Library Car Park on Union Street

This car park, viewed from the end of Ward Street, is on the site of the former Hyde Baths which opened in 1889 and closed in 1984 and was later demolished. On the left is the former Hyde Library with buildings at the rear which have been variously used as a college and for council services. Library services have now been moved to the Town Hall which is visible beyond the corner of the car park.

More information can be found on Hyde Xtra.

A contribution to Our World Tuesday and ABC Wednesday.

Sign hanging off at Hyde Library

I showed you this sign for Hyde Library in January 2014. It is now hanging off and has been for some weeks.

In September I posted about the protest to "Save our Library". The council dismissed this protest as being politically motivated and claimed that library services were not being lost merely moved to another building (the Town Hall) ignoring the fact that the protest was not just about losing the service but about losing an historic building.

Tameside council have already closed Denton Library.

Denton Library is to relocate to Denton Town Hall as part of a wider programme to reduce the number and costs of Council-owned buildings. Tameside Council's priority is to save services over buildings in its challenge to meet £142m Government funding cuts to its budget. Denton library is moving as part of this strategy and will in fact be going back to its original roots as the service started life in a room in the town hall in 1888.

Now they plan to do the same in Hyde!

Hyde Library was originally Hyde Technical School and Free Library. It opened in 1897 replacing the former Mechanics Institute. See the original plan for the building on Old Hyde.

Please visit Best of Hyde Daily Photo 2014 and vote for your favourites. Deadline for voting is 12 noon GMT on Monday 29th December 2014.

A contribution to signs, signs and Good Fences.

V is for voting

It is that time of the year again.

Hyde Daily Photo is one of more than 400 websites worldwide that post a daily picture of their home town or city. On 1st January 2015 members of the City Daily Photobloggers community will be revealing their Photo of the Year.

I have selected twelve contenders for Best of Hyde 2014 and am asking readers to vote for their favourites.

These thumbnails are only a taster. To vote for your three favourites please visit Best of Hyde Daily 2014 and use the form on the page.

Deadline for voting is 12 noon GMT on Monday 29th December 2014.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Signs from WWI

Posters from WWI on display in St George's Church for the Heritage Open Day.

A contribution to signs, signs.

Placards at Hyde Library

These placards were left outside Hyde Library following a demonstration on Saturday by people fighting to save the library.

A Tameside council spokesman has said: "The library service is due to be moved into the town hall within the next year. As is the case with all the council's buildings that are no longer in use, the library building will be marketed for alternative use. We will always consider any serious offers as and when they are submitted to us."

Karen Garner is leading a campaign to keep the building in community use and has applied to English Heritage to have it considered for listed status.

There is growing concern that Tameside council based in Ashton-under-Lyne is gradually eroding the heritage of surrounding towns in the metropolitan borough in order to support grandiose schemes in Ashton and have been doing so for many years.

See a wider view of the library on Hyde DP Xtra.

See a video report of the demonstration on the Manchester Evening News.

A contribution to signs, signs and Good Fences.

A sideways view of Minerva on Hyde Library

On the top of Hyde Library is a statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of the arts, trade, and strategy, holding a book.

Hyde Library was originally Hyde Technical School and Free Library. It opened in 1897 replacing the former Mechanics Institute.

In recent years the building was shared between the library and Tameside College but after the college moved out the library was extensively refurbished between 2006 and 2010 and a gallery to local artist Harry Rutherford was opened. However in 2012 the gallery was moved to the Central Art Gallery in Ashton under Lyne.

In the first round of "council austerity cuts" the public were presented with three "choices" regarding the future of library services. Smaller local libraries were closed in the light of promised improved facilities at main libraries such as Hyde. Now, in a new round of service cuts, the proposal is to move library services to the Town Hall.

The plan is then to sell the library building.

Petitions opposing the move of library services and the selling of the building are being presented to the council by local people opposed to what appears to be a growing centralisation of services in Tameside Metropolitan Borough in Ashton-under-Lyne and the stripping of assets in Hyde and other towns.

See another view of Minerva on Hyde DP Xtra.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Onward at Hyde Library

The frieze above the entrance to Hyde Library on Union Street features the coat of arms of Hyde Borough. Hyde Borough coat of arms was granted in 1882. It is based on the design of the arms of the Hyde Family and to these are added articles of local industries of that time, namely a hatters' bow, cotton sprig and shuttle, Davy lamp and two picks. The motto is "Onward".

The foundation stone for Hyde Library was laid in 1897 by Elizabeth Ashton and the building was opened in 1899 by Letitia Mary Ashton as Hyde Technical School and Free Library.

See the foundation stones on Old Hyde.

It replaced the former Mechanics Institute.

I posted about the library in January 2014 and published further photographs of the library on Hyde DP Xtra.

I reported then that whilst in the first round of "council austerity cuts" the public were presented with three "choices" regarding the future of library services. Smaller local libraries were closed in the light of promised improved facilities at main libraries such as Hyde, but now, in a new round of service cuts, library services are being moved to the Town Hall and the council want to sell the library building.

An e-petition opposed to those plans can be found at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/62460.

A contribution to signs, signs.

A Polite Notice

On the stands outside one of the newsagents in Clarendon Shopping Centre a Polite Notice reads:
We don't offer free newspaper
reading facility,

So please step away and let other
to buy,
A contribution to signs, signs.

The Side of Hyde Library

The foundation stone for Hyde Library was laid in 1897 by Elizabeth Ashton and the building was opened in 1899 by Letitia Mary Ashton as Hyde Technical School and Free Library.

See the foundation stones on Old Hyde.

It replaced the former Mechanics Institute.

The car park at the side is on the site of the former Hyde Swimming Baths.

I posted about the library in January 2014 and published further photographs of the library on Hyde DP Xtra.

I reported then that whilst in the first round of "council austerity cuts" the public were presented with three "choices" regarding the future of library services. Smaller local libraries were closed in the light of promised improved facilities at main libraries such as Hyde, but now, in a new round of service cuts, the proposal is to move services to the Town Hall and then sell the library building.

An e-petition opposed to those plans can be found at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/62460.

A contribution to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday;

Puzzle books £1

There is a large secondhand bookstall on Hyde market and the prices there are very keen.

A contribution to Monday Mellow Yellows.

Free Library

Engraved above the Union Street entrance to Hyde Library are the words "Free Library".

Hyde Library was originally Hyde Technical School and Free Library. It opened in 1897 replacing the former Mechanics Institute.

In recent years the building was shared between the library and Tameside College but after the college moved out the library was extensively refurbished between 2006 and 2010 and a gallery to local artist Harry Rutherford was opened. However in 2012 the gallery was moved to the Central Art Gallery in Ashton under Lyne.

In the first round of "council austerity cuts" the public were presented with three "choices" regarding the future of library services. Smaller local libraries were closed in the light of promised improved facilities at main libraries such as Hyde. Now, in a new round of service cuts, the proposal is to move library services to the Town Hall.

The plan is then to sell the library building.

More photographs of Hyde Library can be viewed on Hyde DP Xtra.

A contribution to signs, signs and The Weekend in Black and White.

ABC Wednesday: J is for John Critchley Prince

The grave of John Critchley Prince is in St George's churchyard. The now barely visible inscription reads:

ERECTED
BY A FEW ADMIRERS
TO THE MEMORY OF
JOHN CRITCHLEY PRINCE
AUTHOR OF
HOURS WITH THE MUSES
BORN 21ST JUNE 1808
DIED 5TH MAY 1866.

Thomas Middleton in the Annals of Hyde described him as

the Bard of Hyde, one of a band of gifted singers and prominent literary men — self taught be it said — whose names are household words in the great industrial hive about Cottonopolis. In his day Prince was a great force in the active life of the manufacturing north, and probably no writer ever exercised a greater power over the people, or pleaded more eloquently for the emancipation of the sons of toil.

