The way we were ............. just 56 years ago

Now it is easy to forget that well within the living memory of most of us the City was still full of tiny workshops which wouldn’t have been out of place in the mid 19th century.

When we first moved to east Manchester in the early 1970s, the pit head gear of Bradford Colliery was still there, as were countless little iron works, steel manufactures and other businesses, employing a handful of local people.

They nestled beside the giants like Clayton Aniline, and the big engineering factories on the Old Road.

The images of the United Steel Works on Ashton Old Road are fascinating, partly because I would have passed the place and because of the detail they reveal.

In particular it is the belt driven machinery which is essentially no different from that which you could have seen in a factory in the 1850s or even the later 18th century.

Back then they would have been driven by steam power but otherwise there is very little difference.

Nor would the actual buildings themselves have changed much over two centuries. They were made of brick to a simple design with wooden beams and cast iron pillars supporting the roof.

Most will have had a varied industrial use over the years and were an essential part of the community.

Picture; inside the United Steet Works, Ashton Old Road, 1970, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Whitworth Baths on the Old Road ........... courtesy of Ron Stubley

Now for the last couple of days I have been thinking and writing about the Whitworth Baths on Ashton Old Road.

The stories have brought a shedful of memories from those who remember gaining swimming certificates there to others who described in detail the inside.

So I thought I would close with two of Ron Stubley’s pictures taken recently.

Ron has been contributing photographs to the blog for a couple of years and can always be relied on to come up with some fascinating pictures of ghost signs along with buildings long since abandonded and forgotten.

So here are two of the Baths which show both the perilous the building now is in along with the sheer size of the place which I had never really clocked.

They date from 1890, served the community of Openshaw for almost eighty years and now stand forlorn, empty and waiting for another use.

Today public buildings tend to be bland, all pretty much look the same and have those plain plastered walls painted in neutral colours.

Go back a century, and town halls, public baths, and even minor Corporation offices were decorated in tiles, and interesting stone figures and shapes.

Now the realist will point to the fact that the tiles made the walls easy to clean while both the tiles and the stone detail were mass produced and just bought off the shelf.

That said they gave a dignity to even the modest of buildings and said something about civic pride and that simple belief that even the most humble and work a day places could look attractive.

It may well be that the Whitworth Baths are doomed but at least we have a fine collection of pictures along with plenty of memories to stand for what was once an important part of the community.

So I shall close with this detail from one of the pictures, which show the fine finish the building was given along with its present state of dereliction.

Ron has recorded both and has captured the sheer size of the place streatching back and that  tall chimney.

Pictures; the baths on Ashton Old Road, 2015 courtesy of Ron Stubley

Inside the Whitworth Baths on Ashton Old Road .......... what we might lose

I am back with the Whitworth Baths on Ashton Old Road.*

They date from 1890, served the community of Openshaw for almost eighty years and now stand forlorn, empty and waiting for another use.

Today public buildings tend to be bland, all pretty much look the same and have those plain plastered walls painted in neutral colours.

Go back a century, and town halls, public baths, and even minor Corporation offices were decorated in tiles, and interesting stone figures and shapes.

Now the realist will point to the fact that the tiles made the walls  easy to clean while both the tiles and the stone detail were mass produced and just bought off the shelf.

That said they gave a dignity to even the modest of buildings and said something about civic pride and that simple belief that even the most humble and work a day places could look attractive.

So I am indebted to Nick Bowles who photographed the inside of the Baths and featured them on his site.**

The future of the building is uncertain and already the facade is beginning to deteriorate which in time if unchecked may make saving the place uneconomic.

I still hope that someone will take the place over a develop it for this I suspect will be the only way it will survive.

If that happens the tiles and other features may be seen and enjoyed all over again.

Pictures; Whitworth Baths, Ashton Old Road, 1960, H W Beaumont, m12602, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  interior courtesy of Nick Bowles

And tomorrow looking at the baths today courtesy of Ron Stubley


*Manchester and Salford’s Public Baths, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20and%20Salford%27s%20Public%20Baths
**HJISTORYME, http://historyme.wordpress.com/

Going swimming on Ashton Old Road in 1905 in the Whitworth Public Baths

Outside the Baths in 1960

Whitworth Baths on Ashton Old Road is a place I have passed countless times and never even knew existed.

It was just one of those buildings which you passed on the bus but never gave any though to.

I wished I had made the effort to visit them when we were leaving off Grey Mare Lane, but I am not quite certain when they closed.

I guess the whole sale clearance of the area of houses made them less used and by the time we were there along with a few other old public and industrial properties they stood isolated and alone surrounded by grassed open areas.

The Turkish Bath Cubicles, 1906

They were designed by the Manchester architect J W Beaumont and was built in 1890 by the executors of the engineering magnate Joseph Whitworth and were then donated to the Openshaw Local Board and when Openshaw was incorporated into the city in 1890 were run by Manchester Corporation.

Like Leaf Street Baths* which were built a little earlier they also had a Turkish Bath and may have had facilities for washing.

I would really like to know more and a trawl of the net turned up a number of sites including one with pictures of the interior** with some very evocative images of it’s now abandoned inside.

And one that I fear will not long survive in its present state.

Of  course there will still be many who remember them and so I hope there will be people wanting to share their memories and a little of the history of the place.

There is even a petition calling for the baths to be saved, and I rather think it is one of those places worthy of protection which can be accessed via the link below.

Now not all old buildings can be protected but here is a one which with a little tender care and attention could live again.

Not I grant you as a swimming baths but there are plenty of imaginative and exciting uses this place could be put to, particularly since the area is being redeveloped.

First class pool, 1905

Sadly the place looks to be fading fast.

Trees and bushes are growing at the roof level and more have taken root in front of the building and are slowly obscuring the place from the road.

Soon the fabric will have deteriorated too far for a rescue to be mounted.

Which of course raises the question of why should it be saved?

Part of the answer lies in the wonderful interior, with the glazed tiles, and iron work  and the sheer beauty of the some of the big rooms.

And then there is the part the building has played in the history of the area and  its contribution to the health and hygene of  the people who lived here.

For many this was one of the only grand buldings they could ever hope to enter, more impressive in its way than many of the local churches, and far superior to the pubs.

Now not even many of the pubs have survived the changes of population and the big development plans.

The last time I was on the Old Road there were few of them left, and the old engineering works and factories.

So the romantic in me hopes it can be saved.

Pictures, Whitworth Baths, Ashton Old Road, 1960, H W Beaumont, m12602, interior showing Turkish Baths cubicles, 1906, m51842, and First Class Swimming Baths, 1905, m51839, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass


*Manchester and Salford’s Public Baths, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20and%20Salford%27s%20Public%20Baths
**Whitworth Baths Ashton Old Road, http://historyme.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/whitworth-baths-ashton-old-road-openshaw/

Down on the Old Road at the Seven Stars

It would be a full seventeen years after these pictures of the Seven Stars Hotel were taken that we moved into to a flat just off the Old Road and another forty-three before Andy Robertson photographed the same pub.

And in that time there has been acres of change.

First the clearance of some of the old terraced property and the decline and final abandonment of the workshops and other industrial units along the road then the brave new experiment of the decks followed by more gentle social housing followed by the  development of private residential estates.

Nor did pubs stay aloof from those changes.

There used to be a saying that in many inner cities areas there would be a pub on every corner and even with clearances of the 1960s and 70s they would be left in an expanse of open land like some sea litter left after the tide had gone out.

But as Andy’s series on lost pubs shows many have also vanished from the scene.

Some went after the departure of their customers shutting up shop and left as empty and decaying buildings.

Others were found new uses, from restaurants, to offices and some to residential use.

A few clung on and as areas were redeveloped so they

flourished once again as places to get a pint, swap stories and just relax.






Pictures; the Seven Stars Hotel, 1955 m12492 and m12494, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the Seven Stars 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson