A unique partnership between a local artist, a historian and a developer ……. Denbigh Villas

Now I don’t think you can get enough of our new History Wall on High Lane which tells the story of two historic Chorlton houses and the surrounding area.

And nor does the Manchester Evening News which featured an article by Helen Johnson describing the wall and the work by Armistead Property Ltd who commissioned the new installation and have restored the two houses, converting the tired old flats into smart new apartments.*

I could say more ……. But I rather think over the last year I have written a lot** about the two old houses, along with some of the residents and of course the work by Armistead Property Ltd, *** who are also sponsor of Chorlton Arts.

So, that just leaves me to suggest you go to the link and read Helen’s story.

Location; Chorlon

Picture; panel one of the new Chorlton History Wall, produced by Andrew Simpson, and Peter Topping and commissioned by Armistead Property Ltd.

*The houses that tell the story of Chorlton through time, By Helen Johnson, Manchester Evening News, June 30th, 2019 https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/houses-tell-story-chorlton-through-16499195

**Denbigh Villas, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Denbigh%20Villas

***Armistead Property Ltd, http://www.armisteadproperty.co.uk/ 

A taste of Naples ...... in Varese north of Milan

Now it is a fairly obvious observation but the simpler the food the better it is.

And nothing better proves the point than Rosa’s peppers.

She uses those sweet green ones which look like fingers and fries them in olive oil garlic and salt and pepper.

And that is it.

Nothing more complicated, but with fresh bread I can think of nothing better to follow a main dish of pasta followed by a selection of fruit.

Location; Varese

Picture; Rosa’s peppers, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Chorlton family who changed their name in 1943

Now I am not going to offer up the surname of the family who changed their name, other than to say that in 1943, Albert went before a Commissioner for Oaths and changed his name by deed poll.

Joe Scott's house 2016

It was a formality because he had been using the surname from at least 1939, and that might just suggest a reason, because his original name was Jewish.

He had been born in 1895 in Newton Heath, but by 1925 was living in south Manchester and in that year married Jessie in Hulme.

Two months earlier he had bought a house from the builder Joe Scott and continued to live in the house with his wife until his death in 1951.

Now, some of this I know because Liz who now owns the house, shared the deeds of the property.

She like me was intrigued by the name change, and while there is an obvious possible reason given that this was the 1930s, it would be wrong to jump to conclusion without more evidence.

One thing I will do in time is track back through the directories for the house to look for the moment when Albert began using his new name.

Joe's house in 1974

For now, I am left reflecting once again on how the deeds of a property can unlock so much history.

It begins with that original document couched in dense legal language which none the less off up so much, including who originally owned the land, when it was sold and for how much, and ofcourse the name of first the land purchaser and all the subsequent house owners.

Along the way there may be other treasures, which might be a will, other legal papers and maps.

In our case there are a number of documents relating to Joe Scott who has a special place for me, as we live in his old house which he built in 1915. 

Joe also built a lot of the smaller terraced properties in Chorlton during the first two decades of the last century before embarking on grander semi detathced properties.

And here are two relating to  Albert’s house, one of which carries Joe’s signature, which I grant you may not appear to be the most startling of documents, but is.  Not least because I write this in the room Joe may have used to sign some of the documents in full view of the site behind us where he had his office.

Looking south from Beech Road, 1934

But setting aside this personal aspect, one of the signed documents contains the agreement between the two men, with Albert agreeing “to buy the plot of land and dwelling house [for] the aforesaid price of Four hundred and ninety pounds, subject to Annual Chief Rent of Five pounds …… and agree to pay the said Joseph Taylor Scott the sum of 15 shillings from the date on which possession of the said dwelling house is given  to [Mr Scott] until payment of the balance of the purchase money”.

I also know that the City Council informed Albert in 1935 that his share of “draining levelling flagging and paving”, the road outside amounted to £1,169 5s 9d of which his share was £26 2s 10d.
Added to this we can also date the whole row of houses along Albert’s Road which had started with his group built in 1925 and the remainder built closer to Beech Road which were completed in 1937 and resulted in a renumbering of the entire eastern side of the road.

Neale Road, 1958

And that in turn revealed the date of the demolition of the farm house which had been known as Bowling Green Farm and dated back to the 18th century.

All of which bears testament to the importance of the deeds, but they were only the starting point, and from them I wandered off and discovered more about Albert’s family, his occupation as an apprentice tin smith and his eventual career as a wood machinist making furniture.

Nor was that all, because their marriage certificate revealed that both their parents were dead, which for Jessie appears to have been a greater tragedy.

She was born in 1890 in Chorlton-on-Medlock, was resident in the area, eleven years later, but by 1911 was in the “Orphan’s School” of the Workhouse in New Bridge Street, in Strangeways.

There will be more to uncover, but for now I shall close with returning to that name change.

I have no idea why it was made but its discovery comes at a time of growing anti semtism when some profess a blindness to the rise of such prejudice.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Joe Scott's house, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the house in 1974 courtesy of Lois Elsden, South of Beech Road in 1907 from the OS map of Manchester , 1907, looking south from Beech Road, 1934, from Geographia Street Plans, 1934 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/  Neale Road with some of Joe Scott’s houses in the distance, 1958 R.E. Stanley, m18135,, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Art and History ………are where you find them

Now I am the first to admit that as a title it is pretty daft, but it neatly sums up the discovery of a bit of art on the back of a lavatory door in Piccadilly Railway Station.

They were taken by my friend Lois who was up from the south west to see the Mavericks.

We had a arranged to meet for the day, and because she was seeing friends off to Birmingham, and Leicester, Piccadilly seemed the obvious place to meet.

And also being a writer, Lois was intrigued by the paintings reproduced in the lavatory.

I have no idea who painted them or whether similar ones are present in the Gents, but I am fairly convinced someone will offer up chapter and verse.

But for now they were a perfect start to a day which took us across the Northern Quarter where there are plenty of “street paintings”, briefly into Chorlton to see the “History Wall” and then back into town for a meal.

So that is it.

I think I will take a trip back to the railway station to see if there are similar ones in the Gents, and maybe head off to Victoria to check out their lavatory door paintings.

Perhaps there are also others in public buildings I have yet to visit, which prompts the thought that perhaps here we have a new series to rival that of Street Furniture, Coal Hole Covers and Water Troughs.

We shall see.

Leaving me as ever just to  thank Lois for the pictures, and an enteratining day which we reflected marks a 50 year friendship.

Location; Piccadilly Railway Station

Pictures; 2019; from the collection of Lois Elsden

More from the Art Gallery ............ part 2 ...... street scenes and roof tops

Yesterday at the City Art Gallery was a near perfect day.

And so I have returned to some of the pictures I took looking out across the city.

The extension to the Gallery always impresses me.

You go from the fine old building which contains many of my favourite paintings into the glass and metal area which connects to the new galleries.

It is light, bright and makes a perfect link from the old to the contemporary, but above all it is the vast areas of glass which allow you to gaze out beyond the confines of the building to all that is going on.

Now I know that photographing scenes through big windows is fairly common these days but being above the street offers an opportunity to see things in slightly different way so for that reason alone here over the next few days are a some more pictures from big windows.

And the nice thing is that the next time I go everything will be different.

Pictures; looking out on Manchester from the Art Gallery, 2015, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Swiss and Italian Lakes, a coach tour for just £45 in 1965

Dad to the right in 1955

My dad spent his whole working life in the holiday trade taking people of modest means on sightseeing tours of Britain and mainland Europe.

In the age before cheap air travel this was the holiday for those who didn’t want sun and sand or a week at a Butlin’s.

These were all inclusive trips which offered “Your own reserved seat in a special Glenton touring coach, a tour of your choice, hotel accommodation including dinner and breakfast, gratuities to hotel staff, services of an experienced chauffeur-courier and a specially written guide book.”*

The tours lasted for anything between 7 and 15 days. For £45 Tour C7 in 1965 offered nine days to the Swiss and Italian Lakes, leaving London on the Saturday, staying in Brussels on the Sunday night and travelling on to Lake Lucerne on the Monday, then later in the week to Lake Maggiore and then in to Switzerland and back via Burgundy to London.

To the Italian Lakes, 1965

Of course it is easy today to sneer at an experience where everything was provided and if you failed to look out of the window you might miss a country, but in an age before the internet with television still in its infancy this was a relatively cheap way to see places which would otherwise just be a picture in a book. And this was value for money given that the national average wage in 1965 was £26.

There are still plenty of travel companies offering this sort of holiday but back in the late 1940’s and ‘50s this was an experience just opening up for thousands who were beginning to enjoy the first taste of consumer prosperity.

 They are as much an indication of that new Britain as the washing machine, television and motor car.

*Glenton Tours Brochure 1955

Pictures; Glenton coach cruises Britain and the Continent brochures from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Black Horse in Sidcup

I never went into the Black Horse in Sidcup.

It had stood on the High Street for 300 years and was demolished in 2011.

According to one newspaper report* it was knocked down on condition that the developers would “build a new facade reflecting the pub as it was in 1897.”

Well I will let you make a judgement on that, for here is the pub as it was sometime in the later 19th century and as my friend Jean photographed it earlier last month.

There is much more to the story which you can follow by reading the original newspaper report but I will leave you with Jean’s comment that this

“was supposed to have had a facade that was an accurate reproduction of the original.  

The new façade is so poor a reproduction that it even its windows were not traditional wood windows”

And if you want, then you can revisit the stories in the series on Sidcup.**

Now I am the first to admit that sometimes old and cherished buildings face huge challenges from changes of use, to the high cost of restoration, but there are plenty of examples where what was a long standing historic feature has been preserved even if it is just the facade.

It will be interesting to see just what people make of the sad tale of the Black Horse.


Pictures; the Black horse in the 19th century and today, courtesy of Jean Gammons

* Developer forced to recreate facade of former Black Horse pub in Sidcup,  Tim MacFarlan, News Shopper, July 10, 2013, http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/10537828.Developer_forced_to_recreate_facade_of_former_Black_Horse_pub_in_Sidcup/

**Sidcup, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Sidcup

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ....... nu 29 on a wet Blackfriars Street

Now I am indebted to John Casey for sharing some of his wonderful photographs of Salford and Manchester.

They were taken in the early 1980s and are a powerful reminder of just how much the area has changed in a matter of a few decades.

This one of Blackfriars Street on a wet day some thirty years ago is a favourite of mine and pretty much needs no further comment.

Location; Salford

Picture; Blackfriars Street, circa 1980, from the collection of John Casey

The house which became a hospital ……….. and the lost wartime pictures

Yesterday I was exploring a collection of photographs from the Great War, which were recently acquired by David Harrop.

There are twenty of them and include soldiers and nurses, and while the quality is iffy, they are a remarkable set of images of men recovering from wounds and illnesses in a wartime auxiliary hospital, which is enhanced by the fact that they will have been taken by a nurse or patient.

The accompanying notes refer to Birchfield Auxiliary Military hospital in Rusholme, but at present apart from the name I have yet to come across anything about the place.

After it ceased as a hospital there is a silence in the records, although there is a suggestion that in the interwar years it belonged to the Co-operative Society and acted as a social club for employees, while sometime after that it became the new home of the Hollings Domestic and Trades College until it was demolished in 1959 to make way for the iconic Toast Rack building.

The original Birchfield stood in its own grounds on the corner of Wilmslow Road and Old Hall Lane.

I can track it back with confidence to 1865 when it shows up in the rate books, as owned by a Godfrey Gottschalk with an annual ratable value of £275, and an estimated rental value of £350.
Although there may have been an earlier property on the site or nearby which was rented by Mr. Gottschalk which was an altogether more modest, but still substantial house, which dates from 1856.

Just two years earlier the OS map for Lancashire shows the site as open land with a brick kiln at the rear. 

There is however a Birch Cottage just south of the brick kiln on the other side of Old Hall Lane, which might be our more modest property.

But that is as far as we can go.

There will be someone who knows, and there will be others with pictures of Birchfield in its hey day, and so I shall await that call.

In the meantime we have those wartime pictures.


And a few of them show the interior which looks to have been lavish, as you would expect, given that when its owner died in 1934 he left £188.710 which one calculation puts at  £13,160,000, or £35,560,000 when measured relative to the wage of the average worker, and a staggering £63,470,000.when measured against per capita of GDP.*

All along way from the lives of the men and women in the pictures.

Location Rusholme








Pictures; soldiers and nurse from the hospital, circa 1916, from the collection of David Harrop, and Birchfield, 1959, J F Harris, m42197 and H Milligan, m66420, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Measuring Worth, https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/relativevalue.php

A taste of Sicily in Switzerland ......... oranges, chillies and a red onion

Varese, 2016

Now the great thing about holidays is that you come back with a shed load of fresh experiences, a clutch of photographs and above all some new recipes.

And so it was this time.

We usually try to visit the family in Italy at Easter.  This year it was a little earlier and for a full week we sat back and enjoyed Rosa’s cooking.*

She comes from Naples and so much of what we eat consists of vegetables, some roasted others fried and the rest eaten raw in salads and of course lots of pasta.

Occasionally she will offer up something from the north which tends to be heavier, relies more on butter than olive oil and of these my favourite is Pizzoccheri della Valtellina, which is a mix of pasta, potatoes, savoy cabbage and spinach and three types of cheese.**

And for someone brought up on school cabbage Pizzoccheri della Valtellina is a revelation.

This time there was one new dish which comes not from the north or Naples but from Sicily.

Two oranges three cillies one onion & balsamic vinegar

On Thursday we had crossed over into Switzerland to stay the night with Tina’s sister and that evening Rosario offered up a mix of food including a salad of sliced oranges, red onion and chillies in a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a touch of wine vinegar and oregano.

It was a perfect accompaniment to the green salad, polenta and potatoes served with onions.

I have yet to have a go at making it but it shouldn’t be difficult and in time I think will come one of those standard dishes trotted out all the year round but particularly in high summer.

Location; Sicily & Switzerland




Pictures; Varese and the ingredients for the salad, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Rosa’s cooking, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Rosa%27s%20cooking

**Gnocchi di patata, Pizzoccheri della Valtellina, and a lesson in the geography of Italy, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/gnocchi-di-patata-pizzoccheri-della.html

Everywhere deserves a History Wall ……………… Didsbury and Withington

Now I think, Didsbury and its neighbour, Withington do deserve some public installations which record the people, buildings and events of their past.

Across the border in Chorlton, Peter Topping and I continue to produce history panels which celebrate the townships history.

They can be found in shops, pubs and bars, and on the temporary walls behind new building developments.

In 2012, we produced an 80-meter installation which told the history of Chorlton from the sixteenth century to the 21st ad was designed as a history walk allowing the interested to walk from one end to the other and take in centuries of Chorlton change.

Each large panel, included an original painting by Peter, period photographs and maps, along with stories by me.

Last week we installed a new one on High lane which told the story of Denbigh Villas and the surrounding area.

The Wall was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Manchester, was paid for by Armistead Property Ltd who are restoring and developing the two historic old houses and is one of the first ventures of Chorlton Arts.

It represents a unique partnership between a developer, local artist and historian and is an exciting way to bring the history of a place to a wider audience.

So I rather think it is time that Didsbury and Withington are celebrated in the same way.

After all there are plenty of development sites, not to mention, pubs, bars shops and restaurants.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; one of the History Walk Panels, the Walk in institu, from the collection of Peter Topping, and the Lord Mayor of Manchester unveiling the Wall with Cllr Eve Holt, courtesy of APL.

Denbigh Villas, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Denbigh%20Villas

Armistead Property, http://www.armisteadproperty.co.uk/

Chorlton Arts Festival, http://chorltonartsfestival.org/about-chorlton-arts-festival/

Discovering the story of one British Home Child, born in London, migrated to Ontario and buried in Manchester

Now I doubt I will ever come across a photograph of young Thomas John Loveland.

Southern Cemetery, 2015

He was buried in Southern Cemetery in 1918 and was just 21 years old.

Not of course that there is anything unusual in that.  Plenty of people still died young in the early 20th century and not everyone could afford to have their picture taken in a photograph.

But in the course of the last few days I have come to know a lot about him.

He is one of the 26 men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force who are buried in a neat line in the cemetery.

Each will have a story and it was only by chance I settled on his grave.  He enlisted in the August of 1915 and was in the First Battalion of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps, and here the story becomes a little personal.

Like me he was born in London not that far from where I grew up and was a British Home Child like my great uncle who also enlisted in the August of 1915.

I had suspected he was a British Home Child because his Attestation Papers showed that his next of kin was an Eliza Loveland living in London and she was his sister..

Thomas John Loveland

Their father who had been a gas labourer had died in 1903 at the age of 35 leaving his wife Eleanor to bring up five children on her own.

The eldest who was Eleanor was eleven years old and the youngest was just two.

By 1911 they were living in a four roomed house at number 4 George Street at Walsoken in Cambridgeshire.

