There are people still alive that grew up in those houses. Those archeologists would do well to find some and get the first hand story of what those slums were like. I can remember kids at school who had constant bronchial problems and some who had rickets. It isn't so long ago. When people in Australia ask me where I come from I merely refer them to the opening credits of Coronation Street. Of course that's all gone now.
96cubicinches we had some full on poverty here in Newcastle nsw Australia, right down to the shanty towns and rickets. And we are madly ripping down too many of our historic residences to build blocks of shoddy but flash looking apartments. Love this guys videos.
The dug up ruins were houses for poor people.. I watched it on Time team. Builders were digging up an old mill site and came across them... youtube time team manchester its fascinating
You give us a glimpse into our past and that is so very important, for once its gone its gone forever, I enjoy your videos very much, having first set foot in Manchester way back in 1978, i stayed.
Hi, I am a relatively new sub so only saw this video tonight. Hambley's - Funnily enough I worked for this guy for two days before he "let me go" I was 16 or 17 so it was 34 years ago or thereabouts. They did indeed wash drums and containers and it was pretty dirty work (hence my relief at being fired). The building itself I have been inside when it was active and to my recollection the downstairs was used for washing drums with a small office on the second floor. It was pretty rough even then; from memory I think his father set up the business way back. The whole yard area you showed on the video was piled high with mainly blue plastic containers. He was a nice enough guy actually, just I was never cut out for that sort of job. Only mentioned this because I was amazed when it appeared in the video. Love your work mate, keep it up.
The building on Potato Wharf used to fascinate me when I saw it from the train and I assume that it was late to the demolition party because of some listing status. There was a similar situation when buildings off Swan Street (where I had an office) were demolished for car parking. One small block remained which, the car park attendant told me, was an old toilet block that was listed. I think that may have been part of the Rising Sun Inn, but that's a guess. The archaeological site you show is on the 1849 New Cross O.S. sheet. On the corner of Ludgate Hill and Baptist Street (south-east corner of the block) was the Grey Hound Tavern whilst the opening off Ludgate Street was Hunt's Court. As you and many of your correspondents suggest, the bulk of this area seems to have been residential but there were several larger buildings. By the way, I picked this map up from Waterstones only last week for £3.00. It's Manchester Sheet 24 in the Godfrey Editions. Keep up the valuable work.
Another great video. The houses look the same as the ones excavated when the NOMA (Co-op) building was built. I went to an open day, they had the same stone floors and were divided up in a similar manor to house more families. These were the cellars of the houses and would be the poorest accommodation. Often there would be up to 10 people living in the one room, in some of the worst they would flood and fill with sewage. The ones at NOMA mostly had fire places/ovens in at least one of the rooms these look to be even poorer than those. Keep up the good work with the vids
Hi Tony, I saw a similar dig in a car park near NOMA about 2011. These do look very much the same. But I couldnt assert anything as I wasn't sure. But definitely look like poor quality slum housing. Thanks Tony
Hi Martin, thanks for fleeting glimpses of the Manchester i was brought up in!! Not the same place today! I love your work. Perhaps i should explain i was born in 1946 and lived in MCR 20 & 14 for the first 19 years of my life. Many places you have visited i remember such as the boat that was moored at Pomana in Hulme. I had many a good time there!! My Nana was born in Higher Openshaw in 1884. I recently tried to establish the house she was born in, much to my disappointment it was now a children's playground. I might add that my "Nanna" was a victim of the "Gin house" days. My great grandmother (her mother) was the victim and was brought up by a stepmother. I have lived overseas for many a decade now, and as a proud Manc i regularly visit my place of birth!! ("you can take the man out of Manchester but NOT Manchester out of the man)! Having served a 5 year apprentiship at AEI/GEC in the Iron Foundry i worked in Trafford Park from 1962 onward. In those days 26000 were employed in that factory alone. Buses used to be lined up to enter and exit Trafford Park in those days . To day wherever i travel in the MCR i used to know i see vast wastelands, eg Pomona , Beswick, Openshaw Collyhurst, ect ect.So many pubs have gone!. I regularly used to meet my mates at a Burtonwood house on Corporation St before going to see my beloved "Reds" at OT . Of coarse that pub is no longer there. I have so many more experiences i could dwell on and should you choose to communicate with me that would be great! Keep up the good work, you are a true Manc. Regards, Alan.
Hello Alan, great memories there. Glad the videos are helping to re kindle. Ive seen photographs of the buses lined up at Trafford park brilliant stuff. So many changes and so many buildings disappearing. Lets try to capture them before we forget. Thank you again for commenting 👌
"you can take the man out of Manchester but NOT Manchester out of the man" Ditto I'd love to tell you the story of how I became a Man U supporter when the family tradition was to support City
@@cubicinches18 Touche, my Dad and two brothers are blue but i became a Red. In fact my Dad was a bitter blue and he gave me a whack across my head when i told him i was going to be a United supporter, a year later he took me to my first game (in '77) and thats only because i was stood there when the milkman was selling an Adult and child spare tickets for a F.A 1/4 final at OT. Over the years he mellowed and even ended up working for the United Development Fund, two-faced git.
Did Your Nanna live anywhere near Edge Lane, i was born in a street just of it in the '60's ? I did an engineering course at GEC in Trafford Park in the early 80's, and i'm also a Red, small world.
@MartinZero caught an episode of Corrie last night and Roy Cropper was talking about Angel Meadow. Thought of you while watching...sure Weatherfield Historical Society would love to have you as a member 😉
Hi Martin , I'm a bricklayer and they just look like cellars of Victorian terraced houses. Single skin brick walls are very common on partition wall between poor mill workers houses. Many still exist . An over enthusiastic d.i.yer with a drill can discover this when the drill pops through nextdoors living room wall!!
We have a legislator in Congress who has proposed rebuilding or retrofitting every single building in the US within 10 years (along with other nonsense). Obviously the proposal includes every historic landmark in the country. Insane.
@@ChurchOfTheHolyMho Retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency is neither insane nor comparable to demolition. These things happen anyway, just on a different timescale. You think the Whitehouse is running on original wiring and plumbing?
@@VelvetMetrolink So you believe that there are enough qualified retrofitters in the US to complete every single structure in the US within 10 years? And since there won't be a shortage of labor, the price to perform a retrofit will not increase?
One of the most interesting places in manchester is below Victoria station I tried to get permission on a number of occasions to go down in the 80s but without success. From what l remember the station was built on top of older buildings and l think there are some remains still there.
