RECENTLY we reported the death of Mr E R Barton, former director of the council’s Parks Department.

Early in his career he received a compliment from the chairman of the Parks Committee, Alderman S A Chisholm. Included in his address at the official opening ceremony of Bowlee nursery in May 1969, Mr Chisholm, said: "Mr Barton had saved the rate payers of Middleton hundreds of pounds by having the side paths laid by his department at this new complex."

The new £35,000 nursery, which was built on old Air Ministry land, was required due to the demand placed on the old nursery at Jubilee Park. When completed it was one of the most modern in Britain. Clear-Span Ltd of Uppermill, built the glasshouses in which the main corridor house measured 144ft in length. Three large houses measuring 52ft by 24ft were built at right angles to the main corridor along with three smaller ones, each measuring 12ft wide.

Shortly after the opening of Bowlee I was employed at the Jubilee nursery. When potting compost was required we had to walk over to Bowlee to mix the compost to John Innes’ formula. John Innes is a standard recipe, not a trade name for a compost manufacturer. Jubilee Park was the main nursery providing thousands of bedding plants for the floral displays. The opening of Bowlee provided the facilities to grow indoor plants for floral decorations such as the Mayor making and other events at Middleton Baths. At the opening of the Civic Centre the stage was packed with hundreds of council grown plants.

A few weeks ago I had a visit from an old friend of mine, Alan McEwen and his wife Christine.

He kindly gave me a copy of a 'book-a-zine', a type of book-magazine. It was published to document events in Fred Dibnah’s life. It came complete with a DVD, in which my Moonraker friend had provided the commentary, describing the removal of Fred’s beloved steam engines from the rear of his former home at Bolton. It was indeed a sad day for Alan as he watched the steam engines being towed out of the yard where they had both spent so many hours together. The sadness is reflected in Alan's voice. The book is exclusive to W H Smith, priced £9.99.

Alan informs me that he has had a change of career. He and Christine are now the proprietors of a firm which specialises in supplying garden landscape antiques, called Dandelion. Featured in the brochure is Alan and Christine's home which has been built using reclaimed materials, the massive stone arch in the main living room came from a Victorian hospital in Yorkshire. Along with stone troughs, salt glazed chimney pots and flour mill stones is a photograph of Alan stood next to his latest creation, a 'Dragon Tower.' This is constructed using Victorian and Edwardian bricks and is built in such a way to show the individual brickmakers name stamp on the outside of the tower.

Alan also informs me that his new book on the subject of Fred Dibnah's chimney drops is nearing completion. Watch this space for news of its publication.

Our conversation turned to the massive stack of bricks that was once Rhodes chimney. The octagonal chimney built in 1846 for Schwabe's contained one and a half million bricks. We wondered how far these would reach if placed end to end.

We calculated the 9in bricks would stretch for more than 213 miles.

John Flynn from Lincoln kindly sent in a class photo of the infants school at the old St Peter’s school which was off Taylor Street.

In his letter he states, ‘The Victorian buildings were creaking, the outside toilets were horrible and the school playground seemed tiny, yet fitted into the surrounding terraced streets’. Things were about to change however one year after this photograph was taken. Children were sent to the Kirkway school in 1966 when the school closed, others were located at St Dominics, Cardinal Langley and Notre Dame. John has sent a list of names to accompany the photograph. A copy of the photo is available to view at Middleton Local Studies Library at Long Street.

A reader from Denton has sent in a photograph of the Albion Inn, Wood Street. Roy Norris was the licencee in 1980 followed by David A Chadwick. When the pub was demolished and a new pub was built at the corner of East View Mr Norris once again took over the licence being the first licensee of the new building.

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