This is
Hyde Daily Photo Volume 1 (2006-2011) which is now in archive mode. For recent photographs please visit
Hyde Daily Photo Volume 2. Additional material and links to blogger friends can be found at
Hyde DP Xtra.
Sunday is a "theme day" and Daily photographers around the world have been asked to post something typical of somewhere else!
Well perhaps this lovely flowering cherry would be happier in
Akita, Japan than adorning the side of this 1893 terraced house on Union Street.
In town on a Saturday morning? Take a break from the ardours of shopping and pop into Hyde Central Methodist Church for tea or coffee and biscuits.
Our regular order of two teas, a glass of milk and five slices of toast comes to a total of £1.50.
Jack Curvis has a stall in the
Inside Market, three floors located within the
Clarendon Square Shopping Mall.
He was featured recently in the
Tameside AdvertiserJack, known as ‘Jack Tripe’ to his customers, said: "I serve people from all over – Buxton, Macclesfield – and we even had a lady from France. There are very few tripe places left now but the ones that are left, people travel to."
Our regular purchase though is not tripe nor cow-heels but his home-made Cumberland sausages — he does them in links rather than the traditional round sausages and they are delicious.
This very weathered statue is said to be of similar vintage to the one on the top of the
Library, but little seems to be known about it.
Originally the building was a furniture store which had a café on the top floor. More recently it was a pizza restaurant. Then for about two years it was the only Russian restaurant in the North West. Now it is again a pizzeria.
Here we have a view of the Town Hall clock from the South.
I assume The Union Flag was flying in recognition of the Queen's 80th birthday.
Silhouetted against the tower is a weathered sculpture — more of him tomorrow.
Next door to the pharmacy in this little colonnade of shops is No. 21.
Now shuttered up but available "To Let", #21 was
Dr. Harold Shipman's surgery.
This shows Market Street from the bottom end of town.
I'll post some close-up shots of details from this picture over the next couple of days.
The
Ring and Ride service is operated across Greater Manchester and offers local journeys for those who have difficulty using normal public transport because of impaired mobility. The buses are fully wheelchair accessible.
The bus shown here is picking people up from outside the Clarendon Square Shopping Mall.
After about a year and a half and costing around three million pounds, Hyde Bus Station reopened in Spring 2005.
A good picture of it in its pristine state is one by
Ralph E Starkweather which was taken from the opposite end to mine.
It is certainly a lot warmer than the old one, there being some shelter from the icy blasts. There are also some seats. However, they are made of metal and very cold to sit down upon in winter. If we get some hot summer weather then they'll probably be too hot to touch.
The biggest complaint I've heard though is about the fact that it costs 20p to spend a penny.
Whilst the bus station was under construction, new temporary bus stops were erected in and around the town centre.
This didn't seem to add too much extra congestion. Most people were quite happy not to have trek down to the old bus station with their shopping bags. Those most
put out were probably the taxi drivers.
The stop for the 341 and 342 buses, which I use to get home, were moved to Greenfield Street, outside Kwik Save. This is also the road that leads down to the Asda supermarket.
You'll notice that there is a new operator on the service, using a creamy-white coloured bus instead of the attractively-postered one I showed a picture of
two days ago.
This photograph shows the new bus station under construction.
This bus operated on the 341 route a few years ago. It is seen here inside the old bus station. It took them about 15 months to demolish and rebuild the bus station.
The red-bricked building in the background is the Donnybrook Medical Centre.
On a quieter than usual market day, a man ponders the price of bedding plants.
Others scurry to cross the road in front of "KwikSave", one of the town's smaller supermarkets.
These little pots of primulas were on sale for just 60p each or four for £2.
An Easter bargain or what?
The Bike'n'Hound is a typical old-style British pub. Situated near the Bus Station it is generally regarded as a friendly place to drink. It hasn't been "tarted-up" to appeal to trendies or been taken over by a chain of look-alike establishments.
As the name suggests it is a biker's pub and is home to the
Freedom Riders. It is a regular venue for rock-groups and on Thursdays apparantly the barmaids go topless. I wouldn't know myself, as being teetotal, I've never been in.
In response to comments about yesterday's photo of
Hyde Library, here is a close-up of the statue on the top of the building.
The statue is supposed to represent Minerva, the Roman goddess of knowledge.
Until recently Hyde Library on Union Street has been covered in scaffolding. Now the restoration has been completed. I've yet to see what they've done to the inside.
After seeing a clock tower on
Kansas City Daily a couple of days ago, I thought this might be a good photograph for today.
James North's was a multi-national safety apparatus and clothing manufacturer who operated out of a huge cotton mill in Hyde. The firm patented the PVC glove in 1947 and they were commissioned to make gauntlet gloves for Sir Ernest Shackleton’s great Antarctic expedition.
The firm closed down a few years ago, the mill was demolished and an estate of houses built on the site. The clock on the top of the mill tower has now been re-erected on this mini-roundabout. The road into the estate is called James Drive and the houses you can see in the picture are in Clock Tower Close.
I used to tell people who asked for directions to turn right in front of the
Ring o' Bells but now I tell them to turn right at the clock on the roundabout.
You can see a photo of the clock and the pub on my
Out & About site.
If you follow yesterday's
disused railway line westwards for about a mile, you'll cross a footpath. A right turn would take you through the backs of houses onto busy Dowson Road. Turn left and you'll be in Gower Hey Wood.
Instead of the noise of traffic, here you will hear the wind whistling through the trees; blackbirds, tits, starlings, magpies and wood pigeons. That rustling could be a fox or a squirrel.
And watch where you put your feet; after rain it takes a long time for the sun to penetrate and harden the mud.
Like many disused railway tracks in the UK, this has been turned into a footpath. The original railway line was a loop from Woodley to Broadbottom.
People use it now to walk their dogs or ride their horses.
At the top of the picture you can see an aeroplane. Hyde lies on the inbound flight path for Manchester Airport. Many of them cross the Pennines, follow the Longdendale Valley and descend over Hyde and Stockport before landing.
With its tall steeple, many people seem to think this must be the main Anglican church in the area, but actually it is non-denominational. The first chapel on this site was erected in 1708; the present building dates from 1846.
This signpost in Gee Cross is missing the arm showing the direction to Stockport.
Gee Cross is the original settlement in the area and includes Hyde Chapel from which the town of Hyde, built a mile to the north, took its name.
The A627 actually now by-passes the village of Gee Cross after the opening up of Dowson Road in the 30s or thereabouts.
Hyde is a small town in Cheshire. It lies at the extreme eastern end of the old county almost as far from the county town as it possible to get in the shire. Its old borders are with Derbyshire and Lancashire. Now it is part of Tameside Metropolitan Borough in the county of Greater Manchester.
My intention for this blog is to show some of the interesting and diverse features of the town and the surrounding area.
Unless otherwise stated, all photographs on this site are copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Gerald England.
In most cases, clicking on the photograph will reveal a larger-sized image.
