So what is happening on Upper Chorlton Road?

If I think hard enough I should just be able to remember these two houses.

They stood on Upper Chorlton Road, and I must have passed them countless times on the bus, but if I noticed them I have long since forgotten.

So I have Andy Robertson to thank for taking the picture of where they stood and hunting out the original house.

It was at 145 Upper Chorlton Road, and was caught on camera by A H Downes in the summer of 1960.

Now Mr Downes was one of those remarkable photographers who chose to record in detail the houses, shops and other buildings, property by property along Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Roads and lots of those in between.

So we owe him quite a debt because many of the places he recorded have altered dramatically and some like 145 have vanished completely.

Back when he began to record them in the late 1950s I doubt that they were that different from when they had been built during the last decades of the 19th and the early years of the 20th century.

And number 145 is a case in point.  The windows display the traditional lace which were common a century ago and the lawn and drive  well kept.

Of course the property has gained a garage which I guess dates from around the time the car was purchased.

Now with a bit more digging I should be able to find out the identity of the man in the picture.

But for now I shall leave you with the same question Andy posed to me which is compare our first picture with our last and work out what they have in common.

I doubt the answer will be as simple as “further along Upper Chorlton Road,”  “both taken by A H Downes” or that “the second picture was taken first judging by the two women who appear in each photograph.”

Pictures;  Upper Chorlton Road by A H Downes, 1960, m40783, m40784 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and Upper Chorlton Road today, from the collection of Andy Robertson, 2014