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Memory Lane

May 30, 2007
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One Sunday last month I went on a photoshoot in Didsbury, where I lived until I was 18. It was a strange experience. The road where I lived seems so small now.

Arthog Road

When I was a kid there were hardly any cars parked on the road, but in these days of two-car-families people can't get both their cars on the drive so it ends up like this. We used to play football, and lots of other games in this road. It would be impossible now.

Sandhurst Road - from School Lane

This is what's behind the houses on the left side of Arthog Road. We always called it 'the back lane' but on the map it was (and still is) shown as Sandhurst Road. The tarmaced bit in the forground used to be just cinders and stones. It was only surfaced when they built a block of flats at the end of Arthog Road. At the far end of what you can see of the lane in this shot is a bridge. It spans what used to be a railway line, but this was removed during Dr Beeching's decimation of the railways in the 1960s and is now a footpath.

This is the back of No.9, as seen when you walk up the lane. I couldn't get a shot from directly behind the house as it's now overgrown with lilacs, but there used to be a gate in the middle of them to allow us access to the lane from the back garden.

The house where I lived until I was 18.

This is the view looking back from the bridge towards School Lane.

Sandhurst Road - toward School Lane

And this is what's on the other side of the bridge. The path bends to the right and then meets up with the surfaced road, right by the gates for Didsbury Park. The two handrails on the left lead down some steps to a path that used to run along side the railway tracks and where I used to spend a lot of time trainspotting. The great thing about the back lane was that I could go to the park on my own from a very early age, because I didn't have to cross, or even walk along, any roads. There was even a shortcut from just the other side of ther bridge that led to a hole in the fence, making it even quicker to get to. I doubt that many parents would allow their kids to go to the park unaccompanied along here these days.