The message …. from one of the many that came back ……..

We have always counted ourselves lucky that all the members of our family who went off to fight in Great War came back from France. 

They included my grandfather, two great uncles, and two uncles.

Only my great grandfather who had served in the East York’s in the resign of the old Queen and went back into uniform in 1914 did not survive, but he died of a respiratory illness unconnected with the fighting.

All of which is to state the obvious, that while we think of the huge loss of life on all sides in that war, most came home.

And while some never came to terms with the horrors of what they encountered many more settled back as far as we know to a settled and peaceful life, with decades ahead of them.

Decades which were filled with happy productive lives, raising families, and contributing to their communities in a heap of different ways.

All of which is true of my family.

And it is worth remembering that when my generation were growing up in the 1950s, these men and women were still active with many years ahead of them, which is how I remember my granddad, his brothers and my two uncles.

All of which is an introduction to Joseph Eyre who was born in Hyde, grew up and lived in Failsworth to where he returned after the war.

He was a hatter by trade, married Martha Ellen in 1908 and they had one son who like his dad and grandfather worked in the hat industry.

In the early years after their marriage Mrs. Eyre worked as a “weaver on a power loom in a cotton factory”.  I don’t know where each of them worked and unless I strike lucky, I guess I never will.

Nor do I know which regiment Joseph served in or how his war went.  There is a Joseph Eyre in the military records who rose to the rank of sergeant and was in the Manchester’s, but I think this is not him, because his list of medals does not include the 1914 or 1915 Star, and I know from the postcard he sent home he was on active service during the second year of the war.

On his return he resumed his trade as hatter, and was still working as such in 1939, the year before he died.

Added to which in the years after 1911 the family moved just a short distance from 19 Francis Street in Failsworth around the corner to 191 Ashton Road West.

19 Francis Street was a two up two down property, but it and their final home are no more.

Their stretch of Francis Street is under an industrial estate, and 191 Ashton Road West is a car park.

So that just leaves me with the postcard sent in the October of 1915, from somewhere.  Those more knowledgeable will be able to tell from the army postcard where Joseph was, but the fact that the picture postcard is French would suggest he was already overseas.

This fits with the deployment of some of the Pals Battalions to France in late 1915 but as yet just whether he had enlisted in 1914 or was a regular or reservist is as yet unknown as is his regiment.

The card is one from the collection of David Harrop who as a permanent exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery.

And like countless others the message on the reverse is upbeat, hoping Martha Ellen is fine and that Joseph had sent a card to their son Joe.

Just where Mr. Eyre purchased the card is another lost search, but it was produced by Armand Noyer, who  “was the proprietor of a large French photo studio and postcard publisher, at 22 Rue Ravignan, Paris. 

Output included art and illustrations (Noyer was a member of the Salon), "Boudoir" cards and cards of children, first world war pictures and film stars (Les Vedettes de Cinema, around 1300 cards). There is a site cataloguing the latter at rosspostcards.com/AnParisImages.html. Early cards used the AN logo, some of the later ones (the "Fantaisies, bromure grand luxe") the A NOYER roundel.

During WW1 Noyer produced "patriotic" cards under the marque Patriotic and some others”.*

And that is it.  Other than to say Armand Noyer's studio has also ceased to exist. Rue Ravignan is one of those typical narrow Parisan Streets but no 22 is occupied by a residential block of apartments.

And that is that.

Location; Failsworth

Picture; Picture postcard, circa 1915, from the collection of David Harrop

*Armand Noyer Paris, https://rthcards.co.uk/pclogos/data/AN/AN_01.html

How we lived and what got us cross ............ Eltham in 1977

Nothing dates more quickly than the contemporary TV or film documentary made in the last forty or so years.

I guess it is partly the style of delivery, the antiquated technology used to make it and the scenes themselves which are often still recognisable but just look a tad odd.

And the most bizarre thing is that it will be the material made say in the 1960s, 70s and 80s which look the most dated.

That said the documentary currently going round the Eltham sites is a fascinating insight into what the area was like back then, and the growing problems of traffic congestion, and the impact of new ways of shopping.

“Part of a 1986 ILEA series called House And Home, this episode looks at the suburban town of Eltham, examining residents with sympathy but almost anthropological fascination while also looking at traffic, transport and domestic architecture. 

Talking us through Eltham life are the White family, including Mr White, who works as a policeman in Westminster: 'It’s not uncommon to be asked the time when standing under Big Ben. As a kindness we try not to look up at it.'”

It has been issued by the B.F.I. and some people may have seen an earlier short posted showing soldiers passing through Eltham during the Great War.



Picture; Eltham High Street, courtesy of Jean Gammons

* Semi-detached Suburban http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-semi-detached-suburban-1977/

Gone but not forgotten ........

So farewell Rodger’s the Florist,

We knew you well and you were our first port of call,

For bouquets, single roses, and bunches of Chrysanthemums, 

As well as advice on flowers for weddings and birthdays, 

And now like Conrad’s which was Quarmby’s and moved to be beside you,

You have gone.

Happily you are still at Nellrose on Princess Road,*

And we have Peter’s smashing painting,

To remind us of your time on Wilbraham Road.

Location; Chorlton

Painting; Rodger’s the Florist, 2018, Peter Topping, www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

With apologies to E. J. Thribb whose poetic genius I can only replicate imperfectly

*Flowers By Rodgers, https://www.rodgerstheflorists.co.uk/

Chorlton continuity ………….. that restaurant on Beech Road

Number 60 Beech Road has been many things over the years.

Once it was home to Benjamin Wheatley the iron monger and later to Joan Newman “ladies hairdresser”.

My memories only stretch to the mid-1970s when it was briefly a piano shop, before it began its long association with food and drink.

And without wanting to sound like Methuselah, I can claim to have eaten in the place when it first opened as Café on the Green, and later when it was known variously as Blue Notes, the Nose, and Marmalade, before reopening as the Parlour.

And now after a longish closure it opened as Suburban Green.

So that is over 30 years of pleasing customers with everything from interesting dishes to beers and wines from all over.

Location Beech Road

Picture; Suburban Green, Beech Road, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Pass me the chips and Halloumi Saganaki ......... the new place on Beech Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/11/pass-me-chips-and-halloumi-saganaki-new.html

The Four freedoms, Free Speech 1 Speaking

Andrew Simcock & Gerald Kaufman MP

A series of pictures taken in the 1990s debating the future of the National Health Service. 

Originaly issued last year.

In 1941 President Roosevelt spoke of looking forward to a world founded on "four essential freedoms." 

"Freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear."

Later Norman Rockwell turned them into four paintings of which my favourite is the first where a blue collar worker speaks at his local town council meeting. And it struck me as I looked around the hall that we were doing exactly the same thing.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Of town plans and visions of a future that never quite happened, Eltham in the 1970s and Manchester in 1945.

Cover of A Future for Eltham Town Centre, 1975

Nothing dates as much as those planning booklets issued by the Council as part of a brave new consultation process.

Of course at the time they look bold innovative and exciting, but go back to them 30 or 40 years later and many of them frankly just look embarrassing.

In most cases the plans never came to anything, or they didn’t work or worse still they did but time has over taken them and a new plan is called for.

But in their way they are as much a history book and a comment on past times as any learned piece of original research.

All of which was prompted by A Future for Eltham Town Centre, which fell through dad’s door sometime in 1975.  It was produced by Greenwich Borough Council and invited residents to “make your views known to the Council.”

Back of A Future for Eltham Town Centre

Like all such documents it rehearsed the problems, speculated on how these might develop and offered possible solutions.

As ever “increased trade has brought pedestrian/ traffic conflict and parking pressures and a growing interest by multiple chain stores accompanied by a reduction in the smaller family business.”*

Added to this were issues of parking, demand for more office space, a need to accommodate more community services, while recognising that it was desirable "to promote the provision of residential development, some small service industry and some open space within Eltham town centre.”

It is a litany of concerns which could apply to many urban areas and no doubt our own planners in the town hall wrestled with similar issues here in Chorlton.

And like everywhere many of the opportunities for change were constrained by the amount of space, lack of money and other priorities.

But the planners did their best offering ideas to retain and plant more trees and improve the green spaces on the north side of Eltham High Street and suggesting a multi story car park down Orangery Lane as well as developing the reservoir.

Plan for the top of wel Hall Road

My own favourite was the idea of a small Town Park “on the disused part of Eltham Cemetery and a community centre beside the parish church, which would involve moving the public lavatories “when an opportunity occurs.”

Like so many planning ideas it would seem that the opportunity never did occur.

But I think I may be a little unfair on the planners given the constraints they faced.

So how much more of a problem was it for the town planners here in Manchester in the closing stages of the last world war?  They too were well aware of what they could do, but at the same time were galvanised by the issues of a tired looking city where many of the inner city  residential areas were no longer fit for purpose and some of the commercial areas showed the effect of haphazard development during the past century.

Trinty a new station for Manchester,  1945, from the Manchester Plan

Of course what they had in their favour was the wide open spaces which had been made by enemy action and a will shared by both politicians and planners to do something decent for the city.

Theirs was a bold plan which envisaged broad new avenues, People’s Places and rationalization of work, traffic and leisure along with new social housing.

The 1945 Plan for Manchester fitted an optimistic age fired by that post war belief that this time things had to be made to better.

Each time I go back to it I still get excited but do have to admit that I am pleased that not all of it came to pass, for while the slums would have been banished, new pleasant public places would have replaced the twisting dark courts and alleys, we would also have lost many fine Victorian buildings.

The People's Place, All Saints, 1945, from the Manchester Plan

Some still went under the commercial projects of the late 1950s and 60s but many more have survived.

The 1945 plan no less than the consultation document for Eltham in 1975 may not have gone the wayt he planners wanted but they do take me back to another time.




*A Future for Eltham Town Centre
** The 1945 Plan for Manchester, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%201945%20Plan%20for%20Manchester

Pictures; from A Future for Eltham Town Centre, Greenwich Borough Council, Planning Department, 1975, The 1945 plan for Manchester, Manchester Corporation, 1945

Stretford Public Hall …. another story from Tony Goulding

Continuing my literary tour of the clocks of South Manchester I branch out, into the Borough of Trafford, with this one which adorns Stretford Public Hall on Chester Road, Stretford.

Stretford Public Hall, 20th August, 2022

This building has over its lifetime been known by a variety of names. It was officially opened, as The Town Hall, on Saturday the 13th September, 1879 by Mr. John Rylands, the fabulously wealthy textile magnate, whose residence was in the nearby, Longford Hall. He had commissioned a young Manchester architect William Arthur Lofthouse, (1)whose father, Michael, was the steward of Longford Hall, to undertake the work. In July, 1903, Stretford Urban District Council invited tenders for “Alterations and Additions to the Stretford Town Hall”

A main feature of the structure is the central tower which stands 100 feet high and houses a large illuminated clock which was manufactured by W. H. Bailey & Co. of Salford. (2)

As well as housing civic offices, on its ground floor there was an assembly hall, complete with an organ supplied by Messrs. Conacher & Co. of Huddersfield, on the upper floor. Later developments saw the opening of Stretford’s first public Library in the building in 1883

The Clock

 In 1887 Mr. Rylands provided for a rear extension to be built to house a public baths. There was a grand opening of the new facility on Saturday the23rd April, 1887. A second and larger pool was later added, in 1913.

The provision of these amenities or more especially their location was, however, not without its detractors. It was contested that they were positioned too far distant from the area which was seeing the greatest population growth in the borough, Old Trafford. These misgivings were particularly expressed when the District Council were debating the proposed purchase of the building from the executors of the estate of John Rylands widow, Enriqueta Augustina. The sale was finally agreed to, subject to an annual rent of £40-8s-8d, at a price of £5,000 during a council meeting on the 8th June, 1909. 

A new library was opened in 1940 which necessitated the finding of a new use for the building. As it had been the venue for various concerts and shows during the Second World War (3) it seemed quite natural that in 1949 it should be re-designated as The Stretford Civic Theatre.  Many local Amateur Dramatic Societies staged their productions there. (Including " Who is Sylvia" by the pre-St. Werburgh's Manchester Athaneum Dramatic Society on the 10th and 11th November, 1955).There were also regular amateur boxing tournaments and dances. In 1954, a new oak dance floor was laid at a cost of £561 as reported by The Manchester Evening News on the 11th May, 1954.

Meetings were still hosted in the building from time to time, these were as diverse as a meeting, (on 1st November, 1951) of the assistant librarians of Liverpool and Manchester, for which the Stretford Council provided £15 of refreshments, and the half yearly meeting of the Northern Counties Swimming Association.(On Saturday, 11th November, 1978)

The nature of the events which have taken place in the building reveal a good deal of social history. During the late Victorian and Edwardian eras Organ Recitals and classical music concerts were very popular with the hall also being regularly utilised for election hustings and meetings of various friendly societies.

Unsurprisingly during the First World War the hall was extensively used in the war effort as a recruitment centre  and later in the war as an office for the purchase of War Loans. It is unclear whether use was made of the building as a Red Cross Hospital it is possible that such use was proposed but shelved in favour of its use to house some of the 1,700 pupils displaced from local schools being used as hospitals.

In the 1920s a programme of dances and concerts resumed, however, there were some new innovations. For example, on the 11th June, 1921 a “Balloon and Ribbon Carnival” was staged which included waltz and polka competitions with balloons tied to the feet of the competitors.

Trafford Town Hall, 8th October, 2008

The 1930s saw the opening of a new town hall for the newly created Borough of Stretford (1933) on Talbot Road, Stretford, in what is now Trafford Town Hall. The building on Chester Road then being known as “Public Hall”.(4)

 While in use as the Civic Theatre the building was also used for fund raising whist drives by a variety of groups. It was also the venue for a number of exhibitions in the early 1950s promoting road safety and Civil defence. (What to do in the event of an atom bomb attack!) Wrestling bouts and chrysanthemum shows were some of the other events

The sixties decade saw the first wine makers festival in 1968 and the advent of its use by a local 18+ group for their activities which included a Valentine’s Day “Crazy Nite” complete with a knobbly knees and ankles competition on the 14th February, 1963 and a Miss 18+ beauty contest on Saturday 23rd March, 1974.

 A last hurrah for the old building was the Rock Against Racism Christmas party of Friday 23rd December, 1977. This event featured, The Fall, John Cooper Clarke, and The Worst. Shortly after this, the Public Baths closed on the 31st March, 1982 prior to its permanent closure it had become unreliable due to a faulty boiler and was only opening the smaller of its two pools. The Civic Theatre was also in a deteriorating condition and closed around 1987 around the time it was designated a Grade 11 listed building. For almost a decade the building remained empty until in 1995 Trafford Council paid for some much-needed refurbishment to enable its use again as council offices. The Council vacated the property in 2014 since when the site has been acquired by a community group Friends of Stretford Public Hall. 800 local residents and organisations raised £250,000 to pay to have the Hall lovingly restored to its former glory.

 Finally, the hall has often been used for the conducting of coroner’s inquests into sudden or unexpected deaths. A particularly distressful example was that held on the 11th August, 1915, reported in that day’s Manchester Evening News on an accident at the adjacent swimming baths. A nine-year old boy, who couldn’t swim, had sadly drowned when he apparently fainted and fell into the deep end of the pool .

Pictures: - Stretford Public Hall and clock, and “Trafford Public Hall” from the collection of Tony Goulding. Trafford Town Hall: - by Tom Jeffs (a.k.a. “Parrot of Doom”) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4955790.

Notes: -

1)  William Arthur Lofthouse was not a prolific architect, in fact, apart from a national school built in 1874 at Stand, Nr. Whitefield, Bury, Lancashire, this commission for John Rylands was his only known work in the Manchester area. Shortly after the opening of this building he re-located to Huddersfield, in his birth county of Yorkshire, where the 1881 census records him still working as an architect. However at his death on the 25th March, 1887 his probate details show him as the publican of “The World’s End”, in Knaresborough, Yorkshire.

2)  This information was reported in a detailed description of the new building in The Wigan Observer and District Advertiser of the 20th September, 1879.

3)  A typical show might have been for a cost of 2/- (10p) you could have seen the band leader, Charlie Bassett on the 1st March, 1941.

4)  Some confusion arises from the fact that Stretford District Council vacated their offices in “The Town Hall”  in 1887, to  purpose built offices on Talbot Road which were known for a time as Trafford Public Hall and is now the Trafford Hall Hotel.

“Trafford Public Hall” on 25th August, 2022

Acknowledgements: - Again my major source was the The newspaper archive collection and other records on Find my Past. Additional biographical details of William Arthur Lofthouse came from the excellent website, Architects of Greater Manchester (1800-1940) created by The Victorian Society. The Friends of Streford Public Hall provided additions to the hall’s most recent history.

It’s the little bits of history that can be fun ……… the Chorlton mystery

In the great sweep of titanic history, the Vicars Road field won’t count as a big mystery, but it does fascinate me.

Chorlton Nursery, 2022

For those who like plants or supporting a local business Chorlton Nursery is one of those places you go to for flowers, and shrubs, as well as herbs, and those crawly plants.*

I have been going there over the years and occasionally wondered about its history.

It  is situated on that plot of land off Vicars Road, down a small path which could be the route to any one of a hundred different adventures.

The Tennis Courts, 1933-4

The 1933/34 OS map shows it as a tennis court, with what looks like a club house.  

Twenty years later the building is still there but there is no reference to  tennis, which  according to Chorlton Nursery  "became a market garden during the Second World War when private tennis courts were dug up for the Dig for Victory campaign. It has remained a working nursery ever since".

But I bet there is still some history to find.

Given that it is surrounded by houses the tennis court may date from when the houses were built, either as an after thought to fill in an odd pocket of land or was the deliberate intention of the developers.  

There was a similar set of courts were laid out when Chorltonville was built and were about developing a community spirit.

The name of the club may  may lie in the street directories from the 1920s, and of course from the memories of people who played on the courts or lived in the surrounding houses.

I suppose I could ask the owners of Chorlton Nursery who might know more, but where would the fun be in that?

No …… I shall await further research and in the meantime hope someone comes up with a memory of playing there and perhaps even a set of pictures.

And perhaps even a set of the club's minutes, rules and competition results, which really would be fun..

Location; Vicars Road

Pictures; the entrance to Chorlton Nursery, and detail of Vicars Road from the 1933/34 OS map of Manchester & Salford

*Chorlton Nursery, www.chorltonnursery.com

It happened here in Chorlton and also in Didsbury .............. National Baby Week .... July 1917

Just a century ago a crowd assembled on the Rec opposite our house on Beech Road and listened to Mrs Jane Redford, Mr Peach and Miss Place of the Manchester & Salford Day Nurseries speak in support of National Baby Week.

The week long campaign aimed to rouse “a universal determination to prevent the unnecessary wastage of infant life, [focusing on] all the causes which make for the high rate of infant mortality. 

According to statistics 80,000 babies under a year old die every year in the United Kingdom of which 50,000 might have been saved.”*

Now this is all the more remarkable when you consider that we were by that summer in to year three of the Great War.

A war which had already caused thousands of causalities and although the organisers did not know it was about to deliver even more as the British army launched the Third Battle of Ypres, commonly known as Passchendaele which would in its three months result in the deaths of 244,897 British and Commonwealth  soldiers.

The celebration began with processions through Chorlton and Didsbury both led by “a band and numbers of green and white banners.”

The Didsbury procession which was "followed by a meeting addressed by Miss Margaret Ashton and Mr C T Needham M P and others included Red Cross nurses and munition workers."

By contrast the Chorlton march was made up entirely of  “small children with a few mothers and big sisters to look after the babies and large crowds turned out to watch.”

Sadly no photographs have come to light and I have no idea what Mrs Jane Redford or the others said in the Rec on that Saturday afternoon.

But Mrs Redford was an important figure both in Chorlton and the City and her personal papers may still be available.

She had been active for over 30 years serving on various public bodies including the Board of Henshaw’s Blind Asylum and as a Poor Law Guardian for the Chorlton Union where she had campaigned for the provision of trained nurses for workhouse hospitals.

And in 1910 after winning a municipal election here in Chorlton, she became not only our first woman councillor but also the second woman elected to Manchester City Council.

And she spoke on the Rec opposite our house which really was a bit of history which happened here.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Pictures; the Rec circa 1910 from the Lloyd Collection and Mrs Redford, date unknown courtesy of Lawrence Beedle

*Baby Week Opening of the Campaign in Manchester, Manchester Guardian July 2 1917

Back with the Eagle in the 1950s

Now if you were born sometime between the early 1940s and the mid ‘50s, the chances are you were a fan of the Eagle comic.

It is a topic I keep coming back to and the reason is that back then it amounted to the best of British comics.

Its appeal crossed class lines as well gender and if my father was anything to go by attracted an older generation as well.

It came out each week and like other comics of the period had its own Christmas annual which was supplemented by books on some of the other leading characters.

But for me the Eagle Annual which first appeared in December 1950 was a must under the tree and it kept me going through the year, because here as well as comic strips were extended stories articles on sport , history science  and nature.

In between there were practical information on how to make a Kite-released parachute, sending secret messages using invisible ink and making your own printing set.

Never being particularly practical most of these DIY projects rated little more than a second glance.

For me it was the sections dealing with history and the stories which drew me in.

And of the stories it was Dan Dare Pilot of the Future who always was my first choice.

At this point I have to say this is no nostalgic trip. Instead is an exploration of how a popular comic managed at the same to introduce a whole pile of educational information which never led you to think you were back at school.

Nor were the books or comics aimed at the middle class, for there was enough here for any lad like me whose highest aspirations seemed to be a secondary modern school and a future mapped out in one of any one of a number of practical occupations.

The activities were all rooted in things any nine year could do and the stories were  in a world I understood.

And when they were based in space the Wild West or North Africa they were believable.

What is more the science of the future was our everyday life just a little different.

So Dan Dare’s spaceship used dial and buttons and levers, the command structure of Space Fleet including the uniforms which  mimicked the armed forces and of course many of the expressions used were rooted in the language of the 1950s.

None of which should surprise us but allowed every nine year old to feel that this imaginary world was not so far off from their own everyday life.

Of course the Eagle was ruthless in its use of its name which was marketed for all sorts of types and products, but again there is nothing new there.

So that said I shall this evening retreat into that world of the Eagle Annual leaving the cares of the 21st century behind.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Eagle, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Eagle

So just what did you do for the last 45 years? …….. stories against a political background

A little bit of my past fell through the door today.

Riding Two Horses, 2022

Although to be strictly accurate it is really the history of my friend Glyn Ford.

“Riding two Horses, traces the eventful life and a career of Glyn Ford, Member of the European Parliament for 25 years and erstwhile leader of its European Parliamentary Party”.*

And I might add a local councillor for Tameside for eight years.

For those who want the rest of his political career I would just refer you to the fly leaf of this his sixth book or the collection of his essays and articles for a raft of publications, almost all of which are available. *

My five minutes of fame with Glyn started in a dingy room of the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood in 1974, where with another six or seven Labour Party members we were engaged in addressing and stuffing envelopes with an election leaflet for Bob Sheldon who was seeking re-election as the MP for Ashton-Under-Lyne

Kay and I had ended up in Ashton earlier in the year having migrated from south Manchester to what is now Eastlands and by following the Ashton Old Road found a modest two up two down in the town.

I had joined the Party aged 16 in 1966 and remained active through the first General Election in February 1974 into the second in October.  Glyn and I along with Kay, Hazel, Pam and Ian were all relative newcomers and with varying degrees we embraced the politics of the area.

I jumped ship in 1976 heading back to south Manchester where I sank myself the politics of Chorlton and the City.

But we kept in touch, meeting up occasionally and going on a few holidays, and from then till now I have followed Glyn’s career.

So, I was pleased to receive this book partly because it fills in the details of the last 46 years, and also because it is the backdrop to my own political landscape albeit a more modest one. 

Making the stand for social justice, The Moss Side CLP banner, Liverpool, 1980

And given that Glyn was at the centre of much that went in Europe while we were part of that political organization the book throws a light on the history of that period as well as the struggles against antisemitism, racism and confronting those ideologies of the Far Right as well as the lesser known politics of North Korea and other Asian countries.

All of which I will find fascinating to read as will the general reader.

45 years of active politics

But I couldn’t stop myself looking for just one event from the 1970s, which was when we were both on the side of leaving the Common Market and campaigned so in the European Referendum of 1975.  

I look back with a degree of wry self-deprecation, given that later I became and remain an ardent supporter of the European Union.

It is a story I have long dinned out on as does Glyn who recounts “In Ashton-Under-Lyne, we organised a ‘NO’ event.  There were six on the platform – from somewhere we’d even managed to find a Liberal against the Common Market – and five in the audience.  When the meeting’s chair announced he was a member of the Communist Party, 40% of the audience stood up and left”.***

Such are the ups and downs of political campaigns, made all the more significant when things go well, and progressive alliances are formed and progressive policies advanced which enhance the social and economic lives of us all.

And yes, it will be a book I take away on holiday.

Pictures; cover for Riding Two Horses, 2022, and the Moss Side Labour Party Banner in Liverpool, 1980 in the first big demonstration against the Conservative Government elected the year before, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*“Riding Two Horses Labour in Europe, Glyn Ford, 2022

**www.glynford.eu

***Ford, ibid page 76

Magic vanished days ……. boiled cabbage … and the teacher we all remember

Well, we just had to include Lost Chorlton Schools in the series nothing to do in chorlton.

Chorlton Cof E, 1951

The books are predicated on that simple idea, that there is plenty going on in Chorlton and we will bring the stories to you, while you do nothing more than sit back, enjoy a mix of daring, historical and the odd silly tales.*

This you can do from the comfort of an armchair or better still by walking the stories.

So far, we have explored the area around the village green, zipped over to the vanished Four Banks Corner and are presently completing an adventure along Beech Road.

Chorlton Grammar School, circa 1931

Others in the series will include the Pubs of Chorlton, the Lost Pubs of Chorlton and trips to Wilbraham Road, Barlow Moor Road and into Didsbury and Whalley Range.

And given that for some “the best years were my school years”, we have fastened on resurrecting those Chorlton schools which are no more.  They are the ones that many will have gone to either as eager and carefree seekers of knowledge or unwilling hostages.

We will include the schools, the memories and the pictures from those that attended, all of which may challenge that dismissive comment from one student that “It could be made of marble, but it would still be bloody school”.**

St Clement's class group, date unknown

Of course what would be fascinating are contributions from you.

They can be about the fun you had , or the misery you endured, mixed with tales of overcooked cabbage and semolina pudding, Sidney the strap, and the bested teacher you met.

So that is it.

You can find Peter Topping and I on social media, stop us at our next book launch, or join me for the next two history walks on September 18th and September 25th.

In the meantime our latest book in the series …… Martledge, Lost and Found by Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping, costs £5, and is available from Chorlton Bookshop or from us at  www.pubbooks.co.uk

Location; Chorlton Good Neighbours

Pictures; The class of 1951, Chorlton C of E, 1951, from the collection of Ann Love, Chorlton Grammar School, circa 1930s, and class group of St Clemet’s School, date unknown from the Lloyd Collection

****A new book on nothing to do in chorlton, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20doing%20nothing%20in%20Chorlton

*Half Our Future, Newsom Report, 1963, Chapter 1 page 2, http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/newsom/newsom1963.html 

Snaps of Chorlton, from Neale Road off towards the Meadows 1963-64

An occasional series featuring private and personal photographs of Chorlton.

It was taken in the winter of 1963-4 from the back upstairs window of Ida Bradshaw’s house on Neale Road.

Today the view would be obscured by the flats of Lawn Green, but back then it was all that was left of the farm yard, workshops and land of the farm which had fronted the parish graveyard for two hundred years.

To the right in the background is the Bowling Green Hotel, to the left the houses which face Brookburn Road. And away in the distance are the meadows. What is perhaps remarkable are the buildings on the horizon just left of centre.

These I think were the homes of the sewage workers and stood just to the left of the little footbridge across Chorlton Brook. It is still possible to make out a break in the hedge where the garage of the properties was situated. There are those in Chorlton who remember living in one of them.

Location; Chorlton, Manchester

Picture; from the back upstairs window on Neale Road 1963, from the collection of Ida Bradshaw

A quiet afternoon in Varese part 2

It was one of those quiet afternoons in spring just a little on the cool side and there was a hint of rain but it didn’t stop people sitting out and watching as the crowds went by.

Location, Varese, Italy

Pictures; Varese 2012 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

War time messages from Germany

 Now, I am intrigued by this picture postcard from the Great War.

Partly because you don’t see as many ones from the “other side” and partly because the “other side” included members of my German family.

So, while I can count two uncles, my grandfather, two great uncles and a great grandfather who fought for King and Country between 1914-18, my maternal grandmother was German, and her relatives will have fought in the German Imperial forces.

Added to this my mother and her brother who were born in Cologne served in the RAF while some of their cousins fought for the other side in the Second World War.

The caption reads “Red Cross Collection of youth volunteers in wartime care”, and like some many of the allied picture cards issued at the same time it drips with sentiment and an appeal to war time loyalty.

And it is all there, from the eternal flame of nationhood burning brightly flanked by the tree, to the shadowy figures of soldiers. 

The war veteran echoes those earlier conflicts including victory over France sixty years earlier while the young men and women are a reminder of the present struggle.

There is a message on the back which in time I will translate, and the card was sent from Wittenberg to an address I can’t make out.

My Wikipedia tells me the artist was Adalbert von Rößler who was the son of the police director of Wiesbaden.  After a stint working in industry he became a painter, studied at the Munich Art Academy and the Antwerp Academy, before moving to Berlin.

The card was acquired by David Harrop who I understand will display it in his permanent exhibition in the Visitors Lodge in Southern Cemetery.

Location; Wittenberg

Picture; “Red Cross Collection of youth volunteers in wartime care”, circa 1914-18, from the collection of David Harrop

*Adalbert von Roessler, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalbert_von_Roessler

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ....... part 139 ….. just how many ways can you cook Parmigiana di melanzane?

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.*

Parmigiana di melanzane, 2021

I would be very surprised if Joe and Mary Ann ever came across aubergines.

Now I might be doing them a disservice, but they lived in our house from 1915 till 1973 which for most people in a tiny suburb of south Manchester was not a time of culinary adventure.

To be fair two world wars and a Depression were not conducive to exploring new foods cooked in different ways.

And here I can’t be sniffy because my experience of aubergines was very late in coming and only happened in the 1980s when I first started going to Greece.

I don’t count my student flirtation with tinned ratatouille which came from the local independent supermarket on Burton Road and contained a smidgen of aubergines.

Parmigiiana di maelanzane, 2022

After Greece it would be another two decades before I came across Parmigiana di melanzane made by Tina’s mum in the family kitchen in Varese, just north of Milan.

This was a revelation.  You take slices of aubergine, fry them in olive oil with or with out a dusting of egg and flour, then layer them alternatively with mozzarella cheese in a dish, top with tomato sauce and bake in the oven.

And after a decent interval they came to Scott’s house, but my attempts while good do not compare with Rosa’s who was born in Naples in 1940 and has been making the dish from as soon as she could.

This week she varied it, telling me that this was not the Neapolitan way but a version from Calabria.

The aubergines were sliced in two, the contents cut in criss crosses thane covered with mozzarella, cover in sauce and wacked in the oven.

It’s the way they are served in restaurants I guess because it is quicker, but as nice as it was I prefer the other way.

fagioli e pasta, 2022

At which point someone will mutter so what, or complain that this has little to do with a century of one house in Chorlton, but I think it does.

Partly because it demonstrates how our tastes have changed over that century, highlighting the growing availability of different foods, but also the culinary adventure many of us who grew up in the 1950s now take for granted.

Of course Brexit and rising inflation may dampen that demand, but those experiences are now out there.

To which I can now add another favourite which is fagioli e pasta, or beans and pasta, which is cheap, filling and nutritious, and a dish which its British variations might pull on potatoes rather than pasta and so tick a meal Joe and Mary Ann might have been familiar with.

Location; Beech Road and Italy

Pictures; Parmigiana di melanzane, 2021 7 2022, and fagioli e pasta, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Story of a House, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

12 Hope Street Derby a home for 30 years and now a car park*

I always thought the name Hope Street was a cruel joke for how could there ever be any hope in a row of mean looking houses consisting of just four rooms an outside lavatory and shared yard?

On  still and quiet nights it was not only possible to hear the clunk of shunting engines from the nearby railway line but know when the people next door were rowing or the even more intimate moments of the couple at number 10.

It might of course be possible to conjure up some rosy picture of children playing in the streets safe from traffic under the watchful eye of a resident but this had more to do with an absence of gardens and parks and there was always the fear that the canal just a few streets away could prove fatal.

So the only hope came from the name.  Every town and city in the north had these shabby often poorly built properties.  They were put up by speculative builders often using the cheapest materials and were not meant to last.  The fact that many survived from the earliest years of the nineteenth century is less a tribute to the quality of the buildings as to a lack of sufficient money or the political will to clear them and build better.

But that is a little unfair and now looking back with the gift of a degree of maturity and some experience I have to admit that I was rather hard on Hope Street.
Some of the worst of these early 19th century slums had gone before the war and what was left may not always have been bad.  I started my married life in a two up two down, which with the addition of a bathroom and inside lavatory was cheap, and manageable with the extra bonus of being close to the town centre.

Now number 12 Hope Street would have built around 1830.  The street itself did not derive from some cynical landlord who took perverse pleasure in naming the place hope in contrast to the dismal surroundings but from the Hope family one of whom was Lord Mayor no less than five times.

Of course I cannot testify to the state of the brickwork or the quality of the other material used in its construction but I remember a comfortable home.

Like most of the houses of this design you entered directly into the front room and by the 1950s this was no longer the “best room”, used only for special occasions but a family room kept warm and cosy in the winter months where I could sit and play with my lead figures of animals, cowboys and soldiers bought from the local market.

Every morning grandmother would make the fire a method which both fascinated and terrified me, for once the kindling and coal were in the grate and the fire lit she put a sheet of newspaper over the front.  This allowed the flames to catch and drew the fire up the chimney.  It is a trick I have never dared copy with our own open fires, preferring to put the fire guard in place first and rest a sheet of newspaper on that.

My fear which if memory serves happened on one occasion was that the newspaper itself would ignite and with a sudden whoosh disappear up the chimney.  “That” my mother would soundly proclaim “could start a chimney fire which is the worst thing that can happen.”   To this day despite regularly sweeping our chimneys the fear of such a happening haunts me, but for an eight year old was a prospect of unimaginable terror.

The reverse was the need on those same cold winter days to visit the outside lavatory at the back of the shared yard.  This was an ordeal spared all of us at night as under the bed well into the late 50s were chamber pots which we used.  I defy anyone to want to slip out of a warm bed in the middle of a December night to cross an unlit yard.   My grandparents never lost the habit and in the 1970s under their bed in their last home in Chellaston were two chamber pots.

Hope Street was demolished in the 1980s.   With a little careful renovation perhaps the houses could have been saved.  Some at least of the people who were there in the 1950s remembered them with affection and told me of the community spirit.   They were mainly skilled and semi skilled working families who shared their densely packed neighbourhood with factories, print works and timber yards.

I may have been too dismissive of Hope Street but I still rather think that those who lived there may well have preferred the option of a greener spaces, easier to clean houses and an inside lavatory.

What they got was a car park. The home of my grandparents for 30 years is marked today by the corner of a wooden fence, which I have to reflect ain't no blue plaque.

Location; Derby

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Cynthia Wigley, circa 1990s

*And what was once a car park in the 1990s was when I last looked am anonymous patch of grass, beside an apartment block whose living density far out matches the old Hope Street.

Private Samuel Spence K.i.A. 24th August, 1901 …. another story from Tony Goulding

This memorial stone marks the grave of James Duncan Spence and his wife Jenefer (née Naylor) and includes a dedication to their son Samuel who was killed in action at  Rooikopje, South Africa on the 24th August, 1901 during the 2nd Boer War. 

It is located in Manchester’s Southern Cemetery, Non-conformist section, Plot D 710. 

The Spence family came to South Manchester from Dublin during the first decade of the 20th century, although James Duncan was born in Dumfries, Scotland and his wife hailed from Lyme Regis, Dorset. They were married on the 17th January, 1872 at the district church of Ballybunion in the parish of Killiheney, Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. Samuel was born on the 23rd July, 1883 at 7, Lower Sackville Street, Dublin. (1)

When the 1901 census was taken on the 31st March, Samuel had already landed in South Africa as part of the Imperial Yeomanry, a force drawn from all parts of the British Empire to combat the rebellion of the Boer Republics. He had left his family home at 124, Cowper Road, Rathmines, Dublin to enlist on the 11th February and, lying about his age to do so, he joined, according to his attestation documents, the 13th battalion of that force.  The record of his death however, includes a reference to him belonging to the 74 (Dublin) company, 8th battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. Samuel left behind in Ireland his father James Duncan, recorded on the census return as a “printseller”, his mother Jenefer, an older brother, William Naylor, who was a picture dealer and six unmarried sisters. (2)

Shortly after James Duncan and Jenefer Spence re-located to Didsbury with their remaining sons and three of their youngest daughters (3), James Duncan died on the 21st May, 1909 at 5, Lansdowne Road, West Didsbury, Manchester. He had suffered with blindness from before the 1901 census which recorded him as “blind”. Jenefer Spence survived her husband by more than 17 years, dying on 2nd November, 1926.

I had expected that this would conclude the story of this grave. However, further investigation revealed that two other people, not recorded on the headstone, were also interred in it viz. Miss Anne Jane Cantley on the 17th April, 1937 and Henry Parnell Heney on the 1st October, 1942. 

The family connection of the second of these interments was straightforward, he was the husband of Stella Edith Spence, the second youngest daughter of James Duncan and Jenefer

Christ Church, West Didsbury.

The couple had married on the 12th February, 1923 at Christ Church, West Didsbury and in the 1939 register are shown living at 95, Atwood, Didsbury, Manchester. 

Living with them was Stella Edith’s older unmarried sister, Jenefer, who appropriately perhaps considering the fate of her brother, worked for The League of Nations as a confidential secretary in their offices at 53, Barton Arcade, Manchester.  Mr. Heney, who was a sales representative, latterly in the pharmaceutical industry, died, a week shy of his 56th birthday on the 26th September, 1942. He left an estate of £1,140-14s-7d. (equivalent today to £37,535).

Despite there being no shortage of biographical detail available concerning Anne Jane Cantley’s, finding her connection to the Spence family proved to be problematic and at present still remains a mystery. 

Grafton Street, Dublin circa 1870

Anne Jane was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1863, her parents were Joseph Cantley, who was a hosier and glover of 79, Grafton Street, Dublin and Marianne (née Boon).

 Of her earlier life in Ireland little has shown up in the records; perhaps as she was the first-born daughter, she remained single in order to take care of h.er parents in their old age. 

By 1911 she had moved to England and is recorded in that year’s census return residing with her brother Joseph, a surgeon, at 398, Great Cheetham Street East, Broughton, Salford, Lancashire. 

Her nephew, Joseph Donaldson, was recorded as newly born; he went on to have a distinguished career in Law. (4) 

Anne Jane Cantley later moved to Kensington, London where the 1921 census shows her as the manageress of a large up-market boarding house at 44-46, Longridge Road, Earls Court. Later, she briefly owned another boarding house a short distance away at 28, Nevern Square. 

Joseph Cantley’s shop

This was, apparently a joint venture with Eduard Gustaaf de Lange which was “dissolved by mutual consent” from the 31st December, 1927 as reported in the London Gazette on the 7th February, 1928. Sometime after this Anne Jane returned to live, with her brother’s widow and her children at 43, Brooklands Road, Prestwich, Manchester where she died on Tuesday the 13th April, 1937, aged 74. 

Pictures: - Headstone of the Spence family grave from the collection of Tony Goulding

Christ Church, West Didsbury courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Archives, and Information, http://manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

79, Grafton Street, Joseph Cantley’s hosier and glover shop, this, also, was home to the Dublin School of Photography and the Studio of Frederick Holland Mares, National Library of Ireland on The Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:79_Grafton_Street..._(8248610379). 

Notes: -

1) Sackville Street and its extension towards the River Liffey, Lower Sackville Street, was renamed O’Connell Street, in 1924, by the newly established Irish Free State government with one of its earliest actions.

2) Samuel did have two other siblings an older sister, Margaret Anne, who had recently married on the 27th July, 1899, and a younger brother, Albert Harley, born on the 4th December, 1886 who was for some reason absent from the census return of 1901. Albert Harley later emigrated to the United States from the family home in Manchester in 1907.

3) Stella Edith, the second youngest child, remained behind in Dublin for the time being.

4) Sir Joseph Donaldson Cantley O.B.E. became a High Court Judge. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and The University of Manchester. In his legal career he was the lead prosecutor in the final capital murder case prior to the abolition of the death penalty when the conviction of Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen for the murder of John Alan West led to their executions on the 13th August, 1964 at Manchester’s Strangeways and Liverpool’s Walton Prisons, respectively. Later as a judge Mr. Cantley presided over the sensational conspiracy and incitement to murder trial of the former leader of the Liberal Party, Jeremy Thorpe. His reputation and legacy were to a degree sullied by his summing-up in this case which was deemed by many to have been too skewed in favour of the defence following the accused acquittal.