Best of Hyde Daily 2014

It is that time of the year again.

Hyde Daily Photo is one of more than 400 websites worldwide that post a daily picture of their home town or city. On 1st January 2015 members of the City Daily Photobloggers community will be revealing their Photo of the Year.

I have selected twelve contenders for Best of Hyde 2014 and am asking readers to vote for their favourites.

These thumbnails are only a taster. To vote for your three favourites please visit Best of Hyde Daily 2014 and use the form on the page.

Deadline for voting is 12 noon GMT on Monday 29th December 2014.

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 Abstainer's Fountain

This fountain was presented to the Corporation by the Total Abstainers of the Borough in 1888. It originally stood on the corner of Market Place and Market Street. Its remains now stand in Hyde Park near the modern children's play area.

See it in its original position on Old Hyde.

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

Mottram Crown Pole

The Crown Pole at Mottram-in-Longdendale was originally erected in 1760 for the coronation of George III. It was replaced in 1902 and again in 1926.

Read more on Old Hyde.

ABC WednesdayW is for Wood Sculpture

I showed you this wood sculpture in Hyde Park back in March when it was still an enigma.

The sculpture of a squirrel with a nut was created from a Turkey Oak by Preston-based artist Thompson Dagnall.

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.

Further W posts can be found on ABC Wednesday.

Shadow Shot Sunday Switching On

This is the fifth of six photographs taken at the switching on of the Christmas lights outside Hyde Town Hall.

The area in front of the Town Hall was cordoned off and only people involved in the event were allowed through. Lady Gonegaga had just finished her act and Mossley Brass Band were now entertaining the crowd. The lights from the stage cast shadows around the Hyde Seal.

See more Shadow Shot Sunday posts at Hey Harriet.

ABC WednesdayJ is for James North Clock

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 and Slack Mill was demolished in 1998. An estate of houses was built on the site. In 2006 the clock from the top of the mill tower was re-erected on this mini-roundabout. The road into the estate is called James Drive and the houses on the left are in Clock Tower Close.

An old image of Slack Mill can be found on Old Hyde.

More information about James North's can be found on Hyde Cheshire.

For more J posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Chartists Waving Balloons

The Chartist Statue by Stephen Broadbent, unveiled outside Hyde Town Hall on 28th November 2002, commemorates and celebrates the achievements of the Chartists.

For more information about this follow the links on my earlier post for 19th October 2009.

At the end of March someone had tied a bunch of balloons around the hand of one of the figures.

You can see the full photograph from which this was cropped on Geograph.

The CDPB theme for today is Statues. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Tranquility Garden

The Garden of Tranquility lies in Hyde Park. It is a memorial for those patients who suffered at the hands of Harold Shipman.

The garden includes a granite trickle fountain, designed by Mel Chantry and is surrounded by herbs reclaimed from the old Newton Lodge which once sat on the site.

I last showed you this in March 2007. It seems Spring arrived earlier that year.

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.

Crown Pole under the snow

Another photograph from January 2nd.

On the left is the HSBC bank and across the road is the Royal Bank of Scotland on the corner of Corporation Street.

In the centre is the Crown Pole erected in 2002 to commemorate the Queen's golden jubilee.

See it shortly after erection on Old Hyde

See how it looked in August 2009 on Hyde DP Xtra.

Merry Christmas from Hyde

Hyde Town Hall is lit up for Christmas, and even the Hyde Seal is illuminated.

I wish a merry Christmas to all my readers and would like to remind you that there is still time to vote for the Best of Hyde 2009 photograph of the year.

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.

Warhill Sundial

The Warhill Sundial is behind Mottram Church.

It was a Medieval cross originally, but heavily restored in 1760 and 1897. The stepped circular ashlar plinth is inscribed "Restored in commemoration of the sixtieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria 1897". The octagonal shaft on the moulded base has a foliated capital and supports a cubical sundial with 3 copper faces. The front face is inscribed "hora pars vitae", the rear "and watch and pray time hastes away when time is done eternity comes on".

According to the Public Monument and Sculpture Association

"It is widely assumed that the present sundial stands on or close to the site of the Mottram Cross though both the documentary and archaeological evidence of an older cross is frustratingly slight. It is unclear when a cross was first built and when a sundial was added. Writing shortly after the erection of the present monument, Thomas Middleton repeated the local tradition that the cross was erected in or about 1760 though he did note that there appeared to be some confusion about whether the reports referred to the Mottram Crown Pole which was also raised in that coronation year. Aikin, or more likely Stockdale who had first-hand knowledge of Mottram, noted the existence of an ancient cross by the churchyard in the much quoted volume of 1795. Notes made by John Wagstaffe, churchwarden at St Michael's, state that the sundial was the work of a Mr Wardleworth. It is, however, known that the present sundial was built using stone from the earlier cross, and erected in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The new sundial was situated a short distance from the place where the cross stood and was paid for by 'a few private subscribers'."

Neighbours Week: 5. Dukinfield

This week we are visiting our five nearest neighbours.

North is Dukinfield and this is Dukinfield Town Hall. Fans of "Coronation Street" and other TV shows might recognise it as the registry office where several weddings have taken place.

Like Hyde, Dukinfield is part of Cheshire, has a Stockport postcode, and is now part of Tameside Metropolitan Borough. It forms a buffer between Hyde and Ashton-under-Lyne which is in Lancashire and has an Oldham postcode.


Outside the Town Hall is a statue of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Duckenfield (1619 - 1689). Colonel Duckenfield was High Sherrif of Cheshire and Lord of the Manor of Dukinfield, living at the now-demolished Dukinfield Hall. He fought for the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War and led the forces that captured the Isle of Man.

St George's under the Clock

A view of St George's from underneath the James North Clock.

L S Lowry

Across the road from The Junction in Mottram sits L S Lowry on his bench.

L S Lowry, lived in Mottram from 1948 until his death in 1976.

There is another version of this picture on my photoblog Sithenah.

Local duo Brian & Michael created a new audience for Lowry when they recorded their One Hit Wonder Matchstalk Men & Matchstalk Cats & Dogs. You can hear them talking about it on Old Hyde

June is bursting out all over

Never mind about the Roadworks going on below outside the Town Hall.

Look up and see all the leaves on the trees. Behind is the Hyde Seal and beyond on Greenfield Street is the old Kwik Save store which is going to be reopening soon as a branch of Wilkinsons.

L S Lowry

It was recently brought to my attention that Mottram-in-Longdendale, Hollingworth and indeed Broadbottom all have an SK14 postcode and that I should try and include more photographs from these areas.

L.S. Lowry, lived in Mottram from 1948 until his death in 1976. This bronze statue of Lowry seated on a bench is located next to the junction of Hyde Road and Stalybridge Road.

There is a close-up picture of the statue on my photoblog Sithenah.

A commemorative plaque can also be found on Lowry's former home, "The Elms" on Stalybridge Road.

Local duo Brian & Michael created a new audience for Lowry when they recorded their One Hit Wonder Matchstalk Men & Matchstalk Cats & Dogs. You can hear them talking about it today on Old Hyde.

From behind the Seal

I've shown you the Hyde Seal from the left and from the right and from the front as well as close-ups of its head and of its middle.

This one from behind looking back across to the market was taken last June.