I don’t have a date for the picture, but it will be sometime after the Great War.
The guard standing in front of the tram is Mr. William Becket, and his career pretty much matched that of Manchester Corporation Trams.
He started on the trams, but ended his career as a bus inspector, while motor buses slowly replaced the tram, with the last tram car taking its last trip as a scheduled route on Sunday January 9th 1949.
This was the 35, from Victoria Street to Hazel Grove. The last moments of that journey have been recorded by Ian Yearsley in his book The Manchester Tramways.*
“That evening a group of us made our way over to Exchange to ride on the last car to Hazel Grove and back. As we stood on the wet pavement by the Cathedral it was hard to believe that this was really the end. ….... Eventually the last through car to Hazel Grove arrived, and we watched it go through the familiar routine for the last time. The few passengers got off, and the car rolled gently down to the end of the track by Oliver Cromwell. The light went out and in the faint light of the streetlamps we could see the guard walking around.”**
Tram car 283 had ended it service two years earlier, on December 22nd, 1947 when it was replaced by a bus.
I have Steve Casson to thank for the picture. Mr. William Becket was his grandfather, and Steve wondered just where the photograph had been taken.
I haven’t been able to find the spot, but I know that in its forty-five years it plied a course from Victoria Street to Princess Road, and later to Fallowfield and Wilbraham Road and then Barlow Moor Road. Later still the service was extended to Mauldeth Road via Kinsgway and was extended again to East Didsbury.
But I think Steve will be interested to know that its period of service from Victoria Park to Princess Road was from December 1st, 1902 till December 1924, and as this was the time his granddad worked the route, I guess it will be along that corridor that we shall have to look for the location of the picture.
Location; somewhere between, Victoria Park to Princess Road
Picture; tram car 283, somewhere between, Victoria Park to Princess Road, circa 1902 to 1924, from the collection of Steve Casson
*The Manchester Tramways, Ian Yearsley and Philip Groves, 1988
**ibid The Manchester Tramways, p244
The guard standing in front of the tram is Mr. William Becket, and his career pretty much matched that of Manchester Corporation Trams.
This was the 35, from Victoria Street to Hazel Grove. The last moments of that journey have been recorded by Ian Yearsley in his book The Manchester Tramways.*
“That evening a group of us made our way over to Exchange to ride on the last car to Hazel Grove and back. As we stood on the wet pavement by the Cathedral it was hard to believe that this was really the end. ….... Eventually the last through car to Hazel Grove arrived, and we watched it go through the familiar routine for the last time. The few passengers got off, and the car rolled gently down to the end of the track by Oliver Cromwell. The light went out and in the faint light of the streetlamps we could see the guard walking around.”**
Tram car 283 had ended it service two years earlier, on December 22nd, 1947 when it was replaced by a bus.
I have Steve Casson to thank for the picture. Mr. William Becket was his grandfather, and Steve wondered just where the photograph had been taken.
But I think Steve will be interested to know that its period of service from Victoria Park to Princess Road was from December 1st, 1902 till December 1924, and as this was the time his granddad worked the route, I guess it will be along that corridor that we shall have to look for the location of the picture.
Location; somewhere between, Victoria Park to Princess Road
Picture; tram car 283, somewhere between, Victoria Park to Princess Road, circa 1902 to 1924, from the collection of Steve Casson
*The Manchester Tramways, Ian Yearsley and Philip Groves, 1988
**ibid The Manchester Tramways, p244
No comments:
Post a Comment