Discovering the forgotten

I don’t suppose Charles Taylor or his wife Ann would have been much surprised that their home has not survived.

Taylor's Court, 1849

In 1851 they were living in Taylor’s Court which was one of those tiny places sandwiched between other streets.   All our towns and cities had their share of these courts which were often a byproduct of in filling where a builder or speculator fell on an open space and built a few houses for rent.

In the case of Taylor’s Court there were just five such houses which were accessed through two narrow passages.  The properties commanded rents of 2/3d which were not the cheapest rents in the area but not far off.  I can’t be sure of the size of the five houses, but they show up on maps of the period as back to backs, so it is most likely that they were one up one downs.

And like other streets in the immediate vicinity there was a degree of overcrowding.  So, while in four of the houses the number of inhabitants ranged from 2 to four people, at number 1 the Taylor’s squeezed a total of six family members and a lodger their home.

The occupations of the residents were typical of the area, and included those who worked in textiles, shoe and dress making, and others engaged as labourers and launderesses.

Taylor's Court and surrounding streets, 1849

Their origins were equally mixed, with 5 of the 20 having been born in Ireland and the rest from Manchester, Cheshire, Cumberland, and Scotland.

But at least they could give an address, which was more than could be said of the Holland and Horan families who lived in the narrow passage which gave access to Taylor’s Court.  The census records their address as Stock’s Court but on maps of the period it appears as No. 1 Passage, and in the Rate Books, as just a Court attached to the list of properties on Royton Street and are not recorded in any of the street directories.

Taylor's Court moves, circa 1900

I have no idea when Taylor’s Court vanished but Goad’s Insurance maps, which cover the last two decades of the 19th century show them still in place, but the passageway has been renamed Taylor’s Court, and the original location has lost its houses and its length is described as “Wood Hoardings 40’ high. 

The remnants my have lingered on, but by 1951 it and the eastern side of Royton Street had been subsumed by industrial units. 

And just as the properties have faded so have the residents of the two courts, and despite a trawl of the census returns I have only been able to trace two.  In 1841 Charles Taylor was living in the Deansgate area, but after 1851 has so far disappeared from the official records.

The search for Thomas Holland has proved a tad more successful.  I know he was from Cheshire and that his younger brother farmed over 200 acres.

In 1841 he was still living with his family but ten years later he was in Stocks Court where he was renting the house and a workshop.  In both the census for that year and the street directories he gave his occupation as Whitesmith which my Wikipedia describes as “a metalworker who does finishing work on iron and steel such as filing, lathing, burnishing or polishing. The term also refers to a person who works with "white" or light-coloured metals, and is sometimes used as a synonym for tinsmith”*

All gone, 1951

A decade later he and his wife were on Shaw Street in Salford, still working as a Whitesmith, on a street which appears to be only a marginal step up from that Court off Deansgate.

All of which is a little confusing, given that on the 1871 census while visiting his brother he describes himself as “gentleman”, which only adds to the mystery of his birthplace, which on all the official documents is different.

Of course we maybe dealing with different men, but the other details of occupation, wife and age all would suggest we are dealing with the same man, and I doubt I will resolve the confusion.

Location; Manchester, Salford and Cheshire

Pictures; Royton Street in 1849, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1844-49, and Royton Street circa 1880-1900 from Goad's Fire Insurance maps, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/and Royton Street 1951, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford

*Whitesmith, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitesmith

Harold Morris of Eltham and Welling, a life lived out in service to the community.... part 1

This is the young Harold Morris sometime in the early 1920s.

It is a wonderful picture not least because it takes us into a lost world when milk was still marketed by small independent businesses and delivered by horse and cart.

In an age when much milk was not so clean, fresh or free from disease it was important always to reassure the public that the product on sale was safe, and so to the promise on the side of the cart, “WARRANTED PURE NEW MILK” with the added enticer that it came “WITH ALL ITS CREAM.”

Now the firm in question was P.W.Briggs of Belle Grove in Welling who were later to be taken over by
United Diaries.

But not long before this picture was taken young Harold had run his own milk business and this is his story, which was researched and written by his niece Jean Gammons.

"Harold was born in Eltham in 1902 - the firstborn of Maud and William George Morris and a grandson of John and Annie Morris of Eltham.

By 1906 the family had moved to Belle Grove, then a hamlet situated on Watling Street at the foot of Shooters Hill,  close to the village of Welling on the ancient road between London and Dover.

There was no milk delivery service  for the villagers then -  if they wanted milk then they had to take a  jug or container of some kind up the hill to the dairy farm on Shooters Hill.

Young Harold's father was a machinist in the Royal Arsenal - where many young men of the surrounding area, including Eltham, would easily have found work making "Implements of War".   

War did come in 1914, and in the following year Harold turned 13 and was free to leave school and perhaps join his peers and his father at the Arsenal.  

But Harold remained a country boy at heart, who loved horses, birds and gardening. So what could he do if he turned his back on the Arsenal?

He had an idea, and so he walked across the fields to Eltham to visit his grandparents, who lived in Courtyard.  Thomas Tillings, the omnibus company, had a yard full of horses, carriage and carts of all kinds just behind his grandparents' cottage.

Perhaps they would let him have the use of a horse and cart so that he could set up a milk delivery service to serve the villagers of Welling.

They did, and thus he began his long and happy career as a milkman. Soon, his little enterprise was taken over by a bigger local company:  P W Briggs; and later by the United Dairies.

Young Harold's first love broke his heart, but when he was 26 he married a Bexleyheath girl, Alma Minnie Shove. The bridesmaid was his youngest sister, Dorothy (Jean's mother), a self-willed child of whom there might be more later. 

Her dress had too many frills in her view and so, on the bus journey to Bexleyheath she took scissors with her and cut off as many as she could before her parents noticed.

Harold was a good husband and father, holidays being days at the seaside in the time before  Holidays Abroad became common.

Through two world wars he served his country in a quiet way, ensuring that none of his customers ever woke up without milk on their doostep for their first cup of tea of the day.  

He won Gold Stars from the UD for his high selling figures: his secret, he said, was to whistle, so that people knew he was around and would then come out to buy something extra.

By the time he retired in 1967 to concentrate on his birds and garden, he had been a milkman for nearly 50 years.”

And it says much for his hard work that when he retired “his customers loaded him with presents, a total of £100 in premium bonds, good luck cards and a poem.”*

*Dartford Times, 1967

Pictures; from the collection of Jean Gammons

When the internet proves better than your memory

Now I have been  reflecting on that day in August 1970 when along with thousands of others I listened to a host of bands at the Isle of Wight.

The festival and the hill, 1970

It was one of those trips down memory lane prompted by two of my much younger cousins who posted about the Doors.

And quick as a flash I replied with the story making it very clear that I had no intention of searching the Internet to find out what I had forgotten about the Festival, preferring to let my impression of the event be the story.

But I did fall asleep while the Doors played on and so Marisa thought it only fair that I should be given the opportunity to listen to that “lost performance.”*

According to the site they played eight songs, “1. Introduction – 0:18, 2, Back Door Man – 4:18, 3. Break On Through – 4:53,, 4. When The Music’s Over – 13:31, 5. Ship Of Fools – 7:37, 6. Roadhouse Blues – 6:07, 7. Light My Fire – 14:21, 8. The End – 18:18.”

Almost half a century on I have no idea when I fell asleep, all of which will make it fun to listen to again.

And the site also included the date ....... August 30 which again was lost in the midst of time.

A very young me, 1970

Now I still have no intention of looking up the rest of the details of the event, suffice to say I was there, and that pretty much confirms that rather silly observation about the 60s that “if you can remember it you weren’t there.” 

So just perhaps I qualify after all as a genuine part of that era.

And that leads to a serious observation that while the Internet has many detractors it remains a powerful way to follow through a whole range of research projects.

Like many I use genealogical sites almost every day to track people, through census returns, street directories and the General Registry Office, and for over a decade I have fallen back on those digitalised versions of long out of print books which sit on dusty shelves in universities across the mid west of the USA.

August at the Isle of Wight, 1970

The purists will of course argue that this is no substitute for holding the original, but when the original is on the other side of the world there is little chance that accessing it and holding it will ever be a reality.

So there you have it, and as I write I am listening to that performance, and have no idea whether it was during Ship of Fools or Roadhouse Blues, although it would e appropriate if it had been Light My Fire, given that my memory was of all the camp fires dotted about the hill where were sitting.

That hill and somewhere there might have been me

The fires glowed against the darkening sky and made the moment magical if sadly not enough to keep me awake.

So thank you to my cousins Marisa and Chris in Ontario for both reminding me of that long lost adventure and for allowing me to listen to what I missed.

Location; the Isle of Wight, August 30 1970,


Pictures; me in 1970 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and at the Festival, 1970, Roland Godefroy,who granted permission to use the image  under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 

*The Doors – Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival -1970 – Past Daily Backstage Weekend, 

When Marilyn Monroe came to Chorlton

 It's the silly story that unites an actress, a gift shop and our house here in Chorlton.

The actress was Marilyn Monroe, the gift shop was the Flying Machine on Wilbraham Road and the house was on Beech Road.

To be more accurate Marilyn was a cardboard folding cut out of the American actress which l bought on impulse sometime around 1979.

It moved around the house having briefly spent a while on Reeves Road.

The Flying Machine was a wonderful cornucopia of odd things none of which were too expensive but most of them the sort of silly items which made you feel good.

I remember it being very crowded and always smelt of incense.

Ms. Munroe got to know the house, having once sat on an armchair in the front room and then by degree occupied the dinning room and the study before the ravages of time and the family dog consigned her to the cellar and eventually the bin.

Location; Beech Road,

Picture; Ms. Munroe visits Chorlton, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

“Take your picture Mister” ……. photo booths we have all known

The photo booth has and is still more than just a box where you can get your picture taken.

Photo-Me, 2026

Many will have fond memories of group pictures which might be just two friends larking around or one of those silly nights out when the challenge was to see how many could pile in and be recorded.

And on a more serious or practical level the photo booth was the perfect and cheap way of getting an ID picture, even if the results were sometimes grim.

I could never quite get the hang of the curtain at the back or worse was never prepared for the camera flash resulting in a few gawking images, with half closed eyes and worse still at least one of the back of my head.

Once they were everywhere, from Post Offices to shops and railway stations.

Manchester Victoria Railway Station, 2026

But like telephone boxes you see few of them these days and so when I do encounter one, I do a double take and reflect a little on their demise.

I suppose like the picture postcard they are victims of the mobile phone with its camera feature which at an instant can take a photo exactly as you want tailored to the moment.

Of course, such a photo might not pass muster when it comes to the demands of an official record.

And anyone who has struggled with uploading a selfie for a passport will know that the only recourse is one of those chains of professional photographers.

Still, I feel rather sad that the photo booth no longer is the first go to place for a quick snap and so having come across “Photo-Me” at Manchester Victoria I began pondering on the history.

To my surprise it goes back to the 1880s with the first recognizable boots turning up in the 1920s.

And the rest as they say is all down Wikipedia and never one to steal someone elses’s research I will suggest you follow the link.*

And for those curious to relive their youth there is a fine example of a photo booth in that wonderful and magical store, which is Fred Aldous in Stevenson Square.  

They have a “Photo-Me Model 17 Black and White booth from 1968. It was manufactured right here in the UK but spent most of its life in a Woolworth’s store in Canada”.**

Me, 1970

And I rather think it was in a Woolworth’s store in town where I had my ID picture taken in 1970.

Alas like my hair the photo booth has become a thing of the past. 

So while some still exist and do a good job I doubt that many 14-year-olds will seek them out, and even less spend heaps of money retrying to get the right picture or the silliest one.

Location; the past and Manchester Victoria

Pictures; “Photo-Me”, Manchester Victoria, 2026, and me in 1970, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Photo Booth, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_booth

**Fred Aldous, https://www.fredaldous.co.uk/pages/photobooth?srsltid=AfmBOorZHgkMwL8Agu6-ZWs0TcwSVe4lATt2QSwz8LSDb1LnHuRB9ZKF

Half twelve in the Rynek Starego Miasta .... thinking about history ... and talking about Polish food

Now it was just past midday and after a morning in Warsaw’s old town we were hungry.

In the square, 2026

And as you do, we wandered into the Market Square which was laid out at the beginning of the 14th century at the start of the city’s story.

Since then, it has experienced heaps of history. At one time it was the capital of a superstate which as the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Helping the tourists, 2026

But those glory days were marred by Poland’s partition in the 18th century at the hands of Prussia, Russia and Austria, the moment of freedom while the brief period of independence after the Great War was ended by the dark days of the Nazi occupation, and Soviet dominance.  During that Nazi occupation the Market Square was pretty much destroyed in the Uprising.

Today the square is a bustling place full of locals and tourists and because everyone needs to eat a selection of restaurants occupy part the open space.

There wasn’t much to choose between any of them, so we joined the queue which looked to be the shortest and it turned out to be ok.  

Like its rivals the menu was heavily orientated to fish and meat, which came in enormous portions of which schnitzel seemed the most popular choice.

I feared as one of the veggies in the group I would be at a disadvantage but there was pierogi which is a traditional Polish dish of dumplings which were filled with cheese, and mushrooms and topped with sour cream. They came with a salad of shredded carrot, cabbage and beetroot.

 Schnitzel in the square 2026 

And were the choice of our neighbour who interestingly started their meal with a platter of cheess and fruit.

The conversation drifted from that starter to the different pierogi I had already encountered and settled on schnitzel which as everyone knows is a thin slice of meat which is breaded and then fried.  My Wikipedia tells me that “it is popular in many countries and is made by using veal, pork chicken, mutton, beef or turkey”.*

And here the discussion took a turn because a few years ago our Saul found some very large mushrooms in the forest and Julia never one to waste food transformed into a meatless Schnitzel.

Giant mushroom, 2025

Mushroom Schnitzel, 2025

Alas I was not there to share the cooking of the wild mushrooms, but I wish I had.  But there will always be another time.

Location; Rynek Starego Miasta, Warsaw

Lunctime in the Square, 2026

Pictures, of the Market Square, the restaurant and the customers, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and that mushroom and Schnitzel, 2025, Julia ICE Czajkowska

* Schnitzel, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schnitzel

On finding Miss Wright of Chorlton .............. unlocking a bit more of our history

464 Wilbraham Road, home to Miss Wright circa 1900

Now Miss Wright of Chorlton has been found.

She was and continues to be a clue to the story of the Girls Friendly Society and the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute which have featured in stories over the last few days.*

The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute was based for a while in one of the big houses in St Clements Road and the Girls Friendly Society met there during the early decades of the last century.

In 1928 Miss Wright was the President of the G.F.S. and I always knew that if we could find her we would come to know more about both the society and the Institute.

And yesterday Sandra Hapgood came up with Miss Wright’s story which came to light in the 1934 St.Clement’s church magazine in which “she is mentioned as Branch President Miss Wright of 464 Wilbraham Road (now the RBS)

The Acting Branch President was Mrs Evans of 99 Claude Road [and] in 1934 they met every Thursday in the New School (St. Clements) 7.40 - 9.45pm.”

It may also be that the short description of the "G.F.S" in the magazine was actually written by Miss Wright.

"The long, light evenings have gone, so it was with a certain amount of pleasure that we turn to meetings indoors for our recreation and instruction.

During October, on Thursday evenings, G.F.S members will commence their various activities, including musical drill, country and ballroom dancing, ping-pong and other games, needlework - and chatting by the fire.

The evening of Thursday, October 18th, has been reserved for a Lantern Lecture, to which an invitation has been extended to all. Details of the lecture will be announced nearer the date."**

Looking down Wilbraham Road, circa 1900

Sandra adds "it is signed M.I.W and I thought we had Miss Wright's initials but sadly not. 
M.I.W is Miss Wilson the headmistress of the Infant school at that time.”

Now all of that helps with the Institute which was the home of Mr and Mrs Crowhurst in the 1890's who ran a “Ladies School” there and which may have been rented out to the church by its owner William Batty around 1900.

The house was still listed as a club in 1934 but as the new school had been built on St Clements Road some at least of the events that were hosted there had moved across the way.

All of which for me is a fascinating little bit of our local history more so because it is a bit that now sits very much in the shadows.

So I shall go looking again for Miss Wright, Mrs Evans and the others who will tell me more about the Institute and the G.F.S., which just leaves a thank you to Sandra.

Picture; the corner of Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Roads and Miss Wright’s house, circa 1900 from the Lloyd Collection

*The Girls Friendly Society, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Girls%20Friendly%20Society

**St Clement’s Church Magazine, 1932, courtesy of Sandra Hapgood