A trip down memory lane around Manchester....

Really enjoying this thread! Here's a few takes on it. Being brought up in Clayton in the 60s, I remember going to watch The Monarchs on the cycle speedway track behind the Carlton Cinema, loved the scraps with the Newton Heath mob (all reds I assumed!) in Clayton Vale in the days of slag heaps. lime hills and flying down the slopes on lino off cuts, sneaking in to X rated films at The Don (Couldn't do that at The Carlton as my dad drank with the manager in Dargai Street Club), playing football on the red rec at the bottom of North Road (still got the scars), scarily playing jump the locks on the canal next to The Jolly Carter (Strawberry Duck last time I was round there, catching the 53 bus to school and, if we could get away with it, changing the number at the back, getting lost on the way to take the 11plus exam at Ravensbury St. school, arriving late and being too scared to tell my mum what had happened ( I passed anyway), buying my first 45 at the record shop on Ashton New Road, milkshakes at the sweet shop on Edge Lane, seeing The Factotums play at Droylsden Youth Club and lots more!
 
Moorland Blue said:
Really enjoying this thread! Here's a few takes on it. Being brought up in Clayton in the 60s, I remember going to watch The Monarchs on the cycle speedway track behind the Carlton Cinema, loved the scraps with the Newton Heath mob (all reds I assumed!) in Clayton Vale in the days of slag heaps. lime hills and flying down the slopes on lino off cuts, sneaking in to X rated films at The Don (Couldn't do that at The Carlton as my dad drank with the manager in Dargai Street Club), playing football on the red rec at the bottom of North Road (still got the scars), scarily playing jump the locks on the canal next to The Jolly Carter (Strawberry Duck last time I was round there, catching the 53 bus to school and, if we could get away with it, changing the number at the back, getting lost on the way to take the 11plus exam at Ravensbury St. school, arriving late and being too scared to tell my mum what had happened ( I passed anyway), buying my first 45 at the record shop on Ashton New Road, milkshakes at the sweet shop on Edge Lane, seeing The Factotums play at Droylsden Youth Club and lots more!
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The record shop was called bowkers...
The jolly carter is a bit further up in droylsden ( catalogue-land)...the strawberry duck was previously called The Crabtree...
You've forgot the noise of eva's hammer..
Gramaphone lounge on the new road accepted a penny in a slot in the window which activated a train set
The smell of the bone yard...
 
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bellbuzzer said:
tommy ducks was demolished illegally by the developers, never heard of any punishment.
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they ( Fairclough pre Amec i think) got a £20 grand pinch for the demolition. They then sat on the undeveloped land for years and made a fortune when the new offices and Barbrolli square happened.
Not sure if stories that Greenhalls got a fine are true. THey had already sold up to developers.
 
Fat Chance said:
[View attachment 19362View attachment 19363
View attachment 19364

Cycle speedway | www.manmates.co.uk

The only sports we were interested in in West Groton in the late 50's/early 60's were football and cyle sppedway. We had organised teams and race d at various tracks. Our home track was, I think, at
manmates.proboards.com manmates.proboards.com
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The wembley of cycle speedway in manchester was in Gatley , with a stand and safety fence cinder shale-track etc. A lot of tracks were on crofts, remember one having a footpath across it.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
There was one on Broadhurst Park on St Mary's Road, Moston
Sadly now that spot houses the Moston Rag Socks
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Used to ref on Broadhurst Park. The general slope from one corner flag to t'other along the same goal line was about ten to fifteen degrees. The corner flag came (if they had had them!) came halfway up the goal post. And at the start of the season the pitches were harder than reinforced concrete.
 
bellbuzzer said:
tommy ducks was demolished illegally by the developers, never heard of any punishment.
Click to expand...
Technically it wasn't illegally demolished....

By the early 90s, Tommy Ducks had been a last standing building in an area that had seen pretty much everything else demolished within the last 30 years, and with new office blocks moving in, pressure was on at Greenalls Brewery to sell up and all go to Disneyland on the massive amounts of money they were being offered.

However, back in 1977, as a result of all of the remaining building in the area being demolished, Tommy Ducks was served with a temporary preservation order, kickstarting an already fierce debate about the future of the pub. The preservation order, arranged by punters and supporters of the pub was due to expire at midnight on February 12th 1993.

Unfortunately for us all (and the city), the 12th February in 1993 fell on a Friday – meaning that the Council Offices were closed for the weekend, meaning it couldn’t be renewed until Monday morning. This meant that, under cover of darkness, the Brewery began demolition the pub at 00:01 on Saturday morning, waving goodbye to a legendary Manchester institution literally over night!

Greenalls were fined £150,000 for their act of destruction but it didn’t matter – Tommy Ducks was gone forever
 
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Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Technically it wasn't illegally demolished....

By the early 90s, Tommy Ducks had been a last standing building in an area that had seen pretty much everything else demolished within the last 30 years, and with new office blocks moving in, pressure was on at Greenalls Brewery to sell up and all go to Disneyland on the massive amounts of money they were being offered.

However, back in 1977, as a result of all of the remaining building in the area being demolished, Tommy Ducks was served with a temporary preservation order, kickstarting an already fierce debate about the future of the pub. The preservation order, arranged by punters and supporters of the pub was due to expire at midnight on February 12th 1993.

Unfortunately for us all (and the city), the 12th February in 1993 fell on a Friday – meaning that the Council Offices were closed for the weekend, meaning it couldn’t be renewed until Monday morning. This meant that, under cover of darkness, the Brewery began demolition the pub at 00:01 on Saturday morning, waving goodbye to a legendary Manchester institution literally over night!

Greenalls were fined £150,000 for their act of destruction but it didn’t matter – Tommy Ducks was gone forever
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Well that dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's, dont suppose you know what happened to all the knickers? :)
 
We used to mess about in the "air dump". I still haven't been able to figure out where it was on google maps.
It was somewhere across the other side of the Medlock near the Failsworth sewage treatment plant.
Looks like it may have been in Droylsden. It was basically a scrap yard full of planes from the war.
We would also ride on the arms of the "shit grinders" at the sewage plant.
 
Barcon said:
We used to mess about in the "air dump". I still haven't been able to figure out where it was on google maps.
It was somewhere across the other side of the Medlock near the Failsworth sewage treatment plant.
Looks like it may have been in Droylsden. It was basically a scrap yard full of planes from the war.
We would also ride on the arms of the "shit grinders" at the sewage plant.
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I used to go in there myself. We would turn into it at the bottom of bunkers hill. From what i remember we turned into a path then followed the river going towards the golf course. Spent hours down there.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Technically it wasn't illegally demolished....

By the early 90s, Tommy Ducks had been a last standing building in an area that had seen pretty much everything else demolished within the last 30 years, and with new office blocks moving in, pressure was on at Greenalls Brewery to sell up and all go to Disneyland on the massive amounts of money they were being offered.

However, back in 1977, as a result of all of the remaining building in the area being demolished, Tommy Ducks was served with a temporary preservation order, kickstarting an already fierce debate about the future of the pub. The preservation order, arranged by punters and supporters of the pub was due to expire at midnight on February 12th 1993.

Unfortunately for us all (and the city), the 12th February in 1993 fell on a Friday – meaning that the Council Offices were closed for the weekend, meaning it couldn’t be renewed until Monday morning. This meant that, under cover of darkness, the Brewery began demolition the pub at 00:01 on Saturday morning, waving goodbye to a legendary Manchester institution literally over night!

Greenalls were fined £150,000 for their act of destruction but it didn’t matter – Tommy Ducks was gone forever
Click to expand...
Nicely cut and pasted from that previous attached article...not however strictly true. Several versions exist....and certainly Fairclough / AMEC were involved and fined.
 
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