new application to carry out external and internal works. A design and access statement written on behalf of the church by NJSR Chartered Architects proposes a comprehensive revamp of the building.
The overall aim of the project is the refurbishment and conversion of the Duckworth Essences Building into a place of religious study and worship.
I was cordially requested to produce tram based walk, by the good folk at the modernist – travelling from Victoria Station to Bury. Alighting at each stop and seeing what could be seen, by way of modern buildings along the byways.
By the way, I do have previous experience, having undertaken a similar task travelling to Ashton.
So I set off as instructed, clutching my GMPTE senior concessionary travel pass.
Queens Road
Turn right on leaving the station, right then left – you have reached The Vine.
Glendower Dr, Manchester, Greater Manchester M40 7TD.
Head for Rochdale Road and turn right back toward the city centre, you have reached Eastford Square.
Turn left from the station along Bury Old Road until you reach Heywood Road on your right.
Heywood Road, Prestwich, Manchester M25 2GT
1954-5 by the Manchester City Architect’s Department, Chief Architect Leonard C Howitt, for the Manchester Corporation Waterworks. Alan Atkinson, engineer. Incorporates large relief by Mitzi Cunliffe, signed and dated 1955.
After months of public consultation, the joint venture has firmed up its proposals for the redevelopment of the Longfield Centre and is aiming to be on site before the end of the year.
Muse and Bury Council have submitted a hybrid application to transform six acres of Prestwich town centre.
The Strategic Regeneration Framework is the guide that is shaping the direction of Radcliffe’s growth over the next 15 years with a series of realistic short, medium, and longer-term actions. It is also shaping the direction of future council investment, supporting bids for central governmental funding and providing certainty for third parties wanting to invest in town.
Work has begun on Strategic Regeneration Framework’s priority projects, these include:
A new civic hub in central Radcliffe, which will bring together a mix of functions at the heart of the town
Refurbishment of the market basement and the revamping of market chambers
New leisure facilities
A secondary school on the Coney Green site
A “whole town approach” to housing, bringing forward a comprehensive approach to residential development in Radcliffe
A transportation strategy, which will consider matters such as active travel and car parking
I began walking when quite young, then like Felix, I kept on walking, walking still.
The photograph was taking during the Whit Walks in 1958 – aged three, I was engaged in religious pilgrimage, as we know there are many reasons for walking, this is but one.
I was fortunate to grow up at a time when youngsters were permitted to roam freely, less traffic, less anxiety, gave me access to a wider axis of exploration.
The photograph would have been taken I assume, by my mam, on the Brownie 127. When aged nine I wandered alone through the local woods and exposed twelve frames of 44mm 127 film, the prints are long gone, yet I remember each of the photographs and locations clearly.
I went to school, then I didn’t, then I went to Art School, eventually becoming a teenage Constructivist, tutored by Jeffrey Steele, a leading light in the British Systems movement.
The rigidity of the grid, symmetry and orthogonal framing have stayed with me.
Then I went to work for a very long time indeed, then all of a sudden I didn’t. Taking early retirement aged 59 some ten years ago, subsequently taking to the roads, streets and hills of Britain in search of nothing in particular.
In recent years there has been a rapid development in the culture of walking, theories, films, guides, songs and literature. I am fully cognisant of such, yet believe at heart that walking can be free of such baggage, we can stride unhindered, atavistic and carefree/less.
Walk tall, walk straight and look the world right in the eye.
Getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing.
In my own small way, I have become part of that baggage, having been asked to lead a walk around Stockport by the the modernist neé Manchester Modernist Society.
The photograph depicts Alan Boyson’s concrete screen wall, attached to the former Cooperative super store designed by Philip Andrew. The two worked to gather on the Hull Cooperative store, which is adorned by Alan’s huge Three Ships mosaic.
Philip was a childhood friend of Alan Boyson and it was Alan’s father, manager of the Marple Co-operative Society, that recommended Philip for an apprenticeship job in 1951 to the chief architect at the CWS in Manchester HQ.
In preparation for the tour, I visited the town’s Local Heritage Library and read extensively from serendipitous charity shop finds.
The two hour route was designed around an economy of distance and elevation, allowing time for others to take in, what may be for them unfamiliar surroundings. A group of around twenty or so folk became sociable and engaged, with a suitably concise and apposite contribution from myself. There are those who busied themselves taking snaps along the way, chatting amiably or simply gazing in amazement.
The service building above the former Debenham’s store.
Famed as an imaginary TV police station, this civic building is a civic building I simply can’t resist. I return on a regular basis to wander and snap. This is an open public space that seems little loved and has few visitors.
From then onwards I have been taking folks on Modernist Mooches on a regular basis, two or so a month, during the less inclement times of year.
At about the same time I was asked to exhibit my photographs in Stockport, I chose to mooch about at night. Walking around an almost deserted town, avoiding the glare of streetlights, there is a mild frisson to be about when nobody else is about. The air feels different, exposures are longer, the almost waking world feels arrested, by the low available light.
My local shopping centre and as such part of my weekly walking and shopping life.
NCP Car Park located on Stockport Station approach.
Regent House
Asda superstore
I found a copy of Charlie Meecham’s book Oldham Road in a charity shop.
Inspiring me in 2014, to walk in mostly straight lines, though often as not zig zagging along the main arterial roads of Manchester.
Taking pictures on Sunday mornings, in order to avoid traffic, mildly amused to be ignoring the primary function of the routes.
This is one of the more familiar roads, having walked up and down several times over several years. It was to have been an extension of the Mancunian Way, forming a trans-pennine motorway. Much of the property lining the route was cleared in preparation, it was never built, and for years a strange semi-deserted ambience hung over the A57.
Bus Depot
Railway Bridge
The car showrooms which later became an African Evangalist church.
Having cleared away both Victorian and Sixties housing, new architectural forms arose in West Gorton.
Now, everywhere I go, I see launderettes – so arriving in Hanley with time on my hands, wandering around I found this exemplary example.
Having a blog entitled Manchester Estate Pubs, the national media became interested in my photographs. I had spent quite some time, wandering around in search of this endangered architectural typology.
This was Billy Greens in Collyhurst, named for a local boxer, now demolished.
Which in turn became the second modernist calendar.
Followed the following year by fish and chip shops.
So building a vocabulary for my mooching, discovering yet another chippy, laundry, pub, Burton’s, telephone exchange, glazed stairway or underpass.
These things find you, yearning for some small amount of attention and affection.
The Trawl – my favourite peg board menu, my favourite Bridlington chippy.
We are now coming to the end of the car park year – seen here on the wall of my command centre.
Home to William Mitchell’s Totem, the homes long gone and the Council pledged to move the totem too.
The state of play this week, the detritus removed and the base filled in, repaved and safe for a while.
Off now to the Weaver Valley another day another river, passing under Weaver Viaduct
The looking toward KouraGlobal – leader in the development, manufacture, and supply of fluoro products and technologies, opened a new HFA 152a production facility at their Runcorn site in the UK.
Further rural Modernism as we pass under and traverse the M62, whilst walking around the Piethorn Valley
The newest of the Modernist Mooches was to Burnley where we visited the Keirby Hotel.
The former GUS Offices with a mural by Diane and William Morris.
Plus the Charles Anderson concrete relief at the Crow Wood Hotel.
Finally a little light relief – a visit to the Boots factory in Nottingham.
Having innocently board a bus outside the station with a Boots head code , I alighted within the factory gates. Then innocently walking around taking snaps, unheeded until the men in the van stopped me in my tracks.
Who are you, what are you doing?
I am the Modern Moocher going about my business – well it turns out this was not permitted and I was red carded by the earnest security guards and asked to leave forthwith. Suitably rebuked, I politely bade them farewell and headed for the gates.
Arriving at and looking around the Interchange – 1980 architects: Essex Goodman & Suggitt
It is the northern terminus of the Manchester Metrolink’s Bury Line, which prior to 1992 was a heavy-rail line.
A new short spur line was constructed to connect the new station. The railway had originally run into Bury Bolton Street which was further away from the town centre, and was closed by British Rail on the same day that Bury Interchange opened.
It also incorporates a bus station.
Bury Interchange replaced the bus termini scattered around Bury town centre, notably around Kay Gardens.
An £80m transformation is coming to the Bury Interchange, which will see step-free access at the Metrolink, a “vertical circulation core” to better connect the Metrolink with the bus facility, and an integrated travel hub with spaces for cycle storage.
The work is much-needed, explained Transport for Greater Manchester’s Alan Lowe, he said that the interchange was built in the 1980s and very much is of its time.
The Art Picture Palace was a 1923 rebuild of the earlier Art Picture Hall both designed by architect Albert Winstanley. The Art Picture Palace was opened on 26th January 1923. A remarkably complete survivor of a 1920’s cine-variety house executed in an elaborate style.
Films ceased in February 1965 and it became a bingo club. Later converted into a billiard hall until 19th May 1991 when it became a bingo club again, it later became a Chicago Rock Cafe.
Cinema Treasures
Next door a typical steel glass and brick banded office block Maple House.
Around the corner and over the road to the Town Hall 1939-40 architects: Reginald Edmonds of Jackson & Edmonds then 1947-54.
Large and Dull – Niklaus Pevsner.
Back through the Interchange to the former Cooperative Store of the 1930’s.
The Portland Stone towers still visible – the elevation largely retro-clad in glass.
Passing through the Millgate Shopping Centre of the 1980’s.
Unambitious but successful, the floors cheerfully tiled – Niklaus Pevsner.
Down in the subway at midday.
The better to get a view of the Market Hall 1971 – architects: Harry S Fairhurst.
The Indoor Market Hall is currently closed due to the discovery of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete – within the building structure. RAAC is a lightweight type of building material that was used between the 1950s and 1990s.
Back under the road – where we find a delightful Telephone Exchange.
The Rock is a vibrant retail and leisure centre which is home to a range of high street fashion brands, independent retailers, tantalising eateries and fantastic entertainment – it’s the perfect place to visit any day of the week.
It is the work of architects BDP – completed in 2010 at a cost of £350 million.
Our masterplan for The Rock took into account the historical street pattern and public realm context to give the scheme its own identity, and make visual connections to local landmarks.
The retail and leisure scheme brings many exciting brands to Bury for the first time.
New pedestrian streets rejuvenate and improve connections to adjacent areas stitching the town back together.
The development will also contain 408 one and two-bedroom apartments.
Back to basics at a former Burton’s hiding its faience facade.
Typical inter-war infill on our crazy mixed up mongrel high streets.
Ribblesdale House
Application by Shop and Store Developments Ltd submitted August 1965. Architect on application was Samuel Jackson and Son of Ocean Chambers in Bradford but during the application process this changed to John Brunton & Partners – Brunton was a partner in Jackson’s firm, at the same address. It had a restaurant and shops on the first floor.
The street level buildings were destroyed by fire on 14 May 1947 and were replaced with a new brick and concrete entrance and footbridge in 1952.
British Rail closed the station on 17 March 1980, when it was replaced by a new bus/rail interchange station further east into the town centre. Bury Interchange railway station served up until 1991 before the entire Bury Line was converted to light rail operation. It reopened in 1992 for Metrolink operation.
Bury was once the centre of multiple train links and the lost station of Knowsley Street.
Over the road the former Temperance Billiard Hall 1910 architect Norman Evans.
Planning application January 1965 – work started in June 1965. The architectural firm was Richard Byrom, Hill and partners. Richard Byrom was submitting building applications in the 1930s in Bury and locally.
The rendering on the building is original but the windows have been changed. The Job Centre took over the building in 1993. It is in a conservation area and the Civic Trust had some concerns!
Many thanks to David French for the above information.
Far, far away from the mad, rushing crowd, Please carry me with you. Again I would wander where memories enfold me, There on the beautiful Island of Dreams.
At the northern end of Barrow Island lies the Ferry Road Triangle. Covering an area formerly known by the field names, Crow Nest, Great New Close, Little New Close, Moss, Cow Park and Middle Park; the Ferry Road area has always been known as the Triangle, because the shape of the estate is truly a triangle.
I had arrived in Barrow in Furness and taken to wandering the streets, hastily in search of nothing in particular.
I came upon a neat triangle of terraced housing, which abutted the huge BAE Systems sheds.
The collision of scale created by the low lying domestic buildings, and the gargantuan industrial nuclear submarine homes, immediately put me in mind of Chris Killip’s photographs.
He had recorded the last days of a dying industry, whilst the BAE contracts represent a long term lifeline to a once dying town.
The Ministry of Defence has awarded £3.95 billion of funding to BAE Systems for the next phase of the UK’s next-generation nuclear-powered attack submarine programme, known as SSN-AUKUS.
The funding follows the AUKUS announcement in March by the leaders of Australia, the UK and the United States. This will eventually see Australia and the UK operate SSN-AUKUS submarines, which will be based on the UK’s next generation design, incorporating technology from all three nations, including cutting-edge US submarine technologies.
Having started early design work in 2021, the £3.95bn funding will cover development work to 2028, enabling BAE Systems to move into the detailed design phase of the programme and begin to procure long-lead items. Manufacture will start towards the end of the decade with the first SSN-AUKUS boat due to be delivered in the late 2030s.
It has been said of Barrow: A rich mineral district was the cause, a railway was the effect, and an important manufacturing town the result.
The dramatic growth of Barrow-in-Furness in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries was fuelled by the ready availability of Furness iron ore. Significant investments were made in developing the town to exploit this resource. The various ironworks, steelworks, foundries, shipyards and docks required a huge influx of population to support them. This in turn led to the rapid building of rows of good quality mass-produced terraced housing for the workers, and substantial sandstone villas for the management.
I stopped to chat with a local lad – I had thought Barrow to be a hard town, he thought not.
There’s not much trouble, though we have hard times – how so?
The Tories – now my kids have all got jobs for the next twenty years.
There were no reported crimes in June 2024
Devonshire Dock Hall is a large indoor shipbuilding and assembly complex that forms part of the BAE Systems shipyard.
Constructed between 1982 and 1986 by Alfred McAlpine plc for Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, DDH was built on land that was created by infilling part of Devonshire Dock with 2.4 million tonnes of sand pumped from nearby Roosecote Sands.
Opened in May 1888 it was described by the Barrow News as one of the best-appointed hotels in Barrow. From this start, Walton Lee, elected Town Councillor in 1886 envisaged an estate for the workers literally within spitting distance of their workplace.
A section of Career of Evil was filmed at The Crow’s Nest.
Barrow shipyard’s Devonshire Dock Hall, The Crow’s Nest pub, Barrow Island streets, including Stanley Road and Stewart Street, and Michaelson Road Bridge, all featured in episode one of Career of Evil on Sunday night.
This is Oldham Road Manchester – this also Memory Lane.
Walking from the city centre to Failsworth I noted the absence of public houses, some long since demolished, some now serving other purposes – very few open selling beer.
Many of the breweries no longer trading.
Much of this the consequence of changing economic circumstances, the decline in manufacturing and subsequent serious absence in regular drinkers.
I do remember the huge Winston Churchill relief in the Room and R100 Airship wooden panelling in the lounge. Also of note were the ornate plater work ceilings and pendulous lighting, much damaged as the pub awaited restoration.
On a February morning the streets were well behaved and consisted of a typical mix of nineteenth century terraces and postwar semis, the residents chatty and welcoming, whilst they went about their business.
There are different causes that can make a street name controversial:
A person, organisation or event who or which was once honoured with a street name is subsequently thought to not or no longer deserve one, for example because that person later turned out to be a criminal.
A group of street names – for example in a residential area, is deemed to be unrepresentative for the population of that place, region or country because some demographics are overrepresented and others underrepresented, for example, because a disproportionate number of streets are named after men, and few after women.
Research has found that if you live on Pear Tree Lane your property is more likely to attract potential buyers and a higher price, than those living in a similar property on Crotch Lane.
What are the guidelines for street naming?
The exclusion or inclusion of certain numbers for cultural or religious reasons
The use of building names without numbers
New building or street names should not begin with The
The use of street names which include numbers that can confuse, for example – 20 Seven Foot Lane sounds the same as 27 Foot Lane
The use of the names of deceased people in the adoption of any street names. The reason for choosing a person’s name should be established in the council’s policy
The use of the name of a living person – it’s not recommended
The adoption of historic connotations by developers – guidance on this should be provided by the council to all developers through close liaison with local historic societies.
The use of national or local historic figures or events
The use of a name with Royal connotations – the Lord Chamberlain’s office must be contacted if a name has any reference to the Royal family or if the word ‘Royal’ is suggested.
The use of names and their combination with numbers that could be considered rude, obscene, and racist or contravene any aspect of the council’s equal opportunities policies
The use of names and their combination with numbers that could be easily vandalised or changed into any of the above, for example – Canal Turn
The use of names that can cause spelling or pronunciation problems
The use of names that can be construed to be used for advertising or commercial gain
The use of names would lead to variations in the use of punctuation as these can confuse or result in early demands for a change of address from occupiers.
So in summary the name Bland does not in my opinion represent the close’s appearance and may in fact detract from the value of the property and possibly the perception of the area.
The A6 is Britain’s fourth longest road. Its route varies greatly from the lower lands of the South East, though the Peak District, right though the heart of Manchester city centre, then onwards towards Preston. It then goes though the historic city of Lancaster before skirting the Eastern fringe of the Lake District before ending in Carlisle, bang on the start of the A7.
North from Stockport towards Manchester, the A6 was a wide, four lane road, but still 30 mph, which usually flowed pretty well. According to Mudge, it looks like it has now been massacred by bus lanes and red paint. Shame. We meet the A57 from the east, just south of the city centre, and multiplex until we reach Mancunian Way, the A57 heading off as a short urban motorway, the A6 heading into the city centre via London Road/Piccadily, where it loses its number and vanishes. It would have gone straight down Piccadily/Market Street to meet Deansgate, and then across the River Irwell into Salford, and up Chapel Street, where the number reappears. Market Street has been pedestrianised for years, so the A6 has long ceased to be a through route.
Starting at traffic lights on the A665 the road heads northeastwards, initially with the Metrolink on the left and a factory building on the right. The road then bears right at traffic lights marking the first section of on-street running for the trams, which lasts until just before a bridge over the River Medlock, after which the road passes to the south of the Sportcity complex whilst the tram line runs through the middle.
The A6010 is crossed at traffic lights, after which we see the tram lines on the left once more. We go over the Ashton Canal, then the tram lines at grade before bearing to the right to pass Clayton Park before another section of on-street running for the Metrolink begins, which continues for some distance. Just after crossing the Manchester city limit there is a set of traffic lights, after which the road becomes D2 for a short distance to allow a tram stop – Edge Lane, to be located in the central reservation. The tram leaves the road to the right for the next stop – Cemetery Road, and the stop in Droylsden town centre is once again in the central reservation. In all three cases the street running recommences after the stop.
The A62, which runs from Manchester to Leeds, via Oldham and Huddersfield, was once the main route across the Pennines, connecting the largest city in Lancashire with Yorkshire’s largest city. However with the completion of the M62 towards Leeds in the early 1970s it lost much of its importance and traffic to the motorway, which runs a few miles to the north. These days, the A62 serves as a busy primary route between Manchester and Oldham, an extremely very quiet route over the Pennines, and then a fairly busy local road linking Huddersfield with Leeds.
Most maps show that the A62 starts its journey in the middle of Manchester by leaving the A6 Piccadilly and running along Lever Street – the original route was the parallel Oldham Street. However, owing to a bus gate Lever Street is not generally accessible from Piccadilly. We head out easterly on a busy street – non–primary, until we meet the Ring Road where we pick up primary status that we retain until Oldham. We turn left at this point and then immediately right to start the A62 proper.
In 2014, having taken early retirement from teaching photography, I embarked on a series of walks along the arterial roads of Manchester.
This whole undertaking was prompted in part by Charlie Meecham’s 1980’s Oldham Road project.
The work questions whether a sense of local identity can be maintained in an area of constant redevelopment and community displacement.
This area was first developed in the 19th century for cotton manufacture, coal extraction and later electrical and heavy engineering. The road was lined with shops and there was a vibrant community.
When I first started working on the project, most of the early industry had ceased operating and the mills were either abandoned or being dismantled. However, some had been refurbished either for new industrial use or later, made into apartments. Some run down areas were cleared making way for new housing. Clearance also provided opportunity to build new schools, trading estates and create green space. Most of the older community centres such as theatres and cinemas along the road were also abandoned and later cleared.
Modern Mooch 