Incredible unearthed images show how Manchester has changed over the last 100 years
22.03.2022 - 13:57
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The picture of a neat football ground dwarfed by a vast nearby factory was taken 92 years go.
The image (above) is of Manchester United's Old Trafford home next to W T Glover and Company Electric Cable Works in 1933. It is one of 400,000 aerial photographs available from today to view online.
Historic England has launched its online Aerial Photograph Explorer tool . For the first time, it allows users to search and explore an online map showing aerial photographs of England over the past 100 years.
READ MORE: 13 heartwarming photos of Manchester people back in the day that will bring you joy
There are many fascinating images of our region. Manchester city centre in 1934, with the town hall, Central Library, and Central Railway Station dominating the landscape and the same location in 1946.
The Church of St Chad's and Rochdale town hall are captured in a picture from 1926. In the same year the cotton mills of Small Brook, at Shaw, Oldham, nestled amongst hills and fields look pristine in another image.
In the 1930s, L S Lowry painted Crowther Street, which became the work entitled "A Street in Stockport". He later painted the town's famous viaduct. A photograph from 1931 shows Brinksway and the viaduct.
A 1946 shot of Manchester's Ringway Airport compares remarkably with one taken of a strangely quiet Manchester Airport with plane-free runways taken at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2021. Ringway was built in the 1930s and saw active service during the Second World War.
The airport was a centre for aircraft manufacture and it was also a base for the Air Transport Auxiliary’s No 14 Ferry Pilot Pool. The Air Transport Auxiliary transferred aircraft between manufacturing and repair facilities and RAF airfields.