MY STREET CHALLENGE - MANCHESTER ROAD

It was a beautiful morning, with a lovely sunrise but I will have to rethink going out as early as 6.45 because it is still quite dark.  Mr. HCB kindly said he would come with me again as the whole road has double yellow lines, and it would have been difficult to stop, although at that time, there is hardly anyone about!
 
The traditional Victorian terraced houses along this street were built in the 1870s and at the time it was known as Mill Street, probably after a nearby mill connected to Eastcott Farm and that is probably why the pub was named “The Eastcott Hotel”.   It was originally a dead-end street to the west of Corporation Street, but when it was linked up with Milford Street, the name was changed to Manchester Road.  The architects responsible for redesigning this area around Milford Street and Wellington Street so that this link-up could take place were Maxwell and Tuke, whose main offices were in Manchester, hence the name. 
 
Several years ago this road had a bad name in Swindon.  However, this has now changed and I felt it was right to show in my collage, the various different and vibrant shops that sit cheek by jowl with the traditional terraced houses along this road, many of which are owned and run by hard working people from all over the world.
 
In this street alone you can buy many types of food including Asian, Halal, Italian, Polish and Turkish, rent a video, choose a new bathroom or kitchen, have your vacuum cleaner serviced, buy spares for your oven or anything electrical, have your hair cut – both men and women – wash your clothes, change your money, put on a bet and get advice on benefits, health, finance and immigration – a wider variety you would be hard-pushed to find, and although many of the shops weren’t open, they were very colourful.  One shop that was open was called Kubus Polski shop, so I had a chat with a young lady who worked there and explained why I was taking photographs.  She didn’t want her photograph taken though and quickly moved back inside!
 
From the time I was about 10 years old, I lived in Graham Street, which is a street off Manchester Road.  I remember going into the newsagents, which is now the Istanbul Restaurant and Takeaway but at the time it was a traditional and old-fashioned shop that sold newspapers, sweets, cigarettes, biscuits  and many other things too.  Mr. Ludlow used to let me go behind the counter and serve, which I loved doing – of course, I never got paid for it – just to be there and serve the regular customers was payment enough. 
 
Next door was the fish and chip shop belonging to Mr. Bulgarelli – and again I remember as children, we used to go in and buy a bag of “scrumps” which were the ends of batter that came off the fish.  Those were the days when fish and chips were put into a piece of greaseproof paper and then wrapped in newspaper – and of course, if we had bought it from them, we always liked them to add salt and vinegar – because somehow it tasted different and better than the salt and vinegar we put on at home!
 
A couple of doors away was a little dress shop called Eileen’s, where you could buy a dress or a skirt and jumper or knitting wool and pay for it weekly.  I remember going in there with my mother’s card and the money and sometimes I had the embarrassing task of telling the lady in the shop that we couldn’t afford to pay the full amount that week, but would make it up the following week.  In those days, everyone was struggling, so it was an accepted way of life and it did mean that people could have new clothes occasionally without having to save the whole cost of the article.
 
If you wanted decent ham, you went to Mrs. Baldwin’s shop further along Manchester Road, because she boiled her own ham and then cut it off the bone – and not with one of those machines, but with a knife and fork.  I can almost taste it now!
 
Over the road and near the public house, originally The Eastcott Hotel, but now The Tap and Barrel, was a little haberdashery shop where you could buy ribbon, buttons, thread, dress-making material and anything else sewing related.  Again, you could buy things in this shop and pay for them weekly. 
 
I can remember Lewis’s the traditional barbers, now called Lewis Shaver Centre, because my grandfather used to go there for his “short back and sides” – I noticed above the shop front that it was established in 1899!  If you look very carefully, you can see me taking the photograph!
 
Over the years, though, things have changed and now that “Elf and Safety” is alive and well, there must be lots of things that happened then that wouldn’t be allowed now, but they were good times on the whole.
 
Further along the road, there was a Primitive Methodist Chapel, which was built in the early 1900s at a cost of £1,161.  Within six months of opening it had 27 members, 19 Sunday School teachers and 141 scholars.  The chapel was actually built by local builders, Leighfields, who were mentioned in my Street Challenge for last week and at its opening by Mrs Morse, the wife of a prominent businessman at the time, Mr. L.L. Morse, she said “A special feature of the building is that it is to be lighted with electric lights.”  The chapel, which actually fronts onto Alfred Street at its junction with Manchester Road, is currently the Hazrat Shahjahal Mosque and Balgladesh Islamic Centre, which was established in 1999.
 
As I walked along taking photographs, Mr. HCB found a parking space and waited patiently.  When I got to the Mosque, I saw several men parking their cars in the small car park attached, so I asked if they knew anything about when the Primitive Methodist Church became a Mosque, but they told us they weren’t local, so didn’t know the history.  I beckoned Mr. HCB to come over, which he did, and I explained about Blip and that I was doing a Street Challenge and today it was “M” for Manchester Road. 
 
We then chatted for some time to Ahmed, Dr. Abdullah and Mohammed and they were happy to have their photograph taken with Mr. HCB.  They told us they had come up from Cardiff (and they said that with a Welsh accent, which made us smile) for prayers.  We told them we were Christians and attended a Baptist Church in Swindon.  They wanted to know our names and when they knew Mr. HCB was called John, proceeded to tell us the story from the Bible about the birth of John the Baptist, saying that he was also mentioned in The Koran.  They told us that they originally came from Russia and Ahmed mentioned that his Mother was a Roman Catholic, and his Father was a Jew, so I asked what they did when they said Grace before a meal – he laughed and said that his Mother asked for her Bible, his Father wanted the Old Testament and he had The Koran.  They couldn’t stop any longer as they need to go into the Mosque to pray, but said if we wanted to, we could go back at 1.30 and have a cup of tea with them.  I mentioned that I thought the Mosque was only for men, but they assured me that there was a room upstairs for the women!
 
We may have different religions,
     different languages,
          different coloured skin,
               but we all belong to
                     one human race.
Kofi Annan
7th Secretary-General of the United Nations
   
1997-2006