The magic of collecting things …… from stamps to loco numbers .... part 1

Now it is so easy to sneer and make cheap humour of people who collect things.

"embossed, unperforated stamp, issued in between 1847-54"

Of course, when the collecting is priceless art, or ancient objects that tends to be OK as if the quantity spent on an item makes it more acceptable.  

So, the acquisition of a genuine Picasso, or rare Roman funerary piece is seen as a legitimate hobby while standing on a railway platform recording the numbers on the side of locomotives is up for ridicule.

And that is a shame because train spotting could be a social event where kids got together, and shared knowledge, often in historic places. 

Not that I ever did collecting loco numbers because in the 1950s my bit of the Southern Region of British Railways was by and large about green electric trains which didn’t have the same magic as big and small steam locomotives.

But I did collect used postage stamps, helped by the fact one uncle lived in various bits of east Africa, and my grandmother was German and regularly received letters from Germany.

Added to this I had inherited a collection pf pre-war stamps.  To this my sister Stella added to over the years.

And these memories were reignited by my friend Ann who emailed me over some stampy pictures, commenting, “Yesterday we received a parcel, from a friend in England. 

He spends a good deal of time at car boot sales, and often picks up interesting things. 

He knows that I collect stamps, and over the last year has amassed an envelope of used stamps for me. 

I spent the afternoon sorting some of them out, and came across this little booklet, which I may have had since I was seven (1949), when my Mum gave me a small album, a packet of assorted stamps, and a book to help me start.

I thought you might be interested in the first couple of paragraphs on the inside cover. I think my Mum must have been ahead of her time!

I continued to collect stamps regularly, until about 1965/6, when the Post Office became more commercial, and began to produce 'Special' Issues several times a year and became too expensive to keep up.

That was also my first year of teaching, and in my enthusiasm, I held a small stamp club in my Art room.

Anyway, the booklet, inside cover page, also has some of my early stamps including this one which is an embossed, unperforated stamp, issued in between 1847-54. Not in brilliant condition, but quite rare”.

All of which has made me go look for my old stamp albums which span a century …. But that is for tomorrow.

Pictures; from the collection of Ann Love

On Shooters Hill looking out across the city

I like this picture from Shooter’s Hill looking out across the sky line.

It was taken in late January in the early afternoon, just before the light began to fade.

And it is a scene I would never have known for when I was growing up  in Eltham and wandering from our house on Well Hall Road up  through the woods to gaze across London from that same vantage point none of those tall buildings existed.

So for a Londoner who has now lived more of his life in the North it is an image which sums up what has happened to the city of my birth.

That said you can still retreat into the tranquilly of the woods leaving those tall towers of commerce and bustle behind and recapture something more magical.

But before I slip any further into a nostalgic mood I shall just thank Jean and Richard for the picture and the others she took on that Saturday ably assisted by her husband.

Picture; from the collection of Richard and Jean Low, January 2014

Fritz Lang ... film maker of dark and celebrated movies ..... today on the wireless

Now I only discovered the film Metropolis in my 30s, by which it was already half a century old, and it is one I still go back too.

Maria from Metropolis

As for the man who made it , I knew little, other than that he was Austrian, fled Nazi Germany and made a heap of superb films both in Germany and the USA.

All of which is an introduction to today's In Our Time on Radio 4.

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian-born film director Fritz Lang (1890-1976), who was one of the most celebrated film-makers of the 20th century. 

He worked first in Weimar Germany, creating a range of films including the startling and subversive Mabuse the Gambler and the iconic but ruinously expensive Metropolis before arguably his masterpiece, M, with both the police and the underworld hunting for a child killer in Berlin, his first film with sound. 

The rise of the Nazis prompted Lang's move to Hollywood where he developed some of his Weimar themes in memorable and disturbing films such as Fury and The Big Heat.

With Stella Bruzzi, Professor of Film and Dean of Arts and Humanities at University College London, Joe McElhaney, Professor of Film Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York, and Iris Luppa, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies in the Division of Film and Media at London South Bank University.

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Picture; Replica of the character Maria from Metropolis. This image is freely available under the Creative Commons,  Attribution-ShareAlike license, Date 8 March 2011, Source Maria from the film Metropolis, on display at the Robot Hall of Fame, Author Jiuguang Wang from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

*Fritz Lang, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012s94

What they did to this bit of Shooters Hill

Well here is one they slipped past me.

