Figure 1--This is the Paddling Pond, in Manchester's Hyde Park during the 1920s. Lovely animated view with a large group of children posing for the camera. The children are enjoying the padling on a bright, but not real warm summer day, but are posing for the photographer. They wear a range of outfits. Some of the boys wear school caps. For some reaon several girl wear what looks like stocking caps. The girls have stuffed their dresses in to their panties so the skirts don't get wet. The boys who mostly wore short pants just had to tale off their shoes and socks. One boy wears a bin-front rubberized rompers. This is from a collection of photographs by Jas. L. Brown, Postcard Publisher.

One usually thinks of London when Hyde Park comes up. Manchester, however, also has a Hyde Park. The site was originally the Newton Lodge estate sey in the countryside near Manchester. James Ashton purchased it (about 1620). The lodge house is situated roughly at the center of the site. It continued until the 20th century to be a private house and grounds. What is now Hyde Park was domated to the Borough of Hyde by Eveline Mary and Amy Elizabeth Ashton, daughters of Charles James Ashton (1902). It was opened to the public as a park (1904). It amenities include paddling pool, tennis court, and bowling green. A new art gallery replaced Newton Lodge (1939). The art gallery was built with a donation of £6,000 by Sir John Bayley. There are open fields to the southern boundary, with Manchester's Clarendon Road beyond. There is a railway along the north-eastern boundary, and a housing development off Lodge Lane to the north-west. The originl lodge is on Park Road. There is now a pleasure ground, with the site sloping down to a stream running through woods along the southern boundary. The site continues extant. The path system has been greatly extended. Here we see chilren enjoying the paddling pool during the 1920s (figure 1).