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 oregularly 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 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 east Highlands, the east and west Midlands and to Cologne 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

t 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/

On St Johns Street with a story that crosses continents

Now the way a story comes to light can be as fascinating and revealing as the actual story. 

St John Street showing the home of the Painter family, 2008

So it was when Julie picked up on a post about St Johns Street with the comment that “My great grandfather was David Arthur Keneally. I think it was actually 19 he lived at.” 

And that was how it began.

St John Street dates back to the late 18th century and remains a street of elegant houses which by the late 19th century had become the consulting rooms of fashionable doctors, surgeons and eye specialists.

A few were residents but most lived elsewhere.

Their rooms were on the ground floor and the remaining parts of the houses were let out to a mix of tenants who made their living from a range of occupations from service industries to clerical and industrial enterprises and quite a few working for the nearby railway companies.

There was even a blacksmith and a policeman, which is where our story begins.

Police Constable, Kenally, date unknown

This is Mr Keneally.

I don’t have a date for the picture but given that he joined the Manchester Police Force in the October of 1895 and he has two stripes I would have put the date sometime into the early 20th century.

Those service records also show that he was born in Cape Town in 1868 and had been in the Cheshire Regiment.

And that is a good starting point because although I can’t find any reference to him before 1891 I do know that in the April of that year he was in Salford Barracks on Regent Road.

The army seems to have been a natural career choice given that he was born in King William’s Town and that his father was in the 99th Foot Regiment which served in South Africa from 1865 till 1868 and again in 1878.

All of which explains why he appears to be missing from the records.

Looking down St Johns Street, circa 1900

But those records do throw up a few odd hiccups.  So while his birth was registered as 1866 his police records have him born in 1868 and those same police records describe him as single, when he had married the year before.

The marriage took place in St John’s Church on January 24 and the parish record  is a revealing document.

Mr Keneally was living at number 19 St Johns Street and gave his occupation as "musician" and that of his father as a clerk, while his bride was living two doors down the road at number 23.

She was Mary Ann Cross who was from Ireland and her father is given as James Painter and that of course puzzled me.  But according to Julie Mary Ann’s mother had remarried on the death of her father. “Sarah Myles married William Cross (he was in the Kerry Militia) and they had Marianne (Mary Anne / Marion?).  

Mary Ann Painter gets a present, 1885

William Cross died and Sarah married James Painter who was in the British Army and she came back to England with him.”

And that made the connection with St Johns Street because in 1891 Mr Painter was the caretaker in the Royal Eye Hospital which was situated at number 24, and there too was Mary Ann described as "house keeper.”

Mary Ann appears to have adopted her step father's surname by 1885 when she received a gift from her work colleagues, but gave her name at the wedding as Cross.

Now that will help in the search for her story.

In the meantime the romantic in me likes the idea of David and Mary Ann seeing each other regularly on the street and discovering that they were attracted to each other.

After their marriage they stayed on St Johns Street where they still were in 1901 living at number 23.  By then they had a son and employed young Minnie Day as a servant.

A decade later and they had swapped the imposing house on St Johns Street for the more modest 41 Carleton Street in Rusholme which was a a 4 roomed property close to Claremont Road.

Mr and Mrs Painter with John and Percy circa 1907

And what I like is that both homes are still standing.

There will be lots more research to do.

I know that Mr Keneally died in 1921 and Mrs Keneally in 1937 and  both were buried together in Southern Cemetery, but for now that is enough.

And this was pretty much the end of the story but then having discovered that Mr and Mrs Keneally were buried in Southern Cemetery I asked my friend David to visit the rave and take a picture.

Headstone of Mr and Mrs Keanlly

They were interred block U and it is fitting I think to close the story with his picture of their headstone.

Location; Manchester

Additional research Julie Smith



Pictures; St John Street in 2008 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, St John Street circa 1900, m04502, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  the headstone of Mr and Mrs Keneally 2016 from the collection of David Harrop, and family images from the collection of Julie Smith

Picking up the packet boat from Stretford and then post haste to Castlefield on the Duke’s Canal

Now I often write about living in the township in the mid 19th century and I reckon if I had wanted to travel into Manchester it would have been by water.

The price of a package ticket

So if I could have afforded it I would have chosen one of the twice daily package boats from Stretford along the canal which transported passengers in comfort and speed.

A ticket for the front room cost 6d [2½p] and the back room 4d [1½p].*

This was travelling in style.   These packet boats were fitted with large deck cabins surrounded by windows which allowed the passengers to sit “under cover and see the country” glide by at the rate of six miles an hour, made possible by  two or sometimes three horses which pulled the packet.  And if that was not style enough the lead horse was guided by a horseman in full company livery.**

Cornbrook south towards Stretford

It was a pleasant enough journey for most of the route was still across open farm land and it was not till Cornbrook that the landscape became more industrial.

From here on there was no mistaking that the final destination was that busy, smoky and energetic city.

The chemical and dye works of Cornbrook gave way to saw mills, a textile factory, paper mill and all manner of wharves and ware houses before the packet arrived in the heart of Castlefield.

But we all know that I wouldn’t have been in the money and so there would have been no fast packet boat for me and no walk out of the village along the old road to Stretford, instead it would have been a longer and slower tramp, north through Martledge.  But that is another story for another time.

Pictures; Packet boat charges from Pigot and Slater’s Directory of Manchester and Salford 1841, and detail of the Cornbrook stretch of the Duke’s canal from the OS map of Lancashire, 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*This was beyond what most of our residents could afford.  A domestic servant might earn 2s 9d [13½] while that of a labourer was 13s.6d [57½p].

**Slugg, T.J., Reminiscences of Manchester, J.E.Cornish, Manchester 1881

Sunrise Greenwich, 1904

The second of four picture postcards of Greenwich.

Sunrise, Greenwich by Professor Van Hier

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