Of artificial Christmas trees and memories of Well Hall in December

I don’t have a picture of our old Christmas tree.

It was bought in the late 1950s and served us well both in Lausanne Road and then at 294 in Well Hall, and was still in use till Dad died in 1994.

Mother was the romantic one of the pair.  She wrote plays, short stories and laboured on an unfinished novel of life in south east London.

But like all women of her generation she could be extremely practical and unsentimental, hence the no nonsense, no pine needles artificial tree.

It was really just a wooden pole painted green with a series of green brush cleaners with blobs of white.

Long after we had all left home dad continued to bring it out and even while he grumbled at “all the bother” he still dressed it and gave it pride of place.

Even today in Chorlton surrounded by natural Christmas trees our old artificial one has a special place in my memory, and underlines that simple truth that all of us bring to the event a set of traditions reaching back deep into our family history.

So a little bit of the late Edwardian and inter war Christmases experienced by my parents rubbed off on me as a child and rolled on in to how we celebrate the event.

For us kids it began with the arrival of Uncle George, the obligatory visit to see the Christmas lights on Oxford Street and the brisk walk up to the High Street or the woods after the presents had been opened on the day.

The evening began with a game of monopoly and followed on with whatever the television had to offer.

And in the long ago days, dad would be back at work on the 27th, Uncle George stayed on for the January sales and that was pretty much it.

The tree once taken down joined the box of glass decorations and those large pear shaped lights on a shelf in the big cupboard in the hall and it was grey and cold till spring.

Pictures; glass decorations from an advert for 1950s Christmas decorations on ebay and Christmas in Chorlton from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A familiar scene of Chorlton Green .............. with a few twists

Now at first glance, this appears a run of the mill picture of Chorlton Green with the lych gate, parish church yard and the pub in the distance.

Look a bit closer and there is still a telephone kiosk at the head of the lane, the church yard has yet to have its makeover and the United Servicemen’s Club was still selling pints.

We are on the green in the late 1970s or early ‘80s and it would be a full thirty years and a bit before the village school would be converted into residential properties.

The small housing development along Finney Drive was not more a than a decade old and the large barn which once belonged to Mr Higginbotham the farmer and which was on our right was still used by the building firm of Walkers.

Which just leaves me to say that the little lane behind the telephone kiosk will be as old as the church yard which dates back to the 16th century, and had you strolled down it at any time from the 18th century into the 19th  it would have taken you  past a farm and its out houses to the pond beside the old Bowling Green which a series of landlords rented out to gentlemen anglers.

Later after the pond vanished it was still used as a cut through and at one time was known by Marion's children as the Bumpy Way.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Chorlton Green circa 1978 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The bridges of Salford and Manchester .......... nu 7 walking over the river

Now this one sprang up when I wasn't looking.

And just because it is silly I shall aim to walk over each of the Salford bridges before Chris on the same day.

Location; Salford

Picture; the Irwell Street Bridge, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Lost Chorlton pictures ......... no 17. .........

It’s odd just what you forget.

Now Richard and Muriel’s green grocer’s shop on Beech Road is remembered with fondness by many of us but its neighbour on the corner with Acres Road has long been a mystery to me.

I know that back at the beginning of the 20th century it was an iron mongers and later before the last world war was a cycle shop that also did repairs.

After that I am a bit hazy until in the late 70s it was briefly a piano shop before its long association with food and booze, first as Cafe on the Green and then a succession of bars and restaurants.

My old friend Marjorie remembered that after the war it became a hairdressers which in 1969 was listed as “Joan Newman ladies Hairdresser”.

And I just assumed that by the time I washed up on Beech Road in 1976 it was already a piano shop.

But not so because in 1979 I took this picture of Richard and Muriel’s and clearly it was still a hair dressers, which begs the question did I imagine the piano shop or have I just got my chronology a bit wrong?

Location; Chorlton




Picture; Beech Road, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The bridges of Salford and Manchester .......... nu 6 looking over the river from the Irwell Street Bridge

Now I have always taken this one for granted which is a shame because it is not only a fine looking bridge but stands out on the river.

But as Bill pointed out I omitted to include the Irwell Street Bridge in the picture.

And so you will either have to go back to nu 5 or wait for number 8.

Such is the joy of the blog.
Location; Salford

Picture; the Irwell Street Bridge, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Walking Eltham High Street .........1905

Now, I make no apologies about posting this image with little in the way of explanation. 

Eltham High Street, 1905

It comes from that smashing little book Eltham Village published in 1984.*

The caption says "Old Eltham High Street and the Brewery circa 1905.  The stationers, diary and corn chandlers opposite St John’s Church prior to road widening”.

The fun will be taking the names of the proprietors and that of the Rising Sun’s landlord and searching for them on the census records.

But that is for another time.

Location; Eltham

Picture; Old Eltham High Street and the Brewery circa 1905, from Eltham Village.

*Eltham Village,  Gus White, Ian Murdock and Paula Richardson in 1984 and published by G & Pi Publications Eltham

Down in the parish churchyard by Chorlton green in 1976

Well having almost exhausted the collection of images on Chorlton in the 1980s, I think it’s time to wander back another decade.

We are in the parish graveyard in 1976 and I have to say despite walking through the place many times I have no recollection of it looking like this.

And I pretend to be a historian.

Still looking back through the back catalogue the place was like this in the 1970s and as you would expect plenty more from before.

So I shall leave you with Lois’s picture of the graveyard just before it was cleared and landscaped, but if you want more follow the link.*

Picture St Clement’s churchyard in 1976, from the collection of Lois Elsden

*St Clement's Church
http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/St%20Clement%27s%20Church