When Stretford removed Chorlton’s tram track ...... municipal manoeuvrings and other tales

Now it seems bizarre that one local authority in dispute with another should take the drastic step of digging up a line of newly laid tram track, but it happened.  

Upper Chorlton Road, 1907, before the extension and the Stretford quarrel

In the winter of 1909 Manchester was in the process of extending a tramway from Brooks Bar to West Point along Upper Chorlton Road, part of which went through Stretford.

This stretch ran for just ten yards but because the Stretford Council had not been asked first, it fired off a flurry of blustering letters threatening to remove the track if Manchester continued.

And when the City laid the offending ten yards of rail, Stretford retaliated, informing Manchester “that a physical disconnection has been made” adding that, “the removed rails were placed behind the seat on the footpath leading to Chorlton-cum-Hardy beyond the [Stretford] district, convenient for reinstatement”.

The underlying reason had more to do with Stretford attempting to get a better deal for electricity it supplied to Manchester to on match days after United had relocated to Old Trafford.

The Bridge at Manchester Road, 1907

Nor was this the only obstacle the city encountered in extending Corporation trams to Chorlton.

Work on the line at Manchester Road was halted after the railway company objected  that the bridge over the railway line was too weak for tramway traffic.

The dispute was finally settled with Manchester paying nine-tenths of the cost of strengthening the bridge.

Such were the problems faced by the Corporation honouring its promise to the rate payers of Chorlton who voted in 1904 to join the city and thought they were getting a tram service.

These are those tiny little stories which don’t count for much in the great sweep of history, but are fascinating none the less.

Car 901 at the tram terminus, date unknown

As is the little known fact that from 1923 until the outbreak of the Second World War there was a facility for late night posting of letters on 14 Manchester and 7 Salford tram routes.

According to A.H. Kirby,  “A posting box was carried on the rear platform of trams timed to reach the City at about 9.30 p.pm; from mid December 1923, these cars were indicated by POST CAR in place of the route number. 

The Chorlton services selected were on route 13, departing from Chorlton due at Albert Square at 9.29 and on route 22 departing Chorlton and arriving Piccadilly at 9.30”, with more being added over the years.*

Car 277 on Barlow Moor Road with the cinema behind, date unknown

Now I thought I knew my Chorlton tram history but Mr Kirby has offered me a fascinating and detailed glimpse into how the trams came to Chorlton and their impact over the 39 years they rattled their way in and out of the township.

And I am indebted to Trevor James who having acquired the two editions of Tramway Review with Mr Kirby’s articles, and thinking of me, scanned and sent them down from Scotland.

I also have to thank Stenlake Publishing who bought The Oakwood Press which published The Tramways of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and gave me permission to reproduce four of the images from the publication.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy







Pictures; trams of Chorlton from The Tramways of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, courtesy of Stenlake Publishing

*The Tramways of Chorlton-cum-Hardy – 2, A.H. Kirby, Tramway Review, Vol 18, Autumn 1989, No. 139, The Oakwood Press. Page 80

** Stenlake Publishing, http://stenlake.co.uk/?page_id=442

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/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ...... nu 67 walking down Gun Street in 1851

Now this is another one of the walks I would like to have taken in the spring of 1851.

It would have started just past New Cross, where Great Ancoats Street joined Oldham Road and Swan Street and running from Bond Street, crossed George Street, Blossom Street and finished at Jersey Street.

It is still there today, a narrow street, dominated by tall modern buildings a few workshops which long ago lost any entrances onto the road and some open spaces.

In total I don’t suppose it would have taken more than five minutes to walk its length in the 1850s, but in that short time there would have been all that the curious spectator might have wanted to observe.

For here were small terraced properties, the dark and secretive courts hidden from view and plenty of pubs and beer shops.

Gun Street in 1901

Here too was a cross section of the city’s working population from skilled journeyman to shop keeper, textile worker and a heap of unskilled labour.  And reminding us that Manchester still moved courtesy of the horse Gun Street had a blacksmith.  Perhaps even more surprising was that in that year of 1851 there was still a handloom weaver and an agricultural labourer.

In total there were 384 people living in just 63 houses with some crammed into the cellars.  The rents ranged from 1 shilling 6d to 4 shillings and 6d when a factory girl might earn between 7 and 9 shillings, a week a labourer 18 shillings and a police constable 20 shillings.

And along that short street you could have heard the accents of the rural north as well as London, and the Midlands but dominating all would have been that of the Irish, for here amongst our 384 inhabitants were 235 from Ireland and only 125 from Manchester.**

And as you would expect there is much more than we could uncover, from poor sanitation, adulterated food, the large numbers of pubs and beer shops and those dark and secretive courts hidden from view.

But all that is for later.  Instead I shall leave you with the thought that had you tired of Gun Street and returned to New Cross you chanced at best a rowdy noisy meeting place and at worst a venue for popular discontent.

For most of the last half century, there had been protests and like that of April 1812 in Oldham Road at New Cross when a food cart carrying food for sale at the markets in Shudehill was stopped and its load carried off.

Nearby shops were also attacked and looted.  The mob was eventually dispersed by soldiers but only as far as Middleton.  There they met with an assembly of handloom weavers, miners and out of work factory operatives gathered to protest against the introduction of power loom machinery at Barton and Sons weaving mill.

The mob which had grown to 2000, was dispersed by “A party of soldiers , horse and foot, from Manchester arriving, pursued those misguided people, some of whom made a feeble stand; but here again death was the consequence, five of them being shot and many severely wounded.”    

While after the events at Peterloo in 1819 the military and the local police patrolled the streets like some occupying force, and in the early evening with tensions still high a large crowd gathered at New Cross.

Gun Street in 2011

Some of the crowd began throwing stones at the police and soldiers opened fire.  Before the crowd had dispersed, Joseph Ashworthy had been killed and several others lay injured.  Not surprisingly many of those injured in this event came from that close network of streets around Gun Street.


Location; Manchester


Pictures; part of Gun Street from the OS map of Manchester, 1842-44, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ Gun Street from Blossom Street, A Bradburn, 1901  M11341, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and Gun Street from Blossom Street 2011, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Rate Books
**1851 census

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

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ........ nu 82 Little Ancoats Street

History hasn’t been kind to Little Ancoats Street.

Little Ancoats Street from Newton Street, 2019

It is one of those very narrow streets, which has never warranted much in the way of official recognition.

It once stretched from Dean Street, across Newton Street, and almost but not quite running out on to Lever Street.

Today the bit from Dean Street to Newton Street has vanished under a block of new build which was constructed in the last few years, and which wiped out the Lord Nelson pub, which was doing the business of serving beer and good cheer from at least 1841.

In that year the landlord was a Robert Walker, and a decade later it was run by a Mary Ann Belshaw and judging by the occupants listed in the Rate Books it appears to have changed hands frequently.

Little Ancoats Street from Little Lever Street, 2019

As for Little Ancoats Street, it  remains a bit of an enigma.  It shows up on maps of the early 1790s, but as yet there are no listings for who resided there in the directories, nor as yet can I find any entry in the census returns.

And that is slightly odd given that the southern side of the street consisted of residential properties during the middle of the 19th century.

Their absence from the street directories may just be because they were not worthy of inclusion, but they should appear in the census records, especially given that the surrounding streets are all included.

The stretch of Great Ancoats Street, and Ancoats Street which were either side of our street are there in the official records but not ours.

That said some of the buildings along the part of Little Ancoats Street from Little Lever Street may be the original residential properties shown on the maps of the 1840s and 50s, which may be as close as we get to their inhabitants.

But in time and widening the search I am sure the mystery of who lived in them will be revealed.

All of which leaves me with the Lord Nelson, which was demolished in 2010.  That building only dated from 1895, and while there is a suggestion that the original dates from 1830, the first reference I have is 1841.

Little Ancoats Street, 1851

Nor have the records revealed any details of either Mr. Walker  or Ms Belshaw, but I shall keep looking.

Location; Little Ancoats Street,

Pictures; Little Ancoats Street, 2019, from the collection of Richard Hector Jones, and in 1851,  from Adshead’s map of Manchester 1851 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Lost  Manchester Streets, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Lost+Manchester+Streets

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

Narnia on the Green ……

Daft I know and there will be those who will be dismissive of the Narnia books and a tad critical of the quality of the picture.

But I like the lamp post which has a long history, as does the village green.*

It was stolen in the early 19th century by Mr. Wilton, and only returned to public use near the close of the 19th century.

And that is that.

Location; Chorlton Green

Picture; Narnia on the Green, 202, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Chorlton green, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20green

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.

Clocking the continuity of Beech Road …………… now that’s a zippy title

Now, despite all the new restaurants, wine bars and gift shops that present themselves along Beech Road, it is easy to overlook the continuity of businesses.

Beech Road circa 1900

So, take this old image of the road, from some time around the turn of the last century, and it is possible to spot the bakery on the corner with Neale Road, and the newsagents at the junction with Chequers Road.

And long with these there was the wine merchants of Mason & Burroughs, which continued to trade under the name of various companies until as Victoria Wines it closed about a decade ago.

Added to these, there has been a pet shop at various locations along Beech Road, and a stationer.

Mason & Burrows, 1900

Some like the newsagents can claim to have always traded as such right back to when Mr. Nixon opened in the early 1900s.

And while Mr. and Mrs Nixon were new to the trade, his father had run the stationers, in what is now 68 Beech Road and his grandparents had offered up beer and cheer in the Traveler’s Rest from the 1840s.

Nor is that the end, because Mr. Nixon’s great grandfather ran the pub over the water in what is now Jackson’s Boat, while Mrs. Nixon’s grandfather was Brownhill the wheelwright.

Today, the newsagents is run by the Etchells family who have been there since the 1960s, and next door in what is now a Chinese takeaway, opened as fish and ship shop at the same time as Mr. Nixon began selling newspapers.

All of which leads me back to Mason & Burrows, which is now occupied by épicerie Ludo, a place I have long been a fan of.  For here can be found a wonderful range of freshly baked bread, an equally interesting selection of wines and lots more food in between.

épicerie Ludo, 2018

For those of us who missed Buonissimo after it closed, the return of a deli on to Beech Road is most welcome, and I have to say that Ludo and Darren go out of their way to source my requests.

So, there it is, …………… and for those who didn’t know, the Co-op at the bottom of Beech Road, follows in the footsteps of the one that stood almost opposite.


Of course, patterns of shopping have changed and our tradional shops which included a grocer, a green grocer, butchers, hardware store and even a televion repair shop have gone, replaced by the advent of cafe society, the gift shop and the hairdressers.

Cafe Society, 2004

Location; Beech Road







Pictures; Beech Road circa 1900, from the collection of Rita Bishop, épicerie Ludo, 2018, courtesy of the owners, and café life, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

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

45 Dale Street, Didsbury, a mill in Glossop and that barn in Chorlton

Now 45 Dale Street is one of those buildings which seem to have always been there.

45 Dale Street, 1972

I must have passed it countless times and never given it a second glance which is a shame given that it has a rich history which in its time connects this bit of the city with Didsbury, Glossop and Chorlton.

For most of its history the building has been associated with textiles but go back far enough when this bit of Dale Street was first cut and the site was given over to metal working.

In the late 1840s in to the beginning of the next decade it was a machine shop but sometime around 1858 the building was torn down and redeveloped as the show room and warehouse of Ralph Waller & Co Ltd Cotton Spinners whose factory extended back from number 45 along Tariff Street.

Of course I never made the connection but look closely and the block does show a little of its earlier history.

