Drystone Waller at Dunkirk Farm

As I was walking from Dunkirk Bridge down to Dunkirk Farm a few weeks ago, I came across this busy chap who was repairing the dry stone wall.

I had a nice chat with him before proceeding on my way.

Along to the Spiral Ramp

Another view of the footbridge over the motorway that leads to the spiral ramp.

Earlier photos of or from the footbridge:

• 060505 M67 Junction 3
• 070627 Footbridge over M67
• 080119 M67 Looking East
• 080205 Clark Way Bridge over M67
• 090330 End of March Quiz
• 090406 The Answer is a Spiral Ramp
• 090413 Ramp to Spiral Footbridge
• 090527 Inside the Spiral
• 090928 That Spiral Ramp Again
• 091006 Footbridge Underview
• 091023 Spiral Skywatch

Autumn Puddle

An autumn puddle off the pathway from Garside Street to the Trans Pennine Trail.

See the same puddle viewed from the pathway on sithenah.

Queen's Close

Next door to the Queen Adelaide in Gee Cross are some new houses in what is now Queen's Close.

They are built on the site of what was originally Orlando Oldhams cork cutters factory and latterly Ashworth's bag factory. You can see how it looked in 1984 on Old Hyde.

Hyde Park Bridge

The South-East corner of Hyde Park consists of a wild wooded area with a brook flowing through it. It is crossed by this moss-covered bridge.

The area downstream of the bridge can be seen on my photoblog sithenah.

The area upstream of the bridge can be seen on Hyde DP Xtra.

Bound Signal

Back in June I showed you one of the old signal posts on the TransPennine Trail left over from the days when it was a busy freight railway line.

Well I was back down there a few weeks ago and the bindweed has got hold of it good and proper!

Nearby, meanwhile, the nettles obscuring the sign for horseriders have been cut back as you can see on Hyde DP Xtra.

Caxton Works Cleared

This is how the site of the Caxton Works looked some time last week with the rubble cleared. The facade on Mary Street is still standing with a gaping hole where the door was.

See the photos from early August.

King Edwards Court

King Edwards Court is a small development of new houses built in an old quarry off King Edward Avenue.

Stockport Road and the Werneth Arms lie behind the big quarry wall. Last July I posted a view from the top of Treacle Brow showing the houses under construction and then in April 2009 the new houses completed.

About a century ago this area was known as Whittiker's Whim about which you can see and read something of on Old Hyde.

A clearer view of the quarry wall and the Werneth Hotel can be found on Hyde DP Xtra.

Spiral Skywatch

A view through the spiral footbridge ramp and of an aeroplane heading for Manchester Airport.

Today's photograph is a contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Earlier photos of or from the footbridge:

• 060505 M67 Junction 3
• 070627 Footbridge over M67
• 080119 M67 Looking East
• 080205 Clark Way Bridge over M67
• 090330 End of March Quiz
• 090406 The Answer is a Spiral Ramp
• 090413 Ramp to Spiral Footbridge
• 090527 Inside the Spiral
• 090928 That Spiral Ramp Again
• 091006 Footbridge Underview

Gower Hey Brook Culvert September

This is where Gower Hey Brook disappears into a culvert before emerging on the far side of Dowson Road.

See how it looked in June.

The Stockport Boundary

I recently showed you the old Werneth Bredbury Boundary Stone on the A560.

This is the modern boundary sign on the opposite side of the road.

I've aged the photograph to try and give it a bit more charachter!

Just up the road is the bus stop from which I took my Autumn Leaves photograph.

You can see the road from a little further back towards Stockport on Hyde DP Xtra.

Dunkirk Fishermen

Last week I showed you Dunkirk Bridge over the Peak Forest Canal.

Just to the North along the towpath I found these fishermen. Before anyone asks, these are not the natural colours; I've aged the image to resemble an old newspaper print. You can view the scene in its natural colour on Geograph.

A little further North is Warble Wharf which you can view on Hyde DP Xtra.

Behind the Chartists

One of the two statues outside the Town Hall is to the Chartist Movement.

To quote Wikipedia

Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century between 1838 and 1850. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838, which stipulated the six main aims of the movement as:

1. A vote for every man twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and not undergoing punishment for crime.
2. The ballot. - To protect the elector in the exercise of his vote.
3. No property qualification for members of Parliament - thus enabling the constituencies to return the man of their choice, be he rich or poor.
4. Payment of members, thus enabling an honest tradesman, working man, or other person, to serve a constituency, when taken from his business to attend to the interests of the Country.
5. Equal Constituencies, securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors, instead of allowing small constituencies to swamp the votes of large ones.
6. Annual parliaments, thus presenting the most effectual check to bribery and intimidation, since though a constituency might be bought once in seven years (even with the ballot), no purse could buy a constituency (under a system of universal suffrage) in each ensuing twelve-month; and since members, when elected for a year only, would not be able to defy and betray their constituents as now.

Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world.

The Chartist Statue by Stephen Broadbent, unveiled outside Hyde Town Hall on 28th November 2002, commemorates and celebrates the achievements of the Chartists. For much more on the history of Chartism in Hyde see Pulling the Plug, Ringing the Change on the Tameside MBC website.

Kingston Lodge

Opposite the Farm at Broomstairs is Kingston Lodge.

It is now very much hidden by trees but from the shape of the building I think it must originally have been a turnpike house. They were built to have a good view up and down the road. At Broomstairs boundary between Hyde and Denton this would have been where traffic on the route from Manchester to Sheffield would have had to stop to pay a toll for using the road, which is now the A57.

They come along in Twos

In my post, View from the bus, a couple of months ago, I queried the presence of a couple of buses in convoy on the 330 service.

A frequent service (it used to be run every eight minutes), it isn't unusual to find two buses following each other. I'd always thought it was a question of the first bus being delayed by traffic and the second catching it up.

Last Saturday I was in Hyde Bus Station and looked at the electronic timetable. I was surprised to see it indicate two buses departing within one minute of each other.

When I got off the bus at the stop four minutes up the road, I took a snap of the timetable displayed in the shelter. I've pasted it into the bottom of the photo and that shows just one bus every ten minutes.

Reputedly, drivers on the 330 route consider it to have the most miserable passengers , compared to other routes.

To be fair, I have to say that generally it is an excellent service, but the timetabling is rather curious.

Cat with Three Legs

A stray cat with only three legs turned up outside the Central Methodist Church a few weeks ago. One of the ladies who serves tea on a Saturday morning bought it some food.

I don't know what has happened to it since, but there's another photo on Hyde DP Xtra.

Green off Johnson Brook Road

This green space is just off Johnson Brook Road which leads down from near the Dukinfield Arms to the tunnel at Hyde North.

It was taken in spring time!

Lumn Road

Lumn Road runs from Mottram Road opposite the Sportsman, past St Thomas the Apostle and the now closed Globe Inn up to Stockport Road by the Clarkes Arms.

On the far right of this photograph is a row of traditional terraced housing. On the near right is some modern housing association (previously council house) rented properties.

On the left is an estate of private houses on the site of the former James North Factory aka Slack Mill.

All that was here some 300 years ago was a large house called "The Lumn" something of which you can see on Old Hyde.

Dunkirk Bridge

Walk down Dunkirk Lane from Newton Hall past the Starchaser Rocket and you reach this bridge over the Peak Forest Canal.

Beyond the bridge lies Dunkirk Farm.

You can see the view Northwards from the bridge on my photoblog sithenah.

For the Southbound view see Hyde DP Xtra.

At Hyde North

I first showed you Hyde North station in July 2006 from the cross-platform bridge.

Today's photograph was taken from the train to Manchester.

Behind the platform fence is the line coming in from Glossop via Flowery Field and behind that is an old factory on Johnsonbrook Street.

Hyde Spiritualist Church

On Great Norbury Street you will find the Hyde Spiritualist Church next door to the Hyde Fish Bazaar.

I know no more about either but here they are.

Autumn Leaves

Autumn is here and the winds blowing from the North have collected the leaves into piles alongside the pavement opposite the Joshua Bradley near the Stockport boundary.

Farm at Broomstairs

Between this farm at Broomstairs where horses graze and the chimney of the factory behind the trees flows the River Tame.

You can see the base of the chimney in this January 2008 post of Broomstair Bridge.

Town Hall Buildings, Market Street

Remember me showing you the Chimney Pots on Market Street?

Tom asked me which building they were on; the answer is the block known as Town Hall Buildings.

At one time the owners of the shops probably lived above in the middle storey with its bay windows and used the top floor as storage.

Today the businesses include Subway, the Yorkshire Bank, Chicken Hut, a pound shop, a charity shop, a camera shop and Toymasters.

The Werneth Bredbury Boundary Stone

In the wall outside what is now the Joshua Bradley a stone marks the boundary between the ancient townships of Werneth and Bredbury.

Now it is the boundary between the Metropolitian Boroughs of Tameside and Stockport.

You can see the wall in context from across the road on Hyde DP Xtra and a 1984 closeup by Janet Howie on Old Hyde.

Footbridge Underview

This composition is based on an original photo of the footbridge over the M67 by Morrisions. The original can seen on Geograph.

Earlier photos of or from the footbridge:

• 060505 M67 Junction 3
• 070627 Footbridge over M67
• 080119 M67 Looking East
• 080205 Clark Way Bridge over M67
• 090330 End of March Quiz
• 090406 The Answer is a Spiral Ramp
• 090413 Ramp to Spiral Footbridge
• 090527 Inside the Spiral
• 090928 That Spiral Ramp Again

Back to Back

In many minds back to back housing is probably associated with the squalor of Victorian living conditions, but the worst examples have long gone and what remains has been much modernised.

Once these backs would have had washing lines strung across them and the local kids would be playing hopscotch along the flags.

Today the houses all have washers and dryers and the children are at their computers. The backs are used as storage for wheelie bins - there is a cat sat on the one at the end.

Concrete bollards at each end prevent these alleys being used by motor vehicles.

Dunkirk Farm

In September 2007 I posted a photograph of an unusual chimney pot at Dunkirk Farm.

Alas, the chimney isn't there anymore and the farmhouse doesn't look to be in too good shape, so I've given this photograph the "pencil" treatment.

The George

The George can be found at the top of Great Norbury Street at the junction with Woodend Lane opposite St George's Church.

Choose Your Path

This junction of footpaths is found in Gower Hey Woods.

Which way to go?

Right will lead you past Gower Hey Gardens towards Osborne Road.

Choose to go left and you'll find yourself in swampy ground.

Seven Centuries of Contrast.

Behind the railings is Newton Hall, built in 1370 and restored in 1970.

Behind the Hall are industrial units which house the Starchaser rockets.

Starchaser began life as an experimental rocket test programme set up in 1992 by Steve Bennett from Dukinfield.

A few years ago the rocket was on show at Gee Cross Fete. Now they are busy recruiting astronauts.

The CDPB theme today is "Contrast": Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.