Walking in the north of the township in to Martledge in the summer of 1847, part one

Barlow Moor Lane, north to Martledge, a journey which will take in some great houses, a shop, farms and a pub as well as cottages of wattle and daub and brick

Barlow Moor Lane is a long road.

Standing at the point where the Row joins Barlow Moor Lane we have a choice, turn north and journey on to Martledge and then out of the township by various routes to Hulme and
Manchester, or south to Hardy Lane and on to the Mersey, Withington and Didsbury.

Martledge is much overlooked in most histories of the township so north it is.

And we will start with the Holt estate again.  Leaving the Row and heading north up Barlow Moor Lane we follow the east wall of the Holts, all the way to Lane End.  Everything on this side of the road dates from after 1908 when the last of the Chorlton Holts died and the estate sold off.

It finished at Lane End.  Directly opposite where today Sandy Lane begins was the grocer’s shop of Jeremiah  Brundrett.  It was a large house at one time known as Lilly Cottage.

The Brundrett’s were there long enough for the spot to become known as Brundrett’s corner  Facing the shop roughly on the site of the church was the home of Caleb and Ann Jordril.   Here was one of the last wattle and daub cottages.

Continuing north along the lane our journey would pass open fields until we reached the edge of Martledge.

Here to our left was Clough Farm and on our right Oak Bank House.

The farm stood roughly between Groby Road and Silverwood Avenue.   In that summer of 1847 it was occupied by Margaret Taylor and it would have been her farm land we would have seen as we walked up Barlow Moor Lane towards her home.

Today all of the land from Silverwood Avenue back towards High Lane and right back to Lane End was rented by her from the Egerton Estate.  There were 10 acres in all and it was a mix of arable, meadow and clover and included part of Scotch Hill.

Margaret was forty-seven.   Hers was no easy life.  To make 10 acres of land work and bring in a living required hard work.

Over and above the big points in the agricultural year of sowing, planting and reaping, there were the constant demands of weeding, chasing off pests and the journeys to the markets in Manchester.

These were tasks usually carried out by the whole family, but during the 1840s, she lost both her parents and two sisters which left her with just her 11 year old nephew.   Now Margaret was not alone in facing such loss, or in bringing up the child of her a relative.

Easing the chronic overcrowding meant that at least one child might be farmed out to relatives and Edward her nephew had been at Clough Farm since he was five and would still be there when he was 15 by which time she had married John Stretch.

From their fields they would have been able to gaze across at Oak Bank, one time home of William Morton and later the Cope family.  Oak Bank was a substantial building standing in its own grounds close to the modern junction of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads.

Nothing now exists of the house but the path leading to it is now Needham Avenue. The house was situated in a garden which covered the area running on either side of Needham Avenue as far as Barlow More Lane in one direction and Corkland Road in the other.

The estate also included a large meadow field and small wood stretching back from Needham along Barlow Moor Lane to Lane End.

It had belonged to William Morton who had been there since 1821, but on death his will stipulated that the house and land had to be sold within five years.  

When this happened is not known but in 1845 a Miss Crofton was there paying rent to the Executors of Mr Morton.  

By 1847 the house and land were in the possession of Frederick Cope who rented both to John.  This was a short term arrangement and by 1850 the Cope family were living at Oak Bank.

William Morton had described himself as a member of the gentry.   Frederick Cope was a wine merchant who ten years earlier had been living with his wife and children on Oxford Street, close to where the University now stands.  Elizabeth had died by 1851.

Adapted from THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

Pictures; map of Barlow Moor Lane, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/  picture of Jeremiah  Brundrett, Wesleyan Handbook, 1908, courtesy of Philip Lloyd, and gravestone of the Morton family in the parish churchyard, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Taking the Parkway …….. out of the city

Now, you will have to be of a certain age to remember that taking the bus out of the city to Wythenshawe meant travelling on the Parkway.

Writing about the new housing estate in 1937, J P Priestly commented that “a novel feature of the scheme is the provision of parkways from 250 to 300ft. in width, only 40ft. of which will be used for vehicular traffic and the remainder being laid out with trees, shrubbery and grass borders, through which footpaths will run”.*

Sadly, only one was actually built, and that now has been transformed in to a soulless and busy motorway, but for those who remember with fondness the Princess Parkway and everyone else who wonders what the attraction was, here is a reminder.

It comes in the form of a painting and while it may seem idealized, I have no doubt that back in 1937, it was as accurate as the other eleven which appeared in the book some of which have already appeared on the blog.

Location; Manchester

Picture; the Parkway from Manchester ...... heart of the Industrial North

*Manchester ...... heart of the Industrial North, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, 1937

Off Greenwich, 1904

This is called Off Greenwich and the original was painted by Professor Van Hier

Location; Greenwich







Picture, Off Greenwich in the series, On the Thames, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Our stories …… and other voyages from the kitchen … part one

I have been thinking about the stories of ourselves which are revealed from what we eat, the food choices we make and that complicated mix of family tradition and the sheer variety of food on offer.

Simplicity ... olives, tomatoes and pasta. 2026

Now there is nothing new in any of that.  

Shepherds' pie with out the Shepherd, 2026

It is an obvious observation that we are what we eat and what we eat is conditioned on what we were given as children, as well as on income, availability and the power of consumerism to lead us into new eating habits and new foods.

All of which was reignited by a blog from my old friend Lois, and the account of her Aunty Audrey’s Curry of Mixed Vegetables. *

It is a beautiful blend of family history, people she loved and how we ate seventy years ago, and in particular that Curry of Mixed Vegetables.  

The recipe will date from the late 1950s or early 1960s and may indeed owe its origins to a time further back.

As Lois remarks “If you do feel tempted to try it, you may need to update it – vegetable oil instead of lard, and for example there is a lot of liquid in the preparation of the vegetables.”

And I guess it is a recipe of its time with the reliance on lard, the boiling of the vegetables and fruit in the curry.

My mother made her own curry which was also heavy on fruit and may have had a passing nod to that very 1960s boil in the bag Vesta Curry.

Spicey lentils, peas and tomatoes, 2026

At which point someone will leap in with a heap of authentic curry dishes piled high with fruit, and certainly I remember those amazing cold salads from the Ceylon Tea Centre which included curried rice, and fruit. **

If like me, you were born in the first half of the last century lard will have walked with you at many meals as did that byproduct of the Sunday roast which was beef dripping.  

Collected at the end of the meal, stored in a large pudding bowl and used as a spread on bread.

I remember it well and the bit I liked best was the brown liquid bit at the bottom of the bowl which offered up a powerful salt hit.

As an instant snack it has probably been around for centuries but was very popular during both world wars when food shortages and rationing meant you made the most of what you had.

And given that both of my parents were born in the early decades of the twentieth century beef dripping would have been a natural part of their diet.

Making salad, 2024

They will also have experienced new foods made or grown in far flung parts of the British Empire and conveyed first in those fast “tea clippers” and later in refrigerated ships.

So, while “the Hungry Thirties” and wartime rationing limited choice and quantity the explosion of 1950s consumerism brought new foods which just kept coming as technology and changing fashions in food drove what we thought we wanted to eat.

I was in my early twenties when I first had pizza, olives, and sweet corn and it was not till then that I regularly visited restaurants nor will I be alone in that.  

Eating out in southeast London as a child was confined to the occasional toasted fruit bun at a Lyon’s Corner House.

We didn’t even have a chippy take away, with mother and grand mother sniffily observing “why pay someone else to make something that I can cook at home”.

Pizza, 2025

And as I pass my 77th birthday I have slid into the same world, telling Lois my incomprehension with people walking up Beech Road with cups of coffee from local shops which they then consume at home, albeit a tad colder than if they had made the espresso or fancy coffee indoors.

Making pesto, 2026

But I am not a King Cnut holding back the food experiences of the world. 

Our family is spread out across Europe and Canada and with that come new dishes which I have embraced along with those from holiday destinations in southern Italy and the Greek islands.

Once mastered the adventure is to play with them always remembering that dishes through history have always been adapted because of seasonal variations, availability of ingredients and the whims of the cook in the kitchen

All of which will come together with Christmas which in our family will see bits of Italian, Polish and German festive food mixed with the folk memories of what mum and dad brought to the table which in turn owed much to their families stretching back across Scotland to the east Highlands, the east and west Midlands and to Cologne Warsaw and Naples.

Pesto, potato, green beans and pasta, 2026

And running through all of it will be that simple guide, which is “keep it simple, where possible cook from scratch, err on the side seasonal stuff using up left overs and just make it fun".

Which led me to recreate a pot of orange curd made using a recipe from 1948, when food was still rationed.

Orange curd from a 1948 recipe, 2026

It was a sheer bit of sheer silliness driven on with a curiosity.  Given rationing I was surprised at the amount of sugar which was required.  Needless to say in deference to my teeth I scaled back on the amount of sugar and turned out something which looked good, tasted ok although the jury is out on whether I would attempt to make it again for family and friends.

But then it was made from scratch over the kitchen cooker and was fun to do with the added interest that it might well have been something mum made for me.

And that is it, leaving me just to thank Lois for her Aunty Audrey’s Curry and a pause to think about what to make tonight.

As ever we shall see.

Location; the kitchen

Pictures, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Aunty Audrey’s Curry of Mixed Vegetables, https://loiselsden.com/2026/10/25/aunty-audreys-curry-of-mixed-vegetables/

** Ceylon Tea Centre, St Peter’s Square, Manchester, and London, circa 1970s

A little bit of Manchester in Holland, and another bit in a garden in Chorlton-cum-Hardy

I am looking at a picture of the Manchester Assize Courts which I have added to the collection.

It was donated by my old friend David Harrop, who is a collector of all things posty.

The Courts were designed by Alfred Waterhouse and finished in 1864.

Sadly, this magnificent building did not last a century and after being hit during the blitz of December 1940 and again in ’41 it was demolished in 1957.

Some of the exterior sculptures were designed by Thomas Woolner who was one of the founding members of the Pre Raphaelite-Brotherhood, and others was the were of the Irish stonemason firm of O’Shea and Whelan.

But more of them in a minute.

For now, it is the postcard itself which interests me, and in particular the message on the back, which is in Dutch and begins, “Congratulations on your birthday We have a pleasant one ………….”

And here I have to credit Google translate, which over the years has allowed me to appear semi proficient in a host of languages.  And what makes the card that bit more interesting is that it appears to have been produced for the Dutch market, given that the printed word postcard is also in Dutch.

Not that I should be surprised at that.  F. Firth, like Raphael Tuck and other companies marketed their postcards across Europe and beyond.

But I like the idea of a little bit  of Manchester somewhere in Holland, and …………. with a smile at the contrived link that follows, I like the fact that for many years one of the stone figures from the Manchester Assize Court adorned a garden in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

The garden was part of Park Brow Farm at the bottom of Sandy Lane where it joins St Werburghs Road.

My friend Tony Walker maintained that it came from the old Manchester Assize Courts on Great Ducie Street in Strangeways and looking at pictures of the building the figures do look the same.

And it has led me to more than a few stories about the farm, the Assize Courts and just what people put in to their gardens. *

Location; Manchester, Amsterdam, and Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; The Assize Courts, 1898, from the collection of David Harrop, and stone figure in the garden of Park Brow Farm, 1988 from the collection of Tony Walker


*One stone statue ........ late of Park Brow Farm and the Assize Courts .......... makes its way into Cheshire and on “down south”, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2016/06/one-stone-statue-late-of-park-brow-farm.html

Relics …….

In this age of the wireless, the internet, and streaming from multiple platforms, it’s worth remembering that once upon a time we relied on just two terrestrial television channels delivering a limited choice of programmes.

Rooftops in the olden days, Reeves Road, 1979

And the visible testimony of all that was the forest of rooftop TV aerials that clung to the side of chimneys.

Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton 2022

Now there are still plenty still pointing skywards but many will now be relics, replaced first by cable and now satellite dishes.

We have had both and can count three dishes over the last two decades, the last of which delivered multiple channels with live music, drama, news broadcasts and current affairs documentaries from Italy.

All of which meant that our three aerials have not been pressed into service for years.  Each was added to as the others failed and two years ago the last gave up the ghost.

They remain on the roof and are as much a relic of the recent past as the telephone box many of which still adorn street corners but long ago lost their duty to communicate with the world.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Rooftops in the olden days, Reeves Road, 1979, and Relics, Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton 2022

Sunset, Greenwich, 1904

The third of four picture postcards of Greenwich.

Sunset, Greenwich by Professor Van Hier

Picture, Sunset, Greenwich, in the series, On the Thames, issued by Tuck & Sons, 1904, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/