Bandstand Hyde Park

Hyde Parks Bandstand 

Thank you to Maria Slater for this excellent shot of the bandstand, looks very atmospheric in Black and White. 

The bandstand was opened officially in 1922 on the 18th of May. It has played host to many music events and still does. 

In the past such bands as the Band Of The Household Cavalry and the Black Watch have entertained the crowds here. Brass bands from many local works and colliery bands would have played here to large crowds of Hydonians. 

The bandstand is a Grade 11 listed building and as such is on the List of buildings of special architectural or historic interest,where it is described as:

 Bandstand. Late C19. Copper roof on cast iron columns and brick base. Octagonal canopy on columns placed at each corner. Base has ashlar dressings. Elaborate pierced cast iron arches span between the enriched columns which have crocket capitals. Similar pierced eaves brackets. Dome- shaped roof with decorative crown and weather-vane.

Hyde Drinking Fountain

A photo of the drinking fountain that used to stand on Hyde Market and now resides in Hyde Park



Anyone know when it was moved to the park ?

Various 1960's Snaps.

Hyde Park flower beds circa 1966. Look how beautiful the flower displays were !
Note Hyde Town Hall and St Georges Church in the background.


Whit Walk Band circa 1968


Whit Walk. Market Street Parade circa 1968
Williams Deacon's Bank  and Greenwoods Menswear in the background .
Sadly Greenwoods is no longer open and the bank is now the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Williams Deacon's Bank is now part of the Royal bank of Scotland.It was acquired in 1930 and had a large network of branches in the north-west of England. In 1970 it was integrated with Glyn,Mills and Co.and the The National Bank (which were part of the same group) to form Williams and Glyn's Bank

 William Deacon's Bank

 Greenwoods Menswear Ltd is a clothing retailer with a strong reputation for customer service and celebrated its 150th anniversary last year. The Company which has its Head Office in Bradford West Yorkshire, opened its first shop in 1860 in Bradford City Centre selling hats to the wool Barons of Yorkshire.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the above information.

Bowling Green Pavilion 2007

Bowling Green Pavilion in Hyde Park taken in 2007, when it had been damaged by fire.
The Pavilion has since been restored.





Photos kindly sent to us by Phil Shawdale.
Many Thanks, Phil ! :)

More Postcards from another era

  An old postcard of St Pauls Church.


 Hyde Park Bowling Green

More memories from Bill

More photos from Bill Crompton with descriptions.

"One with my Father on the said Hyde Hall Farm. You can see the gas holder behind. 1951/2 and one on Horseback.

There is also a colour photo of a group of Hyde lads on a night out I am sure they will be recognised,I am the one furthermost away. 1966

Another picture showing myself and a mate sat on some stone in Hyde park 1965.

The last one is of myself taking part on the whit walks, the 1950s on Great Norbury Street."

As always, thanks to Bill for sharing.
Without your generosity there would be no Hyde blog :)

Hyde Park View

Picture and Words By Duncan Nield

Some thoughts to go with the pictures

The bandstand provided the focal point (and perhaps still does) for the Whit Walks through Hyde. This was particularly big business in the 60’s. All the local churches, youth groups and fraternities would process through Hyde with their various banners, flags, insignia and regalia on a Sunday afternoon and congregate in the park for  hymns accompanied by a brass band. For my part ( Duncan Nield) I marched with my Sunday school from Zion’s in Gee Cross. Which is when I first met one of the blog founders Nancy Morris. Other young uns in our class were Jane Morris, Martin and Pip Wilson, Philip Park and Iain Broadhead.

The bandstand looks better now than I remember but still retains its original grandeur.

The playpark has changed a lot. It used to have a mini steam train that you could ride on back and forth. But the current playground has far more things to do on it than the old swings, slide and umbrella.

The picture of the footpath that drops off in the centre, was where many of us used to emerge from Hyde Grammar in the early 70s when fiddling time off from PE. The Path drops down into a valley that was part of the school cross country run and up the other side was the school buildings, tennis courts, football and cricket pitches. (The tennis courts and football pitch are now a police station). There were various strategic ‘gaps’ in the school fence and during PE, we would take in in turns for couple to bunk off as two missing from the ranks of 30 or so was never noticed, and head for the refreshments hall to buy Mambos and Jubblys and feed the rabbits ( now where the stone arrangement is in one of the pictures).

My Gran (Margaret ‘Peggy’ Nield) used to own a greengrocers in Hyde which was located on a shopping street that disappeared when they dug the trench for the M67 to go through. She lived on Shelly Grove off Lodge Lane and my younger sister and I spent many weekends with her up there. She always saved loads of carrots, cauliflowers and cabbages that were past there best to take us to the park to feed the rabbits.

Credit to the park keeper – great job, all looking good !

Duncan Nield

Hyde Park Band Stand

I've fond memories of this bandstand from different times in my life.. earliest memories are of school summer holidays when a few sandwiches, crisps and a drink of pop would be our picnic out on the grass whilst watching a band or a Punch and Judy show. We would meet up with our Aunty Doris and my cousins and enjoy an afternoon together.   Happy days indeed.
The bandstand was also a place we would 'hang about' at school dinner times... hoping to get a glimpse of the girls from Flowery Field school... and then later on if you'd been lucky enough to get a date meeting the same girls.. I'm lucky if I could make it up the steps never mind chasing a girl around it for a kiss..   

1920s



1960s



November 2011

Do you have memories of the bandstand? 

More Hyde Park..

 Here are a couple more photos of Hyde Park  from Tony.


View from the bottom gates ,winter 1952

The same view taken in 2011 
How much more overgrown it looks in the second photo !

Thanks as always ,Tony !

Hyde Park 1953

We are very lucky to have received some wonderful photos from Tony Downend. His father was a semi professional photographer and took many photos around Hyde.

Here are a few to begin with...

To celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953....





Same view in 2010



The Coronation Crown outside Bayley Hall in Hyde Park 1953


Same view 2010



I haven't seen any other photos of this event so it makes it all the more special.


Thanks so much, Tony - I'm looking forward to showing off many more of your Fathers wonderful photographs on this blog!

Hyde Park Bowling Club Postcard

This postcard shows the Green and Pavilion .

Unfortunately we have no date for it but I do know that photos exist from the 1920's which gives you some idea how long it has been in existance.


A photograph of the Hyde Park Bowling Clubs green circa 1980's.
Thanks to Jack and Doreen Morris for loan of it.


A capture from Bing Maps to show that the Greens are still looking good!

Anybody who has any information on the club, or even better ,if they have ever played here , please get in touch and share your stories. We'd love to hear them!

Hyde Park Entrance

A postcard showing the Park Road Entrance to Hyde Park.

Park Road

A recent take off Google maps shows it hasn't really changed all that much over the years.

Views around Hyde (5) - Hyde Park Woods.

 The Woods in Hyde Park.

Looking really nice after the recent good weather which has brought it to life after the long winter.



A great early morning capture by Joshua Morris.
Thanks Joshua  :)

Post Card From McKenzie's

 Our friend John T. was in McKenzie's Auto Repairers in Kirkley Street off Dowson Road, in their waiting room John saw an A4 paper scanned copy of a postcard of Hyde with a view of the paddling pool at Hyde Park, which we'd recently featured. John asked Mark McKenzie if he could borrow it to copy and send to us. It is a great post card and thank you John for thinking of the blog.

Whilst he was talking,  Mark related a story about the bottom left picture of the postcard that shows a view of The Lake at Pole Bank Hall. He said that a neighbour of his was taken to Pole Bank by his mother in the 1960's with a small red plastic battery operated boat. He launched the boat at on side of the lake and as it neared the far bank it sank! Last year whilst visiting his mother who was a resident in Pole Bank Nursing Home, he noted that the lake had been emptied and dredged and he wandered down with memories of the sad event over 40 years ago and lo and behold there was the red plastic boat on top of the pile of dredged mud and silt! Amazing. What a great story this is,John... I, too spent my happy times here as I know others from our group have. I saw the amount of silt which was removed last year... I read somewhere it was twice as much as was expected to be dredged out. 

Postcard from Hyde Park.

Here is a postcard of Hyde Park.
I've cropped the card and tried to enlarge the photos so as to get a bit more detail.







This one shows the dell in the woods complete with "castle top" bridge.




On the one above you can see the drinking water fountain in the background behind the paddling pool. This fountain used to stand on the corner of Hyde Market.

Hyde Park Paddling Pool

I spent many happy hours in this pool as a child, the place would have been full of children in the school holidays. All the mothers would be sat on the benches gossiping, some would be knitting and one or two would drop off for forty winks. All the children would be running about and the noise would have been very loud but still a chance for forty winks would have been gladly taken. Mums would have bought sandwiches and pop for a picnic... if we were good we'd get an ice cream from a van that would be parked up. Now and then as a rare treat we'd have our dinner in the cafe... normally when the gas or electric metre had been emptied and mum was a bit flush as she called it. We always got treated when the metres were emptied and we'd look forward to seeing the 'metre man' in the street.

Summer time in the park meant playing on the swings, and slide, making castles in the sand pit. watching crown green bowling, and brass bands playing on the bandstand, even running wild in woodlands. The thing I liked the most was the small train  which was kept in a shed at the far end of the play area, near the railings on Park Road. This was proper fun for a small boy... and if you were lucky the driver would let you wear his hat... Ha! I bet he always had 'nits' thinking back now. I was very sad when we visited the park and was told the train had gone. I am not sure if it is now at Manor Park, Glossop or a Garden Centre at Poyton... I must have heard that some where. I also remember the big drinking fountain near to the paddling pool... the water was always cold... most welcoming after running about in the sunshine. If you have pictures of the park please send them in so we can make a collection of them here... and as always your memories of the park would make the post that bit more special. . 

Hyde Park Gates

Park Road Entrance

Lodge Lane entrance

Band Stand Hyde Park

The Bandstand. Late C19. Copper roof on cast iron columns and brick base. Octagonal canopy on columns placed at eachcorner. Base has ashlar dressings. Elaborate pierced castiron arches span between the enriched columns which have crocket capitals. Similar pierced eaves brackets. Dome-shaped roof with decorative crown and weather-vane.

(Taken from http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-212480-band-stand-hyde
- with thanks.)



"The bandstand was officially opened in May 1922 and is now Grade II listed on the national “List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest”.

The bandstand was originally surrounded by moveable glass partitions and played host to bands such as the Household Cavalry, Black Watch and local colliery bands. During the 1930’s the bandstand hosted two concerts every Sunday. It is now used on special events during the summer months.
(Thanks to Tameside Local History Forum)
http://www.tamesidehistoryforum.org.uk/geecross.htm

We are showing these today in the hope they will jog your memories of times spent in Hyde Park... We have been trying to find pictures of the paddling pool, and the small train which one could ride on... if you have any pictures you'd like to share on Hyde Park please send them in, and of course your memories are always welcome in the comments section or by email... 

Thanks to Jack Morris for the most recent photograph - Much appreciated!