To Manchester and a trip down memory (Farm) Lane

Pat has many cousins in the Manchester area and on this visit, we managed to catch up with three of them. We were staying in Eccles with Bernard for a couple of nights. John spent some time on our first day sorting out Bernard's new iMac and making it easier for Bernard to use. In the evening, we went out to eat with Aveen, a friend of Bernard who Pat was at school with.

The next day, we visited Worsley which was Pat's home from 1958 to 1970. The house in Farm Lane was sold in 1971 when Mabel and Ernie moved to Lytham St Annes. This is the house today:

This peony, once grew in the garden, but moved to Bernard's garden many years ago.  It is obviously happy there.

It was pleasing to see that Worsley has not been spoilt since Pat knew it. Before we lived there, a trip to Worsley for a picnic was a treat and Worsley was a special place to a young child. Later, when we lived there, it was always a pleasure to walk in the woods with the next door dog, Cookie.

In the 1960s, the Bridgewater canal was a working canal with coal barges carrying coal from Agecroft mines. Now the barges are all for leisure. The house in the background is the Packet house, where, many years ago, in the early days of the canal, one bought tickets for a boat trip to Manchester or Runcorn near Liverpool.

The canal was still in use by coal barges when we first moved to Worsley, but it has long since become a home to pleasure craft.  The bridge here is immediately opposite Farm Lane.

The boat house, the home of the boats of the local Sea Scouts when I lived there.

On the other side of the bridge is The Green where the houses are just as I remembered them.

The plant nursery where I once worked for £3 per week has gone and is now houses.  The
Ellesmere memorial on the green is currently being renovated.

Since I last visited Worsley Woods, the M62 has been built.  The woods as I knew them are little changed, but the noise from the motorway is new and unwelcome.

'Onion valley', with the wild garlic still exists.

We walked up to the Old Walke dam which is overlooked by 'The Aviary', once the hunting lodge of the Duke of Bridgwater.

I found that I could remember my way around the woods quite well, even though I can't have been there for 45 years! We emerged by the Court House.

The next stop was the Delph where the underground canals from the coal mines emerge.

My 30 times zoom came into its own at this point, I had never been able to spot the tunnels before.

The middle floor of this house was our tiny library. Another floor was occupied by a television repairer.

The canal on its way from the mines out in the country towards Manchester. The colour is caused by iron in the sandstone inside the underground canals.

We then moved on to Worsley Old Hall, once the home of the Dukes of Bridgewater but owned by the National Coal Board the last time I was there.  Although the Hall was not generally open to the   public, it was possible to visit and I did so with a friend. There was a coal bust of the 3rd duke which is no longer in the Hall, I was told.  The Hall is now a restaurant.

This is the private dining room

With Bernard in the Restaurant.

In the evening, iI was delighted to meet with another two cousins, both called John Bird and Iris, to whom I was a bridesmaid 48 years ago.

We then continued to London and stayed with Jim for a couple of nights before taking the EuroStar from London tot Lyon and then on to Beziers.  This time it was the EuroStar that was faultless and SNCF that had all the problems!

Our next trip starts soon, with a trip to Portugal with a third age group that we join each year.