Route 356 …. if you ever plan to travel east ……

Well, if you ever plan to travel east, take my way, it's the highway that's the best and get your kicks on route 356.

Route 356, 2025

It runs from Oldham, up to Denshaw, down to Delph and all the way to Ashton.

The Angel Hotel, Ashton, 2022

Taking in stunning landscapes, and heaps of places from Dobcross, to Diggle, to Upper Mill, Greenfield, Grasscroft, Miclehurst, Mossley, always heading south, until it twists west from Stalybridge to end 80 minutes later after 14 major stops at Ashton Under-Lyne.

Now, I think there is a book to be written which tells the story of this part of Greater Manchester by bus, with tales from all 14 stops, with pictures, maps and some original paintings by Peter Topping.

So, I am throwing down the challenge. “Peter meet me in Oldham on a day and time of your choosing and we’ll motor south, stopping off as we choose and like Toad of Toad Hall discover adventures along the way”.

The White House, Ashton, 2022

Market Place and Town Hall, 1950s

And because we can we will do it for free, courtesy of that nifty little concessionary bus pass.  

Other bus tickets are available, but none will cost more that £3.

Leaving me just to say that other seats will be vacant but we will have nabbed two at the front on the top deck.

And … dear reader you have been present at the dawn of another great Simpson Topping idea.

Pictures; Route 365, courtesy of Google Maps, The Angel Hotel and The White Horse, Ashton-Under-Lyne, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Market Place and Town Hall from the series Ashton-U-Lyne, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of TuckDB,  http://tuckdb.org/history

Fires ….. floods and the year the sun went to sleep …

I wonder how much space in books about the summer of 2026 will be given over to the moorland fires which broke out this week.

Fires over Staleybridge, 2018

They have yet to reach the intensity or length of the one in 2018 which threatened the town of Stalybridge.

But a fire that began on Saturday continued through Sunday and is still commanding the presence of the Fire Service in the afternoon of Monday. And there are now reports of two more above Glossop.

Nor is it possible to ignore them given that since Saturday the air across Greater Manchester has been filled with the smell of burning vegetation.  It varies in its level of intrusion and brings with it a distinct lowering of visibility.

Although this may overstate the situation, and I can still see out across the Rec, it is the case that there is a noticeable haziness which I could put down to dirty windows, but they were washed last week both inside and out.

And anyway, the haze was still there when I went into the garden.

There was a brief period this morning when the quality of the air improved, but as the heat has built up during the day that pervading smell of smoke with the accompanying awful taste in your mouth has returned. 

Now I was born in the first half of the last century and so have vivid memories of those smog’s which engulfed my home city of London and pretty much all our urban centres during the winter months.

As a kid I welcomed the appearance of the swirling stuff which quickly obliterated familiar landscapes, deaden sound but were lethal invading homes and workplaces with its deadly poison.

And are reminder of how much we wrap ourselves in technology and forget that nature can come back and bite you on the bum, whether its storms, floods or fires.

When the sun went to sleep, 1816

Which is a nice link to the year when the sun went to sleep.

1816 should have been a good year, it was after all the first year of peace since Waterloo, the battle that had ended the long wars with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France which had run with only a short break since 1792.

But it was according to one writer, “the year without a summer, when weeks passed into months and the sun did not appear to ripen the produce [and] there was just torrential rain and thunderstorms.”*

Leading to harvest failures, distress and unrest across Europe and the US.

The terrible weather was connected to the “biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history, which had taken place on the other side of the world.”

According to the agricultural records** for 1816 it was a wet summer with a very poor harvest with snow lying on the ground into mid-April.

The temperature for July and August was 4-8⁰ below average and the heavy rains were accompanied by strong winds, which meant that the harvests began late with the result that in the Midlands and the North corn was still in the fields in November.

Sheep rot was prevalent, hay scarce and much livestock sold for lack of keep.

All of which is easy to gloss over until you try to fix this to people’s lives. The cost of wheat rose to 78s 6d a quarter which would have a real impact on the cost of bread which remained a staple part of the diet of most families.

Here in the Chorlton, we were dependant on agriculture. Of the 119 families, 96 were directly engaged in farming and another 16 engaged in trade, manufacture and crafts. So, a poor harvest impacted not only on those who harvested the crops, but the blacksmith, wheelwright and countless others.

Only the people of plenty might escape hardship and for them the lack of food in the community raised the spectre of unrest and trouble.

There are accounts of people walking from Wales into England begging for food, along with demobbed soldiers wandering the country looking for work.

The unrest is reflected in the resumption of Luddite activity in the North, food riots and protests in London where some carried the French revolutionary flag.

Little in the way of evidence for the township has survived although the records for Stretford show the demand for poor relief. The death rate that year was not exceptional and generally reflected what we might expect with younger people dying than any other age group and these were concentrated mostly in the summer months.

I doubt that we escaped lightly from that year without a summer but as yet the township has not revealed its secrets.

 We would have seen high levels of ash in the atmosphere which would have led to the spectacular sunsets seen in the paintings of Turner but more will be revealed through more diligent research.

And similar research will reveal the real toll of the moorland fires and the frequnt and intense heatwaves.

Picture; Chichester Canal, circa 1828, J.M.Turner, and fires over Stalybridge, 2018, courtesy of Peter Armistead

*Jad Adams, 1816 The Year Without A Summer, BBC Who Do you Think You Are Magazine, Issue 60 May 2012

**Agricultural Records J.M.Stratton 1969

One old picture ….. a mystery location ….. and the Chorlton debate

Now I have Lee Hutchings to thank for this image.

He posted it today on a Chorlton Facebook site and it invites intriguing questions of just where we are, and the identity of the three individuals.

I doubt we will ever know their names but with a location we might be able to check on the occupants of the house and make a guess using the historical records.

Which of course just leaves the hunt for that location.  We are looking out on a well-established front garden with a lane and fields beyond, with just a suggestion of open water in the distance and a date of 1898.  There is furthermore a reflection of another house in the windows of the front door, which must have been opposite ours.

The lamp would perhaps indicate that the lane was well used or important enough to have public lighting at a time when this was not common in Chorlton.  

The first four street gas lights date from 1875 and a trawl of the records of the Withington Local Health Board and its successor the Withington Urban District Council might reveal the onward march of lighting provision and in turn reveal possible locations which match our picture and the date.

And I rather think our house might be one of a pair, which could narrow the hunt slightly.

So, with an address we could hit lucky and find occupants who resemble the people in the photograph.

The three look as if they are posing with that uncomfortable attempt to “look natural” which is rather negated by the artificial pose of the dog on the chap’s shoulder.

Already and rightly so there has been some speculation on where we are. The consensus so far is Beech Road with the Rec directly opposite.

It is plausible.  The Recreation Ground was opened in 1896, and our picture is dated two years later, but I think not.

This stretch of Beech Road facing what is now Beech Road Park down to Ivy Farm was undeveloped and remained so until Joe Scott built the row of terraced houses in 1915.

Wilton Road could be an alternative but there were no houses matching that reflected building nearby.

All of which leaves Cross Road, its houses are all in situ by the late 1880s and just maybe that reflected building has a mirror in the tall mid 1870s buildings on the corner of Cross Road and Beech Road.

But I am unconvinced, leaving me to think we still have a mystery.

And of mysteries I am fascinated by the thumb print on the picture. It is fruitless to wonder how we could identify it but it is one of those exciting but intangible bits of history which march alongside speculation on the identity of the last person to handle the grave goods of Tutankhamun or the strand of hair placed in a locket beside the ancient burial of a young bride.

But enough of such romantic tosh ….. bring on the debate on the location of our house.

But answers will only be judged worthy of consideration if like John Anthony Hewitt you make out a compelling case.

It maybe just be that we should be looking elsewhere and that open land in the distance is not the Rec but open fields yet to be built on.

