“Don’t put your daughter on the stage” …… seven years of the Chorlton Repertory Club ... part 1

The Chorlton Repertory Theatre Club is one of those half-remembered stories. 

Enjoying the theatre programme for January 15th-20th, 1951

It was where some of our well-known actors and comedians first strutted the boards including Avis Bunnage, Joan Sims, Harry Corbett and Ronnie Barker and over the years was at home in both the Lloyds Hotel and the former Conservative Cub

Cast of All The Year Round, April 7th, 1951

And here I am indebted to Ida Bradshaw who first told me of its existence, offered up a short history of the club and preserved fifteen theatre programmes from 1951-52.

She told me the “club was established in 1946and although it had no theatre of its own, offered up a weekly repertory performed by a professional company.  Initially it used a large room connected to the Lloyd’s Hotel and then moved to Chorlton Conservative Club.

It was the brainchild of two actors.  James Lovell and Arthur Spreckley.  The club played to full houses in Chorlton.  However, problems pre-empted by the sacking of Lovell began to mount and by 1951 the club was making a loss.  Membership was dissolved and blame was laid at the door of television and bad weather.  But Alan Bendle observed that ‘of the 1952 performances, perhaps only six of the 52 were successful’

A professional producer was employed in 1953 who immediately gave the company notice.

In 1954 the Chorlton Theatre Club became home to Piccola Theatre Company, which brought to Manchester  a group of young actors, designers and directors, many of whom were to leave their mark on the world of theatre.

For two seasons productions included The Women Have their way [ Frank Dunlop] and Maria Marten in the Red Barn [Richard Negri] provided an early opportunity to assess the talents of individuals who were to become more familiar to Manchester audiences”.

Drama off stage, February, 1949

And there is much more.  

The Manchester Guardian carries 131 references to both theatre companies, and it makes for fascinating reading because amongst the reviews of performances, there is the starling announcement that the club committee had “terminated the contract of the manager producer …. Mr. James Lovell”.

And if that wasn’t enough of a dramatic turn worthy of its own drama productions, just a month later  “the management committee …. was yesterday voted out of office at a special general meeting it had called to secure a vote of confidence” to rebut a call by 283 members of mount an investigation of the said committee..**

A thank you, October 29th, 1951

Now I have to say it all sounds very exciting with “some seven hundred people attending the meeting at the Princess Ballroom, Chorlton-cum-Hardy”, the revelation of huge financial losses and the possibility that the “spring programme ‘would lead to insolvency in four to six weeks’”

All of which was compounded by accusations that committee was pursuing a vindicative policy.

And with tensions mounting the Committee declared “that there was another booking of the hall and the members had to clear the furniture before leaving” , a challenge met by shouts of no confidence in the committee, a demand for a vote to replace it with a new one.

All of which I didn’t know when I began leafing through the 14 programmes, looking for references to local companies who provided props, smiling at the problems of fuel shortages and impressed by the planned  theatre improvements.

Introducing a viper, July 16, 1951

And along with various Christmas socials and fund raising activities there was the raffle for a “Beautiful Television, which may just have been a viper introduced by the club with its promise of varied entertainment in front of the fire with no recourse to a trip out on wet cold night.

A play a week, October 29th, 1951

There is so much more, but sadly I fear the Club has all but moved  out of living memory.

But if the grownups are now in short supply there may be a few of their children who went along to performances of “Christmas in the Market Place” which promised to be “A most delightful and happy Yuletide play for young and old” which were to run from Boxing Day 1952 through to January 3rd 1953.

So there is much still to do.  

Starting with the stalwart cast listed in each of the programmes, looking through all 131 references in the Manchester Guardian along with more from other Manchester papers, and finally tracking down a scrap book and perhaps the records of the club.

And as a start I know that Jean Parry the star of  All The Year Round in 1951 came from Salford was born in 1925 and died in 2005, and I have three pictures of her cast member Jean Ryder from 19159.

It's a start.

Theatre Comfort, October 29th, 1951

Location Chorlton

Pictures; selection of theatre programmes of the Chorlton Repertory Club, 1952- 1953, from the Ida Bradshaw Archive and extracts from the Manchester Guardian, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Chorlton Repertory Dispute, Manchester Guardian, February 8th, 1949

**New Repertory Committee A Chorlton Vote, Manchester Guardian March 1949

Woolwich ……. “a place for sight-seekers to glory in” …. Mr. Bradshaw visits

Now I am back with my copy of Bradshaw’s Illustrated Hand Book to London and Its Environs, which was published in 1861.

Mr. Bradshaw will be familiar to many as the man who produced the series of railway timetables and guides which have accompanied Michael Portillo in his delightful Great Railway Journeys.

But he was more than this, and was also a prodigious cartographer and publisher, whose work included an excellent  guide to our canal network.

Sadly, while touring Norway in 1853 he contracted cholera and died in September of that year without returning to England.

All of which means that technically Bradshaw’s Illustrated Hand Book to London and Its Environs was not Mr. Bradshaw’s, but no matter.

Had I bought my copy in 1861 I might have been intrigued at the promise of Woolwich which from the River offered “long lines of walls, closely pressed tide gates, with the bows of many a noble vessel towering proudly over them from their docks, like sea monsters on their thrones, looking down in scorn on the river waves; the high heaps of timber , with the huge coiled cables, the church tower in the background, the heavy lighters crowded along the shore, and the light racking craft with pennants streaming in the wind …….”

And having waxed lyrical and at much length about the view from the Thames, the guide goes on to reference, The Rotunda, Cannon Foundry, Arsenal and Barracks, before concluding with “the  bankside tavern , halfway between London and Gravesend is a conspicuous object on the Kent coast”.

I have yet to work out which tavern this was, and a second and more extensive entry a few pages on is equally silent as to the name of the place.

That said the second entry deals in more detail with The Rotunda, Cannon Foundry, Arsenal and Barracks, and is well worth a read.

But having started out with such praise for our Woolwich the guide slides away from compliments,  concluding “Though within a short period nearly 2,000 additional houses have been built, the town presents few inducements for a prolonged visit, and has no feature of interest in itself what ever.

The old church looks better at a distance and there are few monuments in the churchyard bearing names familiar  to the eye and ear”.   

And so, having started by describing how Woolwich can be reached by water or by road via Charlton and Shooter’s Hill, it closes with offering “four speedy modes of transit back to town”, which involve various different steamers and trains, leaving the excursionist to consult his own convience for preference of choice”.

Adding that a series of facts which all travellers would want to know, starting with “the Woolwich station, eight miles and twenty-one chains from London is in the close vicinity of the Barracks; the two tunnels between Woolwich and Charlton are respectively, 120 and 100 yards in extent; and the Blackheath tunnel near the Mordern College, is 1,681 yards long”.

Location; Woolwich

Pictures; The Thames and Woolwich Reach, 1885, Interior of the Rotunda, 1915, St Mary’s Parish Church, 1915, courtesy of Kristina Bedford, author of Woolwich Through Time, 2014

* Bradshaw’s Illustrated Hand Book to London and Its Environs, 1861

Picking a municipal bus company and travelling across the city in 1963

Cover of Maps of Manchester & District, 1963

Now I am looking at a copy of the 1963 Manchester bus routes which my friend David has passed on to me.

Like me he was one of those that never went to a grammar school and recalled that

“I went to St Gregory's Technical High School in Ardwick Green from 1960-1967.

And because it was over 3 miles from Chorlton I was awarded a free bus pass...Joy of Joys, and could travel freely anywhere I liked in school hours for free.

Not that I did - but it did allow me to experiment with the various routes to Ardwick Green from the stop near Chorlton Baths.

I finally ended up using the fastest way - the 81 or 82 to Brooks Bar, and then the 53,  a great route known as the 'banana' service because " they came in bunches"  and from Greenheys the 123 to Ardwick Green.”

Now all of this reminded me that even the humble guide to the City’s bus routes comes with a story and opens up a fascinating glimpse into that not so distant past.

Back then according to another friend there were bus loads of students crisscrossing the city.

And like David many were in receipt of a free bus pass.  I too briefly had access to the same although in my case it was a season ticket for the train to travel from Well Hall to New Cross and back again.

Of course the sting in the tail was that they could only be used in term time and during school hours which rather limited the opportunity to boldly go and explore to the outer limits of the Corporation’s bus routes.

Detail of bus routes in and around Chorlton

But they were just another part of that welfare provision which some today frown upon.

Looking again at that bus guide is to follow long forgotten routes, and be reminded that the early 60s was still a time when a lot more people relied on public transport or did it themselves on a push bike.

The scenes outside all our big factories at clocking off time were characterised by people cycling home or waiting to catch one of the long line of buses parked up waiting for the evening rush.

And here there was a bewildering choice. Running through Chorlton there was the 80, 81, 82, 85,  and 94 along with the 41 and 43 all of which went into town.

Stevenson Square December 1966

There was also cross routes including the 16, 22, and 62 and it was possible to travel by bus into Chorltonville up to Rye Bank Road and out to Firswood.

The network also provided for more connections and all of this ran alongside a regular train service from Chorlton into Central Station or out to Didsbury, Stockport and the Derbyshire hills.

It was a complex system which involved not only Manchester Corporation buses, but also those of Salford, Oldham, Ashton, smaller local authorities, and the North West Bus and Car Company.

And so beside  the distinctive red livery of Manchester and the blue and cream of Ashton there was the green of Salford and the green of the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board along with the maroon and cream colours of Oldham.

Piccadilly with an Ashton-Under-Lyne trolley bus, 1960

For those of a certain disposition this was a wonderful cornucopia of municipal transport that made the car less essential and can only be dreamed of today and one that vanished at the end of the 1960s.

Ah I hear you say all of that is fine, but getting in a car at work and driving home with the radio to listen to is far superior than having to wait in the rain at the bus stop, fight for a seat and end up beside that rather boring chap from the end house whose sole topics of conversation revolve around pigeons and the poor performance of Huddersfield F.C.

All of which maybe so but I do miss the ease with which you could move around the city and so I shall revisit David’s 1963 bus route book and plan a few trips of my own, which may or may not have left me at ease in the company of that chap from the end house.

And that just leaves a correction and comment from, John Anthony Hewitt.

"Minor correction Andrew Simpson, the bus company mentioned was North Western Road Car Co., and they were based in Stockport. Other bus companies included LUT (Lancashire United Transport), Walkden and Ribble, Preston. Probably the longest bus route I rode departed from Victoria bus station in Salford, but was operated by MCTD, No.10, I think, to Liverpool via a zig-zag route crossing the East Lancs Road several times - Eccles, Worsley, Walkden, Newton-le-Willows, St Helens and a few other places long since forgotten. Like your friend David, I too had grown up in C-C-H and had a bus pass to St Greg's., 1956 - 1963, but my adventures in Greenheys were courtesy of trolley-bus 213 (later motor bus 123)".



Pictures; Maps of Manchester and District, Manchester Corporation, 1963, courtesy of David O’Reilly and Manchester Corporation trolley bus, Stevenson Square 1966,  © Alan Murray-Rust, geograph.org.uk Wikipedia Commons, Ashton-Under-Lyne Corporation trolley bus in Piccadilly, 1960,  from the collection of J.F.A.Hampson,  Museum of Transport, Wikipedia Commons

Gold ... copper ... cobalt ..... minerals and violence over two continents .... one to listen to

The theft of land and the treasures of the earth from indigenous peoples is not new but the BBC's The Long View with Jonathan Freedland revisited the story fastening on the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Democratic Republic of Congo during 150 years of exploitation, violence and misery. 

Opal fields, Western Australia 1984

"In 1875, the US 7th Cavalry, led by Colonel Custer announced they’d found gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota, leading to a gold rush and the outbreak of the so-called Great Sioux War. 

150 years later, today in the Democratic Republic of Congo, armed militia fight for control of gold mines, and mining for copper and cobalt leads to mass displacement of people. Jonathan Freedland investigates links between mineral extraction and armed conflict, then and now.

With, Professor Kathleen Burk, Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London and Guillaume de Brier, Researcher at the International Peace Information Service in Antwerp. Reader: Jason Barnett, Producer: Luke Mulhall"*

Location; BBC Radio 4

Picture; Opal fields, Western Australia 1984, from the collection of June Pound

*Minerals and Violence, The Long View, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002dzfm

St Peter’s Square ……. 1962 …. compare and contrast

This was taken from the Central Ref, sometime in 1962.  

A little over 5 years later I would be looking out from the same windows, and the scene hadn’t changed much.

That can’t be said today, and the fun will be to tick off just how many differences a casual observer would notice. 

Location; Manchester

Pictures,  St Peter’s Square, Manchester, 1962 – 3664.5, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Miss. Mary Jane Weeks ……… domestic servant and shareholder in the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club

Now history is messy and doesn’t always conform to rigid rules of historical development.

The Conservative Club and Public Hall, 1908

And nowhere is this more the case than in the individuals who came forward to buy shares in the new Conservative Club which opened for business, in 1892.

This was after all the party of class which represented the people of plenty.

But as we all know amongst their ranks no less than their loyal voters were people drawn from all classes.

And here it is easy to be dismissive and sniffy about those who consistently voted Tory despite coming from humble beginnings.

My father was a working class Tory.  He drove coaches all his life, and yet he voted for the party which on the surface was least likely to look after him.  That said mother was Labour and she always maintained that her vote cancelled out Dad’s which was a start on the way to a Labour Government.

The political side, 1980s

Here in Chorlton throughout the late 19th century and into the first two decades of the next the Liberals and Conservatives fought it out, and at a local level this often resulted in the electorate returning candidates from both parties on alternative years  to the Town Hall.

But like elsewhere after the last world war, the Liberals were eclipsed and the Tories came out on top, dominating local elections until 1986 and continuing to return an MP until Keith Bradley’s victory in 1987.

And I have long been fascinated by what makes people from the working class vote Conservative.  There will be many explanations and the idea that they were all just class traitors is not good enough.

So that has led me to the big book of subscribers for the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club.  The land had been handed over by the Egerton’s in 1891, and the subscription fund opened that year.

As you would expect here can be found the very wealthy, including Samuel Gratrix of West Point in Whalley Range who bought £200 worth of shares, and a collection of our farmers, merchants and businessmen.

The club up for sale, 2013

Here too was Charles Ireland who owned a string of photographic shops, as well as estate agents, civil engineers down to shop keepers and warehousemen.

Some may have been drawn by the politics, while others by the social attractions of the club

And along with all these was Miss. Mary Jane Weeks, who held shares amounting to £2.

What makes her interesting is that she was domestic servant, working for the Adams family from at least 1891 through to 1911 and possibly beyond.

She had been born in 1849, in the small market town of Hathereigh in Devon, and was working as a servant by 1871.

I would like to know more about Miss. Mary Jane, but so far there are only the census returns to go on, but something more will turn up.

 And in the same way in the fullness of time, all the subscribers will be plotted and their lives revealed.

All of which will help get a better understanding of who voted Conservative in Chorlton  in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as offering up an insight into Chorlton-cum-Hardy, just as the township was evolving from an agricultural community into a suburb of Manchester.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; The Conservative Club, 1908, from the Lloyd Collection,  in 1980, from the collection of Tony Walker, and in 2013 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Register of Members Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club Limited 1892-96

St Barnabus and its journey from Woolwich

Now I have passed St Barnabus Church countless times and never knew it was originally sited in Woolwich.

It was one of those Eltham churches I have already written about but couldn’t resist doing so again when I came across this picture.

It appears in a new book on Woolwich and the history of the building is always worth repeating.

“Designed by Sir George Scott, the Naval Dockyard church was built between 1857 and 1859 in Woolwich Dockyard becoming redundant after the latter’s closure in 1869.  

In 1932-33, the distinctive red brick edifice was reconstructed in Eltham.”*

When I first posted the story it led to a flood of memories from people who remembered it on fire after it had been hit during a bombing raid in  the last war.

Picture; St Barnabus Church,1858,courtesy of Kristina Bedford

*Woolwich Through Time, Kristina Bedford, 2014, Amberley Publishing,