Well Road Hill and surrounding area prior to demolition, Douglas

Date(s): December 1973

Scope & Content: The chimney stood part of the way down Well Road Hill, on the right-hand (south) side. The chimney was part of a tannery, which processed the hides of cattle sold for slaughter at the market which gave its name to Market Street (what lots of people now call Back Strand Street was made up of Market Street, Back Strand Street and Wellington Square; the surviving bit of Back Strand Street is now just a short cul-de-sac off the former, leading to the south goods entrance into the Strand shopping centre).

The photo looks northwards. The centre of the area where the cars are parked was once occupied by a free-standing building, in a yard surrounded by the buildings visible in the picture. To judge by what is shown on the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 mapping of 1866, this central building housed the liming and tanning pits. The other buildings on the north, south and west sides of the yard would have made up the rest of the tannery, where dyeing and drying would have been undertaken, whilst to the east was the Well Road Wesleyan Methodist chapel, opened in 1837 and closed in 1950: the chapel is just out of shot to the right.

The yard was eventually roofed over with corrugated iron and for a time was used as a storage area for old vehicles and scrap metal. It was around this time that it was referred to as Jackie Fayle’s yard.

The photograph is one of a set of about 16 taken by Manx Press Pictures in 1973 ahead of demolitions in the area which cleared the way for the construction of Chester Street carpark and Markwell House. The site lies almost exactly under Markwell House.

The building beyond and behind the building to the right of chimney was on the other side of Well Road Hill, where Chester Street carpark now stands, and was once owned by Nicholson Bros., painters and decorators. The peak of the dormer which just peeps over the ridge of the nearer building was above the big window that lit John Miller Nicholson’s studio, which was upstairs over the Nicholson Bros office and paint-store. It would appear that the Manx Press Pictures photographer was given access to Nicholsons’ (and one or two other buildings) and some of the photos are taken from JM Nicholson’s second floor studio and other upstairs rooms, providing views across the rooftops in the area.

Language: eng

Item name: photograph

Collection: Photographic Archive

Level: ITEM

ID number: PG/0495/1

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