The way we were ............. just 56 years ago

Now it is easy to forget that well within the living memory of most of us the City was still full of tiny workshops which wouldn’t have been out of place in the mid 19th century.

When we first moved to east Manchester in the early 1970s, the pit head gear of Bradford Colliery was still there, as were countless little iron works, steel manufactures and other businesses, employing a handful of local people.

They nestled beside the giants like Clayton Aniline, and the big engineering factories on the Old Road.

The images of the United Steel Works on Ashton Old Road are fascinating, partly because I would have passed the place and because of the detail they reveal.

In particular it is the belt driven machinery which is essentially no different from that which you could have seen in a factory in the 1850s or even the later 18th century.

Back then they would have been driven by steam power but otherwise there is very little difference.

Nor would the actual buildings themselves have changed much over two centuries. They were made of brick to a simple design with wooden beams and cast iron pillars supporting the roof.

Most will have had a varied industrial use over the years and were an essential part of the community.

Picture; inside the United Steet Works, Ashton Old Road, 1970, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

A silk from France .......... postcards from the Western Front

Now I have no idea if the soldier who purchased this embroidered silk postcard was from Eltham.

A message from the 8th London Regiment, date unknown

But given that it carried the badge of the 8th London Regiment the chances are he was from somewhere in the city.

These types of postcards are a favourite of mine.

They were made in France and Belgium and came with all sorts of designs from ones which carried a sentimental message to those with the badge of a regiment.

Many will have been sent in a letter which helped preserve the delicate nature of the embroidery.

To my dear daughter, date unknown

And here I have to thank my old friend David Harrop who has a large collection of silk postcards including this one from the 8th London.

It has has a special connection  with David, because the 8th London were also known as the Post Office Rifles and he worked for the Post Office.

The Post Office Rifles had been formed in 1868 following a bomb attack on a London prison.

After the attack the Government had created a body of special constables to protect public buildings and from a group consisting of postal workers came the request to establish a Rifle Volunteer Unit.

Detail of the London silk, date unknown

The unit saw action in Egypt in 1882 and participated in the second South African War from 1899 through to 1902.

At the outbreak of the Great War the existing Post Office Rifles were redesignated as the 1/8th Battalion, London Regiment.  A second battalion was formed in September 1914 and a third in 1915.*

And it appears that the third battalion was billeted at Blackheath from October 1915 till they went to Fovant in January 1916. **

All of which makes for a possible connection between Eltham and David’s silk.

Location; London

Picture; embroidered silk postcard, date unknown, from the collection of David Harrop

*Post Office Rifles, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_Rifles

**The London Regiment, The Long Trail, http://www.1914-1918.net/london.htm

The story of one family in Chorlton ........... part 3 down on Hawthorn Lane in 1925

Yesterday I stood on exactly the same spot where young Nellie Spencer posed for this picture in the summer of 1925 and as you do I looked for the changes brought about by the last ninety years.

And that corner had not faired so well.

To be fair it was bin day which always makes the road look untidy and back in 1925 these houses were no more than twenty years old.

That said it’s not so different today.  There are more trees in the distance and the back wall to the right of Nellie has undergone some change but remarkably the telegraph post is still there although it seems to have shifted a little in the space of nearly a century.

And to confound all those who whinge on about how our streets are far more untidy today I have to say that generally there is a lot less litter than on the streets in 2015 which is an unscientific observation based purely  on comparing pictures of Chorlton in the first decades of the last century with now.

And that is the value of pictures like this which challenge some of our preconceptions of the past.

But to really get to understand the photograph you have to be able to talk to someone who was there.

Now that is next to impossible given the date but it can be possible to do the next best thing and have the image explained by a member of the family who knew Nellie and who remembers being told about the picture.

And here I have been lucky because Nellie was the aunt of Peter McLoughlin who has begun sharing his collection of family photographs.

In the course of the conversation he pointed to the young lad staring across at Nellie and the photographer.

He was a “Nipper” working for Brooks Dairy down on Brookburn Road.  The term was unfamiliar but of course it perfectly describes our young man who will have been his mid teens possibly engaged on his first job.

And of course as was the time he is delivering the milk in small tin jars and wears those leather leggings.

And by one of those odd turns of coincidence her future brother in law also worked for Brooks Dairy.

All of which is part of the value of the collection for not only do we have the images but the names, dates and stories behind each one.

So I know that this family shot was taken in 1925 in back of 67 Hawthorn Lane and staring back at are Mr and Mrs Spencer, Annie who was fifteen and Agnes and Nellie.

On one level there may appear nothing remarkable about it but I know something about each of the five people, and how their lives were lived out in Chorlton.

On the death of her first husband Peter’s grandmother married Mr Spencer who was a regimental sergeant major and in 1913 they moved to India where Adele was born.Annie married Jim McLoughlin in 1945 and the family moved to Stockport where Peter was born.

All of which makes this such a unique Chorlton collection.

Pictures; from the collection of Peter McLoughlin

Taking the tram from Swineopolis and on to ‘the Bravest Little Street in England’ with lots in between

Today I have started on the next book in the series, The History of Greater Manchester By Tram *

So far, we have published four books which cover the route from East Didsbury into Manchester, across the city and out east towards New Islington.

Stretford in 1830

And now it is the turn of the route from Old Trafford to Altrincham which passes through Stretford, Sale, Brooklands, and Timperley, and taking in places like Navigation Road.

Now without being unfair some of the stops along the way might not shake the trees of historical promise but I am ready to be surprised.

That said others like Stretford and Altrincham bubble with stories that tell us much about Greater Manchester’s past.

And so it is with Stretford which was an important stop on the Duke’s Canal which arrived in the 1760s and was to be later eclipsed by the coming of the railway in 1849.

The canal had carried agricultural produce from Altrincham and Stretford into the city and brought night soil back.  By 1849 this amounted to 873 tons of produce from Stretford, which climbed to 1,781 tons in the following year.**

Stretford in 2025

The carts left Stretford just after midnight for the markets and while one family member remained to sell the produce the rest returned with the cart loaded with manure ready to repeat the operation the following day.  

This prompted one observer to describe the place as “the garden of Lancashire.”     

It was also a major centre for the processing of pigs for the Manchester market as well the manufacture of black puddings and had gained the nicknames of Swineopolis and Porkhampton.    

During the 1830s, between 800 and 1,000 pigs were slaughtered each week and sent into the city.     

Most came from Ireland, via Liverpool and were transported into Stretford by barge.  On arrival the pigs were kept in cotes kept by the local landlords.  

The Trafford Arms charged one penny per pig a night and had cotes for 400 pigs.    Not surprisingly in 1834 there were 31 pork butchers in Stretford compared to one in Chorlton and five in Urmston.     

Stretford landscape, 2025

Edwin Muir left the Manchester train at Stretford summed up the place well when he wrote “Fruit, flowers, green market stuff, black puddings, and swine’s flesh in general – these are the pride of village.”    

He was also full of praise for both the black puddings and the local speciality known as the Stretford goose.  This was made from pork stuffed with sage and onions, which he thought “was not a bad substitute for that pleasant bird.”***    

In Stretford in 1826 there were 302 looms providing employment for 780 workers supporting 151 families,   and as late as the 1840s there were still seven.****

It was also home to John Rylands that great 19th century  industrialist who had global business interests as well as being remembered as a prime mover in the construction of the Ship Canal.  

The Essoldo, 1961

More recently there will be many with fond memories of the grand Essoldo Cinema and the Stretford Pageants with the popular Rose Queen procession.

At the other end of the tram route Altrincham can also boast heaps of history.

In Chapel Street for instance there was a row of old Georgian terraced lodging houses which were home to some 400 Irish, English, Welsh and Italian lodgers.

From this tight-knit community of just sixty houses, 161 men volunteered for the First World War.

Altrincham, undated

They fought in all the campaigns of the war, with twenty-nine men killed in action and twenty dying from injuries soon after the war; more men were lost in action from Chapel Street than any other street in England.

As a result King George V called Chapel Street "the Bravest Little Street in England”.

To this can be added its long history going back to the Middle Ages, the presence of the Linotype Company "which built 185 houses for its employees and provided two football grounds, four tennis courts, two bowling greens, a cricket ground, a playground for children and allotments”.*****

Altrincham Shaver and Repair Centre, 2015

But my favourite is the Altrincham Shaver and Repair Centre, and here amongst other things you can get your Kenwood Mixer repaired and I guess much else.

Once upon a time shops like these were common, for who would want to go out and buy a new electrical product when it was possible to get that expensive and cherished item repaired?

And the chap in his brown overalls could pretty much be guaranteed to mend anything as long as the parts were available.

The one near us as I was growing up was magic.

Every corner of the shop was piled high with electrical goods and there was that dusty, musty smell which greeted you as you went through the door.

You offered up the broken thing, Mr Anson would scrutinise it, mumble a bit and if it was do able would retreat to the back room and work a bit of that magic.

Alternatively if parts were needed it was left in that back room until it was fixed at a fraction of what it would cost to buy new.

Altrincham, 1830

And that was how it was done.  

Things were repaired when they broke and while they might not have looked as elegant at least they worked.

These are shedloads more stories will appear in our book 5.

In the meantime the first four books will take you on a journey out of south Manchester, into the city centre and on to Victoria Railway Station in one direction and east via Piccadilly Gardens, Piccadilly Railway Station to terminate at New Islington.  

The books are available at £4.99 from Chorlton Bookshop, the shop at Central Ref, St Peter's Square, or from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk

Location. Stretford, Altrincham

Pictures;  Stretford & Altrincham1830,  Hennet’s map of Lancashirecourtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ Stretford on a March Day, 2025,  the Essoldo in 1961, m09199, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, Altrincham, undated, Allan Brown,  Altrincham Shaver and Repair Centre, Church Street, and Linotype Works, Altrincham, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson 

Linotype Works, 2015

*The History of Greater Manchester By Tram,  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20History%20of%20Greater%20Manchester%20by%20Tram

Leech, Sir Bosdin, Old Stretford, Privately Printed 1910

**Scola, Roger,  Scola, Roger, Feeding the Victorian City, Manchester University, Manchester,  1992

***Muir, Edwin, Lancashire Sketches, Simpkin Marshall, London & Manchester, 1869 

****Leech, Sir Bosdin, Old Stretford, Privately Printed 1910

*****The Lynotype Estate, https://www.visitmanchester.com/things-to-see-and-do/the-linotype-estate-p252931  

Net curtains, venetian blinds and that horseman on Brookburn Road .......... Chorlton in the 1920s and 30s

More than anything it’s the detail that draws you in to this photograph of Annie  and Nelly  outside 67 Hawthorn Road in the spring of 1930.

It starts with those net curtains which had been a badge of respectable living from the early years of the last century and would only be swept away by the new look of the 1950s.

I remember them well but more than the curtains it’s those blinds, made of slated wood which made a distinctive clunk when you raised or lowered them.

They filled the windows along with the nets and of course those heavy plush curtains which between them were required features of any surbuban home no matter however modest.

And each in their way made perfect sense.

In an age before central heating the heavier the curtains the better to keep the place warm in winter, while the blinds were essential for houses modifying the full strength of the sun in summer.

Today we might find the nets a tad over fancy but this was still a more private time when displaying the contents of your front room was regarded as more than a bit ostentatious.

The only concession to the seasons was that in some homes at least the heavy curtains came down in summer for lighter ones around the time the sweep would be called in to do the chimneys.

It is a way of life which has pretty much gone, along with the iron railings that topped the small front walls and could be as elaborate as these at number 67 and with that care for detail the gate’s design mirrored perfectly the railings.

And back when Annie and Nelly posed for the camera their home was less than thirty years old and had been part of that housing explosion which had turned Chorlton from a rural community to a suburb of Manchester.

But this was still a period of transition when the sight of a man on a horse was unlikely to turn a head.

We still had farmers who used horses to cart their produce from the fields while plenty of tradesmen transported their good across the township by horse drawn vans.

All of which is a lead in to Jim Mcloughlin sitting astride a horse by Brookburn Road.

Behind him is Brook Dairy which long before it  specialized in milk had been a farm dating back into the 18th century.
I am not sure when the farmhouse was demolished but it should be easy enough to find out by trawling the directories although I doubt that any one will remember its passing.

It will I suspect date from the when the dairy was taken over by Express Dairies which have now also gone leaving the site to be redeveloped into a row of modern houses,

That said there will be plenty who remember the yard, and on reflection I wish I had asked for that big sign which reminded drivers to be mindful of the neighbours.

After all the residents of the houses next door would still have been asleep when the crates of milk were being loaded onto the floats.

And that is now as much a part of our past as horses on Brookburn Road and net curtains up by Hawthorn Road.

Pictures; from the collection of Peter McLoughlin.

One bedsit …. the lost tennis courts …… and those dream homes …..

Number One Malvern Grove is an unimposing house on the corner of Burton Road in West Didsbury.

1 Malvern Grove, house and garden 2022

And it was where I lived for six months in my student days in 1970.

I say unimposing but once it was the smart home of Mr and Mrs Simpson, their two children and Katherine Williams who was 23, from Everton and was employed as a “general servant”.

I know the property was there by 1896 and with a bit of digging should be able establish when it was built and perhaps date the rest of the homes on this small cul-de-sac.

And with a bit more diligence it will be possible to list most of the households from when it was built through to 1911 when the Simpson’s were there and on to when it became a series of bedsits.

It had ten rooms and two cellars, and I occupied one of the back down stairs rooms which might have once been the kitchen. It was a small room furnished as I remember with a bed, a table, two chairs an electric ring and one of those water heaters which held a pint and bit of water and ate electricity.

That ground floor rear room, 2022

Like all crummy bedsits I have lived in it was basic, cold, with walls covered in woodchip and painted in multiple coats of emulsion.   All very cheap and not very cheerful.

Added to which there was that lingering smell of 10 different evening meals permeating the place and the bone cold hall.

And here I stayed for just six months, at a time when I could have been very lonely were it not for some of the other residents who took me under their wing.  

They made sure that most nights I accompanied them across the road to the Old House at Home and took pity on a student ensuring that only occasionally was I allowed to buy a round.

At the time I never thought about the house or its history, instead I was captivated by the two 1960s “dream houses” just two doors away along the Grove.  They resembled exactly properties which had featured on the back of Kellog’s Corn Flakes boxes and had been part of an advertising competition which offered up the prospect of winning one of these “dream houses”.

On cold winter nights with all their house lights on they looked inviting and comfy with the promise of warm evenings in front of a television in the company of a happy noisy family.

Albemarle Lawn Tennis Court, 1958

Over the years I have gone back, and the ghosts are still there from the lad who lived in the cellar, his mate “Strain Chocker” and the policewoman who lived upstairs.  They  mix with the memory that most Saturday night’s the population of the house doubled.

What I didn’t know was that just a few yards down what had been an unmade road was the Albemarle Lawn Tennis Court. It shows up on the 1958 OS, had two courts, a club house and an adjacent building.  The courts were accessed from Abberton Road, and the path is still there although it has been incorporated into the side garden of one of the houses.

Student days, Chatham Grove, 1970, Mike, John, and Lois

They may still have been there in 1970 I just never went to look, but now are a bit of new build called Stow Gardens, and my dream houses have gone.

All of which could have burst my bubble.  But then it is over half a century since I called Malvern Grove my home and along with the tennis courts the pub is no more and as is the house on Chatham Grove where a friend spent a time and we celebrated his birthday, with cake and tuna and sweetcorn salad.

The afternoon was memorable if only because at the age of 19 I had never had either tuna or sweet corn.

And of course back then I had no idea that the family who I shared the house with me were also called Simpson.  Not that I see any significance in that .... long ago I realised just how many Simpson's I occupy the planet with.

So that is it.

Except to say there must be people who remember the tennis courts, like me spent happy nights in the Old House, and who knows may also have lived in 1 Malvern Grove and perhaps even knew "Strain Chocker"

We shall see.

Location; Burton Road

Pictures Malvern Grove, 2022, courtesy of Google Maps, Albemarle Lawn Tennis Court, 1958, OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1958, and Mike John & Lois, Student days, Chatham Grove, 1970 from the collection of Lois Elsden

The Coal Hole Hall of Fame ………no. 6 …… one road seven covers

Now I am impressed.

Back in 2019 Karine discovered seven coal hole covers on Kirkside Road in Blackheath, and quick as a flash she photographed them and sent the images across.

What strikes me is that not only are they in good condition, but there are five different designs, with two  carrying the name of Peppercorn Brothers, Deptford, who according to one source, were provision dealers, dealing in “Furniture, Carpets, Pianos, Lino, and Second-Hand furniture”. *

“John Peppercorn was born in 1843/4 and died in November 1915.  He was a businessman and local politician active in south east London.

Born in Deptford, he was one of several sons of Joseph Peppercorn, a Bedfordshire born grocer and cheese monger and his wife Ann Howard née Down from Devon.

After serving an apprenticeship, John set up in business as a grocer by 1870, when he married Florence L Poulton from Torquay.

His business prospered and by 1898 he was described as a large draper or merchant. 

In that year he won a seat as a Progressive Party member of the London County Council representing Greenwich. 

He only served a single three-year term on the county council, standing down at the 1901 elections.

When the first elections to the Metropolitan Borough Councils were held in November 1900, Peppercorn stood for election to Deptford Borough Council but was defeated, with the Moderate Party gaining control. By 1905 he had gained a seat and served as Mayor of Deptford for 1905-06.

His business became a limited company, Peppercorn Brothers Limited of Greenwich and Deptford, and he retired to Lee, where he died aged 70”. **

Now there is a lot more research to do on the man, and the firm, and at the end of it we may discover that his is not our man.

In the meantime, I will just leave you with the five, and thank Karine for taking the trouble to photograph them.

I would happily send her a gold-plated coal hole cover, but I couldn’t stretch to such an expensive exercise.

 I have however inducted the seven in the Coal Hole Cover Hall of Fame.

Location; Blackheath














Pictures; coal hole covers, Kirkside Road in Blackheath, 2019, from ye collection of Karine Lepeuple

*There is a picture on the Bexley Archive of a shop front of Peppercorn Brothers, dated 1900 which announces that the firm sold,  “Furniture, Carpets, Pianos, Lino, and Second-Hand furniture”.

*Shop front of Peppercorn Brothers Provision Dealers, Deptford c.1900. Images from Bexley Local Studies and Archives, https://www.boroughphotos.org/bexley/dew172/

**John Peppercorn, London Wiki, https://london.fandom.com/wiki/John_Peppercorn