Michael Morpurgo's Folk Journeys ...... Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye, on the wireless

Now I have never lost my love of folk songs, which I first came across nearly 60 years ago, and today they still speak with an authority and truth which can not be bettered.

So here is a short series which explores that folk tradition by Michael Morpurgo.

"The author Michael Morpurgo (War Horse, Private Peaceful) explores the ways in which folk songs have reflected timeless human experiences, both in the past and today.

With help from singers, songwriters and other passionate experts, Michael admires the indelible stories within classic songs that deal with migration, war, protest and love.

Over the four themed episodes, Michael considers the locations and historical contexts that gave rise to much-loved traditional songs, and finds out how the same topics are inspiring new folk songs in the 2020s.

In the first episode, Michael considers a song about an injured man returning from war: Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye.

A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4"*

Picture; The Battle of Culloden, David Morier, 1746

Next; In the second episode, Michael considers a song of protest: Four Loom Weaver.**

Michael Morpurgo's Folk Journeys ...... Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000nll9

**Loom Weaver, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nv5r

Halloween will be a bit different this year ……. Into the Woods

On the last day of October, at All Hallows' evening.

Under Tier Three, the piles of sweets at the front door will go untouched, ...... hiding behind the curtains will be unnecessary and the noise of seven year old gangs will be silenced.

Comments? 

Location; Chorlton

Picture; shop front of Into the Woods, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Looking for Mr. David Purdon of The Edge Lane Bowling and Tennis Club in 1908

Now, I thought it would be relatively easy to track down Mr. David Purdon, who in 1908 was a member  of the Edge Lane Bowling Club.

The search began after Graham Walker sent me this picture, adding that it is "a cutlery box awarded to an Edge Lane bowls player, I intend to sell the box however, if the family of the winner are located then it would be nice to return it to them”.

And that seemed a very nice gesture.

The club has long interested me, and it has turned up on the blog over the years.*

The Edge Lane Bowling and Tennis Club,  dated back to the 1860s, and in 1886 boasted 80 shareholders and 40 subscribers, and according to our historian Thomas Ellwood, “the club grounds comprise something over two statute acres, and on this land there has been formed a bowling green, gymnasium, children’s playground, croquet and quoiting grounds, and four lawn tennis courts, besides a large and spacious billiard pavilion, and other apartments for club purposes. 

All are well kept, and interest in the various games is stimulated by a system of prizes.  In the past years opportunities have been afforded also for members, their families and friends, to participate in and enjoying garden and other parties, thus giving increased attraction and interest, and tending in no small degree to the welfare and success of the club.”**

And as you do I assumed it would be easy to place Mr. Purdon at the club in 1908, using all the usual collection of historical records, starting with the census returns, and directories, and then trawling over newspaper reports of the club’s fixtures.

 But  alas he has remained an enigma, and so far has not appeared on any documents, which is a bit of a mystery and an obstacle in fulfilling Graham’s hopes of reuniting the box with a family member.

So far, the only newspaper I have trawled is the Manchester Guardian, and he may be that one of the local papers carried a story, but that will involve a trip into town and a visit to Central Ref, which at present is a difficult.

Which just leaves me to thank Graham and hope that some will have a connection to Mr. Purdon and come forward with chapter and verse.

And perhaps they will also fill us  in on how the box travelled across to the other side of the country, because as an after thought I asked Graham how he had come to own it

To which he replied, "We've been clearing my late mothers house in Willerby, Nr Hull and came across it. 

There isn't any link to the original owner that I'm aware of, nor were my parents bowlers so I can't provide any illumination. 

I know they very occasionally purchased items from antique shops. 

It looks as though the interior has been re-felted with the cutlery slots removed".

I await developments.

Pictures, cutlery box awarded to Mr. David Purdon, 1908, 2020, from the collection of Graham Walker, the Edge Lane Bowling and Tennis Club, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1893, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

 *That old bowling green and tennis club on Edge Lane and a mystery, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/05/that-old-bowling-green-and-tennis-club.html

** T. L. Ellwood, Bowling Greens, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, number 26, South Manchester Gazette, May 15, 1886

The Gin Wall ………

On a day in October walking through Chorlton.

Location; Chorlton

Picture;  The Gin Wall, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Late-Victorian Divorces of the Rickards Twins another from Tony Goulding

Louisa and Arthur Benjamin Rickards were born in Stretford, Lancashire in July, 1856 and were both baptized there on the 7th August. 

They were youngest of the four surviving children of William Henry Rickards and Ellen (née Royle). Their mother died when they were just four-years-old. 

Both the twins marriages ended in divorce during 1890's. The story of Louisa's rancourous split from her husband Henry Worrall was recently retold on these pages; what follows concerns the other twin, Arthur Benjamin.

 Arthur Benjamin Rickards studied law and qualified as a solicitor after a brief flirtation with a military career. In November, 1880 he married Jane Elizabeth Funnell in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester and shortly after moved to the London area to further his legal career, settling first at 3, Disraeli Villa, Disraeli Road, Putney and later at Castelnau Villas, Bridge Road, Barnes, Richmond-upon-Thames. In 1893 he moved again to Sunbury-on-Thames and made acquaintance with Mr. Henry James Moseley. 

At some point thereafter Mrs. Rickards began an extra-marital affair with Mr. Mosely. The adulterous couple eloped, travelling to the United States on the German-Lloyd steamer “Spree”. On her return to England his wife claimed that she and Mr. Mosely had travelled as “brother and sister”. Arthur Benjamin was not satisfied, however, and after pursuing his own enquires he petitioned for a divorce citing Mr. Mosely as a co-respondent. 

The case was undefended and on the 28th October, 1896 was brought before the same judge, Sir Francis Jeune, who had heard his sister’s first hearing. The damning piece of evidence submitted was a receipt from the Commercial Hotel in San Francisco 

which indicated that the eloping pair had shared a room. That proved sufficient for the judge to grant Arthur Benjamin a decree nisi with costs awarded against the co-respondent in absentia. It was reported that Mrs. Rickards and Mr. Moseley had left for South Africa. 

In the years following his divorce Arthur Benjamin’s legal career continued to prosper and he began to represent a number of clients in the entertainment field. (1) It was in mixing in these circles that he met his second wife, an actress, Kate Florence Davis who he married in the St. Giles district of London in the December quarter of 1899. In the 1901 census Arthur Benjamin and his new wife were recorded as living at 35, Rosendale Road, Lambeth, London. 

A decade later they were at 13A, Ravenstone Street, Wandsworth, London, where Arthur Benjamin died in the September quarter of 1919. His widow outlived him for more than 40 years before she passed away on the 24th August, 1962 at the Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex. At the time of her death, Kate Florence was living at 41, The Chase, Eastcote, Pinner, Middlesex.

Some of Kate Florence Rickards/Davis’s early life was revealed when, aged 83, she was called a witness in a sensational case in the High Court on the 1st February, 1951. She gave evidence for a mammoth 6 hours asserting that her friend and fellow actress Evelyn Lyster (alias Eva Raines) had married Mr. George Charles Wentworth Fitzwilliam in Scotland while she was appearing in Glasgow in the “Beggar Student” during late September, 1886

The case was to decide the legitimacy or otherwise of Mr. George James Charles (Toby) Wentworth Fitzwilliam and his claim to be the heir presumptive of the Earldom of Fitzwilliam.

Pictures; Commercial Hotel, from Tony Goulding, "The Beggar Student" 1913, picture from U S Library of Congress  ID ggbain 12775 by Bains News Service 1st January, 1913 in the Public Domain, Wentworth Woodhouse by Andrewrabbot, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license 

Notes:

1) One of Arthur Benjamin’s clients was Mr. Fred Storey a well-known Music Hall comedian of the time. As the solicitor for The Music Hall Artistes Alliance he appeared in his defence at Clerkenwell Police Court on Tuesday 29th January, 1907, on a charge of disorderly behaviour, arising from an incident on the picket-line outside The Islington Empire the previous evening during The Music Hall Strike of that year.

What we did in October when we were still a farming community

Cows on the meadows by Chorlton Brook, 2003

An occasional series reflecting on what we did in the township when we were still a small rural community.

Now if I had been farming here in the 1850s I might well have turned to The Book of the Farm by Henry Stephens.*

It was written in 1844, and ran to countless editions. It was the manual for anyone wanting to be a farmer.

Everything is here from what crops to plant and when to how to make a well, as well as sound advice on hiring labourers, the construction of a water meadow, and the best location for the milk house and cheese room. I learned which materials were best for building a farm house and how much I could expect to pay for materials, as well as the most up to date scientific information on planting wurzels.

It was a practical book and so “the cost of digging a well in clay, eight feet in diameter and sixteen deep and building a ring three feet in diameter with dry rubble masonry is only L5 [£5] exclusive of carriage and the cost of pumps.”

He calculated that that two brood sows could produce 40 pigs between them and that retaining six for home use the remaining 34 could easily be sold at market.

So many of the smaller farmers and market gardeners in the township might well keep at least one sow and use it to supplement their income.

Nor should we forget that these animals were destined for the table and so the slaughter of pigs was best done around Martinmas in early November because “the flesh in the warm months is not sufficiently firm and is then liable to be fly born before it is cured” and doing so in early November had the added advantage that cured hams would be ready for Christmas.

