A castle ..... heaps of horseshoes ...... and a museum ...... down in Oakham

I like other people’s pictures especially when they come from the family, and so I was especially pleased to receive a heap of holiday photographs from our Elizabeth.

She and Colin were in Oakham which my Wikipedia tells me is a “market town and civil parish in 25 miles east of Leicester, [with] a population of 12,149*.

And because we all like all things old and quant their accommodation was just a few minutes’ walk  from Oakham Castle.

Its not one I knew and to be strictly accurate was less a castle and more a "fortified manor house [with] many of the traditional features of a castle such as a curtain wall, a gatehouse and a drawbridge with iron chains.

There is also historical and archaeological evidence to suggest that Oakham Castle possessed towers at strategic points along the walls as well as a moat”.   

Today all that has survived is the Great Hall and the gateway into the marketplace.

But that was enough for our Elizabeth who recorded bits of the place along with exhibits from the museum including lots of horseshoes which the castle is famous for.

And for those that like the history, “the castle was built between 1180 and 1190 by Walkelin de Ferrers, lord of the manor of Oakham, and a great nephew of Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby.

The Great Hall comprises a nave and two arcaded aisles, each with three large stone columns. 

There are a number of 12th-century sculptures decorating the hall including six musicians that are supported by the columns. 

The sculptures are carved from local stone quarried at Clipsham and are believed to have been made by masons who had also worked at Canterbury Cathedral”.**

And I have to say I did like the information panels which are crisp in design and very  informative.

At which point I could loop off into a detailed description, but where would be the point in that given that the pictures do the place credit and there are always the guide books and online information, for a castle which is free to visit.

Leaving me just to thank Elizabeth and Colin for the images.

And conclude that their accommodation looked excellent and was indeed just a step away from the property.

Location; Oakham

Pictures, the castle and much more 2024, from the collection of Elizabeth Fitzpatrick

*Oakham, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakham 

** Oakham Castle, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakham_Castle

A Chorlton revolution ……….. the self service shop

Now we are so familiar with the supermarket and the convenience store, that it takes a moment to  appreciate just how much self service shopping was a revolution in how we bought our groceries.

I am of that generation, who was part of that revolution, and I can remember just how liberating it felt at the time to wander the isles, and touch and choose which apples, tins of vegetables and packets of biscuits to buy.

Today we can be cynical about it all, not least the way it allowed shops to cut costs, and set the customer doing some of the work, but it was I maintain quite liberating.

Here in Chorlton, there is still a book to write about the arrival of those first self service shops, including which were the first and just what people thought about them.

The Co-op  was the first to embrace the new way of shopping, turning a department of its store in Romford over to self service in 1943 and five years later fully converting its premise in Portsea to selfservice.*

And in 1949, The Manchester & Salford Equitable Co-op  began altering its existing stores the following year, with our own Hardy Lane opening in 1959.

Until this week, I didn’t know that the shop on the corner of Manchester and Ransfield roads, was offering its customers, “Self Service” in 1961 and a quick trawl of the directories should pinpoint when the Mark Down began its new venture.
Leaving that aside, it is the shop window which is equally fascinating, offering up a range of products which are still familiar, but at prices which at first glance appear astonishing.

But those prices must be set against most people’s incomes which were of course much lower than today.
The more pertinent question would be to explore and then compare the average food bill in 1961 with today and its percentage of all house hold bills.

All of which is getting too serious and so instead I shall just leave you pondering on the prices, which are expressed in shillings and pennies, which I suspect will be a mystery to any one born just before we went decimal in 1971.

Our own kids look back at me with sheer bewilderment when I explain that 12 pennies made a shilling, that 20 shillings made a pound and that 240 pennies made a pound.  Added to which there was a coins called a threepenny bit, a sixpence, and a half crown, all of which competed with the farthing and the ha’penny.

Added to which the price of posh objects often came as guineas and not pounds.

And that neatly brings me back to self service shopping which predated our decimal coinage by just a few decades.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures, Manchester Road, 1961, A H Downs, m18078 and current prices, Mark Down No. 93 Manchester Road, 1961, , A H Downs, m18080, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and Spotlight on Self Service, from Co-Op First Self Service UK, http://hardylane.blogspot.com/

*Co-Op First Self Service UK, http://hardylane.blogspot.com/

Inside Tommy Ducks one day in 1960 ......... reflecting on where all the pictures went

Now one of the things that continues to puzzle me is the absence of pictures of the inside of Manchester pubs.

I suppose the grand professional photographers never saw it as a suitable subject while everyone else was too busy enjoying themselves to bother.

Of course tucked away in cupboards and family albums there will be a shedful of snaps recording birthdays, nights out and romantic moments but for obvious reasons these rarely get entered in to the archives.

There are exceptions.

I have some fine pictures by Bill Brandt of London pubs in the 1940s and Humphrey Spender’s Bolton pictures from a decade earlier but there must be loads more.

I can think of only a few in the collection from Chorlton and have yet to come across many from elsewhere in Greater Manchester.

All of which made this discovery of these three both a bit of a find and an introduction into a world of pubs which we have pretty much lost.

All three date from 1960 and were taken in Tommy Ducks on East Street, and come from a time long before the coffins or the display on the ceiling.

Back then it was a pub with little in the way of frills.

It served beer, offered companionship and like all pubs of the time, opened at 11, closed at 3 and reopened in the evening till 10.30 with an extension of just half an hour on Fridays and Saturdays.

And woe betide any landlord who infringed those licensing hours because they remained one of the reasons why they could lose their pub.

For most of us back then those time slots pretty much suited our lives.  During the week you were at work and while you might slip in for a pint at dinner time it was usually just the one.

Nor could most of us afford going down the pub every evening and even if you did 10.30 was a sensible time to be turfed out if you had to be at work for 8 in the morning.

And I have to say after a couple of hours I had had enough.  We always went down for the last hour, doubled up at last orders and went away satisfied.

That said it would only be in the morning when you smelt what you had worn the night before that the enormity of what you had inhaled from cigarette smoke really hit home.

Nor did it matter whether it was the vault or the saloon they were full of the stuff.

I can still remember the odd late afternoon in a city centre pub watching the sunlight mingle with the smoke and catching sight of the yellowing ceiling and paintwork which had once been white but was now a darkening yellow.

Added to which if you touched the woodwork it had a slightly sticky feel which clung to your fingers.

Not that I was over bothered back then by such things because  that was just how it was.

In the same way the decor of most pubs I visited was pretty basic.  You might get the odd framed picture which unlike now didn’t trade on nostalgic Manchester.

Instead there would be the tired painting of an elk which competed with an equally faded photograph of a

pub day out to Rhyl and a dozen or so  posters for the breweries best bitter along with a hand written notice of the next four darts fixtures.

All of which brings me back to Tommy Ducks one day in 1960 when Mr H. W. Beaumont took his pictures, none of which I would have come across had I not featured Peter’s painting of the pub sometime before it was demolished in 1993.

Pictures; inside Tommy Ducks, 1960, H W Beaumont, m50721, m50272, and m502775, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Painting; Tommy Ducks © 2011 Peter Topping

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

A photograph, and an election campaign in the summer of 1945

A photograph is not much without the story that goes behind it.

This one was supplied to me by my old friend Andrew Simcock who of course also supplied the story.

It is 1945 and we are in Stone in Staffordshire and the event is one of those unrehearsed shots during the General Election of that year.

The war in Europe had ended in May and the wartime Government announced a General Election for July 5th.

It was the first in ten years and given the popularity of Winston Churchill many assumed the Conservative Party he led would be victorious.

But while the war time leader was popular there was a mood for change and one that the Conservatives were not seen to be able to deliver. For many they were associated with the grim years of the 1930s dominated by mass unemployment, the Means Test and appeasement.

Some with longer memories reflected on the failure of the 1918 Conservative dominated government of Lloyd George* and succeeding Tory governments to make Britain a land fit for heroes after the Great War.

This was in direct contrast to the policies of the Labour Party who were committed to social reform, ranging from a national health service, a new housing policy and an expansion of state funding for education.

Their slogan And Now Win the Peace offered a bright new future which reflected the aspirations of those who had fought in the Peoples’ War.

And so to the campaign and our picture.

At the centre is Andrew’s grandfather “William Simcock who was a Labour Councillor in Stoke on Trent in the twenties and stood for parliament three times in the rock solid Tory seat of Stone, Staffordshire.

In 1931, in Labour's darkest hour, he came bottom of the poll behind the Conservative Sir J Lamb and the Liberal candidate with just 5,993 votes. The Tory secured 20,327.

In 1935 Sir J Lamb again won with 20,498 votes but my grandfather's vote moved up to 13,099 - a majority of 7,399.

In 1945 Hugh Fraser won the seat with 20,279 votes to my grandfather's 18,173 - a majority of 2,106.

"The photo shows my grandfather on his bike, cigarette in hand, and my father, newly demobbed from the army and a team of canvassers.

My father told me how many of the Labour meetings took place in the open air. 

On one occasion he thought the turn out at the meeting was low until he looked behind a wall and saw a line of farm labourers listening to the speeches but not wanting to be seen - the power of the landed aristocracy in the area might have led to repercussions had they been spotted.”**

Like all good photographs it is the detail that also makes this such a fascinating image.

In an age of sound bites, high profile advertising and the all important need to “keep on message” there is something refreshing about seeing the candidate on a bike, and a campaign still reliant on people knocking on doors and making direct contact with the electorate.

It is something we used to do here as well as in Stone.  As later as the 1960s election meetings were held on Chorlton green as well as in the Public hall on Wilbraham Road and in school halls.

And all of those elections depended on an army of local party workers.  Some dleivered the leaflets while others called on houses to find out how people were going to vote, and then on the day going back to the promises  to ask if they had voted yet or might need a lift to the polling stations.

All of which is something that Andrew himself has done.  He has lived in south Manchester for 30 years, participated in his local community, and is one of the three councillors for Didsbury East.

Picture; campaigning during the 1945 General Election, from the collection of Andrew Simcock & Labour Party Campaign poster 1945

*This was a coalition of 332 “Coalition Conservatives” and 127 “Coalition Liberals” with Lloyd George who had been Prime Minister since 1916.  It won the 1918 General Election but against a backdrop of an economic downturn serious industrial unrest and scandals to do with the sale of honours, the Conservatives ditched the coalition which resulted in a general election.

**All of which has echoes of that 1835 General Election when voter intimidation here in Chorlton and across the Parliamentary seat of South Lancashire organised by Tory grandees led to a Tory victory.

Missing that old bridge

My old bridge circa 1940s

I cannot even begin to count the number of times I walked under the railway bridge which spanned Well Hall Road.

But then why should I?

It had carried trains across the road from 1895 and continued to do so for 90 years and I just took it for granted.

And then in 1985 as part of the construction of the relief road and the new station it was replaced by a new bridge which is a functional no nonsense bit of railway architecture and it lacks the style of the one I remember with those columns that adorn the upper part of the bridge and the brackets with their detailed wheels.

Detail of that bridge

Perhaps after those 90 years it had had its day but it is one of those little examples of how function can have style.

The picture dates to sometime after the last war but is pretty much as I remember it.

Go back a couple of decades and there were large hoardings underneath the bridge along with more on the embankment and a poster which ran right across the upper section.

And then it all changed again and now it has gone completely.

A new bridge 2015

I don’t suppose it matters over much but points to that simple observation that we take things for granted.

All of the shops beyond the bridge have changed since that tram trundled past although some further up by the Pleasaunce were operated by the same families when I walked up Well Hall Road.

So not an earth shattering bit of our history but still a bit of it.

Pictures; Well Hall bridge, circa 1940s, from the collection of A J Watkins, reproduced from Eltham and Woolwich Tramways and the new bridge 2014, from the collection of Chrissy Rose

*Eltham and Woolwich Tramways, Robert J Harley, Middleton Press, 1996, https://www.middletonpress.co.uk/

A clutch of Manchester poets …. one library ……. and some bittersweet memories

It will be a full 55 years since I first walked into Withington Library and last night I was back in the company of some friends and a clutch of Manchester poets.

The poets meet once a month to share their poems, and I was there to listen to Rod Whitworth who I have known for over half a century.

Back a long time ago we both lived in Ashton Under Lyne, worked together and shared similar politics.

Since then, we have drifted in and out of each other’s lives occasionally meeting up to swap stories of grandchildren, books we have read and where in Manchester to get the best cheese barm.

And it was on one of those encounters that I discovered Rod was a poet, and an accomplished one as many of his poet friends have testified.

His book of poetry “My Family and Other Birds”, came out at the beginning of the year and my copy arrived not long after it was published.*

At which point I could fill the page with reviews but will add just one from Peter Sansom, poet and co-director of The Poetry Business who wrote “it's so compellingly written that it's also that rare thing, a poetry page-turner.  Wonderful."**

So, last night in Withington Library was a bit special, more so because the first part of the evening was given over to seven other poets who offered up a mix of  funny, thoughtful and elegant verse.

It is a long time since I spent the night listening to poetry read aloud and shared with an audience and I enjoyed it.

But the passage of time has done for my ears, and the combination of poor acoustics and gentle voices rendered some of the poems difficult to follow.

It was a bittersweet moment for someone who at the age of 19 could follow the hushed conversations of others across the reference section of Withington Library and made more so by wandering the nearby streets.

They say you should never go back to places and there is indeed some truth in it.

In that half century since I lived on Rippingham Road, so many of the haunts I used have gone, from the Scala Cinema, the White Lion, and the telephone kiosk which was the link with home along with the launderette that haven of wet Sunday afternoons.

That said the house on Davenport Avenue is still there. 

It was home to my friend Lois whose parties were legendary, one of which had me sitting perilously on a low roof in an effort stop Mike and John driving off into the night on a quest to settle a silly disagreement with someone whose name I have forgotten over a quarrel which has faded into the mists.

It could have been the subject of an epic tale of love, angst and alcoholic fuelled evenings to rank beside the Trojan Wars, The Lady of Shalott and the tangled story of Bathsheba Everdene and her suitors in Hardy’s Wessex.

But that would be stretching it.

Best leave such themes to the poets.

Location; Withington Library

Pictures; a clutch of Manchester poets, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* My Family and Other Birds, Rod Whitworth, 2024, is available from the author at rod.whitworth@me.com or Vole Books,  https://www.dempseyandwindle.com/rodwhitworth.html

**The Poem Man, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-poem-man.html

Mr Gratrix's clay pipe lost in our garden in 1845

The pipe found in the garden, 2014

It is not much of a piece of history but I found it in our front garden which makes it special and takes me back to sometime in the 19th century.

It is a bit of clay pipe and was probably thrown away by some one working this bit of land, or by someone passing along what was then called the Row.*

It is even just possible it came from night soil brought in from Manchester to spread on the fields of Chorlton.

'Like any time in history some of the most revealing clues to how people lived are contained in the rubbish they threw away.  Across the township one of the most common items to resurface is the humble clay pipe.

Found in the parish churchyard, 1980

Usually they are broken and often turn up on their own, although sometimes a whole batch has been unearthed over a period of time all quite close together.

They were the pipe of the working man, and some working women.  

Inexpensive, easy to make and made in huge quantities, they are a true example of a throw away product.  

They were smoked in the home, in the pub and at the work place.  

The evidence from sites in some of the poorer parts of London show that the owners smoked heavily.**

Clay pipes come in many different sizes, some with long stems and decorated bowls and date from anytime from the 17th through to the 20th century.  The last clay pipe manufacturer in Manchester only ceased trading in 1990.

The most interesting pipe to come back out of the earth was found in the archaeological dig of the church in the 1980s.  It can be dated to between 1830 and 1832, and may have been bought to commemorate the coronation of William IV.  

The William IV pipe, 1830-32

It bears the inscription “William IV and Church” around the rim and is highly decorated with the royal coat of arms flanked by a lion on one side and a unicorn on the other.  

It is also unusual because it was found in one of the graves inside the church.  

The final burial in the grave was that of Thomas Watson aged 54 in 1832.  

There are those who might well imagine the pipe being placed alongside the coffin of Thomas Watson in imitation of the ancient practice of placing grave goods alongside the departed.  

The less romantic will counter with the obvious observation that it was the casual act of one of the grave diggers.  

Either way it is unusual for the bowl to survive.   More commonly it is the stem which is turned up and even these are found as fragments.

Detail of the pipe

Clay pipes were never expected to last.  At best they might survive for a few weeks and in many cases just days.  But then they were cheap.  

Very little has been published on the price of pipes but adverts dating from 1799 have unglazed ones selling at 2s 6d [12½p] a gross.  Just over 130 years later the 1930 Pollock catalogue was selling them at 4s [20p] a gross.  Longer pipes did cost a little more but these were not the choice of the working man in the fields.  

Shorter pipes could be smoked while working and it is these that turn up in the fields around the township.'***

So I wonder about my bit of pipe.

I would like to think it belonged to Samuel Gratrix who was farming this bit of Egerton land in the 1840s, but chances are it was discarded by someone passing along the Row, or worse still dropped into a privy somewhere in Manchester, only to make its way with a cart load of night soil along the Duke's canal to Chorlton.

But that along with Mr Gratrix and his field belong to another story.

Pictures; clay pipe, 2014  from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and other pipes from the report on the Archaeological dig conducted by Dr Angus Bateman during 1980-81


*The Row or Chorlton Row is now Beech Road

** Pearce, Jacqui, Living in Victorian London: The Clay Pipe Evidence, 2007, Geography Department at Queen Mary, University of London

***from the Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy,   http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

Bold new plans for four Manchester Squares ………..

It’s just one of those age things that if you can remember cars in St Ann’s Square, you will have had plenty of birthdays.

Today, you can take your pick from a pleasant amble across the square, take in the market stalls which are a frequent feature, or just sit and watch everyone else going about their business.

Just over 40 years ago much of the square was given over to cars, lorries and coaches, and while the pavements were wide this was still a place where you had to be mindful of parked and passing traffic.

There had been moves to pedestrianize the square, and introduce open air cafes in 1962.

But the plans were shelved because of concerns that “congestion would be caused on Market Street and St Mary’s Gate if the square was closed to traffic”.* Four years later the Civic Trust of the North West which had advanced the original plan, tried again with a “New Plan for main squares”.

This proposed “new pedestrian area in four main squares in Manchester,  [suggesting] extra traffic restrictions, so that a new pedestrian route could wind through part of the central shopping area”.

The scheme would have involved changes in St Peter’s Square, Albert Square, St James Square and St Ann’s Square.

In St Peter’s Square, the Cenotaph and cross could be moved and re positioned directly in front of Central Ref, while in Albert Square, the Albert Memorial would “remain in its present place, but other statues would be moved slightly and the lavatories in the square would be removed”.

 A pedestrian route would run from Brazenose Street to connect with St Ann’s Square which would see the church “sit in a pedestrian area as it was originally intended and the whole atmosphere of the square would be changed by the removal of the clutter of cars and parked vehicles and the continuous discordant effect of the traffic slowly meandering through the Square”. 

 Leaving the pavements to be widened on St James Square and “parts of South King Street and King Street would be closed to normal traffic [and] opened only for part of the day for service traffic”.

 

All of which looked a bold plan, but would be a long time coming.

King Street was pedestrianized in1976, and St Ann’s Square in the early 1980s, leaving St Peter’s Square to be transformed in part by the coming of the Metro in the 1990s and fully transformed by the Second City Crossing, which resulted in an enlarged square, the loss of the Peace Garden and the removal of the Cenotaph to a spot outside the entrance to the Town Hall.

And for those wondering where St James Square can be found, it is the narrow street which connects John Dalton Street with South King Street.

With the passage of time it is difficult now to remember  that there was a time when you had to dodge cars.

 Location; Manchester

Picture; St Ann’s Square,2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1960, 1960 – 3107.3, 3107.4, 3107.1, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

 *Manchester shelves plan for St Ann’s Square, Manchester Guardian, December 1962.

 **New Plan for main squares, Manchester Guardian, August 17^th, 1966.

 

Pictures with a story …………. Labour gains Manchester Withington, June 11, 1987

Now, I thought I had lost this photograph which was taken on the night Keith Bradley won Manchester Withington for the Labour Party.

And even given the passage of 32 years, I can name all but two of the people in the picture.

The election in Withington was a contest between, Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberals and the Greens.

Labour polled 21, 650, the Conservatives 18,259, the Liberals 9,978 and the Greens 524, giving Mr. Bradley a majority of 3,391.

The election returned the first Labour MP to the constituency and was notable for a campaign video which featured Keith and a selection of supporters.

Location; Manchester

Picture Keith Bradley and some of the election team. June, 1987, from the Manchester Evening News.

A little bit of nostalgia has come my way ……Old Jamaica...... Five Boys Chocolate .... and Cadbury's Fruit and Nut

Now the blog doesn’t usually do nostalgia.

2020

This is partly because it is an indulgence which rarely delivers what it promises.

For every rosy tinted memory of the good old days, there is  another which is  dark, miserable and challenging.

So, there might have been a time in many working class communities “when you could keep your door unlocked”, but that was more to do with the total absence of anything worth stealing.

And in the same vein, those who deplore the plethora of TV stations, should be reminded that once within the living memory of many there was a time when there were only two TV channels, both of which were in black and white and closed sometime after 10.30.

1969

Indeed I am old enough to remember when there was only BBC TV which on a Sunday closed during the day, forcing you back to the Light Programme on the wireless with Jimmy Clitheroe, Archie Andrews, and Sing Something Simple.

Of course those like me in receipt of a State Pension, will reply that the same Light Programme, offered up the Goon Show, ITMA, Tony Hancock, along with the Navy Lark, Take it from Here, and the Men from The Ministry.

All of which is a digression from the story which is just a reflection of the chocolate bars I enjoyed as a child, and the now unfamiliar posters which advertised them.

Starting with Old Jamaica, a mix of dark chocolate, with rum and raisin, which was launched in 1970, later withdrawn and is now back again.  The original came wrapped in a packet with a sailing ship on an orangy red background complete with a yellow scroll bearing the product’s name.

It was and is again a favourite of mine.

As is Fry’s Turkish Delight  but which bears little resemblance to the original, and those bars of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut.

1969

Both inspired a series of adverts, some which look very dated and a tad un PC, and others like the “I am a Fruit and Nut” which remain delightfully amusing.

And that is it.

Leaving me to say, I could have mentioned Five Boy’s Chocolate, the one Fry’s did with different fondant flavours, as well as Bandit, Marathon and heaps more.

The label for Old Jamaica, came into the house last week, and the posters date from the late 1950s and 60s.

Pictures; Old Jamaica, 2020, Fry’s Turkish Delight, 1969, Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut, 1960, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,  https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

*Five Boys Chocolate was launched in 1902, and remained popular until the 1960s, and despite an attempt to revamp the wrapper in the 1970s it was discontinued soon after the rebrand.

A car, a row of shops and a liitle bit more is revealed about the history of Well Hall Road

Now I like the way that a photograph can draw you in and sends you off on all sorts of new enquiriess.

Mr Abbot's car on Well Hall Road, circa 1950s

So it was with this one that Kath May shared with me.

She wrote that “My Nan lived on Well Hall Road and this was my uncle Bob’s car outside her house.”

He owned it in the 1950s and has promised to jot down anything he can remember about the car.

The number plate suggests it would have been registered sometime between 1903 and the early 1930s and of course there will be someone out there who recognises the make and may offer up the date it was made.

All of which leaves me to concentrate on the buildings behind which when I lived on Well Hall Road I just took for granted.

We sometimes got our papers from the corner shop, I had my hair cut at the barbers and mum bought our first Roberts radio from the electrical shop and yes we used Wells the Chemist and the small supermarket which I think was still trading as Delroy’s and I even have sat for a drink in the cafe.

But I never at any time ever gave a thought to when they were built and only recently when I discovered that part of the site had been occupied by Well Hall Cottages did I wonder about the date of the construction.

Well Hall Road, 1937

And as ever it was Tricia Lesley who went looking for answers.

The cottages which may date from the mid 18th century were demolished in 1923 and the present properties built in 1937.*

What is remarkable is the continuity of businesses, many of which were still there when we arrived in 1964.

Now armed with a directory it should be possible to do that bit of research comparing the shops in 1937 with 1964 and 2015 which is all good history allowing us to draw conclusions about changing shopping patterns.

And even given the passage of 78 years some shops have continued to offer the same service, although like everywhere the onward march of the takeaway is all too present along with the Tesco Express in the new build which was once that bit of open ground with the small community hut.

I had quite forgotten that this new build is very new and that on one of my last flying visits in 2008 the site was still the small hall and bit of green.

All of which is grist to the local historian and leaves me to reflect that I bought a Mars bar most school days from nu 5 Odeon Parade and once visited the hair dresser's next door, and only the once for having carefully explained what I wanted, came back with a "short back and sides."

And it just so happens that Mr Birch was related to Tricia who helped with the story. "My uncle Harold Birch  was married to my dads older sister the one who wrote me all those lovely letters of her days living in the huts."

Now that is how I like my history!  But he still gave me the wrong haircut.

*Additional research by Tricia Leslie including material from The Eltham Hutments by John Kennett, 1988

Picture; Mr Abbot’s car circa 1950s, from the collection of Kath May

One of the bits of Chorlton lost forever ...... Claude Road

Now, nature and entrepreneurs abhor empty spaces, and so sometime in the early 20th century someone filled that bit of open land at the point where Claude Road takes a right turn on its twisty journey towards Chorltonville.

Claude Road, 1969

What look like workshops appear on the 1932 OS map, and are still there thirty-seven years later.

And then sometime during the 1970s they were demolished leaving only the petrol pump on the right side of the entrance.

At the time I wasn’t over bothered about such things and gave little thought to what had become a bit of an overgrown mystery.

Back then there were plenty of such spaces, which have now gone.

So that brings me to this 1969 picture, which shows the workshops, the petrol pump and in the distance the cinema.

The garage, circa 1960s

So often the hard evidence in the form of deeds, rate records and even pictures can be hard to track down, and people’s memories begin to fade.

So, I am pleased there is this photograph dating from 1969, and a picture drawn by my old friend of Ann Love in the 1960s when the workshop had become a garage by which time the structure sems to have been altered.

Leaving me just to hope there are people out there with memories who will get back to me, and perhaps can also add memories of former workshops, like the one behind Bellwood Road.

Well we shall see.

And within hours of the story going live, Rob Green, posted that Rainbow Close which is the small development on the old site, "must have been built in the early 90’s.

I used to play around the back of the old garage in the mid to late 80’s where I would duck through the fence and swing over the brook on an old rope swing on to the old Sale Cycles land. 

I used to love looking at all the new bikes in the window and they had a Rolls Royce pedal car I always hope to receive as a Xmas gift. I remember the petrol pump well walking past it on my way to Brookburn School. Great days".

Location Claude Road

Pictures; Claude Road, 1969,  Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY, and the garage, Ann Love, circa 1960

A history of Manchester & Salford in 20 objects, number 1, calling the emergency services

A history of Manchester & Salford in 20 objects.

It serves to remind us that not too long ago the idea of a hand held communicator was judged pure science fiction and for that matter making a telephone call still meant going out of the house and depending where you were waiting to use the phone.

So it made sense for the emergency services to provide this service.



Picture; Emergency telephone, Upper Chorlton Road, August 1960, A.H.Downes, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

Forgotten election campaign posters nu 1 .......... 1979

Now the poster has faded with age.

Once, forty five years ago it sat in our window, moved after the election to a wall in the bathroom and finally got put away, only to be rediscovered today.

The message referred to the industrial conflicts which had led to the three day week during the previous Conservative Government under Mr Heath.

The result of the 1979 election was a victory for the Conservatives.

The history of that election, the subsequent three Tory victories and the final election of a Labour Government will be for another time.

Location; Britain

Picture; Labour election poster, 1979, in the collection of Andrew Simpson