Alex Donaldson's sports shop, Hyde Road, Gorton.

[moggymoz]

Hi all,

Some of you may remember I have mentioned in the past my late dad used to own a locally well known sports,toys and model shop in Gorton Manchester....(Alex Donaldson (not my dad) used to play for Manchester City and Scotland in the 1920's)

Well I have found an old photograph taken in 1960, just after he bought it, there is an interesting tale attached to it.....he used to buy and sell old second hand sewing machines on the markets, Ashton ,Halifax,Grey Mare lane, Southport etc, and decided he wanted to open a shop somewhere,....anywhere, but it must have four or five big windows to display his machines to the best advantage. My dad had no interest in sports whatsoever, but when younger was a City fan going to lots of games at Maine road as a kid in the 1930's.

Anyhow, as a business Donaldson's was very run down, there was hardly any stock, and supplier's bills were often unpaid. My Dad's idea was to get rid of the sports stuff gradually over six months, stuff like football boots will knock in studs and brown hard leather toe caps, lace up footballs etc, and then introduce his sewing machines over a period of time.

However, what he found was people kept coming in asking for darts, football adaptors, tennis rackets, and so on, so he thought to himself,... even though he had no interest in sports, there might possibly be a living to be made, so he bought a bit more stock from suppliers, and decided to move out of the sewing machine business altogether.

Four years later he opened a second shop in Hyde, called Hyde Sports Centre, on the corner of the now demolished Newton Street and Hyde Road, next to the bus station. This shop was demolished around 1975, when it located round the corner near where the post office is now, although by then he had sold out to a cousin of mine, who then later sold out to another relative.

In the sixties, the main sports shops in Manchester were probably my dad's, Roy Clarke's in Moss Side..(ex Manchester City of course), Altrincham Sports, Princess Road sports depot, Cookes on John Dalton Street..(Football specialists) and Tyldsley and Holbrooks on Deansgate...(Cricket specialists). In Stockport there were a couple on Greek Street, near County's ground, In Ashton Bower's and Schofield's..... who also had a shop in Oldham. Tina Schofield of course married Buzzer.

Of course there were no JJB Sports, Sports Direct, JD Sports, Allsports in those days....

Anyone remember the old shops mentioned?

On the corner of Dickenson Road and Wilmslow Rd? More Rusholme than Moss Side, I'd say. Also, what was the name of the big sports shop at the roundabout at the junction of Wilbraham Road, Mosely Road and Wilmslow Road? Was it something like The Sports Depot?

'Alexandra Sports' and I'm sure it was called something else before this ?

 

[jimharri]

Hi all,

Some of you may remember I have mentioned in the past my late dad used to own a locally well known sports,toys and model shop in Gorton Manchester....(Alex Donaldson (not my dad) used to play for Manchester City and Scotland in the 1920's)

Well I have found an old photograph taken in 1960, just after he bought it, there is an interesting tale attached to it.....he used to buy and sell old second hand sewing machines on the markets, Ashton ,Halifax,Grey Mare lane, Southport etc, and decided he wanted to open a shop somewhere,....anywhere, but it must have four or five big windows to display his machines to the best advantage. My dad had no interest in sports whatsoever, but when younger was a City fan going to lots of games at Maine road as a kid in the 1930's.

Anyhow, as a business Donaldson's was very run down, there was hardly any stock, and supplier's bills were often unpaid. My Dad's idea was to get rid of the sports stuff gradually over six months, stuff like football boots will knock in studs and brown hard leather toe caps, lace up footballs etc, and then introduce his sewing machines over a period of time.

However, what he found was people kept coming in asking for darts, football adaptors, tennis rackets, and so on, so he thought to himself,... even though he had no interest in sports, there might possibly be a living to be made, so he bought a bit more stock from suppliers, and decided to move out of the sewing machine business altogether.

Four years later he opened a second shop in Hyde, called Hyde Sports Centre, on the corner of the now demolished Newton Street and Hyde Road, next to the bus station. This shop was demolished around 1975, when it located round the corner near where the post office is now, although by then he had sold out to a cousin of mine, who then later sold out to another relative.

In the sixties, the main sports shops in Manchester were probably my dad's, Roy Clarke's in Moss Side..(ex Manchester City of course), Altrincham Sports, Princess Road sports depot, Cookes on John Dalton Street..(Football specialists) and Tyldsley and Holbrooks on Deansgate...(Cricket specialists). In Stockport there were a couple on Greek Street, near County's ground, In Ashton Bower's and Schofield's..... who also had a shop in Oldham. Tina Schofield of course married Buzzer.

Of course there were no JJB Sports, Sports Direct, JD Sports, Allsports in those days....

Anyone remember the old shops mentioned?

On the corner of Dickenson Road and Wilmslow Rd? More Rusholme than Moss Side, I'd say. Also, what was the name of the big sports shop at the roundabout at the junction of Wilbraham Road, Mosely Road and Wilmslow Road? Was it something like The Sports Depot?

'Alexandra Sports' and I'm sure it was called something else before this ?

Damn; that was it! Cheers for that. And actually, thinking back, there wasn't a roundabout there.

 

[ColinBellsjockstrap]

jim taylors sports in audenshaw and ron hills in hyde

Yep, I remember the day Ron Hill opened the sports shop on Market Street in Hyde, IIRC he used to be a research chemist and ran every day from Bredbury to Clayton and back where he worked, this would be about 1973...used to see him often, running in all weathers.

Other sports shops off memory were Gilbert's in Wilmslow and Jim Hall's in Bramhall, there was also Insport in Northenden, run by a guy called Jim Chadwick I think.

In Stalybridge, other than Jack Goggan's sports I can remember Eric seller's motorbike shop, opposite The Palace cinema....I used to drooll at the BSA 650 Lightning's through the window as a kid, and there was an old fashioned shoe shop on Melbourne Street called Bernie Wallis's, all now long gone.......

 

[sky tot]

There used to be another decent sport shop in Stockport precinct, up the outside excallator on the 1st floor called Suggs.. ???

 

[Clevers]

This is an interesting site with pictures of Manchester

http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Manchester Local Image Collection

Over 80,000 pictures and prints of old Manchester

To order a high quality print select an image and follow the link

The Manchester Local Image Collection is a unique photographic record of Manchester, its people, streets and buildings from a period stretching well over 100 years. Over 80,000 images of Manchester and the surrounding area are available to view online. All images are available to purchase as fine A4 sized quality prints.

The original images are mainly photographs with some prints, drawings, watercolours and postcards, dating from the eighteenth century to the present day. The pictures of people, streets and buildings illustrate all aspects of the social, industrial, religious and transport history of the city. Between 1950 and 1972 the Manchester Amateur Photographic Society carried out an almost complete street by street survey of the city, showing the suburban streets before the major clearances and redevelopment during that period. The entire survey, as well as the Photographic Survey of 1892 - 1900, appears here

 

[ColinBellsjockstrap]

There used to be another decent sport shop in Stockport precinct, up the outside escalator on the 1st floor called Suggs.. ???

Yes, the address was 23D Merseyway, the manager was called Ken Fryman. Suggs was a small chain of about nine sports shops based at Pinstone Street in Sheffield, most of the shops were based in Yorkshire, but they closed down a few years back selling some branches to Streetwise Sports, they later became Sports Direct.com

 

[sky tot]

There used to be another decent sport shop in Stockport precinct, up the outside escalator on the 1st floor called Suggs.. ???

Yes, the address was 23D Merseyway, the manager was called Ken Fryman. Suggs was a small chain of about nine sports shops based at Pinstone Street in Sheffield, most of the shops were based in Yorkshire, but they closed down a few years back selling some branches to Streetwise Sports, they later became Sports Direct.com

Bloody hell you know your stuff.. When i was a kid in the late 70s /80s the was also a sports shop in Romiley precinct ,behind romiley forum . Do you know this one ???

 

[ColinBellsjockstrap]

When i was a kid in the late 70s /80s the was also a sports shop in Romiley precinct ,behind romiley forum . Do you know this one ???

It was called Romiley Sports, was trading up to a few years ago, may still be there...I dunno, another small one was Saddleworth Sports on Chew Valley Road, Greenfield, that recently shut, (closeby to the old Norman Wisenden's model railway shop, also now closed).

Another long established business is Cocker's in Burnley, they are still trading, but Benn's and Malcolm Yardley's have long gone.

I'd better get advice from Gary James about writing a book.....lol!

 

[waterloo blue]

I got a City tracksuit from my grandad from a sports shop in the Avenue in Ashton,it was a proper Umbro one and I can still picture it now in the box.
I can't remember the name of the shop,but they used to do City shirts by sewing on the badge to a plain shirt,as Umbro didn't sell replicas.

 

[sky tot]

Romiley Sports hasn`t been in Romiley for a quite a bit now, its a charity shop now..
Good thread this.