Catching the 81X from Barlow Moor Road in the summer of 1961

At the bus terminus, July 1961

We are at the bus station on Barlow Moor Road in the summer of 1961, and in front of us is the 81X which ran from Southern Cemetery to Hightown via Albert Square.

Now I can be fairly certain of that because beside me I have the Corporation Maps of Manchester and District for 1963.

With the 81X

Of course there is just the outside possibility that the route of the 81 had changed during the time the picture was taken and the map with its bus routes was published.

And I have no doubt that someone will point out that the 81X had a slightly different route to the 81 but until then I shall continue to assume that our bus followed the 1963 route travelling along Barlow Moor Road, Manchester Road and Upper Chorlton Road into town.

At which point I might just be accused of being a little obsessed by a Manchester bus in the 1960s.

But not so for the picture and the bus map offer up a rich source of history.

It starts with the bus livery which is the red of Manchester Corporation and is a reminder that back then both the cities of Manchester and Salford and the surrounding local authorities ran their own public transport services.

Bus routes through Chorlton in 1963

So on reaching town our passengers could be confronted with the blue and cream buses of Ashton-under-Lyne, the green of Salford, and the green of the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board along with the maroon and cream colours of Oldham.

What is more these different Corporation buses ran along the same roads and for some way at least shared similar routes.

And like that bus timetable there is much history in the picture.

A lost scene

Those telephone kiosks may have lingered on into the end of the century but most have now gone as have the old style bus sign with its Manchester logo.

That said the small police station has yet to be built and there is a clear view across to the houses on Beech Road which in turn points to the absence of those first two houses on the even side of Beech Road.

So not perhaps a story that encompasses the great dramatic sweep of history but one that lots of people will relate to, and that is good enough for me.

And within a few hours of posting the story, Steven commented

" Lovely! The X usually suggests a shorter route than normal.

 In 1960 the 81 only ran to Albert Square so the extension beyond must have been quite recent. I suspect the bus terminating at Hightown is the reason for the X as the whole route went to Crumpsall Green."

And a late correction to the story Annette Roberts has written in that "the police station was there when I lived in Claude Road from the 1950s. 

My dad was a police constable based for a while at the station and the first few houses on Beech Road behind the station were police houses. 

I used to play with the children who lived there. The station had an air raid siren on the roof which they used to test once in a while. 

Think the picture is N awkward angle as the station would definitely be there in 1961 as I used to go there."

So another piece of collective history.  I just love it.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Pictures; Chorlton-cum-Hardy bus terminus, 1961 from the collection of Sally Dervan  and Maps of Manchester and District, Manchester Corporation, 1963, courtesy of David O’Reilly 


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

When nostalgia is nothing more complicated than a sausage sandwich …….. Bert’s café ...... 1971

Now, we all have our own cherished memories which seem with the passage of time to encapsulate a chunk of our growing up.

Whitworth Street, 1969

For me it is nothing more complicated than a sausage sandwich at Bert’s café on Whitworth Street.

We discovered the place sometime in early 1970 and it remained our collective place to go for the next two years.

Usually it meant missing a lecture at the College of Knowledge, which was just round the corner, and more often than not would be where I fell across Mike, John and Lois, who had also put Bert’s sausage sandwich above lectures in British Social History, the poems of John Donne or French grammar.

Bert's Cafe painted white, 1969

Looking back I suspect the sandwiches were not special, but after the bus ride down the Oxford Corridor from Withington having had no breakfast, and with the knowledge that someone would take the notes, we chose Bert’s over Gladstone.

To some this may seem a trivial piece of personal history, but I think not.

Back then places like Bert’s could be found all over the city centre, although usually down a side street, which you found by luck or by word of mouth.

The food was simple, cheap and catered for everyone.  And because this predated the Café Society, most dishes were a variation on egg sausage, bacon and chips. The coffee was more brown milk and everything also came with promise of baked beans.

And it was just perfect.

Bert’s consisted on one room, with perhaps half a dozen tables, and to the rear a serving hatch.

Whitworth Street, from London Road, 1969

On cold wet days in winter, the heat and smell drew you in, not that you could see anything through the windows which seemed permanently steamed up.

We always seemed to be the only ones there, but the presence of the Police Station and Fire Station across the road must have guaranteed a steady stream of customers until both closed down.

The rest of the stretch from Aytoun Street down London Road consisted of a newsagents, a barber, a warehouse and the pub on the corner.

There was of course also the Twisted Wheel, but I can’t now remember when it relocated to the warehouse, or for that matter when it became Placemate.

But I do remember Bert’s.

Location; Whitworth Street, 1969,

Picture; Whitworth Street, 1969, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY,

Walking through the lost Hulme and Moss Side

 Now I have been a great fan of Roger Shelley’s photographs for over a decade, ever since he shared a collection of pictures he took of a group of young lads playing in the near ruin of Hough End Hall nearly 60 years ago.

The attention to detail and his ability to capture the moment are skills I wish I had.

And so, I was very pleased when he posted another group of images he took during the house clearances in Hulme and Moss Side.

The pictures are a mix of street scenes, and the people he encountered, including kids at play, men and women at work and the ever present piles of rubble as the grand plan advanced and centuries old houses disappeared under the impact of the wrecking ball.

Like the work of Shirley Baker* his pictures don’t dwell on sentimentality and don’t make judgments of the wholesale clearances of communities.

They just record what he saw.

I don't have exact locations for the images, but some can be traced through the odd street name or feature.

And with his permission I will be working my way through the portfolio, fastening on images which tell their own stories.

Location; Hulme and Moss Side in the 1960s and 70s

Pictures;  from the collection of Roger Shelley, https://www.flickr.com/photos/photoroger/

*Baker, Shirley, Without a Trace, Manchester and Salford in the 1960s, 2018

The scene that has all but passed out of living memory

Now I know that to suggest the scene has passed out of living memory is an outrageous claim, given that the picture was taken in 1963, which means I have short changed lots of people.

But in many ways almost everything in the picture has vanished or been moved.

And with that tantalizing set of clues, I shall leave it to others to nominate the buildings that have gone, and what has been moved.

Along with what would have met the traveler in 1963 had they followed those railings.

Location, Manchester, 1963, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

Looking for the Shambles …. behind Marks and Spencer ………….. 1969

Now, I don’t remember Old Shambles as it was before its move following the building of the Arndale.

Although I guess I must have fallen across, but by then the place had been much knocked about, first by the Victorians and then by Mr. Hitler’s bombs.

What was left, which wasn’t much but included the Wellington Inn were designated as Grade ll listed buildings in 1952, and that was a real bonus given that the Wellington is the only surviving Tudor building in the city centre.

There is a heap more about the history of the Old Shambles and what was done to it as part of the Arndale development and post IRA bomb rebuild, but that is covered very well for anyone who doesn’t know the story.*

Added to which there are plenty of pictures in Manchester’s Image Collection, of Old Shambles from the early 20th century and back into the century before.**

But these two photographs drew my attention, partly because I have never seen them before, but also because they date from 1969 when I washed up in Manchester.

Between them they perfectly anchor Old Shambles in a place I know.

And that is what pictures should do …. make the link with the past, which in the case of these two I admit is a full 51 years ago but to me remains only yesterday.

Location; Manchester

Pictures: Old Shambles, 1969

*Shambles Square, Manchester, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambles_Square,_Manchester

**Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

I have seen the future and it works* …….. shopping in 1961

I like this picture because it offers up a range of shop fronts, from the traditional to the brand new.

And there is no doubting that when Shelia Montgomery and the Electricity Board opted for their bold and striking  fronts they were staking a claim to being modern and at the cutting age of the new Britain.

Back in the late 1950s and early 60s I was too young to appreciate  just how much of a break with tradition they were, and by the time I was in my teens they were so commonplace that I took them for granted.

