Now as everyone knows the publishing event of the year is the arrival of the new book on Chorlton and its past.
It was published today and copies will be available from Chorlton Book shop later today or from http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/
It is the story of the bits of Chorlton that don’t get into the history books, from some well loved personalities to little known facts like the goat enclosure and swimming pool in Chorlton Park and the strange meandering course of the Rough Leach Gutter.
And because Peter and I are not parochial we have included stories from Whalley Range, Didsbury and Stretford and celebrated that great highway that is Barlow Moor Road.
But as quirky as the book is there is a serious side to why we set about the exercise and today this is my story from behind the book
From the start we decided it should include not just buildings and events but people, and those people should be individuals who were, or are special to Chorlton.
So while there are references to the big names that always appear in history books, we chose others like David Wilkinson, Stan and Mona of the Trevor and Allan Brown.
And at the top of my list was Marjorie Holmes.
She was a dear friend and a guardian of our history.
Marjorie was born in Chorlton and apart from her war service lived all her life around the old village.
Her dad had a workshop in the yard of the old farmhouse on the green which is now Finney Drive and the family possessed one of those old fabulous looking cars.
She was an accomplished artist and had a wealth of stories,when according to her, Chorlton was “still Chorlton”.
I never quite understood what she meant by that but hers had been a childhood when the last vestiges of the old rural Chorlton were just passing away and she could talk about that period with great authority.
She had played on the meadows, when it was still farmland, remembered going to the local farm for milk and was firmly of the opinion that, “them in New Chorlton were a snooty lot who were all fancy cakes and silk knickers”, and if she wanted to be particularly dismissive she added “all fancy cakes and no knickers”.
Of course I could never really be sure that underneath her bold sweeping statements there was not more than a little mischief.
I must have spent hours sitting in her back room on Provis Road listening to tales of everything from her frequent late attendance at school because she had stopped to watch Mr Clark the blacksmith carrying out his magic of “heating and hammering”, to sitting in the cellar of the family home on Stockton Road during the Manchester Blitz.
She was one of those rare people who saw the value in everyone, and if she adopted you as her friend it was a lasting friendship which brought with it great pleasure and much fun.
Much of what she remembered she committed to paper, including a vivid account I still have of Beech Road in the early 1930s, and this we have included in the book.
Marjorie Holmes 1921-2014
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; 1930s -2011, from the collection of Marjorie Holmes and Andrew Simpson
*The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, is available from Chorlton Book Shop or from http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or 07521557888
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| Marjorie circa 1966 |
It is the story of the bits of Chorlton that don’t get into the history books, from some well loved personalities to little known facts like the goat enclosure and swimming pool in Chorlton Park and the strange meandering course of the Rough Leach Gutter.
And because Peter and I are not parochial we have included stories from Whalley Range, Didsbury and Stretford and celebrated that great highway that is Barlow Moor Road.
But as quirky as the book is there is a serious side to why we set about the exercise and today this is my story from behind the book
From the start we decided it should include not just buildings and events but people, and those people should be individuals who were, or are special to Chorlton.
So while there are references to the big names that always appear in history books, we chose others like David Wilkinson, Stan and Mona of the Trevor and Allan Brown.
 |
| Marjorie and her sister, date unknown |
She was a dear friend and a guardian of our history.
Marjorie was born in Chorlton and apart from her war service lived all her life around the old village.
Her dad had a workshop in the yard of the old farmhouse on the green which is now Finney Drive and the family possessed one of those old fabulous looking cars.
She was an accomplished artist and had a wealth of stories,when according to her, Chorlton was “still Chorlton”.
I never quite understood what she meant by that but hers had been a childhood when the last vestiges of the old rural Chorlton were just passing away and she could talk about that period with great authority.
She had played on the meadows, when it was still farmland, remembered going to the local farm for milk and was firmly of the opinion that, “them in New Chorlton were a snooty lot who were all fancy cakes and silk knickers”, and if she wanted to be particularly dismissive she added “all fancy cakes and no knickers”.
 |
| Marjorie, 2011 |
I must have spent hours sitting in her back room on Provis Road listening to tales of everything from her frequent late attendance at school because she had stopped to watch Mr Clark the blacksmith carrying out his magic of “heating and hammering”, to sitting in the cellar of the family home on Stockton Road during the Manchester Blitz.
She was one of those rare people who saw the value in everyone, and if she adopted you as her friend it was a lasting friendship which brought with it great pleasure and much fun.
Much of what she remembered she committed to paper, including a vivid account I still have of Beech Road in the early 1930s, and this we have included in the book.
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; 1930s -2011, from the collection of Marjorie Holmes and Andrew Simpson
*The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, is available from Chorlton Book Shop or from http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or 07521557888
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