A Chorlton mystery under a Spanish sun

Now I have no idea who Mel is or was or when she received this postcard from Chris, but it’s an intriguing little mystery.

I am sure someone will know of Miss M Calderbank who either worked, or lived at the Chorlton Conservative Club.

And maybe even the surname of Chris who confided that “the sea is far to rough for the boat.”

What makes the postcard just that bit more interesting is that it was sent to me by Emma in Spain, which begs the question, of why was it not posted?

Or if it was how did it end up back in Spain?

All very intriguing and within the hour Annette, Della and Marie all replied with memories of Melody Calderbank.  Anntte went to Levenshulme High School with Melody, Della remembered her parents Dick and Mona and Marie told me she would now be in her fifties which might date the postcard to around 1974.

But the best is that Melody's sister has also been in touch commenting that "my sister is 66 now...I'm 56...she married in 1972 when she left the Conservative Club...so post card could be older..."

So not bad as a start and more to come.

Location; Chorlton & Spain

Picture; the postcard, date unknown, courtesy of Emma Gilarranz Gutierrez

Walking the city …….no. 12 ....open for business

Location; Manchester

Picture; open for business, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Stories from a window ......Mrs Botsford, and her big house on Wilbraham Road

Now I wonder if Mrs Mary Botsford watched with interest the construction of the McLaren Memorial Baptist Church which stood directly opposite her home.

623 Wilbraham Road, 1958

She lived at number 623 Wilbraham Road, and the church was opened in 1906, but as yet I can’t quite date her house.  It is missing from the 1903 directory but is there on the OS map four years later.

Wilbraham Road was only cut in the late 1860s by the Egerton estate, although plans for three alternative routes through Chorlton were drawn up a decade earlier.

Development along the eastern part of the road from Edge Lane to Manchester Road was slow, and by 1894 there were just sixteen properties on the northern side, with another two and the Conservative Club along the southern stretch.

623 Wilbraham Road, 1907

Nine years later in 1903, eight semi detached properties and been built from Edge Lane up to Hastings Avenue, with names like Elmshurst, Denehurst and the intriguing Danialcus House, which became Damascus House, and has a fascinating story which alas is not for here.

I suspect Mrs Botsford was the first resident, and  she will have named it Ardlui House, which may take its name from Ardlui, a hamlet at the head of Loch Lomond. She had been born in Derbyshire in 1831, and her husband had been a goldsmith.

Auction of contents, 1922

According to the 1911 census the house had eleven rooms, and here she lived with just two servants. She died in 1922 leaving £17,764 in effects.*

And something of those possessions can be gained, by reading the advert placed in the Manchester Guardian for the sale by auction, of the contents of the house, which included some fine items.**

I assume the house was then sold, and then came back onto the market in 1929, when it was advertised as, “Good corner house: with possession on completion.”

The purchaser appears to have seen it as an investment property, because within two years the papers carry the first of a series of adverts for both furnished and unfurnished flats.

The ads stretch through the 1930s, and I have no doubt with more research similar ones will turn up for the following decades.

And from then on Ardlui House continued its long association with rented accommodation, leading to the arrival in 1970 of a fresh faced and eager Peter Topping, who told me that “after four years at art college in Preston and Blackpool, I took up a job working in Advertising in Manchester, at the age of 21.

623 Wilbraham Road, 2017

I had looked at many places to live but soon fell in love with Chorlton, and found the top floor of a house to rent at 623 Wilbraham Road.

Little did I know that 47 years later, I would be painting it as part of my "Moment in Time Series" of paintings, that tell the story of the history, of Chorlton-cum-Hardy”.

Peter also gazed across at the McLaren Baptist Church, which by then had just a few years left before it was demolished in the mid 1970s, to be replaced by McLaren Court,which consists of 28 “Retirement Living Apartments” for people over the age of 55.

McLaren Baptist Church

Today few people will know that the church had been one of the buildings used by the Red Cross during the Great War, to tend for sick and wounded soldiers.

It opened in 1914 and along with two others remained open for the duration, and with a generation or so of its closure its work had been almost forgotten.

And in the same way Mrs Mary Botsford presence in Ardlui House has passed out of common knowledge, but she has been  brought out of the shadows after 623 Wilbraham underwent  a makeover by Armistead Property who specialize in renovating old and often tired properties.***

623 Wilbraham Road, 1932

Unlike other developers who merely tear down the old building, Armistead Property work with the original, restoring the exterior, saving where possible the unique features of the interior while creating apartments for 21st century living.

Advert for Ollivant & Botsford, 1895

And always mindful of the past history of each development they are keen to share that history with the new residents.

So Mrs Botsford will not be forgotten, and nor will Peter Topping, although I suspect it is too early to think his presence will be remembered with a blue plaque.

We shall see.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Wilbraham Road, A E Landers, 1959, m18434, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, Wilbraham Road, 1907 from the OS for Chorlton, 1907,advert from the Manchester Guardian, 1922

Painting; 623 Wilbraham Road Chorlton. Painting © 2017 & McLaren Memorial Baptist Church, © 2018, Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures.

*Mrs Mary Botsford, June 13, 1922, England & Wales Probate Calendars, 1858-1966

**Sale by Auction, Manchester Guardian, May 27, 1922

*** Armistead Property, http://www.armisteadproperty.co.uk/

Of ice cream ….. a van ….. and Cadelforte, Caserta in Campania

The fun and the history as they say are in the detail.

Unknown street scene, 1963

So, the story began with this ice cream van and the house, but as stories do it had a life of its own and went off in the most unexpected way.

But first to the original story which opened with “I think we are in Miles Platting.  The clue is Mr. Pandolfo’s ice cream van which carries the address of 15 Pearson Street Manchester 9”.

And from there the plan was to explore the gable end, reflecting on the evidence of the bricked-up fireplaces, which belonged to the end terrace, long ago demolished and those garages which inhabited an empty space.

Lost fireplaces, 1963

All of which was going to be an examination of Manchester before the clearance plans swept away the communities that lived in streets like these.

But the Pandolfo family stole the show.

I was curious to know where their home on Pearson Street was located, and after a bit of a search assisted by Andy Robertson the answer was in Miles Platting, off Queens Street.

Back in 1911 number 13, and 15, were home to “Mrs. Charlotte Lund, beer retailer”, but by 1941 they were occupied by the Pandolfo family, who ran a refreshment room from number 13, and made the ice cream next door.

This I know because like many Italian residents, he was interred during the last world war, and the records are available.  His stay in internment on the Isle of Man finished with a decision in the May of 1941 to release him the following month.  The advisory Committees judged that he could be “released without restriction”.

Celebrating Italian culture, 1911

The records also show that he at first been released in March 1941, “temporary for month”, readmitted in May before his final release in June.

And there the trail takes off in different directions.  Pasquele had been born on October 25th in 1892 and had been born in Cadelforte, Caserta in Campania.  His parents were Carlo and Filomenia and he had a sister, Paqsualina who was two years younger.

Traditional Italian dancing through Didsbury, 1911

I can’t as yet track them before 1911, but in that year, they appear on the census living at 51 Clarendon Street in Chorlton on Medlock.

Mr. Pandolfo, described himself as working in the confectionary business and his two children were employed as an “ice cream merchant” and “assistant in the business”.*

It should be possible to follow the family across the city using the directories and locate exactly when they moved into Pearson Street.

I know they are there by 1939, and amongst the residents is a Michael Di Cocco, born in 1870, and working as a “Biscuit maker”,  Winifred Jones who was just 19 and a “waterproof machinist”.

But the records also offer up three other people whose details have been redacted.

