Discovering a little bit of Whalley Range’s history

Now here is a bit of history that I bet lots of people know but has passed me by and it concerns St Margaret’s playing fields in Whalley Range.

The land is on Brantingham Road and was gifted by the wife of one of the vicars of St Margaret’s and in in 1937 it was the destination of that years Chorlton carnival.

Back in the 1930s there were a number of carnivals across the city but Chorlton’s seemed to be the biggest according to the Manchester Guardian which reported that “the gala held in St Margaret’s playing fields, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, on Saturday [June 19th] may be said to mark the opening of the charity carnival season.“*

Now I recently wrote about the carnival but pretty much ignored the playing fields but after a few people asked where they were I went looking.**

The obvious place was beside St Margaret’s Church in Whalley Range and while I was close I wasn’t in quite the right place.

The church had been built in 1849 on land given by Samuel Brooks but the playing fields date from sometime later.

I have yet to establish when but I do know that in 1894 the land was still part of Whalley Farm and as late as 1911 Brantingham Road had yet to be developed fully.

That said I hope to talk to Mr Boulter the vicar at  St Margaret’s and perhaps even before then someone will come forward a bit more of the story.

And within minutes of posting this story,  Pawel Lech Michalczyk who pointed out that  "St Werburgh's Church owned playing fields.

These were opposite Parkgaye Farm, accessible via the short cul-de-sac off St Werburgh's Road.

It was the whole triangle between the railway line and Chorlton Brook, almost up to Mauldeth Road West.

Its now part of the Chorlton High School campus."

Location; Whalley Range

Picture; horses being paraded along Oswald Road sometime in the 1930s, courtesy of Mrs Kay, from the Lloyd collection

*Manchester Guardian June 21 1937

Happy Birthday Beano

 It was 85 years ago today you rolled off the printing presses.

Since then, there have been 4,000 editions, and 7,000 characters have walked across your pages.

You have seen us through wars, a nasty epidemic and the Great Freeze of 1947 and 1962-3.

And now you are introducing new characters to reflect the social changes in the country.

So, I hope the birthday cake is up to the event.

And on a personal note, you have entertained me and my kids over 60 of your 85 years.

Pictures, Beano covers no. 2803, April 6th 1996, & No. 2893, December 27th, 1997, from the collection of Ben

A Polar Bear, the Eldora Ice Cream Company ..... and a flood of memories

There will be someone who is an expert on the Eldorada range of ice creams and lollies.

Back in the 1950s and 60s I just took them for granted.

And anyone born in the first half of the last century I guess will remember the Polar Bear which appeared on the adverts for their products.

I had all but forgotten the ice creams, but this advert in the Eagle comic for 1959 brought the memories flooding back, and particular the Topper lollies which came in a strawberry flavoured outer coating.

The ice cream inside was whiter, than the Walls or Lyons alternatives and I think I was never as keen on it.

Added to which, I think Eldorado was slightly cheaper than its two main rivals, but here I may be unfair on their products.

And as you do I went looking for their history which is still a piece of research in progress.

I think they originated in London in the 1920s, but so far apart from a reference to the minutes of the business from 1925-1960 in The National Archives,* I have only a handful of images of the Polar Bear, a news story of a gas explosion in their Lambeth factory, and a promotional film advert from the BFI entitled Beautiful Women.**

Along with an exchange in the House of Commons from 1931 which suggests the company had questionable employment conditions.***

So I await someone with more information or an ability to ferret out the full story.

And in the meantime I close with a link to which an interesting blog on Ice cream posters of the past.****

Location; Eldorado Ice Cream

Picture, advert for Topper Ice Cream Lollie, 1959, from the Eagle Comic, May 30, 1959, Vol. 10 No.22

* Eldorado Ice Cream Ltd, wholesale ice cream manufacturers, The National Archives https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F178809

** Eldorado Ice CreamBeautiful Women https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-eldorado-ice-cream-ad-beautiful-women-1937-online

*** ELDORADO ICE CREAM COMPANY, HC Deb 09 June 1931 vol 253 c805, https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1931/jun/09/eldorado-ice-cream-company

**** REFRESH YOUR MEMORIES OF THE ICE CREAM ADS AND POSTERS OF BYGONE DAYS, HTTPS://WWW.PIXARTPRINTING.CO.UK/BLOG/ICE-CREAM-ADVERTS/

How we used to live …….. 1947 ……… beating the shortages and living with food rationing

Now jam making is one of those activities that opens you up to ridicule and all too often is associated with people of a certain age who have too much time to fill.

All of which is a bit unfair, given that it remains a very useful way of using up a surplus fruit.

Of course, with plentiful jam in the supermarkets and the presence of a freezer somewhere in the house, the faff of making the stuff seems a rural pastime too far.

And yet over the centuries jam making was an essential part of domestic life.

So much so that in 1947 it was one of the leaflets produced by the Ministry of Food, to inform families of how to make the best of food at a time when the country was still enduring rationing.

The leaflets included “Making the most of the Fat Ration”, the delights of food that could be found for free in the hedgerows and instructions on how to make short pastry as well how to cook cabbage.

Like the chef Delia Smith in the 1970s, the Ministry set off from the position that not everyone knew how to cook, which the last world war may have had a part to play.

During those six years lives had been disrupted with many people on the Home Front relying on canteen food served up in the factories where they worked or at communal food centres.

Added to which many children had spent part of the war away from home as evacuees, and so rarely got the opportunity to lean from their parents about cooking a meal.

Each leaflet was awash with recipes, from tradition ones to those inspired by rationing and shortages, like Barley Mince, Dresden Patties and Cheese and onion turnovers.

And that brings me back to our leaflet on Jam making and Fruit Bottling, which was issued by the British Gas Council with the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Now, I am not tempted to bottle the pile of strawberries, but my fancy has settled on Orange or Lemon Curd, which given this was 1947 includes the choice of either 2 fresh eggs of the dried variety.

We shall see.

Location; 1947

Pictures; Jam making and Fruit Bottling, leaflet issued by the British Gas Council with the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture, 1947

The Welcome Inn ................... the early days

Now some stories just have a habit of not wanting to go away.

They stay hanging around challenging you to go off and discover something new to add to what has already been said.

And so it is with the Welcome Inn which every time I feature the pub strikes a chord with many people usually about my age.

In particular it is tales of Sunday nights which continue to bubble up enriched by the memories of meeting future husbands or lasting friends.

And I should know because while I was just that bit too young to drink I would listen to the happy crowds coming back down Well Hall Road past our house in the mid 60s a little after closing time.

More recently I began looking for the history of the place, and while a few people were able to offer up names of past landlords the very early history of the pub proved illusory.

And then my old friend, fellow researcher and local historian Tricia Leslie told me about The Woolwich Story by E.F. E. Jefferson.

It is as she promised me a wonderful account of the Borough from the earliest of times up to its merger with Greenwich.

I have already used the book and know I shall go on plundering it for some time to come.

So in the chapter on the 1920s I came across this “On the brow of the hill stood a large wooden building used as a workmen’s club but demolished about 1927 when the Welcome Inn was built.  

This modern hostelry set new standards in both furnishing and service.  Seated in comfort, one had to preserve patience until the waiter came to take the order, for customers were not permitted to get their own drinks at the bar. 

But this arrangement proved too leisurely, annoyed those who only had time for a quick one and tended generally toward the restraint of trade. A wise host discontinued the practice.”

Now I have no idea when that service was discontinued but I well remember the practice was still in use in some of the big Manchester pubs in the late 1960s, with the waiters in white jackets and in some rooms a bell push to summon assistance.

Sadly there are few photographs of the waiters or indeed the interiors and it would be nice if any could be shared of the Welcome in its heyday.

So that is it.  I now know when the pub was open which was clearly aimed at the Progress Estate and the new build going up behind the pub and the appeal is out for pictures.

We shall see what we get.

But in the meantime I shall go looking at the electoral registers which will give us the names of the landlords or landladies from when it opened through to the 1960s.

Location, Eltham

Picture; the site of the Welcome courtesy of Jean and the cover of The Woolwich Story

Marketing the Manchester Ship Canal, 1919-1939 .......... at the Central Reference Library ... the exhibition to do

 The exhibition.

"The exhibition showcases a range of original publicity material and print adverts created from the 1920s to the early 1950s as marketing for the Port of Manchester.

These decades saw a revolution in publicity with modern ideas on typefaces, much more dynamic imagery and bolder use of colour. Manchester Ship Canal Company started using imaginative visual designs to sell itself more effectively internationally and encourage industrial growth around the docks.

The exhibition highlights the work of nine commercial artists employed by the Ship Canal Company. The most innovative in their designs to promote the docks were born locally and trained at the Manchester School of Art.

The exhibition is on display in Manchester Central Library from 29th July 2023.

Curated by Martin Dodge, Department of Geography, University of Manchester.

Exhibition supported by Manchester Archives+,  The University of Manchester and Manchester Geographical Society"

The posters like this one by Horace Taylor from 1927 will be displayed in  lightboxes in the library. 

This follows on from the very successful exhibition last year on the Simon's of Wythenshawe.*

So with the exhibition about to open today, here are some of items on display.

Location; Manchester Central Reference Library, St Peter's Square

Picture; Marketing the Manchester Ship Canal, 1919-1939, 2023 and Place your Factory on the Waterline, Horace Taylor, 1927

*Wythenshawe Exhibition, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Wythenshawe%20ExhibitionLocation; 

Stories of clearance ………… Beswick in 1967

Now, anyone who has grown up in an area zoned for house clearance will instantly recognize this picture.

I can’t be exactly sure where it was taken, but as most of the others around it were from Beswick I think we can be confident that is where we are.

It would be easy enough just to let the picture say it all, but then where would the fun be in that?

I am drawn first to the lamp post and bicycle tyres, which remind me that I also played that game of trying to get tyres on to and over the lamp post.

I never find it that easy, but  both Johnny Cox and Jimmy O’Donnell were experts and judging by these two tyres, who ever played the game back in 1967 was pretty good at it.

After which there was always bag of chips from Dodson’s, which according to the sign was still open, offering tea, fish, chips peas and puddings.

It is remarkable it is still standing particularly as from my experience, the last man standing was either the pub or the betting shop.

I doubt it had long to last, but despite the boarded upstairs windows, there is a car outside and a TV aerial on the roof.

But the writing is on the wall, or to be more accurate in the letter from the Council announcing the date of its demolition.

And if anyone wanted proof, it is there just around the corner, where the gap in the row of terraced houses has exposed the neighbouring property.

Indeed, closer to home, the house next to the chippy has already gone.

But amongst the clearances there were treasures to be found, and found by the most unexpected people.

Just seven years later I met up with a primary school teacher on a course given over to the use of Victorian art in the classroom, and in a break in the programme, she gleefully shared her own experiences of bringing the Victorian in to the school.

This consisted of marching a group of young students out of the school to buildings close by which were being demolished, and armed with hammers and chisels they set about “rescuing” fireplace and bathroom tiles, which went on display.

It was of course a different time and I doubt any such rescue mission would get past the idea stage.

That said I also remember just a decade or so later people in Chorlton were restoring their homes with Victorian and Edwardian fire places and bathrooms which had been  ripped out in the 1950s and 60s, with tiles and cast iron surrounds from clearance areas in the north and east of the city.

Leaving me to reflect on the odd side of those clearance programmes.

Location; Beswick

Picture; Dodson’s lonely chip shop, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,  https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

Is that an apple tree Mr. Grace? ….. fruit …. flowers ….. and a heap of bushes in Hulme

Now I grant you the greening of Hulme may seem tad bit of an exaggeration but there is no doubt that chunks of the place are very green.

Coffee, cake and flowers the Hulme Community Garden 2023

And I don’t mean those huge expanses of open grass underneath which are the remnants of the deck access properties and Crescents of the and are now stretches of land waiting for something to happen.

More Community Garden, 2023

No I mean those pockets of trees, shrubs and wild flowers which have been left to grow  wild, like the small patch off Old Birley Street beside the Brooks Building and MMU campus, or the fruit trees outside Kim’s Kitchen.

True these bits of green are nothing compared to the fields which stretched south from Cornbrook down to the rural outposts of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Didsbury.

They were all still there in 1819 when Mr. Johnson drew up his superior map of Manchester and the surrounding areas, but within 30 years everything from The Duke’s Canal, down over Stretford Road was filling up, although past what is now Rolls Crescent was still open land.

Open fields through Hulme Moss Side and on to Withington, 1819

But already the comfortably well off were building their fine “surburban” homes with large gardens as far as Moss Side and by the 1890s both Hulme and its neighbours were full of terraced housing with their grid like streets.

And even more Community Garden, 2023

So, now with the third development of Hulme it is fitting that places like HulmeGarden Centre should be offering up an oasis of plants where you can go and sit, enjoying a meal at the café or coming away with some much-loved plants.

Location; Hulme

Pictures; Hulme Garden Centre, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and a detail from Johnson’s map of Manchester, 1819, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/  

*Hulme Community Garden Centre, https://hulmegardencentre.org.uk/

Who buried Mr. Birley in an open space in Hulme?

I should say that it’s not just who buried him but it’s who then found him.

What was lost is found, 2023

At which point I should point out that it is not Mr. Birley as such but the memorial stone commemorating the opening of Manchester’s first Board School in the June of 1874.

It is a story I have already visited but always promised myself a second go. *

I had thought I would crawl over the newspaper accounts of the opening, featuring the speeches of the good and worthy and their observations on the importance of education and in particular the features of Board School No. 1.

The school, 1962

These included a basement kitchen “with all appliances for tea parties”, “large places for storing fuel, with convenient shoots from the street above, so that all the rooms are warmed by open fireplaces and are thoroughly well ventilated”. 

Added to which the Manchester Guardian reported “The walls are faced to a certain height with glazed bricks, which can be easily cleaned, and on which writing or other defacement is impossible. 

Round both school rooms run bands of encaustic tile, bearing Shakespearean mottos”.**

But one Victorian worthy’s speeches on the value of education are pretty much like another so instead my thought turned to how the stone got there and who decided it should see the light of day again.

Walking to the Brooks Building 2023

Manchester Board School No.1 or Vine Street School as it became was situated close by and so it is entirely possible that when the school was demolished the memorial stone was just part of heaps of building spoil.  Just a little distance away developers found the original sunken baths of the Leaf Street Swimming Baths which were back filled after the walls of the building had been knocked down.

Or it may have been carefully stored away ready for the moment when a new educational institution was built in Hulme close to the old school.***

Someone one will know, and perhaps also reveal who decided to put it on display in a small area of land left to grow wild.

We shall see.

Location; off Old Birley Street, Hulme

 Pictures, memorial stone of Board School No 1, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the school, 1962, H. Milligan, m64822, , courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  

*The lost Hulme School ……, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-lost-hulme-school.html

**The First Board School in Manchester, Manchester Guardian, June 12th 1874

***The Brooks Building, part of the MMU.

A pharmacy …. a heap of praise …… and a bit of history

We all have our favourite shops.  

Beech Road Pharmacy 2022

They are ones which are rooted in the community, and whose loss would leave a hole in where we live.

Now, I have lived on Beech Road for almost half a century, and I have seen shops come and go.

Some were here when I arrived, others appeared, promised much, and disappeared with little to mark their passing.

But then there have been those which are still fondly remembered and some which still do the business. *

All of which is a lead into The Beech Road Pharmacy.

In the long history of dispensing chemists on Beech Road it follows on from Joy Seal and Harry Kemp which takes us back through the last century to 1901.

Shopping on Beech Road, 1900-2021

And my reason for selecting it lies very much in the professionalism of the staff and the service they offer which extends to the routine of prescriptions and medical advice to the help they have shown to my Italian mother-in-law.

In an age of online communication which make it difficult to talk to someone it is always reassuring when you get that personal assistance.

Of course, there will be plenty of other chemist shops which people will claim do the same, but ours does the business and like us is on  Beech Road and that is enough.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; Beech Road Pharmacy, courtesy of their facebook site, and shopping on Beech Road, 1900-2021, from the collections of Lawrence Beedle, Tony Walker, the Lloyd Collection and the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Muriel & Richard’s green grocery shop, Buonissimo run by Bob and Del Amato, Etchell’s, The Lead Station, Sunflowers, Marcell Materials, along with the Pet shop, Richardson’s and Dave the Butcher. It is of course a personal selection to which other’s will add their own to the list.  

That iconic Hulme pub ……. The Junction

 It began as a picture.

Faded glory, 2023

And for anyone who knows Hulme, it is that iconic building which is the Junction Hotel.

Today it is a sad looking place on the corner of Rolls Crescent and Old Birley Street.

But for those who remember the area before Hulme’s first redevelopment in the 1970s, the location was 141 Warde Street at the point where it joined Upper Jackson Street and Preston Street.

I can track it back to 1885 when the licensee was a  Jane Grange using the directories and may get an earlier date by visiting the licensing records.  As it is the Manchester Guardian carried reports of various properties in Warde Street being granted a license in 1880 and 1881.

So lots more still to do.

In happier times, possibly 1924

I do know that from 1895 till 1901 it was run by an Edwin Grange, who I am guessing was related to Jane Grange.  A decade later it was in the hands of a Mr. and Mrs. Mager who may have had family links with the Grange family.

Looking at all the records this was a big pub.  The Rate Books record that it had an estimated annual rental value of £300 and paid £250 in rates.

According to the 1911 census the building had 13 rooms and along with Walter and Florence Mager there were five living in staff, four of whom were barmaids and the fifth who was the cook.  

Ten years earlier the number of staff was ten and included a young Walter and Florence who were described as “Hotel Managers” under the direction of Edwin Grange.

The pub must have remained popular as in 1921 along with the licensee and his wife the business employed six staff.

I must confess I never went in, but plenty of my friends and colleagues did, with Ann Portus reflecting that she had “great memories"  of nights in the place.

Waiting for something to happen, 2023

It closed in 2016, although What pub still has a listing for it, with the entry that it is “Owned by Hydes brewery, this is the last traditional pub in an area that used to be a bustling hive of activity with a pub on every corner. 

Now the Junction's distinctive triangular shape stands isolated in an undeveloped area surrounded by a mixture of new build developments and historic buildings like the old Hulme Picturedrome which stands just across the way. 

Rumour has it there was once an underground tunnel between the two so that performers staying at The Junction (there was once accommodation on the long ago removed third floor) could get direct access to the theatre.

Entering via the small lobby at the point of the triangle, there is a short bar directly opposite you. The back room to the left of the bar has a pool table while a door on the left hand side leads to a fenced off paved beer garden”.*

Alas no more and despite a report in the Manchester Evening News in 2020 that “Historic pub set to be 'revitalised' into huge space boasting flats, events room and a ‘natural oasis in the heart of the city', as yet the grand plan hasn’t materilaised."**

Indeed the only planning application was for the “Erection of a canopy at rear of Public House including elevational alterations and erection of a 2 metre high mesh security fencing", but it was rejected***

A grand place, 1924

And that at present is that.

Other than to recommend that excellent book by Bob Potts, “The Old Pubs of Hulme and Chorlton on Medlock."*****

Location; Hulme

Pictures; Faded glory and waiting for something to happen, 2023 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, In Happier times courtesy of Tony Flynn, and A grand place, courtesy of Bob Potts

*What ?ub, https://whatpub.com/pubs/TRA/3787/junction-hulme

**Historic pub set to be 'revitalised' into huge space boasting flats, events room and a ‘natural oasis in the heart of the city', Adam Maidmen, March 12th, 2023, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/hulme-junction-development-community-space-17909968

***Manchester City Council Planning Portal, Erection of a canopy at rear of Public House including elevational alterations and erection of a 2 metre high mesh security fencing, 083702/FO/2007/S1, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=JKCE9XBC30000

***** Bob Potts, “The Old Pubs of Hulme and Chorlton on Medlock, 1997, and his earlier version “The Old Pubs of Hulme, Manchester, 1983, Neil Richardson

Of Chorlton carnivals, Enoch Royle's decorated cart and a missing church on Albany Road

Now there is a lot in this picture.

The caption says “Decorated float in Albany Road, for Chorlton Carnival in the 1930s? Enoch Royle at the horses head, permission William Jackson.”

And I suppose that decorated float is where we will start.

According to the local historian John Lloyd, Chorlton staged a number of these carnivals during the mid 1930s which seemed usually to be centred on the Oswald Road part of new Chorlton and were part of the Rose Queen festivals which raised money for the Manchester and Salford Hospitals.

The Manchester Guardian in 1937 reported that carnival season had opened with “the gala held in St Margaret’s playing fields, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, on Saturday may be said to mark the opening of the charity carnival season.  

It has a history of five or six years only, but already it has become perhaps the most considerable effort of its kind undertaken in the city on behalf of the Manchester and Salford Medical Charities Fund.  

It has all the customary carnival, features a queen to be crowned with picturesque ceremony, morris dancers and processions of characters in comic and fancy dresss on horseback, cycle or on foot.”

The last recorded was the 1937 one although others like the Stretford one lasted much longer.
Now Enoch Royle crops up in a number of pictures in the collection always with his wagon and always at the bottom of Albany Road.

Now I had assumed he was a coal man and said so in earlier posts,  but in 1929 when he was living at 26 Fielden Avenue he gave his occupation as carter which is important because I had gone looking for his coal yard on the corner of Albany and Brantingham Roads and instead found a church and a hall.

Both appear to have had a short life.  They were there by 1909 but had vanished by the 1940s and tantalizingly there are those who remember a business run from the corner which went under the name of Mores which means that I will have to go into the Ref and trawl the directories.

So that just leaves the house behind the cart which is still, there today and has in its time been both a private residence and a retail outlet.

My earlier story on Mr Royle prompted Andy Robertson to send me a picture of the property from a few years ago but sadly neither of us has a memory of what was beside the property before the garage.

So while I go searching for that bit of the story I shall close with the observation that back them you could see across to Manchester Road.

Picture; of Mr Royle circa 1930s, from the Lloyd collection, Albany Road in September 20102 , with 
Flynn's Electricals, courtesy of Andy Robertson 

*Manchester Guardian, June 21 1937

Lost and found …… no 2 …. a bit of Hollywood behind the fuse box

I like silly history.

By which I mean the stuff that serious historians might well dismiss as trivial, but which offers up insights into how we lived and if you are lucky zips you off down all sorts of different twisty turny paths.

And this bit of cinema history does just that.

Last year Brian Norbury posted it on social media with the comment “Found behind a fuse board I was replacing. How did people rent films in 1944?”

Now as someone who rented old fashioned reel to reel films back in the 1970s I was drawn in, and while I thought there might well have been a market for such things in 1944, I thought it might be more likely that this was a trade paper for independent cinemas.

And a trawl of the internet revealed that the Daily Renter was “The most widely read Daily Film Newspaper in Great Britain" and “reaches every Producer, Distributer, and Exhibitor in the United Kingdom at the breakfast table every morning”.*

The same search brought up a link to The British Entertainment History Project which “has been recording the stories of men and women working in the UK film, television, theatre, and radio industries to ensure that information on their lives and experiences is preserved for future generations. 

These interviews tell us about the challenges these people had to overcome, the skills they employed, and the enduring human relationships they forged as Britain developed into one of the world’s major centres of the film and television industries.  

Consisting of more than 700 recordings so far, it is one of the most extensive audio-visual archives of its kind in the world. 

For students, researchers, and members of the public alike, it offers a unique insight and a link to a time when we made some memorable films and groundbreaking television programmes.”**

And one of those recordings was a fascinating sound interview with Harold Myers, who talked about his career as a journalist from the 1930s into the 1980s, writing about and for the cinema, including a stint on the Daily Renter.

So, having gone down several by ways I turned back to the fuse box edition of The Daily Renter.

It was published on Monday July 24th and carried pictures of 24 Hollywood stars, and to my surprise I could tick off a full fourteen who I not only knew but had seen at least one of their films.

Equally interesting was page 12 which featured Days of Glory, a new film in production by RKO, which the Daily Renter commented  “had discovered many potential stars” for the film.

It was released later in 1944 and told the story of a group of Soviet partisans  fighting the German invasion of USSR in 1941, and marked the film debut of Tamara Toumanova and Gregory Peck, as well as most of the other principal actors.***

I can’t say I have ever seen the film but occasionally clips do pop up and no doubt as the war continued through its fifth year and into final one,  Days of Glory might have been expected to be a tool in the propaganda battle.

Alas some critics complained it was too wordy and lacked enough action scenes, and according to one source the film recorded a loss of $593, 0000.***

So there you have it, leaving me just to thank Brian for posting his little bit of 1944 film history.

And after the story went live, Brian came back with two more pages which I couldn't resist including.

Ladies Courage had come out in February 1944, which told the story of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron formed in the United States during World War II.

It received poor reviews from the critics and worse still when a group of WASPS pilots saw the film, they, were astonished at the soap-opera histrionics exhibited by the characters on screen and  immediately dubbed the film "Ladies Outrageous"

To which one article has added "More recent evaluations ranged from a lukewarm Leonard Maltin review - "Well-meant idea fails because of hackneyed script and situations' to noted aviation film historian Bruce Orriss, who dismissed the film as '... little more than an embarrassment to the members of this earnest group of pilots.'"****

Location; behind Brian’s fuse box

Pictures; pages from The Daily Renter, 1944, courtesy of Brian Norbury

*Advert for The Daily Film Renter, 1936

** The British Entertainment History Project,  http://historyproject.org.uk/content/about-us

***Days of Glory, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Glory_%281944_film%29

****Ladies Courageous, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_Courageous

Rural Hulme ……..

We all have our own vision of Hulme in Manchester.

For many it will be of those rows of terraced houses many of which were already getting on a bit when Queen Victoria celebrated her jubilee in 1887.

Or the blocks of deck access properties which replaced them in the 1970s, only to be torn down again for a new development two decades later.

But walk a little off Old Birley Street just past George Parr Road and there is a little haven of wilderness which gives out on to the lawns of the Brooks Building.

It may not seem much to anyone who lives in the countryside, but it is still a space of wild unkempt bushes and trees.

And long may it remain so.

Location; Hulme

Pictures; Rural Hulme and the Brooks Building, Bonsall Street, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

News from the Ministry of Food.............. December 1946 Making the most of the FAT RATION

An occasional look at the advice issued by the Ministry of Food in the years directly after the last world war.

Britain continued to ration food and so it made sense for the Government to offer a free advice service on how to plan, prepare and cook meals. 

Here are over the next few days are a selection of the advice issued by the Food Free Advice Service of the Ministry of Food. It is dated December 1946 and gave advice on how best to use rationed food in the run up to Christmas.

Here were suggestions for Butter Extenders which involved adding a tablespoon of flour, some salt and ½ a pint of milk to either 6oz of margarine of butter and mixing to a paste which was then heated in a saucepan with 2oz of melted butter till it was smooth and thick and then left to cool.

It also advised that "roasting potatoes round the joint uses more fat than if the potatoes are cooked separately." 

One method was to slice the potatoes and place them in a greased tin "and they will brown without added fat" 

Or cook thinly sliced potatoes in a "roasting tin with water and salt. There should be enough room for them to lie comfortably without touching and there should be enough water to half fill the roasting tin. Put the tin into a hot oven and bake for one and ½ hours. The water evaporates and leaves shiny golden balls with floury insides."

Picture; from a leaflet issued by the Ministry of Food, December 1946 in the collection of Vince Piggott

Fish … chips… Vimto ….. and the abandoned lavatory …… the lost Hulme and Moss Side .. part 2

This is the second dip into a collection which recorded life in Hulme and Moss Side during the houses clearances of the 1960s and 70s.

They were taken by Roger Shelley and they are a powerful visual description of communities who continued to work and play as around them the wrecking ball wiped away a century and a bit of houses and workshops.

Location; Hulme and Moss Side

Pictures; from the collection of Roger Shelley, 1960s and 70s.

Miss. Mary Jane Weeks ……… domestic servant and shareholder in the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club

Now history is messy and doesn’t always conform to rigid rules of historical development.

The Conservative Club and Public Hall, 1908

And nowhere is this more the case than in the individuals who came forward to buy shares in the new Conservative Club which opened for business, in 1892.

This was after all the party of class which represented the people of plenty.

But as we all know amongst their ranks no less than their loyal voters were people drawn from all classes.

And here it is easy to be dismissive and sniffy about those who consistently voted Tory despite coming from humble beginnings.

My father was a working class Tory.  He drove coaches all his life, and yet he voted for the party which on the surface was least likely to look after him.  That said mother was Labour and she always maintained that her vote cancelled out Dad’s which was a start on the way to a Labour Government.

The political side, 1980s

Here in Chorlton throughout the late 19th century and into the first two decades of the next the Liberals and Conservatives fought it out, and at a local level this often resulted in the electorate returning candidates from both parties on alternative years  to the Town Hall.

But like elsewhere after the last world war, the Liberals were eclipsed and the Tories came out on top, dominating local elections until 1986 and continuing to return an MP until Keith Bradley’s victory in 1987.

And I have long been fascinated by what makes people from the working class vote Conservative.  There will be many explanations and the idea that they were all just class traitors is not good enough.

So that has led me to the big book of subscribers for the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club.  The land had been handed over by the Egerton’s in 1891, and the subscription fund opened that year.

As you would expect here can be found the very wealthy, including Samuel Gratrix of West Point in Whalley Range who bought £200 worth of shares, and a collection of our farmers, merchants and businessmen.

The club up for sale, 2013

Here too was Charles Ireland who owned a string of photographic shops, as well as estate agents, civil engineers down to shop keepers and warehousemen.

Some may have been drawn by the politics, while others by the social attractions of the club

And along with all these was Miss. Mary Jane Weeks, who held shares amounting to £2.

What makes her interesting is that she was domestic servant, working for the Adams family from at least 1891 through to 1911 and possibly beyond.

She had been born in 1849, in the small market town of Hathereigh in Devon, and was working as a servant by 1871.

I would like to know more about Miss. Mary Jane, but so far there are only the census returns to go on, but something more will turn up.

 And in the same way in the fullness of time, all the subscribers will be plotted and their lives revealed.

All of which will help get a better understanding of who voted Conservative in Chorlton  in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as offering up an insight into Chorlton-cum-Hardy, just as the township was evolving from an agricultural community into a suburb of Manchester.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; The Conservative Club, 1908, from the Lloyd Collection,  in 1980, from the collection of Tony Walker, and in 2013 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Register of Members Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club Limited 1892-96