The search that connects Chorlton with a British War Cemetery in the Netherlands

There is just an outside chance that there is someone who remembers Mr. and Mrs. Chetham who lived at Grindley Avenue in Chorlton.

The grave of Arthur Chetham, 2021, Nederweert

They were there from at least 1939 and possibly earlier, and it will be from there that their son Arthur went off war and Joyce, their daughter went off to be married.

She married Arthur Sutton in 1945, and may have stayed local.

I am not sure when her brother enlisted, or his early career in the army, but in 1944 he was in the 8th Battalion of the Royal Scots which was raised on August 2nd 1939.  This fits, because he was already away from the family home at the beginning of  September of that year. 

His battalion stayed in the UK until June 1944 when it landed in Normandy  and fought at the Battle for Caen in Operation Epsom,  and later at the Second Battle of the Odon and Operation Bluecoat. 

The battalion then fought in the North West Europe Campaign, from Paris to the Rhine, until the end of the war.

They entered Belgium in September, crossed the Rhine in March 1945, and advanced to Hamburg by the end of the war.*

Arthur was killed on October 31st 1944, between the villages of Asten, Liessel and Neerkant, during the advance through the Netherlands and is buried in the British War Cemetery at Nederweert.

I doubt I would ever have come across his story were it not from the appeal posted by Jürgen Beekers on social media asking for help to track down information on this young man who is one of 363 Commonwealth servicemen who buried in the Nederweert war cemetery.

Candles lit on Christmas Eve, 2020

Many of whom have been adopted by residents in the region around the municipality of Nederweert, which is co-ordinated by The Adoption Graves Foundation of the Nederweert War Cemetery, and involves visiting an adopted grave several times a year, which might be on the birthday of the dead serviceman and annually on Remembrance Day and Christmas Eve when candles are lit on the graves.

In the case of Private Chetham, there was little known, other than that he was the son of Arthur James Chetham and Edith Emily Chetham of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Jürgen’s appeal was successful and while we still do not know too much about Arthur, there is a better understanding of his family, and in the course of the next week we should know exactly when he was born, which will assist in commemorating his birthday in a simple ceremony at his grave.

And that brings me back to the hope that someone may know something of the family, and perhaps have a picture of our young soldier.

The position of Private Chetham's grave marked with a  red circle, 2021

Tantalisingly, there are a number of family historians who have included Arthur’s parents on their family trees deposited on the genealogical platform, Ancestry.

It may just be possible that these family historians have links to others who knew the Chetham’s.

And while I await developments I will track down a reference to Arthur in the Manchester Evening News, and research the regimental diaries of the 8th Battalion for October 1944.

Unit of the 8th Battalion, October 27th, 1944 outside Tilburg

By chance I came across a photograph of the 8th Royal Scots pausing during the attack on Tilburg, on October 27th.  Tilburg is roughly 66 km north of Nederweert.  

Today the journey south to where Private Arthur Chetham died takes just about 48 minutes by car and one and a half hours by train.

So far it is the closest I have got to him, but at least, a little of the story of a young man from Chorlton-cum-Hardy who was killed 77 years ago has come out of the shadows, and will help those in Nederweert, honour his memory.

Location; Nederweert

Pictures; Infantry and carriers of 8th Royal Scots pause during the attack on Tilburg in the Netherlands, October 27th, 1944, Sergeant Laing, No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Imperial War Museum, Nederweert War Cemetery , 2020-2021, courtesy of The Adoption Graves Foundation of the Nederweert War Cemetery, and the collection of Jürgen Beekers

*Royal Scots, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Scots

** The Adoption Graves Foundation of the Nederweert War Cemetery https://adoptiongravesnederweert.com  

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 14 Back Pool Fold

Now Back Pool Fold has already featured in the series, but I couldn't resist taking a walk down its twisty progress from Chapel Walks to Cross Street.




And until sometime in the early 19th century it ran hinto Pool Fold, hence its name as Back pool Fold.






Enough said.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Back Pool Fold, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Writing the history of Covid ............ remembering the loss

It is of course far too soon to write the history of the Pandemic.

We are still in the midst of the thing, and the full story with all its twists and turns, along with much that still sits in the shadows await historians of the future.

They may have the distance and the perspective to pass a judgement on how it came about, the degree to which national governments and international agencies responded in an effective way and the long term impact of this terrible year.

So I won't attempt any such account, instead I will fall back on another of those occasional series which looks to chronicle the pandemic moments.

These have included the pictures taken by people on their lockdown  “essential walks” and examples of how we have started to commemorate those who have died.

A few week ago it was the Covid Wall on the south bank of the River Thames, which was recorded by Paula Griffin.*

And today there are two pictures from David Harrop.

The first is of the memorial tree in Southern Cemetery, and the second is David’s own contribution which can be seen in the Remembrance Lodge of the cemetery, and which includes not only a reference to the present pandemic but to the work of nurses during the last two World Wars.

And there is more which includes medals, photographs, and other memorabilia from both of those conflicts, some of which relate directly to people who are buried in the cemetery.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Pictures; Pictures from the Pandemic, 2021, from the collection of David Harrop.

* The Covid Memorial Wall …………. London ….. today, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-covid-memorial-wall-london-today.html

Remembering the 363 ......... by the residents of Nederweert in the Netherlands

How we remember those who died in past conflicts will vary, from the personal gravestone to the grand monuments which stand in prominent places across the country.  

The War Cemetery, Nederweert, 2021

And also, on the type of occasions when we come together from the small event to mark the death of a family member to the large ceremonies on Remembrance Day.  

All of which is an introduction to an inspiring project from the Netherlands, where people in the region around the municipality of Nederweert are encouraged to adopt the war grave of a Commonwealth serviceman buried in the local British Military Cemetery.   

The initiative is co-ordinated by the Adoption Graves Foundation of the War Cemetery, and is approved and supported by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.*  

Candles lit on Christmas Eve, 2020

At the centre of the Foundation’s work is the recognition of the sacrifice made by those allied servicemen who fought “for the liberation of the region around the municipality of Nederweert from September 1944 to February 1945.  

Many British soldiers who fell in Nederweert, and the surroundings and then on their way to Germany were buried in the, Mgr. Kreijelmansstraat in Nederweert.  

Many crews who died in plane crashes also found their final resting place here.  

Flags at half mast, Remembrance Day, 2020

They came from the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and from countries of the British Commonwealth (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India). 

A total of 363 graves remind us of the sacrifices made for our liberation. After the liberation, an adoption register was established.  This "old" register is now being digitally renewed.  

This new initiative is a tribute to those who had the courage to fight for the freedom and rights of their fellow human beings. 

The freedom and rights that our society sometimes nonchalantly deals with today. 

Flowers at Arthur Hope's grave, Remembrance Day, 2020

The initiative is supported by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Bond van Wapenbroeders dept. Ospel, the Municipality of Nederweert and is already finding widespread interest among the residents of Nederweert and far beyond.”  

I first became aware of the Foundation’s work when Jürgen Beekers who lives in the Netherlands posted an appeal for help on social media. 

“My name is Jürgen Beekers and I am living in the Netherlands, in a village called Meijel.  

I was born and grown up in Neerkant a small village near Meijel.  

Last year I adopted the grave of Private Arthur Hope, 8th Bn. Royal Scots, 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division (KIA 02-11-1944).   

Arthur was killed during the liberation of Neerkant and I am proud and honoured to have been assigned to adopt his grave.   

Arthur is buried in the Nederweert War Cemetery. Nederweert is a village close to Meijel.   

The adoption of the grave was made possible by the Adoption Graves Foundation of the Nederweert War and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.   

Flowers at Arthur Hope's grave on his birthday, 2020

All 363 graves in this cemetery have now been adopted by residents of the Netherlands.   

Some graves have also been adopted by residents from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and Brazil.   

The adoption of a grave involves visiting the grave several times a year (we visited for example Arthur’s grave on his birthday and on the day he died) and attending commemorations that are organized annually on Remembrance Day and on Christmas Eve (on Christmas Eve candles are lit on the graves of the Cemetery).     

Because of my knowledge of the events during the Second World War in the Meijel/Neerkant/Liessel region, the board of the Adoption Graves Foundation of the Nederweert War Cemetery has asked me to participate in a research group that investigates the soldiers buried in the Nederweert War Cemetery.   

They assigned me the fallen soldiers who served in the Royal Scots Regiment.   

One of the soldiers I am researching on behalf of the research group is Private Arthur Chetham. Arthur was the son of Arthur James Chetham and Edith Emily Chetham of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.  

The War Cemetery, Nederweert, 2021

However, we don't have much information about him and so I am asking if you happen to have more information about him.   

Private Arthur Chetham was in the same unit as Arthur Hope and was killed between the villages of Asten, Liessel and Neerkant, 3 days before Arthur Hope was killed”.  

It took just a day to find out that Private Arthur Chetham’s parents and older sister lived on Grimley Avenue in Chorlton, and were there from at least 1939 through to the death of his father twenty  years later.  

And as so often happens the research has uncovered a lot about his parents but less so far about him.  

 In particular while I know he was born in the last quarter of 1924 and was registered in the Barton Upon Irwell Registration District, we don’t as yet have an exact date which is important if an adoptee wants to visit the grave on his birthday.  

Candles lit on Christmas Eve, 2020

But that bit of research is in hand, and I hope to be able to pass the date over to Jürgen.  

For now, that is it, leaving me just to thank Jürgen and all those in Nederweert for their efforts to honour these men.  

Location; Nederweert, the Netherlands  

Pictures;  Nederweert War Cemetery , 2020-2021, courtesy of The Adoption Graves Foundation of the Nederweert War Cemetery, and the collection of Jürgen Beekers

* The Adoption Graves Foundation of the Nederweert War Cemetery https://adoptiongravesnederweert.com  

Shopping in Chorlton at Adsega …… which became Tesco and Hanbury’s ……. Supermarkets I have known

Now, I have to admit I never shopped at Adsega in Chorlton, but friends did and have told me so.

Marion Jackson was the first telling me “When Adsega/Tesco opened at Chorlton office my mother carefully obeyed the sign telling her to take a basket. We had it for years!”,

Which was followed by Craig who commented “People don't believe me when I say there was a Supermarket called Adsega. Thank you!!”, and David who added “Remember my mother shopped there when I was young, when she mentioned Adsega some thought she meant Asda".

So, that set me going and the first port of call was Company House, from which I discovered that Adsega was registered in 1959, “to carry on business as wholesale and retail grocers” as well as "producers, manufacturers and importers” of a variety of food". *

It had a short life and its 47 stores were acquired by Tesco in 1965, which I guess was when its shop in the former cinema on Barlow Moor Road became part of the new retail empire before the building was sold on to, Hanbury’s.**

At present I don’t have a picture of the Chorlton Adsega, but I bet someone has a photograph of the shop on Barlow Moor Road, or maybe even other bits of ephemera, from shopping bags, receipts a loyalty card.

In the meantime, I like the way, a little bit of our forgotten past as come out of the shadows.

And it follows on from an earlier story about self service stores in Chorlton, which included the comment that the book on the arrival of supermarkets and how they were greeted has yet to be written.

So, thank you to Marion Jackson,  Craig Henderson and David Wilson with the expectation that this is just the beginning.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; the former cinema on Barlow Moor Road which became an Adsega, m09248, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass


*Adsega, 

** How Many Companies Does Tesco Own?


*** A Chorlton revolution ……….. the self-service shop

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 12 Chancellery Lane

Now I had wandered over to Spring Gardens to find Concert Lane and instead rediscovered this last bit of Chancellery Place most of which is broad enough but then narrows as it does a slight twist and opens up on Pall Mall.

Both of them are streets I have known for forty years and just rather took them for granted, but now I am wandering them all over again

Location; Manchester








Picture; Chancellery Place, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Things they didn't tell you about Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme ....... the new book

 I like the way that local authors Michael Billington and Bob Potts have fallen back on an old tradition in publishing their new book, Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme, A Collection of Antiques and Curios.*

It is that simple but unique practice of inviting subscribers to donate in advance the cost of the publication and in return get both a copy and their names listed in the book.

It is a neat way of calling up some capital to fund the printing of the book, but for the historian offers up some fascinating insights into who supported the project. 

So, my copy of Reminiscences Manchester Fifty Years Ago, by Josiah Thomas Slugg, published in 1881, has an interesting list of the good and not so good who felt the book was worthy of support.

Bob Potts

And no doubt Michael and Bobs book will do the same, after all it takes “a look at the quirkier side of life in the area over the last hundred years and beyond”, and reveals things that other local history books have not deemed appropriate but are they stepping stones of history.

So here are the stories of  Lillicrap's Hone, Leeming's concrete incinerator made in the shape of a tree trunk, the reason why the local policeman  paid children for sparrows' heads and crows' legs.

And sets out to answer the questions of  “Who was the Davyhulme Yank? 

What are the “Seven Sisters”? Where was the concrete map of England and Wales? 

What was Push Plough Field? Who was Tim Bobbin? What was a “tin tabernacle”? 

Micahel Billington

And what is the connection between Hollywood actor George Coulouris (star of Citizen Cane and Murder on The Orient Express) and Urmston?” 

The book costs £15.99 and is available from Urmston Bookshop, Flixton Road, and at www.eponarecords.com  on ebay and from the Michael Billington.

Sadly Bob Potts passed away in February 2021 and the book is dedicated to him and it is to be hoped that his invaluable contribution to the book will serve as a testament to his passion and dedication for local history.

There is a list of subscribers and interested readers can contact the author to be included in this list. 

For further details contact …..Michael Billington, 07772318058,  m.billington90@btinternet.com"**

Location; Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme

* Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme:, A Collection of Antiques and Curios, Michael Billington and Bob Potts, Mike Billington and Bob Potts, publishing date, May 1st 2021

**Press release, April, 2021

If it’s Monday …… it’s washing day ……. keeping Chorlton clean in 1851

Of course, I doubt people still stick to set days for set tasks, and the arrival of the washing machine has made any day wash day.

Washing day, Chorlton, 2021

Back in the 1850s it was very different.

Here in Chorlton, many married working women washed other peoples’ clothes, either by attending at the customer’s house or washing them at home. *  

In 1851 there were 23 of them and most were married with some of the younger ones working alongside their mothers.  They were by and large concentrated along the Row, up by Lane End and in a cluster by the Royal Oak in Renshaws Buildings. **  

Ceylon, 1944

Before the widespread use of hot water and soap, the traditional way of washing clothes was by using cold water and homemade alkalis to dissolve the grease. For centuries wood ash was the most common material for dissolving grease.  

The real work came after soaking the clothes in the solution of water and wood ash and involved forcing water through the fibres using a wooden bat.  At its simplest this was just a matter of hitting the clothes with the bat before wringing out the water using a wringing post set in the ground.  

The clothes were wrapped around the post and by degree the clothes were wrung dry.  Here in the township there were ready supplies of water but not that close for our washer women up by Renshaw’s Buildings who relied on nearby wells.  Some however would have been employed by the wealthier members of the township to come to the house and do the washing there.

Pictures; washing day in Chorlton, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward

Adapted from The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Simpson Andrew, 2012, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

*Thompson, Flora, Candleford Green 1943,  from Lark Rise to Candleford, Penguin Classics, London,  2000 Pages 494-495 Miss Lane employed a professional washerwoman for two days every six weeks, arriving at 6 in the morning

** The Row is now Beech Road, Lane End is where High Lane, and what was Barlow Moor Lane and Sandy Lane meet, and Renshaw’s Cottages are on the site of the present Royal Oak

When the ghost sign wasn’t .... travels through Nunhead

It will be pretty much 60 years since I last walked down Avingnon Road, and even then it will have been just one of the many random adventures you do as a kid.

I am guessing that after playing in Pepys Park we set off in the general direction of Nunhead, with no particular plan fired by curiosity and the fact we never really strayed far from Lausanne Road where I spent my early years.

And what set off these memories was Paula’s picture of the ghost sign on the corner building.

Now ghost signs are all that is left of a product or business which once advertised by having their names and products painted on the walls of buildings.

So, this one attracted me, if for no other reason than I liked Hovis.

But the sign is false, dating only from sometime between April 2015 and May 2016, and was originally for Daren Bread, the ad reading “A Taste for Daren Bread”.

Which of course set me researching Daren Bread which  was a household name in the 1890s through into the next century, and the answers came from a delightful site on London Walking Tours.*

It was produced from flour ground at the Daren Mill in Dartford Kent.  

The Mill went bankrupt in the 1930s and Daren Bread was merged into the Hovis brand and  phased out.

So, the new sign sort of makes sense, but ghost sign sadly it ain’t. 

However, for those of an inquiring mind, the original can be found on street google from 2008 till that change roughly four years later.

I will have clocked the old sign, but I doubt it would have registered.

Location; Nunhead

Picture; the Hovis sign, 2021, from the collection of Paula Griffin

*DAREN BREAD - THE GIFT OF GIFTS, London Walking Tours, https://www.london-walking-tours.co.uk/secret-london/daren-bread.htm 

An adventure, a fish market and the promise of some gruesome stories ..... Saturdays at the Tower of London part 1

Now the thing about adventures is that they are best done with friends.

It lessens the risks and more importantly offers up plenty of opportunities to relive the events which with the retelling become more exaggerated and all the more memorable.

That said there was always one place I did on my own and that was the Tower of London.

I may well have done the odd trip with Jimmy but I was best pleased when I did it alone which allowed me to explore the place for as long as I wanted, following  which ever guide took my fancy and above all just letting the walls, the stories and the exhibits work on my imagination.

And on a Saturday it was free to anyone under the age of 16 which meant that after buying the return ticket to London Bridge what was left of my pocket money could be spent on a packet of toffees and a couple of postcards of the Tower.

But as powerful an attraction as the place was it was just part of the day which began with the wait at Queens Road Station standing on the platform in the sky looking down between the gaps in the wooden floorboards at the ground below.

Once on the train there was the journey which got more exciting as the railway lines grew on either side offering up a shedload of other trains to stare at and making the arrival at London Bridge a pretty spectacular affair.

And there were all those flats, warehouses and factories to take in including the old Peak Frean biscuit plant which announced its presence by that thick sweet smell which lingered in the compartment long after the place had been passed.

But for me in anticipation of the Tower there was the walk across the old London Bridge with the warehouses fronting the south side of the river, each with their cranes and more often a ship lying alongside which was followed by the descent down a flight of dark steps to the Lower Road and the fish market

I usually got there around 10 on a Saturday by which time all the fish had been sold and apart from the odd porter there were just the men sweeping up.

That said there were still the odd bits of ice and discarded fish in the gutters and of course that all pervading smell.

A few hours earlier and the place would haven teeming with activity but even given the emptiness of the Lower Road there were those promising smaller roads including the one that led to the Monument which at the time had one of the best views across the City from its observational platform. And cost from memory 6d.

Not that I over dawdled around here for the prize was the Tower.

Pictures; The Tower of London , 2015 from the collection of Ryan Ginn and Billingsgate Fish Market, 1927, courtesy of MARK FLYNN POSTCARDS, http://www.markfynn.com/index.html

A little bit of Deansgate in Thornham

Now, for most of us history doesn’t get any better than when you can touch something from the past.

St John's Church, 1924

And when that something comes from a building which was demolished 90 years ago it just gets better.

The romantic in me remains fascinated at being able to hold an object which some one else long ago was familiar with.  

And it works on several different levels.  

First there is that link with a different time and possibly someone whose outlook and experiences were so different from my own, which sets off that imaginative trail of wondering who they were, and how their life turned out.  

