On Manchester Road in the summer of 1900 waiting to catch the horse drawn bus

Over the last few days we have been making our way through Martledge in the summer of 1910 and this is the final picture of the journey.

We are almost at the point where the road swings round to head north.

The parade of shops which was known as Hastings Buildings can be seen to the left behind the bus, and just out of sight on the left was Red Gate Farm now the site of the Library.

But we are a full ten years earlier than the other pictures and the clue is the horse drawn bus which was only withdrawn when the tram service was extended into Chorlton in 1907.

It is a wonderful period piece.

The houses all have fine hedges and high trees but those on the corner have long gone.

And on that sunny day possibly in 1900 the woman with the pram perfectly captures that mix of surprise and curiosity as the photographer sets about capturing the moment.

Only matched by the glances of the passengers on the bus who I suppose were no more expecting to be caught on camera.

There will be no one now who remembers these horse drawn buses which until 1901 were run by the Manchester Carriage Company.

In that year their operations were taken over by Manchester Corporation who moved fairly quickly to replace the horse with the tram.

On April 13 1903 a tram service from Bell Vue via Brook's Bar and Upper Chorlton Road was extended to West Point and four years later to Lane End.*

But the horse was to remain an important part of how people and goods were moved around the city for another few decades.

And just like there will be any one left who can realte their own experiences on the top deck of one of those horse drawn buses arriving by Red Gate Farm, I doubt that there will be many who also remember the houses on the corner.

All of which makes this a unique image of lost Chorlton.

*West Point is where Upper Chorlton Road, joins Seymour Grove and Manchester Road, Lane End was the junction between Sandy lane, Barlow Moor Road and High Lane.

Picture; from the Lloyd Collection