A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 19, a Liverpool half penny dated 1791

Continuing the story of Chorlton in just a paragraph. They are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.

For the last two objects I tried to choose one of the oldest and newest which help tell the story.  This Liverpool half penny is not the oldest object to have come out of the past that belongs to a silver half groat of Charles found in the parish churchyard but at 1791 the half penny is beaten only by a contract dating back to 1767.  Half pennies like these were not strictly coinage but tokens which were only redeemable at the warehouse of the merchant who issued them.  But during the 17th and 18th century there was little low denomination coinage issued and so enterprising businessmen here in Manchester and in Liverpool and other Lancashire towns made their own.  Our coin was issued in 1791 in Liverpool as part of a very large series by Thomas Clarke who produced ten tons of these copper coins between 1791 and ‘94.   Clarke was a Liverpool merchant. The coin itself although common remains a beautiful piece of work.  The obverse side shows a ship under canvas with crossed laurel branches beneath and the inscription Liverpool Half penny.  The reverse bears the motto and arms of Liverpool. Ours had not fared so well and part of the upper mast and rigging from the ship had worn away.  I have no idea how it ended up in the parish churchyard or whether it had been used or was just a keepsake, but its Manchester equivalents may well have circulated in the township and there may even have been a reciprocal agreements between the merchants of Manchester and Liverpool.  Read the full story in Chorlton-cum-Hardy a new history due out later this year, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton


Picture; detail from the report on the Archaeological dig conducted by Dr Angus Bateman during 1980-81

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 18, a map and what we have lost since 1907

Continuing the story of Chorlton in just a paragraph. They are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.

In just 40 short years much of our open land which had once been farmland and market gardens had been built over. Most of this development had happened around what was Martledge in that area stretching from the metro station west to Oswald Road and east along Barlow Moor Road. But to the south beyond Beech Road out past the Brook and onto the Mersey it was still by and large untouched, and the sight of meadowland and cows being brought back to be milked have only just   faded from living memory. Claude and Reynard Roads gave out onto fields and just a little further down Beech Road if I had a mind I could have walked the field boundaries all the way to the river.
Picture; detail from the 1907 OS map from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Messages from the Royal Herbert to Nelson in Lancashire

Now this photograph of the Royal Herbert will be familiar to many and it is one that I have featured countless times.

But what makes this one unique is the message on the back which was sent to a Mrs Durson in Nelson, Lancashire and takes us back to the Great War.

It was written by Bert who was recovering in the hospital to his sister and is dated May 1st 1916 and begins with apologies for not writing and goes on to report that “I am making good progress and I  am being allowed up for an hour this afternoon.”

All of which you might expect from a letter home from a soldier in hospital, but what is more revealing is its reference to conscription.

So having commented on his own health and the weather Bert went on to ask about Frank and expressed the “hope they haven’t taken him away from you yet, but you know it’s only a matter of time for all eligible men now. 

 Our Bob will be 18 next month and that will be another of us in the army.”

In all the letters and postcards I have read from the Great War this is the first I have come across where someone directly comments on the impact of conscription on his own family.

And it also points to the sacrifice almost every family was making for the war which in this case amounted to three from the same family.

Of course if any of us track our own families the chances are there will be a similar story.

We can count a great grandfather, one of our grandfather’s two great uncles and two uncles who joined or rejoined the Colours from 1914-18.

Ours all came through but as yet I have no idea about Bert, Frank of the youngest lad.

Location Woolwich, Nelson

Pictures; from a postcard of the Royal Herbert, 1916 from the collection of David Harrop

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 37 ........ Market Place again

This is another of those streets which has not only been forgotten but was lost forever in the redevelopment of the area on the northern side of Market Street in the late 1960s and 70s.

Market Place, circa 1886

For the curious wanting to try and locate where it once began on Market Street stand with your back to the Royal Exchange, just a little up from Exchange Street facing Marks and Spencer and you are pretty much looking at it.

Today  there is an echo in the still relatively recently cut  New Cathedral Street heads off in the same direction as our old street.

Mr Kenyon's pub

Now I can’t be sure of the date of the picture, but in 1886 Samuel Kenyon was running the Wellington Inn and opposite him Mr S Hanson was dealing in all manner of “hosiery” shirts and a lot more.

Nine years later and the Wellington was being run by Mrs Elizabeth Kenyon and a Mr James S Hanson is trading from the property opposite.

Of course our picture postcard has been retouched and was sent in 1905, long after Mr Samuel Kenyon had passed on.

All of which is a lesson in what you do with a picture postcard of a historic part of the city.

And that is about it.

There will be people who remember the old Market Place and the shed load of little streets courts and alleys that led off.

Market Place circa 1880s

Which just leads me to make an appeal for any stories, pictures or memories of the place that Derek the Developer did for it

I am sure that these may well include some of those fascinating places with names like Blue Boar Court, Bull Heads Yard, Sun Entry and Angel Yard.

Well we shall see.

And for the very observant, yes Market Place did feature in an early story in the series, but back then I had forgotten I had this fine image of the place, and so what goes round comes round.

Or something like that.

Now for those wanting to recreate the walk, you can't.

New Cathedral Street, 2016

The best I can offer is the map, some pictures which can be found on Manchester's Local Image Collection and New Cathedral Street, which as I said almost follows the same route.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Market Place, circa 1886, from the collection of Mrs Bishop, New Cathedral Street, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson,  and and the area in the circa 1880s from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 10 Four Yards

Now I was never much good at maths or for that matter being able to make judgments about distance.

So I can’t say whether the distance between John Dalton Street and King Street is Four Yards.

To be fair the Laurent’s map  of 1793 suggests that it might have only run from John Dalton Street to South Kings Street and our little stretch might have not actually been part of the original.

Look closely at its alignment now and back 223 years ago and it doesn’t quite match up.

All of which just leaves someone to go and measure the distance or better still unearth some dusty document which gives a definitive answer.

So for now I will continue to use it as a alternative to a very busy Cross Street.

Location; Manchester



Picture; Four Yards, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 17, the lockup workshop

Continuing the story of Chorlton in just a paragraph. They are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.

You can find them all over Chorlton usually tucked away behind other buildings or hidden by tall walls. Some I guess were once stables or perhaps even cottages and now they serve as lock up workshops.  They are a reminder that in that crossover period when we were in transition from rural community to dormitory suburb there were still plenty of craftsmen about serving the needs of the township.  In some cases they inhabited what had once been farmyards and in others just patches of land not yet built on.  So opposite the Bowling Green Hotel where the remnants of the United Serviceman’s’ Club stands was one of the building yards of Scott the builder  and just a little closer to the green in what had been Greenwood’s farmyard was a smithy, lock up garages and where Mr Holmes carried out his carpentry business.  And much closer to now the Walker Brother’s ran their builder’s yard from what had once been the farm buildings of the Higginbotham family.  Now mostly the lock up workshops belongs to mechanics, but some are offices while others and morphed into keep fit venues. While this one has now been demolished and replace by a newbuild house.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Looking at some 18th century cottages on Avery Hill Road in New Eltham

Now these properties I had no idea existed nor that there was anything this old along this part of New Eltham.

So there you are a little bit of the 18th century in New Eltham and a description of the buildings from Darrel Sprugeon

“Theobolds Cottages are on Avery Hill Road and are a terrace of old cottages, the only survivors of the hamlet of Pope Street.

Despite the date 1817 on the front, they date back at least to the 1760s.

The porches are modern.”*
And they are on Avery Hill Road  just opposite Sparrows Lane, which once led to Sparrows Farm, but that is for another time.

*Discover Eltham and its environs, Darrel Spurgeon, 2000

Picture; Theobolds Cottages, courtesy of Darrel Spurgeon