The old church on the green in 1933

This is one of my favourite pictures of the old parish church.

It was taken by F. Blyth and appeared in A Short History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy written by J. D. Blyth in 1933.

Now at present I don’t know whether J.D. Blyth was the father or brother of the photographer, and both remain shadowy figures.

The text is drawn from the work of the late 19th century historian Thomas Ellwood and pretty much repeats the earlier work word by word.

Not that there is anything wrong in that.

Mr Ellwood’s work had been published as a series of newspaper articles between 1885 and 86 and while some of them reappeared in church magazines during the early 20th century I rather think that that by 1933 they were less well known.

That said it is the three photographs that draw you into the short history, and this is partly because we do not have many floating around from the 1930s.

This one of the church was taken from the south and it shows off some of the detail which is often missing from other pictures.  The side aisles were added in 1837 around the time that two Arnot stoves were installed for heating and the flue and chimney of one of them is just visible behind the spire.

The church had just another seven years of working life because it was closed in 1940 and demolished in 1949.

The grave stones remained in place until the area was landscaped in the early 1980s and many of the headstones taken away.

Picture; the parish church from the south, 1933, by F. Blyth, from A Short history of Chorlton-cum-Hardy by J.D. Blyth, 1933

What was lost is found .... the continuing story of Little Ancoats Street

 History hasn’t been kind to Little Ancoats Street.

Little Ancoats Street from Newton Street, 2019

It is one of those very narrow streets, which has never warranted much in the way of official recognition.

It once stretched from Dean Street, across Newton Street, and almost but not quite running out on to Lever Street.

Today the bit from Dean Street to Newton Street has vanished under a block of new build which was constructed in the last few years, and which wiped out the Lord Nelson pub, which was doing the business of serving beer and good cheer from at least 1841.

In that year the landlord was a Robert Walker, and a decade later it was run by a Mary Ann Belshaw and judging by the occupants listed in the Rate Books it appears to have changed hands frequently.

Little Ancoats Street from Little Lever Street, 2019

As for Little Ancoats Street, it  remains a bit of an enigma.  It shows up on maps of the early 1790s, but as yet there are no listings for who resided there in the directories, nor as yet can I find any entry in the census returns.

And that is slightly odd given that the southern side of the street consisted of residential properties during the middle of the 19th century.

Their absence from the street directories may just be because they were not worthy of inclusion, but they should appear in the census records, especially given that the surrounding streets are all included.

The stretch of Great Ancoats Street, and Ancoats Street which were either side of our street are there in the official records but not ours.

That said some of the buildings along the part of Little Ancoats Street from Little Lever Street may be the original residential properties shown on the maps of the 1840s and 50s, which may be as close as we get to their inhabitants.

But in time and widening the search I am sure the mystery of who lived in them will be revealed.

All of which leaves me with the Lord Nelson, which was demolished in 2010.  That building only dated from 1895, and while there is a suggestion that the original dates from 1830, the first reference I have is 1841.

Little Ancoats Street, 1851

Nor have the records revealed any details of either Mr. Walker  or Ms Belshaw, but I shall keep looking.

But as history often shows .... something always turns up.

And so today Derek Jackson emailed me with an extract from the 1841 census along witha death certificate for a Mr. James Owen who lived on Little Ancoat's Street.

They are a fascinating find, because with a name comes another opportuinity to search the records for the cenus returns and the stories of others who lived on this litte street.

I may even with Derek's permission explore the life of Mr Owen who was born in 1768, died in 1848 and who had been a "weaver", but on his death was described as a "labourer".

Now I have no idea if he was a handloom weaver that skilled occupation which was eclipsed by the coming of the power loom and the absorption of the trade trade into the factory system.

But if so his eventual job as a labourer might be seen as another casuality of industrilization. 

And as you do the census return showed him living with his wife. and a an Ann Jones aged 20 and her daughter of six months.

So a thank you to Derek.

Location; Little Ancoats Street,

Pictures; Little Ancoats Street, 2019, from the collection of Richard Hector Jones, and in 1851,  from Adshead’s map of Manchester 1851 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Lost  Manchester Streets, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Lost+Manchester+Streets

Home thoughts from abroad nu 4 ................ catching a train and borrowing a book

An occasional series on what I miss about the place where I grew up.*

Now when you leave the place you grew up and pretty much only go back for the odd short visit it becomes frozen in time.

Not so of course for my sisters and their families which of course is just how it should be.

All of which has made me come back to these two pictures of Eltham from the collection of Steve Bardrick.

They were taken by his grandfather sometime in the 1950s or 60s, and are just as I remember home and both in their way are special.

And the station is the first I would single out for having moved to Well Hall in 1964 I still made the train journey every week day back to New Cross and Samuel Pepys Secondary Modern School.

I can’t say I ever felt that happy about the school and so the walk up along the station approach was a mixed one and was something I did like the visit to the dentist.  You did it because you had to but it was never going to be something you chose to do.

Added to which as the trip was done during the rush hour the chances of getting a seat were never high.

That said the journey back was always something to look forward to and even now I can remember the train taking the curve past the signal box and pulling in to the station with that view of the woods above where we lived.

I never tired of it then and I still have fond memories of the scene  which signalled I was home.

The new station might be more shinny and look the part but the old one with its wooden booking hall giving out onto the platform and that cast iron footbridge are part of my Eltham.

And in much the same way so is the picture of the High Street offering as it does Woollies, the library and the electricity showrooms.

If you are of a certain age the old Woolworths will have powerful memories.
It starts with that special smell, continues with the wooden floorboards and those mahogany island counters and culminates with the sound of Apache or Telstar blaring out and those small round ice creams.

The library was to become one of my favourite’s haunts, a place you went when you needed to do some homework and better still the place to borrow an LP.

Even the electricity showroom was not without its charm with those odd shaped windows.

And by 1966 the library won out over the station, because in that September I had swapped schools and was going to Crown Woods, a place which will always be special.**

It was there I met friends that have stayed the course over the last fifty years and it was there that I discovered the magic of books, and history and a way of looking at the world which I have never lost.

All of which meant that it was looking down at the High Street from the top of the bus twice a day which pretty much took over from the walk up the station approach.

And then one day in the 1980s I returned to find that the station had moved, and later still Wilcox’s and Woollies were no more and even later still the Greyhound had been transformed

Of course there is that simple response that I should get back more often and there is much in that idea.

But even so I rather think I would still miss the old station and if I am pushed hard it will be that slow final pull into Well Hall with the view of the woods which were best seen from the old site.

And before I forget that look down on the Pleasaunce which in the summer would always be a place to stop and sit for a few minutes beside the old moat and equally old garden wall.

Location Eltham, London




Pictures; Eltham Well Hall Railway Station & the High Street circa 1960s from the collection of Steve Bardrick

*Home thoughts from abroad, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Home%20thoughts%20from%20abroad

**Crown Woods School Eltham, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Crown%20Woods%20School%20Eltham

That vanished road in Chorlton ……… 1907 - 1937 RIP

I won’t be the only one in Chorlton who is fascinated by the lost roads of Chorlton.

Some just changed their name, but others have vanished completely.

And one of those is Cardiff Road which was off Longford Road. 

Cardiff Road, 1937

It consisted of 12 two up two down properties and dates from sometime after 1901 and had but a short life.

So, while it doesn’t appear on the 1901 census, it is on a street directory two years later and crops up on various historical records until 1939.

It is a place I have written about but never really dug deep into its story.

But today I have redressed that omission, mainly because of a press cutting sent over by Chris Geliher who added "Hi Andrew. Came upon this clipping from the M/c City News 16/7/37. Thought you might be interested on the off chance that you haven't already seen it”.

Cardiff Road, 1907

And of course, I was very interested because it offered up the first clue as to why Cardiff Road had been expunged from the record.

According to the Manchester City News the Corporation had approved the “recommendation to demolish nos. 2-18 , inclusive Cardiff-road, Chorlton, as being unfit for human habitation”, adding that Dr Veitch Clarke, the Medical Officer of Health for the City Council had pointed out that the houses were “not capable at a reasonable expense of being rendered fit” to live in.*

Now I would dearly like to know who had built the properties and who rented them out, if only to search for similar “rundown” houses that the landlord was responsible for in Chorlton.  Alas the Rate Books that can be accessed online stop in 1900, and there appears at present no other reference to ownership in the historic records.

But looking at the census return for 1911 there is much to shudder at, not least because some of the properties were incredibly overcrowded.

At number 20 Annie Elizabeth Wilson shared the house with her eight children ranging in age from 20 down to 5, while at 24, Mr. Devine and his wife lived with four children, a nephew, a sister in law and two lodgers.

Cardiff Road, 2015

Nor are these two houses the exception.   At number 2, Jane Fitzgerald lived with her two children and a lodger, and at 12 there were a total of seven people.

Perhaps most shocking is the census return for number 8 which revealed two families inhabiting the one house, consisting of one family of six and another of 4.

At present there is no way of knowing just how poorly built the properties were, but their very short life suggests that they were not the best in the housing stock of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Indeed, they back onto our own brick works which might offer up a possible landlord.

A decade on in 1921 there was still evidence of overcrowding in almost all of the four roomed houses and severe overcrowding in two.  

Cardiff Road, 1911

What is in interesting from both the 1911 and 1921 census returns is that few of the inhabitants were linked to the brick trade, and only one man in 1921 was directly employed at the brick works and he described himself as unemployed.  

Others worked for the grocery chain Twfords in Chorlton, two were employed by Manchester Corporation, one was a carter, and another was a warehouseman for J. R. Smith on Ducie Street in town.

All of which leaves me with that opening sentence from the newspaper report which proclaimed “Chorlton often described as Manchester’s most select residential suburb has come under the slum clearance activities for the authorities”.

So despite the detractors who shout that Chorlton has become a “twee place” to live, there were those who thought it so over eighty years ago.  Didsbury please take note.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; A Chorlton “Slum” 9 Dwelling Houses to be Demolished, Manchester City News, July 16th, 1937, courtesy of Chris Geliher, Cardiff Road, 1907 from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1907, and in 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*A Chorlton “Slum” 9 Dwelling Houses to be Demolished, Manchester City News, July 16th, 1937

Living in a two roomed cottage in a Manchester court in 1851

You won’t find Span Court I know I tried.  But I do know where it was and where it had been when it was home to hundreds of families from about 1780 till sometime after 1965.

It was one of those bits of infill, the product of speculative builders trying to squeeze as many houses as possible onto a small piece of land.  In this case the plot was off Artillery Street which runs from Byrom Street to Longworth Street behind Deansgate.  Courts like these might hold half a dozen houses which faced each other across an open paved area and in some cases were locked away behind other properties, with access down narrow alleyways.

Many were back to back houses consisting of just two rooms, made from poor quality materials with party walls which were just half a brick thick and floors laid directly onto the bare earth.
My great grandmother grew up in just such a property in Whiteman’s Yard and those in Span Court were little different.  True they had cellars which still in the middle of the 19th century might be occupied by families, but otherwise they resembled the one she was born in.

In 1844 Manchester stopped the building of new houses which did not have running water and a toilet in the house or the yard which meant that no back to back houses or courts were built, although in neighbouring Bradford and Openshaw such properties continued to be constructed.  By 1900 there were only 5,000 back to backs left in the city and these had all been removed or converted  to ‘through’ houses by 1939.*

Span Court consisted of six such properties.  The eastern side of the court backed on to three identical houses fronting Swan Court while the western three were set up against industrial buildings which later became a hospital.

And in those six houses in 1851 lived a total of thirty-three people who made their living from the bottom end of economic pile.  And so while there were 6 power loom weavers and a cooper and dress maker there were also an errand boy, a hawker and one who described himself as a pauper.

Now over the next few weeks I will be delving deeper into Spam Court and trying to tell its story, looking at the people who lived there and the surrounding streets.

*Parkinson-Bailey, John P, Manchester University Press, 2000

Pictures; Span Court in 1965 J. Ryder, m00211, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, Span Court from the 1842-44 OS map of Manchester & Salford, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Artillery Street looking up from Byrom Street with Span Court off to the right,  from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Posters from the Past ........... no 20 ......... coming home

Now the project is simple, take an image of a building or “thing” we all love and turn it into the style of poster which was popular in the middle decades of the last century.*

Peter and I have been creating such advertising pieces of art for a while.

I source the original image and offer the caption and Peter does the rest.

So here is our take on a series of posters which could have been commissioned by the Eltham Tourist Board celebrating where we live.

Follow the link Posters from the Past, and you can find others from the Friends of Woolwich, the Thames Foot Tunnels Appreciation Society, and Retired Eltham Librarians.

And a thank you to Jean and Richard Low who one day back in 2012 drove around Eltham taking pictures for the blog, one of which Peter used for our poster.

Location: Eltham

Painting; The 161, © 2020 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures, from a photograph by Jean Low, 2012

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk 

*Posters from the Past, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Posters%20from%20the%20Past

Two hundred and thirty-nine Salford listed buildings …… and two pictures

 There are two hundred and thirty-nine Salford listed buildings, and they range from two 16th century ones, a heap from the 19th century and those three totem sculptures from 1966.*

Kersal Cell, circa 1950s

I toyed with writing about all of them, but it’s been done and anyway as a Londoner who has lived in Manchester for 57 years, I bet there will be a few from Salford who think me presumptuous.

So instead, I will focus on just one which I came to via Derrick Lea who in the 1950s and 60s drew pictures of many iconic Greater Manchester buildings.

And amongst the collection was this one of Kersal Cell. It was granted Grade: ll* status in 1952 and is described as “of special architectural or historic interest”.

To which Historic England adds that it was a “Manor house, later restaurant. C16 with later additions. Timber-framed with plaster infill on a sandstone base. Concluding “the house stands on the site of Lenton Priory, a C12 Cluniac house. It was the home of John Byrom, shorthand writer, and author of 'Christians Awake’". **

There is more from my trusty Wikipedia which tells me "Kersal Priory, also known as St Leonard's, is a priory in Kersal. It is classed as an alien priory or hermitage and was populated by Cluniac monks. The priory was dependent on Lenton in Nottinghamshire. Founded between 1145 and 1453, it was granted title by Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester sometime after 1143, became denizen independent from 1392, and was dissolved in 1538. One of the buildings, Kersal Cell, is still extant; a Grade II* listed building, it is now a private residence".**

I make no apologies for lifting the information from other sources and fall back on that well known justification which runs, “using one source is copying, using more is research".

Bridgewater Canal, Worsley

Added to which the historical background is merely to give context to Mr. Lea’s picture.

And having done that I will add his equally excellent drawing of the Bridgewater Canal and Worsley Old Hall leaving you to do your own research on both and discover the equally interesting Worsley Hall Icehouse, which to confuse matters belonged to the new Hall but does also have a grade II listing.

Leaving me just to say that I am a great fan of Derrick Lea’s work which extends to his wartime years with the RAF in Arica as well scenes of staff and patients from three Manchester hospitals.

He was born in 1920, lived in Chorlton and drew much of the twin cities and the places beyond.

At which point I stand corrected as Bill Sumner  has pointed out "The building you show next to the canal is the Packet House, Worsley Old Hall is a quarter mile away, presently used as a Pub and Restaurant at the side of the Golf Course. Worsley New Hall long since demolished is half a mile the other way towards Boothstown, now home to RHS Garden Bridgewater".

Location; Kersal and Worsley

Pictures; Kersal Cell, and Bridgewater Canal, courtesy of Jon and Hazel Lea

* Salford Listed Buildings, Salford City Council, https://www.salford.gov.uk/planning-building-and-regeneration/conservation-and-listed-buildings/salfords-heritage-assets/listed-buildings/ 

**Kersal Cell, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1386144

***Kersal Priory, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kersal_Priory