Sunday 31 May 2020

Sunday in Heaton Park before the Great War


The historian in me wants to know when this picture was taken and where.

It is another of those that sit in the collection with little clue as to time or location.

And yet I have to say of all the pictures that have been donated to me it is one of my favourites.

I would guess we are in Heaton Park some time before the Great War on what looks to be a bright but cool spring day.

If pushed we might have a stab at a Sunday, for here are a veritable collection of people out for a day of genteel fun and all in their best clothes.

The destination boards from the long line of trams suggest that our crowd are from all over the city and will be travelling back on routes that terminate in Albert Square, Exchange and High Town, and if I am not mistaken not all of them are Manchester Corporation Trams.

But above all what I like about the picture is the way that it has captured perfectly a day out. The tram crews stand around taking a break in the sunshine, perhaps pondering on what they would do with a day off in Heaton Park

The young girls out for adventure in their best Sunday clothes, the middle aged woman caught with a faint and perhaps embarrassed smile playing on her lips as she is caught on camera while  her husband stares back unperturbed.

Beside them could be their mother in law with cane in hand looking on, perhaps pondering on the fuss and reflecting on past days in the park .

It is easy and perhaps not very historical to allow so much speculation to creep in but then it is a picture that lends itself to a bit of gentle guess work and sometimes where is the harm in that?

And then, quick as a flash, my friend Kay replied to the post, with an offer to go looking for the location and came back with, "Here you go, Martin of Heaton Park Tramway replied: Hi Kay. It is the Heaton Park Tramway sidings now in use as the bottom end of Heaton Park Tramway by Middleton Road Gates. The 3rd track siding in the picture was removed and relocated to become access to the tram shed when the museum was being built. Hope that helps".

Which it does.

Picture; from the collection of Allan Brown

Down an alley ……..

Now if I were seven again, I rather think I might have been drawn off Beech Road and down the alley.

Down the alley, 2020

One day I will go and search its history, but for now I am content to record that back in 1969 it belonged to Ken Allen who used it as a store for his shop at 115 Beech Road.

Ken Allen, circa 1970s
And back in 1939 it was occupied by Abbot and Connie Palliaser.  Mr. Pallisaser described himself as a  “Furniture dealer Motor Engineer by Trade”, who may well have taken over the property from Harris and Son “decorators who were there in 1911.

A search of the Rate Books will tell me more, and I am inclined also to go looking for Mrs. Annie Dennis who shared 115 with the Palliasers in 1939.  She described herself as a widow with no occupation who had been born in 1872.

I grant you that this search may not be as exciting as the adventure I could have taken back when I was seven and furtively wandered into the alley, but perhaps less scary.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; down an alley, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Ken Allen, circa 1970 , courtesy of Lawrence Beedle


Buddy Watkins and talent shows I wished I had seen at Woolwich Town Hall


I went looking the other day for Earlswood Street.

It is off Trafalgar Road and it is somewhere I haven’t been for over forty years.

Back in the late 1960s I worked there in a camping shop and later travelled past it on the way down to the Tunnel.

But this time I was more interested in Earlswood Street because it was here that Buddy Watkins lived or at least used as an address on his business cards.

He was “Buddy Watkins, Rythmn Pianist” and leader of the Buddy Watkins Boys which performed at dance competitions and concerts.

Now I never knew of him or his band but they bounced into my life while I was reading Woolwich Through Time by Kristina Bedford.

And like you do I am off on a search for what I can find out about Mr Watkins.  In the meantime I have his businesss card and a picture and that is a start.

The house is still there, although sadly many of the places he performed at will have vanished.

I guess that Mr Watkins is the chap standing by the piano but that is about it.

But there will be some stories here, and just perhaps people who knew him, saw the band and may even have performed with the Buddy Watkins Boys.

They did after all support those who were brave enough to "Dance, Sing, Act, or Croon" in the amateur
talent contest at Woolwich Town Hall.

All of which is a reminder that our present obsession with discovering would be hopeful stars is not new.






Pictures; Woolwich Through Time is at Woolwich, Kristina Bedford, 2014


Stockport by water ………..

There is a lot of Stockport most of us never see.

So, with that in mind this is the first of an offbeat series from Andy Robertson, looking at Stockport from different angles.

And where better to start than this one of the viaduct over the river.

Location; Stockport

Picture; Stockport by water, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Saturday 30 May 2020

The lost pub on the edge of Didsbury ............. the Kingsway Hotel

I suppose most of us rather like to think of our pubs as cherished old things, which have survived the test of time, having seen off world wars, depressions and two Brexit debates and votes.

