Boring pictures after the lock down …. no. 11 .... Tony’s garden

So, as we edge to a relaxation of lock down, the new series is launched.

Boring pictures after the lock down, invites everyone who is out and about to offer up their own photograph. *

The only qualifications are that it should be by you and be boring.

And by any standards, this one from Tony Goulding ranks as boring. 

To underline this he wrote, “Hi Andrew, I am attaching a picture as an entry in your above series.

It is of the sorry state of my little patch of garden which as you can see I have sadly, largely, neglected for 3-4 months and is now reverting to nature!"

Location; Tony’s garden

Pictures; Tony’s garden, from the collection of Tony Goulding

*Boring pictures after the lock down, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Boring%20pictures%20after%20the%20lockdown

Surprising item in the Rec area …….. on a wet Tuesday morning

Now I can’t quite make up my mind if these pictures are boring enough to make their way in the Boring picture series or are the sort that on a slow news day in August would hit the headlines.

Because there was once that time of the year known as the silly season, when with many people on holiday the normal reports of wars, Cabinet reshuffles, and earthquakes faded from the front pages of the newspapers.

In their place, came stories of “man bites dog”, “the 2.15 from Manchester Piccadilly to Glossop delayed by ten minutes”,  and “the hairpin lost 40 years ago at Gretna Green ceremony, found by an American tourist from Delaware”.

Of course, it is July and the silly season hasn’t officially started so I am guess they will fall between boring and pretty boring.

But there you are ………. A bit of a tree has fallen across the northern path, and the play areas remain in lock down.

Suggested captions for either image should be posted before 5 pm and posted in a sensible place.

Location; the Rec, Beech Road

Pictures; the Rec, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Boring pictures after lockdown, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/06/boring-pictures-after-lock-down-no-11.html

All the history …. that is fun and true ……. on the wireless …. this week

Now there is a skill in making history fun but at the same time delivering factually correct material.

And as everyone knows, some historians and teachers fall along way short of getting it right.

But not the BBC, whose short 15 minute series Homeschool History gets it just hits the button.

Not that I am surprised given that it is delivered by Greg Jenner, he of Horrible Histories, who as a every parent and interested kid will know has been offering up romps through our collective past.

We still have many of his publications, which are both funny and good history.

And by good history, I mean stories which tell you all you want to know, are clever and amusing, but don’t talk down to the listener.

Today I joined “Greg Jenner in Ancient Egypt to meet the famous Queen Cleopatra. Learn all about her remarkable reign, the reason she was prevented from ruling alone, and why she once had to make an entrance wrapped in a duvet”.*

But I could also on previous occasions have met the Gladiators to “learn your Samnites from your Retiarius”, Mansa Musa in medieval West Africa who was “the ruler of the Mali Empire and the richest man to ever live”, along with the Stone Age, China and much more.

Leaving me just to repeat that  the series is, Fun History lessons for all the family, presented by Horrible Histories Greg Jenner., which is produced by  Abi Paterson, with the script written  by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch and Emma Nagouse, and the Historical consultant is Dr Joyce Tyldesley.

And that it is a Muddy Knees Media production for BBC Radio 4

*Cleopatra, Homeschoohttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kgnr

l History BBC History,

Pictures after the lock down …. no. 10.... the 3½ from Lymm

Now, here I have to say that while Andy’s collection of Lymm pubs appear in the new series which is entitled Boring pictures after the lock down, none of the four are boring.*

That said they fit nicely into a group of stories focusing on how we move out of lockdown into something new.

The four are the Saracens Head, Paddock Lane, Warburton, the Jolly Thesher, Higher Lane, Lymm, the ex Dog Beer House, Mill Lane, Heatleyand George & Dragon, Mill Lane, Heatley, and the Dog Beer House, Mill Lane, Heatley, which sadly is no more…… hence the ½

But I have left out the ex Dog Beer House, partly because it will not be one you can visit later in the year, and also because it is now a private house.

And I know I could have delved into the history of all four, but that too I shall leave for those who want the back story before visiting the three.

All of which just leaves me to invite everyone who is out and about to offer up their own photograph.

The only qualifications are that it should be by you and be boring.


Location; Lymm

Pictures; the 3½ from Lymm, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Boring pictures after the lockdown, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Boring%20pictures%20after%20the%20lockdown

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton …. part 115 ......... another Sunday

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. *

I doubt I will ever know how Joe and Mary Ann spent their Sundays.

Despite a decade of research and extensive conversations with people who knew them, they remain an enigma.  I can tell you their basic biographical details, from birth to death, but pretty much everything else still sits in the shadows.

And as I sit here on a Sunday morning I ponder about how they spent their Sundays in this house.

Today with so much technology, all day shopping, and wall to wall entertainment, pretty much all of your waking time can be filled with things to do, and see.

But not so in the decades stretching back from the 1960s, when a Sunday was a quiet day.

I say quiet, but for many of us who grew up in the 1950s, boring would be a more accurate description.  The telly closed early, and in the first half of that decade, it actually closed down for a few hours in the afternoon into the evening.

Retail laws prevented purchases of a whole range of products, including certain food stuffs, which in one case resulted in a local shop keeper wrapping up what mother had sent me to buy in heavy duty brown paper with a clear instruction “to tell no one what was in the package”.

It was as Tony Hancock mused in 1958, a day to be endured, made worse on one Sunday afternoon when it began to rain, leading him to moan “That’s all we wanted. You watch, it’ll go dark in a minute, we’ll have to switch the lights on. I think I’ll go to bed”.**

Adding to the gloom for me, the prospect of school in the morning which hung over the day, slowly getting worse as we headed towards the evening.

The exciting optimism of a Friday evening followed by a busy Saturday when all things were possible was dashed by the almost total absence of things to do on the last day of the weekend.

There were of course the parks to play in, but almost everything was closed and there was a sense that you might as well have been in out of season, Brighton, or Blackpool on a dismal grey day in November.

I have no idea how different it was for grownups, but if Tony Hancock’s experiences are anything to judge,  it was at best unexciting, and at worse, quite grim.

Now I know there were all those 1950s organized activities, like fishing, collective bike rides and rambles in the country, but there will also have been acres of empty time stretching from breakfast to tea time, interrupted by Sunday dinner, a bit of gardening and listening to “Two Way Family Favourites”, Educating Archie and the Navy Lark on the wireless.

Nor was the evening much better, for the choice I seem to remember was “Sing Something Simple on the Light Programme, or “I Love Lucy and Sunday Night at the Palladium on the telly.

That said there was always Sunday dinner which in our house was grand and unlike that at
23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam, home of Mr. Hancock where his companion’s dinner was so memorable it led him to utter in despair, “I thought my mother was a bad cook, but at least her gravy used to move about. Yours just sort of lies there and sets”.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Joe and Mary Ann’s house, 1974-2017, from the collections of Andrew Simpson and Lois Elsden

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

**Sunday Afternoon at Home
Hancock's Half Hour Series 5 Episode 14, First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in April 1958, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jsys

Boring pictures after the lock down …. no. 9.... "He went that way"

So, now that the end of lock down is upon us, here is the new series

Boring pictures after the lock down, invites everyone who is out and about to offer up their own photograph. *

The only qualifications are that it should be by you and be boring.

And here I have cheated, because Lind'a picture which she entitled "He went that way", she admits was

"Seen on my first short walk since 21st March".

Location; Chorlton

Picture; "He went that way", 2020, from the collection of Linda Rigby

*Boring pictures after the lockdown, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Boring%20pictures%20after%20the%20lockdown

A detachable collar, a travelling shaving kit ........ and stories of Mr. Stevens ...... the Chorlton undertaker

I doubt anyone born later than 1930 ever wore a detachable collar, other than the clergy and a few people engaged in ceremonial events.

They were once very popular, allowing you to change the collar which could be washed, starched and ironed separately from the shirt.

The added bonus of course was that while the collar might have become quite grubby, the shirt could be worn for another day, and because a starched collar is stiff and can be uncomfortable, once away from work you could take it off and just wear the shirt.

There are plenty of family photographs of grandfather and his brothers staring back at me minus their collars.

And here I have to admit that back in 1964 at the tender age of 14 I began to wear them for school.

The shirts carried a feint red and grey striped pattern, and the detachable collars were white, which at the time I thought was quite a fashion statement.

Of course fastening the collar to the stud at the back of the shirt was a faff, and on very hot days undoing the top button was not possible.

But we have all suffered for our desire to strike out and be different.

In my case the alternative were those bri-nylon shirts, which required no ironing and could be hung up to dry after a quick passage through the washing machine.

The downside was that they were uncomfortable to wear in very hot weather and seemed to stain under the arm pits.

All of which is an introduction to another attic story, which this time comes from my old friend Ann Love, who burrowed deep into her family collection and came up with a wonderful set of items from the early decades of the last century.

Ann’s father was an undertaker and they lived at 523 Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton.

The house was part home, but also the office.  The coffins were made in the garage at the back and the deceased were laid out in a room in the house.

And as was the practice in the first half of the twentieth century, staff attending a funeral wore formal dress which included not only a detachable collar, but the winged variety.

Ann found a collection of the collars  "which were the wing collars, still in their box. I'd never looked at them closely before, but apart from two which were from Lewis's, the others seem to come from Ireland.

I also found photos of my father and grandfather wearing wing collars, all dressed up for their job, as undertakers”.

There is lots more, including trade cards, “a travelling shaving set, which I believe was my grandfathers, obviously not used much.

A strop, for sharpening blades, and two boxes of shaving equipment. I love the boxes, particularly the 'Rolls Razor' which is nicely decorated and fits together very cleverly".

Added to all these Ann has over the years shared with me a selection of her drawings of the house and surrounding area made while she was studying art.

All together they make a fascinating record of how one family lived in Chorlton.

At which point there is a danger that I will fill the story with bits of Ann’s finds, but for those you will have to read new the book which is “The Lost Stories  of Chorlton-cum-Hardy …. In Our Attics, Cellars, Garages and Sheds”.

The book is predicated on that simple idea that we all have “treasures” stored away which tell our own personal story as well as casting light on the history of the last two centuries.

Peter and I are working on it as I write, but would welcome contributions.

You can contact us by leaving a comment on the blog or through Facebook, telling us just what you have and its importance to you and your family.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; what Ann found, 2020, from the collection of Ann Love.

Boring pictures after the lock down …. no. 8.... California

So, as we edge to a relaxation of lock down, the new series is launched.

Boring pictures after the lock down, invites everyone who is out and about to offer up their own photograph. *

The only qualifications are that it should be by you and be boring.

And Robert who once lived in Chorlton but now resides in Ventura, near Los Angeles offered up this one of his backyard, adding "I’m going to need to work on this one. I’ve never gone out to take deliberately boring photos. It is a challenge though . I love the concept.
That one is from inside our back yard .I took it last week".

Location; Robert's back yard

Pictures; Robert's back yard, Ventura, California, from the collection of Robert Levy

*Boring pictures after the lockdown, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Boring%20pictures%20after%20the%20lockdown

Boring pictures after the lock down …. no. 7.... pebbles, more pebbles and even more pebbles ..... Deal

So, as we edge to a relaxation of lock down, the new series is launched.

Boring pictures after the lock down, invites everyone who is out and about to offer up their own photograph. *

The only qualifications are that it should be by you and be boring.

And I think Colin and Elizabeth hit the brief ............not only have they managed to get three very boring pictures, but they caught the beech at a moment of supreme self distancing, with not a visitor to be seen.

The added bonus was a bit of Colin's thumb and the club house.

To which I have included this exciting piece of information from the Guide to Deal Beach.

 "The long pebble beach at Deal is punctuated by the pier which dates back to the 1950s. 

Whilst it might not be the most attractive pier it is long and features a cafe and fishing decks at the end.

The beach at Deal is an interesting spot for a stroll. Some way to the south of the pier fishing boats are pulled up on the beach and a little further along is Deal Castle.

Backing on to the charming historic town of Deal there are no shortage of amenities".**


Location; Deal

Pictures; Pebbles at Deal and a clubhouse, 2020, from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick

*Boring pictures after the lockdown, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Boring%20pictures%20after%20the%20lockdown

**Deal Beach, https://www.thebeachguide.co.uk/south-east-england/kent/deal.htm

Manchester in the 1980s ......... more from John Casey

Now nothing dates more than pictures of the recent past.

So here is the first of three from John Casey taken in the 1980s.

Location; Deansgate






Picture; looking down Deansgate circa 1980s from the collection of John Casey

Boring pictures after the lock down …. no. 6.... waiting for someone to pass ..... Somerset

So, now that the end of lock down is upon us, here is the the new series

Boring pictures after the lock down, invites everyone who is out and about to offer up their own photograph. *

The only qualifications are that it should be by you and be boring.

Location;on a road in Somerset

Picture; our Theresa's road from the collection of Theresa Simpson Hall

*Boring pictures after the lockdown, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Boring%20pictures%20after%20the%20lockdown

Sharing "a cherished object from your past", another story from Tony Goulding

On Saturday 20th June I took part in a Zoom meeting as part of the  excellent, "Stories of Our Lives" project which aims to bring local people together to share their memories and thoughts on various themes and create a written record to be included in a Blog. 

The crested china

Last week's theme was "a cherished object from your past".   

I had trouble choosing an object to bring to the meeting, having so much clutter!

I finally opted for this tiny china replica of Teignmouth Lighthouse an item of "crested ware" produced in vast quantities in  the inter-war period.

This example is by one of the leading manufacturers W.H. Goss and carries the crest of "Redditch", at that time a town in North Worcestershire famous for needle manufacturing and now a much larger "new town" for Birmingham commuters.

As Redditch was the home town of my maternal Grandmother I have long associated this article with memories of her, however, the introductory meditation on Saturday rekindled a memory of seeing it in my mother's glass-fronted display cabinet in which was kept the family's "posh" china tea set only to be used for special visitors.
       
Interestingly in recent years as I have studied my family history involving several trips to Redditch and Worcestershire's county record office in Worcester the artefact has acquired another layer of significance.

It can now evoke more personal memories.

One of my visits to Worcester coincided with my 50th birthday and I spent that day watching a cricket match Lancashire v Worcestershire at the iconic New Road cricket ground in the shadow of Worcester Cathedral; something I had always wanted to do.

New Road Worcester

On another occasion I visited Redditch and journeyed further to Withybed Green on its outskirts where my grandmothers Childhood home was located.

Calling in a pub for lunch I got chatting with the landlady who informed me, when she knew of the reason for my visit that one of her regulars with the same name as my grandmother's maiden name was also engaged in family history research and might shortly be calling in.

Unbelievably he called in as I was just about to leave (in fact we very nearly missed each other). He was a very nice man and showed me around the local churchyard where my Great-grandfather and other family members are buried and provided contact details of another relative who I later contacted and visited overnight on a further fact garnering expedition.

Tony Goulding © 2020

Pictures; crested ware, from the collection of Tony Goulding, New Road , Worcester, By Stephen McKay, CC BY-SA 2.0, File:New Road Worcester - 3 - geograph-891443.jpg - Wikimedia Commons.https commo

Stories from Liverpool Road ..........

This was 31 Liverpool Road in 2016.

No. 31, 2016

Now I say that because I haven’t been down to see the progress on the redevelopment of the property since the lockdown.

It had been a sweet shop and newsagents and I can still remember buying stuff from it during the early 2000s.

But like many of the shops on this stretch of Liverpool Road, its days as a traditional small retail outlet were almost over.

In happier times, 2006

Already the shop next door which had been a TV repair shop and the insurance company had closed, and so I wasn’t surprised that Castlefield News had ceased trading sometime between 2008 and 2009, and that a plan to turn it into an art gallery had been given planning permission in 2016.

Now there will be someone who can tell me what progress has been made, but I know that in July of 2019 the property was still boarded up but work had been done to replace the large workshop window on the third floor while preparations were being made to add a new window on the 2nd floor.

The heritage report which accompanied the planning documents suggest a date of between 1820 and 1830, but I rather think they date from sometime between 1793, and the following year.  They are missing from Laurent’s map of 1793 but are there on Green’s map of 1794.

And as you do I have become interested in the property.

In 1901 it was occupied by Miss Mary Ann Sturgess who ran a secondhand furniture business with a brother.  She was still there in 1903 but by 1911 was living around the corner at 7 Collier Street and described herself as a “Dressmaker”.

No. 7 has gone, but it looks to have been a small property occupying just two rooms.

And in 2005

All of which will require more research which in turn will take me into the life of Miss Sturgess, who I know was born in 1868, baptized at St Matthew's on Liverpool Road in the same year and died in 1932.

So, lots more to uncover.

Location; Liverpool Road

Pictures; Liverpool Road, 2016 and circa 2007, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* Change of use of building to an art gallery/shop (sui generis), or Shop (A1), or Office (B1) at ground floor and a residential apartment on the first and second floors (C3), including installation of new shop front and replacement of windows to the rear elevation and the first floor front elevation.
31 Liverpool Road Manchester M3 4NQ  Manchester City Council Planning Portal,

Ref. No: 109234/FO/2015/C1 | Validated: Thu 31 Mar 2016 | Status: Decided https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/pagedSearchResults.do?action=page&searchCriteria.page=2

On Crossland Road looking for a story with Mrs Margaret Walker in 1911

It began as an idle bit of research about a house and developed into a story of when this bit of Chorlton was developed, and about one family who settled here in the early 1880s.

No. Crossland Road, 1972

The house is on Crossland Road and for most of its 128 years it was a corner shop, selling groceries.

And for a long time I have wondered when it and the two small rows of houses close by were built.

Members of the old Chorlton Brass band were living in some of them by the mid 1890s, but just when they went up had puzzled me.

Not that I ever bothered to go and look, but yesterday I did.

The Rate Books suggest that Stanley Grove dates from 1884 and that the one on Crossland from 1890.

Now at this stage those dates are not set in stone, but there are no records of either property before then.

Looking down Crossland Road, 1972

At the time they were owned by John Neale and together the 14 houses brought in an annual rent of £217, while his two houses on Albemarle Road collectively earned him another £35.

I can track the residents at no. 1 Crossland back to 1890 and forward with some hiccups to 1969.*

In 1939 it was the home of Mr and Mrs Gibb who sold sweets, groceries and tobacco from the shop and just 28 years earlier Mrs Margaret Walker did the same.

And it is the Walker family that caught my interest not least because Margaret had been married at 15 and had had 5 children.

Beech Road, 1907

Together, the Walker’s and the Crossland Road and Stanley Grove offer up new insights into how this bit of Chorlton grew.

We are in what had become known as Old Chorlton or the Old Village to distinguish it from the development that began in the 1880s around the Four Banks, which was quickly built up and catered for the “middling people” many of whom worked in the city and commuted back by train to the township which still had a rural feel.

I suspect at weekends they took themselves off to the village green and by degree walked the fields crossing Chorlton Brook and on the Mersey and beyond.

But our bit of Chorlton was also being developed, and Crossland, Stanley and Redbridge Grove fit into that, development.

Looking at the census returns, a fair number of the residents were new comers, as were the Walkers.  They came from Worcestershire and Mr Walker gave his occupation variously as labourer and gardener.

They were still in Worcestershire in 1871 but were here by 1884, when they were living in Stanley Grove, and in the course of the next few years moved on to Beech Road, Acres Road and Clarence Road before settling on Whitelow Road.

Of all the properties only two have vanished and of these it is the one on Beech Road which is intriguing because this I think will be the row of cottages which ran at right angles and jutted out on to the road, roughly opposite what is now Reeves Road.

Sometime around 1900 or into the following year Richard died and the family relocated to Stanley Grove.

Crossland Road, 1909

Or so it seemed.  This death would explain the move to Stanley Grove from the bigger house and by 1911 she described herself as a widow, but there is evidence to suggest that her husband didn't die until 1924.

Margaret continued to work as a laundress, but given that she now lived opposite the big Pasley Laundry it is just possible that she went to work there.

Either way by 1911 she was dispensing groceries from no. 1 Crossland Road, possibly assisted by her daughter Florence and her son Charles who was a Postman.

And it appears she had taken over from one of daughters who was running the show two years earlier.

The 1911 census records that there were four rooms to the house, which is pretty much where we came in.

Only to reflect that the story once again challenges those who are particularly sniffy about newcomers to Chorlton, with that hint that anyone not born here is somehow an outsider, which of course is silly, given that all of us will have a family history that once upon a time started somewhere else.

*In 1890 the shop was run by a Johnson Clarke and in 1969  by Mrs D Jones.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; cottages on Beech Road, J Jackson, 1907, m17651, Stanley Grove, From Crossland Road, H Milligan, m18209, m18209, and m17732,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

More of Manchester in the 1980s ......... another from John Casey

Now nothing dates more than pictures of the recent past.

So here is the first of three from John Casey taken in the 1980s.

Location; Deansgate






Picture; looking down Deansgate towards Victoria Street, circa 1980s from the collection of John Casey

The house, a field and the stories of Mr. Nathan Slater and Henry Hawkins ……… 175 years of Didsbury’s past

Now, you just never know where a story will go, and I was not prepared for the twisty turny tale that started with a request for information on a big house on the corner of Lapwing Lane and Wilmslow Road.

The house of Mr. & Mrs Hawkins, 2019

Today it consists of six apartments, but for most of its existence it would have been home to one of the more comfortably well-off families of Didsbury.

It was built in 1896 and was owned and ocuppied by Henry Herbert Hawkins who was still there in 1911.  

He listed himself as an export brewer and in 1894-5 had offices in no 5 Cross Street which is just along from Market Street towards Albert Square. 

He was born in 1852, and married Florence Elizabeth Foster in the Methodist Wesleyan Chapel on Stockport Road.  They had two children and employed three servants.

They were clearly on the way up because in the late 1880s and early 90s they were in Chorlton in a semi on Barlow Moor Road and later still in Victoria Park.

Their new home had ten rooms and was situated at spot which had still been fields in the early 1890s commanding uninterrupted views south to Parkfield Road and on down past the railway line to the tennis courts and North Street.

The fields of Mr. Slater opposite Fog Lane

And it was the field that interested me, because in 1845 this had belonged to a Nathan Slater who also owned land across Didsbury.

He is a shadowy figure, who only appears in the rate books for Didsbury in the 1840s, but there is a Nathan Slater resident in Manchester in Booth Street in 1841 who is listed in the census return and several directories, who reappears as a merchant in Withington in 1852.

Back in 1841 he owns the Crown Inn on Booth Street and here the mystery deepens, because the property is occupied by fourteen people, one of whom is Mr. Slater, and what might be his mother, and twelve others of whom one is an Isaac Thorniley who nine year later is himself listed as the landlord of the pub.

The Crown Inn, 1851 facing Booth Street

The building is large and so could accommodate all fourteen, but on the maps of the period it is situated on the corner of Fountain Street and Nicholas Street, directly opposite Booth Street.

So, it is a tad confusing, which leads me back to that field and Mr. Slater, who might have inherited the land or given that he styled himself a “wine spirit merchant” he may have decided to diversify during the 1840s.

There are no records in the rate books that he owned the land before 1845, but that might just be one of the records that have been lost.

But I will still go on looking for him and just where he lived in Withington and trawl the documents for more on the family that came to live in the house which was built on his land.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Mr.& Mrs. Hawkings house, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the field belonging to Mr. Slater in 1845, from the OS map for Lancashire, 1854, and Booth Street, Nicolas Street and Fountain Street, 1851, from Adshead's map of Manchester, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Boring pictures after the lock down …. no. 5 .... empty streets and bedding plants ......... Barcelona

Now that lock down has been relaxed, the 2 meters distance has shrunk and you can again visit Primax and Top Shop, the new series is launched.

Boring pictures after the lock down, invites everyone who is out and about to offer up their own photograph.

The only qualifications are that it should be by you, and be boring.*

And this is Barcelona, taken by Lyn who told me, tells "Out and about near home, with two sights unusual for Barcelona: a normally busy street with no traffic, and a colourful display of bedding plants".

Location; Barcelona

Pictures; Barcelona, 2020, from the collection of Lyn Shepherd

*Boring pictures after the lockdown, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Boring%20pictures%20after%20the%20lockdown

On Shude Hill remembering the 1980s

Now in the 1980s Manchester cafe society pretty much still just stretched to a couple of tables and chairs plonked down on the street outside the pub or cafe.

And while I may be unfair this picture by John Casey of Shudehill in the 1980s brings it all back.

But at least this was a distinct improvement on just a decade and a bit before when coffee meant a cup of something brown and very milky, you could only get a glass of wine between 11 and 3 in the day and pub food amounted to a pie, a sandwich or a selection of pickled eggs.

This is that bit of Shudehill from Withy Grove up to Thomas Street and while to our right you can still call in at the Lower Turk’s Head and the successor to the Abergeldie Cafe the left side of the road has been transformed by the new Metro and bus station.

Location; Manchester

Picture; on Shudehill in the 1980s, from the collection of John Casey

Boring pictures after the lock down …. no. 4 .... the Rec receives visitors

Now that lock down has been relaxed, the 2 meters distance has shrunk and you can again visit Primax and Top Shop, the new series is launched.

Boring pictures after the lock down, invites everyone who is out and about to offer up their own photograph.*

The only qualifications are that it should be by you, and be boring.

So, this was the Rec on Beech Road on Sunday.

To be accurate the the recreation ground had already begun to host casual callers, who sat by the tables or engaged in a little football and basket ball.

But the weekend saw the first sustained occupation of the play area.

Location; The Rec

Pictures; the Rec, Sunday June 21st, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson 

*Boring pictures after the lockdown, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Boring%20pictures%20after%20the%20lockdown

The Imperial Picture House, Whalley Range

The Imperial on Chorlton Road, 1961

Now I am of that generation who went to the cinema before split screens, multi studios and the one film programme.

Back then there were still two films, a short cinema news review and the programmes showed continuously so whatever time you went in you sat through until you got to the bit of the film you had started at and then left.

These picture houses were still theatres of dreams with thick carpets plush decorations and that distinctive smell and of course a big screen which could take you almost anywhere.

The best had been built in the 1930s when this was the cutting edge of entertainment and even in the 1950s and early 60s they offered up something special.

The Imperial in 2014

The smaller and older ones often past their best might not have been as impressive but once the lights went down they too could work their magic.

All of which dear reader will mark me out as an old fashioned cinema goer.

And so here and over the next few weeks will be a short series featuring just one picture house.

This was the Imperial on Chorlton Road which was still showing films in the 1980s.

It has long been converted into another use but my friend Andy knowing my fascination for old picture houses set about recording the place.

The Imperial in 2014

He started with the outside and then began on the interior.

So here is the Imperial as it was and as it is now with a little of its past glory revealed.

And as with all good serials there is lots more to come and who knows we may elicit some memories.


Pictures; the Imperial in 1961, A H Downes, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and today from the collection of Andy Robertson, with a thank you to Imperial Timber 166-172 Chorlton Rd Manchester M16 7WW‎
0161 226 9190

Boring pictures after the lockdown …. no. 3 .... two from Portugal

Now that lockdown has been relaxed, the 2 meters distance might shrink and you can again visit Primax and Top Shop, the new series is launched.

Boring pictures after the lockdown, invites everyone who is out and about to offer up their own photograph.*

The only qualifications are that it should be by you, and be boring.

And quick out of the tracks came Mário, who sent two, adding "Andrew, two pictures to choose: one, from my balcony in Canidelo, Gaia, Portugal, 21st of  June: a lonely elder on cane in his balcony looking down at a post-lockdown closed cafeteria; the other, in the City Park of Porto, 20th: no-access tape round a patch of green under Wisteria".

And unable to decide which to post I decided on both.

Which just leaves everyone else to take part.


Contributions can be sent to me on facebook or twitter, or as a reply to this blog story on any of the social media sites you come across it.

Location; Porto


Pictures; in the City Park of Porto, 20th: no-access tape round a patch of green under Wisteria and the balcony in Canidelo, Gaia, 2020, from the collection of Mário Ricca

*Boring pictures after the lockdown, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Boring%20pictures%20after%20the%20lockdown

Walking past Hartley College in 1914 ……………

Now I like this picture of Hartley College as it was.

And that is partly because so much of the building is visible, and because we have a date for it.

That said the date of 1914, may not be entirely accurate, as this was the year the photograph was placed in the catalogue by the company Valentine who sold picture postcards.

But that is still a good working date and if it is earlier, can only be after the tram service started up along the road.

The college was founded by the Methodists in 1881 for training young men for the Methodist ministry, and in 1906 was renamed Hartley College after Sir William Pickles Hartley of Hartley's jams who was a benefactor.

The building was sold to the Northern School of Music, which later sold it to the Kassim Darwich Grammar School for Boys.*


Location; Whalley Range



Picture; Hartley College, circa 1914, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Hartley Victoria College Chapel Primitive Methodist, Whalley Range, https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LAN/MossSide/HartleyVictoriaCollegeChapel

Stories of the Manchester Pals ..........

Now I am rereading Manchester Pals by Michael Steadman, which is a detailed account of the formation of the Manchester Pals battalions.*

James Callahan of the 8th City Battalion

In just a short few months from August into November 1914, the city raised eight Pals battalions.

The idea was rooted in the belief that men would more readily join up if they could remain with their work companions or the friends they had grown up with.

As a recruitment plan it worked, but in the carnage that followed the great battles of 1916 and 1917 on the Western Front it proved a disaster for small tight knit communities, which experienced the loss of so many young men in the space of a few months.

But in the euphoria following the declaration of war that grim outcome was unforeseen by those who flocked to “join the colours”.

Men like William Eric Lunt from Chorlton who enlisted in the September of 1914 aged 19 and was posted to the 8th Battalion and my friend Joe’s dad who served in the same unit, as well Private Sidney Bone of Withington who was badly wounded on the first day of the Somme, and died aged just 24 in 1920.**

Bit by bit their stories are coming out of the shadows, and Mr. Stedman’s book offers up a context to their service.

An embroidered silk postcard, circa 1914-18

Along with a detailed description of the experiences of each of the battalions, he describes the city on the eve of this great conflict, along with how those who enlisted and survived made their way in the years of peace that followed the end of the war.

Now a full century and a bit after the outbreak of the Great War when all the combatants have died, it is easy to treat them as just a piece of history.  And leafing through the books and photographs they appear as either eager young men in ill fitting uniforms or frail individuals relying on walking sticks or wheelchairs.

But that is to forget that for most of those who came back, they had a full life ahead, and those war time experiences were but a short interruption to a life of gainful employment and raising a family.

It is sobering to think that when I was born my grandfather who served on the Western Front was just 53, his brothers were only a tad older, and my two uncles who were both in the Black Watch, were even younger.

I remember all of them as vital, energetic, and amusing men, who had long lives ahead of them but never spoke of their war service.

All of which makes Mr. Stedman’s book such an important contribution to our understanding of what those members of my family and thousands of others went through.

 Pictures; cover from Manchester Pals, embroidered postcard of the Manchester Regiment from the collection of David Harrop, and Mr. Callaghan courtesy of Joe Callaghan

*Manchester Pals, 16th, 17th, 18th,30th, 21st, 22nd & 23rd Battalions of the Manchester Regiment A History of the Two Manchester Brigades, Michael Stedman, 2004

**James Callaghan, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/James%20Callaghan, William Eric Lunt, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Private%20William%20Eric%20Lunt  Private Sidney Bone of the Great War, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Private%20Sidney%20Bone%20of%20the%20Great%20War