Now, sometimes however you study a picture and try to place it, the image defeats you.
So, it is with this one, which my old friend Andy Robertson uncovered.
I have a similar one in the collection, but I like this one because the company which produced it went to the trouble of adding colour, which is all the rage now with old black and white photographs.
The title is Manchester Road, and our own historian John Lloyd featured the same picture in one of his books, adding the caption, “Manchester Road curving away to meet Wilbraham Road.
This part of the old main road to Manchester is now, except for a few yards at the Wilbraham Road end, the car park for the shopping precinct. The plot of land at the corner of Nicholas Road is advertised for sale”. *
But however, you look at the photograph, Mr Lloyd’s description doesn’t work.
If this is the stretch running up through the present car park, with Nicolas Road to our right, none of the buildings are correct.
There were some fine houses just beyond Nicolas Road, but the 1907 maps would suggest they were set further back than the one in the picture.
Added to which the building in the distance looks to be a barn which again doesn’t fit any of the properties along the curve of the road.
That barn could be one of the out buildings for Redgate Farm which stood on the site of the present library, but that would suggest the camera is pointing away from Wilbraham Road up to the curve where the old Manchester Road joined Barlow Moor Road before heading off towards Upper Chorlton Road.
Nor can I square the date of the image with the existing OS maps for 1894 and 1907.
In the earlier map Nicolas Road has yet to be cut and on the later map there appears to be no indication of the finger post or that wall.
But then to complicate matters more, in 1907, there is what could be an alley running off to the right of Manchester Road as you look along the road as it heads up to what is now the Co-op Funeral Directors.
And to add more confusion, there was a finger post on Manchester Road somewhere just past the Methodist Church close to the junction with Wilbraham Road.
All of which leaves me baffled, and open to the accusation that I am being nerdy and trying to resurrect a debate, like the medieval one of how many angels could dance on a pinhead.
But I am not alone, Andy who supplied the picture, also pondered on the mystery of exactly where we are, and thinks, "that barn is now where the library is.
The buildings you see standing up behind the barn are the Hastings Buildings which from memory are 45-57 Manchester which of course are still there.
The houses whose gate posts can be seen on the right are also still there".
So it's all open for debate.
Location; Chorlton, somewhere
Picture; Manchester Road, picture postcard, undated, courtesy of Any Robertson, and detail of the 1907 OS
*Looking Back At Chorlton-cum-Hardy, John Lloyd, 1985
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| Manchester Road, date unknown |
I have a similar one in the collection, but I like this one because the company which produced it went to the trouble of adding colour, which is all the rage now with old black and white photographs.
The title is Manchester Road, and our own historian John Lloyd featured the same picture in one of his books, adding the caption, “Manchester Road curving away to meet Wilbraham Road.
This part of the old main road to Manchester is now, except for a few yards at the Wilbraham Road end, the car park for the shopping precinct. The plot of land at the corner of Nicholas Road is advertised for sale”. *
 |
| Detail of Manchester Road |
If this is the stretch running up through the present car park, with Nicolas Road to our right, none of the buildings are correct.
There were some fine houses just beyond Nicolas Road, but the 1907 maps would suggest they were set further back than the one in the picture.
Added to which the building in the distance looks to be a barn which again doesn’t fit any of the properties along the curve of the road.
That barn could be one of the out buildings for Redgate Farm which stood on the site of the present library, but that would suggest the camera is pointing away from Wilbraham Road up to the curve where the old Manchester Road joined Barlow Moor Road before heading off towards Upper Chorlton Road.
Nor can I square the date of the image with the existing OS maps for 1894 and 1907.
 |
| Manchester Road, 1907 |
But then to complicate matters more, in 1907, there is what could be an alley running off to the right of Manchester Road as you look along the road as it heads up to what is now the Co-op Funeral Directors.
And to add more confusion, there was a finger post on Manchester Road somewhere just past the Methodist Church close to the junction with Wilbraham Road.
All of which leaves me baffled, and open to the accusation that I am being nerdy and trying to resurrect a debate, like the medieval one of how many angels could dance on a pinhead.
But I am not alone, Andy who supplied the picture, also pondered on the mystery of exactly where we are, and thinks, "that barn is now where the library is.
The buildings you see standing up behind the barn are the Hastings Buildings which from memory are 45-57 Manchester which of course are still there.
Location; Chorlton, somewhere
Picture; Manchester Road, picture postcard, undated, courtesy of Any Robertson, and detail of the 1907 OS
*Looking Back At Chorlton-cum-Hardy, John Lloyd, 1985
The wall on the left of the picture suggests there might be a river or railway passing under the road at this point.
ReplyDeleteTo me, this has the feel of entering the stretch of Manchester Rd starting on High Lane and going north? Not the next stretch further north. The fancy wall on the left would front 'the Vicarage' and the buildings are where Cooper Court and the funeral directors now are? It just has that 'feel' to me.
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