But today and over the next few weeks I want to drop in to another farming book which is H Rider Haggard’s A Farmer’s Year, written in 1898 and published the following year.

Now he was farming in Norfolk a full half century later than Mr Stephens and of course Norfolk isn’t rural Chorlton or Eltham or anywhere in south east London..

Harrowing in Mustard on stubble

That said this is what he wrote for the beginning of October.

“Since harvest about 250 loads of manure have been carted from the yards direct to the various fields where they are to spread, and sundry dykes on the marshland have been drawn.  

Also a little thrashing has been done and we sold some barley at sixteen shillings and fifteen shillings according to its quality.

Today October 5th we are ploughing on the bean stubble but with the soil in its present condition it is dreadfully hard work for the horses.”


*Stephens Henry, The Book of the Farm, 1844

** Haggard, H Rider, A Farmer’s Year,  1899

Pictures; the Meadows, courtesy of David Bishop 2003, and Harrowing in Mustard on stubble from A Farmer’s Year, 1899

Chorlton shapes ...........

On a day in October walking through Chorlton.

Location; Chorlton

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

Home documents from a World War No 2 the Clothing Book

I was too young to remember rationing but it lasted into my fourth birthday.

So here courtesy of Graham Gill are a reminder of when many ordinary items were rationed and only available on production of the right number of ration stamps.

Pictures, from the collection of Graham Gill

Late-Victorian Divorces of the Rickards Twins ....part 1..... another story from Tony Goulding

Two members of my favourite family the Rickards were embroiled in scandalous divorce cases during the final decade of Queen Victoria’s reign. 

Louisa and her husband Henry Worral fought out a bitter divorce in 1894/5 while her twin brother Arthur Benjamin cited his wife Jane Elizabeth (née Funnell) for adultery in 1896.

 Louisa and Arthur Benjamin Rickards were born in Stretford, Lancashire in July, 1856 and were both baptized there on the 7th August. They were youngest of the four surviving children of William Henry Rickards and Ellen (née Royle). Their mother died when they were just four-years-old.

The Worral case was perhaps the more sensational as it involved a clergyman being cited as a co-respondent.

Mr. Henry Worral, a wealthy bleacher, dyer, and printer from Salford, Lancashire, had married Louisa Rickards at St. Mary’s, Hulme, Manchester on the 12th September, 1878. Together they had four children three boys Philip (born 28th May, 1880), Stephen Henry (born 20th December, 1882), and Bertram (born 28th March, 1883) and a girl Louisa Grace (born 13th February, 1887).

Much of the substance of the proceedings involved events which took place in and around  “Crimsworth” (1) the Worral’s extensive family home on Upper Chorlton Road, Whalley Range. The case was covered extensively in the local and national press during the last week of November, 1894. 

As reported in The Manchester Evening News on the 23rd November Louisa petitioned for a judicial separation from her husband on the grounds of cruelty, Mr. Worrall denied this and counter-petitioned for a divorce on the grounds of his wife’s adultery, citing, as the co-respondent, Rev. Hugh William Jones, a one-time curate of the Church of England parish of St. Mary’s, Moss Lane, Hulme, Manchester.

One of Rev. Jones counsels was Edward Carson Q.C.; famous as the defender of the Marquess of Queensbury in his libel case Vs. Oscar Wilde (a childhood friend) and later as the vocal defender of Ulster’s protestant majority against the imposition of Home Rule in Ireland.

 There were actually two hearings of the issue as the jury on the first occasion though finding Mr. Worral not guilty of cruelty were undecided on the adultery charge. The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser carried a 7-column supplement, complete with pencil sketches of the three petitioners, at the conclusion of the 5-day trial. Louisa alleged she was assaulted by her husband when he had grabbed a letter, which she had written to Rev. Jones off her. 

An incident which her half-brother Harold Hilditch Rickards (2) had been a part witness to. This was the climax of an escalating pattern of abuse and the following morning she had contacted her twin Arthur Benjamin, a solicitor, to instigate separation proceedings. Mr. Worrall denied any wrong-doing though he was often provoked by his wife’s behaviour and counter claimed that his wife had embarked on an adulterous liaison with Rev. Jones in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Nr. Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire and elsewhere

In the time between the hearings there was a form of reconciliation between the parties and Mr. Worrall withdrew his petition, however wishing to clear his name Rev. Jones was insistent that the matter be again brought before the court. The case was reheard on Friday / Saturday 12th - 13th July, 1895 and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the week following. 

This time the jury considered there was enough evidence presented to prove that adultery had occurred. Once again, the case was widely featured in the press. The Manchester Weekly Times of 19th July carried a day by day account over 31/2 columns. The verdict and consequent public confirmation that Mr. Worrall had been cuckolded had had an unfortunate fallout. The marital reconciliation collapsed and the divorce was finalized. Henry Worrall pressed for custody of the children even taking Louisa to court to have his daughter returned to him. 

 Louisa died, aged just 41, two years to the day from the start of the second court hearing, on the 12th July, 1897. She was according to her probate record living at 37, Montpellier Road, Brighton, Sussex and described as a single woman. Probate to her estate of £907-14s-8d. was granted to her ill-fated brother, Harry.

 Henry Worral re-married on the 24th June, 1904 to Janet Greener in St. Brynach’s Church, Dinas Cross, Pembrokeshire, West Wales. His second wife died in the December quarter of 1919 in Ludlow, Shropshire, where the Worralls  were living in retirement at Culmington House. Henry carried on living at this address until he too died on 10th March, 1939.

Coming to a Blog near you shortly ----------Rickards vs Funnell 

WATCH THIS SPACE!

Pictures; Crimeworth images, 2020, from the collection of Tony Goulding, and St. Mary’s Church, Hulme m70933 H. Milligan 1957, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Notes:

1) “Crimsworth” was recorded in the Census of 1911 as a house with 16 rooms (not including any scullery, landing, lobby, closet, or bathroom).

2) Harold Hilditch Rickards’s evidence was given by disposition as he had been ordered by his doctors to move to a healthier climate. He did in fact move to Australia where he married Claire Augusta Sarah Gert Coates in Victoria in 1895. She died on the 20th January, 1912 in Palmyra, Freemantle, Western Australia.

Harold Hilditch moved to Chatswood, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, where he died on the 1st February, 1924. According to his will he was then married to a lady called Gladys. His grave is in the Macquarie Park Cemetery

On discovering the Sinderland Brook ……

Perhaps, it’s because most of us live in urban settings that makes rivers, streams, and brooks so fascinating.

Great stretches of some of our most interesting rivers have long ago gone underground, briefly to appear into daylight before disappearing once more, leaving their course unknown to most of us.

And even out in the suburbs and the countryside the most humble of water courses can suddenly be lost or have undergone a degree of rationalization, turning them from twisty, turny, lazy streams which wind through natural surroundings into uniformly straight lines surrounded by flat cultivated land, or worse still made to flow through steep channels where the backs rise like cliffs on either side.

Of course, I understand why in the interests of flood prevention this should be the case, but some of their magic has been taken away.

All of which brings me to the Sinderland Brook, which I first came across when Andy sent over a couple of pictures of the water course at Timperley, and which according to one source is “an important waterway and wildlife corridor …[extending] through heart of Trafford from Smiths Field to join the Red Brook in Partington”.*

And it does feature on a number of rambling and natural heritage sites, along with seasonal alerts about flooding.

But what really caught my eye was a report posted fifteen years ago, which describes plans to restore 1.8 km of the book and its floodplain which had been channelized in the late 1960s by the water Authority.**

At which point I have no intention of stealing the details from the report, which you can find by following the link.

I have yet to find out whether Andy’s stretch was included, but his pictures offer up conflicting interpretations.

And that is it.

Location; the Sinderland Brook, as it goes under the canal Timperley/Altrincham, 

Pictures; the Sinderland Brook, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Sinderland Brook, Heritage Trees, https://www.cityoftrees.org.uk/sites/default/files/AT_Sinderland%20Brook.pdf

**Sinderland Brook, https://www.therrc.co.uk/case_studies/sinderland%20brook%20issue%2020.pdf

Use it ..... or lose it ... shopping in Chorlton during Tier Three

On a day in October walking through Chorlton

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Use it ..... or lose it ... shopping in Chorlton during Tier Three, Chorlton, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Good Germans by Catrine Clay ..... on the wireless

I dislike national  stereotypes.

My maternal grandmother was German, both my mother and uncle were born there and served in the RAF, while my father's parents were Scottish.

Added to this I have an Italian partner, whose family embraced me and my sons with open arms.

So I have always been mistrustful of national stereotypes.

And no where is this more so than in how Germany is often portrayed.  

It starts with those comics which my generation read, which managed to show Germans as cruel heartless automaton, while at the same time being blundering fools who were easily duped.  

And from there it developed with countless politicians seeking to rubbish first the Common Market, then the European Community and finally the European Union, by in part rubbishing the entire German nation, who just did as they were told, made cars better than us, and were always on the beach before British holiday makers had started their eggs, bacon and fried bread.  

But laying aside the personal "bit" I have always been suspicious of those who trot out national characteristics, usually either to advance their own political agenda or out of an ignorance, which assumes that any one south of the English Channel or north of Berwick on Tweed is somehow inferior but also out deceive.  

