History through art .... on the wireless today

Now here is a double presentation of wireless at its best.

Gassed, 1919

Both programmes explore art as part of the backdrop for the last two centuries.

It starts with National Remembrance and the 1924 Empire Exhibition Artworks, Who Did We Think We Were? 

"75 years after the Festival of Britain offered a tonic to a Blitz-hit nation, Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum, returns to Radio 4 with a three-part series, examining how celebrations of British identity and togetherness over the past century or so can help us better understand and define who we are now.

PETROLEUM, 1924

'The question of who we are, of national identity, of the Union Jack itself, is now the subject of angry political debate,' Neil says. 'In these three programmes I want to take a step back – to look at six moments over the last hundred years when, as a country, we came together to assert a national purpose, to celebrate and to explore who we thought we were, and to consider our place in the world.'

MATCH MAN, 1924

'Asking 'who did we think we were then?' might help us answer the question - 'who do we think we are now?'.  And to understand why – as a country – we have, for over a century, found that question so difficult to answer."

In this first programme, Neil looks at the aftermath of World War One. 

After conflict in which nearly a million servicemen of the British Empire were killed, how should a nation honour that huge human sacrifice? 

The immediate answer was to create a National Hall of Remembrance, lined with newly-commissioned memorial art - art that shocked its first viewers. 

SHARP'S,1924

And 1924 saw the opening of a vast Empire Exhibition in Wembley, re-asserting Britain's place in an unstable post-war world. 

Across two years, the Exhibition attracted 27 million visits - an astonishing number at the time. So what did it say about us? 

What drew people in such numbers? And what might we conclude from it today?

Producer Katy Hickman"*

And  is followed by Art That Conquered the World, Artworks, Ophelia.

"John Everett Millais's Ophelia is an art world celebrity. It's a star of Tate Britain, attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors to a recent exhibition in Shanghai and floats serenely across the internet, racking up huge numbers of likes and memes. But how and why did Ophelia hit the big time?

In this series, art historian Dr James Fox traces the twists of fate and happy accidents that pushed a handful of artworks to the forefront of global pop culture. Painted in 1851, Ophelia's fame is a story of fashion and feminism. And, as James discovers, the unlikely combination of Shakespeare, Ken Russell, Elizabeth Siddal, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Taylor Swift and the most famous bath-tub in the history of art.

In conversation with James are the art historian Dr Rebecca Marks, tattooist Jessica Stratton, the actress Judith Paris and Lord Lloyd Webber.

Produced by TBI Media, Producer – Julia Johnson, Exec Producer – Jonathon Mayo, Junior Producer – Jamie Adam, Sound Design - Tom Burchell, Production Manager – Sera Baker"

Location, BBC Radio 4

Pictures; Gassed, John Singer Sargent, 1919, Imperial War Museum, PETROLEUM, & MATCH MAN, SHARP'S,  BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION 1924-5, unnumbered, SHARP, PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY RAPHAEL TUCK & SONS LTD. Oilfacsim but not so trade-named, comes with three slightly different backs see Perkins & Tonkin. Sold as single cards available at Exhibition, six images by CHARLES E. FLOWER, Tuck DB https://www.tuckdbpostcards.org/ Ophelia, John Everett Millais, Tate Britain, room 14, Accession number, N01506

*National Remembrance and the 1924 Empire Exhibition, ArtworksWho Did We Think We Were? BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002yl1f

**Art That Conquered the World, Artworks, Ophelia, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002yxt4

It’s the little bits that serve to make a history ……

If you are of certain age, born in the second half of the last century who grew up during the early years of television then the chances are that the wireless played a big part in your life.

1950s elegance

Along with newspapers the BBC remained the primary source for news and entertainment.  It was there in school with a variety of educational programmes, at your place of work with Music While You Work and offered up a heap of comedy and drama broadcasts which stand the test of time.  They were innovative, and funny and set many comedians on a path to fame and success.

Advert for radios, 1949

The list of radio shows from my youth tumble over each other but in a way culminate with Two Way Family Favourites that request programme designed to link families at home in the UK with British Forces serving in West Germany and other places overseas.*

It was just part of Sunday, sandwiched either side of Sunday dinner, beginning with that signature tune “With a Song in My Heart” followed by “In Britain and in Germany it is 12 noon so at home and away it is time for Two Way Family Favourites”.

It is perhaps easy to forget that there was a time within living memory that communicating with a loved one was pretty much limited to letters and post cards.

Our first phone arrived only in the 1950s, and the line was shared with another family, but we were lucky because for most people making a telephone call meant a trip to the nearest public phone box while phoning from abroad might involve booking a call-in advance.

All of which meant that keeping in touch was down to writing either letters or the short picture postcard.

And with such limited access to communication often hearing of a relative’s illness was hit and miss.

But here the BBC stepped in with its SOS messages which were designed to alert families to an urgent emergency, like "Will Mr and Mrs Little, last heard of eight months ago in the Birmingham area, head to Leeds General Infirmary where Mrs Little's mother is dangerously ill."

They weren’t frequent but even as a child when I heard one I was transfixed.  And in the same way when the BBC broadcast an appeal for information on a missing person.  

The radio audience, 1944

What strikes me now is that idea that someone could  have been “last heard of eight months ago in the Birmingham area” which with today’s level of knowledge and potential surveillance seems so remote.

I occasionally remember these messages and yesterday went looking for them, a search which led me to a BBC story, “The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send”, Kathleen Hawkins.**

Now I wont steal Ms. Hawkins story, all you have to do is follow the link, but as the story shows we still know so little about the service, even down to when it ended.

According the BBC piece, “It is not known when the messages ended, but it was at some point during the 90s, although BBC World Service continued the practice into the 21st Century. Mobile phones made them redundant, but for those who were directly affected by the SOS messages, my family included, they had a huge impact that lives on today".

I do remember that having grown up with them I caught myself thinking that I hadn’t heard an appeal for ages.

So there you are.  The SOS message, it may only be a tiny footnote in the history of British broadcasting but it’s a bit that serves to make a history and, in the process, offers up a very small window on how we were.

Location; my past and yours

Pictures; 1950s elegance, News of the World's Household Guide and Almanac, courtesy of Debbie Cameron, advert for radios, 1949, from the collection of Graham Gill, radio listings from Saturday July 3rd, 1943, The Derby Evening Telegraph,  from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and group of young women, signing on for the industrial registration at the Derby Employment Exchange, August 9th, 1943, reproduced courtesy of the Derby Telegraph, January 2, 2013 

* “In Britain and in Germany it is 12 noon" .... One song ….. Two Way Family Favourites ….. and a different way of saying hello, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2025/10/in-britain-and-in-germany-it-is-12-noon.html

**“The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send”, Kathleen Hawkins, BBC News, May 15th, 2016, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35815747

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 4........ a brick circa 1830

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.

As bricks go I do not think it looks very remarkable but then I suppose like most of us they are not things I tend to think much about.  But this one has a story.  The clay from which it was made may have come from just north of the village where clay and marl have been dug since at least the 17th century and it was part of a fine house which was probably built sometime between 1830 and 41.  The families who lived in it were comfortably well off and were important enough to have been listed in the local directories.  But like all but two from the same period it was demolished and we lost a link with our past.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Tram jam .............. Oxford Road

Now, somewhere I have a complete collection of press cuttings about Manchester's new road scheme, which resulted in huge rush hour congestion on Oxford Street and Road in 1938.

Tram Jam, 1938

It was a bold plan which was simply called Manchester's No 9 Traffic scheme. 

And it was a one way system that "included Oxford Street, a part of Oxford Road, and Princess Street"*

It had been in operation for eight days, including two Sundays before  "unprecedented congestion of trams in Oxford Street in the morning and the delays later in the day in Princess Street and Grovesnor Street showed showed the necessity  for alterations to the system".

Now the picture has no date, so it may have been taken during the road traffic scheme or was just  a tram jam in the rush hour at some other time in the 1930s.

Manchester's number 9 traffic scheme, 1938

Location Oxford Road

Picture; Oxford Road, circa 1939, from the collection of Allan Brown

*Manchester's One Way Traffic Scheme, The Manchester Guardian, June 13th, 1938

So who was Miss Edith Townley of 13 Rectory Place in Woolwich and how did she spend the Christmas of 1917?

Now I went looking for number 13 Rectory Place yesterday which was home to Miss Edith Townley in 1917.

Writing to Edith in 1917

It is there on the old maps of the area, along with the street directories and looks to have been a grand property.

In fact walking up Rectory Place towards St Mary’s Street I reckon I might well have felt quite out of place.

But there is no crime in walking past and looking at a posh house, except that none of them are there now.

Instead there are some blocks of flats which is all a bit of a shame.

Along Rectory Place in 1872

But then Miss Townley also seems to be lost to history.

According to this wartime postcard Fred was expecting to be home on leave and was so confident of Christmas in Woolwich that he told her not to send the parcel.

The problem is simply that I can’t find her anywhere in Woolwich for 1917, and that nu 13 had been the residence of the Rev Charles E Dove as late as 1914 but he was also in the habit of changing his address and can be found at one time or another living in several addresses both in Woolwich and further afield.

Added to which there were a lot of Townley’s living in both London and serving in the armed forces.

"Dear Edith .........."

All of which might seem to make this a bit of a non story but I think not.

There will be someone who can help me with when those blocks of flat went up, replacing the grander properties which included nu 13 and with a bit more patience I might be lucky and identify Fred and in turn come closer to finding Edith.

In the meantime I have to say I have discovered a bit of Woolwich I never knew existed and might get to know more about the postcard which set me off on the search.

It belongs to my old friend David Harrop who recently purchased it as part of a batch he found on eBay.

Miss Edith Townley

I look forward to seeing it and getting to know the picture on the front, which may not help me discover anything more about either of them but will perhaps give me a clue to the type of photograph Fred liked and thought Edith might enjoy.

We shall see.

Location; Woolwich, London

Pictures; postcard, December 1917, from the collection of David Harrop, and detail of Rectory Place, from the OS for London, 1862-72, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Sugar sandwiches …. fruit salad ….. and carnation ……. food for the Gods

Well, while the young me thought I was in very heaven with sugar sandwiches I have to admit I never served them to my three when they were growing up.

The National Loaf, 1944

Nor do I think a bowl of tinned fruit with the obligatory splash of carnation milk would have been appreciated by any of them, but they were the backdrop to living in southeast London in the early 1950s.

To be fair I have yet to come across anyone else who ate sugar sandwiches.  The most common alternative I am told by friends was apple or banana sandwiches and I must admit apple did feature as alternative to sugar for me and my sisters.

They were quick to make, offered up that mix of sweetness and energy but even then, there was the drawback that the sugar granules crunched against your teeth and got lodged in the gaps created by the dentist.  I have still got those gaps from being an adolescent when Mr Guppy judged that as a boy, I would never be bothered about the appearance of my mouth.

But mercifully for my teeth there were also the savoury sandwiches, made with Pecks fish and meat paste and those magnificent dripping sandwiches.

In retrospect dripping sandwiches must have been a heart attack in waiting.  As veggie for over 40 years I shudder, but there was something magic on that mix of fat and salt and if you were lucky the dark brown liquid which lurked at the bottom of the pot.

But this is not a cry against what some would see as poor parenting or an attempt to outdo Eric down the road for the most deprived up bringing it was just part of our diet, and vied with healthy and nourishing soups, roasts and stews. 

I guess it was a throw back to mum’s childhood in the early 1930s when with granddad part of the millions of unemployed they were forced to apply for the Means Test which judged an application for help against what in the house could be sold to raise funds.

Fruit cocktail, 2025

The post war prosperity made that dark time a distant memory, but which always sat just below the surface and would occasionally surface.

Leaving aside the poverty aspect it was also a matter of “we did things differently back then”.

I never thought it odd that we would be served a pudding of spaghetti cooked with milk and sugar or that a delicacy in our house was chunks of corned beef dipped in batter and deep fried.

They were just what we ate and even now when me and my sisters get together we smile at the deep-fried corned beef which we nicknamed Dr Who’s because of the outlandish shapes the batter formed which reminded us of the monsters he confronted.

And then there was olive oil, bought in small bottles from the chemist and used on ear wax, or rubbing into the hair when mum had to use the knit comb.

Carnation, 2025

That said in the early 1950s the solution for me and my friends was that brutal haircut which left you looking like a recruit in a boot camp.

I must have other food memories but they as yet haven't tumbled out.

Against this since my mid 20s I have embraced cooking, leaving the procesed stuff behind and mastering a heap of dishes including the humble pasty.

But what is fascinating is just how quickly, the sugar and apple sandwiches and the medicinal application of olive oil vanished under the growing prosperity and commercialism of the late 1950s.  

So, in a few short years traditional puddings were replaced by such offerings as Angel Delight, and Arctic Roll, and baked fish by fish fingers and that staple which was Birds Eye burgers. And coming up fast there were those boil in the bag Vesta curries and Chow Mien.

And somewhere along the way we lost the Sunday treat of tinned fruit and carnation.

Me own efforts, 2026

Location; somewhere in the 1950s

Pictures, The Co-op National Loaf, 1944, Manchester & Salford Co-operative Herald, 1944, the alternative, the home made pasty, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and fruit salad and Carnation courtesy of Morrisons

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 3........ the tithe map 1845

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.

The tithe map perfectly captures a moment in our history.  Here were recorded the fields, buildings and roads in 1845.  But there is much more because the map and its accompanying schedule lists who owned the land, who they rented it to, the size of each field, its value and above all its use. It will also tell you who lived in the houses.

Now  we live facing the Recreation Ground and beside us was the Bowling Green Field, farmed by Samuel Gratrix, and owned by the Egerton’s.  It was an acre of arable farm land and its value was 3s 10d and directly opposite us was Row Acre which is now the Rec

Picture; by courtesy of Philip Lloyd