@@RegebroRepairs Indeed. You'll never have a history if you don't build it in the first place. Cities are the ever changing fabric of human civilisation, they change as we do. We should preserve some things, we should absolutely document them. I think we've become pretty good at respectfully preserving our past in the last 30 years or so with new developments. Not universally, but far better than in the 60's and 70's for example where we just bulldozed everything and replaced things with concrete, lifeless blocks. Though those things are also part of our history and someone will see those as worth preserving at some point in the future long after they've served their usefulness.
I used to park in the car park below Salford Station. Behind it were some industrial buildings/warehouses. There was a big sign on one of them saying something like "Manchester Chroming". I had a classic car and needed the bumpers re-chromed so I went in to ask about it being done. To my surprise it looked more like a canteen inside. A man dressed in uniform came up and asked what I wanted. I explained about the car bumpers and he looked bemused. I said there was a sign outside saying Manchester Chroming. "Ah yes" he said. "This is actually Granada Studios and we didn't want the public coming in so we put up that sign to mislead people. We reckoned it was the least likely thing that anyone would want but you have just proved us wrong!" I should have asked for a tour but actually just left in embarrassment!
Always fascinating Martin Crying shame that history is being erased before our eyes, relegated to old photographs and video footage. Without people like you and your peers, Martin these places would be forgotten . Thanks mate God bless 🙏
Superb filming and commentaries as per usual Martin. If I got a wish I would have Manchester University make you a professor of History in Manchester. Keep safe warm dry and virus free Martin. Thanks very much for your time and efforts to produce your volgs for us to enjoy. Cheers
Great update, without people like you we would lose so much history recorded for posterity. Coal mining museum looks great, I was a Somerset copper in 1984 and went up to Nottingham several times and went down for tours on a couple of working pits. Fascinating. Met many miners and their families both working and striking, most of us thought they got a shitty deal all round and on the whole they were very nice people to meet except when they were chucking rocks at us, but hey, who can blame them!
A little token of appreciation for your great videos! I live on Vancouver Island in Canada and have never been to Manchester, but my dad and his family lived and still live around the Chester area.(My Dad came to Canada in 1920.) I love the north of England and have enjoyed all your explorations with your buddies. Keep up the great work!
Hello Gwen. Good to hear you have connections in the North. Thanks so much for the gift, very much appreciated. That will keep James in Cakes for a month 😃👍🏻
I walk past the old gasworks almost every day, and it's mad how quickly you forget what something looked like once its gone! You can see right through to the steep road of Lord Street now. It's so strange! It looks like Alien3 in the chamber footage!
I now know more about gas works and how they worked than I did before watching your videos. There were gas works in Peterborough and I think the storage facilities are still there. I used to bike about 3 miles to bring coke home for a Beeston heater. We would lay the sacks of coke across the bike's crossbar and push them home including a drag of a hill. Kids these days have no idea of what it was like 70 years ago but they would learn from watching your videos.
Absolutely amazing Martin. The walk where the old coronation street set was, used to be called Grape Street. Before it was demolished and used for a set, my great grandparents owned a Boarding House there. No 4 Grape Street and also another house further down the street. A street that has disappeared like so many others. Really enjoy your videos, love local history even tho I now live in South Devon.
Because of my love for you and what you do I’ve been doing a bit of walking in a little beck we found in cottingham, found some old pottery that I’ve had dated to as early as 1830 😊
Sad to see the heavy labour of Craftsmen, labourers and women demolished at the gasworks so easily, well done for recording. We have done the National Coal Mining museum and underground tour, really interesting and well worth it. Staff were mostly ex workers from the pit when we visited. A crime that is is a museum and not still a working pit.
Heyas Martin, James & crew. I seem to remember that Muriel on the Coronation St set was ment to be the mysterious Rosamund Street, often mentioned but very rarely seen. Indeed there was a (steam train?) accident on the bridge and Ena Sharples and Lucille Hewitt were the main characters involved in that story line. I seem to remember the Glad Tidings Hall, Ena's fictional home as caretaker was ruined in the smash as she was rehomed afterwards. Im sure there are better informed fans than my memory serves me 🧐😎 Cheers DougT
@@royfearn4345 hi Roy, thanks, honest I'm not a Cstreet anorak it's just I used to watch when the plot lines were believable 😎. The modern metro tram smash was just a re-creation of that plot. Nowadays it's very, very rare I watch CS or East Ender's never mind the Emmerdale 😯😎 Cheers DougT
Looking forwards to the National Mining Museum ( Caphouse Colliery) video. I hope you take notice of the 18" hight of the Trapanner coal cutting machine, this qas the first cutter i opperated when i was a mere 19 years old , back in 1979. Crawling along ,knocking th3 f out of my knees and hoping that the snaker kept the chocks in a straight line and the cable man didnt let the loop of the cable fall over a lock out button or a gap in the pan sides. Now i realise ive just come out with a lot of stuff you don't understand, but any other face worker watching will instantly understand what I'm talking about.👍🏴
So glad you got to film the gasworks before they destroyed it. I get that, there's probably no practical use for it, but breaks my heart to see all that hardwork and engineering lost forever.
I wandered around there about 33 years ago, I saw Bet Lynn getting out of a Rolls Royce, Mike Baldwin, Johnny Briggs and a couple of others, there was some tram tracks near the Rovers Return
Glad to see you got across the footbridge at last! I was there a couple of weeks ago. Since I found your channel, I've been inspired to explore the city a bit more, I've walked over that bridge, around Castlefield, saw the Giants Basin, the tunnel from the Bridgewater Hall that used to be the canal... In fact, I was volunteering at a Repair Cafe event at the Gt Northern Warehouse the other day, and telling my friends there about exploring inspired by your videos. A couple of them said "Oh, I think I've seen some of those videos..." And then, while I was fixing a jacket for a lady, she was saying she lived just off Deansgate, and had explored quite a bit. She said "There's this guy does videos on RU-vid...." and I said "Martin Zero!" and we had a good chat about stuff we'd been to see. Anyway, I'm trying to catch up on your videos from the start. I'm still 4 years behind! Thank you for so much interesting content. Also, if you haven't been, the Lancashire Mining Museum at Astley Green is a nice little museum. No underground tour, but they still have the pit head gear, and the winding engines, which are run at certain times. There are loads of old locos and machinery sitting around, a little railway that runs sometimes, and a tearoom. It's free entry, and run by very enthusiastic volunteers. Limited opening times, check their Facebook for up to date info. They run a great Steam Rally every May. facebook.com/pages/Lancashire-Mining-Museum/360225574116064
I'm from Romania and I feel like I know a lot more about Manchester than my own country 😊I love these vids and appreciate the effort and research going into them.
I remember watching a Corrie episode where there was an accident on the railway viaduct, on a small black& white screen, could well be over 50 years ago. Guess Ken Barlow is the only one left.
Martin great vlog; can’t imagine the hours taken by you and the team do this and the next videos; a big thanks from down south. ‘That’s on the gas burner’ to come.. great catch phrase hope you add it to your style 👍 😎
A few years ago I was coach driving driving into Manchester with a school on we passed the sign for some of the apartments there.A teacher commented "Oh Angel meadow how nice that sounds." I looked at her and she must of seen a frown on my face as she quizzed me as to why .I proceeded to give her a potted history of the area including St Michaels field. It didn't sound so appetizing after that. I had done a couple guided tour around on a coach .It does help my father coming from New Cross and mum from Colliery st Bradford.
Martin the old bank at mumps is currently accessible again if you fancy a mooch, I went in yesterday some developers bought it filled a couple of skips but seem to have abandoned it I think they or the council are hoping kids get in & burn it down as it's grade 2 listed. Well worth a visit the old vaults still in there & safes plus a massive diesel tank for an old generator. Lots of fantastic marble & wooden features old fire places ect. I also believe there is bricked up tunnel which used to lead to the old bus depot apparently they used to send the money straight into the bank. I would love to see a quality video & some more info on it's history by you & your team. Anyway looking forward to your upcoming videos 👍🏻
Martin and his lads are doing something unique - and doing it in a way that is superb (research, historic context, respectful stie visits, terrific editing and video production). Why hasn't BBC signed these lads for a series?
Excellent stuff! A real shame about those gasworks - I hope your great video about them, will be of use to interested people in the future. That new Factory place; has it any connection with Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus' record label? In your covert footage, I noticed, on a pillar, red warning markings, very similar to ones that adorned FAC 51, back in the day. The outside of the venue reminds me of those disturbingly oddly angled buildings in the 1919 movie 'The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari'. Sad to see Coronation Street is no more - I'm not a fan of the show, but I do remember being fascinated by it as a kid - coming from Suffolk, I never encountered people who spoke and acted the way the folk in Coronation Street did. They were so different from the people in my small world as a kid, I thought they were wonderful. However, as time went by, the people in it who could actually act, and suspend your disbelief, either died off or left. I stopped watching after Bernard Youens (Stan Ogden) died. Possibly because the scene with Jean Alexander (Hilda Ogden) breaking down after returning home after Stan had died in hospital, was just all too real.
enjoy these chats , going back i loved the informal nostalgic walk back into your youth,you did a while back. i went to school in Stockport and would love to know what happened to say "Adswood brickworks " ect. recently visited my old workplace in Edgerley ( steam shed 9b ) to find a housing estate. the roads around Buxton road all changed from the 60s and found it difficult to get my bearings . so i appreciate your task is not always easy and i thank you for the memories you invoke.
Excellent again - cornbrook 4&5 hmm ? I remember the cornbrook running free at the top of Chapman street near to Cornwall street and ran parallel to the railway. I also worked at the museum of science & Industry (workshop was based at Gaythorn gas works) as an apprentice & watched them filming coronation street from the top floor (shown in your video across from where the real rovers used to be) keep up the excellent work. Am the guy who messaged you and thought it was the gore brook originally.
Yer, as an apprentice I installed the 1830 Haydock beam engine in the power house (1981) - they were still developing the mill on the other side of the little railway there and you could get to the loading bay of the top floor and watch any street filming (I watched Mike baldwins jag from above) I remember when the cornbrook ran open near railway street and would be interested to know when it was actually culverted (am guessing in the 70s) Love your channel - I remember so many areas that you point out (am 58) brilliant stuff pal.
Loving an update down Manchester way. Those stables for the old station were incredible. I didn't realise that the area where the Coronation St set was ,was still there. Interesting, but like you Martin haven't watched it for many years , it has no relevance to me or the Manchester I used to know now. Hasn't the name changed from Factory International to something else ?? It doesn't seem to have any identity and i think many Mancunians would wonder what exactly it's for 🤔 The Collyhurst area will be changing very soon Martin so if there's any updates to be done best do them soon. The Northern Gateway I believe. Thanks for all you do Martin.
We also had a LOT of Polychronated BiPhenol PCB I remember seeing a dozen tanker cars of Meryl Cloride And another dozen tankers of Phenol Every day going to G. E.
That was a great plug for the national mining museum, I'm already planning a weekend visit to go there, ta for that and another informative post, oh love the Halifax brick at the gas works, you took that home didn't you so I can collect it from you,😂
Hi Martin, great update video, always enjoy a visit to the HQ!! Looking forward to Cornbrook 3, the second of series is one of my favourites. I too haven't watched Corrie for about 30 years, I did come across a spoof called buggernation street though. I think James must have looked to the sky and found an elephant's eye looking at him from a bubblegum tree but all that he knew was the hole in his welly was letting in water😅😅 At long last that bridge is open roll on the Stephenson statue (I hope). Have a great week
Great video Martin. I used to know someone who worked in the sets department at Granada and he gave me a private tour one afternoon. Think the bonded warehouse was the set for Sherlock Holmes and I got a sneaky peak at the old Coronation Street set. How it has changed!
Back in the 80's an uncle's neighbour worked on the Granada sets, me and my wife were visiting one day and whilst discussing various things I mentioned I needed to buy some plywood to make a rabbit hutch. So he says I got some plywood you can have and produced the old weather map which was used on Granada Reports, when they used magnetic clouds and things. So it became part of the rabbits hutch minus the steel plate on the back of it. Amazingly the rabbit became very good at forecasting the weather 😄😄
It's interesting how recent in history the desire to preserve old buildings and structures actually is. Less than a century and a half when civilization goes back twelve thousand years, the rest of the time buildings were razed to the ground, built anew and materials reused constantly.
