Saturday 11 May 2024

Home thoughts of Ashton in the 1970s, ..... part 1 washing up on Raynham Street

Whiteacre Road and the corner of Raynham Street
Now if you have to start off your life together at the tender age of 23 and 21 respectively then Ashton in the mid 1970s was a pretty good choice.

We had begun by renting just off the Old Road opposite Grey Mare Lane Market and when we started on the property ladder it seemed natural to start looking around there.

But the houses were not available and bit by bit we moved up Ashton Old Road and finally in 1973 crossed the municipal border and washed up in Raynham Street.

A two up two down down, close to the town centre and it even had a small Corporation allotment directly opposite.

Of course the downside was that I worked in Wythenshawe and travelled on public transport which meant that during the winter I only got to see Ashton in the daylight at the weekend.

Raynham Street
But that still left plenty of time to explore the town, the surrounding districts and to venture out into the countryside.

Not that this is some nostalgic trip seen through a rosy coloured perspective, but just an occasional piece reflecting on what the town was like for two young people who had been born at opposite ends of the country.

Raynham Street was just what we wanted and for me it was just a matter of exchanging one terraced house for another .

There was also a  sense of community which appealed to us.  We both came from close knit areas, me from south East London and Kay from a mining village in the North East, and having done our three years of rootless living in south Manchester student land we were ready for something different.

We got to know our neighbours, found our favourite stalls in the covered in market and having transferred our membership to the Ashton Labour Party made new friends.

Some were like us, first time buyers straight out of grim multi occ properties in Withington, Fallowfield and Longsight and others could count their family generations back to an earlier Ashton.

We regularly attended meetings in the old PSA building with Glyn and Hazel, introduced our families to the delights of Stamford Park and the Sycamore and occasionally managed to entice friends out of the city to come and stay.

Penny Meadow & Whiteacre Road, 1972
I could never quite understand why they thought it was such an adventure, to us it was a comfortable and easy place to settle.

And even now on those rare occasions I come back the place still has an effect on me.

It begins as the tram pulls up just short of the town centre and extends as I wander through the market place and up to St Michael’s.

That said I can’t quite get my head around the new retail park and I miss the Arcadia along with the PSA building and wonder when the mural to the jubilee in 1977 painted on the gable end of the butcher’s shop on the corner of Whiteacre and Egerton Road vanished.

All of which smacks of the nostalgic trip I promised not to take.

Instead I shall ponder for a future post on the Ashton I remember from the 1970s.

Pictures; Raynham Street, date unknown, t03175 and t03175, and Penny Meadow at the junction with Whiteacre Road and Crickets Lane, 1972, t01388, courtesy of Tameside Image Archive, http://www.tameside.gov.uk/history/archive.php3



11 comments:

  1. Just great, I lived not too far away in Albermarle Street just off Henrietta Street and went to StJames' C of E Infant and Junior School not far away. Was there until 1978.....Happy Days....

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    1. i went to st james school to ..left 1969 then went to stamford boys

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  2. Great post, remember visiting you there and thinking it a great adventure to travel away from 'home turf'! We were once served salmon, fresh salmon, and we ae it with fish knives and forks I think you'd got from a 'junk' stall on the market!! Happy memories!

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    1. i lived on raynham st from 1958 to 2003 ...think the pics you show are around the 1960's ish

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    2. Well the caption on the Tameside picture I quote in the story says 1972.

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  3. I lived on Hillgate estate, we moved on there @72 from Henrietta st, spent my childhood all around there, great memories

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  4. I lived on Raynham Street from birth until I married in 1982. I think I remember you Andrew and Kay- I looked after your dog Missy? I lived opposite you at the bottom end of the street. I no longer live in Ashton but do go back from time to time. What a blast from the past this has been!

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  5. I live on Raynham Street have done for 32years..when i moved in the saying was you had to wait for someone to die to get a house there...what number die you you live at

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