Take four ingredients …. and explore a bit of history

Pesto made from just basil, nuts, garlic and cheese has become one of those all-time sauces, which turns up on pasta, in sandwiches, wraps, pizza, and a variety of other dishes.

So much so that in some restaurants it litters the menu and walks with starters, mains, and nibbles.

Not that I have any objections, it is simple to make and can lift many meals from bland to supreme.

My Wikipedia tells me that it is "also known as pesto Genovese, traditionally made with leaves of Genovese basil, extra virgin olive oil, parmesan or Grana Padano, Pecorino sardo, pine nuts, and garlic. 

It originated in the Ligurian city of Genoa and is used to dress pasta". 

Added to which "it is thought to have had two predecessors in ancient times, going back as far as the Roman age. 

The ancient Romans used to eat a similar paste called moretum, which was made by crushing garlic, salt, cheese, herbs, olive oil, and vinegar and sometimes pine nuts. together. 

During the Middle Ages, a popular sauce in the Genoan cuisine was agliata, which was a mash of garlic and walnuts".

Surprisingly the use of the basil leaves only dates from the 1850s and while I do stick to the basic four ingredients, our Saul often uses walnuts instead of pine nuts, and I am equally partial to tomato pesto which uses either sun-dried tomatoes or small roasted ones.

And of course, like so many old dishes it will vary across time, space, and just the preferences of a cook along with the availability of the ingredients.

Which I suppose means it could be sloppy and incorrect to refer to a tomato pesto  as pesto but then the word derives in Italian and Latin from the word to pound or crush which in an earlier age was the way to make the sauce.

Ah I hear Eric mutter that “is still the correct way, so banish that blender”, but I am lazy.

And that really is it.

Leaving me just to admit that today having made a mash of potatoes, carrots and avocado I threw in a bit of pesto just to see what it would be like

Location; our kitchen

Pictures, the finished pesto, that masterly mix of pasta, potatoes, green beans and pesto, and a shamefaced use of pesto in a dollop of veg mash, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Pesto, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesto

Catching the 81X from Barlow Moor Road in the summer of 1961

At the bus terminus, July 1961

We are at the bus station on Barlow Moor Road in the summer of 1961, and in front of us is the 81X which ran from Southern Cemetery to Hightown via Albert Square.

Now I can be fairly certain of that because beside me I have the Corporation Maps of Manchester and District for 1963.

With the 81X

Of course there is just the outside possibility that the route of the 81 had changed during the time the picture was taken and the map with its bus routes was published.

And I have no doubt that someone will point out that the 81X had a slightly different route to the 81 but until then I shall continue to assume that our bus followed the 1963 route travelling along Barlow Moor Road, Manchester Road and Upper Chorlton Road into town.

At which point I might just be accused of being a little obsessed by a Manchester bus in the 1960s.

But not so for the picture and the bus map offer up a rich source of history.

It starts with the bus livery which is the red of Manchester Corporation and is a reminder that back then both the cities of Manchester and Salford and the surrounding local authorities ran their own public transport services.

Bus routes through Chorlton in 1963

So on reaching town our passengers could be confronted with the blue and cream buses of Ashton-under-Lyne, the green of Salford, and the green of the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board along with the maroon and cream colours of Oldham.

What is more these different Corporation buses ran along the same roads and for some way at least shared similar routes.

And like that bus timetable there is much history in the picture.

A lost scene

Those telephone kiosks may have lingered on into the end of the century but most have now gone as have the old style bus sign with its Manchester logo.

That said the small police station has yet to be built and there is a clear view across to the houses on Beech Road which in turn points to the absence of those first two houses on the even side of Beech Road.

So not perhaps a story that encompasses the great dramatic sweep of history but one that lots of people will relate to, and that is good enough for me.

And within a few hours of posting the story, Steven commented

" Lovely! The X usually suggests a shorter route than normal.

 In 1960 the 81 only ran to Albert Square so the extension beyond must have been quite recent. I suspect the bus terminating at Hightown is the reason for the X as the whole route went to Crumpsall Green."