We shall see.

Location; as yet unknown

Picture; the mystery house the unidentified people and a street gas lamp, courtesy of Lee Hutchings, 1896, restored and colourised 2026

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 8 ....... a railway ticket circa 1920

A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and  a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.

The railway had come to Chorlton in 1880, and provided a quick service into the heart of the city. It took just seven minutes to travel from Chorlton into Manchester and was one of the factors which helped the development of new Chorlton allowing people to work in the commercial heart of the city but live within a few minute’s walk of the countryside. I can’t tell you when the ticket was issued but I think it must have been between 1892 and 1947. I can be fairly certain because the Fallowfield Loop line to Fallowfield and Guide Bridge was opened in 1892 and the Cheshire Lines Committee or CLC which ran the lines out of Central Station through Chorlton ceased in 1947 when the railways were nationalized. Had we travelled on that ticket it would have taken us just seven minutes to get to Fallowfield, passing through Wilbraham Road station. And had we elected to go all the way to Guide Bridge we would have been on the train for just 22 minutes having passed through Levenshulme, Hyde Road and Fairfield, but our ticket was only valid for Fallowfield so I suppose that was where we would alighted.

 Picture; from the Lloyd collection

Taking the curve into Shude Hill ………….

Now I am a fan of our tram network, and I never tire of watching them move across the city at a stately pace, taking the curves and twists bequeathed by our old road network.

Taking the curve into Shude Hill, 2022

All of which says much for the skill of the Metro engineers who managed to plot routes using those roads some of which date back into the late 18th century.

And one of my favourite spots is Balloon Street where trams effortlessly take the bendy way up from Corporation Street crossing Dantzic Street before sliding into the Shude Hill stop.

Before the tram Balloon Street was just a cut through up from Victoria Station which I sometimes also used to visit the Co-op archives.

But now the route is closed to traffic and is exclusively given over to the trams which emerge from the canyon like street flanked by tall buildings with a bit of grace.

Location; Manchester

Picture; taking the curve into Shude Hill, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Lost and forgotten streets of Eltham …… no. 1 Elizabeth Terrace

I don’t think I ever took a short cut and walked down Elizabeth Terrace.

Elizabeth Terrace between Boots and W. H. Smith, 2014

It’s that unimpressive thoroughfare sandwiched between Boots the Chemist on one side and WH Smith’s on the other.

If you do, and apparently a lot of people use it to get to the Community Hospital it leads onto Philipot Path which connects Court Yard with Passey Place.

But Margaret Huntley remembers “going to a friend's little house after school. There was a garden opposite which we thought was an orchard and we used to go scrumping in there. Really tiny little place”.

Soon after she recorded her memories of the place, Matt K Minch posted a picture of the terrace taken in 1911, which showed a long line of houses fronted by a row of gardens and decorated with bunting for the coronation of King Edward Vll.

The photograph was taken looking up towards the High Street and as still happened at the time , the arrival of a photographer brought everyone out of their houses.

The eight faces that stare out of us are a mix of grown up and children, and some at least it might be possible to identify, because 1911 was also census year, which means that by working back from the High Street end it should be possible to locate the people in their doorways.

But more of that later.

For now I know that the houses were two up two down and there were 25 of them.

Elizabeth Terrace, 1875, west of  Park Place

A decade earlier in 1901 these 25 houses were home to one hundred people who gave their occupations as laundresses, brick layer, dressmaker , and carpenter and even one agricultural worker, along with a “Telegraph messenger boy” and junior clerk.

So, a mix of jobs, and ones that span neatly Eltham’s rural past where farming had been  an important activity, contrasted with the future, marked by the telegraph and the office.

Most of the residents in 1901 were from Eltham or close by, but there a few from Sussex, Surrey, and even the Midlands and Norfolk.

Not unsurprisingly there are some households which were living in overcrowded conditions, like James and Sarah Slopes who squeezed themselves and five children into the four rooms of their home, while at number 19 the family counted nine individuals.

And we know more about Mr. Slopes, including that he described himself as “a Sexton labourer”, raising the possibility that he worked at the parish church.

By contrast at number 2 Mary Tabley, and Ann Thorn shared the house.  Both were widows, and both took in laundry, although Mary recorded that she worked on her “own account” and Ann was merely a “worker”.

There is more, and I rather think Elizabeth Terrace will become a research project, spanning the years back to 1851 and possibly back another decade.

The street was listed in the 1851 census although it is not clear yet whether we are dealing with the same properties.

We shall see.

Location; Eltham

Pictures; looking east up  the High Street, 2014, with Elizabeth Terrace beside Boots, from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick, and the High Street in 1875, OS for Kent map 6inch

Fires over Oldham .... July 2026

I woke to the distinctive smell of smoke this morning.   

"Fires in the distance", 2018

It had been there last night and at the time I put it down to someone close by burning unseasoned wood as part of a BBQ.

After all England were two hours away from playing Norway in the World Cup and across the country families were preparing for the event with a pre match get together over warm beer, singed sausages and sad looking salad.

But no, this was another of those Moorland fires which may have been caused by a spark from a careless BBQ, discarded cigarette or just the action of the sun on a piece of broken glass.

The Manchester Evening News tells me  that "last night Emergency services are on the scene following reports of a huge moor fire near Dovestone Reservoir, in Oldham, this evening.

Burning hills, 2018

Smoke can be seen billowing into the sky close to the beauty spot. According to reports, the clouds can be seen for several miles.

Members of the public have been advised to avoid the area. And those living nearby should keep all doors and windows closed.

The cause and extent of the blaze are not yet known".*

We are in that season of such events, and I was reminded of that devastating fire above Stalybridge eight years ago which lasted for days. 

At first, it was just a hint of smoke but as that first day continued it became noticeable, and there was just a slight haziness, like looking out through a dirty window.

We were a full 16 miles away from Stalybridge and yet for days it was an ever-present reminder of the inferno which had taken over the moors.

There were many images of that fire, but Peter Armistead’s taken from Spinneyfields, a full ten miles away of the hills on fire to the east is a powerful reminder of those few days.

Dig, cut and burn, 1958

And as the smell from the recent Oldham fire lingers, I am reflecting on how wood smoke would have been an everyday part of how we lived.  

In the autumn into the winter back in the 1950s, every garden would have its share of regualr bonfires, when the dead branches and finished flowers would be burnt with piles of leaves.

And long before the use of coal, logs and branches and twigs  burnt in the castles and halls of the great and the good down to the mean dwellings of the poor were essential for cooking and keeping warm.

Wood, peat and the smell, Middle Ages

On a good day using dry and seasoned wood it must have been a dream, but on dank and wet days when the smoke from the open fire refused to disappear up the chimney or out of the vent in the roof the experience will have been very unpleasant.

It will have lingered across the open living space giving off that pungent smell which stuck in your throat, stung the eyes and made it difficult to breathe.

Added to which it worked its way onto and into your clothes and followed you around.

Coming in to Manchester, 2019

The consolation is that the fire will eventually be brought under control through the work of the Greater Manchester Fire Service, and in the meantime leave you with a happier picture taken by Peter a year later, as he flew in from western Canada, 

Enough said.

Location; Spinneyfields, Manchester, 2018

Pictures; fire on the hills, Stalybridge, June 29th, 2018, “Coming into Manchester”, August 19th, 2019, from the collection of Peter Armistead, Dig, cut and burn, 1958, Looking at Other Children, Jean and David Gadsby, from the series Looking at Geography, 1957 and Norman houses, from A History of Houses, R.J.Unstead, 1958

*Emergency services are on the scene in Saddleworth, Rachel Vickers-Price UK and World News Reporter and Ian Hughes, Manchester Evening News, July 11th, updated July, 12th, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/dovestone-moor-fire-live-huge-34277110