Sign for the New Inn

(Click on image to view full-size version)Photographed in October 2008.

This former Robinson's Inn stood by the side of the A57 road from Liverpool to Lincoln.

There may have been an inn on the site since the 1600s and it was known as a highwayman's inn. There are tales of it being haunted by a ghost named Mary.

However the New Inn was first licensed around 1856 with Robert Turner being the first Innkeeper.

William F Gratton was the landlord in the 1930s. Between 1927 and 1930 there were sixteen serious accidents on this stretch of road that were attributed to a "Phantom Lorry". Read the story. This is probably why a lorry features in the Inn sign.

It was the local of the Moors Murderers, Brady & Hindley whose house on Wardlebrook Avenue was behind the Inn. The house was demolished many years ago.

A later landlord was the father of boxer Ricky Hatton who was brought up in the New Inn. Part of the celler was used as a gymnasium.

The pub was demolished in August 2012 and current plans are for new houses to be built on the site.

See a photograph of the Inn as it looked in 2008 on Sithenah and as it looked a week ago on Hyde DP Xtra.

Hattersley Cutting 1951

Photograph © Ben Brooksbank.

Taken on 28th July 1951 at Hattersley Cutting, with the Cleethorpes - Manchester express passing through.

The view is Eastward towards Broadbottom, Woodhead and Sheffield along the ex-Great Central Manchester - Sheffield main line, which since July 1981 was cut back to a local line just to Hadfield. The masts for the electrification had been erected in 1939 but electrification was not complete until the New Woodhead Tunnel was opened in June 1954. The very deep cutting used to be two tunnels until they were opened out in 1931. The train is the 09.27 Cleethorpes - Manchester London Road, headed by B1 4-6-0 No. 61160.

See how it looks nearly 60 years later on Hyde Daily Photo.

Mottram Village Stocks

This photograph © Frank Bennett first appeared on the Images of England site and is republished here with permission.

Date Photographed: 02 September 2000.

The listed buildings description is

SJ 99 NE LONGDENDALE MARKET PLACE 4/69 Village Stocks 20.4.77 G.V. II Stocks. Probably C18. Pair of plain stone posts with grooves for timber foot restraints which have iron fasteners. Formerly located in the village of Hattersley.

For a more recent view see Hyde Daily Photo.

Sundial Cottage

Dated 1697, this cottage on Pudding Lane had a stone sundial on its front.

The photograph was taken around 1905.

Although a listed building, it was badly vandalised and eventually demolished. Only the names of two terraces, Sundial Walk and Sundial Close on the Hattersley estate now commemorate the site.

My other ABC Wednesday S posts this week are ~~ St Michael's & All Angels at Hyde Daily Photo ~~ Scream at Ackworth born, gone West ~~ South Pier at Sunset at Sithenah

To visit more ABC-Wednesday posts go to Mrs. Nesbitt's Place.

A 30-year old map

This copy of the Ordnance Survey 1:50000 map was sent to us by a correspondent in Canada. It is dated 1975.

Comparing it with my own OS map dated 1974, one major difference is that mine has the M67 Due to open summer 1976. According to the CRBD Motorway Database the Hyde bypass opened in 1978 and the Denton Relief Road in 1981. The M60 didn't arrive until 2000.

The other road changes are too detailed to go into here, but the railway changes are quite significant. Godley Junction was renamed Godley East for a while, before being closed.

New stations were built on the Glossop line:

• Hattersley - at the point where the yellow road lies close to the railway.
• Godley - on the North side of the A57.
• Flowery Field - South of Hyde North which is on the line to Romily just below its junction with the Glossop line.

The line from Godley Junction to Woodley is now a footpath and part of the TransPennine Trail.

A couple of cyclists have publised an account of a journey along the old railway, together with photographs, on their Bike Rides around Greater Manchester website.