Now I bet, if I was clever enough, I could fashion a story which combined the history of Parrs Wood over the last forty years and that rainbow.
The picture was taken yesterday afternoon by Liz, who kindly took several photographs of the spot where Kingsway and Wilmlsow Road meet.
It all looks very different from when I first came across it as a student sometime around 1970.
Back then we walked pretty much everywhere, and on a bright sunny day in late Spring I wandered down from Withington, taking in the Red Lion, the village and the College of Education, before going under the railway bridge and coming across that little park.
There was plenty of traffic but nothing on the scale of what now rushes down the two main roads, making that island a bit of an oasis of calm.
Of course back then there was no entertainment complex, and standing by the old bus garage it was possible to think yourself back a century and more to when the area was dominated by Parrs Wood House.
This was a fine 18th century residence, sitting in an estate of 47 acres, complete with walled garden, a stable block and with commanding views down to the river.
All that changed with the sale of the house to Manchester Corporation, who cut the Kingsway through from Burnage, and built the bus garage, which were followed by modern estates, complete with grand modern pubs and a cinema.
At which point I shall say that this is not a nostalgic trip down a lost Parrs Wood, but more an appeal for pictures and memories of the area as it was changing, which will help Peter Topping and I, with the new book, which is about Didsbury pubs but like all our other ones contains a heap of stories about Didsbury.
The first chapter which covers East Didsbury is all but done, and will feature Parrs Wood House, the bus garage, and Parrs Wood Rural Centre, along with that iconic 1940s block of flats, and of course the Gateway and Parrs Wood Hotel, with room for stories on the Kingsway, the night the bombs fell, and a forgotten air raid shelter.
But we never turn down anything that helps with telling the story, from pictures, to recollections and memorabilia, which can be anything from a used Manchester Corporation tram ticket, a New Years Eve menu from the Gateway, to a faded picture of the old Parrs Wood High School.
You can contact us by leaving a comment on the blog or leaving a message on social media.
Location; looking out over Parrs Wood, 2019, from the collection of Liz Sykes.
It all looks very different from when I first came across it as a student sometime around 1970.
Back then we walked pretty much everywhere, and on a bright sunny day in late Spring I wandered down from Withington, taking in the Red Lion, the village and the College of Education, before going under the railway bridge and coming across that little park.
There was plenty of traffic but nothing on the scale of what now rushes down the two main roads, making that island a bit of an oasis of calm.
This was a fine 18th century residence, sitting in an estate of 47 acres, complete with walled garden, a stable block and with commanding views down to the river.
All that changed with the sale of the house to Manchester Corporation, who cut the Kingsway through from Burnage, and built the bus garage, which were followed by modern estates, complete with grand modern pubs and a cinema.
At which point I shall say that this is not a nostalgic trip down a lost Parrs Wood, but more an appeal for pictures and memories of the area as it was changing, which will help Peter Topping and I, with the new book, which is about Didsbury pubs but like all our other ones contains a heap of stories about Didsbury.
But we never turn down anything that helps with telling the story, from pictures, to recollections and memorabilia, which can be anything from a used Manchester Corporation tram ticket, a New Years Eve menu from the Gateway, to a faded picture of the old Parrs Wood High School.
You can contact us by leaving a comment on the blog or leaving a message on social media.
Location; looking out over Parrs Wood, 2019, from the collection of Liz Sykes.
No comments:
Post a Comment