100 years of one house in Chorlton ............ Part Seven

The continuing story of one house in Chorlton during a hundred years of change. This was the home of Joe and Mary Ann Scott for over 63 years and where we have lived for another 30 years. http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/12/100-years-of-one-house-in-chorlton-part_24.html

The best introduction into Mary Ann’s daily routines eleven years into the new century would be the shopping. The Scott’s like everyone else in the township would not have had a fridge to extend the life of food so shopping was a daily task.

On Beech Road of the 30 shops 15 were engaged in selling food. Beyond Beech Road around the Green there was another three and along Barlow Moor Road and Wilbraham Road in the centre of the new Chorlton there were many more.

What these grocers and butchers shops were like has yet to fade from living memory with many of the features still in evidence in the 1950s.

Meat was still displayed outside the butcher’s shop, and much of what was in the grocers came unpackaged, sold in whatever quantity the customer wanted and taken away in paper or paper bags. There would be open tins of biscuits, and other dried goods often in front of the counter. Cheese would be cut to order as would butter which was difficult to weigh out accurately and often led to the grocer having to add a little more and using wooden pats to shape the butter every time more was added or taken off. The pats were kept in water to stop them sticking.

In an age of depersonalized supermarkets it is easy to over romanticise the these early 20th century food shops. Adulteration of products still went on as did selling underweight and the finer points of hygiene were not always subscribed to.

But the shops were as colourful as any today. On the principle of pile them high and sell them cheap, there were large window displays of the products which were sometimes half obscured by posters. Mason and Burrows on the corner of Beech and Church Road took full advantage of a large plate glass window to show off a range of food and drink. Not to be out done Whitaker’s at the bottom of Beech Road where it runs into the green, made full use of its five panels of glass to show off its selection, and added a full range of posters advertising everything from fruit to soft drinks.

Nor should we ignore the enamelled tin signs advertising everything from Bovril, Oxo, sardines and chocolate. Always made in bright colours they just added to the mix of things to see. Finally many of our shop keepers spread out onto the road, allowing customers to wander around the products.
Milk and keeping milk fresh while insuring it was free from contamination was a problem. It was still possible to buy from a local farm and some like Bailey’s on Beech Road or the farms on the green might deliver. Alternatively there was the dairy at number 95 Beech Road. This was run by Mrs Mary Smithman and would have sold eggs, butter cheese and may be even chocolate.

I have yet to follow up the great pasteurised debate of the early 20th century which resolved around how milk should be treated to kill potential germs and how this impacted on the dairies. I well remember my father drank sterilised milk right up to his death in the early ‘90s. By contrast on a holiday in the summer of 1972 we ate cornflakes with milk straight from the cow which reminded me that milk did not come cold from a fridge.

Many of the shops would have delivered to the door. Whitaker’s at the bottom of Beech Road where it joins the green had its horse and cart while William Nicholson the baker and confectioner at nu 93 had two delivery vans.

Picture; Beech Road circa early 20th century from the collection of Rita Bishop