When history gets a bit more personal ......... the Croton family

Now I like the way that stories become personal, and so it is with two pieces I wrote on  Charles and Reginal Croton who were two our taxi drivers the late 19th century into the 1920s.*

Reg Croton, 1925

They were successful enough to have moved from horse and cab to motor vehicle by the 1920s and were listed in the telephone book by 1911.

And Reg posed for a series of photographs which along with a picture of the family home on Sandy Lane drew me to them and hence the stories.

The images include two of Reg and Mr. David Ball, the manager of the WH Smith bookstall on Chorlton Railway Station.

In one they are posing beside Reg’s taxi and the other in front of the bookstall.

These along with the picture of their home are in the Lloyd Collection remain the best source for pictures of Chorlton.

They were collected by John Lloyd, who wrote the popular history of where we live, and many of the photographs were lent to him by local residents.

Reg and David Ball, 1922

So it is more than likely that our pictures made their way into the collection by either a member of the Croton family or Mr. Ball.

All of which adds a personal touch to the stories, to which I can now add and even more personal link in the form of a series of conversations with the grandson of Reg's younger brother, and two more images.

And rather than paraphrase what Peter Croton said, I shall instead include the full conversation with those new pictures.

Reg and David Ball, 1925 outside Chorlton Railway Station

“I hope you don't mind me writing to you about your Chorlton blog. My family lived in Chorlton from about 1895 to 1985 and I attended Chorlton Grammar School on Sandy Lane for eight years in the 60s. I find the blog to be excellent and the detail amazing, something you can be extremely proud of.

My great grandfather, Charles Wesley Croton, had a taxi business and lived on Sandy Lane from about 1895 to 1926 when he died. 

His wife, Annie, continued to live there until the 1930s. I have noticed that the blog contains some information about Charles Croton, a surprising amount in fact. Someone has been doing their homework. 

Charles Croton, 1905, Whitelow Road

Charles Croton was born in London in  1866. His father was a coachman (not a hackney coach driver) at the Wesleyan Training College, Westminster hence Charles' middle name Wesley. He arrived in Chorlton c.1895, having been in Hulme since 1890. Of four children the eldest two, including Reginald (b. 1889) were born in Oxford, and the two youngest, including Harold John (b.1890), my grandfather, were born in Hulme. 

Charles tenanted a small holding on Sandy Lane (I understand owned by the Egerton family) and could often be found with his cab at Chorlton Station or the Lloyds Hotel. He had a flock of geese at the farm which were said to be better than any guard dog. I have attached a photograph of Charles on his hansom cab c. 1905, taken on Edge Lane. A very small point, Reg would have been thirty three at the time of the 1922 photograph.

I have frustratingly been unable to find the quote from John Fielden ref. his memory of Charles. 

Harold Croton, Twenty Five years service, 1944

I have attached an image of Harold's certificate for his 25 years’ service in the electricity supply industry. Most of this time was with Manchester Corporation prior to nationalisation after WW2. Charles, his wife Ann, Harold and his wife Ellen are all buried in the family plot in Southern Cemetery”.

I doubt this is the end of the story of the Croton family, and I will go looking for their plot in Southern Cemetery, find the exact location on Sandy Lane of their home, and look for possible adverts for the taxi firm.

For now, I will thank Peter for sharing more information on his family and reflect how the Croton’s perfectly reflect Chorlton-cum-Hardy just a century and a bit ago.

At a time when the township was filling up with new residents and exchanging its rural character for an urban one, Charles like many others moved into the township, offered a taxi service to the new professional people, and by degree embraced the equally new form of transport which was the motor car, along with a telephone.

The Croton family home, Sandy Lane, date unknown

While one of his other sons went into another of those new industry’s which were to come to be central to how we lived.

But their tenancy of a small holding rented from the Egerton’s and that flock of geese takes us back into the rural past of Chorlton.

But like all things change was in the air, and Peter tells me that "Reg became a publican in North Manchester when the land on Sandy Lane was redeveloped and it is that part of the city where his only son still lives".

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; Reg and David Ball at Chorlton Railway Station, circa 1920s, and the family home on Sandy Lane, date unknown, from the Lloyd Collection, Charles Croton with his hansom cab circa 1905, taken on Edge Lane, courtesy of Greater Manchester County Record Office, Ref DPA 782/29, AND Harold Croton’s certificate for his 25 years’ service in the electricity supply industry, 1944, from the collection of Peter Croton

*The Croton Family, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Croton%20Family

** Lloyd, John M, The Township of Chorlton cum Hardy, E.J. Morten, 1972, and Looking Back at Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Willow Publishing, 1985

The class of ’68 part 7 ……. Ranger's House and a folk concert

Now, a little bit of my past has bounced back into my life in the form pf a program and a folk concert ticket.

'....... all that life can afford', 1967

And what follows is less a bit of vanity and more just a comment on how exciting it was to be at one of our big three comprehensives in the late 1960s.

The three were Crown Woods, Eltham Green and Kidbrook, and I went to Crown Woods.

And in the December of 1967 along with some close friends and lots of other people, I took part in two performances of “all that life can afford” at the Ranger’s House in Blackheath.

The house dates from the 1720s and was a fitting venue for a performance of selected verse, prose and music from the 18th century.

The show lasted for two nights, and drew on the writings of Daniel Defoe, James Boswell, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and John Wesley, along with Voltaire, Bernard de Mandeville and the duc de Liancourt.

From the program, cast, writers and researcher, 1967

And dominating the evening was Samuel Johnson, whose throwaway comment that “He that is tired of London is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford”, provided the title for the show.

The sequence was in two parts, the first offering up “pictures of the streets [with] gin drinking, poverty and crime and punishment”, and the second exploring “the intellectual and religious life, as well as entertaining in high society, the military and naval activities of Blackheath and Greenwich and the famous Greenwich Fair.” *

The night concluded with the sonnet Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 by William Wordsworth, which is near you will get to the perfect piece of praise for the city of London.

I remember I had been less than willing to participate and had a long conversation with Mr. Marland who was Head of English and put forward a series of reasons why I couldn’t take part, each of which was more desperate and unconvincing than the one before.

When finally, I gave in, and agreed, Mr. Marland gave me the script with my name at the top and the part I was to play already identified.

Some of the class of '68, 1968

The two nights were a great success but were only one of a number of different performances which the school had offered up.

These included, The Causian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht, An Enemy of the People by Ibsen, Billy Liar, Antigone, The Peterloo Massacre, and the sixteenth century play Gammer Gurton’s Needle along with other dramatic and musical anthologies.

All of which sat beside regular evenings of poetry, prose and music performed by the staff and students of the English Department.

Ranger's House and Samuel Johnson, 1967

Now I fully accept that similar events went on at Eltham Green and Kidbrook, and I do remember the annual Sixth Form Conferences attended by schools from across the capital which featured some of the best figures from the sciences and the arts who were invited to speak.

The point is that these were put on by comprehensive schools, and not grammar or public schools and in doing so were proudly asserting that they were the equal and perhaps superior to the older and established “places of education”.

Nor did it stop there, because Crown Woods gave us the opportunity to act independently.


In the winter of 1967 Dave Hatch and I were allowed to do our own radio show, featuring folk music, which went out on the internal radio system.

And a little later, when I asked if I could run a series of folk concerts with local singers in the school library, the answer was yes.

Folk at Crown Woods, 1968

I long ago forgot the details and had just a vague memory of who performed, but here Dave came to my rescue again, by telling me “you said that you couldn't remember many details. 

The names of two performers stuck in my mind; Gordon Giltrap, who you recruited one Friday night at the Tigers Head, and Terry Yarnell, who worked with Anne's father in Silvertown at International Paints”.

All these opportunities could be replicated by countless others, but I think there was something special in being at one of the “big three” in Eltham and Kidbrook back then.

Pictures; Crown Woods School in “……. all that life can afford”, the folk concert ticket, and the picture of some of the class of ’68, program courtesy of Anne Davey who kept them in her scrap book and Dave hatch for sending them up to me

*Crown Woods School in “……. all that life can afford”. 

Missing that old bridge

My old bridge circa 1940s

I cannot even begin to count the number of times I walked under the railway bridge which spanned Well Hall Road.

But then why should I?

It had carried trains across the road from 1895 and continued to do so for 90 years and I just took it for granted.

