“Look on my Works”* ……… and wonder …… a story for Alan

I don’t usually do then and now pictures but sometimes I break the rule, especially when it’s a place I have known for heaps of time.

The Rochdale Canal, 1979

And so, it is with the stretch of the Rochdale Canal from Piccadilly down to Castlefield.

Back in the 1970s I regularly walked it, marveling on how it had survived a combination of neglect and willful vandalism and how it offered up glimpses of what had once been.

The Rochdale Canal, 2023

Like those pipes running along the wall of what had once been part of  St Mary’s Hospital and supplied steam to a host of buildings from the old Electricity  Station.  

Some of the lagging had fallen away and steam rose from the pipes leaving me a tad worried that one day I would cop for a scolding burst.

And further along there were those half sunken boats which were a continuing source of mystery and fed my imagination with possible disasters which had overcome crew and cargo.

The future of the canal always seemed in doubt, and despite its historic significance and its role in shipping water through the city there was always the possibility it would end up being filled in.

But not so and the story of its restoration is there to read. 

Suffice to say it was saved and now boasts plenty of amenities along its towpath of which Deansgate Locks are but one.

And so last Thursday I looked down on that bit of water beside the bars and reflected on the changes on the skyline, which of course is the point of the two pictures, and the rest as they say is for you to "compare and contrast".

Looking down towards Castlefield, 1979

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures, My canal, 1979 and 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*"Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!", Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1817 

Today I walked the old road ........ part two

The road twists and turns following the old field divisions and natural obstacles before running up beside the river bank.

Junction of the Gore [Chorlton] Brook, 1963

This was our first warning of the power of the Mersey. For here there is no gentle river bank sloping down to the water’s edge.

 Instead the road hugs a towering bank built and added to over the centuries as the main defence against a powerful threat to the lives and livelihoods of all those who lived beside it. Generations of farmers have laboured to construct this natural wall to repel the flood waters of the Mersey.

The village and the isolated farms were all built beyond the flood plain. Even so this was not always sufficient protection. The Mersey has on countless occasions risen and breached these towering banks sometimes even sweeping away the defences themselves.

It was for this reason that the weir was built. Just beyond the point where the Brook joins the Mersey and at a bend in the river the weir was built to divert flood water from the Mersey down channels harmlessly out to Stretford and the Kicketty Brook.

Not that it always worked. Soon after it had been built flood water swept it away and during the nineteenth century neither the weir nor the heightened river banks prevented the Mersey bursting out across the plain.

 In July 1828 the Mersey flood water transported hay ricks from the farm behind Barlow Hall down to Stretford only later to bring them back, while later floods proved to be even more destructive. It was, wrote Thomas Ellwood the local historian
“no uncommon thing to see the great level of green fields completely covered with water presenting the appearance of a large lake , several miles in circuit.”


Painting; Junction of Gore Brook and River Mersey, 1963, M80140, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Montogomery is incorrect, at the point where it joins the Mersey it has become Chorlton Brook

How do you write a novel?

Now writing fiction alludes me.

 I can do the factual stuff, supported by research and heaps of maps and pictures, but the skill of making real historical names come to life is beyond me.

So I went to the Edge yesterday to hear Juliette Tomlinson talk about her debut novel, "Longford", which charts the lives of Enriqueta and John before they met and takes the reader on that journey that eventually saw the two of them married.

It is the first of a trilogy which will span the decades from 1864 into the twentieth century and on the way offers up glimpses into the lives of the two, set against provincial France and Manchester, with of course sideways looks at Longford Hall, Stretford and other bits of south Manchester.

The book came out on September 1st and yesterday we got to meet the author and hear about her passion for Enriqueta, how she came to write the book and her plans for the two subsequent books.

The room was packed and the presentation started with Juliette engaging with the audience to explore what makes fiction and then by degree we were led into the story of the Rylands, from their origins, to their lives before and after they met.

All of which was supported by a power point presentation and a reading from the novel.

But what I especially found fascinating was the question and answer session which allowed Juliette to develop why she chose the Rylands, the tension with portraying once real people who may have descendants, and her favourite character.

One of which was a disagreeable owner of a house the author stayed in durimg a holiday in the French town where Enriqueta had lived in and who became the equally disagreeable woman  Enriqueta worked.

And alongside that answer was the equally revealing question about how Juliette took each of the characters and brought them alive mixing the known evidence about them and that skill of making real historical names come to life.

So there you have it .... almost two hours in the company of the Rylands, the 50 or so who attended, and of course Juliette in what was a smashing afternoon.

Leaving me just to acknowledge the work of Beverley from library who supervised the talk as part of   Chorlton Book Festival the staff at the Edge and Linsey from Chorlton Bookshop who did the business of selling Longford after the event was over.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; cover of Longford, courtesy of the author and Chorlton Book Festival courtesy of Manchester Libraries, and other images from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2024

Longford, A Manchester love story, Juliette Tomlinson, 2024, The Squeeze Press

 The Squeeze Press, www.woodenbooks.com

And having said all of that ..... which includes how much I enjoyed the talk, and what I learned about the Rylands and writing fiction, my final comment is that simple one that it was fun.

Juliette had a light engaging way of presenting the story which never detracted  from her deep knowledge of the subject, or commitment to the project, and yes it was ...

.... fun.

Today I walked the old road .......... Part One

Today I walked the old road.

It is little more than a narrow paved track but for centuries it was one of the main routes out of the village to Manchester. Along this road went the farmers with their wagons loaded with agricultural produce destined for the Bridgwater Canal, villagers wanting to join Chester Road which led on into Manchester, and cowmen driving their cows back from the Meadows to the farms around the Green.

It was called Back Lane and it started by Hardy Lane ran down past the parish church, across the Meadows and ended just beyond the Duke’s Canal. Over the years parts of the road have changed their name and there are now houses along some of its course. Our chosen route would take us from the green past open land all the way to Stretford.

In some ways little appears to have changed in the last 150 years. Just as then hawthorn, oak, hazel and ash trees line the road and the banks made from countless years of leaf deposits trapped under the hedgerows are still there. My companion pointed to hazel trees which showed evidence that they had once been coppiced. It is a skilled job and one that I guess had not been undertaken here on our road for perhaps half a century.

In the distance rooks swooped back and forth, around their nest. Nothing quite prepares you for one of these. High up in the bare branches they seem as natural apart of the tree as the branches themselves. And there, just past Sally’s pond stood the old oak tree, perhaps the tallest tree on our road. More than likely those bringing the news of Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar would have passed it on their way into the village as would an obscure soldier fired by missionary zeal to preach the Methodist message.

Picture; the old road from the collection of Andrew Simpson

On Eltham High Street looking south from the new Well Hall Road in 1909

It is one of those scenes that just about makes sense.

This is Eltham High Street in 1909 and the Grey Hound is fairly obvious as is the building to its left, but the others have gone.

Now as you would expect there are stories here which I shall come to when we walk this side of the High Street taking in Back lane, various pubs and some more fine houses.

Location Eltham, London

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

Saving the odd old road sign ....................... another street furniture story

Well it had to happen ............. the one bit of street furniture I have consistently ignored, so here is the start of a series on the humble road sign.

I say road sign because as everyone one knows, Chorlton-cum-Hardy never did streets, just roads.
I rather think a “street” might have crept in with all that new development over the years and we did have our own Lloyd Street back in the mid 19th century but that is it.

And of course more recently there has been the renaming of roads.

But for now I just want to focus on the road sign like this old traditional one on just round the corner from us.

You can still see them on the sides of buildings but they are in decline, replaced by the easier to read but a bit bland version of today.

And while I am on it perhaps a supplementary series could be the road/street names themselves.  Most are in memory of long gone local heroes, like Mr Brundrett, Mr Needham and of course those big landowners, the Egerton’s and Lloyds.

But sometimes the odd names strike you, like Ney Street in Waterloo in Ashton which I will leave you to ponder on, given that Marshal Ney was one of Napoleon’s generals and Napoleon of course was defeated at Waterloo.

Or Battle of Tel el- Kebir Street in Sunderland or the equally imaginative Faucet Street in the same town and our own Anita Street which more than a few people will be able to furnish the full story.

So that is it ............ road signs the new series to sit beside the other street furniture series, which include, finger posts, water troughs telephone kiosks and pillar boxes, not forgetting those huge iron street ventilation pipes.


That said my old friend in Adam in Peckham has started the research going, so lots I suspect still to come.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; Provis Street, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Old Road in the 1890s

Now the Old Road has always been special to me. 

It ran from Hardy Lane down past the Brook into the village by the church and then off across Turn Moss to Stretford.

Over the years it has had many names and bits of it have been renamed from time to time.

Strictly speaking it was never known as the old road for there are equally old roads, lanes and track ways which ran out of the township.

But unlike the others it has retained much of its rural character.  True if you start at Hardy Lane you are presented with a modern road followed by the “stumps” which lead into the ville and the stretch past the school, round the church and along Ivygreen Road is pretty urban, but where it becomes Hawthorn Lane it still has the power to transport you back to the early 19th century.

Here it becomes a narrow twisty lane with the remains of hedges along its path, the 18th century weir clearly visible through the trees and finally the raised platform underneath the canal built to protect travellers from the farm wagons passing on their way to Stretford.

All of which makes this picture and those to follow over the next few weeks rather special.  They capture something of the charm and magic of the old road.  This one is from around 1890.  Despite the fashions of the couple staring at the camera which dates it to the late 19th century it could be any time over the last few hundred years.

The horse and cart add to the almost timelessness of the image, but hard by where the road ran into Stretford was a modern railway line, and just over a mile and a bit in the other direction was new Chorlton with its rows of recently built houses catering for the middling people who travelled into town from the newly opened Chorlton train station but still lacked the idea of living on the edge of the countryside.

Location;Chorlton

Picture; from the Lloyd collection

One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 24 ........... the shed, the garden and a new way of taking pictures

This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family. *

Now this is nothing more complicated than a picture from one of our bedrooms looking down on the back garden.

It was taken sometime in the early 1970s, and shows Dad's shed, the old swing which came with us from Lausanne Road, and the two fruit trees.

And in its mix of stuff, I guess will not be much different than all the other houses on the Progress Estate.

What might just set it apart was that the picture was taken with one of those instant cameras, which gave you a result in seconds.

Once the button had been pushed , you waited just a minute or so for the photograph to appear, doing away with a trip to the chemist, or posting the film away to a photographic lab.

All of which dispensed with the week or delay before the images arrived back.

Here was instant pictures, which to a pre mobile generation was magic.

I can't now remember which type of instant camera we used, and I have to say most of the pictures have long since been lost, while a few were ruined as they came out, because the trick was lo let them dry, otherwise you smudged them.

And that could be a bit of a disaster given how much the films cost to buy.

The shed and the trees have long gone, and this represents one of the few pictures we have of the house and garden.

Still it's enough and will bring back shed loads of memories to me and my sisters and their partners.

Location; Well Hall

Pictures; Well Hall Road, circa 1973, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall

One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road, part 3, going back to 1915

Opposite our house on Well Hall Road, 1950

We lived on Well Hall Road  for thirty years.

We moved into 294 Well Hall Road in March 1964 and while us kids slowly moved out over the years it remained my dad’s home till 1994.

And so I have decided to explore its history.

Now I have to admit I never gave much thought to what the house would have been like back in 1915.

As you entered the front door the central staircase was directly in front of you with the two living rooms off to the right and left.

A plan of a Parlour house similar to ours

Of these the left room extended the length of the ground floor and gave access to the kitchen while to the right was a smaller room which backed on to the kitchen.

So essentially the ground floor consisted of three rooms with that central staircase.

Upstairs and the model merely replicated itself with three bedrooms and a bathroom.

The plan opposite is very similar to ours but the layout at 294 Well Hall was reversed and access to the smaller front room was at the front with no passage along the side of the stairs.

And I am also a tad puzzled about the bathroom.

One resident I spoke to recently maintained that bathrooms were offered as an addition later by the Progress Estate.

Tenants had the option of having a down stairs extension or converting one of the three bedrooms for a slight increase in rent which was all too much for one old chap who choose to have neither and retained  his tin bath.

That said the original plans** would suggest that bathrooms and inside lavatories were fitted at the time of construction and there is a reference to The Office of Works odering “all the timber and supplied Baths, fireplaces and many other fittings which were kept in a large store on the site.”***

Sadly the majority of the records dealing the Estate were destroyed during the last war and with the passage of time much else about the early decades its history will also have been lost.