As my father and uncles all worked down the pits in stoke on trent when i was a kid i always had a intrest in pits and railways, the last pit closed in 1998 Kents Lane silverdale . in Apedale in Newcastle Staffordshire , there is or was not sure at this time as its been a few years since I been a drift coal mine and a ex miner as a guide . It wasn't a lot of money either. A bit of a museum and a steam train , if you are passing well worth a look
As I've stated to you before, the Manchester videos are the stars of the show, Martin. Any history to do with the city that you do are the cream of the crop. As regards Cornbrook, I recall that on one of your earlier films, Roy went down into the culvert and it was absolutely caked up with what seemed like mud, and I thought that it looked so bad that you all might have given it up. Anyhow good luck with that venture and all the other locations that you're going to do.
It's great to see the information about Manchester. History, good or bad. Darn site better than watching certain other Manchester based RU-vidrs! Thank you Martin 😊👍
Hhhhmmm interesting video Martin carnt believe the old corrie set has changed maybe one summer I, ll get to Manchester & visit it look forward to your other videos 👍
Great catchup on cornbrook and the gasworks, I concur your sentiments on the mine at capesthorn colliery, well worth a visit. Thanks for posting (Pete Stelliings) aka wedgdoos
Great update. Next time you’re in the area of Granada studios, would love to know if anything’s changed around the Manchester Salford junction canal. It would also give you the opportunity to lay a wreath in memory of the lost drone. 😂
Martin me ol pal , where you been thought you might have been on holiday was starting to get Sunday video withdrawals lol Looking forward to that next chapter
Great video as always Martin. If someone was visiting Manchester for just one day, what 2 or 3 little historical things would you recommend someone go see?
They might call the flats The Gasworks - just round the corner on ludgate hill the flats there are called The Tobacco Factory in homage to the buildings former use.
Another great video mate, shame our heritage is being erased. Any chance of you and James doing another eating video, like the Korean one you did, very entertaining mate.
Weurstbin lad ? missed you and the crew. Some interesting stuff coming up to look forwards to, every time you trot out around the city makes me want to pack up and come back to my place of birth !
That’s quite funny about the Urbis because now I think it’s crap, since football got involved. When it opened it had some great exhibitions, the Peter Savile one comes to mind. It also had a very good restaurant in the top with great views, it was called Le Mont.
Hello Martin, Another new vlog, always interesting to follow. Violet Carson once said about Coronation street, one day this will no longer exist. She was right.
All things must and will change. Even we change on a daily basis. Does anyone here look like they did on the day they were born? But lots of us have photos of ourselves as babies, and that's why it's so important that you do what you do Martin. We can't preserve all of our old architecture and utility buildings. But you're giving us high quality records for the future of the memorable features of our past. (Shouldn't that Coronation Street set wall have had a muriel, not a mural?) 🤣 Fans of the late Jean Alexander, (Hilda Ogden), will know what I mean.
re Capestorne Colliery somewhere nearer to home that rarely gets a mention is the Astley Green Colliery Museum, just along the East Lancs (A580) road towards Manchester when comng from the Leigh area.
Here in Sydney Australia there was an old gasworks where the land was supposedly remediated. The local council then allowed a developer to build townhouses with underground parking. A few years after, the residents started to notice strong odours in the carpark and the groundwater seepage in the drains was black. I was working at the government laboratories at that time. We received a number of groundwater samples from the site and all of them were heavily contaminated with hydrocarbons, heavy metals and sulphur compounds. Going by what I am seeing in Martin's videos, lawsuits from future occupants of the apartments is inevitable.
Nobody has brought up in comments over many years the layout of the background under the bridge and access too such as the dummy shop where vehicles could pass into from the Granada studios car park. Great blooper here also there was a small building adjacent to the Rovers which was never mentioned or used blocking the access to Victoria Street bridge. Ditto why also the same impossible steel bridge structure behind the Rovers which points to a parallel row of houses. Same vintage. Which have never been involved in a story thread. Another impossibility is when traffic passes the taxi office bus stop where does it go? There used to be access to the derelict Albion Market set site(burnt down) past the flats but currently there's a blank wall Also nobody mentions the big closed Nutalls brewery building behind the taxi office whose access gates are never open
Martin, it seems that red bricks are a dime a dozen and are probably used for landfill. But are the "Dressed Stones" recycled/repurposed? A good dressed stone has a lot of labor involved.
Down the road from me, there used to be an abandoned victorian farm building, but in recent years the farm is long gone and now a modern housing estate occupies the land. I really do hate these construction companies who decided to obliterate history. >:(
For some reason the Granada video came in to my mind recently… wasn’t there some talk about about getting in the basement to see some ancient culvert or brook?
