Travels with Timmy Tram and the talking guide book

11’o clock on a sunny morning bound for town on the Cornbrook tram can be a mundane journey.

The towering new residential blocks by Knott Mill, 2024

If you have done it enough times, you can plot the scenery, from the new high-rise developments, to the glimpses of the canal, and watch for the towering new residential blocks by Knott Mill.

But today was different, because as the tram closed in on Castlefield, the driver drew our attention to the new garden in the sky, directing our gaze to the rusty lattice work of metal which was once part of the railway viaduct describing where we could gain access and just what we might see, adding that there were plans to extend it.*

The rusty lattice work of metal, 2024

And then once passed the garden, he explained that after leaving Deansgate Castlefield, we would slow down to accommodate the ramp from railway to road but would have fine views of the historic buildings on either side.

At which point I turned to the woman next to me and expressed the thought that perhaps I wouldn’t alight at St Peter’s Square but travel on in expectation that the talking guidebook would offer up more stories of the route all the way to Victoria and beyond.

Yellow Cornbrook, 2024

Alas he was silent and at Exchange I chose to leave.

Queues form at Cornbrook for the talking tram guidebook, 2024

But I rather think we may be onto something here.

Already Peter Topping and I have begun to think that our new series of books which collectively are entitled “The History of Great Manchester By Tram, The Stories at the Stops” could be enhanced by audio links activated at each stop via your phone connected to our books.**

There is more but I am bound at this stage to keep the plans secret.

Still the first book, Trafford Bar to East Didsbury is in the bookshops and the second following the tram from Cornbrook to Exchange Square is almost ready.

Leaving Cornbrook for town, 2024

Eventually the series will span the entire network, following all eight routes and all 99 stops with stories from me, heaps of old photographs and a collection of original paintings by Peter, which together will make a unique history of Greater Manchester

And like all our books it is designed to be walked, and so with book in hand you can leave the tram at each stop and explore the further reaches of each destination.

It is available from Chorlton Bookshop, and from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk, price £4.99

Leaving me just to say it really did happen and thank you to the unknown driver who lifted the collective feelings of his passengers.

Location; Cornbrook to Exchange Square

Pictures, travelling by tram from Cornbrook to Exchange Square, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Castlefield Viaduct, https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cheshire-greater-manchester/castlefield-viaduct

* 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

At Cornbrook, 2024

Stories from Cornbrook ….. no.2 the sad demise of the Railway

The Railway was a pub whose history and sad lingering demise pretty much sums up the end of the old Cornbrook.

The Railway, 2003

For many commuters it was that forlorn set of half demolished walls which could been seen from passing trams, and which over the years shrank in size till it became just an empty overgrown plot of weeds.

Once and there are those who remember drinking there it was a seven roomed property spread over three floors facing on to Cornbrook and Dover Road.

It may be that the tallest part of the pub was an addition for a building which dates back to the early 1870s.

The records show that it was dispensing beer and cheer by 1871 and judging by its rateable value was slightly larger than its neighbouring beer shop a few doors away.

The Railway, 1958

We can track its owners and its landlords through the late 19th century and for almost all of that time the tenancy was held by Henry and Ann Hodgkinson, who were there from 1874 through until 1895.

Sad left overs, 2018

They are an interesting family and reflect that flow of population around the country.

So, Henry had been born in Derbyshire and his father was an agricultural labourer while Ann came from Warwickshire.  They were married in the small mill town of Ashton-Under-Lyne, were running the Angel Inn in 1871 on Market Street in Ashton, and three years later were on Cornbrook Road.

The records show that Henry died in 1874 and Ann continued to run the beer shop for the next 20 years.

History has recorded very little of her presence in Cornbrook, but for a while the remnants of the pub offered up glimpses of its interior and here we are indebted to Andy Robertson who over the last two decades made regular trips photographing the Railway’s slow slide into waste ground.

Bits, 2018

Undeterred by the debris he encountered he has built up a collection of images of both the outside and the inside, including the remains of a door, several doorknobs and the fire place and chimney breast of one of the downstairs rooms.

Inside, 2018

It was a piece of urban archaeology which he continued to record until the site was finally cleared and now offers up the promise of yet another development and more new residents.

I doubt that there will ever be a plaque or information board acknowledging the story of the Railway and more especially that of the Hodgkinson family, but the interested traveller can uncover a bit of the story of Cornbrook just a few minutes’ walk from the tram stop entrance.

The first is the Trafford Arch which stands on the site of the “Kkovah works which was a “five storey factory built in 1871 in the elegant Venetian style” 

The Plaque, 2018

According to plaque at the foot of the memorial arch “Kkovah was a brand name for confectionary, lemon curd and jelly”. There is more but where would the fun be if we revealed the full story with its tales of disasters new enterprises and the coming of the Bridgewater Way. 

Almost gone, 2018

I could say more but these and heaps more stories 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 earlier in the year 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

Metro stop entrance, 2024

Pictures; Bits of Cornbrook, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and All that was left of the Railway, 2003-2018, courtesy of Andy Robertson, and the Railway, 1958, E Stanley, m 50339, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*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

Cornbrook ….. all you ever wanted to know ….. but never knew where to look

There will be many people who remember the older Cornbrook.

Cornbrook in 1950

It was a place of busy industry, densely packed housing all cut through by two canals and a swathe of railway lines.

And with the spread of new residential developments the area is again a bustling place, making the Cornbrook metro stop a place which always seems packed with commuters.

To which can be added all those who use it as a switching hub to swop trams and go off in different directions.

But I remember Cornbrook after the houses had come down, the factories, mills,  and warehouses had closed and it all seemed as if the area was waiting for something to happen.

A state of affairs mirrored by the planners who I discovered didn’t even vouch to provide the metro stop with an entrance back in 1999 when it opened.

Cornbrook entrance, 2024

According to my Wikipedia, “Cornbrook was unique when opened as there was no access to/from the street, the stop being used for transfer between Bury-Altrincham line trams and Eccles Line trams. 

This was due to security issues and a low estimated usage.

Because of a rise in the local population due to new residential developments, particularly on Ellesmere Street, the stop's emergency exit staircase to the street was converted into a full passenger entrance/exit, which opened on 3 September 2005. 

There are plans to relocate the entrance as part of the "Cornbrook Hub" redevelopment”. *

Now that last sentence intrigued me. The 2013 report talked of an “Intimidating and potentially unsafe main entrance to the Cornbrook Metrolink station” and the need for “Re-positioning the entrance to the Cornbrook Metrolink station”.

Heading for the Cornbrook Metro Stop, 2024

And I have to agree, because despite using the stop since it opened, I had never ventured down onto ground level and it is a grim, desolate and uninviting place, which is not somewhere I would like to use late in the evening, or for that matter any time of the day.

But use it I did as part of  the research for our new book in the series, The History of Greater Manchester By Tram The Stories at the Stops.

The idea of telling the story of Greater Manchester by using the tram network has a lot going for it. 

You can catch a tram from the city centre and go south, east, north, and west and along the way each of the 99 stops will have a story to tell, and being the tram, you can just jump off, explore this little pocket of history and move on. 

Or skip to the end destinations and discover interesting historical things about Didsbury, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Rochdale, Oldham, Salford and bits of Trafford, Altrincham and Bury.

So back to Cornbrook and a little flavour of what is to come, because while many can 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, no one now can boast of visiting Pomona Gardens.

The view from the entrance, Cornbrook Metro Stop, 2024

It was a mix of attractions including “the magic bridge, Gymnasium, flying swings, bowling green, rifle shooting, romantic walks and a promenade for both adults and juveniles as well as boat trips on the Irwell.”   

 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.

Almost gone, the Railway, at Cornbrook, 2003

But all of that and more will be in the book, leaving me just to add the area takes its name from the Corn Brook which according to that excellent book The Lost Rivers of Manchester "rises in Gorton and follows a tortuous path through Manchester’s southern ‘inner city’ suburbs and empties itself into the Ship Canal at Pomona Docks”.

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 earlier in the year 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, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and All that was left of the Railway, 2003, courtesy of Andy Robertson, Cornbrook in 1950, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1950

*Cornbrook tram stop, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornbrook_tram_stop 

**Cornbrook Hub, Cornbrook Regeneration Framework November 2013, http://www.manchester.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/21225/cornbrook_regeneration_framework_november_2013

*** 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

Stories from Cornbrook …….

 Well, if I am being accurate it’s more some of the images from the first trip down the line to research the next of our books in the series,  The History of Greater Manchester By Tram The Stories at the Stops.

The idea of telling the story of Greater Manchester by using the tram network has a lot going for it.*

You can catch a tram from the city centre and go south, east,  north, and west and along the way each of the 99 stops will have a story to tell, and being the tram you can just jump off, explore this little pocket of history and move on. Or skip to the end destinations and discover interesting historical things about Didsbury, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Rochdale, Oldham, Salford and bits of Trafford, Altrincham and Bury.

And this is the new project Peter and I have chosen for a series of new books.

Each book will wander along the network, taking in nine stops or so at a time, with original paintings by Peter, old photographs, and stories by me. 

The first book follows the line that takes you south to East Didsbury, taking in Trafford Bar, Firswood, Chorlton, St Werburghs, Withington, Burton Road, West Didsbury, Didsbury Village and ending at East Didsbury.

It is the novel and fun way to learn about the past.

The book along with the other thirteen we have written together are available from Chorlton Bookshop, and from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk

And as the new book will whisk you from Cornbrook into the city centre, today was the day to explore Cornbrook.

Location; Cornbrook

Pictures, Cornbrook 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*A new book on the History Greater Manchester by Tram, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20History%20of%20Greater%20Manchester%20by%20Tram

Ninety - nine stops ….. heaps of stories …. and a favourite tram destination

The publication of our first book in the new series on The History of Great Manchester By Tram has stirred the pot with plenty of people commenting that it’s a novel way to record the past. *

Arriving at Deansgate Castlefield, 2023

After all there are ninety-nine tram stops across the network and each one will have its own history.

Shudehill after the trams have gone, 2023

And so, Peter and I have decided to explore the entire Metro system, travelling the routes looking for interesting pictures and bits of history.

Peter will paint a picture of the stop and surrounding buildings, and I will find stories about each stop, which will build into a mosaic of tales about Greater Manchester’s past.

And it occurred to me that along the way it would be fun to find out which metro stop comes out as a favourite of those who use them.

I must confess to having several. 

Cornbrook is one because it affords fine views of two canals and the changing landscape as each year more new apartment blocks replace the old industrial brown field sites.

But then Deansgate Castlefield, also has a canal, the old Knott Mill Railway Station and is just a few minutes’ walk away from the city’s own Heritage Park, along with some fine bars and historic pubs.

Sneaking up on Mr's Pankhurst in St Peter's Square, 2022

And both of these stops vie with St Peter’s Square, which has a popular open space from which to take in Central Ref, the Town Hall Extension, the Midland Hotel and Mrs Pankhurst addressing an audience.

In addition, we are close to the Cenotaph, the site of the Peterloo Massacre and that other square which boasts a collection of statues.

Peter is attractedto several but it would be presumptuous of me to reflect on just why Shudehill and New Islington are on his list.

So, that is it.

You can nominate your own selected stop, including a picture and a  few sentences which can be sent to us as a comment via, the blog, social media or an old fashioned postcard.

Busy tram day, Deansgate Castlefield, 2023

Missing the tram from Cornbrook, 2024

Location; Ninety- nine spots in Greater Manchester

Pictures; my tram stops, 2018- 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Trafford Bar to East Didsbury, The History of Greater Manchester By Tram, The Stories At The Stops, Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping, 2024.  

The tourists at St Peter's Square, 2018

It is available from Chorlton Bookshop, and from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk, price £4.99

Friday morning at Cornbrook …..

Cornbrook is one of those switching hubs on the network, which offer up the chance to head to south Manchester, west to Salford, Eccles, and Trafford Centre, or Altrincham.

Missing the tram. 2024

Alternatively, it is the gateway on into the heart of the city centre and out east and north to the edges of Greater Manchester.

And it is one of my favourite interchanges which offers up views of two canals, heaps of brown field sites and the growing story or the redevelopment of the area.

That said it can be a pretty draughty spot to stand.

But I like it, and like the other stops where you can jump on different trams there is a buzz about the place.

And that is it. 

Yellow spots at Cornbrook, 2024

Other than to add a few pictures of a Friday in April at the stop just after the rush hour has come and gone.

Bound for Excchange, 2024

Location Cornbrook

Pictures; Friday at Cornbrook, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Something is stirring down in Cornbrook .........

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

And for those idly waiting for their connection the stop offers some fine views of the new residential developments which have begun to transform the area.  

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

Not that there will be anyone today who can boast of visiting Pomona Gardens with its mix of attractions including “the magic bridge, Gymnasium, flying swings, bowling green, rifle shooting, romantic walks and a promenade for both adults and juveniles as well as boat trips on the Irwell.”   

 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

The area takes its name from the Corn Brook which according to that excellent book The Lost Rivers of Manchester "rises in Gorton and follows a tortuous path through Manchester’s southern ‘inner city’ suburbs and empties itself into the Ship Canal at Pomona Docks”.

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

A set of tiles and a bit of a mystery …… the scrubland near Cornbrook

It may just seem a set of quarry tiles, soon to be lost to an industrial skip, but once they graced the entrance to a building and would have been seen by workers, customers and of course the owner.

Sadly, I don’t have any more information and I doubt I will ever track down the owner, exact location or the purpose of the building.

According to Andy Robertson who took the picture it is on that stretch of scrubland which inhabits the derelict spot between the canal and the tram track, close to Cornbrook.

Andy tells me it is being “tidied up” so I am guessing it will soon be home to builders, cranes and diggers working to a developers plan.

Well we shall see.

For now it is just a bit of our lost industrial past.

Location; near Cornbrook

Picture; a set of tiles and a bit of a mystery, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Looking into Salford ……..Ordsall from the tram

Ordsall from the tram, near Cornbrook.

The apartments continue to spread and rise to the skies.

Location; Cornbrook

Picture; Ordsall from the tram, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

So ….. farewell the Railway …….some of us will remember

Now for any one who remembers the Railway Inn on the corner of Cornbrook Road and Dover Street, or those who have followed the story of its slow lingering over decades ......... this is the end.

I first got to know it as a building spotted from the tram at Cornbrook, by which time it was just a couple of walls.

But once it was a real pub, busy offering up beer and cheer, but long ago closed and bit by bit lost more of its former glory.

So, for those who want to watch the last lingering years, here are a selection of Andy’s pictures of what was, from January, 2015, July 2018, and November 2020.

And for those who want more, along with the full story, just follow the link.*

Location; Corbrook

Pictures; The sad lingering demise of the Railway Inn, 2015-2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Cornbrook, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=cornbrook

Watching the towers rise ………… Cornbrook on a Sunday

Now what ever you think of the new developments, they are altering the skyline of the city.

This was Cornbrook on Sunday.

Historians ….. get ready for the weightier accounts of the new Manchester.

Location; Cornbrook

Picture; Cornbrook, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

“What's left of the Railway is clinging on” …… down in Cornbrook with a lost Manchester pub

Now, without wanting to call any one old ….. I think if you can admit to being a regular of The Railway in Cornbrook, you will indeed qualify for a concessionary travel pass, or at best remember with fondness the “swinging 60s” and that most misunderstood decade which was the 1970s.

It stood on the corner of Cornbrook Road and Dover Street, but closed long ago, although it lingered on with its walls and even its sign still intact.

Sadly by the time I regularly clocked it, it had lost its roof and upper story.

And its survival became one of Andy’s projects, which like many of his other projects involved revisiting the site at frequent intervals recording the state of what was left.

Each visit was followed up by a blog story, so that together there is a record of the slow demise of this lost Manchester pub.*

Yesterday, Andy was back with a series of new pictures, commenting “What's left of the Railway is clinging on for dear life while its neighbour, the Mancunian Spring Company, has bitten the dust”.

So, for all those new residents of Cornbrook, who inhabit the smart new blocks of flats, here is a reminder of what the area was once like, when factories, warehouses, and rows of terraced houses existed side by side, and the Railway was a place to visit.

Location Cornbrook

Pictures; The Railway Inn, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and as it was in 1958, when E Stanley captured it, m 50339, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

 *The pub with no door ........ the Railway Inn on Cornbrook Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-pub-with-no-door-railway-inn-on.html

A bit of old Cornbrook revealed, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2017/09/a-bit-of-old-cornbrook-revealed.html