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.*
I have every confidence that Joe and Mary Ann would have known Jack Harker, because he was that sort of chap.
He and Ann lived on Wilton Road and later moved into Ivy Court on Beech Road and I first met them when I washed up in Chorlton in 1976.
They were regulars in the Trevor, never missing a night and sat at “their” table which was positioned between the bar and the door to the lavatories.
And when Jack discovered John was building a boat in the back of our house he offered to help, and that is how I came to know him and Ann because as we also drank in the pub every night it followed that we would end up sitting with them.
In the early days Jack would work on the boat during the day while we were all at school and also got in a few groceries, which made life that bit easier.
Then in the evenings he would report his progress to John around the table in the pub, while me, Mike and Lois chatted to Ann and got the beer in.
He seemed to know everybody and those he didn’t soon got a nickname which in the fullness of time was taken up by almost everyone in the Trevor, and as names do they clung to their owner.
But despite his popularity and his local knowledge, Jack only really told you what he wanted you to know about his life.
I know that he was baptised in St George’s in Hulme, and that he and Ann had been married before but went their separate ways and after the divorce found new partners only to meet up one night in the Robin Hood in Stretford and rekindled the romance.
It never occurred to me to ask about his early life and only once did I get an answer to what he had done in the war. The rest of his life was only lightly sketched in, and that was how it was.
Of course we were all still very young, and pretty much obsessed with our own lives which meant that our curiosity lasted about as a long as it took to drink a pint.
I cannot now, even remember when he died which happened one dark night after closing time and the regular visit to “Mr Chan’s” chippy on Beech Road. Having bought their fish supper, Jack collapsed and died.
We will have gone to the funeral but sadly that too is hard to remember.
I do however remember the impromptus sessions back at their house in Wilton Road after the pub.
There weren’t many of them and I suspect they were confined to Christmas time but Ann always provided a spread and we left in the early hours to wander back up Beech Road, missing the milkman by just an hour.
But leaving aside the meandering accounts of “lost evenings” there is the serious point that Jack along with so many others had a story to tell which has been forgotten.
He lived through two world wars, as well as the depression and lived in Chorlton long before the first bar opened its doors.
All of which makes me think that when we write volume two of the Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, he will be in it.
Pictures; Jack Harker, 1983, and in 1978, and the old parish graveyard from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Jack and the boat, 1977, courtesy of Lois Elsden
*The story of a house, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house
 |
| Jack in 1983 |
He and Ann lived on Wilton Road and later moved into Ivy Court on Beech Road and I first met them when I washed up in Chorlton in 1976.
They were regulars in the Trevor, never missing a night and sat at “their” table which was positioned between the bar and the door to the lavatories.
And when Jack discovered John was building a boat in the back of our house he offered to help, and that is how I came to know him and Ann because as we also drank in the pub every night it followed that we would end up sitting with them.
In the early days Jack would work on the boat during the day while we were all at school and also got in a few groceries, which made life that bit easier.
 |
| Jack and friend, 1979 |
He seemed to know everybody and those he didn’t soon got a nickname which in the fullness of time was taken up by almost everyone in the Trevor, and as names do they clung to their owner.
But despite his popularity and his local knowledge, Jack only really told you what he wanted you to know about his life.
I know that he was baptised in St George’s in Hulme, and that he and Ann had been married before but went their separate ways and after the divorce found new partners only to meet up one night in the Robin Hood in Stretford and rekindled the romance.
It never occurred to me to ask about his early life and only once did I get an answer to what he had done in the war. The rest of his life was only lightly sketched in, and that was how it was.
 |
| Jack and the boat, 1977 |
I cannot now, even remember when he died which happened one dark night after closing time and the regular visit to “Mr Chan’s” chippy on Beech Road. Having bought their fish supper, Jack collapsed and died.
I do however remember the impromptus sessions back at their house in Wilton Road after the pub.
 |
| A place full of Jack's stories, 1979 |
But leaving aside the meandering accounts of “lost evenings” there is the serious point that Jack along with so many others had a story to tell which has been forgotten.
He lived through two world wars, as well as the depression and lived in Chorlton long before the first bar opened its doors.
All of which makes me think that when we write volume two of the Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, he will be in it.
Pictures; Jack Harker, 1983, and in 1978, and the old parish graveyard from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Jack and the boat, 1977, courtesy of Lois Elsden
*The story of a house, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house
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