Revisiting the Great War nu 3 .........relying on charity ....... the National Relief Fund

A fund raising card for the National Fund, 1916

I do have to say it seems odd that when the country embarked on a full scale continental war much of the hardship that followed was met by charities.

Of course given the lack of state intervention in social problems through the previous century I shouldn’t be surprised but never the less it is amazing that the wives of servicemen and those laid off because of the collapse in trade ended up  asking for help from funds raised by donations and subscriptions.

As early as August 6th just two days after the British declaration of war Mr Will Crooks, the Labour MP for Woolwich asked the Prime Minister “what provision is being made for the Reserve men's wives and children, both Navy and Army?”*

And here in Manchester the Manchester Guardian reported that
“Applications for relief from the National Fund are growing rapidly in Manchester........... Up to Saturday 600 applications had been received by the 

Queueing for potatoes, Manchester, 1914

Unemployment Relief Sub Committee.  

On Monday there were 900 more and yesterday brought still another thousand. 

Altogether, therefore, about 2,500 applications had been registered up to last night.  
There are single men and women among them, of course, but in the general run the applicant stands for a family, and 8,000 is probably a low estimate of the number of men, women, and children represented.

Everything points at present to a still more rapid increase in the next few weeks, and with the same state of things general throughout the country the slender resources of the National Fund may soon be exhausted by the absence of other provision.”*

Manchester Guardian, September 15, 1914

The National Fund had been established to assist where reservists had been called up and families had lost their main wage earner.

Some firms in the heady weeks after the war began agreed to meet some or all of the wages of men who had volunteered, but this was not universal.

Added to which the downturn in trade had led to the introduction of short time by some employers and a steady rise in unemployment.

Manchester 1914

As early as August 14th the Manchester Guardian reported that  “at the docks where there has been a fair amount of employment since the outbreak of the war, the position was markedly worse yesterday.  

Many dockers were unable to get work and it is feared that the number of unemployed will increase daily.”  

This was mirrored in the city  where “work is rapidly lessening [and] some warehouses are closing at unusually early hours.  Employers are inclined to adopt the system of short time, with the object of equalising as far as possible the hardships which the workers must suffer.”**

And the plight of the textile towns around Manchester was even worse.

Daily Mail, June 7 1916

All of which meant that the National Relief Fund was a life line to many.

It was administered locally and here in Manchester there were two sub committees, one dealing with the dependants of servicemen and the other with those made unemployed.

The relief was paid in the form of vouchers which were accepted by trades people.

The dire predictions that the fund would be exhausted proved not to be the case as trade began to pick up and by December applications were down compared to October.

As ever it was the low paid workers, such "as carters, charwomen and out porters” who were the worst hit.****

These amounted to 2000 out of 5,400 cases between August and October 24, and were closely followed by those in the tailoring trade and those making a living from taking in lodgers.

The newspapers kept a regular tally of both the amount subscribed locally and the names of those who made a contribution.

These ranged from £100 given to the Manchester branch of the National Fund in September by McKean’s Patent Size Company to £32 from the Macfadyn Memorial Congregational Church down to £10 from the employees of Fred Smith and Co.

Along with such contributions there were fund raising flags that could be bought on street corners, and a huge number of picture postcards specially marketed to raise money.

Defenders of the Empire, 1916

Of these my favourites are those produced by Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd who not wanting to miss an opportunity included in the their dedication that they were the Kings Publishers

And there were plenty of charities to give to.

During the war 18,000 were established providing everything from “comforts” for the troops to clothes for children and help to refugees.

They would raise a staggering amount of money and distribute vast amounts of aid.

And in turn so was the extent to which the public volunteered for everything from running the charities, offering up their homes to refugees and servicemen recovering from wounds along with staffing and funding the Red Cross Hospitals.

That said I still remain a little bemused at a war effort which relied so heavily on voluntary contributions and while that is not a particularly historical observation it is still a personal one.

Pictures;Dedicated to the Army and the Navy By the Kings Publishers, Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd from the series Defenders of the Empire, 1914-1916, courtesy of Tub db, https://tuckdb.org/ Queue for Potatoes, 1914, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and advert from Daily Mail from the collection of David Harrop

With additional research from the Archives & Study Centre,  at the People’s History Museum, http://www.phm.org.uk/archive-study-centre/


* RESERVE MEN (WIVES AND CHILDREN). HC Deb August 6 1914 vol 65 cc2062-3, http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1914/aug/06/reserve-men-wives-and-children

**DISTRESS ON THE INCREASE, THOUSAND APPLICATIONS YESTERDAY, Manchester Guardian, August 26, 1914

***Work Rapidly Lessening, Manchester Guardian, August 14, 1914

****Unemployment, since the war began and now, Manchester Guardian December 12 1914.

Pictures from a backroom, on a moment of self-isolation .....snow and drizzle ..... Barrie, Ontario

Today, we are in Canada, in the town of Barrie, in Ontario.

Here lives my longtime friend Lori, who I first got to know when researching British Home Children, who were those youngsters migrated to Canada and other parts of the old British Empire.*

Lori is one of the foremost experts on British Home Children, and I turned to her for a picture of Barrie during the Age of the Virus.

Here are her two pictures, to which she added, “In Canada we are still cold, it's raining out - which is better than the snow we just had. 

Last if the fall leaves are still waiting to be picked up.

Here you go, dreary and boring.  I took this photo last Monday in, what we hope to be, our last snow fall at the Waterfront, Barrie, Ontario, and the second from my from my front deck this morning”.

Location; Barrie, Ontario, 2020














Pictures; Waterfront, Barrie, and from Lori’s front deck, 2020, from the collection of Lori Oschefski

*British Home Children, Advocacy and Research Association, https://www.britishhomechildren.com/

The Highland Clearances ...... on the wireless

Now, one day I will return to my roots, and explore the story of our family in the east Highlands.

I suspect it will be difficult because like many Scots they made their way across Scotland, moving ever southwards until grandfather crossed the border around the beginning of the last century.

That very early part of the family history was and still is shrouuded in mystery, although my uncles  always embraced the romanticism of the Jacobite Rebellions, but said nothing of whether we were part of the Highland Clearnces, which is the subject of this In Our Time programme.

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how and why Highlanders and Islanders were cleared from their homes in waves in C18th and C19th, following the break up of the Clans after the Battle of Culloden. Initially, landlords tried to keep people on their estates for money-making schemes, but the end of the Napoleonic Wars brought convulsive changes. 

Some of the evictions were notorious, with the sudden and fatal burning of townships, to make way for sheep and deer farming. For many, migration brought a new start elsewhere in Britain or in the British colonies, while for some it meant death from disease while in transit. After more than a century of upheaval, the Clearances left an indelible mark on the people and landscape of the Highlands and Western Isles.


With Sir Tom Devine, Professor Emeritus of Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh, Marjory Harper, Professor of History at the University of Aberdeen and Visiting Professor at the University of the Highlands and Islands,  and Murray Pittock,  Bradley Professor of English Literature and Pro Vice Principal at the University of Glasgow

Producer: Simon Tillotson".

Picture; detail from The Battle of Culloden, David Morier, 1746

*The Highland Clearances, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09tc4tm

Pictures from a backroom, on a moment of self-isolation .....quiet schools ... Oporto ... Portgual

The international side of the series, rolls on with these two fine pictures from Mário Ricca, who commented,

"This is from my balcony door, in Porto, Portugal. 

The building is a closed school, usually busy and noisy.  Its roof is now covered with swallows".

Leaving me just to thank Mario, and add that Mario is a retired teacher, just like me.

Location; Porto

Pictures; my balcony door, in Porto, 2020, from the collection of Mario Ricca

In the company of the Manchester Bees ..... no. 4 inside the Ref with a thank you to Ron

Now as you would expect, the Bees have proved very popular so here are some taken by my old friend Ron in Central Ref.

