North Road and Bank Street nowadays

Maciej

Whatever comes to your mind
Joined
Feb 21, 2006
Messages
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More than one hundred years ago Newton Heath and Manchester United, today it's a field and a car park.

North Road (1878 - 1893)

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Bank Street (1893 - 1910)

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I have to visit these places when I'm in Manchester.
 
I walked from the city centre to Sportcity in may, wearing a United kit the day after the United City match (yes, some of the people I met shouted at me), and I didn't realize that Bank Street was that close. Shame, I've always enjoyed places with a history behind it.
 
I had a trip to the site of North Road a couple of month back. Not much to see really, but I took a few photos and thought I may as well post them here. There's still no plaque or anything to commemorate the birthplace of United, which is a shame:

Stood on the site of the old ground looking south-west:




Looking south-east:





Looking south (The new "witches hat" metrolink station is built on western edge of the site of the old carriage and wagon works):



Click on all of these for a hi-res version (and check out the rest of my United photos on there while you are at it, if you fancy).

Here are a few photos I collected of the site in the past (the aerial photo in the first post is a little off):

This is North Road in about 1880:

NorthRoadC1880a.jpg



Here's the same area in 1908 after Newton Heath had moved and the ground was disused:

NorthRoadC1908.jpg


Some years later Moston Brook High School was built on the site, here's an aerial photo C2000 (you can still see the foundations of the old carriage works buildings on the land where it stood a century earlier):

NorthRoad-MostonBrookHighSchool.jpg


The school itself was demolished in about 2003 and a compulsory purchase order was issued for the site and plans for Europe's largest business park to be built on the land were announced:

NorthRoadC2003.jpg


This is a picture i made with the old OS map superimposed on the area as it appeared after the school was demolished:

NorthRoadoverlayed.jpg
 
As Satan was flying over bank street for hell, he was chained by the breeze, and also the smell, quoth he i don't know in which land I roam, but I can tell by the smell that I'm not far from home.

An old poem about all the factories in the area belching smoke into the atmosphere.
 
Here's a very exciting photo I found of the site of the old Bank Street ground. There were recent plans put forward to build a BMX centre on this land but I don't know whether they will be accepted:

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Here's a map of the area C1909 (click for larger sizes):



And a team photo from 1907 with the old "executive box" in the background (again click for larger sizes - photo from the Leslie Millman collection, which can be found here):

 
I know this is an old topic, and delete this post if it's not adequate, but for those interested in the recent developments regarding Bank Street, the BMX Arena has been given permission, and is a month or two away from completion. Good for the area, but a shame for me as it will be hard to get a feeling of what the location was like should I ever visit that part of manchester.


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Don't think it's appropriate to start a new thread for this, but the Manchester Archives have posted a plan of what was to have been built if Manchester succeeded with its Olympics 2000 bid recently: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/24064844362/

While the main stadium was eventually built and is now the Etihad, there seems to have been a plan to bring football back to Bank Street. The plans show a community pitch on the site of United's old ground. Shame it didn't happen, for a variety of reasons, but especially that one. It would have been pretty great to play on the same ground as Billy Meredith and Charlie Roberts did a century ago.
 
Interesting pictures and thread. I come from Manchester and recall going around Newton Heath in the late 70s or early 80s. My father and two uncles attended the school and the railway works was still in use. There was not much to see of the ground but I do believe there was a sign marking the place because an uncle with me jokingly feigned spitting at it (a Bitter). There was still extensive traces of old Manchester style red brick buildings everywhere, it was a dirty and pretty run down area. I had heard FC United now play close to the old ground but cannot confirm that.
 
Yeah, FC is about a 15 minute walk up the road from North(hampton) Road. Well worth a visit, too.
 
In 2016, I petitioned for a plaque to be reinstated at the old Newton Heath ground, which is owned by Fujitsu. Anyway, the petition proved a failure and so I designed a plaque and had it sent there and put up. Here's the video, when I visited:

bit.ly/2BRqo96 (Sorry, I can't post links atm)

As of May 2018, it's still there. I checked it on Google street view.
 
Lee Craig Stewart said:
In 2016, I petitioned for a plaque to be reinstated at the old Newton Heath ground, which is owned by Fujitsu. Anyway, the petition proved a failure and so I designed a plaque and had it sent there and put up. Here's the video, when I visited:

bit.ly/2BRqo96 (Sorry, I can't post links atm)

As of May 2018, it's still there. I checked it on Google street view.
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I found it quite amusing that one of the people you petitioned (by coincidence) was me at my work, and you did it by sending a link to my own posts both on here and another United forum for info!
 
decorativeed said:
I found it quite amusing that one of the people you petitioned (by coincidence) was me at my work, and you did it by sending a link to my own posts both on here and another United forum for info!
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How come the petition was unsuccessful then? Genuine question


Huge props to @Lee Craig Stewart for successfully getting a plaque installed. I hope that the locals will still understand the significance of Newton Heath.


Here is Lee's video as he can't upload it directly:






Great thread
 
Interesting stuff. I pass through that business park on a semi regular basis. I knew the old stadium was in that area but never the exact spot. Shame they knocked down Monsall Hospital and replaced it with those vapid identikit business units. Those old sprawling Victorian estates were awesome and could have been renovated into something beautiful if the costs were not so crazy.
 
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Lee Craig Stewart said:
In 2016, I petitioned for a plaque to be reinstated at the old Newton Heath ground, which is owned by Fujitsu. Anyway, the petition proved a failure and so I designed a plaque and had it sent there and put up. Here's the video, when I visited:

bit.ly/2BRqo96 (Sorry, I can't post links atm)

As of May 2018, it's still there. I checked it on Google street view.
Click to expand...

Good on you mate. Well done!
 
The petition was unsuccessful because I wanted the council or Man Utd themselves to push for another plaque to be made. It was apparent in order to do that, they would’ve needed a financial incentive for my petition to prove successful, so I took the decision in my own hands. I looked around online and found a plaque manufacturer in Teesside and they were willing to do the plaque for a reasonable price and have it sent to the premises. I made them aware that it was coming but I asked them beforehand if it was ok to have it put up in the first place. It was both baffling and surprising why no one replaced the plaque in the first place. Newton Heath LYR FC is an important part of the historical significance of Manchester United football club.
 
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Classical Mechanic said:
So the old plaque was on Moston Brook High School but was stolen?
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Correct. The school was demolished in 2000. It’s not known when it was stolen, but for sixteen years it was never replaced. I not only made the petition but I contacted a multitude of people and organisations to address this but alas.
 
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Tiber said:
How come the petition was unsuccessful then? Genuine question
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Because the place I work don't do that kind of thing.

British Heritage are the people who do the official plaques, but they tend to link them to individuals rather than organisations, and I don't know if Lee contacted them.

Manchester city council have done plaques in the past, but when the Tories are slashing their budget, it didn't surprise me that they don't have spare cash to bang some plaques on a wall that will inevitably be complained about and then probably stolen or vandalised.

At united, it's more than likely the difficulty in getting through to the right person, and hoping that the club want to do it in the first place. They have loads of people contacting them all the time about putting plaques up, renaming stands, erecting statues, etc.
 
decorativeed said:
Because the place I work don't do that kind of thing.

British Heritage are the people who do the official plaques, but they tend to link them to individuals rather than organisations, and I don't know if Lee contacted them.

Manchester city council have done plaques in the past, but when the Tories are slashing their budget, it didn't surprise me that they don't have spare cash to bang some plaques on a wall that will inevitably be complained about and then probably stolen or vandalised.

At united, it's more than likely the difficulty in getting through to the right person, and hoping that the club want to do it in the first place. They have loads of people contacting them all the time about putting plaques up, renaming stands, erecting statues, etc.
Click to expand...
decorativeed said:
Because the place I work don't do that kind of thing.

British Heritage are the people who do the official plaques, but they tend to link them to individuals rather than organisations, and I don't know if Lee contacted them.

Manchester city council have done plaques in the past, but when the Tories are slashing their budget, it didn't surprise me that they don't have spare cash to bang some plaques on a wall that will inevitably be complained about and then probably stolen or vandalised.

At united, it's more than likely the difficulty in getting through to the right person, and hoping that the club want to do it in the first place. They have loads of people contacting them all the time about putting plaques up, renaming stands, erecting statues, etc.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but was it you who recommended that I contact the British Heritage? I did contact them, I contacted the FA, football historical establishments etc. and none of which did I receive a reply.
 
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Lee Craig Stewart said:
I'm not sure if it was you who referred me to the British Heritage but I contacted them, I contacted the FA, football historical establishments etc. and none of which did I receive a reply.
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The FA are the most ridiculous organisation. They don't have anyone there to reply to public enquiries like that or relating to any of their own records, archives or history. They send out a standard reply usually that says that their archivist retired in the summer. He actually retired in the summer of 2014 and hasn't been replaced. It's not like they can't afford to do so, they just don't care to.

I'm surprised that British Heritage didn't reply though.
 
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