Three for the ‘ville, number 1, the Sports Pavilion in the Recreation Area, circa 1914

I am in picture mood and over the next few days I want to return to Chorltonville and feature three more pictures of the place.

This was the Sports Pavilion in the Recreation Area not long after the ‘ville had been built.

 Like many projects of its kind the designers were keen to provide places of leisure and the sports pavilion offered both tennis and bowls.

I doubt now that we will ever discover the identity of the people in the picture.  Given that it was taken around 1914 even the young girl will now be dead.

And because this was a commercial photograph it is unlikely that it forms part of a treasured family album which might just offer up a name.

Still the young girl in the dark dress appears on a number in the collection and each case holding a tennis racket.

You have to admire the tenacity of our six 'ville residents, because judging by the leaves on the trees and bushes it must still be sometime in the spring.

But then we do get some nice weather in April and May, so perhaps they have taken advantage of just such a day.

Picture; from the Lloyd collection

Didsbury’s history through its pubs and bars …… at the press of a button

Now this is less the story of Didsbury’s pubs and bars, and more a reflection on how very soon that story will be in a book shop.

I grew up and began writing when a finished manuscript or leaflet was still handwritten, and then handed over to a professional printer, who composed the text, added the images, and then having created the blocks, consigned it to a printing machine.

In that respect the process was pretty much the same as when Gutenberg produced his bible in 1455, and Caxton labouered on Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, three decades later.

It was a skillful job and was best done by those who knew what they were doing.

But today, that has pretty much been transformed, and so when Peter and I went into collaboration writing a series of books we choose the route of self-publishing.

I researched and wrote the text, Peter sourced the images, along with some of his fine paintings, and  laid out the book.

And then, after exhaustive proof reading, the finished manuscript was sent by the press of a button from a computer down the line to the company producing the finished product.

At which point I have to say that many months of hard work went into writing and laying out the manuscript, but the final act of committing it to the publisher took no time at all.

The downside is the loss of jobs, and of a technology that goes back into the Middle Ages, and beyond, but the positive is that suddenly writing a book becomes accessible to almost anyone.

The cynic may mutter that this opens a pandora’s box, where mediocre and trivial publications flood the market, but that was ever so, as the Penny Dreadfuls of the 19th century testify.

There is still a cost, and there are always issues of distribution, but these can be overcome.  In the case of money, there are now exciting crowd funding possibilities and many budding authors will aim their work at a specific market, which may not even need a book shop to sell through.

We however remain of the belief that bookshops are important, and we sell through local outlets as well as online.

So, yes this is an advert for Manchester Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors Didsbury, but it is also the story of Didsbury’s pubs and bars and how they tell the story of the township.

The manuscript went down the line at 10 this morning, will take about ten days to print and will be ready to be read by mid-June and is available from www.pubbooks.co.uk and local bookshops

Now that is exciting.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; early printing press, from previously unpublished drawings of the elementary work of Johann Bernhard Basedow, Frankfurt am Main 1922

Looking out from Salford ...........nu 2 Media City

A short series mostly around the Quays looking at  Salford








Location; Salford


Picture; Salford, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Snow and a bit of history in our parish graveyard

I like snow, not just when it first starts falling, but all of it even when it’s that slushy dirty brown stuff, although I am the first to concede that when it ices over it can be awful.

In the graveyard, circa ealry 1980s

And if you want a snow scene there is no better a place than the parish church yard after a fresh fall of snow.

This picture will have been taken sometime after the makeover which tidied up the old gravestones, landscaped the area and picked out the foot print of the church.

Today it can be an attractive haven, where you can sit and relax for a while but as pleasant a place as it is, I rather wish for the old graveyard, which was full to bursting point with grave stones recording those who have lived in the township way back into the18th century.

It is true that they were in need of some care and attention but the fate of the majority was to be spirited away leaving just a handful.  The rest I suspect were broken up and became hardcore in a development somewhere.

Samuel and Elizabeth Nixon, 2011

And that is a tragedy given that here were so many who had made their lives in Chorlton.

What are left are interesting enough, including the head stone of Mary Moore who was murdered on her way back from the Manchester markets, a local who died in Afghanistan and a mix of the good, the notable and the ordinary.

Not that any in the graveyard should be described as ordinary and many from the Renshaw family, and the Nixon family have a story to tell.

And then there are the bits of grave furniture like the pillar which is broken off and signifies a life cut short.

In the grave yard, 2012

Each of the surviving stones helped when I was writing The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and all of them continue to fascinate me for the untold stories they offer up.

In the same way I marvel at how small the parish church was which was built in 1800 to replace an older chapel and which was later enlarged.

There are only a few surviving photographs of the interior along with some descriptions dating back into the early 19th century and so far only one more recent description which was given to me by my dear friend Marjorie Holmes, who remembered it before it was closed in 1940.

That contemporary description along with the older ones and the pictures also appear in the book, but now I am endanger of slipping into a bout of outrageous self promotion, so I will stop, and instead reflect on the last picture, which  was taken in 1979 when the meadows were just being developed as part of the Mersey Valley.

In its time the meadows has been a dumping ground for Corporation rubbish and for centuries was farmed as meadow land which was a form of farming which involved flooding and draining the land repeatedly for the production or “early grass”.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; the parish graveyard and the meadows circa early 1980s from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy; Andrew Simpson, 2012, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 18 Marriot's Court

This is Marriot’s Court which for some people will just be a cut through from Spring Gardens to Brown Street and for others that narrow little street beside the Post Office.

Marriot's Court, 2016

But for me it is one of my favourite little streets, more so because back in the 1970s the building opposite the Post Office was home to a Curry House and a little jewellery shop which always caught my eye.

If I am honest I never clocked its name or for that matter the history behind the street.

Had I paused to think about the origins of Marriot’s Court I might have wondered who Marriot was and where the court was situated.

The court was easy enough to find it was on the north side of the street under what is now the Post Office and was there by 1793.*

But as to who Marriot was that has proved more difficult.  In 1775 a Thomas Marriot was the Borough Reeve for Manchester which was the most important municipal post and just twenty years later there are four Marriot’s listed in the street directory for 1774.

So you can take your pick from Mrs Marriot who lived at nu 6 Princess Street, Richard Marriot, a “fustian manufacturer" listed at the Bridgewater Arms yard, Christopher Marriot manufacturer who lived on Alport Street and William Marriot, yarn merchant residing at 41 Cannon Street.

Any one of these might have gone in for some speculative building leaving their name as testimony to their enterprise but I just don’t know.

Marriot's Court, 1851

The Rate Books are no help for while there is a William Marriot listed in 1768 and a Richard Marriot in 1798 neither has properties on Marriot Court and there are no others listed for the period from 1768 until 1802.

As for the occupants of the court which provided part of the streets name there no records although we do know that in 1850, at nu 9 there was Spencer John & Son  who were manufacturers, along with Samuel Sedgewick Goodwin, solicitors and John Prince, share broker.

Marriot's Court, 1900

Later in the century all the properties on the northern side were swept away to be replaced by the Post Office.  Work began on the new building in 1881 and was finished six years later which in turn was demolished in the 1960s.

I just missed visiting the old Post Office by a few years which is a shame particularly because I would have been able to see the large memorial to the men of the Manchester Post Office who died in the Great War.

It consists of a Winged Victory at the centre, holding a flaming torch flanked by a young boy and girl and at their feet are the symbols of war including a helmet and a sword.

After the closure of the Post Office the memorial went on its travels and currently resides the entrance to the Royal Mail Sorting Depot on Oldham Road.

Now I could have just left it there but in trawling the Annals of Manchester I came across this entry for 1775 when Mr Thomas Marriot took up his office of Borough Reeve, “the Theatre Royal, in Spring Gardens was built and opened on June 5.  The first stone was laid of the Gentleman’s Concert Room in Fountain Street.  

Marriot's Court, 1793

Mr Richard Arkwright took out another patent for carding, drawing and moving frames.

The ducking-stool was still in use.  

It was an open bottomed chair of wood, placed upon a long pole, balanced on a pivot, and suspended over a sheet of water at Pool Fold***  I

t was afterwards suspended over the Daub-holes- the Infirmary Pond – and was used for the purpose of punishing scolds and disorderly women.”****

Now I have no idea what Mr or Mrs Marriot would have made of all that or whether they frequented the Theatre Royal or even if they took a stroll down to Pool Fold but two centuries and a bit on I suspect they would have been a little miffed that their court had disappeared.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Marriot's Court, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Marriot's Court, 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, in 1900 from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps,  and in 1793, from Laurent's map, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Laurent’s Map

**Scholes Directory, 1794

***Pool Fold ran from Chapel Walks to St Market Street and is part of Cross Street

****Axon, W.E. The Annals of Manchester, 1885, p103

The moment Manchester became New York

Historians will look back on the rapid transformation of the city’s skyline and debate the point when those towers started to change forever the character of Manchester.

The date it all began is also open for argument with some going for when Sunlight House was built, with others offering up the CIS building, and much later the Beetham Tower.

Of course the early 20th century saw the Refuge Building and before that the steady expansion of the Royal Exchange and earlier the new Town Hall.

But as big and magnificent as all these were, they were still on a human scale which can’t be said of those towers which dominate the skyline and can be seen miles away.

And I think Cathy Robertson has caught their overbearing presence.

Location; driving into Manchester

Picture; driving into Manchester, 2019, from the collection of driving into Manchester, from the collection of Cathy Robertson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 17 New Brown Street ... the one under the Arndale

New Brown Street from Market Street, 1903

Now I vaguely knew about New Brown Street but it took Matthew Cobham to bring the place out of the shadows.

“New Brown Street, heading east off Market Street and now under the Arndale, was one of my haunts in the 70s. 

The original home of On the Eighth Day and the headquarters of Mike Don's Mole Express underground paper (originally called Moul Express, but no one got the reference or knew how to pronounce it.”

It ran from Market Street up to Withy Grove, and by the 1970s had seen better days but offered up a fascinating mix of shops to visit including as Matthew said the first On the Eighth Day.

Back Cannon Street, 1937

Go back to the beginning of the 20th century and a walk along this narrow and twisty street would offer up the usual range of small textile businesses, some bigger cotton and woollen manufacturers along with the odd small engineering factory.  But above all it was a place dominated by tailors.

Fifty years earlier in  1851 and the directory lists twenty-five businesses mostly describing themselves as merchants, or manufactures.

I can’t remember exactly when New Brown Street vanished and it will have still been there when I washed up in the city in 1969, but sadly for me I have no memory of the place making it truly one of the lost streets of Manchester.

And with its passing also went those small side streets, like Swan Lane, Back Sugar Lane, Back Cannon Street and Peel Street, some of which led off to closed courts and a labyrinth of even smaller thoroughfares.

New Brown Street, 1973

Some of these like Marsden Court were only accessed through tiny entries and once inside you were pretty much locked into a different world.

All gone as is Mole Express which I had entirely forgotten about Matthew.

Location Manchester

Pictures; New Brown Street from Market Street, 1903, City Engineers, m03562,  Back Cannon Street from New Brown Street, 1937, m74955, New Brown Street, A P Morris, 1973 m03619, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php

Looking at Salford a bit before today ....... nu 5

Now I am fascinated by pictures taken of places during the last half century.

This is the last of that short series on almost old pictures of Salford.

All were taken on Chapel Street sometime during the last forty years.

And each is a telling reminder of how this bit of Salford has been changing.

None of them are dated but I am guessing they will be from the 1960s into the 70s with possibly a throw back into the 1950s.

And the rest as they is for you to ponder on.

Location; Salford,

Picture; on Chapel Street, date unknown, m77281, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Coming soon ......... a story about this place

And in the meantime, one all about it's past.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; from the collection of Andy Robertson,2014

*Rediscovering the Savoy cinema on Manchester Road in Chorlton,  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/02/rediscovering-savoy-cinema-on.html?fbclid=IwAR1QdRDDgWNdhCC4T_rBOQz8xSavFsDG9qCMXA8m0PuWfxUJ2sZMAeRFG5w

Coming soon ………… the story of one children’s charity

Today I am in reflective mood on the story of British Home Children and one of the children’s charities which was engaged in BHC.

Boys in the care of the charity, circa 1880

It is the Together Trust, and was the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges, and is an organization I am very close to, partly because it began in my adopted city and also because with the help of the archivist I have come to learn about our own BHC.*

That said the young man who left Derby in the care of Middlemore, on behalf of the Derby Union had no connection with Manchester, but in studying the archives of the charity, I have come to have a much better understanding of the story of British Home Children.

Not that Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges, were in the “migrating business” for very long.  Theirs was a shorter involvement, starting in 1873 and finishing in 1914, and represented only part of what they did.

I first came across them, as a way of getting a better understanding of BHC, and that by degree turned into a fascination for the work of the charity, which offered up a better understanding of childcare in the late 19th century.

The charity's shelter, circa 1900

And along the way it led to a commission to write their history to commemorate their 150th anniversary which will be next year. **

The manuscript was completed last year, and we are now in the final stages of editing and selecting the 80 images which will accompany the text.

Writing the book gave me an opportunity to trawl the archives of the Trust and that exercise has challenged many of the assumptions I first formed about the policy of sending young people to Canada and other parts of the old Empire, but also about the general role of children’s charities in the late 19th century and into the following two centuries.

It is a story of private involvement in a social problem, followed by the growing intervention of the State, which is now downsizing that involvement and in turn relying on the charities to take over.

So, the book will be useful for anyone interested in the provision of care for vulnerable and looked after children, as well as a powerful insight into the experiences of young people and their families from 1870 onwards.

Location; Manchester, Salford, and Canada

Picture; courtesy of the Together Trust,  https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/


*The Together Trust,  https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

**A new book on the story of the Together Trust will be published later in the year

A Simpson’s pie, a fond memory and a place in history

I hope Simpson’s Ready Foods in Urmston will endure, even though the factory has closed and soon the site will be an estate of smart town homes.

For almost a century the company provided employment for the people of the district along with a range of food products which will linger in the popular memory.

That memory has been enchanced by a detailed account of the company which has been told in an excellent new book on the history of Urmston, Flixton and Daveyhulme.*

To which can be added one of Andy Robertson’s projects which has recorded the story from the close of the factory, through its demolition and the present work to build those new homes.**

Andy has been chronically similar development across Greater Manchester over the last decade and a bit, and his work is an important contribution to how our landscape is changing.

So that is it.  For all those who remember Simpson’s pies, or who worked  in the factory, continue to watch this space.

Location; Urmston

Pictures; the site of Simpson's Ready Foods, 2019, from the collection of Any Robertson

* The story of Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme, Michael Billington, 2018, the History Press

**And will there be no more Simpson pies from Urmston? https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2018/06/and-will-there-be-no-more-simpson-pies.html

Stories of Chorlton-cum-Hardy’s Railways ........ more from Tony Goulding

Last Thursday having just exercised my democratic right I came across this sculpture at the entrance to the Barlow Moor Road council estate. 

I asked two workers nearby about its significance and was informed that it was to celebrate the fact that it was the advent of the railway which led to the development of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

This art work, which includes additions from some of the local residents, has been “christened” Willy by them.

Coincidentally the name of the last station master at the old Chorlton station was, apparently, William.
   
Such a lovely piece of work and its contribution to the preservation of our area’s heritage is well worth applauding.

In doing so I thought I might also delve into the newspaper archives to seek out some stories of Chorlton-cum-Hardy’s railway past. What follows are the results of this search.

In common with stations nationwide Chorlton-cum-Hardy witnessed its fair share of tragic deaths either by accident or most commonly by suicide. I have discovered reports of three such incidents.
 
The first of these I’ve recorded on a previous occasion on this blog but as I am now able to add considerably to the story I will start with it.

On  Saturday 2nd September, 1899 James William Smith, a joiner of 20, Oxford Street , Old Trafford, stepped off the platform at Chorlton-cum-Hardy station into the path of an approaching train and was killed instantly.

At the inquiry into this event, held at the Lloyd’s Hotel on the following Monday, evidence was given by both his wife, Mary and a workmate, Thomas Holroyd, that a recent change in his working pattern had been affecting Mr. Smith’s mental state so much so that he had left his job site in Bolton at lunch time on the Friday prior to his death and had not returned to work. It was further stated that his problem was purely imaginary and Mr. Smith had indeed been a valued employee of Thomas Heywood and Company. A verdict of suicide while insane was reached.
 

The other two cases of suicides on the railways of Chorlton-cum-Hardy occurred within 20 months of each other in 1932-3. On Friday 29th April, 1932 Lilian Beatrice Ringrose’s decapitated body was discovered on the line close to the station.  Mirroring this tragedy on Thursday, 28th December, 1933, the body of James Harding, 21, of 52, Keppel Road was also found dead on the line.
   
 Miss Ringrose was the 21 year old daughter of Walter Ringrose (1) a master tailor of 113, Upper Chorlton Road, Whalley Range. Newspaper accounts of her inquest describe symptoms of severe mental illness viz. hallucinations, paranoia and delusions. It was also reported that she had previously received treatment in Cheadle Royal Hospital and had shown signs o recovery, however her illness had returned to tragic effect.

The coroner read out part of a long letter found on the body to illustrate the girl’s state of mind “I am doing this to save you and prove the innocence of us all”. At the request of the parents of the dead girl no further content of the letter were made public.
 
 His father also a James, a hotel waiter, having passed away, most likely in the West Derby district of Liverpool in the December quarter of 1918, Mr. James Harding lived with his widowed mother, Susan (née Mound) at 52, Keppel Road. (2)   He is buried in the same grave as his mother and her parents –H 2152 in the consecrated section of Southern Cemetery, Manchester.
   

A less traumatic recurring occurrence the Chorlton-cum-Hardy station staff were faced with was the flooding (3) which happened periodically following exceptionally heavy rainfall. Two spectacular examples of this took place on 25th July, 1901 and 17th July, 1947.

Both of these incidents were extensively recorded.

The Manchester Evening News, 1901 report was particularly detailed (and quite amusing!) while in 1947 the Illustrated London News printed a very revealing photograph with the by-line “The Permanent Way Becomes a Canal” showing a train ‘ploughing’ through the flood water at Chorlton-cum-Hardy Station.
   

Being unable, for copyright reasons, to use this photograph I went on a stroll along the “Fallowfield Loop” in search of more evidence of the area’s railway past and took these photographs of Bridge 29 – “Jacksons” bridge with its plaque.

The current plaque dates only from 2002 when it was placed there by “Sustrans”, the cycling promoting charity, after it had converted the derelict line, which had finally closed in 1988(4), to a traffic free cycle and waling route. It does record, however, that the bridge was built in 1891 by the evocatively named “Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway”

Tony Goulding © 2019

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Tony Goulding, 2019 


NOTES
1) Lilian Beatrice’s mother was Elizabeth Annie Elkington (née Horsfield) who had herself suffered some form of mental illness and spent time in an asylum as a young woman. Her first husband John Sidney Valentine Elkington had also taken his own life in June, 1898; apparently he had been so distressed by his young wife’s illness that he drowned himself in a local canal near his home in Bow in the East End of London.

2) James also had two sisters Doris born – June quarter 1916 died in infancy and Elizabeth, born 20th August, 1913. She married William Henry Flowers, a motor fitter at Saint Clements Church, Chorlton-cum-Hardy on the 8th June, 1935.

3) A significant problem area whenever one of these deluges occurred was the Old Trafford Tunnel which on these occasion was said to more resemble a conduit.

4) The line’s last passenger services ran in 1969 when it became freight only.

Four trams, forty-four pictures, and eighty-eight minutes …………..

The plan was simple ……… take the tram from Cornbrook into the heart of the Quays, get off at each stop, record the developments and changes, and you have a new project.

In all Andy clocked forty-four pictures, in just eighty-eight minutes having travelled on four trams.

And finally he arrived, and not wanting to miss anything he wandered through the area.

Location; the Cornbrook-Salford route








Pictures; from the Cornbrook-Salford route, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Four trams, forty-four pictures, and eighty-eight minutes …………..

The plan was simple ……… take the tram from Cornbrook into the heart of the Quays, get off at each stop, record the developments and changes, and you have a new project.

Having wandered  around Cornbrook, Andy moved on and quickly came across the new tram line which in the fullness of time will run in to Trafford Centre.

Next; at journeys end

Location; the Cornbrook-Salford route








Pictures; from the Cornbrook-Salford route, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Out of Tredegar ...... Aneurin Bevan, 70 years of the NHS and the Welsh health service which preceded it

Now, listening today, to Out of Tredegar with Martin Sheen on the wireless reaffirmed my admiration for Radio 4.*

Aneurin Bevan, 1954

It was a wonderful piece of radio, telling the story of the Tredegar health service which pretty much was the model for the National Health Service, and focused on Aneurin Bevan, the Labour politician who was responsible for its creation.

Aneurin Bevan was born in the town and much of the programme was given over to stories about him, and the impact of a health service, free at the point of delivery on the lives of millions of people, many of whom before 1948 “couldn’t afford to be ill”.

So that is all I am going to say, other than there is 29 days left to listen to it.

Producer: Martin Williams, BBC Wales.

Picture; Aneurin Bevan and his wife Jenny Lee in Corwen, 1952, Geoff Charles, made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication  

*Out of Tredegar , https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b7hl3d

Four trams, forty-four pictures, and eighty-eight minutes ………….. starting the adventure at Cornbrook

The plan was simple ……… take the tram from Cornbrook into the heart of the Quays, get off at each stop, record the developments and changes, and you have a new project.

Now Cornbrrok could well be renamed the "windy stop" and there is no denying that on a cold February morning waiting for a tram can be uncomfortable.

And more than once I have seen people looking to shelter in front of the big sign or in desperation huddle behind a group of fellow passengers.

But that said the platform affords some fine views which are constantly changing.

Next; after Cornbrook .... starting the adventure



Location; the Cornbrook-Salford route



Pictures; from the Cornbrook-Salford route, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

‘Flag of Convenience’…….. A new exhibition of photography and artworks by Manchester documentary photographer David Dunnico

Now I am very excited about the forthcoming exhibition by David Dunnico at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery from Saturday May 25th

The exhibition according to David "looks at how the Union Jack Flag went from being a banner of Empire to a symbol of ‘Mod’ – How it shook off an association with racism and football hooliganism and was rehabilitated with Cool Britannia, Brit Pop and the London Olympics. 

But after Brexit, and a resurgence of nationalism here and the election of Donald Trump in the USA, what does the Union Jack symbolise now? 

Flags are just pieces of coloured cloth, but people turn them into powerful symbols by giving them their own, sometimes contradictory meanings. 

This timely exhibition uses humour and biting social comment to unpick the many tangled threads of patriotism, nationalism and branding which hold the Union Jack together (and make it such an iconic graphic design).

Together, the forty photographs record the ‘interesting times’ we are living in. They range from German supermarket (Aldi) advertising their “Championing of Great British Quality” to the Orange Order’s annual seaside outing to Southport. 
From rainbow coloured Union Jacks on gay pride parades, to dystopian shots of CCTV cameras watching flags fluttering in a cold breeze. 

Flying the Flag, Manchester & Salford Whit Walks, May 2018*

Brexit is of course featured. my honeymoon was spent in Yorkshire searching for and eventually findin) Nigel Farage’s 'Brexit Betrayal' bus".

So there you have it, a thought provoking exhibition which contains some stunning photographs.

The exhibition runs from Saturday 25 May to Friday 28 June 2019.

You can met David on Saturday June 1 from  2pm to 4pm, when he will be giving a tour of the exhibition on.

The exhibition Is fee, Is at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, Wellington Road South, Stockport, SK3 8AB, 0161 474 4453, stockport.artgallery@stockport.gov.uk 

Opening Times
Tuesday to Friday 1pm – 5pm
Saturday: 10am – 5pm
Sunday: 11am – 5pm
Monday: Closed except for Bank Holidays 11am – 5pm

*Flying the Flag, Manchester and Salford Whit Walk, May 2018. "The Union Jack being used in its formal role as flag of our country and as a fashion design".

For more information, photographs, interviews you can contact David at,  david@dunni.co.uk 0161 445 1893 / 07533 141331

Or read his blog at David Dunnico, https://daviddunnico.wordpress.com/pop-art/

Memories of that Salford Flood ...... September 1946

Yesterday I reflected on the story of the Salford and Manchester Floods of September 1946.

Flooded streets, 1932, Derby

And as so often happens, people came forward and contributed their memories of the events.

They make riveting history and here are the stories of Dee Watson and Ethel Waring.

Dee, wrote "I was eleven and in my first term at Broughton Modern ... The first I knew of the flood was when we were called mid afternoon to the Assembly Hall. Those of us who lived in the outer low lying areas, were taken by bus to Higher Broughton. 

I’ve learned since we were at St John's school/church hall. I had no idea of the devastation happening to my home in Lower Kersal - not until the floods subsided, and I went back and saw the smelly slimy aftermath”.

Extract from the Manchester Guardian, 1946

What struck me was the way the children appeared to be on their own, which I suppose given that it was only a few years since the wartime evacuation of children the decision to move them on mass made sense, but I wondered if the children’s parents had been told.

To which Dee replied  “Our parents had no idea where we were ... no home telephones back then,

It was like a military operation ... I don't know how others felt, but I took it all in my stride; the war and my upbringing had conditioned me to handle adversity ... No trauma counselling, or even words of comfort in such situations. 

An older sister was in her final term at the same school, so had I needed any reassurance, she must have been about somewhere ... I learned later that my two youngest siblings had been sent home from primary school before the flood came. 

Flood water, 1932

My eldest brother was at home. He worked at the Daily Mail in Manchester and was due to go on a late shift. My two eldest sisters had left for work - before it was known that the river was about to flood. One sister worked at Telephone House, so she must have been aware of what was happening. 

When she had finished her early morning shift, she made her way back to Lower Kersal, and swam the last few hundred yards through the floodwater, then she had to climb a drain pipe to enter through a bedroom window .. During the course of the morning, my father had been across the playing fields - to check the height of the river. 

He came home and reported that he had seen the river higher, and didn't think it would flood! .. .. 

Without warning, the water came up through the drains, and when the river broke its banks, the house was flooded to a depth of five feet“.

And Ethel added “I was 10 years of age at that time the water rushed over at the back of lower Kersal school and we had to paddle home through it. 

We lived Monsaii Avenue off South Radford Street were very lucky to what others suffered the playing fields were like a lake for weeks after.”

Now in the absence of Salford flood pictures I have fallen back on some from an earlier flood in Derby.

Location Salford

Pictures;  flooded streets, Derby, 1932,from Souvenir of the Derby Floods, Published by the Derby Branch of the Y.M.C.A., in aid of the Mayor’s Flood Fund. May 22nd 1932 the collection of Andrew Simpson and extract from the Manchester Guardian, September 21, 1946

*Rescues By Rowing Boat in Manchester Floods, Salford Rest Centres for Homeless, Manchester 

“The Flooding was the most serious experienced in Salford”* .......... September 1946

Now I knew about the Salford flood of 1946, but had completely forgotten about it.

I rediscovered it while doing research for something entirely different.

And having found it decided it was worthy of a mention, after all there will be people who remember it and many more who will have been told the stories of what happened on the  night of September 20 and 21.

Nor was it just confinded to Salford.  “The Mersey burst its banks in the Northernden area yesterday and last night the Manchester Northenden road was cut by the floods, grain barges broke from their moorings in the River Irewell near Exchange Station and were carried a mile and half into the Chip Canal, in Collyhurst Road 73 children were marooned .... and the L.N.R.R service between Bradford and Halifax and Keighley and Halifax has been suspended.”*

So I shall now sit back and wait for the memories to come in.  I was going to say flood in but that would be in poor taste.

Location; Salford & Manchester








Picture; extract from the Manchester Guardian, September 21, 1946

*Rescues By Rowing Boat in Manchester Floods, Salford Rest Centres for Homeless, Manchester Guardian, September 21, 1946

Four trams, forty-four pictures, and eighty-eight minutes ………….. coming soon

The plan was simple ……… take the tram from Cornbrook into the heart of the Quays, get off at each stop, record the developments and changes, and you have a new project.

So over the next brace of days I shall be taking that journey courtesy of Andy Robertson, who travelled the rails yesterday.

Next; at Cornbrook .... starting the adventure

Location; the Cornbrook-Salford route

Pictures; from the Cornbrook-Salford route, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

When Andy Robertson walked out ………….. down Chester Road

Pictures of doors remain a fascinating subject for photographers.

And so when Andy sent over this one of those two doors on Chester Road, it just had to be included.

We have already joked that there should be a day when we rename the blog, the Andy Robertson blog, given that over the  years he has contributed some excellent pictures and more importantly has created a series of story lines which have followed the transformation of bits of the city and the surrounding areas.

And he is dedicated and persistent  in his determination to record a chosen site from the time when a property is vacated or has become neglected and run down, to its demolition, followed by the moment when the builder’s break the ground and a new property begins to rise.

In this case it is those two doors, which I have passed countless times, and never given them a second thought.

In time I will go looking for their history, but I am confident someone will come up with chapter and verse, but until then I will leave you with those two doors, and the fun of speculating on the changes that have been made to the houses that share these doors.

Location; Stretford

Picture; two doors …… Chester Road, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Peterloo ..... or the Blanketeers?

There is I think a danger about the present coverage of Peterloo, which is that it begins to overshadow some of the other significant events during the period following the end of the wars with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.

The massacre in St Peter’s Field was awful but outside Manchester, it doesn’t always achieve the recognition it should as a moment when the Establishment ruthlessly challenged the legitimate call for reform.

And it is right that as we reach the 200th anniversary of that dreadful moment played out in front of perhaps 60,000 peaceful demonstrators, the murder of 16 people and the wounding of countless others should be highlighted.

So I am pleased at the launch of an interactive website which seeks to reconstruct the events of August 1819.

The web site features a 3D model showing how the day unfolded which will reach a new audience unfamiliar with what happened.

But the preoccupation with the day misses out that later in the evening at New Cross there was a further violent confrontation, and should always be seen against a determined policy of State repression, reflected in the Gag Acts, the arrest of suspected “agitators” and the use of paid informants.

Only two years earlier there had been the suppression of what became known as the March of the Blanketeers when after much discussion about the tactic of delivering a petition directly to the Crown.

It was a bold initiative and would lead to 5,000 leaving Manchester on March 10th 1817. Each marcher had a blanket or rolled overcoat on his back, to sleep under at night and to serve as a sign that the man was a textile worker, giving the march its eventual nickname. The plan was for the marchers to walk in separate groups of ten, to avoid any accusation of illegal mass assembly.

Samuel Bamford argued against the tactic pointing out in what would become prophetic, that
“the authorities of Manchester were not likely to permit their [the Blanketeers] leaving town in a body”**

And as it turned out, the magistrates read the Riot Act, the military broke up the demonstration, and 27 were arrested, with more violence meted out in Ancoats and Stockport.

Now while fewer were killed it was a significant event, but while there was some activity back in 2017, the March of the Blanketeers slid quickly back into history.

Does it matter that it has been eclipsed?  Yes I think it does.

Will the current coverage of Peterloo stand for all the other class acts of repression?

They may do, but we shouldn’t forget the Blanketeers.

In the meantime I shall read Samuel Bamford’s book.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; demonstations a century and a bit later, Liverpool, 1980, Birmingham, 1983, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*peterloo1819.co.uk

** Bamford, Samuel, Bamford’s Life of a Radical, Vol 2, 1905 page 32

Frankenstein on the wireless ............ one to listen to*

Now this is one that I enjoyed.

Mary Shelley 1840

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Shelley's Gothic story of a Swiss natural philosopher, Victor Frankenstein, and the creature he makes from parts of cadavers and which he then abandons, horrified by his appearance, and never names. 

Rejected by all humans who see him, the monster takes his revenge on Frankenstein, killing those dear to him. Shelley started writing Frankenstein when she was 18, prompted by a competition she had with Byron and her husband Percy Shelley to tell a ghost story while they were rained in in the summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva.

Karen O'Brien, Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, Michael Rossington,Professor of Romantic Literature at Newcastle University,Jane Thomas, Professor of Victorian and Early 20th Century Literature at the University of Hull

Producer: Simon Tillotson*

*Frankenstein, In Our Time; https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00051n6

Standing on the corner and watching the changes in Withington …………… Wilmlsow Road

2019

I don’t “go off on one” when places I have known for years start to change.

It is after all the way of things, although sometimes we lose buildings of significance.

All of which brings me to the corner of Wilmslow, Parsonage and Burton Roads.

It is a spot which did not seem to change for ages, and so looking at a 1960 photograph, I am reminded of how similar it was a decade later when I was briefly living there and still hadn’t changed much a full twenty years on.

2019

But as Andy’s pictures show the transformation has grown a pace.

The White Lion went along time ago as did the cinema, but the Scala’s replacement is relatively new.

Across the road what had been the corner shop/restraunat has gone and a new building is slowing rising to the sky.

I rather took that building for granted.

It was an addition to the row of shops which were themselves added to the front of a row of houses.

1960

In 1894, that tiny corner plot was an open space.

I remember it as a shop, although I would be hard pressed to say what it sold, and later we ate there when it was a restaurant, and now it will be a four-storey building with retail/commercial space at ground floor and seven self-contained flats above with two studio flats, four one-bed and one two-bed flats.

Location; Withington

Pictures, corner of Wilmslow, Parsonage and Burton Roads, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson and hopping Centre from the set Withington Lillywhite, Tuck & Sons, courtesy of TuckDB http://tuckdb.org/history