Critchley Prince was born on June 21st, 1808, at Wigan, in Lancashire. He was brought up amid the greatest poverty, and was never sent to school. His education was obtained solely from his mother and from the teachers of a Baptist Sunday School. At nine years old he started work with his father who was a "reed-maker". A reed was a tool used by hand-loom weavers to separate the threads. His father was a drunkard and a bully and often beat his son if he caught him reading. At eighteen, he married Ann Orme, a resident of Hyde. Once he married Ann, a family followed and by 1830 they had a son and two daughters. Employment was bleak, Prince sought work in France, but it didn’t work out. After suffering much hardship on his return journey he arrived home to find his family in the poorhouse at Wigan. In later years he moved between Blackburn, Ashton and Hyde, searching for casual work. He supplemented his income by contributing poems to local papers and begging and borrowing off friends and acquaintances. Effort were made by friends and well-wishers to help lift him from poverty. Several cash grants from the Royal Bounty Fund were given, but each failed because of his addiction to alcohol, which he tried to kick many times but couldn't. His wife Ann died in 1858, and four years later he married Ann Taylor. His final years were marred by declining health and hardship from the near collapse of the cotton industry during the American Civil War. He died in a house in Brook Street, Hyde in 1866, he was by then almost blind and partially paralysed by a stroke suffered shortly after he remarried. He was buried in St George's churchyard and his funeral was attended by, among others, Edwin Waugh, Benjamin Brierley, Samuel Laycock and Elijah Ridings.

Information on John Critchley Prince and reproductions of his work can be found on Ian Petticrew's website http://gerald-massey.org.uk/prince/index.htm which is devoted to rediscovering the work of Gerald Massey and other contemporary poets mostly connected with the Chartist movement.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday: N is for News Pot

The "News Pot" in Clarendon Mall is just one of a number of newsagents to found in and around town. As well as newspapers and magazines they also sell sweets and confectionary.

For ABC Wednesday.

Melanie from Manchester

One morning recently I met Melanie and her mate from Manchester College selling Student Rag-mags in the Market Place.

Now I haven't seen a student ragmag for about 40 years. In some ways this was much the same, being full of mainly crudely smutty jokes and little subtlety. Both men and woman are equal targets except for the proverbial blondes. The only racial stereotypes are the Welsh and Kiwis with hints about their relationships with sheep.

The old rag mags though were always local in kind and supported student charities, but this one could be found equally in Manchester, Glasgow or Cardiff and sellers apparantly retain a portion of the cover price for themselves.

A contribution to Our World Tuesday.

St George's (for Nell and Doug)

This is how St George's Church looked on 12/12/12 where I went to celebrate the life of John Douglas Grieve (1929-2012).

I've only known Doug and his wife Nell for a couple of years since they became first neighbours and very quickly firm friends. Earlier this year they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and we had a wonderful party.

Doug had the good fortune and resolution to organise his own funeral in the few weeks before he passed away under the care of Willow Wood Hospice.

He loved poetry and chose this poem to be read in church.

Remember Me

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

by Christina Rossetti.

After the ceremony Nell and her family proceeded to Dukinfield Cemetery and we met up with everyone again at Oaklands Hall - see Hyde DP Xtra.

Opening Hours at Newton Library

This week's contribution to signs, signs features the opening hours at Newton Library.

Alas, as from October 12th, every day will be a Wednesday.

Why? See the view of the library on Hyde DP Xtra.

Weekend in Black & White: People Watching

Browsing the second-hand book stall on Hyde Market.

A coloured version can be found on Geograph.

For The Weekend in Black and White and the CDPB Theme Day.

ABC Wednesday: V is for Voting

The time has come to vote for the best of Hyde DP 2011.

View the twelve contenders at Best of Hyde 2011 and vote for your favourite three photographs.

Voting closes 12 noon GMT, Friday 30th December 2011.

For more V posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday: H is for Hyde's hidden gems

Photograph © Kirsty Thompson
According to the September issue of the glossy magazine Cheshire Life

Hyde is worth seeking. Hyde is not the flashiest of Cheshire towns but it has charms all its own ... may not regularly top the list of must-see places in Britain, but this industrious town boasts many hidden gems.

Five of my photographs appear in the article written by Elizabeth Short and Kirsty Thompson came and took one of myself at the computer.

To read the whole article you'll have to buy a copy of the magazine which I think you can order online from the Cheshire Life website if your local newsagent doesn't stock it.

For more H posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Book Bargains on Hyde Market

Some people may like ebooks but they can't replicate the smell of print nor the feel of a volume in your hands.