Added to which there is that fanciful idea that somewhere will be that person’s fingerprints.

Interior of St James', 2021

But being realistic I know the chances of any fingerprints still being on the object are pretty remote, while trying to conjure up a past life is not very historical.

Still, I was quite excited when Mark Johnson responded to a story I posted on Deansgate, with “Is that the tower of St John’s Church - there are many items from St John’s Church installed in my church at St James Thornham near Royton and Rochdale - including the congregation pews and the historic wardens pews?”

And then proceeded to add some pictures, including at my request one of the exterior of the church, with the comment, “Pews from St John’s Deansgate including the historic Wardens Pews.  

St James Thornham was consecrated in 1928 which coincided with the sad demolition of St John’s Deansgate.  Sadly, St James’s  was never completed and is missing the Bell Tower, North Aisle and original vestries.”.

Interior of St James', 2021

But what a bonus, to have a collection of church furniture dating back to the late 18th century.

St John’s was established in 1769 and demolished in 1931. Its site is now that of St John's Gardens, situated between Lower Byrom Street, Byrom Street and Quay Street.*

My copy of The Stanger’s Guide to Manchester, published in 1850,  …. tells me that as well as having a peal of bells and a clock, “the church contains three galleries, in one of which there is a very good organ”, a collection of stained glass including “two coloured windows … under the south gallery which were brought from a convent at Rouen in France”.

Interior of St James', 2021

The “first marriage was not until 1804 … and the times of the service  on Sundays, are at half-past ten, and half-past six.”

So, while I will never now be able to attend either of those Sunday Services, a visit to the church of St James Thornham near Royton sems a neat link with the past.

Location; Manchester & Thornham

Interior of St John's 1994

Pictures; St John Street, and St John’s Church, 1924, Phipson-E-A, Watercolour, m80190, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and pews in at St James Thornham near Royton and Rochdale, 2021, from the collection of Mark Johnson, and the interior of St John's, 1894, H E Tidmarsh, Manchester Old and New, Vol 11, William Arthur Shaw, 1894

* St John’s Church, Manchester, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John%27s_Church,_Manchester

**The Stanger’s Guide to Manchester, H.G. Duffield, 1850, pages 27-28

A lost story ….. Hanburys, a cinema, some radios, and a man called Cohen

I wonder the what the future of the old Co-op store on Barlow Moor Road will be.

2019

At present the store is closed, and there are no planning applications in for a future use.

I won’t put any money on the building reopening as a cinema, which it was for 43  years, nor do I think a bar or even a supermarket seems likely.

But nature and developers abhor a vacuum, so I doubt we will have to wait too long.

And this seems an appropriate moment to look back at its story, since the builders first moved in to build that picture house in 1914.

The story of its time as a cinema is pretty well documented on the blog.

1928

Having opened in the May of 1914, it changed its name to the Palace around 1946, and closed in 1957.

For a while it was owned by Radio Rentals, and then sometime before 1969 it was taken over by Tesco and traded as such, until 1974.

This I know because of a reference in the planning records which record “Continuance of use of radio and television service centre as supermarket”.*

Now given that it was already trading as a Tesco store, I think this might have been the moment when it was sold on to Hanburys, which was a chain of stores across the north which had its origins, when Jeremiah Hanbury opened a small store in 1889 in Market Street, Farnworth, selling butter and bacon.

Forty years later the business was bought by Bolton wholesale grocers E.H. Steele Ltd, and in 1997 the 31 Hanbury’s stores in the north west were acquired by United Norwest Co-op.**

I liked Hannburys.

Early, 1960s

It was a no-nonsense place, which dispensed with elegance, and panache for branded goods sold a little cheaper than elsewhere.

And at Christmas its loyalty card was just that ……. a tiny piece of card which was stamped every time you shopped there during the months of December.

But like Kingy across the road it was viewed with affection by those who shopped there, and on a busy day there might be a few who remembered when the building had been our first purpose-built cinema.

Sadly, I don’t have any pictures of when it was Hanburys, but I bet there will be someone who does.


Pictures; the closed Co-op store, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, the Palais De Luxe cinema, circa 1928, Charles Ireland, GD10-07-04-6-13-01 courtesy of East Dunbartonshire Archives, and as Radio Rentals, circa early 1960s, courtesy of George Cieslik

*Manchester City Council Planning Portal, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=ZZZZZZBCXT638&activeTab=summary

**List of supermarket chains in the UK, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_supermarket_chains_in_the_United_Kingdom

The ingratitude of a new nation …… or international politics? ….. when America turned on the French Revolution …. on the wireless

The surrender of British forces at Yorktown, 1781

The Franco-American Alliance 1778, from the series In Our Time was broadcast on Thursday, and I listened to it today.

“Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the treaties France entered into with the United States of America in 1778, to give open support to the USA in its revolutionary war against Britain and to promote French trade across the Atlantic. 

This alliance had profound consequences for all three. The French navy, in particular, played a decisive role in the Americans’ victory in their revolution, but the great cost of supporting this overseas war fell on French taxpayers, highlighting the need for reforms which in turn led to the French Revolution. 

The Americans, 1781

Then, when France looked to its American ally for support in the new French revolutionary wars with Britain, Americans had to choose where their longer term interests lay, and they turned back from the France that had supported them to the Britain they had just been fighting, and France and the USA fell into undeclared war at sea.

With Frank Cogliano, Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh, Kathleen Burk, 

Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London, and Michael Rapport, Reader in Modern European History at the University of Glasgow*

Producer: Simon Tillotson”

Picture; Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, John Trumbull, 1820, showing the surrender of British forces to French and American forces after the Siege of Yorktown, September 28-October 19th, 1781, from the Rotunda of the US Capitol, Washington DC

* The Franco-American Alliance 1778, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v99n

Early morning on Beech Road ……

Something is stirring at what was Elk, and before that a succession of restaurants back to Primavera and before that a grocery shop to its beginnings as a “slaughterhouse” in the 1870s.

Beech Road, 2021

I have written about Mrs. Thorpe who took over the newly bought shop in 1879 and set up a new business.*

The very first tenant was a Mary Jane Kershaw and it is not clear what she sold in the shop but by the following year when Mrs Thorpe took over the tenancy it is listed as a “slaughter house” and she continued to do the business of selling meat from the property till the beginning of the 20th century.

Beech Road, 2020

For a while after that it was confectioner’s and then a bakery and later a grocer’s shop run by the Lambert family. 

I remember it as such and its conversion into a card and gift shop before it returned to its old connection with food.  For this was Primavera opened by Patrick Hannity in the early 1990s and then by degree becoming Beggars Bush and Mink before re opening as Elk.

Primavera was a very different restaurant to what had gone before in Chorlton and quite rightly drew customers from other parts of the city and out into Cheshire.

Its mix of imaginative dishes heavily influenced by the cuisine of the Mediterranean has been widely copied across Chorlton but seldom bettered.

And so the cycle begins again.

Location; Beech Road

Pictures, Beech Road, 2021, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Mrs. Thorpe, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Mrs+Martha+Thorpe

A new book on the story of British Home Children

The story of British Home Children is still one which is little known outside those whose relatives were migrated from Britain to Canada, and other parts of the former British Empire during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In Canada there is a growing interest, reflected in books and a variety of social media sites,  added to which the study of BHC has become a serious area of historical research.

Not so in Britain, where there are far fewer books and only the beginnings of an interest shown by academics, which in turn has yet to make an appearance in schools history.

So, I welcome any contribution to the collection of material written about the children who left Britain in the expectation that they would experience a better life in Canada.

And today I came across Seek and Ye Shall Find Me, by Annette McGarill who writes, “I have been researching my family history for many years. A passing reference in a 19th Century Glasgow Poor Law Record led to the discovery that two of my ancestors had been sent to Canada as child migrants in the 1870s by the Orphan Homes of Scotland. They left behind siblings, my great-grandparents. Feeling that this was a story that ought to be told, I have produced a novel based around the facts that I uncovered.

Orphaned at 8 years of age, Jane was put into a Children's Home, where the course of her life is changed forever. She left behind siblings, and the novel tells of their trauma at separation, their struggles with poverty and the different paths their lives took."

The book is available on Kindle, or in paperback by order from albionpublications@gmail.com 

In at the beginning …… Chorlton’s garden suburb …. and a puzzle

Now the story of  Chorltonville is pretty well known, and in essence is the story of a scheme to offer homes at affordable prices on what was still the edge of the countryside.

The Meade, 2018

The properties “were let at rentals of £24 a year and upwards and each tenant was a shareholder” and building was completed within two years.*

A whole raft of civic dignitaries had been invited to the opening day on October 7th 1911 and one of those who spoke was our own Mrs Jane Redford who was the first woman councillor elected in Chorlton.

She commented that the estate was “far removed from what was described as ‘brick boxes with slate lids,’ and as to the inside she was pleased to know that the rooms were bright, airy, and well ventilated, and provided with electric light (or gas if desired) and with gas for stoves and wash boilers.”**

Such was the praise for the new venture that the MP Mr. H Nuttall mused, “the curved roads and the houses of various designs in black and white make one feel almost that one was living in Elizabethan times”. ***

South Drive, circa 1912

All of which is well known, so today I shall explore the start of the project which comes in the form of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of Chorltonville, Limited, which dates from March 11th, 1909.

It is the standard legal document, laying out the names, addresses and details of the seven original subscribers, and the six directors, along with the objects of the company.

The capital was to be “Twenty-five thousand pounds, divided into three thousand ordinary shares of five pounds each, and two thousand preference shares of five pounds each”.**** 

Memorandum and Articles of Association, 1911

Five months later the capital of the company was "increased to £30,000 by the creation of 400 additional Preference shares of £5 each”.***** 

The directors were William Brewerton, James Herbert Dawson, James Evans, Charles Green, Thomas Hodgson Shillinglaw, and William John Vowels, who along with William Hammersley were also the original subscribers. Two of them were estate agents, one a “Shippers Manager”, another “a Provision Merchant”, and a Grocer and pawnbroker.

The Plan of Chorltonville Estate, date unknown

Added to this document there are a heap of other papers relating to one particular house on South Meade which show that the particular property was bought from Chorltonville Ltd in 1926 and remained in the possession of the owner until 1980 when it was bought by the present occupant.

Added to this there is a fascinating plan of the estate, detailing all the individual houses, the bowling green, tennis courts and children’s corner.

And the plan has one surprise for me, and that is the section of what we now call Brookburn Road which runs past the school and out onto the Meadows is listed as Altamont Road, and was bordered by the farm and eight cottages.

Altamont Road, date unknown

And here it all becomes a bit more complicated, because the directories show Altamont Road as Brook Road, but the number of properties do not match.  

The 1911 directory lists nine properties and the census return even more.****** 

 All of which is compounded by the census return for a decade earlier which does not record a Brook Road, but does include a Dean Lane. 

So, at the last hurdle of what I thought would be a paragraph rounding off the story we are presented with a whole new set of puzzles.

But history is messy, and the fun is trying to find the way through.

So, I shall just conclude by saying there is more on the story of Chorltonville, in the book The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, which is available from  http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or Chorlton Book shop, 506 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9AW 0161 881 6374

Location; Chorltonville

Pictures; The Mead, 2018, from The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, South Drive, 1912, from the Lloyd Collection, Memorandum and Articles of Association, 1911, and plan, courtesy of Laura Hopkins

* Mr J.H. Dawson, Chorltonville, Opening of a New Garden Suburb, Manchester Guardian, October 9, 1911

** Mrs J. Redford, ibid, Chorltonville, Opening of a New Garden Suburb

*** Ibid, H. Nuttall, Opening of a New Garden Suburb, Manchester Guardian, October 9, 1911

****Memorandum and Articles of Association of Chorltonville, Limited, March 11, 1911

****ibid Memorandum, July 14th, 1911

*****Census Enu 11 154, Didsbury, South Manchester, 1911