This is a picture of my grandmother, who although born in Walsall in the West Midlands and raised in Alvechurch, Nr. Redditch, Worcestershire.
She had a life story which mirrored a great deal of the History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the more than 6 decades she lived in the area.
“Gran” was born on the 21st June, 1902. Her father was Alexander, house painter/ sign writer who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1869. Her mother was Harriet Kate (née Walters) the daughter of Harry Walters1 a master slater.
She was 4th born child and eldest daughter of a family of eight children. Norah’s father died in July, 1914, just weeks after her 12th birthday, leaving her mother struggling to provide for her 7 children (1 child, a boy, Neil Harry, had died in 1899 aged 4).
The family faced further hardship when the eldest child Walter Scott Ross enlisted into the army less than a fortnight after his eighteenth birthday on the 19th July, 1915. Any relief Walter’s army pay may have brought was soon to be negated when he was first badly injured, resulting in the loss of an arm, then shortly after being invalided out to pension marrying his sweetheart. The family’s happiness at this event was short-lived as Walter died aged just 22 on the 15th April, 1920.
Further woe befell the family when another child Charles Henry, was sent to Canada as part of the “British Home Children” policy. In later life my grandmother showed she had not forgotten her two “lost” brothers she twice flew to visit one in Canada when well in her seventies the other she remembered with a legacy in her will to the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen's Association.
Mrs Clarkes first home in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1929 was opposite the Brickworks later moving to 5, Keppel Road close to the devastating bomb which destroyed the old Post Office with terrible loss of life.
In a quirk of history as well as being a near neighbour of the Gibb Brothers, at 51 Keppel Road, she also worked as a cleaner in the old Gaumont Cinema where the Bee Gees played their first gig.
Another job she had was at the Irish Association Club on High Lane where she was very friendly with couple who acted as the club’s stewards.
After a brief stay in Merseybank “Gran” returned nearer to the centre of Chorlton-cum-Hardy living out her days in the Holland Court retirement housing scheme located on the site of the MacFadyen Memorial Church.
Also, as a convert to Roman Catholicism she sent her two children, my mother Mary and my uncle Denis, to St. Johns primary school and attended the church which was newly built when she arrived in the area from Liverpool.
In later years my younger brother and I also joined her for Bingo sessions in the old Church/School building which now functions as the Parish Centre.
St. Johns Parish Centre once St. John’s Primary School (part). Prior to that the Parish Church. (Then called St. Augustine’s)
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention another important link to the History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy; her husband was Arthur Harold Clarke whose photographs often grace this Blog.
Note:-
Harry Walters was originally a seaman and as such served in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. He was injured while in the service and was later in receipt of a military pension from the United States.
Tony Goulding ©2020
Pictures; Gran, and St Augustine’s from the collection of Tony Goulding, and The Gaumont Cinema, 1958, A.H. Downes, m09220, and McFadyen Memorial Church, 1935, m71731, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
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| Gran |
“Gran” was born on the 21st June, 1902. Her father was Alexander, house painter/ sign writer who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1869. Her mother was Harriet Kate (née Walters) the daughter of Harry Walters1 a master slater.
She was 4th born child and eldest daughter of a family of eight children. Norah’s father died in July, 1914, just weeks after her 12th birthday, leaving her mother struggling to provide for her 7 children (1 child, a boy, Neil Harry, had died in 1899 aged 4).
The family faced further hardship when the eldest child Walter Scott Ross enlisted into the army less than a fortnight after his eighteenth birthday on the 19th July, 1915. Any relief Walter’s army pay may have brought was soon to be negated when he was first badly injured, resulting in the loss of an arm, then shortly after being invalided out to pension marrying his sweetheart. The family’s happiness at this event was short-lived as Walter died aged just 22 on the 15th April, 1920.
Further woe befell the family when another child Charles Henry, was sent to Canada as part of the “British Home Children” policy. In later life my grandmother showed she had not forgotten her two “lost” brothers she twice flew to visit one in Canada when well in her seventies the other she remembered with a legacy in her will to the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen's Association.
Mrs Clarkes first home in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1929 was opposite the Brickworks later moving to 5, Keppel Road close to the devastating bomb which destroyed the old Post Office with terrible loss of life.
 |
| The Gaumont Cinema, 1958 |
Another job she had was at the Irish Association Club on High Lane where she was very friendly with couple who acted as the club’s stewards.
After a brief stay in Merseybank “Gran” returned nearer to the centre of Chorlton-cum-Hardy living out her days in the Holland Court retirement housing scheme located on the site of the MacFadyen Memorial Church.
 |
| MacFadyen Memorial Church, 1935 |
In later years my younger brother and I also joined her for Bingo sessions in the old Church/School building which now functions as the Parish Centre.
St. Johns Parish Centre once St. John’s Primary School (part). Prior to that the Parish Church. (Then called St. Augustine’s)
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention another important link to the History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy; her husband was Arthur Harold Clarke whose photographs often grace this Blog.
 |
| St Augustine's |
Harry Walters was originally a seaman and as such served in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. He was injured while in the service and was later in receipt of a military pension from the United States.
Tony Goulding ©2020
Pictures; Gran, and St Augustine’s from the collection of Tony Goulding, and The Gaumont Cinema, 1958, A.H. Downes, m09220, and McFadyen Memorial Church, 1935, m71731, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
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