IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Clara Street, ROCHDALE, OL11 1PG

No 86 on the right with the door open, and No 88, where I lived as a boy from 1948 to 1954.

This building was formerly the Sunday School of St. Luke's: the actual Church building stood a short distance further away from the photographer, on Deeplish Road. But in the 1980s the large Church itself was sold for demolition and replaced by the modern flats visible in the left background of the photograph. Services were then transferred to the Sunday School building shown above, which thus became the Church.

Looking eastwards from the junction of Deeplish Road with Ashfield Road, known locally as Deeplish Corner. These are large terrace houses which each have, or had, a small front garden: however, some of these front gardens have been removed to create space to keep a m***r c*r, (that affliction of our villages, towns and cities!)

This is looking northwards from Deeplish Corner, and shows the junctions of Ashfield Road with Ventnor Street and Aubrey Street. The decorative brickwork on the terrace ends is of recent origin. The tilting bus stop sign is of significance - it states 'out of use'. There is no bus service whatever now into the Deeplish district. Interestingly enough, this is the route of Rochdale Corporation's very first bus service. Back in the 1920s, the corporation was a tramway operator, but trams would not have been suitable in Deeplish with its narrow roads and awkward street layout. So a motorbus service was started, and appropriately enough, was given service No 1. It ran for very many years, usually at a 10 minute frequency, surviving into the SELNEC and GMPTE eras (although renumbered). But now it has gone with only a few disused bus stops to recall its existence.

No 86 (nearest house) and No 88 have had front gardens removed: passage between 86 and 84 illegally gated and locked: road humps (unnecessary on this curving road) will mitigate against reintroduction of bus service.

This is the view to the south-west from Deeplish Corner. This view has not changed in any material aspect for the last 60 years, with the exception that the road was the sett-paved - and the introduction of speed bumps is quite recent.

A row of red-brick terraced houses on Aubrey Street in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. Such housing stock is typical of much of Rochdale and of Greater Manchester.

These houses, which still exist, were, when photographed in 1949, almost in "as built" condition, with sash windows, and facing onto an unmade road with gas lamps.

Osborne Street only has houses on one side. They face a pleasant area of grass and trees, which many years ago was a wasteland of cinders and ashes not even suitable for a game of football.

For a photograph at the same location some 58 years earlier, see Image Trees prevents use of exactly the same viewpoint for the 2007 picture.