Around Newton Mill,

Following on from yesterdays picture I have manage to enlarge a few sections which caught my eye and hopefully will be of interest to others.

On this section can be seen Ashton Rd, The bottom end of  Garden Street and the playing fields. The corner houses of Garden St are scaffolded out as the upper brickwork is being finished off,  the window frames are all in and what look like the roof trusses are across the road ready to go up. Garden St, Clarence St. and the bottom of Mill St are also to be seen. Daisyfield Methodist Church on Ashton Road is surrounded by Newton Mill

What were the building on Ashton Road bottom / middle across from the playing fields? The road off to the left is shown as Cundy St. on a 1910 map.

Further up Ashton Rd, first side road on the left is Irene Avenue, next left Lodge Lane, and across Lodge St. Part of Bagshaw St. can be seen centre left. Surrounded by trees and just off Lodge St. is a property that shows up as Bradley House on a 1887 map. It's nice to see that trees still exist around there.  Carry on along Ashton Rd and on the right is a 3 story building, which is the Co-op on Ashton Road /Talbot Road junction. The bottom of Talbot Rd sure looks different.

The road cutting this picture in half is Talbot Road, bottom left is mostly the roofing of Newton Mill, the bottom middle and right shows Newton Moor Cotton Mill. Between the 2 mills runs Lodge st where you can make out the corner  where The Butty Bar now sells bacon butties and pies. Follow the street up to it's junction with Talbot Road. Across the road and over to the top left  Harbour Farm.  The Reservoir  is no more, but the walled section on Talbot Rd is still there. There's a tree in front of the reservoir which is still there and on the left of the tree is a bench,  I'm glad to say there's still is one on that spot. The cluster of houses top right are on Oakfield Rd.

Further up Talbot Rd and the row of houses opposite Oakfield Rd are known as Quality Row, to the right of them is the junction of Talbot Rd and Hallbottom St, The road across is Acresfield Road,  Where the road forms a diamond shape is where Acresfield Rd,  crosses St Marys Rd and eventually turns into Bradley Green Road. Work as not yet started on the Bradley Green Road housing, and the bottom of St Marys is yet to be built on. Also no sign of Bluebell Close.   

Barry Lewis From OZ.

Today's post is made possible by Barry Lewis who was born on Victoria Street, Newton in 1946 and attended St Mary's primary School and Flowery Field Secondary, His Grandad had a Chippy on Talbot Road across from St Mary's School. Barry joined the RAF after working at T.Walls, Godley and served 5 years before migrating to Oz in 1969. Over to Barry now for the rest of the post.

No.15 setting off to Newton...

My Dad, Bill Lewis was a conductor then a driver on the No. 15 for years. He also drove the 210 from Hyde to Piccadilly, Manchester.

This is he on the right (the skinny one) with his driver Alan Stelfox in the late 1940s.


I have also attached a recent photo of myself and my first Primary School teacher Mrs Betty Sparkes.  Please allow me a little story here to tie in with the bus story.  Mrs Sparkes was my teacher at St Mary's primary school on Talbot Rd in the early 1950s,  I lived with my Mum and dad in the Chippy directly across the road from the school.  Every day my dad would be driving the Bus and he would stop the bus (passengers and all) outside the chippy to collect his flask of tea and sandwiches, but also to wait for Mrs Sparkes to get out of school and catch the bus.  She lived at Glossop and if she missed dads bus she would miss her connection at Hyde and have to wait over an hour for the Glossop bus.  On a few occasions Mrs Sparkes would be a little late out of school but Dad and the passengers would wait until she stepped on the bus.  Would that happen these days ? I doubt it.

The above photo of myself and Mrs Sparkes was taken in August 2010 and it was our first meeting in almost 60 years and we had a great time together. Unfortunately she passed away October 2011.

St Mary School

The above shows St Mary's on the left corner, then a smaller building and then the Methodist building.

In this photo you can see the front of the shops on Talbot Road (where my Grandad had his Chippy in the old days) and just up the road is the Conservative club jutting out,  known locally as 'The Time Tunnel.

Opposite the Time Tunnel you will see a fence then a load of trees, within those trees is the little house above and alongside that was the Methodist building seen in the Whit Walk picture above.  There was then a large wide dirt driveway and then the houses that you see in the shops pictures.

No 177 Talbot Rd which was owned by the Taylor family, was in the 1830s a public house known as The Buck Inn. It recently underwent restoration and now houses apartments/flats.  

I think this is a theatre group standing in the yard of St Mary’s school, over the top of the ‘Brides’ head you will see my old bedroom window above Jess Lewis Chip shop and next to that was Mayalls bakery. I hope someone can name the folks in the photo.