St. Anns Road North in Heald Green is in the North West region of England. The postcode is within the Heald Green ward/electoral division, which is in the constituency of Cheadle.
This area was once described to me as built by Cowboys for Indians – though statistically there are more Pakistani residents.
This is a dormitory suburb of Manchester and nearby Stockport and is oh so close to the airport, polite and professional well presented and aspirational.
Once this was a Modern paradigm.
Subsequently the plaything of the upwardly mobile – extending in all directions, adding period details way out of period, or embracing the current vogue for the refined and smoothly rendered grey-ification of their homes.
Welcome to the land of the performance vehicle, impressive impressed drive, carriage lamp and bay window, overlooking a well clipped lawn.
Work to replace the second crossing began in 1980.[The third bridge is very different from its two predecessors. It is a pre-stressed concrete structure with a central span of 160 m, 26 m above the river, and two side spans of 100 m each – including the approaches, it is a total of 897 m long and 15.8 m wide. It can carry abnormal loads of up to 400 tonnes, and has a life expectancy of 120 years.
It was constructed by Edmund Nuttall Ltd to a design by Mott, Hay and Anderson’s young engineer, Alan Yiu Lun Wan.
The two supporting concrete piers were fluted to create an impression of lightness and were designed to withstand the impact from a vessel of ten thousand tonnes travelling at a speed of five knots, although this is highly unlikely as large ships rarely come this far up the Tyne and the shipping lane has now effectively been blocked by the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Due to the exposed location, strong winds can cause problems for high-sided vehicles. Early in the bridge’s life, a double-decker bus was nearly blown over the side.
The total cost of construction amounted to £15,350,000.
Milton Keynes Central railway station serves Milton Keynes and surrounding parts of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire. The station is located on the West Coast Main Line about 50 miles northwest of London. The station is served by Avanti West Coast intercity services, and by West Midlands Trains regional services.
A new station to delimit the western end of the new central business district of Milton Keynes was a key objective for Milton Keynes Development Corporation. In the cash-strapped circumstances of the 1960s and 1970s, British Rail was unenthusiastic but eventually came round after a deal was done in 1978 on cost sharing. In 1979, MKDC architect Stuart Mosscrop designed the station building and office blocks to either side, framing a new Station Square and the vista uphill along Midsummer Boulevard – and the midsummer sunrise.
The station opened on 14 May 1982, with an official opening by Charles, then Prince of Wales, conducted three days later.
Mother of two Jo Francis leans in for a kiss.
Older people are remembering when he previously came to Milton Keynes:
Crowds stood around the forecourt of the Tickford Street factory to watch, cheer and wave flags. Then suddenly, a five year old boy called Matthew Turvey reached into his mum’s shopping basket, took out a tin of baked beans and held them out to the young Prince.
Proposed designs for architecture and town planning of Milton Keynes: boulevard and railway station – 1970 Derek Walker Associates
1981 – Built using a high performance reflective solar control glass called Vari-Tran, creating a complete curtain wall to cover the whole construction.
Yesterday, Saturday 6th April I was leading a Modernist Mooch around Stoke and Hanley – I arrived five hours before the 1.00 start time and went off to explore nowhere in particular.
I found myself in the Northwood area of Hanley – ascending the long drag of Bucknall New Road, where I espied a launderette, imaginatively named The Launderette.
Early morning and short of the odd customer or two, I seized that moment in time to record this lonely public place – seeking that suspense picture with a surprise finish.
The Gallery is housed in a modern, custom-built facility that is part of the extensive Glasgow University Library complex, designed by William Whitfield.
Sir William Whitfield had roots in concrete and brick brutalism but took contextual postmodernism to a Palladian mansion that traditionalists admired. Principal of a small office for almost 50 years, his diversity of work was shot through with recurring themes and was distinguished by thoughtful synthesis of precedent.
The Mackintosh House is a modern concrete building, part of the gallery-library complex.
The Mackintosh House comprises the principal interiors of the original house – including the dining room, studio-drawing room and bedroom, largely replicating the room layout of the old end-of-terrace building. It features the meticulously reassembled interiors from the Mackintoshes’ home, including items of original furniture, fitments and decorations.
So on a light bright sunny day, I took another look around.
Salford’s town centres are important to the city’s future. They provide employment for local people, retail and leisure opportunities, homes, a sense of community, and a place for local people to interact. However, it is well known that town centres are changing and that they need to adapt and reposition themselves so that they can thrive and meet the needs of the local communities.
Despite Swinton’s many strengths, it faces similar challenges to other towns. The shopping centre and other buildings in the town centre are dated and in need of investment. Demand for local housing has grown by 23% in the last five years, but there is a lack of high-quality family and affordable housing in the right locations in the area.
The city council has identified Swinton town centre – along with Eccles, as a priority area for regeneration. On that basis, the council has engaged with the community and local stakeholders to establish a clear vision for the town that will help to guide change and future investment, whilst protecting what local people consider important for Swinton.
Swinton Square is in private ownership and therefore not something that the council has any direct control over. It is also important to acknowledge that the issues facing Swinton precinct are not unique to Swinton and those challenges are varied but linked to changing shopping habits, decline in the retail offer, competition from out-of-town centres as well as changes in the wider economy.
