Saturday 17 June 2023

Looking for a ball of wool, a lb. of apples and much more on Wilbraham Road

I doubt that any one born before 1980 would ever think that the stretch of Wilbraham Road from Albany down to Manchester Road would be populated by a string of fast food outlets, bars and charity shops or that Quarmby’s, Dewhurst’s and Meadow’s would have vanished like snow under a winter sun.

It’s not an original idea I know, but in the space of two decades much traditional retailing has gone.

I miss it, but I recognize that that way of shopping has pretty much gone, and the arrival of the bar culture has at least kept the shops from staying closed.

What follows are two pictures taken some time in the 1950s into the 1960s, of the businesses on Wilbraham Road and Barlow Moor Road.

I could write more, having explored the history of some of the shops, and made comment on the road signs and bus stops, but I won’t.  

However, the challenge is there for anyone what can to trawl their memory and offer up some memories of the shops, or better still some pictures.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Road’s, circa 1950s/60s. from the collection of Dave King

5 comments:

  1. I remember the haberdashers. It was owned by two sisters . Everything was in brown drawers. My mum used to buy all her knitting wool there. If I was getting new ribbons, out would come a drawer with so many different coloured ribbons
    Always got 3/4 different ones

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  2. Don’t forget Lowe’s wonderful pies and vanillas. Lovely old ladies as assistants.

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  3. Lowes. As the eldest of 4 I used to get sent to Lowes at about 5 to get 6 'vanillas'.

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  4. On Wilbraham Road round the corner from Egerton Road (North) where we lived, there was Dunleavys, grocers, with the big red bacon slicing machine and the tins of biscuits with glass lids at child height. And the butchers, Neal's, with 2 daughters. One was Brenda. My mum asked her to look after me getting the bus opposite to Chorlton Park school. I would only be 5. One day I walked home on my own as I didn't like the look of the pink custard pudding for school dinners. Opposite was the wool shop where my mum got the Patons and Baldwins Purple Heather wool. She used the hairdressers as well, and the chemists on the corner. Then there was the station. We used to stand on the bridge when a train went through till we got told off! Then there was the opticians, I think its still there. I wore glasses from being two. I went on my own for some new ones when I was about 6, and they were pink with wings on the sides, which were fashionable in the 50s - a bit like Dame Edna's! My Mum was horrified! Then was Twiggs haberdashers, Mum's favourite shop, I remember her getting some rosebud trimming that she thought was so lovely. Post Office was opposite. Then Dewhurst's the butchers shop that my Dad managed. Happy Days. How come I can remember this when I can't remember what I did yesterday!

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