This is another of those pictures of the old Royal Oak in Chorlton I have never seen before, and it features Thomas Kelsey whose family ran the pub from 1895.
It was sent to me yesterday by Kelsey Broome, who added, "Hi Andrew, I have just come across your post on the Chorlton Facebook group with the photo of Thomas Kelsey outside the Royal Oak.*
I hope you don't mind me getting in touch. Thomas Kelsey was my great Grandfather, and this is how I came to be named Kelsey.
Thomas Kelsey had two daughters Mamie (my grandmother) and Freda (my Great Aunty). My Great Aunty Freda is still alive and has just turned 90. We have photos of the Royal Oak when it was owned by George Henry Kelsey. Hope this photo that I have enclosed is of interest."
And of course, it is not only “of interest” but quite exciting and very unique, because there are only a handful of pictures of the old pub, and most of those only show a detail of the building.
The Royal Oak was originally a beer shop which dated back to the early part of the 19th century and consisted of little more than four rooms.
But the OS maps for 1894 and 1907 show that it had been enlarged and the 1911 census return records that there were eight rooms. All of which may have the work of George Kelsey, who was the landlord by 1895
Nor is that all because George Kelsey appears to have been more than just a publican because a sign in another picture from 1902, announces that he was also in the business of “CABS, HANSOMS” and offered a LIVERY STATION.”
And before that was working in the Glass House on Regent Road by 1881 when he was 18 years old while his parents had run a beer shop just off Regent Road.
Our picture shows his son Thomas, staring out from the car.
Thomas was born in 1893 in Salford and his parents ran the Duke of York pub at 186 Regent Road, before moving in 1895 to the Royal Oak here in Chorlton.
In an earlier picture dating from 1902, Thomas was photographed standing outside the pub, so this is a nice companion to that earlier image.
And Kelsey’s picture has much to offer.
It starts with the building to the right, which was a block of apartments, originally owned by the Renshaw family and predates 1832. It was demolished to make way for the present Royal Oak, possibly in the 1930s.
And in front of that building is the large billboard for the Pavilion, which was our own music hall and cinema, and was located on the corner of Wilbraham Road now occupied by the Morrison’s petrol station.
The Pavilion, which also was known as The Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, dates from 1904 and closed by 1924, all of which fixes our image sometime between those two dates.**
And there is more, because behind the car there is sometime detail of the pub, with that poster which includes the word closed, which in turn might just provide us with a date for the closure of the old pub and might just push the date of the new one back into the 1920s.
So yes, Kelsey’s picture is a wonderful addition to out knowledge of Chorlton’s past.
Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Picture, the Royal Oak, and Thomas Kelsey, date unknown, from the collection of Kelsey Broome
*That lost picture of the Royal Oak in 1902 with young Thomas Kelsey, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/09/that-lost-picture-of-royal-oak-in-1902.html
**The Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20Theatre%20and%20Winter%20Gardens
I hope you don't mind me getting in touch. Thomas Kelsey was my great Grandfather, and this is how I came to be named Kelsey.
Thomas Kelsey had two daughters Mamie (my grandmother) and Freda (my Great Aunty). My Great Aunty Freda is still alive and has just turned 90. We have photos of the Royal Oak when it was owned by George Henry Kelsey. Hope this photo that I have enclosed is of interest."
And of course, it is not only “of interest” but quite exciting and very unique, because there are only a handful of pictures of the old pub, and most of those only show a detail of the building.
But the OS maps for 1894 and 1907 show that it had been enlarged and the 1911 census return records that there were eight rooms. All of which may have the work of George Kelsey, who was the landlord by 1895
Nor is that all because George Kelsey appears to have been more than just a publican because a sign in another picture from 1902, announces that he was also in the business of “CABS, HANSOMS” and offered a LIVERY STATION.”
And before that was working in the Glass House on Regent Road by 1881 when he was 18 years old while his parents had run a beer shop just off Regent Road.
Our picture shows his son Thomas, staring out from the car.
Thomas was born in 1893 in Salford and his parents ran the Duke of York pub at 186 Regent Road, before moving in 1895 to the Royal Oak here in Chorlton.
In an earlier picture dating from 1902, Thomas was photographed standing outside the pub, so this is a nice companion to that earlier image.
And Kelsey’s picture has much to offer.
And in front of that building is the large billboard for the Pavilion, which was our own music hall and cinema, and was located on the corner of Wilbraham Road now occupied by the Morrison’s petrol station.
The Pavilion, which also was known as The Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, dates from 1904 and closed by 1924, all of which fixes our image sometime between those two dates.**
And there is more, because behind the car there is sometime detail of the pub, with that poster which includes the word closed, which in turn might just provide us with a date for the closure of the old pub and might just push the date of the new one back into the 1920s.
So yes, Kelsey’s picture is a wonderful addition to out knowledge of Chorlton’s past.
Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Picture, the Royal Oak, and Thomas Kelsey, date unknown, from the collection of Kelsey Broome
*That lost picture of the Royal Oak in 1902 with young Thomas Kelsey, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/09/that-lost-picture-of-royal-oak-in-1902.html
**The Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20Theatre%20and%20Winter%20Gardens
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