Clayton Hall …. a picture postcard ……. and the story that’s got the lot

I rediscovered Clayton Hall in 2018, when Timmy tram took the strain out of travelling east from Chorlton to the Ashton New Road.

Clayton Hall, 2018

I had first come across the hall in the 1970s when we were living off Grey Mare Lane and took to exploring this part of the city.

But the move first to Ashton and then back to south Manchester relegated Clayton Hall to just a name.

And then on a whim on a spring day we took ourselves off to Clayton and the Hall, and met up with Kay Symcox and the other friends of the “Old Lady” which is their affectionate name for the place.

It hosts exhibitions, is on the school run for teachers wanting to bring history alive to their students, and sits in a small garden which is a haven of peace.

And as you do I have written about it and reported on up and coming events and so I was pleased when Mr. “Posty” Harrop sent over this picture postcard of the Hall.*

Clayton Hall, 1908

The post mark is 1908 and it was sent from Manley Road in Whalley Range to a Miss. Maud Acres in Berlin.

In the fullness of time I will go looking for Miss. Acres and the address she was staying at.  For now I shall just make the big assumption that she might have been a governess, like the young Edith Hunter in the 1943 film Colonel Blimp which remains one of my all time favourite films made by Powell and Pressburger.***

She is in Berlin just six years before our postcard was sent from Whalley Range and opens with her attempt to draw attention to the anti-British feeling generated by the Boer War by writing to Lieutenant Candy.  

He has just won the Victoria Cross and she hopes he will refer her concerns to his superiors, and from there the film twists and turns to its close in 1943.  Along the way it is part love story and part an exploration of the changing nature of warfare in the age of “Blitzkrieg”.

Miss. Maud Acres, 1908

All of which was a long way off when Mrs. Ann Harsley sent her picture postcard with its Easter greeting from 74 Manley Road.

She to is someone I want to trace, but for now that is it, other than to say I think it is time for another trip to Clayton Hall.**

Location, Clayton, Whalley Range and Berlin

Picture; Clayton Hall, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the picture postcard of Clayton Hall, 1908, courtesy of David Harrop

*Clayton Hall, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Clayton%20Hall

**Clayton Hall is on Facebook or email via info@claytonhall.org 

***The Life and Times of Colonel Blimp, 1943, Powell and Pressburger