Out at Park Eye, in 1928 with Mrs Dywer watching as the Parkway was constructed, well maybe

There can be few people who now recognise this scene.

We are out by the construction of Princess Parkway and the caption gives the year as 1928.

In the distance is Christ Church and we are looking out on Park Eye which was a 58 acre parcel of meadow and woodland bounded on three sides by the Mersey and part of Barlow Hall Farm.

The development of Wythenshawe assumed a number of main roads out of the estate and the northern one was to be Princess Parkway.

The section from town had already been constructed by the mid 1920s, but it terminated at West Didsbury where it joined Barlow Moor Road.

And so on what looks to be a summer’s day Mrs Dwyer or one of her family had taken a stroll out and snapped the scene.

As such it is yet another reminder of the importance of the snap.

I doubt that the scene would have interested the professional photographer who was more interested in the commercial possibilities of a picture which would be marketed as a post card and sell in the thousands.

So it was left to Mrs Dywer to record the moment another bit of rural Chorlton started to disappear.

And hers is unique.

I have checked the digital archive of the local history collection and there are only a few of the construction of the road and just one which dates from 1928.

This is of the bridge across the Mersey.  All the remaining pictures date from the 1930s onwards.*

Nor are there any photographs from the Chorlton end.  It may not be a great claim to fame but it is the only record we have of the parkway under construction.

And since I wrote the post David has commented, "regarding your Tweet about Princess Parkway.

I'm not sure the date on the photograph of Mrs Dywer is correct. The other point is the road up to Barlow Moor was always called Princess Road. The new road from Barlow Moor Road to Altrincham/Stockport Road was called only called Princess Parkway after it was opened on 1st February 1932.

The first work on the construction of this extension was in January 1929 when four bore-holes were drilled (for the bridge over the Mersey). It was Sheena Simon who suggested the name Princess Parkway in April 1932."**

Now that is how I like my history.

Picture; originaly courtesy of Mrs Dwyer and now in the Lloyd Collection

*There is another copy of this image in the collection with the date 1920 but this must have been wrongly dated given the history of Wythenshawe.

***The Didsbury Village Bookshop, http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kathleen.gilligan/bob/Revews.htm