A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 6 .... three concrete stumps 1959

A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and  a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.

They are gone now but for almost all of the time I have lived in Chorlton, there were three concrete stumps on Wilbraham Road outside what is now the takeaway burger outlet. At some point when part of the building was the pottery studio they had been decorated with colourful tiles but I have to confess I thought little about them.  Only once did I ponder on whether they had been the base for petrol pumps which of course was what they were for here was Wilbraham Garage.  It wasn’t the first in Chorlton, that was probably Shaw’s on Barlow Moor Road but still it is an indication of how far the motor car had taken over.  The three stumps supported four pumps which stood in front of the shop and garage and like Shaw’s were in a row of conventional shops and houses.


Picture; Wilbraham Road,, A E Landers, 1959, M18423, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Tram car 283 out from Victoria Park ……. with Mr. William Becket

I don’t have a date for the picture, but it will be sometime after the Great War.

The guard standing in front of the tram is Mr. William Becket, and his career pretty much matched that of Manchester Corporation Trams.

He started on the trams, but ended his career as a bus inspector, while motor buses slowly replaced the tram, with the last tram car taking its last trip as a scheduled route on Sunday  January 9th  1949.

This was the 35, from Victoria Street to Hazel Grove.  The last moments of that journey have been recorded by Ian Yearsley in his book The Manchester Tramways.*

“That evening a group of us made our way over to Exchange to ride on the last car to Hazel Grove and back. As we stood on the wet pavement by the Cathedral it was hard to believe that this was really the end. ….... Eventually the last through car to Hazel Grove arrived, and we watched it go through the familiar routine for the last time.  The few passengers got off, and the car rolled gently down to the end of the track by Oliver Cromwell.  The light went out and in the faint light of the streetlamps we could see the guard walking around.”**

Tram car 283 had ended it service two years earlier, on December 22nd, 1947 when it was replaced by a bus.

I have Steve Casson to thank for the picture.  Mr. William Becket was his grandfather, and Steve wondered just where the photograph had been taken.

I haven’t been able to find the spot, but I know that in its forty-five years it plied a course from Victoria Street to Princess Road, and later to Fallowfield and Wilbraham Road and then Barlow Moor Road.  Later still the service was extended to Mauldeth Road via Kinsgway and was extended again to East Didsbury.

But I think Steve will be interested to know that its period of service from Victoria Park to Princess Road was from December 1st, 1902 till December 1924, and as this was the time his granddad worked the route, I guess it will be along that corridor that we shall have to look for the location of the picture.

Location; somewhere between, Victoria Park to Princess Road

Picture; tram car 283, somewhere between, Victoria Park to Princess Road, circa 1902 to 1924, from the collection of Steve Casson

*The Manchester Tramways, Ian Yearsley and Philip Groves, 1988
**ibid The Manchester Tramways,  p244

Annie Morris, Ram Alley and more stories of Eltham in the 19th century

Annie and her son William in 1877

I  am back with Annie Morris whose life in Eltham pretty much covered the period when the place shifted from a rural backwater to a suburb of London.

She was born Annie Rice Foster in Pound Place in 1848 and her grandfather and father were blacksmiths on the High Street.

She would have known and gone to school with many children whose parents still made a living from the land, either as farmers, agricultural labourers or trades associated with the rural economy.

Her husband John was a carpenter and joiner, and his father variously described himself as a labourer, groom, gamekeeper and gardener.

John had been born in Yorkshire and his father was from Wales, and during the years before 1851 the family moved back to Wales before settling in Eltham which rather contradicts that old school’s history idea that people seldom travelled.

Judging by the census records the lanes of Eltham would have been full of different accents.  Annie’s grandfather had been born in the North West, her father in law in Wales and her mother in law in Yorkshire.

And looking at the at the servants employed in the grand houses around Eltham they also were drawn from across the country which shouldn’t surprise us given that few of these wealthy families would choose to employ local girls.

In the same way Annie and John moved around a bit, having started their married life in Plumstead in 1875, they were back in Eltham by 1880 and lived in a succession of cottages.

Ram Alley in 1909

Of these I am drawn to their time in Ram Alley which consisted of four cottages by the High Street.

Now I doubt that these properties were ever that wonderful to live in.

Three of the four had just two rooms while the fourth consisted of three. In 1895 they were all condemned as unfit to live in but in the way of these things they were not demolished for another forty-three years.

Annie and John were there in Ram Alley by 1891 bringing up six children in just two rooms.

And it is easy to brush over that simple fact but eight people is difficult enough especially given that the four boys ranged in age from sixteen down to four and there was a daughter under two.

That said Court Yard where they were living a decade later was only marginally less of a squeeze for while it had five rooms there were still eight of them and young Mabel was now 11.

But such was the lot of many working class families in both rural and urban areas and throughout the 19th century commentators reported on the ingenious ways families coped with such overcrowding, ranging from the simple blanket hung across the upstairs room to sharing out children with neighbours or grandparents.

I suppose there was always that simple observation that soon enough the children would move on.  By 1911 Annie and John were sharing Court Yard with just two of their children while up at Ram Alley, three of the four properties were occupied by just one person and the fourth with its three rooms was the home of George Meakin and his lodger Elizabeth Lumley.

Detail of Annie and William

Annie was to record her memories of growing up in Eltham to a local newspaper in 1931 and in the fullness of time I will revisit the stories she had to tell.

But I shall close with another look at the photograph of Annie as a proud mother in 1877.

She is sitting with her eldest son William and the picture was taken in Woolwich.

Now this must have amounted to quite a financial outlay for a working family and I rather think there will not be that many from this period or from their class.

And it is the detail that draws you in.

William is dressed in his finest baby wear but it is Annie who makes the lasting impression with that carefully prepared hair and the striking dress.

She would have been 29.

Location; Eltham, London


Pictures; Annie Morris with her eldest son William courtesy of Jean Gammons, and Ram Alley from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

We are not an aberration …… when you are not alone .... spaghetti, milk and sugar

Growing up in southeast London in the 1950s we ate a heap of different foods.

Pretty much all of them were cooked from scratch at home using whatever ingredients were to hand.

And that meant that some of the meals were a bit of a strange mix, but they followed a basic recipe and drew on what mum and dad had eaten in their youth.

To this could be added the experience of wartime rationing and the limited range of food that was available.  

So, leaving aside the seasonal aspect of what was in the shops this was a time before advent of exotic vegetables and fruit shipped from around the world and ready to buy all year round.

So, strawberries, raspberries, new potatoes and a selection of root veg came and went adding to the slow rhythm of what we ate and I think made for an appreciative anticipation.

Now there was always tinned fruit which usually was saved for Sundays.

It also meant that things like avocados didn’t feature with me until I was well into my 30s.

And then there were the odd dishes which I always thought of as peculiar to our family and a bit of an aberration.

Chief amongst these was spaghetti cooked with milk and sugar.  It was a pudding treat, quick to make and always went down well.

But in those quiet shared conversations with friends’ spaghetti cooked with milk and sugar always drew a blank, in fact more than a blank, the general consensus ranged from disgust to outright derision.  It was a bizarre thing.

And so, I was left to “mutter well we liked it” with that consoling thought that it was the past where we did things differently. 

Leaving me to write a few reflective pieces and ponder how we were an aberration.

But not so, because tucked away in a book from the Great War on vegetarian recipes, I came across cooking boiled Macaroni “with a little sugar and milk [which] makes a very acceptable pudding”.  

I rest my case …. It may not pass muster today but jolly well was up there on the tables of fellow vegetarians in 1918.

The book has been reprinted by Read Books in their collection of Vintage Cook Books.

The publisher’s blurb tells me that it was “Originally published during WWI, this is one of the early vegetarian cook books, issued to help deal with rationing and the meat crisis. 

It contains many recipes and much advice that is still of practical use and interest today. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. 

Vintage Cookery Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. 

Contents Include: Hints On Food Soups Vegetable Stock Lentil Dishes Brown Lentils Rice Dishes Haricot Dishes Macaroni Dishes Nut Dishes Cheese Dishes Miscellaneous Dishes Curries Vegetables Sweets Pastry Salads Sauces Porridge Egg Dishes Explanations and Suggestions Menus For A Fortnight”.**

Now Lois my dearest friend and fellow writer and blogger who has followed my journey as a vegetarian for forty years and more sent me a copy yesterday.

