Ashton Brothers Aerial View

This is another newspaper cutting which was in The Reporter on 26 Jan 1995 and it says that it dates from the 1950s. You can see Well Meadow at the bottom left, Newton Street just above that and Park Road running along the top left of the picture to join Clarendon Road. It says that you can see George Street and Grafton Street, but George Street appears to be just the little bit which goes diagonally across the extreme top right of the picture. The picture below is the top right corner of the picture enlarged to show those streets.

I've taken a scan from my A-Z showing those streets and skewed it to look from the angle from which the photo has been taken. If you start off with the chimney at the middle right of the picture, that's behind Bank Street and facing King Street. The street running diagonally across the picture from the middle of the right-hand side is Grafton Street and taking that and Clarendon Street as a guide you can pick out most of he other streets on the map.

What Grafton Street used to look like.

Some of the rough land has now been replaced  with the part of Clarke Way that runs past Illingworth  and Inghams Wood Yard... 

I've updated Tom's post and attached this photo which is pretty close to the viewpoint of the photo he posted on Saturday. You can see that it's the other side of Clarke Way which according to the A-Z is now part of John Street, but I notice from the agenda for the Hyde District Assembly meeting last night (I didn't go, but it's on the Tameside website) that they're seeking approval to rename that little bit from Grafton Street to John Street because Cheshire Car Centre, who are in that little bit, have complained that the Grafton Street address which they currently have is causing confusion to their (potential) customers. Fair enough, I suppose - but it appears it may be the A-Z which is leading people astray.

Dave (22/03/11)

Not Quite Disappeared

Dave as been out and about with his camera again for us and took these pictures which show  the remnants of the streets which were largely obliterated by the building of the motorway . 

The first 5 are of John Street, although the first one was once part of Grafton Street, before the demolition of that area took place.. John Street is the only one of those streets on the other side of the motorway which still has houses on it, and it gives just a flavour of what the area must have been like previously. 

The 2 photos below are of Pitt Street. Whilst there are parts of the other streets where the tarmac has worn away to show the cobbles (or should I say setts) underneath, 

I can't remember ever seeing this street with the sets covered it is also interesting that from one end of Pitt Street you can see the Town Hall, and from the other end you can see Flowery Field Church.

I think we could say this is Dave's first posting for use... I have had to do so little as Dave covered everything in both words and pictures.