Norfolk Arms Disaster Plague

A plaque in Clarendon Square Shopping Centre close to the site of the former Norfolk Arms recalls a disaster that occured on 1st April 1829.

In the summer of 1828, the cotton trade was in such a bad state that the masters announced a reduction of wages. The reduction was firmly opposed by the operatives and a great strike commenced which rapidly spread throughout the district. At Stockport the struggle was extremely bitter, neither side showing any desire to give way. In Hyde a better spirit prevailed and soon the mills in Hyde were all working full-time. However, the harmony did not continue. The operatives of Hyde were contributing each week from their wages towards the support of the people who were out on strike in Stockport, as a result of which their employers issued a notice on 24th March 1829 that the manufacturers, whose mills were working, intended to reduced their wages by 10 per cent every 14 days until the Stockport hands returned to work.

To discuss the threat, a meeting of operatives was held in The Norfolk Arms on 1st April 1829. In its day The Norfolk Arms was the principal hotel in the area and said to be the oldest commercial hotel. The room in which the meeting took place was fifteen yards long and seven yards wide. It was only expected to hold approximately 300 people, but there were nearer 700 present when the accident occurred.

John Dawson, one of Hyde's principal operative orators, was the chairman and was seated in a large chair belonging to a lodge of Oddfellows, placed near the middle of one of the side walls of the room. A man named Tobias Wood then began to speak, insisting on the working classes having a fair remuneration for their work. He had just cried out "It is bread we want and bread we must have," when an awkward crush took place, caused by new arrivals trying to crowd into the room. The chairman was appealing for order when part of the floor gave way and numbers of the audience fell into the gaping gulf which appeared. The weight of the people who fell with the floor broke through the floor of the rooms beneath and the unfortunate victims crashed into the cellar, amongst beer barrels and stillages, heaped one upon another in a distorted state. The portion of the floor which collapsed was only six yards square and the fact that over 200 persons were precipitated down the hole is evidence of the extreme closeness with which the occupants of the room were packed. Many who were standing upon the unbroken part of the floor were actually propelled into the gulf by the thrust of the living mass around them. The chairman narrowly escaped; barely more than a foot of sound flooring separated his chair from the edge of the hole. Seven young women were seated on a bench fastened to the wall and when the floor gave way they found their feet and legs suspended over the gulf, but they managed to hold on to the seat until they were rescued.

The scene in the cellar was dreadful - 29 persons were killed and many injured. When the cellar was searched, after all the bodies had been extricated, over 120 hats and 50 bonnets, shawls and cloaks were found.

The verdict at the inquest was "Accidental Death", but the belief for many years, persistently held by a large number of operatives, was that the disaster was the result of foul play.

The Norfolk Arms closed in 1960 for the redevelopment of the market centre.

Further information can be found on the Tameside MBC website.

See Hyde Daily Photo for a view down Norfolk Street today.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

The Queens

The Queens always seems to have steady trade. It has been one of the more popular pubs in the town centre. It has links to the Moors Murders. In 1965 Superintendent Bob Talbot of the Cheshire Police used the pub as a base for all the officers when the search of the moors was taking place. Some policemen were housed here in a make shift dorm in the function room. The pub was used as the police station as the town hall was not big enough to hold all the staff the investigation needed.

The Queens was at one time a coaching house. There were provisions at the back for horses and it was only recently that the saddle hooks and feeding baskets were removed when alterations were done. Tom Wigley writing on the Hyde, Cheshire blog says "I know they were there in the 1980s when Brian & Joyce Hunter were the landlord and lady. I worked on the door here for a while, which was fun, and I also did the bar for two other landlords, but for me when I see or hear the Queens mentioned I am reminded of the fun and laughter shared with good friends when Brian and Joyce were the hosts."


Located in Clarendon Place it is now a Joseph Holt pub - according to the brewery website in the early 1900s it was known as "The Pineapple". Confusingly the gallery of photos on the site shows two images that are actually of the Queens Hotel in Macclesfield.

Note it is NOT the Queen's Hotel (with an apostrophe) but the Queens - the pub sign which can be seen on Hyde Daily Photo - features the six wives of Henry VIII.

See current photographs of the Queens on Hyde DP Xtra.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

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.

Godley Hall Inn

This photograph taken in August 1999 by Frank Bennett and reproduced here with his permission, first appeared on the Images of England site.

