Ghost stories on Withington Road ..............

Now ghost signs come in many shapes and sizes some with a history that can be easily revealed and others which sit forgotten and obscure challenging you to find their story.

And for those puzzled by the term or who have yet to become fascinated by them they are all that is left of products and businesses which were advertised on the side of buildings back into the 19th century.

Today they can still be seen gently fading on a gable end or above a modern shop sign.

All of which brings me to this intriguing image sent across by Iain Crowe earlier this morning.

It comes from Withington Road but so far its origin remains hidden.

There is no reference to it on the 1911 street directory which usually features the names of houses bestowed on them by their proud and perhaps pretentious owners.

So that is all for now but stories of ghost signs have a habit of exciting a lot of interest which means I am very confident someone will come forward to help us unlock all there is know about Knightsbridge.

Location; Withington Road

Picture; ghost sign on Withington Road, 2016, from the collection of Iain Crowe

Just what is in David Harrop's collection?

Now what connects this pub sign, a hospital and a porcelain money box?

It is I know a question which will tumble from the lips of people across Greater Manchester and beyond this Friday evening.

And the answer?  Well the pub belonged to the Post Office club which was located in the Manchester and Salford Hospital for Skin Diseases on the corner of Quay Street and Byrom Street.

All of which just leaves the money box which some might suggest contained pennies saved up by David Harrop who was a postman and knew the club well.

The truth is pretty much that with the added bit of information that David owns both the pub sign and the money box.

I am reliably informed he did toy with the idea of taking over the hospital site when looking for a venue to house his extensive collection of memorabilia from two world wars and the history of the Post Office.

Instead he decided to exhibit some of them at the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery and is currently preparing for a new exhibition.

Entitled For the Fallen the exhibition will include letters medals and memorabilia from the period.

David tells me that “he was inspired to name the display for the fallen from the famous poem by Laurence Binyon the son of a Lancaster vicar.

Southern Cemetery contains nearly 1300 war graves from the two world plus civilian casualties from the blitz.

Although there are no July 1st 1916 casualties buried in Southern there are numerous memorials commemorating lost loved ones that were lost on those fateful days a century ago.”

David wishes “to put on record his heartfelt thanks to the Manchester City Council bereavement services staff for allowing him to display his collection in such a wonderful place.”

Picture; from the collection of David Harrop and the Manchester and Salford Hospital for Skin Diseases,1975,  Wildgoose-D, m53039, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Coming Soon ......... an exhibition in Southern Cemetery ........... remembering the Battle of the Somme, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/coming-soon-exhibition-in-southern.html

A building called the Towers, the Ship Canal and a certain animation company

The Towers is a building with a lot of history.

It was built between 1868 and 1872 by John Taylor who founded the Manchester Guardian in 1821.

Here in 1882 the decision was taken by a group of businessmen to build the Manchester Ship Canal and in 1920 it was bought by the British Cotton Industry Research Association and renamed the Shirley Institute after the daughter of one the main contributors to the cost of buying it.

And today it is surrounded by a business park which has recently become home to Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick Entertainment.

Cosgrove Hall was based in Chorlton and it was here that they produced some memorable animation films including Danger Mouse and Chorlton and the Wheelies.

And now they are back in Manchester with a team of 40 animators and graphic designers with a plan to generate another 70 jobs in the next few months.

All perhaps a long way from the young man who began work in a lab at the Shirley Institute in 1921.

We know only his first name and that his laboratory was visible from the drive as you made your way up to the building.

I don’t suppose we would even have known about him if his mother had not sent a picture postcard of the Towers to a friend with the proud message that “this is a view of the new Institute showing the new Lab where our Joe will shortly be working in the house.”

Picture postcards can be a wonderful source of local history not only offering up  fascinating glimpses of buildings and places but also because the messages reveal much of what was going on at the time.

In our case Jean’s account of her son Joe’s first job at the Institute is the only popular reference I have to the people who worked there.

But no doubt that will be other accounts and maybe even some pictures of the laboratories, offices and the canteen.

After all I am intrigued by the widely held belief that the building has 12 towers, 52 rooms and 365 windows which is why it is known locally as Calendar House.

In the past there have been open days and I rather think if there is another I shall attempt to wander through the old servants’ area of the house.

According to one description this will allow me to visit the kitchen and follow the trail to the china closet, the plate safe where the silver was kept and onto the servants’ passage which led to the dining room the butler’s pantry, and servants’ staircase.

Now this is my type of history.

Like a lot of people it is the quiet and hidden lives of the servants which are more interesting.

And so I want to explore the cook's pantry, housekeeper's room along with the servants' hall with its small spiral staircase in the far corner that led to the roof and the kitchen with its large open fire and range sadly now concealed behind a wooden screen.

And while I am on this romantically fuelled flight of fancy I wonder if Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick Entertainment might be inspired by the servants’ room’s, the passages and that spiral staircase to come up with a new animated film.

Now that would be something.

Painting; The Towers © 2013 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

Walking with history down at Hough End Hall and getting a bargain ........... what could be better?

It has almost been a year since the launch of Hough End Hall The Story which is the first book to describe fully the history of this much loved building.*



The offer, 2016

The hall began as the fine new home of the Mosley family, built in 1596 to replace an older house,
later it served as a farmhouse and more recently as a restaurant and offices and there will be many with fond memories of the place.

For some it will be an unforgettable evening dining under the Tudor beams and for others a place to play and look for adventure.

And for everyone else here in the book is the story of a building which has links not only to the history of Chorlton, but also Withington, and Didsbury.

The Hall in 1849

The first owner left money for the “scoole att Chollerton Chapelle” was buried in the parish church in Didsbury and owned much of Withington.

All of which means our hall is mixed up with the stories of a chunk of south Manchester.

And to mark the anniversary the book is on sale at the reduced price of £11.99.

Now as the chap who wrote the words in conjunction with Peter who sourced the images, and added some of his own fine paintings you would expect me to urge you to go off and snap it up.

Another bit of the Hall's story ............ the history walk, 2015

So as they say in all the good adverts....... “hurry down and grab the sale of the century while stocks last.”

It is on sale at Chorlton Book Shop where I have it on good authority that the two authors pooped in and signed the copies.

Pretty neat I think.

Location, Hough End Hall, Chorlton Book Shop

Picture, poster designed by Peter Topping, © 2016 and Hough End Hall in 1849, from The Family Memoirs, Sir Oswald Mosley, 1849, and Sunday May 17th  from the collection  of Peter Topping

*A new book on Hough End Hall http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Hough%20End%20Hall

Angel Meadow ........... reading the book by Dean Kirby

Now Angel Meadow is one of those places which draws you in and offers up a slice of the darker side of life in Manchester.

The book

For many it has become a byword for life lived on the margin standing beside Little Ireland on the other side of the city and equally notorious slums like Seven Dials in London.

Over the last four decades I have dipped into it through the writings of Engels and others explored the site as it went from empty wasteland, through landscaped park followed by more neglect and regeneration and a couple of years ago watched as the archaeologists uncovered something of its past.

To some of my Canadian friends the mismatch between the name and the reality is not easy to understand.

But there you are, it was in the words of Robert Roberts “a place where poverty busied itself” and those entering might well have echoed Dante’s warning “All hope abandon ye who enter here.”

Hope there may not have been much of but the area was home to thousands who lived out their lives in the cellars and overcrowded dwellings which were past their best long before the old queen came to the throne.

Uncovering the past, 2009

All of which is an introduction a new book on the area written by Dean Kirby who can trace some of his family to  those mean streets in the 1860s.

The book “takes readers on a hair-raising journey through the alleyways, gin palaces and underground vaults of this nineteenth century Manchester slum, which was considered so diabolical it was re-christened 'hell upon earth' by Friedrich Engels.”

For those wanting an introduction to Angel Meadow there is an excellent article in WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? which gives the context to the book and a little of the reasons why Mr Kirby wrote it.**

Angel Meadow, 1849

And having read that piece I am off to buy my copy.

Location; Angel Meadow Manchester

Picture; cover of Angel Meadow, 2016, cellar dwellings at the Miller Street dig October 2009, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Angel Meadow in 1849 from the OS Manchester & Salford, 1842-49, courtesy of Digital archives Solution, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Angel Meadow: Victorian Britain’s Most Savage Slum, Dean Kirby £14.99

**Archaeologists unearthed my ancestor’s slum home, Gail Dixon WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Issue 112, May 2016

Harry Kemp asks for your vote ................ November 1 1904

Now I have always been fascinated by elections and election material and in particular how political parties have presented themselves to the electorate and in the process the promises they made, and what they said about their opponents.

