Bits and Bobs part 1

Over the next few days I will post some odds and sods that were sent to us by Werneth Low.
These are just the sort of things we are looking for.


Ashton Brothers in its full glory.


Ashton Brothers R.I.P.


Many Thanks to Werneth Low for sharing.
Much appreciated. :)

A look at the past !

Below are a few snippets from a copy of the Ashton Brothers Magazine dated December 1920.

A humourous  report made about an inspection of the Carrfield & Throstle Bank Mills.

A cartoon

Many Thanks to John Hopwood for the loan of the magazine !!

William Ovens

Today we received this fascinating email from Peter Fallon,
Over to Peter...

"Following on from recent blogs of Ashton Bros / Newton Street Hyde.

My great great grandfather William Ovens who lived at 7 Newton Street Hyde, who died in 1910 worked at Ashton Bros for a grand total of 72 years one month which was a record and possibly has not been surpassed in the UK.

Please find attached files with reference to this.

 

PS Could you please put on your blog a request for anyone who may have photos of Ovens Butchers Shops, there was one on Manchester Rd, one on Mottram Rd also one on Market St.

Kind Regards"



 






Imagine telling 9 year olds today that they would have to start work and work for 72 years - the mind boggles !!

Many Thanks, Peter !! :)

The Last of Handforths Pies/Newton Street Shops and the M67

This informative piece was sent to us via David Mills

 

"Hi,

 

I found this old picture (courtesy of Tameside council) that was taken in the early 1900's of whit walks.  You will notice the stone wall of Ashton Brothers (on Newton street) meets up with the brick wall of the first shop in the row of shops  that would lead in to Hyde (note the Newton Street sign can be seen above the wooden doors).  I think this first shop eventually became the famous Handforths Pies.  I used to live on Dukinfield Road, so  this was a local treat every Saturday lunch with home made chips and it was the purported best pies in the world.  Its funny as Ashton Brothers seem to scale down its operation shortly after this pie shop went!

 

The whole area changed and most of it went (George Street etc), so I had really lost my bearing of where the shops stopped and started.  My mother told me that Handforths pies was the first shop next to Ashton Brothers, so when I found this photo……..but there again was this first shop demolished earlier and was Handforths further up?

 

 

 

I couldn't resist looking for the 'odd brick' that might be left from 30 odd years ago so I drove past a few weeks ago and noticed there is certainly more than the 'odd brick' that remains of the first shop that adjoins the stone wall of Ashton Brothers.  It looks like the road is now raised as the wall the stone wall now seems lower owing to  the changes that were made to the area as a consequence of the motorway.  The road also starts to bear to the right at this point to go over the motorway.

 

You can also see the bricks on the outer wall run parallel to the stonework without jagged edges, so this would have been where one of  the wooden doors was hung (see on the first photo).  Recent pruning of shrubbery is now revealing the gable end of the first shop (see below)

 

From the above picture it looks like some sort of concrete was used to cap the bricks so that water would run off them to protect them from ingress as its seems the wall was left as some sort of retaining wall from the land below into Ashton Brothers.

 

 

The above 1968 map shows the first row of  shops leading into Hyde (between Mary Street and Dukinfield Road) from the wall of the first shop we have discovered. If you zoom in on the map it was actually looks like the gable end wall forms part of an access ginnel which turns right possibly running  behind the whole row of shops possibly for goods deliveries.

 

Looking at this whole area where the motorway went, as it was an odd thing to do removing all the houses shops to make way for the motorway as so much of Hyde was lost and a lot of character. From the above map it looks like there were three rows of shops on Newton Street.  Why didn't they make a tunnel?

 

The 30 bus (now the 330 bus) which went from Ashton to Hyde to Stockport (and beyond) used to turn at the end of Dukinfield Road and the on to George Street an you were in the bus station!  After all this was done it seemed to take for ever.

 

I expect the Motorway took more prosperity out of Hyde than it brought to Hyde .  I also remember the numerous streets you could cross to get into Hyde most with shops or housing, sadly most of these are now dead ends.  I expect these were the 'so called slums' where we re-housed people in high rise flats or took them out of town where there were very few shops (along with their loss of business to the area) - so much for progress!

 

It also looks like Wellspun (the last occupiers of the remaining Ashton Brothers site) is all being demolished, I wonder if the wall will remain or survive the demolition of the site.

 

Does anybody have any pictures of the famous Handforths pie shop as I seem to remember in the 1970's it having a beige coloured sign with Handforths written on it.  More to the point, did this shop relocate anywhere when it was demolished as result of the M67 motorway works (or did they retire after making a crust!)."

 

Best Regards

David Mills

 

Super account and photos there, David.

Thank you so much !

Carrfield Mill

 This week we received the following from Lee and Judy Brown....

"Enclosed are a couple of photographs I took of Carrfield Mill, when they were still working a night shift. One from Park Road and one from Newton Street. I took them when I went out to photograph the opening of the M67 circa 1978."





Carrfield Mill was founded by the Ashton Brothers, Samuel, Thomas, James and John, of Greencroft and Newton Moor Mills. Erected 1817, Carrfield Mill was intended as a combined spinning and weaving mill from the start and 200 powerlooms weavers were being employed there in 1819.
Carrfield Mill lies in a hollow and not surprisingly it was locally known as "The Hollow Factory".
The partnership known as Samuel Ashton & Brothers was dissolved in 1821 when Samuel left and the remaining three brothers traded as T.J. & J. Ashton. . In September 1823 this partnership too was dissolved, John and James forming another partnership with Robert Ashton, a younger brother, at Newton Moor Mill  and Greencroft Mill. This left Thomas Ashton in sole control of the Carrfield Mill site.

Many thanks for the photos, Lee and Judy & to Ian Haynes for the information about Carrfield Mill from his book, Hyde Cotton Mills . For anyone interested there are sometimes copies of Ians book for sale  at Harrisons Newsagents in Hyde.  :)

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.

Stewart Wilson Car Dealers

I'm not sure whether or not it was the opening of the Stewart Wilson Car Dealership on Clark Way, but these photos were taken on 10 November 1984 when they had arranged for a Williams (no relation!) Grand Prix car and a Lancia rally car to be on display outside the showroom. I took our children, Paul and David, down to have a look.

The two cars parked outside the showroom and looking across Clark Way towards Ashton Brothers

David (in buggy) and Paul wondering what the funny car was (it's a 1983 Williams FW08C)

This is a 1983 Lancia Martini 037 rally car. Paul looks very thoughtful.

I seem to remember 4-wheel drive cars and a lot of alloy wheels in the showroom when Stewart Wilson occupied it. It's currently empty and up for sale by auction.

Ashton Bro's Advert

Advert From 1942

Cotton Mill Girls.

 This picture was sent to us by Dave.
It is of his Grandmother , Doris Higgins ,who worked at Aston Brothers.

Thanks Dave, great to hear from you ,as always.



You have a few pics of men at work in the cotton mills. 
Here is one of the girls at Ashton Brothers.  My grandmother, Doris Higgins, is centre front. She was a very clever woman and the teachers wanted her to stay on at school to train for teaching but necessity and her mother's mantra of "not getting above your station" condemned her to a life in the mill.  She started as a young girl of 12 and told us it was so and that every night she used to pray "Please God don't send morning, don't let it be morning".  What a sad prayer from a young girl.

Dave

The Hollow Factory

``

This would have been the view from around where Throstle Bank Mill would have been. I have been after a picture of this card for a while now and this one was recently sent in by John W. 

Hollow Brow, Newton, at the junction of Dukinfield Road and Newton Street. The tower of Flowery Field Church is in the centre background. On the right is the Ashton Brothers' Bayleyfield Mills. I am sure that the spire of St Stephens to be seen in-between Flowery Fields Tower and the factory chimney. 

ABC Christmas Magazine 1920 part 2

Article taken from the 1920 ABC Christmas Magazine.
Nice to see that the Dog was "Mans Best Friend" back then ,too.

A.B.C. Magazine Christmas 1920

 This is the front cover of the 1920 Christmas Magazine from Ashton Brothers.
The following picture is a copy of the first page and accompanying photo of Lord Ashton of Hyde.







The magazine is full of quotes,stories and activities about Christmas. I will be posting some in the coming days.

Thanks to John Hopwood for the loan and subsequent publication of this magazine.

James North Demolition

This was taken looking down Stockport Road during the demolition of the James North factory (circa 1998) to make way for the new housing estate. It looks such a small area but dont be fooled- that's just the photo perspective. Notice Ashton Brothers Carrfield Mill in the background behind Chartist House Flats. Also see the tower to Floweryfield church on the left of the flats.


This one was taken from the top of Market Street showing the iconic tower coming down.

Hyde Festival Orchestra.

This a photo of Hyde Festival Orchestra (HFO). This Orchestra was formed almost 60 years ago and continues into present day although much reduced in size.
George Wain can be seen playing the trombone far left back row. George Wain, a renowned art teacher at Hyde Grammar School, was also an amateur film maker. During WWll he was commissioned by The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents to make road safety films for school children. George Wain also played a "musical saw" as his party piece. He was last seen playing in the Liberal club in Floweryfield, Hyde.
This photo shows the Orchestra in the Hyde Festival Theatre where they used to meet to practise. Before they moved here they used to use a room in Ashton Brothers' Bayleyfield Mill. My Mum played the first violin in the HFO for many years. I have very fond memories of the concerts they used to perform at Hyde Town Hall....nothing to do with the fact that we could roam the Town Hall unsupervised whilst the concert was in progress. :) Sorry Mum....

UPDATED


November 16th 1979
Article in the North Cheshire Herald.

Ashton Brothers From Above.

Aerial Views

Continuing with the 'from above' picture yesterday I was sent these from my brother John.... I'd not seen these before and spent time picking buildings and roads out..

Aerial View from Chartist house.

This is an aerial View from Chartist House looking over towards Bayleyfield Mill or Ashton Brothers as it is more commonly known...I think it's circa 1994. It shows just how huge the site was! Such a shame when you see how much has now been demolished to make way for housing.

Ashton Brothers Workers. 1950s

Another great picture sent in by Harry Smith.. I'll leave it to Harry to tell us about this.  

 "This photo is of the workers at Ashton Bros. who worked I believe in the Cop cellar, a very unpleasant place where the used bobbins were stripped of what little weft was left on them so they could be reused.

Only those who experienced the textile industry could know what a soul destroying job this was, yet textiles kept thousands in work in this area and it's hard to believe that has all gone completely".   Regards Harry.

Cheers for this and all the others Harry.... keep them coming... and if there's anyone else who would like to see their old photo's featured here please feel free to send them to us.. along with any information.... we will do the rest and be pleased to show them.

Cotton Industry Jobs

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. 

Albert Hopwood

This article appeared in Ashton Brothers quarterly publication A.B.C Magazine at Christmas 1920. It features a photo of John Hopwoods Grandad , Albert Hopwood.. John , as you may be aware, is a large contributer to this blog , supplying us with endless excellent photographs and ephemera.



Up until the World War II Albert Hopwood had a barbers shop which was located next to the Shepherds Call pub on Market Street. This was destroyed by the Tower Street bomb which claimed the life of two small boys Harold Leah, aged 3 and his Brother Thomas Leah aged 5.

Aerial Views continued

Here we have another in the series of Aerial views over Hyde supplied as always by John Hopwood. As before this dates from around 1987.



This one shows Byles DIY centre, Hyde Caravan Sales, Hyde Furnishing Company (now Oaklands) ,Hyde Sports (now a household goods shop), Jolly Carter pub and Andrews Gift shop which stood for many years on the corner of Hoviley Brow (now renamed as an extension of Clarendon Place). To the left of Byles you can see the Royal Albert (?) pub ,now the Bike and Hound and the Onward Pools betting shop ,later Fred Dones. In the background you can see Ashton Brothers or Carrfield Mill to give it its proper name. In the far distance you can see the Spire of St Stephen's Church in Floweryfield.