IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Trinity Street, STALYBRIDGE, SK15 2PW

On the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the Stalybridge cotton mills rapidly ran short of cotton. Thousands of operatives were laid off. In October 1862, a meeting was held in the Stalybridge Town Hall which passed a resolution blaming the Confederate States of America and their actions in the American Civil War for the cotton famine in Lancashire. By the winter of 1862–1863 there were 7,000 unemployed operatives in the town. Only five of the town's 39 factories and 24 machine shops were employing people full-time. Contributions were sent from all over the world for the relief of the cotton operatives in Lancashire; and at one point 75 per cent of Stalybridge workers were dependent on relief schemes. By 1863 there were 750 empty houses in the town. A thousand skilled men and women left the town, in what became known as "The Panic". In 1863 the relief committee decided to substitute a system of relief by ticket instead of money. The tickets were to be presented at local grocers' shops. An organised resistance was organised culminating on Friday 20 March 1863.

For an alternative view, please see Image

Built as a gift to the town of Stalybridge by John Frederick Cheetham and his wife Beatrice Astley, the Astley Cheetham Art Gallery originally opened to the public as a lecture theatre on 14 January 1901. The space was turned into a gallery to house the Astley Cheetham Collection, bequeathed in 1932. This collection has grown with gifts and donations throughout the 20th century and is one of the most interesting small regional collections of 15th century Italian paintings. The collection of work by Italian old masters includes "Portrait of a Young Man" by Alessandro Allori. Also, British art of the 19th and 20th centuries is represented by artists such as John Linnell, Richard Parkes Bonington, George Price Boyce, Burne-Jones, Mark Gertler and Duncan Grant. "Aske Hall" by Joseph Turner is also part of the gallery's collection. Alongside exhibitions of the collection, the gallery also hosts a programme of temporary exhibitions by regional artists. During the earlier part of the 20th century, Stalybridge was artistically captured by the painter Laurence Stephen Lowry. Some of his paintings were of the townspeople. Lowry continued painting pictures until his death in 1976. His house is marked with a blue plaque in Mottram in Longdendale. There is also a statue of him, holding his sketch pad, on a bench in the village. Sheila Vaughan is a Stalybridge artist working in oils and acrylic. Her work and that of other Stalybridge artists such as Keith Taylor are displayed at The Peoples Gallery on Melbourne Street.

These are the sorting office buildings that are on the south bank of the River Tame. For more information on the main post office building, please see Julian Osley's http://britishpostofficearchitects.weebly.com/stalybridge.html .

Looking across the bridge over The Tame towards the library.

The bronze angel tending to a dying sailor at the eastern side of Victoria Bridge. 1914 1918 JUTLANT ZEEBRUGGE THE FALKLAND ISLES REMEMBER THE LOVE OF THEM WHO CAME NOT HOME FROM THE WAR SEE YOU TO IT THAT THEY SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN The imposing war memorial, which stands at one end of Victoria Bridge over the River Tame, occupies either side of the northern entrance to Trinity Street was unveiled on 6 November 1921 and is Grade II* listed. The memorial was designed by local sculptor FV Blundstone. Its walls are segmental in plan flanking each side of Trinity Street. At each end of the bridge, there are squared piers with swept abutments, crests of arms and moulded bases carry winged angelic figures supporting dying battle clad figures; to the west a soldier and the east a sailor. The walls carry granite plaques inscribed with rolls of honour carrying the names of the 628 men who gave their lives, their names being arranged in regiments. The walls end in carved stone lions on square piers. http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=37707817 More images and detail of the Stalybridge War Memorial

View east from Trinity Street Bridge.

Large numbers of these attractive fowls congregate here to beg for breadcrusts from the public, but throwing them bread is not good for the birds themselves, nor is it good for the ecology of the canal. The houses whose backs are visible here are in Castle Street.

In a handsome Victorian building on Trinity Street; surprisingly, perhaps, still in its original location.

Lion at the end of the eastern side of Image] FRANCE PALESTINE MESOPOTAMIA EGYPT E. AFRICA The imposing war memorial, which stands at one end of Victoria Bridge over the River Tame, occupies either side of the northern entrance to Trinity Street was unveiled on 6 November 1921 and is Grade II* listed. The memorial was designed by local sculptor FV Blundstone. Its walls are segmental in plan flanking each side of Trinity Street. At each end of the bridge, there are squared piers with swept abutments, crests of arms and moulded bases carry winged angelic figures supporting dying battle clad figures; to the west a soldier and the east a sailor. The walls carry granite plaques inscribed with rolls of honour carrying the names of the 628 men who gave their lives, their names being arranged in regiments. The walls end in carved stone lions on square piers. http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=37707817 More images and detail of the Stalybridge War Memorial