I've been watching all emails on this Rootsweb List and have to pose the question - does Mike Morris ever have a break from map searching, etc.? I've never had the need to ask him a question and am totally amazed at his readiness to assist, considering he was offline for a while due to ill health. Carol from Warners Bay in New South Wales, Australia

Hi Carol, thank you, that was such a nice compliment. Believe me I do have another life, but I like the queries that pop up on the lists they are a challenge, its like a morning crossword puzzle that has to be filled in before the day begins, I can sit at my command post, with a cup of tea. Then get engrossed or carried away. The mental images flow. I can picture the route along Rochdale road that I use to cycle when I lived in Middleton and worked in central Manchester close to Piccadilly in Ancoats. The same applied to the various ways/routes to get to a poplar entertainment area known as Belle Vue to the south east of the city. I have walked these streets and roads many times. They look great distances on a map, but the people, the shops and general goings on, made for an interesting walk back to the area by the Manchester cathedral, where I would catch a bus to get to Middleton. I did this most Saturday afternoons coming from a roller skating rink to the south of Belle Vue. It took over an hour. But I had time to kill. Wartime Hulme is another area. It wasn't just rows and rows of terraced houses. Amongst the rows of houses were shops, pubs, pie shops, fish and chips. Off licence stores that sold food and drink. The main road such as Stretford road was full of shops all the way west to Stretford. Streets such as Jackson street, Preston street through to Alexander road in Moss Side were actually busy main roads that ran from Oxford road close to the Manchester town centre down to Stretford road. This ran through Chorlton on Medlock and Hulme into Moss Side and was lined with shops and seven movie houses and two live theatres. Buses and trams ran in what seemed like minutes, not a half hour wait for the next one. Honest! I am delighted when I can use my memory, do some detective work and locate through odd clues a past address. I feel I am doing my bit like so many others on the list to help other list members and make this an interesting hobby. Hopefully we shall attract lots of new members that will stick around and enjoy the Lancashire humour, the stories and our company. I can conjure up a mental picture of the view from Cambridge street a short distance to the west from Oxford road. I could look from this street further west and have an unobstructed view all the way to Jackson street. There were no houses it was flattened. Yet Gaythorn gasworks was still standing as was the single small street I lived in named Daniel street. Those houses and buildings that were still standing had been standing in this spot since the mid 1800's Sorry!!! I do get carried away..................... grin All my best and my thanks Mike Mike Morris Toronto Canada ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carol Battishill" <cbattishill1@optusnet.com.au> To: <ENG-MANCHESTER-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 4:26 AM > I've been watching all emails on this Rootsweb List and have to pose the > question - does Mike Morris ever have a break from map searching, etc.? > I've never had the need to ask him a question and am totally amazed at his > readiness to assist, considering he was offline for a while due to ill > health. > > Carol from Warners Bay in New South Wales, Australia > > > > ~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~ > > Except for personal messages, please post replies to the list. > Other people can learn from them! > > ~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~ > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ENG-MANCHESTER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message