Changing the landscape for ever

I like these two pictures by Andy Robertson, which in their different ways record the progress of those giant towers.

The first captures the sheer scale of them, while in the second there is a brooding sense about the towers, taken as the light was fading.

Location; Manchester





Pictures. the tower developments, Manchester, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson 

By the moat at Well Hall ............ one of two

There is something quite magical about the reflection of light on water especially as the light is failing.

And Chrissie has captured that magic in a series of pictures she took earlier in the month.

And that is all I want to say.

Picture; by the moat at Well Hall, 2015 © Chrissie Rose

History at the Monastery .....Gorton .....one to do in June

On Lapwing Lane with a ghost bank

Now here is one of those buildings that I have never given much thought to.

It is the former bank on Lapwing Lane and I must have passed it countless times, and on occasion stared at it from the window of the restaurant opposite.

I did once try to take some pictures but the light was wrong and I gave up which is a shame because I might have been inspired to dig down in to the history of The Mercantile Bank of Lancashire.

Instead I have had to wait till Andy Robertson wandered past took these pictures and set me going.

As yet I haven’t found out much other than it merged with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank in 1904 which merged with the Bank of Liverpool and Martin in 1927 which subsequently changed its name to Martins and in turn merged with Barclays in 1969.

But there will be someone out there who knows all about the bank and in time will be in touch.

In the meantime I know that our building dates from 1903, which means it had a brief existence as the Mercantile Bank.

Such are the exciting times of the banking world.

And since I posted this Richard has dug deeper and discovered that the Mercantile Bank Of Lancashire Ltd was "founded in 1890 with a head office at temporary premises in Guardian Buildings, Cross Street, Manchester, with capital of £1m, its early growth reflected the continuing industrial prosperity of Manchester. 

The completion of the Manchester Ship Canal resulted in over 200 new accounts, and on 30 June 1891 the bank reported a net profit of £2,806. 

Several branches were opened in the Manchester area, as well as others across Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire. 

In 1900 branches were acquired on the Isle of Man by amalgamation with the Manx Bank. 

Soon after, however, the Mercantile Bank began to run into difficulty, partly due to the effect of the Boer War on investments. 

The board of directors saw that as a relatively small bank, they could only survive by further amalgamation. 

In the early part of 1904, several meetings were held with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, and on 1 July the business of the Mercantile Bank was transferred to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank."*

And in turn the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank merged with he Bank of Liverpool and Martin in 1927.

Pictures; former Mercantile Bank of Lancashire, 1903, courtesy of Andy Robertson, 2015

*Barclays Bank PLC, https://www.archive.barclays.com/items/show/5305

The cranes of Manchester

Now, it has become a given, that a forest of cranes set against a city backdrop is an indicator that all is going well with the local economy.

Some might gibe that what is rising into the sky will not benefit many who are looking for affordable accommodation in the city and the new developments are a blot on the landscape.

And I have a lot of sympathy with those views, that said Andy Robertson’s picture records how Manchester is changing.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; the cranes of Manchester, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

The Danelaw ..... on the wireless ..... one to listen to

Now I have never been that keen on the Vikings, but this programme on Radio on 4 in the series In Our Time is well worth listening to.*

It starts with a Viking Raid, and ends with D.H. Lawrence, .......... now that has to be intrguing.

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the effective partition of England in the 880s after a century of Viking raids, invasions and settlements.

Alfred of Wessex, the surviving Anglo-Saxon king and Guthrum, a Danish ruler, had fought each other to a stalemate and came to terms, with Guthrum controlling the land to the east (once he had agreed to convert to Christianity).

The key strategic advantage the invaders had was the Viking ships which were far superior and enabled them to raid from the sea and up rivers very rapidly. Their Great Army had arrived in the 870s, conquering the kingdom of Northumbria and occupying York.

They defeated the king of Mercia and seized part of his land. They killed the Anglo-Saxon king of East Anglia and gained control of his territory.

It was only when a smaller force failed to defeat Wessex that the Danelaw came into being, leaving a lasting impact on the people and customs of that area.

With; Judith Jesch, Professor of Viking Studies at the University of Nottingham, John Hines, Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University, and, Jane Kershaw, ERC Principal Investigator in Archaeology at the University of Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

*The Dane Law, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003jp7

And there is even a reading list.

Richard N. Bailey, Viking Age Sculpture in Northern England (Collins, 1980)

Jayne Carroll, Stephen Harrison and Gareth Williams, The Vikings in Britain and Ireland (British Museum Press, 2014)

James Graham-Campbell, Richard Hall, Judith Jesch and David N. Parsons (eds), Vikings and the Danelaw: Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Thirteenth Viking Congress (Oxbow Books, 2001)

D. M. Hadley, The Vikings in England: Settlement, Society and Culture (Manchester University Press, 2006)

Richard A. Hall et al., Aspects of Anglo-Scandinavian York (York Archaeological Trust, 2005)

Judith Jesch, The Viking Diaspora (Routledge, 2015)

Jane Kershaw, Viking Identities: Scandinavian Jewellery in England (Oxford University Press, 2013)

Julian D. Richards, Viking-Age England (The History Press, 2004)

Matthew Townend, Language and History in Viking Age England: Linguistic Relations Between Speakers of Old Norse and Old English (Brepols, 2005)

Matthew Townend, Viking Age Yorkshire (Blackthorn Press, 2014)

Thomas Williams, Viking Britain: A History (William Collins, 2017)

Next; The Irish Famine

Stories of our industrial past .......... when Andy and Cathy returned to Hulme Hall Road

This is a story which goes back four years, and involves a warehouse, a fire and a new development.*

It began when Andy Robertson spotted a news item about a fire in a building in Hulme Hall Road, hard by the Duke’s Canal in the summer of 2015.

And quick as a flash, he was down there with his camera, and so began another of those remarkable projects where Andy s regularly revisited the site, recording the changes, which began with the demolition of the old building, the moment when the construction gang broke ground, and has continued ever since.

And now, his daughter Cathy has joined in, taking these pictures from Andy’s car earlier this week.

Together the catalogue of images is a fascinating insight into a tiny part of our history, and as ever I am in awe of both Andy and Cathy who turn out in all weathers to make the passing of little bits of our heritage, and the shiny new things that take their place.

And in the process, I must thank all those who over the years have added their recollections of the building, and I have every confidence that this will continue and in time there will be many more from those who inhabit the new apartments.

Location; Hulme Hall Road




Pictures; Hulme Hall Road, 2019 from the collection of Cathy Robertson


*Hulme Hall Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=hulme+hall+road

SYLVIA and SILVIO – A meeting of minds

From SOCIETA' DANTE ALIGHIERI – MANCHESTER

A talk in English about Sylvia Pankhurst and Silvio Corio

by Alfio Bernabei – curator of the exhibition ‘Sylvia and Silvio’ opening at the end of March at the Working Class Movement Library, Salford

 Saturday 6 April 2019 – 5.45pm

 Venue: Cross Street Chapel, Cross Street, Manchester M2 1NL


Free admission – The evening will conclude with a glass of Italian wine and nibbles.

To organise the refreshments it would be helpful if you could book in advance at dante@newfuture.org

SOCIETA' DANTE ALIGHIERI – MANCHESTER

Il mondo in italiano – Promoting Italian Culture in the world since 1889

Email: dante@newfuture.org       
www.dantemanchester.org.uk

https://twitter.com/LaDanteMCR/  Find us on Facebook 


Thanks to Elena Palladino, our Executive Committee member, for helping Alfio Bernabei in organising the exhibition and this talk. GRAZIE ELENA!

Exhibition 'Sylvia and Silvio' https://www.wcml.org.uk/whats-on/events/exhibition-sylvia-and-silvio/

Event location: Working Class Movement Library

Runs: From 29th Mar 2019 to 23rd May 2019


Event time: 13:00 to 17:00

When we had trains

It is one that has featured in most books, so I guess it is time I gave it a showing. 

Chorlton Railway Station opened in 1880 and made it possible to travel on one of fifty trains into and out of the city in just 15 minutes.

The degree of the railways success can be gauged by the huge increase in the number of season tickets which were issued during the first five years.  In January 1880 this had stood at 200 but by 1886 it had risen to 600.

You could work in the city but live on the edge of the countryside.

Locatio; Chorlton

Picture; from the Lloyd collection

“A clutter of towers” ……………. Andy Robertson

Landscapes change.

And I have no doubt, that as those late Victorian and Edwardian office blocks rose above the streets, there were some who mourned the passing of the elegant 18th century town houses or the wibbly wobbly Medieval and Tudor buildings that preceded the new developments.

Uppermost in their criticisms may well have been the way that the new build was taller, brasher and out of keeping with what had gone before.

So, nothing new then.

But having offered up that caveat to balanced comments, I have to say that the new towers that are springing up are something different, altering forever the skyline and introducing into the city a type of architecture which has no regard for where human beings fit into the picture.

The present ones soon to be completed are so tall that they are monstrously ugly and contradict the idea that buildings should be in harmony with their surrounding and not make us feel insignificant.

But that is what we have, …….. towers that can be seen miles away, glimpsed through gaps in suburban houses from Chorlton, to Burnage, like some latter-day mountain range.

Now, I fully appreciate that the forest of cranes, and the ever-increasing number of developments are an indication that the City is doing well, but I don’t like them.

Location; Manchester

Picture; “A clutter of towers”, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Night clubs Variety evenings and live music

I had many late nights in Valentines on Barlow Moor Road. It was later to have other names, from Ra Ra’s, to Adam & Eve’s, the Charlie Brown’s Fun Pub and Valentine’s Health Club, although don’t ask me in what order.

I remember it as Valentine’s , not that I can truly say any of the nights there were memorable. It was a place you went after the pubs closed and back in the 1970s and ‘80s that meant half past ten in the week with a 30 minute extension on Fridays and Saturdays. So if you wanted to party on after closing time Valentine’s was the place.
To be honest they were not that enjoyable, no more than the equally drunken evenings in the long room above the Pottery shop on Wilbraham Road.

Looking back I might have preferred it when it was the Princess Club. Then according to the historian Cliff Hayes it attracted many of the top entertainers in the 1960s, including the Drifters, Bob Monkhouse, Billy J Kramer, Lonnie Donegan and Tom Jones.

It is hard to think that somewhere like Chorlton could have been a venue for such performers. But back then there were plenty of clubs across Manchester which offered doing the same. Just a little further south and a bus ride from Princess Road was the Golden Garter in Wythenshawe which was still pulling them in during the early 1980s.

Now I never went to the Princess Club and I am not sure when it had changed its name from the Chorlton Palais de Dance, but there will be some who do.

Live acts as well as live music was more in evidence, and it could also be found in those big pubs built I guess in the 1930s. There were plenty of these just outside Chorlton. I would occassionly fall into the Mersey Hotel on Princess Road. It was a big barn of a place, with lots of different rooms and may even have still had waiter service. But like our cinemas the days of these barns were numbered. Despite changing its name to the Mersey Lights it eventually went. But in its time according to Cliff Hayes it hosted appearances by Little and Large, Les Dawson, Bernard Manning and Freddie and the Dreamers.

Still there is now the Edge which may soon be all we have left of the big venues since the news that the Irish Centre may close.

Leaving me just to add that the rise of the bar culture has offered new and more intimate places for live entertainment.

Location; Chorlton and Manchester
Picture; The Mersey Hotel m 49963 1970 A Dawson, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

Stories from a Didsbury war monument

The Memorial West Didsbury, 2017

Now I have to confess I never read through the names of the men on the war memorial on Burton Road in West Didsbury, but my old friend David Harrop did, and because of him I now know something of Charles Cyril Futvoye of Clyde Road.

He enlisted in 1916 aged 22, giving his occupation as “Motor salesmen” and he was assigned to the Army Service Corps.

His bother George had also enlisted just two years earlier and was one of the Manchester Pals, belonging to the 20th City Battalion of the Manchester’s.

Both had been to University and had served in the Officer’s Training Corps.

Charles Cyril Futvoye, 2017

George survived the war, but Charles did not.

He died in the Curragh Military hospital of pneumonia on March 17th, 1916, just two months after he had enlisted.

 He is buried in Southern Cemetery along with his father who was interred three years later.

I doubt I will ever come across a photograph of him, although his Attestation Papers record that he was six feet in height and weighed ten stone.

There is a picture of his brother with the 20th Platoon of E company, but as yet there is no way of telling which George is.

Platoon 20, E Company, 20th City Battalion,The  Manchester Regiment, 1914

So, for now, that is it, but I am pleased that I now know a little about one of the names on that war memorial.

And perhaps someone in Didsbury will take up the research and look into the others commemorated on the monument.

Location, war memorial, Burton Road, Didsbury

The family grave, 2019

Pictures; the war memorial Burton Road, 2017, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and 20th Platoon of E company, 20th City Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, Manchester City Battalions Book of Honour, 1916, family grave, in Southern Cemetery, 2019, from the collection of David Harrop

Goodbye to that College in Didsbury part 13 ....... the book by Andy Pickard

Now it’s not often you get into a book, although I have to say mine was just a walk on part.

But from 1972-73 I was at Didsbury College of Education and so count as someone who was a bit of the backdrop for Andy Pickard’s book on Teacher Education at Didsbury 1946-2014.*

It is a “valediction” for a college which for “70 years has been one of the country’s premier teacher training institutions ...... [and] this book celebrates the lives of the staff and students who worked and studied at Didsbury and the contribution they made to education.

It is a social history which through the voices of the staff and students captures something of the experience of lives as they were lived on the campus.  At the same time it firmly locates Didsbury in the teacher training policies of the period while arguing for a Didsbury inheritance which the Faculty of Education can take to its new home.”**

And I was there, along with my friends, Lois, Mike and John, Miss Hargreaves my English tutor and later Nigel Cordwell and Pierre, who before they ended up at the College both worked beside me in a school in Wythenshawe.

That said I missed Dr Pickard by just a year, but met him at the farewell party for the college held in June 2014.

Back then I reflected on the closing of the College and its relocation to Hulme and now we have the story of those 70 years.

It is available from the M.M.U., at £8.99 and will soon be in local bookshops.

I have to say the cover picture intrigued me and according to Dr Pickard “is from several hundred that turned up in the library when they were clearing stuff for the move. They are now in the special collection at the MMU library. They are mostly from field trips but there is more interesting material there too”

So who knows just possibly somewhere there will be one of me, lurking behind a history book or more likely crossing the road to the Old Cock.

But if I am honest I will just be happy being one of those who the book is about.

First posted April 2016

Location; Didsbury, Manchester

Picture; from the cover of Teacher Education at Didsbury 1946-2014

*Teacher Education at Didsbury 1946-2014, Andy Pickard, M.M.U., £8.99

**from the publishers notes

What a difference 40 years makes, outside the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich

Sometimes a picture takes you right back and reminds me just how things have changed in a comparatively short period of time.

So here I am at the gate of the Arsenal in the autumn of last year.

Now the redevelopment of Woolwich has passed me by and looking at the photograph taken by our Colin I have to say it is pretty unfamiliar.

I recognise the entrance and have to say that it is looking better than I remember it back in the early 1970s but the surrounding area might as well be a scene from Planet Zogg and if it weren’t for the Arsenal I would be hard pressed to tell you where it was.

Which I why Jean’s photograph of the same spot in 1977 is so valuable, allowing me not only to fix the scene as it was when I used to walk past but is another reminder of just how quickly places can change within the space of two generations.

So thank you to Jean who has unearthed a whole collection of images of Eltham and Woolwich as it was.
And of course I am not going to pass off the opportunity of showing many more of them.

Pictures; the Arsenal in September 2013, from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick and the Arsenal in 1977 courtesy of Jean Gammons

Summer in the city ..... July 2018 no. 9 .... more Airport shapes

Location; Manchester










Picture; Manchester Airport, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

I wonder what Henry Orator Hunt did wrong? …… puzzled of Peterloo

Now it has taken me a while to get around to watching Mike Leigh’s film on Peterloo and I am a tad puzzled.

Henry Hunt circa 1820

The film I enjoyed, if you can enjoy watching innocent people cut down by a group of men on horses armed with sabres against a backdrop of poverty and unemployment.

The story of Peterloo is one I grew up with, having got the “O” level version from history text books, listened to the songs which praised Henry Hunt, and spent my share of time reading accounts of the massacre.

All of which I thought meant I could pass muster with most people when it came to the story and the results of that day in St Peter’s Fields.

But not so, because I seem to have got Henry Hunt very wrong.

For those who don’t know he was the main speaker on that August day, and understandably so given that he had a record of campaigning for the reform of Parliament, universal suffrage, and an end to child labour, and was imprisoned for two years for being at Peterloo.

He had earned the nickname Orator for his powerful speeches advancing the cause of reform and continued to do so until his death in 1835.

So, I am puzzled that in the film, he is portrayed as overbearing, single minded and more than a bit dismissive of Samuel Bamford, Joseph Johnson and the other Manchester Radicals, who were also at Peterloo and were arrested and imprisoned after the event.

Scenes from Peteroo, 1819

I wondered if it was because he was a wealthy farmer which marked him out as very different from the working-class people who are at the core of the film, or that he opposed those who advocated carrying weapons to the demonstration.

Or that in conversations he had with other radicals, he was insistent that the focus should be primarily on the issue of Parliamentary reform, and nothing else.

Today there might be those who have no time for him because he was wealthy, while others, knowing the violence which was unleashed at the meeting condemn the way he seems to have surrendered the means by which there could have been a fight back.

I suppose I will have to go back to basics, read his autobiography, and his speeches, along with what he did after Peterloo, which included standing successfully for election to Parliament in 1830 as the radical candidate for Preston, which was one of the few towns in England that had given the vote to all males who paid taxes.

Peterloo, 1819

During the course of which he had addressed not only Parliamentary reform but the need for a ten hour day and an end to child labour, commenting that "I have personally visited the factories, and witnessed the sufferings of the overworked children. but, my friends, you never heard of this. 

No, no, my speeches on the subject were all suppressed by the press."

After his victory, he and an estimated crowd of 16,000 people, marched to Manchester and held a meeting at the site of the Peterloo Massacre.

While in Parliament he opposed the 1832 Reform Act as it did not grant the vote to working class males. Instead he proposed what he called the Preston-type of universal suffrage, "a franchise which excluded all paupers and criminals but otherwise recognized the principle of an equality of political rights that all who paid taxes should have the vote." *

All of which makes me even more puzzled at just how he came across in the film.

Location; Manchester& Preston

Pictures; Henry Hunt,  (c. 1810), watercolour, by Adam Buck, 1759–1833, Peterloo, 1819 by Richard Carlile, m01563, Peterloo, 1819, m07589, and Veterans of Peterloo from a photograph taken in 1884, m07594, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*At which point I have admit the last bit was a straight crib from that excellent site called Spartacus Educational, ........ sometimes you just have to be lazy. Henry Hunt, Spartacus Educational, https://spartacus-educational.com/PRhunt.htm

“the work of a tram guard is not a woman’s work" ....... reflections on the story of women winning the Great War

Clippie, date unknown

Now this picture postcard of a “clippie got me thinking of the contribution made by women during the Great War, and in particular the opposition they faced from their male counterparts.*

In the May of that year Salford Corporation took on 15 women to work as guards on their trams and a few months later Manchester followed suit while the Manchester postal authorities decided to utilise the services of women in the “delivery of letters.”

This had followed an appeal by the Board of Trade in the March for women to register for work at the their local Labour Exchange and in the course of the next three years women were to be found working in heavy industry, as well as on the land, and in offices and on the transport network.

Of course in many respects none of this was new.  For over a century they had worked in textile mills and coal mines, laboured alongside men and children in the fields and done a variety of dirty and unpleasant occupations often for little remuneration.

But the scope of their involvement and the fact that many of these occupations were new to women marked a sea change as did the fact that some of these occupations were far better paid than their previous jobs.

Not that this was without opposition.  Tram workers in Salford had argued that “the work of a guard is not a woman’s work and that it would be too much to expect that women should take charge of the early workmen’s cars or the late cars which would keep them up until midnight.”

And a full three years later Mr Frederick A Price the superintendant of the Manchester Gas Department reporting to the Gas Committee of Manchester Corporation on the work of the 31 women clerks and 85 women meter inspectors concluded that while they were “good and careful workers” and were “industrious and painstaking, they lacked initiative, were not capable of discharging the higher administrative duties [and lacked] the necessary imagination and concentration with the power of organisation” added to which they “liked to indulge in a little gossip.”**

Munition workers, 1918

It is easy to dismiss his assessments as period pieces but a full half century later similar prejudices were being expressed during the debates on the passing of the Equal Pay legislation.

But in comparison with others his were rather gentle prejudices.

In a series of correspondence to the War Emergency Committee which had been set up by the labour movement when war broke out the National Agricultural Labourers’ & Rural Worker’s Union consistently opposed the employment of women on the land.

During the February of 1915 they wrote a series of letters making clear their opposition to “the employment of women in the agricultural industry on moral and economic grounds” pointing to the growing practice of employing women and children on lower wage rates.****

A fear which appeared to be the case from evidence they uncovered during 1915.

Location; Manchester, 1914-18

Picture; “Clippie,” date unknown and Munition workers, 1918 from the collection of David Harrop

*A new book on Manchester and the Great War, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

**Woman Tramguards, Manchester Guardian May 29, 1915

***Women at Mens’ Work, Manchester Guardian, January 5, 1918

****Walker, R B secretary, National Agricultural Labourers’ & Rural Worker’s Union R B Walker, to the War Emergency Committee, WNC, Box 1 file 4, Labour History Archives & Study Centre, the People’s History Museum, Manchester

The lost 1950’s collection ....... No 5 Hastings

Now as you would expect the Queens’ Hotel in Hastings has been written about, and never one to trespass on other’ labours I will let the curious follow the link and discover more.*

Suffice to say that when our picture postcard was produced the hotel was a little off its hundredth birthday.

That said if I had access to the Judge catalogue and armed with the code I would be able to offer up a more accurate date for when our holiday makers wandered past the Queen’s.

Hastings is a seaside resort I have yet to visit and might well be minded to call in at the hotel which appears still to be in business.

Location; Hastings

Picture; Hastings circa 1950 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Queens Hotel rises from site of America Ground,  Ion Castro
Friday 21 October 2016, http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/queens-hotel-rises-from-site-of-america-ground-1-7633794

Looking at a Chorlton landmark ………….. that cinema

This is a view of the old cinema which will be familiar, but I wonder how many people stop just to look at its features.

2019

Of course it helps if you are looking out from an upstairs window in the Health Clinic, which is where Andy took the picture.

For perhaps sixty years this scene could only have been observed from the upstairs windows of the houses that ran along the stretch of Manchester Road which is now the car park.

Now I reckon most people know the story of the cinema on Manchester Road. 

It closed in 1962 as the Gaumont having offered feature films, news reels and Saturday Morning Pictures along with choc ices, Kia-Ora and of course the Bee Gees.

1920s

And in the 42 years that it entertained the people of Chorlton it changed its name from the Picture House, to the Savoy and finally ending up as the Gaumont and at one time nearly became The New Magestic Cinema.

But most people will only know it as the Coop Funeral Care and it’s from the staff of the business that I have to thank for this little bit of Chorlton’s history.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; the cinema, 2019, courtesy of Andy Robertson, and in the 1920s from the Lloyd Collection

The lost 1950’s collection ....... No 4 Le Touquet

Now when I was growing up in the 1950s, we didn’t have seaside holidays, and while my friends went off to any one of a number of holiday camps I took the long trip by train to Derby to spend August with my grandparents.

I don’t say this out of any sense of loss ..... having never been to the seaside I didn’t miss it.

But I rather think that if I had been sent to Le Torquet I would have enjoyed myself.

It is a resort in northern France and has a reputation as one of those elegant holiday destinations for rich Parisians.

And that is all I have to say.

Except to say that looking at the picture in detail I would venture to say that the sun worshippers captured in the image fared better than those who chose Eastbourne for their holiday destination.

Of course I am being a tad unfair given that I have no idea when during the year the Eastbourne photograph was taken but  have to say I know which I would have preferred.

Although I could at least get the year by finding out if the Lansdown Publishing Company produced a catalogue which would allow me to match the year to the code.
We shall see.



Location; Le Touquet







Picture; Le Touquet, circa 1950 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

In Hulme at the Brook Building reflecting on Didsbury

Now there will be some who mourned the end of Didsbury’s association with teacher training which began in the 1940s and its even longer link with theology students which went back another full century.

I have to say I was one of them partly because I like tradition and because I was there for a year in the early 1970s.

But I have to concede that most of the buildings had run their course.

So the move to Hulme five years ago was bold and exciting and not that long ago I was given my own tour of the new building by my old friend Pierre.

It is truly a building for the 21st century with technology to keep it warm in winter, cool in summer and even withstand a once in a century storm.

More than that it offers both students and staff an amazing place to work and learn.

And of course it does seem to be giving a lift to the local economy, after all with so many students living in the surrounding properties there is a demand for everything bread and milk to fast food and places to liner over slow food.

I am well aware that some in Didsbury had long been uncomfortable at the presence of so many students amongst their midst in term time, and I also wonder if their wholesale passing has been missed.

But then Didsbury’s loss is Hulme’s gain.

Location; Hulme

Picture; looking out of the Brook Building and the Spanish Steps, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Waiting for Carry on Down Up the High Street

For those who live in Eltham Ryan’s picture will be familiar, and for those who don’t it will be a reminder that the “Flicks” will be returning to the High Street.

And I choose that word carefully because when our first cinema made its appearance in Eltham at the start of the last century the work flicks was a popular name for the cinema.

It was one I still used in the late 1950s and early 60s, when the ABC stood in the High Street, along with  its neighbors on Well Hall Road, and Eltham Hill.

And that is it, except to thank Ryan for sending the image up.

Location; Eltham

Picture; new cinema, Eltham High Street, 2019, courtesy of Ryan Ginn

The places I usually don’t photograph ...................nu 1 that other entrance

It was September 2014 and I was  on my way to meet up.

Location; Mr Thomas’s St Ann’s Alley

Picture; Mr Thomas’s St Ann’s Alley, 2014 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The lost 1950’s collection ....... No 3 Eastbourne “wishing I was somewhere else"

Now this is not a sideswipe at Eastbourne and its attractions, just an observation that for many of us growing up in the 1950s, the seaside may have been magic as a child but was never guaranteed to deliver hours of constant sunshine.

And judging by the overcoats and that strong wind the day this picture was taken was one of those moments which were less about glorious summer and more “when do the pubs open?

I may be wrong and for that I apologies to Eastbourne and all those who had a good time by the sea in the 1950s.

Location; Eastbourne












Picture; Eastbourne, circa 1950 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Making their home in Chorlton, nu 2 the Clarke Family

The sales transaction, 1860

The Clarke family arrived on Chorlton in 1860 and worked the smithy on Beech Road for nearly 100 years.

I know this because I have a copy of the sale transaction he made between himself and the widow Elizabeth Lowe. He paid £55 for the “Goodwill, fixtures about the forge. Also the pig sty and wooden shed.....”

It is a remarkable document for many reasons. Not only does it shed light on what was in the smithy but it is in Clarke’s own handwriting which makes it one of only two dozen or so personal records from the period to have survived. But there is more.

This was a time when many were still illiterate and Elizabeth Lowe was one of these. Just a decade before in 1851, 45% of the women who were married gave a mark rather than a signature on the marriage certificate.

The Clarke family were to remain on the Row well into the 20th century, and their shop would have been at the heart of the rural community.

John Clarke and before him William Davis supplied the needs of the village, repairing broken tools, forging new ones and shoeing horses.

Charles Clarke, date unknown

When he was hammering and heating at his forge on the Row he acted as a magnate for people. Some coming to collect a repaired tool or bringing a horse which was in need of a new shoe would stop and pass the time of day.

And there were always requests to personalise a farm tool. This might mean making a left handed scythe or widening or narrowing hoe blades used to chop out weeds. Then there would be the endless procession of labourers needing tools sharpened from bill hooks and scythes to axes and all the other types of edged tools.

In the process William might well replace the broken or split staves

And all the time, gangs of children attracted to the smithy by the red hot metal and frequent shower of sparks would stand and stare rooted to the spot. Marjorie Holmes remembers being late for school in the 1930s because she, like countless young people before her had been lost in the magic of the smithy.

But as busy as they were they could still pose for a photograph, and so sometime in 1913 John’s son Charles stood outside the smithy and had his picture taken.

He was 55 and still lived beside the forge. He had been married for over 26 years and he and his wife Sarah had five children.

The two boys had followed their father into the trade. In the 1911 census John described himself as a plumber, and Charles the younger son as a blacksmith striker.

Lillian the eldest of the daughters described herself as a machinist while Ethel worked in a laundry and Florence was still at school...

Charles Clarke Junior, 1893

One of the boys was also active in the Chorlton Brass Band and in the summer of 1893 was also photographed when the band played at Barlow Hall. Sadly he was to die in Gallipoli in June 1915 aged 23.

Pictures; sale of the smithy October 1860, picture of Charles Clark, 1913 Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, picture of Charles Clark, DPA 328.18, 
Courtesy of Greater Manchester Archives, and photograph of Charles Clarke junior 1893 from the collection of Alan Brown