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« on: Tuesday 07 September 10 16:14 BST (UK) »
I have found that google maps is usually a good indicator - many councils tried to maintain numbering systems at the request of the post office.
if you type 161 grey mare lane in it shows it as being at the junction of hopedale close which is just over Ashton New road from where I was brought up (now under the city of manchester stadium).
The area in the 30s was a very industrialised one, just over Ashton new Road was johnsons wire works, the foundary was over one sider of the road (right hand side if travelling away from Hopedale close) and the rolling mill was on the left. Even in the 80's when I was travelling to and from work in Chadderton I remember huge trucks with couldrens of white hot metal on them holding up the traffic - in the 80s it was rubber wheeled trucks, but the old rail tracks were still visible with the cobbles crossing Grey Mare lane from the foundry to the rolling mill.
Just near the junction of Grey Mare land and Ashton New road there was the Bradford pit - which will explain why Johnsons wire mill was there in the first place probably - so it was probably a rather dirty smelly area.