The Battles that won our freedoms ....The Abolition of Atlantic Chattel Slavery .....today on the wireless

Now I missed this series first time round and so I am listening with interest, as Phil Tinline explores just how we achived those civil rights and freedoms we take for granted.

1824

And of course here in Manchester and the North West we played our part in that story, from the Manchester petition calling for the abolition of the slave trade in the late 18th century, to the General Strike of 1842, along with the campaign to extend the right to women to vote in general elections and much more.

All the more appropriate given that a few days ago there was an exchange of comments on a social media platform after I posted a story on part two of Britain's Fascist thread on Radio 4.

It came in the form of a defence of Spanish Fascism, and the Nationalist military rising which took place in Spain in 1936.

Out of the blue the contributor, attacked the International Brigade for desecrating churches, and went on to praise the Spanish Fascist Party while suggesting  there was no difference between the legitimate democratically elected Republican Government and the Bolsheviks.

It all played out with a series of assertions and rebuttals, until I took that simple and obvious decision that you don't debate with those who seek to paint Fascism in a favourable light, whether it be .... Spanish Fascism, Italian Fascism or that brand peddled by the Nazi Party.

In this episode, "Phil Tinline asks Dr Christienna Fryar about the slave rebellion in Jamaica in 1831, led by the enslaved Baptist preacher Samuel Sharpe, and how it contributed to Britain's abolition of slavery. And Dr Fryar and Kimberly McIntosh of the Runnymede Trust reflect on the long-term legacy of slavery, and how free black people are in Britain today.

1874

First broadcast in 2019.

Producer: Phil Tinline*

And you can catch the first omnibus edition at Week One Omnibus - From Magna Carta to Victorian Trade Unions

Pictures;  front cover, Account of An Insurrection of the Negro Slaves in the Colony of Demerara, 1824, and huge demonstration at Piccadilly in 1874 for the locked out agricultural workers, from the Graphic Newspaper 1874

*The Abolition of Atlantic Chattel Slavery, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00020jz

**Week One Omnibus - From Magna Carta to Victorian Trade Unions, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001yb6

The bits of Chorlton ….. waiting to reopen …… part 2

Now, I know it is stating the obvious, and pretty soon the idea behind the series will be a thing of the past.

But until then here, collected on a walk through Chorlton are pictures of the closed shops, along Wilbraham Road, just past the Post Office.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Wilbraham Road, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Another slightly familar picture, Chorlton High School for Boys circa 1930

It is a scene that will be familiar to many of us.

It’s the old Chorlton High School on Sandy Lane but with a slight difference.

The picture was taken around 1930 when it was Chorlton High School for Boys.

Picture; from the Lloyd Collection

Selling the evening paper

I have no idea today, just how many paper sellers there are on the streets of the City.

Once they were a familiar sight and over the years became permanent fixtures on street corners and outside railway stations.

The chances are you got to know your “man” quite well and could pass the time of day discussing everything from the chances of “that horse" in the 2.30 at York to the price of fish and whether it was going to rain that evening.

And I am prepared to be told that there are plenty of them still selling in the same way and even on the same spot for a century and a bit.

Location; outside Knott Mill Railway Station, 1978 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Picture; selling the news, 1978, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The bits of Chorlton ….. waiting to reopen …… part 1

Now, I know it is stating the obvious, and pretty soon the idea behind the series will be a thing of the past.

But until then here, collected on a walk through Chorlton are pictures of the closed shops, starting with that parade which was once a row of posh houses and goes under the name of Highfield.

Although I doubt few now refer to it as Highfield, and you would have to look quite hard to find the stone plaque with the name, which long ago was painted over.

It was years before I realized that the shop fronts had been added sometime after the houses and been built or that back in 1893 all of them were listed as Highfield.

But just two years later only number 12 bore the name, which was occupied by a Mr. Adolph Schobelt.

In that year he paid an annual rent of £36 to Mr. William Mee who owned the row, and commanded between £35 to £38 rent per year for the houses.

The block were still just residential properties in 1903, but sometime between then and 1909 the retail transformation occurred.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Highfield, Wilbraham Road, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A view …… with a bit of water thrown in ……

These I like and so I shall just leave the pictures to do the rest.

