Home thoughts of Ashton in the 1970s, ..... part 3 on coming across Stamford Park and the Sycamore

Now it is all a bit different when you don’t grow up in a place, so when we discovered Stamford Park one Sunday it was special.

And given the size of our house on Raynham Street the open spaces just fitted the bill.

Now “the original park, south of Darnton Road, was opened in 1873 on land purchased for £15,000. 

The money was raised by public subscription together with a gift of 30 acres from the Earl of Stamford. The park was enlarged in 1891 by acquisition of Chadwick's Dam reservoir, the southern part of which was made into a boating lake and the northern part into a feeder lake and fishing lake. 

The last major addition was in 1929 with the donation of 4 acres which was devoted to a children's playground. The park was run by a joint committee from Ashton and Stalybridge until 1974, when it passed to Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council.”*

Now I knew none of this at the time and in fact only came across its story recently.
Back then, the walk in the park was a prelude for an evening in the Sycamore which became a favourite haunt of ours.

All of which just leaves me with the postcard which was produced by Tuck & Sons around 1909.

It was part of a set of six published by Whittaker & Sons of Stalybridge.

Sadly the card does not have a message on the back but other’s in the collection do and I rather think I shall return to these if only to report more fully on young Pattie who sent a card of Stalybridge to Miss Mary Jameson in the USA on April 25th 1909.

Pictures; Stamford Park, from the series Stalybridge, by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

*Ashton-Under-Lyne, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Ashton-Under-Lyne

**Parks and gardens UK, http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/3045

St Paul's in Stalybridge around 1909

Now all the years I lived in Ashton I never visited St Paul’s Church and so here is the place as it would have looked around 1909.

It is from a series of six marketed by Raphael Tuck and & Sons who were one of the leading companies producing picture post cards.

The series has the date 1912, but one card from the series was sent in 1909 and because of the way these things worked this one could be from any time between 1909 and 1912 and may even be earlier.

Post card companies were driven by commercial interest and if a scene was popular it might be reissued long after the photographer had gone on to greater things in other places.

Those in the know will be able to pinpoint to a house number where the picture was taken.  I am minded to say from behind number 35 Stayley Drive.

That said I shall no doubt be shot down in flames.

Still if it gets a debate going I am not one to shy away from the controversy.

Picture; St Pauls’s Church from the series Stalybridge, produced by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Out on the canal at Stalybridge

Now I have found 18 images of the Lock house on the canal at Stalybridge but this one is a new one.

I say new but it will have been taken sometime around 1909 and is another of the six I have been featuring from the series Tuck & Son produced.

They were one of the major producers of picture postcards during the 19th and 20th centuries and their cards pop up everywhere.

In this case on a wonderful site dedicated to the company.

Picture; the Lock House, Stalybridge, from the series Stalybridge, produced by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Out in Brushes Valley in 1910

Yesterday I confessed to never having been to St Paul’s Church in Stalybridge.*

And today I have admit to never having been to Brushes Valley which is a shame.

“Lying just over a mile to the north-east of Stalybridge, this country park centres on two areas. 

Firstly, the Brushes Valley, with its four reservoirs running up into the Pennine Moors, and secondly Carrbrook, lying in the shadow of Buckton Castle a 12th/13th century stronghold. 

Linking the two areas, although outside the Country Park boundaries, is a good rights of way network, which also takes visitors into the Tame Valley, Longdendale and the Peak District.”**

Now that would have been a fine day out for the two of us back in the 1970s when we lived on Raynham Street.

So I shall be content with another of those Tuck postcards, which now just as then offers up a stunning view of the landscape.

But what makes this one that little more interesting is that we know who it was sent to and when it arrived to be sorted, moreover we know it was sold by James W Chapman of 5 Portland Place, Mottram Road, Stalybridge.

Not that a search of the records turned up much about Mr Chapman.  He was listed as a Music Tacher in 1906 at the Mottram Road address and so far that is it.

But these people from the past have a habit of popping up so I shall bide my time.

Picture; Brushes Valley,  from the series Stalybridge, produced by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

*Stalybridge in the 1900s, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Stalybridge%20in%20the%201900s

** Stalybridge Country Park
http://www.tameside.gov.uk/countryside/stalybridge

Greetings from Stalybridge in 1909 with Pattie

 I have to say that I am a great fan of the picture postcard and have written about them plenty of times.

After all you do get a lot.  For a start there is the image which offers up a moment in the history of a place.

But added to that there is the message on the back which are often more interesting and more revealing than the picture.

One of my favourites was from the young Bertha Geary who told her friend that she had “seen the flying man” as she walked from her home in Didsbury. The “flying man” was the French pilot who in 1911 won the All Britain Daily Mail Air Race.

What made the card all the more unique was that Bertha had included hero own address and armed with that
I was able to track her family find the family name using a street directory, and then armed with a surname track them on the 1911 census.

All of which allowed me to discover that Bertha was the third child, and was just 13 when the “flying man” appeared over Didsbury.

And so to our card of Old Street, in Stalybridge around 1909.

Now I can’t be sure this was the date the photograph was taken but it was the year the card was sent to Miss Mary Jamieson of 12 Grand Avenue, Sharon, USA by her friend Pattie.

And in the way of these things Pattie had little to say but just wanted to keep in touch.

And since I first wrote this I have come across an excellent account of the place in a fine blog on all things Stlaybridge, Cocker Hill, Stalybridge, which is well worth a read.

Pictures; Old Street, from the series Stalybridge, by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB,http://tuckdb.org/

*Cocker Hill, Stalybridge, http://cockerhill.com/category/st-georges-churchyard/