On a grey morning in Asos wondering about the tourist trade

We awoke to heavy leaden skies and by 10 am there seemed no promise of a better day.

By the beach the sun beds were all still stacked and only a few hardy souls had ventured out to watch the wave’s crash across the shore.

Back in the village square, the umbrellas in the restaurants were all down and no one was taking breakfast.

The few brief moments when the clouds vanished to reveal a blue sky were short lived.

And for the first time I pondered on how the holiday business in Asos on Cephalonia was bearing up.

By common consent there seemed to be fewer tourists on the island.

But memory is not always a good guide to these things and the owner of the restaurant in the village square assured us that “lots of people were coming here instead of staying in their own country.”

And I believe him, after all he recognised us as the family who made him pasta with garlic and olive oil.

It is a story long in the telling but suffice to say that Rosa who is from Naples took pity on him when he complained his mother could never quite make it right.

And judging by the full tables around us business is good which of course it has to be because a lot of Greeks invest much in the tourist months.

You see it all round you, from the local farmers bringing in fresh produce everyday for the restaurants to the women who clean the holiday homes and those who travel from the mainland just for the season working the long hours through the day and late into the night.

But when you actually weigh it up there are in fact very few enterprises here on Assos.  Apart from the two mini markets there are just four restaurants, an overpriced cocktail bar two beech bars and two tourist shops.

And there is a concentration of control for the two mini markets are owned by one family, one of the bars and a restaurant by two brothers while the Wi-Fi cafe and harbour restaurant by another couple.

Now it is not always easy to determine whether they are the owners or merely working the business for someone else.

Either way there is no questioning how hard they work.  The mini markets are open by 9 in the morning and will not close till 10 pm, while all the bars and restaurants will be serving all day and late into the evening.

Nor are we talking about shift work for it’s the same staff who will be serving breakfast at 10 and finishing off the night with the last of the diners.

Of course this is not something that tends to cross your mind.  Most of us get friendly with a waiter, joke about the weather ask superficial questions about their lives and if pushed brush away their long hours of labour with the thought that when the season closes these waiters, shop keepers and cleaners can relax.

But I wonder, particularly in the light of the current state of the Greek economy.

Which is almost where I began because the concerns over the state of the tourist business on the island had been prompted by the grey sky and unpromising morning.

We took coffee at the beech bar watching the sea and waiting for the sun to burn the clouds away and sure enough by mid day the water had settled, the sky was blue and the relentless sunshine was back.

And along with the sun were the coach parties.  They arrive regularly in the morning in their air conditioned buses; spend upwards of an hour and half taking pictures and sampling the bars.

It is easy to become sniffy about this intrusion into the peace of the resort.

There are a lot of them, they clog the road past the house and make a lot of noise, but they also spend money, and that for traders and residents is an important consideration.  Moreover the grey clouds had not put them off.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson. 2013

Eating the archive ……the invitation you can’t turn down

Now the historian in me, leapt at the idea of eating the archive.

It is featured on the July page of the Manchester Jewish Museum Blog, which under the title “Eat the Archive”, calls on “foodies to be part of our food revolution and become a Museum Foodie Advocate.

Our new project Eat the Archive brings together two of our favourite things: amazing Jewish stories from our collection and food. It is a chance to cook, eat, connect and chat – what’s not to like?".

The story is in the summer edition of the Manchester Jewish Museum’s newsletter.

So as they say, watch this space.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Rosa’s peppers, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Calling all Manchester Foodies to be part of the our food revolution, https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/blog/?p=490

**Manchester Jewish Museum Newsletter, Summer 20000, https://mailchi.mp/manchesterjewishmuseum/april20-6957650?e=f9ef44e930

Conspiracies, manipulation and much more ……… on the wireless ….one to listen to

Now there is a pernicious and pervasive way of thinking which looks for conspiracy everywhere.

As a way of looking at the world it isn’t new, and can be traced back to those who wile away the wasted hours seeking to disapprove that there ever was a moon landing, to the sinister Protocols of the Elders of Zion which was a fabricated antisemitic text, and runs back into the mists of time.

All that is needed is an event which someone will seek to deny, or bend to their own political purposes.

Only last week I encountered the assertion that the Covid virus was not real, but when challenged with the evidence, the individual deftly switched tack and argued that it was in the interests of “them” to manufacture the scare, thereby to increase the powers of State surveillance, or manipulate the international markets.

We have all encountered such conversations and attempting to refute them is like counting the grains of sand in a bucket or pushing water up hill.

Not that there haven’t been real conspiracies, only that the default line of many is to see them where they don’t exist, and trade on assertions and half-truths.

All of which is a lead into a new series on the wireless on How They Made Us Doubt Everything which is “the story of how doubt has been manufactured”. *

Running over 10 episodes "the series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change. 

With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.

Producer: Phoebe Keane for BBC Radio 4

Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev”.

So, there you are, I shall listen to all 10 and report back …. That is providing you believe what I write.

Pictures; a contemporary drawing of the Gunpowder Plot Conspirators, Crispijn van de Passe the Elder, and a popular badge from the 1970s

*How They Made Us Doubt Everything; Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000l7q0

Walking through Chorlton ............

Tuesday July 28th

Location; Chorlton














Pictures; Walking through Chorlton, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

He writes them stories ...… but not necessarily the ones you can believe …. Smile Dammit Smile!!! Chorlton

Here for those of a discerning but gullible frame of mind are the Chorlton stories which you will not find anywhere else.

Mr. Topping has set himself the task of some fine investigative journalism with stories ranging from “Bodies Found in Southern Cemetery”, “Chorlton Bus found on Moon”, and “Mysterious Container Found on Doorstep", along with “Books Discovered in Chorlton Bookshop”, and “Dead Shark Found in Chorlton Diving Pool”.

I am told that the public’s response to the news sheet has been very positive, with one chap writing in to complain about a story on the proposed revised route for HS2 through Chorlton and the construction of a new station to be sited in the township.

Pleased as the chap was, he wanted to know why the Government hadn’t considered a station in Wythenshawe which would assist the areas regeneration.

Leaving me to ponder on the power of silly news to move events forward.

And this collection will certainly open up undiscovered corners of Chorlton, challenge the concept of truth, and make most people calling for the sequel

The book is available from http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or Chorlton Book shop, 506 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9AW 0161 881 6374

Home thoughts from abroad nu 5 ................ wandering down to Avery Hill on a Sunday

An occasional series on what I miss about the place where I grew up.*

Now when you are 17 and out on that second date and still unsure of what comes next Avery Hill was always a good bet.

The Saturday night had been the pictures and without wanting to push it out too far and mindful that at 17 you didn’t have a lot of cash this was the place to come, check out whether the night before had been a good idea and whether either of you wanted it to go any further.

I remember plenty of such Sunday afternoons and two in particular with girl friends who lived in the lodge at Crown Woods which I fully admit was not pushing the boat out.

Later a full seven years after I first discovered the place I went back with Kay.

We had met in Manchester in 1971, started going out and in the following year spent part of the long summer at 294 Well Hall and later in the North East.

And when we weren’t exploring the centre of London or down at the Park in Greenwich, Avery Hill was somewhere to walk to on a Sunday.

It began with the Pleasaunce and then that long haul through the High Street and down the other side always with a curious look across at Crown Woods.

Not I suppose the most momentous memory but one that stays with me even now.

Location, Eltham London

Pictures; Avery Hill, 2013, from the collection of Jean Gammons

*Home thoughts from abroad, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Home%20thoughts%20from%20abroad

Messages from Germany ….. to Didsbury and Gateshead …… December 1918

We were lucky, of the six members of our family who went off to the Great War, all but one survived.

Crossing the Rhine, December 12th, 1918

And amongst the letters of those that came back is a Christmas card sent to father by his brother in December 1918. 

It is a short letter, reflecting on that first month of peace, and describing the city of Cologne which his regiment was occupying.

 He wrote that “Cologne is a lovely city with some fine cinemas” but they were prohibited from fraternizing with the civilians which for a young man of just 21 was a bit of a bore given the attractive young women he came across.

But duty was never far away and preparations were a foot because “we are crossing the Rhine tomorrow” and there was a determination “to show the rest of the division the way as we proved to be the finest marchers during the trek to Germany.”

Even now that simple message that “we are crossing the Rhine tomorrow” has a powerful effect on me. 

Father's Christmas Card, 1918

Partly I guess, because after four years of fighting he was about to march into the heart of Germany. 

And because my grandmother was also there. 

She was German, had been born in Cologne, and just two years later would marry my grandfather who like Uncle Fergus was a member of the British army of occupation

I doubt I will ever know if the three of then were all in the city on the day my Uncle marched east, but the romantic in me would like to think so.

And in the same way I was moved by reading another message from another British soldier who was part of that occupying force. 

I only know his surname and have as yet no idea of his rank or regiment.  But on December 19th he sent a postcard to his son with the message “Happy Xmas my Little Man with love from Daddy”

Happy Xmas, Lucuen, December 1918

It was addressed to Master Lucien Read, 6 Elesmere Road Fog Lane, Didsbury.

And there for now, the trail ends.

There are a number of possible Mr. Reid’s in Didsbury in 1911, but as yet none that I can identify as the father of Lucien. 

Their home on Elsemere Road was yet to be built, and with out a first name, it has proved impossible to track him amongst the British army records for the Great War.

But, I am confident that one day he will come out of the shadows.

Lucien's German Christmas card

Which just leave me with his card, and the knowledge that he too was a survivor. 

In his case occupying the town of Solingen, which was also on the eastern bank of the Rhine, to the south and east of Dusseldorf, and north of Cologne.

His card is dated just seven days after my Uncle’s letter, so I guess they may have both crossed the river at the same time.

A trawl of the military records for December 1918, will reveal when they crossed and may offer up the regiment Mr. Read was in.

We shall see

Location; Germany, Gateshead and Didsbury

Pictures; letter and card from Fergus Simpson, December 12th, 1918, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and postacard to Master Lucien Read, December 19th, 1918, courtesy of David Harrop

Who left the Don Cinema in Stockport off the list in 1914?

Now I am a wee bit puzzled by the story of the Don Cinema on Bramhall Lane in Stockport.

It had a short life, which covered just forty-four years, having opened in September 25th, 1913, it closed on June 29th, 1957 with the Norman Wisdom Film “Up in the World”.

The building was then sold to John Blundell Ltd. for use as a furniture store, and is now the Majestic Wine Warehouse store.*

Back in 1914, Stockport could boast nine cinemas, which together offered up 4, 850 seats for a population of 108, 682.

And for the curious according to the Kinematic Year Book for 1914, they were the Albert Hall on Wellington Street, the Cinema Theatre Wellington Road South, Edgeley Picture Palace, Castle Street, The Gem, and the Grove Picture Palace Avenue Street Portwood, the Princess Picture Palace, Princess Street, the Star Picture Place Princess Street and the Theatre Royal Higher Hill Gate.

All of which is fine, except the Don is missing from the list, for which I have no explanation other than perhaps it just missed the list.

Happily it had made the 1928 Year Book and was recorded as offering ”Continuous showings with two changes weekly.  Prices 6d to 1s”, and was one of the cinemas in Stockport.

Location, Stockport

Pictures; The Don Cinema, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The Don Cinema, Stockport, Ken Roe, cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/36713


**The Kinematic Year Books, 1914, 1928

Millie, Sadie ..... and the play at the Hippodrome

Now here is a bit of a puzzle, for which I don’t yet have a solution.

The picture post card shows a scene from the play called the Earthquake, and the message on the back refers to the Hippodrome.

And that pretty much is that.

I think we must be in Manchester because the address on the card is Levenshulme, which points to the theatre being either the Manchester Hippodrome or the Hulme Hip’.

The card is undated, but the play’s title and the scenery might suggest southern Italy, and between 1887 and 1920 there were 7 earthquakes all of which might fasten the performance to a year.

Added to which I know the Manchester Hippodrome opened in 1904 and closed in 1935, while the Hulme Hip’ was renamed the Hulme Hippodrome in 1905.*

So that might give us a small window to consider.
But a search of the two named individuals on the card have yet to offer up anything.

All of which has left me requesting help from Arthur Lloyd.co.uk,  that excellent site to do with all thing’s theatre.*

Of course, I may have the location of the play all wrong, which would be a bit tiresome.

Location; not sure,

Picture; The Earthquake, date unknown,  from the collection of David Harrop

*1887, Liguria, 1901, Salò,  1905, Calabria, 1907, Calabria, 1908, Straight of Mesina, 1914, Sicily, 1915, Avezzano,

*Arthur Lloyd.co.uk, http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/index.html

In Assos with the tourists and the ghosts

Asos in Cephalonia is a small classic Greek fishing village.

It sits in a secluded cove protected from the open sea with a cluster of bars, restaurants and holiday homes on three sides and a Venetian fort which dominates the fourth side sitting on a tall mountain.

And despite being an hour’s drive north from the airport it is a popular destination.

But it is the adventurous that make the journey along a twisting road which clings to the side of the mountains and affords spectacular views down steep ravines to the sea below.

Along with these who have opted to stay there is a steady stream of visitors who drive in sample the beech and bars and move on.

That said there is now also a brisk trade in the coach tourists who are ferried in air conditioned coaches which park just outside the village.

Every day this week groups of them have passed the house with a tour guide who carries a bat with a painted number and ushers her charges down to the bay spending no more than half an hour in the place.

All of which is in direct contrast to the winter months when there are no more  than a hundred people here making it a very quiet and empty place.

And as if to underline this other side of Asos there are the deserted houses which have long since been abandoned and are slowly falling down.

We are surrounded by them.  A few still have doors and shutters as if someone has a plan to return.

But the glass from the windows has long gone, all are open to the sky and the wooden beams are rotten so that floors sag and in many cases have already collapsed.

And as ever nature has moved in with bushes and even trees growing where once people sat, ate and passed the time of day.

Next door beside the old oven with its bell shaped chimney a huge bush with bright red flowers attracts a daily swarm of bees.

How long these houses have been empty may be determined by the extent of the decay and above all by the size of the trees growing in them.

In some cases these trees are tall with broad trunks and are as much a permanent feature as the crumbling walls.

A few of the houses have the date they were built, the one beside us dates from 1914 and another 1923.

They were tall houses spread out over three floors with a large single room downstairs, three or four rooms on the first story and a large attic space under the rafters.

But there is no clue to who owned them.  I asked the local shopkeeper and she shrugged and so with no firm information I fall back on speculation.

Some might have been the second homes of people from the capital, but that is unlikely.  So I guess they were the homes of locals who just moved away in the years before tourism took over.

This would date their abandonment to the 1970s if not earlier.

None of which explains why they have not been redeveloped.  They are on a prime site just beyond the beech, which must be all the more attractive now that the area around the bay has all been taken up with smart new holiday homes, so surely we must be next.

A few have for sale messages painted on the walls but in the years we have been here none have been sold.

But maybe their time will soon be here, otherwise I fear that a few more wet and windy winters and they will have vanished.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson 2016

A souvenir of Eltham ................ and a bit of a story

Now like lots of people I collect stuff, but unlike most I prefer to keep the collections digital.

That way there is no need to dust, no danger that you will damage the precious object and no chance that one day Aunt Ethel’s present will end up in the bin or sold on eBay.

It also means that you can collect other people’s favourite items and so share their pleasure.

All of which brings me to crested china which is the a general name for those porcelain “things” bought on holiday as a souvenir and carrying the name, badge or coat of arms of a town, city or seaside resort.

I can’t say I ever bothered with them until I came across a selection made during the Great War ranging from tanks, to battleships ambulance, and war memorials and the result was a series of stories.*

They were turned out in their thousands and each carried a different coat of arms.

It made perfect sense when the majority of people could no longer go on holiday as travel became restricted and ever more expensive.

This way the porcelain companies stayed in business, people still had jobs and the war effort and moral were boosted.

That said these three of Eltham from Mark Johnson have as far as I know nothing to do with the Great War, but they are Eltham where I grew up and that is good enough for me.

Although it would be nice to come across one of the Royal Arsenal.

Location’ Eltham

Pictures; crested China from the collection of Mark Johnson, date unknown

*Crested China,  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=crested+china

Lost in Gorton …. part 6 ….. the Gorton Four

This, I think will be the last in the short series from Andy Robertson, which I have called Lost in Gorton.

And these are four of the lost pubs of the area.

There are more but for now I will leave it at that.

For those that knew them, they will have their own stories, and for those that don’t, I shall just suggest you follow the link to that excellent site Pubs of Manchester, where the history of the Gorton Four can be found.*

Location; Gorton

Picture; the Gorton Four, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Pubs of Manchester, https://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.com/

The 1950s are back ………..at Southport ….. one to do

Now anyone who reads the blog will know that I regularly feature the Eagle which was my chosen comic when I was growing up.*

And not to shortchange its companion comics, there are stories about Girl, Robin and Swift, which together took the art and style of comics to a new level.

So, I was much pleased to hear that the Eagle Exhibition at The Atkinson Art Gallery in Southport which was originally planned to open in April but was postponed during the lockdown is back on.**

The Atkinson has reopened, and the Eagle exhibition will now run for a shortened period from 27th July until 5th September.

Slots have to be booked, a one-way system is in place, but there should be sufficient time for all those wishing to attend to do so.

Now that is grand news.

The Eagle was a new type of British comic, which was produced to a high standard, had some excellent stories with the most wonderful illustrations.

And each week presented us with a cutaway diagram in full colour of everything from an ocean-going liner to a London bus.

It was so successful that within a short period of its launch on April 16th, 1950, it was followed by its three companions, Girl, Swift and Robin, all of which maintained the same quality, and mix of stories, fine illustrations, and informative articles.

And this year it celebrates its 70th anniversary, which is bittersweet, given that I too have passed that into that momentous point in time.

To be accurate I got there a few months earlier and I would not discover my copy of Eagle until 1958, but once discovered I was a fan, continuing to read the comic each week, until sometime in 1963, when I reached that age when I put away childish things, embraced the idea of dates, music and fashion.

But I never quite lost my love of the Eagle and would find myself wishing I had kept my back copies, and wishing I could acquire some, which I finally began to do, buying them individually and then by volume, along with the Christmas Annuals, including those from before 1958.

So, with that said I shall just commend you all to the Eagle Exhibition at the Atkinson.

Location; The Atkinson Art Gallery in Southport

Pictures; covers from the continuing story, Terra Nova, The Eagle, May 30, 1959, Vol 10, No 22, and The Red Moon Mystery , Eagle, January 11, 1952, Vol 2 No 40, and poster for Eagle Exhibition, 2020

*The Eagle, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Eagle

*The Atkinson Art Gallery in Southport, https://www.theatkinson.co.uk/

Lost in Gorton ....... part 5 .... shopping at the co-op

Now, if you are of a certain age, you will be able to quote your divi number, from countless trips to the Co-op.

If I am honest I can’t remember ours.  We were with the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, and used our number till they switched to blue stamps.

And thinking of all things co-op, this is Andy’s picture of the Beswick Co-operative Society’s store on Hyde Road.

“Beswick Co-operative Society was registered on 4 June 1892. Its central premises were at 30 Aston New Road, Manchester. Its first president was Arthur Cuss and its manager was a John Dobson. Its first branch was opened on 25 January 1894 at the corner of Mill Street and Carruthers Street in Ancoats, Manchester.

By 1905 its central premises were listed as Rowsley Street, Manchester and it had 5,700 members. It had branches in Manchester, Ancoats, Ardwick, Bradford, Openshaw and a bakery, warehouse and stables Beswick. It traded in grocery, drapery, hardware, shoes and boots, butchering, furnishing, tailoring, coal, flour, baking and dressmaking.

By 1951 the society had 36,047 members and had its central premises at Grey Mare Lane, Manchester. It had added branches in Burnage, Clayton, Denton, Didsbury, Gorton, Levenshulme, Longsight, Rusholme and Withington. It had expanded trade into millinery, jewellery, ironmongery and tobacco. It also produced dairy goods, offered shoe repairing services and had business in meat preparation.

The society became a part of the Co-operative Retail Services in 1959”.

And I have yet to find out when it closed.

Location; Gorton

Picture; former co-op store on Hyde Road, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Sources: The Co-operative Union directories, and the published history by AE Worswick, "History of the Beswick Co-operative Society Limited from 1892-1907".

*Beswick Co-operative Society, https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/f2e8292a-178b-3996-b98b-07fd82464939

A little bit of our rural history ....the finger post at Ashley

I have been a fan of finger posts for over half a century.

When you are young and wandering the country lanes, they were very reassuring that you could never really get that lost.

Added to which they conjure up that lost rural world.

So, I was so happy when Andy sent me this one which he came across in Ashley in Cheshire.

As he says, “I know finger posts are quite common in rural areas but here is one anyway with the bonus of the local pub”.

I am on a mission at the moment to photograph as many pubs and ex pubs as I can within the region (and beyond). I'm up to 742 so far. I would certainly like to clear Manchester, Trafford, Salford and Stockport”.

And along the way I hope he comes up with more finger posts.

Leaving me just to say that Ashley “is a village and civil parish in Cheshire. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 261. The village is close to the border with Greater Manchester, just to the south of the M56 motorway and Manchester Airport. Neighbouring villages include Hale, Rostherne and Mobberley. There is a public house, The Greyhound Inn".*

To which I might add they have looked after their finger post.

Location; Ashley, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Ashley, Cheshire, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley,_Cheshire

The Knitting years ......... knitting the tea pot

Now if you a certain age you will remember the tea cosy.

Ours was made of padded fabric and was old and battered and tea stained.

Moreover it had over decades absorbed the aroma of the tea and so even when it was away from the pot it retained that distinctive smell.

Mother never would have a woollen one.  They were too fancy and looked too delicate for the job.

I can’t remember what happened to it but it must eventually have been relegated to the dustbin.

Picture; knitting patterns, 1930-1970 from the collection of Jillian Goldsmith

Lost in Gorton …….. part 4, the police station

I collect police stations.*

And so, I was pleased when Andy Robertson sent over this one of the old Lancashire Constabulary police station on Hyde Road in Gorton.

I have added quite a few to the collection, including the one on Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and others in Patricroft, Failsworth and Levenshulme.

They all conform to a standard design with variations, and all have that distinctive stone cladding with the date when they were opened.

By contrast those put up in Manchester were more pedestrian, with brick walls and less adornments.

I don’t know exactly when it closed, but I am guessing it will be part of the rationalizing of Manchester force in the1950s and the 1960s.  By 1969 it was occupied by  Beswick Manufacturing Ltd, Children's wear mfrs, and between  2008 and 2012 by Granite Kitchens, and was then converted into residential use.

Location; Gorton

Picture;  Police Station Hyde Road, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Police Stations, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Police%20Stations

Lost in Gorton …………. part 3, the Temperance Billiard Hall on Hyde Lane

Now there would have been a time , when you could have made your way across the twin cities playing in a different Temperance Billiard Hall every night of the week.

Temperance as was Hyde Road, 2020

Although Sundays may have been the exception.

They were built by The Temperance Billiard Hall Co Ltd which had been founded in 1906 and was based at 3 Ford Lane in Pendleton.

In 1911 the temperance empire, included sites on Moss Lane East, Stockport Road, Rochdale Road, Ashton Old Road, Bury New Road, Broad Street, Eccles New Road, Liverpool Road, Station Road, Altrincham, Cross Street Sale, Manchester Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Wilmlsow Road, Rusholme, Hyde Road in Gorton, Stretford Road, Old Trafford and Cheetham Hill Road. and

The Temperance empire, 1911

And with an eye to a good site and perhaps a captive audience some at least of the more enterprising early cinema owners chose to site their picture houses beside temperance halls. The Chorlton hall, n was next to the lavish Picture House built in 1920 while across in Cheetham  the Circuit Cinemas Ltd opened their Premier Picture Hall in 1925 which changed its name to The Greenhill when the company opened a new luxury cinema opposite.*

They can still be found across Greater Manchester and beyond, and while some retained their sporting links until quite recently, others were converted a long time ago into shops, restaurants and industrial units.

This one in Gorton has retained its familiar appearance, but long ago forsook billiards, and today is occupied by a bookies, a charity shop and a Christian mission.  The latter I suppose retains a sort of link with its past, although until recently space now given over to the mission and the charity shop, was a carpet business.

Picture; the old temperance hall, Hyde Road, 2020 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The Golden Years of Manchester Picture Houses, Derek J. Southall, 2012

Prominent Methodists of Chorlton-cum-Hardy..... another story from Tony Goulding

Founded in 1881 as “The Manchester Theological College” and renamed in 1906 in honour of Sir William Pickles Hartley, of “Hartley’s Jams” fame, who was among the church's most prominent benefactors; Hartley College was an institute for the training of ministers for the Primitive Methodist Church. 

 Hartley (Primitive Methodist) Training College,1924

Two of the college’s earliest Principals moved to addresses in Chorlton-cum-Hardy on their retirement.

Rev. James Macpherson
   
 Rev. James Macpherson was the Principal of “The Manchester Theological College” for the first eight years of its life (1881-1889).

He also edited the Primitive Methodist’s Magazine - “The Connexional” from 1871 until 1876, during which time, in 1872, he was elected President of the Primitive Methodist Conference.

He was born, in Edinburgh, in 1814.  In the September quarter of 1839, he married Fanny Bishop Buck in Weymouth, Dorset.  The couple produced five children, Christian, Archibald, Sophia, Jessie, and George. All five children were born in the North-West of England; the first three in Rochdale, Jessie near Chester and George in Haslingden, Lancashire.

The geographical range of the civil records of this family does, however, indicate the typical lifestyle of a Methodist minister who would rarely be attached to the same church/chapel for more than a couple of years. In the March quarter 1858, his wife, Fanny, died in Blackburn, Lancashire at the age of just 48. Just over three years later in the September quarter of 1861 he re-married, also in Blackburn, Mary Jane Aspinall.
     
Rev. Macpherson’s daughter, Christian, moved to live in Edinburgh, Scotland where she met Duncan Kennedy, a joiner and builder, who she married in Partick, nr. Glasgow on 13th February, 1873. Later his daughter and her husband returned to Lancashire and settled in the Cheetham area of Manchester.

Rev. Macpherson had by this time acquired a row of houses on Cluny Street, Cheetham one of which was already occupied by his son George with his wife and family. Duncan and Christian moved into an adjoining property with Rev. MacPherson appointing Duncan Kennedy as his agent for the remaining properties.
 
Shortly after the loss of his second wife, who died in South Manchester, during the March quarter of 1888, and his retirement from his post as Principal, Rev. Macpherson continued his ministry in South Manchester living initially at 30, Meadow Street, Moss Side, with his two unmarried daughters, his son and three grandchildren. He spent the final seven years of his life in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, first renting a house at 27, Albany Road from 1894 until 1896. Then in 1897 the rate book shows him as the owner occupier of 23, High Lane, a large newly-built house of 10 rooms, where at the 1901 census he was still living with his single daughters Jessie and Sophia, his widowed daughter Christian Kennedy, and his son George. Adjacent to this new property which he named “Cluny Cottage” there commenced the development of new buildings for the Primitive Methodist Church.

Macpherson Memorial (Primitive Methodist) Church 1959, High Lane

A school / church hall was built in 1896 followed by a church, with services taking place from 1898 and opened fully on the 20th September, 1902. As Rev. Macpherson had by this time passed away at his home on 18th April, 1901 the new church was given the name of “The Macpherson Memorial”
    As of 1900 the Manchester rate books show Rev. Macpherson’s Cluny Street properties alone providing an approximate rental income of upwards of £350. Given this large income his naming of his family home “Cluny Cottage” and the new church being named after him it is perhaps, not too conjectural to conclude that both “Cluny Cottage” and adjacent Primitive Methodist structures were all financed from the Cheetham property portfolio. What can be said for definite is that, in December, 1902, the final sworn assessment of his estate, for probate purposes, was £8,214-1s-0d or just over £1,000,000 at today’s value.

Rev. William Jones Davies
   
Rev. William Jones Davies was for five years from 1908 until 1913 the principal of the renamed Hartley College on Alexandra Road, Whalley Range, Manchester.
Rev. Davies was born in 1851 in Lydham, on the Shropshire/Montgomeryshire, England/Wales border. His parents were Edward, a farmer and Martha (née Jones). William’s younger brother, Edward Robinson, was also a Primitive Methodist minister. Rev. Davies married Emily Jane Bradford in the June quarter of 1883 while he was stationed at Cradley Heath, South Staffordshire.

The couple had seven children including one set of twins, George Denis and Mary Christine, born in the September quarter of 1888 in the Clun district of Shropshire. Sadly, Mary Christine was to die tragically young at just 12 years old while Rev. Davies was serving as a minister in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Of his other children; one of his remaining daughters, Dorothy Llewella, became a student at Manchester University and he would have witnessed her degree ceremony at the University’s Whitworth Hall on 3rd July, 1915 when she was awarded an Honours Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Class 2:1) in History. His first born, William Claud Howard, followed him into the Primitive Methodist ministry who after his father’s death in 1916 left the Primitive Methodist Church and later became a minister in the Presbyterian Church.
       In retirement, Rev. William Jones Davies lived at 6, Oak Avenue, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, where he died on the 21st June, 1916.

6 Oak Avenue, 2020

Rev John Bedford
Rev. John Bedford, a one-time President of the Wesleyan Conference (1868-69), passed away in the early hours of the 20th November, 1879 at his home, 18, Whitelow Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
    He was born on 27th July, 1810 in Wakefield, Yorkshire (West Riding). His father, also named John, died when he was only five years old. After initially working in a solicitor’s office, in Leeds, he became a full-time minister of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Glasgow, Scotland in 1831. Shortly after becoming a minister he met Maria Gledhill who he married in 1835 and with whom he had two surviving sons William Henry born in Bolton, Lancashire in the December quarter of 1842 and Frederick Samuel who was born in Birmingham in the December quarter of 1850.
     From, 1860 his increasing rôle in the administrative affairs of the Wesleyan conference necessitated his permanent residence in the Manchester area. In this year, 1860, he was appointed to the general chapel committee and soon rose to the position of being its secretary. At the church’s conference in Bristol in 1867, Rev. Bedford was elected to serve as its President for the following year.
Rev. Bedford first settled in the Chorlton-on-Medlock district of Manchester, where he resided for over a decade at 18, Acomb Street before around the time of his semi-retirement from his Secretarial work for the “Conference” he made the move to Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
According to the rate books of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy township this was, from the 6th September, 1872, at Wilton Street, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, where a near neighbour was a young Church of England clergyman; Rev. Hugh Bethell Jones. Somewhat unusually for that time there is some evidence that the two men were on very friendly terms. When in March, 1876 a subscription was raised to present Rev. Bethell Jones with a gift to mark his departure from St. Clement’s, on his appointment to the rectorship of St John the Devine’s, Brooklands, Cheshire, Rev. Bedford contributed one guinea to the collection. Although he was too indisposed to attend the presentation to his fellow cleric at the National School on Chorlton Green on 23rd March, 1876 he did send a very glowing testimonial which was read out at the ceremony and transcribed in the report of the event in the “Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser” on the 25th March, 1876.
 

40 Whitelow Road, 2020

Although Rev. Bedford died in 1879, his widow, Maria, and son, Frederick Samuel, continued to live on Whitelow Road. Maria died in the December quarter of 1888. Frederick Samuel and his family continued to live on Whitelow Road, however, and at some stage they had moved to number 40 (Although this was possibly due to the houses on Whitelow Road being re-numbered following a new housing development). Even after Frederick Samuel passed away in the March quarter of 1909 his widow Mary Jane remained in the house; she was still recorded living at 40, Whitelow Road in Kelly’s 1933 Directory of Lancashire, Manchester, Salford & Suburbs. In the meantime, two of Rev. Bedford’s grand-daughters Nellie, in 1921, and Ethel Mary in 1922, had held their weddings in the Methodist Church on Manchester Road. Throughout the First World War, Ethel Mary had served as a volunteer of the British Red Cross and in the kitchens and later as a nurse in two of the Red Cross Hospitals in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. One was at a building she would have been very familiar with; the Manchester Road Methodist Sunday School. The other was the Baptist’s Sunday School on Wilbraham Road.
Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Hartley (Primitive Methodist) Training College (1924)
 m 68658 (Unknown), Macpherson Memorial (Primitive Methodist) Church 1959, High Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, m 17904 A.E.Landers, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
 6, Oak Avenue, 2020, 40, Whitelow Road 2020

Tony Goulding, © 2020

Sources
 I would like to acknowledge a good  source of data "My Primitive Methodists" website
 E-mail address:-  enquiries@englesbrook.org.uk            

Racing horses at Middle Park with Mr William Blenkiron in 1861

Now here’s a story that I can’t claim any credit for but which I suspect will be new to many people.

Middle Park, 1873

It started with the chance discovery of horse racing at Middle Park and by degree took me to William Blenkiron.*

To be honest I rather let Mr Blenkiron go by the wayside and it wasn’t till my friend Tricia did the research that I realized that here was indeed and fascinating story.

He had been born in Yorkshire in 1807 and having begun as a farmer moved to London in 1834 “and commenced business as a general agent [and] in 1845 added to his establishment a manufactory of stocks and collars, and three years later retired in favour of his son."**

Leaving him at the still relatively young age of forty to begin a new career as the owner of a racehorse and by degree “wanting more room, removed from Dalston to Middle Park, Kent.  

He brought with him seven or eight brood mares and Neasham the head of the list of Eltham sire.  The establishment now rapidly increased until it was augmented to upwards of two hundred of the highest class and best mares that money and experience could produce.”**

And for those that want to follow his racehorse successes there is an excellent account in thamesfacingeast.***

Poll Book, 1868

Instead I am more fascinated by what Tricia uncovered from the census returns.

In 1851 he was still in Dalston giving his occupation as “Silk Merchant,” but a decade later having settled at Middle Park he described himself as a “Farmer of 500 acres employing 18 workers” and in the April of 1871 was content to be known as a “Breeder of Horses.”

Now we can track him across the electoral registers from the 1835 and even know that in 1868 he voted for the two Conservative candidates for the Kent West Constituency.****

He died in the September of 1871 and is buried in the parish church.

Location; Eltham, London

Research; Tricia Leslie

Pictures; Middle Park, detail from 1858-73 OS map of Kent and extract from the Poll Book Kent West, 1868 courtesy of ancestry.co.uk

*When horses raced on Middle Park Meadows, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/when-horses-raced-on-middle-park-meadows.html

**National Biography page 674

*** The Middle Park Stakes: The Eltham Connection, September 11, 2013  thamesfacingeast, https://thamesfacingeast.wordpress.com/tag/william-blenkiron/ 

****Enu 24, 16 Hackney, Hackney, Middlesex, 1851, Enu 1, 1, Eltham, Kent 1861, Enu 1,2, Eltham, Kent, 1871

Lost in Gorton …. part two the closed chapel

We are on Chester Street in Gorton, not that you will find it today, because it’s name has been changed to Carfax Street and there hangs the tale.

The Sunday School, 2020

Because Andy, in his new series Lost in Gorton, photographed the Wesleyan Sunday school building, and I went looking for it in the past.

The trick is to look up the street in past street directories, identify the place and go looking for its history.

But that name change led me down fruitless ways, and the search became a hunt for any of the surrounding streets that had retained their name and were there in 1911.

It took a bit of time, but in the end I found Cross Lane, and off it there was Chester Street, which by degree took me to the Sunday school which once was accompanied by its church.

The Sunday school and church, 1952

Both were still there in 1950, but the church has gone, and in its place is a rather tired looking industrial unit which belongs to Moon Carpet who appear to have extended into the Sunday school building.

In time I might find out more, about the church and its Sunday school.

There is an inscription above the door of the Sunday School and a date.  Sadly the inscription is too weather worn to read but the date has survived and records the building was erected in 1860.

I know that the church was part of Longsight Circuit which included chapels at Grey Mare Lane, Hyde Road, and North Road.

And here I must point out my own deliberate mistake in the title, because what is left is the former Sunday school not the chapel.

And just when you thought you had closed the book, Boomer and John Anthony added this. Boomer tells me that he is "fairly sure the writing above the date  says Gorton mission", while John Antony adds "Interesting story, Andrew, but I missed reading Part 1 (missing link?). The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on Cross Lane was founded in 1824, according to the Lancashire Parish Clerk, but who do not know the date of closure. Looking at an 1852 OS Map, the land on which the chapel was built was still apparently a field, but this just demonstrates the folly of assuming that founding a chapel and building a chapel are the same event. Extract from and link to their Website below. https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Manchester/Gorton/index.html  "

Location; Gorton

Picture; the old Sunday School Building, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and extraxt from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1952

Lost in Gorton …… part one on coming across a canal

Now Andy is nothing but dedicated, and yesterday he set off to Gorton in search of adventure.

The lost canal, 2020

He had “got up early and went to Gorton. First snap at 7.15 am”.

And I am guessing that sometime around 8.30 he happened on the canal that runs under Abbey Hey Lane.

Today it is just a scenic footpath, but at the back end of the 18th century and through the next, it was the Stockport branch of the Ashton Under Lyne Canal, which ran from Manchester to Ashton and on to Oldham.

According to Mr. Priestley’s Guide,* Royal ascent was granted in June 1792, and the year after permission was also given to “to extend the said Canal from a place called Clayton Demesne, in the township of Droylsden, in the parish of Manchester aforesaid to a place on the turnpike-road in Heaton Norris, leading between Manchester and Stockport, opposite the house known by the sign of the Three Boars’ Head, and from , or nearly from, a place called Taylor’s Barn, in the township of Reddish to Denton to a place called Beat Bank, adjoining the turnpike-road leading between Stockport and Ashton-Under-Lyne …..”**

The canal, 1830

The canal and branches “were made 31 feet wide at top and 15 at the bottom and in a depth of 5 feet.  The locks are 70 feet long and 7 feet wide”.***

And for those with an interest in recreating the business model, in 1792 the company advertised its rates as ½d per ton per mile for lime, lime stone, dung, manure, clay, sand, and gravel, and 1d for coals, cannel coal, stone, and other minerals and timber.  Three years later the rates had risen from ½d per ton per mile to 1d and 3d for all other goods.

The walk, 2020

The Stockport branch was constructed in 1793, and opened for business four years later.

It left the main canal at the Stockport Junction between locks 10 and 11 at Clayton and terminated at Stockport Basin.

It carried a mixed cargo, supplying cotton to the mills along its route as well finished textiles, as well as coal and grain.  In its earliest days it also carried passengers between Manchester and Stockport.

But like so many of our inland waterways it suffered from railway competition, and commercial carrying ceased in the 1930s, and by the 1950s was barely navigable.****

Location; Gorton

Pictures the lost canal at Abbey Hey Lane, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the Stockport branch of the Ashton-Under-Lyne Canal, 1830, from The Inland Navigation of England and Wales, George Bradshaw, 1830, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Map of the Inland Navigation and Railways of Great Britain, Joseph Priestly, 1830

**ibid Priestly page 39

***ibid Priestly, page 40

****Stockport Branch Canal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_Branch_Canal