I’d wanted to see the tramway for a while so after a brief stop there we went for a look at the cinema but it was pretty knackered, a non exploring mate of mine came with me so it was chilled out.
The tramway was opened to the public on May 18th 1895 and is the oldest working cable tramway in Britain. It was a maximum gradient of 1 in 7 and was previously powered by Suction Gas engines, Town Gas and then Oil before being converted to electric in 1928. The notes on the entrances/exits suggested that the site will (would have) been up and running by summer 2010 but the dedicated webpage now states ‘early 2011’. Near enough a quarter mile from the bottom stands a cafe as well as a Dodgem ring, we dug about inside a nearby shed and found some fairly old dodgems sat under covers – about 15 in all.
We headed out to the cinema after chilling out sat in some of the dodgems, some sort of walkers group came past with a few odd expressions on their faces. From what I’d seen the cinema was nothing too great to look at but it seems to have gotten worse.
The cinema had its foundation stone laid in 1932 to back 1200 seats at a cost of 25 grand. The building was designed by a bloke from Manchester called Ernest Dawson, it’s front facade stood at 130ft long with its own self contained shops. It was first opened under the Shipley Picture House Company and was later owned by the Glenroyal Cinema Company, in its older days like many others it fell into the hands of a bingo company.
Thanks!
