Looking down on a vanished Castlefield ....... circa 1972

Now it is easy to forget just how run down, neglected and pretty dismal was the area around the Castlefield Canal Basin just a few decades ago.

It was a place waiting for something to happen, but sadly no one knew quite what and the extent of that forlorn landscape was caught by David Easton in a series of pictures he took from a moving train.

He posted them recently on face book apologising for  “the quality of these images. 

I hope they are of some interest though. 

Those of Castlefield were taken from a moving train and have been scanned from ageing slides. This was about 1972/3 when there was still some barge traffic on the Ship Canal. 

Some barges occasionally found their way onto the Bridgewater Canal although I think the warehouses were already out of use.”

And when I saw them I was immediately transported back to a time

before the developers saw a potential for the area and when sitting beside the canal with food and a drink meant nothing more than a sandwich and a bottle of fizzy pop.

So for all those who never knew the canal basin with its empty warehouses and sunken boats here again are a selection of Castlefield in 1972.

Pictures; from the collection of David Easton