So I have no way of knowing whether the original properties had a kitchen range, the extent to which  gas was used instead of electricty for lighting or just how domestic water was heated up.

All no doubt will be revealed.

Nor can I remember the fire places.  Most had been taken out and the spaces bordered up before we arrived.  If anyone still has theirs I would like to see them.

Only the main one was still there and this we took out for a mock Tudor surround and gas fire around 1965.

This I suspect was only partly to do with taste and more to do with the simple fact that “this house is likely to be included in a Smokless Zone under the Clean Air Act of 1956 and approved fireplaces must be fitted in to the open fireplaces in the lower rooms by October next.”****

Looking back there is little that I can remember dated before the 1960s.  The previous occupants may or may not have done much to the place but I suspect not.

Just up from our house in 1950

That same surveyor’s report commented that “the house is not in good decorative order and that the whole of the inside will require immediate decoration.”

That said the large master bedroom had been modified with the addition of a gigantic head board which I now realise had been constructed in front of what would have been the fireplace.

Such are the awful acts of the amateur DIY enthusiast and I wonder to this day what awful secrets or more likely what hidden treasures lay behind the laminated mix of timber and hardboard.

Alas I will never know, like so much of that house in Well Hall Road its history has still to be revealed.

Location; Well Hall, Eltham, London

Pictures; from Well Hall Estate, Eltham:  An Example of Good Housing Built in 1915, S.L.G. Beaufoy

*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall

**Well Hall Estate, Eltham:  An Example of Good Housing Built in 1915, S.L.G. Beaufoy, The Town Planning Review Vol. 21, No 3, October 1950, Liverpool University Press

*** Well Hall Estate, Eltham, S.L.G. Beaufoy, The Town Planning Review Vol. 23, No , July 1952, Liverpool University Press

****Surveyors Report, February 1964.

The Northern Art Workers’ Guild ...... all you ever wanted to know …. the book out on October 10th

 Here is a book I have been waiting for ever since Barry Clark told me he was engaged in writing about The Northern Art Workers’ Guild, which “was a part of the late nineteenth century revival of the crafts celebrated as the Arts and Crafts movement”. 

The book is the work of Barry and his co authors Stephanie Boydell and Richard Fletcher.

Over the years in conversation with Barry I had got to learn a little about the guild but as the publisher’s introduction reveals   “The history of The Northern Art Workers’ Guild until now its history has been largely untold. 

This beautifully illustrated book examines the impact of the Arts and Crafts movement in Manchester and the overlooked history of the Guild from its formation in 1896 through to its demise in 1912. 

Unlike the London-based Art Workers’ Guild it had active women members throughout. 

This new and original study identifies the Guild’s members and their work, together with the exhibitions that brought them to public notice. 

It tells the history of a northern craft revival that was neither rural nor London-focused, but an essential component of the Arts and Crafts movement located in the heart of industrial England.

The authors also examine the legacy of the Guild, in the later work of the Red Rose Guild of Artworkers and the lesser-known Manchester branch of the Design and Industries Association”.

To which Barry mischievously and with a smile told me “It’s very Chorlton! As well as me as lead author, Alan Ward has designed the book, Stephen Hale (a very near neighbour of yours!) copy edited.  And a number of the key figures in the book lived in Chorlton. 

I have their addresses. And Chorltonville gets a mention.”

Chorlton Civic Society will be hosting a Chorlton launch and illustrated talk  on Wednesday November 6th, at 7.30 in Chorlton Central Church, where Barry will be selling the book.

And you can buy it from Chorlton Bookshop.

So that is it for now, but I will be back with more news when the date of the Chorlton launch is announced.

Leaving me just to say it retails at £22, I have got my order in already and publication date is October 10th.

Who stole all of Chorlton's streets?

 Now for all those who never tire of telling the assembled crowd that Chorlton has no streets but only roads, it might be a revelation that this was not always so.

Cross Road, 2018

Acres Road was once Acres Street, while the small stretch of road from the Chorlton Green past the Beech Inn to where there is a twist in the direction of the road was Lloyd Street.

Added to this the Rate Books  show that Cross Road underwent a number of name changes, beginning with Cross Lane, then Cross Street and finally Cross Road.

And nor has Beech Road always been a road, in fact it only became a road in the mid 1870s.

Before that, stretching back the centuries it was Chorlton Row.

Just why we came to prefer road to street is unclear, but it wasn’t always so.

One explanation might be the the swift urbanization of Chorlton from the 1880s onwards, which within two generations transformed the area from a small rural community to a suburb of Manchester.

The coming of mains water, a gas supply and later a railway station made Chorlton ripe for development.

And many of those who came were the "middling sort" who worked in the city and wanted a sort of rural place to come home to

Lloyd Street running north from the Green, 1854

Many of them of them were professionals, or managers, with a strong representation from clerical occupations, and perhaps the draw for them was a "road" not a "street".

It was as the Manchester Evening News commented in the September of 1901 so swift a development that “the green fields of one summer are the roads and avenues of the next.”*

And something of just how quickly the roads and avenues appeared can be got from the street directories for the early 20th century.  

These were not unlike our telephone directories in that they listed the householder in each road, street and avenue, with the added bonus that they often give the occupation.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Cross Road, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Lloyd Street, 1854, from the OS map of Lancashire, 1854, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, https://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Manchester Evening News September, 1901

More stories

Looking out from Cross Lane ....... across the fields of Chorlton-cum-Hardy with Mr Samuel Walton, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/06/looking-out-from-cross-lane-across.html

Looking for Lloyd Street ........... the lost roads of Chorlton part 2, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/08/looking-for-lloyd-street-lost-roads-of.html

One book …. the author …... and a chance to find out more ..... today at Benitos in Chorlton

Now I am looking forward to reading “Mission: Find Mum” by Jo Somerset, who will be at Benito Lounge, 597 Wilbraham Road, M21 9AJ, today between 12 & 2.

Jo will be talking about her book s part of the Chorlton Book Festival.

It is years since I have read a  book specifically written for young people, so I have fallen on this one, which combines, drama, adventure, and is set against some of the really “big issues” of the day.

The publishers back notes refer to “Two children from Birmingham look for their mum on a remote Scottish island. The novel explores climate activism,

heritage, disability, betrayal and family secrecy in the context of an adventure. 12-year-old Isla’s Mum has disappeared.

With 8-year-old brother Lac, Isla traces her to a Scottish island. Fighting hostile weather, wild elements and suspicious

adults, they find Mum and discover her secret about their missing Dad. Completing the mission helps hearing-impaired

Isla learn how to live with uncomfortable layers of truth without compromising her own self”.

Now I had planned to be there but work has intervened in the form of a deadline, leaving me to apologise to Jo and say she is based in Manchester, "completed a MA in Creative Writing in May 2020 at the University of Salford, where she received the Leanne Bridgewater Award for Innovation and Experiment. Like Isla, Jo grew up in Birmingham with an unspoken Celtic heritage. 

A love of the Hebrides and her experience with a blended family underlie Isla’s heartfelt journey towards finding her origins and a new self-belief”.

Stairwell Books: The best York and Yorkshire writing; select American authors

T: 01904733767 UK, 1-203-846-0099 USA, W: stairwellbooks.co.uk

Publicity: Rose Drew. E: rose@stairwellbooks.com

Chorlton’s Hall of Fame goes out to ……

So, on a day which pretty much rained all the time the Chorlton Hall of Fame inducts the 27 guests, two friends of the Chorlton Book Festival and my two friends who joined today’s History Walk.

Me and an umbrella, 2024

Not only did they turn up at the Narnia Lamppost at 2 pm, braved the rain and accepted the change of itinerary due to the graveyard being closed but stayed the course.

Gail and Mathew from the book festival saw that everyone stayed safe, Bill chose Chorlton instead of a “dry” Trafford history festival held indoors, and Juliette came with wellies and camera from Stretford.

Juliette caught me in full stride on the green managing to include the necessary umbrella, but pride of place goes to her picture of her wellies.

Mathew also snapped away just minutes from the Edge café demonstrating that despite the rain we held the course.

Leaving me just to thank Janette and the staff at the Edge for the delicious food and of course the 27 who came along and said they liked the talk.

