Chorlton History Group

You have to admit if its arts and activities in Chorlton you are after there is no lack of opportunities. Whether it’s Chorlton Arts Festival, the Book Week, the Beer Week or Food Fortnight and until recently Beech Road Festival there are just lots to do. To this you can add the farming markets on the green by the Jockey and outside the library, the regular folk sessions at the Beech, a film week and The Edge theatre venue and it is all there.
Much the same was true just 100 years ago. In Kemp’s Chorlton Almanac for 1910 there are listed seventeen associations ranging from the political to drama, musical, and gardening and horticultural societies. And there were clubs catering for cricket, football, bowling, golf, as well as hockey, lacrosse and lawn tennis. And this for a population of about 16,000.
We were a diverse community and while there was a strong middle class element the way the area had developed meant that there were plenty of artisan and working class families. The first municipal elections had returned Progressive and Liberal candidates and only later were the Conservatives to dominate, a dominance they were to maintain till 1986.
Today that diverse community is still here and one of the societies growing in numbers is the history group which now attracts anything up to 30 people. It is a forum for swapping ideas and current research projects. There have been talks as diverse as the blues concert at a Chorlton railway station, the history of Chorlton in the early 19th century, the development of the modern meadows and the story of Chorltonville. Our next meeting will be on January 19th in Chorlton Library at 1pm when I shall be talking about British Home Children followed later in the year by Eddie Little on the Great Storm.
The Chorlton-cum-Hardy District Almanack & Handbook For 1910, Harry Kemp, 35 Wilbraham Road