Canal burst at Gee Cross

View of the damage near Apethorn Lane

I have no idea what year this happened, I do recall that in the early 1960s the banking collapsed near to Captain Clarkes Bridge. I have memories of seeing a rusted motor bike in the mud.

MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS

MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS

By Eric Lancashire   Written in 1993

If you were to stop most people in Hyde today and ask them if they could direct you to the rowing club, they’d probably look at you as though you were stupid.

“Rowing?  Don’t be daft!  There’s nowhere in Hyde that’s suitable for rowing!”

However, if you’d asked that same question sixty or so years ago, most Hydonians would have directed you down Woodend Lane and across Captain Clarke’s Bridge.  There, adjoining Woodend Farm and built into landscaped gardens that sloped down to the canal, stood St Georges’ Rowing Club, an elegant single story building, housing sports and leisure facilities, plus a boathouse that accommodated three craft.

In those days, before the war, all the churches had thriving ‘Young Mens Sections’, and it was from the ranks of these organisations that football, cricket, table tennis and billiards teams were raised to compete against each other in local leagues.  There was intense rivalry between the various teams and at St Georges, Harry Renshaw was one of the undisputed stars of the table tennis competitions.

St Georges, however, also had an additional and unique attraction.  Their rowing club!

I’ve read that the club had originally been founded in the 1880’s, but had been disbanded and re-formed in 1903.  By the early 1920’s they had managed to obtain land beside Captain Clarke’s Bridge and in 1922 they built their clubhouse and laid out the gardens.  In the middle of this well-tended terraced landscape they had erected a war memorial inscribed with the names of those young men from the rowing club who had fallen during the Great War.

To be a member of the rowing club you also had to be a member of St Georges’ Church, and a condition of membership (as it was with all the sports teams) was that you attended Church or Sunday School at least twice every month.  The club was always well patronised and in my days it was organised and supervised by Mr Nicholas Warburton.

The clubhouse incorporated a games room, which contained a table tennis table and billiards table.  There was also a smaller card room, plus a tuck shop where you could buy biscuits, snacks, cups of tea and soft drinks.

War Memorial
 In remembrance and deep gratitude to their chums who fell in the World War 1914 - 1919. 
Private's T. H. Metcalfe, W. Whitehead, Corpral A. Robinson, Private's W. Wilson and H. W. Bancroft

Below the clubhouse, at canal level, were housed the boats.  Two of them, the ‘Grace Darling’ and ‘St George’ each had two pairs of oars and including the rowers could carry six people, one of whom acted as steersman.  A small skiff, the ‘Mary’ had room for one rower plus two passengers.  In addition there was also a canoe, but this was not a popular craft on account that it was prone to capsizing and depositing its occupants into the canal.

I seem to recall that the fee to take out the boats was one penny per person and on summer evenings the members would perhaps row up to Woodley and back.  On Saturday afternoons, however, remember that most people worked Saturday mornings in those days; the favourite trip was to row from the clubhouse along the canal all the way up to the bottom lock at Marple and then back again.  This voyage would take up most of the afternoon with different people taking their turn at the oars and having to navigate through the narrow Woodley Long and Hyde Bank tunnels.  At Woodley someone would have to get out of the boat and pull it through the long, dark tunnel by a rope, usually stumbling into unseen puddles in the pitch black and managing to get their feet soaking wet in the process.  But to get through the ‘Leggin Tunnel’ at Hyde Bank, where there was no towpath, you had to ship oars and paddle the boat through as best you could.

Apart from these minor difficulties the rowing was easy and uninterrupted, and we would glide past now long disappeared landmarks such as Gee Cross Mill and the old swing bridge.  The only other obstacle to smooth rowing on our voyage up to the locks was the aqueduct at Marple where the canal soars majestically across the Goyt Valley.  Here, yet again the canal became too narrow for rowing and one of the ‘crew’ had to disembark to tow the boat until the canal once again opened up.

Laying Of The Foundation Stone 20th May 1922

Mr N. Warburton hold the trowel

I walked down to the site of the old clubhouse recently, probably for the first time since the war.  The building and the war memorial have gone and the gardens are all derelict and overgrown with weeds, brambles and trees now, but when I was there I saw something that I’d never seen before.  Set into the ground, on a small raised patio near the old entrance gate were two stone plaques.  They were covered with moss, but when I wiped this away I was able to read them:

This land was given

by

Mr and Mrs N Warburton

as a memorial to their son

Harry Hurst Warburton

killed in Italy

February 23rd 1946

whilst on active service

with H.M. Forces

____________________________

Also to those who fell

in the Second World War

1939 – 1945

Flight Sgt R.H. Nash

Flying Officer F. Plant

Trooper H.H. Warburton

__________________________

It’s all a long time ago, but the memory of those times spent rowing with friends along the peaceful canal, passing green fields with grazing cattle will always remain with me.  I left the club shortly before I was called up to the Navy early in 1940, and when I returned to Hyde after the war, well by then I was married and had a young family.

That’s probably what happened to most of the members and I suppose the rowing club just faded out of use. Neglect, time and changing lifestyles did the rest.

Eric Lancashire

On the 1875 map the boat house is on the Gee Cross side of Captan Clarkes bridge, more towards the bridge that led towards Foxholes.

Now the 1910 maps shows the boathouse is on the opposite bank and on the Hyde side of Captain Clarkes Bridge. 

The area is now overgrown but with care underfoot it can be explored and signs of it's former glory picked out.

My thanks to Bill Lancashire and his father Eric for today's post.

A view from the past

Todays photo is of Gee Cross Mill as it looked from the Canal.
I always thought it looked very picturesque..


The Mill was oroginally known as Apethorn Mill and apparently the name was changed to Gee Cross Mill after a boiler explosion on 7 September 1887.

Happy Days...The Area called Kingston

There is an old expression which says "A picture paints a thousand words", but I think the opposite is also true that a thousand words paints a very good picture, particular in the case of Elsie Hawkins's description of what life was like in the Kingston area of Hyde back in the 1930's. The following was written in the 1990's (I think).

I was born in Frances Street, Hyde. We were bounded by the canal, gas works, Arley Mill, Millwood, sewage works, Smiths bone yard and the River Tame. Just over the bridge at the river Tame you come to Haughton Green and there we have Dan's Wood, Glass House Fold, Denton tip and Haughton Dale Rocks.

There were lots of children in our street so we were never at a loss for a playmate: what games we played, skipping, rounders, whip and top, bowl and hoop, statues, hop scotch, tick and ghosts. A favourite game was shop. We got some clay and made pies, cakes, sweets and even little coffins with a little clay baby inside. We had broken pot for money; if you had a piece with lovely colours or a nice pattern on , it was worth a shilling or sixpence depending on size. We also had concerts in our back yard. We were all budding ballet dancers. Admission was a piece of pot. It seems that we had glorious summers, and as we grew older we wandered further afield.

I will start at the area known as Kingston. At the canal where we fished for tiddlers, the bluebell wood near the cinder walk and the Bowker Brook, we took jam jars there to collect frog spawn, which we later took to school. Then there was the gas works where we could take a little barrow to buy some coke. It was put on the weigh bridge, then it was filled with coke and weighed again. We paid threepence or sixpence for it. We also went picking for coke. The Gas works were on Raglan Street and the carters always lost some of their load due to the cobbled roads. Arley Mill, off Raglan St and Alfred St was a cotton mill, and I can remember a big fire there. I think it was around 1930. Also in that area I remember a big chimney being demolished. Near by is Read St. Facing the terraced houses was a field called "Bob's field". This was a lovely romping ground and later it became a football pitch. It was the home ground for our local football team the "Kingston Star". Between Frances St West and Read St west was and still is the Bone works, it has now grown into a big concern. It never seemed to smell so much in those days, but the older people still remember all the bluebottles.

The sewage works on Mill Lane, I don't think caused many problems, but the crabapples from the trees gave you quite a tummy ache. Across the way we had Hyde Hall Farm, a nice little spot on the banks of the river. We used to watch the cowman or boy driving the cows to the shippon for milking and sometimes we could seethem being milked. I used to take a jug and get the milk straight from the dairy, and it was often warm.