Mr. Pandolofo's ice cream van, 1963

It maybe that one of these is Tony Pandolfo whose name appears on the van.  That said there is another Anthony who was born in1951, married in 1969 but from another family.

So, the jury is out, leaving me to record that Pasquale died in 1952, leaving everything to his third wife, and his daughter who died in 1949.

At which point I could spin off into the story of Little Italy, the Italian community and ice cream making, but that has been covered by Anthony Rea, and I make it a golden rule not to trespass on the work of others, who will have done it better.**

All of which with Tony’s van brings us back to that unnamed street in 1963, which I suspect was long ago demolished, along with those garages which are stories for another time.

Location; unknown

Picture; unknown Manchester street, 1963, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection",
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

*1911 Census Enu 35, 616, Chorlton on Medlock, South Manchester.

**Ancoats Little Italy, http://www.ancoatslittleitaly.com/index.html

Walking the city …….no. 11 .... City Tower and a bit more

Location; Manchester

Picture; City Tower and a bit more, 2020, from he collection of Andrew Simpson

Parrs Wood .............. what was once and is now

Parrs Wood is one of those places which looks cluttered.

Parrs Wood 2015

It starts as the bus pulls from under the railway bridge and you get that full on mix of traffic lights and road signs, the overpowering leisure complex and the sheer volume of traffic.

And yes this is one of those slow reflective and nostalgic outbursts.

I am too young to have known what the spot was like before the coming of the Kingsway but do have memories of  that little bit of green with its fascinating stone pillars and views beyond to the old high school.

Of course those much older than me will view my comments with some feint amusement given that their memories may just stretch to a time when the Kingsway was only just advancing south from town and Parrs Wood proper was still enclosed by a wall.

That wall is visible on many of the old images dating back to the early years of the last century, and I think it will be the arrival of the Kingsway that sliced through that bit of the estate.

Parrs Wood, 1909

And that may well give us the date for the creation of that green which today stands as an isolated little island surrounded by the flow of traffic.

Once I guess it might well have been a pleasant place to sit on a quiet Sunday morning watching the odd Corporation bus and noting the rumble of a train into the station.

Not so now, and I doubt that many will give it much thought as they thunder past on the Kingsway or arrive along Wilmslow Road heading for the supermarket or the cinema.

This may be progress and I may be seeing the spot through rose tinted glasses but I rather think not.

A wall and a railway bridge, 1909

At which point I will pause and wait for the onrush of comments from those who put me right on the history of the green to those who think I am just wallowing in so much nostalgic tosh.

That said I bet on a warm summers day sometime around 1900 this would have been a fine spot to stop and admire the view.

Sadly I rather think the same can not be said for the same spot today, but then I am as guilty as many, often preferring the short trip from Chorlton to the cinema rather than wandering off into town.

So I shall put my righteous indignation at what has befallen this bit of Didsbury along with that used cinema ticket in the bin.

Pictures; the green at Parrs Wood, 2015, from the collection of Liz Scantlebury* and Parrs Wood from Wilmslow Road, 1909, m 78644, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

* Liz Scantlebury,  http://www.lizscantlebury.com/

A little bit of gentle fun ............. "Ma Makes a pair of trousers”

A short series reflecting on a bit of gentle fun from a time before now.

It comes from the series Johnny's Ma and was adapted by Jimmy who changed the Johhy to Jimmy and wrote on the back "Jimmy Cheese in the yellow trousers would like to see you on Friday as prmoised in your postcard" and was addressed to Miss Edith Sydwell of Charles Street, Moston Lane, Blackely

Location; Manchester

Picture; courtesy of Ron Stubley

Walking the city …….no. 10 the new and the old ... discuss

Location; Manchester

Picture; the new and the old, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

What a difference 60 years makes …….. deep in Chorlton

Now here is an image of Chorlton which will nudge some memories.

We are on that twisty path which leads off from Brookburn Road, following the line of the Brook.

I have walked it countless times over the years, but only always remember it as a tree lined route into the heart of the meadows.

As such on a wet February day with the light fading fast it can be a magical place, which is no less so in high summer when the dense vegetation makes it a place where you can feel quite alone.

Originally the road had been constructed to give access to the sewage plant which was built and enlarged from the 1870s.

Before that the area which we now call the Meadows, and which was part of the flood plain for the Mersey had been farmed as meadowland, which is a type of farming dating back to the 17th century and involves careful flooding of the land at intervals, for the production of early grass to feed the cattle.

In the 1930s, bits were used for tipping rubbish and more recently it has become part of the Mersey Valley, whose wardens dramatically altered the landscape with whole planting of trees.

So, this picture is a revelation of how it once looked.  The caption says, “Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Brookburn Road, Withington Sewage Works, Boy Scouts Hut, Entrance to Manchester Corporation (Rivers' Dept), Withington Sewage Works from Brookburn Road, Boy Scouts Hut in middle distance”.

Leaving me just to say, ......... step forward those who remember it as such.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Entrance to Manchester Corporation (Rivers' Dept), Withington Sewage Works from Brookburn Road, Boy Scouts Hut in middle distance, 1958, R.E. Stanley,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

A little bit of gentle fun at the seaside in the 1920s ............. no 3 "The Midnight Choo-Choo”

A short series reflecting on a bit of gentle fun from the seaside.

Location; at the seaside in Wales

Picture; courtesy of Ron Stubley

Kemp’s Corner on the corner of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads .......... sometime in the early 1960s

The name Kemp’s Corner is not so familiar now but once and until quite recently it was the place you arranged to meet up.

In that pre-mobile age when arrangements to meet someone had to be done in advance and then stuck to
Harry Kemp’s chemist shop was the perfect spot.

Not only was it on the corner of two busy roads with plenty of bus stops but there was a large clock above the shop.

Harry Kemp had opened his shop in the early years of the 20th century, had another one on Beech Road and was one of our three councillors who were elected in 1904 after Chorlton along with the other three townships had voted to join the City.

It continued as a chemist well into the century and is now the HSBC.

All of which makes this picture quite a find.  It is one I haven’t seen before and I have to thank Mark Flynn for permission to reproduce it.

Mark as a vast collection of picture postcards .

Pictures; Kemp's Corner, circa early 1960s courtesy of Mark Fynn

*Manchester Postcards, http://www.manchesterpostcards.com/index.html

Walking the city …….no. 9 city shapes

Location; Manchester

Picture; Manchester, 2020 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Reflections ........ no. 19 .... from the Goldsmith Collection

The window, the door and the river with that "other building".

Location; Greenwich




Picture; Greenwich, 2017 from the collection of Jillian Goldsmith

A little bit of gentle fun at the seaside in the 1920s ............. no 4 "My father's an awful good man”

A short series reflecting on a bit of gentle fun from the seaside.

Location; at the seaside in Wales

Picture; courtesy of Ron Stubley

Stockport’s loss …… the Railway ….Avenue Street

There will be someone who will have stories of the Railway on Avenue Street.

Andy tells me it has closed, which means it has been lost to us only recently, because only last year various pub guides announced its continuing presence.

It is  a pub I have never visited but I liked his picture of the lamp advertising Porter Ales.

Once and not that long ago such lamps were standard adornments to pubs, lighting the way in the semi darkness to a place of beer and good cheer.

But like those similar blue lamps outside police stations and the stripy poles advertising a barber’s shop, pub lamps have had their day.

So that is it.

Location, Stockport










Pictures; the Railway, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Walking the city …….no. 8 little windows

Once a Stock Exchange.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Manchester, 2020 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

In Northenden with the Ladies Dart team and Ken's sister Dorothy

One of the very nice things about writing the blog is the opportunity you get to meet people and share their family histories.

Even more so when they are kind enough to let me share their family photographs and tell the stories behind the pictures.

I have been featuring some of Ken’s photographs and they are not only a wonderful personal record but also capture perfectly the 1950s and 60s when I like Ken was growing up.

The first is the “ladies dart team, possibly the Crown inn Northenden. 

The photo has the Stockport Express on the back so they might hav won the league! 
Second from the left is Monica Jarvis, then my sister Dot Smith, and the last on the right is Jackie Rees, I think the picture would have been taken around 1967.”

It just takes me directly back to that period.  I remember my mum with a twin set like that and can think of at least two girlfriends who had the same hair style as the young woman in the front row, fifth from the left.

Not to be out done Ken’s second picture of his sister Dorothy and Pamela McGill at the petrol station on Palatine Road in Northenden also conjures up vivid memories.

Pictures; from the collection of Ken Fish

So who is the man with a bag of fish?

Now here’s the challenge.

Just what do you say about a man in a flat cap holding a bag of fish?

To which I am well aware that the answers are “not a lot” and “does it matter?”

To which the reply must be “that here is a story.”

Of course just what that story is remains up for debate.

But the first thing to say is that I bet this postcard was marketed in lots of northern towns and cities requiring the makers to substitute Stockport for any one of a number of locations.

So there you have it.

The card belongs to David Harrop who sent me the picture, but what I should have asked for is the reverse which usually has the publisher and manufacturer allowing me to hunt down other copies.

Location; Stockport

Picture; picture postcard, undated, from the collection of David Harrop

More pictures of the Greyhound ....... once a mystery and now just a pub again

Now Ron set me on search for this pub.  

He had come “across it in a collection of old postcards that were given to me in the mid seventies. 

They came from a dustbin! It was in the Blakeley/Harpurhey area of Manchester.

There is nothing on the back of it and using a glass I can make out Threlfall's Greyhound Hotel.

Must have been a big hotel as it has its own garage.

I'd be interested if you could find out the location and an approximate date.”

I did the usual trip of directories and maps and got nowhere.

But quick as a flash the answers came back.  Sue suggested “that I'm pretty sure that this is the Greyhound Hotel in Flixton on Church Road. 

It is now a Thai restaurant called the Village Inn" and left a picture and a link to the site Urmston Manchester.com which looks to fit the bill.

Bill Sumner came in and pretty much confirmed it.

And that only left Andy Robertson to go looking and provide this excellent set of pictures the nailed it for good.

That said the new bit of the story is just that simple observation of how things can change but there may be sufficient clues to mark out where the place was.

Picture; the Greyhound, date unknown courtesy of Ron Stubley, the Greyhound in 2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson

Stockport shapes ………

I like this picture looking out over the Stockport skyline.

It was taken by Andy earlier this month.

Location, Stockport






Picture; Stockport skyline, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Wondering about the history of this place on Wilbraham Road

Bridge Garage, 2014

I have been wondering about this place.

It is one of those buildings you just take for granted half tucked away on Wilbraham Road hard by the tram line.

For as long as I can remember it has dealt with motor cars but it was there by 1907 and must have had an earlier use.

Usually such buildings were connected to big houses and served as a stables and carriage shed .  But in the case of this one I am not sure.

There were no fine house nearby and anyway and this stretch of Wilbraham Road was still open land as late as 1894.

What once might have been a park, 1907

Two years earlier  it was the subject of one letter to the Manchester Guardian  calling for it to be developed into a park.

But parks cut little commercial consideration and with in less than a decade the northern side of Corkland Road along with that part of Wilbraham Road up to the railway were built up and a start made on those little roads including Chatsworth and Sefton.

And it will have been at this time that our buildings were constructed and I say buildings because the large property was one of three which formed an L shape.

So I rather think we are dealing with either workshops or some other industrial units.

Now by 1903 Yapp’s Laundry Company Ltd, dyers & cleaners, were operating from the first of the premises on Wilbraham Road after the railway bridge and next to them was Charles F Sarll printer.

Either or both might well have used our units.

But that is as far as I can go at present.

A ghost sign, 2012

Of course I could follow Andy Robertson who took the picture and wander around the garage and it may well be that someone has some idea of its earlier history, a little of which can still just be made out from the ghost sign  fast fading on the main wall.

All of which just leaves me to make that oft repeated appeal for everyone to snap away and continue to record our buildings.

And for the eagle eyed amongst you to point out that Corkland Road was once Cavendish Road and Chatfeld was Chatsworth.

Bothnames along with many others survived until the middle of the last century before being changed.

Some like Regent Road can still be seen incorporated into the new road sign but that of course is a different story and is for another time

Picture; Bridge Garage, 2014, courtesy of Andy Robertson, and the side of the building showing the ghost sign, 2012, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and detail from the OS map 1907

Walking the city …….no. 7 city shapes

Looking up from Cross Street

Location; Manchester

Picture; city shapes, 2020 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A Didsbury Pub and the long-lost Parkway

Now, the thing about stories is you are never quite sure where they are going to go.

The Mersey Hotel, date unknown

So, when I posted a story about the Mersey Hotel which opened in 1936 and variously became known as the Snooty Fox and the Mersey Lights, I wasn’t prepared for a series of old pictures of the pub plus some fascinating memories to land on the doormat.

But they did.  George Cieslik‎ sent over some fine photographs, while Catherine shared her memory of the pub at its best, when it offered live entertainment, which had included, Little and Large, Les Dawson, and Freddie and the Dreamers and Jimmy Ruffin.

It was Jimmy Ruffin who attracted Catherine who wrote, “Thank you Andrew for bring a memory smile to my face this morning. 

I may have shared my memory before but here it is again. At 16, too young to go in the pub, myself and my friend Christine stood at the French doors at the back trying to get a glimpse of Jimmy Ruffin. We did manage to sneak in eventually!”

Princess Road, 1965

And there will be many others who also have fond memories of nights spent in the pub on the Parkway.

Which is almost a contrived link to Princess Parkway which was the grand highway out of the city to the newly built estate of Wythenshawe.

Given that the new estate would be a garden city for Manchester’s inner city residents, it followed that the road south to Wythenshawe should be have all the characteristics of a park, with a central island reserved for trees and plants and that either side of the road there would be a large expanse of grassed land.

Northenden, 1965

It ran from Wythenshawe Road, past Wythenshawe Park and on over the Mersey to the Junction with Barlow Moor Road, where it joined Princess Road and on into the city.

It was still there in all its glory when I began working in Wythenshawe and it was George’s picture of the Mersey Hotel in front of the Parkway which got me reflecting on what it had been like.

That said work had already begun to transform the Parkway into a motorway in fulfillment of the 1945 Manchester Plan, and by 1974, 50,000 trees and shrubs were torn up, along with foot bridges with more work done later in the century. **

Didsbury, 1965

Today, the traffic thunders past the site of the old Mersey Hotel, and I suspect fewer and fewer people will remember that more elegant road.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; The Mersey Hotel, date unknown, from the collection of George Cieslik, and Princess Parkway, Northenden, 1965, m38617, Princess Parkway, Northenden, 1965, m38612, Princess Parkway Didsbury, 1965, 38621, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*A New Manchester Parkway, Manchester Guardian, January 19th, 1932

**The 1945 Manchester Plan, was a bold plan to regenerate the city

***Princes Parkway, Wythenshawe’s History and Heritage, http://www.wythenshawe.btck.co.uk/DownMemoryLane/PrincessParkway

A little bit of gentle fun at the seaside in the 1930s ............. no 11"Bobbie! You’ve not to point"

A short series reflecting on a bit of gentle fun from the seaside.

Now it may be a slow day or I might just have “funned out” but try as I might the humour of this one is lost on me.



Location; at the seaside in Wales



Picture; courtesy of Ron Stubley