A grade II listed house which is now a public house.

"ICE 1718" on door lintel. Squared rubble with graduated stone slate roof and brick stacks. 3-bay 2-storey plan, the original door position, (now on the rear) suggests a baffle-entry. A 2-storey stair wing at the rear (now the front) is used as a porch and C20 additions have been added to each end. 3 window openings on each floor totalling three 2-light double-chamfered mullion windows (2 with hoodmoulds and all with mullions removed) 2 plain casement openings and a round-headed light. The porch has 2 similar round-headed lights, projecting plinth, an off-centre door, and a coped gable with kneelers and a ball finial. 2 ridge stacks and a later door to the right. The blocked door to the rear has a moulded surround and finely carved dated lintel. 3-light double-chamfered window and a single storey wing of a slightly later date. Interior much altered.

Recent photographs of Godley Hall Inn can be found on Hyde Daily Photo and Hyde DP Xtra.

Cheshire Cheese, Gee Cross, 1982 and earlier

This is the Cheshire Cheese on Stockport Road in Gee Cross. The photograph was taken by Janet Howie in 1982.

It is not to be confused with the Cheshire Cheese in Newton, nor the Cheshire Cheese in Broadbottom, featured today on Hyde DP Xtra.


Janet also sent me scans of two much earlier photographs (dates unknown) from her collection. As can be seen here, the left hand side of the building was originally a separate grocery shop.


See how it looks in 2010 on Hyde Daily Photo.

For more C posts visit ABC Wednesday

Up the Junction 1990

Alan Young took this photograph of the junction of Cheetham Hill Road with Birch Lane/Ashton Road from outside the former Dukinfield Arms in June 1990.

Compare this with the photograph on Hyde Daily Photograph which I took recently from the same spot.

The Junction Inn, like so many others, has been converted into a private residence.

There is now a shelter by the bus stop.

Apart from these changes it looks very much the same now as it did then.

Inside Hallbottom Gate Inn 1990

Last week I brought you some photographs taken by Alan Young of the Dukinfield Arms 1990.

A guitarist with the classic rock band, Par Avion from Charleston, WV, he came over in June 1990, together with Tim Thompson (manager & bass guitarist), Brian Young (drummer), Tena Hall (vocalist and now his wife) and Dennis Loudermilk (sound technician). They stayed with Harry Anderson the landlord of the Dukinfield Arms, and performed gigs there, at the Hallbottom Gate Inn in Newton and somewhere called Richmond's (?).


These photographs are from their gigs at the Hallbottom Gate Inn. It looks as though their music was extremely well recieved.


I wonder what has happened to the juke-box pictured here and that fireplace. One thing that you won't see inside a pub these days are those huge heavy ash-trays since smoking in pubs was banned a few years ago.

I was intending to get up and photograph the pub as it is now before posting these photographs but I understand it has recently closed and is due to be demolished. For information and other photos of the outside of the inn see Tom and Nancy's new blog Hyde Cheshire

Some of Tom Wigley's photographs of the Hallbottom Gate Inn can be found on Hyde DP Xtra.

Dukinfield Arms 1990

These pictures of the Dukinfield Arms were sent to me by Alan Young.

A guitarist with the classic rock band, Par Avion from Charleston, WV, he came over in June 1990, together with Tim Thompson (manager & bass guitarist), Brian Young (drummer), Tena Hall (vocalist and now his wife) and Dennis Loudermilk (sound technician). They stayed with Harry Anderson the landlord of the Dukinfield Arms, and performed gigs there, at the Hallbottom Gate Inn in Newton and somewhere called Richmond's (?).


Shortly after they left, Harry moved out having sold the pub. It is now a convenience store as you can seen on Hyde Daily Photo.

Clarendon Hotel 1990

This photograph of the Clarendon Hotel on Market Street was taken by Alan Young from a bus in June 1990.

Alan was playing with the West Virginian classic rock band Par Avion who were over in the UK doing a few gigs.

I'll be posting a few more of his photos over the next few weeks or so.

The Clarendon Hotel is now the Last Orders and you can see how it looks in 2010 on Hyde Daily Photo.

Travellers Call No More

When I published a 100 year old photograph of the Travellers Call, I was asked if I had a photograph of the modern building.

Well I've not yet had the chance to get up there and take a recent view. I do however have this photograph taken by Janet Howie in 1982. So far as I recall it looks much the same now.