Election Address, 1904

I don’t share that cynical outlook about politicians.  In my experience the ones I have known were decent honest people who went into the hurly burly of elections and public life with a desire to make things better.

And so I have decided to spend a bit of time looking at some of the election material that has come through the doors over the last century and a bit.

This is the election address of the three Progressive candidates who stood for election here in Chorlton in 1904.

This was the first local election after we had voted to join the city of Manchester and of the six candidates who put themselves forward, three were Progressives, two Conservatives and one an Independent.

The three Progressive candidates stood on the platform of advancing “good government” which involved “exercising a rigorous protest against extravagance” and “preserving as far as possible the residential character” of Chorlton coupled with the need for “adequate Schools, Libraries, Open Spaces, Public Baths and everything which counts for the better health and morality of the people”

The result was one of those odd outcomes with one Progressive, one Conservative and the Independent being elected.

And during the next two decades elections continued to be dominated by the Conservatives, the Progressives and Independents.

The content of that leaflet is thoughtful balanced and pretty straightforward.

Not for Mr Kemp and his colleagues the cry of “Stop the Labour Rot” from a Conservative leaflet in 1980.

That said there is a skill in writing election leaflets and balancing the national with the local, the knocking copy with the positive, and pitching the personality against the issues.

Vote for the "The Three Progessives"

It helps of course if like Me Kemp the candidate is well known.

He ran the chemist’s shop on the corner of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads which for decades was a popular meeting place and called simply “Kemp’s Corner.”

It’s less helpful if you are coming from behind and attempting to establish a legitimacy.

And that brings me to that leaflet from a party which asserts that they are the main contender to the Labour Party.

Now certainly since the collapse of the Tory vote there have been elections where the Lib Dems have come close to winning and indeed have done so, but I wondered about the most recent manifestation of this clam which fell through the door yesterday.  The graph is clear enough ”Lab 1st, Lib Dem 2nd Grn 3rd Con 4th” but I was a little uneasy at the way the bar chart was presented with the Greens well below the Lib Dems.

Who won what and where they finished up, 2015

So I went back to the election results for last year and discovered that while the Lib Dems polled 1,618 votes the Greens got 1,610.*

All very curious and that has taken me back to all the other Chorlton election stories that have appeared in the blog and will do so again.

Location, Chorlton

Pictures; election address, 1904 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Local Election Results 2015, Manchester City Council, http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/362/elections_and_voting/4658/previous_election_results/3

The Hidden Treasure .............. another story from Chris Pember

Over the years, every once in a while I have experienced some degree of meagre good fortune or luck. 

Easter Sunday March 27, 1910, Toronto, Ontario. Henry Bailey Pember centre

Whether it was a rare open parking spot on a crammed street, small winnings in the hockey pool at work, or the time in grade 4 when I guessed correctly on how many candy canes were in the prize jar, I’ve had a few graces come my way.

Never did I imagine, however, a priceless treasure that would be revealed to me, a treasure hidden for years.

My interest in genealogy, something which formed as a mild but unpursued curiosity as a child, expanded rapidly two years ago as I sat with my ill father in a hospital room in Woodstock, Ontario.

Due to a weak heart and respiratory illness, he was on death’s door, and it was during the course of conversation one day in that palliative room that I simply asked him where his mother was from.

Learning of the birthplace of my grandmother, Laura Isadora Hall of Derby, kindled a renewed and much deeper interest in family origins and history. As I delved into genealogical research, I was able to make contact with cousins of whom I previously knew nothing about, cousins in both the Old and the New World.

Meeting with Ken Cox and family, Ken is second from right, January 2016

Through hours of research and reading over documents, I have gained knowledge of family branches, of incredible personal histories, twists, tragedies and triumphs.

Most important, however, is the establishment of contact, meeting and the bonding with members of my widespread family.

Even then, I feel that I still have just touched the tip of the iceberg.

 It was through the online sharing of old photos by some of these family members, several of whom are well-accomplished genealogists who have taken much time and effort to preserve family memories, that I was able to print off pictures for my terminal father to see before he passed away. He was able to learn more of his family’s history, both sides, and before his eyes came the pictorial memories of previous links in the chain.

I still recall the childlike excitement I felt inside every time I brought a new picture to him, with the story behind it. For me, not only was it a process of discovery of identity, but also a last service to a dying father.

One picture, in particular, has touched me in a way that I can only describe as bittersweet. On Easter Sunday, March 27th, 1910, in a photographer’s studio in Toronto, Ontario, posed the first Canadian Pember family of my immediate line.

His name was Henry Bailey Pember, a 2nd-great-grandfather who with his wife Sarah Hampson Pember, had emigrated to Canada from England in the nineteenth century. Mother Sarah had passed away three years earlier, but there in the old photo, are the children with their father, they themselves the root and branches of a family which has spread too many provinces in this country.

This old, beautiful photo had thankfully been preserved in the collection of the caretaker of many similar photos and documents, my cousin Ken Cox of Orillia, Ontario. Ken’s grandmother, Alice Victoria Pember Cox, was one of the young women in the photograph, she being one of the daughters of Henry and sister to my great-grandfather, William Hampson Pember.

Through the years, Ken has compiled and safeguarded a large depository of family history.

We were able to make contact through Ancestry.com, previously knowing nothing of each other, and this last winter were able to meet for the first time.

Now, at that time I had recently seen a smaller copy of the family portrait, but meeting Ken that day at his house, I was amazed when he brought out the large original and asked me to take on the task of caretaker of the photo.

I gladly obliged and seeing this family treasure for the first time, knowing that I would act as its new custodian was a very emotional experience for me. For, I not only felt the joy of the photo’s discovery, but also the sadness knowing that my father, who had passed away only months earlier, would have very much desired to see such a great family treasure.

Several months later, this great photograph now hangs over my fireplace, beautifully framed by the expert hands of Elizabeth McKinnon of McKinnon Custom Framing.

Sitting under museum glass, with the names of each of the family members listed, so that posterity and future generations of the Pember family will know and remember the faces of the earliest links of the chain.

© Chris Pember, 2016

Location; Canada

Pictures; Easter Sunday, March 27th, 1910, Toronto, Ontario. Henry Bailey Pember, centre, William Hampson Pember, fourth from left, Alice Victoria Pember Cox, farthest on right and meeting with Ken Cox (second from right) and family in January 2016. he Hidden Treasure
from the collection of Ken Cox and Chris Pember
   

When you just don’t know enough ............. pictures I wish I had the answers to

Now I am the first to admit my limitations and today is one of those moments.

Here are two images which have nothing in common other than I am intrigued by them both.

The first comes from my old friend David Harrop and is one of a large collection of picture postcards, letters and memorabilia he has lent me in connection with the new book.*

The picture postcard was produced by the C.W.S. Customer’s Department in Manchester.

The CWS was the wholesale arm of the Co-op and here we have a selection of their autumn fashions.

My problem is the year.  I think we are in the 1920s or 30s and if pressed having poured over fashion catalogues I would go for 1927.  But it is a guess and I will no doubt be shot down in a blaze of ridicule and expert comment.

So be it and as they say “bring it on down.”

At which point I should really delve deeper into the history of the C.W.S., but I am not going to.

Instead I will offer up the second image from the Golden Fleece in Lymn.  We had wandered over there on Monday evening just to get out of the city, took a short stroll along the Duke’s Canal and then retired to the pub.

And it was there that I came on the second photograph which I am no nearer tacking down.  It is one of two that hangs on the wall in the pub and may be connected to the canal next door.

I suspect it dates from the 1940s may well be from the camera of a well known photographer and be from a series related to the last war.

All of which means that someone might instantly recognise it and offer up a name, a date and perhaps even a location.

And perhaps will also offer a link to an original print which will do much more justice to the picture than my hurried snap does.

Well we shall see.

Locations; Manchester & Lymn

Pictures; the C.W.S., store, Manchester, date unknown, and woman working the water, date unknown

*A new book on Manchester and the Great War, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

The Tank Bank and the children’s charity......... stories behind the book nu 17

An occasional series on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War*

The Tank Bank, 1917

Now the war was sustained by a tidal flow of voluntary work and money.

Some of the charities established during the Great War have survived into the 21st century, and they covered everything from the National Fund to relieve hardship, to sending comforts to the troops including cigarettes through the “Fag Days”.

And as the conflict dragged on the Government found a whole range of ways of raising funds including the Tank Bank which was what the title said a tank bank in Albert Square with an office set aside in the Town Hall to take deposits from the general public.

There was an expectation that the total amount collected would out do Liverpool which in its first three days had raised £797,800 and Sheffield’s £113,380 and with a degree of civic pride the Manchester Guardian reported that the city had hit £870444 in just two days.**

But the downside of the outpouring of the public’s money to the war effort was a squeeze on the existing charities.

The Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges set up in 1870 relied heavily on voluntary contributions and during the war there was a profound reduction in what it received.

It made regular appeals highlighting the shortfall.  In the October of 1915 it announced that “there is a deficiency of £10,000 on Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges maintenance account, the institution having been most unfavourably affected by the War. 

At least 4000 boys and girls are helped by it. There are over 350 children continually under its care. About £11,000 a year is needed to meet all the requirements of the work.”***

At the beginning of the war instructions were sent to the masters and matrons of the various homes to exercise the ‘strictest economy in provisions and other purchases,’ and the monthly magazine, the Children’s Haven’ was reduced to four issues a year in a bid to lower costs.

Collection Box for the Charity, date unknown

One unforeseen result of the enlistment of the older apprentices in the charity’s care resulted in the closing of four out of the five workshops with a loss of around £3000 in earnings and proceeds from the work sold.

And yet the number of admissions increased leading the charity to comment in its paper the Children Haven in September 1916 that
 “while they carry on for King and country for justice and liberty we must carry on for the young children who will be the future members and defenders of our great commonwealth.”****

The Refuges did survive, changing its name to the Together Trust and relocating out of the city and continues to work helping young people, vulnerable adults and families.

Others may not and yet there is no definite research on the effects of war on charities in Manchester and it is unknown how many establishments had to close due to the restrictions on resources.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; the Tank Bank 1917, from the collection of David Harrop, and a collection box of the Manchester & Salford, Boys’ & Girls’ Refuges courtesy of the Together Trust

*A new book on Manchester and the Great War, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

**The Tanks Second Try, Manchester Climbing to the top, Manchester Guardian, December 19, 1917

*** Manchester Evening News, October 30, 1915

****Tightening the belt, Getting Down and dusty, September 1 2014, the Together Trust, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/tightening-belt.html

Walking Angel Meadow ............. the archaeological tour June 4 2016

Now I first came across Angel Meadow when it was an overgrown bit of waste land.

Angel Meadow in the 19th century

I read about the place back then but on a visit down there I couldn't really visualise just what it would have been like to live there when it was one of our worst slums.

Well the Friends of Angel Meadow are about to offer just such an experience.*

For one day and one day only on Saturday June 4 you can walk the walk. It is billed as the ANGEL MEADOW ARCHAEOLOGY WALK and is part of the Angel Meadow Histories Day.

And not wanting to repeat what someone else has already written here is what they say,

ANGEL MEADOW ARCHAEOLOGY WALK

Dr Michael Nevell is Head of Archaeology at Salford University and Co-Editor of the Industrial Archaeology Review.

Angel Meadow in 1980

He will lead an archaeology walk around Angel Meadow highlighting the sites of recent digs and the findings from workers' housing excavations.

This event is part of the Manchester Histories Festival 2016.

The walk starts from Popup Bikes on Corporation Street and they have kindly offered free bike parking to those with tickets. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/angel-meadow-guided-archaeology-walk-tickets-24839925887

Do you have questions about Angel Meadow Guided Archaeology Walk? mail@friends-of-angel-meadow

Angel Meadow, 2005

This event is expected to be very popular- please contact FOAM ASAP should you not be able to attend to ensure others do not miss out.

Look out for further announcements of events soon.

Location; Angel Meadow



Pictures; courtesy of FOAM

*Friends of Angel Meadow http://www.friends-of-angel-meadow.org/

Down at Didsbury .............. from books, lectures and hymns to flats and houses

Well it has been a short time in coming, but one that was to be expected and here is the confirmation.

My friend Pierre has sent over a brochure from a local estate agents announcing the next stage in the story of the old Didsbury College site.

Now I say short but when you can count your interest in the spot back two and a bit centuries this is just a blink of the eye.

It was a teacher training college for over sixty years, before that a theological college and go back far enough and it was the home of a grand local family.

In between all of that it did a stint as a private girls school and a Red Cross hospital, and now according to the leaflet that fell though Pierre’s letterbox there will soon be a “unique collection of one, two and three bedroom conversion properties and a fine selection of substantial three, four and five bedroomed new houses.”

Now like Pierre I have more than an interest in the old place.  Pierre worked there and I did my post grad course at the college back in 1972.

More recently I was invited back first by Pierre for the closing party held by the staff of the MMU  and a little later was back at the invitation of the developers to tour the archaeological dig that was taking place.

All of which has appeared here on the blog, and so not one to repeat  myself I shall just leave you to follow the links to the story and announce that the book on the history of Didsbury Training College by Andy Pickard is now on sale.

Location Didsbury


Pictures, of MMU Admin Building 2012-13 from the collection of Pierre Grace

*Didsbury College of Education, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Didsbury%20College%20of%20Education

The transformation of the Throstles Nest on Seymour Grove

Now there will be plenty of people with fond memories of the Throstles Nest on Seymour Grove.

I am not one of them but that is purely because it was not on my route of places to go.

Having lived all over south Manchester as well as Beswick, Bradford and Ashton-Under-Lyne by the time I setteled in Chorlton in the 70s I was happy just to stay very local.

That said Andy who took these pictures of the transformation of the old pub along with me would welcome any one who has a story to tell or even a picture of the place in its heyday.

Like so many familiar pubs it went.  I have no idea exactly why but I suspect it will be the usual explanation of being unable to buck the trend of cheap supermarket alcohol, and wine bars.

But unlike the Princess and the Mersey Hotel the building is still there although as the pictures show much changed.

Which just leaves me to thank Andy for this one which is a project he has kept going back to since he first noticed that the last pint had been pulled and the final last orders called.

Location Seymour Grove








Pictures. the Throstles Nest, 2014, and 2016 from  the collection of Andy Robertson

Coming to Well Hall & Woolwich .................. a Brass Band

Now it is easy to dismiss Brass Bands.

I know I did, partly in my youth because this was music that didn’t appeal and later while still growing up in Well Hall it was because they were so distinctly “Northern.”

Well I now live in the North  and Brass Bands have drawn me in.

I have written about our own band which was formed in 1820 and lasted till 1945, explored others like the Stalybridge band that headed up a contingent which marched to Manchester in 1819 and faced the sabres of the militia an event which quickly became known as Peterloo.*

And in the course of doing some research I knew that there were also bands in the south and so in response to a wonderful set of pictures posted by Tricia recently I went looking for those bands.

They are listed on an excellent site on Brass Bands and include, Eltham Town Band, active in the 1900s and the Eltham United Band active in the 1920s.**

There was also the Woolwich Borough Silver Band founded in 1906.  Its conductor was J. Reay, and it remained  active into the 1910s. The bandmaster was Mr A. Prescott and the Secretary was  Mr W. Knight in the early years.

Much earlier and to my surprise was the Woolwich Dockyard Brass Band which played during the 1840s and 1850s. and what might have been its later reincarnation which also carried the name and was active in the 1920s.

Some brass bands were based around a local church others around a work place and the rest like the Chorlton-cum-Hardy band were formed by local people with a love of music and a desire to play just for the sake of it.

All of which I think points to a fascinating new line of research and set of stories.

And that is all I am going to say except I hope Trcia has some time to go looking for those stories.

Location; where ever there were people with a love of brass band music


Picture; The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Brass Band, 1893

*Chorlton Brass Band, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20Brass%20Band

**History of Brass Bands, IBEW, http://www.ibew.org.uk/infcont2.htm

Who was Miss G Sedgwick and what happened to her after she had her picture taken in 1917?

Now a century old photograph has the power to draw you in and ask a set of questions to which I doubt there are any answers.

This is Miss G Sedgwick aged 19, taken on November 21 1917.

I have no clue as to where she lived other than that the picture postcard was produced by Van Ralty Ltd who had studios in Manchester, Liverpool Sheffield, Nottingham, Oldham and Bolton.

In 1911 they had two branches here in Manchester, one at 92 London Road and a second at 91 Oldham Street.

And despite a shedload load of their pictures offered on ebay and sitting in the digital collection at Manchester Archives + I can’t find a history of the business or any catalogue, which doesn’t mean there isn’t one out there just I haven’t found it yet.*

I would like to think that she posed for her picture in one of the Manchester studios, but it is equally likely it could be Liverpool, Oldham, Bolton or Sheffield but I rather think it might be Sheffield for no other reason than I have in the collection a picture of  Miss Violet Sedgwick who was 20 in 1917 and was born and grew up  in Sheffield.

That doesn’t mean they are related and so far there is no evidence that they were but the two pictures are part of the same batch which my friend David Harrop showed me so there will be a link, it is all a matter of finding it.

At which some point there will be a few who mutter that this is slim pickings and hardly amounts to  story but I would disagree.

We have a picture and a name and somewhere there will be a story which will offer up some fascinating insights into a young women a hundred years ago.

Well we shall see.

Location; unknown

Picture; Miss G Sedgwick, 1917, from the collection of David Harrop

* Manchester Archives + https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/9247818576

**Miss Violet Sedgwick just 21 years old and busy in a munitions factory ......... stories behind the book nu 16, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2016-04-15T12:16:00%2B01:00&max-results=7

One stone statue ........ late of Park Brow Farm and the Assize Courts ............ looking for a new home

Now I have a soft spot for this chap.

He once resided in the garden of Park Brow Farm down on St Werburgh’s Road but originally had sat high up on the old Assize Courts in Manchester.

How it got from one to the other involved one of Mr Hitler’s bombs which did for the courts and led eventually from  a stone mason’s yard to the farm.

He wasn’t a small thing and I have every bit of respect for the men who got him from the ground up to the top of the courts and equally to Oliver Bailey who along with his dad and brother wrestled with the object in the garden of the farm.

Oliver remembers that “when we off loaded the beastie using the front loader on an old grey Ferguson tractor, despite having a one ton counterweight on the back we had to sit people on it to keep the back wheels on the ground but fortunately it was only a short distance.”

By the time it had arrived in Chorlton it had lost two small horns “where the lighter patches are on its head but they were broken off, possibly during removal so there were two small square plugs to show where they had been.”

And then with the sale of the farm in the 1980s the statue was on off on another adventure.

All of which may seem trivial stuff but I think not.  Its journey from the grand law courts to a garden is fascinating in itself and points to that simple observation that there are stories everywhere and in this case part of the fun has been tracking down the history.

I grant you it doesn’t involve some great event of a deep State secret but it offers up a close up of mid 19th century public sculpture mixed with the dram of the Blitz and that wonderful almost eccentric wish of the part of someone to preserve it.

All of which just leaves me to reveal where it went next.

But like all good detective stories that will have to wait.

Location the Assize Courts, Park Brow Farm and another place

Picture; stone statue, circa 1980s,  from the collection of Tony Walker

Capturing images of where we live before they are lost for ever ............... the photographs of Andy Robertson

Now the collection has just expanded with a vast new set of pictures from Andy Robertson.

Many of them will have already featured on the blog and they represent a wonderful record of how Manchester, Salford and the surrounding areas are changing.

Andy specialises in capturing bits of the landscape just before and during that moment when they are being redeveloped.

It is an eclectic collection covering everything from derelict pubs and cinemas, to grand old houses past their best and a shed load of industrial sites.

Yesterday it was the old Leaf Street Baths in Hulme, before that the skyline from a car park and before that bits of Chorlton’s shopping history and some old street furniture.

And what makes his work unique is that once he has spotted a subject he follows it through from crumbling and empty relic to demolition, a cleared site and the development.

These two were taken in 2014 of the Wilburn Basin when there was talk of redevelopment.  Since then has been back.

And that is all I am going to say for now other than to thank Andy and to say here is the link to over 150 stories featuring his pictures.*  There are more I just haven't catalogued them yet.

Location, Wilburn Basin

Pictures; the Wilburn Basin June 2014 & January 2016, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Andy Robertson, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Andy%20Robertson

Waiting for tram number 134 to leave for High Town

I never rode on a tram and I doubt that any of the people who read the blog have done so either, which I guess is the attraction of tram stories.

And they are popular, so here from sometime between 1945 and 1946 is tram 134 on the 13 route to High Town.

High Town is in Cheetham Hill and must have made for a long scenic journey taking its passengers north to the city centre and on past Victoria Station.

The caption reads, “What a bogie-tram looked like to the intending passenger as it waits in the beck of the bay for departure time.”

And it is a pretty impressive vehicle.  I reckon it’s both its height and the narrowness of the carriage which gives it that stately look.

But they were noisy and according to my dad rattled and bumped along a bit, which made them less comfortable than the trolley bus.

But then I was always ill on the trolley bus and so would have liked to have experienced Number 134.

Location, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; from the Lloyd Collection

More fascinating pictures of the lost Leaf Street Baths.

Just when you think that is the end of a story up pops something new.

And just about an hour ago Andy Robertson sent over some fine pictures of the site.

With his usual modesty he made little comment, but they reveal so much of the old baths and make me want to go down there and explore the site.

But Andy has done an excellent job so here are some of what was lost under back fill and is now again open to the sunlight.

The baths had been in by 1860 the Manchester & Salford Baths and Laundries Company which  had been formed in 1855, and built baths in Salford, Mayfield at Ardwick and Victoria Park.*

Its assets were bought by Manchester Corporation in 1877.

The company had added a Turkish bath in 1860 which was the first in a public baths in Manchester.

The Leaf Street Baths were demolished in the clearances of the 1970s and today the site is open ground.

When I first posted the story I pondered on who remembered them and the response has been impressive.

There are those who wrote to me describing their first swimming lessons and those who still have their certificate proudly proclaiming their achievement at swimming a length, and memories from Tom who supervised children from nearby Royce School when they attended in the early 1970s.

Nor were the baths just a place for recreation, most also had a washhouse and facilities for families and individuals to take a bath, and in the case of Leaf Street it's own Turkish Baths.**

Location; Leaf Street, Hulme










Pictures; remains of Leaf Street Baths, 2016, from  the collection of Andy Robertson

*Leaf Street Swimming Baths, the first of a set of stories,http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/leaf-street-swimming-baths-first-of-set.html

**Manchester and Salford's Public Baths, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20and%20Salford%27s%20Public%20Baths

Remembering Park Brow Farm on St Werburgh Road as it was

You have to go looking for pictures of working farms in Chorlton.

I have two in the collection from the 1880s showing Higgnbotham’s farm on the green, a couple more of Ivy Farm on Beech Road and a few of when Hough End Hall was still producing food which just leaves five or six of Park Brow  from the middle decades of the last century.

Nor is there much in the way of written descriptions.

I can think of one short account of Ivy Farm matched by a mix of anecdotes about collecting milk and working on the land at Turn Moss with some detailed stories about Park Brow from Oliver Bailey whose family ran it during the 20th century.

So I was more than a bit happy when my friend Ann sent me a collection of models of Park Brow made by her husband.

“They were” she wrote “  made many years ago,  and may not be accurate, as he used it for his layout, but most of it is as he remembers it from 40 years ago when he walked past it every day on his way to work.”

All of which I think is a tad modest of Howard.  If you compare them with collection of photographs from the 1930s and 40s along with and Oliver’s description of the farm and the present buildings the models are a pretty close reconstruction.

And that is pretty much all I am going to say for now, but reserve the right to come back with lots more at a later date.

Location Park Brow Farm, Chorlton-cum-Hardy




Pictures; models of Park Brow, circa 1974, courtesy of Howard Love

When in Rome part 3

A few days ago I was reflecting on that other Rome which most tourists only get to see by accident.

 Not that we are any different. You take the wrong turning compound that with asking the advice of a local who knows a short cut and you end up lost.

But then the centre of Rome is small and after a few minutes you are almost back on track and in the meantime have been rewarded with quirky views of ancient buildings and a welcoming bar whose rickety chairs and tables have somehow managed to fill every known space in the square.

Location; Rome

Pictures; Rome, 2010, from the collection of Andrew Simpson