“Having a Ripping Time at Folkestone”

“Having a Ripping Time at Folkestone” is the sort of a line you could expect in a parody of the early 20th century. It would not be out of place in any of a number of shows, and films lampooning the period.

But here it is complete with a young couple gazing out at the pier and all it had to offer.

Picture; Having a Ripping Time at Folkestone, from the series, At the Seaside, 1912, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Auxiliary Fire Servicemen ......... a story from Tony Goulding

Firemen parading in Piccadilly in memory of Blitz casualties 1941

Among the firefighters being remembered on this parade were five members of The Auxiliary Fire Service who are buried in a communal grave in Manchester’s Southern Cemetery. 

As I referred to in a recent post their names are honoured by inclusion in a separate section of the memorial to Manchester’s civilian war dead located in that Cemetery.

All five men died on the two nights of heavy bombing on 23rd and 24th December, 1940 known as the “Christmas Blitz”.

Thomas Killeen:-

Thomas was born on11th April, 1901 and lived at 1, Salisbury Street, Moss Side, Manchester. The 1939 Register gives his occupation as a “general labourer” and indicates that he was married but was living alone – suggesting that he was in casual employment possibly in the building trade.

Other than these rather bald facts I could find no more definite information about his life. However from his surname he was likely to have been of Irish origins and was possibly born in Ireland. (1)
   
He died on 23rd December, 1940 at Mosely Street, Piccadilly, Manchester.
 

Section of memorial tree in Piccadilly, Manchester, 2019

William Henry Anderton:-

William was born on 4th October, 1896. He was christened at St. Gabriel’s, Hulme, Manchester. His father was also a William Henry and his mother’s name was Annie (née Tapster).
   
William married Bertha Hughes in the June quarter of 1927 at Bolton’s Emmanuel church and their son Derrick was born in the March quarter of 1931. His occupation in 1939 was a cutter and winder and he resided at 10, Russell Street, Hulme, Manchester.
William also died on the first night of “The Christmas Blitz” the 23rd December, 1940.
   
His Fireman’s Number was 2068

Joseph Scollick Hopwood:-

Joseph was born in the Ardwick area of Manchester on 22nd May, 1906. His father, also named Joseph Scollick, a grinder had married his mother Elizabeth Anne (née Whalen) in Manchester during the December quarter of 1904.
     

In 1939 Joseph was living at 84, Rusholme Grove, Rusholme and working as a furniture porter.  He married Elizabeth (née Court) at St. Luke’s Church Chorlton-on-Medlock in the June quarter of 1928 and had two sons: Joseph born on 2nd October, 1929 and Norman born in 1934 (June quarter).
 
Joseph died on 24th December, 1940 at George Street / Parker Street in the

William Hector Varah:-

 William was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester on 20th February, 1910. His parents were John Edward Varah, a very prosperous grocer and Elizabeth Annie Ellams; however the exact details of his birth and infant years are unclear. John Edward Varah died on 28th November, 1937 at the County Mental Hospital while residing at 103c, Cambridge Road, Southport, Lancashire. It is safe to assume William Hector also lived in this town and that he was the William Varah who  married Violet Grace, née Roskell, (in Southport Methodist Church  on July 1st, 1932) This union ended in divorce on Monday 2nd December, 1935 due to William’s infidelity with a woman in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester.(2)
   
 In 1939, William Hector is recorded as a manager of an outfitters, “Miller’s Stores”, living at 8, Willoughby Avenue, Didsbury with his wife Doris (née Harrison)(3)who he married in South Manchester in the September quarter of 1937. His son Barry D. was born in the same quarter!
   
William Hector was killed instantly on 22nd December, 1940 when a High Explosive bomb fell on the Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury Road, Old Trafford, Stretford, Nr. Manchester. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records give his address as 44, Poplar Grove, Brooklands, Sale, Cheshire.

Charles Henry Smith:-

Charles Henry Smith, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s website, was aged 44 and residing at 26, Prescot Street, Hulme, Manchester when he was killed by German bombing on Monday 23rd December, 1940 at Mosely Street / Piccadilly, Manchester.
 
Unfortunately the 1939 register does not record Charles Henry at this address Which circumstance combined with his exceptionally common surname results in his story being mostly untold.(4)

Tony Goulding © 2019

Location; Manchester

Pictures;  Firemen parading in Piccadilly, Manchester, in memory of Blitz casualties 1941
m 09510, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass section of memorial tree in Piccadilly, Manchester, and other images, 2019, from the collection of Tony Goulding

NOTES:-
1) The surname “Killeen” is normally spelt with two “L”s and I found only one record of a Thomas Kileen with a single letter “L” of the correct age in the censuses of 1911 either of England and Wales or of Ireland. This was of a pupil at St. Patrick’s Industrial School in Kilkenny, Ireland who was born in Wexford, Ireland.
2) The divorce was reported in “The Lancashire Evening Post”. Also around this time there was a case of fraud brought against a William Varah, in Southport the details of which, as reported in the “Liverpool Echo” on 2nd March, 1933, are strong indications that it was William Hector.
3) Doris Harrison was also previously married (rather neatly) in Ormskirk, Lancashire in the December quarter of 1928 to a Mr. Roland Pugh.
4) There is a record of a Charles H. Smith born on 4th November, 1896 (and therefore the correct age) living at 468, Stretford Road, Manchester with 15, year old Thomas and another minor : presumably his children. As this man is the only instance of such an entry of the right name and age in the Register for Manchester it is possible that he is “our man’ but that is pure conjecture.

The Lost Chorlton pictures ......... no 13. .........

Now at first glance there may be little that seems different from this picture of the Bowling Green taken forty year ago and a similar one which could be shot today.

But as ever it is the detail.

Back then there was no furniture in the space between the wall of the graveyard and the pub, and the big painted sign which covered the old entrance still had many years of life.

In fact I doubt that if you attempted to stand where I did back in 1980 you would even be able to see the pub clearly.

The trees and bushes which had been planted during the graveyard’s makeover had yet to mature, added to which work seems still to have been in progress given the discarded grave stones laying beside the wall.

And those in know, will be fully aware that it is now the turn of the pub to get its make over.

All of which just leaves me to point out that the date on the image is out by two years.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; the Bowling Green, 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

In Venice …………….. at the unfashionable end

Now, I just love other people’s holiday pictures, especially when the memory of our own holiday is fast fading along with the suntan.

So yesterday our Luca landed in Venice, on a journey which will take him by degree to Florence, Rome and Pisa, although I am not quite sure the order in which he will wash up in each city.

Still, like our other kids, there is always an expectation that the holiday pictures will make their way home to Chorlton.

Once they would have come in the form of a commercial picture postcard, which like as not would arrive long after the holiday was over.

But now with technology, the pictures arrive soon after they were taken, leaving me a vicarious collection of images, along with pondering on the death of picture postcard.

Still, on his way from the airport he encountered the canals which I grant you is not surprising, given that this is Venice, but if there were gondolas and tourist out on the water, they weren’t at this spot.

Instead, here was one of those industrial waterways, used more by the people of business than a representative of the tourist trade.

And that was perfectly fine, reminding us that there are a lot of canals the tourist never sees.

Location; Venice

Pictures; Venetian Canals, 2019, courtesy of ALTO•VISUAL

Mr Lowry and Chorlton …………. part 1 ….. a self portrait and an exhibition and a gravestone

Now as everyone knows it is pretty hard to get away from the paintings of L S Lowry.

And especially at present with the film, Mrs. Lowry & Son, which premiered at the Lowry this week and explores the relationship between British painter L.S. Lowry and his mother, Elizabeth.

So with that in mind I looked back at some of the stories I had written which included the one about the photograph of a drawing of the artist which was never returned by a newspaper, and eventually went up for sale and was bought by my old friend, David Harrop*.

The photograph now takes pride of place in a small exhibition devoted to the artist which resides in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery, which is fitting given that Mr. Lowry was buried just a short distance from the lodge.

I have to say I have never visited the grave, but I am always intrigued by the addition at the foot of the headstone of a small pot which contains some paintbrushes.

There will be someone out there far better versed than I, who can confirm that these are original to Mr. Lowry.

And even if they are not, I like the idea, which seems as quirky as the story by another artist of a series of paintings inspired by the idea that Mr. Lowry might once have come to Chorlton.**

But that is for tomorrow.

Location Southern Cemetery

Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop


*Mr Lowry ……… and the photograph which was never returned, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/01/mr-lowry-and-photograph-which-was-never.html


Tomorrow; If Mr. Lowry came to Chorlton

When the picture becomes the story ....... the Police Station on Didsbury Road

Sometimes, it is enough to post the picture.

This is the old police station on Didsbury Road, in Heaton Mersey.

I have no idea when it was built, and no idea when it was decommissioned.

But here it is, courtesy of David Harrop who sent it over this morning and I suspect took the picture before breakfast.

From the series on Police Stations.

Location; Heaton Mersey

Picture; the Police Station on Didsbury Road, 2018, from the collection of David Harrop

The Lost Chorlton pictures ......... no 12. ......... The Precinct ... 1978

There will be those who mutter over their caffè latte in a certain coffee shop that there is nothing unusual about these pictures of the Precinct.

And of course on one level there isn’t.  The sign is still there, as are the row of shops, starting with the travel agents on our right and ending at the bottom with a supermarket.

But a full forty years separate the three images from today, and in that time Hogg Robinson the dealer in all things travel has moved on, the supermarket was Safeway, which was bought by Morrisons and now trades from the site of the old railway station, and more than a few others have come and gone.

Those with long memories will chime in with stories of the wall paper shop, the dry cleaners and Hagenbach’s “Restaurant and Coffee Lounge” along with the “Cut Price Shop” and the “Toy Shop”.

But some have stayed the course like Tony Adam’s green grocers, where we have been buying our Christmas trees for as long as Tony has sold them.

And here I have to say that years ago I stopped choosing our trees and let Tony do it for us, which has proved the most sensible thing, given that his choices are always infinitely better than mine.

All of which goes to prove that shopping local makes perfect sense.

Of course there are now bold plans for the Precinct, which may go some way to please those who complain about the place.

True, it is now in need of a bit of tender care, and it would be nice to have shop windows that look out on to Barlow Moor Road, but I am not one of its detractors.

I like the way it pulls you in and on a busy day there is a buzz about the place.

I can’t say the plans that went out for consultation do much for me and so while I can accept the need for more housing in Chorlton, which the scheme provides, parts of the buildings look too large and seem to offer Chorlton its own Beetham Tower.

But perhaps I have just become settled in my ways and no doubt would have railed against the original scheme to build a shopping centre in the heart of what was the Victorian and Edwardian part of Chorlton back in the late 1960s.

So best conclude, leaving me only to observe that at home in Varese caffè latte is usually drunk at breakfast, leaving the rest of the day to espresso, but such a comment will be leapt on by those in Chorlton as pretentious and that would never do.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; the Precinct, circa 1978-9 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

First Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald …………… one to listen to

Now, like many in the Labour movement I grew up with the idea that Ramsey McDonald, the first Labour Prime Minister was a traitor, who split the Party in 1931, and went into a National Government with the Tories and Liberals.

And if that were not enough he then went on to call a General Election which resulted in the decimation of the Parliamentary Labour Party and left him leading a National Government of 550 MPs of which 470 were Conservatives.*

So deep was the sense of betrayal that trade union banners carrying the faces of Keir Hardie and Ramsey McDonald had McDonald’s eyes cut out, and as late as the 1960s, when his name was mentioned at ward meetings I attended, older Party members didn’t disguise their hatred of the man.

So, I listened with interest to Tuesday's edition of Great Lives on Radio 4, which explored the life and career of Ramsey Mac.**

The broad outline of that life I knew, but the programme filled in gaps, and raised a number of interesting points from the comment of Michael Foot that MacDonald “was a spellbinding public speaker [who] went wrong” , to the observation that many leaders of the Party have at some point been accused of betraying the Party, by one group or another.

And while the programme didn’t change my opinion that he did betray the Party, there was much in his early career that deserves to be acknowledged as progressive.
So one to listen to.
Ramsay Macdonald, Labour's first Prime Minister, chosen by Shaun Ley.

“In 1931 Ramsay MacDonald went to see the king in order to resign. George V persuaded him to stay, and a story of party betrayal began. Broadcaster Shaun Ley and journalist Anne Perkins pick though events that have a contemporary ring as the political class of the thirties struggled to cope with fast moving events. MacDonald's own story and background is remarkable too - illegitimate son, born in Lossiemouth in Scotland, he is remembered as one of the early founding fathers of the Labour party, and a man who bravely spoke out against the First World War.

The presenter is Mathew Parris, the producer in Bristol is Miles Warde”.

Picture; Labour Party banner, 1980, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*At the General Election, Labour lost 235 MPs, including  Arthur Henderson who had been leader of the Party. The new parliament consisted of 470 Tory MPs, 52 Labour and 35 National Liberals, the Tories gained 55% of the popular vote, with Labour on 6.5% and the National Liberals on 3.7%  with a swing to the Tories of 16.9%,

**Ramsay Macdonald, Labour's first Prime Minister, chosen by Shaun Ley.  First Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007ww4

The mystery at Ivygreen ..........

Now I know I am on Ivygreen Road and the date will be around 1980 but exactly where almost defeats me.

So, hence the mystery.

My very first inclination was that I took the pictures at the top end, but that wouldn’t have given me that clear view across to the pumping station.

All of which means that we are at the Bowling Green end, and this is the site of Allan Court.

And that offers up a surprise because it means that the blocks of flats post date my arrival, although I have no recollection of them being built.

But the entrance in the photograph corresponds to what is now the drive into the car park so I am fairly certain where I was on that winter day in 1980.

Added to which other pictures in the batch include views of the rear of the parish churchyard and a shot up St Clements Road to the village green.

So it follows that I was at the bottom of Ivygreen.

At which point there may be those that mutter about a non story, but not so, because both images give a very clear idea of what the meadows once looked like, before the trees and bushes were planted and before they matured to make it impossible to see far away across to the river.

All that we now need, is for someone to describe what had been here on this bit of land beside the road.

I rather think it was a builder’s yard which may have belonged to Joe Scott, and at one time also used by the Walker Brothers who later moved into the barn at Higginbotham’s Farm.

Well we shall see

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Ivygreen Road, 1980, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

We Travel with Songs …………. A Singer's Guide to Britain……… Radio 4 today

Now I never tire of Radio 4, which perhaps marks me of as one of that generation with more years behind me than ahead.

But then I have always listened, from when it was the Home Service, and was on the wireless.

And the after the favourites, I just like tuning in and being surprised, like today’s We Travel with Songs …………. A Singer's Guide to Britain where Roderick Williams tells the stories of Britain through our songs.

“In this four part series, Roderick Williams explores different aspects of our British story, through the lens of the songs we sing. He’ll show how songs can transport us across all classes, all eras and all areas of the UK. Each song can tell us something essential about our nation at different times and places by teleporting us right inside the experience of someone who was there. 

We’ll see how songs have passed from singer to singer, from listener to listener, reflecting who we are as a nation, and celebrating the things we hold most dear.

In this final programme Roderick looks at the way that song can express a common humanity -- and at some of the songs given voice by people who have come to these islands, as visitors, as refugees and as distinct communities.

He visits a singing session for asylum seekers and refugees in Cardiff and hears about the singing legacies of the Jewish East End and Irish workers in Birmingham.

Featuring, Laura Bradshaw, Billy Bragg, Alan Dein, Joseph Gnagbo, Marie, Angela Moran and Zarife.

Thanks to Valley and Vale Community Arts.
Alan Dein's compilation of 'Yiddisher jazz' is called Music is the Most Beautiful Language in the World (JWM Records)

Producer: Martin Williams”.*

Location; Britain

Pictures; Ashton-Under-Lyne, open air market, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*We Travel with songs, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007wd5

Walking down Didsbury Road in Heaton Mersey with Mr Crawley in the summer of 1848

Today I went walking the lanes of Heaton Mersey in the summer of 1848.

Now as daft as that might sound it is possible to recreate such a walk using the census returns the OS map for the period and the tithe documents.

And it is the tithe document and more especially the tithe map which has helped me with this imaginary stroll along the Didsbury Road, past St John’s and down to the bleach works.

It was based on a survey undertaken by Charles Crawley in 1848 and details the ownership of the land, the tenants who worked it and the use the land was put to.

In total the township of Heaton Mersey consisted of 2108 acres of which only 1840 were subject to a tithe payment to the church.

And of this 1840 acres, 670 were farmed as arable, 980 was meadow and pasture, leaving 100 acres occupied by buildings, 50 for roads and 40 for railways.

Moreover the map describes the size of each field and its rateable value along with who owned or rented the properties spread out across the township.

So armed with the map I know that as I made my way east along Didsbury Road I would have passed a mix of meadow and arable land with the odd little orchard before reaching St John’s which was still in the process of being built as Mr Crawley compiled his map.

And then if I so chose I could have wandered off down the lane to the assorted bleach works.
Later I may return with stories of some of the people who lived along Didsbury Road, but that will be for another time.

Location; Heaton Mersey Stockport

Picture; detail of the 1848 tithe map of Heaton Mersey, compiled by Charles Crawley, 1848 and redrawn by Frank and Teretta Mitchell, 1978

Miss May Winifred Wareham .............. part 2 Red Cross Nurse

I think I am a little closer to knowing a lot more about Miss May Winifred Wareham.

She had been born in 1888 in Oldham, spent her adult life in Heaton Mersey and first came to my attention through a collection of picture postcards she received from friends and family during the early decades of the 20th century.*

They are a fascinating insight into the travelling habits of middle class Edwardians and range from comic postcards to stunning landscapes of the Black Forest and Monte Carlo.

They now belong to David Harrop who in an effort to find out more about Miss Wareham took the collection to a meeting of the local church she attended and in the course of the conversation one woman remembered that May had worked as a Red Cross nurse during the Great War in Heaton Mersey.

This was one of the temporary hospitals set up during the conflict often in public buildings or private homes.**

They lasted for the duration of the war and then closed and within a generation had been largely forgotten by the communities that supported them.

The beds, blankets and all the other things needed to maintain the hospitals were auctioned off and the buildings returned to their former use, but there are reminders of their existence from a picture postcards taken at the time to a contemporary account of the hospitals in Greater Manchester.***

And now the Red Cross has begun to put online the records of those who served in the hospitals.****

It is a gigantic task given that 90,000 volunteered. The personnel records for surnames starting with A through to R are currently available and volunteers are updating the site with more names every few weeks.

So we shall have a little longer to wait for Miss Wareham but we are close.

So in the meantime I fall back on those picture postcards, which were made in their thousands and offer up a vivid record of the wards, the patients and nurses and the buildings.

But this is the first one I have seen which went behind the scenes and showed the kitchens which  makes it unique.

Here is the doing bit, from the big range, the pots and pans to the food being prepared and unlike others I have seen some at least of those standing in the kitchen will not be nurses but the equally important volunteers who undertook the cooking, the cleaning and the washing of sheets and clothes.

Nor is that all for it also reveals the name of the photographer who was T Everett-Innes of Stockport, and a search of the directories revealed that “Innes-Thomas Everett [of] 108 Wellington Road Heaton Chapel" was listed in Kelly’s 1902 Cheshire Directory as a Photographer.

It is an intriguing thought that Miss Wareham may well have bought some of his postcards to send to her friends and family in return for those scenes of Wales, the Black Forest and Monte Carlo.

I guess we will never know but with a bit of patience and careful research we may discover more about Thomas Everett Innes and more importantly the hospital where Miss Wareham worked because there is an entry on the 1916 Red Cross book on the Heaton Mersey establishment.

Well we shall see.

Picture; the kitchens, the Red Cross Hospital, Heaton Mersey circ 1914, T Everett-Innes, from the collection of David Harrop

Additional material courtesy of the archivist of the Red Cross Society http://www.redcross.org.uk/

*The Wareham Family, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Wareham%20family

**Red Cross Hospitals, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Red%20Cross%20Hospitals

***East Lancashire Branch - An illustrated account of the work of the Branch during the first year of the war, 1916

****First World War volunteers, The Red Cross, http://www.redcross.org.uk/About-us/Who-we-are/History-and-origin/First-World-War


Additional material courtesy of the archivist of the Red Cross Society http://www.redcross.org.uk/

When Lowry came to Chorlton

Now I have no idea if L.S. Lowry came to Chorlton.

He is buried in Southern Cemetery which Peter says almost counts and it wouldn’t have been that far to travel over from Salford or from Mottram in Longdendale which was his home for twenty-eight years.

And inspired by the idea that Mr Lowry might have come here, Peter chose to paint a series of pictures in the style of the artist outside some of our well known drinking haunts which I called If Mr Lowry came to Chorlton.*

Of course back in the 1950s and ‘60’s the Horse and Jockey looked a lot different and the Sedge Lynn was still a snooker hall but if they were as they are now this is how he might have painted them.

So with that in mind and with Mr Lowry’s birthday coming up on November 1st, Peter is exhibiting his collection of Lowry inspired paintings at Tutku Cafe, on Barlow Moor Rd, to coincide with anniversary of the artist’s birth.*

Peter has added that “L. S. Lowry is best known for his matchstick men and industrial landscape paintings, he was a famous Manchester artist, born in Stretford on November 1st 1887.

 His father died in 1932 leaving a great deal of debt, which drove his mother into depression. She took to her bed until she died in 1939. Lowry became a rent collector which provided a stable income and much of his later life was spent looking after his sickly mother. 

It wasn’t until the last 25 years of his life that he became famous. 
He died in 1976 and is buried in Southern Cemetery.
        

As part of my Homage to... series, and to celebrate his birthday, I have decided to create paintings in his style, or perhaps I should say, in a style that he may have chosen if he had access to modern painting techniques.
        
I have decided to create an exhibition of paintings reimagining what it would be like if he had strayed from the industrial landscapes of Salford and taken a stroll through Chorlton-cum-Hardy".

So that just leaves you to pop along to the Tutku Cafe, and see for yourself.

Location; sort of Chorlton

Painting; If Mr Lowry came to Chorlton, © 2017 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

* If Mr Lowry came to Chorlton, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/If%20Mr%20Lowry%20came%20to%20Chorlton

** Tutku Cafe, 428 Barlow Moor Rd, Chorlton, Manchester M21 8AD,  0161 222 3365

First posted in November 2017

That faded ghost sign on Didsbury Road and a question

As ghost signs go it doesn’t have the fancy artwork of some or the name of a business or product which might give you a story but this one on Didsbury Road in Heaton Mersey intrigues me.

The faded letters proclaim “DAILY BUSINESS AS” which I can only assume finished with the word “USUAL” but what that business was and why it was painted on the side of building is lost.

It was seen by my old friend David Harrop who knowing my fascination for ghost signs passed it on with the comment that “the word supper is on the wall adjacent to the doorway of the property but I don’t remember it being a chippy.”

And as a way of confirmation someone else has said it was a wool shop, but I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point in the past it did indeed deal in chips, fried fish and mushy peas and the clue might be the bricked up entrance at the side.

In keeping with the rest of the block there is a front door to the left of the window which I guess will be part of the original design but at some point in the past the front room was converted into a shop with a separate entrance.

Such conversions were common enough and more recently with the demise of the corner shop many have returned to residential use.

Not that this helps with why the sign was put up, but I bet someone knows and in the fullness of time will offer the answer.

Failing that the alternative is the simple one of trawling the directories for Didsbury Road.

Alas these I don’t have access to which leaves me hoping that someone with a long memory will come forward.

Picture; ghost sign Didsbury Road, October 2015, courtesy of David Harrop

Shopping in Salford ....... the Outlet or the market stall?

The second in a short series on shopping in Salford.

In the shadow of the Lowry in late October.

Location; Salford

Picture; Salford Shopping, 2017, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Making stories out of our histories ….. part 2 ……….. seaside and holidays ... tomorrow

Now the title could quite easily have been reversed to “making history out of our stories”, and both are at the heart of a new project to record the memories of Chorlton people which will go along way to addressing the traditional history books.

“The Story of Our Lives is a community project which is bringing together older people who want to share their stories, lessons and memories, with a group of voluntary writers who are keen to listen, learn and record what they hear.

Once a week for a month, local people who may not otherwise have met, are coming together over a cuppa , enjoying a chat about a key theme and then together, working towards creating an anthology of tales that preserves and celebrates the memories shared that day.

This project is being made possible by the support of Chorlton Good Neighbours and a range of wonderful volunteers including the story tellers and writers themselves. Here is some of their feedback:

'How lovely it is to share common memories.'
'It's the most interesting morning I have had in ages!'
'Great for everybody involved.'
'I'd tell my friends to get involved, it's very rewarding.'
'Really fun atmosphere.'
"Enjoyable in all aspects.'
'Helped me relive happy memories.'
'What a fantastic project!'
'I think more people should be involved in more projects like this.'

Wouldn't it be great to reward these people with a memento of their generous efforts? To help us get our finished book printed, please check out the Just Giving link below. A £5 and over donation means you get your own copy to keep. You could also share this post to help us gather further support. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/thestoryofourlives

We will be sharing some of what we create within Chorlton Arts Festival so keep following this page to find out more.

Additionally, you can message me to find out more if YOU would like to get involved in the project in some way”.*

The next session will be on Saturday 24th August 9.30-12.30 At Adastral House, the  small block of flats opposite Morrisons Garage in Chorlton .

This Saturday morning we are chatting about 'travels and holidays' which again should stimulate lots of interesting recollections and history. The response has been excellent and we have a full set of volunteers to record the memories tomorrow, but we are short of a few people for the session on August 31st.

If you could help it will involve  jotting down a memory and write something up, which may onlybe  a couple of paragraphs.

And for more information follow the link

All of which I think is pretty exciting

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; holidays from the 1930s, from the collection of Ron Stubley

*Jolene, https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/thestoryofourlives

A little mystery down in Heaton Mersey

The Wardle bell, 2015

Now here in lies a mystery.

The bell in the picture was discovered by David Harrop on one of his recent walks exploring the industrial archaeology of Heaton Moor.

The trip took him  from Didsbury Road down the side of the Crown Hotel along Vale Close to the cottages of Park Row and Park View.

It is a picturesque spot which belies its past, for here just to the north of those cottages was the Upper Bleach Works.

The works were in full swing by 1844 and I guess with a bit of digging I should be able to discover when they were opened and when they finally closed.

Park Row, the Bleach Works in Heaton Mersey, 1844

But for the meantime it’s that bell which according to David sits on its own along the footpath with no explanation for why it is there.

David assumes it may have come from the Bleach Works.

The name on bell is “Wardle Manchester” which is not much to go on but in 1911 there was an “Ernest Wardle & Co, Iron and Church Roof builders" who operated from the Derby Street Works in Cheetham.

It doesn’t appear to be a big concern and of course the date may all be wrong added to which it may have no

Park Row and Park Place, 2015

connection with the bleach works and instead just be one of those random objects that turns up for no apparent reason other than sheer chance.

That said the hunt for the bell led me to a wonderful site on “Walking from Stockport to Sale” along with more of David’s pictures.

And it precedes earlier  that trips taken by Andy Robertson highlight how little I knew about Heaton Moor and how much more there to discover.

Looking across to the site of the Bleach Works, 2015

Pictures; Wardle’s Bell & Park Row, 2015 courtesy of David Harrop, and detail of Heaton Mersey from the OS for Lancashire, 1844, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

* Walking the Mersey: from Stockport to Sale, August 15, 2012, https://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/walking-the-mersey-from-stockport-to-sale/

Revisiting Marshall Street and the entrance to Marsden Harcombe & Company

Now it’s been a long time since I was down on Marshall Street and so I have no idea if the entrance to the former Marsden Harcombe & Company factory still exists.

Marshall Street, 2015

I knew the building as the Greater Manchester County Records Office which is now in Central Ref and since they moved the place has been empty.

A full year ago I reflected on its future and then as you do forgot about it but Phil Portus has set me off thinking about both the building and Marsden Harcombe & Company again.*

I don’t as yet know when they set up in Marshall Street or when they closed down, but in 1911 James Harcombe, mattress & manufacturer (Marsden, Harcombe & Co) were listed at 19 Highfield Drive Monton” which is a residential property.

So their manufacturing business will have been elsewhere but there is no listing for them on Marshall Street although my eye was caught by The Cosy Workmen’s Home on the corner with Chadderton Street but that will have to wait for another time.

Soap Street, circa 1900

Eventually I tracked the firm to Soap Street which is off Thomas Street and is one of those narrow little places that would not be out of place in a novel by Charles Dickens.

And at some point after 1911 they made that move to Marshall Street but to fasten on the exact date will mean trawling through a pile of directories but I do know that much of the street was still terraced housing at the beginning of the 20th century.

So for now I will just leave you with Phil’s picture and a map of Soap Street from the 1900s . **

And after this was posted, Pauline Sprague Kielty commented that "my Dad and his cousin worked there.maybe in the 30s they made mattresses. Then when Dad was doing the family history 1999 we went there to look up family records as it turned into the records office . Dad noticed the old clocking off clock still attached to the wall."  Magic

Location; Marshall Street, Soap Street, Manchester

Pictures; Marsden Harcombe & Company, Marshall Street, 2015, from the collection of Phil Portus, and Soap Street, 1900, from Goad’s Fire Insurance maps, courtesy of Digital Archive Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Lost Images of our Commercial Past ..... part one ........ down on Marshall Street, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/lost-images-of-our-commercial-past-part.html

**Salford Project, http://www.philportus.co.uk/salford-project/

Flying in to Manchester ………..on the long haul from Calgary

Now I never have presence of mind to capture that moment when the plane heads towards the city.

But Peter flying in from western Canada, did just that, and I rather like what he recorded.

Enough said.

Location; “Coming in to Manchester”, August 19th, 2019, from the collection of Peter Armistead

Travels with my cancer ………… part 3 …. unexpected consequences

Now, the fashion to have a tattoo has been embraced by all of our children bar one, and many of my friends also support a discreet one, but I have never been tempted.

Maori Chief, 1784 ...... Nana would not approve

It is a decision which has nothing to do with the procedure, or a revulsion at the whole idea of body embellishments, rather it is a promise I made 65 years ago to my grandmother.

I will have been five, and out of the blue Nana just asked me to make the promise, and in that half century and more I have never felt able to break that undertaking.

I suspect her knowledge of tattoos was limited to those that were carried by sailors, often crudely done, and limited to the name of a place or sweetheart.

And given the number of women I thought I was in love with over the years, it has proved very sensible not to have had their name permanently etched for all to see.

So secure in the promise and with unblemished skin I was not quite prepared for the request today to have two small tattoos on either side of my hips and another on my stomach.

I suppose given the outstanding care I have received during the two different cancers over the course of the last year, I would have been prepared to accept “I love the NHS” with a heart, or the more crusading “Defend the HHS!”, along with “Mr. Trump keep your hands off our NHS and while you are out it forget buying Greenland”.

But no, mine are limited to three little dots, which are there to aid the technicians in aligning my body on the bed for the 20 radiotherapy sessions which are part of the prostate cancer treatment.

Of all the experiences I thought I had signed up for in the treatment, three blue dots were never part of  what I envisaged.

Still there you are, .......... I trust Nana understands.

Location

Picture; head and shoulders, portrait of a Māori man, Gisborne Parkinson, Sydney, 1745-1771. Parkinson was a botanical artist on Captain Cook's 1st voyage to New Zealand in 1769. From: Parkinson, Sydney. A journal of a voyage to the South Seas. London, 1784

On Didsbury Road .......... walking through Heaton Mersey

Now this is a confession which is bound to enrage all those who live in Heaton Mersey but it is a place I have only rarely seen on the bus from Chorlton to Stockport.

And judging by Andy Robertson’s new series I am the loser.

He set off from the metro stop at East Didsbury and made his way up Parrs Wood Lane and on to Didsbury Road.

Like him I have had the odd pint in the Griffin but that is about it.

But there is a rich history here which I shall with the help of his pictures and friends explore in more detail like the one below which Andy told me, “I only found this building's history after I had got home. It was the old 
Police Station before Heaton Mersey became a part of Stockport in 1913. The last Police Officers left here in 1961.”

Pictures; on Didsbury Road, 2015 walking through Heaton Mersey from the collection of Andy Robertson

Doing that anniversary thing ……………… remembering the 100,000 young people migrated to Canada

Now it is easy to get anniversary fatigue.

Young people at Manchester Town Hall, 1897 about to be migrated to Canada

After all most of us will have signed up to commemorations for events ranging from the outbreak of the Great War, to Holocaust Memorial Day, Black History Month, V.E. Day and many more.

And I have rather taken my eye off the work being done to remember the thousands of young people migrated from Britain to Canada and other bits of the old British Empire, purely because we in Britain couldn’t provide for them. *

This September marks the 150th anniversary of those migrations, and today as British Home Children has become a recognized area of historical study it is fitting that all of us should be engaged in promoting the event.

Beacons of Light poster

This omission on my part to have done anything for  the 150th is all the more embarrassing, given that I have my own relative who was migrated, and have written extensively about the subject, both here and in Canada, and have a book coming out later in the year which touches on that migration.

To be fair along with Tricia Leslie, I run our own British Home Child site on social media, have given talks and encouraged individuals to set up their own groups.

But away in Canada they have been very busy with a special project called Beacons of “Light for British Home Children & Child Migrants”, which "is an initiative started by British Home Child Advocacy & Research Association member Kim Crowther when she asked if we would sponsor a bridge lighting in Edmonton for Sept 28th on BHC Day to mark the 150 the year. Bruce Skilling secured a bridge in Calgary and I Niagara Falls.

Since then it has become a quest of all members and groups to find as many landmarks and structures to participate. Some are doing flag raising some are proclaiming it BHC Day in their city.  We have 37 supporters and counting”. ***

BHC badges

Of the 41 events today, most are in Canada, but there three scheduled for the UK, and one in Australia, and I know one member is attempting to get something organized here in Manchester.

It may be too late to get something organized for Manchester Town Hall, but there are plenty of smaller things people to do ahead of September 28th, including hosting an evening for friends, talking at a local organization or downloading our poster and leaving it in a public place, having of course secured permission.

Poster

Leaning me just to say that I shall be contacting some Manchester Councillors and dropping the anniversary into every talk, and walk I undertake from now till September 28th.

So, there you have it ………. Lots to do till September 26th.

Location; Britain., Canada

PIctures; Young people on the steps of Manchester Town Hall, prior to migration to Canada, 1897, courtesy of the Together Trust, Beacons poster and badges courtesy of Lori Oschefski, BHCARA, and poster from British Home Children ... the story from Britain


*British Home Children, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/British%20Home%20Children The Story of the Together Trust due out late 2019
**British Home Children ....... the story from Britain, www.facebook.com/groups/bhchildren
***Lori Oschefski, BHCARA, https://www.britishhomechildren.com/

Of fresh mornings and tired evenings on the beaches of Alghero

Now if I had to choose the best part of the day here in Alghero I guess it would be the early morning.

The sun is up, and there is that freshness in the air which combined with the promise of things to come makes it very special.

But then I have to say that I am also drawn to those last few hours of sunlight on the beach.  Most people have left and you get that sense that the day which seems tired and a little tatty at the edges still has plenty to offer.   You can still get plenty of the sun as sinks down the sky and there is plenty to watch.

On the paid beaches the staff are cleaning the sand off the beds, dropping the umbrellas and putting protective covers over the umbrellas.  It is slow methodical work and no one hurries, they have after all been working all day in the heat of the sun.

A few people still hang on, perhaps with nowhere to go, or just want to enjoy the cooler time.
But already there the early holiday makers heading along the coast road towards the old town, all dressed up and ready for the night ahead.

They make an odd contrast.  On the beach the few still tenaciously holding on while passing them in ever increasing numbers are the advance guard of the evening to come.

And across the place there is a stillness which is mirrored in Alghero as the fair begins and the bars and restaurants fill up.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A little bit of modern Salford .............. the car park

Now I have watched this one go up.

I have to say while car parks are not the most attractive of buildings this one is a little bit more imaginative in its design than most.

Location; Salford





Picture; down at New Bailey, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson