Home Thoughts of Woolwich ....... no. 1 ….. the badge

Sometimes it is as simple as a badge, which after 40 years brings back a bit of history.

Having left Well Hall in 1969 for Manchester, I only visited the Tramshed on brief visits home, but it was a popular place for our Elizabeth.

Location; Woolwich

Picture; the badge, circa 1970s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

When Mr & Mrs Allendale sold apples at that shop on the corner of Wilbraham and Keppel

That shop having its makeover, June 2015

Never underestimate the power  of memory,

Recently I reflected on the changes to that shop on the corner of Wilbraham and Keppel Road.

But the occupants of the place during the last century were a bit hazy.

That is until I posted the story and then with the help of a shed full of people those long  lost businesses came flooding back.

Back in 1960 with the Allendale's

In the 1980s into the 90s it was the Cheese and Bacon shop which always seemed very busy and operated that old 19th century maxim of offer the customer a wonderful array of good food as they walk in through the door and display much more in the long window.

We went there and I was sad when it closed.

What I didn’t know was that during the 1940's for two decades it was Allendale's the fruit and veg shop.

Now it had been Pauline Kelly who told me about Allendale’s, and Sandra who found the 1960 picture on the digital archive.

And I bet it will bring back a host more stories.

More so because of the cast iron and glass veranda which occupied the Keppel Road side.

Underneath the veranda, 1960

It can’t think it was original to when the shops were built and must have come down in the late 1960's or 70's but what a wonderful addition it must have been allowing the Allendale’s to serve out on the street in all weathers and capturing passing trade.

Added to which it that pre slick marketing age no one thought that trays of fruit on upturned wooden boxes would deter interested customers.

And that is about it, until more stories come flooding in about the Allendale's, and the cheese and bacon shop which they did just minutes after this was posted.

Lesley Smith remembers that the Cheese & Bacon shop was run by a Mr and Mrs Carney whoretired to Wales.

So the stories aren't over yet.

Picture; the shop on a June day in 2015 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and in 1960 by A E Lander’s m18303, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

The Chorlton History Wall ........ looking for a new home

After two years the third Chorlton History Wall is on the move. 

It was the latest in our series where art meets history telling the story of a particular spot in Chorlton over the last three hundred years.

It  appeared on the builder’s boards at the site of the former Chorlton Swimming Baths and Leisure Centre and became a tourist attraction following the very popular 80-meter installation which told the story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy from 1500 to the 21st century.

It ran across 16 large panels along Albany Road and part of Brantingham Road, included Andrew’s stories, Peter’s original paintings.

You could walk from Chorlton Green just before Henry VIII walked up the aisle with Ann Boleyn and traverse the centuries discovering the changes to where we live, ending at the former Cosgrove Hall Productions, home of Danger Mouse, Chorlton and the Wheelies and Count Duckula.

No less bold was the wall telling the story of Denbigh Villas on High Lane, which mixed the story of the two houses with accounts of the surrounding area.

And now the Manchester Road wall is on the move having done the business of recording the history of the former swimming baths and the surrounding area.

The three panels Stretching across seven meteres looked back to when this part of Chorlton was open fields with names like Gilbury Marsh and Horsefield, accompanied by tales of “dark doings” and culminating with our own Carnegie library and its links to the Titanic.

Suggestions for a new home have included Chorlton's Community Garden, a spell in Chorlton Library or perhaps ome of our local schools.

And in the spirit of community history all suggestions are welcome

Location; Manchester Road

Pictures; bits of the History Walk

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford nu 4 ............ Caxton Street

Caxton Street is the one that runs from Chapel Street to the railway viaduct but once upon a time ran on as Union Street under the train tracks to Posey Street..

Now I say that but am well prepared to be corrected.

I should have crossed the road and followed Caxton Street up to the brick wall but I didn’t and so may have lost a clue.

Back in 1849 there were 76 properties strung out along Union Street

Location, Salford

Picture; Caxton Street, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Chorlton Office, a pair of boots and a bus stop ................

This is one of my favourite pictures of Chorlton in the 1960s which comes from  George Cieslik’s collection.

I do like those images of the not so distant past, when much of what you can see is almost like today, but not quite.

And this one is no exception.

There in the distance is the old cinema, and in front, the building which over the years has had many different uses, from doctors’ surgery to a café, an antique shop and more recently a DIY centre and discount store.

Back in the 1940s it was still a residential property and out of the blue a few years ago someone contacted me with the story of when they lived there.

The keen observer will spot that the church on the corner of Barlow Moor Road and Sandy Lane had yet to be demolished, while the parade of shops opposite the cinema had yet to lose their stone ornaments.

But for me it is the very little details that make this photograph so fascinating.

It starts with the building which is now the home of diving club but back then was still the Chorlton Office and looks little different from when it was opened in 1915 as part of the terminus for the Corporation trams.

And that raises the question of just when the cast iron and glass veranda was spirited away.

And then for me there are the tiny personal things, starting with the old bus stop sign, with the Corporation logo, which was still in use when I washed up in Manchester in 1969 and the boots the woman beside the lamp post is wearing. 

They will have had a zip up the front, were made of felt with rubber soles, and an imitation fur lining, and were the bees’ knees back in 1962.

Others of my generation will single different things out, from the Belisha Beacons to the Morris Minors, and some like me will remember how the cab of the white lorry looked so modern when compared to others on the road.

And that is, other than to thank George for another slice of 1960s Chorlton.

Location; Barlow Moor Road

Picture; Barlow Moor Road, circa 1962 from the collection of George Cieslik

A little bit of Woolwich ........ from Manchester

Now I like the way a picture of a place I remember so well from my youth just pops into my in tray.

And so it is with this fine photograph of Plaisted’s Wine House.

Over the years I featured lots of images of Plaisted’s from a nice one taken by our Colin and Elizabeth to ones I took in the 1970s.

What makes this one just that bit unique is that it comes from the collection of Ron Stubley who like me lives in the far North ........ beyond the river, Watford Gap and even Birmingham.

Ron like me collects interesting buildings and so on a visit to Woolwich back in 2012 he added this one to the album.

He sent it over about 15 minutes ago with the comment “I'm sure you'll like this one Andrew”, and of course I do.

I shall now wait to see what other gems from Woolwich he may have.

Location; Woolwich

Picture, Plaisted’s Wine House, 2012, from the collection of Ron Stubley

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ...................... nu 1 St Simon Street, a wireless and sixty earth rods

Now you can still walk along St Simon Street but it no longer follows the route that it did when it led from Blackfriars Street to the Anaconda Works of Frederick Smith and Co who were producing some pretty nifty things in brass at the beginning of the 20th century.

This I know because in Dad’s garden shed in Well Hall Road in south east London he had sixty brass Earth Roads still in their cardboard boxes.

The rods are 46 cms [18”] in length, are fluted and pointed at one end  with a screw and terminal cap at the other.

According to the description on the side of the box “A good Earth connection to a wireless receiver cannot be over emphasised.  It provides a definite relief from howling and mush.  It improves selectivity and volume.  

The Anaco S (registered) Earth Road is made by engineers who have specialised for over 50 years in the manufacture of electronic conductors....with the object of producing a connection giving the lowest possible earth resistance and to be entirely free from incipient corrosion of any type.  

The improvements produced by the use of this earth are permanent and no replacements are necessary.” 

So there you have it.  Our Dad at some point acquired sixty of these rods.  I have no idea why and we never got round to asking him.  I have no idea when he got them but there they were in 1994, having been manufactured I guess sometime in the early 1920s.

Of course some will have chapter and verse on both the date of the rods and the history of the Anaconda Works.

I know that they were Type W “would not crumple when driven into the ground” and the instructions  direct me to “ease the screw on terminal cap, insert the earth wire from set into bottom grove and tighten up screw to hold wire in good contact with rod.”

All I need now is the wireless .............. something dad didn’t have in the shed.

But like many of my generation I do on occasion refer to the “wireless” remember with fondness the Home Service and the Light Programme.

None of which of course helps with St Simon Street which at the beginning of the 20th century ran from Blackfriars hugging the south side of the river and ending at Springfield Lane.

Today it takes a different route and my bit of St Simon’s Street along with Frederick Smith & co’s Anaconda Works has gone.

Location; Salford

Pictures; box and earth rod circa 1920s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson