Ancoats memories and Manchester mills: Message from Mark in Massachussetts

Aidan, I have been following developments in Ancoats for years now, both on your site and on my visits back home. Last time, I partook of a pint and sandwich in the re-opened Cheshire Cheese. I’d loved to see the district recapture its original immigrant flavour. My mum and dad, natives of Newton Heath and Miles Platting, had fond memories of Ancoats before WWII.

My mum–now unfortunately struck down with Alzheimers and in a home in Charlestown–does not remember me, but talks over and over again about Wood Street, where she was born and grew up. I think it was in either Collyhurst or Harpurhey; now a street long gone, of course, I wonder if any of your subscribers remembers the street, and also Croyton Street where I spent the first twelve months of my life before moving to Higher Blackley because my mum couldn’t take the blackjacks?

My mum and dad would tell stories of Squashy Belly entry and the Black Brook, St. Edmonds, the red wreck at Monsall, the Playhouse, the Albert Memorial elementary school and the Nelson pub. Also, the top Derby and the bottom Derby and Bernard Manning’s dad’s greengrocer shop on Rochdale Road. Any info’ on those either?

I can confirm that many, if not all, of the textile mills in New England look uncannily like their Greater Manchester counterparts–Worcester, New Bedford, Fall River, Worcester, take your pick and you’ll see the same red brick mills modeled on those in Ancoats, with the rows of windows, the towers and the tapering chimneys. Most of these are derelict too now, as all the textile manufacturing has been shipped off to the Third World where life and labour is cheap (quite a bit like the mid-nineteenth century Manchester of Engels no doubt). Mass’ has been slow to catch up on its industrial heritage and to find innovative new uses for these old mill buildings, but the transformation is starting to happen. The craft villages, restaurants, loft condo conversions (and the huge price tags!) are starting to appear.

To travel past Manchester, New Hampshire on the highway is to see miles of red brick mills that line the Nashua River. The name, in this case, was well-chosen, though Manhester, NH is a bit like Manchester, U.K. was in the 70s and 80s. Seen better days and looking for a way to reinvent itself.

Providence, RI on the other hand has over recent years found a fantastic way to make use of its canal system in the summer. It has this weekly event called Waterfire that is a fabulous spectacle and draws huge crowds on the weekend. Great for business.

Manchester could do worse than take a leaf out this book and find some imaginative people to do something similar for Manchester’s canal system in the town centre, perhaps based around Castlefield. Check out the Providence, RI website for info’ on Waterfire, and be sure to check it out if you ever make the trip over in the summer months. You’d get some great pictures.

One final thing: does anyone know of any plans to remove the old town hall facade back into town, where it could be seen and fully appreciated? Currently, it languishes in Heaton park surrounded by trees where only intrepid types can seek it out. It’s a wonderful free-standing structure and a part of the town’s heritage and would make a grand addition to one of the squares in town. I don’t know abut the logistics of such matters, but I could imagine it occupying a space like the grand arches in other great cities, like the one in Washington Square, NY where I recently took my brother, who lives on Crab Lane, and was over visiting recently.

Keep up the great work, Aidan, and the advocating for a new Manchester re-developed with practicality in mind but also the bringing out of the aesthetic side of the the city’s human-built landscape. A major city should be a joy to stroll around: it draws visitors, it boosts the economy, it transforms the city’s people for the better (as long as some effort is put into making it an inclusive place, and not just a playground for the young, single, trendy, and well-heeled–Boston and New York both tend to be a bit that way; great cities to visit, but you need deep pockets to properly enjoy what they have to offer. Gentrification is/has pushed out the locals and created a certain amount of snobbery and class friction. The poorer folks are banished to the far less attractive inner cities around the centre, where the bright shiny surfaces of the downtown are notable for their absence).

I wish I could afford a flat back in Manchester for whistle-stop long weekend visits, but alas I’m not that rich.

Thanks for listening,
Mark Bates, Massachussetts, U.S.A.