Tuesday 31 December 2019

David Vaughan


Roman soldiers on Beaufort Street by David Vaughan
I have always been fascinated by the artist David Vaughan, not least because he painted a mural on the side of the butcher’s shop on Whiteacre Road in Ashton.*

It was of the Queen and was done for the Jubilee in 1977 and as I lived in the next street I passed it most days.

Later still I came across another of his paintings on Beaufort Street in Castlefield.

It was behind the reconstructed Roman fort and once showed a unit of the Roman army marching across the wall of the railway viaduct.

Sadly both have now gone, although the Roman soldiers did last into this century but by then  the bright colours had begun to fade and the paint peel. So I was not over surprised when last week I discovered that it had been painted over.

That said much of his work can still be seen at https://www.thejoyousliving.com/art-david-vaughan-life-work/

And featured on  Radio 4 :The Artist Who Fell From Grace which “looked back at his life and times with the aid of newly discovered interviews" and the memories of the people who knew him.**

It was broadcast in 2013 and sadly is now not available.

Picture;   Beaufort Street in Castlefield from David Vaughan

*The murals of David Vaughanhttps://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-murals-of-david-vaughan.html

** http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01sjjxx

Monday 30 December 2019

Going back into the shadows for another sixty years? ………… those wall tiles on Wilbraham Road

Now I wasn’t surprised at the interest in a set of wall tiles I wrote about on Saturday*.


They were unconvered by builders during work on the former Shareen Fashion.

I tracked  the tiles to the first owner of the shop, a Mr Worthington Brice who was a fishmonger and poulter, who was in business at the beginning of the last century.

The builders thought the tiles were going to be retained, and be a feature of the new café/restaurant, but perhaps not.

Looking through the window on Saturday, they appeared to be metal strips fastened on to the tiles suggesting that a new plaster board frontage was about to consign our tiles to another prolonged period of darkness.

And that in turn will deprive us of a bit of our history.

The update ...... the animal triangles have been cut out of the wall, the fish it seems are doomed.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; wall tiles, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Rediscovering the shop on Wilbraham Road of Mr. Worthing Brice ....... fishmonger and poulterer .. https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/12/rediscovering-shop-on-wilbraham-road-of.html

In the midst of great wealth ....Span Court and St John's Street


I have been drawn back to Span Court.

It was a collection of six back to back houses in a partially enclosed court off Artillery Street which runs from Byrom Street to Longworth Street behind Deansgate.

They were one up one down with a cellar and did not rate an entry in the street directories which is not unsurprising given that those who lived here were on very modest means and some on the very margins of poverty.

In 1851 in those six houses lived a total of thirty-three people who made their living from the bottom end of the economic pile including six power loom weavers, a cooper, dress maker as well as an errand boy, a hawker and a pauper.

It is very easy to become blasĂ© at the conditions in Span Court, after all historical empathy only goes so far, but this was living at the precarious end.  I rather think that Ann Cass aged 73 who described herself as a pauper had never had an easy life, and now she and her two daughters in their 30s were reliant on their combined wages as power loom weavers and what they got from Annie Harrison, their 38 year old lodger who was a band box maker.



Nor were they alone in taking in lodgers other families in the court were also doing the same and in most cases having to find space in what was at best two rooms and may even have been less, because the majority of  our houses were sublet.  Of the six, five had two families living in them as clearly defined and separate households.  Now these properties did have cellars and there were plenty of people living in the cellars of houses across the city according to the 1851 census.  But usually the enumerator recorded those who lived in the cellars.   But in this case no such records were made, ** which rather suggests that families and their lodgers were living in just one of the two rooms in each of the houses.

And in the case of John and Catherine Pussy it meant finding space for their five children ranging in ages from 20 down to three as well as their 19 year old lodger in what I guess was one room given that the house was shared with another family of four.

Span Court has gone but Artillery Street is still there and you have to walk it to get some idea of how narrow the street was and then try to picture the 83 people who lived mainly in the three courts off it or the 96 who lived on Longworth Street which ran from Artillery Street to St John Street.  The whole census patch amounts to ten streets and their small courts, most not much wider than Artillery Street and bounded by Deansgate and Byrom Street in which crowded a total of 497 people.

But it would be wrong to run away with the idea that this was just a collection of humble streets housing the least well off.  True the majority as the graph below shows  made their living from unskilled or factory work but there were also artisans, shop keepers small businessmen. And almost acting as an island of wealth was St John Street, then as now a place of fine late 18th and early 19th century houses whose residents included accountants, a silk manufacturer and a retired calico engraver and printer.

And it is this last “calico engraver” who I want to finish with as a contrast to Span Court.  James Holt had set up the family business sometime at the beginning of the 19th century had bought and maybe built his double fronted property on St John Street and in the fullness of time retired to Chorlton, leaving his son to run the business and retain in the family home in the heart of Manchester off Deansgate.  This was John Holt who would later in the 1850s move himself to our township.

But the family never gave up their interest in the area surrounding their town home and so by 1912 they owned seven of the fine houses on St John Street as well as shops cottages and a beer shop on the surrounding streets as well as land and the fine estate of Beech House in Chorlton.*

We have rather come to be conditioned by the rich living in gated communities set apart from the less well off and our wealthy families were no different.  Samuel Brooks had established his own estate which would be developed for the well off on the edge of Chorlton, and in the late 1830s Victoria Park Company was set up to “erect a number of dwelling houses of respectable appearance and condition, with gardens and pleasure grounds attached, with proper rules and regulations against damage an nuisances.”**

But the residents of the houses on the north side of St John’s Street backed on to Span Court while the Holt’s own fine house was not only beside a timber yard but its rear windows overlooked a coal yard and the densely packed court of Holt’s Place which consisted of ten small back to back properties.

So Span Court and the poor were never that far from the rich of St John’s Street which I suppose is an interesting take on that much quoted phrase, “the poor are always with us.”

Pictures;Span Court, J.Ryder, 1965, m00212, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, detail from 1842-44 OS map of Manchester & Salford, Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/, other pictures from the collection of Andrew Simpson


*Camp Street, Holt Place, James Place, Longworth Street, Severn Street, Byrom Street, Great John Street, Gillow Street, Lower Byrom Street, Charles Street, Peel Street and City Road

** A Short Account of the Victoria Park Manchester, Manchester Corporation, 1937

Sunday 29 December 2019

A choice of images on Red Lion Street and the story of a lost church

From Red Lion Street, 2014
I am always fascinated at how a photographer chooses an image.

The best capture something about a place and time and leave you admiring the photo but also wondering about the stories that sit there.

This is Red Lion Street on the corner with Catlow Lane and we are looking at one of Andy Robertson’s pictures and instantly it drew me in.

He had been out by Church Street and “had passed lots of lovely buildings but was particularly interested in this one” and I can see why.

A sorry state
This is the rear of the place and it fronts on to Union Street.

Back at the turn of the last century it belonged to Harrison & Co who were carpet factors, and I should be able to follow its ownership back  another half century or more.

Today it is empty, and pretty forlorn.

What had once been a grand entrance is bricked up and painted over and the neglect is pretty apparent from the picture.  Some of the windows are broken, the warehouse doors look to be on their last legs and at least one window frame is in danger of collapsing.

Not a promising prospect.  But that said the building next door has been renovated and has a new purpose.

So in time and with some money so might this one.

The area in 1844
Of course a developer might just pull it down and fill the space with something new.

Now I could rail against this but this little bit of the city has constantly been pulled apart and rebuilt.

The property on the other side of our old carpet warehouse was in 1911 the Bulls’ Head and Commerical Hotel and there was a pub here as far back as 1844 and perhaps longer.

In this warren of tiny lanes and back streets there have always been those smaller enterprises whose fortunes have waxed and waned but were always central to the business life of the city.

St Paul's Church from Turner Street, date unknown
And it is important that people like Andy continue to capture the changes to an area which is often neglected.

That said of course we are on the edge of the Northern Quarter a place which once thrived, went through a pretty shabby period and has emerged as an exciting part of Manchester.

As you might expect the area has always been changing, and back in 1844 Catlow Lane was called Church Lane and continued across Red Lion Street to link with Chapel Street which ran beside St Paul’s Church.

This 18th century church faced onto Tib Street and had “an unprepossessing appearance; it is built of brick, with stone dressings, there is a tower at the west end, the top of which is entirely of stone.  

The interior is very handsomely decorated.  

There are three galleries, the pillars supporting the roof, are gilt, as well as the back of the altar, organ case, pulpit, &c.  

The church has lately been much improved by the addition of a handsome coloured window over the altar.  The choral service is performed here on Sundays at half past ten and half past six.”*

Interior of St Paul's
But it had gone by 1894 and today both this stretch of Church Lane and Chapel Street are buried under the car park.

So on the turn of a photographer’s choice of image comes a a jumbled collection of half stories with the promise of more to come.

Picture; from the collection of Andy Robertson and detail of the area in 1844 from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1842-44, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and St Paul's Church, m80323, & m80324, date unknown,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass 

* The Strangers Guide to Manchester, The Strangers Guide to Manchester, 1850

Saturday 28 December 2019

Rediscovering the shop on Wilbraham Road of Mr. Worthing Brice ....... fishmonger and poulterer ..

A little bit of Chorlton’s history resurfaced just before Christmas, in what was Shareen Fashions on Wilbraham Road.

There on the wall, unseen for perhaps sixty years were the original wall tiles, from when the shop first opened.

Just when the tiles were hidden under a false wall, I guess I will never know, but a trawl of the directories will reveal its different owners; and what they sold.

So, I know Shareen Fashion were trading from the place in 1974, and that five years earlier it was the wallpaper shop of R. R. Minton, and there will have been others.

But it began as the fishmonger and poulterer’s business of Mr. Worthington Brice, who also has the sweetshop next door.

And so, it may well have been the Brice’s who chose the tiles, and the line of fish which ran along the wall.

Mr. Brice died in 1926 and was buried in Southern Cemetery, and three years later his wife was living at 10 Holland Road, which may have been the family home from much earlier.

I also know that the couple had a shop in Bramhall in 1924, but whether this was shop number two or a change of location I have yet to discover.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; wall tiles, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Monday 23 December 2019

Christmas with the Beano



Location; December 1996

Picture; The Beano, No. 2823, December 27th 1997

Snaps of Manchester Number 3, on the Manchester Ship Canal

We are on the Manchester Ship Canal sometime in the 1920s and this is one of those wonderful photographs from the collection of Sandra Hapgood.

And like the others it is a snap rather than a carefully worked out photograph, and for me that gives it something extra.

Snaps are not always carefully framed and often a bit of the detail is lost but they are real history.

I say that because snaps are what you and I would take.  They are instant, often on the spur of the moment and capture scenes that many a profession would think unworthy.

So here we are looking down on this busy waterway when it really was a modern wonder of the world.

The canal  was begun in 1887, took six years to build and cost £15 million and was one of those bold commercial ventures which ranks with the building of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway fifty years earlier.*

I remember the noise from the ships’ sirens welcoming in the New Year,  failed to notice the canal’s decline and have watched as the Salford end reinvented itself with an art gallery, theatre, war museum and Media City.**

But for thousands of people in the twin cities the canal and the docks were a source of livelihood and for many a reminder of the big world which existed beyond the waterway.

And that takes me back to the picture with the cargo ship making its way to the swing bridge, passing the cranes and warehouses with the city away in the distance.

Back then cargoes were still unloaded by hand and the crews of the ship had shore leave in the heart of Manchester and Salford, a far cry from the container led industry of today.

I hope the picture will generate some memories and perhaps even the odd story along with a correction to the date of the photograph.

Like all snaps Sandra’s relative felt no need to add any detail other than the title.

After all it was a picture destined for a photograph album which would regularly be brought out showed around and spark family discussion.

But all that said I like the way the image captures the slow progress of the ship and wake from its propellers stretching out behind.

*Opened in 1830, and was instantly a success.

**In 1958 38 million tons of freight came through the Canal which had fallen to 7.8 million tons by 2001.

Picture; from the collection of Sandra Hapgood.

Memories of the Manchester Blitz, Christmas 1940


“Another airman and I left Hawarden for Wilmslow (Just outside Stockport) via Chester, Crewe and Stockport, we were going to Manchester for a last fling, but, as it turned out, Manchester had its own private blitz that night –and boy – was it a beauty?”*  

It is almost a throwaway line, written my Uncle to my grandmother in 1941 and began a long 24 page hand written letter which for good measure was written in pencil detailing his journey from Liverpool in a troop transport to South Africa, Greece, Egypt and Iraq.

Along the way he was shown great kindness in Cape Town witnessed the confusion during the Fall of Greece, and saw more action in Basra.

It is a remarkable document, not least because we have the original, along with photographs of the places he wrote about and because it had been brought back to the UK by a fellow serviceman returning on leave.

But for today it is that reference to the Manchester Blitz that has drawn me back to his testimony.

There had been air raids on the city from the August of 1940 but it was the two nights just before Christmas which were to be the worst.

On the nights of December the 22nd through to the 23rd and again the following night the raids killed an estimated 644 people and injured over 2,000, damaged or destroyed many properties including the Cathedral, the Royal Exchange and the Free Trade Hall.

There was also extensive damage to buildings in Salford and Stretford and an equally awful tally of dead and wounded.

It is a story I have visited already** and will return to in the future.

There will be those I guess who will be surprised at the phrase in the letter, “and boy – was it a beauty,” which is to miss the point that language and particularly words can alter their meaning in just under a century.

These were awful raids in which over 400 enemy aircraft dropped a total of 441 tons of high explosive bombs and 1,920 incendiary devices over the two nights an no one at the time underestimated the impact on the city.

All of which allows me to reflect on the power of oral testimony and memory as a powerful resource in the telling of history.

And so I am indebted to my old chum David who regularly contribute to the stories I post and who sent me this vivid account remembered by his mother.

The war time bomb blog reminded me of a recent anecdote about my Mum's wartime experience -

The family home was 183 Oswald Rd facing up Scott Avenue towards the allotments and Manchester Road bridge.

My mum was at Whalley Range Girls grammar school. (She is talking about the Thirlmere Aquaduct that crosses the railway line behind Chorlton Baths, and served Trafford Park with water – a valuable target)

"I moved into lower 5X in September 1940. It was around the 20th December that Manchester had the worst air raids similar to those experienced in London, Coventry, Liverpool and Birmingham.

Two nights were particularly bad. All the windows at the front of the house were broken and the front door blown open by the blast from a land mine that landed on the allotments at the top of Scott Avenue.  Father reckoned they were aiming for the huge water pipe that crossed Manchester Road.

Houses came down at the top of Scott Avenue and Cheltenham Road, two people were killed and a girl I knew had her face badly scarred by shrapnel as she was standing outside the air raid shelter in her back garden.

Father had urged mother and me to stay in the cellar but although there was a sofa of sorts down there it was very cold. I remember the occasion vividly. 

Mother and I were sitting by the kitchen range when there was an almighty CRUMP. Soot fell down the chimney blackening our faces. When the noise settled, and only then, I dived under the kitchen table!

There were other air raids but that was the closest bomb to our home. Mother’s reaction was to cook the chicken, our special treat for Christmas before the 25th so we had our Christmas dinner early that year."'***

*Letter from Roger Hall to Emily Hall, 1941
**http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20bomb%20maps
*** courtesy of Mrs Reilly and David Reilly

Pictures; Blitz bomb damage, 1941,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, m8608,8609,Anti-aircrat guns in action, m08558

Further reading; Luftwaffe over Manchester, Smith, Peter, J, 2003

A silk from France .......... postcards from the Western Front

Now I have no idea if the soldier who purchased this embroidered silk postcard was from Eltham.

A message from the 8th London Regiment, date unknown
But given that it carried the badge of the 8th London Regiment the chances are he was from somewhere in the city.

These types of postcards are a favourite of mine.

They were made in France and Belgium and came with all sorts of designs from ones which carried a sentimental message to those with the badge of a regiment.

Many will have been sent in a letter which helped preserve the delicate nature of the embroidery.

To my dear daughter, date unknown
And here I have to thank my old friend David Harrop who has a large collection of silk postcards including this one from the 8th London.

It has has a special connection  with David, because the 8th London were also known as the Post Office Rifles and he worked for the Post Office.

The Post Office Rifles had been formed in 1868 following a bomb attack on a London prison.

After the attack the Government had created a body of special constables to protect public buildings and from a group consisting of postal workers came the request to establish a Rifle Volunteer Unit.

Detail of the London silk, date unknown
The unit saw action in Egypt in 1882 and participated in the second South African War from 1899 through to 1902.

At the outbreak of the Great War the existing Post Office Rifles were redesignated as the 1/8th Battalion, London Regiment.  A second battalion was formed in September 1914 and a third in 1915.*

And it appears that the third battalion was billeted at Blackheath from October 1915 till they went to Fovant in January 1916. **

All of which makes for a possible connection between Eltham and David’s silk.

Location; London

Picture; embroidered silk postcard, date unknown, from the collection of David Harrop

*Post Office Rifles, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_Rifles

**The London Regiment, The Long Trail, http://www.1914-1918.net/london.htm

Friday 20 December 2019

Any one born later than 1959 should turn away ..........

Now I know Christmas has arrived when my copy of the Eagle Times falls through the letter box.

Forget dressing the tree, wrapping the presents along with choosing what to do with the Christmas cards, and arguing over which compilation of Perry Como Sings Christmas to play, the news that the festive season has truly begun is that magazine.

It comes quarterly from the Eagle Society, and celebrates all things to do with the Eagle comic.

It began 30 years ago and I have been pretty much a member of the Society and reader of the journal from the beginning, missing one year because if forgot to pay the subscription and another during the mad inflation hike of the 1980s when economies had to be made.

It is a fascinating magazine which offers up not only the traditional fanzine material but articles about the 1950s and early 1960s when the comic was at its best.

The publication of Eagle was quickly followed by three companion papers, which were Girl, Swift and Robin and all four had their Christmas annual and spin off books all of which I have written about in the past.**

To read any one of the four is to be transported back to my childhood, and given that we still run open fires there is nothing better than sitting beside the flames on a winter’s afternoon as the light is fading and flipping the pages.

After sixty odd years of reading them I am well aware of what is coming but that doesn’t stop me.

So there you are ........ you were warned to turn away if Muffin the Mule, the Goons, and Sputnik are but just names.

But for those who remember listening to Sheep may Safely Graze on the big portable school radio, groaned at those little red and orange capsules you drank with your break time milk and watched the Potter’s Wheel and London to Brighton in five minutes, Eagle Times may just be for you.***

Location; 1950-61

Picture; cover from Eagle Times, Vol 30 No.4 Winter 2017

*Eagle Times; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Eagle+Times

**Comics of the 1950s, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Comics%20of%20the%201950s

*** Eagle Times, Annual subscription UK £29, overseas £40, and as a start you can visit the site https://eagle-times.blogspot.co.uk/

It’s all in the tradition ......... 30 and a bit years of Christmas trees from A J Adams

Now the blog doesn’t do adverts, never has, never will, so this is less a trade promotion and more just a thank you to Tony and his staff in the precinct for the Christmas trees they have supplied us over three decades.

Once and it was a long time ago I would go down to the shop and carefully inspect the trees, but I was rubbish at choosing, and so now I just leave it to Tony who has not disappointed me.

The tree is part of the festive deal, and while we no longer go in for coloured lights, tinsel, or the Red Star on the top, the decorations are a mix of forty-one years of celebrating Christmas in Scott’s old house opposite the Rec.

There is no themed style, just an assortment of ornaments, some handmade, others bought by the kids, and a few salvaged from mum and dad’s.

Many of them are associated with a story and are just part of what makes our Christmas.

Tony’s two trees arrived this morning and tonight or first thing tomorrow we will put them up and the day after decorate them.

Why two?   Well it's a long story which is now pretty much lost in the mists of time, but doable because Tony looks after us.

So that is it.

Location; almost Christmas

Picture; the trees from A J Adams, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Thursday 19 December 2019

Going to the “flicks" on Longford Road in Chorlton in 1913

Now as a story it is less a detailed and comprehensive piece of history and more just another tantalising clue to how we enjoyed ourselves in 1913.

The Skating Rink and Pucturedrome, 1946 from 1906
Back then the cinema was still in its infancy but that said already from Didsbury down to Withington and across to Whalley Range there were picture houses.

Some like the one on Elm Grove in Didsbury were pretty small fry.

It was called the Bijou Electric Theatre and could accommodate 350 but still bigger than the Manley Park Palace on Clarendon Road which could seat just 200 customers.

Advert, 1914
For those wanting a bigger cinema locally there was only the Chorlton Pavilion on Wilbraham Road which could hold an audience of 800.  It had been operating as a Variety Hall from the early 20th century and was the best you could get in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1913.

Or so I thought, because just a few minute’s walk away was the Longford Picturedrome, on the corner of Longford and Oswald Road.

It was a place that has slowly crept into my knowledge.

It  first came to my attention when I came across a painting by J Montgomery who painted the place in 1946 from a photograph dated 1906

He referred to it as “Chorlton Skating Rink (later the Picturedrome”.

There is a reference to as the Chorlton Skating Rink when it was wound up as a company in 1916, but I have always been fascinated by the Montgomery’s use of Picturedrome.

And now I am a little closer to adding a bit more to the story.

In 1914 it is listed as the Longford Picturedrome seating 600 and its proprietor was a James Morland.

Sadly that is all we have and the listing did manage to substitute Street for road in the address.

There was a Mr Moreland living in Old Trafford just a few years earlier but that is it.

As to why it closed I have yet to find out.

It may be the competition with its close rival proved too much, or the Great War finished it off.

That said I am confident that we will find the answer in time.

Location Chorlton

Picture; “Chorlton Skating Rink (later the Picturedrome” J Montgomery, 1946 m80132, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and advert from The Kinematograph Year Book, 1914 page 43

*The Kinematograph Year Book Program Diary and Directory 1914

Today ......the classic Italian film .......Ladri di biciclette / Bicycle Thieves .......

Now, this is one of those stories that combines my membership of the Dante Society, with my passion for films and where I live.*

And along the way highlights the work of our own Chorlton Film Institute.**

So that just leaves me to announce that on December 19th, here in Chorlton is a showing of that powerful Italian film  Ladri di biciclette / Bicycle Thieves.

“This landmark 1948 Italian film is widely regarded as among the best films of all time. Ricci, an unemployed man in post-WWII Italy, finally gets a good job - for which he needs a bicycle. But soon his bicycle is stolen…...

In 1950 it won a special Academy Honorary Award as ‘most outstanding foreign language film’ six years before the category was added to the Awards.

The film is presented in association with Societa’ Dante Alighieri, with a short introduction in English by Dr Silvana Serra, PhD in Cinema, Event Organiser for Societa' Dante Alighieri, and Member of the Selection Committee for International Short Film Festivals. 

Ladri di biciclette / Bicycle Thieves is in Italian with English subtitles and has a running time of  time 1 hour and 35 minutes approx.”.*

So that is it.

Venue: St Clement's Church, Edge Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, M21 9AE

Date; Thursday December 19

 Tickets are £5 - on the door only, no pre-booking or reservations.


Refreshments available including Panettone.

 Doors open at 20:10 – Introduction and Film starts at 20:30; film certificate is U


Location; Chorlton



Pictures; Scenes from the film, 1947, and the Dante Society in the Square, 2017, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*SOCIETA' DANTE ALIGHIERI – MANCHESTER
Il mondo in italiano – Promoting Italian Culture in the world since 1889

Email: dante@newfuture.org   

Website: www.dantemanchester.org.uk



**Chorlton Film Institute  www.chorltonfilminstitute.co.uk     

Wednesday 18 December 2019

Rare pictures of an Edwardian sitting room in Chorlton

It is rare to see the inside of a Chorlton house from the beginning of the 20th century and so I am grateful to Mr Ray Jones for sharing this one.

What is all the more remarkable is that his family lived in this house on Maple Avenue from 1895 through till 1997.

It had been bought for the sum of £550 by his great grandfather and in the course of the early decades of the last century his grandfather took a series of photographs of the house, some of the family and the surrounding roads.

And of course it is the detail of the room which draws you in from the huge collection of pictures, vases, and books to the embroidered cushion.

But for me what stamps the room with its period are the gas lamps either side of the fire place and the bell lever for summoning the servants.

Like many homes back then Mrs Jones employed the one servant often known as “a maid of all work” who did pretty much everything from the cooking and cleaning to turning down the beds and much more.

And the house was a big one with nine rooms and the needs of Mrs Jones and her two grown up children to look out for.

In the April of 1901 this was down to Miss Edith Ashworth who was twenty-one years old.

She was from Northenden in Cheshire which was not that far away and ran counter to the usual practice of employing servants from further afield.

In the course of time I think I will go looking for Miss Edith but for now all I know is that by 1911 she had moved on and her place was taken by Bernie Hicks Jones who had been born in Plymouth and was 35.

Her daily routines may have been a little easier given that by then there was only Miss Edith Mary Jones to look after.

That said there was a fair amount of dusting to do in that room alone and as someone who doesn’t dust well I feel for her.

And that brings me back to the room.  On one level it is typical of its time and similar ones can be seen in history books and contemporary furniture catalogues but what fascinates me is that I know the house and have stood in front of it on Maple Avenue.

Not that I knew the treasures that one were on display on the other side of the window or that the fine marble fireplace was stolen when the house was empty in 1997.

But the picture along with the census returns offers up a glimpse of life in Chorlton-cum-Hardy a century and a bit ago.

Location; Maple Avenue, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; sitting room Maple Avenue early 20th century, from the collection of Ray Jones

Tuesday 17 December 2019

Ghost signs in Well Hall

Now you can wait all year for a Ghost sign and then two turn up at the same time.

And for these I have Chrissie to thank who as ever on her way to work went hunting for these signs which start the story of long forgotten shops and businesses.

For that is what a ghost sign, the often last reminder of a firm which once flourished and has now gone.

They were painted in the sides of buildings and a few can still be seen.  But most are fading fast, weathered by years of rain sun and neglect.

Some have even been painted over but stubbornly the lettering still forces its way through reminding us of a grocery shop or painting business.

The first of Chrissie pictures is from the corner of Well Hall and Dunvegan Road and you know, I must have passed it lots of times and never given it a glance.

Such are ghost signs.

The second is by the Tiger’s Head in Lee, and before someone mutters that this isn’t Well Hall, all I will say is that you have to take your ghost signs where you find them.

In time I shall go digging into these two signs.

In the meantime thank you Chrissie and for all of you who have passed a sign it is time to record it.

Most will not be with us for much longer, and when they have gone the record of the people who had them made along with their stories will vanish.

And that I think is a shame.

Not least because many of the signs were themselves works of art, carefully planned, beautifully executed and a comment on what what we bought and who we employed.

Today the same publicity will appear on facebook sites, pop up in freebie newspapers and community magazines.

Most were for local consumption, becoming house hold names for a few generations.

So they were and are a little bit of our history.

Pictures © Chrissie Rose 2014

When there was only Egerton Road


This is Egerton Road sometime in the early 20th century.

We now know it as Egerton Road North and there by hangs the clue to its date.

Now I am not sure at present when Egerton Road South was cut but it was not before 1911 and judging by the look of the houses sometime after the Great War.  There will of course be people who know when it was made and all suggestions will be eagerly awaited.

So we are going back to Egerton Road.  The photograph is one from the collection which I always tend to pass over, but that is unfair to both the image and Egerton Road.  It is a fine example of a sunny summer’s day, at the post box end of Chorlton and looking at  the shadows perhaps late in the morning.

I don’t pretend to be an expert of the fashion of the period but I would date the clothes to sometime during the very early 20th century.

Like all the pictures of the period it is the total absence of cars that strike you first, followed by the almost uniform use of blinds at all the windows.  And then for me it is the balcony on the first floor at number two Egerton Road.  I have always thought that such balconies were a late 20th century thing added to town houses and flats but the Edwardians had got there first.

To which Ed Jury has added, "On the 1915 OS map of Whalley Range, Egerton Rd only had 18 dwelling on the right hand side from Wilbraham Road. At the top of the road there was a track leading to Hobson Hall Farm house. There was just farmland on the southside of Wilbraham Rd. By the 1933 map today's Egerton Rd North & South had been completed and the cricket ground had placed Hobson Hall Farm".

Picture; from the Lloyd collection circa early 20th century

Monday 16 December 2019

Home Thoughts of Well Hall from a distance .........nu 3

Now I am not one to get over homesick but this is the time of year I left Well Hall for Manchester.


In the intervening 45 years I haven’t been back as many times as I would wish and so for all those like me that miss the place and in particular the Tudor Barn here over the next few days courtesy of Chrissie Rose is what we are missing.

Picture; Well Hall Pleasuance, from the collection of Chrissie Rose, 2013

Sunday 15 December 2019

Discovering the secret of a day out on a wet August day in Heaton Park


Now a holiday in August in my experience is usually a disappointment.

I suppose it comes partly from the fact that as a teacher I remember too many sweltering days in June supervising exams as the sun cracked the paving stones, only to watch the rain come down like stair rods during August.

I was reminded of this a few days ago when I was exploring a photograph in the collection.* It shows a party of girls on an outing.

There was neither date, nor a place but given that there were a lot of children who had been transported in a convoy of “special” trams I argued it  must be one of the big parks, of which Heaton best fitted.  As to a date well I thought was “in the early years of the last century” which as we all know is really a code for saying I don’t know.

If pressed I would have said that the clothes worn by the girls placed them in the 1920s, but those of the women dated from an earlier period.  My mistake was to ignore the possibility that many of the older women may have been happier with the clothes that had been fashionable much earlier in the century.

So a date in the 1920s seems more likely and it was at this point that I sought help from the Manchester Transport Museum and in particular Mr Turnbull.  They too had the same photograph but theirs had the date August 2nd 1922 with the description that this was a “child’s outing.”  And yes it was Heaton Park and that
“the tracks on which the trams are standing now form part of the route of the preserved tramway operating in the Park – the tramway originally ran into the Park from a junction on Middleton Road and terminated near a large shelter, which is out of shot to the left.  This shelter now forms the depot and museum building for the preserved tramway.”

And as you do on search quests I had trawled the records for the weather on that August of 1922.  It had been a bad summer with July and August “cool and unsettled with much rain and little sun”** Which is confirmed by the number of girls carrying umbrellas and an article in the Manchester Guardian of August 1924 bemoaning the bad summers of the last few years and citing 1920 and 1922 as pretty bad and no better that 1924.  So no change then in just over 90 years then.  And for those who really want to know it was a Tuesday.


So perhaps not the most earth shattering piece of historical detective work but nevertheless one that closes a puzzle, and although I am no nearer knowing what the occasion was, I am sure someone will be able to help me on that score.  On the other hand I am pleased that the next time I am up in Heaton Park that stretch of tram line will allow me in a sort of way to touch an event 90 years ago, and bring that photograph of those young girls a bit closer.

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/tram-excursion-on-wet-summers-day.html
**Stratton, J.M., Agricultural Records 1969

Picture; from the Lloyd collection

And a thank you to Mr Turnbull of the Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester www.gmts.co.uk   
And for details of the museum in Heaton Park, contact The Manchester Transport Museum Society at  http://www.heatonparktramway.org.uk/

Views from a tram stop .......... across the roof tops

Location; Stretford









Picture; a work in progress from the collection of Andy Robertson, 2019

Saturday 14 December 2019

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ........ nu 83 Back Piccadilly*

You might be forgiven for thinking that Back Piccadilly is one of those long narrow thoroughfares that time has pretty much forgotten, and which is rarely visited and even more rarely talked about.

1900
It stretches from Lena Street down to Tib Street and crosses three of the main routes out towards the north of the city and also gives access to another five streets which run off into Dale Street.

And yet walk its length and there is little to see. Most of the stretch consists of the back of properties which have their more public face on Dale Street or Piccadilly.

But not quite because just roughly half way along on the corner with Little Lever Street is Mother Mac’s which was once the Wellington.

Now given that on a dark winter’s night it might seem the only welcome sign of life along the entire length of Back Piccadilly it should not be missed.

Of course you may want to forgo the story of the gruesome murder which reputedly took place inside, particularly if you are planning to walk back along the street later in the night. It’s a story which could probably be added to with others given that the pub has been dispensing beer and cheer for at least a century and a half.

1908
But if you are looking for ghosts my money would be on the barrow boys who may have finished off a day’s trading with a couple of pints and who occupied Back Piccadilly selling everything from fruit and dried flowers to costume jewellery, toy mice and pretty much what ever would catch the punter’s eye on a Saturday.

According to one journalist writing in 1961 “the shopping public crowd each Saturday into the narrow canyon of Back Piccadilly to buy or just waste a minute listening to the eruptions of verbal slapstick” from the two dozen barrow boys.

At one end was the man with a three foot long barrage balloon which he flirted around his head accompanied by the cry “only a Bob. All best rubber and all that jazz” while his companion wooed the crowd with the latest continental jewellery shouting “C’mon darlin’- dangle them from your ears and you’ll look like the Queen of Sheba.”**

Some claimed that their families stretching to their great grandfather’s had been working the pitches but were fearful of new regulation which would drive them out.

1967
And now they are no more, unlike the pub which has seen off its rivals which at the beginning of the last century included a Yates Wine Lodge at the Oldham Street corner and the Merchants’ Hotel.

Back then there were also forty other businesses all employing thirsty workmen and ensuring there were customers for all three.

All of which was perhaps easier than when the 77 year old James Grindrod managed the Wellington in 1851 and competed with The Mosley Tap Room, the Albion Tap Room and two other beer retailers at a time when Back Piccadilly consisted of just 22 properties.
Location; Back Piccadilly

Pictures; Back Piccadilly, 1900, m00264, 1908, J Jackson, m00265, and 1967, W Higham, m00267, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Lost  Manchester Streets, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Lost+Manchester+Streets

**Back Piccadilly may lose barrow Boys, the Manchester Guardian, November 20, 1961

Making stories out of our histories ... part 5 .....the celebration .......today

The community writing project which led to the book ....The Stories of Our Lives has been a great success, and to celebrate that success the book will be officially launched today.

So with an outrageous and unprincipled move I will just lift their launch leaflet and quote Jolene,  "This year, Chorlton Good Neighbours and I teamed up to lead an experimental group in Chorlton.  

It drew together people who all shared the same belief. We agreed that, given the chance, people with life experience have such interesting and valuable things to say that their stories should be heard and recorded in some way.   

Older people with memories and stories to tell were connected with locals with an enthusiasm to listen and varying experiences of writing. Additional volunteers helped in different ways, for example by editing and designing the layout of the finished stories. 

We also received enough donations from helpers to get the book printed.  It was with true team effort that this community group shared, recorded and compiled over 50 stories – enough to create a book that celebrates each of the significant lives glimpsed within it. 

The group would now love to share this finished book with you, to speak of what it was like to be part of and reveal some of the background of how it was put together as a community.  Come help us celebrate our efforts and learning at Chorlton Library today  from 2pm until 3.30pm.  


If you arrive at 2pm, you will see a short presentation, then there will be time to have a cuppa and chat with some of those who were involved.  

The event is free but if you would like to buy a book, a donation of £5 or more in cash is very welcome.  CGN and I are continuing the story telling club on a monthly basis next year so all money donated goes towards future publications produced."


To find out more contact me jolenesheehan@live.com or 07939566148. 

Jolene Sheehan www.joyethic.com