Edward VIII postbox at Heaton Mersey

An Edward VIII postbox (SK4 304D) stands at the corner of Fylde Road and Mauldeth Road in Heaton Mersey.

The insignia/cypher dates it to the 326 day reign of King Edward VIII who became king on the death of his father on January 20th 1936 and abdicated on December 11th 1936.

Only about 160 postboxes bearing the cypher of Edward VIII were made. Estimates as to how many have survived vary between 80 and 130. One theory claims that some Edward VIII postbox doors were replaced by George VI doors.

A contribution to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

Ephemera: Changes on Prince's Street

In recent year Prince's Street has been split into five sections with two sections made into pedestrianised areas with little trees, benches, litter bins and lighting outside the rear of M&S on the left - see the post of 15th March 2015 which shows what used to be there.

Now that has all gone and the area has been tarmacced over. The street extension to the Swan With Two Necks is still there for now - see it from the other side in the post of 20th November 2013.

The barriers won't be staying for too long. Prince's Street will be returning to a through route running one way with the parallel Bridgefield Street running in the opposite direction.

Today's post is a contribution to the Ephemeral theme at the City Daily Photo Community.

Bus Shelter, Bull's Head, Reddish

This bus shelter is the terminus of the #84 bus at the Bull's Head, Reddish. The #84 route is a mainly half hourly service to Manchester Piccadilly. It takes a circuitous route through Heaton Chapel, Heaton Mersey, East Didsbury, Withington, West Didsbury, Chorlton and Old Trafford. The full journey takes over 1 hour 20 minutes. If you just wanted to get from North Reddish to Piccadilly you would cross the road and take the #203 which would get you there in 15-25 minutes depending on traffic. It is probably a route that has been cobbled together from three different original services.

A contribution to the City Daily Photoblogs theme Shelter.

High Bank Side Path

The footpath leading from Chestergate under the High Bankside retaining wall towards St Petersgate and St Mary's church.

View the original photograph from which this was created on Geograph.

A contribution to Good Fences and The Weekend in Black and White.

Zebra to Zero

This zebra crossing on Station road leads to the upper entrance into Stockport station and platform Zero.

Platform Zero was added in 2003 although not used until 2008. It is the only platform that is accessible from street level.

Only three other stations in the UK have a platform zero, Edinburgh Haymarket, London King's Cross and Cardiff Central.

A contribution to Our World Tuesday and ABC Wednesday.

Photo of the Year: Rostron Brow

Rostron Brow leads from Lower Hillgate up to St Mary's Parish Church.

I have chosen this as my Photo of the Year 2014 - see what other City Daily Photobloggers chose for their Photo of the Year by visiting JANUARY 2015 GALLERY - PHOTO OF THE YEAR.

The fountain outside St Mary's

Some weeks ago I posted a view of the Gateway to St Mary's.

The ashlar wall to Millgate incorporates a drinking fountain in granite dated 1858, with 2 moulded stone steps below.

It is Grade II* listed.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

And The River Runs Through

Back in September I posted a photograph of an artwork that had appeared in the garden of St Peter's Church which I later discovered was called The Glass Umbrella, one of five artworks around the town created by a group of young people, working with the Youth Offending Service.

And the River Runs Through, highlights the importance of the local rivers to Stockport's Industrial Heritage. The Rivers Tame and Goyt converge in Stockport, to form the River Mersey, that runs beneath Merseyway shopping centre. The artwork uses repeat patterns created from photographs gathered around Stockport Town Centre to indicate the complex nature of the local industry, especially hatting, textiles and engineering.

This one is on Chestergate and it took me two walks down the street before I actually found it somewhat tucked away behind a litter bin near the taxi rank.

I'll show you two of the other artworks at a later date. I never found the fifth and after some inquiries discovered that was because it had been stolen. I have been informed that work on a replacement is in progress.

A contribution to
Blue Monday;
Monday Murals;
Our World Tuesday;
ABC Wednesday.

N is for NatWest Bank and National Cycle Network

This is Great Underbank. In the background is Underbank Hall, now the NatWest bank. In the foreground are two benches either side of a lamppost and a litter bin. Behind them in front of a wall and next to two Sheffield stands is a National Cycle Network Milepost.

Underbank Hall was the Elizabethan town house of the Arderne family of Bredbury. The original house must have been larger as an inventory of 1619 lists more rooms than survive today. The hall was sold for 3,000 guineas in September 1823 to the banking firm of Christy Lloyd & Co which became the Stockport and East Cheshire Bank in the following year. In 1829, the Stockport and Cheshire Bank became part of the Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Company. By 1880 this bank had 54 branches, in Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. The bank changed its name to the District Bank in 1924 and in 1962 was acquired by the National Provincial Bank. Then in 1970 this bank merged with the Westminster Bank to form the National Westminster Bank, which is now known simply as NatWest.

1000 Millennium cast iron mileposts were funded by the Royal Bank of Scotland to mark the creation of the National Cycle Network, and are found along the cycles routes through the UK.

This recently erected milepost is on the National Cycleway Network Route #62 and Trans Pennine Trail, 20 miles from Lymm and 10 from Broadbottom. This one is of the Cockerel design and apart from having a red top is so far unpainted.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Marketplace on a lampost

This artwork can be found on a lampost on Castle Street in Edgeley. The text reads:

"On Saturday nights my dad used to take us Stockport Market in those days it stayed open till 9pm.

It was a great event everyone from round here would go. And we'd always go to Woolworths on the way home to buy sweets."

As part of the Stockport Arts Trail, an independent group of young people, working towards an Arts Award Qualification at Stockport Central Library, created the images for one face of the artworks, located on lampposts in and around Edgeley.

Historic photographs from the libraries archives are on the other face, giving people an idea of how the area looked in times gone by.

There are eleven lampposts in total along the trail. More information is at Healthy Stockport.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday and signs, signs.

Double postbox on Castle Street, Edgeley

Castle Street used to be the main thoroughfare through Edgeley before it was bypassed by Mercian Way and sections of it pedestrianised.

It is still a busy street with many shops, pubs, cafés and much else.

A closer view of the double postbox SK3 24.

A contribution to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

Postboxes on St Peter's Square

This double-fronted postbox is located outside the former Prudential building in St Peter's Square. The postboxes are labelled SK1 386 (left) and SK1 385 (right). On the right is a postbox for "franked mail" only.

This view is from the other side looking past the statue of Richard Cobden towards St Peter's Church. For more information about St Peter's Church see our post dated 16th June 2013. For more information and a better view of the statue see my photograph on Geograph.

The distinctive business postbox for franked mail was introduced in the mid-1990s. Before the advent of such boxes, franked mail could not be posted in a letter box and thus had to be handed in at a post or sorting office unless the business had a visit from the postman. (The reason for this is that ordinary stamped mail would be sent to the sorting office and postmarked, whereas franked mail is already dated by the sender's franking machine.)

Because it is designed for business mail, it is found usually in business parks and industrial estates or in areas of town which are heavily occupied by businesses – and has relatively late final collection times.

It is opened by pulling down the black handle on the sliding opening, and when the final collection of the day is made it will be locked shut and reopened the next weekday morning (including Saturday if the box has a Saturday collection). This is because, as franked mail is dated by the customer rather than at the sorting office, it must be posted on the same day as the date indicated on the franked impression. By accepting later items which would not be collected till the following day, it would give the false impression that Royal Mail had taken a day longer to deliver the item. Information courtesy of Chris Downer.

More information about "franking" can be found on the Royal Mail website.

A contribution to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

Shadows in Warren Street

Waiting at the bus stop outside Sainsburys.

A contribution to Shadow Shot Sunday.

Two Jubilee kiosks

The pair of K6 Telephone kiosks outside the Golden Lion are Grade II listed.

The kiosks are identical, constructed in cast iron, with three glazed sides in eight registers with margin lights, and a solid rear side with reeded decoration. The Soane-inspired canopy dome is placed above the four arched sides, each with a crown in relief above a glazed panel inscribed 'TELEPHONE'. The kiosks are placed back to back and contain modern telecommunications equipment.

The archetypal K6 telephone kiosk was introduced in 1935 to celebrate the silver jubilee of King George V and is commonly known as the 'Jubilee Kiosk'. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott as a development of his earlier K2 kiosk design of 1924. Its design has become iconic and represents the careful adaptation of Neoclassical design, influenced by the work of the Regency architect Sir John Soane, to a mass produced object with a modern technological function.

The logo on the flower-planter on the left references Stockport's three rivers, the Tame and Goyt which together form the Mersey.

A contribution to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

Merseyway Shopping Centre

Merseyway Shopping Centre opened in 1965 but was extensively refurbished in 1995. It consists mainly of a large pedestrianised street, where at one point there are two levels of walkways for shoppers, and there is access to both the first and ground floor of many shops. There is a small area of covered mall at the western edge of the centre, constructed in 1995.

It is built on giant stilts above the River Mersey and the river runs for the entire length of the centre. The river was first covered over in the late 1930s and a road built over the top.

A video with clips of the old road and the building of the shopping centre can be found on YouTube.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

People and Reflections

At the bus stop on Bridgefield Street.

A contribution to Weekend Reflections and the City Daily Photo theme People on the Street.

Hollands Mill Gatepost

All that is left of Hollands Mill which was demolished in 2007 is this gatepost on the corner of Shaw Heath.

To the left is the former St Thomas' Hospital. If you look up the road on the right you'll see a tree which is the same tree featured in yesterday's post Shadows outside the workhouse where you can read more about the former hospital.

This is the view across from the site of Hollands Mill looking up Shaw Heath.

I don't know what the figures actually represent but they may have something to do with the fact that the Armoury is at the other end of the road as shown in our post of 15th January.

A contribution to Monday Murals.

Climbing Rostron Brow

Rostron Brow leads from Lower Hillgate up to St Mary's Parish Church.

A contribution to Our World Tuesday.

Photo of the Year 2013

I've chosen this photograph of St Petersgate Bridge over Little Underbank as my Photo of the Year.

It originally appeared in a post about the Queens Head. The overside of the bridge has been recently refurbished as can be seen in my post of 29th December.

But it depicts more than just the bridge. There's the old men on the bench opposite the women smoking and gossiping outside the pub. Just beyond them is a Victorian post box. Further on is a glimpse of Winter's clock.

See photographs from other members of the City Daily Photoblogging community at the January Gallery - Photo of the Year.

A contribution to Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.

St Petersgate Bridge re-opened

Following my post St Petersgate Bridge Repairs Almost Finished I've been back to see it again. On Christmas Eve the roadway was temporarily blocked by the dustman's cart.

The railings have all been given a new coat of paint. In the background can be seen the dome of the White Lion. You can see under the bridge and the other side of the railings in my post about the Queens Head.

St Petersgate Bridge was constructed in 1866-8. The designer was R Rawlinson, and the engineer was Brierley of Blackburn. The cost was around £6,000. A contemporary description of the bridge notes 'six arches, the central one over the Underbank-street being of cast-iron, with perforated parapets and a sufficiency of ornament to prevent its being (as many bridges over public streets are) an eyesore and offensive to good taste'. The Stockport coat of arms on the bridge cartouche was adopted in 1836, and was said to be the arms of the Stopford or Stockport family, Barons of Stockport (later superseded by a coat of arms granted by the College of Arms in two stages in 1932 & 1959).

A contribution to Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.