When Mr. Lea drew Chorlton-cum-Hardy …………..

I have Jon and Hazel to thank for reigniting my interest in our local artist Derrick Lea who I first came across a decade and a bit ago.

Seven in one place, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, in the 1950s

Back then I knew nothing of Mr. Lea other than that during the 1950s he produced a collection of fine pictures of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

They were drawn in a style which will be familiar to anyone who grew up in that decade and are now unique in being a record of the township over 70 years ago.

They include some of our iconic buildings from the Horse and Jockey, and the Con Club, as well as the Lloyds, Barlow Hall, Hough End Hall and Jackson’s Boat along with Longford Hall.

Now I know some purists will sniffly point out that neither Hough End Hall nor Longford Hall are in Chorlton, but as Mr. Lea made an exception in his calendar of Chorlton sites, I am not going to quibble.

The Lloyd Hotel and Con Club, 1955

As for Hough End Hall it is true it was in Withington for centuries but with a slip of the municipal pen has now come over to us.  As for Longford Hall, yep, there is no denying it is in Stretford, but than Mr. Lea lived on Ryebank Road which is as close as you can get to the hall.

He was a commercial artist, and his son Jon tells me that he produced the Chorlton selection for picture postcards and that calendar.

All date from the 1950s and some I can pinpoint to a specific year. So, the images of the Lloyds, the former Conservative Club and Jackson’s Boat date from 1955 and that of Longford Hall was drawn two years later.

And that makes them an important addition to our understanding of what the area was once like and in particular how some of the buildings have changed over seven decades.

Hough End Hall, circa 1950s

When he drew Hough End Hall it was still part of a working farm and so while its glory days were over when it was at the centre of an estate comprising 250 acres its pond and fields were still home to chickens, pigs, geese and horses. 

Moreover, the last real tenant had only died a few years earlier which resulted in it being taken over by the Bailey family who first began farming in Chorlton in the mid 18th century round about the time the Hall passed out of the Mosley’s possessions who built it and into the hands of the Egerton’s who owned almost all of Chorlton.

Likewise, two images of the Horse and Jockey show that the western end of the pub was still a separate residential property.  

The Horse and Jockey, 1955

That said Mr. Lea was not above introducing a few flights from historical accuracy. In one of the Jockey pictures he includes a pond on the village green which fronts the Jockey. Sadly, there is no evidence for a pond and during a big chunk of the 19th century the green was the private garden of Samuel Wilton who lived in the eastern side of what is now the pub.

But that is a minor quibble when set against the bigger picture which is of a collection of images drawn during the 1950s by Mr. Lea, and which are fast fading from living memory.

And that is it.

Location; Chorlton

Derrick Lea, date unknown

Pictures; The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Mr. Lea drew in the 1950s, courtesy of Jon and Hazel Lea

Next; Longford Hall, Didsbury and out beyond into Cheadle and beyond

The case of Mrs Crowfoot's plum pudding ......... dark deeds at Well Hall in January 1870

I don’t often go looking at the Proceedings of the Old Bailey which are now online and cover the period 1674-1913 which is my loss.*



Well Hall Cottages, 1909

They are “a fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.”*

So I am indebted to Colin Benford who drew my attention to the case of George Pritchett who broke into the home of Robert and Ann Crowfoot in January 1870.

Mr and Mrs Crowfoot lived in one of the cottages in Well Hall.

Now I have long been fascinated by these houses and have  written about them, and so was intrigued when Colin wrote that the Crowfoot’s were residents in 1851 and were still there in 1870 when George Pritchett broke in.

And that seems an appropriate point to quote from the records.

232. GEORGE PRITCHETT (27) , Burglariously breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Robert Crawfoot and stealing therein 4 lbs. of beef and a plum pudding, his property.

MR. PATER conducted the Prosecution.

ANN CRAWFOOT . I am the wife of Robert Crawfoot, of Well Hall Cottages, Eltham—on 3rd January, at 8 a.m., I went down stairs and found the pantry window open, which was shut and fastened when I went to bed at 9 o'clock—I missed from the larder a piece of beef and a very large plum pudding with a little piece cut out of it—I found the pudding in the shed, and saw a portion of the beef taken out of the prisoner's pocket.

ROBERT FAIRWEATHER (Policeman R 320). On Sunday night, 2nd January, about 10 o'clock, I saw the prisoner going down a path at the back of some houses, within 200 yards of Mr. Grawfoot's—I saw him again about 11.15 or 11.30 in a shed, covered up with horse litter—I searched him and found a piece of plum pudding, some suet pudding, and a quantity of beef—I asked what he had been doing; he gave no answer—I asked where he got the beef and pudding—he said, "From a servant girl"—I asked him who she was—he declined to tell me.

The original records 1870

JAMES PIPER (Policeman R 37). On the morning of 3rd January I went to the prosecutor's house, and saw footmarks there, which I compared with the prisoner's left boot and the impression was the exact model of the sole—half the heel was worn off, and half on top was left, and there was every nail, nail for nail—I did not make an impression by the side, I was satisfied without.

Prisoner. How can you swear to the footmarks when there had been three hour's rain? Witness. 

There was no rain from the time you were in custody till 10.30 or 11 o'clock.

GUILTY — Three Months' Imprisonment.***

In the great sweep of history it may not even count as a full stop but it offers up one of those opportunities to touch the past and bring you closer to the people who lived in Well Hall.
And as you do I went looking for the three of them.  Not unsurprisingly George Pritchett pretty much drew a blank.  The records are full of George Pritchett’s but none offered up a clue as to which might have been our man.

Robert and Ann Crowfoot were easier to trace. They were living in the cottage at Well Hall in 1851 and were from Suffolk, at the time of the burglary he was fifty eight and Ann a year younger and given that he was an agricultural labourer and she a laundress the loss of that food must have been serious.

In time I shall find out more if only to sort out the misspelling of their name which appears on the census record as Crowfoot and in the court documents as Crawfoot.

Pictures; Well Hall from the OS map of Kent, showing Eltham, 1858-73, Well Hall Cottages from The story of Royal Eltham,  R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm and the original court document from The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

A thank you to Colin Benford who researched the story

Location; Well Hall, Eltham, London

* The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/index.jsp

** A map a photograph and some old records, Well Hall cottages in the spring of 1844, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/a-map-photograph-and-some-old-records.html

*** GEORGE PRITCHETT, Theft > burglary, 31st January 1870. http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18700131-232&div=t18700131-232&terms=Well%20hall#highlight

And the band played on .......

Now I know when the picture was taken and where, but what suddenly attracted the attention of the crowd is lost in time.

We are in Castlefield, on Camp Street during the Steam Exposition at that point in time when British Rail had surrendered the old Liverpool Road site for a £1 but before the Science and Industry Museum moved in.

And on that sunny day in 1980 a collection of old steam locomotives, traction engines and a host of vintage cars and buses gathered.

So it is quite possible that while the band played on something with steam was passing by.

Of course some will remember and confirm my vague memorey that as the band struck up the first of the steam locomotives made their appearance.

No matter I was there.

Location; Manchester

Picture; The band played on, 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Derrick Lea …… the Manchester artist comes out of the shadows

 For nearly two decades I have tried to discover the life story of Mr. Derrick Lea who painted and drew some fine pictures of Manchester, including Chorlton.

Greetings from Manchester, undated

And for most of those two decades I was unsuccessful. 

The search had turned up a conversation with some one who vaguely remembered him and an address of a property on Ryebank Road in Chorlton and because Chorlton featured in many of the pictures he produced I reasoned that he may have lived here, but that was it.

So, I used the images gave full credit to Mr. Lea and hoped that in the fulness of time I would discover more.

And that more came in the form of a series of messages from his son and daughter in law which in turn led to a meeting.

In the course of an hour and half Jon Lea shared three folders full of his dad’s work and gave me an insight into his dad’s life.

Derrick and Dorothy Lea, undated

This he followed up with a heap of scanned images of Mr. Lea’s work and this short biography.

“Derrick was an accomplished artist born in Manchester 1920 on Guy Fawkes night. His career began in the Second World War where he served n the RAF as a wireless operator in Africa. 

RAF Tabora circa 1944-46

There, having his camera stolen, he resorted to illustrating his journey across the continent where he then developed a skill for capturing landscapes and people. 

On returning, Derrick married his true love and embarked on illustration for advertising. 

Unfortunately, Derrick suffered from a brain tumour which thanks to brilliant neurosurgery, he survived and found his passion for recording his convalescence by illustrating the staff and patients at Barnes hospital and the Christie hospital.

Although ill health persisted, Derrick homed in on his commercial illustration skills and produced many fine pen and ink works mainly in the Chorlton area, these were often produced as Christmas cards as well as sold in card shops and travel outlets. 

Troops, undated

I hope to produce a web site to include all his work”. 

Young patient at the MRI, date unknown

And so, I now know so much more about Mr. Lea, and that is important because it offers up a context to his work.

All too often you come across images posted on social media, which offer no date, no location and no indication of the source.  The images are often accompanied by some vacuous comment along the lines of “Chorlton in the olden days” or “When we lived here it was different” and most banal of all, observations about how few cars there were back then.

None of which helps with understanding the image in front of you, but with the help of Jon and his wife Hazel I can now view the pictures of the Horse and Jockey, the Lloyds and the Rylands Library on Deansgate with a greater understanding of when and why the images were made.

Added to which I now have a record of Mr. Lea'a travels across Africa, his time in hospitals in the 1950s and some fine illustrations of people he encountered. 

Abdul, Billet Boy, Madagascar, 1945

Added to which I now have a greater knowledge of the man who produced them.

St Peter's Square and Cenotaph, Manchester, undated

And that can’t be bad.

Location, Manchester, Africa, 

Pictures; the work of Derrick Lea, 1943-1959, courtesy of Jon and Hazel Lea

Gasholders I have known and loved ........... no 3 inside the Rochdale Gas works

Now I am well aware this is a cheat ............. less a gasholder and more the inside of the Rochale Road Gas works.

But I have included it the series Gasholders.

The picture is entitled Gas Works Drawing Coke Rochdale Road and dates from 1894.

This was the time when “town gas” was manufactured on site and didn’t come down a pipe from the North Sea or in a container ship from somewhere on the other side of the world.

Back in 1894 Henry Tidmarsh recorded this one along with over 300 other  illustrations for the book Manchester Old and New which  was published in 1894 by Cassell with a text by William Arthur Shaw.

In three big volumes it told the history of the city but the real value of the book was in Tidmarsh's vivid depictions of Manchester, with streets and buildings animated with people.

Pictures; Gas Works Drawing Coke Rochdale Road, 1894, Henry Tidmarsh, from Manchester Old and New, William Arthur Shaw, 1894

*Gasholders,https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Gasholders

When we still had a furniture shop and a free car park .... down by the Lloyds in 1990

Now I am on a roll again with pictures from our most recent past.

And so here is another of Andy Robertson’s taken I think in the early 1990s.

I will leave you to identify the shops which have gone, along with that little piece of history which was Chorlton’s lost car par, which I think was free, contained also a set of public lavatories, and once a very very long time ago had been a set of tennis courts beside the Lloyds.

Picture;  looking out towards Wilbraham Road, circa 1990, from the collection of Andy Robertson

"Back in your arms again"............ reunions in Belleville in the autumn of 1945

I am back in Belleville in the autumn of 1945 with the home coming of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment.

The photographs came into the collection from Mike Dufresne who lives in Kingston, Ontario and kindly allowed me to use them.

When I first came across them I mistakenly assumed that he had taken them which may well have added something like 30 years to his age and so an apology is in order.

Mike was quick to point out that “I want you to know I am not the photographer of these photos and I am informing you of this so that you will not credit me as the photographer as I am the owner only.”

Of all the images this is one of my favourites.

Countless photographers have captured that moment of reunion which more than anything marks the transition from soldier back to civilian, from fighter to father, husband or sweet heart.

And this one does it in an unsentimental matter of fact way.   Under the gaze of the officials who look back at the camera with detached expressions one couple embrace while in the foreground a father catches a few fond words with his daughter.

He is totally absorbed by the conversation with just a slight smile at the pleasure of the reunion, and as if to emphasise the moment his hands settle gently on both his daughter and his wife.

Like all good pictures you want to know more.

According to Mike, “the Reg’t arrived home to Belleville Ontario by train and then the same day moved on to the armories at Belleville.”

But what then happened to the returning soldiers and their families?  Did they return to the routines of a quiet Belleville, make good lives and help build the peace?

These are questions which a historian and indeed any one looking at such photographs should ask.

And in time maybe I will have some answers.

Only yesterday one of new facebook friends told me she came from Bellevile and that here her “older brother and sister have talked about the end of the war and the excitement it caused in town.”

So maybe just maybe as more of these pictures are seen again through the blog and the facebook site Vintage Belleville, Trenton & Quinte Region* something of the stories of the day the regiment came home and of the years afterwards will resurface.  I hope so.

Picture; from the collection of Mike Dufresne.

* Vintage Belleville, Trenton & Quinte Region https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vintage-Belleville-Trenton-Quinte-Region/395830067158776