Thoughts on a Didsbury just 60 years ago

Now I have featured this picture of the War Memorial and Library at Didsbury in an earlier story but I think it deserves to come out again. 

It dates from 1959 and at first glance it does not look that much different but that is to ignore the huge changes that have occurred in just the last few decades.

When Tuck and Son distributed this picture postcard, there was still a railway station opposite with a regular service in to the heart of the city and the Jones family having returned their overdue library books had a choice of shops to visit.

Unlike today where almost everything you want is under one roof they could have wandered from the station up towards School Lane calling in at grocery shops, a newsagents, Smith’s the dry cleaners and Tiny Tots (Outfitters) Ltd, along with Rushton’s the shoe repair service and BSM Radio.

Inside they would have been greeted with that old fashioned style of shop with wooden and glass counters, high shelves and a lack of background music and customer announcements.

And if that was not enough there was the cafe on the corner of Warburton Road along with the Conservative Club above R Dunn’s and the Liberal Party Offices beside The Paint Shop selling Capital Wallpapers on School Lane.

Today the same stretch is dominated by cafes, and restaurants with a few independent traders which is not to pass judgement on the changes only to reflect that there will be many stories and even pictures of the time just 56 years ago when Tuck and Sons sold their picture postcard of the War Memorial and Library with its uncluttered pavement and parked scooter.

All of which is a prelude to an appeal for memories, stories and pictures of this not so distant Didsbury and an outrageous plug for the book Didsbury Through Time.

Didsbury Through Time is available in Didsbury from Morten’s Bookshop on Warburton Street, Didsbury, and of course from all other bookshops.

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