IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Scholes Drive, MANCHESTER, M40 3RX

In the 1960s, this building housed a chemist's department where Colin Bickley is now established and - if memory serves - was affiliated to the Co-operative movement.

The Whitegate Inn public house on the corner of Broadway and Hollinwood Avenue.

The narrowing of the central reservation dates from Broadway's construction in the late 1920s. The section from Oldham Road (Failsworth) to Moston Lane East was designed with a wide island which could be used to accommodate trams clear of the tarmac, though no tracks were ever laid. Similar designs were applied within the City of Manchester for Kingsway (A34) and Princess Parkway (A5103). Beyond Moston Lane East, jurisdiction passed to Oldham who authorised a conventional four-lane highway, but retained the leasehold for a distance either side of the road's edge with a view to widening the road should it be required.

Built in 1930s "road house" style, this large pub dominates the junction between Broadway and Hollinwood Avenue. Until the 1970s, a grass bowling green existed to the left of the row of trees in the picture. As is evident, it was removed to provide extra car parking. During the 1990s, the pub's owners had a motel block built with its frontage roughly where the trees are in the photo.

The A663, Broadway, just after it crosses Moston Lane East, entering Manchester at New Moston.

All four corners of the junction between the two roads were provided with shops as part of the design when Broadway was built in the late 1920s. There were traditionally a few niggles between those shops on this (Manchester) side of Moston Lane East and those on the north side which benefited from rather lower business rates from Oldham council. Under various names, a chip shop and newsagent have been in business in the same premises for at least 50 years. The curry take-away is rather more recent.

Classic pre-war semis built around 1938/39 on what was then still a new road, Broadway having been completed in the late 1920s. No road markings are present, since the rarity of private motoring in 1960 meant that parking on the main carriageway was of no issue. All the houses on this part of Broadway were built massively, featuring Accrington brick (so dense that even modern drills have difficulty piercing a hole) and roof timbers of size and quality unobtainable (and unaffordable) post-WW2. The two houses' paint schemes are absolutely typical of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Brown for one, eau-de-nil (aka puke green!) for the other. Both calculated to minimise the visible impact of pervasive pollution from a coal-based economy, including, of course, domestic coal fires. Central heating was 5-10 years in the future for most families. For a 2010 update picture, see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1675903