I won’t be alone in remembering an older Burton Road, but even by 1969 the place was changing and soon those traditional shops selling everything from bananas, elastic garters, and paraffin would be gone.
Peter’s painting perfectly captures that new busy Burton Road but for those curious as to what it was once like here is the same spot in the early 1900s.
Then as now there is a grocers shop on the corner with Nell Lane and the row of shops beyond it is as thriving now as they were then.
Of course what they sell has now changed reflecting the way we shop. So in 1911 Miss Ettie, the tobacconist along with Harry Cayton the butcher occupied the parade with a cycle shop, hair dressers along with a ladies outfitter, a dyers and cleaners and Madame De Korti artists’ material dealer.
Today there is more of uniformity about the stretch which has more than its share of fast food outlets and restaurants.
And on the opposite side the school has become a set of offices, and the West Didsbury Public Hall a supermarket. All of which hides more than a little history, for it was in that public hall in 1902 that the Amalgamation League was formed.
There were those who judged that Didsbury along with Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Withington and Burnage would be best served by joining the city of Manchester instead of going alone. Despite the League small membership the attractions of such a merger we not lost on the ratepayers of four townships who voted to join in the January of 1904.
Paintings; corner of Burton Road and Nell Lane © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook: Paintings from Pictures
Picture; the same spot circa 1900 from the collection of Paul O’Sullivan
Then as now there is a grocers shop on the corner with Nell Lane and the row of shops beyond it is as thriving now as they were then.
Of course what they sell has now changed reflecting the way we shop. So in 1911 Miss Ettie, the tobacconist along with Harry Cayton the butcher occupied the parade with a cycle shop, hair dressers along with a ladies outfitter, a dyers and cleaners and Madame De Korti artists’ material dealer.
Today there is more of uniformity about the stretch which has more than its share of fast food outlets and restaurants.
There were those who judged that Didsbury along with Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Withington and Burnage would be best served by joining the city of Manchester instead of going alone. Despite the League small membership the attractions of such a merger we not lost on the ratepayers of four townships who voted to join in the January of 1904.
Paintings; corner of Burton Road and Nell Lane © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook: Paintings from Pictures
Picture; the same spot circa 1900 from the collection of Paul O’Sullivan
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