Living beside the Medlock in the shadow of those tall railway viaducts ……… Victoria Terrace and Coronation Square

 I doubt I would ever have known about a row of terraced houses beside the River Medlock in the heart of the city and certainly would not have begun looking at them in detail if Andy Robertson hadn’t sent over a series of pictures of the Bridge Inn on Fairfield Street.

The pub was doing the business by 1840, and continued into the 20th century, although it is now closed.

But what really caught my interest was Andy’s pictures of the River Medlock which briefly comes out into the daylight as it crosses under Fairfield Street before descending back into a tunnel.

And as you do I went looking for the story of this patch of land between the river and the pub, and was not disappointed.  

In 1848, there were twenty-four properties of which 14 appear to have been back to back houses along with another ten.

Some faced directly onto the river , and the rest were grouped around Coronation Square, which I suspect offers up a possible date for their construction which I am guessing must have been around 1837.  And this I think will be confirmed by the fact that the fourteen back to backs were called Victoria Terrace.

I will  go looking into the Rate Books to see how far back I can trace the houses, but for that I need the names of some of the residents, and sadly back in the middle decades of the 19th century, no one deemed them worth enough to be included in the directories.

And that in turn has made it difficult to unearth the relevant census returns for the period.

However by dint of a tedious trawl of the 1891 census for the Central Enumeration district for 1891 I struck lucky, and found all twenty four.

They were a mix of four, three and two roomed properties, and were home to 71 people.  There was evidence of overcrowding, with the eight members of the Younger family squeezed into four rooms, and Mr. Thomas Nagle sharing his three rooms with his cousin and three lodgers.

Most of the occupants were unskilled workers, ranging from labourers to  street peddlars, although amongst them there were also a tailoress, a shoemaker  an Assistant Mathematical Instrument Maker.

But most were engaged in precarious and heavy work with more than a few heading towards their sixties.  

One of these was Thomas Nagle who at 56, described himself as a Bricklayer’s labourer, although in his case he appears to have left the building trade behind, because in 1895 he is listed as a greengrocer trading from Coronation Square.

There is much more to do, including examining the ages of the residents and working out the balance of adults to children as well as where the 71 came from.

Some at least of the properties were being demolished by the early 20th century and there are two pictures from the Local Image Collection showing some of the houses.

All of which promises to offer up more of the lives of those who lived beside the Medlock in the shadow of those tall railway viaducts, just a step away from Fairfield Street

Location; Manchester

Pictures, detail of Victoria Terrace and Coronation Square, 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of courtesy of Digital Archives Association http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ , some of the properties in 1903, A. Bradburn, m11495, and in 1904, m11492, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Victoria Terrace and Coronation Square, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

A lost house, an old bridge ..... and a scene that has passed out of living memory, Barlow Moor Road in the summer of 1909

Barlow Moor Road Bridge, 1909

We are looking at a stretch of Barlow Moor Road that has now passed out of living memory.  The picture was taken in 1909 and captures a time when we were still a little rural.

Away to our right across the Brook and over the fields is  half hidden by the trees is Lime Bank Cottage.

Sadly the building to our left has not survived which is a shame because it is one of those that would have unlocked a bit of our history.

It was built sometime between the late 1780s and 1818 and was a fine nine  roomed house set in a large garden and orchard with views across the fields. 

Brook Bank House

In the 1840s it commanded a rateable value of £58 which put it amongst one of the most expensive properties in the township.  And throughout its history the occupants appear to have been well heeled.

In 1841 Elizabeth Whitelegg described herself as of “independent” means, while her son was a cotton dealer.  

A decade later the Heywwod brothers and sisters were also able to rely on an inherited income, and at the time of our picture, William Henry Foxwell owned his own engineering export business.

This makes Brook Bank important in the story of Chorlton.  There were only handful of these comfortable properties in the township and today only two have survived of which one lies empty with half its roof missing.

And given that all the homes of working people from the first half of the 19^th century have also vanished this just leaves a few of the farm houses of which only two come close to resembling the originals.

Across the fields with Hough End Hall in the distance

Which leaves us just this tantalizing glimpse through the trees of Brook Bank on a summer’s day in 1909.

But that is not quite the end of the story.

We are on Barlow Moor Road just before the bridge was rebuilt and for all its idyllic appearance the road and the surrounding land was about to be transformed.

Already the developers and builders had been busy. Just behind our house and only partly hidden by a green house and out houses were the semi detached properties of Claude and Reynard Road, while to the north a line of tall houses stretched up to Beech Road and beyond the Brook plans were a foot to construct Chorltonville.

Picture; Barlow Moor Road Bridge, J Jackson, 1909, m17447, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

Take four ingredients …. and explore a bit of history

Pesto made from just basil, nuts, garlic and cheese has become one of those all-time sauces, which turns up on pasta, in sandwiches, wraps, pizza, and a variety of other dishes.