We are on Shooters Hill in the summer of 1977 and my old friend Jean was passing with her camera.

And what a good job she did, because in the intervening 37 years, the little newsagent’s lock up has been converted into a two storey property, all white and pebbled dashed and Ace Auto Electrical lurking just beyond the Red Lion car park is a Convenience Store.

Now comparing the two scenes I have to say that there has been a distinct improvement.

It just goes to show that not everything urns out for the worst.

Picture; Shooters Hill in 1977, from the collection of Jean Gammons.

Explaining the picture ..... Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1955

 Now a few days ago I featured this picture by Derrick A. Lea

And the following day my friend Ann responded with a description of how Mr. Lea made the picture.

"We think it was done on scraperboard, as opposed to a pen and ink drawing.

Scraperboard is a sheet of card, coated with a black surface, and you use a fine knife or scriber to reveal the underneath white surface. 

I remember trying this at college, and may even have taught it as an alternative drawing technique. 

Reverse drawing, in a way!

For the sky, the black area was cleared off, revealing the white surface.

I would guess he redrew the branches in pen and ink?

Scraperboard  was popular in the 50/60,S for illustration and adverts.

I've just had a memory jog. When I was very young, 3? I lived with my parents at 237, Barlow Moor Rd, opposite the entrance to the Cemetery, and the chap next door taught me how to draw a very simple dog, my first drawing lesson. 

His name was  Mr Lee. Or Lea? He must have known something about drawing. Coincidence? This would have been about 1945.

My grandmother died that year, and we moved to live with my grandfather, at 523."

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1955

Picture; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1955, Derrick A. Lea

The lost bits of London .... many never knew .... a book and a film

 Now, The London Nobody Knows is one of those books which takes me back to my youth.

It was published in 1962, and describes those parts of London which many tourists, as well as Londoners never knew, and which has now pretty much vanished.

It was written by Geoffrey Fletcher who was an artist, writer, and an architectural commentator.

in the book he roams across that lost city, taking in an art nouveau pub, a Victorian music hall, a Hawksmoor church and even a public toilet in Holborn in which the attendant kept goldfish in the cisterns. 

And because I was an inquisitive kid, armed with a Red Rover, and little concept of what might happen to me, this was the city I discovered for myself. 

Of course aged just 13, I was too young to read or appreciate the book, but reading it now I can see the places I washed up in during adventures away from home.

It will also be one of the books, mother will have read because it would have appealed to her quirky sense of curiosity.

The bonus is that it was turned into a film in 1967 and watching it alongside the book is to be transported into that London which was about to leave the 1950s and its 19th century past for the shiny, modern and in retrospect not so wonderful 60s.

But the film is not just a trip across the grimy London of the early 1960s but makes some telling observations about the poverty which oozed out of the bricks as well as the plight of those left behind and excluded from the march of progress.

Location; London

Pictures, cover of the 2020 edition of The London Nobody Knows, History Press, £9.99, and cover of, The London Nobody Knows, the DVD, £4.99

So …… what’s stirring in Stockport?

Now, I know I could find out easily enough on just what is happening on Lower Hillgate.

For those lacking the knowledge, a quick visit to Stockport’s planning portal should offer up the information on what might be happening to these buildings, starting with an  application to change and develop the existing site, followed by a detailed description with plans, pictures, and reports on the environmental impact as well as a heritage report.

All of which concludes with an indication as to whether the application has been approved, and possible changes to the submitted plans.

I often trawl the Manchester portal not only to get an idea of what is going on, but because the heritage statements which detail the history of the building, the site and the area can be so fascinating.

But not so today, them that are curious to look up the site for themselves.

For now I am happy just to post these three pictures from Andy Robertson, who records the changes to places in Greater Manchester.  And once having found a place will keep going back, photographing the changes until a new building is open for business.

Location; Stockport

Pictures, places awaiting something to happen on Lower Hillgate, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

The Post Office on Shooters Hill

A short series looking at the story behind the picture.

We are on Shooters Hill at number 53, and today it is a convenience store but once it a post office, and I am indebted to my friend Jean who supplied the picture and story behind it.

“This is the old post office on Shooters Hill which was the dropping point for Eltham’s mail carried by the Dover Mail Coach, after the post office was taken away from the old Red Lion in the 1830s.  

This building continued as Shooters Hill post office until 1971.”

Picture; of the former Post Office in 1977 from and text from Jean Gammons

Passing through the Piazza San Vittore …….

Now I think the Piazza San Vittore in Varese has a lot going for it.

It is a large open space dominated on one side by the Basilica of San Vittore, and directly opposite by a  giant arch that leads out on to a smaller piazza.


The church dates from the 16th century, and the impressive bell tower from the 17th century.

The real delight of the piazza is that the streets which lead into it are narrow which doesn’t really prepare you for the big open space.

More than once I have pondered n just how easy it would be to rent or own one of the apartments in the tall buildings which line up on two of the sides of the square.

Usually it is a place I pass through in the day, but at night it comes into its own, and those narrow streets that lead away can look very inviting.

Even the most unpromising  have surprises, and lead off through a network of streets, to other piazzas, and along the way deliver up a heap of shops, from sophisticated fashion outlets to bakeries, green grocers and small restaurants and cafés.





Location; Varese







Pictures; Piazza San Vittore, 2020, from the collection of Balzano

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ... part 130 ….. "Ccà nisciuno è fesso”

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

Baba and Zeppole, 2019

I doubt that Joe and Mary Ann would ever have thought that the house would one day regularly echo to a mix of Italian, Neapolitan, and English with a bit of Polish thrown in for good measure.

Or that much of the food which today is put on the table comes from the far south of Italy with the odd dish from Lombardy, and some from Poland.

Of course that will be how it is in homes across the country with only the origins of the food differing from a heap of other European countries, along with food from the sub-continent, China, south east Asia, and pretty much everywhere.

Beans, 2014

But this is our house and here it is Italian, or more strictly Neapolitan, with a Polish flavour from our Saul and Julia who live in Warsaw, and occasionally a half remembered German dish which I try to replicate from what Nana made for us.

And so this Christmas Rosa and Tina have made a variety of meals, from roast peppers,  parmigiana di melanzane, to my favourite  Sicilian salad, made with oranges, chili flakes and garlic.

That said Rosa will also serve up food from the north of Italy where she has lived for over half a century, and earlier in the week it was Pizzoccheri, which is a mix of pasta, potatoes, savoy cabbage and spinach and three types of cheese.

Pizzoccheri, 2021

Pizzoccheri is a type of short wide tagliatelle made from a mixture of buckwheat flour and wheat flour. The buckwheat gives the pasta a brown speckly look which I have to say was different.

She cooked the potatoes and cabbage together and then layered these with the cooked pasta and the diced cheese with more grated cheese on top and baked for about 15 minutes.

I have to confess that greens do not do much for me. I guess it dates back to overcooked green cabbage which was served up in my primary school. 

Even now I have vivid memories of the agony of forcing it down under the stern gaze of the dinner lady wanting to be anywhere than facing this plate of torture.

But such is Rosa’s cooking that this pasta and cabbage dish was just delightful.

It reminded me of Metternich’s observation that “Italy is only a geographical expression” and even now 150 years after most of the Italian states joined together to form a united country there is much below the surface that underlines the idea that the place is still a collection of regions.

The pasta, 2014

Leaving aside the very different food of the north and south there are the attitudes of many northern Italians to those of the south which is seen as a drain on the wealth and resources of the northern states. It is there too in the northern perception that the south can be a lawless and dangerous place.

And as if to underline this simple prejudice, Tina and I recently watched Benvenuti al sud

[Welcome to the south] in which a post office manager from Milan is sent south for two years to the town of Castellabate south of Naples. It is a comedy of misunderstandings and stereotypes and perfectly coveys how the two Italy’s perceive each other.

It is also true that the dialect of the south is almost incomprehensible to many northerners as are traditional southern names, which caused Tina much heartache during her school years in the north when fellow students and teachers made fun of her long first name.

Naples, 2017

The family continued to speak Neapolitan at home and now she and Rosa will regularly slip into the dialect of the south while watching TV here in the house in Chorlton.

And so it was that Rosa uttered the comment “Ccà nisciuno è fesso”, over coffee this morning.  

If I have got the spelling and translation correct it is “here nobody is a fool”**

There are others, but most would not pass the 9'clock threshhold.

Picture; Baba and Zeppole, from the collection of Balzano, Rosa's tomato and beans, her Pizzoccheri, the box cover of Pizzoccheri della Valtellina, Naples, 2017, from the collection of Saul Simpson

*The Story of a House, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

**Ccà nisciuno è fesso, here nobody is a fool

What souvenir did you buy in the Great War?

Now I remain fascinated by those small porcelain figures from the Great War.

They were made by companies who specialized in tourist knick knacks, including key rings, models of places like Blackpool Tower, Ann Hathaway’s Cottage and heaps of other porcelain things.

Often, they included a place name and could be found in seaside resorts and tourist centres up and down the country.

And when the Great War started those same porcelain companies switched to making objects associated with the conflict, ranging from tanks, ambulances and aircraft to bull dogs and battleships.

Not to be outdone, the companies also added the names of towns and cities to the objects, and the public bought them in their thousands.

What of course always surprises me is how many of them have survived in perfect condition, and so it is with this one of a tank from Scarborough.

I am indebted to David “posty” Harrop who has a vast collection of these porcelain figures along with lots of memorabilia from both world wars as well as a huge collection of Post Office material.

To some the figures may seem a peripheral aspect of that war, but they do show the willingness of the population to be engaged in the conflict, and to have treasured them long after peace had returned.

That said the companies did sometimes get it wrong, like the model of the battleship HMS Manchester, which David has in his collection.  It is a lovely figure, made all the more interesting because during the war there was no battleship of that name.

Still it hasn’t stopped David giving it pride of place in his permanent exhibition of wartime memorabilia at the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery.

Location, 1914-18

Picture; porcelain figure of a tank, circa 1916-1918, and HMS Manchester, circa 1914-18, from the collection of David Harrop

Lost scenes of the Far East.......... Ceylon 75 years ago .... no 9 in the market

In 1944 a young Bob Ward was aboard HMS London stationed in the Far East.

During his stay on the island of Ceylon he recorded some of the everyday scenes he came across.

This is a record of some of what he saw.

There is no order or theme just a set of images which Bob passed over to his grandson who spent three months on the island in 2009.

Location; Sri Lanka

Pictures; Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward

Lost scenes of the Far East.......... Ceylon 75 years ago .... no 8 washing

In 1944 a young Bob Ward was aboard HMS London stationed in the Far East.

During his stay on the island of Ceylon he recorded some of the everyday scenes he came across.

This is a record of some of what he saw.

There is no order or theme just a set of images which Bob passed over to his grandson who spent three months on the island in 2009.

Location; Sri Lanka

Pictures; Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward

A Walk in Middleton … a story from Andrea

Now this is the Middleton Bandstand which Tony Goulding photographed last week and was featured on the blog.  

Middleton Bandstand, 2021

And today I am back with a story by his friend Andrea who accompanied him on the visit. 

“After having my family tree researched, I found out that my great grandparents were married in Middleton at St Leonards Church so I took a trip to Middleton to take a picture of this church.

I have some very good memories of Middleton as a child, my grandma and grandad lived on Durnford Street just next to the Boars Head public house another long standing piece of history in Middleton.

After getting off the 17 bus from Shudehill to Middleton,I then continued to walk up Long Street, just off Long Street is the Boars Head public house and St Leonards Church 

St Leonard's Church, 2021

The church was up a very steep hill through Jubilee Park where the library is and a very old band stand. 

It was cold and raining but at the top of the hill was St Leonards church, Middleton a church built over 900 years ago. 

The view from the church was breath-taking you feel like you’re on top of the world.

I can’t imagine what type of wedding it would have been between my great grandma and grandad".

Location; Middleton

Pictures; Middleton Bandstand, 2021, from the collection of Tony Goulding, and St Leonards Church, 2021, courtesy of Andrea Martinez

Lost scenes of the Far East.......... Ceylon 75 years ago .... no 7 the fishing boat

In 1944 a young Bob Ward was aboard HMS London stationed in the Far East.

During his stay on the island of Ceylon he recorded some of the everyday scenes he came across.

This is a record of some of what he saw.

There is no order or theme just a set of images which Bob passed over to his grandson who spent three months on the island in 2009.

Location; Sri Lanka

Pictures; Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward

Murky stories of Sally's pond .......... and an outrageous promotion

Now, there is a place in Chorlton which for centuries was shrouded in mystery and more than a bit of tragedy.

Detail of Sally's Field, 1954

This was variously known as Sally's Hole, Sally's Place, or Sally's Pond, and the story of the ill fated death of Sally has rolled down the centuries, and may date back to the late 18th century or before.

And it was one I have frequently revisited.*

But today it is the turn of Tony Golding who regularly contributes stories, and who emailed me with  "I have just been reading your entertaining new book, "nothing to do in chorlton". 

A passage about 'Sally's Hole' made me look up an old story of mine on the Blog (from 6 years ago!).

Sally's Field, 1954

There was indeed an actual suicide in that location. It was a man rather than a lady and he shot himself rather than drowned. He was, 54-years-old John Edwin Lockwood, a trimmings merchant at 64, Canon Street, Manchester.**

He lived with his two grown daughters at 16, Cartwright Road, having not long moved from 44, Hawthorn Road.

Congratulations on the book it is a very good read!"

You can read Tony's story by following the link, and of course discover for yourself our new book, "nothing to do in chorlton"***

The book costs £5, is available from  www.pubbooks.co.uk and also Chorlton Bookshop.

It is small enough to slip into your pocket or bag as you travel around each of the locations mentioned, and equally important for anyone looking for a special present will easily fit into a Christmas stocking.

Picture; Sally’s Field, J Montgomery, 1958, copied from a 1945 photograph, m80104, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Sally's Hole,https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=sally%27s+hole

**More from the pen of Tony Goulding ............. SUICIDES IN CHORLTON-cum-HARDY, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=John+Edwin+Lockwood

***nothing to do in chorlton, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=nothing+to+do+in+chorlton

Round About A Pound A Week ......... London life and London Poor ..... 1913

“Take a tram from Victoria to Vauxhall Station.  

Get out under the railway arch which faces Vauxhall Bridge, and there you will find Kennington Lane.  

The railway arch roofs in a din which reduces the roar of the trains continually passing overhead to a vibrating muffled rumble.”

And with those opening lines Mrs Maud Pember Reeves plunged into a detailed account of the lives of families struggling to make ends meet in the Lambeth of 1913.*

She was a social reformer and feminist who served on the Executive Committees of the Women’s Trade Union League, the National Anti Sweating League, and the Central Committee for Women’s Suffrage along with the Committee of the Fabian Society.

And it was after a lecture given to the Fabian Women’s’ Group on the Economic Disintegration of the Family in 1908 that she and other members of the group set about recording the daily budgets and lives of working class families in Lambeth.

The book details everything from the area where they lived to the daily battle to bring up a family in damp and lousy properties, while balancing a household budget and the ever present threat of unemployment.

It is a book which compliments that of Robert Roberts’s description of life in Salford at much the same time. **

So given that I will no doubt be returning to the book I shall conclude with a little more from the opening chapter

Lambeth, 1874

“From either end of the arch comes a close procession of trams, motor-buses, brewers’ drays, coal lorries, carts filled with unspeakable material for glue factory and tannery, motor cars, coster-barrows, and people. 

It is a stopping-place for tramcars and motorbuses; therefore little knots of agitated persons continually collect on both pathways, and dive between the vehicles and descending passengers in order to board the particular bus or tram they desire.

At rhythmic intervals all traffic through the arch is suspended to allow a flood of trams, buses, drays and vans, to surge and rattle and bang across the opening of the archway which faces the river.

At the opposite end there is the cross current.  The trams slide away to the right towards the Oval. In front is Kennington Lane and to the left at right angles, a narrow street connects with Vauxhall Walk leading further on into Lambeth Walk, both locally known as the Walk.

Such is the western gateway to the districts stretching north to Lambeth Road, south to Lansdowne Road, east to Walworth Road, where live the people whose lives this book is about.

They are not the poorest people of the district.  Far from it!  

They are, putting aside the tradesmen, whose shops line the big thoroughfares such as Kennington Road, or Kennington Park Road, some of the most enviable and settled inhabitants of this part of the world.  

The poorest people- the river-side casual, the workhouse in-and-out, the bar room loafer – anxiously ignored by these respectable persons whose work is permanent, as permanency goes in Lambeth and whose wages range from 18s. to 30s a week.

Picture; cover Round About A Pound A Week, , Virago ed 1979 featuring an image from the Greater London Council Photograph Library and detail of the area in the 1870s from the 1874 OS for London, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

* Round About A Pound A Week, Maud Pember Reeves, 1913, Virago ed 1979

**The Classic Slum, Robert Roberts, 1971

Lost scenes of the Far East.......... Ceylon 75 years ago .... no 6 in the fields

In 1944 a young Bob Ward was aboard HMS London stationed in the Far East.

During his stay on the island of Ceylon he recorded some of the everyday scenes he came across.

This is a record of some of what he saw.

There is no order or theme just a set of images which Bob passed over to his grandson who spent three months on the island in 2009.

Location; Sri Lanka

Pictures; Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward

Another Christmas .... another Eagle

Now I make no apologies for this.

Christmas card from the Eagle Society, 2021

If you weren't a fan of the Eagle comic which spanned the 1950s and 60's look away and despair.

The Eagle emblem

It was and remains the best boy's comic of those two decades, mixing adventure, and humour with more than enough factual content; from historical series to its famous cutaways.

And anyone who regularly reads the blog will have clocked a shedload of stories about the comic, its main characters and the Eagle Society which is dedicated to bringing the comic to a new readership as well as making those of us in receipt of our state pension very happy.

The main "hero" was Dan Dare Pilot of the Future who was born in Manchester, and following on from the Eagle's success, it was followed by Girl, Swift and Robin.

So those who want to know more after they have read the back blog stories* you can look up the society.**

Picture; Christmas card from the Eagle Society, from the front page of the Eagle comic, December 22, 1950, No. 37

*The Eagle, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Eagle

**The Eagle Society, https://eagle-times.blogspot.com/

Lost scenes of the Far East.......... Ceylon 75 years ago .... no 5 preparing breakfast

In 1944 a young Bob Ward was aboard HMS London stationed in the Far East.

During his stay on the island of Ceylon he recorded some of the everyday scenes he came across.

This is a record of some of what he saw.

There is no order or theme just a set of images which Bob passed over to his grandson who spent three months on the island in 2009.

Location; Sri Lanka

Pictures; Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward

Lost scenes of the Far East.......... Ceylon 75 years ago .... no 4 working in the fields

In 1944 a young Bob Ward was aboard HMS London stationed in the Far East.

During his stay on the island of Ceylon he recorded some of the everyday scenes he came across.

This is a record of some of what he saw.

There is no order or theme just a set of images which Bob passed over to his grandson who spent three months on the island in 2009.

Location; Sri Lanka

Pictures; Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ... part 129 ….. every house should have a Range

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

The Range, 2021

Now I rather think my generation maybe the last to remember the working cooking range in all its glory.  

There are modern equivalents and there are plenty in museums and stately homes which have been given over to the heritage industry.

But I doubt there are so many still in use, in the homes of “ordinary people”, and I guess part of the reason is the sheer effort to keep them going and keep them clean.

My grandparents had one in each of the homes they lived in and some were grander than other’s.  The last one I remember was in a large semidetached property which they bought in the late 1950s, and converted into bed sits.  They retained the servant’s quarters for themselves and dominating the kitchen was the range. 

Nana cooked on it, baked the bread every other day and even dried clothes beside it.

But outside museums and on the net, I had never come across pictures which were copyright free, and closely resembled Nana’s one.

That is until this week when Barbarella sent over a series of photographs of a range in a disused pub in Buxton.

Till & Whithead, 2021

The name plate records that it was made by Till & Whitehead who in 1911, were listed as “iron and steel merchants, whole sale ironmongers, at 86, 88, 92, and 94 Chester Road, , ‘Tillwhite, Manchester’; and Lorn Street Hulme**.

In the fulness of time I will going looking for the history of Till & Whitehead, but for now I am more interested in the mystery of whether one was ever installed in our house.

It is a story I have already covered, which was occasioned by work on a new kitchen, which revealed a concrete base large enough to have taken a range, plus a large open void which has its own flue and chimney pot. 

But if Joe Scott ever did install a range, it had gone by the 1970s, and given that he had a “modern turn of mind” I doubt he did, instead moving directly to a gas cooker when the house was built in 1915..

The Range base, 2021

And this I am fairly confident, given that in the early 1920s he was already advertising full electric lighting in his houses, including the garage, and had embraced the telephone in the same decade and TV thirty years later.

So, while we are not exactly at the point when | can say our house bypassed a range, I do actually have pictures of one, and one that takes me back to my Nana’s and my childhood, which is enough.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; The Buxton cooking range, 2021, courtesy of Barbarella, Bonvento, and our kitchen, with its concrete base, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Story of a House, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

**Slater’s; Manchester, Salford and Suburban Directory, 1911, page1647

***One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ... part 125 ............ a bit of house archaeology, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2021/11/one-hundred-years-of-one-house-in.html

A little bit of gentle humour in 1903

Now I thought about digging out a Victorian Christmas card given the date, but I have done those already in the past and anyway Christmas is pretty much covered where ever you look, so instead here is a gentle bit of fun.

It dates from around 1903 and was sold not only here in Britain but also in the U.S.A, and Canada.

And before I upset Karl who delievers our mail I shall just reiterate that the Post Office has never let us down.

Picture;  URGENT, BY SPECIAL MESSENGER from the series, comic sketches, marketed by Tuck and sons, 1903, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Lost scenes of the Far East.......... Ceylon 75 years ago .... no 3 two woman

In 1944 a young Bob Ward was aboard HMS London stationed in the Far East.

During his stay on the island of Ceylon he recorded some of the everyday scenes he came across.

This is a record of some of what he saw.

There is no order or theme just a set of images which Bob passed over to his grandson who spent three months on the island in 2009.

Pictures; Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton …. part 128 ......... the Christmas of 1958

 The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since. *

Of course, I have no real idea how Joe and Mary Ann celebrated the Christmas in 1958.

The weather was less than promising with the Manchester Guardian on Christmas Eve, reporting that it would be “A Very Murky Christmas” with “Fog forecast for much of England and Wales [and] airports closed”.

Going on to comment “Fog to-day, fog to-morrow (though perhaps less) on Boxing Day are the possibilities for the Christmas Holidays in many parts of England and Wales.

Fog yesterday was a certainty,; it affected about thirty counties,  It covered nearly twenty thousand square miles stretching from Bournemouth to Durham.  It closed Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool airports and last night was seriously upsetting flights into London Airport.”.

But then I expect that they were not planning to travel far, and instead would spend it on Beech Road.

Which leaves me trying to remember how we spent our Christmas that year.  I would have been nine my twin sisters just two and a bit and our Jill still a baby.

As happened every year Uncle George would have travelled up from the west country a few days earlier and the day would have unfolded with the presents, breakfast and a walk to Peckham Rye and back, before Christmas dinner and followed by a mix of the telly and board games, of which Monopoly was dominated every Christmas evening.

Like many families we had bought into a television during the 1950s, and while I no longer know when our first one arrived, by 1958 it was an established item.

So that Christmas on BBC we had a series of films, along with variety shows and a ghost tale, which was pretty much replicated by London ITV and Granada.

Setting aside the television that Christmas drew heavily on the traditions experienced by my parents, both of whom were born in the first decades of the last century.

There were still  a mix of oranges and nuts in the Christmas stockings which for us were pillow covers, and 1958 might well have been the first year that coloured lights replaced real candles on the tree, although it would be many years before the paper chains and bright paper trees were done away with.

But as ever the bright but fragile glass baubles survived well into the 1980s and were brought out as they had been done every year, with a few additions to take the place of the broken ones.

As for presents, mine were as traditional as they had been each year, with an addition to the train set, an Eagle Annual and an assortment of sweets.

And while I can’t now remember exactly what those presents were I know that the Eagle Annual was number eight and that the lead story was Dan Dare in Operation Moss.

All of which I think is enough.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Christmas decorations; from the collection of Catherin Obi, and the Eagle Annual Number 8, with an extract from Operation Moss

*The story of a house, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

**“A Very Murky Christmas”, Manchester Guardian, December 24th, 1958