Will you spot Peter in Chorlton .......... and claim your £1m note?

 And yes of course it is an outrageous piece of self-promotion ……… how could it be otherwise?

Four Bank Corner, circa 1995

But the question still remains.

In the next few weeks Peter will be out and about in that part of Chorlton once known as Martledge taking pictures for the second volume in our nothing to do in chorlton series.

The first book has proved a runaway success, and so we been asked to repeat the format.*

The idea is that simple one where we choose six locations for you to sit, do nothing while we will tell stories of what went on at each of the six spots.

Tales which include the role of the Titanic in the history of Chorlton Library, a forgotten property developer, and the tale of a much-polluted stream, not forgetting a chunk of our lost industrial history and the magnificent Chorlton Ice Rink.

All of which means his beat will be the stretch from the old Four Banks up to the library and onto Longford Road.

The back of the Sedge Lynn, 2018

At which point keen fans of the 1935 Graham Green novel Brighton Rock will mutter, “cheeky blighters they stole that from Mr. Green".

And I cannot tell a fib, because as the plot unfolds a rather nasty criminal gang leader learns that a newspaper reporter called Fred Hale, will be in town for one day for a promotional stunt playing "Kolley Kibber", and leaving cards around town that can be redeemed for a monetary prize, with a larger prize for the first person who publicly identifies Fred as Kolley Kibber.

That said Mr. Green lifted the idea from real life in the form of a clever ploy by the Westminister Gazette, hatched and executed in August 1927.

According to my Wikipedia, “Anonymous employees [of the newspaper] visited seaside resorts and afterwards wrote down a detailed description of the town they visited, without giving away its name. 

Peter the £m note man

They also described a person they happened to see that day and declared him to be the "Lobby Lud" of that issue. Readers were given a pass phrase and had to try to guess both the location and the person described by the reporters. Anyone carrying the newspaper could challenge Lobby Lud with the phrase and receive five pounds.

The competition was created because people on holiday were known to be less likely to buy a newspaper. Some towns and large factories had holiday fortnights, called "wakes weeks" in the north of England, when the town or works would all decamp at the same time. 

Circulation could drop considerably in the summer and proprietors hoped prizes would increase it".**

To which Peter adds, "I think Lobby Lud was also used by the Daily Mirror.

I remember when I was very young in Preston my Dad took me down Town to see if we could spot him. You had to be carrying a copy of that days Daily Mirror, and you had to say, 'You are Lobby Lud and I claim my £5'”

So there you have it ........imitation is  the best form of flattery, and to retain the historic continuity Peter will offer a prize of a £1m pound note to the prize winner who will have to say... “You are Peter Topping and I claim my £1m pound note”. 

The bank roll

The lucky recipient  does not  have to have a copy of the book, nothing to do in chorlton, and there will only be two prizes per day.

Leaving me just to say volume 2 of nothing to do in chorlton will be published later this year.

Location; Martledge

Pictures; Four Bank Corner, circa 1995, courtesy of Steve, the back of the Sedge Lynn, 2018, Peter the £m note nan and the bank roll

* The man who stole Chorlton’s village Green …..a lost stream …. and a church quarrel, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-man-who-stole-chorltons-village.html

**Lobby Lud, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobby_Lud