Saturday 13 January 2018

Ms Margaret Barclay of Chorlton and her ordeal in the snow

Now I wonder what happened to Ms Margaret Barclay of Hartington Road in Chorlton.

In the January of 1939 "she went for a ramble across the Yorkshire moors during which she collapsed in the snow.

She was carried five miles by five young men of the Manchester Social Club, taking turns to the George and Dragon at Woodhead.”

Sadly I have no idea how it all turned out.  Apparently she stayed the night after a doctor had “decided she was not fit to be moved” and according to her father “she has lost the use of one of her legs.”

So I went looking for and turned up nothing.  The family were at the Hartington House in the December of 1939, and included Mr and Mrs Barclay and three children ranging from Majorie aged 29, Eva 25 and Ronald who was 18.

But there is no reference to Margaret.  She could of course have got married and moved away but I have yet to find a record of her marriage or her death.

All a bit of a mystery but the details will come out in the wash at some time.

I also went looking for the Manchester Social Club but that also has drawn a blank but rambling and cycling were very popular in the 1930s with many young people and there will be a mention of it somewhere in a local paper.

So I shall just conclude with the one listing for the family which was contained in the 1939 Register.

The Register contains the names, addresses and occupations of everyone in England and Wales in 1939 and was used as the basis for rationing, identity cards and the National Health Service just under a decade later.

That in itself makes it a very important document but more so because it will be another six years before the 1921 census is published.

Added to which there is a gaping hole in what will be available given that the 1931 census was destroyed and the 1941 census was never taken.

And that is all I have to say for now.

The house on Hartington is till there but all other references to the family are still to be found.

There are plenty of pictures of the George and Dragon which as you would expect was on a pretty remote spot facing the reservoir, but as all are copyright I will leave you to go looking for them.

Picture; news item from the Manchester Chronilce, January, 30, 1939, courtesy of Sally Dervan

*Manchester Courier, January 1939

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