I say something but that stirring has been on the go for a decade and a bit and amounts to a sort of Renaissance for this stretch of Chester Road.
Coming into Cornbrook and on to the south and west, 2023 |
For many of course the name is just a stop on the Metro network, but a pretty important one given that it is a switching hub, where passengers can change for trams going into the city and then out to the eastern and northern ends of the complex, or alternatively choose destinations to south Manchester, Salford, Eccles, Trafford Centre and Altrincham.
At Cornbrook and onto Bury, 2023 |
Every year sees more rising from what were brown sites and echoing those earlier acres of terraced properties which vied with factories, a chemical works and the Ship Canal.
I only know the area after most of the houses and the industrial units had been cleared, leaving behind a mx of landscaped stretches which ran into just acres of wasteland, all waiting for something to happen.
And as I write I know that many of my friends will remember that older Cornbrook which fizzed with business and have their own tales of nights in The Railway and Pomona Palace or of stories about Pomona Docks.
New apartments, 2023 |
In the summer of 1850 it pulled out the stops with its “Splendid representation of the ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS, as it occurred in 1849, the most terrific on record.” Here was the “magnificent Bay of Naples, painted and erected by the celebrated artist Mr. A.F. Tait, and extends the whole length of the lake covering upwards of 20,000 yards of canvas and is one of the Largest ever Erected in England.” *
It had opened in the 1840s but couldn’t better its rival at Bell Vue and finally succumbed to a land grab by the Ship Canal.
All that was left of the Railway, 2003 |
For anyone who as not discovered this gem of a book it is well worth reading, more so because it’s author Geoffrey Ashworth recently revised his 1987 book with additional material.
And it will feature in the new book being written on The History of Greater Manchester by Tram which will explore that section of the network from Cornbrook via Deansgate Castlefield and onto Exchange Square.
The first Trafford Bar to East Didsbury was published on Monday and is already proving a popular read.
It is available from Chorlton Bookshop, and from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk, price £4.99
Location; Cornbrook
Pictures; Bits of Cornbrook, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and All that was left of the Railway, 2003, courtesy of Andy Robertson
* Slater’s Manchester & Salford Directory 1850
**Ashworth, Geoffrey, The Lost Rivers of Manchester, 1987, updated, 2023
***A new book on the History of Greater Manchester By Tram, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20History%20of%20Greater%20Manchester%20by%20Tram
I thought the name Cornbrook was derived from Cranebrook, where the Crane birds nested
ReplyDeleteCorncrakes I think.
DeleteThe New Apartments 2023, were built over the road (Westminster St) where I lived from’48 - ‘58, before moving to Chorlton. I sometimes played in The Railway as I knew the son - Alan Goodwin - of the landlord.
ReplyDelete