A bit of history on Beech Road ……

It’s Sunday and so it’s left over day.

Left over Sunday, 2026

One of the joys of growing old is the sheer reservoir of food memories that sit ready to tumble out and become one of those simple meals using the odd items which sit neglected and in need of some attention.

101 Beech Road, circa 1901-1921

And while I have embraced that now popular mantra of shop daily and use stuff up, Monday is the start of the week and with that comes the main shopping expedition.

I do smile at that now received knowledge that we should shop everyday and avoid food waste.

As if these twin guides to life are new, and were not practised by my parents, grandparents and a whole legion of Simpson’s, Hall’s, and Bux’s back into the distant past.

Online shopping, the power of the supermarket and the fridge and freezer have rather pushed the daily trip to the local shops into the background.

And well with in living memory here on Beech Road there were three butchers, two grocers, a greengrocer and a fresh fish shop.  

These were replicated in some of the side streets right across what became known as old Chorlton or the old village, names which distinguished us it from the newer community which sprang from the 1880s around the junction of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads.

101 Beech Road, circa 1901-1921

119 Beech Road, 1979

Back then when no one possessed a fridge or freezer there was a necessity in buying your food every day.

Now with money tight it makes sense to buy smaller amounts and avoid the two for one offers unless you can use the lot, which is why today I have used up the last of the green beans, cooking them with some olives, and capers in a sauce from the last tomatoes accompanied with pasta.

I have made my own fresh pasta, and fallen back on shop bought fresh pasta, but dried pasta is cheaper, lasts in the store cupboard and doesn’t take much longer to cook.

So that is it, on left over Sunday it is what ever I can find, and for good measure having eaten my way through a heap of fruit what was left was stewed and became that classic 1950s pud.

Left over Sunday, 2026

Location; Left over Sunday

Pictures; 101 Beech Road, circa 1901-1921, courtesy of Ian Collier, and 119 Beech Road, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Snaps of Chorlton No 11, a badge and a festival in 1984 not bad for one post

An occasional series featuring private and personal photographs of Chorlton.

Cheating really, not so much a snap more a picture of the badge of the event

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Tony Walker

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 2 Pool Fold

Back Pool Fold is one of those twisty little thoroughfares which you think must have a rich and varied history and at sometime have offered up more than a few dark stories.  

Back Pool Fold, 2015

But for now it’s the name that provides a clue to how this bit of the city has changed and it all hangs on the word Back which suggests there must once have been a Pool Fold and sure enough in the late 18th century there was.

It was the continuation of Cross Street which in 1793 terminated at the corner with Chapel Walks leaving Pool Fold to creep up to Market Street past what was then the New Shambles.

And as such would have been familiar to those Dissenters who attended the Cross Street Chapel which dates from 1694 and which is the origin of the name Chapel Walks.

There will be many who remember walking down Chapel Walks past the grassed area at the rear of the chapel and clocking that this was the site of the graveyard.

It vanished under the last rebuild of the chapel in 1997, which is the fourth place of worship to occupy the site.

The first was opened in 1694, and destroyed by a mob in 1715, its successor succumbed to an air raid in December 1940 and the replacement built in 1959 survived for four decades.

Pool Fold, from Market Street to Cross Street, 1793

Now I bet there will be someone out there who can offer up an exact date for the moment that Pool Fold became the continuation of Cross Street.

For now I know that in 1794 it was still going under its old name, and by 1849 had been lost to history.

All of which just leaves me to mention Sam’s Chops House.

It cannot claim to have stood on its present site for that long, having opened at Back Fold Place in the 1950s although it does date back to 1872 when Mr Samuel Studd opened his restaurant under the grander name of Sam’s London Chop House.

It was situated in Manchester Chambers on the corner of Market Street and Pall Mall.

The building has long gone but once and not that long ago this corner was home to the UCP shop which for those who don’t know was the United Cattle Products Company which had a chain of 146 restaurants.

You entered from that corner, went up a large staircase into the restaurant and there amongst many cattle products on offer was tripe.

Once Pool Fold, now just part of Cross Street, 2016

We only went in once and never bothered with the pub next door on Pall Mall.  It was called the Tavern and

I can’t say it looked inviting.  There was one entrance, and the windows ran in a long strip high up on the wall.

All of which may seem a long way from Pool Fold but perhaps not given the connection between the UCP, the Shambles clearly shown on the map and the many meat dishes offered up by Sam’s, but then as a veggie I think that is where I shall close.

Other than to say with all the work on Cross Street in connection with the Second City Crossing it will be interesting to see if anything new comes out of the ground.

After all earlier in the year work was slowed by the discovery of burials along the route which may have been from the Cross Street Chapel.

Next; Tasel Alley

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Back Pool Fold, 2015 courtesy of Andy Robertson, Pool Fold 1793 from Laurent’s map of Manchester 1793, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ Cross Street 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 

Walking down Sidcup High Street in the August of 1961

Now it would be a full three years after this picture postcard of Sidcup High Street was sent before we settled in Eltham and a lot longer before I wandered down into Sidcup.

Well Hall had pretty much all I wanted back then and if I did feel adventurous  it was to Woolwich that I went.

So Sidcup in 1961was unknown to me and I haven’t been back since 1966, which means I have no idea to what extent the place looks like it did back then.

Of course the ABC cinema is no more.

It had a chequered history and lasted longer than most, having opened in 1909 as a concert hall, converted into a picture house five years later and getting an Art Deco make over in 1932.

It then went through a number of cinema chains, finally closing in 2000 and demolished three years later.

So had I ventured down into Sidcup in the 60s I could still have caught a film there but given the attractions of the Well Hall Odeon that was never to be.

All of which just leaves me to add that when Alf, Kath and Pauline sent the card on August 9th the weather “was rough but had been a scorcher” the day before.

Now I am hard pressed to remember the August of 1961 or what I was doing, but they may be those who do, and perhaps even what they were doing in Sidcup High Street all those years ago.

Picture; Sidcup High Street, from the set Sidcup by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://www.tuckdb.org/

Travelling on the railway in 1830

I wish I could  have rattled along on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway sometime in the 1830s.

But I can't so instead I will offer up the memories of one man who travelled from Manchester to Liverpool during the first decade after it had been built.

This was the remarkable; J.T.Slugg who came to Manchester as a young man and in 1881 published a description of the city of his youth.  He was there at the opening of the railway and recalled that “the morning opened most propitiously as to the weather and at about half past ten I set off with my brother and friend to witness the wonderful sight of a train being moved without a horse.”

But for me it is the comments on the daily running of what was the first passenger railway in the world which are more fascinating.

There were only seven trains a day each way and first and second class passengers had their own trains.  The last first class train left at 5 p.m. and the last second class at 5.30.p.m., but at a time  when the Manchester markets were still a significant factor in the city’s economy “on Tuesday and Saturday, which were then the two principle market days, the last train left at 6 p.m.”

Slugg also seized on the fact that while this was a first the railway still straddled both the past and the future, so the some of the carriages resembled the old stage coaches complete with luggage on the roof with the guard sitting beside it.

Just as every stage coach was designated by some name, so each first class carriage was designated in like manner.  

Amongst the names I remember were King William, Queen Adelaide, Duke of wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Earl Wilton and William Huskinson.”

And like so much of what the railway laid down as not changed over much.  

Steam locomotives more or less resembled the winning design, and carriages as these from the late 1830s testify looked very similar.

Pictures; Traveling the 1830s way, 2008, from the collection of Andrew Simpson Greater Manchester Science and Industry Museum

*Slugg, J.T., Reminiscences of Manchester, 1881 page 234

So no more the second hand shops of Chorlton ......

If you can remember a time before the Chorlton bar culture, you will be able to name at least one of our second hand shops.

Back in the 1970s there was Ken’s on Beech Road, the Green House on Stockton and later Doc’s Second Hand Emporium on Barlow Moor Road.

The idea of recycling clothes, furniture and pretty much anything is not new, and a century ago in the Flat Iron Market in Salford and similar ones in Ancoats, you could pick up a pair of clogs, or a used pair of men’s trousers for a song.

Today you still can, but the objects tend to be in charity shops and depending on the shop they can be quite “up market things”.

So here for those who remember those shops with their musty smell and heap of surprises is Doc’s.

I can’t remember when I took the picture, but it will be the mid 1980s and perhaps even later.

And no sooner was this posted than Marion commented,"how about Jack a Lilie's on Beech Road?" which I confess I had forgotten and more of an admission as I regularly pass the time of day with Lilly at the bus stop.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Doc’s Second Hand Emporium on Barlow Moor Road, circa 1986, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The city over the river ………….

Now yesterday I posted a story of Greenwich Park and the view from the hill across the River.

And it prompted Douglas White to post one of his which he gave me permission to use.  It is as he says, “One of many views from Severndroog Castle on Shooter's Hill. 

Not quite a 360 degree due to trees behind taller than the tower, but a zoom lens will bring the city, Docklands, the west end into view, and far to the west (out of picture) Windsor Castle looms as a shadow on the horizon”.

I still remember looking out from both locations at the city over the river.

Back in the 1960s, I had no camera to record the scene, and now I live in the far north and do not regularly get home.

But there will be someone who does have those pictures of the very different skyline and may choose to share them. 

I can still remember the first time I saw the view from Shooters Hill at night.  

I was visiting Mr. Vaughan who was my science teacher at Samuel Pepys, who I hoped would help me with a few textbooks to assist my retake of O level Science.

By then I had left the school in New Cross for the much grander Crown Woods and the promise of A levels, but my failure at getting Maths or Science GCE, doomed me to a resit.

Until the visit to Mr. Vaughan I had never seen the city lit up at night from Shooters Hill.

And 55 years later it is still as vivid.

So I thank Douglas and John for reuniting me with that memory.

And for all those who also remember the scene 55 years ago I shall just say “compare and contrast”

Location; Eltham

Picture; looking out from Shooters Hill, 2020 from the collection of Douglas White