We do have an open dialogue with the owners of Swinton Square, the West Bromwich Building Society, who are aware of the vision and aspiration for Swinton.
One of the aims of the council’s events and animation programme is to encourage additional footfall and dwell time within the town centre.
Along with my almost lifelong friend Mr Tim Rushton – I took a trip along a short stretch of the River Weaver, walking from east to west.
River Weaver – rising on the boundary between the counties of Shropshire and Cheshire and then flowing 45 miles north to reach the Irish Sea estuary of the River Mersey to the west of Runcorn.
Below Winsford, the course of the river has been altered several times, by the construction of cuts and locks, to enable small ships to trade on it. The river formerly joined the River Mersey at Weston Marsh, but since the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal, begun in 1887, it has flowed into the canal, from where surplus water enters the Mersey by the Weaver sluices, just upstream of the junction. The tidal river section below Frodsham has been bypassed by the Weston Canal since 1810 and is no longer navigable, as Frodsham Lock is derelict.
Railway viaduct over River Weaver and adjoining land by A Rendel Engineer and Thomas Brassey, contractor 1848-1850 – for Birkenhead Lancs & Cheshire Junction Railway Co.
Red sandstone, brown brick and cast iron, two segmental-arched iron spans of circa thirty metres over river; two round arches on west bank and twenty one on east bank. Piers to iron spans are rusticated tooled ashlar; the other spans have rusticated voussoirs, pier faces and quoins and rock-faced spandrels with brick reveals, cornice to iron-span piers, plainer imposts to others.
Top of central pier to river modified to take mid C20 concrete track bed.
Weaver Viaduct is one of the outstanding features of M56 and its design was approved by the Royal Fine Arts Commission. The three-quarter mile of elevated motorway and approach embankments over the River Weaver and Weaver Navigation Canal opened on 21 February 1971.
Design was by Husband and Co of Sheffield – acting for Department of Environment, who also supervised the project.The contractor was Christiani Shand with a tender price of £3,146,387 in March 1968.
Work began in April 1968 – the eventual cost was put at £3.5 million.
Thirty two 125-foot concrete 100-tonne beams were put into place in July 1970; the concrete beams were made by Matthews & Mumby of Windmill Lane Denton.
High-VoltageFrodsham Substation – Rock Savagepower station
Rock Savage Power Station is an 800 MWe gas-fired power station.
It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 31 July 1998, and owned by InterGen, a company that is now jointly owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and China Huaneng Group, it cost £375m.
It sponsors the Runcorn Jets baseball club, the Highfield Male Voice Choir and the Weston Angling Club.
The name comes from the nearby ruined Elizabethan mansion – Rocksavage.
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.
Chiesi, the international research-focused pharmaceuticals and healthcare group, signed a commercial agreement to use the new low carbon footprint medical propellant for inhalation product development and clinical trials in 2019.
Britain from Above 1948
Ineos Chemical Complex formerly ICI Rocksavage Works on the banks of the River Mersey River Weaver and Manchester Ship Canal in Runcorn formerly ICI works of Rocksavage and Castner Kelner Works which produced fluorcarbons such as aerosol propellants dry cleaning solvents and chlorine UK January 2007
Frodsham Wind Farm is one of England’s largest onshore generating stations, and the largest in the Cheshire region, with an installed capacity of more than 50 MW. Construction of the wind farm began in March 2015 and became fully operational in February 2017.
The Masonic Hall has an extension of 1967 by Hadfield Cawkson Davidson & Partners
The Masonic Hall has an extension of 1967 has a concrete mural by William Mitchell.
Symbolising the turmoil and chaos of the outside world, contrasting with the order of the Masonic Temple – a Freemason told me so.
I thought to propose the idea that this may well be a false dichotomy – then thought I’d better not.
These are the constituent panels.
These are the details.
Having been asked to speak to the Sheffield University Alumni Women’s Group – on the subject of Modernist Sheffield, I had easy access to the interior space.
I was ever so excited to discover these decorative panels on the stairway – I assume that they are also the work of William Mitchell.
Nobody knew.
The Masonic Hall is now a venue in addition to being a Masonic Hall.
Vickers was a successful miller who invested his money in the railway industry. In 1828 he garnered control of his father-in-law’s steel foundry business, formerly Naylor & Sanderson, and renamed it Naylor Vickers & Co. He went on to be Alderman and the Mayor of Sheffield and was the first President of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce before he died in 1897.
The new Bury Unitarian Church was designed and constructed by local architects James T Ratcliffe.
An interesting article was published at the time in Sacred Suburbs Portfolio, in which the church design was described as:
A well detailed, functional, yet flexible building.
The church was opened in 1974, with a service of dedication on Saturday, 9th March. The total cost, including furnishings, was £85,000 – It is now valued at about £1.5 million. The Churchwarden and Chairman of Trustees, at that time, was Bernard Haughton, who had succeeded Alex Rogers; he was to serve the Church in those capacities for the next 25 years. He was succeeded by Barbara Ashworth, our immediate past Warden. During this time, notwithstanding persistent problems with water leakage through its flat roof, the church continued to thrive and develop.
Enhancements have been made to improve the comfort and amenities of the building throughout the period with, for example, the installation of an improved heating – system, a sound – enhancement system in the church, and disabled access facilities including a lift to the upper floor. Through the efforts of Barbara Ashworth – past Church Warden, the proliferation of bequests, legacies and trusts which were complicating and restricting church-finances has been rationalised and the financial structure streamlined. Part of the land at Holebottom has been sold for development, and part has been upgraded as a public amenity.
The current congregation is still one of the best supported Unitarian Churches in the country and remains enthusiastic and committed to the Unitarian faith. There are many social groups including The Women’s League, The Men’s Fellowship, The Luncheon Club the Book Club and most recently, our Camera Club; coffee is served every Saturday morning – a session which welcomes members of the public to the church, some of whom have subsequently become church-members. Frequent social activities are organised by The Efforts Committee and are well-supported by the congregation and their friends and raise money in support of the activities of the church snd local charities.
Bury Interchange is a transport hub opened in 1980, it is the northern terminus of the Manchester Metrolink’s Bury Line, which prior to 1992 was a heavy-rail line.
It also incorporates a bus station.
Bury Interchange replaced the bus termini scattered around Bury town centre, notably around Kay Gardens.
Bury Interchange was opened by British Rail in March 1980, integrating a new bus station with the northern terminus of the Bury-to-Manchester heavy railway 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.
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.
It’s not what we need for our customers need.
The new Bury Interchange project is expected to complete at the end of the decade.
The line and station were closed on 5 October 1970 as part of continuing cutbacks in British Rail services and the line west to Bolton subsequently dismantled.
The A5103 is a major thoroughfare running south from Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre to the M56 in Northenden. The road is two-lane dual carriageway with a few grade-separated junctions. It is used by many as a link to the airport and to the motorway network south.
The road starts at Piccadilly Gardens where it meets the A6. It heads along Portland Street – at one time it ran along the parallel Mosley Street, past fast-food outlets and off-licences and then meets the A34 Oxford Street. It multiplexes with that road north for 200 yards into St Peter’s Square and then turns left into Lower Mosley Street, initially alongside the tramlines and then past the former Manchester Central station, now a conference centre with the same name. The road becomes Albion Street and goes over the Bridgewater Canal and under the railway line east of Deansgate station. The road then meets the A57(M) Mancunian Way at a roundabout interchange. This is where most of the traffic joins and leaves.
The road is now 2×2 dual carriageway with the name Princess Road. It passes under the Hulme Arch, a grade-separated junction with the A5067, with an unusually large central reservation. This is presumably because of the proposed plans from the 1960s of a motorway. However, after passing under the junction, there are innumerate sets of traffic lights, with the B5219, the A6010 and the A5145, as well as many other unsigned roads. There are also many speed cameras set at 30 mph.
The road picks up pace as we exit the sprawl of South Manchester and the road becomes Princess Parkway, with a 50 mph speed limit. We cross the River Mersey and almost immediately hit the M60 at J5.
Except for the Manchester City Centre section – which was numbered A5068, this road did not exist on classification in 1922. Princess Road was built in 1932 to serve the new southwestern suburbs; initially it ran between the B5219 and A560 and was numbered B5290, with the road later extended north into the A5068 on the southern edge of the city centre and renumbered A5103.
The northern extension through Hulme initially followed previously existing roads, so followed a zigzag route. As part of the road’s upgrade and the reconstruction of Hulme in the 1970s the road was straightened and the original route can no longer be seen. The A5068 was severed around this time with the construction of the A57(M) and the A5103 took on its city-centre section, taking it to the A6.
The A34 is a major route from the ports on the South Coast of England to the Midlands and the North West, with the standard varying from rural dual carriageway sections in the south to urban single carriageway in the north, and everything else in between.
Slade Lane junction, Rushford Park to Parr’s Wood, East Didsbury – to connect to Manchester Road to Cheadle. It continued on to Laneside Road as a residential road. Opened on 11 April 1923 by Mary Cundiff, Lady Mayoress, and Margaret Turnbull, daughter of Alderman Turnbull, Chairman of Manchester Town Planning Committee. Width was 100 feet and it was designed for tram tracks in the central reservation. The dual road carriageways were 20 feet wide. Manchester’s tram system was closed in 1949. The carriageways were widened and central reservation grassed over. Originally opened as A5079.
Laneside Road, East Didsbury to Schools Hill/ Wilmslow Road junction, Cheadle. Opened on 12 October 1959. The official opening was on 15 October 1959. Planning for the bypass had been halted by the war. In December 1949 Manchester Corporation stated that it was not a priority since the Corporation was only responsible for the 200 yards to the proposed bridge over the River Mersey and Cheshire County Council had not asked for a joint approach to Ministry of Transport to build it. Work was finally authorised in January 1957 and started in the June. Width was 90 feet with dual 24 foot carriageways. Expected cost was £600,000 to £700,000.
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.
Modern Mooch 