Varese in September …… no. 16 …..a room with a view

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

And from Rosa's balcony there are superb views across the fields to the lakes beyond.

Mind you during the daytime you can't avoid the crane working on the new Esselunga store, which sits in a dip in the land but will be hidden by the trees 

Location; Varese

Picture; a  room with a view, Varese, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 15 …..the rest room

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Windows to watch …… Beech Road …… August 2021

Never miss an opportunity to record retail art.

I watched with interest the transformation of what was the old chippy on Beech Road, via a gift shop into Framed the Opticians, which has now added this window display.

I like it ……… it appeals to that quirky side of me.

And I wonder what Mr. Chan would have made of it.  During the 1970s into the 80s his family offered up wonderful chip suppers along with an excellent range of Chinese dishes. 

I didn’t ask Framed for permission to use their window display, but I am sure they won’t mind …… well I hope so.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; Let’s Be Iconic, Framed, Opticians, 113 Beech Road, Chorlton, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 14 …..eating out

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

It's on the Via Carlo Avegno, and occupies what was once an estate agency, having moved a few doors down from its previous location, which in turn is now a travel agency.  The world of the takeaway egg is filled with adventure.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 13 …..messaging

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A Cautionary Tale .....Owning up to a Mistake ... another story from Tony Goulding

How I came to discover it is of no importance, however, I have found a grave error in one of the stories I submitted to the Blog last year. 

This was in the story of the Pownall family of 67, High Lane posted on the 17th June, 2020. In the interests of historical accuracy, I thought I should own my mistake and put the record straight.

The story concerned Dr. Arthur Edward Pownall and his wife Marianne Elizabeth Ada (née Du Terreaux) but more especially the subsequent lives of their five children. It is in one of these that the error was made. The fourth child, George Noel Du Terreaux was born on Boxing Day, 1887. He studied engineering at The University of Manchester, qualifying in July 1914 and moved to Bristol to work in its fledgling aircraft manufacturing industry. 

He returned to Manchester to marry his first wife Dorothy Marguerite Heslop, the daughter of a prominent Manchester surgeon, at St. Gabriel’s, Hulme on the 23rd December, 1915. This is where I went astray!  I discovered that George Noel had married a second wife, Gladys Winifred Stokes the former wife of Edward Stanley Roe, in Headington,  Oxfordshire in the December quarter of 1927. I then erroneously assumed, as divorces were still quite rare in the 1920s, that Dorothy Marguerite had died and looked for a likely entry in the death records. 

Compounding my mistake, I went on to misread the name of the young lady who had died in the West Ham area of London in the March quarter of 1925. Her name was actually Dorothy May Penniall and, I state with some little trepidation, she was born in the September quarter of 1894 in the Richmond (Surrey) registration district. Her father, Arthur, was a lithographic artist and poster designer and her mother was Minnie (née Jennings).

George Noel and Dorothy Marguerite were in fact divorced at the Bristol Assizes on Monday 15th November, 1926.  His wife had petitioned for a divorce on the grounds that George had deserted her and their 5-years-old daughter, Margaret, and was residing with another woman at 34, St. Paul’s Road, Clifton, Bristol.

The Avon Gorge, Clifton, Bristol

Dorothy Marguerite was granted a decree with costs and awarded custody of the child.

Both parties of the divorce had remarried within a year. The ex-Mrs. Pownall married William Moore in Lewisham, London in the September quarter of 1927.

To complete the story after George Noel’s second wife, Gladys Winifred, died in Honiton, Devon early in 1941, he married for the third time a shorthand typist, Edith Marjorie Chambers in the December quarter of 1942 in Bristol. The following year a son, Michael Du Terreaux Pownall, was born on the 12th August, 1943.

The moral of this story – never make assumptions and always double check your data.

Pictures: -Beulah House, High Lane (1959) by A. E. Landers (m 17922) Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information, and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass andThe Avon Gorge, Clifton, Bristol,By Arpingstone - Own work, Public Domain, File:Avon gorge and cave arp.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 12 …..patterns

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Six million accusers........ the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg

The German city of Nuremberg will mean different things to people.  

Maxbrücke in Nürnberg bei Nacht, 2012

For those born in the last decades of the 20th century it will be a pleasant German city, a place worth visiting for its university, castle, its cultural and culinary attractions and a heap of Renaissance art.

For my grandmother, who was born in Cologne in 1897, the city was that place where the Nazis held their rallies.  

She once told me she listened occasionally to the broadcasts of those rallies on her wireless in the back room of her home in Derby, with a mix of mounting anxiety and revulsion. 

And for me, born just four years after the end of the last world war it is forever linked to the the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, which sat from November 1945 till October 1946, and oversaw the prosecution of leading members of the Nazi State, who planned or participated in the Holocaust and other war crimes.  

Verdict, David Low, 1945

The trials were conducted under international law and the laws of war and involved judges from the four main allied powers.

Now, I am not usually a fan of historical drama, but I will make an exception for Nuremburg which goes out today on the wireless at 2.15. 

In all there are eight episodes which explore various aspects of the events of the trials.  

The first, Welcome to the Ashcan, by Jonathan Myerson, sets the scene,  in the aftermath of the war’s end with Germany “in chaos – five million former soldiers, foreign nationals and those liberated from the concentration camps, all trying to get home. 

View from above of the judges' bench at the International Tribune, 1945

And hiding somewhere are the top Nazis.

Seen through the eyes of a US Army Sergeant at the stripped-out hotel in Luxembourg where the prisoners are taken, they track down and arrest Kaltenbrunner (Himmler’s Deputy), Frank (Governor of Occupied Poland) and others.

A Promenade production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds"

Location; Nuremburg, 1945-46

Picture; Maxbrücke in Nürnberg bei Nacht, Andreas Flohr, 2012, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license, Verdict, 1946, Low Visibility A Cartoon History, 1945-53, David Low, 1953, View from above of the judges' bench at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.  Photograph | Photograph Number: 61332, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, 1945 October 18 - 1946 October 01

* Nuremberg, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000z1k2

Walking through York’s past

Now I shouldn’t be surprised that this image of the Shambles in York from around 1902, is pretty much what you will still see today.

After all cities like York have an interest in retaining those bits which the tourists love to see and photograph.

Of course, the intervening century and a bit have seen a change in the businesses but there is still a food shop roughly where the butcher’s was located at the beginning of the last century.

And of course, it remains a reminder of the twisty turny narrow streets which dominated our medieval towns and cities.

My Wikipedia suggests that it was there at the time of the Conquest and many of the buildings along its length date from the 1350s through to 1475, some still retaining evidence of the association with the meat trade.*

And the house the card was sent to has also survived.

True it is not as old as the Shambles, but 127 Graham Road in Hackney is still there and looks to be late Victorian or Edwardian.

In time I will go looking for the directories for York and Hackney around 902 and see what else emerges about the story of the two places.

Location; York and Hackney

Picture; the Shambles from a picture postcard, sent in 1902 from the collection of Tony Goulding.

*The Shambles, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shambles

Lost and forgotten breweries of Manchester ......... nu 1 what a lot

It began as a discussion with Paul over the identity of this brewery on the corner of Ledger Street which was behind Miller Street. 

Ledger Street and that brewery. 1849

It shows up on both the 1849 OS map of Manchester and Salford and Mr Adshead’s  Twenty four Illustrated Maps of the Township of Manchester published two years later.

And as you do I went looking for it, staring with the 1850 street directory which along with listing most of the streets of Manchester & Salford, also includes the principal trades and householders.

Sadly the brewery on Ledger Street was not there but then nor was Ledger Street.

Some of our breweies, 1850

Instead I had to content myself with looking through the breweries which were in the directory, of which there were eight six.  Twenty two were in Salford and the rest were in Manchester.

To these could be added the very small enterprises which were no more than a family and a front room, who made their own beer and served it directly from their their home.

In time I am minded to go looking for all sixty four, finding out something about who they were and how long they survived.

I suspect some will have gone within a decade while others lasted into the following century and a few  will have survived until quite recently.

All of which brings me to  James Deakin’s brewery on Kenyon Street which was off Rochdale Road.

Now why I got Kenyon Street and Ledger Street mixed up I have no idea, but I did and for an hour roamed over the documents connected with Mr Deakin and there were a fair few.

He is there in the Rate Books in 1850 owning the “brewhouse” which had a rateable value of £33 which put his premises way above the neighbouring “workshops” but a minnow compared to the ironworks of John Rowcroft who paid £100.

Kenyon Street and Deakin's Brewey, 1850

That said Mr Deakin was doing well enough to live with his wife and son in Rusholme employing three servants.

A decade later they had moved to one of the posh bits of Ardwick living in a house which was big enough to accommodate their five children and three servants.

In time I will find out more about his business, but for now I uncovered a reference to the firm which “by the late 1880's the business was being run by James Henry Deakin, son of the brewer Henry Deakin. 

The title of the Manchester Brewery Company Limited was given to a newly-registered firm in 1888 when it was created to acquire the business of James Henry Deakin. The firm were based at the Britannia Brewery in Brodie Street, Ardwick, Manchester.”*

So that offers up a wealth of research opportunities and also opens up another line of enquiry because there was a George Deakin operating a brewery from 62 Butler Street just round the corner on Oldham Road.

None of which perhaps helps with finding our brewery on Ledger Street.

For that I suspect it will have to be a trawl of the Rates Books on a cold set day down at Central Ref.

Still someone has to do it.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; detail of Ledger Street 1849 from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1844-49 and detail of Kenyon Street, 1851 from  Adshead’s map of 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Pubs and Breweries of the Midlands,  http://www.midlandspubs.co.uk/breweries/lancashire/manchester-brewery.htm

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 11 ….. the cemetery

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Ghost Kingdoms of England ....... on the wireless

 Now,  I have listened to all four of the programmes.

 Replica of the helmet from the Sutton Hoo 

Together they tell the story of the four old English Kingdoms, of East Anglia, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex. 

This Union: The Ghost Kingdoms of England was broadcast on Radio 4, and are still available to listen to. 

"With current debate about the stability and durability of the United Kingdom, Ian Hislop felt it was a good time to explore how it was that England, the core of that union, came to be. In this series he tells the story of four great Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, East Anglia, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, celebrating their golden ages and trying to understand their journey from groupings of assimilated peoples from across the North Sea to powerful kingdoms, and ultimately a single entity.

In spite of a relatively limited written record, it's a period of history that is being constantly re-written, thanks to the impact of new archeological techniques and the rise of the amateur detectorists. Ian hears from authorities on the early medieval period including Michael Wood, Marc Morris, Janina Ramirez and the British Museums curator of Medieval coinage, Gareth Williams, as well as talking to people with local interests in the Anglo-Saxon story.

Sutton Hoo Gold Shoulder Clasp

He's on the look out for ways in which these regional identities have left a mark beyond the occasional use of their names for utility companies or railway services, and he explores the factors that kept the Kingdoms apart but eventually drew them together; common enemies, a unifying language, the church and the residual aspiration to be as the Romans once were.

In today's programme he begins in Colchester, a Roman stronghold which the arriving Angles and Saxons chose to leave alone. But not far up the coast is the place that revolutionised the study of Anglo-Saxon history when it was excavated just before the 2nd World War - Sutton Hoo. Was this the burial of one of the earliest of the great Kings of the Anglo-Saxon period in East Anglia's golden age".

Picture; Photograph by Gernot Keller,2008, of the replica of the helmet from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, produced for the British Museum by the Royal Armouries, I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license, and Sutton Hoo Gold Shoulder Clasp, https://www.flickr.com/people/robroy/ or http://www.roblog.com

*This Union: The Ghost Kingdoms of England, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000ydlb

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 10 …..roof tops

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Wearing the jewelry of bereavement ………..

 Now sooner or later any study of the Victorian period comes up against those elaborate practices surrounding bereavement.

Funeral symbolism,the Foster and Pawson families in Southern Cemetery, 2014

The most obvious starting point are our grand public cemeteries and parish grave yards with those tall, and elaborate monuments which stand between rows of more simple headstones.

Urns and Angels, 2016

And amongst these, there are a few which  are heavy with symbolism, like the broken pillar, the clasped hands and the Angel.

The broken pillar signifying a life cut short, the clasped hands suggesting  either hope of reunification in the next life, or farewell, while the Angel acts as a guide, guards the tomb, and directs the living visitor to think heavenward.

Added to these are the a variety of different urns.  "The Urn with a flame indicates new life and undying remembrance, while the draped Urn [stands for] death.*

And in the same way there was an elaborate set of practices around which the period of mourning was conducted. 

“There were three distinct mourning periods: deep mourning or full mourning, second mourning, and half-mourning. 

The length of time for each period would depend on the relationship with the deceased. 

For example, women were to be in deep mourning for two years after their husband’s death, essentially keeping them from being comforted by others”.*

Bereavement jewellry, 2021

During the first year the only jewelry permitted was a wedding ring and there after some could be worn but it had to be black or white, and tended to be made from Whitby jet, Irish bog oak, and artificial French jet or vulcanite.**

And it was examples of this “bereavement jewelry” which I came across in The Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate.  I had read about them and seen pictures, but there was something quite moving about looking at them in a cabinet and reflecting on the link with a real person who had mourned a loved one.***

Jet funeral art, 2021

Of course there is nothing unique about the story, and I must confess that some of the details have been culled  from others research, but none the less there is something very powerful about coming across your own bit of “bereavement art”.

Location, Southern Cemetery, Manchester, and The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate

Pictures;  the monument to the Foster and Pawson families in Southern Cemetery, 2014, and Victorian Mourning Jewelery, The Mercer Art Gallery, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Symbolism of Victorian Funerary Art, Undercliffe Cemetery Trust, Bradford,  https://www.undercliffecemetery.co.uk/gallery/funerary-art/

** Death and Mourning Practices in the Victorian Age, Victorian rules for the end of life, Marilyn A. Mendoza Ph.D., Psychology Today 2018, https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/understanding-grief/201812/death-and-mourning-practices-in-the-victorian-age

***The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 9 …..the corner shop

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Varese on a sunny day in September … no. 7 … the bar

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Of buses, barns and a Wesleyan church service

Now I wonder who caught the 132 or 134 from this bus stop opposite the parish churchyard, or for that matter where the bus went.

I can remember at one time there was a bus that came from town and dropped you on the green, but its number has long ago passed out of my memory.

On the rare occasion I did catch it, I ended up near the Horse and Jockey, which was always a surprise.

Leaving that aside the picture offers up a host of detail.

Just beyond that fence was the old barn which had belonged to the Higginbotham Farm and in the 1980s was used by the Walker Brothers.

Years later in a conversation with Tony Walker, it turns out that in the barn there had been a stone block with an inscription that in the barn the Wesleyans had held religious services which was confirmed by Thomas Ellwood, who during the winter and spring of 1885-86 wrote 26 articles on the history of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; looking up St Clements Road, 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 6 …..faded glory

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Inside an 18th century house in Didsbury

Looking back to 2014 ...... before that development.

This is the Pump House.  It has served as an educational institution of sorts since it became a boarding school around 1812.

Later it was turned into a theological college and later still into teacher training college.

And before that was a private residence dating back to about 1744.

The stone cladding to what was originally a brick building was added by the Wesleyans when they took it over in 1841.

They also added the wings at either side and that is what generations of people from Didsbury have seen as they pass by.

I remember it as the admin block when it was the Didsbury College of Education and it was where I attended meetings with teaching staff.

But soon it will all change again as the M.M.U. relocates to Birley Fields.

So for all of those who like me have not been inside since they graduated and for all those who just pass by and wonder what the inside is like, here are a few images from my old friend Pierre who works there and never ceases to enjoy both the place and his role as a teacher.

Something of the grandeur of the building is still there from when it was a private residence and home to the Broome family during the 18th century.

So there you have it, a bit of the building's history and some fine photographs.

And now its time as a college is almost over and as the staff begin to pack up I guess all sorts of records and historical information will be unearthed.

Now as a historian I am fascinated by what might turn up.

After all almost 70 years will have gone past since the college became a teacher training establishment and there will be plenty of stories which might emerge from those records.

This I know because just fourteen years ago my old school merged with another and in the process of sifting and eliminating more than a half century of material many fascinating glimpses of the schools past came to light.

And if any one wants to know a little about the college and its place in the history of Didsbury I shall draw your attention to the book Didsbury Through Time which chronicles the changes to the area over the last century mixing old images of the place with new photographs and paintings and focusing on some of the people who lived behind the doors of the buildings featured in the book.

The book was published in December 2013, and is available at Chorlton Bookshop and in Didsbury from Morten’s Bookshop on Warburton Street, Didsbury, as well of course as other bookshops.



Pictures; of the Pump House courtesy of Pierre Grace, 2014.

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 4 …..bus stop conversation

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A film star, a fish market and a bit of speedway, Britannia of Billingsgate … 1933

Now we can all have slow days, which is how I came to roam the database of old postcards hosted by Tuck DB.*

And having viewed their selection from Italy, I idly typed in film stars, and was rewarded with a rich collection from the 1930s.

Most I had never heard of and so on a whim I went for Kay Hammond, who was born in 1909 and made a series of films through the 1930s as well as appearing on the stage.  

She played  Elvira Condomine, in Blythe Spirit and acted in her last film in 1961, and featured in 24 films in her career of which 19 were made between 1933 and 1936, and of these the one that caught my eye was Britannia of Billingsgate.

If like me you are both a Londoner and someone who grew up in the 1950s and early 60s, Billingsgate Fish Market will be a special place.  It was located by the Thames, close to the Tower of London and the Monument and I passed it regularly on my way to the Tower.

Even at 10’o clock in the morning, long after the market had all but closed the smell of fish lingered in the air along with the odd remnants of discarded fish parts which had yet to be cleared away from gutters.

So I had no option but to look up Britannia of Billingsgate which was released in 1933, and as you do steal the sleave notes from the BFI’s introduction to the film.

“A star is born (or at least found) in a fish and chip shop, in this effervescent musical comedy that jaunts between the cloth caps of Billingsgate Fish Market and the top hats and heady glamour of the film world. Things have never looked so good for Billingsgate chippy owner Bessie Bolton (Violet Loraine) after she is presented with the opportunity of becoming the singing sensation of the silver screen - Shepherd's Bush style.

Violet Loraine had been a music hall star since the early 1900s, but was here returning to showbiz after a break of more than a decade. The film also features an early role for John Mills. The studio where Bessie gets her big break is the Shepherd's Bush Studios belonging to the production company, the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation. The cinema where Bessie's film is premiered is the Gaumont Palace in Hammersmith - now the concert venue the Hammersmith Apollo”.*

It is a mix of “glamour”, some iffy scenes of working class life, but is still a wonderful watch and is free to see on the BFI web site.

Location; London, 1933

Pictures; Kay Hammond, Violet Lorraine, Gordon Harker, and John Mills, marketed by Tuck and Son in the series A GAUMONT-BRITISH PICTURE, STAR, PLAYER or FILM (scenes from movie), cards numbered 150-199, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdbpostcards.org/ 

*Tuck DB, https://tuckdbpostcards.org/ 

**Britannia of Billingsgate, BFIPlayer, https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-britannia-of-billingsgate-1933-online

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 3 …..conversations

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A Manchester first ……… John Edward Sutton .... first Labour Councillor and Manchester MP

John Edward Sutton deserves to be remembered.

John Edward Sutton, MP

He was the first Labour candidate to be elected to the Manchester City Council, went on to become the first Labour MP for Manchester East in 1910, and later represented Manchester Clayton for a short period in 1922, and again between 1923 and 1931.

All the more remarkable given that he started work in a cotton mill at seven years of age in 1871, and at 14 began work at Bradford Colliery rising to the post of checkweighman.

His obituary in the Manchester Guardian records that he was first elected to the Bradford Ward as a City Councillor in 1894, continuing as such for nearly 20 years, and was “secretary and then agent for the Bradford lodge of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miner’s Federation”.*

Today when many defeated politicians go on to utilize their Parliamentary experience and contact to carve out jobs in the media and as lobbyist, it might surprise many that  Mr. Sutton returned after his election defeats to work at the coal mine.

He was according to the newspaper “of that school of Socialists that grew out of Liberal Nonconformity through the I.L.P.  He was never a revolutionary but a strong co-operator and temperance advocate.

Labour Party Poster, 1910

Physically a somewhat frail man he had the vigour of mind and expression that belied his quiet manner and a courage that put him among the pioneers in the workers’ cause at the end of the last century.  

He was not merely Manchester’s first Labour councillor but a firm advocate of municipal ownership of essential local services and one who did much to advance the municipalizing of the transport service”.

But this does little to highlight his progressive position on a raft of issues, from support for the extension of the franchaise to women,to the need for a minimum wage and his opposition to the position of Aldermen on the City Council.

And having opposed the practice of Aldermen, rightly he turned down the offer to become one in 1909.

In time I will find out more about this remarkable man.  I know his father was a cotton spinner and one of John Edward Sutton’s first homes was on London Road, that he married Hannah in 1880 when they were both just 19 years old.

Solidarity, Walter Crane, 1887

In 1911 the family were living in a five roomed house in Clayton a year after he was elected an MP and by 1939 he and his two children were living in Chorlton on Egerton Road.

Labour Party Poster, 1945

And that is it at present.  

There is one photograph of Mr. Sutton, but it is unclear if it can be used and so I have fallen back on a very poor copy from his obituary.

The next step will be visits to the Labour History Museum and Central Ref to trawl their records for more on his time as a councillor, MP and trade unionist, and if I am lucky there may be election material, correspondence and more pictures.

But I am pleased that he lived long enough to see the Labour Party returned to office in the July of 1945 with 393 MPs on a promise to carry out many of the policies he himself argued for.**

Reflecting on his his time as an elected representative he said "he had fought many municipal elections and nine Parliamentary elections and met with his first defeat in 23 years of public life".***

The occasion was a presentation at the Beswick Co-operative Society's Hall in Manchester to mark his retirement.  

Labour Poster, 1931

The hall was packed and amongst the speakers and well wishers there were many colleagues from the early days of the I.L.P.*** 

But consistent with his character, in 1939, eight years after his defeat in the 1931 General Election when Labour recorded one of its worst defeats, he listed his occupation as not former MP, but "Coal Miners Agent, Retired" 

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Solidarity, Walter Crane, 1887, Labour Party posters, 1910, 1931 & 1945, Mr. J.E. Sutton, date unknown

*Mr. J.E. Sutton, Manchester Guardian, November 30th, 1945

**The 1945 General Election was held in July 1945, and Mr. Sutton died in November of that year.

***Presentation to Mr. J.E.Sutton, 38 years of Public Service, Manchester Guardian, July 15th, 1932

A Valley Grows Up ..... revisiting an old friend

The cover

I never tire of reading children’s history books.

Apart from the fact that most are beautifully illustrated and have a simple crisp text they are clues to how the study of history has changed. Victorian and Edwardian books tend to emphasis the growth of the British empire and well into the 1930’s much of the story is told bottom down through Kings and Queens and the brave, rich and great.

But by the 1950s the depiction of our “island story” has changed and much more emphasis is placed on social history.

 Historians like R. J. Unstead produced books with fine illustrations which describe the lives of everyone from the nobility to peasant.

And I suppose my favourite of this new wave of books was A Valley Grows Up by Edward Osmond.*  It was published by the O.U.P and sold for 12s 6d. The magic of the book is that it told the story of an imaginary valley from 5000 BC to 1900.

The valley, 7,000 years ago

This it did through ten colour plates plenty of fine line drawings and a clear simple text.

 Here was the development of the valley’s landscape from prehistoric to Victorian taking in changes from an uninhabited forest through to tree clearing and early settlements.

 All are here, from the Celts and Romans through to the Saxons, Normans and beyond.

His wife Laurie Osmond, produced a companion book, The Thames Flows Down, O.U.P., 1957.

The Valley, 2,500 years ago

Like A Valley Grows Up, it gives that wonderful sense of historical sequence but carefully does not fall into the trap of describing change which is always progressive, always for the best and which seeks to show how the past is just a prelude to the achievements of today.

All the more a pity because it has long gone out of print.  I did however get a lovelly letter from Laurie Osmond who I had written to in the 1980s.

She thanked me for writing was pleased I still enjoyed both books and and kindly gave me permission to use the colour plates in a slide presentation I did for students which took the magic to a new generation.

I must confess to owning two copies of the Valley and one of the Thames.

Picture; cover of A Valley Grows Up

* Other posts on the book at http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20Valley%20Grows%20Up

Varese on a sunny day in September …… no. 2 ….."face masks will be worn"

Varese is a fine Italian town, north of Milan, and close to the Lakes.

Location; Varese

Picture; Varese on a sunny day in September, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 26 ........ at Salford Cross in 1875 with Mr Henry Nelson

Now sometimes it is best just to stay with the image and keep the words to the minimum.

The Bulls Head, 1875

The caption just says, “old houses, Salford Cross”  and it was taken by James Mudd in 1875.

I could have gone looking for Mr Mudd but instead looked up Henry Nelson who was running the Bulls Head at 47  Greengate.

He was there in 1871 with his wife Mary and four children.

Only the youngest who was seven had been born in Salford which suggests that sometime between the birth of Sarah in 1857 and Alfred in 1864 the family moved to Salford.

Up to 53 Greengate

And we can be a bit more precise because in 1861 Mr Nelson gave his occupation as "Oastler" and the family address as 33 St Simon Street.

For those wanting even more detail I can tell you that in 1871 his near neighbours were James Major at 51, and the landlord at the Old Shears Head at 53.

The street on the corner was Bull Street which ran down to Duke Street but also gave access to Bull Court which was surrounded by eight properties of which some were back to backs.

And that is enough for now.

Location Salford

Picture; Old houses, Salford Cross, James Mudd, 1876, m79430, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Enu 15 55, Greengate, Salford