A familiar scene of Chorlton Green .............. with a few twists

Now at first glance, this appears a run of the mill picture of Chorlton Green with the lych gate, parish church yard and the pub in the distance.

Look a bit closer and there is still a telephone kiosk at the head of the lane, the church yard has yet to have its makeover and the United Servicemen’s Club was still selling pints.

We are on the green in the late 1970s or early ‘80s and it would be a full thirty years and a bit before the village school would be converted into residential properties.

The small housing development along Finney Drive was not more a than a decade old and the large barn which once belonged to Mr Higginbotham the farmer and which was on our right was still used by the building firm of Walkers.

Which just leaves me to say that the little lane behind the telephone kiosk will be as old as the church yard which dates back to the 16th century, and had you strolled down it at any time from the 18th century into the 19th  it would have taken you  past a farm and its out houses to the pond beside the old Bowling Green which a series of landlords rented out to gentlemen anglers.

Later after the pond vanished it was still used as a cut through and at one time was known by Marion's children as the Bumpy Way.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Chorlton Green circa 1978 from the collection of Andrew Simpson