Laying the tramtrack along Barlow Moor Road in the summer of 1911

Now I can never get enough of those old Manchester Corporation trams which served the city for almost half a century.

They are a topic I keep returning to whether it is the story of catching one up by Southern Cemetery in 1915 or the much awaited extension in to Chorlton from Whalley Range*.

And here is another from my friend Sally who came across this picture of men laying tram track in 1911 along Barlow Moor Road.

I can’t be exactly sure where we are.
The caption just says “Manchester City tramways are being extended along Barlow Moor Road to the Southern Cemetery” which could be pretty much anywhere from the Brook up to the cemetery.

But if the house to the left of the road is Brookfield House we will be somewhere just beyond Cundiff Road.

Brookfield House is still there in Chorlton Park although only a little of it is still in residential use.

If that is so then the buildings in the far distance will be Chorlton.

Of course it might be wrong, Brookfield seems closer in this picture but then before Chorlton Park was laid out in the 1920s this was just open land and the distance may be deceptive.

I shall await the debate.

In the meantime I am fascinated by the construction methods, which will not have changed that much from when the navvies laid the first railway track or the earlier gangs dug out the canals.

It was still a a process of hard manual labour using physical strength, with shovels pick axes and hand carts.

But as the picture shows the track edged ever closer to the cemetery and within in two years the line had reached Didsbury offering people of the twin townships a circular route into and out of town.



Picture; TRAMWAY EXTENSION AT CHORLTON, 1911, Manchester Courier, courtesy of Sally Dervan

*Waiting for the tram at Southern Cemetery in the summer of 1915, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/waiting-for-tram-at-southern-cemetery.html
A new tram service for Chorlton, ........... at the railway station in the summer of 1913, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/a-new-tram-service-for-chorlton-at.html from the series Chorlton Trams, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20Trams