This is Chequers Road, sometime in the 1940s.
Chequers Road/Church Road circa 1940s |
Her family have lived in Chorlton for over 80 years and many
of the photographs are of this one road
Her dad lived at number 41, and as they say the cross in the
picture marks the spot.
Walk along the road today and the scene is pretty much the
same, barring the inevitable number of cars and the lack of net curtains which
were still a badge of respectability.
Outside 39 Church Road, with the "criss cross brown paper", circa 1939-45 |
Now if I wanted to hazard a guess, I think our picture will predate 1939, or certainly have been taken after 1945.
And the clue is in the absence of “the criss cross brown
paper anti blast tape at the windows”, which Jack Beasley refers to on another
of the pictures which was taken in the garden of 39 Church Road during the last
world war.
The group consist of “Gerald Booth left, Jack Beasley, right,
Gerald Vodon, [below] left, and Phyllis Vodon, [below] right”.
Flo Beasley, date unknown |
I think she will be in the front garden of number 43,
because comparing the image with others the front gate behind her is a match
for number 41.*
And a trawl of the 1939 Register shows a Mrs Pauline Donbavand
listed as living there along with her husband and Walter Meadows who was a
Police Constable.
Pauline gave her occupation as a “Theatre Usherette”, had been born in 1909 and was two years younger than her husband.
There is a slight confusion of the spelling
of her surname which is a little unclear from the official record and Police
Constable Meadows is listed as married but his wife is missing.
But like census returns, the 1939 Register was conducted on
one night in early September and Mrs Meadows may have been elsewhere.
Added to which our unknown lady may not be Mrs Donbavand.
According to Kirsty she could actually be "my grandmother Flo Beasley", and certainly looking at family photographs there is a resemblance between the lady with the flowers and her grandmother.
So I rather think that is our mystery woman.
Outside 41/43 Church Road, date unknown |
That said I know that Florence was a “Bedding Machinist”,
Lillian a “Shorthand typist” and George a "sapper" in the “Royal Engineers”, added
to which an official returned to the list and changed Lillian’s status from
single to married and including her new surname of Symonds.
There was nothing odd in the official alterations, as the 1939 Register was a working document and was used both for compiling the war time Identity cards, and for the new National Health Service which came into being in 1948.
Leaving me just to reflect that 83 years ago the occupations
of those on Church Road, included two “house painters and paper hangers” a “retired
Foreman lamp lighter”, an “Electrical engineer” along with a "chimney sweep", "a
salesman", and a lorry driver. With these
were the familiar “unpaid domestic duties” and with a nod to the war, an “Auxiliary
Fireman based at No.158 Manchester", and a number of servicemen.
I wonder what a contemporary tally of occupations would reveal.
Location; Chequers Road/Church Road, Chorlton
Pictures; Church Road circa 1939-45, from the collection of
Kirsty
*There is however one hiccup and that is the modern street numbers for 41 and 43, do not correspond to what I think was the case in 1939 which may mean there was a change of numbers after 1939 ..... or I have just got it wrong.
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