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.

Weekend Reflections: Boarding the Manchester Train

Getting aboard the Manchester train at Reddish North.

A contribution to Weekend Reflections.

Robinsons Dray in Reddish

Yesterday I spotted the Robinsons Brewery dray wagon being pulled through Reddish by one of their two shire horses.

I'm not sure which horse this is but they have their own Facebook page if you want see more of them.

A contribution to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

F is for Fred Perry

The Fred Perry Way is a 14 mile walking route starting here at North Reddish Park.

  © Copyright Keith Williamson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Its southern end is here at Woodford.

The route which was officially opened in 2002 combines rural footpaths, quiet lanes and river valleys with urban landscapes and parklands as here in Vernon Park.

Fred Perry was born at this house in Portwood in 1909.

He won the men's singles in 1934, 1935 and 1936 and was the last English men's tennis player to win Wimbledon. He was also a member of Britain's winning Davis Cup team from 1933 to 1936. and was made a freeman of Stockport in 1934.

More information can be found on the Stockport MBC website.

A contribution to
Our World Tuesday
ABC Wednesday;
signs, signs.
Good Fences.

The Quietest railway station in the country

I wrote all about Reddish South Station back in May 2013 so I'll refer you back there for more information. I was back there again a week last Friday and noticed that the Friends of Reddish Station have erected a new picket fence and sign in front of the mural.

As the timetable indicates only one train a week stops at Reddish South on the line from Stockport to Stalybridge and there is no return service. I had arrived at 10.10 to catch the 10.20 train.

The platform has been extended over the line that ran on the right where the "Friends of Reddish South Station" have planted a garden. No one else was waiting for the train and there isn't even a bench to sit on. At 10.45 I gave up and went to catch a bus.

I posted details of the individual panels of the mural in June 2013.

  © Copyright Peter Whatley and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

This is how the station looked in 1989.

A contribution to
Shadow Shot Sunday;
Blue Monday;
Monday Murals;
Our World Tuesday;
signs, signs;
Good Fences.

St Joseph's RC Church, Reddish

St Joseph's was founded in 1882.

According to "Salford Diocese and its Catholic past", a survey by Charles A. Bolton, a Priest of the above Diocese. Published 1950 on the First Centenary for the Diocese of Salford and quoted on the Genuki website:

Before the building of the church here, the Catholic people were dependent on St. Mary's, Heaton Norris, or St. Mary's, Levenshulme. Reddish owes much to the generosity of John Higginson, who bought land and on it built a church and schools. The church was opened by Bishop Vaughan in 1882. Fr. J. Harrison was the first Rector. Several priests were here for a short period-Fr. Pius de Witte, Canon McDermott Roe, and Fr. Paul Dootson were here in the early years of the mission. The present century has been largely covered by the lives of two priests-Fr. Henry Welch, who died suddenly in the street after the consecration of St. Mary's, Mulberry Street, in 1926; then Fr. Hugh Morrissey, well-known to many former students of St. Bede's College as a respected professor of Classics, and as a genius with unexpected flashes and turns of wit and imagination. He became an almost legendary figure in the diocese, and it is a pity that his studies on the canonisation of Henry VI were never published. As a violinist he rivalled his friend and classmate, Arthur Catterall.

A contribution to Inspired Sundays.

Reddish Old Police Station

Built of red brick, the old Police Station on Gorton Road, Reddish has been converted into apartments.

Above the doorway, between the words POLICE and STATION, is a coat of arms relating to the Lancashire Constabulary.

The building presumably pre-dates 1901 when Reddish transferred from Lancashire to Cheshire.

Above the coat of arms is a hole which would originally have held the traditional police blue lamp.

A contribution to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

R is for Reddish

Reddish was originally a rural settlement in Lancashire but expanded to become a mixed industrial and residential area during the 19th century and it developed rapidly during the Industrial Revolution.

Reddish became an urban district in 1894 but it merged with Stockport in 1901 and the boundary between Lancashire and Cheshire was moved to place it in Cheshire. In 1974 Stockport became a metropolitan borough in the ceremonial county of Greater Manchester.

These signs are on Broadstone Road approaching Holdsworth Square.

See Wikipedia for a more detailed history of Reddish.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday and signs, signs.

Tiviot Way Bridge again

I posted a view of Tiviot Way Bridge on 2nd February 2014.

This is from the opposite direction from the bottom of a greasy footpath down from Rose Street shown in my post of 29th March 2014.

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

Reflections at the Triangle Church.

A further follow up to Tuesday's post about the Triangle Church.

This is looking across Sandy Lane and the current roadworks from outside McDonalds and the trees which are reflected in the windows.

Yesterday I posted the view from the opposite direction looking up Clarendon Street from behind the church.

A contribution to Weekend Reflections.

McDonald's and the Triangle Church

This is another follow-up to Tuesday's post about the Triangle Church looking up Clarendon Street to the rear of the Triangle Church and the McDonalds on the other side of Sandy Lane.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

The Triangle Church, Reddish

The Triangle Church on Sandy Lane, South Reddish was built in 1988 as the home of the Lancashire Hill Sunday School.

It is used as a meeting place by various community groups, but I've been unable to find anything more about it on the internet.

A contribution to Our World Tuesday and the Triangles theme at City Daily Photo.

More Photographs:
3rd April - Foundation Stone at the Triangle Church.
4th April - McDonalds & the Triangle Church.
5th April - Reflections at the Triangle Church.

A contribution to Inspired Sundays.

Footpath to Rose Street

Leading off Penny Lane up to Rose Street, South Reddish.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White and Scenic Weekends.

Mural at the Houldsworth Arms

This mural is on the side of a building in the rear yard of the Houldsworth Arms, Reddish.

The snowmen on the right are the same ones as are in the photograph I posted of the pub on 2nd January.

A contribution to Monday Murals.

Houldsworth Arms, Reddish Green

This is the sign for the Houldsworth Arms, Reddish Green.

The arms are those of Sir William Henry Houldsworth, 1st Baronet (born Ardwick, Manchester 20 August 1834, died Kilmarnock 18 April 1917) who was a mill-owner in Reddish. He was Conservative MP for Manchester North West from 1883 to 1906, and sometime chairman of the Fine Cotton Spinners' Association. He was made a baronet in 1887. Houldsworth bought farmland by the Stockport Branch Canal in Reddish in the 1860s and built Reddish Mill, then the largest cotton-spinning mill in the world. The City of Manchester made him a freeman in 1905, and the Victoria University of Manchester awarded him an honorary LLD. In later life, Houldsworth moved away and concentrated on his estate at Kilmarnock, Scotland.

This view is of the rear of the pub. I didn't notice the two snowmen nor the seagull until I downloaded the photograph.

A contribution to signs, signs.

St Mary's Reddish

St Mary's, Reddish Road, (Church of England) was Reddish's first church, built between 1862-1864 at a cost of £2500 in the "decorated English style" and consecrated on 23rd March 1865. The parish was created from Heaton Norris, and is still known as Heaton Reddish.

Church website.

A contribution to Inspired Sundays.

The Thatched Tavern, Reddish

The roof of the Thatched Tavern in Reddish is slate-tiled just like the terraced houses further along Stanhope Street.

Maybe it wasn't always that way.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Reddish South Station Mural Panels

Last week I showed you a general view of the Reddish South Station Mural.

The mural consists of five seperate panels and was unveiled on October 8th 2011 by the Friends of Reddish South Station who have been running a campaign to bring more passenger trains onto this line since 2008. The object of the campaign is to secure a frequent service running between Stockport and Manchester Victoria.

Reddish South together with Denton railway station on the Stockport to Stalybridge line are famous for having one train a week in one direction only. The "Denton flyer" is what is known as a "Parliamentary ghost", a train that operates a Parliamentary service - that is to say a token service to a given station, thus maintaining a legal fiction that either the station in question is in fact open, whereas in reality the train operating company in question has almost completely abandoned the station. These services run at all only because rail transport is heavily regulated in the United Kingdom and it is therefore considerably cheaper for a train operating company to run a parliamentary service than it is to go through the full legal process of applying for a station or line to be permanently closed.

According to the 2007/8 National rail figures, Reddish South had only 47 entries and exits in a 12 month period, making it the UK's least used railway station. Network Rail, in their Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for the North West, were proposing closure of Reddish South and Denton stations and withdrawal of the remaining passenger service. The line itself would remain open for freight and diverted passenger workings.

A contribution to Monday Murals.

Reddish South Station Mural

Reddish South together with Denton railway station on the Stockport to Stalybridge line are famous for having one train a week (the "Denton flyer") in one direction only. This means they are technically still open.

The "Denton flyer" is what is known as a "Parliamentary ghost", a train that operates a Parliamentary service - that is to say a token service to a given station, thus maintaining a legal fiction that either the station in question is in fact open, whereas in reality the train operating company in question has almost completely abandoned the station. These services run at all only because rail transport is heavily regulated in the United Kingdom and it is therefore considerably cheaper for a train operating company to run a parliamentary service than it is to go through the full legal process of applying for a station or line to be permanently closed.

Originally Reddish South station consisted of two island platforms with four tracks. One of these track beds has been sold off, while another has been filled in. The second island is now inaccessible as there are no longer steps down to it. According to the 2007/8 National rail figures, Reddish South had only 47 entries and exits in a 12 month period, making it the UK's least used railway station.

Network Rail, in their Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for the North West, were proposing closure of Reddish South and Denton stations and withdrawal of the remaining passenger service. The line itself would remain open for freight and diverted passenger workings.

This mural was unveiled on October 8th 2011 by the Friends of Reddish South Station who have been running a campaign to bring more passenger trains onto this line since 2008. The object of the campaign is to secure a frequent service running between Stockport and Manchester Victoria.

I'll show you details of the individual panels next week.

A contribution to Monday Murals.