Castlefield on a wet February day.

Location; Castlefield

Pictures; water and things, Castlefield, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

A little bit of machinery …….. even archaeology forgot

Now, Andy’s accompanying notes to the two pictures was simply, “a recently opened little door on Ellesmere Street”, which I grant you is intriguing, but doesn’t help explain what it is.

Of course there will be plenty of people out there who will know what it is, what it did, and its probable age.

None of which I do.

So, I invite the knowledgeable to supply a description of the object, which while it must be accurate, should not be too technical to bore the pants off most of us.

And spurred on by the challenge I hope Andy will come up with a shot which includes the bigger picture, from which the non-technical people like me could make a guess.

And that is it.  

Other than to say those who wish to recreate Andy’s adventure will have to walk halfway down Ellesmere Street, where they will come across a small extension to a bigger old building which is soon to be  the subject of loft apartments by Talbot.

Location; Ellesmere Street

Picture; the thing behind the door on Ellesmere Street, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

That dangerous and unacceptable set of myths and ideas part 2 ….. today on the wireless

 The second of the fascinating series on Britain's Fascist Thread 

Belle Vue, Demonstration against Oswald Mosley, 1962

Historian Camilla Schofield explores a century of British fascism.

"From the formation of the British Fascisti in 1923, through the BUF, the National Front and the BNP, the history of fascism in Britain is, in a sense, an unbroken thread.

But if the politics – or anti-politics – has remained more-or-less consistent, with a lineage of hatreds, pseudo-science, failed leaders and tactics, the means by which fascism is calibrated and communicated in the 21st century has fundamentally changed.

In the second programme in the series we look back at a march staged by the National Front – and the ensuing counter-demonstration – in Lewisham in 1977.

Featuring Paul Gilroy, Peter Hain, Lez Henry, Paul Jackson and Joe Mulhall.

Producer: Martin Williams"*

Picture; demonstration at Belle Vue, Demonstration against Oswald Mosley, 1962, m07971, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Britain's Fascist Thread, Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000skcb

Marcus Aurelius one of the "good Emperors" .... today on the wireless

Now I have tried over the years to read the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and never got far.

But that I suspect is down to me.  I have friends who regularly read them , a few a night, so maybe I shall try again.

In the meantime I will be listening to this weeks In Our Time, in which "Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man who, according to Machiavelli, was the last of the Five Good Emperors. 

Marcus Aurelius, 121 to 180 AD, has long been known as a model of the philosopher king, a Stoic who, while on military campaigns, compiled ideas on how best to live his life, and how best to rule. 

These ideas became known as his Meditations, and they have been treasured by many as an insight into the mind of a Roman emperor, and an example of how to avoid the corruption of power in turbulent times.

With Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek Literature and Culture and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, Angie Hobbs, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, and Catharine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Picture; Cuirassed Statue of Marcus Aurelius, 150 AD, Altes Museum, Berlin, Author, Anagoria, this file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

*Marcus Aurelius, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sjxt

One day after June 15th 1996 …………….. the Manchester story

No one would have believed in the opening decades of the 21st century that the world of academic debate would have been engulfed by a disagreement about a single simple post box, a full 25 years after a bomb wrecked part of a great northern city.

And while historians poured over their sources to uncover fresh evidence on matters as wide apart as the assassination of President Kennedy, the origins of the Great War, and the significance of the Black Death on the economies of Europe, battle positions would be adopted between those that followed a reinterpretation of the events following the Manchester IRA bomb on June 15th 1996, and those who held to the conventional explanation of events.

Few outside the debate gave any thought to the ramifications of whether the post box was the same one that had stood there before the explosion, or if for reasons as yet unrehearsed it had been replaced by another identical in all its forms and features.

And if the box was indeed a replica, there would be some who wondered why this should be, and no doubt intime this would lead to a plethora of theories which might yet capture the imagination of those who believed that aliens had abducted Lord Lucan, had spirited away the baggage train carrying King John’s treasure, and cunningly had taken control of all domestic washing machines, ensuring that random socks were lost.

But of course such musings are best left to those who are in command of the full story.

Location; Manchester

Picture; a Christmas postman from the late 19th century, courtesy of David Harrop

Woden Bridge ….. and that tribute to Roy Hodgson

Now sometimes you know you are out of your depth.

Despite having three sons who follow football with a ferocity, and friends who can tell me the history of the team and their current performance I am a loss with the game.

And I have to confess that Roy Hodgson, Crystal Palace, and former England manager  was unknown to me.  

But a trawl of the internet revealed a long career as a manager of teams in Finland, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, the U.A.E, and Switzerland, before finally finishing up via Inter Milan, Liverpool, Blackburn, Fulham, and West Bromwich, with Crystal Palace, where he started, and of course a spell with England. 

All of which means that there could be any one of hundreds of people living in the new build around the bridge who might have decided to honour the bridge with the plaque.

Those in the know, please advise.

Location; Woden Bridge

Picture; Roy Hodgson on Woden Bridge, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Walk Roman London …… and discover the Billingsgate house and baths ….. tomorrow on Zoom

I have become a great fan of the Guildhall Library’s afternoon talks.

So far since January the topics have included Dan Dare, Medieval St Paul’s and a host of others.

They are held on zoom and you have to prebook.

Tomorrows will be on the “Billingsgate Roman House and Baths,  a 2nd-5th century house in the city of London, which will be a virtual tour around a Roman domestic house and bathhouse that is under 101 Lower Thames Street in the City of London. 

Find out about the development of the house from the 2nd century when it was first constructed through to its eventual abandonment in the early 5th century AD. 

Later that century someone visited the ruins of the house and dropped a brooch of Germanic design, which gives us a small insight into the events that would lead to the transformation of Britannia into England”.

Book through EVENTBRITE: WWW.GHLEVENTBRITE.CO.UK

Picture, courtesy of Guildhall Library 

*Guildhall Library Events and Exhibitions The Library of London, Aldermanbury, London, EC2V 7HH

guildhall.library@citypflondon.gov.uk

cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/libraries/guildhall-library

Chartism ..... not just a topic in the history books ... the talk today on Zoom

Now we all get excited about different history, and in my case that includes the Romans, British Home Children and the story of the labour movement.

Chartist meeting on 10 April 1848 at Kennington Common

Which leads me nicely to the an online talk today at 2 pm hosted by the Working Class Library  on "Keeping the memory of Chartism alive over the last 100 years", hosted by the Working Class Library led by "Matthew Roberts who will speak on the topic 'Ever present to the progressive mind?: heritage politics and the memory of Chartism in England and Wales, 1918–2020'.

Chartism, the working class movement for democratic and social rights which swept across Britain from the 1830s to the 1850s, has enjoyed a remarkably enduring posthumous life. Matthew Roberts's talk will explore the ways Chartism has lived on, and ask who has kept the memories of the movement alive, and to what end?

The talk will focus on three case studies: the interwar political left; the attempts by the political and cultural establishment to co-opt Chartism since the 1980s; and the role of Chartism in the contemporary and ongoing campaigns for democratic renewal promoted by a range of heritage organisations and groups.

Monster" Chartist Demonstration, held on April 10 1848

Matthew Roberts is Associate Professor of Modern British History at Sheffield Hallam University. He works mainly on 19th century British political and cultural history, with research specialisms in the history of popular politics and protest, the visual and material culture of politics, and the history of emotions. His latest book, Chartism, Commemoration and the Cult of the Radical Hero was published by Routledge in 2020.

This talk will be live-streamed." 

And if you missed it, it will be available later at https://www.youtube.com/wcmlibrary/videos

Picture; Chartist meeting on 10 April 1848 at Kennington Common, by William Edward Kilburn, restored version. Restored by Bammesk, Poster advertising the "Monster" Chartist Demonstration, held on April 10 1848, proceeding to Kennington Common, 1848, Scanned from Rodney Mace, British Trade Union Posters: An Illustrated History, Author, Unknown. Signed by John Arnott (1799 - 1868)

*Working Class Library, https://www.wcml.org.uk/

The cranes have it …. travels with Andy at Pomona

Somewhere there may be a set of recollections from the people who worked the waterway during the last two century.

Not that those memories would help me know what they would have thought of the forest of cranes and the new build which rise along the banks of the canal.

Location; Pomona

Picture; the cranes have it, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Tales of past canals …. Shelton Lock and adventures with a narrow boat .... 1947

Now, I have been fascinated by canals ever since I came across a disused one close to where my grandparents lived in Chellaston.

I would have been no more than 10, and the sight of an overgrown waterway with the lock gates hanging at crazy angles as they rotted away from neglect, set me wondering about the purpose of this stretch water.

Of course,  I didn’t think about its history, or its future, after all most 10 year old’s only live in the present, and when I went looking for Shelton Lock just about a decade ago, it had vanished.

It stood by the trolley bus terminus, but after 62 years even the terminus has  gone leaving just the New Bridge Inn as a clue to the canal, which is now a footpath.

All of which is an introduction to Narrow Boat, by L.T.C. Rolt, who recorded a series of canal trips in 1939, at a time when the canal network was in decline.

The volume of traffic had been declining for over half a century and with it was the strong possibility that a way of life which had existed for 170 or so years would also go.

In his introduction he wrote, “Most people know no more of the canals than they do of the old green roads which the pack-horse trains once travelled.  

The canal network around Manchester, 1831

Of all the authors who have written of their journeyings about England, only Mr. Temple Thurston chose to travel by water, and his delightful book ‘The Flower of Gloster’, being published nearly thirty years ago, stands on the small shelf in my library which is sufficient to contain all that has been written on canals.  

For they have lapsed into the  neglected obscurity which overtook the turnpikes when the railway disposed the stage-coach and ruined the great posting house along Watling Street and the North Road.  Now the motor-car has brought the road into its own again, but the canals gave withdrawn still further into the shadows.  

Knowledge of them is confined to the narrow hump-backed bridges which trap the incautious motorist, or to an occasional glimpse from the train of a ribbon of still water winding through the meadows to some unknown destination”.*

The Rochdale Canal, 1979

Which is pretty much where I came into the story in 1959, looking over the bridge at Shelton Lock and wondering at that sheet of still green water, almost entirely hidden by reeds broken only by the odd floating bit of debris.

Fifteen years earlier most of canals were still being used, and this was what allowed Mr. Rolt to borrow a relative’s narrow boat and make a series f journeys, which became the book.

The Rochdale Canal, 2003

But Narrow Boat is not just a catalogue of watery adventures, but a record of the men, women, and children who still worked the canals, and description of their way of life.

There is  a detailed glossary at the back, which includes a definition of a barge and how it differs from a narrow boat and much else.

Added to which there are some fine period photographs and a wealth of images by the artist Eric Gaskell, whose chosen method was the lino cut.

So far, I am only on chapter one, but have also ordered up ‘The Flower of Gloster’, which between them will add to my knowledge of the of a time when many people had turned their back on canals.

And I notice that his map includes the Derby Canal which ran through Shelton Lock, which means I might just get a description of the waterway in happier times.

Leaving me just to say that the canal was closed in the 1960s, but there are plans to excavate it.**

Alas while he got as far as Middlewich, the glories of our own canals in Manchester were a narrow boat too far.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 1979-2003, map of the canal network around Manchester from Bradshaw’s map of 1830, The Inland Navigation of England and Wales, and the extract from Joseph Priestley’s Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, 1830 courtesy of Digital Archives http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

*Narrow Boat, L.T.C. Rolt, 1944 page 11

**Shelton Lock, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelton_Lock and The Derby Canal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_Canal#:~:text=The%20Derby%20Canal%20ran%2014%20miles%20%2823%20km%29,in%201793%20and%20was%20fully%20completed%20in%201796.

 

A tribute to the old BBC computer

I bet there will be a lot of people with very fond memories of the old BBC computers. 

After all they were at one point the computer used in over 80% of our schools.

And you can see why. 

They were sturdy machines and I guess could be said to be the Morris Minor of the computer world. 

All of which made them perfect for hamfisted children.

I have a particular fondness for them as it was a BBC that was my introduction to the wonderful work of  the computer.

Of course using one was a world away from the present range of computers.

Even simple tasks like doing a calculation on the spreadsheet first involved typing in a command.

But for someone who had never really appreciated the power of spreadsheets and databases this was a minor problem. 

Added to which there was the magic of  seeing your thoughts tumble out across the screen, advancing in a stream of green sentences on a black background.

The purists will mutter that the old typewriter was just as good and if really pushed the pen was an even better and cheaper means of expressing yourself.

All of which is true, but for someone who had always had difficulty with spelling, the ability to erase a word, sentence or even whole paragraph  was empowering and left me completely hooked.

So, thank you BBC.

Pictures; the BBC computer, circa 2012, and 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

YORK MOTORS - A CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY INSTITUTION ....another story from Tony Goulding

York Motors (Manchester) Ltd. was a family-run firm of coach operators which operated from its garage on the corner of High Lane and York Road for around half a century. 

Its date of incorporation was the 3rd October, 1933.

The company’s main business involved transporting Chorltonians and others to the local seaside resorts of the Fylde coast and North Wales both for their annual holidays and for day trips. Also popular were “Mystery Tours” to an unknown beauty spot or historic site.  

 I believe that my family utilised their service for at least one of our holidays, however it is a later journey made by myself on one of its coaches which has led me to want to pay homage to this local institution. 

From the late 1950’s and into the 1960’s travelling by sports fans to watch their team play away fixtures became more common-place and it is to one such instance I refer. 

My first “away trip” was something of a “rite of passage”; my journey to watch Manchester City playing Leicester City at their Filbert Street ground was the first occasion in which 

I travelled on a journey unaccompanied by my parents.

York motors coaches were a feature to be spotted at sporting events for a number of years, (1) and with the increased car ownership and the growth of foreign holidays such excursions would have become an increasingly important part of the business.

The offices of York Motors were located in this building “Hornsey Villas” at 68, High Lane. In 1911, this was the home of Henry Goodwin who owned a chain of boot repair shops. (2) Henry was born in Salford, Lancashire in 1877 and married Mary Parrott at the parish church of Knutsford, Cheshire on the 10th February, 1902. 

The couple went on to have seven children six sons and one daughter. It was with one of his sons, Edward, who was a diesel motor engineer that he developed the coach company, in the 1930’s. The family resided around the corner at 16, York Road according to the Kelly’s 1933 directory. 

 Another member of the family was Aircraftman (2nd Class) Victor Goodwin who died on 14th January, 1941 and is interred in a Commonwealth War Grave (T. 2584 C. o E. Section) in Manchester’s Southern Cemetery. He was stationed at Barrage Balloon Centre No. 10, Manchester based at the village of Bowlee, near Middleton, Lancashire.

Henry Goodwin died at 70, High Lane on the 26th August, 1963 and is buried in a family grave, I. 1735 in the Non-conformist section of Southern Cemetery, Manchester.

Just after finishing the first draft of this story I discovered from "History of Go-Goodwins", on the web, that it was founded by Alan Edward Goodwin whose father was a coach driver at York Motors the firm founded by his grandfather. Alan Edward, himself join his grandfather's company as a mechanic in 1976.

Pictures; Extract from “The Chorlton and Wilbrahampton News” of 16th July, 1937 courtesy of Andrew Simpson: York Motors, High Lane, A.E.Landers, m.17893 and m.17894 (extract) and Barrage Balloon, 1941 m. 09810 G.R.Hinks courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information, and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Notes: -

1) I have a recollection of seeing one at the ground of Gloucestershire Cricket Club in Bristol during Lancashire’s Nat West Trophy, 2nd Round tie there on the 18th July, 1984.

2) Kelly’s directory of Lancashire, Manchester, Salford , and Suburbs of 1933 listed four outlets for Henry Goodwin’s boot repair business; 543, Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Seymour Grove, Old Trafford, 149, Stockport Road, Levenshulme, Manchester, and 393, Bolton Road, Irlams o’ th’ Height.

Finally, I’d be interested to here if there is any connection between this company and the long-established taxi operators of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Goodwins (now Goodwins/Olympic based at 2a Keppell Road) or the private bus service operator Go-Goodwins (Coaches) Ltd. incorporated on the 15th January, 1999.

Faces from a demonstration..... no.5 the politicians

I should not be surprised I suppose that the passage of nearly 40 years has made it difficult for me to name some of the people on the platform.

There, staring back at me is Denis Healey, while looking out across the crowd is Dennis Skinner, but the three to either side of him I can’t place.

The chap with the glasses I vaguely know but his name remains elusive and of the other two sadly I have no idea.

All will have spoken at the demonstration in Birmingham in 1983 which was part a protest to the rising level of unemployment and a platform for advocating a set of policies which would offer jobs to people.

But the Labour Party was in opposition and would remain so until 1997, and while Dennis Skinner would remain an MP arguing for radical change, Denis Haley would never again hold a Ministerial position.

I can’t remember much of the day, other than that Keith Tom and I had travelled down from Manchester in Keith’s car, and the march which preceded the demonstration and rally took a route off the beaten track which led us past closed industrial estates and rows of terraced houses.

The speakers included Michael Foot, Stan Orme, Eric Heffer and Tony Benn, but after 35 years I am hard pressed to remember if Denis Healey spoke or for that matter who else addressed the meeting.

Location; Birmingham


















Pictures; Faces from a demonstration, 1983 Birmingham from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Faces from a demonstration ...... no. 4 .......

The three lads will now be grown up and I wonder what memories they have of that day in Birmingham.

The year was 1983 and this was one of the large demonstrations organized by the Labour Party to call for action to reverse the growing levels of unemployment which on that Saturday stood at three million.

Location Birmingham

Picture; Faces from a demonstration, 1983, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Docklands .... travelling the River with Suggs ... today on the wireless

Now this I tuned in to by accident, but by golly I am glad I did.  

It was Suggs from Madness with one of his Love Letters to London, which the sleave notes promises 

"More capers and chaos from Suggs, as he crafts another love letter and takes us on a trip around London's Docklands.

Performed by Suggs

Written by Suggs with Owen Lewis

Directed by Owen Lewis

Musical Director: Owen Parker

Producer: Richard Melvin

A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4"

Location; The River Thames

Pictures; the River, London, 1978-79, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Docklands, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sbf0

Faces from a demonstration ...... no. 3 .......

Today I would never think of photographing young people, but 35 years ago they were no less a valid subject than any of the thousands that attended the demonstration in Birmingham.

The three lads will now be grown up and I wonder what memories they have of that day in Birmingham.

The year was 1983 and this was one of the large demonstrations organized by the Labour Party to call for action to reverse the growing levels of unemployment which on that Saturday stood at three million.

Location Birmingham

Picture; Faces from a demonstration, 1983, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

From cave to castle and on to a high rise ............ the story of houses and how we used them

I never think you can get enough of the history books written by R.J. Unstead in the 1950s.*

This one comes from Black’s Junior Reference Books** and was published in 1958.

It was not one that I was given as a child but I rather wish I had because in just 80 pages it offers a clear and comprehensive description of houses from earlier times up to the mid 1950s.

It is paced full of interesting information on the style and construction of houses, along with the possessions that could be found in them and much about how people used their homes.

And above all it is the excellent collection of line drawings of everything from castles and cottages to windows, furniture and how the house moved from being a communal place to a more private residence of just one family.

It is also a book I often go back to as a starting point for ideas, and pictures of the everyday domestic objects from a 19th century kitchen range and copper to a Tudor  four poster bed and Roman Hypocaust.

It isn’t that I couldn’t find these elsewhere but there is a pleasure in leafing through the pages and coming across some old favourites.

Not that this is just a sad slide into nostalgia, instead it is a celebration of when history books for young people were informative, fun to read and just jolly good books to have around.

I suspect also they were embraced by teachers and librarians in those post war decades when education and schools were themselves undergoing profound changes.

So once again it’s a thank you to Mr Unstead and I rather think I will go looking for a few more.

Pictures; from A History of Houses, R.J.Unstead, 1958

*LOOKING AT HISTORY, PEOPLE IN HISTORY, TEACHING HISTORY IN JUNIOR SCHOOLS

**DEEP SEA FISHING, TRAVEL BY ROAD, THE STORY OF AIRCRAFT, COAL MINING, THE STORY OF THE THEATRE, TRAVEL BY SEA

That dangerous and unacceptable set of myths and ideas ….. today on the wireless

Now the word Fascist is often bandied around and will sometimes be used as a lazy insult to a political enemy, and that I think diminishes the real nature and danger of Fascism.

It is a set of ideas and a movement which threaten our freedoms and the simple belief that no matter what our ethnic and cultural backgrounds we all contribute so much to our society, and it seeks to exploit and divide what we have in common.

So I shall be listening on the wireless today to historian Camilla Schofield exploring a century of British fascism, which the BBC sleeve notes explain has “From the formation of the British Fascisti in 1923, through the BUF, the National Front and the BNP, the history of fascism in Britain is, in a sense, an unbroken thread. 

But if the politics – or anti-politics – has remained more-or-less consistent, with a lineage of hatreds, pseudo-science, failed leaders and tactics, the means by which fascism is calibrated and communicated in the 21st century has fundamentally changed. 

Membership groups intermittently attempting conventional electoral acceptance have given way to more atomised networks of ‘post-organisational’ activists.

Fascism is not an alien import but a central and on-going part of the British story.

At a time of debates around the character and memory of our national past, this series tries to bring the deep rooted and persistent vein of British fascism into focus. It might be that a less unreal sense of ourselves could be gained by shifting fascism out of the blind spot created by war stories which begin and end with this country standing alone against Nazism.

The first programme takes the rally staged by the British Union of Fascists at Olympia in June 1934 as a keyhole through which to look in order to understand fascism in the years before WWII. The second programme focuses on the so-called Battle of Lewisham in 1977 as a way of grasping the character of post-war fascism. The third programmes traces the thread to the present day".

Picture Anti Nazi badge, circa 1970s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and John Hacking

*Britain's Fascist Thread, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sbdx

Medieval Pilgrimage …. today on the wireless

Now I know that pilgrimages are not unique to Europe or to the Christian religion, but this offering from the In Our Time series on Radio 4 will be interesting.

They are part of the Middle Ages, feature in the Canterbury Tales, and remain a fascinating topic, mixing as they do piety, with adventure, penance for a judged misdemeanor or crime and an opportunity to make money from the pilgrim, who was happy to buy a souvenir and perhaps less happy to pay for guided tours and the entrance fee to some holy places.

All of which brings me to the programme which went out just after 9 am today, but I always listen to later, because the editor always adds a “bonus ten minutes” of bits that were missed out.

“Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea and experience of Christian pilgrimage in Europe from the 12th to the 15th centuries, which figured so strongly in the imagination of the age. 

For those able and willing to travel, there were countless destinations from Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela to the smaller local shrines associated with miracles and relics of the saints. 

Meanwhile, for those unable or not allowed to travel there were journeys of the mind, inspired by guidebooks that would tell the faithful how many steps they could take around their homes to replicate the walk to the main destinations in Rome and the Holy Land, passing paintings of the places on their route.

With, Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London, Kathryn Rudy, Professor of Art History at the University of St Andrews, and Anthony Bale, Professor of Medieval Studies and Dean of the School of Arts at Birkbeck, University of London

Producer: Simon Tillotson”.

Pictures; pilgrim badge from the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, late 15th century, Museum of London, https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/thomas-becket-life-and-death-badges#/ and badges from Kent, 12th – 15th Century, Pilgrim Badges, Canterbury Museums & Galleries, https://canterburymuseums.co.uk/beaney/explore/people-places/pilgrim-badges/

*Medieval Pilgrimage, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s9qp

Faces from a demonstration ...... no. 2 ....... wearing the badge

The three lads will now be grown up and I wonder what memories they have of that day in Birmingham.

The year was 1983 and this was one of the large demonstrations organized by the Labour Party to call for action to reverse the growing levels of unemployment which on that Saturday stood at three million.

Location Birmingham

Picture; Faces from a demonstration, 1983, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Chorlton house and the Bolton suffragette .... unfinished stories

I am never surprised at how a story appears apparently out of nowhere.

Last week I was on Reynard Road, in  the house of Jaime writing about her cellar and the copper which was used to wash clothes.

It produced to a heap of pictures and comments from people who also had items in their cellars which were used to wash clothes.

And as you do I began looking for some of the residents of Jaime’s house and have been able to track quite a few.

But the one that caught my interest was Edward Blincoe and his wife Mary Ann, who may well have been the first to live there in 1903.

Two years earlier they were in Flixton and a decade later in Tabley Superior, just outside Knutsford.

Mr. Blincoe described himself as an artist and designer, but what drew me in was Mary Ann’s description of herself in the section under occupation, where she wrote “Suffragette”.

This was tactic employed by women engaged in the struggle for the vote and she was not alone.

But to make the connection between Reynard Road and Chorlton was exciting.

Just when they moved out to Knutsford, is unclear.  They were still here in 1909 but had gone by 1911, and some time after the death of Edward in 1914 Mary Ann settled in Bolton.

And here she was involved with the Bolton Women Citizen's Association, which was part of a national movement which aimed “to stimulate women's interest in social and political issues in order to prepare them for active citizenship”.*

I know that from 1912 she had been the organizing secretary of the  Bolton Women Citizen's Association, so it is possible that she was already in the town before the death of her husband, who died of a “paralysis of the brain” while an inmate of The Cheshire Lunatic Asylum.

As yet I haven’t found out any more about her activities, but in 2018 she was one of the eight Bolton women included on the list of 100 people chosen nationally to be celebrated for the work they did for the Suffrage movement. They were, “Mary Elizabeth Barnes (1864-1942), Sarah Reddish (1849-1928), Florence Blincoe (1874-1932), Alice Collinge (1873-1957), Bertha Lizzie Agnew (1869-1930), Mary Haslam (1851 -1922), Hannah Mitchell; Elizabeth Ann Anderson (1890-1983)”**

All of which means there will be a lot more about Mary Ann.  I have contacted the Bolton Archives, and await a reply.  In the meantime I know she was born in Cheshire in 1874 and died in 1932.

The rest as they say is just waiting to be uncovered.

Location; Chorlton and Bolton

Picture; Women marching with police escort. It is not known for definite but it is assumed these are suffragettes, undated, m08238, and "Suffragtettes, Manchester", 1905, m48441, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

* National Women Citizen's Association, National Archives, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/9fb57391-f86b-482d-be37-1e31fcfe0d48

** Parliament Square suffragette statue: Women of Bolton honoured, By Saiqa Chaudhari  @saiqa2 Education Reporter The Bolton News, April 27th, 2018, https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/16188398.parliament-square-suffragette-statue-women-bolton-honoured/

Back along the Old Road

This is another story of the old road.  It is one of those places I keep coming back to, partly because to walk it is still to get a feel of what Chorlton would have been like.

It ran from Hardy Lane, down past the Brook, skirted the church and green before running off across Turn Moss to Stretford.

In its time it would have been a busy place and made more so with the coming of the Duke’s Canal which offered a quick service  from Stretford for passengers using the fast boats and farmers taking their produce to the Manchester markets.

I am a romantic but even I am realistic enough to know that what you see now is not what our traveller in  1841 would have seen.  For a start there is really only the stretch from Hawthorn Lane to the canal left to walk along, and that is very different.

Today it is a pleasant walk bordered for a great part by trees and hedges with limited views of the meadows and playing fields.  It is secluded, quiet and a bit magical.

In 1841 it was more open and while there were trees along its course and an orchard, the land on either side was more open and afforded views across to Turn Moss Farm and back towards the parish church in the village.

And my enthusiasm for the road has rather blinded me to Edge Lane which after the railway station was built was the obvious route to use and of course this is where the fine houses began to be built.  All of which I guess pushed the old road into a quiet track way used by those who farmed either side of it and the odd traveller intent on an alternative way to Stretford.

But all that misses the point that once it was my old road which would have taken you directly into the heart of Stretford which as Lawrence pointed out to me was further south clustered around St Matthew’s.

Edge Lane runs further north and any one leaving the village would first have had to walk away from the direction of Stretford to join the lane and then turn back towards it.

Not so the old road, which led directly out of the village straight towards Stretford.  And I have to say I suspect it was not that much of a popular destination before the opening of the Duke’s Canal.  Look at any map before the late 18th century and the place is not even mentioned.

All of which was to change when it became  a major centre for the processing of pigs for the Manchester market as well the manufacture of black puddings and  gained the nicknames of Swineopolis and Porkhampton.    During the 1830s, between 800 and 1,000 pigs were slaughtered each week and sent into the city.  By which time the old road may well have been just a back water earning it's name as Back Lane.

Picture; from the collections of Andrew Simpson and Lawrence Beedle