That unseen picture of Beech Road ……. playing on the Rec and heaps more

This is a picture postcard of the Rec which I haven’t seen before and comes courtesy of Bob Jones who posted it recently on social media.

The Rec, undated

It was taken when the recreation ground was still quite new, and I guess dates from sometime between 1896 and 1903.

Now this I know because the Rec was opened in 1896, while Wilton Road which runs along its western side was cut no later than 1903.

The Manchester Guardian was on hand to report the opening in the May of 1896, which was attended by Lord Egerton accompanied by a selection of civic worthies.

They had already presided over a similar ceremony in Withington, and with these two events done, the official party drove “past Chorlton green, the land of which has also been given by Lord Egerton and laid out by the Council [before] the chief visitors took leave of the party and drove to the Stretford station on their way to Knutsford”.*

Playing on the Rec, date unknown

All of which may have been distant history to the children playing on the apparatus, but for those of us of a certain age will be instantly recognizably as potential bone shakers, where the person on the one end made a sudden and swift movement resulting in his companion bouncing into the air and coming down with a thud.

The shelter, Claremount House and those seats

And for those who are devotees of sheds and shelters this one of the earliest images of our own place to sit when the rain came down or just while away the time away from parental observation.

What the postcard also reveals is that lamp post directly in front of the building and what looks to be a set of ascending seats.  Just what they were for is unclear, but perhaps were erected for an event.  

It is even possible that they were built for the opening ceremony on May 18th 1896, and if so we could be dealing with the aftermath, when the guests had gone leaving a group of children to to be photographed by the man with the camera.

That said the leaves on the trees seem to suggest a moment later in the year. 

Beyond are the rounded windows with their pointed tops of Claremont House and Heath Bank, which were numbers 5 and 7 High Lane.

I can’t be exactly sure when they were built but they show up on a map dating to 1881 and I can track them through the Rate books back to 1892 when number 7 was owned by a James and William Botham who were “Grey cloth agents”.**

Almost the identical spot, 2023 

Location; the Rec

Picture; Recreation Grounds, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, undated, courtesy of Bob Jones

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

**Grey goods “are loom state woven fabrics, or unprocessed knitted fabrics. Greige goods undergo many subsequent processes, for instance, dyeing, printing, bleaching, and finishing, prior to further converting to finished goods such as clothing, or other textile products. Greige goods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greige_goods