St Helens Road
6. Rumworth and Daubhill Station in 1952 looking along the lines, open and functioning posted by Steven Buckley
7. probably 1950 Daubhill Station looking along the lines, open and functioning, man with hose-pipe
8 and 9. Daubhill Station in process of demolition while the line is still in use, 1955. The Station closed in 1952.
10. 24Oct1978 picture from Tom Openshaw; the nearer bridge is at the bottom of Longfield Rd; the further bridge is where Daubhill Station had been, on the left corner of Deane Church Lane.
11. View from behind station with Deane Church Lane on the left, looking towards Morris Green. The station has been removed and in-filling the cutting will begin later. Picture posted on Facebook by Stephen Southern.
12. 1952: 150 yards behind Rumworth and_Daubhill. At this point the original, 1828, line goes straight on to the Daubhill level crossing and Sunnyside Milis and Daubhill coal yard while the 1885 diversion swings right to go under St Helens Road at Daubhill Station
13. Daubhill signal box and junction between the 1828 and 1885 lines. To the right the bridge you can see is Longfield Road, the station sits atop of the St Helens Road bridge about 30 yards further on.
14. Loco and coal wagon at Daubhill signal box, the one seen on previous page going across the level crossing
15. Daubhill signal box fire 1965 Darren Clayton.
There is more informatio on the station in a panel at the bottom of the page.
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Daubhill Station.
1. LMS Railway, Rumworth and Daubhill Station 1929. The hoarding advertises the Majestic Cinema screening Three Loves, released 1929 Directed by Curtis Bernhardt. With Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Kortner, Frida Richard, Oskar Sima.
2. Rumworth and Daubhill station
3. Deane Church Lane alongside the station 1949
4. Daubhill Station - picture posted on Facebook by Peter Haslam showing the “To Let” sign displayed outside the booking hall at Daubhill Station.
5. Deane Church Lane up the east side of the station. posted by Gene Watts
Daubhill railway line July 1972; Olwyn Carroll & Joanne (3). Brenda Lee & Amanda (4) standing on Bert Street. thery had complained that the broken down wall made easy access for children to a hazardous area for children. We are looking across the 1885 and the 1820 lines. The row of houses with lots of chimneys is Jubilee Street overlooking the old line and the coal yard. Part of Daubhill Bridge where this line went under Deane Church Lane can be seen.
Bert Street – several hundred pictures of this man and his colleagues as they marked locations for Ordnance Survey were released on the internet recently.
Bert Street in 2020. This street runs alongside the railway as far as the Hulton Lane Playing Fields.
Advertisement poster for people to cut and embank the line of the Bolton-Leigh rail road posted on Face book by LindaHope who saw it in the Giddy Goose, Teneriffe.
The corner of St Helens Road and Morris Green Lane with Frank Grimshaw’s butchers on the corner. Hampson’s looks empty.
Bottom of Morris Green Lane looking across to Deane Church Lane, decorator’s shop and “Harlequin”, numbers 2 and 4 Morris Green. Posted on Facebook by Gene Watts
Morris Green back street further up than Woodbine Road with Scott’s pop on the right. The gable is the Co-op “stores” on the corner of Woodbine Road. Posted on Facebook by David Whenlock
Woodbine Road terminated at the end of the single terrace of houses (“Skennin’ Row”) then continued as a narrow path past the hen pens down to Ellesmere Road where a short street was again called Woodbine Road. Clearly someone, sometime intended this to be a through road. It never materialised though in the late 1900s more houses were built at the Ellesmere Road end. The path was blocked off in the 1960s. Beyond the pens and over the railway we can see a number of buildings of Sunnyside Mills. We can also see Swan Lane Mill, the Sunnyside Hotel, Townson’s wood sheds and Orient Mill. Up on the right had been Lomax’s football field later occupied by Evans’s waste paper. From a photo album in the possession of Gene Watts.
down Woodbine Road, past the three pairs of semis was the “bottom field” and the hen pens. Across the railway can be seen the Sunnyside Mills with its chimney and the bottom of Nixon Road. From a photo album in the possession of Gene Watts.
Woodbine Road bottom field and hen pens with the bridge over the railway that never came into use presumably because the original plan to extend Woodbine Road never materialised. From a photo album in the possession of Gene Watts.
Hovis, Z Smith's bakery, somewhere in the area. (Gene Watts)
We proceed a short way up St Helens Road. On the right is Manfredi’s Ice-cream Parlour. We also have Foster’s electrical goods and Kemp’s barbers. Posted on Facebook by GeneWatts.
Manfredi’s - Giuseppe (John), founder of company, and wife Cesira. Giuseppe was interned in 1939 but released after 18 months.
Manfredi’s icecream van 1960s Bolton Memories 2001; 2009 reprint version ©True North Books Ltd
Manfredi’s icecream van 1950s
1958 Trolley bus just up from Daubhill Station, outside Dr Kirkwood’s surgery. The last trolley bus ran 31 August 1958. Lower down at Timothy White’s and Taylor’s chemists, the painted sign on the end wall says, “National Health Service Dispensing”. For years this said “Bile Beans”. 1913 newspaper advert:"Bile Beans - Cure biliousness, dyspepsia, torpid liver, sick headache, malaria, indigestion, sour stomach, bad breath, vertigo, dysentery, jaundice, enlarged spleen, drowsiness after meals, etc, without griping, sickening or weakening the system." The gable of Daubhill Zion can be seen below the chimney.
little further up on the right hand side; Smith’s became Sykes chemist.
and on the left, the site of Daubhill Zion Methodist Church which opened 1884 and closed 1976. The mini-market built here began as Winwick and Giles (W&G) and around 2017 became McColl’s. The Post Office came into this building quite some time after it opened when the PO opposite ASDA closed and Geoff Smith Cycles extended into that shop. ©WDC
28Jun2012 Looking down St Helens Road to Daubhill from Middle Hulton from a little above that point ©WDC
Saint Helens Road: what had been the Middle Hulton Police Station pictured 28Jun2012. It is now a (Moslem) educational centre. ©WDC
28Jun2012 Alongside the police station is Aldred Street where Haynes Street Mission had been but is now the Bolton South Salvation Army. The part at far right was very new at the time of the picture. ©WDC
Blue Bonnet Hall immediately west of Smethurst Lane where St Helens Road takes a slight turn to the right, was a quite substantial building just called Rose Cottage but this was extended and became Blue Bonnet Hall. This was the home of artist A Heaton Cooper and his Norwegian wife. The picture (1873) is from a booklet published to commemorate the history of St Helens Road Methodist Church (at its centenary?) and was posted on Facebook by Catherine Macleod. Blue Bonnet Hall was later occupied by James Rowland Simpson “a drysalter and oil merchant” whose industrial premises were in Idle Lane off Deansgate (now Central Street).
Hulton Lane tram car shed. postcard from collection of David Whenlock. This picture is prior to 1947 but all the buildings including the tram shed still exist. I you look carefully you can see a tram, coming up on the right, but also on the left of the road a shaky looking vehicle which seems to be engaged in high level maintenance. It looks as if the building immediately to the right of the tram shed is being renovated for its use into the 1970s as a post office. The post box is still there (2020) but was moved off the private area onto the public pavement when the PO closed.
This is the tram car shed not too long after tram service was discontinued in 1947. The tram height doors have gone and the interior has been divided into ground and upper storeys. Immediately inside the door is a steep ramp used to get cars to the upper floor.
The tram shed is little changed but a new car showroom has been built to the left. It later became a Renault Garage. Posted on Facebook by Janis Caffrey.
The tram shed still stands but the frontage has been rebuilt and partially covered by cladding. The showroom to the left has been remodelled and partly rebuilt and the site is now the Ummah Welfare Trust. (Ummah is all the people worldwide who are Moslem). This re-building was completed around 2014-15. ©WDC 24 July 2020.
The rear of the building is little changed. ©WDC 24 July 2020.
Across the road from the garage (Ummah Welfare) is an unusual house. The downspout indicates a date of 1901. The building was probably the manse for the adjoining Saint Helens Road Methodist Church. ©WDC 24 July 2020.
A view of St Helens Road and the top of Hulton Lane immediately to the left of the tram shed (Hulton Motors), one of David Whenlock’s postcards. The hoarding advertises the 1929 film “Welcome Dancer” starring Harold Lloyd, one of first films to be shown at the Capitol on Churchgate. The wide gable has a plaque indicating Deane Moor Terrace 1887. Deane Moor was a large area from Moor Lane in town up Deane Road covring much of the area between Willows Land and the Middlebrook, widening out over the are west of Daubhill to include the Hulton Lane area and to the top of Cow Lane (where was Deane Moor Colliery) and beyond. The terraces on Hulton Lane and St Helens Road are still standing. To the left beyond the houses is a space with Booth’s Steel works behind it. The square block to the left of the houses is a sign for Booth’s.
The rest of the block at the top of Hulton Lane. To the right, the fence edges a field which still had cows on it until around 1970 (though a couple of bungalows were built in the near corner in the 1930s) and in the far distance Winter Hill and Rivington Pike. A David Whenlock postcard.
A view down Hulton Lane with the aforesaid bungalow on Barbara Road.
That block in July 2020 ©WDC
Hulton Steel works (Booth’s) 1922 (above left) www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/EPW007782 ©English Heritage. St Helens Road is across the bottom right of the picture. The view of the offices as you came along St Helens Road (from the bottom of the picture) to that corner would be very familiar to many. Hulton Lane slopes across the picture just more than half way up. What is surprising to us now is just how little building there had been in that area. Slightly higher, the black line sloping up from left to right marks out the Bolton-Leigh railway. The far side of the embankment can be made out then the black line is a long fence made out of tarred railway sleepers dividing the railway from a footpath and a quarry..
Above right: Note how many railway tracks there were to supply the steel works with its raw materials. These joined the Bolton Leigh line at Hulton Sidings. Just up from the railway wagons is an arched door way at the side of which is quite a posh car..
Gene Watts obtained an album containing many pictures of activities at Booth’s steel works which he posted on Facebook. Above are just a few of them.
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To the right, pictures from another source, also click and navigate for full size.
Jan 1958
A lot of snow on St Helens Road at Hulton Mount, White Gate Farm, though not nearly as deep as in 1947.
Plane Tree Farm and Cottage, “All my own work”.
© WDC 1990
1950 St Helens Road goes over its highest point on Deane Moor, this point also known as Hulton Mount. On the left we see the Borough Laundry. Note cobbles, trolley bus wires, Booth’s Steel works.
imageFile_480 Bolton Archives ©BIMS
St Helens Road – from Plodder Lane corner looking to Four Lane Ends, Red Lion, Hulton Arms, St Andrews Church.
St Helens Rd: looking back from Plodder Lane up towards Hulton Mount. David Whenlock postcard.
1970 There had been a large semi-circular diversion of the road at this point while the bridge over the not yet constructed M61 was built and traffic from Four Lane Ends to Bolton was behind us. The bridge is almost finished on this picture and was opened to traffic in March 1970 after which the diversion was removed to make way for the motorway.
1968
You may just remember these shops and the houses in the last block before the Red Lion at Four Lane Ends, they had to make way for the M61. There had been some hints that other shops might be built nearby but they never came to pass.
The pair of houses which survived the M61 are still there
July 2020 © WDC
Looking back towards Bolton from ihe junction of St Helens Road with the A6. The Red Lion is on the right. One of David Whenlock’s postcards.
Red Lion, Four Lane Ends. We are looking along the A6 towards Walkden. The whole row of cottages now forms part of the Red Lion. At this time the one furthest right looks to be boarded up, the others may still be occupied.
an interesting detail on the Red Lion. July 2020 © WDC
Somewhere near here
1908 Gavid Whenlock postcard
Trolley Bus immediately beyond the A6 junction at Four Lane Ends and the end of our journey up St Helens Road.
Morris Green Lane, left hand side, next block up from Woodbine Road. (C) Kenneth Taylor, with permission. Shop window says, "The Book Exhange".