From Radium Street to North Wales and back via [Little] Italy .... more from Anthony Hewitt

Radium Street late German Street and in particular, British Road Services Parcels with their fleet of green vans, hold some fond memories for me, a lad born in Cheshire and raised in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. 

Ancoats, Radium Street, 1962

BRS, or Sutton’s as they were commonly known, were a family firm to me and others since sons often followed in the footsteps of their fathers into work as drivers or bank staff. My use of the term bank has more in common with canals and rivers than with money and referred to the warehouse floors, which were raised above the height of railway station platforms for ease of moving parcels to and from vans or trailers. 

The BRS Parcels building had occupied the entire block bounded by Radium Street, Loom Street, Poland Street and George Leigh Street. Within the large entrance archway, there had been a cobbled road wide enough for 2 motor vans to park side-by-side. In the days of horse vans and trailers, which had been far more manoeuvrable, direct access from either loading bank would have been easily arranged.

The loading banks had stretched almost the full length on both sides of the roadway and by the 1950s had been connected by a drawbridge, located approximately half-way, and which bridge had facilitated direct access to vans and trailers. Access from the road to the loading banks had been via wooden ramps, which after a short landing space on the loading bank, the wooden slopes continued to reach the stables on the upper floor. Those wooden ramps had been fitted with wood laths or strips laid across at regular intervals, which had assisted horses climbing up to, or descending from, their stables. My exploration of the upper floors, as a child visitor one Saturday morning in the early 1950s had satisfied an inquisitive mind that there had indeed been stables and horses up there. – and with some straw remaining scattered across the floor as proof. 

Ancoats, Naval Street, transport warehouses, 1962

The loading bank facing onto the narrow Loom Street had loading bay doors for lorries and vans parked in the road outside. Originally built for use with horse-drawn trailers, these had to wait demolition of the terraced back-to-back houses located on Loom Street and Naval Street before access by rigid chassis motor lorries and trailers would become possible. Both of the loading banks had been sub-divided by wood partitions labelled for other BRS Parcels depots and the main trunk sorting depots. On the Loom Street side those partitioned areas had corresponded to the adjacent loading bay doors allocations.

The offices had been located immediately to the right of the road entrance off Radium Street, beside Loom Street, although the toilet facilities had not been so conveniently located (for the office staff) being halfway along the opposite loading bank.

Ancoats, 11A Radium Street, 1939 Register 

Facing the offices across the cobbled roadway was the former home to Sutton’s Ostler or in modern parlance, Horse-keeper, officially known as 11A Radium Street. The 1939 Register records the occupant of the home as Edward Nield, Horse-keeper, Sutton. Edward had lived in that home with his disabled wife, Margaret, and their unmarried daughter Mary.

Drivers at Suttons had been divided between 2 groups, for local and long-distance trips. One of those trips would take a trailer loaded with parcels for London to a transport café on the A45 near Daventry where the drivers would stop for rest and refreshment. Whilst there, he (there were no lady drivers) would meet with a driver bringing a similar load from London, and they would exchange their trailers then return to their home depot. Local trips would be around Manchester area and as far as Warrington, for example. 

Ancoats, Radium Street, Former Site of BRS Parcels, 2013

BRS Parcels had been established as a consequence of the nationalisation of road transport in 1948. Pickfords, the removals and storage company had also been nationalised at the same time. A decision had seen BRS Parcels become part of National Freight Corporation (NFC) in 1969, and which event resulted in closure of the Radium Street depot, followed by demolition of the buildings at a date not yet known to me. The site of BRS Parcels is now occupied by single-storey industrial units. BRS Parcels undertook a journey into oblivion via NFC, Roadline and Lynx Express to disappear as part of United Parcels Services (UPS).

Prior to nationalisation, Pickfords, Sutton & Co., and Carter Patterson (located at Mayfield Station) had been owned by the ‘Big Four’ railway companies, LMSR, LNER, GWR and SR*.

The ‘Big Four’ had acquired the companies from Hays Wharf Cartage Co., in 1933*, which company had in their turn taken control of Pickfords Ltd in 1920, 2 years prior to my father starting work for Sutton & Co. Pickfords had merged with Sutton & Co., Manchester Parcels Delivery Company, Carter Patterson and London Parcels Delivery Company in 1912*. All the road transport companies had retained their original identities until nationalisation. That now leaves me an unanswered question. Who were Sutton & Co.?

Lewis’s 1788 Directory** has no listing for either person of firm in the name of Sutton but does record Matthew Pickford in business as a Carrier. Being mindful that road-mender Thomas Pickford*** had started his transport business in Adlington, Cheshire, as long ago as 1646, it seems that any attempt to research the origin of Sutton & Co., of Radium Street, Ancoats, is perhaps best left for a future story.

My father, Charles, had left Nelson Street school, aged 14, to start work at Sutton’s, as BRS Parcels were then known, as a Van Boy helping to collect and deliver parcels in Manchester. He had later worked as a Van Driver, according to my birth certificate, sometime thereafter, my Dad had started to work a permanent Night Shift as Bank Foreman. As my Dad only took his first driving lessons after retirement, I know that the van he had driven was one-horse power and had been fed and watered before he set off.

It was during the early 1950s that Dad took me to work with him on Saturday mornings. In the mid-1950s, I graduated to be an unofficial Van Boy helping my older brother, also named Charles, assisting with parcels deliveries in and around Warrington. My Dad – and my Mum had made an unfortunate mistake when they bought me a Meccano set for Christmas 1952. Their well-intentioned present led me astray and instead of following my big brother into the “family firm” as they had hoped, I started my career in engineering with British Railways.

Like most manual workers in the 1950s, my father’s wage packet would have been small, so together with his workmates had used means to ease their difficulties (for comparison, when I started work in 1963, skilled technical staff on the railway had been paid 254/- (£12.70p) per week (wages had then been accounted in shillings) weekly. Prior to the NHS medical care would often require some form of payment. BRS Parcels, and Sutton’s before them, had facilitated membership of the Hospital Saturday Fund, which cost less than 1/- (5p) per week. Another method had involved a Christmas Club, known colloquially as the Diddl’em, which required a weekly contribution starting in January each year. Each week my Dad would pay a different amount, the first week One Farthing would be paid, the second week One Half-Penny, the third week One Penny, after which the amount increased every week until December, when my Dad could take his savings back to fund Christmas Dinner and presents.

Located in the heart of Little Italy, Suttons / BRS parcels had been very much a part of the community. Every year on Whit Sunday, the congregation of St Michael’s Church had joined in a procession of their faith through the streets, which is still held to this day and known by all and sundry as “The Italians.” One year, I had been privileged to watch the parade from high up in Victoria Buildings, more commonly known as ‘The Dwellings’. Whilst my memories of the pipe bands, banners, children in white shirts or dresses and adults in traditional Italian clothes are still fresh, quite who had lived in the flat and their possible connections to my father have long ago been lost / forgotten in the mists of time or perhaps never known to me.

Pantasaph Monastery, Souvenir Prayer Book, 1958

In 1958, my father had taken my younger brother and I on a coach trip to visit Holywell and Pantasaph Monastery in North Wales, from which visit I still have my souvenir prayer book. It is only in last few years that I have read Manchester’s Little Italy**** and information that they held an annual pilgrimage to the same places. That is, for me, evidence of early connections between my family, the Italian community of Ancoats, and continuing throughout my career and their global diaspora, however, tenuous any such links might be.

My father had achieved a feat that I could not even contemplate as a possibility in my career. Upon his retirement from BRS Parcels in 1973, my father had completed 51 years of service at Sutton & Co. / BRS Parcels. My father, Charles Hewitt, may be identified in his retirement photograph by noting a red mark below his feet.

Ancoats, Naval Street, BRS Parcels, Charles Hewitt Retirement, 1973

Photographs:courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, 

Ancoats, Radium Street, T. Brooks, 1962, Manchester Libraries, m10531: https://images.manchester.gov.uk/web/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=45255&reftable=ecatalogue&refirn=8260

Ancoats, Naval Street, transport warehouses, T. Brooks, 1962, Manchester Libraries, m10306:

https://images.manchester.gov.uk/web/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=45029&reftable=ecatalogue&refirn=7997 

Pantasaph Monastery, Souvenir Prayer Book, 1958, John Anthony Hewitt Collection

Ancoats, Naval Street, BRS Parcels, Charles Hewitt Retirement, 1973, John Anthony Hewitt Collection

Ancoats, Radium Street, Former Site of BRS Parcels, 2013, John Anthony Hewitt Collection

Census:

Ancoats, 11A Radium Street, 1939 Register [Extract], Find My Past:

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=TNA/R39/4530/4530D/010&parentid=TNA/R39/4530/4530D/010/01 

References:

* Pickfords; Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History: www.gracesguide.co.uk/pickfords 

** Manchester and Salford Directory 1788, Lewis’s Manchester Directory for 1788, reprinted / republished by Neil Richardson, Radcliffe, Manchester

*** The History of Pickfords: www.pickfords.co.uk/pickfords-history 

**** Manchester’s Little Italy, Anthony Rea, printed / published by Neil Richardson, Radcliffe, Manchester