Iddesleigh

Pictures From Susan Jaleel

At first we thought this was the lodge to the long gone Isolation hospital... but we have been informed by 'Hyde Lad' that this building is called Iddesleigh, and was built by the Bradley Family, who were a well known Godley family... they owned much of the land around Godley Green...    He also says that the lodge was further back towards Gee Cross near to where Alder School is now... and I think I know now which building he means.  If anyone as anything else to offer concerning the above home or indeed the old lodge or hospital please do so.

UPDATE

1. 

The above picture shows the approximate location of the Isolation Lodge which was situated on Mottram Old Road. It was facing the row of houses.

This photo shows the Lodge itself.

The Gateposts to the houses are still there.

This postcard shows the lodge on Grange Road South.

Is it the same building as the one above? I'm not convinced yet but it could just be the angle that the photo is taken from...

Incidentally , if you look on google maps at the houses on Mottram Old Road I've shown above that I thought were opposite the lodge , then the gateposts look similar to the ones on the "Mottram Old Road Lodge" photo. I know that could just be the style of the time though. (Sorry for the bad quality).

Updated 20/05/11

Dave's Photo's

Here are the photos of the gateposts at Mottram Old Road and of the lodge at Hyde Hospital. The view from between the gateposts looks exactly like the old picture of the lodge which you showed. Just look at the fluting (is that the right word?) on the ball at the top of the gatepost.

Look though at the photo taken face-on of the lodge at Hyde Hospital - I can't tell the difference from the old picture. But my photo was taken from the other side of the entrance to the hospital grounds (not from across Grange Road South - the lodge from that point would look quite different) and I can't imagine that there would have been any gateposts at that point. And furthermore, my photo shows the hospital building (which quite obviously dates from the same time as the lodge) which should be there on the old picture if it were the same lodge.

Hope that clarifies things.

Dave

Talbot House Great Norbury Street

Talbot House is on Great Norbury Street... it is this building which had the stables which is accessed from Chapel street. Dave took these picture for us again, as the building is of interest. If you know anything about it's past please let us know.. especially the Coat Of Arms. I have tried finding reference to this but drew a blank.

John Shepley Clockmaker

We had an email recently asking if we had any information on a Hyde Clockmaker called John Shepley. To be honest I had not heard of him before... we know of a street named John Shepley Street but we think this relates to a later John Shepley a relation of the clockmaker. I'll quote Keith who contacted us abot John the clockmaker.

John Shepley was the first clockmaker in Hyde and little is known of his early life. He is a well respected maker and was probably working in Hyde from about 1690. The population in Hyde at that time was about 300 so he would struggle to make a living and sometime later moved to Stockport where his later clocks are signed either Johannes or John Shepley.We know that he died in 1749.

Single handed 30 hour clock by John Shepley of Stockport
Thanks to John Craik for the pictures and information
http://www.earlyclocks.co.uk/index.php

This clock, from a well respected early maker dates from about 1725 or slightly earlier. The dial measures 11 inches and is signed simply John Shepley without a placename. The typically bold northern half hour markers are floating, and the engraving around the datebox is beginning to extend outward, both indications of a slightly later date. The movement has four beautifully knopped and finned pillars, and an eight day calender wheel which is typical on 30 hour clocks from Manchester. (John Craik)

It would be interesting to find more information about Hyde's skilled clockmaker... we know he was from a well known and respected family, and it seems he could well have been born in the family home 'The Lumn' as it's documented that Richard Shepley purchased the Lumn estate from Sir Uryan Legh, of Adlington, in 1612 and it remained in the possession of the Shepleys, and his direct descendants, down to the John Shepley, who has the street named after him.

Wouldn't it be nice if someone reading this realises that the old clock handed down from granny is more than just a family heirloom, that is a bit to big for modern housing, but is also a part of Hyde's history dating back to a time when Hyde was just a small cluster of farms and folds and a certain clever chap called John Shepley was busy making these beautiful time-pieces.

Family home of the Shepleys

Home Guard Band

Another great image here sent to us by Harry Smith..  he tell me this photo is of the Home Guard band formed he thinks in 1941 with the 36 Ches. HQ Company. Harry's father is the Sergeant. He was a regular soldier in 1914 and part of the old contemptables. Harry is not sure where it was taken but it was in Hyde. Harry tells me, that at least for a period this band rehearsed in the Cheshire Cheese Market St. Hyde, in an upstairs room as he recalls. Hopefully there's someone who may know one of the individuals. Harry says the Colonel was O.L.Jacks, who was the big boss of Ashton Bros. and lived in the "White House" at the side of Flowery Field church.

I think this was called Flowery Field House. 

Gibraltar Row

Gib Row... these were at the bottom of Apethorn Lane... you had to go through the aquaduct to get to these... or cross the 'Green Bridge' over the canal and then take the steps down. I remember the old Gib mill being worked, and I recall these being pulled down... but cannot recall when that was. I know that long after they had gone a lady would walk past the back of our house on Cheetham Fold, cross the train lines by the 'Level Crossing.. walk past Thislefields and take the track at the side of the cottages there, which lead you under the main train line and towards the aquaduct to visit this spot. Sometimes she would come every evening around 7 o-clock or so... other time she would go weeks without coming past. If I was playing on the fields or the train lines near to the level crossing she would always say hello, smile and give me a mint. She was a nice lady but always looked sad... my mum and dad knew her and said she used to live in Gib Row and missed the place... I always thought there was more to the story but never got to find it out.

My neighbour Ray used to live in one of these... I know he looks in now and then, hopefully he might be able to tell me about this row and who lived here..

Spout House Farm

Before the construction of Dowson Road in the early 1920's and the subsequent housing development which occured along Knott Lane , the land to the west of Hyde Chapel was attached to Spout House Farm.


Tithe Map 1836-51

In 1712 the building was occupied By Robert Ashton. Later tenants included Joseph Redfern in 1816 who was a shopkeeper and Amy Redfern in 1850 ,a Corn dealer.

It seems ,according to the baptism register at Hyde Gee Cross Unitarian Chapel, that Blind Jack of Knarsborough's first daughter Tabitha, who had married a Cheshire cotton manufacturer, lived at Spout House farm. This is also confirmed by the Werneth Land Tax records.
(Grateful thanks to Gay J Oliver for her invaluble information on "Blind Jack of Knaresborough")

(John Metcalfe 1717-1810, otherwise known as Blind Jack of Knaresborough was a famous road building pioneer, pre-dating Telford and Macadam.)....but that's another blog :)


Photo Courtesy G J Oliver.

This building is still in existence and is located between Enfield Street and Tatton Street,Gee Cross

Hyde Lane & It's Off-Shoots

A History Of Hyde Lane

The track that was to become Hyde Lane was never a good road in olden days, in winter and wet weather it was almost impassable, as none of the brooks that it crossed were bridged or culverted until the beginning of the 1800s. The lane began at the entrance of the road from Lancashire into Cheshire. Crossing the river Tame by the ford from Broomstair, the road reached a point on the Hyde side of the river, just below the junction of the Tame and the brook coming from Godley and Newton known as Wilson Brook.

Old cottages in Kingston Hollow
Showing the road to the old ford crossing

The road followed the course of the brook to the foot of " Bowker's " Brow , now known as Kingston Brow, then it ascended the brow to the entrance gates to Hyde Hall (White Gates).

The White Gates Inn

The road to the hall was also the road to the Old Corn Mill, and to another ford which crossed the Tame below the Corn Mill, for Glass House Fold, the Coal Pits, and Haughton Green.

Hyde Cornmill

Sometime in the mid 1700s, Squire George Clarke built a bridge over the river Tame at Broomstair, made a connecting road and another bridge over Wilson Brook near to the cottages in the picture above, to the foot of Bowker's Brow, and by agreement with the inhabitants of Hyde and Haughton, dedicated them to public use, he to have the old road, ford, etc., and the public to repair the bridge and new road for ever.

Manchester Road where the road cross Wilsons Brook

Hyde Lane crossed the canal by a bridge which is still known as Hyde Lane Bridge, and went on towards Hollow Brow, Newton Street.

Newton Street-Dukinfield Road Junction

When the Ashtons built the "Hollow Factory," early in 1800s, Hollow Brow was only a Pack Horse Road, worn down between lofty banks, and so narrow that two horses could not pass. It was shaded by high hedges and trees. The road forded the brook at the bottom of the brow, and winding its way up the opposite slope, went along the Old Road to the junction with the ancient highway from Yorkshire to Lancashire Bennett Street and what was then called Muslin Street but now known as Talbot Road.

Top Of Matley Lane

The Waggon and Horses on Mottram Road

Muslin Street/Talbot Road

The Yorkshire road came from Saltersbrook, the meeting place for the exchange of traffic by the Lancashire and Yorkshire carriers ; it crossed the moors of Longdendale, Hollingworth, made its way down Matley Lane, Bennett Street, Newton Hall, Dukinfield Hall, to Shepley Bridge, which at one time the only bridge across the Tame in these parts. At he time of the building of the Hollow Factory there was a water wheel on the Newton side of Wilson Brook, which worked "Pump Trees," up to the coal pit at Flowery Field. The Ashtons widened Hollow Brow, built the bridge, and altered the road to its present course, and established a Toll Bar at Bayley Field, and tolled all wheeled vehicles until the road was taken over by the township. The point of junction of Hollow Brow with Hyde Lane was called Atterclough, and the length of the road from this point to Hoviley Lane was called Red Pump Street.

Newton Street - Manchester Road Junction

Hoviley Lane branched off Hyde Lane at Squire Hegginbottom's house, later the District Bank at the corner of the market, and passing the Ridling Pits, and went down Hoviley Brow and forded the Lumn Brook near the printworks' gates. From here it went to Hoviley Ford, which, previous to the building of the printworks, was opposite the site of the Talbot Inn.

Hoviley Brow

The brook having been diverted for the purposes of the print works. After leaving this ford, the road skirted Newton Green which was then common land, joined the road coming over Newton Moor from Ashton, then forded the brook from Goodier Bottoms, and finally went to Pudding Lane, which ran by Brook House Farm to Mottram.

Continuing from its junction with the Hoviley branch, Hyde Lane went past several old cottages and a farm, then Hegginbothams Tan Yards now the site of Corporation Street, to where the road crossed the brook to run down Mill Wood to the river Tame. Next it passed some low-lying houses and the village Pinfold and the Stocks. It passed a footpath which as grown into Union Street which led across "Shepley Fields" to Ridling Lane, and, further on, a road leading to various farms and Wood End-Church Street.

Higher up, on the easterly side of Hyde Lane, were several Squatters' cottages, which existed until the start of the 1900s. The lane went by these to Tinker Hill, where a junction was made with Back Lane. This lane led to Walker Fold Lane, down Lumn Hollow, where an ancient bridle path, passed by Lumn Farm, then branched off, and then it became Ridling Lane, until it joined Hoviley Lane at Ridling pits (on the site of Queen's Hotel, Clarendon Place).

Walker Fold Birth Place of Hyde Poet James Leigh

From Back Lane to Smithy Fold, Hyde Lane had wide margins of grass land on each side. Smithy Fold was really a small hamlet with farm houses, cottages, etc., and the road passing through the midst of them. From this Fold Hyde Lane wound its way past Clough Gates, Back Bower Lane, and eventually became part of the Turnpike Road, close to which Hyde Chapel had been built in the year 1708.

----ooo----

While doing this post, I was very much aware of all the streams/brooks and such like that had now been crossed. There's folk in Hyde who do not even realise how many there are. Some are now but trickles but at one time these brooks have been put to good use for the running of water wheels and such like. In the 1800s they were culverted and bridges built to carry the roads over them. As these brooks were in valleys, these would have been needed to be filled in... changing the lay of the land to what we know it as now. Some of us recall the amount of earth moved when the M67 was cut in the 1970s.... none of us can remember the earth that must have been needed to level the valley's and gully's of old. It would have been the same with the canal and railways... Hyde as certainly seen its fair share of civil engineering take place, and Hyde Lane must have been quite an achievement when it was done. Next time you are out and about and near to a stream just think of it's course and how it cuts through our town on it's way to the Tame.... think of the work that was done, some over 200 years ago and marvel at the workmanship and a job well done...

Red Pump Street & "Ten Houses"

The spread of the cotton industry caused an increase in the population and gradually the village of Gee Cross came into being. This was followed some time later by the foundation of
the town of Hyde. What was known as "Red Pump Street," really a row of ten houses, situated in the lower part of Market Street, was built probably between 1780 and 1790; and from this row or village, as it was formerly called, sprang the town.

(Taken from "The Annals of Hyde" BY THOMAS MIDDLETON).


"Ten Houses" 1950's

The " Street " owed its name to the fact that it stood on part of the land appertaining to what was known as "Red Pump Estate " (a substantial homestead belonging to the Howards and their connections, the Hegginbothams) which occupied the site of the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank at the corner of Market Place.



"Ten Houses" 2009


Scene showing Unemployment Demonstration at Ten houses in 1903.

The Cellar People

Robin & Jam

Most of the 19th Century saw two local lads making a name for themselves.. Born in 1815, Robin and Jam were the eldest of 8 children born to a Mr. & Mrs. Smith of Rock Street, Gee Cross.... they were a very strange pair indeed... identical in looks and dress... they would walk along the roads of Hyde and Gee Cross one walking behind the other and the one at the back walking in the foot steps of the leader. Of course this attracted attention and crowds of children would follow behind shouting and singing ... "Robin & Jam, Robin & Jam... which is Robin .. which is Jam". In time all their brothers and sister married and left home... Robin and Jam still lived at home in Rock Street but when their mum and dad died they went to live in the cellar of the end cottage on 'Stone Row' Mottram Road Gee Cross, this is where they lived until they died, and it is also where their nick name " The Cellar People" came from. People came to Gee Cross on 'daytrips' hoping to see them walking in their strange fashion... Jam was the first to die in 1889.. poor Robin died the next year in 1890. The following year at Hyde Carnival a competition was held for the two best representations of Robin and Jam, The small fortune of £1.00 being offered for the prize.

Gee Cross and Hyde has always been blessed with odd characters, many worthy of 'Village Idiot' status... I should know at one time I was one of them...... ;o)

Strawberry Hill 1857

Strawberry Hill

Victoria Street

The wall plaque says Strawberry Hill 1857

Sawyer Brow, Newton 1829

On Sunday, 19th July. 1829. 39 year old John Woodhouse, of Sawyer Brow raped his 10 year old daughter..., He was described by newspapers of the time as "a most determined looking wretch, with a saturnine countenance, with long black hair combed down on his forehead." The child, Maria Woodhouse, was not quite 11 years old, and she is described as a pretty child. The trial took place at the Chester Assizes, on Friday September 4th, 1829. The prisoner was found guilty, and sentenced to death.

Woodhouse was executed on Saturday, September 27th, 1829. along with a man named John Henshall, who was only 20 years old. Henshall had "broken the game laws," or in other words had been poaching, and it was proved that he had procured powder and shot for his companions one of whom shot at and missed a game-keeper. In reporting the executions the newspapers say that the hanging of Henshall was a disgrace to the country, but all alike state that there was no commiseration for the rapist Woodhouse.

After the execution the bodies were taken away by the relatives, which was customary at that time if relatives desired. In a report by the Stockport Advertiser it stated; "The wretch Woodhouse, who was hung on Saturday last, was conveyed in a cart from Chester to Newton Moor, his last place of residence, on Saturday last," ... it then went on to announce that his relatives had been exhibiting him to the curious for a small charge of 2 pennies, and had made considerable sum from doing so.

Thomas Middleton author of many local history books including The Annals Of Hyde, and A History Of Hyde And Its Neighbourhood wrote the following....

" Towards the close of the nineteenth century I came across old people who well remembered the case. One old lady said that: Woodhouse's body was bought back to Newton by his wife, who sat upon the coffin as it lay in the cart. The old lady I spoke to, was a girl of 14 years at the time, and was one of those who paid to see the body which was laid out on a large table in the front room, the charge being two-pence each person. The old lady stated that she well remembered seeing the black ring around the dead mans neck where the hangman's rope had left its mark."

It is said that the body remained at the family home until the smell was to much and the local authorities got involved and threatened action. Woodhouse's decaying body was eventually buried at Mottram, and the funeral party adjourned to a local inn after interment, and there spent some hours drinking.... It is said that whilst walking back to Newton they were passed by a man, a body-snatcher, who had the body hidden in sacking on a donkeys back, and was taking it to sell to a well known local surgeon who bought such things. After the Woodhouse family left the house in Sawyer Brow, it was said to be haunted, and was empty for years.... All the houses have now gone from Sawyer Brow apart from the top corner plot where the van is parked... the story is still told to children to this day by some but is greatly changed.... kids still dare each other to camp out on the fields where the house once stood..

White Terrace, Apethorn Lane

I believe one of these was used for a school for the mill workers children at one time, but I'm not sure if it was for Apethorn Mill, or Gibralter Mill that was next to the river.

O.S. Map 1897

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White Terrace and the Coloured Cottages on Apethorn Lane are in view here.