And a late correction to the story Annette Roberts has written in that "the police station was there when I lived in Claude Road from the 1950s. 

My dad was a police constable based for a while at the station and the first few houses on Beech Road behind the station were police houses. 

I used to play with the children who lived there. The station had an air raid siren on the roof which they used to test once in a while. 

Think the picture is N awkward angle as the station would definitely be there in 1961 as I used to go there."

So another piece of collective history.  I just love it.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Pictures; Chorlton-cum-Hardy bus terminus, 1961 from the collection of Sally Dervan  and Maps of Manchester and District, Manchester Corporation, 1963, courtesy of David O’Reilly 


*Manchester Buses, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20Buses

Wishing you well ........... postcards from Woolwich, Greenwich and Eltham for the summer ..... nu 4 The Royal Observatory

A short series with few words looking at the postcards we sent from Woolwich, Greenwich and Eltham.

Now as a kid I often took myself off to  Greenwich Park which for a 10 year old was full of adventures.  For a start there was that long walk up through the big ornate gates from the Heath and watching as that statue of General Wolfe got closer and closer.

And then as you reached its base, there below the summit was the Thames, the naval buildings and the museum.

I have to say the observatory played a minor role in the set of adventures that might take us off to the right hiding behind trees or just rolling down that slope.

Location; the Royal Observatory

Picture; the Royal Observatory  circa 1905, Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/

Selling flowers ........ By St Ann’s Church sometime around 1904

Now I fell on this picture postcard of the flower seller by St Ann’s Square fully intending to write about a century of selling flowers at this spot.

The post card is from a series dated to 1902, so here we seemed to have over a hundred years of continuity.

But by one of those twists of historical research my facebook friend JBS came up with one for 1898 and in the way of these things I bet someone was selling flowers from this pitch even earlier in that century.

That said it is just possible that the painting is earlier than 1902 and might have been made in the last decade of the 19th century, but I would be guessing so I shall just leave you with the observation that it is a nice picture.

And that was the end of the story until John left a comment which just needed to be added to the story, more so because back in the late 1970s, I too took a series of pictures, which I think will include him.

"Lovely to see this picture. It depicts my family's flower stall. My great-great grandfather first started selling flowers on this spot in June 1895. 

It may have been earlier, but this is the first recorded payment of rent for the spot to the church. He sold flowers from boxes at first and the stall arrived a little later. 

The business passed down through my great-grandfather, my grandfather and great aunt, my father and finally myself. I ceased trading in 2008 to follow another path. The business was still viable but not what is t was in the city centre's busier decades from the 60's to the 00's.

I donated the stall to the church for their future rental and it was subsequently leased by others for a while. I'm not sure if it is currently occupied as I rarely visit the city centre nowadays. 

I hope it is, I've a lifetime of memories".

So there you are ...... the story continues.

Picture; St Ann’s Church  from the series Manchester, marketed by Tuck & Sons, 1904, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/, and The flower stall, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Shakespeare and Manchester …. the exhibition which became the book ...

Earlier this year I met Ian Nickson who talked me through his story of how seven personalities transformed Manchester into a global centre of Shakespearean theatre in the Victorian era and revealed present-day evidence of the city’s innovative engagement with the works of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Window, 2025 

These seven people operated in diverse fields - business, religion, theatre, architecture, academia, politics - but were united by their appreciation of Shakespeare’s cultural value and, as if imitating the seven bees atop Manchester’s coat of arms, they collaborated to create an urban, libertarian, distinctively Mancunian interpretation of Shakespeare’s works.

Mr. Shakespeare at the Theatre Royal, 2024

And I was lucky enough to accompany Ian on a guided tour of his exhibition of that story at Central Ref.

It presented traces of Manchester’s Victorian influence that can still be found today – the portrait of Ira Aldridge in Manchester Art Gallery, the Shakespeare Window in the entrance of the Central Library, and the Shakespearean Garden in Platt Fields Park.

