Hi Doreen Well I did go round to look at the buildings next to the Railway, although I did go in the car because of the rain. Anyway the building that is being demolished is not such an old building the outside facia bricks are good quality Accrington Brick and the interior is Breeze Block (not sure about the spelling of that, but I am sure you will know what I mean), My first impression was that it could have been public toilets at sometime, my reason for thinking this is that there are two buildings obviously built at the same time but they have doors at opposite sides to each other, there used to be lots of buildings like this all over the country. So it is looks like if you are right the original houses were demolished a long time ago. I was wondering what happens to the deeds of property when the Council places a compulsary purchase order on them and then demolishes the property. Do you think that they just submit them to the Land Registry Office, if so they will be lost forever. I have a friend that bought a house on Rochdale Road that was very old indeed and we had a good look at the Deeds and they were very large but written in Old English, at the time he had to register his purchase and submit the deeds to the L.R. so we put off getting it transcribed until later, but when they came back all he got was a computer generated A4 sheet acknowledging his ownership of the land and property. He tried to get a copy of the original but was told that the old deeds were being replaced by these more modern versions, it seems very sad if this is the case. It looks as if Geoff Wellens photographs still might hold the answers, although I am fairly certain that what ever the answer is the actual building that we set off looking for is no longer there and as you know Doreen before long they could have rebuilt the whole of that area. Mind you Rochdale Council Compulsary purchased both of my grandparents shops in Rochdale itself the year before I was born and 60 years later the land was finally built on. Well back to the Lemsip I have to back back on form to do the school run on Monday. Ivy Middleton Manchester

Hi Ivy, Thanks for going to take a look at the present building. I will have a look for any available early photos when next at the library. I know that they have quite a lot for that area, but mostly later dates than req. Been looking at my maps again, and find that the building is 48 Townley St. Difficult to find info on the smaller dwellings. A lot of the old deeds (if the property was indeed registered) are now being thrown out. There are some leaflets at the library on tracing the history of houses, and Lancashire Record Office hold some documents for this area. Hope your cold has improved. Doreen. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.556 / Virus Database: 348 - Release Date: 26/12/2003