Hi Mike Sending this via the list as others might find it of interest. Thank you so much for all your brill maps~! You have helped enormously. Not only with the maps but your general knowledge of the wider area of Manchester. I know a lot of people don't bother with where folk lived or maps even and I can never understand why. For me, they present part of the bigger picture and really help to make the family come alive. Especially when you compare the old maps with modern ones or even a localised A-Z. Re - Belle Vue. I too went to the Speedway from being a baby (I'm told!). My first memory is standing up behind the press box and screaming for Peter Craven! Then much much later it was Peter Collins! Who incidentally is back there now in management! I don't think it's the same since they moved to the dog track and it's hard to believe the old place has houses and a car auction building there now. In the old days when the speedway was further long on Hyde road, you could just follow your nose and ears and find the track!! If the hoards of people with their racket (those things you twirled around that make the biggest noise) wasn't a clue. My gran (Lily TAYLOR) worked behind the bar at the wrestling. I know my great grandparents (Clara Lillian McGEE and Thomas William TAYLOR) married in 1906 and they lived in Beswick. My grandfather was born there too. They moved to a new house in Buckley Road, off Mount Road sometime after that. Mount road is by the dog track. You can hear the roar of the bikes easily on race night! All of the Taylor family worked at Belle Vue which I think I mentioned before. I have a couple of books that tell some of the story of Belle Vue - It's greatness and it's decline and a book on Gorton too. So if anyone wants something checking, feel free to ask. I must warn you though that unless you worked for the Zoo itself there isn't much name dropping. I was disappointed by that. Still makes interesting reading though. The Gorton book is a trawl down memory lane for the author. Hope the latter is of use to someone with family in the same area as me. Please forgive me the wake up of memories! Val Mike Morris wrote: > Hi Val, > I have sent you the map sections showing Renshaw street and another with > Belle Vue. Both from around 1898. > > I also went to the speedway at Belle Vue and the wrestling on a Saturday > night. My dad went to the dog races. > > Happy memories > Mike Morris > Toronto Canada > >