The year is 1926 and I thought we were standing just a little north east of Hough End Playing Fields, somewhere close to what is now Hough End Centre during construction work which will take the Red Lion Brook underground.
In the distance is Hough End Hall, and this is about where the Red Lion Brook vanishes from sight before joining our own Chorlton Brook.
But the title of the picture confused me, because according to the Local History Image Collection this is the Gore Brook, which flows from Gorton through Fallowfield changing its name to the Platt Brook.
And as you do I questioned the title and suggested to Peter Topping that somewhere, somebody had got the name of the water course wrong, which was one of those little bouts of arrogance that I should watch.
Because on checking the notes on the Local History Image Collection there are two connected images which carry the full title of Rivers, Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking north, Culverting, Manchester and Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking south west, Culverting, Manchester.
Added to which the stretch of the Red Lion Brook crossing close to what is now Hough End Centre had already been culverted by 1894, leaving me to fall back on the line of the Gore Brook/Platt Brook.
So, following later OS maps along with google maps , and looking at the size of the culverts we are at that pint where the Gore Book/Platt Brook and Red Lion Brook meet, which is pretty much where I thought we were.
Leaving me to apologies for getting to the point of the story in around a bit way, but does just allow me to conclude that during the 19th century the Gorton Brook did Chorlton no favours.
As earlier as the 1880s residents had been complaining at the state of Chorlton Brook, moving Thomas Turner in 1885 to write that “It is a great misfortune for the inhabitants of Chorlton-cum-Hardy that this foul brook continues such a nuisance to the neighbourhood. Last week during the evenings it was more than ordinarily offensive.
All along Beech Road and Barlow Moor Road to the station, the atmosphere was charged with a nauseous odour [which] is really an outrage upon suburban life that a remedy must be insisted upon”. Adding “we have taken up our abode at a distance from our great city to have our homes spoiled and our health impaired by these ‘Noxious vapours’”, concluding “turn the brook into a common sewer by covering it.”*
All of which was quite understandable given that five years earlier, the Withington Local Government Board had reported that one third of the sewage of the district flowed into “The Chorlton Brook near Chorlton village”.**
Added to which our brook also carried the muck from the Gorton Brook which throughout the last quarter of the 19th century and into the next was notorious for being little more than an open sewer.
And that is that.
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking north, 1926, m60575, Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking south west, 1926, m60574, A C Tomlinson, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the point where the Red Lion Brook and the Platt Brook join Chorlton Brook, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*Thomas Turner The Chorlton Brook, letter to the Manchester Guardian, July 2nd, 1885
**The Drainage of Withington, The Manchester Guardian, July 13th, 1880
 |
| The Gore Brook looking north, 1926 |
But the title of the picture confused me, because according to the Local History Image Collection this is the Gore Brook, which flows from Gorton through Fallowfield changing its name to the Platt Brook.
And as you do I questioned the title and suggested to Peter Topping that somewhere, somebody had got the name of the water course wrong, which was one of those little bouts of arrogance that I should watch.
Because on checking the notes on the Local History Image Collection there are two connected images which carry the full title of Rivers, Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking north, Culverting, Manchester and Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking south west, Culverting, Manchester.
 |
| The Gore Brook , looking south west, 1926 |
So, following later OS maps along with google maps , and looking at the size of the culverts we are at that pint where the Gore Book/Platt Brook and Red Lion Brook meet, which is pretty much where I thought we were.
Leaving me to apologies for getting to the point of the story in around a bit way, but does just allow me to conclude that during the 19th century the Gorton Brook did Chorlton no favours.
As earlier as the 1880s residents had been complaining at the state of Chorlton Brook, moving Thomas Turner in 1885 to write that “It is a great misfortune for the inhabitants of Chorlton-cum-Hardy that this foul brook continues such a nuisance to the neighbourhood. Last week during the evenings it was more than ordinarily offensive.
 |
| The Gore Brook/ Platt Brook, & Red Lion Brook become Chorlton Brook, 1894 |
All of which was quite understandable given that five years earlier, the Withington Local Government Board had reported that one third of the sewage of the district flowed into “The Chorlton Brook near Chorlton village”.**
Added to which our brook also carried the muck from the Gorton Brook which throughout the last quarter of the 19th century and into the next was notorious for being little more than an open sewer.
And that is that.
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking north, 1926, m60575, Gore Brook, near Wilbraham Road, Station looking south west, 1926, m60574, A C Tomlinson, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the point where the Red Lion Brook and the Platt Brook join Chorlton Brook, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*Thomas Turner The Chorlton Brook, letter to the Manchester Guardian, July 2nd, 1885
**The Drainage of Withington, The Manchester Guardian, July 13th, 1880
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