Pendlebury Railway Station? Also about the Acme Mill

[henry]

Hi Keith
     just got this from national archives
                  HELD AT . Salford city archives
        immediate source of acquisition
        the following record was received from swinton library in nov 1986.
         ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY
     For an account of the history of this company to 1920 see concerning cotton published by the amalgamated cotton mills trust ltd.and its component companies(c.1920 salford local history library)According to the account in this book ,the mill no.1 mill of acme spinning co ltd opened in 1905 ,was the 1st electrically driven cotton mill in the UK.
The account adds that in 1907 the company bought an adjoining mill (albion mill of pendlebury spinning company ltd which was built in 1855
The firm listed in directories for the suburbs of m/c.

         ACME MILL WAS DEMOLISHED IN 1984 (information supplied by Mr A.s frankland )
 all the above may not be relevent  but thats what the document said.
 i went into google search (acme mill pendlebury) ther may be more info for you there.
regards henry

[skb]

I've just checked my recording of this Sunday's "Picture of Britain" (BBC1), which shows archive footage of L S Lowry walking out of PENDLEBURY Station.

[Keith Sherwood]

Thanks again, Andrew, for confirmation about the railway station...
And Henry, I think the 1984 detail from the TNA tidies up when the Acme Mill was demolished.
Finally, yes SKB, it was the TV programme on Sunday that got me going on all this.  That Dimbleby man does tend to whizz about from one location to another, though, and I wonder whether they actually meant "Swinton Station".  Is this case a cut and dried matter, then? 
Keith

[skb]

I've watched the Dimbleby thing again and in the Lowry footage you can clearly see the sign on the building says "Pendlebury Station"

I'm still confused though. My 1997 Manchester A-Z doesn't have a Station Rd Pendlebury, but does have a Station Rd Swinton.

And the Salford website

www.salford.gov.uk/living/planning/listedbuilding/listed-register.htm

shows "117 Station Rd Pendlebury" as a listed building.

Could it be that Pendlebury Station was renamed Swinton Station by Beeching or similar?

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi, SKB,
Well done for recording that programme and having another look at it!  I'm as confused as anyone, as I have pored over the modern map and been perplexed by it all.  I'm half-expecting a person who lives on the doorstep (if you can use that expression about a station), to send me a short, sharp definitive answer.
Wouldn't surprise me at all if Mr Beeching had something to do with it, though...
Keith

[Tallboy]

Pendlebury Railway Station, the Acme Mill and Railway Terrace.

This is your lucky day.... as I am about as local as you can get in Swinton and Pendlebury (former borough). I was born in Clifton (1946) which is one of the 3 districts which make up the Borough of Swinton and Pendlebury (M27). I have lived for the past 30 years in Pendlebury and went to three different schools in Pendlebury and I am VERY familiar with the station, the mill and Railway Terrace. All three place have now been gone quite some time. My parents and 3 out of 4 grandparents were all born in Pendlebury too. Well let us begin shall we?

Pendlebury Station was on Bolton Road (A666) opposite St Augustine's CE School and Church and what is now called the Isis Restaurant which was the Station Hotel pub. Swinton station is much nearer to where Lowry lived. Swinton station is on Station Road of course. But Station Road is partly in Swinton and partly in Pendlebury. Swinton station is, believe it or not, actually in Pendlebury. At the side of the station is Boundary Road which is normally thought as being part of the boundary between Swinton and Pendlebury, at least Royal Mail go by this rule. In fact the Swinton Parish boundary is actually even further down the road than Boundary Road. The only railway station actually in Swinton itself is Moorside station (Moorside Road) and this used to be called Moorside and Wardley station. Pendlebury station closed about 40 odd years ago.

The Acme Mill was the first spinning mill in the country run exclusively by electricity when it opened about 1905. It was one of Lowry's favourite subject in his many local paintings. It was demolished about 1984. I remember seeing it come down at the time.

Railway Terrace. I went to school with a boy who lived in this street. It went many years ago in the clearances in the 1960s. It was just of Bridge Street, Pendlebury and was off the western side of Bridge Street on the northern side of the railway line very close to where the bottom of Union Street is now if you look on your A-Z map.
It only had houses on one side and faced the railings at the top of the railway cutting.

If there is anything else you wish to know just shout. Hope this is helpful.

Good luck.

[Keith Sherwood]

Welcome to Rootschat, Tallboy.
This is the absolutely definitive explanation that I have been waiting patiently to hear!  There is no doubt in my mind at all now about the answers to the questions I posed.  And, yes, if I may, I'll come back to you if other queries arise in my mind about this area of Salford.
Thank you so much...(This is a brilliant website, by the way; I hope you find it as compelling as I have done over the last year)
Very best wishes,
Keith

[skb]

Thanks for sorting us out, tallboy,

I knew someone would come up with the goods eventually!

Incidentally, my grandparents lived in Moorside Rd, in the little block of 3 houses at the East Lancs end. My grandfather worked across the road at Horsfall & Bickham (as the Gate keeper I think)

[Tallboy]

Keith

So glad to hear that I have done my good deed for the day.

The Acme was of course on Swinton Hall Road. This road is, like Station Road, partly in Swinton and partly in Pendlebury. In the 19th century the Swinton section was called JANE LANE whilst the Pendlebury section (where the Acme was) was known as BURY LANE. This is not to be confused with BURYING LANE which was the original name of Station Road before the railway was built.

Dyson. There used to be a large family called Dyson not far from where I grew up in the Rake Lane district of Clifton. Many families from this particular estate came from Pendlebury when the houses were built in the 1930s. Pendlebury Station. Trains leaving the station and heading towards Wigan went through the tunnel which starts on Bolton Road and comes out on Swinton Hall Road.

As you can see, I am very eager to put my local knowledge at your disposal.

Tallboy (real name Keith too)