That lost magical Chorlton playground ... a man called Gabbott .... and the Curnon Steam Meter

 For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by a patch of land just a little to the north of Chorlton Brook.

That assemblage of old buildings, circa 1990s

Long after the Barlow Moor Road side had been developed with the cinema, a factory and a row of houses it stubbornly refused to be developed.

Instead, it remained a collection of wooden buildings which by the 1970s had become overgrown and were a mecca for kids who were drawn to the isolated spot as much as for the potential for adventures by the brook.

And as if to signal its presence there was at the entrance an old petrol pump.

Even more odd was that it was reached by walking up Claude Road and was positioned at that point where the road does a right turn, heading west, and then south into the Ville.

Claude Road, 1969

Over the years I picked up the stories from people who played there and wondered with the occupants of 45 or 47 Claude Road which stan either side of the entrance had any knowledge of its history, its use or its owner.

And then sometime in the 1990s the site was cleared, and a row of town houses were built with the un Chorlton name of Rainbow Close.

I always assumed they had been workshops but never pursued the story until this week when Doreen and Rob Lizar lent me a series of pictures they had taken of the buildings, before and during their demolition along with the name of the man who owned the land.  This was a Mr. Gabbot who owned and rented out no. 45 Claude Road which ran along the north site of plot.

Rainbow Close, circa 1990s

The pictures are of course a fascinating piece of our history for a set of buildings which will soon fade from living memory.

But added to the photographs was a trade card for Curnon Engineering Co, at Claude Road Works Chorlton cum Hardy, featuring the Curnon Steam Meter.

And a search of the record brought up that “Curnon Engineering was started by Edgar Parr Gabbott and his grandson is still about. Chas Cook made the steam meter for Curnon while Mr Gabbott was away in France during the First World War but the arrangement seems to have continued until the 1940s”.*

To which that go to guide for all things industrial and machine, Graces Guide to British Industrial History offers up pictures of the machine, a poster, and two addresses for what I assume were the offices of the company. In 1911 these were at 5 John Dalton Street and in 1913 185 Princess Street.**

Curnon Steam Meter, undated

And from the two sites I now know that a Curnon Steam Meter, recorded “accurately the flow of steam in any size of pipe, under any conditions of working, at any degree of superheat, without causing any throttling or necessitating any disturbance of the pipe-line” and was proudly advertised as a British Made Steam Meter”.***

Curnon trade directory, undated

Their offices at 5 John Dalton Street were in the impressive Queens Chambers on the corner of Deansgate.  

It is still there and back in 1911 housed 38 companies and societies over 4 floors, including solicitors, estate agents, accountants and industrial businesses, with the Manchester Sunday School Union, the Manchester & Salford Women’s Trade and Labour Council one of whose secretaries was Miss. Eva Gore-Booth and the National Industrial and Professional Women’s Suffrage Society.

Oddly Curnon are not listed in the trade directory for 1911, and so may have moved in during the course of the year.

This makes sense given that they were according to the trade card established in 1910.

As yet despite a search of company records, I can’t find a clue to when they closed down although thee is a suggestion of 1940s. 

But Rob and Doreen remembered Mr. Gabbott who on a whim would take out his red sports car and drive around Chorlton.

Tracking him down proved relatively easy.  He was born in 1886, and in 1911 described himself as an “Engineering Agent, Scientific Apparatus” and was self-employed.  Having lived in Withington by 1921 he was living with his aged parents at 45 Claude Road, listing his occupation as “Inventor and Maker of Stream Meters and Recording Instrument”.

That pump, 1972

Now sometime in the 1920s the offices for Curnon Engineering are listed at 45 Claude Road, with the earliest date I can find as 1925.

And I can also date the house to sometime between 1900 and 1903 which I think means he will have established the Claude Road Works no earlier than 1903 and no later than the early 1920s.

He died in Sale in 1970 at 16 Beaufort Avenue, leaving £12629, although it is unclear who to.

I wonder if his “Small General Engineering Business” which he described the firm on the 1939 Register was turned over to war essential work but that may be a search too far.

By the 1960s my friend Ann was sketching the site and recorded that at least one of the buildings had been taken over by the Park Motor Company offering up another line of research.

And there may even be people out there who can help with when Mr. Gabbot’s firm closed down.

We shall see.

The Park Motor Co, 1960

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; before, during and after the demolition of the former Curnon Engineering Company’s buildings, circa 1900 and the trade card for Curnon Engineering Co, undated, from the collection of Rob and Doreen Lizar, Claude Road, 1969,  Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY , street furniture on Claude Road, 1972, m58833, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pas and Park Motor Company, circa 1960 courtesy of Ann Love

* Curnon Engineering Co, https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp147507/curnon-engineering-company

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

*** Poster for the Curnon Steam Meter, 1913, Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History from Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History