One aim of this exhibition is to raise awareness of the benefits to mental and physical health conferred by the Shakespearean Garden and to obtain funding for a full-time gardener who can secure the future of the garden for the benefit of the citizens of Manchester.

And now we have the book which as the publisher’s notes record is “an engagingly written book providing the first comprehensive explanation of Manchester's innovative and enduring contributions to the development of Shakespearean theatre in the nineteenth century. 

The book, 2026

Beyond repairing this gap in theatre history, it documents Manchester's collective adoption of Shakespeare's works as a means of providing moral guidance to the world's first industrial city and of achieving political change through non-violent means.

This account of Manchester's reciprocal engagement with Shakespeare, situated within Victorian cultural, social, political and economic trends, is told through the careers of seven people - John Knowles, George Dawson, Charles Calvert, Henry Irving, Alfred Darbyshire, Bishop James Fraser and Rosa Grindon.

Both a theatrical and a cultural history, it examines the makers of an urban, libertarian, Mancunian Shakespeare using hitherto unexplored primary sources, principally a rich trove of digitised newspapers”.

So there you have it.  Ian’s book was published on September 22nd by Manchester University Press published and is entitled Shakespeare and Manchester: A Victorian Powerhouse.

Ira Aldridge, 1826

More details are available at https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526193186/ [manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk]

The Mural of  Rosa Grindon, 2026

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Mr. Shakespeare at the Theatre Royal, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson; the Shakespeare Window, 2025 and image from the exhibition  courtesy of Ian Nickson, Ira Aldridge, 1826 painted by James Northcote, Manchester Art Gallery Accession number 1882.2, and The Mural of  Rosa Grindon Facing Platt Fields Due To Her Part In The Creation Of The Shakesperian Garden, 2026, from the collection of C. Roman

In praise of a great city ........ Manchester in 1937

Now, you can just look at these wonderful paintings of a lost Manchester, admiring the colour and verve of what you see, followed by charting how different the individual scenes are today.

The Royal Exchange, 1937

But, that would be to ignore the accompanying text by J. B. Priestly which is not only a powerful homage to the City but is a fascinating piece of historic writing.

The paintings and text are taken from Manchester ...... heart of the Industrial North, published by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, in 1937,* when Britain was emerging from the Great Depression which for many, was “that low dishonest decade”** of mass unemployment dire poverty and the Means Test.

And while the south was prospering, great chunks of the North, were still struggling, and so hence this book which shouts the energy, drive and civic pride of Manchester and by extension Salford and the surrounding towns.

“I believe in Manchester because what really matters in the end is character, and Manchester has the right sort of character.  Its history proves that in two very different ways.

First Manchester has not only always faced adversity with courage, but has always contrived to assert itself triumphantly at what would appear to be the worst possible moment.  It is a mistake to imagine that the cotton trade, of which Manchester is the centre, has flourished without interruption until the recent slump. 

King Street, 1937

During the American Civil War when the Southern States were blockaded, there was a cotton famine, and there have been periodic slumps since then.  Manchester’s answer to them has been to build its Ship Canal, triumphantly to organise its Jubilee Exhibition, to complete its impressive Royal Exchange during the difficult years of the Great War, and during the present slump to build a fine new Reference Library and to extend its Town Hall.  

No defeatism there.  

In the second place, the character of Manchester is shown in the influence that it has had on English public life, social, educational and artistic affairs.

I should estimate this influence as being equal to that of any other three English provincial cities put together.

When I was a boy living in Bradford, a city that shares some of the characteristics of Manchester, we thought of Manchester as we did of London.  And why not?  Manchester has the best newspaper, the best symphony orchestra and the best theatre in England.  

The Ship Canal

We know that the geographical position of this city is a magnificent one for it lies in the centre of a vast spider’s web of roads and railways, and canals, and has an outlet to the sea and really lies at the very hub and heart of a colossal straggling city that includes all the densely populated regions of South Lancashire and West Riding, and it has ample supplies of good water and coal and iron and power.

This is good, but character is better.  

Perhaps the secret of the Manchester character is that it is nine- tenths hard northern grit, solid Lancashire bone and muscle and brain, plus a remaining tenth, acting as a leaven, of liberal-minded and enterprising foreign influence, a contribution from Europe.  

You are not compelled to accept my analysis, but the smallest research will convince you that I am not wrong, in my estimate of the character of these people.  

Go and talk to them, and you, too, will believe in Manchester”.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; the Royal Exchange, King Street, and the Ship Canal, 1937 from Manchester ...... heart of the Industrial North

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

**September 1st 1939, W.H. Auden

Planning an adventure across Peckham in the summer of 1960

Now I say Peckham, but the chances are that in the summer of 1960 it could have been anywhere, from Nunhead and on to Dulwich, or via Deptford to Greenwich Park and the River.*

Entrance to the Royal Observatory, 2017

Of course adventures back then were not planned, but pretty much spur of the moment, and relied as much on Jimmy and John Cox’s vague memories of how to get to these places as anything.

Steps down to the River

It being midweek and pocket money spent, a Red Rover was off the cards and like so many adventures it was done by foot, leaving in the morning and getting back in the afternoon in time for tea.

For those born in the first half of the last century such adventures will be as recognizable as Tin Tin, Robin Hood, and I Love Lucy from the telly, and Two Way Family Favourites on the wireless.

If we were lucky our pooled finances might run to a bottle of lemonade and the price of a bag of chips, all supposing we could find a chippy. 

And on the rare occasion we came across a chip shop and a bakery together, there was the meal beyond meals, consisting of a hollowed out bread roll filled with chips, and washed down with warm lemonade.

The promise of an adventure in the park

So, adventures were limited on how far we could walk till we got lost, and whether we were successful in finding the goal of the trip.

But always qualified by that simple rule that once beyond the few streets around Lausanne Road, we were in alien territory where any local gang of lads could take offence at our presence.

This never actually happened, but it was an expectation which was a lesson in always be vigilant.

That said most adventures passed off with out event, but more by accident than design.

Looking back the challenge to walk along the parapet above a disused railway line even then seemed fraught with danger, and the subsequent walk along that railway bed ended when boredom set in.

Not that it stopped us doing it again and again.  It was a walk  where we met no one, found the odd discarded treasure, and were accompanied by the occasional bird, and the lazy buzz of bees and the sight of butterflies.

The Thames, 2017

The only real disaster occurred down by the Thames at Greenwich.  

The tide was out and we had a choice of turning left or right at the bottom of the stone steps hard by the entrance to the foot tunnel.

Right would have taken us by degree to the sandy bit in front of the Naval College.

Left, and we were amongst a collection of beached barges.  These seemed more interesting, but we were unprepared for the oozy, oily river mud in which we slowly sank.  

We weren’t in any real danger, and was rescued by a workman, but walking home to Peckham with shoes and ankles covered in the foul smelly mud was not pleasant, but nothing to the interrogation from mother, and to my eternal shame the speed with which I blamed Jimmy and John.

That long ago summer was interrupted by both of them going off on holiday and left to my own devices I fell on the summer school at Edmund Waller.

And as we all know that summer of 1960, the sun shone every day, and boredom was banished from our activities.

Looking out from the park

But then nostalgia for those long gone holidays can be deceptive, and lead you off into adventures where it was always hot, never rained and there was always an interesting destination.

It was one of the last carefree summers, the following was marked by the transition from junior to secondary school, which offered up new friends, and while Jimmy and John also went to Samuel Pepys, the adventures were over.

Location; out of Peckham 

Pictures; Greenwich, 2017, from the collection of Jillian Goldsmith

*And for those who wonder why all the pictures are of Greenwich in 2017, back in 1960 I didn't have a camera, and a full 57 years later our Jillian retraced many of the Greenwich adventures and took some fine pictures.