I read it in a single sitting.  

Some of the recipes I already cooked, others looked a challenge or just didn’t appeal.

But the historian in me will go back and explore the 100 dishes as backdrop, not only to vegetarianism but also to the Great War.

And that is it.

Pictures; pasta to make a pudding from, 2026, cover of  the reprint Food in War Time, 2026

* Sugar sandwiches …. fruit salad ….. and carnation ……. food for the Gods, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2026/07/sugar-sandwiches-fruit-salad-and.html

** Food in War Time - Vegetarian Recipes for 100 Inexpensive Dishes: And Helpful Suggestions for Providing Two Course Dinners for Six People for One Shilling, George W. Hall 

***Lois Elsden, Writer, https://loiselsden.com/

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 5........ a street fire alarm 1958

A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and  a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.

In an age before we all had telephones it was necessary to be able to call the fire brigade.  Back in the 1880s there was a dedicated phone in the Lloyds Hotel.  Later still we got these.  This was one outside the Gaumont/Savoy cinema on Manchester Road.  There was another on the corner of Manchester Road and High Lane outside Oban House.

Picture; Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, A H Downes, November 1st 1958, M17988, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Waiting for the off.......... Manchester Corporation trams lined up in the Princess Road Car shed, 1926

Sometimes the image says it all.

And for anyone who was born after the last of the old trams rumbled their way through our streets and for that matter those who can just remember them, here is a magic picture.

It was taken in 1926 in the Princess Tram depot.

Within two decades and a bit these majestic vehicles had stopped running and now even the garage has gone.

So here they are as stately and magnificent with the sun shining down through the big glass roof.

Now I don’t think it is romantic tosh to say you get a real feel of just how impressive these trams were all lined up and waiting to go.

No wonder they still have the power to call up memories and draw new generations in.

Picture; the Princess Road Car shed, 1926 from the collection of Sally Dervan

On Court Yard with Annie Morris

I never tire of looking at this picture which takes me back to an Eltham I never knew.

We are standing on Court Road at the beginning of the last century and it comes from the collection published in Eltham Through Time by Kristina Bedford*

To our left in more recent times was the Grove Market, ahead of us the old Congregational Church and to the right a row of houses and shops which were already old by the time our photograph was taken.

Judging by the leaves on the trees we are in spring but never completely trust an postcard because companies were not averse to the odd “touching up” to enhance the image.

That said I have always been drawn to this bit of Eltham and not because of the palace and the posh buildings associated with it but because of that row in to our right.

I have written about walking past the properties already.**

And it was here that Annie Morris who lived when our photographer pitched up on Court Yard.***

In her time she had lived at  numbers 17 and 25 Court Yard and before that in Ram Alley behind the High Street.

She was born in 1848 at 4 Pound Place, and almost her whole life was spent in here Eltham.

She was a cook and may have worked for Captain North at Avery Hill and through her life we have a snap shot of what Eltham had been and what it was becoming.

Her grandfather had set up a farrier’s business in Eltham in 1803 on what is now the Library, and “attended the old Parish Church in his leather apron.”

All of which takes me back to Court Yard and that picture from Ms Bedford's book

Location; Eltham

Picture; courtesy of Kristina Bedford from Eltham Through Time

*Eltham Through Time, Kristina Bedford, 2013, http://www.amberleybooks.com/shop/article_9781445616001/Eltham-Through-Time%3CBR%3E%3CI%3EKristina-Bedford%3C_I%3E.html?sessid=QEZApJq34zSjKNVdmAQp3W3Qy2Osaq7D26IZyhCFhC916IZiIOjjz615AwKjvvXM&shop_param=cid%3D1%26aid%3D9781445616001%26

**Walking along Court Yard in the June of 1841, looking for John Martin and Hannah Simmons, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/walking-along-court-yard-in-june-of.html

***Annie Morris, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Annie%20Morris 

Ms Bedford also has an interesting web site, Ancestral Deeds, http://www.ancestraldeeds.co.uk/