St Paul's in Stalybridge around 1909

Now all the years I lived in Ashton I never visited St Paul’s Church and so here is the place as it would have looked around 1909.

It is from a series of six marketed by Raphael Tuck and & Sons who were one of the leading companies producing picture post cards.

The series has the date 1912, but one card from the series was sent in 1909 and because of the way these things worked this one could be from any time between 1909 and 1912 and may even be earlier.

Post card companies were driven by commercial interest and if a scene was popular it might be reissued long after the photographer had gone on to greater things in other places.

Those in the know will be able to pinpoint to a house number where the picture was taken.  I am minded to say from behind number 35 Stayley Drive.

That said I shall no doubt be shot down in flames.

Still if it gets a debate going I am not one to shy away from the controversy.

Picture; St Pauls’s Church from the series Stalybridge, produced by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/