RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: Treelover on Tuesday 20 November 07 23:27 GMT (UK)
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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
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Hiya,
I believe Gorton Tank was south of Ashton Old Rd between the railway stations Ashburys and Gorton & Openshaw (if they are still there).
Last year I went to an evening class for French (in Lancaster) and sat next to a railway buff who found out I was from Manchester & spent more time talking about Gorton than about France!
However I've just found Tank Row on a 1970s A-Z and it is nearer to an engine shed off Hyde Road (same area) right next to the old Belle Vue Zoo. Its a small row within the engine shed itself.
I have to go out so I can't post a map section till later, but if you go on google maps or similar, type in 'Redgate Lane, Manchester M12" you can see the engine shed area. Tank row was in among that lot.
:) Barbara
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Hi Barbara
Wow, thank you ever so much for that information I shall Google straight away :)
Joan
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Gorton Tank was at the back of Beyer Peacock steam train builders which was on Gorton lane. some parts of the B/Peacock buildings are still standing. If you type in "Gorton Tank " to the manchester image collection, you will be able to see many pictures , but there is none of Tank row. I will look on a map i have for you to see if it is on there. A fellow rootschater called " tonyh " may be able to help you with part of a map with it one?
http://www.images.manchester.gov.uk/
This site has some books for sale on Gorton and some infomation on Beyer peacocks .
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/d.a.ratcliffe/lhg/
This site might be worth contacing for information on railyway ancestrors?
http://www.railwayancestors.fsnet.co.uk/
Migky ;)
Just found this http://www.beyerpeacock.co.uk/history/History%20of%20Beyer%20Peacock.html
Hope we don't turn you in to a train spotter now ;D ;D ;D ;D
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This site looks quite interesting
www.gorton-tank.com
Milly
:)
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Hi
Thanks Migky and Milly, some good links there. Thanks for all your help.
I'm very chuffed, chuffed, chuffed ;D
Joan
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I'm very chuffed, chuffed, chuffed ;D
Ouch!
Here's Tank Row on the 1905 godfrey map of Belle Vue . Unfortunately the engine shed is off the map, on the Victoria Park one which I don't have. There was a passenger station as well, Longsight Station, which served visitors to the Zoo. I think the site of the athletic track would have been the Hyde Road Prison in 1861, but I'm not sure.
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Barbarh, it would be a far way from Gorton tank to where you say Tank row was? Maybe there was another more towards Gorton ?
Migky ;)
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it would be a far way from Gorton Tank to where you say Tank row was? Maybe there was another more towards Gorton ?
I've got a drawer full of the old Godfrey maps that I can't resist buying, but unfortunately I don't have one that shows the Gorton Tank works itself. I think it would be on the Denton or Audenshaw maps if anyone has those
The www.gorton-tank.com site that Milly posted has a section of old map on it. Can't see a Tank Row but its only a small extract. Was Gorton Tank its 'proper' name or a local nickname? I'm too young ;D I only remember the Gorton Tub swimming pool!
Joan, what streets were next to Tank Row on your census pages?
:) barbara
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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
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On that map Tank Row is next to the resevoir..I wonder if the "Tank" is anything to do with that?
Milly
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Hi Folks
I can probably add my twopennorth worth to this if I rummage through my 'carrier bags' ;D 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. :D 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
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Tony what was the part next to beyer peacocks then where all the engine were with the big turntables?
Migky ;)
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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
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I've just been rooting through my papers for something else and found this - typical isn't it ;D
'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
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I've just been rooting through my papers for something else and found this - typical isn't it ;D
went back to my search for the 'something' and found my long lost maps ;D Migky I'll copy onto CD for you.
Joan it looks as though your rellies may have had some sleepless nights :o 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.
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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..
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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
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I grew up in longsight and at stanley grove primary my pal jimmy lived in tank row. They were a row of terraces houses near longsight station. My friends dad was a train driver mainly long distance to London euston. Opposite tank tow was a dorm type building with bunks for drivers and crew to stay overnight. We played on the 3 corned field we called it on kirkmanshulme lane right next to train line opposite latimer street.Belle vue was in its heyday then late 50s to early 60s.
Happy days sadly.all.gone now.
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Hi...
My great grandparents, (Mary) Emily and George Forster, lived in 12 Tank Row in 1939. Goeorge was an hydraulic capstanman and worked for LMS. It was in Longsight as you say 🙂