Wartime bomb maps

The local Tv news recently reported that the maps of where the bombs fell on Manchester during WWII are now available online. There is hardly a day when there isn't a story about the war and those who lived through it, and never a day when some Tv channel isn't showing a drama or documentary about that conflict. However this was now new information readily accessible for everyone. It was a revelation especially when you discover a fire bomb fell in front of your own house, or a high explosive bomb landed on the next plot on the  allotments up the road. It accounts for why we have hideous cheap post-war buildings in streets of fine old properties. For example Chorlton Post Office a construction of no merit that replaced a Victorian building that was destroyed by enemy action.

The whole of the city is divided up into various pages, and an hour has gone by before you realise you've just been staring at red (incendiary bombs) and blue (high explosives) markings on 80 year old Ordnance Survey maps. The maps also reveal how much of Chorlton was still fields and how many allotment gardens and tennis courts there were.

To keep it relevant to the weblog the picture is of the corner of Hardy Lane, Mauldeth Road West and Barlow Moor Road had shews where an explosive device fell on the 12th March 1940 and exactly a year later several more nearby. Both dates outside the heavy blitz on Manchester 22nd and 23rd December 1940.

Links:
Wartime Bomb Maps of Manchester.
Further stories of wartime bomb damage at Chorlton History......

Road or it that Lane Re-opened

At last the roadworks are gone, the road re-opens again. But when the construction team comes to lay down the tram track then severe distruption will be for months. The picture is at night and has a quality like an oil painting, yes it is blurred. That's the bookies at the corner of Hardy Lane and Barlow Moor Road. Need to take more photographs for this junction will change forever.

Quiet Setting

The photograph is dated August 1975 and shews a tree lined Hardy Lane being the wide cul-de-sac that it is. You have to thank Mr. A. Dawson who took his camera around Manchester in the 1970's taking snaps of ordinary buildings and streets. Even when you do this today you catch some strange looks off passers-by, and maybe he got some odd looks too.

At present we can't go and recreate this scene because of the roadworks blocking Hardy Lane, see the previous post.

Photo : m17868 Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council. Link

Road Closure

A photograph taken from the upstairs in the Co-Op Rooms at Hardy Lane. The road is closed, Barlow Moor Road is reduced to single lane traffic, and the trees have been felled on Mauldeth Road West.

Hardy Lane 1929

Just a picture from Tuesday October 29th 1930. Quality a bit poor, clipped from a newspaper, what wouldn't you give to get the negatives?

It shews Hardy Lane being transformed from a narrow country lane to wide road. New houses from the Barlow Moor Estate have been built. But are those old farm buildings the right foreground? Can't tell without further recognisance. It was planned to create "Arterial Route No.10" out of Manchester. It would have taken the dual carriage way of Mauldeth Road West built 1922-24, down Hardy Lane and then across the River Mersey to Sale and Altrincham. As we know this plan made Hardy Lane a very cul-de-sac as the road construction stopped at The Meadows.

Thanks to the commentor below. This is a photo of Hardy Lane looking towards Barlow Moor Road. The buildings on the right are the Hardy Lane Cottages - see http://www.oldchorlton.me.uk/15.html

The Green Fields Pass

Chorlton still has a slice of greenery and position yourself at the right spot it can be a bucolic scene. There is always someone who can remember when all this was fields, the more contemporary version for Manchester is someone who can remember when all this was factories employing thousands when all you have now is another industrial age relic converted to the ready-meal appartment lifestyle, another museum and a visitors centre....

But that rural aspect to Chorlton-cum-Hardy wasn't so long ago. The newspaper report is from 1929 and is entitled "The Green Fields Pass".

"There used to be some pleasant countryside lying alongside Barlow Moor Road between Chorlton-cum-Hardy and West Didsbury. Last year travellers on the "circular route" looked down upon fields of oats ripening in the sun. There was a farm with beasts in the pasture. A lane ran down to the river and a footpath followed by the hedges, both being much esteemed locally as lovers' walks.

Tram to the Mersey

The forthcoming year will see the start of the construction of the tram track to the airport down Hardy Lane. Brace yourself for months of traffic delays and walking disruption, as anyone who has visited the roads up to Droylsden where a new tram route is being laid down will testify. We've already been photographing the preliminary construction work and will be publishing the progress. Oh the heady delights of something new to blog about rather than just the past.

But back in the 1930's with the electric trams running on the streets of Manchester one of "the countryside on your doorstep locations" would be alighting at Hardy Lane and walking a mile down to Jackson's Boat for the charm of the River Mersey and the green fields of Sale and Chorlton.

"Manchester Municipal School of Art organised a competition to produce pictorial posters for the Manchester Corporation Transport Department trams and buses between 1933 and 1934. In all, eighteen designs were used; the corporation paid the School of Art two guineas in order to use them. Their unusual shape was designed to fit on the back of the driver's cab."

You can see all eighteen designs thanks to Greater Manchester Archives at
Mcrarchives' Flick Collection

Trips to Dunham Park, Platt Fields, football, the new Central Library, Bollin Valley at Hale were just some of the destinations on the municipal public transport system.

Hardy Lane Goes to Rifle Road

Hardy Lane originally ended here at Jackson's Boat. When this picture was taken in 1900 the public house was called the Bridge Inn and it is listed in street directories as the last property on the lane even though it is on the south bank of the River Mersey. The iron bridge was built in 1881 at the E.Bellhouse Iron Foundry in Ancoats when Manchester was an industrial city. It replaced an earlier wooden bridge. There was a penny toll for using the bridge right up until the 1950's. It was one of the few bridges in Britain that charged for pedestrians. Like to know to whom the money was paid to perhaps the people who paid for the bridge?

Note the steep approach to the bridge which sits atop of the flood protection embankments. It's constructed of stone setts, still there and still tricky to go down with a bicycle or when wet. The gates and wooden steps shown in this picture have long gone. Hardy Lane then runs into what is now called Rifle Road. When this photograph was taken it was a narrow country track and the first building you would have come to was Sale Old Hall. That was demolished in 1920. You can still see an old dovecote that was in the grounds of the hall for it has been restored to a new home in Walkden Gardens, Sale. It's well worth visiting the Walkden Gardens - a hidden jewel, free admission, take a sandwich, explore and enjoy.

Further reference and better image : Trafford Lifetimes
E.Bellhouse Jackson's Boat Bridge.

Lane closed

This is still the scene at the end of Hardy Lane at the end of year 2012. No entry, roadworks that have stalled, months of traffic delay and many more months to come. But those underground utility pipes need to be replaced and improved before the tram comes thundering down the lane on the proposed route to the airport. When that tram comes Hardy Lane will never be quiet again.

It is still possible to reach the place where this photo was taken by a diversionary route.

Garden Corner

For a few years this century there was a landscape garden that replaced the scrubby croft, and the smaller billboards. All replaced by a car park. Well you can't operate retail without spaces for customers to place their vehicle. Photo taken from Google Streetview which is useful now, but is going to be a great archive. It already is.

Football Field

"The early years of 20th Century saw the appearance of several football clubs in the suburb, some short-lived. Chorlton Albion (1925), whose home pitch was on the corner of Hardy Lane and Barlow Moor Road, near where the Co-op is now".
from Looking Back series in the South Manchester Reporter 19th August 2010 - Amateurs Had It All by Graham Phythian, a notable football historian.

Details about defunct football clubs at this level are patchy at best. It throws up questions of where there any changing facilities, what fixtures did they play and it what colours?

Camapign HQ

Hardy Lane Co-op Rooms are currently the head quarters for Lucy Powell the Labour candidate in the forthcoming General Election. The rooms have been used for Labour campaigns since at least 1964, and as HQ since at least 1987.

Picture is of Lucy (left) with Yvette Cooper, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who dropped by to meet constituents and called into the Hardy Lane rooms. At least the background looks like that.

Before the Co-op Car Park

Hardy Lane, Chorlton
Originally uploaded by Gene Hunt

Taken in 2007 just before the new car park was built. Looks like the building work is about to start with the metal railings erected beyond the croft on the corner. The billboards which brought in thousands of pounds (GBP) for United Co-operative are still in place.

Hardy Lane in the Snow

Not often you see scenes like this. The second day of the snow and before it turns to icy danger. Photo shows Hurstville Road off to the left, and the refuse collection hasn't taken place because of the weather.

Hardy Lane Cottages

Hardy Lane Cottages were in a previous post called Slum Clearance Order. Reading this story by fellow Chorlton historian Andrew which I didn't realise was on the web until this week you realise that the cottages were so unfit for modern living. On the other hand there will still be buildings of this type of cheapest construction in Manchester and the other parts of the UK. Let's hope they arn't damp and do have adequate plumbing.

See Annie Gresty and Hardy Cottages

Slum Clearance Order

Hardy Lane cottages were demolished on a Clearance Order dated 1969, although demolition was carried out in December 1972. They were in a poor state both in and outside. Sagging roofs, leaning chimneys, dampness, inequate light and ventilation. The report even refers to insanitary pail closets in defective structures. In 1969 there were 8 cottages, with seven of them inhabited by 20 people. 16 were adults and 4 were children. The properties were owned by Chorlton-cum-Hardy Golf Company.

Thanks to local historian Andrew for sending this information on to me. Back then there was a policy of demolishing old and defective housing rather than spending money on making them inhabitable again. There are lots of old cottages in Chorlton that nearly joined them under the bulldozer before that policy was amended. The photograph is from 1958.

New Little Market Garden

"Plans to develop the market garden are already underway. Southway Housing have leased a parcel of land behind the Co-op on Hardy Lane to the project and over the next few months the land will be cleared, designs drawn up and landscaping work done in preparation for the first growing season in 2010. " - Chorlton Civic Society Newsletter November 2009.

Funds are being sought for this work. The market garden is seen as just the beginning of a process which they hope will restore the estate to a place where most residents grew fruit and vegetables in their own gardens.

Full story at http://bleach.org.uk/?page_id=283#cafe

New Pitches

The Hardy Farm Playing fields haven't been used for years but they might get a new lease of life. They want levelling out first

West Didsbury & Chorlton FC have agreed to join with Oswald Road Junior FC to form a new Charter Standard Community Club to be based at Hardy Lane on the former playing fields adjoining their Brookburn Road ground.

Proposals for new junior and adult pitches with a full size 3g pitch and related changing facilities are being finalised and will be submitted to the City Council in the coming weeks. Interesting devlopements, might be ready for the 2010-11 season if all the approvals take place.

Hidden Stream

Chorlton has lots of hidden streams running through it. They didn't fill them in they just got a culvert over the top. A lot of these were built around 1905-1910 by the City Engineers and later they built roads and houses over the the culverts. This is one that runs from Barlow Hall then through Barlow Wood, Chorlton Golf Club, back of the old Hardy Farm site and eventually to the River Mersey.

The other Friday, my old mate Andrew who does all this old history milarky like myself did some exploring on the Meadows and stumbled across it. It's even got a bridge over it with an overgrown path that leads to a fence surrounding the golf greens. Perhaps in the past it might have been used by farms carts. But you have to ask the question. Why cart all these bricks down here to build something that nobody now has a use for? It must have been of some significance at the time to cross the stream without getting wet wheels or feet.

After that we went to Cafe Ark at the Mersey Valley Visitors Centre for coffee and Eccles cake - photo. It's great when you live in the urban but you can dip into the countryside with just a short walk.

Hardy Lane 100 years ago

Taken from Slater's Street Directory of Manchester & Salford published 1909. As you will observe - no house numbers, two farmers (Hardy Farm with James Brundrett, and Hardy House Farm with James Richardson), a pub (that's at Jackson's Boat). A cricket club founded in 1885 - the ground is still there but the cricket stopped a few years ago. Chorlton Golf Club carries on but the club house moved down the road to Barlow Hall at sometime in the 20th Century. Everybody else resides in a a block of cottages called Hardy Cottages or The Block House.