Monday 25 January 2010

Blast From The Past














A little before my time but i found this old pic of Ashton bus Station from around the 70s on a facebook site. Thought i would share it.
Got bored before work time lol.
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12 comments:

  1. I have a picture of this view myself. It features in Martin Parr's excellent book 'Boring Postcards' (Phaidon, 2001).

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  2. Anonymous25/1/10 17:19

    What a great photo. Is it me or does it look like somewhere abroad with the clear blue sky and not a big blue ugly building in sight.

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  3. Originally the bus stands faced the other way.

    When the 219 changed from trollybus to motor bus, the terminus was in front of the main bus station building and not on an island stand. Only on Saturdays was the service originally operated by Manchester Corp. Fleetlines from the 4611-4629 batch..the rest of the week was PD2s.

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  4. One of my uncles owned the sweet shop and off licence across the road and Knights chippy further along, was owned by another branch of the family.

    If you look closely at the photo, you will notice a small bus shelter on the front island, which was for the 400 Trans Lancs Express, then a new service.

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  5. Anonymous25/1/10 19:42

    When the council offices were constructed in the 1970s, the bus station was resited further along Wellington Street in the direction of Manchester. The development of the indoor shopping arcades in the 1990s then resulted in a second overhaul of Ashton bus station. I am assuming this photo was taken following the initial repositioning of the bus station in the 1970s.

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  6. Anonymous25/1/10 21:17

    I remember the Bus station the way it was before the Arcades were built. Would spend many a afternoon watching all the different coloured buses coming and going. Was great.
    I seem to remember the alighting area was outside the row of shops on the side of the council buildings.

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  7. I'm not that old but i know of 4 different bus stations which have lived on this site now. Soon to be 5 i'm sure when the metrolink shows it's ugly face.

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  8. Yep, I am able to remember 3 of 4 versions of Ashton bus station and I'm 30 years old.

    The second one (reconstructed in 1981) had Queensbury type bus shelters to specification akin to their Lincoln range. These were replaced in March 1985 by GMPTE's bespoke specifications. This led us to the current version built in 1994 (thanks to the Arcades). Like the 1963 version of Ashton bus station, these face north to south.

    The council offices were constructed in the late 1970s and opened in 1981.

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  9. I can help out with how the 5th will look.

    More/less a duplicate of Oldhams but one long curve, with the metrolink slap bang in the middle. That will only happen if the full fund can be brought in, if not then it will be in the empty field opposite Subway.

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  10. Anonymous27/1/10 02:50

    Is the metrolink coming to Ashton or not. No-one seems to know. I dont think the Ashton/Droylsden areas can take any more traffic problems like we had last summer.

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  11. lets hope we dont see anything like last summer. Although i think it wont be long before we find out!!

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  12. Anonymous28/1/10 22:57

    If there's a Stockport Depot 330 somewhere on there, I may have been the driver. In those days the 330 continued either to Edgeley or Councillor Lane at Cheadle so a heavy right foot was needed to keep time on Fridays and Saturdays to keep time.

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