Friday 29 April 2016

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

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