Wednesday 31 May 2023

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

A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects number 7 ........... a country lane

The story of Didsbury in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph.

Lapwing Lane, circa 1914
I could have chosen any of Didsbury's country lanes, but this one I like, because the house on the right featured in an earlier story*, and it hints at the transformation of Didsbury from small rural community to a suburb of Manchester.  We are on the corner of Wilmslow Road, looking west along Lapwing Lane.  The house dates from 1896, and to the south there are still just fields, but this small spot of the township would soon be built over.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Lapwing Lane circa 1914

*The house, a field and the stories of Mr. Nathan Slater and Henry Hawkins ……… 174 years of Didsbury’s past, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-house-field-and-stories-of-mr.html



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


Tuesday 30 May 2023

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

Eltham from the pen of Llwyd Roberts ....... nu 1 the old parish church circa 1840

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

He was born in Borth in Cardiganshire in 1875 and was articled to a Derby architect later spending  seven years as a draughtsman in Burton Upon Trent before working for a series of Welsh newspapers.

After war service and a period in the British army of occupation he settled in Eltham at Bloxham-gardens working as a topographical artist and concentrating on drawings of the ancient buildings of Kent.

And it will be during this time that he produced the drawings in the book.

Now I have to say that they fascinate me.  Some are quite clearly drawn from his direct observation of the buildings while others may be from earlier pictures and a few are a careful attempt to reconstruct a scene from an earlier period.

All of which may mean that some at least may not be an entirely accurate depiction of the past, but that said I suspect they are as close as we going to get.

Many were published in the Kentish Times in 1930 and as you do I went looking for copyright permission but given that the Kentish Times has now ceased to publish and the pictures are over 85 years old I think I should be OK.

I featured some of my favourite deawings earlier in the year and over the next few days I shall show so more.

According to Mt Roberts this "was the old parish Church.and the Kings' Arms as they might have loked between 1840-1860."

Location; Eltham

Picture; Eltham Parish Church; drawn circa 1930, Llwyd Roberts

Looking for stories ………. from one house in Chorlton

Now, it has become popular to take a pretty ordinary house and trace its story back in time.

The house, 1959

I have to confess it is something I have done with three of the houses I have lived in over the last seventy years, and more recently the idea has become a successful television series.*

All of which is an introduction to Bamburh House on High Lane.

It featured yesterday on the blog when I began to explore its history.

And I have returned today with part two.  It was to be the story of some of the domestic servants who toiled away in the background rarely recognized, but essential to the well being of the family who employed them.

The idea was partly prompted by my own interest in those “who toiled”, and also from a comment by Sarah, the present owner that “When we bought the house we opened up the attics and there was a bedroom for a maid up there. 

I will dig out the pictures just for your interest because although the staircase carried up to her room she would’ve had to bend  double to get under the roof to enter”.

But as so often happens their stories are harder to piece together, and despite an afternoon wandering the records the four I chose led almost nowhere.

I had started in 1871 when the house was built, with a Miss Taylor aged 23, and young Agnes who was just 14 and employed as a “nurse”, but the enumerator’s handwriting was almost undecipherable, and my best shots led nowhere.

And while a decade later I could at least identify a Sarah A Edwards and John Strawbridge, they too remain in the shadows.

High Lane, 1881, the house marked with an X

Still there are plenty more to look for, and in time I will go looking.

All of which leaves me falling back on the house and exploring a little bit more of its past, which begins with an interesting mystery concerning John Strawbridge who in 1881 is described as a groom, suggesting the then owners had a horse and carriage.  Maps of the period show outbuildings behind the house on the west side, but later census returns make no reference to a groom.

The last census records that in 1911 Mr. Robert Newberry West, who was a surgeon, employed Elizabeth Parker as “cook-domestic” who was charged with maintaining the elven rooms and cooking for Mr. West, his mother and his two siblings.

The house, 1881, marked with an X

I have to say I have been drawn to Robert West, partly because he was born  in Camberwell,  close to where I was born and grew up in south east London and because we can track his progress from London to Chorlton-on Medlock where his father was the vicar at St Stephens and on to Southport where he lived with his widowed mother.  

He married in 1920 at the grand old age of 47, living on Upper Chorlton Road and finally Barlow Moor Road where he died in 1924.


Nor is that quite the end of the story, because like many bigger properties in south Manchester,  Bamburh House finally succumbed to multi occupancy.

Just when this happened is unclear.  

In 1929 the directories show that it was occupied by the Morris family, but a decade later the house was divided in to five flats of which two were unoccupied.  The remaining three were occupied by a sales manager and sales assistant, neither of whom were married, and Mr. and Mrs. Bond and their young daughter. Mr. John Bond was a sales manager for a tobacco and drugs company, his wife Doris was “an assistant hospital nurse” and Rita, their daughter was just 2 years old.

After which the house continued its long association with multi occupancy.  In 1954 it was home to three tenants, and in 1962 to four, and it remained so until Sarah bought the property and returned it to family use, which of course has been a trend across Chorlton.

With thanks to Sarah for allowing me to profile her house and Tony Petrie who supplied the street directories for 1929, 1959, and 1962.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

The house, 1956

Pictures; the house in 1959, A. E. Landers, m17886, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass High Lane in 1881, from the 1881 Withinton Board of Health map, courtesy Trafford Local Studies Centre, https://www.artuk.org/visit/venues/trafford-local-studies-centre-6551 and in 1956 from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1956

*The story of a house, 

One hundred years of one house in Well Hall 

The story of one house in Lausanne Road

The house on Harrow Road in Leicester

A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects number 6 ........... a Victorian postbox and the story behind the wall

It began with the Victorian postbox set in the wall on Wilmlsow Road, and a vague feeling that here was a bit of research that might uncover some of Didsbury’s history.

The Post Box, 2019
I had no expectation that I would be able to date precisely the installation of the box but reasoned that as I dug deep into the archives something would popup, and of course it did.

As ever the starting point was the big house which stood behind the brick wall.

This was Fairfax House, which dates to 1872, when it was owned by William Jabez Muckley.

The property sat in its own grounds, a little away back from both Wilmslow Road and Fog Lane, and consisted of eleven rooms with views south across the road towards Didsbury Priory.

I say it dates to 1872, and on that I am fairly confident, because it doesn’t appear listed in the rate books any earlier.

That said the post box could have been inserted at any time between 1872 and 1901, but I suspect we can narrow that a little, as ours matches a design which was in use from 1881 to the death of the old Queen.**

But I am prepared to be corrected by an expert in all things posty.

Fairfax House, 1894
So, for now I shall climb the wall and deal with Mr. Muckley, who was still in residence at Fairfax House, until sometime just before 1891.  After that, we can track him to Essex where he had retired and would live out his remaining four years.

He turns out to have been an interesting chap, having been Principle/Headmaster of the Manchester School of Design which also went under the name of the Academy of Fine Arts and the School of Art

It was located on Bond Street which is now part of Princess Street and he was there by 1879 if not earlier.

The school has gone along with Fairfax House, but the romantic in me likes the idea that he might just have popped out and used the post box.

But I suspect it is more likely he asked one of his eight children or better still the servants of which there were two.

Either way that tpost box and the brick wall is all there is left of Fairfax House.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; the post box, 2019 and Fairfax House, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Associationhttp://digitalarchives.co.uk/


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


Monday 29 May 2023

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

A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects no. 5...... the tithe map

Today I went walking the lanes of East Didsbury in the summer of 1845.

Now as daft as that might sound it is possible to recreate such a walk using the census returns, the OS map for the period and the tithe documents.

And it is the tithe document and more especially the tithe map which has helped me with this imaginary stroll along the Wilmslow Road, past Parrs Wood House and on to the parish church, the village green and the two pubs.

It was based on a survey undertaken by Mr. J Tinker of Hyde in the February of 1845, and details the ownership of the land, the tenants who worked it, and the use the land was put to, as well as the size of each field and its rateable value, along with who owned or rented the properties spread out across the township.

So armed with the map I know that as I made my way along Wilmslow Road I would have passed a mix of meadow and arable land, with the odd little orchard before reaching the village green which had yet to be enclosed by Mr. Bethell as his own personal garden in front of his pub.



 And then if I so chose, I could have wandered off west across the township, all the way to the border with Chorlton.

Later I may return with stories of some of the people who lived along Wilmslow Road, but that will be for another time.

Leaving me just to explain that the numbers on the map refer to an entry in the  schedule which listed the owners of each parcel of land, and properties, the names of the tenants, and the values of the land as well as the use it was put to.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; detail of the 1845 tithe map for East Didsbury part of the tithe survey, undertaken,in 1845, by Mr. Tinker, Joseph Townsend, and Charles Robert Brandy and redrawn by Frank and Teretta Mitchell, 1978





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


Sunday 28 May 2023

Walking down the High Street sometime around 1907

Now I can’t be sure when this picture was taken.

The postmark records that it was sent at 11 am on September 20th 1907, but picture postcard companies did keep old photographs in the catalogue and reuse them long after they had been taken.

In some cases even over printing on what was a summer scene a Christmas greeting or retouching the picture to the point where it almost became a blur.

In this case we are on the High Street looking west down towards the church, and I am fascinated by the shop advertising “Eltham Steam Printing Works” which was on the north side of the street.

Given that the Castle is almost opposite I think our shop will be under the modern block which includes Marks and Spencer but I am finding it difficult to find the shop on the street directories.

It doesn’t appear in the 1914 lists, so may have gone by then.

Of course I may be looking in the wrong place and at present I don’t have access to earlier directories, but someone will, and the story behind the “Eltham Steam Printing Works” will come out of the shadows.

Location; Eltham High Street

Picture; Eltham High Street, 1907, courtesy of Tricia Leslie

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


A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects number 4 ........... the postcard and the flying machine

The story of Didsbury in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph.

In the June of 1911 young Bertha Geary aged just 13 of School Lane heard history and wrote to her friend “We saw the flying man on Tuesday night fly over head.  Beaumont is his name.  I wish you could have seen him.  It made such a noise.” He was André Beaumont and he was one of 30 competitors in the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Air Race in 1911. Flying in a Blériot XI he was the first to complete the course which was no mean achievement as many of the aircraft either failed to take off or crashed along the way.

Picture; the postcard sent by young Bertha from the collection of Paul O’Sullivan

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

Saturday 27 May 2023

The door …. and the story

This is the entrance to Whitworth House at 121 Princess Street, and the inscription above the door offers up one of those fascinating twisty turney stories.

Morreau, Spiegelberg and Co, 2023
Morreau, Spiegelberg and Co were listed in 1903 as “manufacturers, shipping and merchants”

My Pevsner says of the building “on the east side, of [Princess Street] the former premise of Morreau, and Spiegelberg, C Legg, 1912. Arcaded below with slightly projecting bays, above topped with a range of big shaped gables”.*

As a description it isn’t much but it’s a start for what is a large property occupying a site bounded by Bombay Street, Princess Street, Granby Row and Samuel Ogden Street.

And it’s size is totally in keeping with what seems to have been the business of Morreau, and Spiegelberg which can be tracked back to at least 1896 when they were on Portland Street, and on to 1916 when they were still at Whitworth House.

Marcus Morreau had dissolved a business partnership in 1897 and another in 1911 by which time he was already in partnership with George Spiegelberg.

Now I am never really a fan of delving into the lives of the wealthy, given that their wealth and prestige has ensured a trail of information from business documents to newspaper references.

But in this case because I had the names it seemed churlish not to explore their lives, and I started with Mr. Mooreau.

He was born in Wörrstadt in Germany in 1859 and was living in Whalley Range as a lodger in 1881.

121 Princess Street, 2023
As yet I can’t be sure when he first moved to Britain, but he was naturalized as a “British Subject” in 1892, made several trips to New York in the 1890s and was married in Calais in 1900.  Alice his wife was French was just 18 when she married Marcus.

In the early years of their marriage they moved around south Manchester but by 1911 they were on Lapwing Lane.  

The house is still there and is a grand looking place. 

It had 16 rooms and the Mooreau’s employed five servants two of whom were described as nurses, along with their German cook, a “waitress” and a “housemaid”.  Intriguingly both the last two were born in Manchester but described themselves as a “British Subject by parentage”.

And as befitting someone of wealth there are pictures of Mr. and Mrs Morreau and two of their three children as well as one of Alice and a sibling in 1890.

These are available from a family blog and are one of those remarkable finds and come with a picture of George Spiegelberg.**

Highfield, Didsbury, 1894

It was a find that came at the end of a long day of trawling the records and writing the story which I suppose is one of those lessons that you should always finish the research first.

But then the Brotmanblog blog is someone else’s story compiled with their research so it is fitting that those who want to pursue the family should follow the link and read their account.

And if you feel adventurous take yourself down to 121 Princess Street and gaze on the former warehouse and offices of Moreau, and Spiegelberg.

Alternatively you could head south to Didsbury and the site of Highfield House which was where Mr. and Mrs. Morreau were living in 1920 when Marcus died.  

Alice was still there a year later where she shared her home with two of her children, a governess and three servants and a Mr. Spiegelberg who was visiting from nearby Bowden.

The OS map for 1894 shows Highfield as a large 14 roomed house set in extensive grounds with a lodge off Ford Lane.

And that for now it it.

Location; Manchester, and Didsbury

Pictures;, 121 Princess Street, 2023 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Highfield in Didsbury from the OS map of South Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

* Manchester, Clare Hartwell2002, Pevsner Architectural Guides p198

** Brotmanblog: A Family Journey,  https://brotmanblog.com/2019/09/03/a-brickwall-when-and-where-did-alice-weinmann-marry-marcus-morreau/


Lost in the attic .............. a new collection of photographs of Chorlton........ nu 1 Whitelow Road

This is Whitelow Road sometime in the early 20th century and with the picture comes one of those intriguing little stories.

It is one of a collection of images which were donated to St Clements Church and were found in the attic of a house.

And that is about all I know of the history of the twenty or so photographs of Chorlton.

All except one date from sometime after 1900 and measure 25.5 cms by 42 cms and have been reproduced from picture postcards.

I would love to know who went to all the trouble of first collecting and then enlarging the images and later storing them away.

Now there will be a story there but I doubt it will ever come to light.

So instead I shall concentrate on this one which shows a gang of labourers at work.

I don’t have a date but the company whose name plate appears on the steam engines was Davies Brothers, Asphalt Road Makers who were listed in the 1911 directory with an office on Princess Street and a depot on Green Lane.

Green Lane ran from Brook Street to the Garratt Bridge by the River Medlock in Chorlton on Medlock and long ago was swept away by new developments which included the old BBC Broadcasting building.

What makes the picture interesting is that it is one I have never seen before and comes with a companion photograph which also shows Whitelow Road with the same team of workmen.

Both contain a wealth of detail from the steam engines, barrels of tar to the wooden sets and the large number of labourers.

This was after all at a time when much of the work still relied on muscle power and so despite the steam engines it was still down to shovels, wheelbarrows and a lot of effort.

But the pictures also include that small band of spectators who have been drawn to the scene.

Like the workman they stare back at the camera with that mix of poses, some stopped in their tracks, a few looking curious and the rest those who just can’t miss the opportunity to be in the picture.

And of these the one I am drawn to is the chap in uniform pausing with his parcels to be caught on camera.

Now I am sure there will be someone who can help explains the use of the long wooden beam across the road and others who will want to speculate exactly where along Whitelow Road the pictures were taken from so I shall close by reflecting on how many more pictures of old Chorlton are sitting in attics across the township.

Pictures; Whitelow Road date unknown, from the Simpson Collection



On the High Street with Mr Rideway in 1933

I am standing outside numbers 116 & 118 Eltham High Street in 1933.

And this I know because in that year our old friend Llwyd Roberts painted the two properties which were just up from the old Castle pub.

At 118 there was the saddler William Barnes who had occupied the property from at least 1919 while nu 114 was the business premises of Charles Rideway who ran a dairy.

I can track Mr Rideway back to 1901 on the High Street selling his milk and by 1933 he seems to have diversified into sweets, chocolate and tobacco.

His immediate neighbour had been Arthur Moody who in 1919 described himself as a picture framer, and may still have been there when Mr Roberts painted the picture.

All of which just leaves William Barnes who had taken over the business from George French around 1919.

Now I don’t know whether the saddling business of Mr French was not doing so well but sometime between 1901 and 1911 he began renting out some of the building.

In room there was Charlotte Eliza Rose who at 71 described herself as a widow and in another were Mr and Mrs Brading.

So there are a lot of leads to follow up, including when the French family moved on, why Mr Rideway decided to diversify and how long his dairy continued to deliver the milk to Eltham residents after 1933.

I know that he died in 1954 and by then was living in Park View which is now Passey Place and given that he had seven children they may be much more to be revealed.

And the children do help place when the family arrived in Eltham.  The first three were born in Somerset between 1892 and 1896 while their fourth was born in Eltham in 1898.

And the key too much of the research will be the yearly street directories along with the electoral registers which are available down at the Heritage Centre and which will allow us to follow the movements of Mr Rideway, Mr Barnes and Mr Moody.

In the course of which we may come up with advert for Mr Rideway's business.

But for now I am interested in Mrs Charlotte Eliza Rose who was born in Eltham and had been married for 51 years, but that is for another time.

Picture; 116-118 Eltham High Street 1933, Llwyd Roberts.

Source material, census returns, 1901-11, Post Office London Directory 1909, 1919, and Electoral Roll 1932

A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects number 3 ........... the advert ..... 1824

Now, in the November of 1824 Parrs Wood House was not the only fine residence in Didsbury, but it was the only one up for sale, which made it a talking point in the elegant dinning rooms of the township and the less elegant pubs and beer houses.

Parrs Wood House, 1970
Those with a heap of money might well have wondered if the property was for them, while the curious and less well off might just have wanted to know how many rooms there were in the house.

And how “extensive”  were “the offices, and out buildings” how productive, “the hot houses, gardens, orchard, plantations, and rich meadow and pasture land” along with just how pleasant was “the lawn and pleasure ground”.


Parrs Wood House, 1824

Parrs Wood House, 1980
According to the advert of sale, “Tickets maybe had for viewing the premises, on Fridays only, between the hours of ten and three”.

Not that I would have been vouched safe a passport into a viewing.

We come from a long line of agricultural labourers and I have no reason to think that had I lived in Didsbury in 1824, I would have been anything other than a lowly farm worker.

So, I would have had to content myself with reading this advert, providing of course that I could read.

But that is another story for another time.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; the Parrs Wood House notice of sale, Manchester Guardian, November 6th 1824, Parrs Wood House, 1970, m21314, and the interior, 1980, m0604, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass