Now I say missed the bus, but to be more accurate it was the book.
Just weeks after we finished Churches, Chapels, Temples A Synagogue and a Mosque,* Chris Griffiths showed me this photograph of a group of soldiers outside the McLaren Baptist Memorial Church on Edge Lane.
I don’t have a date, but as the church hall was used as a Red Cross Hospital from 1914 until the end of the Great War, it could be any time during those four years.
There may be a clue that I am missing, but for now that is it.
The Sunday school hall was converted into “a ward of 31 beds, kitchens, mess room, bath room, dispensary, pack stores, linen rooms, matrons’ room and office all of which were on the ground floor”.**
The original plan had been for 25 beds but in May 1915 an extra six beds were added.
During the first two years the hospital catered for a range of wounds from shrapnel to gunshots along with infectious diseases and the effect of gas and the troops came mainly from the Western Front and the Dardnelles.
And thenywill have come from different regiments and different parts of the country, as the soldier in the kilt testifies.
Now because our book is about places of worship in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, the McLaren Baptist Memorial Church made it into the book even though it was demolished in the 1970s.
We devote quite a bit of space to its role as a Red Cross Hospital, along with the hall of the Methodist church, it is just a shame our picture never made it in to the book.
That said, you can come and discuss the picture and the book at the book launch on December 3rd at Chorlton Library.
We will be there from 7.30 with some festive food and drink, some of the people who helped us and of course a heap of stories.
You can obtain your copy from us at http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or Chorlton Book shop, 506 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9AW 0161 881 6374
Location; Chorlton & Didsbury
Picture; The McLaren Baptist Memorial Church, date unknown from the collection of Chris Griffiths
*A new book on the places of worship in Chorlton-cum Hardy, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20places%20of%20worship%20in%20Chorlton-cum-Hardy
I don’t have a date, but as the church hall was used as a Red Cross Hospital from 1914 until the end of the Great War, it could be any time during those four years.
There may be a clue that I am missing, but for now that is it.
The original plan had been for 25 beds but in May 1915 an extra six beds were added.
During the first two years the hospital catered for a range of wounds from shrapnel to gunshots along with infectious diseases and the effect of gas and the troops came mainly from the Western Front and the Dardnelles.
And thenywill have come from different regiments and different parts of the country, as the soldier in the kilt testifies.
Now because our book is about places of worship in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, the McLaren Baptist Memorial Church made it into the book even though it was demolished in the 1970s.
That said, you can come and discuss the picture and the book at the book launch on December 3rd at Chorlton Library.
We will be there from 7.30 with some festive food and drink, some of the people who helped us and of course a heap of stories.
You can obtain your copy from us at http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or Chorlton Book shop, 506 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9AW 0161 881 6374
Location; Chorlton & Didsbury
Picture; The McLaren Baptist Memorial Church, date unknown from the collection of Chris Griffiths
*A new book on the places of worship in Chorlton-cum Hardy, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20places%20of%20worship%20in%20Chorlton-cum-Hardy
No comments:
Post a Comment