Four screws, a couple of nails and a gallon of paraffin ....... Beech Road before now

I am looking at a picture of Beech Road from 1979, which I took just three years after I settled here.

Hardware, grapes and melons, 1979

It’s not a remarkable image and that is the point.

To the extreme right just beyond the edge of the photograph was Mr. Henderson’s butcher’s shop while just in view is the hardware store and next to it what had been a Howarth’s greengrocers.

But I rather think that by 1979 Howarth’s has passed into the hands of the plant and flower shop whose main business was located on Wilbraham Road.

Washing, photos and lots more, 1969

Today almost 50 years on butcher’s is a clothes shop and the hardware and green grocers have become a studio and gallery.

Back all those decades ago this stretch of Beech Road was a mix of retail businesses, offering up all the usual stuff, from waxed string and paraffin to sliced Sunblest, potatoes and much more.

The much more included a fabric shop, several bakeries, a launderette, three butcher’s shops as well two offi’s and a barber’s, to which I could add the short-lived Amusement Arcade and Sunflowers.

All of which many will remember with fondness in that time when you still shopped locally and daily because the fridge and freezer revolution had yet to arrive.

Looking back it is easy to fall into the trap of nostalgia, but it’s as well to remember that despite the number of grocery stores, the variety of food on offer was limited, and sometimes perilously close to their sell by dates.

I still recall our local shop in Peckham which was full of tinned food and had a choice of cheese …. white or red while proudly displaying their biscuits in open boxes for all to paw through.

It had the lot, 1979

All perhaps a tad grim, but set against this was that Aladin’s Cave which was the hardware store, where you could buy four screws, a couple of nails and a light bulb taking in that pungent mix of smells which came from the bare floor boards, paraffin and freshly sawn timber.

So, to re-echo an older theme, was it better back then or just different?

Hand written answers on a postcard with a 1d postage stamp of the old Queen affixed in the space indicated.

Location; Beech Road before now

Pictures, numbers 38 & 40 Beech Road, 1979 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and in 1969 from Manchester & Salford Directory, courtesy of Andy Robertson

The bridges of Salford and Manchester ........... nu 4 two for one

Now I am the first to admit the lighting is all wrong and I suspect the composition is iffy but its a picture of a bridge.

Which actually contains two ....... one behind the other and three if you count the  the footbridge.

And that is all I am going to say.

Location Salford

Picture; the river and the bridge, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Stories of the Great War from Eltham and Woolwich ............. nu 1 the milestone on Shooters Hill

An occasional series reflecting on the impact of the Great War.

Now I have to say I never really knew the story of the war memorial outside Christ Church on Shooters Hill.

I will have passed it countless times, but when you are young war memorials scarcely register especially when there is the promise of an unknown adventure in the woods behind.

But reading it now is to be reminded of the terrible loss of life during the Great War.

The inscription is simple and to the point.

What gives the memorial its added significance is that it is part of an older milestone of which I knew nothing.

And for that knowledge I have Tricia Lesley to thank who unearthed a wonderful history of Woolwich which gives a detailed description of the milestone and the war memorial.

“Originally on the other side of the road, having been placed there by the New Cross Turnpike Trust, the eighth milestone out of London on the Old Dover Road was accidentally fractured by a Borough Council steam roller during road repairs in 1903.

The Dartford plate had been totally destroyed in the collision.

It was thrown aside to be broken up but Vicar Wilson, with authority from the Borough Engineer removed the pieces to the church grounds where they were dowelled together and set up near the church door.

When the church war memorial was being discussed, Col. Bagnold, chairman of the parish war memorial committee, suggested fixing on the eastern side of the stone a plate indicating the distance to Ypres, with the addition of figures telling of the casualties incurred in defending the salient.  

The Director-general of the Ordinance Survey was called and arrived at the figure of 130 miles to the cloth Hall, correct to one-tenth of a mile.

The whole memorial was unveiled by Major General Sir Webb Gillman and dedicated by the Rector of Woolwich in October, 1922."*

All of which leaves me to say I have the book on order, and wish I had the opportunity to repeat the magic adventure in the woods.

Pictures; memorial stone, courtesy of Running Past, @running_past, Shooters Hill, courtesy of Jean Gammons, 1977 and cover of The Woolwich Story 

* The Woolwich Story, 1970, E. F. E. Jefferson.

A happy Christmas from the 1950s

 It's not often you get a Christmas card from the 1950s dropping through the letter box.

But that is what l got today and anyone who regularly read the Eagle comic will recognise the rocket ship and the names Digby and the Meakon.

At which point l shall not say any more about the two or the Christmas decorated ship hurtling through space.

Instead l will just confess that the card was no time travelling bit of Christmas cheer, instead it came from The Eagle Society that society of like minded happy bunch dedicated to keeping the memory of the Eagle alive.*

And ofcourse l have been one of those happy members for four decades and an "Eagler" since 1957.

Pictures; Christmas Card from the Eagle Society, 2024, and Operation Silence from the Eagle Annual, 1956.

*The Eagle Society; https://eagle-times.blogspot.com/

Two parks .....a recreation ground ..... the stolen village green ..... and the Mersey Valley ... now that's our new book

 The story of Chorlton’s open spaces has yet to be told, and with that story will come heaps of memories.

Alexandra Park, 1937

And prompted by those two thoughts, Peter and I have embarked on the our next book which will explore the stories of all our open spaces from the Rec on Beech Road, to Chorlton Park, Alexandra Park and that large open piece of land out by the Mersey.

Chorlton Park, circa 1930s

Along the way we will take in Chorlton Green which was stolen by Sam Wilton sometime in the early 19th century, and only returned to the village after the death of his last daughter in the 1890s..

Added to this we will include a chapter on the bowling greens as well as the fields and market gardens when Chorlton was still a rural community.

We are particulary pleased that my old friend David Bishop has agreed to write the chapter on the Meadows.  

The Meadows, 2019

David is a well known botanist who regularly is asked to speak on a range of topics related to his work and recently addressed an American University.  

He was in at the beginning of the project to turn the neglected area of land by the river into the Mersey Valley, and in fact started exploring the area soon after the sewage works had closed down in the 1970s.

There will be those who question the inclusion of Alexandra Park, but both our families have used the facility over the years, and I bet lots of Chorlton people also have fond memories, so it’s in the book.

Nor will we stop there because we could also include people's gardens, providing of course they would be happy to show them off, once a year when Chorlton proud gardeners open their gardens to the public.

The Meadows, 1979

And that just brings me to the request because there will be lots of people with their own stories, and pictures which we would like to include., and of course those gardens. 

These can be sent as a comment to the blog, or to the Facebook sites, Chorlton History, and Glad to be in Chorlton, or by phone to me on 0161 861 0105.

So to start you all off.  There was a barrage balloon of the Recreational Ground, Chorlton Green once had a drinking fountain, The Meadows regularly hosted winter skating and Chorlton Park was built with a civic theatre.

The lost drinking fountain, Chorlton Green, circa 1900

Location; Chorlton and a few bits beyond

Picture; Sunday in Alexandra Park, 1937, from Manchester, heart of the Industrial North, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, 1937, Chorlton Park circa 1930s, and the lost water fountain on Chorlton Green, circa 1900, the Lloyd Collection, and the Meadows in 2019, and 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Eltham we have lost, part 2........ The old lane by the National Schools, 1908

Another of those pictures of Eltham’s past which need no comment

This is the old lane by the National Schools as it was in 1908.  The lane is now Archery Road and 'One acre Allotments' was on the right.









Picture; the old lane,  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

Christmas from the Western Front .......

Christmas is supposed to be the season of goodwill but war has a habit of twisting the message.

This Christmas card was sent by my uncle to my father on December 12th 1918. The Great War had ended just a month before and uncle Fergus and his battalion of the Black Watch were in Cologne, relieved no doubt that the fighting was over.

On that Thursday in December he wrote that “Cologne was a lovely city with some fine cinemas” but they were prohibited from fraternizing with the civilians which for a young man of just 21 was a bit of a bore given the attractive young women he came across.

But duty was never far away and preparations were a foot because “we are crossing the Rhine tomorrow” and there was a determination “to show the rest of the division the way as we proved to be the finest marchers during the trek to Germany.”


Picture; With Best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Victorious New Year, December 1918 from the collection of Andrew Simpson