Celebrating all things history ….. today at Central Ref

Today was one of those history days in Manchester when the Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society hosted a heap of organizations and individuals all of whom are engaged in making our city’s past more accessible.*

The Lord Mayor & Liverpool and South West Family History Society, 2026 

There were individuals like David Harrop who is a “Postal and Military Historian", representatives from the Greater Manchester Museum of Transport,  Elizabeth Gaskell House, Northwest Film Archive, Manchester Archives, and plenty more, added to which there were a series of talks from the Manchester & Lancashire Family, and the Lancashire Archives History Society.

And along the way I bumped into some old pals, as well as making new acquaintances and discovering a load of regional new historical societies including the Liverpool and South West Family History Society.

Meeting and swapping history stories, 2026

David Harrop, 2026

So, a good day, made better by the appearance of our own Lord Mayor, Cllr Carmine Grimshaw who made his way round the events much to everyone’s pleasure and resisted the temptation to advertise his book of poems, which is available from the book shop in Central Ref for a donation to the Lord Mayor’s charity.**

Now I say he resisted the temptation, but I couldn’t having heard him recite one at Chorlton Arts Festival last year,

Location; Central Ref

Pictures; the Family History Fair March 26th, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson 

Martin Logan and bus ticket machine, 1900

Selection of ticket machines, 1900-1960s

Elizabeth Gaskell House, 2026

The Lord Mayor sharing stories, 2026

* Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society, mlfhs.uk

**Lord Mayor’s Rattlebag of Poems, Cllr. Carmine Grimshaw, Lord Mayor of Manchester 2025-26

And to ensure I don't short change anyone, here is the full list of attendees, Anglo-Scottish FHA (MLFHS stand), Archives+Belle Vue Circus Clown Artist, Pamela Armstrong, Elizabeth Gaskell House, Family and Community Historical Research Society, David Harrop, Postal and Military Historian, Dean Kirby, Local historian - Angel Meadow and Research, Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Society, Lancashire Records Office, Liverpool & South West Lancs Family History Society, Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society (MLFHS), Manchester Helpdesk (MLFHS), Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Society, Manchester Statistical Society, Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester, North West Film Archive, Oldham & District FHS,  (MLFHS stand), Police Scam Squad, Salford Cemeteries Trust, Swinton & Pendlebury Historical Society, Tameside Local History Centre, Victoria Baths

The Lost Chorlton pictures ......... before the trend

This is Beech Road as it was just forty years ago.

Where today there is a studio, a gallery, and a clothes shop, there was a flower shop which offered a selection of fruit and veg as a side line, an old fashioned hardware store and Dave the Butcher.

Now if you are of a certain age the smell of a hardware shop is a powerful reminder of how we once did things.

The floor was invariably always the bare timbers, and there was that pungent smell of paraffin, and waxed string.

You could buy anything from a small nut and bolt, to sheets of brown wrapping paper and sealing wax.

And had I been on Beech Road a full decade earlier I could have asked Mr Heger, the relative merits of pink paraffin, and just how many nails I would need to fasten down a lose floor board.

That said back then we did have our own photographic shop which traded from what is now Pottery Corner.

So some things haven’t changed.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Beech Road, 1979 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The lost Eltham & Woolwich pictures ...... no. 39 ..... a day in the summer of 1978 at the Pleasaunce

It will have been a day in August and having aimlessly wandered around Well Hall with a camera I washed up at the Pleasaunce.

Like so many people from Eltham, the Barn and the gardens are a special place.

It is that mix of history, the moat, and the walks around the flowerbeds and away into the secluded areas.

As a youngster I never tired of the place and later I would make a special trip to whatever exhibition was being staged upstairs.

And then I moved away and the visits were limited to summer holidays and it would have been on one of these that I took the photograph.

For four decades it was one of the pictures I took of Eltham and Woolwich in the mid ‘70’s which sat undisturbed in our cellar.

But all good things eventually come to light.

They were colour slides which have been transferred electronically.

The quality of the original lighting and the sharpness is sometimes iffy, but they are a record of a lost Eltham and Woolwich.

Although in the case of the Pleasuance looking at recent pictures taken by others not much has changed.

And that is reassuring.

Location; Eltham

Picture; Eltham, circa 1978, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

At Manchester Airport with Les Entremets et Canapes

Now I first flew in 1982 and I have to admit I was 33 which these days is I guess quite old.

But my dad was in his mid 60s and my mum and three of my sisters never took to the air.

So by the time I walked through the doors of Manchester airport it had become a big place and today is even bigger.

I was reminded of all of this when I came across a menu for the restaurant at the airport which I think dates from either the late 1950s or early 1960s.

And right away we are in a different era, for the whole thing is in French with of course an English translation. So the Les Entremets et Canapes [sweets and savouries] consisted of 21 dishes including Parfait Ringway [Vanilla and Strawberry Ice, Cherries, Chopped Nuts, Fruit salad], Campe aux Sardines [Sardines on toast] both at 3s 6d.

There was a Guide to Culinary terms and that invitation to elegant dining with the food “cooked beside your table” which included Tournedos Ringway at 10s 6d, Poulec a la Broche at 21s and Steak Tartar for 12s 0d

There was “VIN EN CARAFE, Rouge [red] at 10s 6d, or 5s 6d and Blanc, [white] for 10s 6d or 5s 6d”

Now I am fascinated by the firm who did the catering.  This was The House of Smallmans who were based in Rushholme and in 1962 at Heald Green, and will be worth a little research.

But in the mean time I shall close with some other images of the airport in the 1950s  ranging from the restaurant to the departure lounge.

Pictures; menu cover, courtesy of Jan Crowe, and airport pictures, Manchester Restaurant, m6219, and Manchester Lunge at Passenger Check in, m62618, 1953, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

Brand new Manchester ……….. replacing the hole in the ground …. 1960

Now I always like to dig deep, trawling the historic records to support a picture.

But this time I rather think I will just leave it at the image, and instead let everyone going looking for what they want.

It is 1960, and the new look Manchester is about to rise from the ground in front of the bus depot.

Nine years later I would sit in the Milk Bar in that parade of shops opposite the buses, enjoy the view from the restaurant of the Hotel Piccadilly, and look at the three buildings that occupied the site while walking through the old gardens.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Brand new Manchester, 1960, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk 

Magic nights in Well Hall

I can picture the poster now.

It featured a guitar and a set of unlaced boots, was finely drawn in black ink resting on a white background, and advertised a folk and blues night at Well Hall Peasaunce.

Its design and the event perfectly appealed to a 16 year old and it ended up on the wall behind my bed and stayed there  long after I had left Well Hall Road.

As for the concert it was all the poster promised and while I have long ago forgotten the names of the artists the evening has stayed with me.  It was one of those memorable nights which began with the setting.

To the right of the stage was the southern side of the Tudor Barn with the moat running alongside it and to the left were the gardens with the railway station beyond.

And as the dusk turned into night the odd break in the performance was filled by the sound of trains passing through Eltham and the noise of cars coming down Well Hall Road.

I remember the concert being full and while I did go to a few more  nothing compared with that one.

And that got me reflecting on what makes a perfect memory.

We all have them bits of our past however trivial which stick with us and bring back home.

Going back even further and before we even moved into Well Hall Road I can still remember laying in bed and watching the night sky lit by the blue flash of what must have been a train at Queens Road Station.

I say that but the blue flash may have been caused by something entirely different but it remains with me even now.

As does the day sometime in 1964 when on a first adventure into Woolwich I discovered by sheer chance the ferry and like so many others before and since it caught my imagination.

Now there is nothing unusual in any of these memories.  Since I first posted a story about the concerts in the Pleasaunce others have told me of their magical nights on those hard metal seats listening to the music by the Barn.

And in the same way the Ferry remains one of those bits of so many people's past along beside the market stalls, a traffic filled Powis Street and of course trips to Hind’s in the High Street.

Not that this is not  just another bit of nostalgic tosh but an appeal for those memories, with if possible a picture and better still a story, like the one from my friend Jean on a tram heading home to Eltham with a live eel bought by her grandmother on the market.

And these memories however episodic and disjointed are all part of our history.  Put them together and you have a set of stories to tell your grandchildren.

Location, Eltham & Woolwich, London

Picture; Tudor Barn, Well Hall courtesy of Scott MacDonald, 2013 and the floral display 2014, from the collection of Chrissy Rose

The Lost Chorlton pictures ......... no1. ..... out across the fields

Now some will already have picked up on the  series, The lost Manchester Collection, and the story behind how the pictures came to light.*

And this is the off shoot, being an occasional series from The lost and forgotten pictures of Chorlton.

It will have been taken around 1979 and strictly speaking isn't in Chorlton.

For those who want to know, it was taken in front of the weir built in the 18th century to break flood water from crashing into the viaduct of the Duke's Canal.

The spire is the chapel at the local cemetery beside Hawthorn Lane.

The lane  originally ran as far as St Mathew's Church.

Location; Chorlton and Stretord

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 1979

*The lost Manchester Collection, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20lost%20Manchester%20Collection