Strolls with a camera ………… Bulls Brow ……

 Last week Andy Robertson was in Rochdale on one of his strolls with a camera.

And as he does, he went off the beaten track and wandered down Baille Street and discovered Bulls Brow and The Walk.

Now if you live in Rochdale, I don’t suppose wither will seem our of the ordinary but if like me you have only been to the town a few times, these two places are a tad fascinating.

And with the light fading on a grey February afternoon, you could conjure up all sorts of fantastical stories.  

But I won’t other than to say I found them both as they were in 1894 and I bet there will be someone out there who can tell us more.

Location; Rochdale

Pictures; strolls with a camera, Rochdale, 2024, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Looking at Heywood’s lost pubs

“An early Saturday morning trip to Heywood, Rochdale, a town which once reputedly had the most pubs per head of population”.

The Summitt, 2023

And with that opening comment Andy Robertson sent over a collection of some of the lost pubs of Heywood.

I am sure there will be plenty who have fond memories of the ones he featured and others who will be queuing up to send their own pictures of their favourite place where beer and cheer were dispended.

And that is it.

Location; Heywood

The Heywood, 2023

The Brick House, 2023

Pictures; lost pubs of Heywood, 2023,  from the collection of Andy Robertson

The Brunswick, 2023

The Three Terries, 202

 

“Lord we implore thee to bring victory ……………………….”

In the January of 1918, in churches across the country, there will have been many sermons that ended with the appeal “Lord we implore thee to bring Victory to the Allies”.

But these words were written not by a vicar but by young Alice Morris, who added “Please ask this for nine days” and sent in a chain postcard.

I thought at first that the woman on the front of the picture postcard was Alice, but in the January of 1918, she would have been just eleven years old.

And this I know because I tracked her from the address on the reverse of the card, which was 92 Heights Lane in Rochdale.

The house is still there today, and it was where she was living with her parents in 1911, when she was aged just four.

Her father was 48 years old from Ireland and was a “Cotton Warp Dresser”, and his wife Sarah was twelve years younger and was from Rochdale.

They had been married for five years, during which time Sarah had given birth to three children of which Alice was the only one to have survived.

At the outbreak of the war her father would have been in his early 50s and so unlikely to have been accepted by the army, but there was a nephew who was living with them and who at 27 years of age, may well have volunteered in that first patriotic rush to the Colours or been conscripted in 1916.

A trawl of the military records shows several possible candidates, so just maybe the presence of her nephew in the armed forces may have bee the catalyst for the chain postcard.

Or perhaps just the weariness of four years of war.

Location; Rochdale

Picture; picture postcard sent, January 14th, 1918, from the collection of David Harrop

News from the Rochdale Observer …………….. from the Rochdale series

It is another of those projects which involve Andy Robertson, his camera, and a day in Rochdale.

Andy has been chronicling the changing landscape across Greater Manchester for over two decades and last week he returned to Rochdale with the simple task of recording what had changed since his last visit.

Sadly many of the images were of closed pubs, and empty shops.  In amongst all of these was the statue of “our Gracie”, some fine pictures of the river and this one of the old Rochdale Observer offices.

According to British Newspapers Online “it was founded in 1856 [and is now]  published by the Greater Manchester Weekly Newspaper Group, part of the MEN Media Group. MEN Media was taken over by Trinity Mirror in March 2010 from the Guardian Media Group.

Up until 2009 its editorial offices were in the town, but MEN Media centralised its editorial operations at the GMG headquarters building in central Manchester in May that year. Following the Trinity Mirror takeover, the editorial offices shifted to Chadderton on the outskirts of Oldham”.*

And it has both a twitter  and facebook presence.

Location; Rochdale

Pictures; The Rochdale Observer clock and offices, 2019 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*British Newspapers Online, https://www.britishpapers.co.uk/england-nw/rochdale-observer/

The lost cinema …………… the Rochdale series

Now Andy Robertson, never misses an opportunity to capture a bit of our cinema past, and so I wasn’t surprised when he sent over a selection of pictures of the old ABC Regal cinema in Rochdale.

It is now a Weatherspoons and opened as such in 1997, but before that it was a picture house and for a while was a venue for bingo.

The Regal Cinema opened on May 16th, 1938 for the ABC chain with a total of 1901 seats, of which 1,208 were in the stalls and 693 in the balcony.

I won’t be alone in remembering that special “first date” that involved paying extra to sit in the balcony and then as the romance settled down ensured you ended up in the stalls.

I never visited the ABC Regal, but I know that it lasted until 1978 when it closed to reopen with three screens, and a new name.  As the Cannon it lasted till October 1992 and was restored to its original appearance and for a while operated a s bingo hall before being transformed in a Weatherspoons.

Sadly, according to that wonderful site cinema Treasures, the present décor is not unique to the old picture house.

Bit that said at least the building remains.

Location; Rochdale

Pictures; The former Regal Cinema, 2019 from the collection of Andy Robertson

* Cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/3340

A ghost of things past in Rochdale

Now a little bit of Rochdale came my way today.

It is another ghost sign sent to me by my friend Ron Stubley, who over the years has come across some fascinating ones, along with pictures of missing pubs and a huge collection of comic postcards.

This one is on the corner of Yorkshire Street and Union Street and someone will be able to help us out on what G. L. Adamson traded in.

Well I hope so.

Location; Rochdale

Picture; ghost sign, Yorkshire Street and Union Street, 2017, from the collection of Ron Stubley