It stood on the corner of Barlow Moor Road and Malton Avenue and had been there from 1914.
Our tram and bus office, circa 1920s-30s |
And that was what it continued to do well into the 20th century even featuring in a pile of pennies campaign in aid of the Russian Famine Appeal of 1921.**
I doubt it has ever warranted its history being recorded although the blog has gone searching for its story.***
It appears in several photographs and was annually recorded in the street directories until 1969.
Still going as the bus office, 1962 |
Their site offers up their history but not when they settled in the old tramway office.
I think the end of the office may well have coincided with the reorganization of transport which saw the merger of the corporation bus companies across Greater Manchester into SELNEC in 1969.
My Wikipedia tells me that “SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive, “took over the bus fleets of 11 municipalities, and operationally, the organisation was split into three divisional areas, Northern, Central, and Southern”.****
Now that was a mammoth task and involved the incorporation of the largest bus fleet of Manchester’s 1,500 buses with Ramsbottom’s collection of 12.
A bus top and former office, 2022 |
And I think this may well have been why our office closed.
There will be people who will remember the bus office, and will remember its closure.
Sadly I am not one of them. It may still have been operational when I washed up in Chorlton in 1976, but I have no memory of it.
So the quest continues to find out just when this happened.
The door to the club, 2022 |
Location; Chorlton Bus Office, Barlow Moor Road
Picture; the tram office with waiting room, circa 1920s-30s from the Lloyd Collection, Barlow Moor Road, circa 1962 from the collection of George Cieslik, the office 2022, and the door to the Diving Club, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
A thank you to Tony Petrie who sourced street directories from 1929-63 and Andy Roberston for 1969.
*Tramway Shelters, Manchester Guardian, March 11th, 1914
**Mrs. Clara Nicholson of Chorlton ……. the mile of pennies ……. and a Disaster Appeal, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/10/mrs-clara-nicholson-of-chorlton-mile-of.html
***The tram office ...... a mile of pennies ..... and the story of Sport Diving in Chorlton, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-tram-office-mile-of-pennies-and.html
****Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Manchester_Passenger_Transport_Executive
I remember the bus station at the big cross roads near Withington and Albert Park railway station, tennis courts and public conveniences on the other side of the road, now site to the trams, wasn't when I was a nipper used to scamper down the side of the bushes to the fence by the bridge, lucky to see the Midland Pullman fly by one day en route to St Pancras
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