Walking Pomona in the company of Andy Robertson

Andy Robertson is an accomplished photographer of the changing landscape of Greater Manchester.

And just over a week ago he was down at Pomona.

Location; Pomona

Pictures,  Pomona, 2024, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Travels to Pomona …….. and other stories

Last week Andy wandered back to Pomona commenting “the other day we went to Pomona again. We noticed much of the undergrowth around the Dock had been cleared so we were able to explore new Territory!”

And among the pictures of lost stone setts, and half hidden ancient coils of rope were some interesting pictures of what has happened over the last decade and what is still to be, given Derek the Developer’s ambitious grand plan and the granting of planning permission.

All of which will appear over the next brace of weeks.

But for now, the images that caught my attention were of the new builds rising from to the sky.

The first is an unusual view of the developments that dominate the lower end of Chester Road as it runs towards Knott Mill and the second across the open ground.

Location; Pomona

Pictures; of developments and developments yet to be, 2023, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Walking the canal and following the new developments ………

Now Andy Robertson has been recording the transformation of the twin cities and beyond over the last three decades.

And on Saturday he was out in Castlefield and Pomona which are places he often visits watching as yet more new buildings rise from old industrial sites.

He chose to let the pictures say it all, only commenting that in his first picture “notice the new build going up centre of the photograph taking one of the remaining green spaces on Castlefield Basin”.

Andy is a very modest chap, but in the future his images will stand as an important record of the rebuilding of much of Greater Manchester, particularly as he will go back and back, chronicling the final days of a once proud building, and continuing as it is demolished, the site cleared and the ground broken, all the way through to the completed new development.

And within a decade these will be pretty much all there is to show for what once occupied these bright densely packed examples of urban living.

Allowing those who reside in the swish new apartments to get a sense of the grimy, productive warehouses, factories and long rows of terraced houses which defined the area.  

Here are just a few of the pictures he took that Saturday.

Location; Castlefield and Pomona

Pictures; Out in Castlefield and Pomona, on an April day, 2022, from the collection of Andy Robertson

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

Travels with a camera …….. part 1 …..the canal …. a tram ……. and more

I think I am just going to let Andy Robertson’s picture capture this bit of the Duke’s Canal on its journey into the city.

Here, there is pretty much everything anybody interested in history and changing Manchester might want.

It starts with the waterway, offers up views in the distance of new developments in the city, and carries on with shots of trams.

And for good measure also includes those new apartments which are rising beside the water.

Location; Pomona

Pictures, the lot, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Woden Bridge ….. and that tribute to Roy Hodgson

Now sometimes you know you are out of your depth.

Despite having three sons who follow football with a ferocity, and friends who can tell me the history of the team and their current performance I am a loss with the game.

And I have to confess that Roy Hodgson, Crystal Palace, and former England manager  was unknown to me.  

But a trawl of the internet revealed a long career as a manager of teams in Finland, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, the U.A.E, and Switzerland, before finally finishing up via Inter Milan, Liverpool, Blackburn, Fulham, and West Bromwich, with Crystal Palace, where he started, and of course a spell with England. 

All of which means that there could be any one of hundreds of people living in the new build around the bridge who might have decided to honour the bridge with the plaque.

Those in the know, please advise.

Location; Woden Bridge

Picture; Roy Hodgson on Woden Bridge, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The cranes have it …. travels with Andy at Pomona

Somewhere there may be a set of recollections from the people who worked the waterway during the last two century.

Not that those memories would help me know what they would have thought of the forest of cranes and the new build which rise along the banks of the canal.

Location; Pomona

Picture; the cranes have it, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

The promise of things to come ……… cranes over the water

Now I know that these pictures were taken in the closing days of December 2020, just a day in advance of Tier 4, but they seem appropriate for today, the first day of 2021.

The building boom which has been going on a pace across the twin cities shows no sign of slowing down, despite Covid and the restrictions which make city centre living so much fun.

Of course, many of these developments will have been in the pipeline a long time before Victor Virus showed up, and in a way are no different from the property boom of the late 18th and early 19th century which transformed Manchester and Salford from elegant Georgian towns into the shock cities of the Industrial Revolution.

But I wonder how long the market can be sustained, and how many people are still out there ready to buy into city centre living.

The forest of cranes would suggest that the smart money is confident it will continue for a while yet, and I have to say that on and off for a full decade I have predicted the bubble would burst.

So there you are that is it …. We shall see.

Location; Pomona, 

Pictures, at Pomona, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Walks across Pomona ….. no. 3 Castlefield

Now last week when Andy set off with his daughter to walk across Pomona he took some fine pictures.

So …. this is the new series ….. short on words ….. just letting the photographs say it all.*

Leaving you to do the rest.

All I will say for the picky reader is that their travels took them beyond Pomona to Castlefield .... but then, when ever have I chosen to correct a misleading title.

Location; Castlefield

Pictures; views from Castlefield, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Walks across Pomona, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/12/walks-across-pomona-no-1-looking-into.html

Walks across Pomona ….. no. 2 wild flowers by the underpass

Now when Andy set off with his daughter to walk across Pomona he took some fine pictures.

So …. this is the new series ….. short on words ….. just letting the photograph say it all.*

Leaving you to do the rest.

Location; wildflowers near roundabout/underpass Hulme, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Walks across Pomona, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/12/walks-across-pomona-no-1-looking-into.html

Walks across Pomona ….. no. 1 looking into Salford

Now last week when Andy set off with his daughter to walk across Pomona he took some fine pictures.

So …. this is the new series ….. short on words ….. just letting the photograph say it all.*

Leaving you to do the rest.

Location; Walks across Pomona, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Walks across Pomona, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/12/walks-across-pomona-no-1-looking-into.html

What’s in the colour of the water? …………….. down with Andy Robertson at the canal

Yep ……… this is nothing more than a water story, occasioned by the recent heavy rain.

July 2019

One of Andy Robertson’s favourite haunts is Pomona, and like so many of us, he is drawn to water.

And so, for no reason other than that I too like canals and water, here are two of those then and now pictures, although I grant you, they are only separated by a few months.

Andy was there yesterday, sent over the images adding “I am sure the canal in Pomona land doesn't always look as brown as it did today”, which led us to speculate on the impact of the amount of rain we have experienced.

April, 2019

That said I bet a full century ago, that same canal would have offered up a full range of colours, depending on what was being discharged directly into it from the many warehouses and factories which lined its banks.


Leaving me just to reflect that "the water ain't what it oughta".*

Location; Pomona

Pictures; the colour of canal water, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*With a nod and smile to a classic Heineken advert, 1985, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86CZQGdxyMs

Before a bit of Salford became history ........ off looking for the Trafford tram spur no.2

Now, because so often we ignore how things change around us, Andy Robertson took himself off last week, to look at just how the new tram spur to Trafford Centre is changing the landscape.

He started off at “to Exchange Quay, walked down Trafford Wharf Road for a bit, then back to Pomona tram stop “, and along the way looked across at the developments on the Salford skyline, turned up a bit of industrial archaeology and caught the work on the tram tracks.

So here is the first of the new series and given that Andy never sticks to a plan we will be wandering in and out of Salford, but never too far away.

After all when you down by the docks it is possible to slip across the borders of Manchester, Salford and Trafford all in the pursuit of something fascinating.

Location; along the line of the new tram route

Pictures; in and out of Salford, 2018 from the collection of Andy Robertson

Before a bit of Salford became history ........ off looking for the Trafford tram spur no. 1

Exchange Quay

Now, because so often we ignore how things change around us, Andy Robertson took himself off last week, to look at just how the new tram spur to Trafford Centre is changing the landscape.

He started off at “Exchange Quay, walked down Trafford Wharf Road for a bit, then back to Pomona tram stop", and along the way looked across at the developments on the Salford skyline, turned up a bit of industrial archaeology and caught the work on the tram tracks.

Across the water

So here is the first of the new series and given that Andy never sticks to a plan we will be wandering in and out of Salford, but never too far away.

After all when you down by the docks it is possible to slip across the borders of Manchester, Salford and Trafford all in the pursuit of something fascinating.

Location; along the line of the new tram route

Pictures; in and out of Salford, 2018 from the collection of Andy Robertson

The promise of Salford ..........travels on a tram

Now, I know there are lots of people who regret the passing of the Salford of their youth and will rail against the developments that are rising into the sky.

For some they make Salford no different from any 21st century city anywhere in the world.

But that is to be a little unhistorical because the buildings that have gone, from Edwardian office blocks, to Victorian mills and warehouses, along with rows of terraced houses could equally be seen everywhere.

Added to which many were past their sell by date and were held together, more by hope than anything else.

So instead sit back on the tram that takes you into Salford.

Andy had planned on a trip to follow the new Trafford Centre spur, but on a whim chose to record scenes from a tram window on that short stretch from Pomona into Salford.

Like everywhere the old mixes with the new helped also by a skyline which quickly went from blue and white to grey and ominous.

Of course I am the first to admit that many of the new rise giant may not last as long as their 19th century counterparts.

But that will have more to do with commercial considerations than building quality.

Location, on the tram that takes you to Salford





Picture; on the tram 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson