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