Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 1st July, 2025)

They would have been built against the wall so people could get up and down them when they where unloading or loading a cart or a lorry.

I would just like to add that this photo is taking me back a few years when I last walked through this entry with a nearly dead owl under my arm
that I had just rescued from tangled fishing line at Worthington lake and was taking to the vets.
To get some publicity the vets got in touch with the BBC who did a news feature all about it.

Just at first glance I thought I was looking at somewhere such as York or Chester. What a fascinating old passage. There are some steps just like those in The Black Horse pub in Hellifield, which is sadly closed down at the moment, but that was the first time I had ever seen them and Peter had to explain what they were.

Very interesting photo Colin , you think...what, why & how.
Something so easily missed, like the swallow's nests !

The stone walls are a lot older than the wooden ceiling/ roof . It must have just been an entry / passage way at one time obviously. The stone flagged floor is very uneven and sloping as well. There must be drains at that end. An interesting photo to study there’s a lot of history to old Standish.
Incidentally I remember a lovely dress shop on the High St under the name of Barbara’s. A place to go for anything special for a wedding etc.
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I imagine climbing up those ‘steps’ with a bag of flour on your back would have hard work! Perhaps the deeds to the buildings at either side would reveal what was intended.

Welcome back, Colin. Don't let the knockers get to you, are a good poster

Very interesting photo and information Colin.

I assume that they lock those double doors at night. If so then how do the swallows get in and out when locked?

Veronica, Barbara's of Standish was there when I worked in the chemists 1970-1973 and it's still there.....I see it regularly when we pass through Standish. I bet the fashions sold there have changed over the years.

Irene, don't keep it a secret what did your Peter say the steps were for.

I'm more interested in the Swallows nest.

Colin well spotted the two nests are they swallows or Swifts it’s hard to define sometimes,brings back memories of a nest just outside our bedroom window that was used for years and the chicks perching on the telephone wire singing away when we lived up Snydale.

Swifts nest higher up on buildings roof tops, under cutters etc. While Swallows nest lower down in garages, barns and outbuilding as long there access all the time.

John you had fantastic views living ‘up Snydale’ with all the farmland and Rivington on the doorstep. I’ve often wondered what the Water Tower is like inside as a residence. Lovely surroundings up there.

Owd Reekie, there might be a bird flap or more likely have their own key.

Like Sue says, Swifts nest higher up on building roof tops, under gutters and Swallows nest lower down in garages, barns and outbuildings; they also have different shaped tails.

On this very day in 1858, Charles Darwin presented his ‘Theory Of Evolution’ to the Linnean Society in London, a place I have visited near Piccadilly Circus on a few occasions.
I cannot recall any documented evidence that he espoused that birds would evolve the ability to use keys, he might however have thought that Humans would invent Cat Flaps and that some bird species would evolve to use Cat Flaps to their advantage. Perhaps this example was to let them access their comfortable abodes after the pubs in Standish had closed.
That’s Colin’s Theory Of Evolution!

Veronica that’s very true but I extended and extended with the thoughts of selling for my pension pot but miss the location a lot,having said that we have brilliant neighbours where we are which makes up for the everything.

Colin I wouldn’t think it possible to carry much up those steps as I’ve done some humping bags of flour and corn working at the farm and Harvey’s Bakery but they may have used an hoist and used the steps for themselves but would be interesting to know exactly what they were used for.

The number of times I've walked through that passage must be about 40 /50 times, going from Potters Bar car park to get to the shops and vice versa, and Ive never noticed that ladder.
Well spotted Colin, great find.

Clever Sue.

There's also an ancient hook on the joist at the top of the wall near the upright steel beam. Looking closer has that beam/ladder been put there to help support the wall with it bulging and is spalling at the bottom too, though if I was around 300 years old I'd have a lean and be flaky, probably they did have a problem with drains too and it affected the wall, as the floor is all concrete now, whereas I'm sure it was either stone flagged or cobbled.

Many years ago, I was that the RSPCA was to renovate an unused storeroom upstairs at Gilmore's, and for them to install a cattery up there. If it was above here, I wouldn't know, because even though I'm still a member I had stopped volunteering by then. The Gilmore's sold up later too with the new owners IVC Evidensia keeping the name Gilmore's vets.
I've no idea if the RSPCA still use the cattery that's here, and though unwanted dogs would also at one time be kenneled here, they've been going to Manchester Dogs Home for some time.
There are also House Martins that build precarious nests anywhere then can. The Martins, Swifts and Swallows are all very industrious birds, always busy catching insects and building and repairing their nests with mud, and they know where to go for this mud every year too, the only place I know around here with a supply of water and mud is the pond down School Lane, but perhaps they by instinct know differently.

The entry is open at the end of the building,So that is where the birds can get in & out.I think the building used to be a food shop called Gregory,s also the vets has 2 numbers 52 & 54.

Like Sue, Mick is absolutely correct about the Swifts and Swallows.
Very clever people.
Like Sue, I'm more interested in the Swallows nest. Love wildlife and flowers.

Mick your identification and analysis to describe the Swifts and Swallows are spot on. Great info.

Mick am I right in thinking that swifts have a white breast and swallows are all dark feathered.

Very interesting Cyril. Nobody explains it better. Especially with you being a volunteer for the RSPCA. I realise I said the floor were stone flags but peering closer I see it’s concrete. ( think my cataract needs seeing to I was told it was ok for a while longer!) I always learn something when you comment.

So many names just one person……

You have my sympathy Veronica, as I too have a cataract growing, they're a nuisance when reading.

John, this from the Wild Life Trust is very interesting in explaining the differences and identification:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife/how-identify/how-identify-swifts-swallows-sand-martins-and-house-martins

Numbers and letters get distorted with me Cyril. When I’m buying something in the Supermarket I think Oh! that's cheap ! Then I realise the first number is missing….very strange.

That’s excellent Cyril.