Having done a literary tour around South Manchester writing about the area’s various clocks I thought it was about time I looked at Chorlton-cum-Hardy's own prominent public clock.
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| Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club Clock |
It was opened on St. George’s Day, 23rd April 1892.
This was an extremely lavish event (1) with the dual nature of building being recognized by a joint ceremonial opening.
Firstly, the club was opened, with a golden key provided for the ceremony, by Sir John William MacClure, the Member of Parliament for the Stretford constituency of which Chorlton-cum-Hardy was then a part. Lady Egerton was then given a silver key to officially open the Public Hall.
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| Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club Clock |
The building was designed by the Manchester firm of architects Darbyshire and Smith. (Alfred Darbyshire from Salford and Stockport born Frederick Bennett Smith) and constructed on land donated by Lord Egerton. The plans included a clock tower but the clock was not itself fitted until funds had been raised through a further public subscription. A feature of the clock is how it is positioned at an angle to give a better view of the three faces. Unfortunately, the clock is no longer working and is stopped at 12-28.
The activities of the Conservative Club which included a thriving billiards section may be worthy of further study, for now, however, it is the story of the Public Hall part of the building which is the focus of my attention. In a previous post on this Blog, I have written about some of the political meetings held in the hall including a raucous one in which the Socialist firebrand of the day Victor Grayson was the main speaker.
I now wish to detail some of the other events which were held in this venue which in its heyday of the late Victorian and Edwardian era was the first and for a time only place of entertainment in the rapidly expanding suburb of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. In spite of its location in the same building as a Conservative club local Socialists of South Manchester often used the Public Hall. One such use occurred on the 15th October, 1896 when the Hall was the location for “The Greatest Lantern Show on Earth” given by the fabulously named Whiffly Puncto assisted by Barnum 11 and the Clarionettes. This was a magic lantern show staged as part of a nationwide movement inspired by The Clarion newspaper to promote socialist ideas through the conduit of a variety of cultural and sporting activities. The tickets for the event were sold through Mr. Harry Charles David Scott of 47, Keppel Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy the secretary and former treasurer of the local Socialist Society.
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| Clarion by Robert Blatchford, 1900 |
Whiffly Puncto was the pseudonym of William Palmer a multi-talented artist and pioneer Socialist who was one of a group of journalists who in 1891 resigned from their jobs with Edward Hulton’s “Sunday Chronicle” and launched their own weekly paper the socialist leaning “The Clarion” (2) on the 12th December 1891 from a small office on Corporation Street, Manchester.
William Palmer was born in Bury, Lancashire, on the 3rd November 1860 to Walter Palmer, an engineering turner, and his wife Ellen (née Shuttleworth). When he was still only 16-years-old his mother died in 1877. His father moved to Burnley, Lancashire, his home town, where he remarried before the year was out, Elizabeth Margerison. William who remained in Bury was by then training as an artist and in the 1881 census is recorded living as a lodger of Robert Smith, a master decorator (employing 4 men and 2 boys) and his wife, Amelia, at 14, Haymarket, Bury, Lancashire.
William Palmer married Elizabeth Green during the December quarter of 1887 in the Chorlton registration district of Manchester. The 1891 census records the couple residing at 82, Bedford Street, Moss Side, Manchester with the first two of their three children (all boys) Harry born in 1888 and Robert Alexander (3) born on the 29th November 1890. A third son, William arrived in 1895 and sometime after his birth the family moved to Ashton-on-Mersey, Cheshire. In 1901 they were living on Cross Street, but later moved to 6, Albany Terrace in that town. By 1911 the family had re-located again and 6, Warwick Road North, Old Trafford at which address William remained until his death during the December quarter of 1941.
William Palmer otherwise Whiffly Puncto was variously described as an “artist”, a “newspaper artist, a “cartoonist”, a “social campaigner”, an “art and literary critic”, and a “lantern lecturer”. He was also for a time the deputy editor of the “Clarion”. In the Edwardian era William moved into the theatre world. He was responsible for the dramatization of Walter Scott’s novel “Ivanhoe” which was staged at the Queen’s Theatre in Manchester in September 1906. He also painted some of the scenery for the show; a task he undertook for a number of other shows.
Towards the end of his working life William worked for 14 years for Co-operative Insurance Society, Manchester before retiring in November 1930 having reached the age of 70.
Another group which regularly made use of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Public Hall in its early days were “----Our clever local amateur Thespians, the George Alexander Dramatic Club --”. (4) They were formed at a meeting on Monday 16th December 1895 at the Forsyth’s Rooms in Deansgate, Manchester. The president Mr. John J. Wood welcomed well over 50 members at this inaugural session. This club was one of a number formed in the late Victorian age in honour of Mr. George Alexander a hugely influential actor/manager and impresario, who was a great champion of the amateur stage. He was the honorary president of this South Manchester based one as well as others in Leeds, London, and Glasgow.
For more than a decade at the turn of the 19th/ 20th centuries they performed plays at the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Public Hall which received rave reviews from the three main Manchester newspapers of the day: The Manchester Weekly Times, The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser and The Manchester Evening News. Interestingly perhaps the most glowing reviews were published in The Manchester Weekly Times, possibly due to the fact the leading female parts in the production were variously portrayed by Mrs. Emma Attwood and Miss Vivien Horsfall Attwood the wife and daughter of the paper’s editor Benjamin Stidstone Attwood. The family were living at 15, Cavendish (now Corkland) Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester on both the 1901 and 1911 censuses. By the time of the death of Emma the wife and mother on the 10th March 1920 they were residing at 55, Claude Road, also in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, with Benjamin remaining at this address until he too died on the 18th April 1927.
Finally, this clock with its connection to the Conservatives had a rival for the pre-eminent clock of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Further up Wilbraham Road on the corner with Barlow Moor Road stood Harry Kemp’s Chemist’s shop which boasted a large clock. Now Harry Kemp was staunch Liberal and represented the area on the Manchester City Council and he possibly added the clock to his building as a challenge to the Tory one up the road.
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| A.H. Downes - Harry Kemp’s Clock - April 1959 |
Pictures: - Clarion by Robert Blatchford, the editor. https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2019/07/Clarion Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119348871 Harry Kemp’s Clock from m 17486 A.H. Downes April 1959 and m 18414 A.E. Landers 1960. Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Archives, and Information, Manchester City Council http://manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
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| Clock from Wilbraham Road 1960 – A.E. Landers |
Notes: -
1) The Conservative supporting “Manchester Courier -------) published a very detailed account of this opening as it had the laying of the club’s foundation stone by Sir William Cunliffe and Lady Brooks almost a year to the day previous on the 25th April 1891. This ceremony included a procession of carriages from the Brooks’s home, Barlow Hall. Interestingly the stone was vandalised a few days later.
2) Clarion newspaper spawned a number of social and sporting clubs which served to further propagate Socialist ideas; the chief amongst these were the Clarion Cycling Clubs.
3) Robert Alexander served with the Manchester Regiment during the First World War seeing action in Egypt and on the Western Front and being promoted to the commissioned rank of Second Lieutenant near the end of the war on the 30th October 1918. He later held some high posts in the Co-operative movement and was appointed to the House of Lords by the Labour government of 1945. His final rôle was as the chairman of British Rail’s London Midland Area Board (1955-1960).
4) Quoted from The Clarion’s review on the 15th February 1905 of performances by the club of a farce - “Aunt Jack” by barrister and dramatist Ralph Robert Lumley.
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