1959
And certainly when Peter and I came to write our new book on Didsbury‘s pubs and bars, we were confident that the majority would have clocked their first century and a bit and some like the Old Cock and the Didsbury Hotel could trace their origins back beyond the time that King George lost the American colonies.

But of course, there is a big chunk of the township which owes its existence to the inter war housing boom of the 1920s and 30s.

Out in East Didsbury and onto Burnage and Withington, private developers and the Corporation built new homes, and with these came schools, churches, a cinema and a clutch of brand-new pubs, like the Gateway and the Parrs Wood Hotel.

1995
These two we fell on with abandon, and because we could, we crossed the border into Burnage, and described The Mauldeth Hotel and the Kingsway, reasoning that many in Didsbury might well have traveled to the two for a change of scene, or perhaps a romantic tryst.

These were pubs built for the motor car age with carparks, and an eye to coach parties.

And like the cinemas of the period, the pubs were large, plush and designed to be places of comfort.

2019
Sadly, both The Mauldeth and the Kingsway had closed before we wrote the book.

I had first noticed the To Let sign on the Mauldeth Hotel back in 2014., and while it stayed there into the following year it later closed, reopening as a children’s nursery.

The Kingsway closed in 2018, and I did wonder its fate.

But how that wondering is over, because a few days ago Tony Kelzo posted three pictures of the demolition of the pub.

2019
I haven’t yet checked with the City Council’s planning portal to see what might go up on the site, but rest assured something will.

Leaving me just to mention the book again, Manchester Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors Didsbury, which neatly recounts the history of 49 pubs and bars, across Didsbury and Withington as well as the lost ones.

Together they help tell the story of how these areas changed over time.



The book is available from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk 

Location; Burnage

Pictures; The Kingsway in 1959, H W Beaumont, m49830, again in 1995, M Luft, m47481, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the Kingsway in June 2019, from the collection of Tony Kelzo




In Ripley ...... with the memorial to the 68 who went to war

Ripley is a delightful village just 15 minutes from the Cathedral at Rippon and 23 miles from York.

It has a fine medieval church, a castle dating from the 15th century, a very nice hotel and a war memorial.

The memorial stands as it should in the centre of the village and records the 42 men who marched off to the Great War, including the five who never returned, and the twenty six who served in the Second World War of which one died.

Today the population stands at 232, and back in 1840 it was 270.

I don’t have the figures for the population of either the village or the surrounding countryside for 1918 or 1945 but those 68 men and women recorded on the memorial will compose a significant number of the people who lived here and served.

Location; Ripley













Picture; Ripley, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Friday 29 May 2020

Thursday 28 May 2020

When Mr Bacon mapped Chorlton & Didsbury and a lot more

I am looking at a copy of Bacon’s Waistcoat-Pocket Map of Manchester and District.

There is no date but it must be after 1880 and no later than 1900.

Now I can be fairly sure of this because the map shows the railway line through Chorlton and also Oak Bank a fine big house which stood on the site of Needham Avenue which puts it in that twenty year frame.

The railway line out of Manchester to Didsbury and beyond was opened in 1880 and Oak Bank was demolished sometime just before or after the beginning of the last century.

All of which makes it a nice addition to the maps of the area, but also offers up a fascinating bit of history.

It was printed on cloth, and was designed to fit in to a waistcoat pocket making it a pretty handy map and I guess would have been the Google app of its day.

According to one source Mr Bacon was the first to produce maps as small as this for popular use and seems to have carved a niche for himself.

He was an American who was born in 1830 and died in 1922 and according to another authority, “amongst his other enterprises he wrote medical booklets and sold sewing machines and portable gymnasiums. 

He went bankrupt in 1867 but opened again in 1870 at 127 Strand and soon prospered.

From 1883 until at least 1918, maybe later, he published a series of thick Library Atlases for [London which]  contain either or both 4 inch and 9 inch scale maps, a street index and various and varying supplemental maps, often with a "copious letterpress". 

Bacon never produced 'the best map’; he always sold 'the cheapest'. I have recently seen several early editions of these atlases overprinted with postal district numbering. Therefore, they must have been printed after 1917, when numbering was introduced.”*

And he produced many more covering our major cities and towns as well as the Lake District and the Isle of Wight, along with a series of “Cyclist Road Maps of England.”

But it is this little map of Chorlton, Didsbury and Manchester which has caught my interest and as ever I am indebted to David Harrop who lent it to me, along with a large amount of material from the Great War, some of which has come out of his excellent exhibition at the Remembrance Lodge in southern Cemetery.

So a thank you to him, a reminder that the collection is a must to see and a promise that over the next few weeks more of his collection will appear here on the blog.

Pictures, Bacon’s Waistcoat-Pocket Map of Manchester and District, circa 1880-1900 from the collection of David Harrop

* A list and brief history of London Atlases, http://www.maps.thehunthouse.com/Streets/History_of_London_Street_Maps.htm

In Clayton

The memorial stands by Ashton New Road, in Clayton Hall and Park.




I counted 124 names on the four panels.

Location; Clayton













Picture; war memorial Clayton Hall and Park, 2018 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Salford Cinema, ...... from place of worship in 1846 to a picture house in 1912 and now home again to a religious group

The Salford Cinema, 2009
Never one to hide my mistakes the story now begins with a correction from Martin who writes, "The "Rex" was not the Chapel Street Independent Chapel. 

The Independent Chapel is the one shown in the old map on the corner of Chapel Street and Lamb Court and is still open as a Chapel Street and Hope United Reformed Church.

I'm afraid you have your churches mixed up!"

But rather than pull the story I shall leave it sitting here until I can fully correct my mistake.  So dear reader read on and be aware!

This is Salford Cinema which was opened in 1912 and closed for business in 1958, only to reopen as a Bingo Hall nine years later before finally closing its doors for good in 1976.

Many will remember it  as the Rex which was the name it was given in 1938 after it had been bought for a second time.

Like many of our picture houses which were built in the first few decades of the last century it couldn’t compete with the television and after years of laying empty was turned to other uses.

All of which is better than becoming a car park for at least we can still admire the building even if we can’t watch a film inside.

But the Salford/Rex holds a real history, because although it was opened in 1912 as a cinema the building dates back to 1846, and its use has come full circle, because it started life as the Chapel Street Chapel, (Independent).

Chapel Street Chapel, 1846
It’s there on the OS map for 1846 and looks to be an impressive place, but sadly did not make it into The Stranger’s Guide to Manchester which contained “information on every subject interesting to residents or strangers,” which was compiled by H G Duffield in 1850.

Here can be found detailed description of the leading buildings of the twin cities, but all he gives our chapel is one line in the listings for “Independent Chapels,” as “Chapel-street, Salford.”

Something of its previous history can be seen by walking down St Stephen’s Street to its junction with Browning Street where you can see the original stone and a blocked up chapel window.

And for those who want more I would direct you to, Salford Cinema, http://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/outside/SALFORD/salfordcinema.html

Picture; of the Salford Cinema from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and detail of the Chapel from the OS of Manchester & Salford, 1842-44, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

Telephone Exchanges…….. doing the essential walk and making it historic .... no. 26

I have to say, I thought telephone exchanges were as dead  as the telegram, and VHS recorders.

But not so, as Barbarella’s picture of this one in Northenden testifies.

In my defence, I have always taken them for granted, and just assumed the onward march of how we communicate with each other had rendered them obsolete.

At which point I pause for all the technical experts to explain a]why I got it wrong and b] why telephone exchanges are still needed


Location; Northenden

Picture; in Northenden, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento

Wednesday 27 May 2020

Legacy of War..... tonight on the wireless

This is one I will be listening to tonight.

"Sean Bean presents a series exploring the ways in which wartime experiences have filtered down through the generations.

Kurt Marx came to the UK aboard a Kindertransport in 1939 at the age of 13. 

His wife Ingrid Marx lived through several years at Auschwitz. 

This programme centres on the legacy of those profound wartime experiences and some of the the ways in which trauma -- when it is spoken of and when it is not spoken of -- can be transferred down through the generations.

Featuring Kurt Marx, his son Michael Marx and his granddaughter Johanna Marx".*

Episode 3 of 10


*Legacy of War, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jf6t

Faded glory in Conway ………….. the Palace Cinema

Now I  like it when you get a chance to get a look inside a cinema which closed its doors ages ago.

It’s that mix of getting to see what has been hidden from view, with the chance of discovering a cinematic gem.

I have never been to the Palace Cinema in Conway, but lots of people will have, and will remember with fondness sitting in the darkened auditorium watching a film or playing Bingo.

So, this is for all those who on a wet Monday afternoon in Conway spent a few hours in the company of Ginger Rogers, and James Bond or despaired as Mrs. Trellis got a full bingo card for the third time, before anyone else.


The place has featured on the blog, which included one of Any Robertson’s pictures, and a bit of its history.*

It opened in 1936, closed in the 1980s and for a while doubled as a Bingo Hall before going dark in 2012.

And yesterday Andy sent over a collection of new pictures, this time of the interior, taken by his sister in law.

I await the full story of how she got in and what if any plans there are for the cinema.

Leaving me just to reflect on the faded glory of the Palace, and a link to another short history of the place, which offers up some snippets on the buildings which wee lost wen the picture house was built.**

Location; Conway,

Pictures; inside the Palace Cinema, Conway, courtesy of  Gwen Roberts and Eunice Long

*A little bit of cinema history …….. in Conway, where they do it well, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-little-bit-of-cinema-history-in.html

**Former Palace Cinema, Conwy, https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=former-palace-cinema-conwy


Passing the ghost bank ....... doing the essential walk and making it historic .... no. 25

Now I am back with that ghost bank. 

It is  one of those buildings that I have never given much thought to, but it caught Barbarella's eye recently on a walk, and she sent over a series of pictures, adding, "This used to be a physiotherapy centre, about twenty years ago. Lapwing Lane"

It is the former bank on Lapwing Lane and I must have passed it countless times, and on occasion stared at it from the window of the restaurant opposite.

I did once try to take some pictures but the light was wrong and I gave up which is a shame because I might have been inspired to dig down in to the history of The Mercantile Bank of Lancashire.

But Barbarella's pictures have caught it perfectly.

As yet I haven’t found out much other than it merged with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank in 1904 which merged with the Bank of Liverpool and Martin in 1927 which subsequently changed its name to Martins and in turn merged with Barclays in 1969.

But there will be someone out there who knows all about the bank and in time will be in touch.

In the meantime I know that our building dates from 1903, which means it had a brief existence as the Mercantile Bank.

Such are the exciting times of the banking world.

And since I posted this Richard has dug deeper and discovered that the Mercantile Bank Of Lancashire Ltd was "founded in 1890 with a head office at temporary premises in Guardian Buildings, Cross Street, Manchester, with capital of £1m, its early growth reflected the continuing industrial prosperity of Manchester.

The completion of the Manchester Ship Canal resulted in over 200 new accounts, and on 30 June 1891 the bank reported a net profit of £2,806.

Several branches were opened in the Manchester area, as well as others across Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire.

In 1900 branches were acquired on the Isle of Man by amalgamation with the Manx Bank.

Soon after, however, the Mercantile Bank began to run into difficulty, partly due to the effect of the Boer War on investments.

The board of directors saw that as a relatively small bank, they could only survive by further amalgamation.

In the early part of 1904, several meetings were held with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, and on 1 July the business of the Mercantile Bank was transferred to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank."*

And in turn the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank merged with he Bank of Liverpool and Martin in 1927.

Pictures; former Mercantile Bank of Lancashire, 1903, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento, 2020

*Barclays Bank PLC, https://www.archive.barclays.com/items/show/5305

Cheadle Royal Hospital in World War 1 ........ another story from Tony Goulding

Founded as a wing of The Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1763 and on its present site since 1848/9 as a mental hospital Cheadle Royal was not much used for war casualties during the First World War.

Cheadle Royal Hospital September 2019
The treatment of what was then referred to as “shell shock” (1) was quite limited indeed sufferers were widely regarded as shirkers or who at best were “lacking in moral fibre”.

Indeed in 1917 the British Army issued a general order effectively banning any use of the term “shell shock” in casualty records. Some soldiers were treated in the nearby Barnes Convalescent Home which was more widely used in the Second World War.
   
As written about in a recent post the hospital has a war memorial listing 7 members of staff who fell during the conflict. The story of one, John Bennett has already been told. Some details on the lives of 3 of the remaining 6 are recorded in this story.

The War Memorial – Cheadle Royal Hospital
I was puzzled at first that three of the remaining 6, like John Bennett himself, had served in a Welsh regiment, however in the 1870’s the hospital had expanded by purchasing a number of houses in the Colwyn Bay area of Denbighshire in North Wales.
Further expansion saw the addition of “Glan-y-Don Hall” a purpose-built convalescent home in 1909/10. (2) Presumably, some of those joining the Welsh regiments were working at one of these satellite sites.

Thomas Massey was born on 3rd March 1884 and christened at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Wilmslow, Cheshire on 23rd September 1888. His parents were William, a gardener, and his wife Elizabeth (née Moore) of Altrincham Road, Morley, Nr. Wilmslow, Cheshire.

 He enlisted at Colwyn Bay, North Wales on 3rd November 1915 when he was recorded as being 30 years and 7 months old and employed, also as a gardener, at Greenfield House, Old Colwyn.

A few days later on the 8th November, at Conway, he joined as a private  the 20th battalion (later transferring to the 16th) of The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, arrived in France on the 19th March 1916 and was killed in action on 11th November of the same year. Private Massey’s remains are interred in one of the 1102 graves in the “Essex Farm Cemetery” close to the town of Ypres in Belgium.

This famous poem was written next to Essex Farm Cemetery.

Reginald Stansfield Carr was killed in action on 22nd April, 1918 during the “Ludendorf Offensive” the final throw of the dice by the German Army, an attempt to achieve a decisive victory before the arrival of a substantial United States Army force would make their ultimate defeat inevitable.

Although he was serving in the 14th battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers when he died he had in fact enlisted at Stockport in and joined the Cheshire Regiment. He was born in Stockport, Cheshire in the December quarter of 1896 to William Arthur Carr, a blacksmith in a “shoeing forge”, and his wife Jemima (née Goodier). The family home was at 18, Church Road, Cheadle, Cheshire. According to the 1911 census Reginald was employed as a van boy. Private Carr has no known grave and his name is included on the Poziers Memorial in the Somme Department of Northern France.



The Poziers Memorial
   
The Poziers Memorial
The third member of a Welsh Regiment on the memorial is George Richard Featherstone of the 10th Battalion, South Wales Borderers. He died of wounds on 18th August 1917 and is buried in the Military Cemetery at Dozinghem, Belgium.
   

 George Richard was born in 1882 in Cross Acres, Northern Etchells, Cheshire. His parents were Tom, a farm labourer from Biggin, Derbyshire and his Manchester-born wife, Kate.  On joining the army, in Stockport, George left behind him a young family; wife Emma (née Adshead) and four young children. George and Emma were married at All Saints Church, Newton Heath Manchester on 25th May 1905.

The couple set up home in Cheadle, Cheshire where George worked as a groom / coachman. Their first child Tom was born in Cheadle during the September quarter of 1905, two daughters quickly followed Katherine Mary, (born 1907 December quarter) and Jessie (born March quarter of 1910). The final addition to the family a second son, Clifford, was born, also in Cheadle, on the portentous date of 11th November 1914.

The National Register taken on 29th September, 1939 shows that his widow, Emma, and his youngest son, Clifford, were still living at 153, Wilmslow Road, Cheadle which had been the family home from before the 1911 census. Emma was recorded as a laundry worker whilst Clifford was employed as a glove salesman.
       
I shall tell the stories of the remaining three soldiers on this memorial at a future date.

© Tony Goulding, 2020

Pictures; courtesy of Tony Goulding, except The Poziers Memorial, The Cross of Sacrifice licensed by the author Wernervc, under "Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International License"
 
Notes:
1) “Shell Shock” was recognised in the 1920’s as a genuine condition.

In World War Two, similar cases were referred to as “Combat Stress” and the condition is now known as P.T.S.D. or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

2) The architect was the Manchester based Percy Worthington.

Warne’s Book of the Farm .............. one I wish I had been given

Now I am a great fan of children’s books especially the ones that were produced when I was growing up.

Most of them were beautifully produced with a real care to detail and quality and of course with the passage of half a century and more are history books in their own right.

It starts with the images which recreate a lost world which may reflect the prevailing ideology, class outlooks and social prejudices, and goes on to the text which is equally likely to be shot through with a set of assumptions so different from ours.

All of which is why I like Warne’s Book of the Farm.

It starts with the Farmers Task telling the young reader that “the farmer is the most important man in the world.  

He always has been and always will be.  


His work is to produce food for us to eat, and wool and leather for us to wear; and food and clothes are two things everybody wants and without which we cannot live.”

Now that I think has a lot of truth in it.

And that is then followed up the wonderful period pictures.

It belongs to Ann Love who was given it by her grandfather.




Pictures; from Warne’s Book of the Farm, 1949, from the collection of Ann Love

Tuesday 26 May 2020

A little bit of Naples on Beech Road

It’s been one of those slow days.


I had wanted to  plunge into the murky world of lodging houses in that stretch of the city known as Little Italy.

But that was not to be, so instead I went looking for the story of pizza which took me back to Naples, and memories of some very happy meals in the simplest of eating places.

At which point it would have been easy to  slide into a list of pizza places, but there would be no fun in that, given none of us are getting back to Italy for a while, and anyway they are there on the blog.*

That said  some of the best I have eaten in Varese came from the local Chinese restaurant round the corner, which is as it should be given that the chef had trained in Naples.**

Instead I will ponder for a moment on the all important topping.  In our house that means just cheese and tomato sauce, although when wither Tina or Rosa want to indulge me they will throw on a handful of mushrooms.

And that is it ………… no forest of green stuff, no sweetcorn, no pesto, pineapple, or selected meats.

Which when you think about it, only detracts from the simplicity of pizza.

And sometimes we fry the pizza before adding the toppings which is one way they do it in Naples bringing the city to Beech Road.
Location; where ever the pizza is

Picture; last nights pizza, and others, from the collection of Balzano

*Pizza, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Pizza

** Ristorante Pizzeria Grand Mondo, 28 Via Cascina del Rosario, Varese

Street furniture …….. doing the essential walk and making it historic .... no. 24

I have to confess to liking and collecting street furniture, be it an old coal hole cover, a 19th century water trough, umpteen different types of postboxes or the humble road sign.


All of which I have written about on the blog over the years, and today I can add a new one, which was sent over by Barbarella, who added, “Urban furniture, they don’t make them like they used to!"

And I have to agree, which in this case appears to be an old fashioned streetlamp with a slightly more up to date light shade.

There will be someone out there who can date the lamp post, and explain its place in the pantheon of streetlamp design.

We shall see.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Didsbury street furniture, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento

*Street furniture lost and saved, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Street%20Furniture%20lost%20and%20saved

Monday 25 May 2020

Early morning on Beech Road …….May 18th




Location; Beech Road

Pictures; four for Beech Road, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Relics of our industrial past …….. doing the essential walk and making it historic .... no. 23

Now, here is a story yet to be explored.

Barbarella came across this impressive brick viaduct on her walk yesterday along the Mersey on the border between Didsbury and Cheshire.

It clearly has seen better days and despite my confidence earlier this morning I have not tracked down its history, despite staring at maps of the area dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

But someone will know, and offer up chapter and verse, from which I can go back and delve deeper.

To which John Anthony Hewitt has responded with "That would have been part of the Manchester Central to London St Pancras main line railway, closed in 1969. Apart from Central station, other stations closed had included CCH, Withington & WD, Didsbury, H. Mersey, Cheadle Heath and Hazel Grove"

And looking at the 1900-1910 OS map for Cheshire, a line does cross the Mersey at that point.

And I suspect this one will rumble on ..... well I hope so.

Leaning me just to wallow in that wonderfully sad lament for the passing of all things, .....The Slow Train, Flanders and Swann.*

Location; Didsbury, Cheshire border

Picture; that viaduct, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento, and extract from the OS map of Cheshire, 1900-1910, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

A taste of Sicily amongst the forests of Switzerland

We woke to one of those grey days heavy with the promise of rain.

Saturday afternoon with a bit of sunshine on a wet day
You knew it was coming because the mountains and the Lake across the valley were shrouded in grey mist.

All a contrast to yesterday and earlier in the week when the sun shone down and made everyone feel happy.

But the rain held off long enough for us to leave Varese and travel the hour and a bit to Virginia’s flat in Switzerland.

And it came down in torrents accompanied by thunder and at the termination of each outburst vapour rose from the forest by the playing fields.

The added surprise
Not that we were over bothered. 

There had been no plans to venture out and anyway it was time to eat, and had we wanted a bit of warmth and the promise summer the meal Rosario offered up .

Rosario is from Sicily and at the centre of the meal was parmigiana di melanzane which is a wonderful dish of fried aubergine slices interspersed between a mix of parmesan and mozzarella cheese, a little beaten egg and topped by tomato sauce.

Rosario's aubergines
That said his version was different from the one we usually eat which is from the recipe Rosa uses. 

She is from Naples and she fries the aubergines in flour while Rosario left out the flour and used a different Italian cheese creating a dish which was similar but different, and was accompanied by deep fried potato balls, some locally baked Sicilian bread a jar of sundried tomatoes.

It was simple, colourful  and filling which at the end of the day is what you come to expect of the food of the south.

Home made sun dried tomotoes
So there you have it two versions of one aubergine dish from two places in southern Italy, from the same family.

All of which just leaves me to ponder on how many more I might come across.

Location, Sicily and Switzerland











Pictures, parmigiana di melanzane, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson