Now I grant you as mysteries go it ain’t Agatha Christie or even a Sexton Blake but I am intrigued by the wrought iron arch behind the Maypole grocery shop at number 41 Wilbraham Road.
The shop opened in 1909 and was still trading fifty years later and is now part of LewisBet, the Bookmakers.
Today the gap between the Maypole Diary and what is now Barclays Bank is a small retail unit.
When this was constructed is unclear but in 1959 it is there and part of the grocery shop.
But that doesn’t help with my bit of ornate iron work.
It may of course still be there and I suppose I should pop down and explore, or at the very least ask the owners of R J’s the barber shop to have a look out back.
But where would the mystery be in that?
Even if it is still there, that doesn’t help with the question of why it was erected.
Maps of the period do not help although the 1907 map does hint at something beside the bank and back then this was the Manchester and County Bank who may have decided on putting up a bit of decorative iron work, but I somehow doubt it.
Of course Mr Lloyd who added this to his collection may have mistaken this Maypole Dairy for another, opening up the possibility that this isn’t Wilbraham Road, but I doubt it.
We shall see.
Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Picture; the Maypole Dairy Wilbraham Road, circa 1909, from the Lloyd Collection
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| Maypole Dairy, 41 Wilbraham Road |
Today the gap between the Maypole Diary and what is now Barclays Bank is a small retail unit.
When this was constructed is unclear but in 1959 it is there and part of the grocery shop.
But that doesn’t help with my bit of ornate iron work.
It may of course still be there and I suppose I should pop down and explore, or at the very least ask the owners of R J’s the barber shop to have a look out back.
 |
| That ironwork |
Even if it is still there, that doesn’t help with the question of why it was erected.
Maps of the period do not help although the 1907 map does hint at something beside the bank and back then this was the Manchester and County Bank who may have decided on putting up a bit of decorative iron work, but I somehow doubt it.
Of course Mr Lloyd who added this to his collection may have mistaken this Maypole Dairy for another, opening up the possibility that this isn’t Wilbraham Road, but I doubt it.
We shall see.
Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Picture; the Maypole Dairy Wilbraham Road, circa 1909, from the Lloyd Collection
The sign above the shop 'Maypole Dairy' is now cupboards in my kitchen. When I bought my house on Brundretts Toad 25 years ago - there was in the alcove in the cellar with a rickety set of shelves. When I dismantled it, the sides were made from the black and gold dairy sign. I asked my friend, the late Steve Eardley who was a sculptor and wood turner, and had a workshop on Needham Avenue to make them into cupboards, He did a great job and used the off-cuts in his own work. They look really gothic. He managed to make three cupboards out of the sign. Years later I stumbled across the above photo in a book about Chorlton and made the connection with the sign and the subsequent cupboards in my kitchen,
ReplyDeleteGosh would like to see a picture.
DeleteLikewise! Really keen way to repurpose pieces of the past.
Delete