In the Market Place in Stockport in 1905

We are in Stockport at the Market Place with the parish church in the distance.

Now the date is a little unclear but the postcard was registered by Tuck & Sons Ltd on July 31st 1905 and I guess the photograph will date from about then.

And there are clues that confirm this.

Andrew  Beckett & Sons whose ice cream van stands in the corner of the picture was trading in 1902 at both 11 Wellington Street South and 26 Middle Hillgate in 1902.

And as you would expect there is a story here.

Andrew Becket was born in 1830 in Italy and I doubt that Beckett was his given name.

He was in England in Runcorn by 1865 and was living at numbers 1 & 3 John Street in Stockport by 1881

A decade later the family had moved to 26 Hillgate.

But in 1901  the firm is in the hands of his son Angelo who while he was born in Runcorn had an Italian wife, gave both his children Italian forenames and employed four men all born in Italy.

All of which just leaves me to ponder on the identity of the young man staring back at us in the van.

It might be Alberto Cavilli or Guiseppina Pasquale both of whom were working for Angelo in 1901 but both will have been in their early 20s in 1905 so perhaps not.

Nor is that the only clue to the date, for in the same street directory for 1902 there is one Joseph Emerson, tailor at 28 Market Place, and that is his shop on the left.

His painted sign on the side wall proudly announced that he promised that “MORNING ORDERS IN 8 HOURS PROMPTLY EXECUTED” and offered everything from suits, overcoats to trousers and much more.

The firm has long gone but the sign is still there, faded and a little difficult to read but very much the same as in our 1905 photograph.

In time the picture will reveal much more but there is much to look at, from the men in deep conversation to the detail of the delivery van in the distance and those closer to us.

Picture; Parish Church and Market, from the series Town & City, by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/ and the ghost sign of J. Emerson from the collection of Andrew Simpson