Not that Mr Waller had begun spinning cotton in Manchester; his first mill was out in Glossop in an 18th century factory which he used for a while in the 1850s before relocating to the city.

Corner of Dale Street and Stanley Street, [Tariff Street], 1849

All of which made sense given that he had set up home in a fine big house in Didsbury and was wealthy enough to contribute a third of the cost of building the new Wesleyan Chapel in Withington.

It replaced an earlier chapel and schoolroom before which “the Wesleyans [had] worshipped God in a cottage.”*

All of which must have made our Mr Waller rather proud and echoes the efforts of other small groups of Methodists in south Manchester at the beginning of the 19th century who were making great efforts to grow their congregations.

Dale Street and Tariff Street, 1901

Most had begun in a similar way with just a handful meeting in a cottage or barn before raising the funds to build their first chapel.

And in one of those odd twists the story of 45 Dale Street, Didsbury and Glossop is also linked to Chorlton.

For like the congregation of Withington and Didsbury the Wesleyans of Chorlton had also met in cottages and barns and built their first chapel just before those of Mr Waller’s congregation.

Nor is that all, because on that August day in 1864 the assembled group went off for a “public tea meeting held in Mr Higginbotham’s barn, and several hundreds were present.”*

Now this might have been Mr Higginbotham who had a farm in Withington or quite equally it could have been old Higginbotham the farmer who lived on Chorlton green, who was himself a staunch Methodist and whose barn had been used for services.

Which in turn is rather neat because 45 Dale Street has become the Tariff and Dale restaurant and bar operated by the team behind The Lead Station in Chorlton.**

45 Dale Street, home to J.P.Hosiery, 1972

But that is as they say in the future, for now I shall return to what was the rest of the story of 45 Dale Street.

Mr Waller died in 1891 and by 1895 the cotton spinning business had shrunk to just part of that building on Tariff Street and while the family retained ownership of the block number 45 had become home to new businesses ranging from a shipping merchant to various manufacturers and by the late 20th century was again a textile warehouse.

Which is almost all there is other than to say like so many of our inner city buildings it did not escape the Manchester Blitz, having taken a direct hit from a fire bomb which resulted in the floor having to be strengthened with new steel supports.

But it is still there and in time I think I will go looking for the chapel Mr Waller helped fund, try and locate the site of his home in Didsbury, and if I feel particularly adventurous go east to Glossop to that first mill of his.

On the other hand I might just wait for the opening of Tariff and Dale.

We shall see.

Pictures; 45 Dale Street, 1972, L Kaye,m01240, m01241, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Dale Street, 1844 from the OS Manchester & Salford, 1842-49 and Dale Street. 1901 from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, courtesy of Digital Archive Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Rev Dr Hannah, New Wesleyan Chapel at Withington, Manchester Guardian August 22 1864

** Chorlton's Lead Station to open Northern Quarter restaurant and bar, Emily Heward, MEN February 5 2015, http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/chorltons-lead-station-open-northern-8584538

Beech Road 1980

Now I always think that some of the most fascinating pictures of Chorlton are not those of a hundred years ago but the more recent.

Often these we remember because they are our past and yet in a strange way they can seem as remote as a photograph of Beech Road taken at the start of the last century.

So it is with this one taken by my old friend Tony Walker in 1980. Richardson’s still bears its name of the Beech Tree Bakery with its pine panelling.

The Police Station is still an office for the City Council and away in the distance we still had a Post Office.

Looking more closely I am struck at how in 1980 Beech Road was still a conventional parade of shops. Next to Richardson’s was the fabric shop Marcele Materials and further down the Wool Shop as well as one of the two butcher’s while the boarded premises had been a grocery store.

 Completing the row was the Chinese takeaway of Mr Chan and the furniture place, where you could get anything from a three piece suite to a 1950 rotating ash tray.

And facing them was another butcher’s shop, a hardware place a grocers and further down Muriel and Richard’s veg shop. Within two decades many of them had gone.

Picture; Beech Road circa 1980 from the collection of Tony Walker

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