A postcard ...... the bombardent of Scarborough ..... and a mystery on Fennel Street

 Now this is Fennel Street.

Fennel Street close to number 45 on the left, 2021

And I think it is the closest we will get to Albert Halliwell, who worked at Snowden & Bridge. 

The firm were listed as butter merchants located at 45 Fennell Street and were one of three such enterprises on the same street.

If I have got this correct Albert was just 14 when he received a picture postcard from his friend Phillis who admonished him for not sending a letter, while also expressing concern about his health.

The rest of the correspondence focused on news of their mutual friends.

What is missing is any reference to the picture on the other side of the card, which shows the ruins of a house destroyed by German naval bombardment at the start of the Great War in 1914.

Wykeham Street Scarborough, 1914

According to the caption, the house was on “Wykeham Street and was where Mrs. Bennet and two children were killed”.

Dear Bert, 1916

But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Phillis made no mention of the deaths or the bombardment which had shocked the public at the time, because the card was sent in the June of 1916, by which time the casualties from the fighting were a grim intrusion which  reached into every community.

Since the outbreak of the war there had  been fifteen major battles on the Western Front, with two horrific gas attacks on British soldiers in the April of 1916, while the Battle of Verdun had already been raging for five months and would only end in the December of 1916 with the loss of 714,231 French and German soldiers.

And not long after Albert received his postcard the armies of the British Empire and France would launch the Somme offensive which lasted from July to November, involved three million on both sides, of which perhaps one million were wounded or killed.

A.C. Halliwell, c/o Snowden Bridge, 1916

All of which brings me back to the card, which was sent over by David Harrop, who thought I might find it an interesting insight into the Bombardment of Scarborough, which I did.

But history has an odd way of taking you down twisty turnings, and so as awful as the German attack was, I was drawn to Albert and his workplace on Fennel Street.

At first, I was intrigued by the address on the card which was Snowden Bridge, Fennel Street which took me off on a search for a bridge close to the street.  

This wasn’t so daft, given the presence of Hanging Ditch close by, but Snowden Bridge was Snowden & Bridge, butter merchants at 45 Fennel Street in the Corn Exchange.*

Fennel Street with Corporation Stret in the distance, 2021

Leaving me to assume that A.C. Halliwell was Bert who was employed by the firm in 1916.

Just why the card was addressed to Fennel Street is unclear.  

In 1911 he was living with his parents and a lodger at 29 Rocester Street off Rochdale Road in a four roomed house.**

But if you are in  speculative mood, and you assume that "our Albert" still lived at Rocester Street, he may well have taken the tram down from Harpurhey into the heart of the city and walked along Withy Grove, across Corporation Street and into Fennel Street, but that would be unhistorical speculation, but fun.

So I shall wander off looking for more on "our Albert".

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Fennel Street, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Bombardment of Scarborough, 1914, courtesy of David Harrop

*Slater's Directory of Manchester & Salford, 1911

**1911 Census, Enu 34 28, St Georges, Manchester