A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number one ...... a bridge across the Mersey 1816

Now this will be a short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and is also a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.

They are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.

This was the first bridge across the Mersey on the edge of the township.  Samuel Wilton built it in 1816 at a cost of £200, but the ferry and the right to transport passengers across the Mersey were still in place in 1832 when the pub and the surrounding land were put up for sale.

At the time it was the landlord of the pub who benefited from the ferry charges.  The toll of a 1d to cross the bridge was abolished in the 1940s.

Picture; from the Lloyd collection 1865

Walking down the High Street sometime around 1907

Now I can’t be sure when this picture was taken.

The postmark records that it was sent at 11 am on September 20th 1907, but picture postcard companies did keep old photographs in the catalogue and reuse them long after they had been taken.

In some cases even over printing on what was a summer scene a Christmas greeting or retouching the picture to the point where it almost became a blur.

In this case we are on the High Street looking west down towards the church, and I am fascinated by the shop advertising “Eltham Steam Printing Works” which was on the north side of the street.

Given that the Castle is almost opposite I think our shop will be under the modern block which includes Marks and Spencer but I am finding it difficult to find the shop on the street directories.

It doesn’t appear in the 1914 lists, so may have gone by then.

Of course I may be looking in the wrong place and at present I don’t have access to earlier directories, but someone will, and the story behind the “Eltham Steam Printing Works” will come out of the shadows.

Location; Eltham High Street

Picture; Eltham High Street, 1907, courtesy of Tricia Leslie

Of trolley buses and a company called SELNEC

The trolley bus never did much for me.

They were much quieter than the bus or the old trams but they always made me feel ill.  I think it was the combination of the heat and the smell of the leather seats with the disinfectant which I found uncomfortable.

Stevenson Square December 1966, the last Manchester trolley bus

But they were a common enough sight in many of our cities to warrant a bit of a story.

I can’t remember using them at home but London Transport operated them for thirty years on 68 routes with 1811 trolley buses.

Here in Manchester the service which began in 1938 covered 9 routes using 189 vehicles.

Ours came off the road in 1966 and this one in Stevenson Square was the last in the December of that year.  Stevenson Square was the terminus of trolleybus services to Audenshaw and Stalybridge.

Piccadilly with an Ashton-Under-Lyne trolley bus, 1960

Nor were we alone in operating trolley buses, and it is equally possible that had you jumped on a trolley bus to Ashton-Under-Lyne it would have been the blue and cream ones operated by Ashton Corporation.

They had been quicker off the mark staring operations in the February of 1925 on five routes with just 19 trolley buses and like Manchester abandoned them in 1966.

This was just three years before I arrived in the city so the sight of this Ashton trolley bus in Piccadilly around 1960 is one lost to me.

But I do just remember the sheer number of corporation bus companies in the city in 1969.

The green livery of the joint Transport and Electricty Board

Along with the disticntive red livery of Manchester and the blue and cream of Ashton there was the green of Salford and the green of the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board along with the maroon and cream colours of Oldham.

And no doubt if I dug deeper I could come up with the routes of some of the neigboring authorites whoses trams, trolley buses and motor buses entered the city.  All of which came to an end in 1969 with the formation of a unified bus company covering the whole of greater Manchester and initially known as SELNEC, or South East Lancashire North East Cheshire.

A SELNEC bus, 2008

Its orange and white livery would not have been my choice but then having to choose a colour scheme which did not upset the local feelings of the eleven participating bus companies would always have meant coming up with something very different.

This was a huge undertaking, covering a large conurbation and an operation broken down into four divisions, each with their own different coloured logo.

And for those who like these things here are the eleven corporation companies, the number of vehicles they brought to the enterprise and the division they belonged to.

Now that will endear me to some but risk the derision of others who mutter train spotter, which is a little inaccurate given that this began as a story about trolley buses and has gone way beyond that.

So with that in mind I shall take leave of the almost silent successor to the tram.

Stalybridge bus station and the last Ashton trolley bus, 1966

Pictures; Manchester Corporation trolley bus, Stevenson Square 1966, and Ashton-Under-Lyne Corporation trolley bus, Stalybridge bus station, 1966 © Alan Murray-Rust, geograph.org.uk Wikipedia Commons, Ashton-Under-Lyne Corporation trolley bus in Piccadilly, 1960, and Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley & Dukinfield Transport & Electricity Board motor bus from the collection of J.F.A.Hampson, SELNEC Bus, Mikey from Wythenshawe, Museum of Transport, Wikipedia Commons

Renshaws Buildings in Martledge

Even I have to admit that this bit of road and kerb stone is not the most exciting picture of Chorlton and yet it is all that is left of Martledge that part of the old township which ran from the four banks down to the library.

All this week I have been writing about the place and today I want to focus on the building which ran along the side of this bit of road.  It was a block of six or maybe 12 dwellings and was variously known as New Buildings or Renshaws Buildings.

It was set at right angles to what is now Barlow Moor Road and in its time must have looked the part. It had a large impressive gable end and despite being farm cottages dominated this part of Martledge.

The block was owned and may have been built by John Renshaw sometime before 1832.  He was a market gardener living in a farm house on the Row* who also owned a number of cottages around the township.  Some at least would have been wattle and daub structures but Renshaws Buildings were made of brick.

Now I can be fairly confident that they predate 1832 because they are listed as part of his property qualification which entitled him to a Parliamentary vote in the newly reformed House of Commons.

And it maybe that they represent the first building boom here in Chorlton in the 1840s and 40s by speculative tradesmen who wanted to cash in on the population increase or maybe just the desire of local people to live in a house made of brick rather than wood, mud and straw.


It is unclear how many units there were but the evidence from the census and the old maps suggests that they were one up one down back to back dwellings.  By the beginning of the 20th century part of the block had been converted into commercial use and just before their demolition this bit was a garage.

They came down sometime in the 1920s or 30s to make way for the present Royal Oak pub.  I wish we had some written memories of what they were like but sadly we don’t.  On the other hand we do have a few photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries along with details of who lived there from the 1840s and the rents they paid, but for all that it is back to the book where you can see Barris’ reconstruction picture of Renshaws Buildings in more detail.  It is based on a number of the photographs and maps and we are looking at it from the west, as if were heading into the township from Manchester.  The kerb stone and narrow road are hidden on its eastern side.

*Today this is Beech Road and his home was on the site of Ivy Court facing the Rec

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Barri Sparshot

Standing outside Burton’s on Well Hall Road remembering a suit

Thinking of my first suit......... outside Burton's, 2015

Now I am back with another one of those buildings that most of us take for granted.

Added to which a large chunk of people will not even know that this fast food outlet was once Burton's.

The building was on the site of Eltham’s Congregational Church but when it was demolished in 1936 Burton's built their store.

The company was founded by Montague Burton in Chesterfield in 1904 under the name of The Cross-Tailoring Company and was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1929 by which time it had 400 stores, factories and mills.

 After World War II Montague Burton was one of the suppliers of demob suits to the British government for demobilising servicemen, comprising jacket, trousers, waistcoat, shirt and underwear*

Burton's in the 1960s

And so sometime around 1967 this was where I went for my first ever made to measure suit which was a great successor, followed by heaps of shirts, and ties and a not very successful grey overcoat which I took an instant dislike to and did our dad for years.

The shop dominated the corner of Well Hall Road and the High Street and will be remembered with fondness by many, as will the dance hall above.

I never went there but would often pass it at closing time on a Saturday night having walked back from Grove Park and a girl friend called Ann.

It was such a feature of Eltham life that I just thought it would always be there but on one flying visit in the 1980s it had gone and with it a bit of my growing up.

Pictures; the old Burton building, 2015 courtesy of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick and Burton's in the 1960s from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* Burton (retailer), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burton_(retailer)

Out to East Didsbury from Albert Square ……. on the new tram

I say the new tram, because quite clearly this wasn’t the old fashioned tall stately tram which rattled its way around the city at the start of the last century.

This was the new tram car.

The first  of which was completed in the March of 1930.  By the end of the year another eleven were in service.

In all 38 were built during the next two years, with the last of them appearing in October 1932.*

They were the Pullman, or more commonly called Pilcher, after Mr. Robert Stuart Pilcher, who took over as General Manager of Manchester Corporation Tramways in 1929.

Location; Manchester







Picture; Albert Square to East Didsbury, date unknown, from the collection of Allan Brown

*The Manchester Tramways, Yearsley, Ian & Groves Peter, 1988

This is how you honour a shop with history

Today over eighty people gathered on an indifferent morning to commemorate and indeed celebrate one of our local Co-ops.

Gathering for the event, 2026

What makes this Co-op as special is that it has retained its public hall which for nearly a century has acted as avenue for a variety of local community events.

So it was fitting that Chorlton Civic Society should erect a blue plaque to honour its place as a centre for education, social events and  home to the Co-operative and Labour Movement.

The plaque was unveiled by Kathy Lee who as a member of the Co-op Party was active in promoting the ideals of co-operation.

Kathy about to unveil the plaque, 2026

Unveiled, 2026

Many of those present will also remember that Kathy's husband, Lawrence Beedle played a unique role in recording the history  of all things co-op and retold the stories in his  blog.*

Sean, Cll Shilton-Goodwin

So much so that when Angela Downing began to explore the possibilities of a blue plaque it was to Lawrence that she first turned and much of what we now know about the hall and its activities is due in no small part to Lawrence's knowledge. 

Which leads me to thank Angela for liaising with Chorlton Civic Society's blue plaque committee and the Co-op who funded the plaque.

The shop was opened in 1929 to serve the new housing estates which were being built along and behind Barlow Moor Road.

Lord Bradley

At the time most of the shops had their own hall but sadly most have now gone and ours may indeed be the last in the Greater Manchester area.

Some of the Hall's friends

The Hardy Lane Co-op Rooms can boast a rich and diversified series of events which have taken place in its room.

They range from meetings of the Wood Craft Folk and Co-operative Guilds to pollical assemblies of the Labour and Co-operative Parties doubled up as election committee rooms and the venue for  heaps of social events from film nights to whist evenings.

All of which made today's unveiling very special, and so along with Kathy we had Lord Bradley who as Keith Bradley was elected in 1987 as the first Labour MP for Withington, and the present MP Jeff Smith, both of whom spoke of their vivid memories of the hall.  Cllr Mandie Shilton-Godwin and Shaun Fensom from the Co-op were also present and I think the ghosts of  all those who have in some ways been part of the hall over the last century.

Jeff Smith, MP

Shaun from the Co-op

The Friends gather

Location; Hardy Lane Co-op

Pictures: on the day from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping, 2026

*Hardy Lane Scrapbook, https://hardylane.blogspot.com/