Outside Beech Road Police Station ........ revealing a little of the life of PC Frederick George Ross

This is Police Constable Frederick George Ross standing with his colleagues outside the police station on Beech Road.

Now I can’t be exactly sure when the picture was taken but one source has suggested 1925.*

And that would have made PC Ross forty-seven years old.

He had joined the city force in 1904 and by  1910 was living on Priory Avenue before moving to Whalley Avenue.

Of the named officers he is the one we know most about and that is as much a bit of luck as it is research.

After all if he had not been recognised and his name added to the picture we would not have been able to discover his story.

But with a name a search of the police employment records and the census returns not only located him but provided me with the name of his wife and daughter and his own place of birth.

PC Ross had married Rebecca Jane Lawson in 1909 in Bolton and their daughter Nora was born the following year.

Like all such stories the detail is even more fascinating for while Nora had been born in Bolton she was registered at the Chorlton office and baptised at St Clements in the May of 1910 which is how we know the family were living at Priory Avenue.

Almost a year later they were on Whalley Avenue and a search of the directories will reveal when they moved from that address.

But that is not quite the end of the story because in the course of doing the research I came across a relative who had posted a series of pictures, one of Frederick and Rebecca and two showing PC Ross during police inspections one of which is dated to 1921.

And according to this source Mrs Ross was in Ireland by 1925 where she died in 1949 followed by her husband fifteen years later.

In time there will be more but for now that is all but it is a lesson in how it is possible to discover a family story.

Nor is that all, because looking at the police records what is interesting is the number of officers who were born in Ireland and Scotland, a trend which goes back beyond 1904 when Chorlton voted to join the city.

Before that date we had been policed by the Lancashire Constabulary who were responsible for building the station in 1885.

Just six years later the officer in charge was a Sergeant Milne from Ireland assisted by two PCs from Scotland and a decade on with  Sergeant Milne there were officers from Ireland and Gloucestershire as well as Lancashire.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; PC Ross, 1875-1963 from Police officers outside Beech Road Police Station circa 1925 from the Lloyd Collection

One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 20 ........... completing the picture

This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*

Now we lived in 294 Well Hall Road for thirty years, and I now know who lived in it back to 1915 when it was built and for most of the years since we sold it.

The story of our house In Well Hall began some years ago and followed on from similar projects on the one that I live in now and one in Peckham.

But Well Hall is special to me and my sisters and I guess for all those who have looked after it for the last century and a bit.

All I need now is to complete the missing years from 1994 to 1999.

I could be accused of just hoovering up names, but not so, because each of the residents will have a story and that story in part will be about the house.

So that is it.

Over the next few weeks I will be going back to the list of those that occupied 294 and exploring their lives.

As ever it will never be intrusive but just add to our knowledge of one house in Well Hall and how it reflects the story of the estate, and the area.

A few years ago the son of the people who sold the house to us made contact from Canada, where they migrated and only yesterday I was talking to the new owners.

It will prove fun to complete the story and on the way I may make new friends and learn more about our house.

Location; Well Hall

Pictures; the front and back garden of our house on Well Hall Road, circa 1970, from the Simpson collection

*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall

Lost tramway signs ………………

Now there will be those who shake their heads in dismay at this picture of a Manchester Corporation Tramways sign and mutter how boring.

But not so, because it is a fine example of one of our lost bits of street furniture.*

I have no date, or location, but I like it.

Location; somewhere in Manchester

Picture; Manchester Corporation Tramways, date unknown, from the collection of Allan Brown

*Street furniture, lost and found, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Street%20Furniture%20lost%20and%20saved

On Beech Road 44 years ago looking for a second hand telly and electric fire

This is another of those images of the more recent past and one that plenty of people will remember.

Picture; from the collection of Lawrence Beedle, circa 1980

Paradise Walk ……… almost a lost and forgotten street of Manchester

Paradise Walk ought to be one of those twisty little byways which to misquote the poem is “half as old as time”.

Store Street, 1920 looking for Paradise Walk

It was a place I had never come across despite many happy hours wandering the area between Ducie Street and Store Street.

It was Sean Kelly who alerted me to its presence today, with “Could I suggest Paradise Walk, off Ducie Street, Andrew? It’s a sort of short cut and I suspect a lot of history......”, adding “it's been well poshed up, relatively, since around 2000. Wonder whether the Central Library archives have a photo”.

On a warm summer’s day with little else to do, I can see its attractions, because it starts as a narrow pathway sandwiched between a tall building,  before joining the towpath of the Ashton Canal and exiting by a set of steps onto Store Street.

But as delightful as the walk can be, you do have to look for it, and it’s easy to miss both starting points.  

The area in 1894

The Ducie Street entrance is almost opposite where Ducie Street joins Aqueduct Street, while access from Store Street is up a flight of stone steps beside the arch of the aqueduct which carries the canal over the road.

Still I thought I was dealing with one of those very old routes, and mused that here could be all that was left of a closed court which long ago had lost its houses.

But not so, it does not appear on the OS map for 1849, Adshead’s map of 1851, or subsequent ordinance survey maps into the 1950s.   

In 1951 at the Ducie Street end there was a Whittles Croft, which sixty years earlier had been Whittles  Croft Wharf.

And yes, once a long time ago that stretch of Ducie Street which twists away up to Pigeon Street was Whittles Croft and Mather Street. 

So I await those in possession of more recent maps to pinpoint when Paradise Walk emerged.

The area in 1851

If I had to guess, I reckon it will be sometime at the turn of the century when work was undertaken on the canal ….. but I could be wrong …… probably am wrong.

Sorry Sean.

Location; Ducie Street/Store Street

Pictures; Store Street, 1920 looking for Paradise Walk, T Brooks, m10640,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  Ducie Street/Store Street, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

 

One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 18 ........... driving the coach to the Italian Lakes

This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*

Now it is that time of year again and we are thinking of a summer holiday.

It’s an attractive thought given that the rain is coming down like stair rods.

Of course not that we ever went far when we lived in Well Hall.

From spring till the end of the summer dad drove coaches across mainland Europe from France to Italy with an option on Belgium, Holland and Switzerland.

It was a job he had dome since the 1920s and from sometime around 1952 began talking discerning travellers on holidays, seeing the sights and getting a flavour of Brussels, Paris and Milan.

I say faraway places but for most people back in the 1950s and early 60s the Italian Lakes was far away.

All of which left me and my sisters with holidays in Derby with our grandparents.

Today, for us Italy has a special place given that half the family are Italian and so it is a natural choice most years as a place to visit.

And that of course got me thinking of the people who also lived in 294 from when it was built in 1915 till we moved settled there in the March of 1964.

The previous owners immigrated to Canada and until I have done lots more research on the other families I think Canada will be the furthest destination for any of the previous occupants.

Not that I am surprised.  Holiday opportunities for most people during the 20th century were limited and it was not till the coming of cheap air flights and package holidays that most of us could contemplate that far away break in the sun.

Location; Well Hall & Chorlton

Pictures;  Il Broletto from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall

Eighty-six years in the story of the Rec on Beech Road

I don’t usually do then and now pictures, and certainly not without a story, but today I shall.

Here are two both from the Wilton end of the Rec.

They are separated by about 80 years, and in the interval we had a bowling green which many remember, but not me.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; on the Rec, sometime in 1900 from the Lloyd Collection and again in 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson