1132 replies to this topic

[Graeme Fisher]

This is a picture of the Drill Hall, Marmion Road, Hove.  I have more,
it wasn't possible to distinguish what was what without getting run over or arrested.  
Sue
[Life getting more interesting - or is it just sadder?]

Hi Sue,
bless your little starched apron strings!

Fab photo, great offer (yes, please, all you've got!) and what were you doing to invite the attentions of the Sussex Plod?  I'll contact you off-list with an email address for pctures and gossip.

Life only becomes sad when it only interests you.

Thankyou

Graeme

[Dragon]

The database has about 3600 listings, somewhere around 1000 drill halls?

Confirmed premises are around 300 or 400 so far, with no small thanks to you lovely people.

Graeme

Thanx for the information, Graeme. It's an awesome achievement in terms of information-gathering and collation so far.

Stoner - I love the picture of Faringdon which evokes memories for me. I guess it's changed again since I passed though it. Isn't the clarity excellent, even despite scanning and the intervention of the site software and my PC! The texture of the scene is striking.

Gwyn

[Dragon]

I can see your urgency on this.

Living in a rural conservation town, I am usually alert to proposals for development. There is currently a moratorium in new building here, but as a friend’s son builds homes, I was scanning the supplementary planning guidance on restricting the supply of new housing (Macclesfield) and an entry for the construction of 12 new properties on the Drill Hall, a brownfield site, was listed there as approved.

Maybe it is too late for that one, I don’t know. It probably is. I’ll investigate. (Unless the Forum user who lives in Macc knows.)

Gwyn

[Graeme Fisher]

That's just the problem, Gwyn.

I went to Wolverhampton's riding school as they were taking the roof off to redevelop.
So lucky there, sometimes too late elsewhere.
That's why all assistance is so gratefully received.

Graeme

[Dragon]

Hello, Mr Big In Drill Halls

This be-pinaccled edifice is/was Macclesfield's Drill Hall. I spotted in on the Cheshire Image Base while I was in the library looking up something else. If posting this image breaches copyright, I will take it off.

If you knew Macc, you wouldn't be at all surprised that the artichecture is, um, idiosyncratic. It's its own place. Any town that has streets called Fitz Close, Fitz Crescent, Fitz Avenue, Fitz Road, Fitz Street, Fitz Drive, Fitz Allsizes...

Gwyn

Er... where's me picture? (Gwyn goes off on a quest).

Ten minutes later...

Hm. Oh well, if all else fails, read the instructions. As any fule kno.

Attached Files

•  Macclesfield_drill_hall_small.jpg   0bytes   0 downloads

[Graeme Fisher]

(In the interregnum of the lost, forum-free weekend, Chris set up a 'don't panic, don't panic' interim thing to keep the faithful posted. And clearly stated that whatever was posted would be lost. For everyone's benefit, Stoner's postings above are slightly tidied up from the originals)

Thanks Mark, I appreciate your getting wet, and the failure of your camera later on. Trust your old grey mum offered dry towels.........

[Graeme Fisher]

Hm. Oh well, if all else fails, read the instructions. As any fule kno.

I like self-taught PC boffins.
Yea verily, spake St. Gates.
Thou shalt be smote by ye software, and thine enemies shall perform an illegal operation upon ye sinners.
Repent and reboot.


Fine pinnacles, Gwyn.
Glad you didn't crop the picture too much (hullo clouds, hullo sky......)

Fotherington Thomas.

[dycer]

Gywn,
    Sorry I missed your earlier posting about the Drill Hall in Macc!
    The photograph you have attached is the correct one(certainly from my TA days and from WW1)
    The planning permission is for the modern one(Chester Road next to the Fire/Ambulance Station) which was built quite recently but was declared surplus to requiremnts by the present Government!
    Whilst I am writing about Macclesfield there is an old Barracks in Crompton Road , Macclesfield but I'm not sure if it was used as a Drill Hall(Graeme,do you want me to do some research?)
     The only other Drill Hall I know locally is the Stockport one in Greek Street but I am sure John Hartley has already mentioned it.
George

[Dragon]

George, Macc planning dept emailed me this week that their current plans are about one in Bridge Street.

Pass.

How many Bridge Streets has Macc got, then? Where's the Bridge Street they mean? Is this pinnacled place in a Bridge Street?

They knocking down that place opposite Fieldbank Road then? Now there's a loss to the world of architecture.

Gwyn

[dycer]

Gwyn,
    Didn't realise it was about Bridge Street (the one in your photograph)as it was re-developed years ago but with the original street front facade being retained. Bridge Street is half-way down Chestergate between Chester Road and Churchill Way.There is land to the rear,entrance from Catherine Street which I suppose could still be further redeveloped.In my TA days it was a vehicle park and garages.
    Nothing in the local paper today other than the on-going arguments about what to do with the "new" Drill Hall!(houses,cinema,theatre,health, drop in-centre).Still as you know M.B.C. is always good for a laugh!
George

[Dragon]

3000 views of this thread.

Is this a record?

[Graeme Fisher]

Nah, no record.

Just a lot of people wondering why Grey Fish can't move on....

Seems my sad quest has touched a nerve with you lovely folks. But, hey, that' the point. It's YOUR heritage. Enjoy it and revel in nostalgia before it's flattened for a new Aldi or something.

3000 views, eh?

Nearly as many as entries in the database!

