Pumpkins for Halloween

A week before Halloween these pumpkins outside the Strawberry Garden were priced at £2.99.

The ones that are left are probably a bit cheaper than that now.

Weekend Reflections: In the rain on Borough Arcade

Reflections in the rain on Borough Arcade.

On the left goods are still laid out on display outside the stationers.

On the right is Stacey's Hairdressers.

See it from the opposite direction on Hyde DP Xtra.

For more Weekend reflections visit Newtown Area Photo.

Canal View, October 2010

The view yesterday morning of the Peak Forest Canal from the Manchester Road bridge.

Some of the new houses are obviously now occupied as I can see a postvan making deliveries.

Previous views of the Peak Forest Canal from Manchester Road:

• circa 1980
• December 2007
• October 2008
• March 2009
• April 2009
• August 2009
• January 2010
• June 2010

St Thomas behind the trees

After recent views of the back of St Thomas the Apostle, I thought I'd show you the front view.

Alas it is not easy to see behind the trees.

St Thomas the Apostle stands on Lumn Road with its sides on Tinker's Passage and Leigh Street. It was built in 1868 at a cost of £3,000 and the church was consecrated on Wednesday, September 23rd 1868. The first vicar was the Rev. A. Read who was appointed by the crown on October 9th 1846, the same year that the ecclesiastical district of St. Thomas was founded.

With an increasingly elderly congregation there is a need to find others to share the building and to find additional uses for it if it is to remain a place for Anglo Catholic worship within the Church of England.

Check out the church website for more information.

A post-Autumn view of the front of the church can be seen on Hyde Cheshire whilst the original coloured version of my photograph above can be seen on Geograph.

ABC Wednesday O is for Old Manor House

The Old Manor House is on Chain Bar Lane at the back of Hattersley Estate.

Probably only the TV aerial and the security camera give away the fact that this is a recent photograph.

More photographs of Chain Bar Lane showing the house in context and colour can be found on Hyde DP Xtra.

I know nothing of its history.

For more O posts visit ABC Wednesday.

AMI group offices

When I showed you this 2004 built office block at 200 Market Street in January 2010 it had recently been vacated by its previous occupants who had named it "Phoenix House".

Now it has become the offices of the "AMI Group". So far as I can ascertain the company is involved in something termed Global Asset Tracking.

Ewen Fields from St Thomas

Yesterday I posted a view of shadows behind St Thomas the Apostle.

On the right of that photograph were some railings on top of the wall.

This is the view through those railings looking over the field that formerly belonged to Leigh Street school. On the far side is Ewen Fields the home of Hyde FC.

Autumn Shadows behind St Thomas the Apostle

Last week I showed you the shadows on Tinkers Passage and yesterday I posted a view of the back of St Thomas the Apostle.

Today I am showing you the passage that leads behind the church from Leigh Street to Tinkers Passage.

For more shadow shots visit Hey Harriet.

Weekend Reflections: The back of St Thomas the Apostle

I first showed you the back of St Thomas Apostle church in February 2007 which is a bit of a dull day.

Now on a bright Autumn day and from a slightly different angle you can see the reflections in the rear window of the church.

For more weekend reflections visit Newtown Area Photo.

Monkey Puzzle Move

In September 2008 I showed you the Hattersley Monkey Puzzle Tree and two weeks later another view of it.

The tree had been planted in the garden of a house on Garnett Road. The houses were demolished in 2008 as part of a planned redevelopment of the Hattersley Estate. The tree which had been a treasured local landmark for many years was allowed to remain.

Now Tesco have been granted planning permission to develop the site. At much expense, the iconic tree was moved yesterday to a green space on the opposite side of Ashworth Lane.

Further photographs of the move can be seen on Hyde DP Xtra and also on my photoblog sithenah.

Job Centre Plus

Out of work? Need to "sign on"? Then this is where you need to go.

It used to be called the Labour exchange but these days it is called a Job Centre Plus.

Here on Clarendon Street conveniently opposite the bus station is where the unemployed go to find a job and have their benefit claims assessed.

Officially, according to the website of the Department of Works & Pension

Jobcentre Plus is an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions. It provides services that support people of working age from welfare into work, and helps employers to fill their vacancies.

It is a busy building.

ABC Wednesday N is for NatWest Bank

The Hyde branch of the NatWest occupies a corner of Market Street and Market Place.

The National Westminster Bank, as it was known before the name was foreshortened in the 1990s to simply NatWest, was formed in 1970 from the merger of three banks. These were the

• National Provincial Bank (established 1833)
• The District Bank formed in 1935 from the merger of the Manchester & Liverpool District Bank (established 1824) with the County Bank (established 1862)
• The Westminster Bank (originally the London & Westminster Bank established 1833)

Since 2000 the bank has been part of the RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) group.

For more N posts, visit ABC Wednesday.

Brook Street

A terraced street leading off Mottram Road. The M67 motorway is at the bottom end behind the fence. On the left is the car park for Morrisons supermarket but there is no entry/exit to/from it off Brook Street.

Shops on Manchester Road

This group of shops on Manchester Road at the edge of town presently consists of a furniture/bedding shop, a domestic appliances shop, a pizza takeaway, an Indian restaurant/takeaway and Kwikfit.

Shadow Shot Sunday:Tinker's Passage

Tinker's Passage leads from Lumn Road down to the back of Ewen Fields the home ground of Hyde F.C.

Behind the wall can be glimpsed the recently renovated Tinker's Passage Stand.

In the wall is the now long disused Three Bob Entrance.

On a bright October day, the sun casts Autumn shadows over fallen leaves.

For more shadow shots visit Hey Harriet.

Weekend Reflections: Cancer Research Scarecrow

There was a scarecrow festival in Hyde a few weeks ago.

I've already shown you the scarecrow outside Greggs and Abbey Gallery's Mona Lisa.

Perhaps the scariest was the live one hovering in the entrance to the Cancer Research charity shop.

You'll find another two scarecrows on Hyde DP Xtra.

For more Weekend Reflections visit Newtown Area Photo.

St George's from Church View again

A year ago St George's tower was covered with scaffolding.

This is how it looked about a month ago.

The George & Its Clock Gone

When I showed you The George in May it still looked like a pub but now the old signage and clock have been removed.

The tree on the Woodend Lane side has also disappeared.

ABC Wednesday M is for Mona Lisa

Remember the Scarecrow at Greggs?

This scarecrow was in the window of the Abbey Gallery on Market Street as part of the same festival.

For more M posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Flirt

Another cut-price clothes store opened recently in Clarendon Mall.

It replaces Mamps which closed down some months ago.

New Houses on Ann Street

Ann Street is the access road to the new housing estate, Moorfield Place, built on the site of Automaster's Engineering Work.

Greenfield Street in the Rain

If all has gone well we should be home again now so here is a typical shot of Greenfield Street on a rainy day.

On the left is the side of the Town Hall. Ahead is the Asda supermarket.

Hyde Holidays: Day Trip to Chester

Whilst I am away on holiday, Rune from Visual Norway is minding the blog for me. I have scheduled some special posts for the period taking readers on day trips to the West.


Our final day trip destination is Chester whose city streets are always very busy.


Eastgate clock is an icon of Chester overlooking the throngs below.


Anyone fancy a trip on the river?

Hyde Holidays: Day Trip to Liverpool

Whilst I am away on holiday, Rune from Visual Norway is minding the blog for me. I have scheduled some special posts for the period taking readers on day trips to the West.


South from Southport is the city of Liverpool. This shot of the iconic liver birds was taken from the Albert Dock on a misty Sunday afternoon in 2006.


The river Mersey starts its life a few miles from Hyde at the confluence of the Tame and Goyt under the motorway in Stockport.

It ends here as it flows into the Irish Sea.


Just South of the city the name Bill Shankly has been engraved on a flagstone. Quite why I do not know. This is part of the Trans Pennine Trail that goes from Southport through Liverpool and Hyde to Hull and Hornsea on the East coast.

