Bob Potts ……. the generous historian

Now there will be many who are better placed than me to write about Bob Potts.

Bob with his Reminiscences of a Flixton Boyhood

I only really got to know him about a decade ago, but during those ten years his visits on a Sunday were most welcome, as were our chance meetings in Morrisons, where over a basket of shopping we would exchange news of each other’s projects.

Bob was one of those generous historians, who was most happy when he could offer up pictures and information from his vast collection of material.

Added to which he was equally keen to proffer advice and the occasional correction which I always accepted from a man whose local historical knowledge was boundless.

So, when I was writing a book on Manchester and the Great War, Bob provided me with some fine picture postcards of Red Cross nurses, and even more generously lent me his records relating to the history of Manchester pubs.

These pub records consisted of the dates when the pubs were first granted a license, included the names of breweries as well as the date when the houses closed.

Bob's pub book on the pubs of Hulme and Chorlton-on-Medlock

And they were collected the old fashioned, way from the records held at the Greater Manchester County Office as well as the Archive and Local History Library in Central Ref,  involving long hours with huge musty volumes, which few had ever used.

Anyone who has trawled such documents will know that mix of excitement and tedium, as the day rolls on broken by the odd coffee break, in lonely seclusion punctuated by some fascinating discoveries.

Bob sharing happily his knowledge

Added to which when Bob undertook this bit of research it was done pre computer, so the records were handwritten and the process of ordering them was done without the aid of an electronic database to sort, edit and represent the information.

These records were invaluable to me, and of course were the basis for three books he wrote on Manchester pubs, written in the early 1980s and published by Neil Richardson.

But his historical interests and writing extended way beyond public houses.  

According to Michael Billington, who was his friend and co author he “started writing in 1970 when he wrote an article about the Roman road from Manchester to Ribchester for The Ribchester Archaeology Group’s magazine” and going on to write for other publications about his passion for digging up old Victorian and Edwardian bottles which had been discarded in ash pits.**

This in turn led to that interest in pub history and marked him out as a historian rather than just a collector.

Bob in his 20s

He was also active in local history groups and was a welcome guest speaker, especially when he gave talks on the Red Cross.

He had been born in Flixton in 1936 but spent most of his life in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, where along with his wife Joyce he raised a family of two sons and two daughters and was blessed with two grandchildren.

During the time I knew him, he was still working, and often would divert from his delivery rounds to drop off some “interesting thing” from his collection, and the presence of Bob on the doorstep, bicycle clips in hand often on a Sunday morning was always a welcome surprise.

The visit was never a short one as Bob described the object in detail, offered up a context to the piece and then slid off on several fascinating anecdotes, before suddenly closing the conversation and disappearing on his bike.

And that more than anything is how I will remember him …… a historian who was keen to share his knowledge and passion.

Sadly Bob died in February 2021, just before the publication of the book he co wrote with Michael Billlington.

Pictures; Bob, courtesy of Michael Billington 

* The Old Pubs of Hulme 1983, The Old Pubs of Chorlton On Medlock, 1984, The Old Pubs of Rochdale Road, 1985, & Reminiscences of a Flixton Boyhood, 1986, are available from Neil and Sue Richardson publishers, 01204 578138, wattywalton@btconnect.com  

**Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme, A Collection of Antiques and Curios, Michael BIllington and Bob Potts, Epona Publishing, 2021, www.eponarerecords.com and is also available from Urmston Book shop, https://www.urmston-bookshop.co.uk/ 0161 747 7442