Dale Street

Today I had to go into both Southport and Manchester by train so I was able to not use the transport interchange at Burscough Bridge. With no ticket office at the station I endeavoured to buy the tickets for this excursion  on the train but by the time the ticket man reached me the train had reached Southport so I bought them at that station.
My meeting in Manchester was in Dale Street. Some of you might remember stopping here on the Cheshire Ring to buy the license to descend the Rochdale Nine from a little hut  in the car park.
After my meeting, therefore, I walked down to the bottom of the street, where it meets Dulcie St.

My train had brought me into Victoria Station and as I made my way I spied this pub with he odd name:

The Lower Turk's Head

I wonder how that name came about.
What indeed is a lower Turk's head?

Starting the Rochdale Nine in 2017

There is still a car park at the junction of Dale St and Dulcie St but the area does not have the aura it had in the 1970s. I always found it a little foreboding, like buying a ticket for hell.
The start of the Rochdale Nine always  seemed to be cloaked in dark mists and shadows but perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me.

Entrance to the Ashton & Peak Forest Canals in 2017

 And the Ashton Canal seemed never seemed any  more inviting.