Puttstars Crazy Golf at Ashton Leisure Park

There are plans for a new Puttstars Crazy Golf centre at Ashton Leisure Park in Tameside.

Check out the Puttstars website for more information.

It'll be another new venue for us to visit on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

We've played Puttstars Mini Golf at the Rochdale Riverside location.

Mini Golf at Puttstars

Grainger Games in Ashton-Under-Lyne

We spotted the old signs for Grainger Games while having a walk round Ashton-Under-Lyne last week.

The company was founded in 1996 and ceased operations on the 28th March 2018. The Ladysmith Shopping Centre location in Ashton-Under-Lyne became a bike shop and is now a clothes shop. The racking and walls inside are still clearly still using the Grainger Games colour scheme.

We've also seen former Grainger Games stores in Stretford, Salford and Hyde. Interestingly they were all still branded and some had a few bits of stock inside!

Family Shopper - not a Happy Shopper

My recent hunts for Happy Shopper shops led me to find out about the Family Shopper brand. The stores are part of the same retail group.

This was the first Family Shopper I saw. It's in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside, Greater Manchester.

I'm still on the lookout for retro Happy Shopper stores and have been lucky to find one in Preston and a couple in Sheffield.

Old Littlewoods logo in Ashton-under-Lyne

Finding an old mosaic tile logo at the former Littlewoods shop on Stamford Street Central in Ashton-under-Lyne.

A few doors down from the old Woolworths on Stamford Street Central in Ashton-under-Lyne is a Cash Converters. The doorways to that shop also hold a link to the past.

Past meets present - the decades old Littlewoods logo and the signs of the pandemic times of 2020

Before becoming Cash Converters the building was home to Hitchens, a catalogue clearance store.

Another interesting thing about the building is that the street light is attached to the building itself, rather than on a pole.

Many thanks to Richard Eccles on Instagram for help in identifying the logo.

Old Woolworths sign in Ashton-under-Lyne

Finding an old mosaic tile logo at the former Woolworths on Stamford Street Central in Ashton-under-Lyne.

This branch of Woolies opened in 1927. It closed in the 1960s.

The building is now a charity shop for the Wooden Canal Boat Society.

I found out about this old logo on the excellent Woolies Buildings blog.

It's great to look up, down and all around while out exploring as you can see so many interesting things.

You can see still other remnants of Woolworths on the UK high street if you know where to look.

We visited the old Woolworths in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent earlier this month. It's one of the few former Woolworths shops that has not been occupied since the brand's demise in January 2009.

We also spotted an old Woolworths store in Brunstane, Edinburgh on a minigolfing trip back in August 2011. That was the Big W Woolworths store at The Jewel retail park.

Jubilee Films video shop in Ashton-under-Lyne

A look at the Jubilee Films video shop in Ashton-under-Lyne.

Video, DVD and Laser Disks!

While doing some grocery shopping in Ashton-under-Lyne we took a look at the old Jubilee Films video shop on Old Street.

Jubilee Films closed its doors in 2013, the same year as Blockbuster

 

I wonder how many Laser Disks (sic) were still being rented or sold before the shop closed its doors for the final time?

A wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man in Ashton-under-Lyne

Spotting a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man in Ashton-under-Lyne.

A wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man advertising Albion Mill Carpets in Ashton-under-Lyne

On my travels last month I saw three wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men. They're always fun to see and I'd gone quite a while without seeing any.

It's always fun seeing airdancer advertising

So it was a nice surprise to see one advertising Albion Mill Carpets while we were exploring Ashton-under-Lyne.

Last month I saw a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man on The Clubhouse Stoke's Crazy Golf course in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, another advertising Mr Bubbli's Car Wash in Leicester and an airdancer advertising Stockport Powder Coating Ltd.

The abandoned Crazy Golf course at Stamford Park in Stalybridge

A look at the Crazy Golf course at Stamford Park in Stalybridge.

This year has flown by and we've made visits to 64 more courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. One of those courses was local to us and a real bonus to find.

As we have been busy exploring our new local area since moving north in the summer of 2016 we've checked out local villages, towns and cities and also had a look at a number of parks in the area to see what we can visit. While looking at the Ashton-under-Lyne area we spotted what looked to be the outline of a minigolf course.

On the 4th February we finally made some time to visit Stalybridge to look for the Crazy Golf course there. We're glad we did.

The 9th hole of the abandoned Crazy Golf course in Stamford Park, Stalybridge - it was a unique layout!

The abandoned Crazy Golf course became the 797th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We're now up to 859 course visits on our travels since September 2006.

 

Following our trip to Stalybridge the next courses we visited were in Sweden.

Some of our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour stats:

• 859 courses visited overall
• 821 in the British Isles
• 64 visited in 2018
• 33 played this year
• 503 played overall since September 2006

Related blog posts:
- Stalybridge
- Abandoned
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

A visit to the Portland Basin Museum in Ashton-under-Lyne

A look at the Collector's World exhibition at the Portland Basin Museum in Ashton-under-Lyne.

We recently visited Ashton-under-Lyne and the Portland Basin Museum to see the Collector's World exhibition which is on display until the end of February.

I'd seen the Collector's World listed in the Tameside Reporter newspaper and as a collector of many things myself it was interesting to see the varied display of people's collections in the museum.

The various collections were displayed in some very nice pods

Medal, sticker and bottle collections

The Portland Basin Museum is well worth a visit and the curators there were incredibly enthusiastic and helpful. We only had time for a flying visit, but we'll be back for a longer look around in the future.

We had a great time in Ashton-under-Lyne

The Portland Basin Marina

Interacting with one of the museum's social history exhibits in the 1914-1918 Street

Eat Less Bread. Wise words indeed

Visit the Portland Basin Museum website for details of upcoming displays and opening times.

Link:
- Portland Basin Museum

Related blog posts:
- Ashton-under-Lyne
- Museum

Laser Disk shopping!

I've found the perfect shop to take over to expand my business empire!

Laser Disks!?

I'm sure there's still money to be had in the VHS tape and Laserdisc markets...

A trip to Ashton-under-Lyne railway station

Visiting Ashton-under-Lyne railway station.

While visiting Ashton-under-Lyne and the great Portland Basin Museum for the first time we swung by the railway station for a quick look for some classic Northern trains.

Train nerd

We were in luck as we saw BOTH 16:34 services arriving at and departing from the station! One was a two-coach Class 150 Sprinter heading to Huddersfield, the other was a four-coach Pacer Railbus en route to Wigan Wallgate.

Bound for Wigan Wallgate

Off to Huddersfield

One of the non-stopping trains passing through Ashton-under-Lyne station

Videos:
- Northern Sprinter and Pacer Railbus trains at Ashton-under-Lyne station
- Northern Sprinter train on a railway bridge at Normanton Road, Cheadle
- GBRf 66737 with Drax freight trucks at Cheadle Heath

Related blog posts:
- Train nerd
- Trains