That lost church in All Saints ......a place in Shropshire ..... and a connection with Africa

It is rare to get an exact date for when a photograph was accepted into the catalogue of a picture postcard company, and by extension the date the image was taken.

But in the case of this picture of All Saints Church in Grosvenor Square I can place it sometime in the year 1900.

And this I can do because the name of the company which marketed it was Valentine and I have their catalogue listings which means using the number on the bottom right-hand side I can track it to one of the 1,241 photographs which were placed in the catalogue for 1900.

More than this I know it will in all probability be at the back of the year, given that the last catalogue number is 34,736, and ours is 33,191, making in the last 545 to be added. 

The story of the church is well known, so I shall just record that it was “consecrated on April 12th, 1820.  The building consisted of a chancel, nave, aisles and a domed tower.  It was partially destroyed by fire in February of 1850 but was restored and reopened by Christmas of the same year, only to be badly damaged during the Manchester Blitz and demolition some years later” *.

There is heaps more which are available including maps and pictures by following the link.

For now, I am more interested in this particular card which as posted on May 12th, 1906, to a Miss. Biddle in Oswestry from someone living at 56 Richmond Grove East in Longsight.

The sender’s name is indecipherable, but I know that this was home to a Theophilus Beal who was there from at least 1901 through to 1929.  

He was a railway carriage cleaner was married to  Lydia and had three sons, none of whose first names resemble the one on the card.  But the Beales’s did have a lodger in 1910 and while he is not the sender of the card, it is possible that another lodger who was there in 1906 sent the card.

Alternatively, the clue maybe in part of the message which runs "I have just been here to see my cousin march to drill” and so we have be dealing with a relative of the Beale’s.

As for Miss Biddle, she was staying at an address in Oswestry, which is in Shropshire close to where the Beales’ came from.

That said the address also include the village of Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain which actually is in Wales, but to be fair very close to both Oswestry and more to the point Shropshire where the Beale’s came from.

So, there is more to play for.

Leaving just to point out the buildings in the background which include the old Art School and the Chorlton on Medlock Town Hall.

The town hall in 1945 was the venue for the Fifth Pan African Congress which was attended by 90 delegates, 26 from Africa. 

They included many scholars, intellectuals and political activists who would later go on to become influential leaders in various African independence movements and the American civil rights movement, including the Kenyan independence leader Jomo Kenyatta, American activist and academic W. E. B. Du Bois, Malawi's Hastings Banda, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, prominent Jamaican barrister Dudley Thompson and Obafemi Awolowo and Jaja Wachuku from Nigeria. 

It also led partially to the creation of the Pan-African Federation, founded in 1946 by Nkrumah and Kenyatta.

But that is another story.

Instead, I will finish by saying that the card belongs to David Harrop who thinks it is the only picture postcard to show the church.

Location, All Saints, Oxford Road, Manchester

Picture; All Saints Church, 1900, Valentine Postcard, courtesy of David Harrop

*All Saints Church Grosvenor Square, https://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/gone/allsaints.html

Eltham from the pen of Llwyd Roberts ....... nu 2 St Mary's School 1929

Now I am a great fan of the work of Mr Llwyd Roberts.

He was during the 1920s and 30s our artist in residence and during that time produced a heap of line drawings of Eltham and the surrounding area.

Some were reproduced from old photographs while others  were as he saw them at the time.

This is St Mary’s School which dates from 1928 in a building which was in its time both an academy  for young gentlemen and before that a private residence.

According to Mr Roberts, this was "the convent chapel and St Mary's Diocesan Orphanage garden are replaced by the pavement in the now widened High Street.  The nun's house on the left has gone.  St Mary's School in its present form was founded in 1928."

And if you want more I suggest you follow the link.*

Picture; Eltham Parish Church; drawn circa 1929, Llwyd Roberts

* St. Mary's (Eltham) Community Complex, http://www.stmarys-eltham.co.uk/history.php

Back in Chorlton in the October of 1961

Pemberton Arcade, Barlow Moor Road

“Just a sixpenny bus ride from Piccadilly, Manchester is Chorlton-cum-Hardy – the little green meadow hamlet that grew and grew into a busy suburb.”*

I came across this opening sentence in a pile of old newspapers passed to me by Oliver Bailey.

The collection is a treasure trove of our recent history including reports, photographs and stories.

Most come from papers which have now vanished like the Manchester Comet, the Manchester City News and the Chorlton edition of the Stretford and Urmston Journal but a few despite looking very dated are still with us.

The Manchester Evening News featured Chorlton in its series on People and Places in the October of 1961.  I guess the approach fitted a template which consisted of some contemporary photographs, conversations with locals and reflections on how the area had changed over time.

The photographs included Oswald Road School, the Library and that row of shops on Barlow Moor Road “known years ago as Pemberton Arcade and still remembered as that by older Chorlton folk, [which] provides cover and room for stalls which give it that market atmosphere.”

Mrs Mehre Usha and Mrs Raj Kumai, "window shopping"

And there were pictures of local residents like Mrs Kathleen Foy at a “her pressing board in her shop on Beech Road,” Keith Hannam, “who went to school in Chorlton and now owns a small butcher’s shop in Chorlton Green” and “Mrs Mehre Usha and her sister in law Raj Kumai” who were out for the day “window shopping.”

All of which is good stuff for any local historian but the paper also reveals more detail on events which have all but been forgotten.

Back in 1961 we still had a railway station, which for three years had been selected as “the tidiest in south Manchester, but new travelling habits have placed the fate of the spotless old station in the balance.”  So “officialdom has now given the station a final reprieve to see if the public really wants its station.  If not it will die.”

Now of course we know it didn’t survive but all too often its closure is recorded in just a sentence with little detail around the debate on its future.

In that respect the article is a wonderful piece of history more so because it includes people who were in the 70s and 80s and who talk of that older Chorlton.

“Old timers will recall Chorlton and Withington joining Manchester at the start of the century, and the first trams to Chorlton in May 1907.  Grey haired Mrs Mary Ford aged 84 has lived in the district all her life [and] for the past 52 years in her present gas lit home.  She remembers a smaller more peaceful Chorlton. ‘It was just a village with lots of green fields and very beautiful.’”

Furniture to buy at Waring & Gillow

This I think marks the article out for here we have in one place the memories of people who can take us back to the late 1870s and 1880s.

So I shall be returning to this snapshot of Chorlton in 1961 and let the residents throw more light on what our township was like over a hundred years ago.

But in the meantime I can  not resist one of those old adverts which more than anything show how far we have travelled in the 55 years since the story was published.

Pictures, by John Featherstone, from my copy of the Manchester Evening News October 20, 1961

*The country cousin who grew and grew .... from GOING YOUR WAY CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY focus on People and Places, Manchester Evening News October 20, 1961

When the sunshine came to Beech Road ……..

So, nothing more historical, than a record of when the sun shone down on Beech Road last weekend.

Drinks in the early afternoon, 2023

In the early afternoon of Sunday, we treated ourselves to a drink having spent two mornings under a ferocious sun taming the gardens.

Shadows in the late afternoon, 2023

We broke the "no mow in May" rule but given that the end of the month was close and we hadn’t cut the grass since September I think nature, the pollinating insects and the creepy crawlies in the undergrowth weren’t to challenged.

Leaving me to present three pictures ....... early afternoon, late afternoon, and early morning in the sun.

Mrs. Trellis of Provis Road will object that this is not a very historical story for a blog about the past, and she would be correct.

But then as the rain of July and August runs into September, we may just want to look back on a time when it was hot and sunny for days on end, like it was when we were all kids.

‘nuff said.

Sunlight in the early morning, 2023

Location Beech Road

Pictures; sunshine on Beech Road, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.6

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these Budapest Noir'”

And that is all I am going to say.

Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

The little bit of history Phil found in his garden …………..

I grew up with those plates, cups and saucers which came with blue decorative designs.

Found by Phil, 2023

Sometimes the blue extended to the entire plate and depending on the design you might also get leaves, and flowers, a group of fishermen with their rods, and in the distance little flimsy bridges, and the odd pagoda.

So common were they in our house, our Nana’s house and in the homes of neighbours that they were just the background to our lives.

Back then I can’t say I liked them, but I was  curios at the number of fragments which turned up in the garden of the old house.

26 Lausanne Road in Peckham had been built in the 1870s and by the time I was growing up there eighty or, so years later there were lots of these bits buried just below the surface.

And a decade later in the 1960s they could also be found in the garden of the house in Well Hall Road which dated from 1915.

All of which might have suggested to me that these “blue” ceramics had a long history and had been mass produced throughout the 19th and into the 20th centuries.

The posh stuff circa 1800, 2016

But at 10 rolling through into my teenage years fragments of China didn’t feature.

Now I am intrigued which made Phil’s question about his bit of blue plate one to follow up.

Along with a picture he commented, “Our back yard now has a trench.... for the new drain. 

The trench diggers today found this and left it somewhere prominent. What could it be and how old? 

Our house was built 1880 Kenilworth Avenue off Burton Rd, West Didsbury. 

The fragment is 10 cm long, 

It could be part of a wash basin or tureen?”

And I was fascinated.  

There will be possible answers on the net, which Phil will follow up along with a query to the Art Gallery in town. As for the two pictures I am well aware of the differences, but blue China is Blue China.

So watch this space.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; a bit of blue China, lost but found, broken but clean, 2023. Courtesy of Phil Portus, and posh stuff, Blue Willow china, c. late 1800s, various manufactures, Lahaina Heritage Museum, 2016, Author Wmpearl, Licensing, I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:Creative Commons CC-Zero This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

*Willow pattern, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_pattern 

and

Blue Printed Earthenware In The 19th Century, http://printedbritishpotteryandporcelain.com/pottery/ceramics/blue-printed-earthenware-19th-century

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.5

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these Budapest Noir'”

And that is all I am going to say.

Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Just when you thought you knew the age of the Trevor Arms on Beech Road

The Trevor was my local from 1976 well into the middle of the next decade and was a busy and happy place.

At the time and until quite recently I gave little thought to its history, it was simply the pub run by Stan and Mona and their daughter Christine and always a place where you find someone you knew to talk to.

If I did give its past any thought I just assumed the date above the door of 1908 was when it was opened, but beer was being sold from this spot from 1879.

Back then the site was occupied by a row of wattle and daub cottages, one of which had been the home of Mary Crowther who was made to do penance in the church at the beginning of the 19th century.

It is unclear what Mary had done but during the closing decades of the eighteenth century she had given birth to three illegitimate children and it may be that it was for this that she was made to do penance.

She was the last person to do so, and lived out her life, with one of her sons in the cottage and was buried in the parish church yard.

By 1871 one of these cottages was owned by the Langford family.

Jonathan Langford came from an old Chorlton family and a decade earlier had given his occupation as a "gardener" and lived on Dark Lane.

In 1874 his daughter Elizabeth was living there and running the shop and  by 1879 she was renting it out to a succession of “beer housekeepers.”

The last of these tenants was William Downs.  By 1897 the property was transferred to Groves and Whitnall which had taken over the Regent Road Brewery in 1868 and began a rapid expansion which by the time they were registered in 1899 included nearly 600 pubs.

Now there is a lot more I want to know about Mrs Langford as well as William Downs who in 1898 was superseded by Miss Mary Catherine Hayes.

But that is for another story.

Picture; the Trevor early 20th century from the collection of Tony Walker

Uncovering the fascinating story of Frank Jefferson .............. historian, teacher, and soldier

I think we should all know more about the life of Frank Jefferson.

He was a teacher and later head teacher at the Open-Air School in Shrewsbury Park, was a noted historian of Woolwich and served in the Royal Artillery during the Great War.

Now that is a pretty impressive track record many of us would wish to emulate, more so because he had the rare gift of achieving much but carrying it off in the most modest of ways.

I came across him only recently when my friend Tricia alerted me to his book, The Woolwich Story.

It is one of those wonderful history books which is fun to read, offers heaps of information but has a light touch which carries the reader along.

Before I knew of his chosen career, the style, humour and ease with which Mr Jefferson delivered the Woolwich story made me think he must have been a teacher.

That said there was very little I could find about him until I contacted Jim Marret who is secretary of the Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society.

The Society had published the book and Mr Jefferson had been its President for three years.

Jim provided me the a copy of the obituary written by a friend of Frank Jefferson and from there the story tumbled on to the page.

He was born in Essex in 1889 and in 1911 was living with his family in a pleasant eight roomed semi detached on Nadine Street.

Five years later the family were at 6 Russel Place in Woolwich and it was from there that the young Frank enlisted in November 1916.

He survived the war and in 1929 as head teacher oversaw the move of the Open-Air School from Shrewsbury House to Charlton.  According to his obituary “we must not forget that he was one of the instigators of the ‘Open –Air’ school in England, at Shrewsbury Park, at which hundreds of children were aided to recovery from ill-health.  

The full story is told by Frank in his book except for one important detail- he has omitted, with typical modesty, to mention his own part in the work there.”**

And that I think is where I shall end for now but like all good stories it offers up the promise of much more.

For now I would like to thank Mr Jim Marrett of the Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society who provided the obituary and cover of the book on the Open Air School.



Location; Woolwich, Eltham, Welling

Pictures; cover  England’s First Open Air School, 1957, courtesy of the Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society, The Open Air School Bostal Woods, circa 1909, from Open Air Schools Leonard P Ayres, 1910 page 39 and cover The Woolwich Story, E.F.W.Jefferson, 1972

*The Woolwich Story, E.F.E Johnson, 1972

**E.F.E. JEFFERSON 1899-1970: An Appreciation J.J. Morrow

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.4

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these Budapest Noir'”
And that is all I am going to say.

Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

How not to write a history of Chorlton ….. or when dinosaurs roamed Beech Road …… and Batman opened a bar

 The following story should qualify for a Government Health Warning.

At 73 I think AI or Artificial Intelligence is a development too far for me.

My Wikipedia tells me that AI is about “perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by humans or by other animals. Example tasks in which this is done include speech recognition, computer vision, translation between (natural) languages, as well as other mappings of inputs”.*

So far so good and recent news reports suggest that it offers stunning opportunities for medical break throughs and is already becoming integrated into how we do things.**

But and there always is a but it does seem to lead to some odd, misinformed and downright silly offerings.

Take this one found by my friend Michael, who sent it over with the comment "Andrew, Artificial Intelligence has come to MS Edge (may be only a protype, not sure). I asked for the History of Beech Road. This is what came up:

‘History of Beech Road

Beech Road is a street that has witnessed many changes over the years, from its origins as a rural lane to its current status as a trendy and vibrant destination. Beech Road runs through Chorlton, a suburb of Manchester, England, and is known for its eclectic mix of shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants. Beech Road also boasts a small park that offers a green oasis for locals and visitors alike.

The history of Beech Road can be traced back to the 19th century, when it was part of a network of lanes that connected the farms and cottages of Chorlton. In 1848, Beech Road was the scene of a guided walk by Andrew Simpson, a local historian who showed how the area had been affected by the year of revolutions in Europe. The walk highlighted the social and political issues that shaped Chorlton at the time, such as poverty, education, religion and reform.

By the late 19th century, Beech Road had become more urbanized, as new houses and shops were built along its length. The street was also home to several laundries, which gave it its nickname "Washhouse Lane". One of these laundries was converted into a restaurant called The Laundrette in 2013, which still retains some of its original features.

In the 20th century, Beech Road continued to develop and diversify, attracting artists, musicians and writers who contributed to its bohemian atmosphere. The street also became known for its independent spirit and community ethos, as residents organized festivals, markets and events to celebrate their culture and heritage. One of these events was Britain's first "cashless" road in 2014, when traders accepted only electronic payments for a day.

Today, Beech Road is one of Chorlton's most popular attractions, offering a range of options for shopping, eating and drinking. Some of the notable venues include The Beech pub (a cozy spot with an old school feel), The Horse and Jockey (a gastro pub with views over Chorlton Green), Restaurant 97 (a fine dining establishment with seasonal menus) and The Yoga Rooms (a wellness centre with classes for all levels). Beech Road Park is also a favourite spot for dog walkers, families and nature lovers.

Beech Road is a street that has a rich history and a lively present. It is a place where tradition meets innovation, where local meets global, and where old meets new."’

I wasn’t going to spend any time on this, other than to thank Michael and shudder, but I think it’s use has cropped up again recently in connection with Beech Road, so Doris the Dinosaur, Billy Batman and Raphael just had to come out to play.

And before Mrs Trellis of Provis Road writes in, yes I am aware that on occasion people have found Wikipedia a little leaky, although I have to say it is always a starting point before the fun of delving deep into the past using the archives, records, maps, pictures and memories provide a more interesting slant on the past.

With a special thank you to Michael

Pictures, Doris, Billy and Raphael spotted on a short stop over on Beech Road, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Artificial Intelligence, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence

** New superbug-killing antibiotic discovered using AI, James Gallagher, BBC News May 25th, 2023, New superbug-killing antibiotic discovered using AI, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65709834

***A History of Chorlton,  March 24th, 2023

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.3

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these Budapest Noir'”

And that is all I am going to say.

Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.2

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these Budapest Noir'”

And that is all I am going to say.



Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Will those responsible ……… return the drinking fountain to the Rec on Beech Road

It is one of those silly stories which started with a couple of pictures of the Rec in the early morning.

Early morning on the Rec, 2021

And progressed through to a newspaper report from September 1897 of an ordinary meeting of the Withington Urban District Council at which Mr. Burgess “intimated that a gentleman in Manchester, whose name he would not at present mention, had offered to give a drinking fountain to be placed in Chorlton-cum-Hardy”.*

I had been looking for information about the early years of the Recreation Ground on Beech Road.**

It had been opened in the May of 1896, and was gift form Lord Egerton of a strip of land which had for centuries been known as Row Acre.***

And here I went very  wrong, because so engrossed was I in the research that the fountain and the Rec came together and for a brief while I went searching for just where the drinking fountain might have been located on what is now called Beech Road Park.

Waiting for something to happen, 2021

All of which will allow Mr. Pedantic of Provis Road to mumble that the story is a nonsense, and artificially connects pictures of the Rec on a Tuesday morning with the real drinking fountain which was on Chorlton Green.

And he would be right, leaving me to reflect on that earlier bit of public open space which is surrounded by two pubs, the old parish burial ground, the village school along with two former farm houses.

Today most of us think of Chorlton green as an open space of grass ringed by trees but this was not how it has always been.

Before the turn of the 19th century it may have been much bigger and indeed for most of that century was not even open to the people of the village, having been enclosed by Samuel Wilton and not returned to public use until the 1890s.

And then for a great stretch of time remained without grass but did have a pretty neat water fountain.

The Green, circa 1900

The picture dates from 1906 when the Horse and Jockey was still just a set of beer rooms on either side of the main door, Miss Wilton’s outhouse still jutted out from the building and the space between the main entrance and the sweet shop was still a private residence.

I have always liked the lamp which stands on the green, with its hint of Narnia.

And back in the May of 1986 I can remember walking past it in the early evening and coming across a string quartet playing around its base.  Today people would just take it in their stride mutter something about it being typically Chorlton, but back then it struck me as the promise of things to come.

Which later that night with the defeat of the Conservative candidate and the election of the first Labour Councillor it  indeed seem to herald something new.

But being a historian I have to own up to the fact that the following year the Conservatives were back but they were on borrowed time, and 1987 marked the final year that a Conservative would be elected from Chorlton to the Town Hall.

The year before may have been the first string quartet on the green but it has not been the last.

The drinking fountain, circa 190o

I have to say I prefer the grass but lament the loss of the fountain.  

First it lost its cups and then vanished sometime in the 1920s or 30s.  To my mind that was a loss.  Public fountains are wonderful places to meet people, spend time chatting and just having a drink on a hot day.

Once it would have been the village pump which offered all three and which on hot summer days had the added bonus of a place the kids could play.

Now there is a lot more history to explore in the photograph of the fountain but I rather think I will leave that for another time.

To which Michael Wood has added, "My recollection is that the fountain on the rec was located centrally outside the shelter, as on the attached snip from the georeferenced maps website showing OS 25” 1892-1914 series.  

It was the same design as was used in Chorlton Park near the tennis courts, a perfunctory iron structure with domed hoods over the outlets, operated by a button on top -  nothing like the elaborate ornamental feature on the Green.  Can’t find an image at the moment, but I could draw one!  

The Rec, 1914

They must have been a common municipal feature in their time, but by the mid-sixties they were semi-functioning or defunct. "

And I hope he does, as it is I never knew about the bandstand.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; the Rec very early on a Tuesday morning from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the drinking fountain on the green, circa 1900, from the Lloyd Collection

*District Councils, Manchester Guardian, September 10th, 1897

**Public Recreation Grounds at Withington, Manchester Guardian, May 18th, 1896

***Breaking News ……….. the Rec on Beech Road is officially opened, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/04/breaking-news-rec-on-beech-road-is.html

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.1

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these 'Budapest Noir'”

And that is all I am going to say.

This is the first in that series

Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Travels across the Universe with a good guy .......... Dan Dare Pilot of the Future with that gentle optimism that was the 1950s

Now you can either face the world with the simple philosophy that the bottle is always half full or retreat into a dismal dark place, where it is always half empty, the sun never shines and the number 86 will always be late.

Of course in the real world there are plenty of awful things which no matter how many half full bottles you have they will never make it any better.

But the optimist in me always wins through and it is how I like my science fiction.

I have never been one for the disaster movie, the bug eyed monster or the evil supernatural beings, and I think that must be in part because I grew up with the Eagle Comic and in particular the exploits of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future.

He was simply the best.

A clean cut brave chap who put loyalty and truth and fair play above all else and when faced with evil dealt with it in an honourable way.

Today those attributes wouldn’t count for much in many films but back in the 1950s with the backdrop of the Second World War that sort of hero could still be presented to young boys who lapped it up.

Dan Dare was the chief Space Pilot of Space Fleet, had been born in Manchester in 1967 and in his travels across space encountered a whole range of people most of whom shared his belief that peace and co-operation were better ways of doing things.

Of course he encountered the not so nice aliens but even these could be won over and usually their defeat was at the hands of a mixed bag of races from across the Galaxy.

He was created by Frank Hampson and appeared in the Eagle Comic from 1950 into the 1960s.

And while the world Mr Hampson created looks decidedly old fashioned today it was one that fitted that post war period of optimism and filled me with that simple belief that no matter what planet you were from or what you looked like you were bound to be decent, trustworthy and above all much the same as the people of Earth, which was and is a fine start to the day.

Nor is that all for I should have added that these models were made by Howard Love who like me has a long held fashion for all things Eagle.

His wife Ann, "Howard made them a few years ago from clay, air dried and painted.  He remembers getting the first magazine, and it was by copying the drawings of Frank Hampson that he became interested in drawing. this lead him into studying Art at College, and working in a design studio, before going into teaching"

Now you can't saying fairer than that, .......... not only did Dan Dare save the world umpteen times but set Howard off on his successful artistic career

Pictures; models of some of the people featured in the Dan Dare stories, courtesy of Howard Love.

In Budapest ......... reflecting on two who are the Righteous Among The Nations

Now the memorial to Carl and Gertrud Lutz in Budapest is simple and powerful.

Detail of the memorial, 2016

I knew nothing of the memorial or the couple until my friend Julie shared this picture.
 Carl Lutz was born in Switzerland, travelled the world and arrived in Budapest in 1942.

As a Swiss diplomat he and his wife Gertrud organised the issue of safe conduct passports to Jewish people during 1942 and 1945, saving 62,000 Hungarian Jews from imprisonment and death.

After the war Mr and Mrs Lutz returned to Switzerland and in 1964 were designated as Righteous Among The Nations by Yad Vashem.*

It is striking memorial which has a figure laying on the ground with an upstretched hand and is the work of the sculptor, Tamás Szabó.

The memorial, 2006

“Yad Vashem, the national Authority for the Remembrance of the Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust, was established in 1953 by act of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) to commemorate the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the years 1933-1945. 

The Authority also commemorates the heroism and fortitude of the Jewish partisans and the fighters in the Ghetto revolts, as well as the actions of the 'Righteous Among the Nations' (non-Jews who saved the lives of Jews).

Located on Har Hazikaron (Heb., Hill of Remembrance), a ridge on the western outskirts of Jerusalem, the Yad Vashem Memorial and Institute includes several commemorative monuments, an historical museum, a central archive and a research center for the documentation of the Holocaust.”

Location; Budapest

Pictures; detail of the memorial to Carl and Gertude Lutz, Budapest, 2016 from the collection of Julie Thomas, and Memorial dedicated to Carl Lutz, Righteous among the nations, Szabó Tamás sculptor, taken by Perline, who as the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 

*Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yad-vashem

Chubby Checker, cowboys and Pathe News ........... Saturday morning at Well Odeon with a thank you to Sandra

Now  I am revisiting Saturday morning pictures and in particular the Odeon at Well Hall.

And as ever the memories came flooding back with a fair number of people sharing their stories which got me thinking that so much of our recent history gets lost because we just take it for granted.

But these bits of our collective story are as important as any of the great events and are often just lost.
So here is Sandra Axford Wilcox’s own vivid recollections of the magic that was Saturday morning pictures.

"I remember Saturday morning pictures at We'll Hall Odeon. 

Everyone stamping their feet when the cowboys were chasing the Indians. 

The unmistakable voice of Pathe News. 

And the competitions, my big sister made me go up on the stage for a dance off - doing The Twist to Chubby Checker. 

The manager would walk along the stage holding a much coveted biro over each dancers head and whoever got the most cheers would win the pen.... and no, I didn't win."

All of which just leaves me to hope that a shed full of more memories will tumble out.

Painting; The Well Hall Odeon © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

Budapest ........ where the trams are yellow and are fun to travel

Now the trams of Budapest are proof that nothing beats a journey on a bright yellow tram.

That said the city’s trams have had their ups and downs since the first horse drawn service began in Pest on the east side of the Danube in 1865, quickly followed by another in Buda run by a rival company.

Within 20 years there were fifteen lines and by 1944 the network had grown to 66 lines.

But the siege of Budapest which damaged much of the city including the tram network, followed by a switch to trolley buses and petrol powered buses almost did for the tram.

But not quite and today after a policy flip the tram network is growing again and as of 2015 there were 33 lines, including the delightful Budapest Cog-wheel Railway which for those who like detail is Tram line number 60 and runs every from 5 am till 11 at night along 3.7 km of track.

I have Julie to thank for the pictures of the tram and for bringing to my attention the story of Budapest’s tram service.

And the rest as they say is a collection of Budapest's best along which Julie's endorsement of what a "fantastic transport system in Budapest has, with
trams,trolly buses, metro,buses and a water taxi on the Danube and all very cheap."


Location Budapest

Picture;  big yellow tram, small maroon one and number 2 route, 2015, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Walking the ghost campus ………

I wasn’t quite prepared for the silent emptiness that is the former UMIST campus.

Iconic staircase, 2023

It boasts a heap of trees and bushes, a green and some seats along with an “interesting” iron structure but no people.

Barnes Wallis Building, 2023

I sat there in front of the former Barnes Wallis Building with the Reynold Building behind and flanked on my left by the railway viaduct.

I was last properly here half a century a go and as you would expect back then it teemed with students and staff.  

Many of them were taking in the sun on the lawn or making purposeful strides to a lecture somewhere.

But today I was alone, with just the noise of tourists who had wandered out of Vimto Park and under the railway viaduct looking for that statue of Archimedes in his bath.  

A few carried on to the steps that take you down to the green but perhaps uncertain as to why the area was so quiet and empty just retraced their steps.

Leaving me blissfully alone in the little oasis of green space, with my memories.

The Reynolds Building, 2023

In the early 70s I occasionally ran across Marc who I had gone to school with and who had come to Manchester the year before me.  I remember that he was most insistent that I refer to it as the Tech and not UMIST which echoed our name for the College of Commerce on Aytoun Street which we always call the College of Knowledge, and never ColCom.

Those who did call it Colcom were invariably the serious ones, who bought the college scarf, never cut a lecture and never missed an essay deadline.

Doubtless they never dressed up in baby doll nightdresses and attended the “Milk Snatcher’s Ball” which was held in the Barnes Wallace Building in the spring of 1971.  

Me and my mate Jack did, having borrowed the nightdresses from the girls upstairs, and to my shame never returning them.

The details of that night have happily faded from memory, along with where we changed into them and more importantly how we got out of them.

And I rather think that was the last time I was there. 

Happy faces, 2023

After I graduated I rarely went back to that bit of the city, until I had retired and once gain began wandering the streets taking pictures and thinking about the past.

I was vaguely aware of the merger between UMIST and that other university on Oxford Road, and have more recently clocked the succession of plans which flitted off drawing boards on what to do with the site.*

What most have in common is a total disregard for the buildings which are fine examples of 1960s architecture and which many of the plans would demolish.

So it ain’t just old Victorian and Edwardian warehouses which are under threat from Derek the Developer, these examples of 60s build could also vanish.

Leaving me just to thank that group of young people I encountered who like me were just hanging out and  as kids do asked to be photographed.

They at least were the most youthful I came across and reminded me of what the place had once been like.

Location; UMIST campus

Pictures; the ghost campus on a May day, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*“It seems just another Spinningfields” – The plan set to whitewash Manchester’s modernist gems, October 20, Mancunian Matters, Richard Baker, https://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/news/20102021-it-seems-just-another-spinningfields-the-plan-set-to-whitewash-manchesters-modernist-gems/

Stealing other people’s pictures and memories

Now I am a great fan of other people’s pictures, especially when they are of places I have never been.

But it is also that I like to see through other people’s cameras at what they see as interesting and also at the way they take a picture.

To be fair I don’t actually steal but ask which cements an existing friendship and often makes new ones.

So here we are in Budapest in the winter in the company of Julie Thomas and her husband.

Julie posted a selection of pictures of the city yesterday on facebook and I was drawn to them and she has kindly consented to me sharing a selection, which builds on the earlier ones of trams I took from her collection.

I like the first one of the snow, a line of cars and the buildings beyond looking out from a restaurant which was perfectly matched by the two glasses, a bottle of sparkling water and the Danube beyond.

Which adds to the international aspect as the botteled water is from Italy.

In tine I will ask Julie what was in that posh looking glass and Just where in Budapest beside the river they were at the time.


Location; Budapest









Pictures; Budapest 2016, from the collection of Julie Thomas

A different Parrs Wood …… 1959

Now I am not a great fan of what has happened to Parrs Wood.

The small recreational ground is surrounded by fast moving traffic and dominated by the entertainment complex along with all those road signs.

But I can remember a quieter Parrs Wood which still existed in the 1960s.

True there was the bus depot and the large Parrs Wood Court, but there was also open land, which was occupied by the High School and the Rural Studies Centre.

Back then the recreational area still felt it had a presence and coming across it, after going under the railway bridge was always a pleasure.

So, with that in mind, here are two pictures of that long gone Parrs Wood.

They date from 1959, just ten years before I washed up in the City and first discovered East Didsbury.

Location; Didsbury,

Pictures; Parrs Wood, 1959, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk 

The lost Eltham & Woolwich pictures ...... no. 29 ...... carefree days

It was a far more innocent age or at least we used to think so and back then I thought nothing of taking a picture of a young person sitting on the green.

Today I would think twice, and quite rightly so, added to which I tend to ask permission before I take a picture of anyone out walking or even of their house or their car.

But something like forty years now separate me from the scene which includes the young person and distance does add to anonymity.

We are behind our house and I guess I would have wandered through the passage way from Well Hall Road and onto the green and from there may well have ambled on up towards the woods.

It is a familiar view for countless people who grew up on the estate and still do today.

But now I am not so sure it is Lovelace Green.

Memory and the logic of where I would have gone suggests that it is Lovelace Green but modern pictures have thrown me.

And that is the price you pay for leaving home 44 years ago.

Either way it is a view I remember with affection and one that brings back my carefree childhood.

For four decades it was one of the pictures I took of Eltham and Woolwich in the mid ‘70’s which sat undisturbed in our cellar.

But all good things eventually come to light.

They were colour slides which have been transferred electronically.

The quality of the original lighting and the sharpness is sometimes iffy, but they are a record of a lost Eltham and Woolwich.

But despite the quality it was good enough for Jacqui to comment that "It's Lovelace Andrew, looking now on streetview the trees on the green have obviously grown and the post and chain fence has gone. 

The only puzzle is why the woods can no longer be seen over the rooftops! Thanks for the memories, I would have been biking around the estate as a 15 year old, happy days!".

Location; Well Hall

Picture; Well Hall circa 1976, from the collection of Andrew Simpson