Celebrating New Year ….. with turnips ….. a carrot …..Mr. Wilding ….. and a bit of humour

After 87 years I doubt I will turn up much on The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Amateur Gardeners’.

The invitation to New Year fun, 1936

But then until Gill Curtis posted this delightful programme advertising their New Year’s Eve Gathering, I didn’t even know they existed, but exist they did.

As Gill wrote “I thought your members might be interested in a flyer I’ve found from 1936 proving that Chorlton cum Hardy was the place to be on New Year’s Eve. My grandfather obviously thought so as he was the piano player!”

Parker's, circa 1930s

Now, I am not surprised that there was a gardening group.  

There were plenty of other such groups in Chorlton which had developed as the township grew from a small agricultural community into a suburb of Manchester.

The transformation had begun in the mid-1860s with urban creep up from Stretford Railway Station along Edge Lane and then the newly cut Wilbraham Road.

But the real pace of change started in the 1880s around what was once the Four Banks and stretched along Barlow Moor and Manchester Roads and out towards Longford Park in one direction and Chorlton-cum-Hardy Railway Station in the other.

The area attracted the “middling people” many of whom worked in the city but wanted to live in an area which still had a rural feel.  They included those who described themselves “professionals" and "clerks" along with businessmen.

And as they did, they set up “societies” from theatre and operatic groups to public speaking, gardening and a whole range of sporting activities.

In 1909 the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Show included in its event the best Chorlton garden.  The show continued well into the 1930s and featured agricultural as well as gardening events.*

Five and bit hours of fun, 1936

So, in 1936 The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Amateur Gardeners’ staged their New Years event which was at 357 Barlow Moor Road, near to the junction with Hardy lane and Mauldeth Road West.  The parade of shops still exists.

Back then it was owned by Parker’s Bakery of Needham Avenue and was one of a number of outlets across Chorlton.

To modern eyes it may seem a tame affair, but the programme is not without a sense of humour and begs the question of whether there are other bits of memorabilia out there connected to the group.

We shall see.

Leaving me just to thank Gill.

Location, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Amateur Gardeners’, New Year’s Eve Gathering, 1936, from the collection of Gill Curtis 

*Winning the best kept garden on Nicolas Road in 1909, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2018/08/winning-best-kept-garden-on-nicholas.html

Living beside the Medlock in the shadow of those tall railway viaducts ……… Victoria Terrace and Coronation Square

 I doubt I would ever have known about a row of terraced houses beside the River Medlock in the heart of the city and certainly would not have begun looking at them in detail if Andy Robertson hadn’t sent over a series of pictures of the Bridge Inn on Fairfield Street.

The pub was doing the business by 1840, and continued into the 20th century, although it is now closed.

But what really caught my interest was Andy’s pictures of the River Medlock which briefly comes out into the daylight as it crosses under Fairfield Street before descending back into a tunnel.

And as you do I went looking for the story of this patch of land between the river and the pub, and was not disappointed.  

In 1848, there were twenty-four properties of which 14 appear to have been back to back houses along with another ten.

Some faced directly onto the river , and the rest were grouped around Coronation Square, which I suspect offers up a possible date for their construction which I am guessing must have been around 1837.  And this I think will be confirmed by the fact that the fourteen back to backs were called Victoria Terrace.

I will  go looking into the Rate Books to see how far back I can trace the houses, but for that I need the names of some of the residents, and sadly back in the middle decades of the 19th century, no one deemed them worth enough to be included in the directories.

And that in turn has made it difficult to unearth the relevant census returns for the period.

However by dint of a tedious trawl of the 1891 census for the Central Enumeration district for 1891 I struck lucky, and found all twenty four.

They were a mix of four, three and two roomed properties, and were home to 71 people.  There was evidence of overcrowding, with the eight members of the Younger family squeezed into four rooms, and Mr. Thomas Nagle sharing his three rooms with his cousin and three lodgers.

Most of the occupants were unskilled workers, ranging from labourers to  street peddlars, although amongst them there were also a tailoress, a shoemaker  an Assistant Mathematical Instrument Maker.

But most were engaged in precarious and heavy work with more than a few heading towards their sixties.  

