Benevolent Buildings 1834

I must have been by this sign many hundreds of times but I only noticed it very recently.

I know nothing of its history.

To see where it is visit Hyde DP Xtra.

Weekend Reflections: Above an Estate Agents

Reflections in the upper windows of Bridgford's Estate Agents on Market Street.

For more Weekend Reflections visit Newtown Area Photo.

Manchester Road Roving Bridge from Moorside Place

A view now of the Manchester Road bridge over the Peak Forest Canal.

It is taken from Moorside Place, an estate of new houses built on the site of the Automasters Engineering Works.

See how it looked in January 2008 before the factory was demolished.

Manchester Road Canal Bridge was built in 1804. The original elliptical-arch tunnel which is grooved for stop planks was widened to the North in the mid 1800s with a truncated elliptical keystone arch which is now partly obscured by the 20th century footpath bridge.

See my post from December 2008 for a view of the bridge from the South and an explanation of the term "roving bridge".

Across the canal is Wharfingers House. This canal warehouse built in 1828 is a Grade II listed building now used as offices.

For the view in the opposite direction looking from the top of the bridge see Hyde DP Xtra.

For more Sunday bridges visit San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.

Top of Market Street

This is the top end of Market Street before it becomes Stockport Road at the Clock Roundabout.

The Estate Agents office was formerly "Stockport Road Post Office" despite being actually on Market Street. I suspect the original Stockport Rd PO was around the corner. Adding further to the confusion, Stockport Road was address of the former Gee Cross PO.

Both, along with Cheetham Fold PO were closed about three years ago.

Mottram Courthouse

The courthouse at Mottram is now the home of the Tameside Patrollers. It is a Grade II listed building. Read the official description on Old Hyde.

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.

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.

ABC Wednesday:Y is for Yorkshire Bank

The Hyde branch of the Yorkshire Bank is on Market Street in the Town Hall Buildings sandwiched now between the Chicken Hut and Subway.

Check out the 1990 view on Old Hyde and you'll notice that it had different neighbours twenty years ago. The shop above was Etcetera which I think was a ladies dress and accessories shop. The shop below was Granada TV Sales & Rentals and to the right of that was Greenwoods Gents Outfitters.

According to Wikipedia

the bank was established on 1 May 1859 by Colonel Edward Akroyd of Halifax. Based in Leeds it was known as the West Riding Penny Savings Bank. It had originally been planned as a provident society but the status of savings bank was eventually chosen. ... The bank was operated on a non-profit making basis and in 1860 it was decided to extend operation to the other ridings of Yorkshire {and later obviously to surrounding counties}.

To recognise this the name was changed to the Yorkshire Penny Bank. In 1872 it issued cheque books for the first time, primarily for small tradesmen. At that time the bank became the first to create school banks, to encourage the idea of saving at an early age. {I recall as a child having a number of savings boxes and piggy-banks donated by the YPB}

... In its centenary year of 1959 the bank's name changed to the more familiar Yorkshire Bank Limited. During the 1970s the bank became one of the first to offer fee-free banking whilst in credit, a move that took bigger rivals a decade to follow. In 1982 it adopted public limited company status.

In 1990 it was acquired by the National Australia Bank who in 2005 announced its intention to merge the Yorkshire Bank with the Clydesdale under one operating licence, in which the former would be a trading name of the latter. Both operate under separate identities although the Clydesdale brand is the one that has been used in further expansion into the south of England.

For more Y posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Seeing Double

As I reported last July in Signs of the Time both the Abbey and the Bradford & Bingley are now part of the Santander banking group which is currently about to rebrand its UK branches which also include the Alliance & Leicester.


So now we have two branches of the same bank just a cockstride from each other on the Market Place.

Dirtworx Done

Before these offices behind the bus stop on Market Street were built in 2004 there was a pre-fab here housing the Welfare Benefits Office which gave out excellent free advice to all who required it.

Presumably the council withdrew its funding, it closed and the building was demolished. For a few years the new building was home to a firm specialising in motorcross accessories but now it is empty again.

Hyde Bangladesh Welfare Association

The Hyde Bangladesh Welfare Association occupy these premises at the corner of Chapel Street and Henry Street.

Signs of the Time

Looking down the side of Market Street.

In the foreground is the sign for the Bradford and Bingley covering up most of the sign for Specsavers.

Further on is the "For Sale or Rental" sign on the closed down Woolworths.

Peeping out underneath in the background is the sign on The Abbey.

Both Abbey and the B & B are now part of the Santander banking group which is currently about to rebrand its UK branches which also include the Alliance & Leicester

The signs are bound to change.

T. & E. R 1847

It is amazing what you see when you look up.

I've walked down Hamnett Street so many times but only recently did I notice this plaque.

I thought of posting this alone and asking if anyone knew where it was and who on earth were T & E.R, but decided it would be far too difficult a question.


Today the building is home to the Abbey.

Barclay's Bank

Barclay's Bank is on Market Street.

Originally this was a branch of Martin's and if you look closely (click on the photo to enlarge) the old shield logo can just be made out on the marble facade.

Martin's was absorbed into Barclay's forty years ago.

Another interesting feature in this photograph is the road sign. For the M67 West to Manchester or Stockport, you turn left (West) and then right at the sliproad. For Sheffield and the M67 East though you have turn West. After that you need to turn right at the Red Lion and double-back along Clark Way over the motorway.

If I was going to Sheffield from Hyde, I wouldn't start from here.

Royal Bank of Scotland

The Hyde branch of RBS is on the corner of Market Street and Corporation Street, just across the road from HSBC.

The history of the RBS goes back to the early 1700s. Since Victorian times though, there had been an agreement whereby English banks would not open branches in Scotland; and Scottish banks would not open branches in England outside of London.

Williams Deacon's Bank which had many branches in North West England, including Hyde, was acquired by the RBS group in 1930. They later bought Glyn, Mills and Co. The two were merged in 1970 to form Williams and Glyn's Bank and in 1985 by which time the cross-border restrictions had been lifted, W & G was rebranded as the Royal Bank of Scotland.

What will happen in the wake of the current banking crisis remains to be seen.

The Abbey in Hyde

The Abbey in Hyde is on the corner of Hamnett Street and next door but one to the White Lion.

Originally it was the Abbey National Building Society before demutulising in 1989 to become a bank. In 2004 it was taken over by the Spanish based bank Santander. National was dropped from the name and it is now known simply as the Abbey.

Last week I showed you the local branch of the Bradford and Bingley, which has featured heavily in the news. It seems probable that the Abbey could be taking over some of the B & B's business. However, as with the Lloyds TSB/Halifax BOS takeover, these things take time and for the moment it is business as usual as far as branch customers are concerned.

Bradford & Bingley

The Hyde branch of the Bradford & Bingley is in the Market Place at the corner of Russell Street.

It is only a cockstride away from either Lloyds TSB or Halifax BOS.

Lloyds TSB or Halifax BOS

Lloyds TSB and Halifax BOS are merging.

The Halifax Hyde branch was originally the Halifax Building Society before it merged with the Bank of Scotland. It is next door to the Post Office.

Ironically the advertising board opposite is promoting the Royal Bank of Scotland, who have their branch on Corporation Street. The RBS (who took over Williams & Glynn's) should not be confused with the Bank of Scotland.

The Lloyds Hyde branch was originally the Trustees Savings Bank until TSB and Lloyds merged. When the Clarendon Mall expanded, the bank became incorporated into the building so that the entrance is inside the shopping centre. The cash machines (ATMs) are outside. They often have queues of people outside waiting to withdraw.

It seems inevitable that one of these branches of the merged banks will close, but I wonder which one.

Not a Takeaway Then

When I earlier showed a picture of the shop to let on Market Street next to Long Meadow Passage, fears were expressed that it would end up as yet another fast food takeaway.

In fact it has become an undertakers or, as they are called here these days, a funeral directors.