So here for another sixteen days is a series from Radio Four which challenges the image of Germany fostered over two wars and in particular during that short but brutal period when the Nazi Party have seized power set about creating a totalitarian regime.

"Within six months of becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Adolf Hitler had disbanded all political parties, put a boycott on Jewish businesses and placed the Protestant churches under Nazi rule.

Yet two-thirds of the Germans had not voted for the Nazis and, as Jews began to disappear and the first concentration camp was opened at Dachau in Bavaria, many Germans found the courage to resist. They knew that, if caught, they would be subject to incarceration, torture or outright execution.

Catrine Clay argues that this was a much more widespread movement than has been previously thought. Teachers, lawyers, factory and dock workers, housewives, shopkeepers, church members, trade unionists, Army officers, Social Democrats, Prussian aristocrats, Socialists and Communists, resisters, who worked throughout the war to sabotage German armaments, to spread propaganda against the Nazis, and to try to assassinate Hitler.

This book offers a rare glimpse into the growth of this movement - a movement which brought disparate bodies together with one common aim, to save Germany by dismantling Nazism.

The episodes investigate the impact of the terror regime on ordinary ‘good’ Germans, on German Social Democrats and Communists, as well Jews - both in microcosm, in the domestic detail of resistance, and in macrocosm, as Germany’s relationship with Britain is brought into sharp focus prior to the outbreak of war.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4".

I missed the series when it was first broadcast earlier in the month, but will be listening this week.

Pictures; from the photograph album of the Bux, Hall and Simpson family

*The Good Germans by Catrine Clay, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nd9j

My favourite Roman ........ Catullus ..... part 2

I have returned to the poems of Catullus.

1968 edition

I first came across him in 1975, during a very messy moment at the end of a relationship.

He was born around 84 BC and died thirty years later and was “one of the most lyrical and passionate poets of any age, [who] found inspiration in the glittering Roman society of the late Republic.

There he met and fell in love with the Lesbia of these poems – a love that brought him ecstasy, pain, and disillusionment.  But Catullus is more than a love poet, whether he is lamenting a dead brother, eulogizing his beloved yacht, or satirizing his acquaintances his sincerity is apparent”.*

Given how I was feeling at the time I was drawn to those poems relating to his love affair with Lesbia, which had also gone horribly wrong.

In poem 8 he opens with that bitter advice to himself which many of us will empathize with,

“Break off
                fallen Catullus
                               time to cut losses”

Continuing,

“a clean break
              hard against the past” 

2004 edition

But he could also be more thoughtful, reflecting in no. 85

“I hate and I love.  And if you ask me how,
I do not know:  I only feel it and I am torn in two”.

Added to these there are many more poems, some very funny and unprintable and many more that fall into the category of “everyday life”.

My return was occasioned by a discussion on the wireless about Catullus, which in turn sent me off looking for that 1975 edition, only to discover it was lost.

Now having read other translations, Mr. Whigham’s best captured my sense of the poet, so I ordered up a new edition, which arrived on the day I found the old one.

Never mind my first copy was pretty battered, so it will sit beside the new one which I suspect will become equally well used.

Pictures; cover of The Poems of Catullus, Translated by Peter Whigham Penguin Classics, cover shows a portrait of Arteidorus from Hawara, Egypt, second century, British Museum 1974, reprint, and Catullus The Poems Translated by Peter Whigham Penguin Classics, 2004, cover shows a detail from a Roman mosiac 3rd-4th century AD in the Piazza Armenia villa of Maximinorous. Sicily, photoo AKGO/Eric Lessing


*Sleeve notes from The Poems of Catullus, Translated by Peter Whigham Penguin Classics, 1968

Spring cleaning comes early in Chorlton

On a day in October walking through Chorlton.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Spring cleaning comes early in Chorlton, Chorlton, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A ticket to Leave ............. coming home from HMS Pembroke February 11 1944

This is another one of the small bits of history which I have never seen before.

Back during the last world war they would have been issued in their millions and most will have been lost, discarded or destroyed long ago.

At the time they would be prized as the passport home even if it was for just a short period.

Now the granting of leave was an essential part of maintaining morale but most history books gloss over this aspect of military service and until now I had never seen a document relating to it.

My own uncle never managed to get home after his temporary posting to Wilmslow in the December of 1940 from where he was sent via South Africa to Greece and after the fall of that island on to Egypt, and Basra before finally arriving in the Far East where he was captured in 1942.

In time I hope to be able to track down Mr Williams who was granted leave from HMS Pembroke on February 11 1944.

I do know that HMS Pembroke was a shore establishment located in Chatham and that along with a barracks there was an HMS Pembroke 1 which was an accounting base from 1940 till 1960 so just possibly our Mr Williams was involved in clerical duties.

We shall see.

Picture; Leave Ticket, February 11 1944 from the collection of Jayne Bailey

Autumn comes to Oxfam

On a day in October, walking through Chorlton

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Autumn comes to Oxfam, Chorlton, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Somewhere beside one of the city's rivers …........ but which one?

This was to be a simple story reflecting on the level of industrial dereliction in the city centre in the late 1970s.

It is a scene many of us will remember well, although that said I pondered on exactly where the picture was taken.

Naively I assumed that as I could identify the warehouse, it would be an easy task to locate the spot by.

So I turned to my old friend and photographer Andy Robertson who has in his possession the last Manchester and Salford Directory which was published in 1969, and given that there was just a ten year gap I reasoned if we could find the firm we had found the place.

And the firm which was “B Davidoff & Co Ltd, mantle mfrs”, was based at “6, Watling Street, Manchester 4, Tel : Blackfriars 5243”.

But then the plot unravelled, because Watling Street in the early 20th century was off Shudehill, some distance from an open water way.  

Furthermore, it has now vanished.

Of course we could be dealing with the warehouse by the river, leaving the offices where Andy found them, but there does not appear another listing for the warehouse.

Looking at the other pictures in the collection, there are possible clues including a gasometer and a pub, but the name of the pub is unclear, as is the name of another ware house which is partially legible and looks to be Parker ? Timber Centre.

I think we may be somewhere in the north of the city, but I am stumped.

That said someone will know, and even if they don’t I am guessing the search for the destination might provoke a debate.

So that is it.

There is no prize for the winner, only the promise that all the suggestions will be added to the story thread, providing they offer up explanations for their assertions.

Location; somewhere

Pictures; from  Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?

Chorlton-cum-Hardy Post Offices …....... another from Tony Goulding

The Post Office located at 551, Wilbraham Road, (1) very near its present counterpart was destroyed during the Manchester Blitz of Christmas 1940. It was badly damaged by a bomb.

Chorlton-cum-Hardy's original main Post Office which also took out Martins Bank on one side and tragically at No. 449 on the other killed Mr. & Mrs. Carr and two of their children. Neighbouring  properties on what was then Cavendish Road (2) also suffered some structural damage and fatalities. 

All that survived the bomb-blast was this porch which probably dated from the middle of the 1890’s when the original residential property was converted into use as a Post Office.

In the immediate post-war years, the structure was incorporated into a new headquarters and function room for the Moss Side Constituency Conservative Party. 

This new hall was called “The Fleming Hall”. 

Most likely in honour of the recently deceased local M.P. Sqd. Ldr. Edward Lascelles Fleming, who having represented the Withington constituency since the 1931 General Election was, due to some boundary changes, was selected to stand for the Moss Side constituency in the 1950 general election. Just 6 days before polling day he died in Manchester Royal Infirmary on the 17th February, 1950.

A temporary Post Office was opened at the Manchester Road end of Keppel Road opposite the library. 

The site was later occupied by offices of the Open University and is now used by the National Health Service

The sorting office was temporarily housed in this building on Wilbraham Road (No. 466). 

There were for a time three sub-post offices in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, on Beech Road, Barlow Moor Road (known as Hardy Lane), and Egerton Road South.  

The first of these was the one at 109, Beech Road which dates from before the 1901 census. (3) 

The sub-postmaster was John Edwin Naylor, who was born in Bradford, Yorkshire (West Riding) in the September quarter of 1866. 

He first appears in the rate books for the township of Chorlton-cum-Hardy at 50, Beech Road on the 9th June, 1897. 

The rate books also reveal that by April 1899 he had moved to 109 which may indicate that, the sub-post office was opened in the interim. 

The “Hardy Lane” sub-post office arrived with the development, in the 1920’s, of council housing on Cundiff Road, Hardy Lane, and along Barlow Moor Road itself. 

However, its first manifestation was on the other side of Hardy Lane at 359, Barlow Moor Road where, as recorded in the 1933 Kelly’s directory, Mrs. Ethel M. Kelly kept a newsagents and Post Office.

The row of retail outlets at the junction of Egerton Road South and Saint Werburghs Road were also built in the 1920’s. 

However, in neither the Kelly’s 1933 directory nor the 1939 National Register are any recorded as sub-post offices. 

The current office is situated at No. 127 and the 1954 Kelly’s directory records Mr. Frank Pearson running a grocery and sub-post office at this same address. 

Finally, Chorlton-cum-Hardy has two other links with postal services, one dating from pre-penny post days of the first quarter of the 19th century, the other from the present day. 

An early incumbent of St. Clement’s church was Rev. Richard Hutchins Whitelock who was appointed on the 5th January, 1816 and remained in office until his death on the 14th August, 1833. Besides holding other clerical posts, he was also a one-time Postmaster of Manchester.

This building tucked away between McDonalds Drive-Through Restaurant on Barlow Moor Road and Riley’s Sports Bar (Snooker Club) provides the second link.  Previously in use as a joiner’s workshop it has for the last 20 years, or so, been a set of offices for the U.C.W. The postal workers union; Union of Communications Workers.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; The post office 2016, from the collection of Tony Goulding, m 18242 The porch 1961 A. E. Landers, M 17982 A. H. Downes Keppel Road post office 1959, m 18252 A.E. Landers 1959, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Egerton Road South sub-post office 2020, U.C.W. offices 2020, from the collection of Tony Goulding

Notes: -

1) Originally numbered “9” Wilbraham Road; at the time of the 1901   census it was occupied by the postmaster James Lucas his wife Adelaide Annie and son, Leonard James, born in 1898. Ten years later he was still Chorlton-cum-Hardy's postmaster and his family had grown with the addition of two daughters; Hilda Bessie Adelaide (born in 1902) and Rita Gwendoline who was just 5 months old in 1911.

  In the 1891 census there is no record of a Post Office at this location as 9, Wilbraham Road was occupied by Alfred J. Gilton, a “grey cloth, manager” with a son and two daughters.

2) Cavendish Road is now Corkland Road.

3) Mr. Naylor had been replaced by the 16th April, 1905 when his successor, Robert Chorley, was recorded as living at 109, Beech Road in the baptismal register of St. Clement’s on that date for his son, Geoffrey Croft (born 17th February). Robert Chorley was born in 1864 and was a native of Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire. His wife, who he married in Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland in the September quarter of 1902, was Hannah Elizabeth (née Croft).

The blog joins a distinguished band of history groups ...... Manchester Histories Celebration Day

Now I like the idea that the blog has joined a club which includes some fascinating and interesting organizations working to uncover more of our collective past.

And last week we were enrolled in to the Hall of Fame, or to be more accurate Manchester Histories Celebration Day.*

The charity Manchester Histories is one I have been involved in. 

It “delivers projects, events and activities with communities that reveal, share and celebrate Greater Manchester's diverse histories and heritage. [including] the Manchester Histories Festival.

Manchester Histories is a growing and dynamic charity that works collaboratively with people, organisations, and partners to reveal, share and celebrate Greater Manchester's diverse Histories and Heritage.

Manchester Histories works throughout the year delivering projects, training, exhibitions, events, networks and more with communities to recognise, explore and value histories”**

And that brings me back to Manchester Histories Virtual Celebration Day 2020, which is "a chance to celebrate all the hard work of organisations that are often run by volunteers, but play an important role in telling local stories and help to connect people together through history and cultural activities".

In all there are at present 26 groups in the club, of which one of my favourites, is Clayton Hall Living History Museum, but it would be unfair to single out any one.  So I will leave it at that, with of course links to the Manchester Histories site and their Celebration site.

Location; Greater Manchester

Pictures; Clara East Lancs Uniform, circa 1914-1918, courtesy of David Harrop,  Chorlton Union Workhouse button, circa 1837-1930, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Manchester Histories Celebration Day, https://manchesterhistoriescelebrationday.myportfolio.com/chorlton-history-blog

**Manchester Histories, https://manchesterhistories.co.uk/aboutus/default.aspx

The Manchester Amateur Photographic Society, Mr Morris and the mystery of that postcard from Chorlton-cum-Hardy

The request from Mr Morris, 1907

The Manchester Amateur Photographic Society is one of those societies, that continues to interest me and today I have been drawn back by Mr George Morris of Chandos Road.

He was the Honourable Secretary of the Photographic Society and in 1907 requested 72 copies of the prospectus for Art of the Camera which “appears to be one well worth the consideration of all serious photographers” adding that “my society is one of the largest in the Kingdom (nearly 400 members)” and intended distributing them “at our next monthly meeting on September 10.”

He was also keen to request that they should not be sent until “August 10; as I shall be away until that date.”

Now I like that little bit of detail more so because it fits with the fact that he was a head teacher and so I guess was on holiday.

I would like to know where he taught and perhaps his staff records will be in the Archives and Local History Library at Central Ref.  In 1911 he was working for the Manchester Education Committee and details of other Corporation employees are available.

There will be those who mutter that this is bordering on being too intrusive, but not so because it will throw a little more light on the Photographic Society which did some fine work recording the twin cities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Blackfriars Street, 1894

One of the foremost of its members engaged in this work was Samuel L Coulthurst many of whose pictures are in the digital collection of Manchester Libraries.*

So I am intrigued as to who else turned up at those monthly meetings to share their pictures and learn more about the art of photography.

And I come with no preconceptions that this will be the preserve of the wealthy or the middling people.

It may be that the Society itself can help and I shall be seeking their co-operation in getting an idea of the membership and in particular Mr Morris.

He was born in 1867 in Jersey, married Constance Blanche Goodwin in 1898 in Hackney and in 1901 they were living in Northern Grove in West Didsbury before settling down at Chandos Road by 1907.

His father was a tailor and at one point George Morris was teaching in Byker in Northumberland which was a long way from where he  grew up in Berkshire.

So I suspect here is an interesting life and I would like to know more about his contribution to the Society.
What also intrigues me is the way his postcard sent to London to the offices of George Bell & Sons,  York House Portugal Street, London has survived.

George Bell & Sons, 1907

"The firm began  as an educational bookseller, with the intention of selling the output of London university presses; but became best known as an independent publisher of classics and children's books.

One of Bell's first investments in publishing was a series of Railway Companions; that is, booklets of timetables and tourist guides. 

Within a year Bell's publishing business had outstripped his retail business, and he elected to move from his original offices into Fleet Street.

There G. Bell & Sons branched into the publication of books on art, architecture, and archaeology, in addition to the classics for which the company was already known. Bell's reputation was only improved by his association with Henry Cole.**

It closed in the 1980s and just how our postcard was saved from being destroyed would make a fascinating story.

Suffice to say it did and was bought by David Harrop.***

As for the Art of the Camera, by Anthony Guess, well it is still available and copies range in cost from £38 upwards.

A far cry I guess from when it was published in 1907.

Pictures; the postcard from Mr Morris, from the collection of David Harrop, and Blackfriars Street, 1894, Samuel L Coulthurst, m 80496, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Samuel L Coulson, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Samuel%20L%20Coulthurst

**George Bell & Sons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bell_%26_Sons

***David Harrop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/David%20Harrop

Rediscovering the Cross Keys is the heart of old Eccles

I like Andy’s picture of the former Cross Keys, flanked on one side by the old parish Church, with the block of flats rising behind.

The pub closed in 2013, and remained empty for three years before plans were submitted for its conversion into apartments.

I won’t be surprising too many people if I say that the Cross Keys had been the oldest pub in Eccles.  

There is a reference to it in 1629, it was extended in the 1820s and according to a Council report from 2016 it “has an interesting design due to its evolution over 400 years, comprising timber framed elements. The larger extended wing of the building (into St Mary’s churchyard) follows the angle of the street and gives a rare impression of the early character of Eccles, with narrow streets”*

The loss of any historic pub which has been at the heart of a community for centuries should not be accepted casually, but even before Covid, the trend was against the traditional public house, with many closing each week.

So a plan that retains the building, renovates the façade and gives it a new lease of life has merit.

And that development was welcomed by Historic England, which welcomed the scheme.

So, that is it.  

For those who knew and frequented the Cross Keys I haven’t broken new ground, but if like me you weren’t born in Eccles and only discovered it quite late in life, Andy’s picture will be interesting.

Location; Eccles

Picture; the former Cross Keys, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*400-year-old pub is going to be turned into flats - despite the noisy church bells next door, Historic England was welcomed the scheme which will save the building of the oldest pub in Eccles, Neal Keeling, October 7th, 2016, Manchester Evening News, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/cross-keys-eccles-flats-approved-11991654

Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive …..But to be in Manchester was very heaven*

Now the thing about history is that often no one can agree on just what constitutes history.

So one of my teachers at school was contemptuous of any event that was not at least 50 years in the past, and as if to underline that, the O level exam I sat in 1966, stopped a full 27 years earlier, leaving out a World War, the Cold War, the creation of the Welfare State and Elvis Presley.

While my friends who went to prestigious universities could be confident that the latest date they had to remember was 1789.

But the blog knows no such boundaries and so we have settled for 2002, and the wonderful event which was the Commonwealth Games, staged here in the city.

London, Sheffield and Manchester had vied to win the games, and after Sheffield dropped out, Manchester was the firm favourite amongst the 24 members of the Commonwealth Games Council of England.

And the rest as they say is history, and that story you can find very well documented so I won’t try.

Other than to say they were recognized as a great success, set a bench mark for how other international games should be done, and left a positive legacy in the city.

So much so that while officially they were the XVII  Commonwealth Games, they became known simply as Manchester 2002.

All of which is an introduction to a selection of photographs from the local image collection.

There is nothing over clever about the choice, other than to say they capture the fun, the pride and the achievements of those games which are now eighteen years ago.

Location Manchester

Pictures; Manchester 2002, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Apologies to William Wordsworth …… "Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive But to be young was very heaven", The Prelude, 1789

**Manchester 2002, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Commonwealth_Games