But in 1961 they stood out as very different from the fashion shop of S. Pickles, which will noy have changed over much since the row of houses with their shops were built.

And walking back along the parade, Rushtons, Sprent and the supermarket had also chosen modernity over tradition.

A full sixty or so years later I rather think all five look dated in comparison to number 111, which modern shop fitters might seek to imitate.

I had thought we were on Princes Road and certainly some of the other pictures in the collection suggest so, but pinning down these shops has so far proved inconclusive.

And happily Michael Wood, came back with this, "Looking at the shop fronts I just got an inkling this was Alexandra Road, and sure enough in the Local Image Collection there is Sheila Montgomery on m30313, next door to Rushtons just before they too had gone for a makeover with the trendy brash new signboard seen in your photo!  

My mum used to occasionally go shopping along here in the 60s as it offered some cheaper alternatives to the Chorlton shops, and I used to pass along here whenever I got the bus into town.  

It was always bustling, with so much dense housing nearby.  There is also m30349 in 1972 both Sheila and Sprent beyond Rushtons have disappeared and the place looks a bit jaded!  Interesting series of photos".

And as ever Michael's correction shows how the blog is always a collaborative project.

To which Tony has added the entry from the Street Directory which I think will date from 1962 and offers up the full range and variety of shopping paradise.

Location; Manchester

 Picture; street directory, 1962, courtesy of Tony Petrie, shop fronts, 1961, 1961-3476.4, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*"I have seen the future, and it works", Lincoln Austin Steffens, 1919, after visiting the Soviet Union

Catching the bus ……….. 1967

Despite all my efforts, I have no idea where we are, but as the following images in the collection are from Collyhurst, I am guessing that we are on the north side of the city.

Now, there will be those who question the significance of the image, given the absence of a location and a pretty mundane set of buildings.

But that is the point.

The workshop, and the terraced houses which were once common, have mostly vanished, along with the bus stop.

Neither of the two posters offer up clues.  One is for British Road Services, and the other advertising the film A Man for All Seasons, might just have listed a local picture house, but instead was showing at the New Oxford in the city centre.

So that is it. Although Geoff reminded me "I found this for you last year. Corner of Rochdale Road and Conran Oh and  I like the picture.

Location; unknown

Picture; catching the bus, 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,  https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

A Labour candidate ......the Beswick Co-op store ..... and a day in 1967

Now I wonder if Reg, the Labour candidate was successful.

He was the Labour Party candidate in the by-election held on Thursday June 24th, 1965.

I don’t have a surname, but a trawl of the local papers for June 1965 will reveal all.

Given that he was standing for the New Cross Labour Party I suspect he was.

The rest as  they is all in the picture, which is of the Beswick Co-op grocery shop on Aden Street.

The picture dates from 1967, and was one of a collection taken during the decade in advance of the clearance programmes.

Many like me will instantly remember shops like this, with their simple promotional material and range of products which filled our store cupboards, and have pretty much vanished in the face of the supermarkets, convenience stores and online shopping.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Manchester, 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY,

Who moved that bus stop? …………. and other challenges to my memory ….Didsbury …. 1967

It started with a conversation with my friend Barbarella about the lost shops of Didsbury, and in particular, the stretch from M&S to the Santander Bank.

I casually mentioned the photo shop close to the bank and then doubt set in as to whether it had been there back in the 1970s, when I waited for a bus, or indeed if it was still there a few decades later.

Now, I know there is one there today, but thought it might have moved from where I remembered it.
 So as you do I checked out the site on street google and while there is a photo shop, there is no bus stop, and there hangs my dilemma, because for years I stood at that bus stop and would often give up on the bus and go in and buy some film.

These were the decades when I still used smelly film, developing them and printing them at home, along with a sideline in colour slides, which with trial and error led me to prefer Agfar film.

But as so often happens the absence of that bus stop led me to question my memory.

And then  Barbarella restored my memory with “Now it’s opposite the Coop and the next one just passed Saints and Scholars”, which was confirmed almost immediately afterwards when I came across another picture from 1967.

There was the bus stop, and more importantly there was the camera shop, complete with Agfa sign.

I did then go looking at the bus routes on the destination board, which even I thought points to me really needing to get out more, but if you want to give the full flavor of Didsbury in the 1960s, you must dig deep.

That said my guide to bus routes for 1969, shows that none of the three services were running by then, which make me wonder if there was a second bus stop with more services and which of the three went into town, and which headed towards Barlow Moor.

Someone will know, and they may also be prompted to share their memories, sparked perhaps by the picture of Wilmslow Road in 1969.

We shall see.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Wilmslow Road, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ................ nu 53 Silver Street, a bus station and some nasty history

Now this is Chorlton Street Bus Station in the 1960s and the image presents a bit of mystery, but more of that later.

Chorlton Street Bus Station, 1964

For now it is that gap between the office block and the ramp to the right of the picture and Chorlton Street which gave its name to the bus station which interests me.

That gap was the continuation of Silver Street.

You can still walk down Silver Street from Aytoun Street which ran on to David Street but my bit has vanished.

Back in the 1850s Silver Street and its neighbours were a warren of small closed courts leading off narrow alleys and filled with small back to back houses.

They were not perhaps the worst the city had to offer but they were neither the best.  In his case notes during the cholera outbreak of 1832, Dr Gaultier offers up a a vivid picture of the area. Chorlton Street he wrote “was tolerably clean and open but the vicinity crowded and populous.”*

Silver Street, 1849

But the home of the Bullock family was dire.

Mr and Mrs Bullock lived in one room with their two children and Mr Bullock’s mother.

The room was on the upper storey of a “filthy and crowded house” and was equally as “filthy.”

Even before they contracted cholera none were seen to be in good health and baby Martha aged eight months was “ricketty, and emaciated.”

In the course of just one week all of them died of cholera.

A month later our doctor was back in Silver Street attending Jane White who lived in a cellar and who died just days after contracting the disease.

Today Chorlton Street and Silver Street look far removed from the mass of courts, alleys and crowded houses of 1832 and that stretch of Silver Street occupied by Jane White is now underneath Chorlton Street Bus Station.

And here is the puzzle with that first picture, because read the histories of the bus station and they all agree that it was opened in 1950, redesigned in 1967 with the addition of the multi story car park and went through a major rebuild in 2002.

Major Street and the lost Silver Street, 1963

Now all of that is fine, but the caption on the picture offers up a date of 1964 which means that somebody is wrong.

I am confident someone will offer an explanation for the date of the rebuilt bus station and while I wait I suggest that those wishing to walk the past can just step back into the past can get a stab at it, because that vanished bit of Silver Street is now the entrance to a small car park between the back of Yates’ and the car park ramp, while the small road that runs along the bus station is the continuation of Major Street, but that is for another time.

Silver Street, 2016

But that is not quite all, because soon after I posted the story Andy Roberston sent me this picture of the corner of Silver Street where it joins Princess Street.

In may haste to complete the story I had failed to go looking for any more of Silver Street.  So the intrepid seeker after lost streets of Manchester can walk along another bit of my street, although it does end in a car park.

Location; Manchester

*The Origin and Progress of the Malignant Cholera in Manchester, Henry Gaulter M.D., 1833case notes no 5-8, page 162 and nu 71, page 178

Pictures; Chorlton Street Bus Station,  W. Higham, 1964, m56893, the ramp under construction 1963, W. Higham, m56982, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  Silver Street from Andy Robertson  2016, and detail of Silver Street 1849 from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1849, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Cleaning the Town Hall …….. 1967

Now for anyone who doesn’t remember the Town Hall when it still had nearly a century of Manchester soot and grime, here is the picture.

It was taken in 1967, just three years after the City Council had estimated the cleanup would cost £25,000.

And what I like about the image is the contrast between the dark stone, and the two sections which have been cleaned.

As dramatic as the clock tower looks, I rather think it is the section on Lloyd Street which offers up just what the cleaning had achieved., highlighting the detail in the stonework and lifting the section to the eye.

Why they began with Lloyd Street will be on record somewhere, but I suspect it was the trial, which if it went wrong was down a side street.

Nor is that all that the picture has to offer.

Albert Square was still an island surrounded by traffic, with provision for parking opposite the Town Hall, and the underground Victorian lavatories, with their period features and sturdy iron railings.

And for the particularly observant, there almost in the centre of the square, is the statue of Oliver Heywood, who had already been washed in advance of his neighbour, William Gladstone.

Not sure why he got preferential treatment, but someone will know, and a lot more people will pile in with speculation.

And they will no doubt have theories about just what happened to the lavatories.

Were they stripped of their features, just back filled, or just covered over?

Location; Albert Square

Picture; Town Hall clean up, Albert Square, 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

A bit of the old Albert Square ….. in Manchester in 1969

One of the things I like about photographs is that quite often there are stories within stories.

So here we are in 1969, with what I take to be a procession from Manchester Town Hall to the law courts, but what interested me more are the buildings in the background.

I suspect you would have to be born before 1980, and possibly even further back to remember them.

I on the other hand do, and mainly because in the long endless hours between lectures at the Commerce of Commerce on Aytoun Street, the choice between going to the library and taking off into the city centre, was an easy one.

From the September of 1969 well into the next two years, I wandered up into Albert Square, down towards Shudehill and on plenty of occasions crossed the river to explore Greengate.

And I remember those tall soot blackened impressive buildings which faced the Town Hall Hall.

They were typical of the sort you could find across Manchester, with shops and restaurants at ground level, and offices above.

I have to confess I don’t know when they came down and were replaced with those modern red brick boxes.

Comparing the two, I have to say I think the new ones do look clean and busines like, and I suspect their predecessors were cold draughty paces which would have needed much tender care and attention.

That said I think if they had received that care and had an exterior clean up, they would have better complimented the Town Hall, Prince Albert and the buildings to the north and south of the square.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Albert Square, 1969, xxxx77 & xxxx79, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Of trolley buses and a company called SELNEC

The trolley bus never did much for me.

They were much quieter than the bus or the old trams but they always made me feel ill.  I think it was the combination of the heat and the smell of the leather seats with the disinfectant which I found uncomfortable.

Stevenson Square December 1966, the last Manchester trolley bus

But they were a common enough sight in many of our cities to warrant a bit of a story.

I can’t remember using them at home but London Transport operated them for thirty years on 68 routes with 1811 trolley buses.

Here in Manchester the service which began in 1938 covered 9 routes using 189 vehicles.

Ours came off the road in 1966 and this one in Stevenson Square was the last in the December of that year.  Stevenson Square was the terminus of trolleybus services to Audenshaw and Stalybridge.

Piccadilly with an Ashton-Under-Lyne trolley bus, 1960

Nor were we alone in operating trolley buses, and it is equally possible that had you jumped on a trolley bus to Ashton-Under-Lyne it would have been the blue and cream ones operated by Ashton Corporation.

They had been quicker off the mark staring operations in the February of 1925 on five routes with just 19 trolley buses and like Manchester abandoned them in 1966.

This was just three years before I arrived in the city so the sight of this Ashton trolley bus in Piccadilly around 1960 is one lost to me.

But I do just remember the sheer number of corporation bus companies in the city in 1969.

The green livery of the joint Transport and Electricty Board

Along with the disticntive red livery of Manchester and the blue and cream of Ashton there was the green of Salford and the green of the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board along with the maroon and cream colours of Oldham.

And no doubt if I dug deeper I could come up with the routes of some of the neigboring authorites whoses trams, trolley buses and motor buses entered the city.  All of which came to an end in 1969 with the formation of a unified bus company covering the whole of greater Manchester and initially known as SELNEC, or South East Lancashire North East Cheshire.

A SELNEC bus, 2008

Its orange and white livery would not have been my choice but then having to choose a colour scheme which did not upset the local feelings of the eleven participating bus companies would always have meant coming up with something very different.

This was a huge undertaking, covering a large conurbation and an operation broken down into four divisions, each with their own different coloured logo.

And for those who like these things here are the eleven corporation companies, the number of vehicles they brought to the enterprise and the division they belonged to.

Now that will endear me to some but risk the derision of others who mutter train spotter, which is a little inaccurate given that this began as a story about trolley buses and has gone way beyond that.

So with that in mind I shall take leave of the almost silent successor to the tram.

Stalybridge bus station and the last Ashton trolley bus, 1966

Pictures; Manchester Corporation trolley bus, Stevenson Square 1966, and Ashton-Under-Lyne Corporation trolley bus, Stalybridge bus station, 1966 © Alan Murray-Rust, geograph.org.uk Wikipedia Commons, Ashton-Under-Lyne Corporation trolley bus in Piccadilly, 1960, and Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley & Dukinfield Transport & Electricity Board motor bus from the collection of J.F.A.Hampson, SELNEC Bus, Mikey from Wythenshawe, Museum of Transport, Wikipedia Commons

Picking a municipal bus company and travelling across the city in 1963

Cover of Maps of Manchester & District, 1963

Now I am looking at a copy of the 1963 Manchester bus routes which my friend David has passed on to me.

Like me he was one of those that never went to a grammar school and recalled that

“I went to St Gregory's Technical High School in Ardwick Green from 1960-1967.

And because it was over 3 miles from Chorlton I was awarded a free bus pass...Joy of Joys, and could travel freely anywhere I liked in school hours for free.

Not that I did - but it did allow me to experiment with the various routes to Ardwick Green from the stop near Chorlton Baths.

I finally ended up using the fastest way - the 81 or 82 to Brooks Bar, and then the 53,  a great route known as the 'banana' service because " they came in bunches"  and from Greenheys the 123 to Ardwick Green.”

Now all of this reminded me that even the humble guide to the City’s bus routes comes with a story and opens up a fascinating glimpse into that not so distant past.

Back then according to another friend there were bus loads of students crisscrossing the city.

And like David many were in receipt of a free bus pass.  I too briefly had access to the same although in my case it was a season ticket for the train to travel from Well Hall to New Cross and back again.

Of course the sting in the tail was that they could only be used in term time and during school hours which rather limited the opportunity to boldly go and explore to the outer limits of the Corporation’s bus routes.

Detail of bus routes in and around Chorlton

But they were just another part of that welfare provision which some today frown upon.

Looking again at that bus guide is to follow long forgotten routes, and be reminded that the early 60s was still a time when a lot more people relied on public transport or did it themselves on a push bike.

The scenes outside all our big factories at clocking off time were characterised by people cycling home or waiting to catch one of the long line of buses parked up waiting for the evening rush.

And here there was a bewildering choice. Running through Chorlton there was the 80, 81, 82, 85,  and 94 along with the 41 and 43 all of which went into town.

Stevenson Square December 1966

There was also cross routes including the 16, 22, and 62 and it was possible to travel by bus into Chorltonville up to Rye Bank Road and out to Firswood.

The network also provided for more connections and all of this ran alongside a regular train service from Chorlton into Central Station or out to Didsbury, Stockport and the Derbyshire hills.

It was a complex system which involved not only Manchester Corporation buses, but also those of Salford, Oldham, Ashton, smaller local authorities, and the North West Bus and Car Company.

And so beside  the distinctive red livery of Manchester and the blue and cream of Ashton there was the green of Salford and the green of the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board along with the maroon and cream colours of Oldham.

Piccadilly with an Ashton-Under-Lyne trolley bus, 1960

For those of a certain disposition this was a wonderful cornucopia of municipal transport that made the car less essential and can only be dreamed of today and one that vanished at the end of the 1960s.

Ah I hear you say all of that is fine, but getting in a car at work and driving home with the radio to listen to is far superior than having to wait in the rain at the bus stop, fight for a seat and end up beside that rather boring chap from the end house whose sole topics of conversation revolve around pigeons and the poor performance of Huddersfield F.C.

All of which maybe so but I do miss the ease with which you could move around the city and so I shall revisit David’s 1963 bus route book and plan a few trips of my own, which may or may not have left me at ease in the company of that chap from the end house.

And that just leaves a correction and comment from, John Anthony Hewitt.

"Minor correction Andrew Simpson, the bus company mentioned was North Western Road Car Co., and they were based in Stockport. Other bus companies included LUT (Lancashire United Transport), Walkden and Ribble, Preston. Probably the longest bus route I rode departed from Victoria bus station in Salford, but was operated by MCTD, No.10, I think, to Liverpool via a zig-zag route crossing the East Lancs Road several times - Eccles, Worsley, Walkden, Newton-le-Willows, St Helens and a few other places long since forgotten. Like your friend David, I too had grown up in C-C-H and had a bus pass to St Greg's., 1956 - 1963, but my adventures in Greenheys were courtesy of trolley-bus 213 (later motor bus 123)".



Pictures; Maps of Manchester and District, Manchester Corporation, 1963, courtesy of David O’Reilly and Manchester Corporation trolley bus, Stevenson Square 1966,  © Alan Murray-Rust, geograph.org.uk Wikipedia Commons, Ashton-Under-Lyne Corporation trolley bus in Piccadilly, 1960,  from the collection of J.F.A.Hampson,  Museum of Transport, Wikipedia Commons

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 92 ...... Cannon Court

Cannon Court has tidied its act up  a lot since I first stumbled across it in 1969, soon after I arrived in Manchester.

1967

I remember it as one of those places which  was a bit shabby, rather neglected, and not much of an advert for the city.

Of course now I rather wish it was still like that given than many of the other interesting alleys, courts and narrow streets have been swept away.

The last time I was down there it was clean, tidy and less interesting than I remembered it.

But perhaps I am being a little picky and unreasonable given that visitors to the Cathedral, might just not want to pick their way past old boxes, overflowing dustbins and crates of empty bottles.

So I shall leave it you to judge, using an image of Cannon Court, pretty much as I left it in the 1960s, and today, all bright and pristine.

2017

Circa 1900

So far so good ........... and now for the correction, because I never clocked the name of the alley back in 1969, and when I revisited it this week one map called it Hanging Ditch, so I followed suit.

Only to be corrected by two people who pointed out that historically this was Cannon Court, and there on my own copy of Goads Fire Insurance was indeed the name Cannon Court.
So thank you for the two who were more vigilant than I.


Location; Cannon Court

Pictures;  Cannon Court, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk and in 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Hanging Ditch and Cannon Court, circa 1900, from Goads Fire Insurance map, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

One camera ….. 1965 ….. and a collection of lost scenes

It is 61 years ago that this collection of images was taken.

"Clearance in Hulme", 1965

They cover Manchester, Stretford and out to Chorlton and Wythenshawe and are a mix of industrial scenes, some old historic buildings and more than a few of well-known city centre sites.

What they have in common was the year they were taken and that originally they were colour slides.

The collection was donated to me by the daughter of the photographer, but somewhere along the line their identity was lost, although I am still looking for the letter, email or Facebook message which alerted me to the names of the woman who donated them and the photographer.

"Old Shambles' 1965

I hope by posting them the donor will come forward and I can change the credit from the 1965 collection to a name.

The first two are both of lost Manchester.

I have no idea where in Hulme the clearance area was, and I only have vague memories of the old Shambles.

But they are a unique record of how the City was in 1965 and just how it was about to change.

Location; Manchester

Pictures, “Clearance in Hulme” and “The Old Shambles showing Wellington Inn and Sinclair’s Oyster Bar,” 1965, from the 1965 Collection