What Miss Sarah Kate Sloane did in the Great War ..... part 1

Now, I am only at the beginning of the story of Ms Sloane, who was born in 1871 and died in 1965, but already it promises to be a fascinating piece of research.

British War Medal, 1914-1919

She was born and died in Leicester and spent most of her life there, save for those periods when as a Red Cross nurse she served in hospitals across the country and in France during the Great War.

And it was her wartime medals which drew me into her story, and while I have accumulated some biographical details, I know there is much more.

She was awarded The British War Medal, 1914-18, The Allied Victory Medal, 1914-19, The War Medal Medal, 1939-45, and the Defence Medal, 1939-45, and the first two carry an inscription which includes her name and the letters V.A.D, which refer to her role as a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment.

Members of V.A.D. performed a variety of tasks in Red Cross Hospitals, from nursing to cleaning, washing, and cooking, as well as administration and many also took on fund raising activities in the community.

Ms Sloane came from a medical family and both her father and brother were doctors, which makes her choice of nursing and unsurprising one.

Evington House, 2022, formerly Kighton V.A.D., Hospital

The Red Cross records show she served from 1915 through to 1917, at various Red Cross hospitals, starting at the Knighton V.A.D., hospital close to where she lived.

From 1916 she was at No.2 B.R.C. Hospital in Rouen, followed by Frensham Hill Military Hospital,  and Ullesthorpe Court, & Charnwood V.A.D. Hospitals.

After which she worked for the Discharged Soldiers & Sailors organization, which was part of the Ministry of Labour and focused on finding suitable employment for men no longer in the forces.

So far, I have no pictures of Ms Sloane, but I know where she lived in Leicester, and some at least of the houses are still standing today, as is the Knighton V.A.D Hospital which is now known as Evington House and stands in Evington House.

Evington House, 2022, formerly Kighton V.A.D., Hospital

The house dates from the early 19th century, and bits maybe much older.  In its time it was owned by one family with links to the campaign against the slave trade, and in 1914 was lent by its then owner to the Red Cross.

There are various accounts of the house including its time as a hospital and many also include a fascinating account of the daily routines by Miss Alice Henderson who was the commandment which appeared in the Wyggeston Girls Gazette in 1919.

I suspect much of what Miss Henderson outlined in the article would have been familiar to Sarah Sloane, and was pretty much the lot of many who worked in Red Cross Hospitals.*

And that at present is pretty much all there is.  I know she arrived back from Algiers in 1931, left over £55,000 at her death in 1965 and lived for 30 years at 8 University Road, in Leicester.

Defence Medal, 1939-45

But I don’t have a clue how she voted, what she thought of the big issues of the day or how she occupied her time after war service.

That said I am confident I will find out more.  There are people who have included her in their own family history records, and I await a reply from the Leicester Records Office so there is much more to play for.

All of which leaves me with that odd reflection that history can be messy and can surprise you.

So, when I started the search for the story of Sarah Kate’s medals, I had no idea that she came from Leicester or that our Josh and Polly would turn out to live just minutes away from both Knighton V.A.D., hospital, and her home on University Road.

But then that’s the fun of the past.

Location; Leicester, and elsewhere

Pictures; Miss Sloane’s medal, courtesy of David Harrop and Evington House, formerly Knighton V.A.D., hospital, from the collection of Josh Simpson

Sources; census records, 1901-1921, Red Cross Records, 1914-1919, Baptismal record, 1871, various street directories  and electoral registers, 1920-1930, Probate Records

* Evington’s VAD Hospital, Evington Echo, December 19th, 2014, https://evingtonecho.uk/evingtons-vad-hospital/

& Evington House, Evington Park, https://storyofparksleicester.com/park-histories/evington-park/#:~:text=This%20house%20is%20said%20to,hunter%20gatherers%20roaming%20over%20it.&text=In%20Roman%20times%20and%20on,have%20been%20a%20Roman%20cemetery

Lost images of Whalley Range part 7............ the lake in the park

Now there will be the pedant who points out that the lake in Alexandra Park is still there and perhaps someone else who challenges linking the park with Whalley Range.

Added to which I bet a few will remember seeing this picture before on posts about the Alex Park and Whalley Range.

But that won’t stop me, so here from the Valentine collection produced around 1906 is that view of  the park.

Picture; the lake, Alexandra Park, from Valentine’s Snapshots of Alexandra Park, date circa 1906, courtesy of Ann Love

Two plaques …… one lost building ..... and a forgotten road

So, when you are out with the camera on a sunny and dry  morning you make the most of it.

A blue plaque, 2023

And having done the “artistic shots” I was wandering around the old commercial part of the city looking for those narrow streets and alleys which could offer up a story.

