A moment on Barlow Moor Road in 1903 and an apology

I wonder just what the sketch was that N finished in the December of 1903.

I know that it was late and he/she apologized for not completing it on time.

That apology and the news that it was on the way was written on the back of this picture postcard and sent to an an address in east Scotland.

And such are the vagaries of history I have no idea who N was, or where he or she lived.

Which just leaves me to fall back on the picture of Barlow Moor Road on the front of the postcard.

It is one that is still fairly familiar. The shop on the extreme right is now Duffy’s but back in 1903 was the chemist shop of Mr Walter Leslie Smith.

Now everyone will have their own bit of detail from the scene that they fasten on.

Some will be intrigued by the absence of road traffic and of course the predominance of the horse and cart, while others will sit and match each property against the same building today.

For me partly because I wrote about Mr Smith’s chemist shop yesterday I am drawn to the group of men who stare back at the camera.

The two dressed in bowler hats are in full stride and may be on their way to work in an office while the lad in the flat cap seems content just to stand and pose for the photographer.

As for the boy in the apron he could have been employed by any one of the shops on the parade, although looking at the list of businesses my money is on either Mr Smith the chemist or Herbert Driver the butcher at nu 49, Mr Lithgow next door who was a provision merchant or  Vernon Vincent & Co, the grocers.**

Location: Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Picture; Barlow Moor Road,, circa 1903 from the Lloyd Collection

*Down at Duffy's thinking about Audrey's and the man who sold a nit comb, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/down-at-duffys-thinking-about-audreys.html

**Mr Smith's chemist shop is now 398, Herbert Driver the butcher is 408,  Mr Lithgow, 410 and Vernon Vincent & Co, the grocers. 416 Barlow Moor Road