News from Huddersfield of Manchester, hot water bottles and much more

Now in the great age of the picture postcard, you could send a card in the morning confident it would be there by later in the day.

All of which made the picture postcard the text message of its time.

In the case of this one which was sent from Huddersfield to Scotland the message and the picture of a Blackcap would have been on the door mat of New Lanark Cottage for breakfast.

It was posted sometime before 8 in the evening of August 24, 1939 by Joe who signed himself “Your obedient husband”.

He had been in Manchester but was glad to be back, and went on to tell his wife that he was about to put the hot bottles in the bed.

And that intrigued me and will prompt me to go looking for the weather report for August 24, 1939 to check out whether it was unseasonably cold that month.

Or perhaps it was just Huddersfield that was cold, or this might just be what they did every night.

We will never know.  That said I do know the bird on the front is a Blackcap which according to the description on the card is   “so called from the glossy black cap.  His song, heard early in spring is very melodious.”

And that is that.

Location; Huddersfield

Picture; postcard 1939, from the collection of Linda Rigby

Who mourned the passing of the trolley bus?

I was too young to have caught one of those old Corporation trams.

Even so I have  a soft spot for these tall stately vehicles which dominated our towns and cities for over half a century.

But I have less time for the trolley bus which began replacing them in Manchester in 1938.

They were quieter and smoother than either the old tram or the motor bus but I never took to them.

Even a short distance on one was likely to make me feel ill and even now I can vividly remember the smell of the warm leather seats mixed with the disinfectant and the low hum.

So I have to admit that I have struggled with Peter’s fine picture of a Huddersfield trolley bus.

But I can put prejudice aside and record that the trolley bus has long since joined the Corporation tram as part of our transport history.

The first in the UK were being run in Leeds and Bradford as early as 1911 and Bradford has the distinction of seeing the last in 1972.

London began operating them from 1931 and finished them 31 years later.
Here in Manchester our last ran in 1966 having operated over nine routes with a fleet of 189 vehicles for nearly 30 years.

All of which leads me finally to Huddersfield which having started their service in 1933 continued till 1968.

And for those that revel in trolley bus facts, Huddersfield had one of only four trolley bus turntables in the UK.  It was manually operated and the Longwood trolley bus turntable survived well into the 1980s, although it had ceased doing its job of turning Huddersfield trolley buses terminating at Dod-Lea in 1940.

At which point I cannot believe I am about to enter the wonderful world of trolley buses but that is what Peter’s painting has done for me.

There are three former Huddersfield trolleybuses preserved at the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft,* the British Trolleybus Society has a full list of all surviving trolleybuses,** and a list and description of UK trolleybus systems List of trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom which has a heap of interesting information.***

Painting; Huddersfield trolley bus  © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

*The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft, Lincolnshire, http://www.sandtoft.org.uk/

**British Trolleybus Society, http://www.britishtrolley.org.uk/preserved-trolleybuses

***List of trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trolleybus_systems_in_the_United_Kingdom

Huddersfield Railway Station ......... what they did after building our own Liverpool Road Station

We were in Huddersfield a few year's back enjoying the last of the summer sunshine and following Bradshaw’s railway guide.

Now I am a great fan of Mr Bradshaw and bought in to his three maps of The Inland Navigation of England and Wales which he produced in 1830 as well as his Illustrated Handbook to London which came out in 1862.

At which point I should say that the actual inspiration for the trip came from that television series based on the railway guide and given the magnificent shots of St George’s Square and the surrounding buildings we were hooked.

The station was built in 1846 received praise from both Sir John Betjeman and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and is very impressive.

That said the interior is much smaller than you would expect from that grand frontage and the two buildings at either end are now pubs.

But it is still magnificent and has that statute of Harold Wilson who I have to admit I’d forgotten come from Huddersfield.

So for those who want to see where railway architecture went after Liverpool Railway Station was built in 1830, this is the next best place.

Our own first station was a bold statement for the new railway age but this one coming just 16 years later has all that confidence that said "the railway is here to stay" and that I like.

And  it is still a busy place with trains coming and going and a shed full of passengers travelling east to Leeds and beyond and  west to Manchester and Liverpool.

It may not have the size of Piccadilly or Victoria or that restaurant at Stalybridge but there is no doubting that we are doing serious rail travel here.