Thank's for all these vlog's...bloody fascinating stuff, whenever I get back home to Lancashire I can't believe now much it's changing.Although there are still little bits of the old towns left, Keep up the good work pal.
I like what you're doing there looking at what's left of the old city before it's lost forever, I wished that I had taken pictures of these sorts of building's over the last 50 or so years but back then we had to buy film for cameras and pay to have the pictures developed, digital film makes it so much more affordable now. As for the city slums I discovered that my great grandma was brought up a Gypsy and so I have been reading up on Gypsy life hundreds of years ago, and found that over the years many attempts were made to make the Gypsy way of life illegal mainly by rich landowners and the church, one of the biggest fears of the Gypsies was that they would lose their freedom to roam and would have to live in the squalor of the city slums where they couldn't make a living. It appears that they would rather live in the harshness of the countryside living with just a tent as shelter where they knew how to find food and firewood than to be forced into the disease ridden slums of the city.
It's time for Birmingham , Leeds , Glasgow and Liverpool to step up with some wonderful videos of Britain's rich industrial , economic history . Move over Ken Burns .
Angel medow dig was the basements of the slumbs that where there ...mainly for the Irish workers of the mill on the river facing...had the highest mortality rate in the UK...over 100 homes shared one lavertory..must have been hard times...excellent vidio ..love your stuff..keep up the good work
They're cellars for the houses. The single walls are the supporting walls for floors and partition walls above. If you look you can see where the chimneys were. The cellars had Yorkshire Stone Flags floors.
Some 20 years ago I regularly moored my boat in Potato Wharf, in those days the whole area was a boatyard and hire boat base and a vibrant floating community. Sad to see the area derelict and the bridge we used to walk the dog over all fenced off.
Martin, saw the angle meadow vid a while ago, very interesting as always. The reason for the comment just now is to say, Thanks for what you do, for the history of the NW especially Manchester. Interesting too, you said things were about to disappear Any Minute ! How right you were ! Just watched a documentary, Billion Pound Manucopia, no doubt youve seen it, of the classic old building adjacent to angel meadow, ( now, was ! A shelter for the Homeless ) soon to be yet another pile of concrete and glass..... diabolical ! Cheers Roj
The white building on't tater wharf had gone by September 18, when I last went by it while working. I always thought it could have made a desirable house in a sea of mere hives......but not enough profit in that, obviously. Maybe I'm feeling what others did when Manchester started to get developed away from pastures green, lol! Nowt new under't sun, lad. Top marks for getting out to Angel Meadow at the drop of a hat. Time team were indeed there but they sometimes are so full of it!
Martin, you are such an incredible and knowledgeable young man, I love watching your vids. Sooo interesting. Any bunkers around Manchester you can show? Fantastic channel, thanks for all you do. Love it.
Yeah but it's trendy. You can't walk the streets without a bottle. Wouldn't be cool, even for the environment bashers who apparently have a hydration problem.
@@munterboy9298 Here in Canada where minimum wage is something like £6 an hour that many bottles with deposits would never lie around in a ditch like that. There's at least a day's pay in that canal. Nothing like complete & abject poverty to solve that pesky recycling problem.
Out of sight out of mind. Lots of degradation in and around the city. Your work gives a clear insight into the poverty and slum living conditions many lived in I grew up in a slum part of Manchester Cheetham Hill late 60's.
Love the little white building looks like it could have been a pub a long time ago. Shame about the burnt boat too. Get yer dinghy out and get down that tunnel! Good vid as always mate.
another great vid martin keep it up mate 👍an time team done a dig on an old mill\factory near there and also dug up the old slum houses looked alot like that dig were u was
Hi Martin. Just to sort out the general misconception in wall thickness. Nowadays, clay bricks are usually 215mm long x 102mm wide x 65mm high and a 'one brick' wall would be 215mm thick and a 'half-brick' wall would be 102mm thick. In say Victorian times, bricks were slightly bigger in all dimensions. For dwelling houses they usually built external walls one- brick thick and internal walls half-brick thick.
Looking back at what you call houses.. this the lower floor of the buildings. (Cellar).. there is floor drains built into one of the rooms. The single brick is common on cellar floors as the internal walls are not load bearing but more a divide in between sections.. possibly a cold store (no fridges in them days). Ph is also public house so what I've mentioned would tally up with what your looking at. Keep up the good work 👍 Pps could the site of been similar to the blue bell pub in moston.. just a thought..
I used to work in that yard in the early 80s cleaning and painting the Steel drums and our brew room was in that building and it was in a very dangerous state back then.
This reminds me of a documentary I saw on Manchester at the height of rapid industrialization. Even then there was an attempt to study the living conditions,and one entry was as you say families huddling in a room,often a basement ,trying to survive. What was so ironic was the often well off landlord, today you hear the term slumlord. I love these videos,so looking forward to meeting you someday.
Looking at the area of Angels Park just to the north of that digging and an 1801 maps shows vacant fields with a proposed 'new burial ground', an 1890 maps shows it as 'St Michael's burial ground' and now it's St Michael's Flags and Angels Meadows, as a park. Presumably all graves were moved elsewhere or they still sit under it!
Crikey's, just dug deeper and found it was the biggest cemetery around, with all the poor and nameless that ended up in there. The 'Flags' part of the name is due to cement paving being put down to stop all the digging up of the earth and corpses used for fertilizer back when it got to having thousands interred there. So the playground that kids play today on has plenty of bodies just underneath still! Amazing stuff.
There was a time when life was dirt floors , sewage , constant conflict and domestic violence , poor inadequate nutrition , civil wars , social instability , disease , grinding poverty , very short lifespans , ignorance of the world beyond local boundaries , etc. , etc. That was life's norm for eons . We thank our antecedents for enduring and each generation for sometimes figuring a better way forward . These videos show how important to preserve the layers of this rich history of the early industrial age .
Thanks for this Martin, a man after my own heart where old buildings and history are concerned. Here in Portsmouth we still have literally hundreds of streets of old fashioned terraced housing that cannot be knocked down. The reason being? We're the most densely populated city in Britain with a severe lack of new housing. Over 5000 people per hectare when London is only 2,500. Gives you some idea of how many live on Portsea Island (the city itself). Nearly a quarter of a million people within a space of 12sq miles. Your videos are so interesting Martin and when I see what has replaced even the most basic housing in Manchester, the concrete and glass crap, I weep for the future. Who passes the plans of such dreadful looking buildings? I'm 65 now and I do wonder what they teach these kids about architecture in the modern open plan colleges? Certainly not taste that's for sure!
As a fellow manc, im Fascinated with Manchester's "urban neglect" and its history. Would love to come on one of your adventures. Keep up the great effort/work 👍🏻
Another cracking video Martin,av also watched the time team dig at angel st where the factory was covered by a car park.the angel pub used to be called the weaver's.
Hambley's Drum's now on Dale St, Stalybridge, Tameside, Paul Hambley is top dog in there now, I'm sure I have seen old photographs of their old Manchester unit on their office walls.
Like you said, no central heating or double glazing, and single brick build properties. It must have been freexing in winter. Honestly if people from 2019 had to go back to those days none of us could cope. Really depressing, although thats all they knew, so its all relative so to speak.
I've been watching your videos for about 3 years now and it amazes me I'm finding ones I've never seen. I was wondering if the single row walls were internal or possibly party walls rather than outside.
Hi Martin. there are videos on youtube from when experts documented the dig and they had a tour. Its all documented as ive seen the videos . It inspired me to buy a book on Angel Meadow by Dean Kirby Angel meadows is one of my favourite places !!!.
Yeah I love Angel meadow. I think those digs were earlier and down off Aspin lane, this dig was in January this year just off Rochdale rd, although probably similar old houses they uncovered. But I will do another search on youtube 👍
Looking on google maps and thinking about my memories of Rochdale road (daily commute, I worked across the street for a year; home in Harpurhey) it's so sad they destroy history with overbuilding it. Of course, you can't keep every ruin of every house, but at least you should keep one or two and make museums, exhibitions of them, not? Watching this video more than 2 years later, all of these things are really gone. New hotel and a pile of dust in the place of that tiny white building. (if not started to build since then). Regarding Grocers warehouse tunnel, because it ran under the Rochdale canal, I'd expect that water there to be deep, But if that is shallow, that means it is filled in sadly. @Martin would you come down with me there to explore it more? About the Potato wharf, it's exactly next to the River Medlock last part coming from the culvert going to the River Irwell, so in the final episode of the Medlock story you may be able to revisit the place of the former little white house.
In the 80's the area around Potato Wharf was home to several house boats and a small community lived there. I think they were all evicted when they started to upgrade the area.
Lived in an early Victorian terrace as a kid with a bedroom above what was called the wash house (dads workshop?) - single brick, single glazed no insulation - was very cold and damp in winter
The house was two bricks thick I think but the wash-house was like the outside loo single brick - loved your post about Hopwood Hall - that was a different place all together : )
It's funny but the area round Angel Meadow or St. Michael's Flags was for well-heeled people originally until sadly it became a slum. I think St. Michael's Church was a late survivor only being demolished in the 1930's? Did you see the Time Team dig on Angel Street concerning Richard Arkwright's Mill? It was the progenitor of all later steam powered mills. They went into cellars like you filmed. Must have been absolutely appalling for people living like troglodytes. The area south of Oxford Road was known as you might know, Little Ireland and typhoid and cholera were rife probably like around Angel Meadow. Other churches that have gone are of course the classical St. Peter's in St. Peter's Square, a cross now Mark's the site. One I remember as a kid on Tib Street hence the name Church Street street and the end of Thomas Street was were the multi storey car-park was built. I think it was called St. Paul's. There was the famous All Saints sadly this was bombed in WWII. It's on Oxford Road and marked by a park next to Mcr. Met. University. The church opposite, Holy Name thankfully survived. All Saints is immortalised by Impressionist paintings by Adoplhe Valette (L.S.Lowry's teacher). St. Clements was demolished to build Stevenson Square. On Liverpool Road the Church of St. Matthew existed next to the Cast Iron City Market building and MOSI. The Sunday School still exits I think and the Primary School is a bijou hotel! Thankfully St. Mary's Mulberry Street (The Hidden Gem) survives and is supposed to be the first Roman Catholic Church built after the Reformation. The new area of St. John's (Granada) housed another lost Church. This was demolished in the 1920's ☹ but not before some of It's stained-glass was saved and transferred to St. Ann's Church. There was St. Mary's that you often see on old paintings with a very distinctive tower and steeple near St. Mary's Parsonage West of Deansgate. Going down John Dalton Street from Albert Square on your right is St. James's Square now being developed into apartments (previously only offices). This was the site of a Church dedicated to St. James. There was another Church of St. James at the western end of Portland Street (near Chinatown). The B of England gold vaults were built on it. A curiosity is the white "Portland"? Stone confection now owned by Bruntwood called St. James's Building that was built for the Callico Ascociation next to the Palace Theatre. Thankfully the Cathedral exists. Have you heard of Hyde's Cross? The remains of it are preserved in Chethams Hospital. Corporation Street was a relatively new street being built circa 1848? Until then Millgate was the route out up to Scotland Bridge. Shudehill was a rabbit-warren of tudor and Jacobean streets. There is an old map of Mcr, Green's Map and curiously Todd Street then known as Toad lane survives. When Corp. St. was constructed Hyde's Cross which I think was opposite the Printworks on Withy Grove, was removed to it's present location. I presume that is why Cross St. Is called that. As a kid I remember a half-timbered (medieval/Tudor-looking) building where Withy Grove turns into Nicholas Croft. All went when the Arndale came and it's near where the access incline for vehicles is. 👍
Another great video. For further info on Angel Meadow I recommend a book by Dean Kirby entitled Angel Meadow-Victorian Britain’s most savage slum. Keep up the good work
Hi john, i live in Germany for the last ten years, and not a plastic or glass bottle in sight! every shop has a machine where you pop your glass milk bottle /can or plastic pop bottle into a hole! and in the bottom is a conveyer belt for crates! it counts the bottles and Crates and even how many bottles in the crate, then at the end it spews out a ticker tape, which you can redeem in the shop against your shopping or cash back! 25 cents a bottle, no idea what for a crate! and even if you are lazy and drop a bottle in the rubbish bin in town, some old guy will appear on a bike at night and go around all the bins and make a fortune , ;-) why the heck we not do that back home in Britain i have no idea! we used to have deposit when i was a kid
Thanx Julian. I live in New Zealand although I was born in Wirral. We are finally starting to do something here about plastic although it needs much more effort. I went to Bali in August for a holiday and was horrified at the plastic there. You certainly wouldn't want to swim in the ocean despite its beautiful beaches.