Waiting at the Travellers Call

The Travellers Call was a public house on Joel Lane just above Slateacre.

Who they are and what all these people were waiting here for some 100 years ago, I cannot say.

Neither do I know when the pub was converted to a private residence.

Waiting is the CDPB theme for today; click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Alfred Woolley in his Shop Doorway

Denys Meakin sent me this photograph of his wife's great grandfather, Alfred Woolley, sitting outside his grocery store at 284 Stockport Rd, Gee Cross, around 1900.


This second photograph is probably ten to twenty years later and shows the premises on the corner of Knott Lane. Denys' wife lived next door at 286 Stockport Road until their marriage in 1959.

With two-foot-thick walls, it dates back to around 1750 and was one of the earliest buildings in Gee Cross. At one time, it was apparently a pub, The Beeston Castle.

In the forties and fifties, the shop was Johnny Graham's barber shop.


This third photograph is © Denys Meakin and taken in 2003. Compare it with my own photograph from 2008.

Today the CDPB theme is Doorways: Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Queen Adelaide 1982

Another of Janet Howie's photographs from 1982.

See how it looked in

• 2001
• 2006
• 2008

Grapes Hotel 1982

This photograph of The Grapes was taken by Janet Howie in 1982.

Compare how it looked in

• 1910
• 2003
• 2007
• 2008
• 2009

Church Inn, 1902

The coronation of Edward VII was set for 26th June 1902.

On Werneth Low, a bonfire was built.

Two days before the ceremony, the King was taken ill and the actual coronation postponed until 9th August.

The bonfire went ahead as planned as did celebrations at Godley Hill.

This was the scene outside the Church Inn.

The last time I saw any celebrations at the Church Inn was in 2006 when England were playing in the World Cup.

Later that year it closed down and reopened as Tylers but before long it became another dead pub.

Recently it has opened again under the name Route 66.

Onward Christian Soldiers

Whit Walks are a strong traditon in the North of England. They still take place in neighbouring Ashton.

This picture from the 1900s shows the walk in Gee Cross, passing the Lamb Inn.

One of the most popular hymns of the time was Onward Christian Soldiers.

My other ABC Wednesday O posts this week are ~~ Onward at Hyde Daily Photo ~~ Oslo at Ackworth born, gone West ~~ Over the Rainbow at Sithenah

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

West Side of Market Street

This picture of the West side of Market Street compliments the picture of the East side posted last week.

That is the same tram at the bottom of the street.

On this side is the Church Inn which in recent years has changed its name to Tylers. At present it is closed as are the Globe and Flannagans (previously Moulders).

Godley Hall at Godley Hill

This picture by Frank Bennett and reproduced here with his permission, first appeared on the Images of England site.

This picture was taken in August 1999. A grade II listed house which is now a public house. "ICE 1718" on door lintel. Squared rubble with graduated stone slate roof and brick stacks. 3-bay 2-storey plan, the original door position, (now on the rear) suggests a baffle-entry. A 2-storey stair wing at the rear (now the front) is used as a porch and C20 additions have been added to each end. 3 window openings on each floor totalling three 2-light double-chamfered mullion windows (2 with hoodmoulds and all with mullions removed) 2 plain casement openings and a round-headed light. The porch has 2 similar round-headed lights, projecting plinth, an off-centre door, and a coped gable with kneelers and a ball finial. 2 ridge stacks and a later door to the right. The blocked door to the rear has a moulded surround and finely carved dated lintel. 3-light double-chamfered window and a single storey wing of a slightly later date. Interior much altered.

Edwardian Ladies

A group of Edwardian ladies outside the White Lion.

Grapes Hotel

This picture of the Grapes Hotel in Gee Cross is c.1910.

It looks very different in 2007.

Neither picture helps me answer the query I recently received from Eric Downs who writes

An argument has ensued about the gents at the front of the Grapes Hotel. There is a photo in the pub taken when it was owned by Bells I think at the turn of the 20th century before it received a face lift by Robinsons. In the photo the gents is attached to the pub but my memory going back to 1930s puts the gents as a separate structure closer to the pavement at start of Wych Fold and adjacent to Booths well. Can you confirm this? Do you have a photo of the front of the Grapes around that time. The gents was certainly there 1949-50

I haven't the faintest idea but maybe someone else knows.