Location; Central Ref
















Picture; Manchester Bee, Central Ref, 2018, from the collection of Ron Stubley

Off to Didsbury, in the summer of 1847

Now I can be as adventurous as the next chap and have been known to venture out of the township as far as Didsbury.

It was after all where our farmers went to get their cereal milled and it was where my old chum Alexander Somerville ended up in the June of 1847.

He had come over to Chorlton looking for potato blight, moved across the Mersey by the Greyhound pub at Jackson’s Boat and ended up in Didsbury.  A place he wrote
“of great beauty- not surpassed even by the beautiful fields, meadows, gardens, and the public pathways through them, lying around London.”*

And went on to revel in the place stating boldly

“Let the traveller, passing out of Cheshire into Lancashire by the Northern Ferry, who loves to loiter on the road, and see sights, come at the hour of summer sunset.  Let him approach Didsbury, and look back suddenly through the trees, the traveller will see the houses standing on the brow of eminence, and the gardens with them, and the people looking out of opened windows, the very houses gazing, as it were, with wonder; and the old church, with its graveyard, and the dead of a thousand years around it, standing in the very brink of the eminence.”

This I have to say is not an advert for the place nor a way of ingratiating myself with people of a neighbouring township who might just in the fullness of time buy a copy of The Story of Chorlton-Cum-Hardy** which like Didsbury was a small rural community.

Instead it is a way of introducing a new occasional series highlighting places close by.

And I now have a special interest in the Didsbury  because it is where Miss Leete of Poplar Grove lived, and she is someone I am very interested in because in a rural area dependant on farming she was on the Ladies Committee of the National Anti-Corn Law Bazaar.  The bazaar was held in London in the May of 1845 and was part of the campaign to abolish the Corn Laws.  These had been introduced in 1815 to protect British agriculture but amongst the working class and industrial interests were highly unpopular.

But more of her later, along with and some other interesting aspects of Didsbury in the early 19th century.  In the mean time I finish with my picture of the Didsbury Hotel.  The caption gives a date of 1860-70.

At that time there was a regular horse bus service operating from Manchester to Cheadle which went from "All Saints and from the Commercial Office on Brown Street via Rusholme, Fallowfield and Didsbury 40 minutes past nine, half past seven, and every hour at night; on Sundays at ten, eleven, one, two, half past two, three, half past three, seven, eight and nine.”***

And for those who wanted to travel a little down market there were the carriers of which two operated from Manchester.  These were “James Crompton from 2a Palace Street [off Market Street] and Alfred Midwinter from the Cock, Mark lane [Withy Grove] daily.”


*Alexander Somerville, A Pilgrimage in search of the Potato Blight, The Manchester Examiner, June 19th 1847
** http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton
*** Slater’s Directory of Manchester & Salford 1863

Picture; from the Lloyd Collection

Where are the bees of yesteryear ………………..?

Now, back in the summer of 2018, the city was full of bees, which became both a tourist attraction and ultimately raised money for charity.

And the blog joined in the fun, running 21 stories, featuring countless pictures of bees many of which were contributed by friends and others.

Nor was it just the city, because as bees do, many settled in Salford and even further afield.

All of which made me decide to run a few of those stories again during the lockdown.

The first few went out last week and I was tempted to post just one more, but then after a series of responses to the one I posted earlier today I think there is a new series in the offering.

Ken Grainger had  commented  “It was great fun doing the Bee trail. We went from the Whitworth to Angel Meadow and all Bees in between. Would be great if they could reposition them all again across Manchester after this crisis is over, that would be a huge fillip for Mancunians and visitors”.

To which Paul Sherlock had added,  "I imagine that would be difficult, Ken because they were auctioned off, so many of them now belong to different people. 

At the time I photographed every one of them It would be interesting to see how many of them I could find again, wherever they are. 

There are still some in very obvious places, including a few that are back where they were at the time but others must be hidden away. Sometimes I've spotted items from similar events, including cows and benches”.

And, yes Paul is dead right, ….. the follow up series will focus on what happened to the bees, which will require people who acquired one to follow Paul’s advice and post a picture of the new location with a few words.

So that is it.

I was going to leave this one till tomorrow …. But I won’t.

You can send them via social media to me on my facebook or twitter site or leave a message for me to contact you.

Location, Manchester

Picture; Manchester Bee in New Cathedral Street, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A Picture History of France 1951

I never tire of looking through A Picture History of France by Clarke Hutton.

It is another in the series which was published in the 1950s, by the OUP and while it ran to three reprints is unavailable except as a second hand copy.

I first came across it on a rainy day in Edmund Waller school sometime around 1958.

Like the others in the series it is the artwork that marks it as something special.*

Back then the text was a little too dense but the illustrations were bold and colourful.

At the time I have to admit to being unimpressed with that artwork which lacked the realism of illustrations in other history books.

But now it has a quality which appeals to me.

The style is typical of the period, and looking at the buildings and the historical figures is to be reminded of similar illustrations on posters, and adverts in books, magazines and even on those framed pictures you got in train compartments.

A Picture History of France covers the entire history of the country and in keeping with the approach to history which was becoming fashionable breaks from a series of stories of Kings and Queens and widens its story concluding with a survey of France in the 1950s.

I could have chosen any one of the illustrations from its sixty-one pages but fastened on this describing the south.

Pictures; cover of A Picture History of France, and a detail from page 60

* A Picture History of France by Clarke Hutton, 1951, OUP

**A Picture History of Australia, Britain, Canada, Great Discoveries, India, Italy, Russia, The United States of America

In the company of the Manchester Bees ..... no. 3 St Peter's Square

Now they are in no particular order, although for those who want to know I walked from Exchange Square down to Castlefield.

I missed the one in Piccadilly and Salford Quays and I believe there is one outside Didsbury Library and more across Greater Manchester, so in that great tradition of cigarette and tea cards, I will do swoppies.

In the meantime I will post all I have.

Location; St Peters Square








Picture; Manchester Bee, St Peters Square, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Pictures from a backroom, on a moment of self-isolation ..... another balcony

"A view from my balcony on 5th day of Isolation, slowly losing the will to live Lol".

Location; a balcony








Picture; a balcony, 2020, from the collection of Alan Jennings

In the company of the Manchester Bees ..... no. 2 Albert Square

Now they are in no particular order, although for those who want to know I walked from Exchange Square down to Castlefield.

I missed the one in Piccadilly and Salford Quays and I believe there is one outside Didsbury Library and more across Greater Manchester, so in that great tradition of cigarette and tea cards, I will do swoppies.

In the meantime I will post all I have.

Location; New Cathedral Street









Picture; Manchester Bee, Albert Square, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

All the history of Withington and more ……….

I will always have a soft spot for Withington.

Withington Town Hall, 2016

It was where I first washed up in Manchester back in 1969 fresh off the train from London, and it was here that I spent almost all my student days.

And thinking about it most of those three years were lived within a few minutes’ walk from the Library and the White Lion, with just a brief spell down on Burton Road opposite the Old House at Home.

But despite all that I have rather neglected the place.

So, in a bid to rekindle old times I dug out my two short histories of the place.  The first was written in 1957 and revised and enlarged in 1969, and the other is a short set of walks through the area.

The Victoria Hotel, 2014

Added to these, there is the very detailed account of the place written in 1857 by the Rev. John Booker which has been plundered by almost everyone who has written about Chorlton, Didsbury or Withington. **

Leaving this one aside for now, I want to focus on the the first two, of which A History of Withington is my favourite, not just because I corresponded with its author a decade ago but also because it is a delightful account, mixing scholarly research with anecdote all wrapped up with much personnel recollection.

It is a short account, amounting to just 42 pages but is supported by an impressive list of source material, all of which were consulted in that pre digital age, when research still meant hours sitting in a reference library scrutinizing dusty old volumes or trawling microfilms of long forgotten local newspapers.

The Albert, 2014

It is a piece of work which in the author’s own words “is the first time a work has been written, devoted entirely to the history of Withington [which does not] endeavor to give a comprehensive history but select the most important and interesting facts”. ***

So here is a reference to just how big the village green once was, coupled with an explanation for the origin of the name Cotton Lane, stories of the march through Withington of the Pretender’s Jacobite army and descriptions of long-lost cottages as well as accounts of the Rush Cart processions.

The book sits nicely with a guide to some historic walks through Withington produced by the civic society.  It is a slim volume I often go back to just to remind me of the places I once passed and which I never gave a second glance to.

Cover of the walking guide, 2014

Back then in the early 1970s I was more intrigued by the identity of the the two who left the simple message “Dennis and Elaine” across Withington.

Years later, having written about the graffiti I met Elaine, but that is a story for another time. ****

Location; Withington

Pictures; Withington Town Hall, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, The Victoria Hotel, and the Albert, 2014 courtesy of Andy Robertson

 *A History of Withington, Whittaker, Kenneth, 1969 and A walk through the history of Withington, 2014, Withington Civic Society, www.withingtoncivicsociety.org.uk

**A History of the ancient chapels of Didsbury and Chorlton, Rev. John Booker, 1857

***ibid, Whittaker, Kenneth, page 5

****Dennis and Elaine in Withington, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Dennis%20and%20Elaine%20in%20Withington

A little bit of Kent in Oldham in the October of 1911

Now I know there is a story here but it has yet to reveal itself.

The caption on the postcard just says In a Kentish Lane and given that it is part of the collection of material I am looking at from the Great War I assumed it would have been sent from Kent.

I doubt I will ever know where in Kent the picture was and as I read the address and the message on the back it became apparent that Kent had nothing to do with the story that was beginning to unfold.

The card was was sent to Mrs S H Wood by her mother and Mrs Wood was in the Strinesdale Sanatorium at Moorside in Oldham.

Her mother was unable “to visit tomorrow” as Nellie was ill but planned to come next Saturday.

It was sent on a Tuesday afternoon and before 4pm and with the more frequent delivery service I suspect Mrs Wood had the card that evening or very certainly the next morning.

That should be about it.

I went looking for Mrs Wood in the Oldham area for 1911 but came up almost nothing.

All I do know is that the Strinesdale Sanatorium was for people with TB which in the age before antibiotics
was still a very dangerous disease and one in which recovery to full health could take a long time and essentially involved bed rest.

Strinesdale opened in 1895 and closed in 1960.

I guess the records have long since been destroyed  but given that some for Manchester Hospitals have survived I think it may be worth trying to find them.

All of which just leaves why her mother chose a picture of Kent and that I guess we will never know.

Picture; from the collection of David Harrop

Pictures from a backroom, on a moment of self-isolation ..... the sea view

I say a sea view, but as Lois says, to get to the water  “you have to keep going straight (ignoring barriers and streams) and then you hit the sea!”

From memory when we last visited Lois and Bari, that walk was just a few minutes.

I suspect it may be a we while before we take that walk again, but Lois assures me that today, when she went the picture over “at least the sun is shining!”

Location, Uphill, Weston-Super-Mare

Picture; the sea view, 2020, from the collection of Lois Elsden

The day Salford came to Southport

Here is another of those examples of the long reach of Salford.

On the evening of August 21 1909 Mabel posted a message from Southport to her friend Miss Wingman of Churchtown in Southport.

It was a cheery little message which just said “Hearty congratulations from Mabel C Howie.” 

Short simple and to the point and Mabel choose a picture postcard of Peel Park and the Technical Institute to carry the comment.

Now there is nothing over surprising in that, except perhaps why she selected this picture above all the others.

Was she from Salford, had been in Salford, or did Miss Winman have a connection with the park or the institute?

Of course we will never know and I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

But the upshot of all of this is that I have become interested in D&D Postcards who marketed Mabel’s choice.  There are a fair few of their cards on eBay for sale but so far I haven’t tracked them down.

But no matter I will and perhaps before I do someone will know something about them and tell me.

In the meantime it is just another example of a little bit of Salford in a faraway place.

Location; Salford and Southport

Picture; Peel Park and the Technical Institute, circa 1909 from the collection of David Harrop

In the company of the Manchester Bees ..... no. 1 New Cathedral Street

Now they are in no particular order, although for those who want to know I walked from Exchange Square down to Castlefield.

I missed the one in Piccadilly and Salford Quays and I believe there is one outside Didsbury Library and more across Greater Manchester, so in that great tradition of cigarette and tea cards, I will do swoppies.

In the meantime I will post al I have.

Location; New Cathedral Street








Picture; Manchester Bee in New Cathedral Street, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Roman Slavery .....another from the wireless

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the role of slavery in the Roman world, from its early conquests to the fall of the Western Empire.

The system became so entrenched that no-one appeared to question it, following Aristotle's view that slavery was a natural state.

Whole populations could be marched into slavery after military conquests, and the freedom that Roman citizens prized for themselves, even in poverty, was partly defined by how it contrasted with enslavement.

Slaves could be killed or tortured with impunity, yet they could be given great responsibility and, once freed, use their contacts to earn fortunes. The relationship between slave and master informed early Christian ideas of how the faithful related to God, informing debate for centuries.

With

Neville Morley
Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter

Ulrike Roth
Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh

And

Myles Lavan
Senior lecturer in Ancient History at the University of St Andrews

Producer: Simon Tillotson".*

Pictures; Airfix Models of Julius Caesar, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Roman Slavery, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09xnl51

Pictures from a backroom, on a moment of self-isolation ..... the dog walk

And the rest as they say is an empty spot.

When Kevin and Pam posted over this picture they entitled it simply "dog walk" although in an afterthought the threw in "gun club".

Location; the field, Sutton, Kent

Picture; the dog walk, 2020, courtesy of Kevin and Pam Casserly

George and Robert Stephenson ..... on the wireless ... one to listen to

Now this is one I missed back in 2018, so it's a wonderful opportunity to get to hear it two years on.

Along with pictures I took of the Planet and the Blue Boxes.**

Planet, 2008

"In a programme first broadcast on April 12th 2018, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the contribution of George Stephenson (1781-1848) and his son Robert (1803-59) to the development of the railways in C19th. George became known as The Father of Railways and yet arguably Robert's contribution was even greater, with his engineering work going far beyond their collaboration.*

Robert is credited with the main role in the design of their locomotives. George had worked on stationary colliery steam engines and, with Robert, developed the moving steam engine Locomotion No1 for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. 

They produced the Rocket for the Rainhill Trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1829. From there, the success of their designs and engineering led to the expansion of railways across Britain and around the world.

with 

Replica Blue Boxes, 2008

Dr Michael Bailey
Railway historian and editor of the most recent biography of Robert Stephenson

Julia Elton
Past President of the Newcomen Society for the History of Engineering and Technology

and

Colin Divall
Professor Emeritus of Railway Studies at the University of York

Producer: Simon Tillotson.

This programme is a repeat"*

1st Class Booking Hall, 1860

And yes, I know the pictures of Planet and the Blue Boxes are replicas, are replicas, but they are all I have.

Added to which wikipedia tells me, Planet was "the ninth locomotive built for the L&MR, it was Stephenson's next major design change after the Rocket. It was the first locomotive to employ inside cylinders, and subsequently the 2-2-0 type became known as Planets. 

On 23 November 1830 No.9 Planet ran the approximately 50 km (30 mi) from Liverpool to Manchester in one hour.

It only lasted in service about ten years; having been rebuilt in 1833, it was withdrawn circa 1840–1841.

A working replica was built in 1992 by the Friends of the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester, and is operated by volunteers to provide rides for visitors.[4] When not in steam the locomotive is on display in the museum's Power Hall. Planet has visited several other Heritage railways including Shildon Locomotion Museum.

The replica was used as an on-screen stand-in for itself in an episode of the ITV/PBS television series Victoria".**

Railway Station and Warehouse complex, 1842

Pictures; Greater Manchester Museum of Science & Industry, 2008, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, The former station on Liverpool Road, S. Langton, 1860, m62891,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Liverpool Road from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1842-49, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/


*George and Robert Stephenson, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09y6zfr

****Planet, (locomotive), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_%28locomotive%29

Walking the city in the company of those Bees

Now I didn’t start out to photograph the bee installations ...... it just happened.

And as I went from Exchange Square gown to Deansgate, other people were doing the same, except they had come prepared with maps showing the locations which left me at a disadvantage.

Still I got a fair few, and over the next week and bit I will share them.

For now, here are four to sample, taken in Exchange Square, St Ann’s Square, Albert Square and St Peter’s Square.

Location; Manchester

Pictures, the bees in Manchester, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Pictures from a backroom, on a moment of self-isolation ..... the view from Warsaw ...a Christmas tree, a balcony and nobody in sight

Now, our Saul lives and works in Poland, but the plans to go over and visit him have taken a bit of a back seat.

Warsaw is a very cosmopolitan city and along with the plans to visit the sites and take in some excellent vegetarian restaurants, there was the promise of going into the forest to sample the forest skills he teaches through his business.*

But like the rest of us, all is very quiet and with not a lot to do, but catch up on reading, and box sets, he took up the challenge to take a series of pictures from his balcony.

So, here is Warsaw, on a sunny Monday.

And yes they keep their Christmas tree on the balcony .......... after all, where would you decide to park it during the year?

Location; Warsaw

Pictures; view from a Warsaw balcony

*Pines Forest School, https://www.facebook.com/pinesforestschool/

Another ghost sign on Burton Road, West Didsbury

Now as ghost signs go I concede this isn’t one of the most exciting.

It lacks a name or any interesting detail which could lead you off to find out more and all I can say is that it is on the gable end of a group of shops on Burton Road

But it is a ghost sign because the newsagent and stationary has long gone.

Back in the early 1970s I lived just off Burton Road and may well have bought a paper there but I can’t remember and I suppose that is the importance of ghost signs.

They have long ago vanished and most of the businesses have been forgotten so these painted adverts are all that is left of a little bit of our history.

In time I will go looking at the street directories and see if I can locate the date when this one operated and who it belonged to.

In 1911 there was a James Bancroft at number 116 who was listed as a stationer, but his shop was in the middle of the row and while he may had had the commercial gumption to take up space on the side of the block I cannot be certain.

Now there may well be someone out there who will be able to date the sign from the style of lettering, stranger things have come my way over the last few years of posting stories on the blog.

In the meantime I shall just content myself with a reflection on the changing nature of Burton Road.

I remember it as a typical south Manchester Road with shops which dealt with essentials.

Apart from the Charcoal Pit most were your everyday shops specialising in groceries, fruit and vegetables, bread and a mix of hardware produce ranging from paraffin to oil sheets.

A decade later it had begun that transformation into what you see today with clothes shops interesting and quirky design things and of course plenty of bars and restaurants.

In that sense it predates our own Beech Road, and prompts me to that observation that if you want a piece of Victorian antique lace here is the place to buy it, but don’t come looking for a Ib of apples or carrots.

But that is a tad unfair, there is a Co-op store opposite and a convenience shop on the corner of Nell Lane.

And of course the pattern of most people’s shopping has changed.  We might yearn for that local green grocer’s and bewail the absence of an independent bakery but I suspect will still do a weekly shop at a supermarket.