But only Eliza and her mother are in the property which they share with a William Fearis and his daughter who was 18 months old.

Both Mr Fearis and Mrs Loveland give their status as widowed and she describes herself as “Domestic housekeeper.”

In time I am minded to explore the story of Mr Fearis but for now I am content just to record that on the night of census Mrs Loveland’s youngest son was visiting.

He was eleven years old, is described as a “scholar” and this offers up the possibility that he too was in care.
I doubt that he could have been living with either of his elder siblings because they were only sixteen and fourteen.

And with the help of friends it seems I was right.  Liz Sykes who is the Archivist at the Together Trust thought that he may have been a Barnado boy and Catherine West and Dawn Heuston dug into the archives of the Library and Archives Canada and confirmed it.

from his Attestation Papers, August 1915

He arrived in Canada on board the SS Dominion in 1907 and had been migrated by the Barnardo Charity.

Like my great uncle he was the only one of the direct family to have been sent to Canada.

Somewhere there will be the records of how that migration came about and the decisions which led him to Canada but his siblings to stay in the UK.  Some of these will be locked away in the Barnardo records and as I am not a family family I will never get to see them.

That said I am in contact with a relative via ancestry and so maybe they will be able to get permission to reveal what happened.

Later I will also try and find his siblings.  One of his brothers I know was killed on the Western Front in the August of 1917.  He was Edward Loveland who was 27 when he died and he is buried atLijssenthoek Military Cemetery  in Belgium.

All of which underlines the enormity of the Great War, and like Private Thomas Loveland and his brother Bombardier Edward Loveland my family made a huge contribution.

Along with my great uncle in the CEF the family roll of honour includes my grandfather, another great uncle, two uncles and my great grandfather, and some who served in the German armed forces.

In honour of the Canadian Expeditionary Force

I hadn’t expected when I first came across his grave that Private Loveland would take me on my own personal journey which will for now conclude with a visit to his resting place in Southern Cemetery which is just ten minutes away from where we live.

And I intend to go on July 1 which is timely given that it is the centenary of the first day of the Somme and of course Canada Day.

I will also call in at the special exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge devoted to the Battle of the Somme.  It is maintained by David Harrop who in honour of the men of CEF buried here has included a special item of remembrance to those Canadians.

Nor should we forget that the cemetery also holds the graves of men of the ANZAC forces as well as the British army.

And something of the story of Southern Cemetery and the history of Manchester during the Great War is revealed in Manchester Remembering 1914-18 published today.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Research; Liz Sykes, Catherine West and Dawn Heuston

Pictures; Southern Cemetery 2013 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, grave of Private Thomas John Loveland, courtesy of David Harrop and Maple leaf from Lori Oschefski

*Manchester Remembering 1914-18

The History of the Treaty of Versailles - Five Future Wars …………. five to listen to

I have been listening to an excellent first episode of a series on the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed this month a century ago, and which was judged to make closure on the Great War.

Family members 

As we know that didn’t happen, and Europe faced a rerun of that conflict twenty years later, and some would argue set up other conflicts that rumbled through the next hundred years.

And that is the theme of the Radio 4 programme, The History of the Treaty of Versailles - Five Future Wars.*

In this series, former BBC Diplomatic Editor Bridget Kendall explores how the decisions made by the peace makers would influence a century of global conflict.

Great Uncle Richard Bux

“Kings, prime ministers and foreign ministers with their crowds of advisers rubbed shoulders with journalists and lobbyists for a hundred causes, from Armenian independence to women's rights. For six extraordinary months the city was effectively the centre of world government as the peacemakers wound up bankrupt empires and created new countries.

In this opening episode Bridget examines the treatment of Germany at the Paris Peace Conference. Blamed for the outbreak of the war and not given a seat at the table at the palace of Versailles where the conference was held. The Treaty of Versailles, when agreed, lumped Germany with economic reparations, forced disarmament and reduced territories. Following these punitive measures, the next decades of German history include the rise of Nazism and the outbreak of another World War. Were the seeds sown at Versailles?

Featuring contribution from Professor Margaret MacMillan, author of 'Peacemakers: Six Months that Changed the World' and Professor Richard Evans, University of Cambridge and author of 'The Third Reich Trilogy'”.

Subsequent episodes will include Poland and Vietnam, and some of those will be ones I grew up.

Great uncle Richard's wife

The first however because it involves post 1919 Germany, the Weimar Republic and the rise to power of the Nazi Party has a personal interest in that my maternal grandmother was German, remained in Germany until 1923, and her family including her brothers, and their families stayed and witnessed the full anguish of the hyperinflation, the mass unemployment of the 1930s and all the adjustments people had to make to the Nazi regime.

So, one to listen to.

Pictures; the German family, 1930s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The History of the Treaty of Versailles - Five Future Wars, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00066ym

A water trough and three lost houses on Wilmslow Road in the summer of 1914

I think I remember the water trough just where Wilmslow Road joins Wellington Road in Withington.

I spent two years on and off just behind it during the early 70’s, and visited most of the shops along this stretch of the main road including the Victoria Hotel.

And because I was a student I did go into the Library on the corner facing the water trough, although I do have to confess perhaps not as often as I should have done.

Not that I would have been able to have gone there when this photograph was taken which I reckon to have been sometime just before the Great War because back then this site belonged to three rather impressive properties, which stood in a fair bit of land and whose gardens stretched back on to Wellington Road. The larger of the two had 11 and 13 rooms while the smallest just 8.

The walls and railings of the properties along with a large tree dominate the bottom right of our picture.

Now I rather fancy there will be a story to tell about what happened to the three houses, because in 1927 they have been demolished to be replaced by Withington Library.  This was the third and last of the three to built when Chorlton, Withington, Didsbury and Burnage voted to join the city in 1904.

It’s a story I have already told, so for the meantime I will stay with our picture of Withington on summers day. Judging by the sunlight and the school girls it must ne early morning.  The shops are open, the children are on their way to school but otherwise not much stirs.

Only the two work men with the usual handcart appear to be in gainful employment, although I suppose that is a bit unfair on the tram driver and conductor.

So that pretty much is it except for that water trough which sadly it would appear I don’t remember. Well not at the corner of Wilmslow Road and Wellington Road.  It had been here from 1876 to 1927  but as the Withington Civic Society records “was moved to the junction of Palatine Road and Wilmslow Road, opposite the White Lion. [and] was then moved to the Cotton Lane/Wilmslow Road corner. 

The trough then disappeared without trace for many years. It was eventually discovered, quite neglected, in a field at Chamber Hall Farm, Heald Green, and returned to Withington in 1985, thanks to the efforts and funding of Withington Civic Society. The inscription on the water trough
‘... that ye may drink, both ye and your cattle and your beasts’ [2 Kings, 3:17]
is appropriately chosen - the trough provided water for people (a drinking fountain), for horses and, at the side, for dogs.”*

Picture; Wilmslow Road circa 1914, courtesy of Mark Fynn http://www.markfynn.com/manchester-postcards.htm

*Withington Civic Society, https://sites.google.com/site/withingtoncivicsociety/

The BHC History Wall …………..

Now I have been thinking about ways of taking the BHC story to a wider audience.

A History Wall

In Canada our colleagues never miss an opportunity to speak to communities, create exhibitions in museums and public libraries, and accept invitations from the media.

Over here, we still lag behind these enterprises, partly because we are still the new kids on the block, and we have yet to develop clusters of interested BHC people in towns, cities and villages.

A Wall proving popular

At present to my knowledge there are only two British Facebook sites devoted specifically to British Home Children.  Ours was set up from Manchester and is run by Tricia in London.

It currently has 1,211 members which is very good for a group that is only a year and a bit old, and they are drawn from across Britain and North America.

Very early on we created a poster which can be downloaded and displayed in public places, as well as a PowerPoint which can be used to support meetings or just shared with people who want to know more.

And today I began thinking of a more ambitious project, in the form of a History Wall.

Over the last decade in collaboration with a local artist I have produced a series of installations which tell the story of a building or an area.

The largest was 80 meters long and consisted of sixteen panels, while last week we unveiled a new one.

Attracting interest and discussion

Now the big ones are commissioned or sponsored by local property developers and have fronted building projects, but we have produced smaller ones which are displayed on pubs, bars, restaurants and shops as well as libraries.

Some have become tourist attractions, while others encourage people to ask questions and go looking for more information.

The bigger ones have also been used by local schools.

And in the case of two of the walls, we invited the Lord Mayor Of Manchester to open one and Baron Bradley of Withington another, thereby ensuring media coverage.

So, I think a wall however modest with a mix of images and text, displayed in a public place, will advance knowledge of BHC and draw people in.

Pictures; history walls in Chorlton, 2019 and 2012

Walking Chorlton’s history along High Lane ……………. The History Wall

Every place should have a History Wall.

One of the panels of the History Wall

And I am pleased to say Chorlton has its wall of historical stories, which runs along High Lane and round on to Stockton Road, and consists of six panels which include original paintings by Peter Topping, period photographs and maps with stories by me.

Together they tell the story of Denbigh Villas which was built in 1871, briefly became a private school and is now being converted into apartment by Armistead Property Ltd, who have painstakingly restored the exterior.*

The History Wall

And in the process have brought the two houses out of the shadows, along with some of the occupants.

These include Josiah Slugg who lived at no. 59 was well known in Chorlton.  He had arrived in 1830, to start an apprenticeship and became a leading manufacturer of microscopes.

But he is also remembered for his book on the history of Manchester, which was written in 1881, and describes the city of his youth, a full half century earlier.

It is a fascinating account of Manchester, which neatly juxtaposes stories of the horse drawn stagecoaches, which were still the main form of long distance travel, with a detailed account of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which terminated in its fine new railway station on Liverpool Road.

Mr. Slugg’s residency was but a short one, and while many of those that lived in Denbigh Villas have been lost to us, we do know something about the two who ran schools from the property at the turn of the last century.

The Lord Mayor of Manchester and Cllr Holt unveil the Wall

The panels also feature the surrounding area, offering up views of neighbouring fields at ploughing time, the old village school on the green and examples of 18th century wattle and daub cottages.
Armistead Property Ltd** paid for the Wall and it is part of the new Chorlton Arts project*** and will remain until the restoration of Denbigh Villas is complete.

That said the Wall is not the first.  Back in 2012, Peter and I produced an 80-meter installation along Albany Road, which told the story of Chorlton from the sixteenth century to the present, while in shops and bars across the township there are smaller boards focused on the area in which they are located.

All of them are predicated on those simple idea, that history is not just to be found in a book, and the most interesting accounts of the past are the “stories behind the doors”.

The Denbigh Villa/ High Lane Wall is an exciting and unique partnership between a developer, local artist and historian.

Deborah and Peter Armistead with the Lord Mayor

In the week that it has been up it has already attracted a lot of attention and may yet become a tourist attraction.

And as befits a tourist attraction, the Wall was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Manchester who was accompanied by our own Chorlton elected representatives, Cllr Eve Holt and Cllr Matt Strong, along with  invited guests, the staff of Armistead Property Ltd, and Peter and Deborah Armistead.

Location Chorlton

Pictures; one of the six wall panels, The Lord Mayor and Cllr Holt, courtesy of APL, The History Wall, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and and Peter and Deborah Armistead, 2019, from the collection of Peter Topping

*Denbigh Villas, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Denbigh%20Villas

**Armistead Property, http://www.armisteadproperty.co.uk/

***Chorlton Arts Festival, http://chorltonartsfestival.org/about-chorlton-arts-festival/

Back with the White Lion and the Scala in 1960 with a message destined for the other side of the Iron Curtain

Now, you can wait for a postcard on Withington to appear and then two turn up at the same time.

So after yesterday’s picture of the Scala on Wilmslow Road here is almost the same scene shot from the other side.

And I rather think it will have been the same photographer who just walked the few yards and set up business all over again.

So there in the corner is the picture house with the White Lion beside it.

I knew both of them well but it will be a full decade before the dive bar was opened in the cellar, with the posters which aped politicians from the old Soviet Union and ere really only adverts for Watney’s Red Barrel.

The date on the collection is 1960 but our card was sent seven years later in April 1967.

And it  is a pointer to the longevity of the postcard which had begun in the late 19th century but was very much on a downward spiral by the time this one started on its journey to Czechoslovakia.

Once in the absence of the telephone and frequent deliveries and collections the picture postcard was the most effective way of sending a message.

So much so that one sent in the morning would arrive later in the day.

But of course by 1967 all that was changing for while there might still not be a phone in every home there would be a phone box pretty much everywhere.

I can still remember the long cold evenings spent phoning home from the kiosk on the corner of Wilmslow and Egerton Crescent, but that is beginning to offer up a little too much detail so I shall close with the observation that our card was gong behind the Iron Curtain and 1967 was a full year before the Prague Spring and many decades before the fall of the Wall.

And if that is not enough of a puzzle there is one more and that revolves around the film at the Scala which on that summer's day in 1960 was East of Java.

Now the only film I can track down was Krakatoa, East of Java, which came out in 1969 and is unlikely to have hit Withington until the early 70s.

Of course there will be an explanation and I guess some one with the knowledge to solve the mystery.

We shall see.

Picture; Wilmlsow Road and the White Lion 1960, from the set Withington Lillywhite, Tuck & Sons, courtesy of TuckDB http://tuckdb.org/history

A correction ………… down at Oswald Field with John Anthony Hewitt

Now, I like the way that stories on the blog are often followed up by contributions by people.

And today I am pleased that John Anthony Hewitt took the time to offer up a personal recollection on a story I ran yesterday, which was all about Oswald Field.*

Anthony wrote,

“Hi Andrew Simpson, good story, but I could feel my ears burning. Please allow me to correct an error in your narrative. You have referred to Claridge Road and Fielden Terrace in the same context, but that is not historically accurate. 

It was only during the 1950s that the name of Clarence Road was changed to Claridge Road. 

The 1894 map records Fielden Terrace as mentioned in your story, however, the 1915 map shows the name had changed to Fielden Avenue, a name retained to the present day. 

In fact, I have reason to believe that Fielden Terrace was the name of the road, whereas the row of houses was named Sunnyside. These houses have been demolished and bungalows built as replacement homes. A photograph of Sunnyside, aka Fielden Terrace, below is no m17819 from the ML Collection and dated 1873. 

The houses are numbered left to right 26-2, the house with the street and terrace names is no. 26 (ML has the numbers reversed). My childhood home was no. 22, third from the left. As a further anomaly, all the houses had 3-room cellars, including the coal storage room, except for nos 22-26, which had only 2-room cellars. 

The cellar room at the back of the house had not been dug out with the handed down reason that the space was occupied by a very large tree. Now that I am older and have become more familiar with local history I rather suspect that the real reason may have concerned possible marl pits, although this is no more than a suspicion”.

To which I shall just say thank  you to John Anthony

John Anthony Hewitt © 2019

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 2-26 Fielden Avenue, Sunnyside (2-4), 1973 m17819, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

* Oswald Field, five cottages, a slice of rural Chorlton, and a bit of a mystery part 1, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/06/oswald-field-five-cottages-slice-of.html

Pictures with no stories ........ no 2 the family on holiday

Now I am fascinated by stories  and more than that the way that a photograph can offer up a story even when there is apparently nothing there.

And this is another one of those.

It comes from a collection of picture postcards which were found by a friend of Ron Stubley who looked after them and recently passed them over to me.

They are a mixed bag, consisting of saucy seaside cards, more than a few of holiday destinations and some which are of a family but have no names and no dates.

Many were sent to addresses in north Manchester from resorts on the Welsh coast and that is about it.

Over the last few months quite a few of them have featured on the blog but until now I have not used those which have no means of identifying the place or the people.

And that brings me to this one.  We are looking at a family snapshot and judging by the sun I am guessing it is a holiday snap taken one summer.

But that is it, leaving me to let you add your own story.

Picture; somewhere on a beach, date unknown, from the collection of Ron Stubley

Summer days in south Manchester No 7 early morning on Wilmslow Road in the summer of 1914

This is one of those scenes which look familiar and so it should for anyone who knows that stretch of Wilmslow Road as it enters Withington village.

But of course because it is 1914 it is not as we would recognise it today.

The horse trough will soon vanish to start its journey around the district before becoming lost and then rediscovered.  Nor is the library there. 

In that summer of 1914 this site belonged to three rather impressive properties, which stood in a fair bit of land and whose gardens stretched back on to Wellington Road. The larger of the two had 11 and 13 rooms while the smallest just 8.

The walls and railings of the properties along with a large tree dominate the bottom right of our picture.

Now I rather fancy there will be a story to tell about what happened to the three houses, because in 1927 they have been demolished to be replaced by Withington Library.  But all that is for another time.

Picture; Wilmslow Road circa 1914, courtesy of Mark Fynn http://www.markfynn.com/manchester-postcards.htm