Castlefield ............. again

I first really got to know Castlefield when they were excavating the Roman town outside the fort. This was in the mid 1970s and since then I have taken cart loads of students down to the site exploring the old canal and railway complex, using the late 18th century shops and houses with census returns, street directories and maps to get a feel for the period and just visiting the Museum which I wrote about last year, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/12/first-passenger-railway-station-now.html

It also has Dimitris arguably the finest Greek restaurant in the North West. Not only have we been going there for years with the children but now our Ben tells me it one of the places he and his partner regularly visit and so while I do not believe in promoting businesses on the blog it would be churlish of me not to steer you there, http://www.dimitris.co.uk/

Picture; Castlefield from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Now in response to my Castlefield picture yesterday my old friend Lawrence wrote to me and suggested I visited http://www.stats.uwo.ca/faculty/bellhouse/chapter4.pdf which is all about the firm E.T. Bellhouse who built those fantastic cast iron columns in the Castlefield Basin and “carried the railway to Altrincham. Bellhouse also built Jackson's Boat bridge. There are no plans to run any trains and trams over those bridges 'cos they are unsure of any corrosion inside. Fascinating engineer was Bellhouse - his structures are in Peru, Balmoral, Australia, Chorlton and Castlefied."

All of which means dear reader that from January 14th I shall be telling the story of Castlefield in instalments.