Down by the Oven Door on Beech Road in 1976

I could have cleaned the picture up, played with the settings and achieved a clearer image but that would have been to lose something of what Lois took in the winter of 1976.*

It is, and I know Lois will forgive me for saying so a snap, taken with one of those inexpensive cameras we all had back then and at the mercy of the light and much else.

But that gives the picture something of its value.

This is how pictures often turned out and at the time we took that for granted and were still happy with the result.

For those familiar with the Beech Road of bars, restaurants and quirky, interesting little shops this is another world.

This is the Beech Road I remember, a collection of work a day shops offering everything from apples, cabbages, and fish to paraffin, and oiled string.

At the bottom to the right was the Open Door a reminder that we had a choice of where we bought our fresh bread and cakes as we did for our meat and groceries.

And I am pretty sure Lois would have taken the completed film to Joy Seal's the chemist just a little back between what had been the Police Station and the wool shop.

Location; Beech Road


Picture; looking down Beech Road in 1976 from the collection of Lois Elsden

*Chorlton in the 1970s, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20in%20the%201970s

A Christmas sometime between 1955 and 61

I don’t usually do nostalgia, but this week is an exception.

So for all those who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s here is a selection of the presents that came into our household each Christmas from 1952 till 1963.

They are not in any order and lean heavily on my own child hood experiences, but I bet they could be replicated by many who read this.

And for those whose childhoods came later there will be in another post, with images of Barbie Dolls, the Bay City Rollers and Mud annuals, along with scaletric, my little Pony and the Turtles, including all four sourced from the cellar.

Of course if I wanted to really revel in nostalgia I could invite contributions on the upstairs of Quarmby’s, the sparkling and  groaning shelves of Woolworths and that paradise for all ages which is Toys R Us.

I don’t recall doing the storehouse Father Christmas and think we avoided it when the lads came along, but I have always been a sucker for Christmas trees.

They have to be so big that you end up chopping a bit off the bottom, come from a forest somewhere and have a mismatch collection of decorations which are as much about past Christmases as they are about elegant design and appearance.

Only recently I gave up on the multi coloured tree lights and went with the wishes of our Josh that they should be all one colour.  And every year we still put the Christmas angel designed by Saul somewhere near the top.

That said there is always that debate when to buy the tree, too early and it runs the risk of losing its needles and too late and all that is left are those sad two foot specimens which have a bit missing in the middle.

But the event is as much about family traditions as anything so despite being 41 Ben will still get a Beano album in his stocking and Luca a selection of wine gums, fruit pastilles and the odd Kinder egg.

And because I grew up in the 50s and that pretty much has frozen in time the Christmas I like, we shall bring out the Monopoly board, insist that everyone tries a selection of the festive nuts, and gather to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

That said there will be the addition of those nice things to eat that Tina grew up with at home in Italy, at least three phone calls to Varese during the day and a visit from Ron and Carol.

All that and the Christmas football match which the boys and their friends play for half an hour on the Rec sometime after the presents and before the big meal.

It is a tradition which they have played for as long as I can remember, and over the years the event has pulled in friends, and anyone who is around the house on the day.

But mindful of my responsibilities I stay indoors, tending the fires, laying the table and reflecting on past family gatherings.

That said a few things have changed.  Back in the early 1950s we still attached candles to the tree, went out for a brisk walk up to Peckham Rye and ate directly after the Queen’s broadcast.

Not that it ever seemed to snow back then either.  But as they say be careful about what you wish for.  Back in the afternoon of Boxing Day in 1962 the snow fell across Peckham, New Cross and Eltham, and continued for months.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The bridges of Salford and Manchester .......... nu 8 back with a favourite

The day back in November was grey and cold and the clouds seemed to touch the ground.

So I cheered myself up with another picture of that bridge I like.

Location; the River Irwell,














Picture; The Irwell Road Bridge, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The stocking filler …. 1924

So …. I couldn’t resist this one.

I have no date for the 12 picture postcards that made up the series, but given that one of them was for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway which was formed in 1924, we must be sometime in the 1920s, through to the nationalization of the railways in 1948.

So far only six of the original twelve have turned up, but they include examples of railway locomotives from the LMS, the Great Western, The London & North Eastern Railway and the Southern Railway.

Each carries the flat layout on one side and instructions on the reverse for making the model.

Of the six I have chosen only two of which the first is an LMS loco and the second a Southern Railway.

And the logic behind the choice is simple, dad always had a sneaking admiration for the LMS, although given he was from the north east I would have thought that he might have settled on the LNER. card.

But his parents were Scottish and had only crossed the border at the turn of the last century, so I see where his sympathies may have laid.

So, having opted for the LMS. card, I then fell on the Southern Railway loco, simply because I grew up in south east London which had been served by the S.R  which became the Southern Region of British Railways.

But when it came to it, I couldn't ignore the GWR or the LNER and threw those into , with, and here I accept I am being nerdy, two more from the  LMS which because one ran on the London & North Western Section, and the other the Caledonian section, they carried a different livery.

And that is it. 

 For those who have forgotten a present, it should be possible to download the image, enlarge and print.

Merry Christmas

Pictures; Model Railway Engines, marketed by Tuck and Sons, circa 1924, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdbpostcards.org/

Of artificial Christmas trees and memories of Well Hall in December

I don’t have a picture of our old Christmas tree.

It was bought in the late 1950s and served us well both in Lausanne Road and then at 294 in Well Hall, and was still in use till Dad died in 1994.

Mother was the romantic one of the pair.  She wrote plays, short stories and laboured on an unfinished novel of life in south east London.

But like all women of her generation she could be extremely practical and unsentimental, hence the no nonsense, no pine needles artificial tree.

It was really just a wooden pole painted green with a series of green brush cleaners with blobs of white.

Long after we had all left home dad continued to bring it out and even while he grumbled at “all the bother” he still dressed it and gave it pride of place.

Even today in Chorlton surrounded by natural Christmas trees our old artificial one has a special place in my memory, and underlines that simple truth that all of us bring to the event a set of traditions reaching back deep into our family history.

So a little bit of the late Edwardian and inter war Christmases experienced by my parents rubbed off on me as a child and rolled on in to how we celebrate the event.

For us kids it began with the arrival of Uncle George, the obligatory visit to see the Christmas lights on Oxford Street and the brisk walk up to the High Street or the woods after the presents had been opened on the day.

The evening began with a game of monopoly and followed on with whatever the television had to offer.

And in the long ago days, dad would be back at work on the 27th, Uncle George stayed on for the January sales and that was pretty much it.

The tree once taken down joined the box of glass decorations and those large pear shaped lights on a shelf in the big cupboard in the hall and it was grey and cold till spring.

Pictures; glass decorations from an advert for 1950s Christmas decorations on ebay and Christmas in Chorlton from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A familiar scene of Chorlton Green .............. with a few twists

Now at first glance, this appears a run of the mill picture of Chorlton Green with the lych gate, parish church yard and the pub in the distance.

Look a bit closer and there is still a telephone kiosk at the head of the lane, the church yard has yet to have its makeover and the United Servicemen’s Club was still selling pints.

We are on the green in the late 1970s or early ‘80s and it would be a full thirty years and a bit before the village school would be converted into residential properties.

The small housing development along Finney Drive was not more a than a decade old and the large barn which once belonged to Mr Higginbotham the farmer and which was on our right was still used by the building firm of Walkers.

Which just leaves me to say that the little lane behind the telephone kiosk will be as old as the church yard which dates back to the 16th century, and had you strolled down it at any time from the 18th century into the 19th  it would have taken you  past a farm and its out houses to the pond beside the old Bowling Green which a series of landlords rented out to gentlemen anglers.

Later after the pond vanished it was still used as a cut through and at one time was known by Marion's children as the Bumpy Way.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Chorlton Green circa 1978 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The bridges of Salford and Manchester .......... nu 7 walking over the river

Now this one sprang up when I wasn't looking.

And just because it is silly I shall aim to walk over each of the Salford bridges before Chris on the same day.

Location; Salford

Picture; the Irwell Street Bridge, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson