The Bailey farm was at the bottom of Sandy Lane and ran along St Werburgh’s Road and had a large enough supply of water to satisfy the thirst of the two elephants.
The Bailey’s also owned the land where the circus camped.
It was the strip of land which ran along the side of the railway track all the way from St Werburgh’s Road to Wilbraham Road.
And when the circus moved on the Bailey's left their cattle to graze there.
Photographs of the animals on the land are in the local collection of Manchester Libraries and just to underline the point another photograph contains the sign “Beware of the Bull.”
Nor were these pictures from some distant past but were taken in 1959. Oliver Bailey remembers also driving pigs from the railway station along the roads to the farm.
Picture; Wilbraham Road m18513, Landers 1959, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
I remember very clearly the scene in this photo. I grew up in Ellesmere Road - next door but one to the entrance to SWMCC.
ReplyDeleteEvery week,aged 10 or eleven, I took our weekly grocery order (with our Ration Books) to the big shop closest to the field.
It was called John Williams High Class Grocers and Provision Merchants.. I loved the smell of cheese, ground coffee, and bacon.
Once I mistakenly posted the Ration Books in the pillar box at the corner of Egerton Road and arrived at the shop in tears with a handful of letters. One of the assistants told me I should go back to the Box and wait there as it was due to be emptied very soon. The kindly postman retrieved the precious Ration Books and exchanged them for the letters.
Next door to the Grocery there was an Ironmongers, a Chemist, a wool shop, and a shop that sold wallpaper.and paint.. The shops on the opposite of the road included a green grocer, a newsagent and a bakers and a "Ladies Gowns and Mantles" shop from where my mother bought most of her clothes - when she had enough "Coupons",
Is now Adastral House sheltered housing
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