Gateway to the past

Photo taken on iPhone, edited and enhanced using the Camera+ app.

The stone structure in the forefront of this photo is part of the very limited original remains of Manchester Docks, now commonly referred to as Salford Quays.

THIS photo on Flickr shows how it used to look.

I've also found THIS story on the Manchester Evening News website that shows some of the ships in dock.

The original gateway to the docks now sits hidden from view at the end of a car park for a couple of offices. The building on the right of the photo is the old dock office. (I'll blip a photo of that another day.)

I'm sure many people pass by it every day with little regard for what it once was.

One of my earliest memories is in the car with my mum, heading from our home in North Manchester to visit one of my aunts and a multitude of cousins in Stretford and heading past the docks as they were unloading. I remember huge liners full of cargo and dock workers swarming around like worker ants.

I spoke to my mum about this a couple of weeks ago and this memory is about thirty five years old, when I was five or six.

It's not likely to have been any later because after that, the docks started falling into decline until closing in the early 1980s.

I now have a week off work so there aren't likely to be many pictures of the Quays. At least I have a new laptop so I feel properly connected to the world again, so I can take some photos using something that isn't my iPhone, and I can start catching up with other blippers' recent activity. I love the iPhone app but sometimes it doesn't do other people's blips any justice.

Have a great weekend.

(I know, ironic that not having access to the internet at home means that I don't feel as connected to the world as normal.)