Best of Hyde 2011

The time has come to vote for the best of Hyde DP 2011.

View the twelve contenders at Best of Hyde 2011 and vote for your favourite three photographs.

Voting closes 12 noon GMT, Friday 30th December 2011.

Sign of the White Hart

This is the sign for the White Hart at Mottram-in-Longdendale.

See the whole pub on Hyde DP Xtra.

ABC WednesdayI is for Inspired Jewellery

The latest occupant of the premises on the corner of Market Street and Croft Street is Inspired Jewellery who seem to have been in business for quite some time and have now moved to these larger premises.

It used to be the offices of an Estate Agent but that closed down recently. Mind you there are two estate agents on Market Street on the other side past Croft Street and another two lower down in the same block below the florists.

For more I posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Is it a Sundial?

On land at the corner of Throstle Bank Street and Dukinfield Road, in the Flowery Field area of town, is a piece of public art.

It looks like a sundial but lacks any figures that would indicate the hours. I think it might be a monument to the former industrial activity in the area, or perhaps it's just abstract art.

See the view in the opposite direction on Hyde DP Xtra.

The Elms

Last week I asked Who lived in a house like this?

The answer, as a few of you knew, is L.S. Lowry who lived at The Elms in Mottram-in-Longdendale from 1948 until his death in 1976.

It isn't exactly Lowryesque but I thought I'd give it a painterly look.

You can see my original photograph on Geograph.

ABC Wednesday:V is for Voting

The time has come to vote for the best of Hyde Daily Photograph 2010.

The thumbnails above are just a taster. See the full sized photographs and vote for your three favourites from the twelve contenders at Best of Hyde 2010.

Voting closes at noon GMT on 29th December 2010.

Visit ABC Wednesday for more V posts.

Hyde Bus Station: A Surreal View

Mark Delahoyde wrote to me a little while ago saying

I've been a fan of your Old Hyde blog for a while now being from Hyde myself... I love seeing how it's changed over the years! I recently stumbled across Sergey Larenkov's blog showing images of war-time Europe overlaid with modern shots, and thought I'd try the same with some of your shots.

As the CDPB theme today is Public Transport I thought today might be the ideal time to show his blending of a photograph from Old Hyde with mine taken some 50 years later.

For an intermediate version see Old Hyde for a 1999 view of the bus station.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants to the theme day.

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.

Garden Ornaments

Need some garden ornaments?

Maybe this stall on Hyde Market would meet your needs.

The Scarecrow at Greggs

Last weekend there was a "Scarecrow Festival" in Hyde Park. I can't be everywhere and I wasn't there. However whilst most of the scarecrows were in the park, a number were dotted around the Town Centre.

This one was standing outside Gregg's in Clarendon Mall.

I'll show you some more scarecrows at a later date.

Village Green Well 2010

[click on image to see it full size]
The CDPB theme today is Bright Colours so I thought this would be the right day to show you the 2010 Village Green Well. The display was made using flowers and other organic ingredients as part of the 2010 Gee Cross Well Dressing celebrations.

This year Girlguiding UK celebrates 100 years of Guiding. The girls who turned up at the 1909 Crystal Palace rally called themselves Girl Scouts but Baden Powell decided that Girl Guides would be a better name for these pioneering young women. Today there are ten million girls and women involved in the movement worldwide.

Other 2010 displays include ones by:

• Gee Cross WI at Booth's Well
• Alder Community High School outside Hyde Chapel
• 3rd Gee Cross Scouts at Barons Road Well

More information about the Well Dressings can be found at Gee Cross Well Dressing 2006

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants in the CDPB theme.

Broadbottom Scarecrows 2010

These scarecrows were to be seen recently in the stable block at the Etherow Centre.

The scarecrow competition is now an annual event organised by the Broadbottom Community Association. You can see all of the 2010 entries on the Broadbottom Village website.

The Beautiful Game Brings The World Together

Well Dressing is not confined to Derbyshire but takes place in a few surrounding counties too.

It was Gee Cross Well Dressing ceremony a few weeks ago. I've already shown you Booth's Well.

A walk is taken to six sites around the village and the wells are blessed. After Booth's Well the parade goes to two wells up Joel Lane. I didn't get up there this year. The fourth and fifth stops I'll show you at a later date.

The final blessing takes place outside Hyde Chapel where the display this year was The Beautiful Game Brings The World Together produced by year 7 students from Alder Community High School.

Their theme for 2010 was the World Cup. The display, made out of recycled materials, tries to show that saving the world's resources is everyone's responsibility and that the World Cup is a way of bringing people together to celebrate all the different nations of the world.

17 Nelson Street

Nelson Street runs parallel to Vernon Street and similarly consists of Victorian terraced houses.

One terrace has been demolished and the land used to provide a car park for residents.

The house on the other side of the street is #17 which has a blue plaque commemorating the artist, Harry Rutherford, who had his home and studio here.

There is a close-up of the plaque and more information on Hyde DP Xtra.

The Glowing Lights of Hyde

I'm sitting on a bench in Clarendon Place and looking towards the Market Place. On the left is the Clarendon Shopping Centre. On the right is the Jolly Carter.

This low angled street shot might have been a contender for the Eric Tenin Tribute, but in its original state the main focus would have been on the illegally parked car (ticket already slapped on the window) so partially to spare the owner's embarrassment I've used my imagination to create this glowing impression.

An Enigma in Wood

I was in Hyde Park again recently and came across this tree.

I didn't know anything about until I discovered a note on the TMBC Facebook page which informs

Mr Thompson Dagnall, a Preston-based artist, is creating a wood sculpture of a squirrel with a nut in Hyde Park.

The sculpture is being created from a Turkey Oak outside Bayley Hall in the park. The tree was diseased and had to be felled. Rather than remove the tree completely it was felled to a safe height so that it could be sculpted.

Best Photo the Year 2009: Winner

The voting for Hyde DP Photo of the Year 2009 was very close this year.

At the end there was only 1 vote between the winner and the runner-up.

The winner with 177 votes was Market Street Chimney Pots.

With 176 votes the runner-up was Drystone Waller at Dunkirk Farm

You can see the runner-up and full results of the voting on Ackworth born, gone West.

All twelve photographs, in full resolution, can be viewed on The Best of Hyde Daily 2009.

Many other daily blogs around the world have also participated in the special theme Best Photo of the Year. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

It's no(w) Joke on Dowson Road

Has the snow gone from Dowson Road? Is this a night time picture?

Well no and no.

What I have done with the photograph is to apply edge highlighting to create this effect.

If you look at the original photograph on Geograph, you can see that the road is clear and traffic is moving freely. The pavement and verges on the other hand are still full of uncleared snow and ice.

Vote for Best of Hyde 2009

As in the previous three years, it is now time to vote for the Best of Hyde Daily Photo 2009.

There are twelve contenders.

Readers may cast six votes distributed in any manner they choose. You can give all six to a single photograph, one vote to six different images, or divide them between two, three or four pictures.

The thumbnails above are merely representative crops of the full sized photographs which can be found at Best of Hyde 2009, along with a voting form.

Please use the form to vote. Votes given in comments here will not be counted.

The results will be published in January 2010.

Werneth Low over Alder School

Looking from Grange Road South over Alder School towards Mottram Old Road and Werneth Low.

The original photograph has been post-processed as a pencil sketch.