On Trafford Bridge in the summer of 1908 wishing Elaice all the best

Of all the post industrial landscapes it is the area around Salford Docks which seems to represent the huge changes that have happened in the last three decades to the twin cities.

From a grimy and dangerous place processing the produce of the world it is now home to Media City, an art gallery, theatre, museum and lots of modern flats and houses.

Its transformation has fared better than east Manchester which I knew well.  There during the 1970s and 80s the old industrial infrastructure slowy passed away and the regeneration has yet really to happen.

But the Salford dock area has managed to pull it off. Although I have to say on a cold February morning with a chilling wind from the west and a hint of sleet, those long tree lined avenues beside all that open water can be daunting.

However on a warm summer’s day with the promise of the Lowry and a light meal overlooking the water it is not a bad place to spend a few hours.  Certainly our Italian family think so.

All of which is a lead into to this picture of Trafford Bridge sometime around 1908.  I can’t be certain of the exact date but it was sent as a postcard to Elaice Smith on August 8th 1908.

On one level it hasn’t changed over much.  Today the metal girders have lost their uniform grey colour and have been painted a mix of white and rusty red colour and the gates across the southern entrance have gone.

But on a finer level all that industrial landscape including the tall chimneys, the tram lines, telegraph poles and hand painted signs for places like Woods Wharf and Cycle Stores are gone.  In the background are those glass and steel towers which could be any office centre in the world.

Likewise today the traffic across the bridge travels at a real lick oblivious to the few people on foot who make the same crossing.

Of course back in 1908 it was mainly heavy horse drawn carts and waggons and that I suppose is one of those warning shots for anyone slipping in to nostalgia about what the docks used to be like.

And I have to be honest I too have on occasion been drawn into all that romantic tosh about what we have lost, including those wistful reminiscences of listening to the ships sirens on New Year’s Eve.

Not of course that they could be heard today over the  incessant burst of noisy fireworks which have become the norm from about 11pm till rain extinguishes the matches and the cold drives those responsible back inside.

In that same grumpy vein I have to reflect on the level of hard labour in the docks which was often dangerous.

Nor was the work of the carters that easy.  Theirs was the task of transporting the goods in all weathers across the streets from docks, warehouses and factories.

We tend to forget just how much was shifted by horse and cart.  Each railway company had their own stables and in all there were 157 carriers listed in the 1911 street directory.  It was a hard job involving plenty of heavy lifting and a measure of horse knowledge. And in the summer of 1911 the Carters came out on strike.  But that is another story I have already covered.*

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/story-of-strike-and-of-strikes-yet-to_1835.html

Pictures; from the collection of Rita Bishop and Andrew Simpson