Crossing Mill Lane Bridge over the Tame we came to the little hamlet called Glass House Fold or "Fowt". It's name comes from the the Flmish glass blowers who settled and worked there in the early 17th century. A Mr Burley Key from Haughton Green, local historian, was convinced that the fold was indeed a place for glass making. At the start of the council housing estate, Mr key was watching a new sewer being laid along the river valley. One morning he found a mass of glass and crucible fragments that had been deposited by the diggers. He informed Pilkington Glass Museum. They sent their curator who recognised the fragments as similar types to those found in the first glass house sites in the late 16th & 17th centuries. In august 1969 they made the first excavation. and in June 1970 they returned forthe second. A booklet was published by North West Museums and can be seen in Hyde Library.

In Dans Wood close by by Glass House Fold were some old mine shafts, a young boy and girl from the fold were playing in the wood when they fell down one of the mine shafts. From Middleton's "History of Hyde", the girl said " I put my pinny on the ground and we said our prayers. "I put my arms around Jacky and we went to sleep". They were found the next day and I think were brought up in a washing basket. I don't recall the date but the boy was called Jack Bowker (or Mason), he was brought up by his grandparents Mr & Mrs Bowker. The girl was called Sarah Leech.

Then there was Denton tip also on Mill Lane, but on the right hand side. We had to go through a May flower field and we came out with our feet wet through. It was on this tip that we found our "pot" money. I remenber the noise of the crickets on this tip. What a place to play, but we were happy panning for pottery. We must have got filthy, maybe thats why my friend Tarmar and I went swimming in the River Tame. Our swimming costumes were filthy with black oil, and we were a dreadful sight. We only did this once.

On we go up Mill Lane into the little village of Haughton Green. At the far end of the village there was a little common called Tommy Todd, complete with swings. The Francis Street gang would swoop on the common, enjoying ourselves, and then like a tribe of Indians, and noise enough to wake the dead in St Mary's churchyard, the kids from the green would charge, and if you knew what was good for you, you went, and we did.

Our next stop was Haughton Vale rocks, we would sit down and eat our jam butties and drink Woodhead pop, and have a lovely time. We made our way home via Ivy cottages and the Gibraltar Mill, along the side of the canal to Captain Clarke's bridge. Under the bridge the tow path switches from the left side to the right side of the Peak Forest canal, because the Lord of the Manor, George Hyde Clarke wanted to keep his estate free from intruders. We then would walk onto the canal bridge at Manchester Road, under the bridge where the towpath goes back to the left hand side. We passed the place where we fished for tiddlers, down the path known as Cinder Walk, where there was another brook, which I think came from Godley, it would sometimes be coloured so it must have come past the CPA and got some of the dyes in it. As we pass it, we would chant...

Jinny Jinny Greenteeth coming with a knife, run lads, run lads, run for your lives...

I really don't know why we did this. We came out near Manchester Road near the Wellington Inn on Kingston Brow.

Edward Clarke married the daughter of Phillip Haughton of Kingston in Jamaica, and the area reminded him of Jamaica, hence the name. Also a lot of the streets around the Market Place were called after members of the Hyde Clarke family. Frances St., Anne St., Edward St., Rochfort St., Mary St., Tanner St., Clarendon St., Hamnet St., John St etc etc.

Apart from a few houses, Frances St and Read St have been demolished and just a few houses exist on the left hand side of Mill Lane. Hyde Hall Farm has gone, as well as Glass House Fold. Along with those may flower field and Denton Tip.

As the song says " The song has ended but the memory's linger on" and what memories of a lovely, happy carefree and delightful childhood.

By Elsie Hawkins

View from Captain Clarkes

Looking Back

I do like this view, looking from Captain Clarkes Bridge... on the left is a railway bridge that led to Fox Holes. The buildings to the right of the bridge are known as Thistley Fields.. 
I have spent many happy hours around here. The area where Fox Holes Estate is now was once my play ground... along with Thistley Fields, and of course the canal. 

Well Meadow To Dukinfield Road And Beyond

Dave took these picture of the tunnel under the railway leading from Flowery Field to Dukinfield Road after we did another posting from the area. It seems this as been a right of way for many years, well before the railway and the Throstle Bank mill was built as can be seen on the 1841 map.

1841



1910

If anyone can tell me the name of this footpath, I'd be greatful. 

Views Around Hyde (3)

Around Manchester Road Switch Bridge

English Heritage list this bridge as Grade 2 and have this to say about it....

 Roving bridge and road bridge.

1804 but widened on both sides in the C19 and C20. Snecked, rock-faced and hammer-dressed stone, brick, cast iron and concrete. The original elliptical-arch tunnel which is grooved for stop planks was widened to the north in the mid-C19 with a truncated elliptical keystone arch which is now partly obscured by the C20 footpath bridge. The south was widened later in C19 in brick and is separated from the tow-path bridge by two pipelines. The tow-path bridge has a spiral walkway, panelled cast iron parapet walls and a flat stone slab deck. Interest stems from the bridges evolutionary development.

I spent many a dinner time hanging around here when I was at Greenfield Street School... there used to be two old traction engines on the spare ground where the old pit head was.  It must have been a very busy area at one time, barges being loaded here with coal... and then just through the bridge was the main wharf.. still there today by the way. Always worth a walk around this area of Hyde's industrial past.

Magic Tree (2)

We have been asked for directions to Hyde's Magic Tree that we featured the other day... well we have done better than that... our very capable resident photographer Dave Williams went back down there and took more pictures for use which show the way to find the tree. So it's over to Dave........

I thought the easiest way to tell you where the tree is would be to go down there and take a series of photos, so I did that this morning... You go down Apethorn Lane and over the canal bridge .

then down the steps and the path towards the river...

Go through the gate...... 

and by the side of the river....

and where the path coming across the bridge from Gibraltar Lane crosses that path, go straight ahead ...

follow the man with the dog!..... Go up the rise and past the bench on the left......

then follow the path till you see a small signpost on the left telling you about the lime trees......

The 'magic tree' is just ahead of you on the right.... 

You will see that the tree still has a good display of leaves .

......

Thanks you again Dave for coming to the rescue..... this walk would be great to start the New Year off.... and on that subject I'd like to wish all our friends and fellow Hydonians far and wide... and one or two we have adopted as honorary Hydoniana as well.... a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Nancy & Dunc

Tom & Jane

The Magic Tree

Holm Oak

Dave Williams sent this in for us all...   

This time of the year, and particularly when the weather's like it's been just recently always takes me back some 20 years or so to when our 2 boys were still young. There was a column in the Reporter one week about the 'Magic Tree' in Gower Hey Wood just the other side of the canal from Gee Cross Mill. The tree is an evergreen variety of the oak and as such is in leaf throughout the year - I remember taking the lads down to have a look at it. I've been down today to have another look and although it looks a little the worse for wear in this cold weather there are still leaves on the branches. It's not easy to get a good photo of it, but I've attached what I managed to take, and also a couple of others I took on my walk. You'll see that some people obviously thought the ice on the canal was thick enough to walk on, and luckily they were right!

Thank you Dave, I had this tree pointed out to me along with others when a very young boy by my dad, we were more than likely out collecting Holly to decorate the house. The above tree is a Holm Oak, also known as the Holly Oak.. Not far from this tree is a beautiful Variegated Holly which my dad always hoped was well in berry.

 



Dave mentioned about folk walking on the ice..... I cringe now looking back at all the times my friends and I did this... we even rode our bikes on it, and how we'd laugh if someone fell in...we'd then head for the woods to light a fire and dry off before going home.

I've added the old postcard which we've shown before, as a comparison to Dave's shot of Captain Clarkes Bridge.....  thanks again Dave for these great pictures..;0)

Captain Clarke's Bridge

Captain Clarke's Bridge is at the bottom of Woodend Lane, it was originally named Wood End Canal Bridge. The bridge type is known as a 'Roving Bridge' and was designed not just to move the tow-path from one side of the canal cutting to the other... but to allow the horse pulling a narrow-boat access to the other side without the need to be unhitched. This bridge must be the most photographed bridge in Hyde, it shows up on a few old post cards of Hyde. When I was at Greenfield Street School we would sometimes walk this way to and from school... if we were on our way there we would stop here and decide if we should continue or skip school for the day.. I'd say once it was suggested it was a done deed... trouble was for me that, one day lasted very nearly 3 years... ha! 

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...