Gaze upon the present Mr Arbuckley and reflect

Now, in the archive collection there is this picture dating from 1901 by Mr A Bradburn.

The catalogue describes it as “Hulme, Cornbrook Park Road, Boundary through Burnside Works” and lists the buildings as William-Arbuckley-And-Sons, Burnside-Works, B-Barlow-And-Co, and Cornbrook-Works."

And with a bit of digging in the Manchester Rate Books, and the Street Directories,  I should be able to come up with more information on the buildings and the owners.

I rather think one of the reasons Mr Bradburn took the picture is that boundary between Sretford on on one side and Manchester on the other.

More recently Andy Robertson has been down to Cornbrook Park Road, and sent over a series of pictures on the site today, adding “the building on the right is clearly the same as those to its left and have been added on a later date. 

Original building revamped to blend in with the new, probably.

The next pictures were taken a few days ago showing original building still standing and newer ones demolished. 

I know next to nothing about the demolition game (must ask Derek) but it seems to me a difficult task to demolish the buildings to the left whilst keeping the other building in tact? Almost, like they want to preserve it”.

Well I guess, the next few days will show whether Andy is correct and the original ones are to be saved.

And at this point I have say I cannot condone his suggestion that "given this is roughly where the boundary is. 

I bet if you dig up the tarmac the original setts are still there, so meet you there at midnight with our pick-axes”.

Location; Cornbrook Park Road

Pictures; Hulme, Cornbrook Park Road, Boundary through Burnside Works, A Bradburn, November 14, 1901, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and subsequent pictures, 2018 from the collection of Andy Robertson