What I found were two plaques waiting to be saved on a building which I am sure is soon for redevelopment.

It is a big slab of a place which has seen better days and comprises of 79 Mosley Street, 16 Princess Street and 14 Back George Street, and featured in an earlier blog story.*

I had passed it countless times but only recently became interested in it after I spotted a ghost sign for one of the previous occupants.

I did promise myself I would follow up on that story but never did, until yesterday when I came across the two plaques on the Princess Street side.

Not a blue plaque, 2023

I say plaques, but only one of them can claim to be that, the other is a poor attempt at leaving your mark on a boarded up street level window.

The real plaques records that "near this site" was the premises of F.C.Calvert which in 1857 “produced phenol, carbolic acid, used as a disinfectant in soaps and powders and for making dyes”.

All of which is linked to Frederick Crace Calvert PhD FRS who in 1846 “was Professor of Chemistry at the Manchester Royal Institution which was opposite and now houses Manchester City Art Gallery.”

And by one of those twists of history it turns out that Frederick Crace Calvert was living in Exmouth Terrace at 170 Oxford Road which is now under the present Manchester Museum.

Now despite not finding him on the 1851 census I know he was living on Oxford Street by 1849 and he was paying an annual rent of £170, while renting a workshop on Bond Street from the same year.**

Mr.  Calvert goes to France

That workshop was variously described as a “laboratory” as well as a “workshop” and appears to have been in a shared building.

And what makes him that tad more intriguing is that while he was born in London in 1819 he spent a big chunk of his life from the age of 16 in France where he remained till 1846, which “till the end of his life he spoke English with a French accent”.***

At which point rather than “lift” someone else’s research I shall just add the extract from that biography.

Location; Princess Street, Manchester

Pictures; two plaques, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Mr.Calvert comes to Manchester

*The three stories behind no. 79 Mosley Street, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-three-stories-behind-no-79-mosley.html

**This section of Oxford Street is now Oxford Road

***National Biography Vol 3, 1901

The lost pub on Port Street ...... Mrs Ann Gleave and bit of a mystery

I am looking at a picture Andy Robertson took back in 2018 of no. 75 Port Street.

The White Lion as was, 2018

Andy told me that  "I have unwittingly taken photos of. This the White Lion on Port Street which is a pub on the 1849 map but not a pub by 1969. The building is unusual in that it now stands alone"

Once of course it was just part of a long line of properties, stretching down from Great Ancoats Street to Dale Street.

Like Andy I have passed it over the years, and watched as some of its neighbours were demolished, the car parks on either side were upgraded, and it gained and lost a mural painted on the gable end.

 It appears as the White Lion in the directory for 1822, and is lost as a pub sometime between 1909 and 1911.

In 1849, the landlady was Anne Gleave  who first appears in the Rate Books as the landlady two years earlier and continues on the books till 1857, although there is strong evidence that she died in 1855.

Either way by 1858 the new landlady was Harriet Gleave, and in the fullness of time I go looking for her.

The White Lion with its traditional lamp, 1908

For now, I want to say with Ann Gleave, who is also down in the census return as living at 54 Newton Street and was a shop keeper.

All of which is a bit odd, because the Rate books list a James Gleave living at the property which is described as a house.

Part of the answer may lie in the fact that Ann married James in 1847, both are listed as living in Newton Street and both James, and Ann’s father, described themselves as weavers.

But James  does not appear on the 1851census with Ann on Newton Street, all  of which is a bit of a mystery.

Still, I am content that we can give a name to the landlady which ran his mum back in the middle decades of the 19th century.

And soon after the story was posted, PJ commented, "The White Lion can be seen at the beginning of this brilliant drone footage of the Northern Quarter. Now with a stunning artwork on the side of the building. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c4IeTOSmZM "

Location; Manchester

Pictures; the White Lion, 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and in 1908, m04847, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

When they took my railway station ...........

Now, as a rule I don’t object to change and even I could see the logic of building a new railway station yards from the old one and calling it Eltham.

That old familiar entrance, circa 1960s

In the great scheme of things the coming of the motorway and the loss of the bus terminus beside the station made perfect sense.

But a little of my youth vanished when Well Hall Railway Station was demolished.
More than that, no one told me.

I had left from that wooden platform in the September of 1969 for a new life in Manchester, and while I regularly returned home during the following two decades I was not prepared for the day I alighted from what I thought was the wrong station, with the wrong name, on the wrong side of the road.

The new bridge, 2013

I should of course have been warned by the conversation at the ticket office in Charing Cross when my  request for a single to Eltham Well Hall was met with a stony look and a sarcastic comment about not keeping up with news, which was a tad unfair given that my subscription to Railway News had lapsed the month before.

Only the intervention of the nice lady buying a season ticket for Welling saved the day.

Off on a jolly, 1966

Even now on those occasions I go home I never feel quite right walking through the brick and concrete building and yearn with a bit of silly nostalgia for the wooden railway station of my youth.

Location; Well Hall

Pictures; Eltham Well Hall Railway Station & the High Street circa 1960s courtesy of Steve Bardrick, the railway bridge over Well Hall Road, 2014, from the collection of Chrissie Rose and off from Well Hall, 1966, from the collection of Anne Davey

On discovering Knighton …… that suburb of Leicester which was once its own place

An occasional series on the village and township of Knighton, as it was and as it is today.

Knighton in 1834

In 1846 Knighton was described as “2 miles S. by E. of Leicester, a village, township and chapelry, containing 465 inhabitants, and 1638 acres of fertile land, intersected by a small rivulet, and traversed by the Midland Counties Railway, and the turnpikes from Leicester to Welford and Market Harborough”.

On the north side of the chapelry "was a pleasant suburb called Stonegate, adjoining the Racecourse of Leicester, and having several handsome houses, occupied by manufacturers, &c, who have their places of Business in that town.  The soil on the north is good loam, and on the south strong clay.

Sir E.C. Martopp, Bart., occupied the Hall, as a hunting box, and is lord of the manor, and owner of a great part of the soil; and the rest belongs to G.A.L. Keck, Esq., Sergeant D’Oyly, Mr. Joseph Johnson, and a few other proprietors.”

The place was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and over the centuries passed through the hands of several landowners.  Its church predated the Norman Conquest, while Wesleyan chapel was only erected in 1816, and “the commodious National School was built in 1840”.

Knighton's most prominent residents, 1846

The description concluded with listing the 21 most prominent individuals of whom ten lived in Stoneygate  and had their places of business in Leicester.

 The remaining eleven lived in Knighton, and amongst them were two publicans, three farmers, assorted professionals, some shop keepers and Elizabeth Hughes the teacher at the National School.

All of which is a start, and because we have the census returns we can add to the 21, the other 400 or so inhabitants, recording their names, occupations, places of birth as well as the age profile of Knighton.

Added to this we also have the electoral register for 1841, which not only lists the names of those entitled to vote, but just how they cast their votes.

So, I know that Mr. Charles Simpkin, the farmer, voted for the Tories and Mr. Alfred Burgess, who described himself as a “Woolpacker” and was  later a J.P., cast his two votes for the Whigs.

And if I can locate the tithe records and rate books I will have a better idea of how the land was farmed, the size of farms, and  the level of annual rents.

All of which will provide a detailed description of Knighton in the 1840s, before it became a suburb of that big city two miles up the road.

Location; Knighton

Next; Who were the 18 Knighton electors in 1841 ..... and how did they vote?

Pictures; Knighton in 1834, from Greenwood’s map of Leicestershire, Greenwood’s Atlas, 1829-1834, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/, and Knighton’s prominent residents in 1846, from History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Leicestershire, 1846

*History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Leicestershire, 1846

Your invite to a new way of telling the stories of Greater Manchester …. today

 So, today at Wilbraham St Ninian’s Church you have the opportunity to roam over the history of Greater Manchester in a new and unique way.

Peter Topping and Andrew Simpson have come up with a different approach to exploring Greater Manchester’s past.

It is The History of Greater Manchester by Tram …. TheStories At the Stops in which the authors take all 99 Metro tram stops on all the eight routes picking out the interesting, the serious and the bizarre as well as the humours events and people at each destination which build to become a comprehensive account of the region’s past.*

At present there are four books in the series with a fifth due out later this year. 

They cover the journey into the centre from the south, crossing the city centre down to Victoria Railway Station and then east out to New Islington.

The fifth will travel from Old Trafford to Altrincham, with further books on Salford, and all the remaining towns on the network.

The talk will last for an hour, cost, £3 which covers refreshments and will be a mix of stories with how the authors researched and chose those stories, with plenty of pictures including some of Peter’s original paintings.

The books are available at £4.99 from Chorlton Bookshop, the shop at Central Ref, St Peter's Square, or from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk

And that is it.  Tuesday …. 1.30 at Wilbraham St Ninian’s Church

Location; Wilbram St Ninian’s Church, Egerton Road South, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 0XJ

Pictures; a selection from the Power Point presentation, 2026

*A History of Greater Manchester By Tram, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20History%20of%20Greater%20Manchester%20by%20Tram