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

Travels through a lost bit of railway history ........ sixty-one years ago

 I won’t be alone in having a long love affair with the former Liverpool Road Railway Station.

The 1830 Warehouse, 1965

It opened in 1830 along with a warehouse and was the first passenger railway in the world connecting Manchester to Liverpool.

Not that passenger traffic was the reason for its construction, that decision rested with the economic priorities of providing a cheap form of transport to shift goods between the two destinations.

So successful was the venture that within a few years extra warehouses were constructed, a second passenger platform was built and just 14 years after it all began, a new station was opened at Hunts Bank and our site was given over entirely to goods.

The story is one I often return to and for two decades was a place from where I ran conducted talks and walks.

The platform with former passengerwaiting room beyound, 1965

It had been abandoned by British Rail in 1975 and bits sold off to Granada TV and later still the rest became the new home of the Greater Manchester Museum of Science and Technology. 

My first encounter with the place was in 1980 during the “Steam Expo” event, when I took a series of good and not so good pictures.

But others had come with their camera before me, including Ron Stubley and as yet unknown photographer in 1965.

The unknown photographer took four colour slides which are part of a collection which 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.

Former passenger platform, 1965

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.

Those for the Liverpool Road site are a window into what was still a working area and show just how far the buildings had been knocked about over the 135 years since the  complex had opened.

The 1830 warehouse still retained the loops holes through which goods would be taken in from the rail side and the arches through which wagons would have been pulled into the building.

The plaque, 1965

But at some point, one of the arches had been lost and a much larger entrance constructed.

As late as the 1990s it was still possible to find the turntables used to turn wagons 90 degrees and transfer them inside.

Likewise, bits of the old passenger railway station had survived but all were in a vey sad state.

Along with these relics there was the commemorative plaque above the doorway on Liverpool Road, recording the site’s history and set against that washed out red paint which was part of the old British Rail livery and indeed may been remanent from the former LMS colour scheme.

On that last note I await to be corrected.

Location’ Liverpool Road

Pictures; walking the old Liverpool Railway site in 1965, from the 1965 collection

When I lost a water trough ….. in Stretford in the summer of 1965

 I collect water troughs ….. eccentric perhaps but fun.

And had I been on Chester Road in the summer of 1965 this one would have made the collection.

But then in 1965 I was sixteen still living at home in southeast London and had yet to come across one of the passions of my life.  

Sixty years ago I might well have snapped this one, recorded its exact location, and returned decades later to check its fate.

Now I have no idea how many water troughs were made in the 19th century or for that matter how many have survived.

In London they were made and maintained by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association which is not the zippiest of names but neatly does the business.

It had been founded in 1859 as the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Association and added the rest when it began providing fresh water for horses and cattle as well as fountains for the people of London.

According to Dickens’s Dictionary of London, in 1879 there were 800 fountains and troughs which on a hot day 30,000 people took advantage of the supply while a “single trough supplied the wants of 1,800 horses in day.”*

So, I shouldn’t be surprised that in my pursuit of water troughs I should keep turning up fine examples of ones that have lasted the course.

All of which leads me back to the Chester Road trough which the caption from the 1965 slide says was erected in 1874, and here’s the rub I can’t find it.

I have wandered down Chester Road using Google maps, checked out the route from the 1896 OS map, and even trawled the collection of old photographs from Trafford Lifetimes, but to no avail.**

That said someone will know, suggest where to look and perhaps surprise me with the fact that it now resides in one of the parks.

And even before the post went live, my friend Lawrence helped me out with, "I do remember it now. That’s the floodlights of Old Trafford in the background. 

They were four steel towers at each corner. Erected around late 1957 early 1958. Now demolished. That pub is the Dog and Partridge. Used to go drinking in there when I was 16. Now demolished and the Bishop’s Blaze pub was built there.

Chester Road was widened and the island went under tarmac and the horse trough disappeared. That area has fascinating relics of the early 20th Century. I think the building behind the camera now a Halfords tyre fixing garage was a factory for motor cars.

It's the starter for ten.

Location; Stretford

Pictures; the Stretford water trough, Chester Road 1965, from the 1965 Collection 

*quoted from Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Drinking_Fountain_and_Cattle_Trough_Association

**Trafford Lifetimes, https://apps.trafford.gov.uk/TraffordLifetimes/

Where are you now? .....not quite lost but now very found

I am guessing there will be a very simple answer which will make me look daft, but I wonder where this milestone is now? And of course there was ..... jist read to the bottom.

The "Old Mile Post", 1965

It was according to the caption the “Old Mile Post, Chester Road, Stretford, (outside St Matthews Church)”.

Now I was there a few months ago and couldn’t see it.

But back then I wasn’t looking for it, and indeed only discovered it last week when I was looking through a set of colour slides, donated by the daughter of the chap who took the pictures.

In all there are 32 images, which cover Manchester, Salford, Stretford, Wythenshawe and Chorlton.

The collection was made in the summer of 1965, and are mix of industrial scenes, some historic buildings and a few of city centre Manchester.

So that is it.

My old fellow wanderer through the past, Bill Sumner has promised to investigate.

The Great Stone, 1965

Leaving me just to add the bonus picture of the Great Stone, which Historic England tells me “is probably the remains of a medieval boundary cross. 

It is now at the entrance to Gorse Hill Park but it originally stood on the south side of the Roman road from Manchester to Chester. 

It was moved here in 1925. It is also thought to have been used later as a plague stone. Plague stones had holes in, usually filled with vinegar, where money from an infected town could be placed so that trades people delivering food could collect it. 

This meant they did not have to come in to contact with those infected. The vinegar was thought to act as a disinfectant on the money”.*

So, 40 years after it was placed in the park it was the subject of a photograph, and while I can be sure of its location I bet there will be someone with an alternative explanation for its origin.

We shall see

Where Chris and others said it was, 2025

And sure enough the answer to the missing mile post has been solved.

It is outside the St Ann's Chruch on Chester Road.  Apologies to all those who correctlty located it and to who I said it wasn't, and to Chris Geliher,who had the patience and the determination to offer up an image of the mile post in situ.

In my defence it is much smaller than I thought it would be in real life and missed it on my google maps trawl of  Chester Road.

*The Great Stone, Chester Road, Stretford, Greater Manchester, Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-images/the-great-stone-chester-road-stretford-8408

Location; Stretford

Pictures; Old Mile Post and Great Stone, 1965 from the 1965 Collection, and the Mile Post outside St Ann's Church, 2025, from Chris Geliher

The Stretford I never knew ………..60 years ago

It is 60 years ago that this collection of images was taken.

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.

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

These are image of the Stretford I never knew.

That said the first is vaguely familiar and is the junction of Edge Lane and Chester Road, but with differences.

The second is Longford Hall, which I may just remember, but never really bothered with and then it was gone. 

Like all of the32 I the collection they are a unique record of how things were in 1965.

Location; Stretford

Pictures, Edge Lane and Chester Road, and Longford Hall from the 1965 Collection