I lasted longer than many continuing to shop on Beech Road buying all our fruit and veg from Murial’s and almost everything else from Bob’s Italian deli next door.

In the case of Murial this extended to a weekly account and a cash back service long before most shops on Beech Road took card payments.

That said few can now make a living from the traditional retail businesses of food, hardware, and even selling newspapers which leaves the shops open to other services.  And as much as I lament the passing of those traditional shops on Beech Road and Burton Road at least the premises are not empty and what they deal in is interesting and fun.

And by the next time I am on Burton Road I hope I will have tracked down our Newsagent and Stationer.

And within a few minutes of this story going up my friend Sally added "the newsagents as I remember it was called Gibsons. That was in the 70s . Bancroft's was further up towards Nell    Lane and I remember Mr and Mrs Bancroft very well . Their shop was on the same side as Gibsons , opposite the bakers Lyngrays"

So even a ghost sign can come back to life, ... well sort of.  Thanks Sally.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust ..... our first review

Now, the world of publishing can be a little fraught, and having planned two book launches for the new book on the children’s charity, The Together Trust, that dread virus has meant they have been postponed.

The book was commissioned to coincide with the 150th centenary of this charity which began as a refuge for destitute boys found on the streets of Manchester and Salford but with in a decade had expanded into a range of activities designed to help young people.

So it is with a profound sadness that I have to report the first two events planned to publisice the book will not happen

But every dark cloud has a silver lining, and today I received notice of the first review of the book, which is by Trevor James, the Editor of The Historian, and will appear on the Historical Association’s web site and in their journal, the Historian.

Modesty forbids me from quoting the review at length, but I can’t resist quoting Mr. James who wrote “I did thoroughly enjoy reading it”, and leave you with this short extract,

“From its earliest beginnings in Manchester 1870 as a ‘Night Refuge for Homeless Boys’, through being transformed into the ‘Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuges and Homes’ and then the ‘Boys and Girls Welfare Society’, what is now known as The Together Trust has an exceptional record within the charitable and voluntary sector. This organisation has evolved over 150 years, developing its role in response to changing needs, with strong and persistent charitable support from within the business and wider community.

What Andrew Simpson offers is a chronological analysis of exactly how this evolving organisation moved about the area, including how it came to occupy in present modern-day base in Cheadle, all the time explaining exactly what social, economic and physical challenges were being confronted. It is a very interesting survey of how exactly the Trust has responded so positively to the changing needs of communities facing economic hardship and physical challenge”. 

* The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust, Andrew Simpson, The Together Trust, 2020, 140p, £14-99. ISBN 978-1-5272-5671-2. You can obtain copies of the book from, books@togethertrust.org.uk But given the current circumstances there may be a delay in getting books out in the post to people.

Trams in Eltham a rattling good read

Trams and I mean those old stately early 20th century trams have a fascination for me.

Sadly I am too young to remember them although it is just possible my father took me to see the last one clattering into the New Cross depot in the summer of 1952.

But I would only have been three so if I was there I have no memory of the event.

All of which is why Mr Kennett’s book on the Trams in Eltham is such a wonderful read.

“For forty-two years from 1910 to 1952 Eltham residents had the benefit of travel by electric tram which was part of a transport revolution that hastened the creation of the London suburbs already given an impetus in the nineteenth century by the coming of the railways.  

The first route to Eltham linked the village with Woolwich and following the First World War direct journeys by tram could be made to Lee, Lewisham and London.”

Now I am hoping that the Eltham Society and Mr Kennett will give me permission to quote from the book and use more pictures in future blogs about Trams in Eltham.

None of which should stop people buying the book itself which costs £4 to members and £5 for non members, plus £1.50 for post and packaging.*

For this you will get an extensive description of the history of trams in Eltham, plenty of memories of travelling by tram and lots of wonderful pictures many of which I have never seen before.

*Eltham Society, http://theelthamsociety.org.uk/