Name: Charlie Pottins
E-Mail: cfpottins2@netscapeonline.co.uk
From or connections with: On the boundary between Higher Broughton, or Mandley Park ward, and Hightown. The old Manchester and Salford boundary was marked by a rusty iron plate on the side of our house.
Present Location: Wembley, north-west London.
Subject: place names
EWM Photo: Thought that picture over Strangeways and Salford was terrific. It would make a great stamp.
Reader Message:

Dear Aidan,
Regarding place names in Manchester; I seem to recall seeing on an old map there was a Cheetham's farm somwhere about where Queens Road is.

Couldn't Cheetham be another version of Chetham, as in Chetham's Hospital, and school? So it would be a local family name, although perhaps the ham part also indicates that this name in turn must have come from a place a Chet ham, wherever that was.

Besses o'the Barn - if Prestwich was a priests' wick, couldn't the name have been something to do with Abbesses? BTW, when I was at primary school in Cheetham (the Temple), there was a Scholes Lane which ran behind the Northern hospital, and I seem to remember there was a still a farm of it which may have been called Scholes farm. Any relation to Paul of that ilk, I wonder?

Later the area off there was turned over to sports fields, I think it was Alms Hill. If you crossed the pitches and took the path over the other side you reached Woodlands Road station. A bit further was Smedley Vale.

Now to a question, nothing to do with place names. As a kid I remember watching a film about speedway riders, and I believe it was filmed partly at Belle Vue. Any info. on the film?
Charlie

Fascinating - as for the origins of the place names my response would be... maybe and maybe. Film featuring speedway riders - rings a bell but I don't know off hand - can anyone help?

Name: Charles Pottins
E-Mail: cfpottins2@netscapeonline.co.uk
From or connections with: Hightown/Higher Broughton boundary.
Present Location: London
Subject: bygones
EWM Photo:
Reader Message:

Dear Aidan,

A few more memories that have been jogged: I grew up in the area where Salford and Cheetham meet, in the 1940s and 1950s.

Broughton High School for Girls used to be on Bury New Road, in a smart stuccoed old house behind gardens, facing the Cliff and the Irwell. My Mum used to call it Bella Vista,
which I assume was the original house name. I remember someone saying there was a "secret passage" leading under the road, from the school to the cliff. The land on the river side had been subject to landslip (the Pendleton fault)-kids called it the "lannies", from the Landslides.

You could see where a cobbled street had fallen away, Beneath this was a chaos of overgrown rubble, woods, and paths - so maybe there had once been a passage leading from the old house to a lower garden. I wonder if any old Victorian pictures survive?

The Polygon - this was an old square, or rather polygon, of large houses set off Bury Old Rod. near the Halfway House. I seem to remember it was already run down and decrepit when I was a kid, but one imagined it had once been rather posh. We sometimes cut through it on the way from Cheetham Hill Rd. to Middleton Rd. and as a small kid I seem to remember being fascinated by the old houses, and the neglected leafstrewn area in the centre. It was demolished some time in the early 1950s, and the King David school was built at the front of it. I think there was also a polygon nursery, and as it was near Wilton Rd it may have been called Wilton Polygon?

The Tanyard - another treat as a kid was being taken via this shortcut across open ground, from Elizabeth-Street/St.James Road down to Bury New Rd., where my Aunt used to live and where my Mum still called at the butchers. There were some old farm-style buildings at the side of this ground, and presumably this had once been a tannery. To the other side were hills which other kids played on, later largely built on for houses for warders from Strangeways.

Name: Derek Bebbington
E-Mail: apds@chilli.net.au
Website:
From or connections with: Cheetham
Present Location: Sydney Australia
Subject:
EWM Photo:
Reader Message:

Dear Aidan
In relation to your query "why was Barney's Croft never built on"? I may have the answer.

I lived on the Queens Road side of Barneys from 1956 to 1964. Barneys originally, was a massive brick quarry (probably Barney's Brick Quarry). The brick works and kilns were all derelict when I was a boy but it was obviously a big operation in its time. Barneys (due to clay extraction for the bricks) became a very wide and deep hole in the ground.

From the late fifties until the mid sixties Manchester Corporation used the hole as a massive rubbish tip (Barney's Tip). The filthy sludge from the street drains around Manchester was also tipped there. Due to those activities, the whole area of Barneys could possibly be contaminated to this day (and would also be a reservoir of methane gas), which could explain why it has never been built on.

I hope that helped.
Derek Bebbington
Sydney Australia.

That's very interesting. Part of Barney's Croft is, I believe, to be built on. I don't know what the situation is regarding those toxic substances. It's the largest open unused space in central Manchester - I can imagine it as a park - it's a pity the space is going to waste. There are great views over the Irk valley

Name: Pedro Gaspar
E-Mail: pedrogaspar@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.geocities.com/mozportugal
From or connections with: no one !!!! ah ah ah
Present Location: Oporto/ Portugal
Subject: Moors Murderers
Reader Message: Dear Aidan
Hi!!! I think it was here on these fields that the moors murderers´victims here buried after being killed by the hated Ian Brady???

Don´t forget to take photos from Coronation Street in Ordsall. Look for the Salford Lads Club building.

Cheers!!!!

I'm not sure of the exact location where the victims were buried - Saddleworth Moor is very big. Here's Coronation St and Salford Lad's club

Name: cyril rodgers
E-Mail: cyrodge@gis.net
Website:
From or connections with: not from the city but nearby Rochdale, your site is great.
Present Location: Paxton in Massachusetts USA
Reader Message:

Dear Aidan

This is a great site that an expat of the last 41 Years really enjoys. It would be terrific if you could get out to Rochdale, Middleton or Castleton. Another nice take would be Hollingworth Lake. Memories of earlier years are wonderful and you play an important part in stimulating them. Keep up the good work and good luck to you.

Cyril Rodgers

Thanks for your comments - here's an old picture of Hollingworth Lake

Name: SUSAN JALEEL
E-Mail: SC.Jaleel@btinternet.com
Website:
From or connections with: GEE CROSS, HYDE
Present Location: DARLINGTON, CO DURHAM
Subject: VICTORIA BATHS
EWM Photo:
Reader Message:

Dear Aidan
Thank you for answering my query about the Victoria Baths and their connection with Prime Suspect 5 - I am encouraged that my powers of observation are not as time-worn as I had thought!

Thanks too for all the wonderful photographs which you produce, so many of which I have downloaded, both for wallpaper use and also as collections for a scenes screensaver programme. Particular thanks for the scenes from Werneth Low - my most favourite place in the whole world.
Susan Jaleel

Here are some views from Werneth Low, also a favourite location of mine. I'm always pleased to hear that my photos are being used and appreciated on a personal level, but I hope no-one is using them for profit!

Name: Brendan McCarthy
E-Mail: brendan10@btinternet.com
Website:
From or connections with: old trafford, stretford, hulme, newton heath
Present Location: fleetwood, lancs
Subject: article on victoria baths
EWM Photo:
Reader Message: Dear Aidan: about susan jaleel's article on victoria baths the exterior shots were i think of harpurhey baths, also i wonder if you could do a article on old manchester pubs with pictures that would be great, keep up the great work, brendan.

Yes, that would be popular, I think. Manchester has some great pubs.

Name: Barrie Dixon
E-Mail: bdixon1@cwctv.net
From or connections with: Beswick, Bradford, Abbey Hey
Present Location: Abbey Hey
Subject: Your site
EWM Photo:
Reader Message:
Dear Aidan,

Excuse me emailing you personally, have tried to post message on Eyewitness in Manchester, and Manchesteronline.co.uk site, but the equipment I am using is NOT a computer.

Believe it or not,but I get my internet sites through my television set, which is run by the cable company NTL formally Cable & Wireless RE. Nynex. So I am restricted from performing things that a computer can do, i can only surf sites, but am able to click on the great pictures you have taken in and around Manchester.

May I send you my personal thanks, to you and your wife, for putting this great site together. All the research you must have done (and still doing) and your travelling to places for the photo's, must take a great deal of your time.

Born in 1948 in Bradford/Beswick, I still reside in Manchester and live in Abbey Hey, close to Debdale Park (Kingswater Development Site) where I live with my mum, father died 1998,i have never got round to getting married so am still single.

My years spent in Bradford were really great, right upto 1976, when the family home caught fire during the HOT summer, we lost everything we ever had in the fire, all our possessions collected over the years (all gone) hence the move here!

Original home was not far from the site where the stadium is being built for the Commonwealth Games. In fact where I worked was on Phillips Park Road, near the railway and the canal. I worked for a Furniture Manufacturers, employed as a labourer from 1970 til 1992, then was made redundant when firm wound up.

Actual site for games is where all the big industrial firms once stood, and many more smaller businesses, many thousands of jobs gone, but maybe after games firms might spring up again, and bring people to work there again.

Would it be possible for you to find some old photographs of area Bradford/Beswick/Openshaw/Clayton during the 50's/60's/70's,and open a column to be included in the Manchester Districts.

If at all possible it should be great to look back in time.
Well i must end now Aidan, as I could go on and on remeniscing, once again I thank you for the site, and send my regards to yourself and your wife.

Mr.B.Dixon.
ABBEY HEY GORTON
BARRIE DIXON

I hope to include old photographs soon. I produce Eyewitness in Manchester myself - Ann helps me from time to time. It's my job - I am a freelance contributor to Manchester Online, they pay me just like any other photographer or journalist. I also sell lots of photographs, so you might say I am a professional 'photo-tourist'. Thanks for your very interesting message.

Name: Philipp Boerker
E-Mail: grond@cs.tu-berlin.de
Website:
From or connections with: Fallowfield
Present Location: Munich, Germany
Subject: Fitz
EWM Photo:
Reader Message: Dear Aidan,
I like coming to your site at times. I spent a year as a visiting student at Manchester University from 97 to 98. Originally I'm from Berlin, Germany.

When I see your photographs I wonder how I could not have seen so many places in Manchester. I spent nine months in Manchester and during one of the last weeks there a friend and I tried to count the pubs we went to. Without having to think hard we came up with more than 25! Sometimes I take my city map of Manchester and walk around the city in my imagination...

I lived in one of the halls of residence in Fallowfield, Richmond Park to be precise. What I miss most about Manchester is the terrific kebab at Sajaam... :)

Currently they are showing "Fitz" (I don't know the original title) with Robby Coltrane on German TV. Unfortunately it's not broadcast in English. I'd love to hear the Mancunian dialect again...

Apart from the fact that I really like the series I also watch it trying to see places I know (recognized some pubs, uni and short glimpses of the city center).

Perhaps one day I will go and visit Manchester even though it's not a tourist's first choice and my friends from uni have scattered all across the world a long time ago.

If anyone of the people I knew in Manchester is reading this, I'd be happy to hear from you!
Yours,
Philipp.

I did my one year exchange in Berlin, so I know what it's like to spend a year abroad - I thought Berlin was fantastic, and I like to visit whenever I can. Glad you liked Manchester, but I don't think people will be pleased to hear you say Manchester isn't a tourist's first choice!

Name: Wyn Cummings {Nee Morris}
E-Mail: wyn123@dgweb.com
Website:
From or connections with: Ancoats and Beswick. Ashton New Rd.
Present Location: Sacramento. California
Subject: The razing of Piccaddilly Gardens
EWM Photo: Picadilly gardens
Reader Message:

Dear Aidan, Well, I guess you can't stop progress. I used to walk with my Father to Piccadilly gardens on Sunday mornings. The beautiful flowers, made all the lovelier because we didn't have a garden. An ice cream cone... a 99 {Don't forget the raspberry} Sometimes there would be a monkey, dressed in a little girls dress, riding a trike. The people sitting with their faces to the Sun, a rare sight, This will always live in my minds eye.

Time marches on but the memories will always remain.

I beg to differ on the matter of progress - The demise of some things is inevitable for economic or technological reasons:- steam engines, two man buses, maybe in a couple of years, the pound sterling. But the decision to completely change Piccadilly and place an office block on it was a conscious decision by a group of councillors. A different group of people might have made an entirely different decision. Nothing is inevitable - the city we see around us is the result of decisions - some good some bad - taken by individuals.

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