Now this is one I want to go to.
We lived in the shadow of Bradford Colliery for a year and bit.
Strictly speaking I am not sure the shadow of the winding gear ever fell across our bit of Butterworth Street and sometime during the year we lived there the colliery structure was demolished.
We occupied one of the six fireman’s flats in the old Mill Street Police Station complex. We looked out on Grey Mare Lane Market with Fort Beswick as a backdrop.
Our flats were the only properties owned by Manchester Polytechnic and were rented out to students who were married.
Not for us those luxurious apartments in the leafy suburbs of south Manchester, but Butterworth Street suited us fine.
We only had to cross the road to get to the market, the station was just a short walk away on Pottery Lane and for the last summer we were there I had a job at the SGB yard hard by Ashbury’s Railway Station.
The colliery had closed years before we arrived, but the winding gear was still there and like the rest of the surrounding landscape, we took it for granted.
And then one day it was gone.
We had both left in the morning, but in the evening it had vanished.
Like many memories I can’t put a date on its demolition, and I can’t even be sure it had all come down in one day.
And that is another reason for visiting the exhibition, because I know I can go online and do the research, but how much more fun to get the facts along with the stories and pictures that have been contributed by people who worked there or like us lived in its shadow.
Added to which it is not too late to add your stories and photographs, by contacting Clayton Hall via info@claytonhall.org
Or come along on the three open days which will be April 7, April 21 and May 5, between 11am and 4pm.
And for those like me me who live on a tram line there is a metro stop outside the Hall. Perfect.
Location; Clayton Hall
Pictures; courtesy of Kay Symcox
 |
| Today, and April 21 and May 5 |
Strictly speaking I am not sure the shadow of the winding gear ever fell across our bit of Butterworth Street and sometime during the year we lived there the colliery structure was demolished.
We occupied one of the six fireman’s flats in the old Mill Street Police Station complex. We looked out on Grey Mare Lane Market with Fort Beswick as a backdrop.
Our flats were the only properties owned by Manchester Polytechnic and were rented out to students who were married.
Not for us those luxurious apartments in the leafy suburbs of south Manchester, but Butterworth Street suited us fine.
 |
| The Ashton-Under-Lyne Reporter, 1966 |
The colliery had closed years before we arrived, but the winding gear was still there and like the rest of the surrounding landscape, we took it for granted.
And then one day it was gone.
We had both left in the morning, but in the evening it had vanished.
Like many memories I can’t put a date on its demolition, and I can’t even be sure it had all come down in one day.
And that is another reason for visiting the exhibition, because I know I can go online and do the research, but how much more fun to get the facts along with the stories and pictures that have been contributed by people who worked there or like us lived in its shadow.
Added to which it is not too late to add your stories and photographs, by contacting Clayton Hall via info@claytonhall.org
Or come along on the three open days which will be April 7, April 21 and May 5, between 11am and 4pm.
And for those like me me who live on a tram line there is a metro stop outside the Hall. Perfect.
Location; Clayton Hall
Pictures; courtesy of Kay Symcox
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