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ST BENEDICT'S CHURCH is located on Bennett St in the south of Ardwick to the east of Hyde Road. Its distinctive tower is clearly visible from the railway as you travel out of Manchester. The surrounding area has been redeveloped with newer housing. Some of the older streets remain, including Wigley Street on the left, which has many abandoned properties. The bus stop gives the location as Bennett Street St Benedicts. The buses are the 205 and 206 towards Dane Bank.

EWM says: The former ICL West Gorton building visible on the right now belongs to Fujitsu. Sign of the times?

HYDE ROAD ARDWICK was once lined with shops and houses on both sides. Now an empty area of grass (lower left) extends between Hyde Road and Coverdale Crescent. The flowers are a memorial to a teenager who was shot dead in a drugs-related incident. Further along Hyde Road, just under the railway bridge is a plaque commemorating the Fenian Ambush of September 1867. The derelict pub next to the pedestrian crossing has connections with Manchester City football club, which was once located off Bennett Street. The pub was demolished in 2001.

EWM says: My mother has been researching the Fenian ambush. Two Irish prisoners were being moved to Belle Vue gaol. At Hyde Rd railway bridge a group of Irishmen ambushed the carriage and attempted to free the prisoners. A gun was used to break the lock but the bullet hit a policemen and killed him. Three men were arrested, tried and executed in Salford. It was the last public hanging in the Manchester area and is regarded by historians as an example of how the British state attempted to stamp out Irish political resistance.

THE PUB ON HYDE ROAD where Manchester City Football Club had its origins has been standing empty for many years. Fly posters have been stuck onto the the boarded up ground floor windows. The first floor windows are open to the elements. Despite the bad condition of the building, architectural details on the exterior are still clearly visible.

EWM says: Three weeks after I took this photograph the pub was pulled down.

THIS WAREHOUSE ON DEVONSHIRE STREET NORTH was built by the company which later became Great Universal Stores. The building appeared in the early 20th century. Ardwick Hall once stood on this site. To the left of this building is the former Ardwick Cemetery, which was later grassed over to become Nicholls Field. Many famous people with local connections are buried here, including the chemist John Dalton.

EWM says: My mother was employed by Great Universal Stores, and worked across the road from here- first in the old building, then the newer one constructed in the early 1970's.

ARDWICK WAS ONCE A PLACE OF INDUSTRY, full of smoking factories, steam engines, brickworks, rubber works, dye works and chemical works, narrow cobbled streets with slum dwellings where people lived in poverty and squalour. The area by the river Medlock (lower right) has now been returned virtually to its pre-industrial state. Limekiln Lane (lower left) once overlooked by crowded warehouses and dwellings, now leads into an area of grass and trees. The railway line which led across the Medlock to Ancoats Goods Station has long since been dismantled. Now the banks of the Medlock are grassed over and deserted.

EWM says: The old industrial areas have been cleared and turned into grassy spaces and woods, but you hardly ever see anyone using them. Wouldn't it have been better to redevelop these areas with new industry and dwellings, rather than leave them as grassy 'no go areas'? These newly-created green spaces don't really work as parks because they aren't attractive and people are reluctant to go into them for fear of being mugged.

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