"Gorton Tank area" 1800's

[Treelover]

Great Map Barbara,

I have to agree I think my engine driver and his sons who are engine cleaners work at Longsight Station 

On 1871  Enumerator route as follows

Hyde Road to Belle View House to Hunters Lane then all the way down Tank Row Nos 1 to 31, then to looks like RW Gate/Gale (could it be railway)?? but there are houses there then to Hyde Road Pipe Stores then Charlotte Street.

I originally thought with a name like Tank Row, it would be near Gorton Tank, but obviously not.

Thanks for everyones help and time with this.
Joan

[millymcb]

On that map Tank Row is next to the resevoir..I wonder if the "Tank" is anything to do with that?

Milly

[tony h]

Hi Folks
I can probably add my twopennorth worth to this if I rummage through my 'carrier bags'  Migky I still can't find my maps  I know that this area is on them, I've got them soemwhere but seem to have mislaid them moving offices.

Barbara is spot on with the location. the reason it is here is topographiocal. This sis the first level land after leaving Manchester and therefore the first opportunity to take an engine on and off the tracks into sidings. Also this activity takes a lot of space and land and the rates were a lot cheaper in Gorton than Manchester.  Beyer Peacock located here for the same reasons.

And as far as I know the 'tank' was the boiler part of the steam engines repaired and produced in this area. Might need an enthusiast for a more detailed description.

Joan, any chance your family might be Catholic, as my research starts in 1861?

Best wishes
Tony

[Mr. MIGKY]

Tony what was the part next to beyer peacocks then where all the engine were with the big turntables?
Migky

[Treelover]

Hi Tony,

No, can't be Catholic.  All children christened at St Michael and All Angels, Burtonwood (CofE) before they moved down to Longsight.

Joan

[tony h]

I've just been rooting through my papers for something else and found this - typical isn't it

'But a project, subsequently to employ many Gorton parishioners, made Gorton very well known in modern times; in popular language this was known as "The Tank", dating from a dinner held at Morley's Hotel, Trafalgar Square, London, on the 4th March 1846, when the vast locomotive works was planned. Gorton Station had been opened in 1842 by the Sheffield, Ashton -under- Lyne and Manchester Railway, and the same Company now initiated the vast railway works of Gorton, "the Tank", one of the main railway works of the North of England.'

So I thought I'd post it even though the search is now heading in a different direction.

Best wishes
Tony

[tony h]

I've just been rooting through my papers for something else and found this - typical isn't it

went back to my search for the 'something' and found my long lost maps Migky I'll copy onto CD for you.

Joan it looks as though your rellies may have had some sleepless nights This map is to the left of Barbara's. Follow the right hand margin of the map down to just past the engine sheds and you can just see the end of Tank Row.

[R0b]

Hi,

I beleive there was an area of Gorton, Manchester commonly know as the Gorton Tank where they did a lot of railway engine repairs, etc.  I have a family on 1861 census.  Father is a railway engine driver and two boys are engine cleaners.  They live in Tank Row - can't find a map with this street on.  Would I be correct in thinking it was near the Gorton Tank?

Thanks
Joan

I lived on Tank Row once upon a time. I think it was built around 1830.It was a row of 23 houses, there was a gap between no's 18 and 20 (where a train line used to go from the railway to a munitions factory during the first world war, I believe prior to a munitions factory it was a prison but eventually became Belle Vue Zoological Gardens and fairground) .The properties were owned by the railway and employees of the railway lived in them. The properties were all two up two down terraces houses with outside toilets , tin baths and front gardens. The only house to be 'superior ' was no1 which had three bedrooms and a bathroom, that was in the old days the station masters house(Longsight Station that once was).It was a friendly pleasant place to live, as all had gardens and in summer it was nice. It was always separated from the railway by a tall wooden fence at the bottom of the front gardens.
On the bottom of the photograph you can see the terraced row, to the right was a large hostel/lodging house owned also by the railway, and used for accommodation for staff, mainly drivers /firemen who would have finished their day in Manchester and needed a place to stay before driving back another train the following day. Tank Row was demolished in the early 70's and replaced with a car park eventually..

[millymcb]

I have just posted a link on a new thread to a news article today about the discovery of a victorian train factory - carriage works in Gorton  which may be of interest. It is apparently on the old site of Ashbury’s Carriage and Iron Company.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=614335.msg4632651#msg4632651

Archaeologists say
“We are trying to find out more about the factory and would love to hear from anyone who had relatives or ancestors working there and who may have documents or photographs.”

Also -
"The Ashbury’s company opened its factory at the site in 1841 – less than a decade after the opening of the world’s first railway between Liverpool and Manchester.

It soon became famous for producing railway carriages, trams, wagons and even bridges, with some of them being exported as far afield as India.

The carriage and iron works expanded throughout the 19th and early 20th century, and was eventually merged with a number of other companies.

It closed in 1925 and production was moved to Birmingham. The site was cleared to become a goods depot for the London North Eastern Railway. Some of Ashbury’s carriages are still runni"ng on heritage railways."

Milly