Two maps …. one mystery and the family that lived at Beech House

 Yesterday Richard Bond wrote about the discovery of an 1881 map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy which neither of us had seen.*

It is a beautifully executed map in great detail and from the bits I have seen is far superior to the OS map which was surveyed eleven years later and published in 1894.

And in the course of exploring the area around Lane End, which today is where High Lane meets Barlow Moor Road and Sandy Lane, Richard spotted a statue marked on the 1881 map.

That statue doesn’t appear on the later OS map and of course set both of us off on a bit of historical speculation.

Who in what had been a rural backwater would erect a statue, and who or what event might that statue have commemorated?

Added to which having gone to the effort of placing it close to Lane End, why had it vanished by 1894?

The statue stood in the grounds of Beech House which belonged to the Holt family who had made their money in the late 18th century making the wooden blocks used for calico engraving.**

Their town house was on St John’s Street off Deansgate, and was the only double fronted property on the south side of the road.

By the end of the 19th century they had an extensive portfolio of properties in the area, and owned land in Chorlton-cum-Hardy as well as the estate at Lane End.

There are references to them in the census returns from 1841 to 1901.  

James and Hannah Holt moved into the township in the 1830s.

They also appear in  Pigot and Co’s National Commercial Directory, 1834 and 1841, as well as Slater’s Directory of Lancashire.  

They retained the family home in St John Street and they are listed in  Pigot & Dean’s Directory of Manchester & Salford for 1821 prior to their move to Chorlton.  

They also appear in the rate books for the township and the tithe schedule.  His son and later grandson all moved into the township.  

We know how they voted in the 1835 General Election and were regarded enough to be mentioned by Thomas Ellwood in his History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.***

The Holts retained a large portfolio of property in the city as well as in the township.  There are references to the extent of these holdings in their private papers.   The property qualifications of their Parliamentary votes along with their voting record for the 1835 General Election can be seen in the Electors Guide.

Looking at a range of maps from the 19th century, it is possible to see just how extensive were the grounds around their large home which ran from Beech Road, along Barlow Moor Road to High Lane, and then down High Lane, almost as far as Cross Road and extended south to Beech Road.  The eastern perimeter extended all the way to what is now the edge of Barlow Moor Road.

So, it is entirely possible that one of the family erected a statute, perhaps of Mr. James Holt, the founder of the business and the first of the Holt’s to settle here.

Alternatively it might have been a figure drawn from classical mythology, to blend with the ornate gardens.

Nor can we be sure it was taken down by 1892, because the OS map is not as detailed as that from 1881.

What is certain, is that if it was still there in the grounds in 1892, it didn’t survive the demolition of Beech House around 1908 and the sale of the grounds, some of which are now under Malton Avenue and the parade of shops running up to High Lane, while another portion was obtained by the Corporation who used it to widen Barlow Moor Road and build the tram terminus.

Now, there are photographs of the trees being felled in the garden hard up against Barlow Moor Road, and so somewhere there may be a picture of the statue, and it might have survived to grace some other garden.

We shall see.

Pictures; Beech House once called Beech Cottage, 1907, m17645, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass11 John Street, home of the Holt family from the late 18th century, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Beech Cottage and gardens in 1881 from the map of that year, courtesy of Trafford Local Studies, and  in 1894, l from the OS map of South Lancashire, and in 1854 from the OS map of Lancashire, 1845-1854, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Early Chorlton Map Discovered by Richard Bond, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/09/early-chorlton-map-discovered-by.html

** The Holt Family, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Holt%20family

***Chapter 5 December 5 1885, The History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, was written by Thomas Ellwood and published in 25 articles in the South Manchester Gazette, between the winter of 1885 into spring of 1886

Warehouses and things …… along the Duke’s Canal ……… no. 2 The Lynotype Works

Now, I tried understanding the details of linotype and it has defeated me. 

But I know it “became one of the mainstay methods to set type, especially small-size body text, for newspapers, magazines, and posters from the late 19th century to the 1970s and 1980s”. and that’s good enough for me.*

I don’t suppose it would ever have jumped up and drew me, if it hadn’t been for Andy’s two pictures of the Lynotype Works beside the Bridgwater Canal in Altrincham.

The works were built in 1897, when the Lynotype Company  having outgrown their existing factory in Hulme Street off Oxford Road, “purchased land at Broadheath, Altrincham for a new factory, which was formally opened by Lady Kelvin in 1899”.**

All of which was fascinating enough, but the trawl of references led in turn led to an article by my old Facebook chum, Steve Marland about the company’s move into property development  in the form of an estate for its workers.

Between 1897-1901, “Linotype Company built 185 houses for its employees and provided two football grounds, four tennis courts, two bowling greens, a cricket ground, a playground for children and allotments”.***

And there I shall resist from lifting more of Steve’s research and just direct you to the link to the article, leaving me just to add that the estate still exists although the properties are now in private ownership, and if you want to know where, just read the piece.

Location; Altrincham

Pictures; The Lynotype Works, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Lynotype machine, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linotype_machine

**Lynotype Company, Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Linotype_Co

***The Lynotype Estate, https://www.visitmanchester.com/things-to-see-and-do/the-linotype-estate-p252931

Rising from Greengate ........ no. 3 all glass and steel

An occasional series especially for those who left Salford and also those who remember a different Greengate.

They were all taken earlier this year and reflect the continuing changing Salford landscape.

Location; Salford

Picture; 2017 Rising from Greengate from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Murder of P.C. Nicholas Cock …… another story from Tony Goulding

Research for a recent post on this Blog concerning some early policemen of Chorlton-cum-Hardy led to me reading some newspaper reports of this famous case. 

The fate of the murder victim, P. C. Cock, his assassin, Charles Peace, and the arrest, trial, conviction, sentence of death and subsequent reprieve and pardoning of the various Habron brothers are fairly well known. 

However, I was curious to learn more of the others in the case. (1)

Constable James Beanland: -The natural starting point for such investigations was P. C. Beanland who was accompanying P. C. Cock on his beat that portentous night of Tuesday, the 1st August, 1876 and but for a twist of fate might have been the officer gunned down.

James Beanland was born in Brierfield, Lancashire in 1840. The 1861 census records him as a railway parcels clerk lodging with fellow railway workers at 18, Owen Street, West Derby, Liverpool. He married Margaret Critchley in the Warrington registration district of Lancashire in the March quarter of 1862. 

He soon after joined the Lancashire Constabulary and the 1871 census shows him a constable at Neville Street Police Station in Ulverston in the Furness area of Lancashire. At this time, he and his wife had two sons Henry who was 6 years-old born in Newton-le-Willows. Lancashire and 4-months-old George born in Ulverston. Around the time of the shooting P. C. Beanland, who was the stationed at Old Trafford, had, had another son, James Chadwick, born in Ulverston in the March quarter of 1874 and was living at 102, Tamworth Street, Hulme, Manchester. In the 1881 census he is recorded as a police constable at The Militia Barrack, 87, Eccles New Road, Salford, Lancashire. His family had been added to by another son, Abraham, born in Manchester and a daughter, Margaret Annie Elizabeth, born in Salford in January, 1881. Ten years later he had been promoted to Sergeant and was at 10, St. Leonard’s Street, Padiham, Burnley, Lancashire with his wife, and four of his children, James Chadwick, Abraham, Margaret Annie Elizabeth and new arrival John, born in Salford in the December quarter of 1883. 

The same family members in 1901 are found living at 257, Southfield Street, Nelson, Burnley where Officer Beanland was recorded as a police pensioner. He died in Nelson in December, 1912.

P. C. William Ewan: -

William Ewan was born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1853. His parents James, an agricultural labourer, and Christiana (née Campbell) later moved their young family back to their home-town of Dunning, Perthshire, Scotland. Prior to travelling South to join the Lancashire Constabulary William had started working in Dunning as a blacksmith.

       He had arrived in Manchester by the middle of 1874 as he married Mary Ann Shaw in the September quarter of that year.

        As Constable Ewan he was the first police officer to respond to the alarm sounded by P. C. Beanland after the shooting of P. C. Cock and assisted in conveying the injured officer to a local doctor’s residence. William remained in the police for a time after the incident later being stationed at Urmston, Lancashire where the 1881 census records him living at 32, Lorne Grove, with his wife and an infant boy William Albert White, a “Nurse Child” who he later adopted. The household also included William’s younger brother James, described as a cab proprietor. William had left the police force by the time the next census was taken in 1891. He was shown in that census as a coal merchant at 152, Higher Road, Urmston, Lancashire. Interestingly as well as his wife and adopted child the household also included another of William’s younger brothers, Thomas Alexander, a cab driver. After 1891, William seems to have experienced some hard times; in 1901 he is recorded as a “pauper” occupation, dock labourer in the  Congleton Workhouse in Arclid, Cheshire. He likely died in the June quarter of 1905 in Preston, Lancashire where his adopted son was working as a postman.

Dr. John Dill: - 

John Dill was born in 1824 in Ireland where his father, Marcus, was also a doctor of medicine. He trained for the medical profession in Ireland, graduating from Trinity College, Dublin before moving to England. He married Emma Billing, whose father John was a Lawyer in West Derby, Liverpool, on the 20th October, 1853 at St. Mary’s church, Edge Hill, West Derby, Liverpool. He was at this time an assistant house surgeon at Liverpool Infirmary’s Southern Dispensary. Soon after their marriage, Dr. John and Emma came to the South Manchester area. At first, as indicated by an 1854 rate book of Moss Side township, living at a house on Withington Road. Slaters Directory of 1863 has him at 1, Hawthorn Villa, Chorlton Road, Hulme, Manchester (2) and by the time of the 1871 census he was living nearer the Chorlton-cum-Hardy end of Chorlton Road (then known as West Point)

It was to this Dr. Dill’s residence, Gordon Villa, that P. C. Cock was brought after he was shot and where, despite the good doctor’s administrations, he died a short time later. He also conducted the post mortem on the young constable’s body in the afternoon following the shooting. As such he was called to give his expert medical evidence at both the coroner’s inquest and the court appearances of the Habron brothers.

Dr. Dill and his wife had 4 children Elizabeth Gordon, Emma Gordon, Marcus Gordon, and Margaret Leeky Gordon. Their first child Elizabeth Gordon, born in January, 1856 died on the 30th July, 1858 and was buried in St. Clement’s churchyard, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Lancashire on the 3rd August, 1858. When Dr. Dill, himself, died on the 14th February, 1878 he was interred in the same grave as his late daughter.

Mr. Richard Corston Wade: -

     Mr. R. C. Wade another local doctor was also summoned to give aid to the stricken officer and was the surgeon who assisted Dr. Dill in carrying out the Post Mortem examination on the body of P. C. Cock at Old Trafford Police Station in the afternoon of Wednesday 2nd August, 1876. 

 Richard Wade was born in London in in 1848, where his father, also a Richard, worked as a carrier. He trained to be a surgeon (M.R.C.S.) in London and came North to Manchester. In 1871, he was in Lodging at 14, Downing Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester sharing the house with three police officers. He was working at this time as an assistant to Mr. T. R. Dean, a surgeon, whose practice he had joined in 1868. On the 23rd November, 1871 he married Lucy Anne Carter, the daughter of a prominent Manchester carrier, Walter Carter, of 103, Market Street, Manchester, at St. Lukes Church, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. In August, 1876 he had his own surgery at 30, Moss Lane West, Moss Side, Lancashire.

      Mr. Wade did not appear in court in connection with the P. C. Cock case, however on the 11th October of the same year, 1876 he and his wife were called to give evidence in a curious case of libel against Miss Ellen McColl, a servant, of 7, Robinson Court, Ardwick, Manchester. Miss McColl had given birth to a child fathered by Mr. Wade before his marriage. The child, a boy, had died as an infant and, together with other unspecified libels against both Mr. And Mrs. Wade, Miss McColl had written letters accusing Mr. Wade of murdering their baby son.

 Mr. and Mrs. Wade were still at 30, Moss Lane West when the 1881 census was taken. In their household were a son, Arthur William Corston born in the December quarter of 1873, a daughter, Mary Clarissa, born in the December quarter of 1872 and two domestic servants. A series or tragedies befell the Wade family from 1879 onwards. Two further daughters died in infancy before reaching their first birthday; Evelyn Florence in 1879 and Lucy Kesterson in 1881/2. After moving to 52, Church Road St. Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, Sussex, Mrs. Wade died there in August, 1882. She was buried in the cemetery in Hastings on the 18th August, 1882. The following year Richard Wade died on the 12th May, 1883 at Brunswick House, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire; his body being taken South to be interred in his wife’s grave in Hastings. He left the sum of £909-5s-11d in his will. One of his executors was his father-in-law Walter Carter who Richard’s two orphaned children went to live with. 

Mr. John Massey Simpson:  -

John Massey Simpson was born in Stretford, Lancashire in the 1854. He was baptised on the 27th December 1858 at St. Matthew’s Church, Stretford, Lancashire. His parents were Samuel, a solicitor and his wife, Sarah (née Hardy). The family resided for a time at Peel House, Edge Lane, Stretford, Lancashire before moving to Whalley Bank, Upper Chorlton Road, Whalley Range, Lancashire. In 1876, Mr. Simpson was a law student who would later enter his father’s firm of solicitor’s in South Gate, Manchester. On the night of the murder he had been visiting the home of his future father-in-law, George Macbeth, a clothier (tailor) at “The Hollies” Edge Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy and meeting P. C. Cock on his way home had engaged in conversation and walked alongside him from Redgate Farm (4) to West Point. After meeting P. C. Beanland he bade them Goodnight and continued on his way home up Upper Chorlton Road. A short time later on hearing two gunshots he retraced his steps to see what assistance he could give. At the trial of the Habron brothers it may well have been Mr. Simpson’s identification of William which persuaded the jury of his guilt.

John Massey Simpson duly married George Macbeth’s daughter, Emma Jane, on the 31st August, 1882 at St. Clement’s Church, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The couple lived for a number of years, until 1888, at 38, Whitelow Road. 

The census in 1891 records them at “Sea View”, Kirk Bride, Isle of Man. Ten years later and they had returned to the Manchester area and were living at “House Bush”, Timperley, Cheshire. John Massey and Emma Jane didn’t have any children but at the 1901 census as well as two servants their household also included a 10-year-old niece, Gladys Macbeth. John Massey died in Timperley on the 28th April, 1902. 

In his Will, he left an estate valued at £6,316-9s-2d to his widow, Emma Jane.

Tony Goulding ©2020

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures, Site of P. C. Cock’s murder, 1924, m 18197, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, image of Charles Peace, site of Dr. Dill's Grave, 38, Whitelow Road, 2020, St Clements's churchyard and memorial stone to P.C. Cook, from the collection of Tony Goulding

NOTES: -

1) The newspaper reports of the trial and especially of the inquest were sensational and far from impartial created an atmosphere in which a conviction seemed to be inevitable.

2) In the 1861 census Hawthorn Villa is recorded in Stretford. It appears, then as now, the borough boundary ran along Upper Chorlton Road.

3) There is no extant grave marker, but a plan of the graveyard shows it to have been adjacent to that of Mr. Philip Ree’s. 

This 1970’s photograph may show his gravestone in situ.

4) Redgate Farm was located where the library stands today.

Six million ……….. and a thank you

Today, the blog passed the six million mark.

It started in November 2011, with one blog story about my first book which was due out  at the beginning of the following year.

Since then there have been 7,540 stories, covering a great many topics from Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the 19th century to my part of south east London, the history of British Home Children, my love affair with Italy, and much more.

And here I must thank the many contributors who have written articles, submitted pictures, or just suggested topics, while offering up material, from photographs to diaries, memorabilia, and memories.

I won’t mention any of them by name, they know who they are, and how grateful I am for those contributions.

Added to which regular readers will also know who they are, and those new to the blog will find them listed in the stories and down the panel on the right hand side of the screen.

Now, numbers are not everything, and I don’t want anyone to assume this is a vain and boastful piece, rather a recognition, that one computer, and a group of interested people can produce stories about the past which have together been seen by six million and read on every continent except the one with the penguins.

So that is it. 

And to misquote Douglas Adams “Good night and thanks for all the interest”.*

Of course it could all fall flat tomorrow, but that like the Vogon destructor ships that demolished the Earth is just how it might be.

Location; everywhere

Pictures; Trafalgar Square, 1981,and Varese, 2016,  from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, the fourth book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

On discovering Artemisia Gentileschi ……..the Italian artist history has sidelined

Now, I am the first to admit that my knowledge of the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi was pretty much limited to the fact that she was a woman artist in a time dominated by men.

According to one source, Artemisia Gentileschi  “was an Italian Baroque painter, now considered one of the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. 

In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Artemisia was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and had an international clientele”.*

My real introduction came this morning from a piece on the wireless, where Germain Greer, discussed the life of the artist in advance of a major exhibition at the  National Gallery, between October and January.

Even if we were not in the age of Covid, I doubt I would get down to London to see the paintings on show, so I will have to content myself with the her work which is displayed on the links below.

The notes from the National Gallery begin with Artemisia’s own bold declaration that "’I will show Your Illustrious Lordship what a woman can do’", and go  on, “In 17th-century Europe, at a time when women artists were not easily accepted, Artemisia was exceptional. 

She challenged conventions and defied expectations to become a successful artist and one of the greatest storytellers of her time.

Artemisia painted subjects that were traditionally the preserve of male artists and for the male gaze; transforming meek maidservants into courageous conspirators and victims into survivors.

In this first major exhibition of Artemisia’s work in the UK, see her best-known paintings including two versions of her iconic and viscerally violent ‘Judith beheading Holofernes’; as well as her self portraits, heroines from history and the Bible, and recently discovered personal letters, seen in the UK for the first time.

Follow in Artemisia’s footsteps from Rome to Florence, Venice, Naples and London. Hear her voice from her letters, and see the world through her eyes”.

So that is pretty much it, other than to say that at 17 she was raped by a man employed to teach her, but the court case brought by her father was not about the rape, but that the man in question had stolen a family painting.  

And according to Ms Greer in the course of  the interrogation into the alleged theft, Artemisia was tortured by the authorities, which was appalling enough, but made worse by the deliberate act of targeting her fingers which appears a callous and deliberate attack on her career as an artist.

So, there is much more to find out about the artist, and a heap of paintings to explore.

Location; National Gallery, London

Pictures, Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1638-1639, Self portrait as a lute player, 1615-1617, Judith and her Maidservant, 1625, Susanna and the Elders, 1610, her first known work, Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1616

* Artemisia Gentileschi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_Gentileschi#:~:text=In%20an%20era%20when%20women%20had%20few%20opportunities,Disegno%20in%20Florence%20and%20had%20an%20international%20clientele.

** Artemisia, https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/artemisia

Warehouses and things …… along the Duke’s Canal ……… no.1 ..... Altrincham

Now I have long been fascinated by the canal warehouse.

It was in its time a revolutionary design which allowed goods to be shipped through the warehouse from either the canal side to the roadside or from road to canal.

And was later copied by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway for their warehouses.

Over the years I have wandered around the ones in Manchester, from the Dale Street Basin down to Castlefield.

But never quite made it to Altrincham, where Andy found this one, commenting “I stumbled across this by accident. It is a canal warehouse opposite the coal wharf in Broadheath, Altltrincham. It has an opening for a branch of the Bridgewater Canal. It was built in 1833 and is listed. I am hoping I can get a photo of it facing the canal”.

It looks very forlorn, is dwarfed by its modern neighbours and is waiting for a friend to give it a new purpose.

From the canal side you can see the large arched entrance which allowed goods to be taken directly into the building to be unloaded, while on the road side there are the characteristic loop holes used to load and unload material.

Some of those in town have made imaginative use of those arches and loop holes by adding glass and making them a feature.

I hope something equally imaginative happens to this one.

Leaving me just to mention Mr. Bradshaw’s superb collection of canal maps which were made in the 1830s, before he sought fame and wealth with his railway guides, and Joseph Priestly’s  wonderful “Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways Throughout Great Britain” which he published in 1831.

And Mr. Priestly’s book is a veritable goldmine of facts about the canal network, mixing the history of each waterway with a description of the routes and the tonnage charges.

So for the Bridgewater the account includes, that “The primary object of ‘The Father of British Inland Navigation’, as the Buke of Bridgewater has been justly styled , was to open his valuable collieries at Worsley, and to supply the town of Manchester with coal, at a much cheaper rate than could be done by the imperfect navigation of the Mersey and Irwell. 

The original  line to Hempstone takes a south-westerly course from Longford Bridge, crossing the Mersey by aqueduct; by the town of Altrincham  and Dunham Massey."*

Sadly, the account doesn’t mention individual warehouses .. but I suppose that would be asking too much.

Still someone will know more about Andy’s warehouse, and in the fullness of time offer up the story.

For now, that is it, other than to say this is the first of an occasional series on the warehouses and things, along the Duke’s Canal.

Location; Altrincham

Pictures; http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

*“Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways Throughout Great Britain”, Joseph Priestly, 1831

Early Chorlton Map Discovered by Richard Bond

It is generally accepted that the earliest Ordnance Survey 25 inch maps of Chorlton were surveyed in 1892 and published, as 'First Edition' maps, in 1894. 

Remarkably, an 1881 25 inch OS map of part of Chorlton has been discovered at Sale Library. 

The map first came to light last year when fellow Stretford resident David Brady was researching the New Longford Bowling Club, which was on Edge Lane near the border with Stretford. One of the staff at Trafford Local Studies pointed him to sheet CX1.1, dated 1881. 

When David shared his notes with me earlier this year, I went to Sale Library and found that the map did indeed show part of Chorlton in great detail. However, roughly half of the sheet was blank, all of the map to the west of the boundary with Stretford. 

Another member of staff then found another 1881 OS map, C1V.14. She apologised that it was largely blank - perhaps 90% - but showing a small part of Alexandra Road in Withington. 

This suggested the maps must have been specially produced for Withington Local Board, whose area in 1881 included Chorlton as well as Withington. I then found a report confirming this in the Manchester Guardian of 6th January 1881, which said the survey would cost the ratepayers £1500 or £2000. 

Next, I posted details on an OS map forum and within 24 hours, had a number of replies. 

I was astonished to find that the Withington survey comprised no less than 15 sheets, C1V.14-15 and CX1.1-11, 14-15. Of these, I have only found the two at Trafford Local Studies. I have checked with Manchester Central Library and Manchester University Library, and they have no copies of the 1881 survey. 

According to the OS map forum, the one place where copies would certainly be held is at the British Library, which would require a personal visit to see and be very expensive to copy. The Bodleian Library is also likely to have a set and their OS maps were digitised some years ago – but are not available online.

The Chorlton map which survives makes an interesting study compared to the version which was surveyed some 11 years later. Indeed, I have now hit on a new mystery, as the 1881 map shows a statue in gardens near the Lane End junction - the gardens were still there in 1892 but the statue was no longer there. The question is - who was the statue of?

Richard Bond © 2020

Location; Chorlton

Picture; the OS map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1881, courtesy of Trafford Local Studies

Rising from Greengate ........ no. 2 new buildings

An occasional series especially for those who left Salford and also those who remember a different Green gate.

They were all taken earlier this year and reflect the continuing changing Salford landscape.

Location; Salford

Picture; 2017 Rising from Greengate from the collection of Andrew Simpson

So who did take a picture in their local pub?

Now faced with having a drink with friends and family in the local or taking a series of photographs of the inside, most of us I suspect will go for the drink.

And that might explain why there are relatively few interior pictures, and the few we do have mostly focus on people to the exclusion of the surrounding detail.

All of which is shame because looking at this shot of the inside of Tommy Ducks in 1960 offers us a wealth of information on how we lived.

It starts with that sign “WAITERS ONLY” which is a reminder that back in 1960 many pubs still employed a waiter who came and took your order and returned with the drinks.

I can still remember being asked politely to move down the bar because I was standing in the section reserved for the waiter, and you can also still come across those buttons on the wall in certain older pubs which were used to summon service.

If you are lucky the picture will also offer prices, the details of the last darts competition and pub day out along with a heap of other small bits of the past.

So there in the corner is a notice advertising the next film at the Odeon.

It was a British war film starring Bradford Dillman, Suzy Parker and Harry Andrew and centred around a Canadian officer who was sent on a secret and dangerous mission during the Second World War with false information in an attempt to mislead the Germans about the Normandy Landings of 1944.

It was released in 1960 and was one of those big cinemascope films.

So detail matters and that is why Peter and I are making an appeal for anyone with pictures of the inside of Manchester pubs to share them with us for our new book on 79 iconic Manchester pubs.

There is no money ............ local history books make very little money but you will have the pleasure of seeing your treasured local in the book with and a credit.  It’s the sort of thing that you will be able to tell your grandchildren

Location; Manchester

Pictures; inside Tommy Ducks, 1960, H W Beaumont, m50272, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Remembering the 100,000 children migrated to Canada

Today across Canada , there will be ceremonies to mark the migration of thousands of children who were sent from Britain between 1870 and 1930.

They are the British Home Children and until recently their stories were mostly unknown, but in the space of just over a decade the history of that migration has become a serious area of historical study.

Along the way many of the individual stories have come back out of the shadows, and now along with scholarly research which fastens on the reasons why they were sent, and the impact on both Britain and Canada, there are the untold accounts of the children themselves.

Most of us with a BHC relative, stumble over their story by accident.  In my case I had no idea that we had a great uncle Roger or that he was migrated by the Middlemore organization on behalf of the Derby Union in 1914.

That small revelation has taken me on a journey of discovery, leading to a book, a series of blog stories, a facebook site and finally a lot of friends who also count a BHC in their family.

My Canadian colleagues will be well aware of the day, but to those in Britain I would ask that you look up British Home Children and explore the subject.

Location; Britain, Canada and other parts of the former British Empire.

Pictures; BHC badges, courtesy of Lori Oschefski, and the poster for one of the British based BHC sites.

*British Home Children, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/British%20Home%20Children

On the corner of Chapel Street …….. watching the changes ... no.1

A short series on the transformation of that bit of Salford where Chapel Street meets Greengate.

At the beginning of the last century our corner was given over to buildings used by the railway and a set of yards.

Opposite were a collection of small low rise shops and offices which ran round from Greengate along Chapel Street.

Remarkably these commercial properties were still there in 2011 but had been cleared a year later giving way to an open space with a few small trees.

But as ever the space lasted only till late 2014 when the trees were pulled up and Derek the Developer began plans for a high rise block of flats, which are pretty much completed.

Pictures; Chapel Street and Greengate, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and in 1980, m66776, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council  http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  

Peeling back the story of Tripp’s Corner on Barlow Moor Road

Looking down Barlow Moor Road to Tripp's corner, 2015

Now I wonder how many people still refer to this strip of shops on Barlow Moor Road as Tripp's Corner.

John Tripp was a grocer from Swansea in Wales who bought the plot of land stretching back from Palatine Road along Barlow Moor Road and built this parade of shops and houses.

Now one source suggest a date of 1910 for the purchase and development of this spot, but the census returns have John and his wife living there by 1881 and still there twenty years later.

Mr Tripp's shop and Post Office, 1906

His shop sold groceries, lent books and contained the post office.  His daughter ran the post office and may also have run the lending library.

I suspect that Tripp's Corner no longer trips off as many tongues as it would have done half a century and more ago but it is a perfect example of how popular names take root and defy even the planners whose alternative place names never quite catch on.

So Chorlton Cross for most people is the Four Banks which makes perfect sense given that there is one on each corner.

Mr Tripp's shop, 1878

And go back into history and for most of the 20th century it was known as Kemps’s Corner after Harry Kemp’s chemist shop which is now the HSBC.

In the same way the spot where Barlow Moor Road meets Sandy Lane and High Lane was for centuries called Lane End which made even more sense given that until recently this was Barlow Moor Lane.

Although for some it would also be Brundrett’s corner named after Mr Brundrett who ran his grocery shop roughly facing High Lane.

Mr Tripp's shop, 1880

I came across the story of Mr Tripp while writing Didsbury Therough Time and can remember feeling pleased that I had pushed back the date of his presence on Barlow Moor Road.

But like so many pieces of historical research I left a bit of the story undone and it took Andy Robertson to unearth the missing part.

He had wandered down and recorded that parade of shops on a December afternoon in 2015 and then went back to the digital archive and found an all most identical set of pictures from a century ago, but in the process discovered Mr Tripp’s earlier shop from where he had been trading in 1878.

At Tripp's Corner, 2013

And in the space of a few pictures called up Mr Tripp’s start in a more humble premise, the move to the grander building we know now and finally to his expansion into the next door shop.

All of which just leaves me to point you in the direction of Didsbury Though Time with its fine set of paintings of Didsbury by Peter Topping, along with a mix of old and new photographs and more than a bit about the lives of the people who lived behind the doors.

It was written in the autumn of 2014 and published in December of that year.

Pictures, looking towards Tripps’s Corner from the series West Didsbury, 2015 by Andy Robertsosn and by degree Mr Tripps shop in 1878, W J Cotsworth, m56084 , 1880, W J Cotsworth, m56085 and in 1906, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass


*Didsbury Through Time, Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping, 2014

The bridges of Salford and Manchester .......... nu 10 the 1980s

And here is the second of a few from John Casey.

Location Manchester & Salford










Picture; the river and bridge, circa 1980 from the collection of John Casey

Stopping off at Patricroft …… for a drink sometime in 1830 .... and again 170 years later

Now yesterday I featured Andy’s pictures of the Queens Arms in Patricroft, which was built in 1828 and which some have suggested was built in expectation of the arrival of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

And certainly, it would appear that the place proved a stopping point for passengers in the early years of the railway.

Nor has that popularity abated, because in just a few hours after I posted the pictures and the story it had been seen and read by 986 people, one of whom was my Facebook friend Christianna Franck.

Now, Christianna leaves quite close, and was inspired to cycle down to the pub, and as you do I asked her to take some pictures of the inside, which she did.

Adding, “here are the photos of the central bar serving lounge snug and then separate front room.

Toilet still in the original place. 

Renovated 1997. Original tile floors! 

Met two men who worked for the Bridgewater Estate. They are in every Saturday to do the Times crossword. Both over 80. 

Leaving now-been so worth it, and now a slow ride back ready for my steak and mushrooms and a cheeky red!”

So, thank you Christianna, it was a pity I couldn’t join you.

But no no doubt there will other opportunities.

All of which just leaves me to close with one final picture of the pub, and acknowledge all the comments and pictures posted to the original story.

Location; Patricroft

Pictures; inaugural journey of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway 1830, A.B.Clayton, the Queens Arms, Patricroft, 2020, from the collection of Christianna Franck

The bridges of Salford and Manchester .......... nu 9 the 1980s

And here is the first of a few from John Casey.

Location; Manchester & Salford









Picture; the river and bridge, circa 1980 from the collection of John Casey

Cheadle Royal War Memorial, …….. another story from Tony Goulding

This is a return visit to the War Memorial at Cheadle Royal Hospital. 

Of the seven soldiers recorded thereon four have already had their stories told on this Blog. The remaining three men’s histories are detailed here. 

Two of the three joined the Cheshire Regiment while the third although with the 2nd Battalion Leinster Regiment when he died of his wounds, while in German hands as a prisoner of war, originally enlisted into the Shropshire Light Infantry Regiment.

The two soldiers of the Cheshire Regiment both fell in the closing months of 1915. The first to die George Verner S. Swift, a private of the 2nd Battalion, was killed in action on the 2nd October; the other, Private Walter Brown of the 9th battalion was killed in action on the 29th December. 

 George V. S. Swift was born in Reddish, Nr. Stockport, Cheshire in the September quarter of 1882. He was the son of George, a wall paper designer from Derby, Derbyshire, and his Mancunian wife, Jessie (née Schofield). In the 1891 census George was living with his parents and a younger sister, Jessie Margaret S. at 6, Repton Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. 

Ten years later he was a general labourer residing with his, by then recently widowed, mother, two brothers 7-year-old Arthur and Jack who was 6, and another sister, 3-years-old Ida. 

Their home was 125, Wilmslow Road, Gatley, Cheshire opposite the main entrance of Cheadle Royal Asylum.

George Verner Swift married Alice Derbyshire in the September quarter of 1905 in the Bucklow registration district of Cheshire.

In the 1911 census the family is recorded as residing at the Cheadle Royal Asylum where George was employed as a gardener. At this time George and Alice had three children. A son, George, was born in the June quarter of 1906; followed by two daughters, Alice and Phyllis born in the June quarter of 1908 and December quarter of 1909 respectively. A second son, Leslie, was born on the 24th September, 1913.

Sent to France as part of Kitchener’s “New Army” on the 2nd July, 1915, Private Swift was killed in action on the 3rd October, 1915; one of 152 fatalities suffered that day by the 2nd Battalion, Cheshire regiment as they fought to repel a counter attack by the German Army attempting to retake the Hohenzollern Redoubt during the Battle of Loos. 

Like more than 140 of his comrades in the 2nd battalion, Pte. Swift has no known grave and his name is one of the 20,642 men recorded on The Loos Memorial.

Walter Brown was born during the June quarter of 1892 in Moss Nook, Cheadle, Cheshire. He was one the eight children (six sons and two daughters) of James Brown, a “Hay Cutter on a Farm” and his wife Betsy Louisa (née Bradshaw) On the 1911 census Walter is recorded as working as a domestic gardener and still living with his parents (and his seven siblings) at Moss Nook. The census form also reveals that this family of ten were crammed into just four rooms.

 Walter enlisted, at Stockport, into the 9th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment. This unit arrived in Boulogne, France on the 19th July, 1915. Before the end of the year Pte. Brown was killed in action on the 29th December, 1915. As he was the only recorded death from his battalion on that day, he was likely the victim of either sniper fire or routine shelling. 

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s records reveal two items of interest. The grave registration document dated 16th July, 1920 shows Walter’s rank as Lance Corporal which may indicate that he was acting in that rank when he was killed and subsequently reverted to his substantive rank. The other item is an inscription on Walter’s headstone requested by his father and next of kin.

 “We cannot Lord, Thy purpose see,

   But all is well that’s done by Thee.” (1)

Private Walter Brown is buried in the Commonwealth War Grave Commission’s St. Vaast Post Military Cemetery, Richebourg - L'avoue, Pas de Calais, France.

The third and final soldier’s name on the Cheadle Royal memorial is that of William Hewitt. He was born on Christmas Day, 25th December, 1885 in Knutsford, Cheshire the son of William Hewitt and his wife Annie (née Berry). His father was a general labourer who would often have to travel to find work. 

The 1891 census records the family at 30, Bedford Street, Oldham, Lancashire with William Snr. working in an ironworks. Young William had three sisters, Annie E., Eva and Rose. Annie E. and Eva were both born in Knutsford, Cheshire in 1885 and the December quarter of 1887, respectively. Rose was born on the 31st October, 1890 in Oldham, Lancashire where her father had found work as a labourer in the local ironworks. 

William Hewitt Snr. died, aged 41, in Oldham during the June quarter of 1891; left with four young children William's mother returned to Knutsford . William and his siblings all attended the St. Cross Church of England School, prior to which he had been at the Egerton Boys School, both in Knutsford. He left school on the 18th May, 1900 and the census of the following year records him working as a carter’s labourer and boarding with Mary Berry (presumably his aunt) on Silk Mill Street, Knutsford. William’s mother is recorded as living at 45, Leicester Street,  Northwich, Cheshire with James Lambert, a “timber carrier’s teamsman” and William’s half-siblings, a half-sister, Elsie, born on the 2nd September, 1894 and a half-brother, Charles, born on 22nd April, 1896 both in Knutsford, Cheshire.

 William married “Lily” Baguley (a near neighbour on Silk Mill Street) in the December quarter of 1907 in Knutsford.

The 1911 census shows William and Lily living at 22, Darley Street, Sale, Cheshire where William is employed as a railway labourer. Also living in his household in the 5-roomed property were his mother, three of his siblings (Rose, Elsie, and Charles) and a young “visitor” 8-year-old Mary Royle.

  William Hewitt enlisted at Stockport, Cheshire initially serving with the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry Regiment but later being transferred to the Leinster Regiment. (2)

   Private Hewitt died of his wounds, on the 6th April, 1918, whilst a prisoner of war in German hands and was interred by them in the Le Cateau Military Cemetry in the Nord Region of France. 

Tony Goulding © 2020

Pictures; Cheadle Royal, 2020, from the collection of Tony Goulding, Le Cateau Military Cemetery. e cateau cemetery, Author -Wernervc, License; creative commons attribution-share alike 4-0 international, "Cross of Sacrifice" author was Rene Hourdry, License; creative commons attribution-share alike 4-0 internationa

Loos Memorial, Author K!roman licensed on Wiki-commons creative commons attribution-share alike 3-0 unported

NOTES: -

1) This commonly used epitaph is derived from a popular hymn written by Sir John Bowring a Victorian businessman politician and writer and one-time Governor of Hong Kong. His Unitarian heritage and education inspired him to publish 88 hymns one of which, “O Let My Trembling Soul Be Still” this couplet is a revised piece of.

2) The full name of this regiment was “The Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians). A somewhat confusing name which comes from one of the original army units raised in Canada in response to the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Appropriately they were also the last British Army Regiment to garrison Canada in Nova Scotia, 1898-1900