Hough End Hall ….. as most of us haven’t seen you for over half a century

So, it’s been a long time but at last you have come out of the shadows after being hidden behind an indifferent and some would say ugly 60s office block.

2023

Andy Robertson has been down to your site recording the demolition of one of those two blots on the landscape, and now we can all gaze across Mauldeth Road West and see you revealed in something of your Elizabethan splendour.

And to those who will make sniffy comments about the arrival of the Lidl supermarket which might obscure parts of you again, I will just say many will welcome a shop on the spot.

As for those who mumble that you are just a poor imitation of what you once were that is true.

2023

Your fine rooms have been gutted, your top floor closed and much of your exterior damaged in a botched restoration job in the 1960s.

But you are part of Chorlton's history stretching back 426 years, and I can see you as you sort of looked over half a century ago.

All of that said I am just a tad economical with the truth, because had you looked across along the processional way from what is now the park,at the edge on the right of the pictures would have been part of a long barn which extended up to Mauldeth Road West and along what was that demolished office block.

So not quite the view Sir Nicholas would have encountered. 

Location; Hough End Hall

2019

2023

Pictures; Hough End Hall revealed, 2023, and in 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Walking down Passey Place in 1911 and asking for a pint at the Park Tavern

Now I have been a wee bit harsh about Passey Place in the past.

You turn off into it from the High Street and once you have passed the old post office you are flanked by drab modern buildings with the side of the Market Place to your right and that long block of shops and flats opposite.

But there are those two fine looking houses a little further along and then the Park Tavern which as Chrissy’s picture shows was being redecorated back in 2015.

So with that as an incentive I thought I would revisit Passey Place but with the twist that we are back in the April of 1911 when it was called Park Place and it counted amongst its residents, a doctor, a retired Professor a rate collector, and an omnibus conductor.

And I shall be even more specific and point out that those two fine houses I admire were the homes of Mr Murphy the rate collector and Mr Hutchinson the omnibus conductor and by 1914 the first had become the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music and perhaps because of that the Hutchinson’s next door had moved out and a Mr Morris had moved in.*

But there was one constant and that was William Smith the publican of the Park Tavern who was pulling pints by 1911 and perhaps earlier.

He was 50 years old in the year we wandered down the road, had been born in Scotland and had married Mrs Smith in 1883.

And they shared the pub with young Beatrice Serres and Alfred Osborn.  Beatrice was just 19 came from Kent and was employed as a domestic servant and Alfred at 79 was still working as a carpenter.

On the opposite side of the road along with the Post Office and Methodist Chapel were a number of residents including Madame Cecilia Ronsard who described herself as a dressmaker.

So an interesting and mixed bag of people in what I suspect was a more gentle and interesting street.

Picture; the Park Tavern © Chrissy Rose, June 2015

*The Post Office London Directory, 1914 & the 1911 census return fo Park Tavern Enu 06 Eltham London

Strange goings on in Piccadilly …….

 It will be over 40 years ago that I caught the goings on at the edge of Piccadilly Gardens.

At the time I will have known what the event was but now with the passage of four decades I can only guess.

The most likely explanation is a group of Morris Dancers and given the leaves on the trees it will have been late spring or summer, and as I worked during the week it will have been a Saturday.

But after that the rest is just speculation.  

It will be sometime during 1978 and into the early 1980s, but in those days, I didn’t record dates or locations on the negatives which was a silly oversight.

Still despite the quality of the image there is enough to remind us of what Piccadilly Gardens used to look like …. when it was still all sunken gardens, flower beds and lines of park benches, accompanied with those clumps of telephone boxes on each corner.

At which point I won’t bemoan the passing of the gardens just wait for the torrent of abuse heaped on the “new gardens”.

Among which might be the odd person who in 1978 was a Morris Dancer and performed in Piccadilly Gardens or looked down from the restaurant in the hotel opposite and watched the event.

Location; Piccadilly Gardens

Picture; Strange goings on in Piccadilly, 1978-84, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The alley ……a conversation ....the shop ..... and sunshine at Costa ..... September on Wilbraham Road ….

The sun shone which was a break from the week of indifferent weather which had been punctuated with rain of varying strengths.

Sunshine on the graffiti, 2023

So, judging that this was an opportunity not to miss I wandered off from Beech Road and the rest is a series of pictures which have nothing in common except that they were taken on Wilbraham Road in the sunshine.

Before the lunchtime rush, 2023

Bus stop conversations, 2023

Location; Chorlton

Costa sunshine, 2023

Pictures, Wilbraham Road in the sunshine, Sunshine on the graffiti, Before the lunchtime rush, Bus stop conversations, Costa sunshine, 2023from the collection of Andrew Simpson

In Naples trying to choose between the figure of a saint or the green frog with a hat

I never tire of the contrasts that confront you in Naples.

For any one wanting a souvenir, sooner or later you end up in the street that specializes in a mountain of such objects.

It remains one of those places we always go back to, for here there is everything you could ever want to remind you of a stay in the city.

Tina always looks out for the figures associated with the Nativity, because her mum collects them, and until recently would always display the full collection at Christmas.

These jostle with more risqué figures of impossibly fat men and slim women who crowd the glass cabinets and spill out on to rickety tables.

And for those with a more serious side, there are the religious ones, which range from saints painted on slim wooden panels, to porcelain giants, complete with wings and halo, which share a shelf with Jesus, Joseph and Mary.

While next door the shop is full of silly plastic animals, cartoon characters and the odd toadstool.

But what they all have in common is that they are bright, outrageous and made of plastic.

More than once I have wondered how long these impulse buys stay with the purchaser.

Some no doubt make it home, but most will be lost in transit, left in the hotel or become a victim to the need to lighten the weight of the suitcase at the airport.

Most of what is on sale, is tack, …………. garish, poor quality, over priced and ugly, but there is no getting away from that simple fact that they are fun, and that for me is Naples.

Location; Naples

Pictures; a  little bit of Naples for sale, 2019, from the collection of Balzano

Stories from Accrington ......

 This is one of the images which for me sums up the 1920s.

It comes from a French postcard and was sent to Ethel and John Fisher who were on holiday in Scarbororough.

They were staying at the quaintly named Sea Dogs Guest House, 159 Columbus Ravine.

The property is still there and looks still to be in the business of offering bed and breakfast to holiday makers.

I like the idea that even though you were away by the sea you could still get a picture postcard, which in this case came from the mother of Ethel.

I don’t yet know her name but she lived in Benjamin Row which was at the bottom of Rams Clough Lane outside Accrington.  

Today the row is still there and to get to it you will have to traverse a narrow twisty lane which drops down from Broadfield.

And there for now the search for Ethel’s mum runs into the buffers, but it is early days.

I may have had a bit more luck with Ethel and John, who I think were living at 162 Willow Lane Accrington in 1930.

I say this because despite not finding them on the census records, there is a John Fisher who died on September 9th 1930.  According to the Probate records he lived at Willow Lane and left £455, to a “Harold Fisher, clogger”.

There is no mention of Ethel but the connection with Accrington is convincing enough to suppose a link.

And there is a John Fisher listed on the 1921 census, described as a widower and living with his son and daughter.  

They were Rose Ellen and Harold both in the early thirties, and Harold was a clogger working for the Co-op while Mr. Fisher was employed by Lupton Brothers of Accrington as a “iron pattern maker”.

Lupton’s appear to be a small firm employing five others.

All which offers up plenty of further research, but this all might fall down on the date the postcard was sent. For while we have the day, time and month, the year is obscured.

I read it as 1929 or at a pinch the following year, but none of that is possible if Edith died before 1921, so back to the drawing board and historical records.

Leaving me just to ponder on a date using the image of the fashionable young women.

Location; Accrington & Scarborough

Picture; picture postcard, circa 1920s, from the collection of David Harrop

On Liverpool Road in 1896 .............. ladders, hair restorer and Mr Barrett with a nod to a road repair

I wonder if this is Mr James Barrett standing staring back at us.  

I am fairly confident it might be him, given that in 1895 he occupied numbers 7-9  Liverpool Road in the year before this picture was taken.

He is listed as “clothes dealer” and his neighbours at number 11 were the Johnson Brothers who were ladder makers and for confirmation there in the picture are sets of ladders.

And both Mr Barrett and the Johnson Brothers are listed in the Rates Book for 1895.

But the only problem might be the shop at number 5 shown in the right of our picture, because this looks to be a chemist, which the poster for Hair Restorer and the lettering on the window would indicate.

And yet in 1895 it is a confectioners run by a Mrs Ruth Allsop who may have vacated the premises sometime in the year when it appears Mr William Smith extended his clothes business from nu 1 into number 3.

I suppose on one level it is really a bit of detail too far, but I am fascinated.

By 1901 Mr & Mrs Barrett still occupied the two shops but William Smith and Mrs Allsop had long gone although the place was still dealing in clothes sold by Ambrose and Sarah Lord.

For now I shall leave you with the caption to the picture which just refers to “road works.”

I am old enough to remember when work like this was accompanied be a nightwatchman who sat through the night beside his brazier protected from the elements in his hut.

It will have been a solitary job, punctuated by the visit of a passing police constable doing his rounds and the occasional late night reveller.

That said we are on Liverpool Road and I doubt there were many late night revellers down here, just a few railwaymen working the late shift at the goods depot further down the street.

Now whether any of them or Mr Barrett was into hair restorer I cannot say, but there will be a few who might well have been drawn in by the promise of a full set of restored hair.

It was being advertised on the wall of number 5 at 9d a bottle.

As someone who long ago lost enough to make a visit to the barber's a waste of time I do feel for those who driven by pride or the taunts of others might have succumbed.

There were plenty of "treatments" on the market many still made of dubious substances thrown together in the back yard of the shop and all which will have made no difference.


Location; Manchester





Picture; Liverpool Road, 1896, m02618, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, 
Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

In the King's Arms in Eltham with William Goodwin sometime after 1822

“A characteristic feature of the King’s Arms is the quant fire place which still exists in the parlour, as well as the ancient clock, the old bacon rack, and the distinct air of antiquity which all the rooms wear, and it is easy to imagine the association of the house with times earlier than the middle of the 17th century, the date mentioned in the book of taverns.”*

Now when R.R.C, Gregory wrote this description of the place in 1909 it may well already have clocked its second century.

For there is a tantalizing reference to an inn at Eltham from a directory of taverns in the counties around London, but sadly we do not have a name.  Mr Gregory rather thought it might have been the Castle on the strength of the date of two metal tokens found on the site which carried the legend, THE CASTELL. TAVERNE – A Castle, and  ELTHAM. 1649 – N.T.M.

Tokens circulated widely in the 17th and early 18th century and were a direct response to the lack of low denomination currency which led to businessmen and traders creating large issues which could be redeemed at the shop, warehouse or inn of the owner.

And along with the 1649 token were ones from other merchants dating back slightly earlier and in to the 1660s.

All of which lies wide open the question of which was the oldest pub and for that I guess I will have to wait.

But at least I know that the Kings Arms was in the hands of William Godwin by at least 1822, for in that year he and his wife Ann baptized their son in the parish church and there in the records he is listed as an inn keeper.

And we can then track him through tax records, local directories and the census all the way up to 1871, by which time he was 80 and living with his two sons, a married daughter a grandson and two lodgers.

Across the way behind him at the Crown was John Martin who had started his pub career just a little later but was also still going strong in the April of 1871.

Now I like the etail in these pictures so I was drawn to the Dartford Brewery sign which dates our photograoh from sometimetime between 1897 and 1909.

According to AIM25, 'the Dartford Brewery was founded as "Miller and Aldworth", and from 1887 "Miller and Aldworth Limited". 

It was incorporated in July 1897 as "Dartford Brewery Company Limited". The Brewery was situated at Lowfield Street, Dartford, Kent.

The brewery was acquired jointly by Style and Winch Limited and the Royal Brewery Brentford Limited in 1924; and was therefore acquired by Barclay Perkins and Company Limited in 1929 when it purchased Style and Winch Limited and the Royal Brewery Brentford Limited.

The Brewery went into voluntary liquidation in 1970'.**

*R.R.C.Gregory, the Story of Royal Eltham, 1909

**Aim25, AIM25 is a major project to provide electronic access to collection level descriptions of the archives of over one hundred higher education institutions, learned societies, cultural organisations and livery companies within the greater London area http://www.aim25.ac.uk/


Pictures; The Kings Arms and the old fireplace from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/

Great Uncle Harry ..... a story by Michael Palin

I have always been a been fascinated by little history by which I mean the stories of those who seldom get into the history books.

Chronicles of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, 1919

And if they do get a mention it is as a statistic or a label.

So, at the Battle of the Somme history records the numbers who died, the regiments, battalions and units engaged in the fighting and the Generals behind the strategy, but seldom does it record the stories of the individuals.

But then how could it be otherwise given the vast numbers who participated?

All of which leads me to Great-Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire by Michael Palin.

It has been playing out on Radio 4 all this week and comes in 15 minute instalments broadcast in five episodes.

“From the time, many years ago, when Michael Palin first heard that his grandfather had a brother, Harry, who was killed in the First World War, he was determined to find out more about him.

The quest that followed involved hundreds of hours of painstaking detective work. Michael dug out every bit of family gossip and correspondence he could. 

"A Fag after the Fight", 1916

He studied every relevant official document. He made use of his great-uncle Harry’s diaries, letters and postcards, and pored over photographs of First World War battle scenes to see whether Harry appeared in any of them. 

He walked the route Harry took on that fatal, final day of his life amid the mud of northern France. And as he did so, a life that had previously existed in the shadows was revealed to him.

A blend of biography, history, travelogue and personal memoir, Great-Uncle Harry is a compelling account of an ordinary man who led an extraordinary life.

Abridged by Libby Spurrier

Producer: David Blount"

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Location; The Great War and before   

Pictures; cover of Chronicles of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, last edition, 1919, courtesy of Allan Dodson,  and “A Fag after the Fight”, Daily Mail War Postcards, 1916, courtesy of David Harrop

*Great-Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire by Michael Palin, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001qt6y/episodes/player

Deltiology …..... another story from Tony Goulding

I have recently become increasingly aware of just how much History can be revealed by the collection and studying of postcards otherwise, “deltiology”.(1)

Two postcards of East London of the Edwardian era

Margate Sands                           Great Yarmouth Pier    

The advance of literacy, a low cost and reliable postal service, with multiple collections and deliveries daily, combined with the yet very limited use of telephones led to the Edwardian era being the heyday of postcard sending

A collection of correspondence of this era between two or more addresses can reveal intimate minutiae of a family’s life.

A card recently received from a friend on holiday in Ireland

A second great source of postcards are those sent from seaside resorts and other holiday destinations., 

These “wish you here” type postcards began in 1894 after a change in Post Office Regulations, increased with the greater availability of leisure time and continue even in this day of E-mails and text messages. 

Other than some bills and “junk” mail, postcards are the only mail I receive regularly apart from Christmas. 

A sub-genre of these “seaside” cards are the saucy postcards produced in their millions from the early 1930s. 

It is interesting how these cards reflect social mores. 

Increasingly popular from the 1930s until changes in attitudes to sexual stereotyping in the 1970s led to their decline. Sales of this type of card dipped significantly during the early 1950s. 

Two Donald McGill “Saucy” postcards.

Several local councils, notably Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire, (2) deemed some of the cards obscene, seized them and had them destroyed. 

Encouraged by the government of the day who were concerned about declining standards, Donald McGill, a leading designer with over 12,000 card designs was prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act (1857). 

After a trial in Lincoln in1954, he was found guilty and fined £50 with £25 costs. This resulted in a purge of these cards nationally. 

The 1857 Act was repealed and replaced in 1959 by a more liberal one with Donald McGill giving evidence before the House of Commons Select Committee charged with forming proposals for the new legislation. This and the advent of the “swinging sixties” led to a resurgence in the “saucy” cards.

“Paddy The Next Best Thing”, 1924

Postcards have also a long history of being used as a mode of advertising. Here is a typical example from the 1920s with The County Theatre, Reading, advertising the forthcoming production: “Paddy The Next Best Thing” week commencing Monday 11th February 1924 (3)

Hotels and restaurants have even offered to pay for the postage on such advertising cards.

The reverse side of postcards can also be of historical interest. Here are a couple of informative squares I have found recently in the "stamp" corner of two cards.

The U.S. Postage rates are of particular interest in that this is surely dated before the Cuban Revolution of 1st January 1959 after which relations between the United States and Cuba remained strained for more than five decades.

Finally, in closing this look at postcards it would be remiss of me not to give a nod to my maternal grandfather Arthur Harold Clarke who as a professional photographer during the inter-war years made his living by producing a series of Picture Postcards of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy area, examples of which regularly appear on this Blog.

Pictures; All from the collection of Tony Goulding.

Notes: - 

1) “Deltiology” derived from the Greek words “deliton” meaning a small, illustrated tablet or card and “logos” meaning a word, speech, discourse, or reason.

2)  There is a full report of this case in the Grimsby Daily Telegraph of 12th December 1951.

3) Details from the Reading Standard, Saturday 9th February edition.

Almost the end ……..

But in my rush to ofer up the story I have just been a tad economical with the truth, because had you looked across along the processional way from what is now the park,at the edge on the right of the pictures would have been part of a long barn which extended up to Mauldeth Road West and along what was that demolished office block.

So not quite the view Sir Nicholas would have encountered. Location; Hough End Hall

Pictures; Almost the end …….. 2023, from the collection of Andy Robertson

What do we do with a country like Germany? .....John Maynard Keynes ..... The Economic Consequences of the Peace ... on the wireless now

Now this was one I enjoyed.

Dignitaries gathering in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, 1919

It is is the latest in the Radio 4 series, In Our Time, and featured the book The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes in 1919 and reflected on the peace settlement after the Great War.

"In an extended version of the broadcast programme, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential book John Maynard Keynes wrote in 1919 after he resigned in protest from his role at the Paris Peace Conference. 

There the victors of World War One were deciding the fate of the defeated, especially Germany and Austria-Hungary, and Keynes wanted the world to know his view that the economic consequences would be disastrous for all. 

Soon Germany used his book to support their claim that the Treaty was grossly unfair, a sentiment that fed into British appeasement in the 1930s and has since prompted debate over whether Keynes had only warned of disaster or somehow contributed to it.

With, Margaret MacMillan, Emeritus Professor of International History at the University of Oxford, Michael Cox, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Founding Director of LSE IDEAS, and, Patricia Clavin, Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson"*

Pictures; Dignitaries gathering in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, France, to sign the Treaty of Versailles, June 28, 1919.

*The Economic Consequences of the Peace, In Our Time, Radio 4,  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001qtpf

When Tom Mix played at the Pavilion, our first picture house

Now Tom Mix is someone I have come to know though sadly I have never seen any of his films.

He was an American film actor and starred in many early western movies.

He appeared in 291 short films and feature films between 1909 and 1935 and was a model for actors like Ronald Reagan and John Wayne.

And the Pavilion which later became the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens was where one young man saw Tom Mix..

Now this I know because his daughter Ann told me so and it is the first moment when I can identify both a film that was shown and someone who went there.

It opened in 1904 and was acquired by H D Moorhouse in 1909.

Like many early cinemas it hedged its bets and continued to offer variety acts.
In the June of 1910 it offered a bill of variety including the Whips.

By then it had become the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens and stayed open through the inter war years.

Looking at this 1910 photograph of the theatre it is hard to think anyone would be impressed in going there.

It has all the appearance of a big wooden shed, which I guess is what it was.

It had been built on land which the railway company still intended to use for extra track and so only permitted buildings which could be easily demolished.

But maybe I am being a tad unfair because the monochrome picture cannot convey what must have been a brightly painted building.

Even before you went into the theatre you first had to buy a ticket from the pay box which with its wrought and cast iron additions must have brought back memories of seaside piers. And greeting the theatre goer were the picture of the stars they were about to see.

But despite still showing films in the years after the First World War, it had been eclipsed by the far more impressive Palais de Luxe Cinema which had been opened in 1915 on Barlow Moor Road close to the tram terminus.

So sometime in the 1930s it closed by which time we had two very posh cinemas and another which opened in 1937.

Few now know it even existed and so completely has it vanished from the record that it gets no mention in the book on Manchester cinemas*

And just after I posted this today Sandra shared her memories of her grandfather "who was born 1896 used to tell me in a joke that the latest film showing at The Plaza in Stockport near where we lived was 'Tom Mix in Cement'. Haha really it was a joke to him but I didn't realise at the time that this man was a film star not 'mixing cement' thanks for the information and bringing back a childhood memory for me."

I guess Tom touched many more lives that those who saw him in the big screen.

*The Golden Years of Manchester Picture Houses, Derek J Southall, 2010,

Picture; from the Lloyd Collection circa 1910

Pizza by the metre ....... a history lesson, a culinary experience and just a bit of fun

Now I have to say I was a tad sceptical about the metre pizza, having been introduced to the real thing in a tiny side street in Naples.

And I was more than satisfied by our meal in the place.

But when the metre pizza is served in the restaurant which styles itself the University of Pizza you just have to check it out.

Of course pizza is one of the world’s original street foods and is still sold as that pretty much everywhere.

That said I was intrigued by ordering by the ruler and I wasn’t disappointed.

We had travelled down the railway line from Sant’ Agnello just a couple of stops to the Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza.*

“This historic restaurant, located in the centre of Vico Equense, in the Naples province, is world renowned for its creation.

Created by Gigino Dell’Amura, the Pizza a Metro has delighted its customers with its unique taste, authentic ingredients and its exclusive shape.

The restaurant, also known as “Università della pizza” offers a big selection of pizzas, which can be enjoyed according to the “size” of your appetite. In addition to pizza, you can enjoy the chef’s specialities: large appetisers, seafood and meat specialities, and cakes for every taste.

The pizza a metro was born in 1930s, thanks to the idea of Luigi Dell’Amura, a.k.a. Gigino. Cleverness, fantasy, intuition, hard work transformed the way of making pizza.

The idea of creating pizzas with different sizes according to the number of people at the table was born in order to satisfy the need to serve more guests in the shortest possible time but with high quality standards.

And finally, the Pizza a metro and the old bakery of the Dell’Amura family became a big restaurant – the pizzeria.”**

So there you have it.  There were six of us and the waiter suggested we should have a meter and a bit which we did, topped with mushrooms for me and an assortment of other “things” for the rest.

It was daunting to say the least when it arrived but we ate it all.

We could have had a selection of other Neapolitan dishes and there were plenty who were ordering some enticing food.

But we stuck to the pizza.

Now it all sounds a gimmick but it works.  The food is excellent as is the service and the restaurant.

And as they say in all the food magazines were pleasantly surprised at the bill which along with the meter and a bit pizza, and four beers and two still bottles of water was just €64, which was when we worked it out even cheaper than my favourite place in Naples.

In the last few months his pizzas have gone up from €3 to  €4.

Leaving me to say that the meter pizza was indeed the real thing.

Which is a god point to close.  I don't of course want to accused of being pretentious.

Location; Vico Equense

Pictures; inside the Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza. in 2017 courtesy of ALTO•VISUAL and in an earlier time courtesy of Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza


*Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza, http://www.pizzametro.it/en/index.html

The Disappearing Organ Mystery ... another story by Tony Goulding

This plaque was unearthed in a garden in Chandos Road South, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester.

The dedication of a church organ to the fallen of The Great War is not unusual as the losses experienced by most communities and organisations led to myriad ways of remembering the fallen. Church organs were a popular choice as were public halls, hospitals (1) and other community amenities such as parks and sports grounds (2)

Indeed, the popular British film of 1949, “Silent Dust”, has, as a sub-plot, a wealthy blind man planning to dedicate the new cricket pavilion, he has financed, to his son believed killed in World War2. In doing so he faces estrangement from the local community who feel the dedication should be for all the young men who did not return    

The mystery, however, is in which church was the organ and how and why did it end up in someone’s garden? 

Assuming that, the plaque had been affixed to an organ in a neighbouring church there are two obvious candidates for its former home viz. St Werburgh’s Church of England, and Wilbraham St. Ninian’s United Reformed Church both of which are only a very short distance from the Chandos Road South. 

St. Ninian’s, Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester,1960. 

My initial thinking was that the find was associated with “St. Ninians”, especially as the plaque’s wording suggests to me it had a non-conformist connection. Although it is slightly further away from the discovery site this church’s history provides a few possibilities. 

The present building dates from as late as 1951 leading to the possibility that the organ the plaque refers to belonged to the old church and was abandoned when the new church was opened. 

Another possibility is that the organ belonged to the Whalley Range Presbyterian Church (3) which amalgamated with the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church after it was heavily damaged by the German Luftwaffe during Christmas Blitz of 1940.  

It could also relate to the former Wilbraham Road Congregational Church (4) which closed in July 1985. As the Presbyterian and Congregational denominations had, in 1972, integrated to form United Reformed Church, these two nearby churches combined under the new name of Wilbraham St. Ninian’s United Reformed Church.

A search of the newspaper archive on “Find My Past” for any reports of an organ at any of these churches being rebuilt in September 1921 proved fruitless.  

St. Werburgh’s Church, Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

However, while looking through the archive I did discover a family notice from The Manchester Evening News of 29th April 1994 in which the bereaved family express their gratitude for the donations to the St Werburgh’s Organ Fund.

If this church did indeed acquire a new organ at this time, this may account for the plaque.

The timeline also seems to fit too. An organ renewed in 1921 would be over 70 years old by 1994 and probably due for renewal. 

Also, the condition of the plaque itself suggest that it has been in the ground for only a limited period. The St. Werburgh’s option being the latest would mean the plaque being buried the shortest time.

Chorlton-cum-Hardy Cricket Club’s Pavilion

I am sorry I have not been able to provide a definitive answer as to this object's origins I have “rounded-up the usual suspects” and “you pays your money and you takes your Choice”.

Notes: - 

1) Locally, Stretford Memorial Hospital on Seymour Grove was one such.

2) In 1945 the committee of Chorlton-cum-Hardy Cricket Club at the end of Hardy Lane to purchase their ground (at a cost of £3,500 in this regard.

3) This was on Upper Chorlton Road nr. Brooks Bar and is now The New Testament Church of God.

4) Located at the junction of Wilbraham Road and Withington Road. The building was sold in 1987 and converted for use as a Hindu Temple: “The Bhavan Hindu Temple”

Pictures: -

  All from the collection of Tony Goulding, except St. Ninian’s Church (1960) by A.E. Landers (m18467) courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass.

Acknowledgements: -

 Most importantly I would like to thank Mr Trefor Jones who found the plaque in his garden and agreed that I should attempt to trace its provenance.

 I have mentioned in the text my use of Find My Past’s Newspaper Archive, but I would also like to acknowledge the metropolitanchurch.org.uk website’s excellent history of the building they now worship in (--St. Ninians--) and finally that fascinating book by Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping, “Chorlton-cum-Hardy – Churches, Chapels, Temples, a Synagogue and a Mosque”

Outside the Rising Sun with a bit of old Eltham circa 1890

The old Rising Sun Inn circa 1890

Now I am drawn to this picture of the old Rising Sun.

I have fond memories of spending evenings in the place when I was much younger and it was also a favourite of my late brother in law.

But of course this was the old Rising Sun which stood on the site of the present library and is the start of that little series which aims to reflect on what Eltham was like at the beginning of the 20th century just before the great changes transformed it from rural outpost to a suburb.

It dated back something like two hundred years and went with the development of the area by the Borough Council shortly after the turn of the last century.

The Smithy with the Rising Sun and Sun Yard, 1858-73

Along with the pub went Sun Yard, a coach building workshop, the smithy and “a number of quaint wooden buildings, including the coffee shop at the corner.”*

Of all of these I have become intrigued by Sun Yard which housed a collection of wooden cottages which were situated behind the inn and were approached by an archway formed by part of the inn buildings.

There were twenty of them in 1841 and perhaps another five a decade later.  We know who lived there what they did and the degree to which they were overcrowded and by the turn of the last century they were judged unfit and were demolished I guess at the same time as the Rising Sun.

And like the occupants of Sun Yard we can track the publicans from John Davison in 1841 to the widow Elizabeth Robinson ten years later and through the rest of that century.

Outside the Rising Sun

All of which will make a fascinating study in revealing just how often the occupants of Sun Yard like that of the inn keepers moved on or stayed put.  But that is for another time.

So we shall return briefly to our picture with the landlord standing outside, along with assorted carts whose drivers may well have been inside and the two boys drawn no doubt by the camera.

I don’t know the name of the landlord but I shall endeavour to find out, but I do know that the last blacksmith was a Mr Metcalfe and the smithy was in a dilapidated condition.

*Gregory, R.R.C., The Story of Royal Eltham, 1909

Picture; from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm and detail from the OS map of Kent 1858-73