At the Ardwick Empire, Ardwick Green

I am back at the Ardwick Empire sometime in the early part of the 20th century.

I first fell across the place back in February and knew I would return.*

This is one of those picture postcards of Manchester issued by Tuck and Sons.

The Empire was built in 1904, changed its name to the Manchester Hippodrome in 1935 and was knocked down in 1964.

Now I could go on but there is a perfectly good description of the place with pictures, maps and memorabilia, at The Ardwick Empire, and I see no reason either to lift what was said or ty an improve on what is an excellent little history.

So I shall leave it at that.

Picture; The Ardwick Empire, from the series, Manchester, date unknown, issued by Tuck and Sons, coutesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

*Merrily we go with Naughton and Gold at the Manchester Hippodrome, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/04/merrily-we-go-with-naughton-and-gold-at.html

**The Ardwick Empire, http://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/gone/empire.html

Merrily we go with Naughton and Gold at the Manchester Hippodrome

Now I am off on fresh trails, and have decided to explore the music halls of the city in the late 19th and early 20 centuries.

It is a rich and diverse story and I rather think will take us into the appeal of the music hall, its history, some fine buildings and above all the artists that performed.

It’s been a project that has been bubbling away ever since Graham posted these two wonderful programmes from the first half of the last century.

And as ever some will be drawn away to the adverts and the stylish art work captured on Graham’s collection.

So if any of you have memories, more music hall trivia I would love to add them to the stories.

And in the meantime as a taste of things to come here are Naughton and Gold*


They were a comedy double act, consisting of Charlie Naughton and Jimmy Gold and started in the British Music Halls in 1908, and were still together as part of The Crazy Gang in 1962, becoming the longest period of two British comedians being in the same act. Both had Scottish accents and their act was fast but rather basic comedy.

Charlie Naughton, who was the bald one, was the butt of most of the physical comedy of the Crazy Gang.*

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ_R9h5uJsA

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naughton_and_Gold

Pictures; from the collection of Graham Gill

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ... nu 34 a reassuring discovery

Sometimes amidst shed loads of change along Chapel Street it’s reassuring to see that some things have stayed the same.

And so it is with the Salford Arms.

Not that I have ever been inside and I am sure that there will be plenty of people who will be able to tell me just how the pub has changed in the last thirty or so years.

But even I can spot that the neighbouring building which was Holgate Machine Co Ltd has become the Roast House.

And while it has retained the clock face the hands have gone replaced by a smiley face.

Location; Salford

Pictures; Chapel Street, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and sometime around 1980, m77250, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Pictures from a backroom, on a moment of self-isolation ..... a kitchen, the cricket club, and no cricket

Here by popular demand is a return of that series, Pictures from a backroom, on a moment of self-isolation.

Moved by the absence of sport Tony sent this over, adding, "Morning  Andrew, I'm attaching a  photo of the view from my back kitchen window for your series 'boring pictures --------- isolation.

The fields behind the fence was once the ground of Chorlton-cum-Hardy Cricket Club and is now the home ground of a local amateur football club Chorlton Sports F. C. 

As I write this it is very sad to look out and not see any sporting activity taking place on a piece of ground with such a long history of such".

Location; Chorlton

Picture from my kitchen window, 2020, Tony Goulding 

A history of Withington in 20 objects ……………….. no. 1 the village green

The story of Withington in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph.

Every community should have a village green, and Withington still has its one. Much to the pride of many in Withington, the township retained the vestiges of its village green long after Didsbury’s green had become an insignificant space in front of two pubs. Today just a small patch of green remains, which fronts the Manchester Cancer Research Centre and looks out towards The Christie, but back in the late 1840s the green bordered the estate of the Hargreaves family who lived at Cotton House and whose grounds included a large fishpond.  Mr. Hargreaves was a merchant with premises at 5 Tib Lane in the city.

Location; Withington



Picture; the village green, Withington, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

“A single to Well Hall” ...... travelling the tram in the “Last Tram Week”

History comes in many shapes and sizes, from serious books on great events to the humble object which offers up an insight into how we lived.

So I am indebted to Lesley, who on the back of a recent tram story told me that she still had a collection of tram tickets her mum bought during the “Last Tram Week in July 1952”.

Now I always get excited about seeing and especially handling bits of our collective past.

Back in the late 1970s I walked away from the excavations at Viking York with a genuine Viking oyster shell.  The archaeologists had unearthed so many that they were being sold in a barrel for 10p each.

On a more studious note, while writing the book on the Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the early 19th century I used the hand written minutes of the local Poor Law Committee.

The volume began in 1834 and ran through to 1852 and I think apart from the chap who wrote up the minutes and perhaps a few others I will have been the only person to turn the pages in almost 170 years.

So looking at Lesley’s tram tickets is a fascinating link with that last week that London Transport ran trams through the city.

I was just short of my third birthday and though there is a family story that Dad took me down to the New Cross Depot, I have no memory of the event.

But like so many people of my generation, those tall stately trams have a lasting romantic pull and have of course now been resurrected by  by fleets of sleek new trams which have returned to many of our cities.

These are more comfortable, and faster but a bit of me would yearn to hop on one outside the old family home on Well Hall Road and rattle up to the High Street and north into Woolwich.

I can’t, so Lesley’s tickets will have to do.

Leaving me just to reiterate that old observation ...... be careful what you throw away for today’s rubbish will be someone’s priceless piece of history in the future.

Location; Eltham

Pictures; tram tickets from “The Last Tram Week”, July 1952, from the collection of Lesley Ross, 2018

When did our brick works close?

I am on another of my quests and this time it is to gather up memories of the Chorlton Brick Works.*

It was here from the beginning of the last century and was supposed to have just a short life.

The Egerton’s who owned most of the land in the township had been keen to prevent any industrial development harming the prospects of selling off their estate for surburban housing.  After all most of the new people who settled here from the 1880s were attracted by the fact that we were just 10 minutes by train from the city centre but on the edge of the countryside and were not over keen to have huge brick works blotting the landscape.

But given that the Egerton’s would have got a good deal from the Chorlton Land & Building Company Ltd I suspect that they were happy to see the blot on the landscape for a short time.  The question is just how long did that blot exist for?

It was certainly still there in 1922 when the owner Joseph Jackson went into partnership with another brick manufacturer but may not have survived into the 1930s.

There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that it had closed before the last world war but Philip Lloyd remembers “seeing the line of aerial buckets moving across, when I was at the library end of Longford Road”  and its opening may have been connected with the war.

German air raids damaged many properties and while in most cases the bricks could be salvaged this was not the case with many of the roof tiles, so it seems logical that  the works reopened.

All of which has set me off on that new quest to find out more about the brick works in the 1940s and hence the appeal to anyone who remembers like Philip seeing the buckets swaying across the sky line.

Those memories must be out there because as the photograph above shows, the chimney of the works was still standing in 1958.  And my old chum David has already posted his wonderful stories of playing amongst the disused bricks as a lad.

And no sooner had I posted the story than Peter Thompson added that
"Just had a coversation with my friend Bill Goodehall (84) who was born on Nicolas Road. He remembers the brickworks as being fully intact on Coronation day 1953. Although he can't remember if it was still operational."

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20Brick%20Works

Pictures; detail from the 1907 OS map, Brick works, corner of Longford Road and Manchester Road, A H Downes, 1958, m18034 Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council.

Ghost signs, church towers, 2 pubs, and a school entrance, …..doing the essential walk and making it historic .... no. 6

Now, I am always envious of Andy who manages to plan his essential walks with an eye on both, a pleasant stroll and bit of history.

So earlier in the week as the sun shone he took himself down Green Lane in Ashton upon Mersey.

It's not somewhere I know, but I rather think it will be.

Knowing my love of ghost signs, his first picture was of the gable end of the shop on Green Lane and Green Bank Road.

Which he quickly followed up by the clock tower, a crumbly insription above the school gates, three pubs and St Martin's Church.

Space prevents me from show all of the places, but here are three with a nod tomorrow to the rest.

Location; Ashton upon Mersey

Pictures; Ashton upon Mersey, 2020, from the collection of Any Robertson

Watching the Edwardians ............. moving images from the early 20th century

I now have my own copy of some Mitchell & Kenyon short films and they are a wonderful introduction to the world I often write about in the early years of the the last century.

Most of the time the stories are drawn from still images  but these short films vividly take me to the early 20th century.

They were often  made in the morning and shown in the afternoon and simply record the way we lived.

“The Mitchell & Kenyon film company was a pioneer of early commercial movies based in Blackburn in Lancashire at the start of the 20th century. 

They were originally best known for minor contributions to early fictional narrative film and Boer War dramatisation films, but the discovery in 1994 of a hoard of film negatives led to restoration of the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection, the largest surviving collection of early non-fiction actuality films in the world. 

This collection provides a fresh view of Edwardian Britain and is an important resource for historians.”*

I had seen some of them on television but was always doing other things, so I was over the moon when I came across Electric Edwardians** which is a collection of their material released by the BFI.

"Probably the most exciting film discovery of recent times, the films of Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon were commissioned by travelling exhibitors at the dawn of the twentieth century for screening in town halls, at village ftes or local fairs. 

Advertised as 'local films for local people', the audience paid to see their neighbours, children, family and themselves on the screen, glimpsed at local football matches, leaving work, marching in civic processions or enjoying the annual works holidays.

The films of Mitchell & Kenyon take us on a tour of everyday life in Edwardian Britain. They have been identified and researched by Dr Vanessa Toulmin of the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield. 

The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon, the hugely successful BBC TV series, subsequently released on DVD by BFI Video, introduced audiences to these miraculous views of the past. Now this new DVD offers the opportunity to explore the Collection in greater depth.

The material is taken from 28 hours of footage and represents a cross-section of the subjects covered in the Collection. 

From factory gates to football matches, the leaving of Liverpool to the leaving of work, the workers on holiday and at play, it provides an unparalleled opportunity to see the world through the eyes of the working communities of the time.

The films are grouped into five sections: Youth and Education, The Anglo-Boer War, Workers, High Days and Holidays and People and Places; a total of 35 full-length films in all, plus five 'hidden' items. 

They are set to a specially commissioned score by Sheffield-based duo In The Nursery and presented in a digipack, with extensive extras offering much background material.”***








Pictures; from Electric Edwardians

* Mitchell & Kenyon, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_and_Kenyon

** Electric Edwardians, Published/distributed by BFI, ISBN/EAN: 5035673006214,

*** Mitchell, Sagar; Kenyon, James, B.F.I, http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_107.html

Back on Hardman Street looking at Sailor Salmon in 1923

Now I couldn’t resist revisiting Hardman Street which ran from Wilmslow Road down to William Street.

It is now part of School Lane and looks nothing like it did back at the beginning of the 20th century.

The best you can do to get a sense of what this street was like is to walk round into Warburton Street which is equally narrow but has a set of cottages which have more appeal than these run of the mill 19th century properties.

Added to this Hardman Street had a coal yard at both ends and some lock up workshops.

So, not the sort of place to attract the people of plenty and the 1911 street directory lists quite a humble set of people ranging from a painter, a boot maker, two carters and a pawn broker.

Looking down the street from William Street the only thing which could be said to the lighten the place are the advertising hoardings which on this day in 1923 are dominated by the week’s showing at the Scala Cinema just up the road in Withington and Sailor Salmon Slices.

And as you do I went looking for Sailor Salmon and found the company advertisng in the early 20th century, but have yet to find them on the shelves today.

But there will be someone who can tell me all about them.

That said our Sailor has suffered a bit from someone attempting to rip his poster from the wall, a fate which looks soon to be replicated by the advert for the cinema which may have been someone with a total dislike of salmon who just saw a bad

Picture; Hardman Street looking west towards Wilmslow Road, 1923, m21212,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

A tunnel and the story of a railway …………….

Now the Docklands Light Railway was one of those things that happened when I wasn’t looking.

To be fair I do now live in Manchester, and have done so since 1969, when aged just nineteen I crossed the River and continued on till morning which took me to my adopted city.

And it was while I was away in the north that the railway was built.

To this day I have never travelled on it, and know only that it runs with the minimum number of staff, and crosses the Thames with stops in Woolwich Greenwich and Lewisham.

All of which will be quite familiar to many, but there will be those like me who left when the docks were still docks, and men labored unloading cargoes from across the world.

So here is another picture from John King, which I like of the Cutty Sark stop which captures perfectly the moment before the train arrives.

As to the story of the DLR, that has already been done, and I suspect better than I could do.
So, I will leave it at that.

Location; Greenwich

Picture; The DLR tunnel at the Cutty Sark Station. 2019, from the collection of John King

In Marie Louise Gardens …… with Miss Benson’s story which stubbornly refuses to be told

This is Marie Louise Gardens, often described as “the gem” and a place I still have yet to visit.

The tragic story of how it came to be is fairly well known, suffice to say that it commemorates the premature death of Marie Louise Silkens who died aged just 26 in 1891, but for those who want more, just follow the link to an excellent account of the parks history by The Friends of Marie Louise Gardens.*

For now, I am more interested in the postcard which carried the picture of the gardens, and the elusive Miss. Benson who sent the card from Heaton Mersey in the evening of September 16th 1905, which was a Saturday.

The message refers to a photo, hopes all is well with the family and that they are “looking out for the surprise you requested”.

And that pretty much is that.

A trawl of the records in both Heaton Mersey and Wigan has got me no nearer finding either Miss Benson or her family, and while I have come close they stubbornly refuse to come out of the shadows.

More so because there is doubt about the Wigan address, which has been crossed through.

I read it as Park Road, and there is a number 88 Park Road, close to Mesnes Park.

But on closer inspection it looks like Pearl Road, and sadly there is only a  Pearl Street, whose houses look like they postdate 1905.

Which just leaves me with the picture from the postcard.

Now, given that the park was opened in 1903 and our card was sent in 1905, the scene in front of us will be one of the earliest images of the Gardens.

And that will have to do.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Marie Louise Gardens, circa 1903-1905, from the collection of David Harrop


*The Friends of Marie Louise Gardens, https://www.marielouisegardens.org.uk/?page_id=47

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ....... nu 30 Chapel Street sometime in the 1980s

This is another of those images from John Casey.

Location; Salford

Picture; Chapel Street, circa 1980, from the collection of John Casey

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ... nu 33 Chapel Street and a question

Now I wonder how many people showed an interest in buying this rather run down property.

And there must have been a lot given that according to the for sale sign “this valuable site [was]on sale extending to the river and with a good frontage.”

We are on that bit of Chapel Street just past the Ship Inn.  Directly next to the block on the left was Hatton’s Court which indeed did lead down to the river.

Back in 1849 the building fronting the river was a tannery which by the 1890s was a sugar refinery.

All of which means that there is more to discover.

For now I am fascinated by the Botanic and Porterstores along with the boot maker with the prices on the window.

Location; Salford

Pictures; Chapel Street, R.Pattreioux,m77250, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Picture for today ..........

“Coronavirus, the Bergamo emergency room empty for the first time in a month and a half: Now let's go back to breathing

One of the places most tormented by the Covid-19 epidemic: in the height of the emergency, the total number of hospitalized to Pope John XXIII had also reached 500 per day, now the number has fallen to 298.*

Location; Bergamo

Picture; the Bergamo emergency room empty for the first time in a month and a half, 2020, courtesy of La Repubblica

*"Now let's go back to breathing”, PAOLO BERIZZI, La Repubblica, April, 20, 2020 https://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/04/20/news/coronavirus_bergamo_pronto_soccorso_emergenza-254519545/?ref=RHPPLF-BH-I254518511-C8-P2-S3.3-F3

Manchester’s Industrial Past.... another story by Tony Goulding

Manchester’s industrial past was, as is well documented, centred on the production of textiles specifically cotton leading to the city being given the by-name “Cottonopolis”.

However these three artefacts reveal that although the area’s industry was predominantly textile based it was not exclusively so...
 
The ruler is marked “Sutcliffe and Bingham Ltd Manchester with two of their products “KKOVAH PLUM PUDDING” at one end and “KKOVAH MINCEMEAT” at the other.

The small pewter tankard is stamped underneath, “Morgan Crossley & Co. Ltd. They claimed to be the largest manufacturers of lamp and candle wicks in the world.
   

This remaining item is a curiosity embossed “Blair & Sumner Ltd, Bolton”.

The only one of the three objects associated with a firm directly involved in the textile trade its more substantial nature perhaps reflecting that industries importance.

Blair & Sumner were a firm of bleachers with premises at Mill Hill Bleach Works, Little Bolton, Bolton, Lancashire. They had an office in Manchester at 6, Back Pool Fold Chambers, Chapel Walks. Cross Street.

Blair & Sumner's Office, 1944

This firm dates from at least 1844 as an article of “The Bolton Chronicle” reported on  14th December of that year on the closing of a subscription list for a testimonial  honouring the work of Rowland Hill in instigating the penny postage scheme. 

The report published the list which included a donation of £2 -2s -0d from Blair and Sumner. A devastating fire caused £70,000 (a huge sum at that time) worth of damage to part of their premises that they shared with Hodgkinson & Gillibrand, a hosiery manufacturer, on 13th July, 1928. 

Despite this setback the firm was still in existence after more than a century of trading in 1954 when it had entries in Kelly’s Directory of Lancashire, Manchester, Salford and Stretford.
Sutcliffe and Bingham’s factory, Kkovah Works, was located on Ogden Street in the Cornbrook area of Manchester and dates from 1892 when Arthur Sutcliffe and George William Bingham left the employ of  Mr. John Bury a produce merchant of Corporation Street, Manchester  and started their own business originally at Milton Street, Hulme, Manchester.

The partner’s joint enterprise thrived by the year 1899 when on 18th March the “Nursing Record and Hospital World” carried this glowing endorsement for their “KKOVAH JELLIES”  “--- can fairly be described as delicious and their flavour seems to confirm the claim made for them that they are flavoured with the actual and unadulterated fruits --- and are most palatable --- but as they are also most nutritious they form a valuable addition to the dietry (sic) of the sick.”

Another product of Sutcliffe and Bingham was “Laitova Lemon Cheese” which in the 1920’s was promoted as “building sturdy boys and bonnie girls” a legend which was proudly displayed on their packaging.

Morgan Crossley & Co. has a much longer history, the company of that name only dates from 1905 with the amalgamation of three previous companies Joseph Morgan, James Crossley and Hewitt, Bunting.

Both James Crossley and Joseph Morgan started business in the early 19th century (Morgan in 1829, Crossley two years later, in 1831) The firm of  Hewitt Bunting has even longer history, being established in1770.
 

The new company continued to use the existing factory sites Morgan’s at Ducie Mills, Miles Platting, Manchester,
PICTURE
 5

M29911 Ducie Mills Hulme Hall Lane – 1924

 Crossley’s at Ripley Mills, Ripley, Derbyshire and Hewitt Bunting’s at Furnace Hill Works, Chesterfield. They also had an office in London at 121, Newgate Street, E.C.1
   

The amalgamated companies soon faced a decline in demand for their main products, wicks for candles and oil lamps, brought about by the widespread adoption of electric power for lighting.

Fortunately for them the fast developing motor car making industry provided another opportunity and the company switched to manufacturing brake linings under the trade name “TENOID”.

They also began fabricating sponge cloths, blind cords, stair treads and woven matting. These new products enabled the company to remain in business until the late 1970’s


m29920 F. Hotchin 1962 Morgan Crossley & Co.
“TENOID” factory Hulme Hall Lane

Tony Goulding © 2020

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Blair & Sumner’s Office, M78943City Engineers Dept. 1944, M78943, Ducie Mills Hulme Hall Lane – 1924, M29911, Morgan Crossley & Co., F. Hotchin, m29920, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass 
remaining pictures from the collection of Tony Goulding

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 114 ......... cometh the hour ....cometh the mice ...ants, wasps and other unwelcome house guests

The house, 2017

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since. *

Now I wonder how Joe and Mary Ann dealt  with infestations of mice, ants, wasps and other house guests.

Of course, it might be that apart from the casual rodent visitor they were pretty much mouse free, never had to worry about ants, wasps or plagues of even more unpleasant things.

And I have to say until sometime in the early 2000’s we too were vermin free, but alas not so anymore.

Indeed, only last week I had the joy of lifting the floorboards to discover the dead mouse which had chosen to expire beside the central heating pump.

And it is little consolation to be told by the Corporation’s pest operatives, that Chorlton is a hot spot, which may have something to do with being close to the Meadows or the profusion of cafes, bars and restaurants within a few minutes’ walk.

And yes, I know that urban myth about always being close to rats wherever you live, and certainly in my part of south east London both mice and rats were visitors you fought on a regular basis.

The house, 1974

Our response on leafy Breech Road, is a recourse to the Corporation who for a fee come and lay boxes of poison, returning three times to check that the said boxes have done the business.

But recently and just before Victor Virus, the delay between reporting the mice and a visit was so long that I resorted to the traditional and rather brutal solution of the mouse trap.

Now traditional mouse traps have changed little, except the ones we bought were plastic but were none the less efficient.

And as you do I went back into the past to see just what the Victorians used, expecting that Mrs. Beaton would have a series of solutions, but oddly she chose not to include a reference to the rodent fight.

I suspect, then like now, such an inclusion in her household tips would be an admission that the house was “unclean”, and it is certainly true that few of our friends would offer up stories of their own infestations.

New Gates, 1908

So, I guess Joe and Mary Ann would have fallen back on the same powdered disinfectant mum used.

It went under the name of Flit, and came in a small white and red tin, complete with a picture of a 19th century soldier armed with a spray.

A solution which was fine for the ants, but left big intruders free, which involved buying the poison  from a hardware shop or chemist and doing the deadly business yourself.

At least Joe and Marry Ann did not I think face those more pernicious insects which were common in the terraced houses in the poorer parts of the city, and which were described in Maud Pember’s book.*

They infested the houses and while spaying acted as a temporary solution, they always returned, and that much used description of turning a light on at night before entering a room was a reality in many homes as late as the 1960s.**

As were the whitewashed exterior walls in the yards of many house which contained a repellant.

So, despite our occasional visitors, including the dead mouse, we appear to have got off lightly ….. so far.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Beech Road, from the collection of Lois Elsden and Andrew Simpson, and New Gates, 1908, m8316, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*The story of a house, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

** Round About A Pound A Week, Maud Pember Reeves, 1913, Virago ed 1979, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/10/round-about-pound-week-london-life-and.html

***Jan and Bob both told me stories of having to resort to turning the light on in their homes in Bradford Manchester, as late as the 1960s.

On discovering that pub, …..doing the essential walk and making it historic .... no. 4

Now, this is a view of the Old Cock I have never experienced, and it comes from another of Andy Robertson’s “essential walks with a bit of history”.

Most people will catch a fleeting glance of the pub as they whiz past on their way to or from Stretford, but Andy captured this shot as he strayed from his walk around the Duke’s Canal, coming out on a large expanse of grassland.

Alas, even if the Virus had not intervened to close the pub and thwart Andy’s need for a rewarding pint on a hot April day, he would still have been disappointed as it shut up shop some time ago.

Leaving Andy to retrace his steps and take one last picture of the viaduct carrying the canal and Metro line.

Location; Stretford

Pictures; Stretford, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

On Eltham High Street looking south from the new Well Hall Road in 1909

It is one of those scenes that just about makes sense.

This is Eltham High Street in 1909 and the Grey Hound is fairly obvious as is the building to its left, but the others have gone.

Now as you would expect there are stories here which I shall come to when we walk this side of the High Street taking in Back lane, various pubs and some more fine houses.

Location Eltham, London

Picture; from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ....... nu 32 the Old Shears Greengate

Now this is a story for which all the credit goes elsewhere.

The picture is another from the camera of John Casey and the description of the pub was taken from that excellent site on the history of Manchester and Salford pubs.

And that is that.

“Described as a dinner time, factory workers type boozer in the 1970s, the Old Shears offered hand-pulled Wilsons plus Carlsberg and Watneys Red for the less discerning drinker. 

The Old Shears on Greengate, just over the River Irwell into the neighbouring city, can be traced back to about 1760.  

The pub was also named the Rising Sun (1805-1809) and the Iron Bridge Tavern (1824). 

Wilsons Brewery took the Old Shears in the 1940s and it thrived until the late 1970s when the nearby bus stations at Chapel Street and under the Greengate arches closed, and the new Trinity Way ring road cut Greengate in half. 

The pub shut for good in 1987 and was derelict and roofless until its demolition in 1993. 

Its location was on Greengate just at the end of New Bridge Street where the car park is now.  

Back in the mid 1800s it would have faced the old Green Gate fruit & veg market here at Salford Cross / Market Cross.”*

Location; Salford

Picture; the Old Shears  circa 1987, from the collection of John Casey

* Pubs of Manchester, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/old-shears-greengate.html

Looking for history in Didsbury

Didsbury in the 1950s

You have to work at history.

It is there in all shapes and sizes from memories and photographs to buildings and the great accounts of State, but they rarely just fall into your lap.

So tomorrow I am off to Didsbury at the invitation of a friend to interview a long term resident.

I   have no idea what to expect other than that he has been kind enough to share his stories with me.

And that of course is a privilege, because we all take for granted that the past is available to be interrogated whether it is the sinking of the Lusitania to working conditions in a coal mine in county Durham in the 1850s.

But all those accounts are made up of countless bits of evidence and there is always something new to discover.

Now usually it just confirms what you already knew but sometimes it offers up a different interpretation and can even change what we know.

So recently rereading the war time letters of George Davison who was born in Manchester and died in June 1918 it became clear that his wife regularly visited him while he was stationed away from home.

She lived in “digs” in Woolwich in London and took rooms in a house in Ireland.

Now this was a revelation to me because I had always assumed the wives of serving soldiers stayed at home during the two world wars and was all the more surprising given that Mr and Mrs Davison had a very young son and travelling during the Great War was difficult.

Of course there is no way of knowing how typical Mrs Davison’s trips to meet her husband were but it is an interesting  avenue of research.



Picture; War Memorial and Library from the series, Didsbury, Lilywhite, issued by Tuck & Sons, 1959, http://tuckdb.org/history

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ....... nu 31 the old Ship Inn

This was the very first picture John Casey shared with me.

John took the photograph in the early 1980s and posted it beside a story I ran on the old Ship Inn.

And any one who has recently wandered down this bit of Salford may find the contrast striking.

Location; Salford


Picture; the old Ship Inn, circa 1980, from the collection of John Casey

Looking out from Broad Oak Farm, Didsbury in 1910

This is the road leading from Broad Oak Farm to Wilmslow Road in 1910 and you don’t need much imagination to be back there in the yard with Mr Jackson who took the picture.  

Road from Broad Oak Farm, 1910

There are the chickens wandering free in front of the gate with the edge of the farmhouse to our right.

And just a little over a century and a bit later Andy Robertson was there with his camera.

Now what makes this series of then and now images more interesting is that there is a direct family link.

Andy writes

“my wife's ancestors the Rudd family farmed Broad Oak Farm for 300 years or more. Thomas Rudd is cited as occupant of Broad Oke in 1570 and in 1861 the family were still there. 

The viaduct, 2014

My wife's direct ancestry with Rudd ends with the marriage of Hannah Rudd to James Higginbotham in 1834, James being the first cousin of Chorlton farmer of the same name.

It seems a public footpath ran through the farm from Millgate Lane to Didsbury Corn Mill.”

Now that is how I like my history, a mix of the past and present with a dash of the personal.

And there is that other connection, because there were Higginbotham's farming in Chorlton from the 1840s throught till the 1960s.

Their land was spread out across the township and the farmhouse still stands in front of the green

Pictures; Broad Oak Farm to Wilmslow Road, 1910, J. Jackson, m21268, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

The farmyard, 2014

and the viaduct and the scene from Broadoak School and the houses on the right are roughly where the farmhouse was.in 2014 from the collection of Andy Robertson