This is another of those cards for which I don’t have a date, but judging by the clothes and the vans we are sometime in the 1950s.
So this is the market place in Ashton-Under-Lyne a full twenty years or so before I knew it.
The impressive Town Hall is still covered in a century of soot and grime, the market stalls are positioned differently from where I remember them but the place still looks familiar.
Like all market places there is a bustle and purpose to what you see. The merchandise is piled high and you have a choice ranging from fresh food to clothes, and novelty goods and toys.
So in that respect not a lot has changed. The last time I was there the stalls of vegetables and fruit competed with plastic toys, dubious electrical goods and all manner of fashions.
And on the periphery are the ice cream vans and fast food businesses, offering tea, coffee and sandwiches with of course the attractive looking but often slightly stale cakes and buns.
All a lot different from the designer markets which regularly appear in the city centre and on the village green.
These remain a bit of a novelty, but all too often there is little to choose between Italian week and that German experience, and I rather think that in many cases the produce is exactly the same.
As for bargains I don’t know.
All of which is a bit different from the old Grey Mare Lane Market opposite where we lived and the Ashton market.
I still remember that wonderful bright marbled sponge cake in layers you buy in slabs and the record stall from which I bought a treasured Marvin Gaye, Tammy Tyrell LP which over thirty years later I still have.
But enough of such memories.
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Instead I shall add those of Margaret Gain who posted that she was "born and bred in Ashton and that is exactly as I remember the market.
My mum shopped there every other day.
The ice cream vans were Fairclough's and Howard's. Kelly's salad stall, Latus for fruit and veg, the dolls hospital, the roundabouts and the swings.
It was a real delight to go to the market.
There's an excellent book called 'to market, to market' in the Local Studies Library all,about Ashton Market."
All of which leaves me to hope there will be plenty more memories from Margaret and others who remember the scene.
Location; Ashton-Under-Lyne, Tameside, Greater Manchester
Picture; Market Place and Town Hall from the series Ashton-U-Lyne, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of TuckDB http://tuckdb.org/history
The impressive Town Hall is still covered in a century of soot and grime, the market stalls are positioned differently from where I remember them but the place still looks familiar.
Like all market places there is a bustle and purpose to what you see. The merchandise is piled high and you have a choice ranging from fresh food to clothes, and novelty goods and toys.
And on the periphery are the ice cream vans and fast food businesses, offering tea, coffee and sandwiches with of course the attractive looking but often slightly stale cakes and buns.
All a lot different from the designer markets which regularly appear in the city centre and on the village green.
These remain a bit of a novelty, but all too often there is little to choose between Italian week and that German experience, and I rather think that in many cases the produce is exactly the same.
All of which is a bit different from the old Grey Mare Lane Market opposite where we lived and the Ashton market.
I still remember that wonderful bright marbled sponge cake in layers you buy in slabs and the record stall from which I bought a treasured Marvin Gaye, Tammy Tyrell LP which over thirty years later I still have.
But enough of such memories.
My mum shopped there every other day.
The ice cream vans were Fairclough's and Howard's. Kelly's salad stall, Latus for fruit and veg, the dolls hospital, the roundabouts and the swings.
It was a real delight to go to the market.
There's an excellent book called 'to market, to market' in the Local Studies Library all,about Ashton Market."
All of which leaves me to hope there will be plenty more memories from Margaret and others who remember the scene.
Location; Ashton-Under-Lyne, Tameside, Greater Manchester
Picture; Market Place and Town Hall from the series Ashton-U-Lyne, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of TuckDB http://tuckdb.org/history
I could so easily actually BE in this picture. I was born In Ashton and I agree the market was everything When about 14/15 I would look all over the market for material to make a skirt from to wear that saturday night at the Palaise. So many memories. Thank You so much.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great photo! I would have been in 7th Heaven at this market place!
ReplyDeletei used to help sell , a goldfish in a bowl, on one of those stalls, in the 1970s, for 2/6p somewhere near the center, also worked on the fair . during the winter months, parked on there, near the george and dragon pub great times, also the SELDONS used to supply the tilly lamps to light up the stalls, when it went dark,
ReplyDeleteUsed to go there with my mum maybe a little ride on the fair and then off to my gran’s in Dukinfield. This was around 1947/8. I’m pretty old 🤣
ReplyDelete. Born in Ashton and loved the market. I especially remember a man or maybe there were a few of them who sold china and would have full tea set which he had on both arms and he would toss them up in the air and catch them.
ReplyDeleteI remember him too! He never dropped a thing although I was always waiting for him to do so! Great entertainment. Happy days. Remember going every Saturday from our home in Bramhall to get tomatoes, Ashton moss celery and a delicious cold peppery meat pie and japs from Thompsons.
DeleteThat is exactly what a market should look like. Slightly anarchic. The current need to regiment the stalls says everything about the people in the council who wish to exert maximum control.
ReplyDelete