When the last Chorlton newsagent delivers the last newspaper …..

I always considered that the mark of civilization, was the newspaper delivered through the door and the pint of milk on the front step first thing in the morning, along with the reassuring sounds of the Home Service on the wireless.

Martin's, 2021

All of which dates me to that generation which grew up in the 1940s and 50s.

But as I am in danger of sliding into nostalgia I will stop, and  reflect on the passing of the newsagent.

Nor am I alone because my old friend Lawrence emailed with a picture of the one in the precinct, adding 

“You can count the number of newsagents in Chorlton on one hand but twenty years ago they were in every parade of shops. 

Another one about to disappear is Martins in Chorlton Mall. 

It was called Forbuoys for a while. I liked when it was trading as R S Mcoll named after the famous Scottish footballer. Supposedly Robert Smyth McColl used some of his signing on money from Newcastle United to invest in his younger brother’s Tom Naismith McColl’s shops”.

Etchell's, 2020

I doubt that any newsagent made much money from selling papers, they were just the loss leaders, with the real money coming from sweets, tobacco and a range of other things including in some cases a private lending library, where books could be borrowed for a small fee.

We can all call up reasons for the demise of the newsagent, from the relentless dominance of news by other means, be it online platforms, 24 hour rolling news on the television and radio or the move by supermarkets to add newspapers to the countless variety of things they sell.

Mr. Nixon's shop, 1911

So that is it ………. fewer of us have bothered to heed the message, “use it or lose it”, leaving us on Beech Road, with just the one traditional newsagent and other parts of Chorlton with none.

Other than to say in 1911 there 492 newsagents across the city, while here in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, we had four who were up with the lark selling all the news that was fit to read, and much I guess that wasn't.

They were Lionel Nixon, 44 Beech Road, Robert Sowerbutts, 105 Manchester Road, Walter Tole, 65 Whitelow Road,and Robert Greig Wilson, 64 Sandy Lane.

To which over the rest of that century there were more. 

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Martins, 2021, from the collection of Lawrence Beedle, Etchell's, 2020, from the collection of  Andrew Simpson, and Mr. Nixon's shop, 1911, courtesy of Rita Bishop