Description
A view of Bolton from the roof of Mere Hall. This scene was painted by artists Graham Bell and William Coldstream who were invited to participate in the Worktown study. There are a number of photographs taken on the roof in the Archive.
View from Mere Hall By Humphrey Spender - April 1938
- Copyright Bolton Council
- Image ref. 1993.83.19.06
- Page author:
Seeing that photo I remember how often going to school on foggy and smoggy days without any mouth mask like the Chinese run around today in Peking. You could just see 4 to 5 yards and had to find the bus stop after memory. That was fun!
I can still remember on my way home getting into the wrong bus because you couldn’t see the bus number on the front.
What a splendid industrial view. St Matthew’s church is on the left, with its spire (which had gone by my early years). Halifax Street is the nearest street in front of the church, while Fleet Street houses can be seen set back a bit further. All Souls’ church can be seen in the centre of the photo. Eight chimneys are visible; from left to right they are Hesketh’s Mills, Blackburn Road; Perseverance Mill, Gladstone Street; Roocroft’s (smoking), Topping Street; Alexandra Mill, Wolfenden Street; unknown but might be at Clyde Mill, Stewart Street (that’s the stumpy one); North End no. 1 Mill, Canning Street; Cobden Mill, Draycott Street; and North End no. 2 Mill, Tippinges Road.
Correction – the leftmost chimney can’t be Hesketh’s; it must be Ashworth’s on the east side of Blackburn Road. Hesketh’s would be off the photo to the left.
“St. Matt’s” had lost the spire by the time I knew it in the 1950’s but it still had the bottom half of the tower. It was on Mount Street and my auntie Peggy lived across the road. The street in the photo leading away from the park gates was Belgrave Street and the terrace to the right was Fleet Street. Belgrave Street crossed Mount Street then sliced through rows of terraced houses. When I was a child, it was always the ‘Bottom Macadam’ never Belgrave Street. The ‘Top Macadam’ ran parallel to it. Turning left out of Belgrave Street up Mount Street brought you to Yarrow Place and turning right there brought you to the ‘Top Macadam’ or Portland Street. Both cut through the terraces of Homer Street, Hardy Street, Virgil Street, Livingstone Street (where my dad was born in 1910), Irving Street, Mona Street and Maria Street. That led up to Hobart Street where I went to school at St Joseph’s.
Leaving the park gates on Belgrave Street brought you to Long’s Chemists on the right at the junction with Mount Street. Across from Long’s and a bit further down Mount Street was an ironmonger. I can’t remember the name but we got our paraffin from there for the 2 paraffin heaters we possessed: no central heating, no hot water, no bathroom, outside loo (early recycling of the Bolton Evening News!).
Going further down Mount Street past ‘St. Matt’s’ school taking a left into Stewart Street where we went to the barber. He would put a short plank across the arms of the chair to get kids up to a comfortable height and cut with scissors and comb at 200 mph; if I’d been older I would have been scared of losing an ear. He finished off with a great dollop of Bob-O-Lene which, if memory serves, was lilac in colour and seemed to stiffen a child’s whole head not just his hair! Every boy that entered left with a straight ‘partin’ and an impressive ‘quiff’.
Of course, further down Mount Street before reaching Pen Street there was the Mount cinema. I think its posh name was The Carlton but not 100% on that fact. Many a Saturday morning spent there; Hopalong Cassidy and all that!