Old Boys Brigade Weekend – 30 Sept/1 Oct

In March this year we appealed  for memories from any Old Boys from the Oldham Boys Brigade companies and gave brief details regarding an event later in the year – Old boys contacted me from as far away as Kent, Malaga and Australia with their memories and I received some great stories.

The Boys’ Brigade  is the largest Christian uniformed youth organisation in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The Boys’ Brigade was founded in Glasgow, Scotland on 4th October 1883 by Sir William Alexander Smith, and celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2008. The original badge was an anchor and rope with the words Sure on the top bar and Stedfast on the bottom. Some years later The Boys’ Brigade amalgamated with the Boys’ Life Brigade and the red cross was added behind the anchor.

Maggie Hurley from Age UK Oldham is working alongside Barry Cooke Captain of the current South Chadderton Boys & Girls Brigade (one of only two companies left in Oldham now) organising a full weekend of Boys Brigade at George Street Chapel.

The event which will attract ‘old boys’ back to Oldham and those who never left , to catch up, reminisce and bring back some great memories along the way. The weekend event takes place on 30th Sept and 1st October at George Street Chapel. This great weekend will feature an exhibition of Oldham Boys Brigade Memorabilia, old film clips from company camps at Lyme Regis and Dawlish, and parades from 1950’s, Drill and drums and a celebration lunch on the Sunday with hopefully a parade with the current Oldham Boys & Girls Brigade.

Being a boys brigade member united local Oldham lads and now as men they still hold happy memories of the time they spent with their companies. I have received some fabulous memory’s and funny stories since my original appeal in March this year. Old Boys have contacted me from as far as Spain and Australia eager to share their wonderful reflections of their time with their Oldham Companies, it will be a great event and I am sure we will hear lots of other stories throughout the two days at George Street too.

Tickets are available from Maggie Hurley at Age UK Oldham 0161 633 0213 maggie.hurley@ageukoldham.org.uk

Saturday only ticket £5

Sat & Sunday weekend Ticket £7

Weekend Ticket to include Sunday meal £20

HOLLY LEA/217 ROCHDALE ROAD HIGH CROMPTON – road closed 2 August 7-9pm

OLDHAM BOROUGH COUNCIL ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984, SECTION 14(2)

HOLLY LEA/217 ROCHDALE ROAD HIGH CROMPTON TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF DRIVING NOTICE 2017

The Oldham Borough Council hereby gives Notice that no person shall cause any vehicle to proceed in that part of Holly Lea/217 Rochdale Road High Crompton Shaw – 60 metres west of New Barn Street for 25 metres westerly

The restrictions are required to facilitate manhole works and will be in force on Wednesday 2nd August 2017 from 7pm to 9pm or until the works are completed whichever is the lesser period

The alternative route for Vehicles affected by the restriction shall be via Rochdale Road High Crompton/Thornham Road/Fir Lane/Dogford Road/Rochdale Road Royton/Oldham Road/Rochdale Road /Shaw Road/Manchester Road/Crompton Way/Rochdale Road High Crompton and Rochdale Road High Crompton/Rushcroft Road/North Downs Road/Grampian Way/Duchess Street/Cowie Street/Smallbrook Road/Milnrow Road/Crompton Way/Rochdale Road High Crompton.

Changes to bus services – 353/354 and new 355, and the 402

Changes effective 3 or 4 September

402

Following a number of requests from local councillors and residents Service 402 was revised to additionally serve the Thornham area in January 2017.

As part of this change the service was revised to no longer serve Grasmere Road in Royton. Following feedback it is proposed to make a further revision to reinstate the service along Grasmere Road by removing it from Firbank Road, Fir Lane and Dogford Road.

Service 408 maintains an hourly daytime service along Fir Lane and Dogford Road. Residents on Firbank Road will be a maximum distance of 340 metres from hourly services 402 & 408 and frequent service 409 which maintain links to Royton, Royal Oldham Hospital and Oldham town centre.

353/354 and 355

Services 353 and 354 provide a combined hourly service on Sunday daytimes between Ashton and Uppermill.

Between Mossley and Uppermill the services follow different routes via Grasscroft (353) or Greenfield (354).

It was agreed to replace these two services with new service 355 which would operate every two hours but extend beyond Uppermill to Denshaw, via Delph providing new Sunday daytime links.

The replacement of Sunday daytime services 353 and 354 with service 355 will enable extra running time to be given to Ashton local services 38, 41 and 345 which currently interwork with services 353/354.

There are no changes proposed to the Monday to Saturday daytime services 353 and 354.

It was agreed to replace the Sunday daytime journeys on services 353 and 354 with new service 355.

For some time usage on the Sunday daytime services 353 and 354 has been very low – on average less than 4 passengers per trip.

It is proposed to completely revising the routes to maintain service between Ashton, Mossley and Uppermill (reduced from hourly to every 2 hours) but extending the service to provide new Sunday links to residents of Greenfield (Shaw Hall Bank Road, Carr Lane), Dobcross Village, Delph (Palin Wood Road) and Denshaw.

Stockport Road and Mossley Road (between Mossley and Uppermill) would no longer be served, however, usage on this section is extremely low – a sample survey showed a total of 3 passenger trips across 8 Sunday daytime journeys. All affected passengers can use Saddleworth Local Link as an alternative. Greenfield village would no longer be served by this proposal (service 354) however links to Ashton, Mossley and Uppermill are maintained by hourly service 350.

This proposal ties in with the Total Transport project which aims to improve transport links in the Saddleworth area.