STOCKPORT ROAD, THE A6 passes under the Manchester to London railway line in Longsight. This reinforced concrete bridge spanning the main road was built around 1960, when the line was electrified. The railway line through Levenshulme to Stockport dates from the early 1840's. We are in still in Longsight, but on the Levenshulme side of the bridge, close to Crowcroft Park.

In front of us, gathering speed, is a 192 bus to Stepping Hill, passing through Levenshulme and Stockport. It's operated by Magic Bus, a low-fares subsidiary of Stagecoach. The bus is around 20 years old and has recently been painted in the Magic Bus all-blue livery.

EWM wonders: I wonder how many times I've passed under that bridge over the last five decades!

CROWCROFT PARK looks much the same today as it did years ago. This view is close to the edge of the park on Stockport Road. We are looking under an oak tree, over the fence and across Stockport Road to a row of terraced houses which has changed little over the years.

Joyce says: "This part of Levenshulme has hardly changed at all."

CROWCROFT PARK seen from Stockport Road, looking towards the primary school in the distance. It's gloomy and overcast, the kind of weather many people imagine to be typical of Manchester and the UK in general. Just off to the right of the picture is the site of the former Levenshulme Palais. A new building has recently appeared on the site.

Joyce comments: "I left Levenshulme in 1954 and I've not been back to walk around - It's nostalgic, and I'm surprised that a lot of the original buildings are still there. I used to play in Crowcroft Park as a child, most of us used to go to there.

Near Crowcroft Park was the ballroom - the Levenshulme Palais de Danse. We usually got dressed up to go there. We wore full skirts, blouse, dress and petticoats. We had real bands, such as the Phil Moss Big Band. They were proper bands and were very well known, you followed your bands round to dance to.

They didn't have alcoholic drinks in dance halls, just tea coffee and soft drinks. You could buy a cake but not alcohol. It was very energetic, the ballroom - You could get a glass of water, you didn't have to buy it. It wasn't freestyle. Someone would annouce the waltz, quickstep, tango. If the band was very good you would stop dancing and listen."

THE MIDWAY PUB is approximately half way from Manchester city centre to Stockport town centre, hence the name. It's an imposing multi-gabled Victorian edifice built in what looks like Collyhurst Stone. It stands on the corner of Matthews Lane and Stockport Road. For a while it was known by the pseudo-Irish name of 'Biddy Mulligans' but has recently returned to its original name.

Joyce remembers the Midway in the late 40's: "I went for a 21st birthday party in one of the function rooms at the Midway. You took your own food, though the Midway did catering. The war had only just finished, things weren't back into the swing. Lots of things were still on ration. There was no alcohol in the Palais or many of the meeting places for teenagers."

EWM says: Thank goodness the Irish pub fad appears to have faded. This is a quintessentially British and Victorian style pub. Having visited the original 'Mulligans' pub on Poolbeg St Dublin, I can tell the difference. The name "The Midway" is an integral part of the urban landscape and hopefully now it will remain unchanged.

THE FARMERS ARMS PUB is opposite the Midway Pub. Next door to it, on the left, is a house which was partially demolished in a road accident which occurred during 2001. As we can see, the repairs to the house are nearly finished. New exterior walls with clean new bricks and a new section of roof have been added. This is the second time in a few years that a building on Stockport Rd has been demolished by an out of control vehicle. In 1998, a building just half a mile up the road in Longsight met a similar fate, and has now been rebuilt.

EWM says: Danger of your house being partially demolished by a passing lorry is one of the hazards of living on the A6, with its severe traffic congestion.

"GORTON - LEVENSHULME" is the delapidated lettering on this sign fixed onto a house on Stockport Road, next to Matthews Lane. It marks the line of the old parish boundary which crosses Stockport Road at this point.

Rich says: "I like the textures of the bricks, you've got the contrast of the colours and the boundaries, and its just interesting where one thing becomes another - on the left hand side of the drainpipe's Gorton and the right hand side is Levenshulme. That's how our visual system works, our eyes are drawn to boundaries."

EWM says: I wonder how many of the thousands of people who pass this sign every day have ever noticed it - I certainly hadn't until I started to explore Levenshulme for this feature. It's amazing what you discover when you just go out and look.

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