So much so that in some restaurants it litters the menu and walks with starters, mains, and nibbles.

Not that I have any objections, it is simple to make and can lift many meals from bland to supreme.

My Wikipedia tells me that it is "also known as pesto Genovese, traditionally made with leaves of Genovese basil, extra virgin olive oil, parmesan or Grana Padano, Pecorino sardo, pine nuts, and garlic. 

It originated in the Ligurian city of Genoa and is used to dress pasta". 

Added to which "it is thought to have had two predecessors in ancient times, going back as far as the Roman age. 

The ancient Romans used to eat a similar paste called moretum, which was made by crushing garlic, salt, cheese, herbs, olive oil, and vinegar and sometimes pine nuts. together. 

During the Middle Ages, a popular sauce in the Genoan cuisine was agliata, which was a mash of garlic and walnuts".

Surprisingly the use of the basil leaves only dates from the 1850s and while I do stick to the basic four ingredients, our Saul often uses walnuts instead of pine nuts, and I am equally partial to tomato pesto which uses either sun-dried tomatoes or small roasted ones.

And of course, like so many old dishes it will vary across time, space, and just the preferences of a cook along with the availability of the ingredients.

Which I suppose means it could be sloppy and incorrect to refer to a tomato pesto  as pesto but then the word derives in Italian and Latin from the word to pound or crush which in an earlier age was the way to make the sauce.

Ah I hear Eric mutter that “is still the correct way, so banish that blender”, but I am lazy.

And that really is it.

Leaving me just to admit that today having made a mash of potatoes, carrots and avocado I threw in a bit of pesto just to see what it would be like

Location; our kitchen

Pictures, the finished pesto, that masterly mix of pasta, potatoes, green beans and pesto, and a shamefaced use of pesto in a dollop of veg mash, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Pesto, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesto

Catching the 81X from Barlow Moor Road in the summer of 1961

At the bus terminus, July 1961

We are at the bus station on Barlow Moor Road in the summer of 1961, and in front of us is the 81X which ran from Southern Cemetery to Hightown via Albert Square.

Now I can be fairly certain of that because beside me I have the Corporation Maps of Manchester and District for 1963.

With the 81X

Of course there is just the outside possibility that the route of the 81 had changed during the time the picture was taken and the map with its bus routes was published.

And I have no doubt that someone will point out that the 81X had a slightly different route to the 81 but until then I shall continue to assume that our bus followed the 1963 route travelling along Barlow Moor Road, Manchester Road and Upper Chorlton Road into town.

At which point I might just be accused of being a little obsessed by a Manchester bus in the 1960s.

But not so for the picture and the bus map offer up a rich source of history.

It starts with the bus livery which is the red of Manchester Corporation and is a reminder that back then both the cities of Manchester and Salford and the surrounding local authorities ran their own public transport services.

Bus routes through Chorlton in 1963

So on reaching town our passengers could be confronted with the blue and cream buses of Ashton-under-Lyne, 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.

What is more these different Corporation buses ran along the same roads and for some way at least shared similar routes.

And like that bus timetable there is much history in the picture.

A lost scene

Those telephone kiosks may have lingered on into the end of the century but most have now gone as have the old style bus sign with its Manchester logo.

That said the small police station has yet to be built and there is a clear view across to the houses on Beech Road which in turn points to the absence of those first two houses on the even side of Beech Road.

So not perhaps a story that encompasses the great dramatic sweep of history but one that lots of people will relate to, and that is good enough for me.

And within a few hours of posting the story, Steven commented

" Lovely! The X usually suggests a shorter route than normal.

 In 1960 the 81 only ran to Albert Square so the extension beyond must have been quite recent. I suspect the bus terminating at Hightown is the reason for the X as the whole route went to Crumpsall Green."

And a late correction to the story Annette Roberts has written in that "the police station was there when I lived in Claude Road from the 1950s. 

My dad was a police constable based for a while at the station and the first few houses on Beech Road behind the station were police houses. 

I used to play with the children who lived there. The station had an air raid siren on the roof which they used to test once in a while. 

Think the picture is N awkward angle as the station would definitely be there in 1961 as I used to go there."

So another piece of collective history.  I just love it.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Pictures; Chorlton-cum-Hardy bus terminus, 1961 from the collection of Sally Dervan  and Maps of Manchester and District, Manchester Corporation, 1963, courtesy of David O’Reilly 


*Manchester Buses, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20Buses

Wishing you well ........... postcards from Woolwich, Greenwich and Eltham for the summer ..... nu 4 The Royal Observatory

A short series with few words looking at the postcards we sent from Woolwich, Greenwich and Eltham.

Now as a kid I often took myself off to  Greenwich Park which for a 10 year old was full of adventures.  For a start there was that long walk up through the big ornate gates from the Heath and watching as that statue of General Wolfe got closer and closer.

And then as you reached its base, there below the summit was the Thames, the naval buildings and the museum.

I have to say the observatory played a minor role in the set of adventures that might take us off to the right hiding behind trees or just rolling down that slope.

Location; the Royal Observatory

Picture; the Royal Observatory  circa 1905, Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/

Selling flowers ........ By St Ann’s Church sometime around 1904

Now I fell on this picture postcard of the flower seller by St Ann’s Square fully intending to write about a century of selling flowers at this spot.

The post card is from a series dated to 1902, so here we seemed to have over a hundred years of continuity.

But by one of those twists of historical research my facebook friend JBS came up with one for 1898 and in the way of these things I bet someone was selling flowers from this pitch even earlier in that century.

That said it is just possible that the painting is earlier than 1902 and might have been made in the last decade of the 19th century, but I would be guessing so I shall just leave you with the observation that it is a nice picture.

And that was the end of the story until John left a comment which just needed to be added to the story, more so because back in the late 1970s, I too took a series of pictures, which I think will include him.

"Lovely to see this picture. It depicts my family's flower stall. My great-great grandfather first started selling flowers on this spot in June 1895. 

It may have been earlier, but this is the first recorded payment of rent for the spot to the church. He sold flowers from boxes at first and the stall arrived a little later. 

The business passed down through my great-grandfather, my grandfather and great aunt, my father and finally myself. I ceased trading in 2008 to follow another path. The business was still viable but not what is t was in the city centre's busier decades from the 60's to the 00's.

I donated the stall to the church for their future rental and it was subsequently leased by others for a while. I'm not sure if it is currently occupied as I rarely visit the city centre nowadays. 

I hope it is, I've a lifetime of memories".

So there you are ...... the story continues.

Picture; St Ann’s Church  from the series Manchester, marketed by Tuck & Sons, 1904, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/, and The flower stall, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Shakespeare and Manchester …. the exhibition which became the book ...

Earlier this year I met Ian Nickson who talked me through his story of how seven personalities transformed Manchester into a global centre of Shakespearean theatre in the Victorian era and revealed present-day evidence of the city’s innovative engagement with the works of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Window, 2025 

These seven people operated in diverse fields - business, religion, theatre, architecture, academia, politics - but were united by their appreciation of Shakespeare’s cultural value and, as if imitating the seven bees atop Manchester’s coat of arms, they collaborated to create an urban, libertarian, distinctively Mancunian interpretation of Shakespeare’s works.

Mr. Shakespeare at the Theatre Royal, 2024

And I was lucky enough to accompany Ian on a guided tour of his exhibition of that story at Central Ref.

It presented traces of Manchester’s Victorian influence that can still be found today – the portrait of Ira Aldridge in Manchester Art Gallery, the Shakespeare Window in the entrance of the Central Library, and the Shakespearean Garden in Platt Fields Park.

One aim of this exhibition is to raise awareness of the benefits to mental and physical health conferred by the Shakespearean Garden and to obtain funding for a full-time gardener who can secure the future of the garden for the benefit of the citizens of Manchester.

And now we have the book which as the publisher’s notes record is “an engagingly written book providing the first comprehensive explanation of Manchester's innovative and enduring contributions to the development of Shakespearean theatre in the nineteenth century. 

The book, 2026

Beyond repairing this gap in theatre history, it documents Manchester's collective adoption of Shakespeare's works as a means of providing moral guidance to the world's first industrial city and of achieving political change through non-violent means.

This account of Manchester's reciprocal engagement with Shakespeare, situated within Victorian cultural, social, political and economic trends, is told through the careers of seven people - John Knowles, George Dawson, Charles Calvert, Henry Irving, Alfred Darbyshire, Bishop James Fraser and Rosa Grindon.

Both a theatrical and a cultural history, it examines the makers of an urban, libertarian, Mancunian Shakespeare using hitherto unexplored primary sources, principally a rich trove of digitised newspapers”.

So there you have it.  Ian’s book was published on September 22nd by Manchester University Press published and is entitled Shakespeare and Manchester: A Victorian Powerhouse.

Ira Aldridge, 1826

More details are available at https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526193186/ [manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk]

The Mural of  Rosa Grindon, 2026

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Mr. Shakespeare at the Theatre Royal, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson; the Shakespeare Window, 2025 and image from the exhibition  courtesy of Ian Nickson, Ira Aldridge, 1826 painted by James Northcote, Manchester Art Gallery Accession number 1882.2, and The Mural of  Rosa Grindon Facing Platt Fields Due To Her Part In The Creation Of The Shakesperian Garden, 2026, from the collection of C. Roman