The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*
Now I have no doubt that Joe and Mary Ann would have used a hot water bottle.
They were and are a very cheap and effective way of warming the bed on one of those cold winter nights.
We still use them and have done so since the kids were little.
Even now when they stay over and especially when they have gone out on the town for the night I will fill the bottles and slip them in under the sheets.
It is something dad did in Well Hall Road over sixty years ago and remains a natural thing to do.
And as you would expect there is an art to it.
The water must be just off boiling, having been left for a few minutes, and you must never fill them to the brim. Instead there should be a space and above all that space should be purged of air.
That way the bottle will allow you to manipulate it around your feet more easily and it has to be placed in the bed at least half an hour before you go up.
All of which would have been familiar to Joe and Mary Ann, who lived in the house when the only heating were open fires which were rarely lit in the bedrooms.
Less familiar to them would have been the house alarm.
We installed it over thirty years ago and knowing a little about Joe I suspect he would have had one added when the house was built if the technology had been in existence back in 1915.
Ours was put in by Ian Henderson who I have known for something like 35 years and it was while talking to him yesterday as he serviced the system that I learnt a little bit more Joe and Mary Ann.**
I know the bare biographical details and there are plenty of people who still remember them but both died a long time ago and have left little of a trail to follow.
From Ian I have a bit of a physical description and more stories of their love of animals.
That love of animals led them to leave the house to the PDSA on Mary Ann’s death in 1974 and more than a few people have asked about the dead pets they buried in the garden which I can testify to on the rare occasion I have done the gardening.
But Ian may have the odd old rent book from when his family lived on Neal Road and other bits and pieces.I had always thought that most of the properties on Neile along with Provis had been built by Mr Scott for rent.
As such they were according to Ian always painted green but when his mum bought the house it was from the estate of a Miss Wilton which is intriguing.
Now the Wlton family go back to the early 19th century in Chorlton but the last I thought had died out in the 1890s.
Nor is that all because Neale was also the name of the butcher on Wilbraham Road who Joe was friendly with.
There may also be more because Ian’s grandfather worked for Joe and who knows somewhere in the family collection may be a picture of Old Mr Henderson standing beside Joe Scott, now that would be a find.
Pictures; that demand, 2016, and the house in 1974 courtesy of Lois Elsden, 3-51 Beech Road, built by Joe Scott’s father, m17663, taken in November 1958 by R.E. Stanley and Neale Road with some of Joe Scott’s houses in the distance, 1958 R.E. Stanley, m18135,, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
*The story of house,
http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house
**HBA Alarms.Co.UK, hbaalarms@aol.com
 |
| The house in 1974 |
They were and are a very cheap and effective way of warming the bed on one of those cold winter nights.
We still use them and have done so since the kids were little.
Even now when they stay over and especially when they have gone out on the town for the night I will fill the bottles and slip them in under the sheets.
It is something dad did in Well Hall Road over sixty years ago and remains a natural thing to do.
And as you would expect there is an art to it.
The water must be just off boiling, having been left for a few minutes, and you must never fill them to the brim. Instead there should be a space and above all that space should be purged of air.
That way the bottle will allow you to manipulate it around your feet more easily and it has to be placed in the bed at least half an hour before you go up.
 |
| The other end of the terrace in 1958 |
Less familiar to them would have been the house alarm.
We installed it over thirty years ago and knowing a little about Joe I suspect he would have had one added when the house was built if the technology had been in existence back in 1915.
Ours was put in by Ian Henderson who I have known for something like 35 years and it was while talking to him yesterday as he serviced the system that I learnt a little bit more Joe and Mary Ann.**
I know the bare biographical details and there are plenty of people who still remember them but both died a long time ago and have left little of a trail to follow.
From Ian I have a bit of a physical description and more stories of their love of animals.
That love of animals led them to leave the house to the PDSA on Mary Ann’s death in 1974 and more than a few people have asked about the dead pets they buried in the garden which I can testify to on the rare occasion I have done the gardening.
 |
| Looking down Neale Road, 1958 |
As such they were according to Ian always painted green but when his mum bought the house it was from the estate of a Miss Wilton which is intriguing.
Now the Wlton family go back to the early 19th century in Chorlton but the last I thought had died out in the 1890s.
Nor is that all because Neale was also the name of the butcher on Wilbraham Road who Joe was friendly with.
There may also be more because Ian’s grandfather worked for Joe and who knows somewhere in the family collection may be a picture of Old Mr Henderson standing beside Joe Scott, now that would be a find.
Pictures; that demand, 2016, and the house in 1974 courtesy of Lois Elsden, 3-51 Beech Road, built by Joe Scott’s father, m17663, taken in November 1958 by R.E. Stanley and Neale Road with some of Joe Scott’s houses in the distance, 1958 R.E. Stanley, m18135,, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
*The story of house,
http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house
**HBA Alarms.Co.UK, hbaalarms@aol.com
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