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/