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Then and Now: Ashton Old Road, Openshaw

THEN: The Pack Horse in 1960

But there is more to the apparently wholly unremarkable stretch of Ashton Old Road, near the junction with Louisa Street, than meets the eye.

Legend has it that the Pack Horse Pub - seen here in both pictures next to a factory-turned trading estate - was once a well-known stop-off for wagons ferrying prisoners to jail in the late 19th century.

It is said that the poor criminals would be routinely chained up in the pub's cellars while the prison officers slaked their thirst.

NOW: A former stop off point for prisoners

The other two were The Drovers and The Greymare but both had different names in the past. The Drovers was known locally as The Shouters and the Greymare as The Plough. But both would have to go some to beat the Pack Horse's claim to fame.

From 1831, the pub was also the headquarters of the Lancastrian Friendly Burial Society, popularly known as the Neck or Nowt.

The archive photograph is part of a collection chronicling the changing face of Manchester during the past 250 years store on an easy-to-use computer at Manchester Central Library.

What are your memories of Ashton Old Road?

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