From the Reporter files - Thursday 21st August 2025

Going to Ashton Wakes Fair was the highlight of the school holidays for generations of youngsters.

The rides and sideshows continued to draw the crowds in August 1969, despite moving to a different site.

Opinion was divided as to whether the old goods yard on Oldham Road was the right choice. 

Having a jolly good time on  the ‘Jet Car’ were Julia Hughes, aged ten, Jean Hughes, 11, and Jean McCarthy.

More than 400 anxious teenagers signed a petition pleading with Co-op bosses to save a much-loved Droylsden nightspot.

Rumours were rife that the Top Twenty Club, above the Co-op store on the corner of Manchester Road and Market Street would be closed, following complaints about noise from a neighbouring shopkeeper. 

September 17, 1969 was the big day when Marks and Spencer opened its doors for the first time on Warrington Street, opposite Ashton market.

Built at a cost of £750,000 the new store offered the full range of ‘St Michael’ fashions and foods - a magnet for shoppers from all the surrounding towns.  

Hattersley Cub Scouts, who had recently completed a Hyde district football ‘double’, were rewarded with a guided tour of Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium.

They were thrilled to see the trophy room laden with cups and pennants including many from overseas clubs.

Each lad was presented with a specially designed badge in recognition of their successful season.

The visit was arranged by Cllr Ken Ward, the Cubs’ football organiser.

Denton’s West End would soon have a modern dual carriageway, following the widening of Manchester Road - but council planners warned there would still be bottlenecks at Reddish Bridge and Crown Point.

September 24, 1969 was the scheduled date for the new A57 carriageway to open, with motorists likely to have a minimum five-year wait until it was connected to the proposed Denton relief road (M67).

Dukinfield Council would continue negotiations with British Rail to take over a stretch of disused line between Crescent Road and King Street.

There were calls for the “ugly railway arches” to be demolished and the embankment to be planted with shrubs and trees. 

Oldham Batteries employees boarded two specially chartered trains at Denton Station for a day out by the sea.

The annual trip to Blackpool was the best attended in the firm’s history with more than 1,000 workers on board.

They had even more to smile about following a surprise announcement from chairman Orlando Oldham that their productivity bonus for 1969 would go up by 20 per cent. 

Firemen from Philips Park station thought someone was spinning them a line when they got a call out to Crabtree Lane, Clayton - to save the fish in the Ashton Canal.

A member of a local anglers’ association had noticed fish struggling to breathe due to a lack of oxygen and asked the crew to come and ‘aerate’ the water.

The caller, Mr Peart, of Tame Street, Denton, explained their distress was caused by the recent lack of rainfall, adding that a number of fish were “actually drowning.”

Months earlier, the stretch of water had been re-stocked with over 2,000 fish - tench, roach and perch.

Two firemen attended with a portable pump to “move the water about”. As they did so, large amounts of mud and debris of all sorts came floating to the surface but fortunately most of the fish were saved.