The mystery of Cranbrook Road ........ with televisions, fridges, and much more ....... how we lived in 1960

Now sometimes you come across an image which captures perfectly a moment in time.

And so, it is with this one from 1960, where the clues to how we lived tumble from the photograph.

This was still a time when adverts were painted on walls, and this one for Shaw’s Radio and Television Service is a wonderful example.

There will be plenty of people who recognise the brands of electrical products, along with particular machines, like the Ultra Bermuda 17” television.

And many will also remember as each of these new appliances came in to the house, some less glamorous than others, but all of them marking that slow move from the post war years of rationing and austerity to the consumer society, reflected in that phrase you have never had it so good.*

Of course, this explosion in new goods which made life easier and more fun, was set against pockets of dire housing and abject poverty.

A later generation might criticise the rush to acquire shinny new white goods or state of the art radios and TVs, but that is to ignore the fact that these were being bought by people who had grown up and lived through two world wars and a trade depression, and were in part looking to the consumer age to deliver as much for their children and grandchildren as for themselves.

Added to which this was a period of full employment where factories were turning out the things people wanted, thus sustaining the growing prosperity.

All of which brings me back to the picture, and the other clues to a lost time, which include the purchase price expressed in guineas, the head scarf, the profusion of hats, and sturdy old-fashioned prams.

But there is one mystery associated with the picture, and that is its location.

The street sign says Cranbrook Road and the telephone number is I think Openshaw, but as yet I have been unable to find it where I thought it might be on Ashton Old Road.

Nor are the bus routes any help.  The bus stop carries the numbers 57 and 109.

The 57 ran from Piccadilly to Salford and on to Pendleton, Swinton, and Pendlebury, which seems to be confirmed by the destination sign on one of the buses, but the 109 was a Wythenshawe bus.**

So, I am left confused.

That said, I know someone will come up with the answer.

And they did.

My old friend Andy Robertson tracked down Cranbrook Road to Reddish Lane.

And as way of evidence offered up a road map from 1934, following it up with a picture from Manchester's Local History collection, which features our shop from 1964.

None of which helps with those bus routes ...... but that's another story.

Location; Cranbrook Road

Picture; Cranbrook Road, 1960, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk 

*More accurately, “most of our people have never had it so good”, which was part of a speech made by the Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, in 1957,  in which he asserted, “You will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime - nor indeed in the history of this country.  Indeed, let us be frank about it - most of our people have never had it so good. Go around the country, go to the industrial towns, go to the farms and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime - nor indeed in the history of this country."  At a rally to mark 25 years' service by Mr Lennox-Boyd, the Colonial Secretary, as MP for Mid-Bedfordshire.  July 20th 1957, ONTHIS DAY,BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_3728000/3728225.stm

**Service list, 1969, The Manchester Bus Michael Eyre and Chris Heaps, 1989

When no trains ran from Chorlton railway station

Now I featured the story before of when flooding stopped the trains at Chorlton Railway Station.

But Andy Robertson just passed over this picture from his collection in 1954 and so here is a little of that story with this picture.

After “a day of heavy rains in the North West, the red (flooding imminent) signal was given” in the early hours of January 21st 1954* from Salford along to Didsbury “the river was rolling into the densely populated area of Meadow Road” in Salford and shortly after 2 a.m. the Mersey was said to be pouring over its banks into large parts of the Didsbury and Northenden areas.”

And here we had “one of the most serious cases of flooding in the Manchester area,” as "Chorlton Brook overflowed in the late afternoon over the railway lines.  

The flood waters were thirty inches deep below the platforms and made the station impassable ....... an official at the station said  late last night that the water had started to rise shortly after the rush hour, until it became so deep that there was a danger of it reaching the fire boxes on the trains.”

So there you have, not I suspect the last flood story but enough for now.

*When flooding stopped the trains, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/when-flooding-stopped-trains.html

**Manchester Guardian January 21st 1954

Picture; Chorlton Railways Station 1954 from the collection of Andy Robertson

Walking through Eltham with Darrell Sprurgeon, ... Well Hall

Returning to the series featuring Discover Eltham.*

I am a great fan of Discover Eltham, so much so that I have two copies, and both are now battered and in need of tender care.

But that is what happens with guide books, if you use them it will show.

Sadly both the 1992 and 2000 editions are out of print and so here are short extracts from the book and the walks you can do.

Well Hall forms section F and is a gentle stroll from the Tudor Barn, up past the Coronet Cinema and the Church of St Barnabus through the Progress Estate and on to The Martyrs Church taking in the memorial to Stephen Lawrence.

Well Hall, 69, an attractive and fascinating building now called the Tudor Barn as well as the moat walls, a bridge and some gardens have survived from the grounds of the Tudor mansion of well Hall: all are now set in a pleasant park.

The state goes back to at least the 13th century.  In the early 16th century a mansion called well Hall was built by the Roper family on the moated site of an earlier house and some medieval structures may have been retained.  In 1733 the estate was purchased by Sir Gregory Page to add to his already extensive Wricklemarsh estate at Blackheath.  He demolished the Tudor house and built a large new mansion on the other side of the moat to the east.

The house was occupied by a succession of people some more famous than others and finally from 1899 to 1933 by the children’s writer Edith Nesbit.  

The house was badly damaged by a fire in 1926, and the whole site was acquired by the then Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich in 1929, to become the Well Hall Pleasaunce.

Nothing remains of the 16th century mansion bit the moat with its largely Tudor brick banks and the Tudor stone arched bridge to the east have survived.(69a)  There is a modern wooden bridge over the moat to the west.

Substantial sections of the original Tudor garden walls to the south have been preserved; in the westernmost walls five triangular headed niches (some blocked) which may have been bee-boles, can be seen.

The Tudor Barn (69b & 69c) now a pub, was part of the original Tudor complex of buildings.  Its original purpose is unknown but it was probably not a barn.  It is a well preserved redbrick building, facing the site of the main mansion across the north arm of the moat, an extension to the moat run along the west side of the building.  A coat of arms on the north side front bears the date 1568, but it is generally considered to date from earlier in the 16th century.

Original features include the patterned black brick, the chimneys stacks at the west end and the rectangular mullioned windows (some blocked) at the east end; the windows at the west end are 17th century.  On the east wall the monogram WR (William Roper) and Edith Nesbit’s bell can be seen.

The white column by the lawn facing the entrance is a sundial of 1941.

The interior is worth viewing especially for the Tudor fireplaces on both floors.  On the ground floor note at the west end an original Tudor brick fireplace, and a section of distinctive stone and pebble tiled floor (which was imported later).  The upper floor is dominated by the exposed rood timbers.  

Note the west end  an original Tudor red brick fireplace, and on the south side a wall a later Tudor stone fire place with fine carving.  

In the west wall is a stained glass window showing Thomas More and his daughter Margaret Roper, designed after Holbein’s portrait by Margaret Cowel 1949.

Next;  Coronet Cinema and the Church of St Barnabus through the Progress Estate and on to The Martyrs Church taking in the memorial to Stephen Lawrence.

* Discover Eltham and its Environ, Darrell Spurgeon, Greenwich Guide Books, 2nd edition 2000

Pictures; map from Eltham and its Environ,, remaining images courtesy of Scott MacDonald

200 Upper Brook Street reveals its story

This is the story of number 200 Upper Brook Street which I have to confess no longer exists.

It was one of block of houses which ran from Akers Street to Grafton Street and in time I will get an exact date for its construction.

But for now I know that it was built sometime between 1849 and 1894 and looks to be on the plans for demolition in the late 1960’s.

And with a bit more diligent research we should be able to find out who its last residents were and that is important because back in 1968 someone took a whole series of pictures of the place both inside and out and those photographs may will gives us a clue to the occupiers taste in wall paper and furniture.

So I am very pleased that Neil Simpson has shared the images which he became across while engaged in a new project working in the Central Library.

The negatives in the collection are dated from 1956 to 2007 and there are approximately 200,000 negatives to be digitised at three minutes a scan.

The plan is to gradually make the scanned images available online  on the Manchester Local Images Collection Website.

It is rare to see inside the homes of ordinary people and while these rooms are quite clearly almost empty there is enough to get an idea of the style of wallpaper, and the remains of some of the original features.

So over the next few weeks we will revisit number 200 Upper Brook Street and its secret.

In 1911 the property is listed to a Mrs Hannah Moseley and was described as apartments. Mrs Moseley was 70 years old and shared the house with her daughter Janet.

She was a widow, had been married for twenty years and out lived four of her six children.

Back in the April of 1911 she occupied five of the eight rooms, two more were rented out to a clerk with a Mr Habib from Constantinople taking the last room.

And that brings me back to the pictures.  

There will be many who remember the old gas stove, the enamelled cream and green storage jars along with the old cupboards and the doors with their ventilation twirls.

Leaving me just to add that Tony Petrie has unearthed that, "200 Upper Brook Street isn't listed in either the 1962 or 1954 versions of Kelly's. 

There is a listing for 1929.

Which may just suggest that I have got the house number wrong.

Picture; 200 Upper Brook Street, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Something is stirring down in Cornbrook .........

I say something but that stirring has been on the go for a decade and a bit and amounts to a sort of Renaissance for this stretch of Chester Road.

Coming into Cornbrook and on to the south and west, 2023

For many of course the name is just a stop on the Metro network, but a pretty important one given that it is a switching hub, where passengers can change for trams going into the city and then out to the eastern and northern ends of the complex, or alternatively choose destinations to south Manchester, Salford, Eccles, Trafford Centre and Altrincham.

At Cornbrook and onto Bury, 2023

And for those idly waiting for their connection the stop offers some fine views of the new residential developments which have begun to transform the area.  

Every year sees more rising from what were brown sites and echoing those earlier acres of terraced properties which vied with factories, a chemical works and the Ship Canal.

I only know the area after most of the houses and the industrial units had been cleared, leaving behind a mx of landscaped stretches which ran into just acres of wasteland, all waiting for something to happen.

And as I write I know that many of my friends will remember that older Cornbrook which fizzed  with business and have their own tales of nights in The  Railway and Pomona Palace or of stories about Pomona Docks.

New apartments, 2023

Not that there will be anyone today who can boast of visiting Pomona Gardens with its mix of attractions including “the magic bridge, Gymnasium, flying swings, bowling green, rifle shooting, romantic walks and a promenade for both adults and juveniles as well as boat trips on the Irwell.”   

 In the summer of 1850 it pulled out the stops with its “Splendid representation of the ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS, as it occurred in 1849, the most terrific on record.”   Here was the “magnificent Bay of Naples, painted and erected by the celebrated artist Mr. A.F. Tait, and extends the whole length of the lake covering upwards of 20,000 yards of canvas and is one of the Largest ever Erected in England.” *

It had opened in the 1840s but couldn’t better its rival at Bell Vue and finally succumbed to a land grab by the Ship Canal.

All that was left of the Railway, 2003

The area takes its name from the Corn Brook which according to that excellent book The Lost Rivers of Manchester "rises in Gorton and follows a tortuous path through Manchester’s southern ‘inner city’ suburbs and empties itself into the Ship Canal at Pomona Docks”.

For anyone who as not discovered this gem of a book it is well worth reading, more so because it’s author Geoffrey Ashworth recently revised his 1987 book with additional material. 

And it will feature in the new book being written on The History of Greater Manchester by Tram which will explore that section of the network from Cornbrook via Deansgate Castlefield and onto Exchange Square. 

The first Trafford Bar to East Didsbury was published on Monday and is already proving a popular read.

It is available from Chorlton Bookshop, and from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk, price £4.99

Location; Cornbrook

Pictures; Bits of Cornbrook, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and All that was left of the Railway, 2003, courtesy of Andy Robertson

* Slater’s Manchester & Salford Directory 1850

**Ashworth, Geoffrey, The Lost Rivers of Manchester, 1987, updated, 2023

***A new book on the History of Greater Manchester By Tram, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20History%20of%20Greater%20Manchester%20by%20Tram

Waiting for that fast service to Central ................ standing on the platform at Chorlton-cum-Hardy railway station

Now I am part of that generation that grew up with steam locomotives.

And I don’t mean those special heritage steam trains I mean the full on thing, when everything from the intercity express down to sedate suburban commuter links and the humble unromantic goods locos were all steam powered.

All of which makes this picture postcard of our station one to cherish particularly because there are very few of the inside of the station.

I don’t have a date for this one but it will be before 1926 when an aerial picture shows the station without the footbridge which the historian John Lloyd says was removed “to save the expense of maintaining it and the public had to use the road bridge.”**

So we have just 40 or so years to play with because the station was opened in 1880 and judging by  the quality of the picture postcard I am guessing we will be sometime in the early years of the last century.

And that quality allows you to focus in on the detail from the iron work under the bridge to the signs advising passengers to use the foot bridge to cross the tracks which proved particularly relevant after the death of Mary Jane Cockrill of Oswald Road in 1909 who was run down by "a fast train approaching the station."***

I don’t think you have to have an over vivid imagination to put yourself on that platform just over a century ago.

The place is empty save for the staff and the chap in the bowler hat who I suspect runs the kiosk, so we must be in one of those in between moments and given that there are no passenger either a train has just gone through or this is that long wait between the morning commuter rush and the evening return.

And for anyone who has ever been alone on a warm summer’s day waiting for a train the scene will be all too familiar.

There will be that silence punctuated by the odd noise from the road in the distance the clunck of a shutting engine and the sound of the platform clock.

And if you have timed it wrongly there could still be a hint of steam left from the departing train and the last solitary commuter making their way out up the approach path to Wilbraham Road.

Which means that you are left to idle the time away looking at the headlines from the newspaper posters, ponder on the promises being made by the adverts and perhaps spend a penny on that weighing machine.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, date unknown

Picture; Chorlton-cum-Hardy Railway Station, date unknown, courtesy of Mark Fynn***

*Looking Back At Chorlton-cum-Hardy, John Lloyd, 1985

**Woman Killed at Chorlton In front of a railway train, Manchester Guardian, January 11, 1909 although to be accurate her death was a suicide

***Manchester Postcards, http://www.manchesterpostcards.com/index.html, 

40 years ago ……. Manchester pictures from the archive …….

It is a salutary lesson on the passing of time that four decades have passed since I took these pictures, with the obvious observation that heaps of those that were marching through Manchester will be retired,  and that those in the prams will have had their 40th birthdays.

A Conservative Government was presiding over a tide of rising unemployment, and was pursuing a policy of cuts in public expenditure, set against a hardening of the Cold War with the USA and the Soviet Union developing and deploying a series of new missiles capable of carrying ever more powerful nuclear war heads.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; 40 years ago ……. Manchester pictures from the archive ……. from the collection of Andrew Simpson