Pop in any time you're passing, thread hijackers welcome. (S'pose I'll have to hire meself a moderator.....)

Graeme

[Graeme Fisher]

Whilst I am writing about Macclesfield there is an old Barracks in Crompton Road , Macclesfield but I'm not sure if it was used as a Drill Hall(Graeme,do you want me to do some research?)
     The only other Drill Hall I know locally is the Stockport one in Greek Street but I am sure John Hartley has already mentioned it.
George

Hi George

The barracks in Crompton road were, according to Kelly's Directory 1914, home to 'the D Squadron, The Cheshire (Earl of Chester's) Yeomanry Territorial Force'.
Could you confirm this?

Graeme

[Graeme Fisher]

I know where the Drill Hall was in that particular town, I think. Unfortunately there are two records; would a small town really have had two drill halls? One either side of a river? or has someone mis-spoke?

I thought gnomes became extinct in about 1730.

I bet life doesn't get any weirder with dope.  

Gwyn

Gwyn, if this is Northwich, then there are two listed.

The Cheshire Regiment had premises in Darwin Street, whilst the Cheshire Yeomanry lived in Navigation  Road.

Typical Cheshire affluence, most towns made their territorials share.

If this isn't Northwich, then it's the Cheshire Steam Laundry and Chapel. I have a fine photo of a pub in Birmingham that may have been a drill hall, had it not stood half a mile up the road........ It happens.

Cheshire. Home of gnomes. Can we call them that? Vertically challenged horticulturalists? Dope may just bring some focus and reality to this mad, PC world.

Pointy hat and a five-skin of skunk. Yeah.........

G

[Dragon]

The Cheshire Regiment 
the Cheshire Yeomanry

What is the difference? Sorry if this is a stoopid question.

The Cheshire Steam Laundry is where?

Gwyn

[Graeme Fisher]

The Cheshire Regiment 
the Cheshire Yeomanry

What is the difference? Sorry if this is a stoopid question.

The Cheshire Steam Laundry is where?

Gwyn

Gwyn
Yeomanry = horses
Regiment = legs

Cavalry and infantry

Dashing and Disgusting

Flash and Baldrick.

Got it?

The Cheshire Steam Laundry is probably in Royston Vasey.

Was it Northwich?

Graeme

[dycer]

Graeme,
     I note from the "Mother" Site that there was a Company of the Cheshire Yeomanry based in the  Macclesfield (Crompton Road) Barracks in 1914.
     The Barracks are still there but have been converted into Houses/Flats.
      Will this suffice or do you want me to do some more digging?
George

[Dragon]

the  Macclesfield (Crompton Road) Barracks in 1914.
     The Barracks are still there but have been converted into Houses/Flats.

George - any connection with Barracks Lane (up the road out of Macc that isn't the road to Rainow - can't recall name), up past Fence Ave?

[dycer]

Gwyn,
    To be honest I'm not sure.
    Crompton Road is off Park Lane,just about opposite The Further Education College.
    Barracks Lane is off Buxton Road up the hill from Fence Avenue just past the Canal.
    It must have been called Barracks Lane for some reason but it appears to pre-date WW1 as we seem to have found the two relevant WW1 Drill Halls.
    I'll see if Graeme wants me to do any more digging before I wander over to the Library or consult the local Town Historian.
George(still a newcomer to Macc as he only moved to the Town 29 years ago!)
p.s. M.B.C.  Macclesfield Borough Council=More Blooming Cockups or should that be the other way round?

[Graeme Fisher]

New Boy George

Quite happy with Crompton Rd as is. Thanks.

The name Barracks Road  is quite common, and many have their origins several hundred years ago. Drill halls would rarely have an impact on road names; there are a couple of Drill Hall Roads around, but mostly these buildings are insignificant in the great scheme.  

Thanks

Graeme

[Dragon]

     The only other Drill Hall I know locally is the Stockport one in Greek Street

Depends where local ends, I suppose. Manchester Uni still uses the one on Brunswick (?) Street as a sports centre: the McDougal Centre.

Unfortunately it isn't the sort of area where a girl feels comfortable standing alone clutching a posh-ish camera, except in VERY good cause.


Qu to D Hall Esq ... What great scheme? Was there one? is there one? (A bit Proustian for this time in a morning, I know, but one likes to get these things, these temps perdu,  sorted.)


Gwyn

[Graeme Fisher]

A girl need not worry; a chap with a cheap camera snapped the Man. Uni one in Burlington Street last year. V. Scary.
Also the nice one in Ardwick Green, and the one in Kings rd (Stretford?) where cheap chap nearly demised at the hands of a driver who failed to recognise the mad photographer in middle of t'road.....
Thanks for the non-offer, tho.

Great scheme? It transpires my manager's dad has a road named after him. His daughter works for the council, and they'd run out of inspiration for names....
Not all worthies, dignitaries or historical justifications, then. P'raps Drill Hall rd was preferable to Chipshop Street or Fellmonger's Way or That Nice Betty Nicklin's Nan's Neighbour's House With The Red Door Avenue.

Enough.

Hijacked my own damn thread, now.

Graeme

[pbrydon]

RE the corespondence on the Crompton Road Macclesfield Barracks,this was in fact originally the barracks of one of the battalions of  Cheshire Militia  and not a drill hall.
It nice to see  that the original building can still be appreciated even though it has been converted into residental properties
Peter Brydon