HFF: First Manchester 1148 (N648 CDB) in Rochdale - 26 April 1999 (413-15A)

Monday 26 April 1999 - First Manchester 1148 (N648 CDB), a Northern Counties bodied Dennis Dart new to Greater Manchester North in May 1996, seen in Rochdale town centre.

Rochdale has some quite substantial buildings around the Town Hall Square area (perhaps not the modern one beyond Barclays Bank).

That dominating the background in this photograph is the former Head Post Office building constructed in the 1920s which also housed the telephone exchange and mail sorting office. The local people always referred to it as ‘The General’. A number of bus services set down passengers outside and along the Esplanade (plus Newgate alongside Barclays) so it was a popular meeting point for boyfriends and girlfriends.

Talking of boyfriends and girlfriends, my late mother-in-law worked as a telephonist at The General in the mid 1940s. Her then boyfriend and future husband of 65 years, once broke the rules and climbed in through an open window for an assignation during working hours!