A trick I have used is to place a sheet of thin A4 paper over an old map on the laptop screen and use a felt tip to outline the main roads and x mark points of interest. Then place this outline over Google satellite image and use rotate and zoom to match up orientation and scale. This is a simple low tech and accurate method for finding the location of demolished buildings.
I've dug holes into that sandstone with a machine, we had to use a rockwheel, it went soft when water touched it, but was solid otherwise, off chester rd, near key 103, I've mentioned it before m8
You need to get yourself a Drone that has a camera on it... It would be a game changer and the footage you'd catch would be unreal people would love watching that!
If it makes you feel any better, I crashed my first Mavic Pro into a bridge over a river.....tried to find it without success. Bought a replacement and (fingers crossed) still got this one. BTW, I think the majority of drone losses are due to user error.
Cellar dwellings. The brick walls separated neighbours, sometimes just a curtain would be used. Each 'room' represents a family. Read; Fred Egnels, The condition of the working class.
There is still a good picture of the old building at Castlefield on Google Maps street view if you go further along Potato Wharf. You can take a screenshot of it if you wish.
Someone mentioned, Why don't they clean it up. Well at the risk of being totally politically incorrect ( Non- PC ) . In the U.S. they'd probably get convicts on a Day Out to do it ? .... : S PS : Great Vid as always Martin 👍 ..... . . . and by the way, that red rock is all Manchester and Stockport . you must have heard of the tunnels around Petersgate and Chestergate, the old Air Raid Shelters etc
Good video as usual Martin, just a little piece of constructive criticism.... see if you can get a mic for your back bedroom intros, little bit too much echo!! Thank you again for the video! 👍
Theses are the old slum housing that was situated near angel meadow I seen this first hand being excavated back in 2005 Tony Robinson and the time team were there got to meet him wile I was working on angel meadow renovating the single large wall situated inside the excuvated grounds became the new Cis building the history of Manchester is vast all the buildings from our industrial past long gone apart from few mills now fancy apartments we should preserve these buildings to pass on to the next generation to be proud of our city of Manchester 🐝
Martin Zero yes i agree would be great to see has such a shame to lose Thease gems of our industrial past great videos hopefully post more in future a joy to watch also educational to our future generations to come. 👍🏻🐝
They are the basement dwellings of the terraced houses, would have had families living in them, no running water, no sanitation one toilet shared by 50-100 people. Hell on earth basically
The map of 1848 map showing Baptist Street shows this block containing 'The Balloon Public House' and 'Daikin Court'. 'The Balloon' may have been renamed 'The Balloon Vaults' later, however I can't find an image.
It’s worth remembering that the offshoot to the canal at Grocers Warehouse used to have a water level much lower. Much of that stretch of the canal was once the same level as the canal in Castlefield Basin. It was also covered too, it was only later when the locks were being built that they opened up the canal to the daylight.
Martin the Uni of Manchester have a set of Adsheads Maps on their website , a couple are of the Castlefield Area (St Johns Ward) they date from 1851 you might be be able to gather what that building was from them, hope this helps.
another great film martin on baptes st is that old building the old pot of beer pub i used to go in there about 16 years ago about ten years ago it was all boarded up
There are people still alive that grew up in those houses. Those archeologists would do well to find some and get the first hand story of what those slums were like. I can remember kids at school who had constant bronchial problems and some who had rickets. It isn't so long ago. When people in Australia ask me where I come from I merely refer them to the opening credits of Coronation Street. Of course that's all gone now.
96cubicinches we had some full on poverty here in Newcastle nsw Australia, right down to the shanty towns and rickets. And we are madly ripping down too many of our historic residences to build blocks of shoddy but flash looking apartments.
Love this guys videos.
Thank you Martin. You are a comfort.
Cheers Steve
The dug up ruins were houses for poor people.. I watched it on Time team. Builders were digging up an old mill site and came across them... youtube time team manchester its fascinating
I think the authenticity of Martins' vids are better
You give us a glimpse into our past and that is so very important, for once its gone its gone forever, I enjoy your videos very much, having first set foot in Manchester way back in 1978, i stayed.
Hi, I am a relatively new sub so only saw this video tonight. Hambley's - Funnily enough I worked for this guy for two days before he "let me go" I was 16 or 17 so it was 34 years ago or thereabouts. They did indeed wash drums and containers and it was pretty dirty work (hence my relief at being fired). The building itself I have been inside when it was active and to my recollection the downstairs was used for washing drums with a small office on the second floor. It was pretty rough even then; from memory I think his father set up the business way back. The whole yard area you showed on the video was piled high with mainly blue plastic containers. He was a nice enough guy actually, just I was never cut out for that sort of job. Only mentioned this because I was amazed when it appeared in the video. Love your work mate, keep it up.
Wow thats brilliant. You actually worked there. Albeit a short time 😀
The building on Potato Wharf used to fascinate me when I saw it from the train and I assume that it was late to the demolition party because of some listing status. There was a similar situation when buildings off Swan Street (where I had an office) were demolished for car parking. One small block remained which, the car park attendant told me, was an old toilet block that was listed. I think that may have been part of the Rising Sun Inn, but that's a guess. The archaeological site you show is on the 1849 New Cross O.S. sheet. On the corner of Ludgate Hill and Baptist Street (south-east corner of the block) was the Grey Hound Tavern whilst the opening off Ludgate Street was Hunt's Court. As you and many of your correspondents suggest, the bulk of this area seems to have been residential but there were several larger buildings. By the way, I picked this map up from Waterstones only last week for £3.00. It's Manchester Sheet 24 in the Godfrey Editions. Keep up the valuable work.
Oh yeah they are good maps those
Another great video. The houses look the same as the ones excavated when the NOMA (Co-op) building was built. I went to an open day, they had the same stone floors and were divided up in a similar manor to house more families. These were the cellars of the houses and would be the poorest accommodation. Often there would be up to 10 people living in the one room, in some of the worst they would flood and fill with sewage. The ones at NOMA mostly had fire places/ovens in at least one of the rooms these look to be even poorer than those. Keep up the good work with the vids
Hi Tony, I saw a similar dig in a car park near NOMA about 2011. These do look very much the same. But I couldnt assert anything as I wasn't sure. But definitely look like poor quality slum housing. Thanks Tony
Fascinating, I csnt believe that I’ve not heard of your channel before, I love Manchester, especially the history.
Hi Justin, thats half the battle on RUclips, getting discovered. Thanks for commenting 👍
Hi Martin, thanks for fleeting glimpses of the Manchester i was brought up in!! Not the same place today! I love your work.
Perhaps i should explain i was born in 1946 and lived in MCR 20 & 14 for the first 19 years of my life.
Many places you have visited i remember such as the boat that was moored at Pomana in Hulme. I had many a good time there!!
My Nana was born in Higher Openshaw in 1884. I recently tried to establish the house she was born in, much to my disappointment it was now a children's playground. I might add that my "Nanna" was a victim of the "Gin house" days. My great grandmother (her mother) was the victim and was brought up by a stepmother.
I have lived overseas for many a decade now, and as a proud Manc i regularly visit my place of birth!! ("you can take the man out of Manchester but NOT Manchester out of the man)!
Having served a 5 year apprentiship at AEI/GEC in the Iron Foundry i worked in Trafford Park from 1962 onward. In those days 26000 were employed in that factory alone. Buses used to be lined up to enter and exit Trafford Park in those days . To day wherever i travel in the MCR i used to know i see vast wastelands, eg Pomona , Beswick, Openshaw Collyhurst, ect ect.So many pubs have gone!. I
regularly used to meet my mates at a Burtonwood house on Corporation St before going to see my beloved "Reds" at OT . Of coarse that pub is no longer there.
I have so many more experiences i could dwell on and should you choose to communicate with me that would be great!
Keep up the good work, you are a true Manc.
Regards, Alan.
Hello Alan, great memories there. Glad the videos are helping to re kindle. Ive seen photographs of the buses lined up at Trafford park brilliant stuff. So many changes and so many buildings disappearing. Lets try to capture them before we forget. Thank you again for commenting 👌
"you can take the man out of Manchester but NOT Manchester out of the man" Ditto
I'd love to tell you the story of how I became a Man U supporter when the family tradition was to support City
@@cubicinches18 Touche, my Dad and two brothers are blue but i became a Red. In fact my Dad was a bitter blue and he gave me a whack across my head when i told him i was going to be a United supporter, a year later he took me to my first game (in '77) and thats only because i was stood there when the milkman was selling an Adult and child spare tickets for a F.A 1/4 final at OT. Over the years he mellowed and even ended up working for the United Development Fund, two-faced git.
Did Your Nanna live anywhere near Edge Lane, i was born in a street just of it in the '60's ? I did an engineering course at GEC in Trafford Park in the early 80's, and i'm also a Red, small world.
@@Mr.Grimsdale I used to live near Edge Lane Chorlton
@MartinZero caught an episode of Corrie last night and Roy Cropper was talking about Angel Meadow. Thought of you while watching...sure Weatherfield Historical Society would love to have you as a member 😉
Another great video. Thank you.
Hi Martin , I'm a bricklayer and they just look like cellars of Victorian terraced houses.
Single skin brick walls are very common on partition wall between poor mill workers houses.
Many still exist . An over enthusiastic d.i.yer with a drill can discover this when the drill pops through nextdoors living room wall!!
Love your videos, been binge watching, I am a brummie living out in Malta, love adventure myself, so much lost history in this world
Developers look at the Sistine Chapel and wonder at how many units they could fit on the razed land.
We have a legislator in Congress who has proposed rebuilding or retrofitting every single building in the US within 10 years (along with other nonsense). Obviously the proposal includes every historic landmark in the country. Insane.
@@ChurchOfTheHolyMho Retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency is neither insane nor comparable to demolition. These things happen anyway, just on a different timescale. You think the Whitehouse is running on original wiring and plumbing?
@@VelvetMetrolink So you believe that there are enough qualified retrofitters in the US to complete every single structure in the US within 10 years? And since there won't be a shortage of labor, the price to perform a retrofit will not increase?
One of the most interesting places in manchester is below Victoria station I tried to get permission on a number of occasions to go down in the 80s but without success. From what l remember the station was built on top of older buildings and l think there are some remains still there.
Good work for documentation 👌
P.H on that street map means Public House. An old pub. Situated within a row of houses and outbuildings / yards to the rear
Thank's for all these vlog's...bloody fascinating stuff, whenever I get back home to Lancashire I can't believe now much it's changing.Although there are still little bits of the old towns left, Keep up the good work pal.
Thanks Phil
I like what you're doing there looking at what's left of the old city before it's lost forever, I wished that I had taken pictures of these sorts of building's over the last 50 or so years but back then we had to buy film for cameras and pay to have the pictures developed, digital film makes it so much more affordable now. As for the city slums I discovered that my great grandma was brought up a Gypsy and so I have been reading up on Gypsy life hundreds of years ago, and found that over the years many attempts were made to make the Gypsy way of life illegal mainly by rich landowners and the church, one of the biggest fears of the Gypsies was that they would lose their freedom to roam and would have to live in the squalor of the city slums where they couldn't make a living. It appears that they would rather live in the harshness of the countryside living with just a tent as shelter where they knew how to find food and firewood than to be forced into the disease ridden slums of the city.
Another very interesting exploration of a familiar corner of Manchester I thought I knew well!
Thanks Aidan 👍
Love your stuff man from Birmingham
It's time for Birmingham , Leeds , Glasgow and Liverpool to step up with some wonderful videos of Britain's rich industrial , economic history . Move over Ken Burns .
Angel medow dig was the basements of the slumbs that where there ...mainly for the Irish workers of the mill on the river facing...had the highest mortality rate in the UK...over 100 homes shared one lavertory..must have been hard times...excellent vidio ..love your stuff..keep up the good work
Thanks Phill. One hell of a place that Angel Meadow
They're cellars for the houses. The single walls are the supporting walls for floors and partition walls above. If you look you can see where the chimneys were. The cellars had Yorkshire Stone Flags floors.
Martin Zero..thank you for your videos; enjoy them so much.
Thank you very much, for watching
Some 20 years ago I regularly moored my boat in Potato Wharf, in those days the whole area was a boatyard and hire boat base and a vibrant floating community. Sad to see the area derelict and the bridge we used to walk the dog over all fenced off.
Interesting video! Thank you for documenting this before the go forever!
Thanks very much
Martin, saw the angle meadow vid a while ago, very interesting as always. The reason for the comment just now is to say, Thanks for what you do, for the history of the NW especially Manchester. Interesting too, you said things were about to disappear Any Minute ! How right you were ! Just watched a documentary, Billion Pound Manucopia, no doubt youve seen it, of the classic old building adjacent to angel meadow, ( now, was ! A shelter for the Homeless ) soon to be yet another pile of concrete and glass..... diabolical !
Cheers Roj
Yes true its already began. Thanks very much
The white building on't tater wharf had gone by September 18, when I last went by it while working. I always thought it could have made a desirable house in a sea of mere hives......but not enough profit in that, obviously.
Maybe I'm feeling what others did when Manchester started to get developed away from pastures green, lol!
Nowt new under't sun, lad.
Top marks for getting out to Angel Meadow at the drop of a hat. Time team were indeed there but they sometimes are so full of it!
Martin, you are such an incredible and knowledgeable young man, I love watching your vids. Sooo interesting. Any bunkers around Manchester you can show? Fantastic channel, thanks for all you do. Love it.
Thank you 😊
Martin there are these amazing things called gloves also another clever invention called a hat. Andy England 😉
Sad to see all that plastic
ICBM.PIRATE Id love to see it cleaned
Yeah but it's trendy. You can't walk the streets without a bottle. Wouldn't be cool, even for the environment bashers who apparently have a hydration problem.
That's England for you
@@munterboy9298 Here in Canada where minimum wage is something like £6 an hour that many bottles with deposits would never lie around in a ditch like that. There's at least a day's pay in that canal. Nothing like complete & abject poverty to solve that pesky recycling problem.
I love your video's, excellent to see all this stuff.
Thank you
Out of sight out of mind.
Lots of degradation in and around the city.
Your work gives a clear insight into the poverty and slum living conditions many lived in
I grew up in a slum part of Manchester Cheetham Hill late 60's.
Thank you David
Love the little white building looks like it could have been a pub a long time ago. Shame about the burnt boat too. Get yer dinghy out and get down that tunnel! Good vid as always mate.
That Tunnel is scary, too low and I think its blocked in places. But a Dinghy is a good idea
Martin Zero I read some time back in doesn’t go very far anyway, just enough to fit a few barges in so they could be unloaded.
another great vid martin keep it up mate 👍an time team done a dig on an old mill\factory near there and also dug up the old slum houses looked alot like that dig were u was
Yeah its definitely some structured dig isn't it. Good video that time team dig
im glad i found this channel, asks great questions and the comment section is always good too.
Love your shows, Martin!
Hi Martin.
Just to sort out the general misconception in wall thickness.
Nowadays, clay bricks are usually 215mm long x 102mm wide x 65mm high and
a 'one brick' wall would be 215mm thick and a 'half-brick' wall would be 102mm thick. In say Victorian times, bricks were slightly bigger in all dimensions. For dwelling houses they usually built external walls one- brick thick and internal walls half-brick thick.
Sometimes, early on a quiet Sunday morning, you gotta jump a fence.😉
Looking back at what you call houses.. this the lower floor of the buildings. (Cellar).. there is floor drains built into one of the rooms. The single brick is common on cellar floors as the internal walls are not load bearing but more a divide in between sections.. possibly a cold store (no fridges in them days). Ph is also public house so what I've mentioned would tally up with what your looking at. Keep up the good work 👍
Pps could the site of been similar to the blue bell pub in moston.. just a thought..
Just watched again many thanks Martin. John Rooney
Thanks John
I used to work in that yard in the early 80s cleaning and painting the Steel drums and our brew room was in that building and it was in a very dangerous state back then.
This reminds me of a documentary I saw on Manchester at the height of rapid industrialization. Even then there was an attempt to study the living conditions,and one entry was as you say families huddling in a room,often a basement ,trying to survive. What was so ironic was the often well off landlord, today you hear the term slumlord. I love these videos,so looking forward to meeting you someday.
Hello Andrew thanks, yeah give us a shout when you over
Looking at the area of Angels Park just to the north of that digging and an 1801 maps shows vacant fields with a proposed 'new burial ground', an 1890 maps shows it as 'St Michael's burial ground' and now it's St Michael's Flags and Angels Meadows, as a park. Presumably all graves were moved elsewhere or they still sit under it!
Crikey's, just dug deeper and found it was the biggest cemetery around, with all the poor and nameless that ended up in there. The 'Flags' part of the name is due to cement paving being put down to stop all the digging up of the earth and corpses used for fertilizer back when it got to having thousands interred there. So the playground that kids play today on has plenty of bodies just underneath still! Amazing stuff.
40000 still under it mainly children
There was a time when life was dirt floors , sewage , constant conflict and domestic violence , poor inadequate nutrition , civil wars , social instability , disease , grinding poverty , very short lifespans , ignorance of the world beyond local boundaries , etc. , etc. That was life's norm for eons . We thank our antecedents for enduring and each generation for sometimes figuring a better way forward . These videos show how important to preserve the layers of this rich history of the early industrial age .
Thanks for this Martin, a man after my own heart where old buildings and history are concerned. Here in Portsmouth we still have literally hundreds of streets of old fashioned terraced housing that cannot be knocked down. The reason being? We're the most densely populated city in Britain with a severe lack of new housing. Over 5000 people per hectare when London is only 2,500. Gives you some idea of how many live on Portsea Island (the city itself).
Nearly a quarter of a million people within a space of 12sq miles.
Your videos are so interesting Martin and when I see what has replaced even the most basic housing in Manchester, the concrete and glass crap, I weep for the future.
Who passes the plans of such dreadful looking buildings?
I'm 65 now and I do wonder what they teach these kids about architecture in the modern open plan colleges? Certainly not taste that's for sure!
As a fellow manc, im Fascinated with Manchester's "urban neglect" and its history. Would love to come on one of your adventures. Keep up the great effort/work 👍🏻
Hello, thanks very much. Me too love to find the pockets of undeveloped Manchester 👍
another great video Martin keep up the good work
They are doing the same in Birmingham, Apartments are the new guise for Blocks of Flats and instead of using concrete they use glass.
Everything looks the same doesnt it Allan
Another cracking video Martin,av also watched the time team dig at angel st where the factory was covered by a car park.the angel pub used to be called the weaver's.
Cheers Brian. That whole area has a grim History doesn't it.
Martin Zero ye Martin the film Angelas ashes springs to mind?
You know my family originate from that area tuff people mate?
Hambley's Drum's now on Dale St, Stalybridge, Tameside, Paul Hambley is top dog in there now, I'm sure I have seen old photographs of their old Manchester unit on their office walls.
Right so they moved to Stalybridge 👍
Like you said, no central heating or double glazing, and single brick build properties. It must have been freexing in winter. Honestly if people from 2019 had to go back to those days none of us could cope. Really depressing, although thats all they knew, so its all relative so to speak.
I've been watching your videos for about 3 years now and it amazes me I'm finding ones I've never seen. I was wondering if the single row walls were internal or possibly party walls rather than outside.
Sad to see all that garbage in the canal (or river)! People of Manchester, that is your own you're crapping on... show some respect. :(
Manchester is a dump. There's trash everywhere
@@munterboy9298 not everywhere!!!!!!
There are many areas here in the USA that are full of litter, it's awful.
I hope I find an update on the houses or slums on the site you visited Martin .. Love your videos...xx
I agree with you about our industrial architecture being a link to the past. So sad to see it all go.
Yes Broderick specially as todays buildings seem to be glass and steel and all the same 👍
Hello Martin really enjoying the Channel, on the old map at Baptist st I think PH was possibly public house
Hi Glyn thank you and yes your probably correct thanks 👌
Interesting, thank you Martin.
Hi Martin. there are videos on youtube from when experts documented the dig and they had a tour. Its all documented as ive seen the videos . It inspired me to buy a book on Angel Meadow by Dean Kirby Angel meadows is one of my favourite places !!!.
Yeah I love Angel meadow. I think those digs were earlier and down off Aspin lane, this dig was in January this year just off Rochdale rd, although probably similar old houses they uncovered. But I will do another search on youtube 👍
Looking on google maps and thinking about my memories of Rochdale road (daily commute, I worked across the street for a year; home in Harpurhey) it's so sad they destroy history with overbuilding it. Of course, you can't keep every ruin of every house, but at least you should keep one or two and make museums, exhibitions of them, not?
Watching this video more than 2 years later, all of these things are really gone. New hotel and a pile of dust in the place of that tiny white building. (if not started to build since then).
Regarding Grocers warehouse tunnel, because it ran under the Rochdale canal, I'd expect that water there to be deep, But if that is shallow, that means it is filled in sadly. @Martin would you come down with me there to explore it more?
About the Potato wharf, it's exactly next to the River Medlock last part coming from the culvert going to the River Irwell, so in the final episode of the Medlock story you may be able to revisit the place of the former little white house.
Cheers Daniel, last part of Medlock coming soon
love the videos,love english history,would love to join you on your adventures,not much history
in canada,miss home very much
All these sparkley new flats and shops will be a huge slum in the next 20 years
In the 80's the area around Potato Wharf was home to several house boats and a small community lived there. I think they were all evicted when they started to upgrade the area.
Typical Simon. Small people being walked all over
Lived in an early Victorian terrace as a kid with a bedroom above what was called the wash house (dads workshop?) - single brick, single glazed no insulation - was very cold and damp in winter
Hi Trev, yeah same here. Although I dont think it was single brick. My god that would have been condemned ??
The house was two bricks thick I think but the wash-house was like the outside loo single brick - loved your post about Hopwood Hall - that was a different place all together : )
It's funny but the area round Angel Meadow or St. Michael's Flags was for well-heeled people originally until sadly it became a slum. I think St. Michael's Church was a late survivor only being demolished in the 1930's? Did you see the Time Team dig on Angel Street concerning Richard Arkwright's Mill? It was the progenitor of all later steam powered mills. They went into cellars like you filmed. Must have been absolutely appalling for people living like troglodytes. The area south of Oxford Road was known as you might know, Little Ireland and typhoid and cholera were rife probably like around Angel Meadow.
Other churches that have gone are of course the classical St. Peter's in St. Peter's Square, a cross now Mark's the site. One I remember as a kid on Tib Street hence the name Church Street street and the end of Thomas Street was were the multi storey car-park was built. I think it was called St. Paul's.
There was the famous All Saints sadly this was bombed in WWII. It's on Oxford Road and marked by a park next to Mcr. Met. University. The church opposite, Holy Name thankfully survived. All Saints is immortalised by Impressionist paintings by Adoplhe Valette (L.S.Lowry's teacher).
St. Clements was demolished to build Stevenson Square. On Liverpool Road the Church of St. Matthew existed next to the Cast Iron City Market building and MOSI. The Sunday School still exits I think and the Primary School is a bijou hotel! Thankfully St. Mary's Mulberry Street (The Hidden Gem) survives and is supposed to be the first Roman Catholic Church built after the Reformation.
The new area of St. John's (Granada) housed another lost Church. This was demolished in the 1920's ☹ but not before some of It's stained-glass was saved and transferred to St. Ann's Church. There was St. Mary's that you often see on old paintings with a very distinctive tower and steeple near St. Mary's Parsonage West of Deansgate.
Going down John Dalton Street from Albert Square on your right is St. James's Square now being developed into apartments (previously only offices). This was the site of a Church dedicated to St. James. There was another Church of St. James at the western end of Portland Street (near Chinatown). The B of England gold vaults were built on it. A curiosity is the white "Portland"? Stone confection now owned by Bruntwood called St. James's Building that was built for the Callico Ascociation next to the Palace Theatre.
Thankfully the Cathedral exists. Have you heard of Hyde's Cross? The remains of it are preserved in Chethams Hospital. Corporation Street was a relatively new street being built circa 1848? Until then Millgate was the route out up to Scotland Bridge. Shudehill was a rabbit-warren of tudor and Jacobean streets. There is an old map of Mcr, Green's Map and curiously Todd Street then known as Toad lane survives. When Corp. St. was constructed Hyde's Cross which I think was opposite the Printworks on Withy Grove, was removed to it's present location. I presume that is why Cross St. Is called that. As a kid I remember a half-timbered (medieval/Tudor-looking) building where Withy Grove turns into Nicholas Croft. All went when the Arndale came and it's near where the access incline for vehicles is.
👍
Another great video. For further info on Angel Meadow I recommend a book by Dean Kirby entitled Angel Meadow-Victorian Britain’s most savage slum.
Keep up the good work
Great video again Martin. Thank you. And please, someone do something about the plastic.
Hi john, i live in Germany for the last ten years, and not a plastic or glass bottle in sight! every shop has a machine where you pop your glass milk bottle /can or plastic pop bottle into a hole! and in the bottom is a conveyer belt for crates!
it counts the bottles and Crates and even how many bottles in the crate, then at the end it spews out a ticker tape, which you can redeem in the shop against your shopping or cash back! 25 cents a bottle, no idea what for a crate!
and even if you are lazy and drop a bottle in the rubbish bin in town, some old guy will appear on a bike at night and go around all the bins and make a fortune , ;-) why the heck we not do that back home in Britain i have no idea! we used to have deposit when i was a kid
Thanx Julian. I live in New Zealand although I was born in Wirral. We are finally starting to do something here about plastic although it needs much more effort. I went to Bali in August for a holiday and was horrified at the plastic there. You certainly wouldn't want to swim in the ocean despite its beautiful beaches.
A trick I have used is to place a sheet of thin A4 paper over an old map on the laptop screen and use a felt tip to outline the main roads and x mark points of interest. Then place this outline over Google satellite image and use rotate and zoom to match up orientation and scale. This is a simple low tech and accurate method for finding the location of demolished buildings.
I've dug holes into that sandstone with a machine, we had to use a rockwheel, it went soft when water touched it, but was solid otherwise, off chester rd, near key 103, I've mentioned it before m8
Ahh ok cheers Kevin, its very flaky isnt it
@@MartinZero Yeah mate, great videos aswell
6:40 🤯😱 Wow... wow.
I want to go over that bridge too. It was very useful like bridges are. However it’s now been closed for about 10 years and it still hasn’t opened.
Loving these videos keep up the good work 👋👋
Thanks Nathan 😃👍
You need to get yourself a Drone that has a camera on it... It would be a game changer and the footage you'd catch would be unreal people would love watching that!
Hi Martin , would like for you to see some photographs I had taken of a Old Chain Works I worked at in the mid 80s not far from the Hacienda
If it makes you feel any better, I crashed my first Mavic Pro into a bridge over a river.....tried to find it without success. Bought a replacement and (fingers crossed) still got this one. BTW, I think the majority of drone losses are due to user error.
Yes mine was definitely user error
Cellar dwellings. The brick walls separated neighbours, sometimes just a curtain would be used. Each 'room' represents a family. Read; Fred Egnels, The condition of the working class.
Yup, I did and it was good 👍
There is still a good picture of the old building at Castlefield on Google Maps street view if you go further along Potato Wharf. You can take a screenshot of it if you wish.
Love that music :)
Someone mentioned, Why don't they clean it up. Well at the risk of being totally politically incorrect ( Non- PC ) . In the U.S. they'd probably get convicts on a Day Out to do it ? .... : S
PS : Great Vid as always Martin 👍 ..... . . . and by the way, that red rock is all Manchester and Stockport . you must have heard of the tunnels around Petersgate and Chestergate, the old Air Raid Shelters etc
Yeah I know of the tunnels in the sandstone 👍
Great vid, 👍
Good video as usual Martin, just a little piece of constructive criticism.... see if you can get a mic for your back bedroom intros, little bit too much echo!! Thank you again for the video! 👍
What is the song playing? Great nostalgic feel ..great video too :)
I'm sure there was a cement factory here until recently. Castlefield that is.
Theses are the old slum housing that was situated near angel meadow I seen this first hand being excavated back in 2005 Tony Robinson and the time team were there got to meet him wile I was working on angel meadow renovating the single large wall situated inside the excuvated grounds became the new Cis building the history of Manchester is vast all the buildings from our industrial past long gone apart from few mills now fancy apartments we should preserve these buildings to pass on to the next generation to be proud of our city of Manchester 🐝
Hi Shaun yep it would be good to keep one of these digs layed out to see so people can visit. Its awful that they get teared up after the dig
Martin Zero yes i agree would be great to see has such a shame to lose Thease gems of our industrial past great videos hopefully post more in future a joy to watch also educational to our future generations to come. 👍🏻🐝
Ahhh beat me to it lol. I watched the time team episode the other day.. Im proper jealous you got to see it
The developers of Potato Wharf are building two more apartment blocks on the land in Castlefield by the railway bridge.
I suspected so Tony. More samey apartments
It’s scandalous how run down parts of Manchester are, such amazing heritage and it’s mostly left to rot then swept away by shiny glass apartments
Brilliant vid again thanks
ICBM.PIRATE Thank you 😊 👍
They are the basement dwellings of the terraced houses, would have had families living in them, no running water, no sanitation one toilet shared by 50-100 people. Hell on earth basically
Yep thats what they are James 👍
My Grandparents the Tevnans had the Exile of Erin pub,
Have you ever been under the royal exchange building another world roads and turn pikes loads of interesting stuff for a guy like you 👍
Have you done any exploration of the old Granada site, to see if any of the canals in the basement have been uncovered?
I would love to do that 👍
The map of 1848 map showing Baptist Street shows this block containing 'The Balloon Public House' and 'Daikin Court'. 'The Balloon' may have been renamed 'The Balloon Vaults' later, however I can't find an image.
Ahh great stuff. Wonder if its after the guy that flew the Balloon to Radcliffe ?
@@MartinZero I'm not sure TBH... Could have been worse though... He could have landed in Rochdale!
It’s worth remembering that the offshoot to the canal at Grocers Warehouse used to have a water level much lower. Much of that stretch of the canal was once the same level as the canal in Castlefield Basin. It was also covered too, it was only later when the locks were being built that they opened up the canal to the daylight.
Cool idea of photograph old things not long for this world. Guard rail to guard rail will get around that "fence" or a drone.
fences and security never stopped Ally Law.
Martin the Uni of Manchester have a set of Adsheads Maps on their website , a couple are of the Castlefield Area (St Johns Ward) they date from 1851 you might be be able to gather what that building was from them, hope this helps.
Hi Mike, right I will look. If you have a link can you drop it in thanks
www.library.manchester.ac.uk/search-resources/special-collections/guide-to-special-collections/map-collection/online-map-collection/
Thanks Mike, Ive saved that to favourites
I used to work at h j hamblys drum merchants in 80s
another great film martin on baptes st is that old building the old pot of beer pub i used to go in there about 16 years ago about ten years ago it was all boarded up
I think I went in The Pot o Beer as well years ago. Wasn't it a real ale pub or something ?
I seen a film on Angle meadow once it was the worst slum area in Manchester full of single storey houses so should imagine thats what your looking at
I think Hambleys were to do with used 45gallon drums. The "CO" could be the start of "CONTAINERS".
Ahh ok, was it a sheet metal factory then ? maybe
No idea. The 45 gallon drums could be a faulty memory, I'm only 51%sure.