And then in 1985 as part of the construction of the relief road and the new station it was replaced by a new bridge which is a functional no nonsense bit of railway architecture and it lacks the style of the one I remember with those columns that adorn the upper part of the bridge and the brackets with their detailed wheels.

Detail of that bridge

Perhaps after those 90 years it had had its day but it is one of those little examples of how function can have style.

The picture dates to sometime after the last war but is pretty much as I remember it.

Go back a couple of decades and there were large hoardings underneath the bridge along with more on the embankment and a poster which ran right across the upper section.

And then it all changed again and now it has gone completely.

A new bridge 2015

I don’t suppose it matters over much but points to that simple observation that we take things for granted.

All of the shops beyond the bridge have changed since that tram trundled past although some further up by the Pleasaunce were operated by the same families when I walked up Well Hall Road.

So not an earth shattering bit of our history but still a bit of it.

Pictures; Well Hall bridge, circa 1940s, from the collection of A J Watkins, reproduced from Eltham and Woolwich Tramways and the new bridge 2014, from the collection of Chrissy Rose

*Eltham and Woolwich Tramways, Robert J Harley, Middleton Press, 1996, https://www.middletonpress.co.uk/

Buying a book at Wilcox's on Well Hall Road and a thank you

Well Hall Odeon, circa 1960s

It is pretty much one of those things that when you live somewhere you take it for granted.

Growing up in Eltham in the 1960s I don’t think I ever took a photograph of the place and most of the changes that occurred just passed me by.

That said I am not sure that there were many dramatic developments to Eltham during that decade.

The cinemas were all still there when I left as was the old station, and the shops on Well Hall Road just down from the Odeon were the same when I returned in the early 70s.

They included the radio shop where mum bought our first stereogram, the barber's shop next to the cinema where you always came out with a short back and sides no matter what you had asked for and Wells the Chemist and the cafe.

Some places have faded from my memory and others while still vivid have challenged me to remember their name.

Wilcox, Well Hall Road circa 1960s

So here I am with that shop at the top of Well Hall Road hard by Burton’s.

It sold everything from papers and sweets to books and on a Saturday morning it was one of the first ports of call before heading up the High Street to meet friends, or visit the library.

And only yesterday our Saul started reading the copy of Canterbury Tales which I bought from Wilcox’s sometime in the summer of 1967.

The book is much battered and is in danger of falling apart but it is a nice reminder of the continuity which binds me to the place where I grew up and still feel a pull for.

So I was pleased that I have come across a fresh collection of photographs from the community website This is Eltham and particularly pleased that they have given me permission to raid the archive.*

Some are very much part of my childhood while others look back to an earlier period of Eltham’s history.

But it is the one of Wilcox’s that has triggered off a rich cascade of memories and underlines for me the power of an image to reawaken the past.

And as these things go just as I finished the story, Lesley of This is Eltham, told me that Wilcox's  
"was my father's shop Andrew,  he had 5 shops in Eltham, 32 High Street, and there's a photo of my mother in that shop in 1938/9, then a haberdashery's in Well Hall Parade opposite the Pleasaunce, one with a Post Office in Westhrone Avenue and and a tiny, tiny one at the High Street end of Archery Road but that was probably gone by the time you came to Eltham."

Now that I think is just a perfect ending.

Pictures; Well Hall Odeon and Wilcox’s circa 1960 courtesy of This is Eltham


*This is Eltham, http://www.thisiseltham.co.uk/index.php

Looking for Miss Wright of Chorlton in 1928 ............. and hoping for more stories about the Girls’ Friendly Society on St Clements Road

From the 1928 church Bazaar book

I wonder if I will ever find out anything about Miss Wright, President of the Girls’ Friendly Society.

In the November of 1928 she was on the G.F.S. stall along with fourteen other women at the  Church Bazaar.*

And the reason Miss Wright has attracted my attention is that she may be a clue to finding out more about the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute on St Clements Road.

I fell across the place yesterday and couldn’t resist writing about its history.**

I knew there would be further leads which would help take the story further but sadly so far Miss Wright has proved a blank and I rather think so will most of the names on the list.

A church garden party, date unknown

But I shall continue to search for each of the fifteen and one or two may turn.

The first port of call will be the church magazines for the period and then there is always the chance that the names strike a chord with someone who knew them.

Such are the ways that little bits of our history come back out of the shadows.

And there may just be an outside chance that there will be a reference to their work in the records of the Girls Friendly Society which still exists today.***

It was “was a pioneer youth organisation, founded in England in 1875 and run by women, which still operates in 23 countries. Originally established to protect young working girls, the Society continues to support girls and young women, adapting to the new challenges presented by a changing world.
GFS was officially established on 1st January 1875 by Mary Elizabeth Townsend, an Irish clergyman's daughter married to the wealthy Frederick Townsend.

At the same garden party

She was concerned with the fate of many working-class country girls who left home to take up urban employment. 

Cut off from the support of friends and family, Mrs Townsend's idea was for 'lady' Associates to befriend and guide these girls, who would form the Society's Members. Girls could join GFS from the age of 12, but from 1882 those from the age of 8 could become Candidates, preparing for membership.

By 1925, the Society had 66 Homes and Hostels in England and Wales, workers gathered for Conferences, Retreats and Training Weeks and the first Correspondence Training Course was introduced. Camps were organised for younger Members, the Readers' Union introduced a Certificate of English, and the Migration Department assisted hundreds of members with their travels abroad.”

Much of its work was done through the local parishes relying on local facilities as places of the woman to meet

So I rather think it may well prove a useful starting point for clues to our Institute and of course also offers up a fascinating story in itself.

Only hours after I posted yesterday’s story Nina told me how she had attended the Macclesfield GFS “every Monday and cost 1 penny.”

All of which means we may not discover much more about Miss Wright or the activities of the Institute in that house in St Clements but I rather think it has opened up new stories.

And that can’t be bad.

Pictures; GFS and Guides’ Stall from the 1928 St Clements’s Bazaar Hand Book courtesy of Ida Bradshaw,  and pictures of a garden party organised by the church, date unknown

*Girls Friendly Society, http://www.gfsplatform.org.uk/

**Searching for the Girls’ Friendly Society in that big house on St Clements Road in 1911, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/searching-for-girls-friendly-society-in.html

**Girls Friendly Society, Our History, http://www.gfsplatform.org.uk/our-history.php

Snapshots …………. 1841 the class divide measured by horses

Now, I am never surprised at how easy it is to get sidetracked during a piece of research.

And so today, while crawling over back copies of the Manchester Guardian, for the 1850s, I fell across “Horses, Carriages, Hackney Coaches and Omnibuses in Manchester”. *

Not perhaps the most riveting of titles as a subject to over excite the breakfast conversation, but it revealed some fascinating detail of how we lived.

In particular, this table, which “exhibits the number of horses in private use for riding, & the number of draught horses, within each township of the borough”.

At first glance it might appear trivial but as the article points out, “How distinctly the suburbs preferred for the dwellings of the wealthier classes are marked out in this table, by the preponderance in the number of private riding and carriage horses over those for draught.

The townships thus distinguished are, Broughton, Burnage, Cheetham, Chorlton-Upon -Medlock, Crumpsall, and Rusholme.  In the other seven townships, the draught horses or those used for business, predominate over those used for personal locomotion.” 

Of course, it may not be a startling observation, for those well versed in the growth of the twin cities, but it fascinated me.

Location; Manchester and Salford

Picture; from the Manchester Guardian, 1850

* Horses, Carriages, Hackney Coaches and Omnibuses in Manchester, Manchester Guardian, February 23rd, 1850

Sunday in a Manchester Park

Now I have always liked this painting, and it perfectly conjures up a Sunday on a warm summer’s day in a Manchester park.

Writing in 1937, J P Priestly observed that, “The Corporation has made great efforts to provide young Manchester with healthy outdoor recreation, and there are now twenty-five parks and forty-eight recreation grounds in the city.

Nearly three quarters of the land in these parks is set aside for games including bowls tennis, cricket, golf, swimming, fishing, model yachting, football and hockey”.*

Of course, the cynical will observe that a few of the recreation grounds were little more than pockets of land, surrounded by factories while some of our parks were fighting a constant battle against pollution which blighted plants and left a smear of soot on the branches of trees.

But in the absence of open fields and clear crystal streams, this was it.

Location; Manchester

Picture; from Manchester ...... heart of the Industrial North

 *Manchester ...... heart of the Industrial North, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, 1937