Chorlton's corner shops number 16 ........those two shops on Crossland Road in 1972

Now I have been meaning to write about those two corner shops on Crossland Road because they were still doing the business when I washed up in Chorlton in the 1970s, and also because of the presence of the laundry just a little further up the road.

This  was the Pasley, later renamed the Queen and Pasley and opened in 1893, when this was still known as Crescent Road  and at one point employed 50 staff.

All the washing machines were belt driven by a huge steam engine and were the first to install the “float-iron system” which consisted of the multiple roller pressing machines. This was 15 feet wide and 15 feet long and
“was a mass production ironing machine, with delicately poised rollers. You could put a shirt with pearl buttons on it and it wouldn’t leave a mark.”

Vans from the laundry would collect the washing and deliver it to the sorting office where each item would be marked, and classified into bins, before the loads were emptied into the ten washing machines.

After being washed the clothes went through stages of being dried before being set out still slightly damp for the ironing and pressing and finally being re-sorted in the packing room and returned in the vans to the customers.

I suspect that many of the staff would at some time or other have called in at the two shops.

And I also know there will be plenty of others who will remember the two.

Pictures; Stanely Grove and Crossland Road, H Milligan, 1972, m18209 and m18207, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass