When Central Ref opened in 1934

History comes in lots of different ways including a handkerchief.

Just 87 years ago 250,000 of these were issued to Manchester school children to commemorate the opening of Central Ref in 1934.

Location; Manchester

Picture; from the collection of Linda Rigby

On Beech Road …….. not long ago

It is a scene of Beech Road which will be familiar to many and was not that long ago.

I can’t now remember the exact date I took the picture, but it will be some time in the early 2000s, which is a lesson always to date photographs.

But this one I didn’t, but it will be in the region of seventeen years ago and perhaps a bit less.

And as you would expect almost all the shops have changed and most no longer sell anything other than food and booze.

Muriel and Richard’s is an estate agent, the deli is the Spanish tapas bar and stretching up the road only the clothes shop and Etchells are now trading.

Even the Nose has closed.

I could now state the obvious and reflect on the bar culture, bit won’t and instead I shall invite stories of the buildings in the picture.

And to start off I will offer up two, which are the red fronted building was Diamond Dogs opened by Martha and Atlanta in what had been Bryan the Books place, and next door was the Mr Jackson’s barber shop which was once taken over by a TV company who blew out the shop front during a scene in the show they were filming.

And Diamond Dogs has helped fasten the date because Martha reminded me she and Aalanta opened the cafe in 2002.


Location; Chorlton

Picture; Beech Road, circa 2002s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

It's all in the windows ……….

One day in the Ref.

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

Picture; It's all in the windows, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

What’s that secret …… beyond that arch? …..

My association with Central Ref stretches back 54 years and across that half century and more I have always pondered on those steps through that archway and just where they led to.

Now, I know it will be an office of sorts, filled with filing cabinets, lockers and the odd table.

But when the hours hung heavy and the promised break through from an old document was not forth coming I would ponder on what Narnia like scene would be revealed behind that wooden door.

To be very accurate this is not the staircase in what was the Archive and Local History Library, that was further on, and for most of my time in the Library I inhabited the vast Social Science Library with its echo and circular message on the power of knowledge.

Of course, I could just ask those I know who worked there.

But wouldn’t that be too easy?*

Location; Central Ref

Pictures; that staircase, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*But I can not stay silent for Helen was moved to offer up "Yes they were both just offices.  The one at the end of the Local Studies dept. I knew well.  I think they are now just storage rooms, as there's not much wiring into them, for computers, and phones".  

So no Narnia surprises then.

The Lost Chorlton pictures ......... before the trend

This is Beech Road as it was just forty years ago.

Where today there is a studio, a gallery, and a clothes shop, there was a flower shop which offered a selection of fruit and veg as a side line, an old fashioned hardware store and Dave the Butcher.

Now if you are of a certain age the smell of a hardware shop is a powerful reminder of how we once did things.

The floor was invariably always the bare timbers, and there was that pungent smell of paraffin, and waxed string.

You could buy anything from a small nut and bolt, to sheets of brown wrapping paper and sealing wax.

And had I been on Beech Road a full decade earlier I could have asked Mr Heger, the relative merits of pink paraffin, and just how many nails I would need to fasten down a lose floor board.

That said back then we did have our own photographic shop which traded from what is now Pottery Corner.

So some things haven’t changed.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Beech Road, 1979 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Salford says thank you to the Discharged Sailors, Soldiers & Airman, 1920

Now somewhere there will be a record of the day Salford Corporation hosted the Civic Reception for the Discharged Sailors, Soldiers & Airman.

It was held on Saturday October 9th 1920 in Belle Vue Gardens.

I would like to know how many attended, what was said and above all what people thought of the event.

I have trawled the Manchester Guardian with no success and will now have to wade through the files of the Salford and Manchester local papers at Central Ref.

And no sooner had the story gone live, than Maureen Swanwick commented that

"The Reception was a success according to the Salford Reporter. It said 5,000 attended and a further 3,500 invites were sent out and  because of the large numbers, it was over 3 Saturdays".

To which I can add this little gem from the Manchester Evening News, dated, October 6th, 1920, passed to me by Paul Sherlock.

Location; Salford

Picture; the Salford Corporation invitation, 1920

The bold and the new …… down on Manchester Road in 1973

Now I am not a fan of just posting an old image and leaving it at that.

Often when I come across these on social media, it is posted with no date, no indication of where it has come from and it stands alone with no additional commentary.

All of which makes it difficult to appreciate its true significance, because without a date and a source, there is no context, other than to reflect that “here is a picture which is different from now, when they did things differently back then”.

Of course, that may sound sniffy, but if you are interested in the past you should always be after finding out as much as you can.

So, having said all of that, here is a picture with little in the way of additional information.

We are on Manchester Road where it joins Upper Chorlton Road, and the year is 1973 and it comes from the City’s Local Image Collection.*

It was one  of a series taken by H Milligan in the 1970s and what I like about the picture is the way that it records, just what a collection of “modern shopfronts” looked like back then.

Today, they look dated and even a bit amateurish but in 1973 they appeared sharp, modern and at the cutting edge of what was thought stylish.

I particularly liked the use of timber cladding seen on the bookie’s and that name which seems to topple down from the top of the sign.

Today I prefer the original shop fronts which are still visible on two of the fronts.

And that is all.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Manchester Road, 1973, H Milligan, m17964, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Sharing the history of the Horse and Jockey ….. with heaps of friends

 So, I can think of no where better to launch a book on a pub than in a pub.

And last night 40 people spent an enjoyable night in the Horse and Jockey to celebrate our new book on the history of the Horse and Jockey.

Our host Iain provided the wine and some nibbles, Peter introduced the book and Andrew talked about the history of the pub, and the old village.

We were joined by the Manchester poet Lindy Newns who read one of her stories and the event finished with a series of questions about the book, Chorlton’s past and that out rageous Sam Wilton who stole the village green.

Leaving me just to thank Iain, his staff,  the brewery and all those who turned up.

The  book is available at www.pubbooks.co.uk or the old-fashioned way on 07521 557888 or from Chorlton Bookshop, and costs £4.99.

Location; the Horse and Jockey on the Green

Pictures; the launch in the pub, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

On Shooters Hill ………………… with We Anchor in Hope

Now I have no memory of the pub We Anchor in Hope.

But then when I roamed over the woods and down Shooter’s Hill and on to Welling, I was still well under the age when “dirty beer” was an attraction.

Still I am very pleased that Brian sent this picture over this morning, because it captures perfectly this stretch of the old road as I remember it.

The picture postcard is undated, but I am guessing we will be sometime in the late 1940s into the following decade and a bit.

That said there will be an expert on London buses who will be able to offer up chapter and verse on the date this one plied its route.

As to the pub, here too I am out of my comfort zone and a trawl of my limited London directories has yet to turn up any information.

Still, I am pleased to say it is still there today and is part of the Green King chain which manages many of the pubs I have researched and written about.

There will be those who are sniffy about such chains, advancing ever the cause of the independent brewery or landlord.

Which just leaves me to thank Brian,  appeal for more information, and point out before someone does that We Anchor in Hope is actually at 320 Bellgrove Road, Welling, DA16 3 RW

And to add this is  a fine shot of the old road climbing west.

And quick as a flash, Brian having read the story of his picture postcard, added a link to a bit more background.

But as ever I shall not lift someone else's research and instead just point you to the link.**


Location Welling

Picture; Shooters Hill, Welling, Kent, date unknown, from the collection of Brian Norbury

* We Anchor in Hope,  https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/kent/we-anchor-in-hope/

**We Anchor in Hope, Belle Grove Road, East Wickham, Welling, https://pubwiki.co.uk/KentPubs/EastWickham/AnchorinHope.shtml

Stories from the Horse and Jockey ….. tonight in the pub on the Green

When you have a pub that first opened its doors in 1793 in a building which was still new when Henry VIII walked up the aisle with Anne Boleyn there are going to be heaps of stories.

The forgotten pub sign, 2024

And many of those stories feature in our new book on The Horse and Jockey in the series Chorlton Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors.*

The Horse and Jockey circa 1900

It came out earlier this year and today I can announce that the launch of the book will be on Thursday July 25th at 8pm in the pub and coincides with a recent redecoration and refurbishment of the place.

The interior has been repainted and repapered along with bits you don't see, like rewiring, and new pumps which you can see.

For me one of the crowning features is the collection of framed photographs and Peter's paintings which are taken from our book. 

The rediscovered chimney breast, 2024

And it was during the refurb that one of the former pub signs was rediscovered.  

It has quite correctly been reinstalled as a talking point and the manager Iain hopes it will spark a memory of when it stood outside.

Dining in the restaurant, 2024

Nor is that the only forgotten secret to reappear because back in 2010 a chimney breast and an internal wattle and daub wall were uncovered which will have not seen the light of day for at least two centuries.

To these forgotten bits of the Jockey’s past can be added a varied collection of stories from Samuel Wilton who stole the village green from the community in the early 19th century to the inquest held in the pub to investigate the murder of Francis Deaken in 1847.

Outside the Horse and Jockey, 1936

And added to these is the arrest of young Samuel Warburton at 7 am in the morning outside the pub having a pint and recovering from his participation in an illegal prize fight out on the meadows in the July of the following year**.

I could go on but for the details of these and other stories you will have to buy the book which will be on sale on the night.

The launch will follow our earlier ones and along with a brief few words from the authors we are hoping for performances from two Manchester poets, along with the usual mix of good conversation.

The event is free, is always fun and of course allows you to explore the newly redecorated pub and relax with a drink.

Leaving me just to thank Iain and his assistant Anna for being our hosts on the night.

You can order the book at www.pubbooks.co.uk  or the old-fashioned way on 07521 557888 or from Chorlton Bookshop

In the dinning room, 2024

All for the price of a pint.

Location; The Horse & Jockey, the Inn on Green, Chorlton

Pictures; cover of Chorlton Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors The Horse & Jockey, designed by Peter Topping, pictures of the newly refurbished Horse & Jockey, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the pub in 1900 courtesy of Carolyn Willitts, and  A 'gang' of 'teenagers' outside the Horse and Jockey circa 1936 courtesy of Yvonne Richardson

* Chorlton Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors, Andrew Simpson, and Peter Topping, 2024

**Every Chorlton pub should have its own book, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2024/02/every-chorlton-pub-should-have-its-own.html

On Shooters Hill in 1909

Looking down Shooters Hill in 1909

I am back on Shooters Hill in the June of 1841 thinking about the small community of 58 people who lived on this northern boundary of Eltham.

I had planned to write about them today but instead I couldn’t resist showing this picture of Shooters Hill looking west down the road.

It is taken from the book The Story of Royal Eltham which was written by R.R.C. Gregory in 1909 and although it has long been out of print it has been carefully digitalised by Roy Ayres and can be seen online at http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

And so back to our picture which was taken just 70 or so years after yesterday’s story.

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

Settling a few old mysteries and uncovering a few new ones ……. Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1881

Now, it is a simple observation that what you once thought you knew about a place or a past event can be turned on its head.

And that is pretty much what has happened today with the acquisition of a map from 1881.

My friend Richard came across it in the archives of Trafford Local Studies Centre, and it looks to be unique, in that there isn’t a copy at Central Ref.

Added to which it is a beautifully produced map in colour, and is more detailed than the OS map made a decade later.

Richard thinks it was made for the Withington Board of Health which had become responsible for Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Burnage, Didsbury and Withington, and replaced a system of governance which stretched back to the Middle Ages.

The detail in the map allows me to confirm what I had thought about some of the buildings in the township and offers new clues about some others.

So, in the case of the Renshaws Buildings which stood on the site of the Royal Oak I had long thought that they were back to back cottages which had been built before 1830.

The census returns and other maps suggested this was so, but the 1881 map offers up the evidence that there were indeed ten back to back cottages which also fits with the few photographs that we have.

And the map also clarified what I thought about a set of cottages on the corner of what is now Beech Road and Wilton Road, and back in 1881 bordered a small orchard which was part of Row Acre. 

One of these was Sutton’s Cottage, for which we have a photograph dating from 1892.

The earlier maps suggest that there was more than one cottage, and again the 1881 map confirms this, which for me is quite exciting, because we know that the Sutton family had lived in the end cottage from at least 1851.*  

We know he was an agricultural labourer, and we know how much rent the Sutton’s paid along with the size of the family.

And using even older maps it is possible to date the cottages back into the late and possibly even the mid 18th century. 

They were wattle and daub constructions and by 1881, there were only 50  left in the township, which was not a bad thing.

Most were wattle and daub cottages made by filling in the space between a wooden frame with walls made of woven branches covered with a mix of mud, and straw.

Such houses were easy to build and equally easy to maintain, but there could be disadvantages to living in them.  The porous nature of walls meant they were damp and crumbling clay meant endless repairs.

According to a later Parliamentary report, “Many of them have not been lined with lath and plaster inside and so are fearfully cold in winter.  

The walls may not be an inch in thickness and where the lathes are decayed the fingers may be easily pushed through.  

The roof is of thatch, which if kept in good repair forms a good covering, warm in winter and cool in summer, though doubtless in many instances served as harbour for vermin, for dirt, for the condensed exhalations from the bodies of the occupants of the bedrooms....”  *

Floors made of brick or stone were laid directly on the ground and were almost invariably damp, and in the worst cases reeked with moisture.  Once the brick was broken, the floor became uneven and the bare earth exposed.  

This might be compounded where the cottage floor was below the ground outside or the floor level was uneven which caused problems of drainage.  

Even the proudest wife and mother must have been reconciled to damp and dirt which were the result of such floors.

The only heating would come from the open fire or stove which might have been combined with a cooking range.

On damp days when the coal or wood was wet the smell would permeate every room in the house.

During the winter months the unheated bedrooms were particularly unpleasant places.  On the coldest nights ice would form on the inside of windows.

And that is it for now, but I will be returning to our 1881 map

Pictures; 1881 map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Withington Board of Health, courtesy of Trafford Local Studies Centre, Sutton’s Cottage circa 1892, photograph from the Wesleyan Souvenir Handbook of 1895, and interior of a Chorlton farm cottage, 1930s, from the collection of Philip Lloyd

* Sarah Sutton, a life lived out on the Row, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/04/sarah-sutton-life-lived-out-on-row.html

**British Parliamentary Papers 1893-4 XXXV V,1, page 103 quoted from Gauldie Enid Country Homes p532  The Victorian Countryside edited by Mingay C. E Vol 1 Routedge & Kegan Paul 1981 ISBN 0-7100 1009734 5

The city over the river ………….

Now yesterday I posted a story of Greenwich Park and the view from the hill across the River.

And it prompted Douglas White to post one of his which he gave me permission to use.  It is as he says, “One of many views from Severndroog Castle on Shooter's Hill. 

Not quite a 360 degree due to trees behind taller than the tower, but a zoom lens will bring the city, Docklands, the west end into view, and far to the west (out of picture) Windsor Castle looms as a shadow on the horizon”.

I still remember looking out from both locations at the city over the river.

Back in the 1960s, I had no camera to record the scene, and now I live in the far north and do not regularly get home.

But there will be someone who does have those pictures of the very different skyline and may choose to share them. 

I can still remember the first time I saw the view from Shooters Hill at night.  

I was visiting Mr. Vaughan who was my science teacher at Samuel Pepys, who I hoped would help me with a few textbooks to assist my retake of O level Science.

By then I had left the school in New Cross for the much grander Crown Woods and the promise of A levels, but my failure at getting Maths or Science GCE, doomed me to a resit.

Until the visit to Mr. Vaughan I had never seen the city lit up at night from Shooters Hill.

And 55 years later it is still as vivid.

So I thank Douglas and John for reuniting me with that memory.

And for all those who also remember the scene 55 years ago I shall just say “compare and contrast”

Location; Eltham

Picture; looking out from Shooters Hill, 2020 from the collection of Douglas White

The lost Hulme and Moss Side

Now I have been a great fan of Roger Shelley’s photographs for over a decade, ever since he shared a collection of pictures he took of a group of young lads playing in the near ruin of Hough End Hall nearly 60 years ago.

The attention to detail and his ability to capture the moment are skills I wish I had.

And so, I was very pleased when he posted another group of images he took during the house clearances in Hulme and Moss Side.

The pictures are a mix of street scenes, and the people he encountered, including kids at play, men and women at work and the ever present piles of rubble as the grand plan advanced and centuries old houses disappeared under the impact of the wrecking ball.

Like the work of Shirley Baker* his pictures don’t dwell on sentimentality and don’t make judgments of the wholesale clearances of communities.

They just record what he saw.

I don't have exact locations for the images, but some can be traced through the odd street name or feature.

And with his permission I will be working my way through the portfolio, fastening on images which tell their own stories.

Location; Hulme and Moss Side in the 1960s and 70s

Pictures;  from the collection of Roger Shelley, https://www.flickr.com/photos/photoroger/

*Baker, Shirley, Without a Trace, Manchester and Salford in the 1960s, 2018

On Shooters Hill with Mrs Craven and George Field in the June of 1841

I have decided to head north of Well Hall to Shooters Hill in search of a story. 

Back in the 1830s and 40s, it was a mixed bunch of those deriving an income from the land and the well off.

So of our forty two people in gainful employment in the June of 1841 the largest group were those who described themselves as agricultural labourers, farm servants or gardeners.

These were followed by those of “Independent means” along with one solicitor, a governess, a tea broker and a publican.

They lived fairly close together on the southern side of Shooters Hill on a stretch facing the Bull Inn.

And I guess quite a few of our band of workers would have spent time in the company of George Field who along with his wife Mary ran the Bull Inn.

Not that I would expect the Bull was ever frequented by Louisa Crewe who rented 21 acres  from the Crown and lived in Hazelwood House which was a big enough pile for it to be marked and named on the tithe map of 1844.

She had not long become a widow.

But of her, her employees and the others in Shooters Hill more next time.
Location, Shooters Hill , London

Picture; detail from the tithe map of Eltham, courtesy of Kent History and Library Centre, Maidstone, http://www.kent.gov.uk/leisure_and_culture/kent_history/kent_history__library_centre.aspx

Stories from Deansgate Castlefield ….no. 1 introducing the book

Deansgate Castlefield metro stop is the place where history tumbles out in all directions

Heaps of towers, 2023

You know you are arriving at somewhere special when the views of identical new residential properties give way to something much older and more interesting.

It begins with that network of waterways which make up the Castlefield Canal Basin, interspersed with the tall lattice structures that imitate medieval castle walls and takes in some fine 18th century warehouses, along with the spire of the old Congregational Chapel and that growing number of tower blocks which seemingly reach up to scrape the sky.

On arriving, 2022

And on arriving at Castlefield Deansgate just a minute’s walk away is the bold edifice of Deansgate Railway Station which as everyone knows and some constantly reiterate is really Knott Mill Railway Station gateway to Salford and beyond.

But for those whose interests are elsewhere beside the entrance to Deansgate/Knot Mill is the Atlas Bar which has its own claim to a bit of history, having opened in 1999 boasts that it serves 570 different gins from around the world.

Nor is it alone for just across the road there is Deansgate Locks, while nestling in the canal basin can be found Dukes 92, and the even longer established Barca Bar all of which are part of the renaissance of the area which has gone from a busy but grubby work a day corner of the city to an elegant residential and leisure centre.

Atlas, 2023

And not to out change Castlefield, in 1982 it became an “Urban Heritage Park” which is an unofficial designation for an inner-city area regarded as worthy of preservation because of its architectural and historic interest.

Fort in the sun, 2022

It was here that the Romans established one of their forts as part of the “pacification” of northern Britain.

The network of military establishments connected the big legionary bases of Chester and York, and like many of these forts it attracted a settlement which grew up outside its walls.  

Here could be found metal workers, bar owners, merchants and anyone attracted to the Roman army which offered a degree of safety and a ready market for pretty much everything your average Roman soldier might want.

Alas only a fragment of the original fort still exists, but a series of archaeological digs in the 1970s uncovered finds from the civilian settlement.

In turn the presence of that fort led to a City Council project to recreate two sections of wall and a gateway.  The construction was undertaken by apprentices from the Direct Works Department and included laying out a series of ditches which were the first line of defence.

Water, unlight and bridges, 2003

All of these are there to see along with part of the civilian village running from one of the walls by Beaufort Road out towards Liverpool Road, while the remaining section at Duke Street offers up views down in to Castlefield Bowl and one of the arms of the canal basin.

A rally at the Castlefield Bowl, 2024

The Bowl is a popular venue for a live entertainment and has a capacity for 8,000 and as well as music events is used for political rallies.

Canal Basin, 2003

I could go on but that would be to reveal all the stories from our second book in the series The History of Greater Manchester by Tram.*

The idea of telling the story of Greater Manchester by using the tram network has a lot going for it. 

You can catch a tram from the city centre and go south, east, north, and west and along the way each of the 99 stops will have a story to tell, and being the tram, you can just jump off, explore this little pocket of history and move on. 

Or skip to the end destinations and discover interesting historical things about Didsbury, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Rochdale, Oldham, Salford and bits of Trafford, Altrincham and Bury.

The first in the series …. Trafford Bar to East Didsbury was published earlier in the year and the next Cornbrook to Exchange Square will be out in August.

They are available from Chorlton Bookshop, and from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk, price £4.99

Location Deansgate Castlefield

Pictures; Castlefield and Knott Mill, 2003-2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*A History of Greater Manchester by Tram, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20History%20of%20Greater%20Manchester%20by%20Tram

Walking through the lost Hulme and Moss Side

 Now I have been a great fan of Roger Shelley’s photographs for over a decade, ever since he shared a collection of pictures he took of a group of young lads playing in the near ruin of Hough End Hall nearly 60 years ago.

The attention to detail and his ability to capture the moment are skills I wish I had.

And so, I was very pleased when he posted another group of images he took during the house clearances in Hulme and Moss Side.

The pictures are a mix of street scenes, and the people he encountered, including kids at play, men and women at work and the ever present piles of rubble as the grand plan advanced and centuries old houses disappeared under the impact of the wrecking ball.

Like the work of Shirley Baker* his pictures don’t dwell on sentimentality and don’t make judgments of the wholesale clearances of communities.

They just record what he saw.

I don't have exact locations for the images, but some can be traced through the odd street name or feature.

And with his permission I will be working my way through the portfolio, fastening on images which tell their own stories.

Location; Hulme and Moss Side in the 1960s and 70s

Pictures;  from the collection of Roger Shelley, https://www.flickr.com/photos/photoroger/

*Baker, Shirley, Without a Trace, Manchester and Salford in the 1960s, 2018