MEMORIES OF GROWING UP IN HYDE by Roger Chadwick

1945 – 1950  Part 4

Halfway down Station Road Godley there is a tunnel under the line which in my young days led through the back of Wall’s Ice Cream factories.   On the back road towards Godley Hill War Memorial you came to the pie factory.   The smell of pies cooking and the view through the window of all the operatives preparing the pies would have me slavering like a dog!    My mother worked there briefly but never came home with samples!   Some of my contemporaries had holiday jobs at “Walls” but I remember Unilever as a mean company towards its employees and their rates of pay were not good. I found other more lucrative work!

Those were the days when one could pick and choose – even for temporary jobs.

Godley Hill, with its old Inn and cottages was a quaint and interesting place.    In one such I had a friend whose mother ran the Ice Cream Kiosk at the foot of Godley Hall Road.   The War Memorial was our last stop on the Whit Friday Church Procession and I see from the Blog that it is still there. 

 

Godley War Memorial

There was another track from the “tunnel” which led to Godley Golf Club where both my parents were members. Both were active “athletes” and excelled at golf and other sports.     Although I learn to swing a club and play reasonably well for my age, sport was something that my parents did not pass on to me.    I preferred to follow the wisdom of Winston Churchill who is reputed to have said, “When I feel like sport, I lie down until the feeling wears off”.   But the Golf Club was an interesting ramshackle affair until it was re-built and the source of veal sandwiches, pork pies, home made scones and tea after matches.  I became friendly with the Professional, Alan Brown, who let me share hair raising rides with him on the old jeep as he mowed the fairways and the Greens.  The 9 hole course was really an assault course with no need for artificial hazards – the terrain provided that – like the similar course on Werneth Low.  Sand bunkers were for the flat lands!   I cannot imagine what it looks like now because the Club closed in the early sixties to make way fore the Hattersley Overspill.

Our milk was delivered by horse and cart from Osborne’s Farm at the back of Godley Reservoir.  This farm had the lovely name “Tetlow Fold” (“tetla fowt”) and was quite an old construction, 16^th century in parts,  with the farmhouse, a second home, the byres and the shippon constructed in the form of a square with a cobbled yard.  The kitchen always smelt of milk for that was near to the cooling room.  Hay barns and cattle stands gave that lovely sweet aroma that one associates with the rural setting.    There was a “copper” in one of the barns where we would sit and eat freshly boiled pig potatoes with hard margarine.  Harvest time saw us stooking and riding the hay cart back to the barns.    Mrs Osborne’s mother was a Highland lady with the lovely old surname of “Christiansen” so there must have been Nordic roots in the family.  She was famous for her soda scones which I love to this day!   I would accompany Farmer Osborne and/or his strapping son, Ian, on some Saturday mornings with the milk deliveries around Godley, Hoviley, Cheapside and Mottram Road.    I learnt about jills and quarts and pints as the appropriate steel measuring implements would brings the milk out of the cool churn and into the waiting  milk jugs of the folks standing around.   The approach of the milk float (and indeed the Co-op Horse) would have gardeners ready with shovels, gambling that the rich brown horse muck might fall at their doors!  

Nowt was wasted then!

Tetlow Fold

I became a choirboy after my sixth birthday.  Under the tutelage of Fred Whyatt, the head chorister, I learnt how to pronounce the Latin tags of the canticles and “point” the psalms.  Discipline was strict and a clout at the base of the neck from a Psalter was standard practice if we misbehaved.  Fred was a lovely kind “older brother” to me and I recognised him immediately some years ago in a “You Tube video” of Hyde Grammar School, where he is seen playing football.     I gather he returned to the school as the PE Teacher.       Godley Church was big for the size of the village but was well attended and it was the scene of the ministry of Canon Samuel May who was Vicar of the parish for over thirty years.    He had a huge influence on young men, had a wonderful preaching style and a powerful delivery and was full of fun.  I have an abiding memory of standing at the Lych Gate in 1947 for the Armistice Day Remembrance, watching the villagers standing silently, some of them weeping profusely, as 1100.a.m. struck, the Last Post and Reveille was played and the Fire Station siren went off and all the mill chimney hooters of the town blared a Remembrance Day sound I shall never forget.  

But choirboys are not little angels and that topic starts the next chapter.

Happy Days!

 

   

The Lych Gate at St Johns, Godley.

Thanks to Carls Cam for the photos and Roger for another great account !!

Much appreciated ! 

More memories of Hyde by Roger Chadwick.(part 3)

MEMORIES OF GROWING UP IN HYDE  1945 -1950 (3)

Just before the railway bridge over Brookfield Lane, there was, at that time, a narrow cinder path running parallel with the embankment that led to Godley Station. In those early post war years, this was a busy junction with a complete set of “Midland Region” buildings.  The main line, formerly The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, provided passengers with a stopping suburban service from Manchester to Hadfield and Glossop and an express service form Manchester to Sheffield, Parkeston Quay and London Marylebone along the old Great Central line to the Capital. 

But to catch these express trains you had to go to Guide Bridge!   

The other line was the old Cheshire Lines Committee and a purely goods line, mainly for coal trains from the Yorkshire coalfield to Fiddlers Ferry Power station.  Occasional excursion trains might stop at Godley for signal checks.  There was no passenger service.  Godley had marshalling yards, a turntable and two signal boxes.

Godley Junction was a good train spotting place.  Express passenger trains headed by Thompson B1 4-6-0 engines called “Springbok” or “Gazelle” or named after directors of the old pre nationalised LNER railway, would thunder through Godley, all the buildings shaking as they did so.  Once a day at about 8.55p.m. there would an express “fish” from Grimsby, leaving its powerful aroma as it sped through.  The twice hourly suburban trains to Glossop were hauled mainly by C14 Gorton Tank Engines and very sprightly they were too!  Many nights, coming home from school, I would wait for 5.18 “Godley Flyer” from Manchester London Road, an antiquated formation of two coaches, an engine and a lead coach from which the driver operated the train.  I would use this train  because it was  very fast  with its first stop at Godley some 20  minutes after leaving the city.  Many hours were spent taking engine numbers, especially the Robinson Gorton “O4” 2-8-0 goods engines that ferried coal and empties to and from Manchester and the Yorkshire coalfield.  The express trains were mainly composed of what are now known as “Gresley Teak” coaches and very fine they looked as we wistfully imagined travelling on them.  Some had restaurant cars, especially the London trains.

When I was not playing at The Oaklands, I was on that station.  I came to know the stationmaster very well as he was a Lay Reader at Godley Church where I was a choirboy.  Reginald Walter Bellaers  was a tall man and looked very fine in his gold braided uniform which he wore from time to time.  He had come from a post at Northenden and was the last of the old railwaymen.  In his retirement he was ordained and became Perpetual Curate of St Mary Broadbottom.  I visited him until his death – a lovely man in every way.

 

In the early ‘50’s, the rot set in.  All the station buildings were demolished and a hideous and uncomfortable bus shelter replaced the waiting rooms.  A temporary prefabricated office outside the curtilage of the station was all that was left.  We could see that the Cheshire Lines business was on the wane.   The main line was axed beyond Hadfield but there were to be some benefits.    A smart electric 30 minute train service replaced the old steamers and eventually a new station was built adjoining Godley Arches at the A57 trunk road.   The old Godley Junction station was never very busy as it was too far for people to walk up that long drag from the main road.   In the early 50’s we would be seen carrying heavy cases en route for Bournemouth every August because Gran had a privilege ticket and travelled free!!  Grandad was a railwayman and this perhaps explains a lot about me because from childhood, railways have fascinated me.

Going back to that  friendly engine crew of my second article -  the driver would prime his boiler when we were messing about and we were covered in soot and water: the smoke and steam and paraffin oil was  a pure delight – until we got home and mother had other ideas!!!

Thanks to Joe for the photos and of course Roger for the great account !

This week we received these photos and this letter off Meglet....

"Hi All @ Hydonian Blog

This is more of an alert rather than a trip down memory lane.

But, this is a 'Heads up' I think all those who visit the blog should know about.

I've known for a number of years Kerry Foods have been in negotiation with Tameside Council, to create a new access road for their factory at Godley.

No one who knows Godley Hill Road, can deny they desperately need it.

The narrow, curved, single lane, they have at the moment has been inadequate for decades, and the precarious traffic light system they operate from the security lodge is problematic at best.

Well, now planning permission has been given the go ahead, and groundwork has already started, but the plans approved means that one of the least known, but possibly the most awe inspiring, remaining buildings of Hyde's history is about to be demolished.

I know Godley Hill Road, and the current access road have been captured by 'Google Street View', but the old railway sheds on the car park approach can only fleetingly be seen.

So, I have included some quick snaps I took recently, and one from Godley East Station from 1979, where the side of the sheds can be seen in the distance.

I must admit that I know really nothing of the building other than what is seen in the photos.

The building was part of the old railways sidings and marshalling yards of the long closed Godley East Railway Station, and as you can see, it stretches the full length of the Kerry Foods car park approach road, about 100 meters in length.

To me it looks very much like a fortification, with it's tightly packed small stone blocks construction, and so, gives off a wonderful aura of indestructibility and history. So, I was not surprised at all when I spoke to a very old Walls' (now Kerry Foods) employee who told me, that when he was a young lad at the factory he was told that the building was used, during both World Wars, to store munitions prior to transportation.

It's generally considered by those I have asked that the building was built around 150 years ago, which I feel also.  It's roof is in very poor shape, and it has evidently had some repairs done with standard bricks over the years, but it is still very awesome to look at.

At the moment (July 2012) the only work that has commenced is the clearing of trees around the building, as can be see in one of the photos.

I believe work is due to begin proper in October 2012, and the whole project will take 12 months to complete, as the access road is planned to carry on through and up towards Hattersley.

If this building is to be razed then I will try and get as much video & photos of it as I can from all sides, but I'm not sure how much access I will be able to get.

I think the inside will be well off limits, and dangerous, but I would love to explore it.

If anyone is in the vicinity, I recommend you take a look in person, it is a magnificent structure.  There is no problem walking up the road, but walking into the car park around the back of the sheds is not advisable, as they are under CCTV.

Anything on the building true history and function would be fantastic to know, I will update about the demolition process when it happens."

 



Many thanks for letting us know, Meglet. :)

If anyone else knows anything else about the demolition of this building or any other building around the Hyde area , please let us know !!