One of these was Thomas Nagle who at 56, described himself as a Bricklayer’s labourer, although in his case he appears to have left the building trade behind, because in 1895 he is listed as a greengrocer trading from Coronation Square.

There is much more to do, including examining the ages of the residents and working out the balance of adults to children as well as where the 71 came from.

Some at least of the properties were being demolished by the early 20th century and there are two pictures from the Local Image Collection showing some of the houses.

All of which promises to offer up more of the lives of those who lived beside the Medlock in the shadow of those tall railway viaducts, just a step away from Fairfield Street

Location; Manchester

Pictures, detail of Victoria Terrace and Coronation Square, 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of courtesy of Digital Archives Association http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ , some of the properties in 1903, A. Bradburn, m11495, and in 1904, m11492, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Victoria Terrace and Coronation Square, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Be careful what you wish for, .... snow on the green circa 1979

Now I know the old saying, be careful what you wish for, but I couldn’t resist this picture of the green in the snow sometime at the end of the 1970s.

Location; Chorlton


Picture; from the collection of Tony Walker, 1970s

The Art of New Year ……..

So, given that New Year’s Eve only happens once a year you only get one stab of featuring the art that said goodbye to the old year.

Now I think you are either a Christmas or New Year person, and I and my family are definitely Christmas.

There were a few years when the attractions of alcoholic excess seemed attractive but they were accompanied with a hangover and a wasted following day.

Nor did I ever feel the need to party away with a heap of strangers in in a hotel eating food that was overpriced and pretentious.

But lots of people did and still do and I wouldn’t knock them for that.

So instead, here are two pieces of New Year art, courtesy of Suzanne Morehead whose parents danced the night away having had the full menu.

Back in the day, we saw it in with the kids, and in the absence of that insane bout of fireworks would hear the ships sirens from the docks welcoming in another year. 

Location any one of a shedload of New Year’s Eves

Pictures; from various hotels, 1947-1969, from the collection of Suzanne Morehead

One big House on the High Street

2015

Now I have written about Cliefden House on several occasions, and will go back again in due course.

In the meantime here are three photographs over a full century and a bit and each has it’s own story to tell.

The first was taken recentlt by Ryan and despite the changes of businesses it is not so different from Jean Gammon’s taken 38 years earlier.

1977

Step back another 60 years to 1909 and the transformation is pretty stunning.

Back then it was a private residence and in the middle of the 19th century had been a military academy.

It was built sometime around 1720 with an eastern addition dating from the mid 19th century and together this made for a large 17 roomed house.

In the 20th century the front garden and wall were lost when the High Street was widened and more recently with scant disregard for such an elegant old property businesses have set about about adding the most appalling signage to the exterior.

1909

Pictures; Cliefden House, 2015 courtesy of Ryan Ginn, back in 1977 from the collection of Jean Gammons, and in 1909, from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers,http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm 

A family mystery from the Great War

Now this metal notebook holder has been in the family for as long as I can remember.

It is small but quite heavy and  I am ashamed to say has suffered from being in the cellar.

Its metal exterior has been attacked by rust and I am looking at how best to restore it.

It carries the German Imperial Cross with the letter W and the date 1914, and given that my grandmother was German I assumed it belonged to one of her family.

But now I am not so sure.
The name inscribed on the front is not one I recognise.

Of course that doesn’t prove it is not one of our family but allows for some doubt.

Alternatively it could have been picked up on the Western Front by either my grandfather or great uncle Jack.

Both served in the British Army and both were in France.

Whatever its origins I do know that it passed to my uncle who served in the RAF and whose name, serial number and the words RAF were inscribed inside.

Uncle Roger enlisted in 1938 aged 16 and saw action in Greece, and Iraq before being captured by the Japanese in 1942 and died in a prisoner of war camp the following year aged just 21.

And that offers up a second mystery because it remained in our possession.  I very much doubt that had it headed out to the Far East with him it would have returned.

I am of course totally prepared to accept the commonsense explanation that he just left it behind for anyone of a number of reasons.

The German side of our family is the one that we have not explored and when we do we might find the answer to its original owner.

Sadly there is no one left to ask and had we not decided to clear out the middle cellar I suspect it would have been many more years before I came across it.

All of which is a lesson in how to look after family objects.  All too often because we have grown up with them we take the item for granted, and that can lead to neglect and eventually to the loss of the object.

So that is it.  The search has begun.  Leaving me only to reflect on the irony of the fact that it passed to my uncle who was in the RAF but like my mother had been born in Cologne.

Picture; metal notebook holder, circa 1914, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

On Shooters Hill ………………… with We Anchor in Hope

Now I have no memory of the pub We Anchor in Hope.

But then when I roamed over the woods and down Shooter’s Hill and on to Welling, I was still well under the age when “dirty beer” was an attraction.

Still I am very pleased that Brian sent this picture over this morning, because it captures perfectly this stretch of the old road as I remember it.

The picture postcard is undated, but I am guessing we will be sometime in the late 1940s into the following decade and a bit.

That said there will be an expert on London buses who will be able to offer up chapter and verse on the date this one plied its route.

As to the pub, here too I am out of my comfort zone and a trawl of my limited London directories has yet to turn up any information.

Still, I am pleased to say it is still there today and is part of the Green King chain which manages many of the pubs I have researched and written about.

There will be those who are sniffy about such chains, advancing ever the cause of the independent brewery or landlord.

Which just leaves me to thank Brian,  appeal for more information, and point out before someone does that We Anchor in Hope is actually at 320 Bellgrove Road, Welling, DA16 3 RW

And to add this is  a fine shot of the old road climbing west.

And quick as a flash, Brian having read the story of his picture postcard, added a link to a bit more background.

But as ever I shall not lift someone else's research and instead just point you to the link.**


Location Welling

Picture; Shooters Hill, Welling, Kent, date unknown, from the collection of Brian Norbury

* We Anchor in Hope,  https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/kent/we-anchor-in-hope/

**We Anchor in Hope, Belle Grove Road, East Wickham, Welling, https://pubwiki.co.uk/KentPubs/EastWickham/AnchorinHope.shtml

Ordering that pint in the Horse and Jockey ……. back in 1793

The Inn on the Green looks the part, its low ceilings, small windows and half-timbered exterior could fool anyone into thinking this was a pub half as old as time.

It offered up its first pints some time in 1793 and is part of a building which dates back to the early 16th century.  

So, for those of a romantic but a tad less historical mind, the building was already into its second decade when Henry V111 walked up the aisle with Ann Boleyn, while two centuries on  some of its customers might well have shared horror stories about the Reign of Terror across the Channel which was consuming French aristocrats as well as Revolutionaries and heaps of innocent people.

It is a pub I often come back to,* partly because I like it but also because it features in much of our history, from being the place in 1848 where Samuel Warburton was arrested for participating in an illegal prize fight to a series of public inquests which shocked the Township and the subject of popular film,** as well as of course the home of many happy memories.

That said the half-timbered effect was only added at the start of the 20th century and for almost its entire existence the pub was confined to just the two rooms either side of the front door and the two above.

But on a fine summer’s day with its view across the green, I doubt many will be over bothered about it’s past ……….. even the fact that it was here that my first book, The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy was launched, accompanied by a large group of friends, interested historians and a folk group.***

Not that I shall elaborate, as that might be construed as outrageous self promotion.

Location; Chorlton Green

Pictures; the Horse & Jockey on an August morning, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

 

*The Horse & Jockey, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Horse%20and%20Jockey

**Bella’s Birthday, Frank Randle, 1949, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Bella%27s+Birthday 

***The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

The night watchman............ out on the streets of Manchester in 1896

Once the night watchman would have been a familiar sight sitting beside his hut keeping warm at the brazier and maintaining a solitary vigil over the road works or building site.

They feature in much literature during the last two centuries and only disappeared sometime in the 1960s.

Back in 1896 Henry Tidmarsh recorded this one somewhere in the centre of Manchester.

In all he produced over 300 illustrations for the book Manchester Old and New which  was published in 1894 by Cassell with a text by William Arthur Shaw.

In three big volumes it told the history of the city but the real value of the book was in Tidmarsh's vivid depictions of Manchester, with streets and buildings animated with people.

Pictures; The night watchman, 1896, Henry Tidmarsh, from Manchester Old and New, William Arthur Shaw, 1896

On St Johns Street with a story that crosses continents

Now the way a story comes to light can be as fascinating and revealing as the actual story. 

St John Street showing the home of the Painter family, 2008

So it was when Julie picked up on a post about St Johns Street with the comment that “My great grandfather was David Arthur Keneally. I think it was actually 19 he lived at.” 

And that was how it began.

St John Street dates back to the late 18th century and remains a street of elegant houses which by the late 19th century had become the consulting rooms of fashionable doctors, surgeons and eye specialists.

A few were residents but most lived elsewhere.

Their rooms were on the ground floor and the remaining parts of the houses were let out to a mix of tenants who made their living from a range of occupations from service industries to clerical and industrial enterprises and quite a few working for the nearby railway companies.

There was even a blacksmith and a policeman, which is where our story begins.

Police Constable, Kenally, date unknown

This is Mr Keneally.

I don’t have a date for the picture but given that he joined the Manchester Police Force in the October of 1895 and he has two stripes I would have put the date sometime into the early 20th century.

Those service records also show that he was born in Cape Town in 1868 and had been in the Cheshire Regiment.

And that is a good starting point because although I can’t find any reference to him before 1891 I do know that in the April of that year he was in Salford Barracks on Regent Road.

The army seems to have been a natural career choice given that he was born in King William’s Town and that his father was in the 99th Foot Regiment which served in South Africa from 1865 till 1868 and again in 1878.

All of which explains why he appears to be missing from the records.

Looking down St Johns Street, circa 1900

But those records do throw up a few odd hiccups.  So while his birth was registered as 1866 his police records have him born in 1868 and those same police records describe him as single, when he had married the year before.

The marriage took place in St John’s Church on January 24 and the parish record  is a revealing document.

Mr Keneally was living at number 19 St Johns Street and gave his occupation as "musician" and that of his father as a clerk, while his bride was living two doors down the road at number 23.

She was Mary Ann Cross who was from Ireland and her father is given as James Painter and that of course puzzled me.  But according to Julie Mary Ann’s mother had remarried on the death of her father. “Sarah Myles married William Cross (he was in the Kerry Militia) and they had Marianne (Mary Anne / Marion?).  

Mary Ann Painter gets a present, 1885

William Cross died and Sarah married James Painter who was in the British Army and she came back to England with him.”

And that made the connection with St Johns Street because in 1891 Mr Painter was the caretaker in the Royal Eye Hospital which was situated at number 24, and there too was Mary Ann described as "house keeper.”

Mary Ann appears to have adopted her step father's surname by 1885 when she received a gift from her work colleagues, but gave her name at the wedding as Cross.

Now that will help in the search for her story.

In the meantime the romantic in me likes the idea of David and Mary Ann seeing each other regularly on the street and discovering that they were attracted to each other.

After their marriage they stayed on St Johns Street where they still were in 1901 living at number 23.  By then they had a son and employed young Minnie Day as a servant.

A decade later and they had swapped the imposing house on St Johns Street for the more modest 41 Carleton Street in Rusholme which was a a 4 roomed property close to Claremont Road.

Mr and Mrs Painter with John and Percy circa 1907

And what I like is that both homes are still standing.

There will be lots more research to do.

I know that Mr Keneally died in 1921 and Mrs Keneally in 1937 and  both were buried together in Southern Cemetery, but for now that is enough.

And this was pretty much the end of the story but then having discovered that Mr and Mrs Keneally were buried in Southern Cemetery I asked my friend David to visit the rave and take a picture.

Headstone of Mr and Mrs Keanlly

They were interred block U and it is fitting I think to close the story with his picture of their headstone.

Location; Manchester

Additional research Julie Smith



Pictures; St John Street in 2008 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, St John Street circa 1900, m04502, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  the headstone of Mr and Mrs Keneally 2016 from the collection of David Harrop, and family images from the collection of Julie Smith

A 'gang' of 'teenagers' ........... just before the War outside the Horse and Jockey

Now I like the way that people continue to be generous with both their family pictures and the memories.

So I was very pleased when this one was sent to me by Yvonne.

The Horse and Jockey will always be special to me, not only because as one of our oldest pubs it featured in my first book and was the venue for its launch but also because as the “Pub on the Green” it has been at the centre of much of Chorlton's history.*

But rather than ramble on I will share Yvonne’s description of the picture.

"Hello Andrew!  I enjoy reading your post on the Chorlton Blog.  

I was born there - leaving when I was 8.  I have a photo of my mother and sister with their 'gang' from about 1936 outside the Horse and Jockey.  

It’s of a 'gang' of 'teenagers' just before the War outside the Horse and Jockey. 

My mum Dilys on the left, her sister Gwen on the right. She used to tell us all their names but the only one I can remember is Joe Rook!”

And that is a pretty good start.

Yvonne hopes it will “stir some memories up” and so do I.



All of which just leaves me to thank Yvonne.
Location; Chorlton

Picture; A 'gang' of 'teenagers' outside the Horse and Jockey circa 1936 courtesy of Yvonne Richardson

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 

One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 23 ........... looking out from my bedroom

This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family. *

Now, never underestimate the power of a picture to unlock a lifetime of memories.

This was last night, looking out as the snow fell on Well Hall Road from what had been my bedroom, and was taken by Em Dearsley.

It is a full forty-six years since I regularly looked out from that bedroom window, and twenty-five since we sold the house but in an instant I was back.

It started with memories of late summer evenings, listening to the happy and slightly drunk groups making their way back down Well Hall Road from the Welcome.  I would have been in my teens, old enough to know that I wanted to be part of that “crowd” but too young to have legally walked over the threshold of the door.

Even then the road was a busy one, with early morning tailbacks from the roundabout, and the 161’s and 122’s backing up, to the frustration of those on board.

And like so many memories they tumble out, each more vivid than the one before.

Of course, with the passage of time some get distorted, and other misplaced, and when you are 14 you do not appreciate the history of the house and its place in the story of Eltham, Well Hall and the Royal Arsenal, all of which will be well known to people on the estate today.

I suppose it was that wish to know more which started me on researching our house.

In the process I now know almost all the residents of the place stretching back to 1915, with just a short break after we sold the house in the 1990s.

And that research has allowed me to maintain that contact with the house I grew up in and was very happy.

So that is it, leaving me just to thank Em for the pictures, and include the second picture she sent up, which is of the garden, from the back bedroom window.

It too, sets off a shed load of memories, but those as they say are for another time.

Location; Well Hall

Pictures; Well Hall Road, and the back of our old house, 2019, from the collection of Em Dearsley

*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall

So .... soon ...... no more Chorlton Precinct ……

I don’t share that jaundiced view of our Precinct which soon will be no more.

No more Quality Save, 2023

True, the design was not the best, in that it created an enclosed space locking out that stretch of Barlow Moor Road while Graeme House always seemed an ugly addition which was too tall and too slab like to be pleasing to the eye.

And over the last few decades it had become shabbier and a bit sad as some of its shops had short lives.

But I liked it.  

So, while I am vegetarian, I recognised that Frosty’s was the place to go for meat, Boot’s never disappointed, and above all Tony’s green grocery shop was where we shopped for the odd potato, two carrots and a bunch of grapes and was where we got our Christmas trees for nearly 4 decades.

The last Tony tree, 2023

Long ago I gave up choosing our own trees and instead handed the job to Tony who got us two trees for the price of one, and always delivered fine ones.

And now as the last traders are packing up I feel more than a little sad, not least at the loss of so many wonderful shops but also at what I think will replace it.  

Despite the suggestions of what might be to come and the rounds of consultations the replacement lacks something …. Not least I think in the number of retail outlets and the sheer height of the building fronting Barlow Moor Road.

So there you are the story has been occasioned by a picture of the now closed Quality Save much loved by our Saul, and one of Tony’s Christmas trees delivered in December 20th which will not come down till after the last traders have left the building.

Leaving me just to remind people of the exhibition charting the history of the Precinct and its last year in pictures and paintings by Phil Portus and Peter Topping which is on show until February in Chorlton Library, when it too closes for a makeover.

Location; Chorlton Precinct

Pictures; Quality Save and poster design, 2023, courtesy of Peter topping and “The last Christmas Tree” from Tony Adams, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

  

When the Markheaton Brook burst its banks, May 1932

My mother never spoke of the Sunday the centre of Derby flooded.
It was 1932 and she would have been 12, but neither she nor my grandparents ever mentioned it.

And yet at the time it was a big event, flooding some houses to a depth of 7 feet causing £400,000 worth of damage and topping the level reached in the Great Flood of 1842.

 I suppose by the time I was visiting Derby in the 1950s it was ancient history and another one of  those events like the War which were best forgotten.

But the event is fading from living memory and soon there will be few left who have vivid memories of the Sunday morning the Markeaton Brook which runs through the centre of Derby flooded the shops and houses around the Corn Market, St James’s Street and the bottom of St Peter’s Street.

In an attempt to prevent a similar flood to the one of 1842 a huge culvert had been built which fed the brook into the River Derwent.  But during the previous few days there had been heavy rain which caused “an avalanche of water such as human ingenuity was powerless to control.”

And the sheer speed of the event is what I expect was the most frightening and took the town by surptrse.

In the low lying parts of “the town it gathered quickly and by ten’o clock shops in the Corn Market, St James’s Street and the bottom end of St Peter’s Street  were immersed half way up the windows”.

And as ever it was the least well off who faced the full force of the flood.  “residents in the poorer districts in some cases lost their all.”  And  these were the very people who could not afford insurance.

It was an “amazing spectacle of the main shopping district of a modern industrial town turned into a lake.”  The electricity failed and along with it  the telephone network.

Now Hope Street where my mother and grandparents lived was just a few minutes away and I guess they would have visited the site during the course of the day and may have been one of the countless hundreds of spectators caught on camera.  But it never featured in anything they ever said to me.

All of which makes me reflect that even recent events can be lost.

Pictures; from Souvenir of the Derby Floods, Published by the Derby Branch of the Y.M.C.A., in aid of the Mayor’s Flood Fund.

* Souvenir of the Derby Floods, Published by the Derby Branch of the Y.M.C.A., in aid of the Mayor’s Flood Fund. May 22nd 1932

Rare pictures of the Horse and Jockey and a mysterious historian of Chorlton

This is one of three photographs that I doubt very few people have seen.

It is the Horse and Jockey in 1933 and appears in a Short History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy published privately in that year.

There are plenty of pictures of the pub from the very early years of the 20th century and lots from the 1950s onwards but so far I have only come across a couple which date to the 30s and 40s.

So this is an interesting one and shows the original before it expanded into the cottages on the left of the front door.

To our right beyond the fence had been the home of the Wilton family who lived there for most of the 19th century.  It was Samuel Wilton who around 1818 enclosed the green for his own personal garden with tall hedges and an allotment.  The space only returned to public use with the death of his daughter.

The remaining two photographs are of the parish church and Hough End Hall and all three were taken by F. Blyth who also printed the book at the College of Technology in Manchester while on his second year course.

But the text is by a J.D. Blythe and is as far as I know the first new account of Chorlton’s history since the twenty-six articles written by Thomas Ellwood during 1885-86.

Mr Blyth drew heavily on those articles and in places follows the earlier history word for word.  Not that this is to rubbish the book, particularly as I doubt it was meant as a serious rival to Ellwood’s work.  It may have just been a vehicle for F Blyth to complete a course at the college demonstrating his skill at photography and printing.

Now there is very little on either man.  J.D. Blythe was here on Claude Road between 1922 and 1929 and  is listed in the telephone directory but without trawling the street directories for the period we have no knowing when he went to live in Chorltonville and when he left.

There is a record of a J.D Blyth leaving for South Africa in 1919 with the stated purpose of settling in the Natal, but he returns just four months later in February 1920, and so far that is about it.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; the Horse & Jockey in 1933, F Blyth from A Short History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, by J.D.Blyth, 1933

As others see us ......... Well Hall in the summer of 1966 by Ian Nairn

The thing about guide books is that they date so quickly.  

But that can be what makes them so intriguing and that pretty much sums up Nairn’s London.*

It was published in 1966 and I picked up my copy over 20 years later from Bryan the Book.

And that is a tale in itself given that Bryan’s bookshop on Beech Road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy is 214 miles from Well Hall where I grew up.

Nor is that all for the original cover price was eight shillings and sixpence and I bought it for 40p.

The publisher warned that “some of the entries are already disappearing; so go and see the rest quickly.”

That said it is reassuring that the places in Well Hall and Eltham visited by Mr Nairn are still there, although not all are described in that fulsome and respective manner of most guide books

So in writing about Eltham Lodge he comments, “nothing great, but worth at least a sentimental journey to see this grandfather of all Georgian brick Boxes.”

But I am pleased my own estate fared not only better but also was described with a little affection.

“Well Hall Estate, Eltham Sir Frank Baines and others, 1916

This extraordinary place was designed in seven days as a rush job to house war-workers for Woolwich Arsenal.  It seems an odd recipe for one of the best housing estates near London.  

Perhaps the architects imply did not have time to air their preconceptions, and the local officials their disastrous application of bye-laws.  

Comfortable, cottagey design, slate and stucco, taken out of the rarified atmosphere of the garden cities, always trying to see streets as entities rather than collections of units.  

The best part is Ross Way, running from Well Hall Road at the junction of Rochester Way.  

This curves round a gentle slope with a raised footpath and uses every possible trick of gables and end walls.  

Half way along, footpaths run off under archways as part of a fairy-tale composition which by an irony is more like a German village than anything else.”***

It is a long time since I have looked through the book but with a wet weekend ahead I think I shall spend a few hours crossing London courtesy of Mr Nairn.

And as the publisher promised the book is the first of a series with one planned for the Industrial North, which sadly was never written which is a shame because  having said some nice things  about where I grew up I wondered if he would do the same for where I now live.

Well we shall see.

Picture; cover from Nairn’s London, 1966

*Nairn’s London, Ian Nairn, 1966

**ibid page 207


***ibid page 208

Secrets from a century ago ………

Now I say secrets, but if I am really accurate, they are less so and more a confirmation of what I really knew mixed with stuff that takes the family story just a bit further on.

Hope Street, 1900

And yes, this is family history story and I am acutely aware that one person’s family stories are another person’s yawn, but this is linked to the release of the 1921 census, which has been eagerly awaited by many.

Not only does this release take us all a decade on from the 1911 census but will be the last available until 1951, because the 1931 census was destroyed and the 1941 census never took place due to the war, leaving just the 1939 Registration document which acts as a sort of census.

If I am honest, I was going to leave accessing the 1921 census in the hope that it would in time become free to use on Findmypast which is the only genealogical platform where it can bee seen.  Although if like me you live in Manchester you can access it via the Central Reference Library for free.

William Hall circa 1930s, my grandfather

But on a cold day with the rain coming down like stair rods, I chose to pay to see the entry for my great grandmother and pay again to see the original form, which altogether cost just over a fiver.

That said what price finding your family from a century ago?

And found them I did, where I knew they would be in 1921 which was at Court 5 2 Hope Street, Derby and almost opposite the property my grandparents moved into sometime two years later.

The electoral address in 1921 recorded that great grandmother Eliza, and  two of her children were living there, but that was it, so the census has filled in the gaps.

And these are important because soon after the census was taken her son Jack had moved out to get married and her daughter Laura emigrated to Canada.  

Which left my grandfather still in uniform in the British army of occupation in Germany where he met my grandmother, got married and had two children one of whom was our mother.

Jack Hall, circa 1950s

Eliza remains a shadowy figure, who didn’t always walk with reality.  In her twenties she took up with my great grandfather travelled the country before settling in the south and then leaving him to have our great aunt Laura in the Derby Workhouse in 1902.  

Aged just 22 she was brought up in court for a brawl with a policeman, at 39 her children were taken into care, and a decade later she had been committed to the Derby Asylum.

So, 1921 does seem to mark a stable moment in her life, living with two of her four children, with the prospect of being reunited with another son, a daughter in law and two grandchildren, leaving just her son Roger who opted to be migrated to Canada in 1914 by the Derby Union rather than stay in care.

We know that she had made efforts to get all the children out of care, and so the census offers up some valuable information to both my family here in Britain and the Canadian grandchildren of Laura.

Jack the eldest son had been apprenticed to a blacksmith and Laura sent north to work in “service”.

By the time of the census Jack was employed at George Fletcher Company and Sons, on Letechurch Lane who were “Sugar machinery manufactures” while Luara was a “Tasle Maker” for the Textile Manufacturers, E Dould & Sons at Spa Lane.

Laura Pember, nee Hall 1968

Neither company now exists, and a walk down Letechurch Lane, and Spa Lane is a grim experience on a January day with little left of the original industrial buildings that once fronted these two streets and no indication if what are left are linked to our workplaces.

That said that wonderful site, Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History has a timeline and pictures of Fletcher’s, which was established in 1838, and went through a series of mergers during the 1950s and 60s.

And we do have a testimonial from E Dould & Sons when Laura left in 1925.

All of which confirms much of what we already knew, but the census also offers up an intriguing reference to our great grandfather, who was a Montague Hall, and never actually married Eliza.  In the column headed Marriage or Orphanhood, the entry reads “Husband missing not known whether Dead”.

In fact he had died in 1916, but I rather think Eliza would not have known this as they separated in 1902, with him remaining in Gravesend, and going on to get married and have another family.

Great aunt Laura's testimonial

Eliza appears to have only given her children the vaguest of outlines of their father, and in correspondence written in the 1970s Laura wrote that there was little they knew about her.

But then I suspect she was a family secret, and continued as such until 2008 when I stumbled on her in the course of working on our history.

All of which leaves me to comment on the census itself.  

Like it’s 1911 predecessor it is a single form recording the inhabitants of the family home, rather than those for the street, and requires more information about any children under the age of 16 but omits a reference to how long a couple have been married.

Plan of 5 Hope Street, 1947

And for me there is Eliza’s signature which is the first time I have come across her handwriting, all of which brings me a little closer to her.

As does the knowledge that the property was a two up two down, exactly like the one opposite which was inhabited my grandparents and where I stayed.

So that is it, I guess I will be returning to 1921 to look up dad, and in the fullness of time track others.

Location; Derby in 1921

Pictures; grandfather, circa 1930s, great uncle Jack, circa 1950s, and great aunt Laura who we called aunt Dolly, circa 1968, from the collection of the Simpson Pember families, Plan of 5 Hope Street, 1947, Syd and Pamela Dilkes, and Hope Street, Derby, 1900, from the OS map of Derbyshire, 1900, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

* Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/George_Fletcher_and_Co

Selling flowers ........ By St Ann’s Church sometime around 1904

Now I fell on this picture postcard of the flower seller by St Ann’s Square fully intending to write about a century of selling flowers at this spot.

The post card is from a series dated to 1902, so here we seemed to have over a hundred years of continuity.

But by one of those twists of historical research my facebook friend JBS came up with one for 1898 and in the way of these things I bet someone was selling flowers from this pitch even earlier in that century.

That said it is just possible that the painting is earlier than 1902 and might have been made in the last decade of the 19th century, but I would be guessing so I shall just leave you with the observation that it is a nice picture.

And that was the end of the story until John left a comment which just needed to be added to the story, more so because back in the late 1970s, I too took a series of pictures, which I think will include him.

"Lovely to see this picture. It depicts my family's flower stall. My great-great grandfather first started selling flowers on this spot in June 1895. 

It may have been earlier, but this is the first recorded payment of rent for the spot to the church. He sold flowers from boxes at first and the stall arrived a little later. 

The business passed down through my great-grandfather, my grandfather and great aunt, my father and finally myself. I ceased trading in 2008 to follow another path. The business was still viable but not what is t was in the city centre's busier decades from the 60's to the 00's.

I donated the stall to the church for their future rental and it was subsequently leased by others for a while. I'm not sure if it is currently occupied as I rarely visit the city centre nowadays. 

I hope it is, I've a lifetime of memories".

So there you are ...... the story continues.

Picture; St Ann’s Church  from the series Manchester, marketed by Tuck & Sons, 1904, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/, and The flower stall, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson