m - Isle of Man Today

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4 anxmillennium
manx illennium
21
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This photograph is taken from a glass plate
negative which has been given to the Manx
Museum by a reader following the start of this
series of views from the vast collection held in the
library archive. It shows the washing floor at Laxey
which is now the Valley Gardens. On the skyline to
the left is the school which was replaced by the
present Laxey school in the mid 1920’s to the designs
of J. Mitchell Bottomley who designed other Manx
schools including Murray’s Road, St Ninian’s High
School and Four Roads School at Rushen. There does
not appear to be any electric railway to Ramsey in this
photograph. The washing floors just fell into disrepair
after the mines closed but in the post-war years a
scheme was prepared to improve the scar on the
landscape. Douglas Calder the architect/planning
officer of the LGB drew up a scheme of hard landscaping
using what was left of walls and features. In this
photograph a ladder leans against a tower of masonry
which was supporting a leat. Now it, and its twin on the
other side of the river, have concrete crowns. Other
areas have been paved, a compass set in stone, concrete
balls placed on divisions between the shoots and a war
memorial created. (MNH/gift/679)
Also from the Canon Stenning collection
comes this view of the OTC presumably in
camp. Behind the boys and on the
extreme right can just be seen bell tents but
these did not belong to the TC. This view is
taken from what became the Howstrake
Holiday Camp. The land and the first
corrugated buildings were all part of
Lagbirragh Park or Howstrake Park which
opened on 1st July 1895 but only ran for two
seasons. Mr. Cunningham who claims to have
established his holiday camp business in 1887
took a lease of the land. Jill Drower his
granddaughter in her book ‘Good Clean Fun’ tells
us how he used to bring parties of Liverpool
youths to Laxey. Of recent times it has come to
light that he was renting land from Douglas
Corporation Water Works down in the Groudle
Valley close to the old mill. Moving onto the hill
had the advantages of buildings insitu, an
impressive entrance from King Edward Road and
being closer to the Electric Railway. The season
of 1903 saw one disastrous morning when the wind
tore to shreds no fewer than 65 tents. The
following year he opened up in Douglas at Little
Switzerland. (MNH/pic/1769)
Here we have a view taken from a magic lantern
slide which shows a boat being unloaded at Port St
Mary. The horses and carts are lined up but we
cannot see what they are about to have placed in them. It
looks too clean for coal yet that is what you would expect
in the large bucket. I have selected this view for a reason;
there was a print produced of a painting by J. Aitken
showing boats tied along the breakwater at Port St Mary.
They were not steam coasters like this but they have a man
with a bent back like the man in this picture. It is a while
since I have seen these prints but I seem to remember that he
always looked too tall for the painting. (MNH/pic/805)
Back to Peel for this view of Peel by G. B.
Cowen the Ramsey photographer. In the
foreground the road bridge connects with
the quay side leading to the castle; notice the
makeshift stone wall at the end of the railings
on the left. There is no roadway running on the
harbour side of the railway station at this time,
access was via Mill Road. The railway station
building was built in 1907-1908 to the designs of
Harry Cowle (son of James Cowle architect and
builder of Douglas). It was in an arts and crafts
style of rough cast walls with half timbering,
sandstone dressings and the distinctive feature
of a red rosemary tiled roof. This was replaced
with artificial slate during the time the station
became the Fisherman’s Association
Headquarters. The tower to St Peter’s Church
stands above the collection of warehouses and
dwellings that go to make up the old part of the
town. This slide was a gift to the Manx Museum
Library in 1960 by D. Craine (MNH/pic/3604)
Following on from the
picture of the Royal
Navy Reserve in
edition number 5, here we
have another view of them on
Peel beach. In the background
the breakwater is being
extended by the use of Hercules
the giant crane that had
previously been used on the
extension of the Victoria Pier in
Douglas. It was taken to pieces
and shipped to Peel where it was
re-erected but I don’t know what
happened to it afterwards.
(MNH/pic/795)
Up on the roof but which roof sat
behind a castellated parapet? This
view was taken by Eidran Paris and
the label says Bishop’s Court Tower. I have
to admit that I have never been on the roof
of the Tower nor any other part of the roof of
Bishop’s Court so I cannot confirm the title.
It is interesting to see the chimney pots on
the chimney stacks which have been designed
to look like part of the castellation (rather like
the chimney on St Luke’s, Baldwin made into a
cross.) What a combination of roofs we have
here and look how there is an inner section of
castellation between the roofs. The original
Orry Tower was castellated then Bishop Crigan
took that military look away and turned the
tower into a Queen Anne style house. Bishop
Murray put the battlements back on the tower
and all around the rest of the building. A study
was made by the late Robert Curphey, a fine
historian with a detective stroke in his work and
published in the Manx Museum Journal of 1976
but there is room for this to be taken further.
(MNH/pic/3522)