The story of that shop at 105 Manchester Road .......... Slightman's newsagents and 50 years of sweets, cards and grumpy service

Looking down Manchester Road in 1958

Now for those of us who were not born in Chorlton, and didn’t arrive here until the mid 1970s there is a lot of recent history that will be unknown to us.

So I welcome the memories of those who have talked about  just one shop on Manchester Road in the 1950s and 60s.

This was Slightam’s of 105 Manchester Road.

I can’ be sure when Mr and Mrs Slightam opened or when they closed, but there is a record of them trading at Manchester Road in 1923, and Andy remembers visiting the shop in 1980.

“I too remember going into Slightam's when I first moved to Chorlton in 1980. It was like stepping back in time.”

And that pretty much is how many people remember the shop.

Slightam's on a November morning

It offered a full range of services from "Newsagents, Stationers, Fancy Goods [and] Tobacconists" but also acted as a “Lending Library [with] over 1000 books.”

Lorna remembered “that it was a shop with immense character. 

Mr Slightam always wore gloves with no fingers in. I don’t think the shop changed for many years, it was like Aladdin’s cave” while Dave added that “I remember, I even delivered papers for him. 
There was an old fashioned phone kiosk in the back of his shop that took old pennies”

And David O’Reilly who was also did  a paper round for them commented "the couple that ran the shop in the late 50's and sixties, they seemed old to me!

Mrs S. Always wore a hat and my mum says this was to cover a wig?!

Mr Slightam seemed to be a surly gentleman.  I delivered papers a few times for them, but not regularly. There was a cigarette advert on the wall behind the counter- high up, perhaps Capstan, a man on a horse.”

And that rather surly attitude was echoed by Lorna

Advertising Slightam's 1966

That surly attitude to his customers was echoed by Lorna who not only remembered the inside of the shop but was also on caught in the wrong side of Mr Slightam.

“There was a little alcove where all the greetings cards were kept in boxes on the left hand side of the shop? 
You would have to ask for the type of card you were looking for, and it was usually Mr S who sorted out a small selection accordingly. 

When I was quite young, I remember going in to the shop for a Christmas card one Christmas morning. 

Mr S asked who it was for, and when I told him it was for my mother he told me off in no uncertain terms about leaving it until the last minute, and that I should be ashamed of myself! Yes, surly gentleman indeed he was!"

Now Mr Slightam died in 1984 so I guess it will have been around then that the place closed.

Mr and Mrs Slightam's neighbours 1958

And as Dave commented “it's just a shame that there are no photographs, you could have taken his whole shop and put it in a museum, and inside it was probably unchanged since the 1930’s. 

Such a pity everything got 'skipped' when he passed away.”

And that pretty much brings me back to the beginning.

This was a place which was almost frozen in time and while I never went into the shop or knew Mr Slightam,

I can think of similar shops from my youth.

They all had that same dusty smell with heavy dark wooden counters and shelves that disappeared into the ceiling and no doubt had you rummaged at the back  there would have been the odd item which was sold as new when the old king died.

And what is all the remarkable is that such shops survived into the 1980s.

But in doing so they offer up a rich and seamless set of stories which roll back into our recent past and take you off on a whole path of new research.

So in time I will follow up on Anthony’s memories prompted by an earlier story on the Slightams and their near neighbour Harry Goodwin who in 1911 was at 103 Manchester Road selling and mending shoes and who may have been the father of the Goodwin brothers who were friends with Anthony’s brother.”

Well we shall see.  And along the way bring back out of the shadows a bit more of our recent past.

Which just leaves me to finish with David again and that "really grumpy man. I remember him in a dark,navy blue sweater, the sort a sailor might wear. Behind the left counter was the lending library, I think, or was that towards the back?"

Additional research Andy Robertson, and a thank you to Lorna, Dave, David and Andy for remembering so much.

Pictures; west side of Manchester Road on the corner of Kensington Road, 1958, m17960 and 18018, November 1 1958, A H Downes, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass