Bradford Power Station, east Manchester in 1976

I have to say I have fond memories of east Manchester.

We lived there for just a year from 1973 to’74 in one of the flats which had once housed the families of fireman.

Our back windows looked out on the old yard which had  held the ambulance and fire engines at the rear of the Mill Street Police station.

From the front windows we could gaze over the stalls of the market to the newly built flats which at night resembled nothing less than an ocean liner all lit up on the night sky.

When we arrived they had yet to demolish the pit head structures of Bradford Colliery and our Sunday afternoon walks came up against engineering factories, steel works and Clayton Aniline.

And when we left we just exchanged a flat off Grey Mare Lane for a house in Ashton and continued to daily pass through the area for another few years.

But by 1976 I was back in south Manchester living in Chorlton and it would be a decade before I went back.  

In the meantime much of that industrial landscape vanished, and now even our block of flats is no more.

So I was pleased when Eileen gave me permission to reproduce these images of the Bradford we knew.  They speak for themselves.

And the correction from Neil Simpson, "I'm sure you know, but the official name of the power station in Bradford was Stuart Street Power Station, built originally by Manchester Corporation and fed slack coal by underground conveyor from the adjacent Bradford Colliery".*

None of which I did, so thanks Neil.

 

To which Philip Gregson added "My Dad's place of work, plus my Uncle Alex. The place where he was definitely happiest, work-wise. Many a happy Christmas party in the staff canteen. Had a few walks round the plant, unofficially of course. 

Taken to see most of the plant, the conveyor from the adjacent pit, the coal crushers, turbine generators etc. 

It was a dominant feature next to Philips Park of course, and in spite of its familiarity, still scared me with its overhead transmission cables crackling in the rain, as electricity tracked across the ceramic insulators. We used to run underneath out of fear. 

I did an article on the station on Manchester History. 

When my Dad passed we drove him to the Station and around the Velodrome (with permission) paused in Stuart St by the main gates. Later scattered some of his ashes in the grounds and in Philips Park formal gardens where he and Mum would visit especially on Tulip Sunday. Happy Days, such beautifully maintained gardens at one time".

And with the comment came this picture of a party at the Power Station to which Philip adds, "I'm RHS, looking left kneeling on chair".

Location, Bradford, Manchester

Pictures;  Bradford Power Station, 1976, courtesy of Eileen Blake, and party at the Power Station, circa 1ate 1950s from the collection of  Philip Gregson

*Stuart Street Power Station, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Street_Power_Station