There will not be many who walk the streets of Chorlton looking for coal holes, but as I also delight in tracking down horse troughs and redundant vending machines, the odd coal hole is par for the course.*
Once, they were as common as telephone kiosks, but now have pretty much vanished from our streets, along with the coal man, daily milk deliveries and the Corporation tram.
A few remain, but most have been lost to scrap merchants or cemented over and so when I come across one it is always added to the collection.
And today there are two, one from Wilbraham Road, and the other just around the corner on Barlow Moor Road.
Both fascinate me, but it is the first that I was drawn to because of the name Gilbody which appears at the top of the cover.
In 1895 A. Henry. Gilbody was trading from 51 and 53 Bridge Street with their works on Windmill Street which ran between Bridge Street and King Street West. They described themselves as "zinc and manufacturers of marble, enameled slate and iron mantel pieces, Kitchen ranges, register grates, iron founders, and dealers in brass, copper, iron, and galvanized iron in sheets, tubes, bars, nails, screws, tacks, and every description of builders’, plumbers’, bellhangers’, cabinet makers’ upholsterers’, mill and colliery furnishings”.
And as well as supplying coal holes to the residents and businesses of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Mr Gilbody was living at Barway House on Edge Lane.
They were still trading on Bridge Street and has set me off looking for them back beyond 1895 and on through the next century.
But for now, I shall close with that other one, which in its way is even more striking, with its five small circles each with seven smaller openings.
Long ago one of these was lost and other covered over.
I would love to know what the other coal holes along these two roads looked like, and what other designs once fronted the properties, but alas they have gone, leaving me with just that coal hole observations, that you have to satisfied with what is left.
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; coal holes on Wilbraham Road and Barlow Moor Road, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
*Coal Holes, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=coal+holes
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| Wilbraham Road, 2019 |
A few remain, but most have been lost to scrap merchants or cemented over and so when I come across one it is always added to the collection.
And today there are two, one from Wilbraham Road, and the other just around the corner on Barlow Moor Road.
Both fascinate me, but it is the first that I was drawn to because of the name Gilbody which appears at the top of the cover.
 |
| Selling all that is metal, 1895 |
They were still trading on Bridge Street and has set me off looking for them back beyond 1895 and on through the next century.
 |
| On Barlow Moor Road, 2019 |
Long ago one of these was lost and other covered over.
I would love to know what the other coal holes along these two roads looked like, and what other designs once fronted the properties, but alas they have gone, leaving me with just that coal hole observations, that you have to satisfied with what is left.
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; coal holes on Wilbraham Road and Barlow Moor Road, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
*Coal Holes, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=coal+holes
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