Mary Elizabeth Stanton in 1865, a life slowly being revealed

This is Mary Elizabeth Stanton and apart from her name and the barest of details I know nothing about her.

But I have to say I am drawn to young Mary.

The picture is one of a collection belonging to Mary’s descendant and they all date from the 1860s.

Now I am not an expert on the fashions of the 19th century but I think Mary’s dress can be dated to around 1864.

The wide dress relied on crinolines and hoops to give it that ample shape but by that date they were not as large or ostentatious as they had been and that is as far as I dare go without some advice.

But the story is an ongoing one and over the next few weeks I want to share what I find out.

So today I shall start with the photograph.

It was taken by Edward Shayler who had studios at 173 Upper Street in Islington and 82 St John Street Clerkenwell.  Both properties still exist although they are no longer studios.
Edward Shayler was well enough known to have left a biography, and was a popular choice for the family who commissioned him to take five pictures.

On the reverse of each someone has added a little information which allows me to know that “Mary Elizabeth Stanton [was] eldest daughter of Aunty Betsy.”

Now Aunt Betsy was Elizabeth Stanton who was married to John Stanton who at the time of his daughter’s birth was a “master optical turner employing six men.”

Mary was born in 1844 in Holborn and by one of those quirky family traditions her given name was Elizabeth Jane.

So knowing that she was born in 1844 we may be able to offer up her age, because the photograph could be of her wedding day in 1865, and if that is the case then the young Mary will be just twenty-one years old when she posed for this picture.

And it might explain her absence from the family in the 1871 census, but that as they say is for another story.

Picture; from the collection of Jean Gammons

A day in the life of the Rec ..... the bike and the tree

An occasional series on the recreational ground on Beech Road, which I have known with affection for over 40 years.

It is a place we have lived opposite since 1976, the place our kids have played on, and depending on whether you call it the Rec or Beech Road Park, the place that marks you out as someone with Chorlton history.

Once it was part of Row Acre, a field which stretched from Cross Road, down to Acres Road and was farmed by a group of tenant farmers and market gardeners in strips, echoing the medieval system of farming practised in certain parts of the country.

In the late 1890s it was gifted to the people of Chorlton-cum-Hardy by the Egerton estate, and remains a popular place to take the kids, sit on the benches or kick a ball.

Our lads played football there, exhausting different groups of friends in the course of long summer days, and still go out on Christmas Day for a kick about which has become part of our family Christmas.

And for many, the test of how long you have lived in Chorlton falls simply on whether you call it the Rec or the Beech Road Park.

So that is it, with a thank you to the chap who parked his bike by the tree and afforded the photo opportunity.

Location; The Rec

Picture; the bike and the tree, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the Rec circa 1930s from the Lloyd Collection

Heaton Park Tramway ……………. one to do

Now, I always mean to head up to the tram museum at Heaton Park, but never quite do.*

So, I was very pleased that Neil Simpson did just that at the weekend, posted the pictures he took on social media, and then shared them with me.

And that has doubled my resolve to zip over and enjoy the mix of vehicles, and memorabilia on offer.

The Museum is situated in the park and it is quite appropriate that I can do the journey by tram from Chorlton, changing at Victoria, which means there is no excuse.

At which point I could go into great detail about the museum, but their site does it so much better, in particular the story of how it started, and the collection.**

“Heaton Park Tramway is run by the Manchester Transport Museum Society.  

We have a variety of electric trams some in store and others operational and running on a stretch of track dating back to the original Manchester Tramway which used to operate into the park.  

Since opening in 1980, we have extended the line three times and run from Middleton Road to the boating lake.

The Manchester Transport Museum Society Ltd is a registered charity, set up in the early 1960s as the Manchester Transport Historical Collection. 

The Society’s aim is the preservation of documents and artifacts relating to public transport in the Manchester region.

The key project the group took on was the restoration of Manchester single deck California car 765. 

Having rescued the tram from the moors above Huddersfield, it was taken to the tramway museum at Crich in Derbyshire, where early restoration work took place. 

Further restoration was undertaken in Manchester and the restored car returned to Crich, operating for a couple of seasons.

The Society was keen to reopen the former tramway siding in Heaton Park which was still in existence under a layer of tarmac. 

The siding was originally built to allow special cars to operate from various parts of the city bringing Sunday School parties for days out in the extensive grounds of Heaton Hall. 

The aim was to operate 765 in its home city. Manchester City Council was approached during the 1970s and following negotiations a start was made on unearthing the existing tram rails". **

And for the rest I suggest you go to their site and then visit the museum.

Operating times:

Saturdays (4th May – 28th September 2019)

First Tram : 12:00

Last tram : 16:45

Sundays (17th February – 17th November)

First Tram : 12:00

Last tram : 16:45

"Please note that the tramway will not be operating during Park Life (8th June – 16 June)

Tramway operation is dependent on weather and personnel”.*

Location Heaton Park

Pictures; Heaton Park Tramway, 2019, from the collection of Neil Simpson 


*Heaton Park Tramway; http://hptramway.co.uk/

**About the Museum,
http://hptramway.co.uk/index.php/about/

The unseen bit of Cornbrook Metro stop …………. all in a day’s tram travelling

Now Cornbrook is one of those tram stops most of us just pass through, or because it is a switching point for a number of services, the place you might use to make a change.

In winter it can be an inhospitable spot with the wind cutting through you.

But it is also the stop that I have often pondered on, not least because of the location of the entrance.

Not that I have ever fallen prey to the adventure of finding out.

But Andy Robertson, did just that recently, and in the process discovered that the entrance is having a make over.

And I am indebted to him, because it is just the sort of pictures that will feature in our new tram book later in the year.

Which in turn might well provoke a tranche of stories.


As it was, as soon as I showed Andy this story, he nodded, thanked me, and took advantage of that extra hour created by the clocks going back and wandered off back to Cornbrook and the entrance to the Metro.

In the space of just over 24 hours the Metro chaps had been busy and completed the sides of the entrance.

And not wanting to short change them or Andy's early morning efforts, here is his latest picture.

Location; Cornbrook









Pictures; Cornbrook Metro Stop, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Scary moments in St Ann’s Square …………. on a Sunday

Now I can’t quite remember when Halloween assumed a degree of importance in our family.

It certainly wasn’t there when I was growing up in South East London.

Back then and well into the 1960s, the big event was Bonfire Night, which began in the month before with kids collecting for fireworks money on street corners and outside shops.

The amount of effort that was involved, ranged from elaborate effigies of a Guy, usually sitting in an old pram, to a handful of kids with nothing more than a hastily made sign and a cheeky smile.

How much money ever went on fireworks is debatable, and given the amount that might be collected, I suspect the sweet shop made a better choice for the money.

And mother was always most emphatic that this was just a form of begging, which while it was harsh, pretty much deterred me from engaging in the practice ……….. that and the simple fact that on the odd occasion I did try it on with friends we made nothing.

The kids were still in evidence in the late 1970s, but pretty much seem to have died out by the end of the decade, and the passing of that tradition seems to coincide with the elevation of the visitation of trick or treat at the front door.

I have to say I absorbed mother’s approach and didn’t encourage our lads from knocking on, and by and large they didn’t do much of it, judging that they had more chance of eating the sweets I left out at the front door, than braving the cold and dark and uncertain response from the people behind the doors.

But that said we did go in for the pumpkins, and at one stage had four, all artistically altered with scary faces and candles, which for a while were done by the boys, but latterly fell to me.

Putting them outside was less successful, and more than one was stolen.

All of which I reflected on this weekend in town, when along with the Halloween signs, paper pumpkins, and vendors offering up plastic skeletons which glowed in the dark, we came across the ghostly procession and the “creepy trail across the city, [from] the Strolling Bones and the poisonous maze”.*

I chose to decline the poisonous maze in St Ann’s Square, but took plenty of pictures of the Strolling Bones, as it wound its way through the square.

The grumpy side of me continues to wonder about both these autumnal activities which if I am being fair brighten up cold and dark nights.

But Bonfire Night, remains a celebration of when a group of 17th century conspirators, plotted an act of terrorism, justified by the increasingly harsh persecution of Catholics by successive governments during the Tudor, and early Stuart period.

The event is made all the more questionable, given the arguments of some revisionist historians that the Gunpowder Plot may well have owed much to an unpopular Government seeking to turn a vague and outlandish plan by a group of known Catholic dissidents into an act of horrific terrorism which when discovered left the authorities looking very much like the “good guys”

As for Halloween, I have never taken to the idea of witches, dislike pumpkins, and can leave those Hollywood scary movies, which usually involve much loud noise, plenty of screams and the sacrifice of lots of innocent people.

But I concede that Halloween has a long tradition, going back beyond the Christian tradition to one rooted in folk customs and beliefs common  amongst Celtic people's.

And my own family still make much of the Day of The Dead, which is celebrated in Naples, and have over the years returned to the city of their birth to take part in the event.

Leaving me to make sure we have the bags of sweets by the front door, on the night of Halloween, and try look out for the fireworks in the sky, a few days later.

As for the carved pumpkins, they have long been consigned to history, while I still wonder about the Catholic conspiracy, remembering that down the ages, Governments have fastened on groups or ideas which if exploited can be turned to the advantage of the establishment, whether it be The Protocols Of Zion, the Zinoviev letter, or the destruction of the Reichstag.

Location; Manchester







Pictures; Halloween visitations in Manchester, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The cranes of Salford ……….. no. 10 ………… looking in from Castlefield

Somewhere I have a similar photograph taken from the reconstructed wall of the Roman fort at Castlefield looking into Salford.

Mine will date from the late 1990s and I wish I could find it because it would make a nice contrast to Andy’s which was taken last week.

The difference will be the cranes in the distance, which like their counterparts in Manchester point to the wholesale redevelopment of the twin cities.

I remain uneasy at this transformation, not because I am against progress, but more the nature, size and ultimate use of these giant new blocks.

They dwarf the city, squeezing out the traditional historic landscapes, and appear to abandon any concept of social housing provision.

And when the bubble bursts, and the properties can no longer attract people to live in them, what then?

Location; Castlefield

Picture; looking into Salford, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

The Cult of King Tut ................ one to listen to ......... today on the wireless

Now this one is fascinating.

"As the largest collection of Tutankhamun's treasures to travel outside of Egypt goes on display in London, Patricia Clavin, Professor of International History at the University of Oxford, explores the cult of Egyptomania following the opening of King Tutankhamun’s Tomb in 1922.

Patricia visits the Griffith Institute in Oxford to view the original glass plate negatives of Harry Burton, who meticulously documented Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon's archaeological excavations of the tomb of Tutankhamun. She notes how Burton set up and staged his photos to make them as dramatic as possible and how these images then flashed around the world in the new mass circulation newspapers, so that "everybody could have a bit of King Tut".

At the Clothworkers' Centre in London, Patricia looks at the V&A’s stunning hand-beaded gold lamé evening jacket, made in Paris in 1923, which uses generic Egyptian motifs of birds, snakes and lotus flowers: imagery that appeared everywhere in 1920s art deco design, as well as in mass-produced consumer goods, available to all.

The four statues of the goddess Isis, who guarded Tutankhamun's canopic shrine, are notably modern-looking. Their bobbed hair and shift dresses chimed with the style of the new 1920s modern girl, embodied in the "Jazz Cleopatra", Josephine Baker. From outside Baker’s haunt, the Folies Bergère in Paris, Patricia speaks to the musicologist Martin Guerpin about how her styling as a Garçonne and her dancing of the Charleston struck people as the epitome of the liberated woman after the First World War.

When Tutankhamun’s mummy was unwrapped in 1925, he was discovered to be a boy king, whose body carried multiple injuries. Patricia talks to Roger Luckhurst about how this captured the imagination of people after the First World War, many of whom were mourning their war dead. This culture of mourning and death also fed the King Tut curse stories which flooded through the Western press at the time.

Patricia concludes that Tut-mania was as much a global project of the imagination as it was about the history of the objects themselves. It connected people to an ancient place and to one another, including the ones they had lost. Through consumption of the past they were able to re-imagine themselves in a different and possibly better world.

Produced by Melissa FitzGerald

A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4"*

Pictures; gold face mask, Roland Unger, 2016, Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License, Tutankhamun receives flowers from Ankhesenamun. This image is on the lid of a box found in Tut's tomb.
Date 20 December 2006 (original upload date), Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Closedmouth.

*The Cult of King Tut, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009r52

The magic of an empty railway station ............. somewhere in the west country

Now, if you are of that generation who grew up with Muffin the Mule, and thought that the light had gone out of the world on hearing of the death of Ottis Reading, then this picture of this railway station will be as familiar as spangles, and Blue Peter.

This is the stop at Bishops Lydeard, on the railway line to Minehead, and if you were to take the trip courtesy of the West Somerset Railway, you would pass the equally picturesque stations of Crowcombe, Heathfield, Stogumber and Doriford Halt.

Between them, they conjure up that lost world before and just after the nationalization of the railway companies, when even the smallest hamlet had it own branch line.

They are the stuff of romance and nostalgia, and it takes little in the way of imagination to think yourself on to that platform on a hot summer’s day, waiting for the 12.20 to somewhere.

The chances are you would be alone, with the railway staff away busying themselves on routine tasks, leaving you with the feint noise of insects, the smell of warm oil from the wooden sleepers, and the tick of the station clock.

At a little before midday the peace would be broken by the express train thundering past on its way to some place full of people doing purposeful things, and just possibly one of the passengers on that speeding train might give a glance across to the solitary figure before the scene vanished, replaced by hedgerows and open fields.

And the noise it had made only contrasted all the more with the tick of the clock and the buzz of the insects.

All of which will doubtless be dismissed as pure nostalgic tosh, although it chimes in with many of my cherished memories.

That said, when Lois took the pictures of Bishops Lydeard, the station was full of expectant passengers intent on getting aboard the train to Minehead, pulled by loco no.6960 which goes by the name of Raveningham Hall which I guess is named after the same house and estate situated south of Norwich.

It might be a tad unfair to describe the rush to catch the train as a stampede and I wasn’t there, so I will just let the picture say it all, leaving me to include the other images Lois chose from the photographs she took on the day along with a favourite poem by Edward Thomas, who wrote "Adlestrop", after a train journey on June 24th 1914, during which his train briefly stopped at the now-defunct station in the Gloucestershire village of Adlestrop.

Yes. I remember Adlestrop

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat, the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June.


The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left and no one came

On the bare platform. What I saw

Was Adlestrop—only the name


And willows, willow-herb, and grass,

And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,

No whit less still and lonely fair

Than the high cloudlets in the sky.


And for that minute a blackbird sang

Close by, and round him, mistier,

Farther and farther, all the birds

Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire


Location; on the West Somerset Railway

Pictures; catching the train at Bishops Lydeard, 2018 from the collection of Lois Elsden

*The West Somerset Railway; https://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/the-railway

That house on Wellington Road ....... with a history

Now I back with this house on Wellington Road in Whalley Range.

Wellington Road, 2018

I guessed it was late Victorian or Edwardian, and there the story began.

It was there on the OS map for 1894, which sat comfortably with my guess, and  in the course of digging deep I found out who was there in 1939 and back beyond 1911 to 1874, which I must confess was earlier than I thought.

The first owner appears to have been a J Littlewood who took up residence in the June of 1874 but quickly sold it on to William James Crighton in December of that year.

Mr Littlewood still lurks in the shadows, but of Mr and Mrs Crighton we know a lot.

They were married in 1868, spent some of their early years on Great Ancoats Street near to Port Street, and in 1881 they had five children ranging in age from ten down to one month.

He was a buyer for various companies and seems to have moved from tea to other goods across the years.

By 1891 they have moved around the corner to Whalley Road.

The back, 2018

And I know that not everyone will be interested in this house, but because I can I will push on and pick out just two more of its residents.  These were the Rev Robert Simpson who was there in 1911 with his wife and two grown up children and Mr and Mrs Simpson who called Wellington Road home in 1939.

At which point I have to say there is no connection between me and either or the two families.

The Rev Simpson had by 1911 retired from being a Wesleyan preacher while his two daughters were working as high school teachers.

The other Simpson’s shared the house with Police Constable Hughes, who had joined the Police Force in the July of 1939, and was just 23 years old.

There is a lot more to find out about our house, but that is it for now, other than to say that in 1911 the Rev Simpson listed the property as having nine rooms, which included the kitchen but not the “scullery, landing, lobby, closet, bathroom or the outhouses”.

Wellington Road, 1894

Other than to say, the romantic in me, wonders whether Mr and Mrs Crighton took turns round the newly opened Alexandra Park just round the corner.*

It had opened in 1868 and was, as it is now, a wonderful place to take a stroll on a warm summer’s day.

Location; Whalley Range







Pictures; the house, 2018 from the  collection of Lisa Ann Davies, and detail of Wellington Road, from the 1894 OS map of South Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Alexandra Park, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Alexandra%20Park


Sources;Census Returns,1871-1911, the 1939 Register,Manchester Rate Books, 1870-1900

Back at the Soya Mill on Skirton Road ........ watching the start of something new

I am back with one of Andy Robertson’s projects, which began last month when he happened down Seymour Grove, and then on to Tennis Street, finishing at Skirton Road.

For those who know the area, the Trafford end of Skirton Road was home to the Arkady Soya Mill, and part of the site is now under re-development.

Andy specializes in recording such developments, starting with the abandoned, or demolished building and moving on to chronicle the first day the builders broke the ground for the new construction and on to the finished property.

These projects will be an important historical record, so I am pleased he is in at the beginning of this one.

Added to which I like his pictures.

I knew little about the Arkady Soya Mill, other than that smell which hung in the air when we visited a friend’s house which was opposite.

But a trawl of internet offered up one site full of pictures of the interior after it had closed. *

For once I have resolved not to dig into the history of the building, because I am fully confident someone will supply chapter and verse.

Suffice to say that back in 1894 the site was the ground of the Northern Lawn Tennis Club which had been founded in 1881, and behind Skirton House which fronted Seymour Grove, which explains the origin of the names of Skirton Road and Tennis Street.

Sometime in the early 20th century the club moved to Didsbury, leaving the site open for industrial development.

And now that appears to have come full circle, leaving me just to say, watch this space.

Location; Old Trafford

Pictures; Skirton Road, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*  28DaysLater.co.uk - 28DL , https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/british-arkady-industrial-bakery-old-trafford-january-2019.118716/

Tram car 337 on the Levenshulme route ………. and the mystery location

I don’t usually do mystery stories, and especially not tram car mysteries.

But this picture of tram car 337 puzzles me.

There is no date, and no indication of exactly where we are.

All I do know is that we are sometime between 1926 and 1948.

Now this I know because the 37/37A service, Heaton Chapel to Victoria, began on September 9th, 1926 and concluded on October 9th twenty-two years later when the route was handed over to the bus.

Not that I am any clearer as to where we are.

The building to the right looks vaguely familiar, but I shall have to consult a map of the tram routes to see where we might be.

Location; unknown ………… between Heaton Chapel and Victoria

Picture; tram car 337, date unknown from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Chorlton’s most recent History Wall ....... has a final home ……

Now, I maintain, and I maintain most strongly that that the story of a place can be presented in many different ways.

And it was that simple idea which led Peter Topping, me and Armistead Property to produce the story of Denbigh Villas as a giant display during the renovation and development of this property on High Lane.

Denbigh Villas was built in the 1870s, and for a while was home to a number of private schools, before reverting to residential use.  More recently it had suffered from some poor structural additions and less than sympathetic conversions into flats. *

During the last year Armistead Property Ltd have restored the exterior, demolished the mid-20th century additions and transformed the interior into modern, comfortable apartments. **

It followed that while all this work was being undertaken it would be fun to make the story of the property better known, and that led to the installation.

The six boards ran along High Lane and on to Stockton Road, for three months, and that time were seen by lots of people, some of whom were passerby but plenty more who came especially to see the history of this bit of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and in particular the story of Denbigh Villas.

The project was a unique one, which brought to together a developer, a historian and an artist.

Usually the giant boards fronting a development are devoid of anything, other than safety notices and adverts for the finished properties.

But together we produced something different, which offered up the background to the building, something of how the surrounding area changed over time, and a description of the work of Armistead Property.

It was designed as a “History Walk”, starting in the 1870s and concluding in the 21st century with the completion of the renovated Denbigh Villas.

And I am pleased that some of the panels are now back on permanent display.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; three of the six panels, 2019

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

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

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 113 ......... a little bit of French history in the kitchen

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since. *

I don't know what Joe and Mary Ann would have made of our wall poster.

It was brought back from France by my friends, Glyn and Hazel, was block mounted and has over the decades travelled around the house, and now sits in our kitchen.

It was produced by the PSU and commemorated 20 years of their political campaigns.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; poster, PSU, 1960-1980, 2019 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The story of a house,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house


The story of a house, Beech Road

Another blue bus from Andy’s collection

Now for no other reason than I can, here is another of the buses Andy Robertson encountered on his trip to Museum of Transport Greater Manchester.*

And that is all I am going to say.

The blue bus dates from 1965 and belonged to Leigh Corporation Motors.**

Well almost, because Andy also took a series of pictures of the buses which had come out to play on the day he visited.

And these just had to be included in the story.

I was going to trawl the Museum's database of their entire collection of buses, but anyone can do that by following the link.***

Location; Museum of Transport Greater Manchester





Picture, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Museum of Transport Greater Manchester, http://www.gmts.co.uk/index.html

** 15 - PTC 114C - AEC Renown 3B3RA - Double deck bus, from 1965, Leigh Corporation Motors

***The full collection, http://www.gmts.co.uk/vehicles.html

Robert Burns ……. In Our Time …….. another excellent programme to listen to

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work of the man who, in his lifetime, was called The Caledonian Bard and whose fame and influence was to spread around the world. 

Robert Burns, 1787

Burns (1759-1796) was born in Ayrshire and his work as a tenant farmer earned him the label The Ploughman Poet, yet it was the quality of his verse that helped his reputation endure and grow.

His work inspired other Romantic poets and his personal story and ideas combined with that, giving his poems a broad strength and appeal - sung by revolutionaries and on Mao's Long March, as well as on New Year's Eve and at Burns Suppers.

With

Robert Crawford, Professor of Modern Scottish Literature and Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Poetry at the University of St Andrews, Fiona Stafford, Professor of English at the University of Oxford and Murray Pittock, Bradley Professor of English Literature and Pro Vice Principal at the University of Glasgow

Producer: Simon Tillotson"*

Picture; Robert Burns, 1787: Alexander Nasmyth, Scottish National Portrait Gallery


*Robert Burns, In Our Times Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009kkn

Cheshire Line Tavern ..... Cheadle ....... yesterday

Now I like Andy's title to his picture, which is succinct and to the point.

This is the former Cheadle Railway Station, opened in 1866, and closed to passenger traffic just two years shy of its hundredth birthday.

According to that excellent site Disused Stations, it was converted into a pub in the 1980s and "extensions have been added to the original building but in a sympathetic way".*

The entry also offers up a fascinating history of the railway station and the railway line, leaving me just to comment we often fall in to the pub after doing the garden centre" which is next door.

Location; Cheadle

Picture;Cheshire Line Tavern, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Disused Stations, http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/cheadle_cheshire/index.shtml

A bit of Chorlton in four pictures ............. 2014-2019

Location Chorlton

Pictures; Andy Robertson, 2014 & 2018, Andrew Simpson, 2019, Peter Topping, 2019

Discovering more of Chorlton's history .......... with that house on Edge Lane

Now,the story of how Chorlton was transformed from small rural community to suburb of Manchester is a fascinating one.

No. 22 Edge Lane, 2019

And part of that story are those grand properties which were built along Edge Lane from the 1860s onwards.

Some were demolished in the middle decades of the last century to make way for “functional” blocks of flats.

But enough remain to hint at how impressive Edge Lane once was.  Most were occupied by families of business, who listed themselves as merchants, shipping agents and above all employers of others.

The coming of the railway with its station at Stretford will have been an attraction to the residents as was the  fact that Chorlton-cum-Hardy was still a rural spot with fields bordering the fine gardens of these houses.

Added to this, in the mid1860s, the Egerton’s had cut Wilbraham Road from its junction with Edge Lane all the way to Fallowfield, affording more opportunities for development.

All of which brings me no 22 Edge Lane and a story which sheds light on how Chorlton was changing.

I can’t say I ever really noticed the place, but then it was tucked away behind a wall and hedge and easily missed.

In 1907

And that is a shame because there are plenty of stories here, ranging from its first owner, who appears to have sold it, only to buy it back, and later the Jewish family who occupied the property in 1939, and felt compelled to change their surname.

The house was built in 1865.

Now I can be fairly sure of that because there is no reference to the property in the rate books before that date, and the stables which were at the rear let out on to Wilbraham Road which was cut sometime in the 1860s.

The first owner was a John Murfet Haselgrove, who had a business in Manchester dealing in flock and waste material at Robert Street in Strangeways. He appears in various directories.  In 1869 running a “wholesale flock and waste business at 10 Walton Buildings New Brown Street”.  In 1873 as a “manufacturer of lamp wicks, spinner of candle wick, manufacturer of engine waster, cotton & woolen flocks, engine packing & patent sponge cloths, at 21 Robert Street, Strangeways”.  And in 1879 still at 21 Robert Street trading as “Murfet & Nephew manufacturers”.

Over the next century and a half it was home to other wealthy families, before being converted in to flats, and now it is being redeveloped by Armistead Property, who have a record of saving old Victorian and Edwardian properties and creating imaginative and exciting developments, which retain much of the original building, while making apartments which sit comfortably in the 21st century.

Next; the twisty tale of different owners, and mystery conversion and the family from Russia

Location; Chorlton

Picture, 22 Edge Lane, 2019, courtesy of Armistead Property

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

Following the history of Chorlton …………….with that house on Edge Lane

Now,the story of how Chorlton was transformed from small rural community to suburb of Manchester is a fascinating one.

No. 22 Edge Lane, 2019

And part of that story are those grand properties which were built along Edge Lane from the 1860s onwards.

Some were demolished in the middle decades of the last century to make way for “functional” blocks of flats.

But enough remain to hint at how impressive Edge Lane once was.  Most were occupied by families of business, who listed themselves as merchants, shipping agents and above all employers of others.

The coming of the railway with its station at Stretford will have been an attraction to the residents as was the  fact that Chorlton-cum-Hardy was still a rural spot with fields bordering the fine gardens of these houses.

Added to this, in the mid1860s, the Egerton’s had cut Wilbraham Road from its junction with Edge Lane all the way to Fallowfield, affording more opportunities for development.

All of which brings me no 22 Edge Lane and a story which sheds light on how Chorlton was changing.

I can’t say I ever really noticed the place, but then it was tucked away behind a wall and hedge and easily missed.

In 1907

And that is a shame because there are plenty of stories here, ranging from its first owner, who appears to have sold it, only to buy it back, and later the Jewish family who occupied the property in 1939, and felt compelled to change their surname.

The house was built in 1865.

Now I can be fairly sure of that because there is no reference to the property in the rate books before that date, and the stables which were at the rear let out on to Wilbraham Road which was cut sometime in the 1860s.

The first owner was a John Murfet Haselgrove, who had a business in Manchester dealing in flock and waste material at Robert Street in Strangeways. He appears in various directories.  In 1869 running a “wholesale flock and waste business at 10 Walton Buildings New Brown Street”.  In 1873 as a “manufacturer of lamp wicks, spinner of candle wick, manufacturer of engine waster, cotton & woolen flocks, engine packing & patent sponge cloths, at 21 Robert Street, Strangeways”.  And in 1879 still at 21 Robert Street trading as “Murfet & Nephew manufacturers”.

Over the next century and a half it was home to other wealthy families, before being converted in to flats, and now it is being redeveloped by Armistead Property, who have a record of saving old Victorian and Edwardian properties and creating imaginative and exciting developments, which retain much of the original building, while making apartments which sit comfortably in the 21st century.

Next; the twisty tale of different owners, and mystery conversion and the family from Russia

Location; Chorlton

Picture, 22 Edge Lane, 2019, courtesy of Armistead Property

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

Tram car 541 ………… travels with Kathy and Lawrence across Lisbon

This is tram car 541 on Route 24, which takes you across Lisbon from Largo do Camões in Chiado to Campolide.

And it is one those old trams which have been pressed back into service after a slow decline in the city’s’ tram network.

The decline happened in the 1960s, when the trams were overshadowed by the bright new metro system and an expansion in the bus network.

But with an eye perhaps on the tourist trade, and the fact that the fleet of yellow trams looks fun they are back.

The service started back in 1873 with horse drawn cars, which were replaced from 1901 with electric powered ones, and by 1959 when the network was at its height, there were 27 tram lines.

Today there are six routes, one of which has its own blog story. *

And apparently given the geography of parts of the city, these small trams remain the most effective way of crossing Lisbon.

Route 28 Tram 28 winds its way through the old Moorish quarter which is a labyrinth of narrow streets which climb towards where the old castle was situated. *

And there is even a tourist tram, which as you would expect is one of the yellow ones painted red, offering a guide and a higher fare, following route 28.

All of which means you can do the tourist thing or like Kathy and Lawrence, take the independent approach and travel the network armed with just a map and guide to Lisbon and an indomitable confidence that all will turn out well.

Location; Lisbon

Pictures; Lisbon, 2019, from the collection of Kathy Lee

*Portugal: Touring Lisbon on Tram 28 https://www.routesandtrips.com/touring-lisbon-on-tram-28/