Collyhurst Road – Modern Mooch

It’s Friday, the rain has almost stopped and I have a job to do.

The putative William Mitchell totem in Eastford Square is being moved.

Having taken a particular interest in this particular piece of public art for some time – I need to go and take a little look.

But what will we see along the way, as we hasten along Rochdale Road?

Which once looked like this, way back when in 1904.

Though some things inevitably come and go, as some things are prone to do.

The city is undergoing yet another reinvention as Manchester becomes – an attractive place to invest and do business.

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:19

Once there was a gas works here – adjoining Gould Street, seen here in 1958.

The Gould Street Gas Works was a gas manufacturing plant located in Manchester, England. Originally built in 1824, the plant was operated by the Manchester Corporation Gas Department and was in operation from 1833 to 1969. It was named after the street on which it was located, which was named after John Gould, who was a prominent Manchester businessman in the 19th century.

Derelict Manchester

The Gasworks New Town neighbourhood is one of seven envisioned by the £4bn Victoria North masterplan. It will feature nine buildings ranging from 8 to 34 storeys. The 6.6-acre site has most recently been home to a car park but the green development will overwhelmingly prioritise walking and cycling over driving. It will result in tens of millions of pounds being pumped into the city’s economy over the lifetime of the development.

Plans for a trailblazing city centre regeneration scheme that will create more than 1200 homes has been approved by Manchester City Council.

MCR Property

A total of 85 of the 1200, will be affordable homes available through Shared Ownership.

Though as of March 31st 2023 ground is yet to be broken, no signs of the:

New centre of gravity for central Manchester that will create thousands of jobs and inject tens of millions of pounds into the city’s economy.

So you zig-zag wanderers, make the most of these wide open expanses of affordable car parking, while you can.

The future may yet be here today – or the next.

Let’s duck under the railway, through this sad damp pedestrian tunnel – the domain of the cash strapped daytime drinker, transient tagger and disaffected leaflet distributor.

Next thing you know you have emerged into the daylight on Dalton Street – we have been here before seeking the Collyhurst Cowboy.

Photograph: Dennis Hussey

Onwards to Eastford Square.

The shops and maisonettes are due to be demolished any day now – no longer to gaze open-eyed upon the former quarry of Sandhills.

Around the front the diggers have been a digging – digging up around the base of the totem.

The work is to be re-sited by the nearby tower blocks.

The end is nigh.

Heading now for Collyhurst Road and the Irk Valley – seen here in 1960.

Looking back on the Square and the Dalton Street flats – Humphries, Dalton, Roach, Vauxhall and Moss Brook Courts under construction.

Vauxhall Street now but a shadow of its former self – the last traces of industry long gone.

Reclaimed over time by trees and dense underbrush.

Crossing Collyhurst Road and up and over the railway via Barney’s Steps also known as the Lowry Steps.

LS Lowry

By the late 1950’s the whole of this area which we called Barney’s Tip became a refuse tip for Manchester City Council.

Britain from Above

The area is in the process of being reconfigured as a delightful country park.

The investment will also help develop an initial phase of the planned City River Park incorporating St Catherine’s Wood as part of a network of public open space, including improvements along the River Irk and works to improve flood resilience, unlocking the potential of the Irk Valley that will characterise the wider Northern Gateway project.

About Manchester

The first phase of the City River Park will begin work to transform former railway architecture to develop the new Viaduct Linear Park north of Victoria Train Station, new stepped public realm space – Red Bank Terraces, along with new green space by the River Irk and the key improvements to St Catherine’s Wood.

Manchester Gov UK

The Victoria North Express is coming your way!

Pressing on we pass the Showman’s quarters.

Collingham Street is lined with trucks, trailers, stalls and mobile homes.

But there’s nothing temporary about this Cheetham Hill neighbourhood; most residents have lived here for years and many plan to spend the rest of their lives here.

Founded more than forty years ago, it was created by the Showman’s Guild of Great Britain – and it’s reserved exclusively for fairground workers both retired and current.

Built on Queens Road tip, a former rubbish dump, and rented out by Manchester Council, many of the 52 homes belong to older retired showmen or families for whom an itinerant lifestyle has become more challenging.

It’s a close-knit community with a unique shared history.

MEN.

Emerging eventually onto Rayburn Way.

Home to the Eden Girls Leadership Academy and Eden Boys Leadership Academy.

And a whole host of delightful light industrial units.

Let’s all go west – along North Street.

On the corner of Derby Street and Honey Street we find Hamnett & Andrew – Insuflex Works

Later transformed into Linen Hire, though I fear that further linen hire may well be in abeyance, on a permanent basis.

What was happening at the Queens Arms back in 1966?

These were the older premises.

Then next door, the newer premises.

Photo: Alison G

The Queens Arms was held in high regard amongst the real ale crowd and had been a regular fixture in the Good Beer Guide.

As recently as 2007 it was named the City Life Pub of the Year,

Empress Brewery Co Ltd – 383 Chester Road, Old Trafford.

Registered as above May 1896 – 236 public houses.

Acquired by Walker Cain Ltd. 1929 and brewing ceased.

Brewery History

The pub was extended in 1987.

Seen here in 2015 closed for the foreseeable.

Recently becoming Flamingo – well strike me pink!

Though not without its own particular issues it would seem, according to the MEN.

The licensing out of hours team has received noise complaints relating to the premises which was found to be open beyond permitted hours when visited. Officers also identified breaches of the Health Act during inspections in which people were seen smoking shisha pipes in an enclosed extension at the back.

We will leave the Flamingo be and head back into town – but not without giving a nod to this confusing collision between this self-made scrapyard-man chic gate and the ever changing skyline of overheated urban regeneration.

The new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Corinthians 5:17

Archival photographs – Manchester Local Image Collection

The first leg of a journey to the source of the River Irk beginning behind Victoria, finishing by the Hexagon Tower in Blackley.

The Irk’s name is of obscure etymology, but may be Brittonic in origin and related to the Welsh word iwrch, meaning roebuck

In medieval times, there was a mill by the Irk at which the tenants of the manor ground their corn and its fisheries were controlled by the lord of the manor. In the 16th century, throwing carrion and other offensive matter into the Irk was forbidden. Water for Manchester was drawn from the river before the Industrial Revolution. A bridge over the Irk was recorded in 1381. The river was noted for destructive floods. In 1480, the burgesses of Manchester described the highway between Manchester and Collyhurst which – the water of Irk had worn out. In 1816, of seven bridges over the Irk, six were liable to be flooded after heavy rain but the seventh, the Ducie Bridge completed in 1814 was above flood levels.

According to The New Gazetteer of Lancashire the Irk had – more mill seats upon it than any other stream of its length in the Kingdom and – the eels in this river were formerly remarkable for their fatness, which was attributed to the grease and oils expressed by the mills from the woollen cloths and mixed with the waters.

However, by the start of the 20th century the Irk Valley between Crumpsall and Blackley had been left a neglected river – not only the blackest but the most sluggish of all rivers.

Wikipedia

The river emerges from beneath the city into an area named Scotland – a remnant of Manchester’s links with the Jacobite Rebellion.

To the left were the squalid Victorian homes of Red Bank – currently presenting as the Green Quarter.

The river briefly becomes subterranean again.

This is a river with an ignominious history – famously damned by émigré Friedrich Engels.

At the bottom flows, or rather stagnates, the Irk, a narrow, coal-black, foul-smelling stream, full of debris and refuse, which it deposits on the shallower right bank.

Mr Engels currently resides by the Medlock.

The stretch along Dantzic Street into Collyhurst Road was heavily industrialised, of which some remnants prevail.

Along with an abandoned traveller’s camp, where once the gas works had stood.

New housing is being built forming the first wave of the Victoria North masterplan.

Previous enterprises have hit the buffers beneath the railway on Bromley Street.

To the right is Dalton Street once home to the Collyhurst Cowboy.

Here are the remains of Vauxhall Street, named for Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, built in the remains of the Collyhurst Quarry – which in turn became Sandhills.

There are current plans afoot to create a City River Park.

In addition the local authority oversees the Irk River Valley Project , along with Groundwork, United Utilities, Woodland Trust and Greggs.

To the left are St Catherine’s Steps

Immortalised by almost local lad LS Lowry

Spanning the defunct railway workings, affording a view of the brightly blooming city centre.

Leaving Collyhurst Road, we journey along Smedley Road.

Seen here in 1934.

Passing beneath Queens Road – Queens Park to the right.

Queen’s Park was one of Britain’s first municipal parks created in 1846. The park was originally arranged around Hendham Hall, home of the Houghton family however this was demolished in 1884.

Dropping down to Hendham Vale.

The Smedley Hotel is a very large pub that is hidden away on a quiet back street. Once inside there were a few different rooms and I had a drink in the bar which was fairly large and seemed in need of some attention. The pub still had its old Chesters signs outside and there were three real ales on the bar. I had a drink of Chesters bitter and this was a very nice drink the other beers were Chesters mild and Boddington’s bitter.

I thought this pub would be long gone but it is still standing and I think open for business.

Alan Winfield 1994

Lost to the world are the Manchester Moderne flats of Kennet House overlooking the Irk Valley on Smedley Lane.

Hendham Way becomes a pedestrianised lane.

Taking the road up and then down, returning to the river, and following the wrong path – alongside the **Hapurhey Reservoir and Ponds.**

A remnant of the industrial era the reservoirs and ponds, once used by the factories as a source of water, have over the year become a thriving habitat which supports a substantial amount of wildlife.