Out in Chorlton with the football team in 1920

Now I say 1920 but it could equally be any time between then and 1922.

And this I know because it comes from a collection of family photographs belonging to Peter McLoughlin.

Unlike many collections these can be dated, often have a location and most of them Peter is able to identify the individuals in the pictures.

So he was able to tell me that "the player third from the left between the goalkeeper and the tall man, was my mother's boy friend who appears in plenty of the pictures including one where he is sat on a motor bike outside my mother's house on Hawthorn Road."

And that will date it to between 1920-22.

Now just before the Great War and into the interwar period Chorlton had a number of football clubs, some lasted longer than others but their story is not well documented.

I have written a few stories about them and have had contributions from Tony Goulding but I am no expert and pretty much confined myself to filling in the gaps from material supplied by Ann Love whose dad played for Chorlton Albion in the 1920s.*

But I know that during the last two decades of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth Chorlton supported a wide range of sporting and cultural activities including amateur dramatics and opera.

Most had developed as our population grew and drew their support from those new comers who occupied the newly built houses around what is now the Four Banks and the old station.

But some like bowling and our brass band go back to when we were still very much a rural community.

There were bowling clubs attached to both the Bowling Green and the Horse and Jockey well before the 1860s and our first brass band was established sometime around 1820.

Until Peter confirmed the location I thought that it might be the meadows but just possibly up by Hardy Lane or even on a make shift pitch at Turn Moss and of course there was always that rather awkward thought that it may not even be Chorlton.

But the team played down there on the meadows which makes for a nice bit of continuity even if it does  raise the question of which local team they were.

And like all good pictures it leaves me with a few more questions of which the one that fascinate me most is the identity of the man with bike.

I can't think he was the manager or trainer which leaves me wondering whether he was their sole supporter or just someone who was passing and was curious enough to be caught on camera.

Picture; from the collection of Peter McLoughlin date unknown

*Chorlton Football Clubs, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20Footbal%20Clubs