4th May 2023
Thursday evening was once again upon us and as promised I arranged an adventure for Graham and myself. Before we could begin there was a few issues I had to deal with. Firstly there was the issue with my bike, the rear hydraulic brake had ceased to function and I had taken it back to Halfords in Bolton for them to fix it as it was only 6 months old, only to be told that “ moving parts on bikes are only covered under warranty for ……. a month” hence to say this is still an ongoing issue. Secondly my car had gone in for repair with Jason Statham AKA “The Mechanic “ I had stopped off at the Mechanic’s house to check on my car, all was good. As we stood chatting, Graham rode passed, waved at us and continued towards my house. Jason turned to me and said “did he not see you?” Obviously not I thought, so I went to meet him at my flat. He said he’d seen The Mechanic but not me, oh well.
I explained the situation with my bike , still not having a functioning rear brake and suggested we have a slow ride around Bolton town centre to see what changes had occurred since our last visit.
Heading towards the centre we came upon the new cycle lanes around Manchester Rd and Trinity St. Unfortunately we hit all the lights on red but Graham pointed out that it was a good idea to keep cyclists safe, I was in agreement. Just along the road we came to the site of the now gone Parker’s Garage and Ian Anthony’s BMW garages , now just a pile of rubble. We reminisced over the loss of these before continuing. It was then we noticed the sorry state of a former Chinese restaurant on the corner of Great Moor Street. We pulled over onto the pavement to get a photo, this done I was just about to carry on around the corner where Graham called out “Stop !!” We can’t go we’ve got to wait until lights are on green “ I pointed out that we were on the pavement but then he whispered “ There’s a police officer there “ and I noted there was he was stood on the pavement in front of us but I was still about to go but Graham was insistent that we waited ” don’t want to get arrested do we “ he said . OMG I thought but I waited nevertheless.
Our next stop was outside the former Wheatsheaf pub on Newport Street, a rather splendid building in its time. I suggested that we have a look at some of the more interesting buildings or what remains of them around the centre, so that’s just what we did. It was at this moment I spotted Graham had a backpack, asking what was in it he replied he had his waterproofs. Puzzled, I asked why ,”is it going to rain ?” He replied “oh yeah later”. Unfortunately for me I wasn’t prepared for rain just hoping it wouldn’t catch us out, not really good for an extreme biker !
We rode down Newport St, the main shopping area near the town hall, it was almost deserted but had some pretty little trees in pots laid out. We arrived at the old Moor Lane bus station, now completely demolished with building work going ahead on new housing development for Bolton at Home. Across the way on the site of the now demolished McGregors butchers , a newsagent and Greenhalgh’s craft bakery there was more construction work taking place, hopefully these will help to improve Bolton. The sight across the street is the empty space where once stood the splendid Odeon cinema, another building gone never to be seen again. We rode down the side of the demolished cinema noting some old ironwork’s still standing. We stopped to take a photo as we set off. I heard a loud thud behind me, Graham had rode straight into a road sign, daft bugger I thought, his excuse was he still had his sunglasses on and hadn’t seen it, well that’s two bumps he’s had in as many adventures.
From here we doubled back towards Deansgate where some more demolition had taken place. This was where you would have found the Blue Boar pub and Sweetens Bookshop as well as many other premises, now all gone. Behind us was what remains of the large Whitaker’s store now occupied by a furniture shop as we looked through the window Graham noticed a large bed with pointed legs, spotting this he stated that “ you can’t put them straight onto carpet, you’d need coasters” ,mesmerised by his wisdom I sat there, now Graham had spotted the opening times sign on the door and noted they should still be open, sounding annoyed that it wasn’t. It was then I spotted what we thought was a woman sitting in the back reading a book, it turned out it was just the reflection of the billboard behind us FFS. Next door is Slater’s Menswear so I took the opportunity to window shop for a suit for my upcoming wedding to Louby Lou, which proved fruitful finding one I liked, winner winner chicken dinner.
We had been looking at all these buildings and we then realised that most people won’t even look upwards when passing by, what stunning architecture they’re missing. With this now in mind we set off to see the old Preston’s of Bolton building which luckily is still as wonderful as ever but we passed a sorry sight the now closed Marks & Spencer store one of the last large department stores in Bolton. On the opposite corner of the old Preston’s building stands another fantastic piece of architecture sadly and like most is in a poor state of repair . At this point Graham was a bit perturbed; he thought the Ye Old Pastie Shoppe had gone too but I assured him it was still going strong.It was here waiting to cross the road i noticed a rather odd looking crossing, consisting of two illuminated signs at different heights
The weather was now beginning to change and the temperature had dropped and big dark clouds loomed overhead, regardless we carried our adventure on up to the Ford dealers on Higher Bridge street, which used to be Gordon’s Ford with a beautiful art deco frontage sadly now gone.
On to Bark street now where they’re building more new houses but these looked absolutely tiny, we couldn’t work out how they were laid out but we said we would return later to see how they had developed.
The rain now was beginning to fall and we took the decision to head home noting the fantastic iron work on the bridge on Marsden Rd .Pedalling with vigour we were soon on Gorses Road only a matter of minutes from my house, it was here Graham said “ look pal it’s not been raining here “ even before he’d finished his sentence the heavens opened. Now like I mentioned I was almost home and dry (pun intended) but Graham still had a distance to go, so with the light fading he stopped to put his lights on , this proved easier said than done he couldn’t find the switch, after a bit of fiddling around he managed to get them on and off he set in the pouring rain promising to message me when he was back safely. This he did as Val was waiting for him after a phone call from a rather concerned granddaughter that grandad was ok, he was just a little cold and wet.
