Cornflakes Pigs and a Vulture called Squashy ………… tales of Chorlton by two local lads

Now  I have spent the last decade and a bit writing about Chorlton-cum-Hardy which has been home for 45 years, and during that time I have leaned heavily on people who were born here and can call up a vast reservoir of memories, along with photographs, letters and a heap of documents.

One family in particular have been exceptionally helpful, providing me with a collection of memorabilia going back to the 1760s, and during the course of writing about my adopted township, have offered advice, and encouragement, and so I am pleased Francis and Oliver Bailey have now published their own book which is part family history and part the story of Chorlton from the inside.

So, while I have spent the last eleven years researching Chorlton’s history, Francis and Oliver lived it.

At which point I shall just quote the publisher’s introduction which welcomes the reader “to the very unusual farming world of the Baileys and their contract with the mighty Kellogg's company which led to the family fortune. 

The story dates from the 1940s onward, and the young boys of the family get up to all sorts of scrapes and meet plenty of great characters from an Iranian Secret Policeman to local bobbies. 

The local bobbies are a source of amusement when they clash with runaway pigs and sheep and even get deluged with a load of Kellogg's grains. The strangeness continues with exotic animals, ghosts in England and Wales, and even a stream that runs uphill and is very attractive to poachers. They are a family that clearly enjoyed life, and their stories will make you smile a lot”.

Leaving me just to reflect that when I was still unsure about believing the story of the circus which regularly came to Chorlton, featuring two elephants, Oliver not only confirmed the story, but happily recounted how the said elephants were watered in their farmyard and the entire collection of circus animals stayed on Bailey land for the duration of their visit.

I could say more, but I doubt I could say it as well as Francis and Oliver.

Cornflakes Pigs and a Vulture called Squashy was written by Francis and Oliver Bailey, and published in 2019, by Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

Picture, Bailey’s Farm, courtesy of The Bailey family