38 Saturday 24 October 2020 Astley Cheetham Art Gallery

October 25, 2020

With Tier 3 restrictions now in place, Simon chose this one from a list of museums in Greater Manchester. A phone call the day before confirmed it would still be open.

The weather was dreadful so we retreated to the waiting room after buying our tickets to Stalybridge. We had it to ourselves.

We followed the trainline.com in changing at Salford Crescent but when the train appeared on the destination board, it became clear that we could have stayed on the first train until Manchester Victoria. Simon was impressed with the view of the hills when we alighted at Stalybridge Station.

The first thing we spotted as we left the station was The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn, the longest pub name in Britain though it's more of a nightclub than a pub these days.

We then went looking for the post office as I had a cassette to post. It turned out to be in the same building as the art gallery. The gallery turned out to be in one upstairs room and while well laid out, it didn't take us long to go round it.

There was a small collection of Egyptian items as well.

I recognised this painting by Harry Rutherford as being of Rochdale Town Hall.

Simon amused himself by chasing a little girl around the floor.

After that we inspected the memorial to Jack Judge the writer of "It's A Long Way To Tipperary".

We had a brief look at the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

I've driven past this facade a number of times and wondered what it was and was disappointed to find that the two blue plaques attached to it leave you none the wiser.

We then went to Tesco's for a few items of shopping that Julie wanted. We were hoping to have lunch at Stalybridge Station's famous buffet bar but it was closed.

We caught the train to Manchester Piccadilly and went for lunch at a burger bar just outside the station. It was nice inside but we were both disappointed by the food.

We then walked down to the Arndale Centre and HMV where Simon bought the new Gorillaz album on vinyl. We then caught the Metrolink to Victoria. We had a bit of a wait for the train home but we got back at 15.10 allowing me to catch most of Dale's 2-1 victory at Shrewsbury.