Church Brow Gardens

Church Brow is just below Wood End Street and this photograph (c.1910) shows the allotments in the valley of Gower Hey Brook.

There are still allotments today alongside Wood End Street, but the valley is now much more thickly wooded and below Gower Road is an estate of new houses.

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.

Apethorn Mill Explosion

This picture shows the result of a boiler explosion at Apethorn Mill, known later in its life as Gee Cross Mill. One of the boilers was blown right across the canal, smashed part of the wall down and broke the bottom of the gable end of the old house/shop. The boiler ended up lying in the passage that led the mill workers from the canal towpath to the bridge that crosses the River Tame by Gibraltar Mill which was demolished in the 1960s.

You can see what the path is like now on Hyde DP

Hearse House

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

Photograph taken August 1999.

Hearse house next to St. George's Church on Wood End Lane is a Grade II listed building. 1841 on keystone. Hammer-dressed stone with ashlar dressings and slate roof. Gable facing road and having large double doors within a Tudor-arched surround with chamfered rustication and a skull and cross bones keystone. Coped gables and eaves bands.

These days it seems to be used for storage. This Eagle Lectern was found there before being put on display at the recent Heritage Open Day.

Brownson Clothiers

One prominent feature of Hyde Market Place is this dome. In 1910 it belonged to Brownson Clothiers.

Now it adorns Woolworths.

The pole at the top has obviously been foreshortened and with no tramwires to interfere has become a home for pigeons.

White Lion: Atlas Brewery Ales

The White Lion stands at the corner of Market Place and Clarendon Street.

This picture dates from around 1910.

The pediment and the sign proclaiming Atlas Brewery Ales are long gone and now there are owls on the roof.

See how it looks in 2007 on Hyde Daily Photo.