Hyde Holidays: Day Trip to Southport

Whilst I am away on holiday, Rune from Visual Norway is minding the blog for me. I have scheduled some special posts for the period taking readers on day trips to the West.


Across the Ribble from the Fylde coast is Southport, geographically in Lancashire but politically now part of the Sefton borough of Merseyside.

Southport Pier is the UK's oldest surviving iron pier, opened in 1860. It underwent a £7 million refurbishment in 2002.

This was the little train that ran to and from the end of the pier in 2005.


By 2008 it had been replaced with this more modern version.


On a more recent visit earlier this year we spotted this on Lord Street.

Hyde Holidays: Day Trip to Lytham

Whilst I am away on holiday, Rune from Visual Norway is minding the blog for me. I have scheduled some special posts for the period taking readers on day trips to the West.

Our last stop on the Fylde Coast is at Lytham. Though often linked with its Northern neighbour (Lytham St Annes often forming a joint administrative or political area) it has a separate identity. Its parish church is St Cuthbert's, built in 1834.


Fishermen go searching off nearby Church Scar for mussels in the Ribble estuary whilst flocks of dunlin fly through the air.



For more L posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Hyde Holidays: Day Trip to St Anne's

Whilst I am away on holiday, Rune from Visual Norway is minding the blog for me. I have scheduled some special posts for the period taking readers on day trips to the West.


Down the coast from Blackpool is St Annes, St Anne's on Sea or St Annes-on-the-Sea - with or without an apostrophe or hyphens - all forms of the name are equally correct.

Here is the Grand Hotel on South Promenade.


Dubbed by some as the posh end of Blackpool, in gardens near St Annes' Pier stands comedian Les Dawson (1931-1993). Although born in Manchester he spent his latter years in St. Anne's. This bronze statue of Dawson, by sculptor Graham Ibbeson, was unveiled by his widow Tracy and daughter Charlotte on 23 October 2008, the fifteenth anniversary of his death..


The sands here stretch out at low tide towards the Ribble estuary.

On the right can be seen Southport which we will visit in a couple of day's time.

Hyde Holidays: Day Trip to Blackpool

Whilst I am away on holiday, Rune from Visual Norway is minding the blog for me. I have scheduled some special posts for the period taking readers on day trips to the West.


South from Cleveleys and we arrive in Blackpool a popular destination for hen parties.


Somewhere near the South Pier I found this flat fish.


Down at Starr Gate a new state of the art tram shed is being built as part of a complete refurbishment of the tram network. Due to open Easter 2012, it is costing £20m and will house 16 new supertrams.

Hyde Holidays: Day Trip to Cleveleys

Whilst I am away on holiday, Rune from Visual Norway is minding the blog for me. I have scheduled some special posts for the period taking readers on day trips to the West.


A few miles South of Fleetwood lies Cleveleys.

This how the beach looked on a late afternoon in 2004. Somewhere in the distance lies Barrow in Furness.


In 2007 the North Promenade was closed as work began on much needed sea defences.


By 2008 the promenade had been completely transformed.

It made an excellent vantage point for watching the Wreck of the Riverdance.

Hyde Holidays: Day Trip to Fleetwood

Whilst I am away on holiday, Rune from Visual Norway is minding the blog for me. I have scheduled some special posts for the period taking readers on day trips to the West.


Today's destination is Fleetwood, the most Northern town on the Fylde Coast.

This long row of houses is known as Queens Terrace. It overlooks the river Wyre.


From Fleetwood you can take a ferry across the river to Knott End on Sea or all the way across the Irish Sea to Ireland.


At the other end of Queens Terrace is the Steamer Inn with these magnificent chimneys.

Width Restrictions on Henry Street

Henry Street used to be what is known as a "rat-run".

To deter motorists using it as a shortcut to and from Dowson Road, some roads in the area were made one-way in a confusing rather than straightforward way.

Here at the corner with Church Street the roadway width was reduced to prevent HGVs from using the road.

On the right is part of St George's Church of England Primary School.

From tomorrow I'll be away on holiday. In the meantime Rune from Visual Norway will be minding the blog for me. I have scheduled some special posts for the period taking readers on day trips to the West.