What is more you can can still get to it by train from Manchester, now that can’t be bad.

We went by car but had planned on using the train which is just how you should visit a railway station.

And that just leaves me to send you back to all those earlier stories of Manchester's railway stations.*

Pictures;  of Huddersfield Station and St George’s Square, August 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Next; that station at Stalybridge, for a pint, a pie and a view of the hills.

*Manchester Railway Station,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20Railway%20Station

In St George’s Square with the expert

Now it is always nice when a story is picked up and given an added dimension by someone  who knows and loves the place.

So in response to the story on Huddersfield Railway Station, Andrew Haign quick as a flash came back with this.*

“Well, each building in the square is listed and each has their own story. 

But kicking off with the George Hotel, to Harold's left,  it was the first building to join the Railway in 1850, its predecessor The George Inn was knocked down to make way for John William Street to be built which is the road the Lion directs you down to the Market Place. 

The George Hotel's most notable claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of Rugby League. 

A meeting was held there in 1895, where 21 northern clubs decided to break away from Rugby Union.

Incidentally, the aforementioned lion is actually a 1977 fibreglass replica of the original Coade Stone lion of 1854. 

It's said the lion leaves his pedestal and saunters round the Square when the station clock chimes for midnight. Just a shame the station clock doesn't chime.”

Now you can’t beat detail like that.

And the square, the station and the hotel are all but a short train ride away through some fascinating landscape which must be a pretty outrageous plug for the railways.

And of course for our own great Manchester railway stations which feature on the blog.**

That said the George is closed for refurbishment till the new year which just leaves those two pubs either end of the main station one of which so impressed Jean who also picked up on the story that she was moved to write,

“Spent some time in the Head of Steam next to the station a couple of weeks ago when I attended the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival. They do great chips too!"

All of which suggests that when you are tired of Manchester there is always Huddersfield just down the train track.

Pictures; of the George Hotel, and St George’s Square, 2014 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Text © Andrew Haigh

*Huddersfield Railway Station ......... what they did after building our own Liverpool Road Station, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/huddersfield-railway-station-what-they.html?spref=fb

**Manchester Railway Station,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20Railway%20Station

Gazing into shop windows

It is pretty much one of those things that advertising and all the posters, TV commercials and catch phrases that go with a successful campaign can both date and also illuminate a period.

I still have fond memories of the little robots who thought making mashed potato using the raw ingredients was plain daft and old fashioned when a packet of powder could deliver the business.

Or that stylish and award winning commercial which featured a man under a street light at night holding a cigarette with the caption “You are never alone with a Strand.”

Awards it might have won but many associated the cigarette with being alone and sales did not match its style.

All of which is merely to state the obvious that any advert is of its time and reflects what think, value and even what makes us laugh.

Who now could make an advert using a certain primate dressed in human clothes and performing as we do?

All of which made me reflect on these two posters in two empty shops in Huddersfield recently.

Thinking back there were more than two empty retail units and the posters were doing the bit of keeping the place looking busy.

And I have to say I liked them.  Big bold and in your face.

I shall go back sometime soon and see if they are still there.

Pictures; Huddersfield posters, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Stories from Huddersfield

Now I have been drawn over the last few weeks to Huddersfield and today I am focusing on some of those bold new blocks of social housing which went up in the 1960s.

If you know Huddersfield you may know  Richmond flats on the top of Leeds Road.

Andrew Haigh tells me they are  now called "Harold Wilson Court after a much overdue referb. 

Interestingly, the other two 60s flats in the vicinity... (Ibbotson and Lonsborough) are destined for demolition along with the sports centre. 

So, Huddersfield's sporting greats... Anita Lonsborough (gold medal winner at the Olympics in swimming) and Derek Ibbotson (another Olympic medal winner, with a bronze, who also ran in the first ever 4 minute mile, finishing fourth in exactly 4:00.00 at White City Stadium - a brilliant quiz question given Bannister's fame) are to be demolished alongside the town's sports centre. 

Meanwhile, Sidney Richmond, who designed the flats... would be pleased to know that the one block of flats named after him will survive.”

It is just one of the short pieces where the blog moves east.

Picture; from the rooftop of the Richmond flats.2014 Andrew Haigh from his site
TWK/meander, http://tw33king.tumblr.com/post/59721772349/an-olympic-gold-medal-swimmer-and-a-world