Juliette's fine wellies, 2024

Location; Chorlton

Mathew proving we stayed the course, 2024

Pictures; courtesy of Juliette Tomlinson and Mathew Benham

Books … authors and lots more to come …. from Chorlton Book Festival

 It’s the book festival that just keeps giving.

So last night it was the turn of Brian Groom to introduce his new book "Made in Manchester A People’s History of the City Shaped the Modern World".

Brian gave a fascinating historical account of our city from the Palaeolithic to the 21st century, featuring people who shaped the city from the great and good to those who history has tended to ignore and along the way raised questions about the nature of some of the developments.

What I particularly liked was the way Brian tailored his presentation to include aspects of Chorlton’s history, making it a more personalized and unique talk which was appreciated by the 50 or so people in the audience.

Brian signs his new book, 2024

And not to be outdone some of the neighbouring areas got a look in including praise for many of Rochdale’s working class who during the American Civil War stood behind the cause of the North, and offered up the surprising fact that other towns had held meetings in favour of the south which is that sort of insight which shakes the trees of established and received history.

After which there was time for questions some of which fell back on the history of Chorlton and in the course of which Brian revealed he was born in Stretford Memorial and grew up in Whalley Range, which rather caped the night for many who were there.

Waiting for Brian's talk, 2024

So having enjoyed Brian’s talk I will be at Benito Lounge, on Tuesday September 24th between 12 and 2pm to hear Jo Somerset will introduce "Mission find Mum" which is aimed at children  Chorlton and is an "introduction to the adventures of Isla and Lac in a mission that takes them 500 miles from home to an island of secrets". 

The old Parish church and graveyard, circa 1860-1884

And lastly Juliette Tomlinson will be at the Edge on the 24th between 2 and 4pm to introduce her new novel on the John and Enriqueta Rylands.

But it would be remis of me not to mention the history walk at 2 pm from the Narnia lamp post on the green.

When we will walk our past from the village green to the old parish church and by degree on to the Edge Theatre, via the Great Chorlton Burial Scandal, bull baiting and other illegal practices as well a visit from the army of the Young Pretender, a lost water course and the murders of Mary Moore and Francis Deacon.

As they once said .... "What's it got? .... its got the lot".

Narnia on the green, 2024

All events are bookable through Chorlton Book Festival, https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/chorlton-book-festival-2024-3536319

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; books, authors, a festival and the Narnia lamppost, 2024 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the old Parish church and graveyard, circa 1860-1884, courtesy of Tony Walker

What they did to Well Hall while I was away ………..

Now I can still vividly remember the moment I discovered that they had done away with Well Hall Railway Station.

It started at Charing Cross when I tried to “buy a single for Well Hall”, and was met with that blank expression which either meant that a] I was from Planet Mars or b] the chap behind the counter had no detailed knowledge of the stations on Southern Region.

As it turned out of course it was I who got it wrong, because in my absence from home for some years, the station had been demolished, a new one built further east and to cap it all a huge busy motorway had consigned the bus terminus to oblivion.

Like all those who have been away for a long time, the loss of both the old Well Hall Railway Station and the bus terminus were a shock, and while it may sound daft, even after thirty five years I have never become reconciled to the new railway station.

I suppose that is like many expats, your memories are frozen in a moment of time, and on the occasions you get to think about home, your mind wanders over the things which you remember most vividly.

In the case of Eltham Well Hall it was that mix of crowded rush hour commutes, and the first site of the woods as the train took the curve and came into the station.

Now, we lived on Well Hall Road just down from those woods, so seeing them in the distance, especially on a warm summer’s day was perfect.

So that is it, ……. wistful, nostalgic rant over, leaving me just to thank Paul Watts who posted these three images on another Facebook site, and then gave me permission to use them.*

Simple lessons ……… never leave it too long between trips home, keep an eye on the planning applications, and above all try to remember that they are allowed to change things…… even if the changes mess with your memories.

Location; Well Hall

Pictures; Well Hall, circa 1984-1985 from the collection of Paul Watts

*I’M FROM SOUTH EAST LONDON

Historians of Chorlton ................. Cliff Hayes

I wish I met Cliff Hayes, unlike all of the historians I have posted he was around Chorlton during all the time I have lived here. 

True I once met John Lloyd and there are many who remember John, including my old friends Marjorie, Holmes, Philip Lloyd, and Allan Brown while Joe Callaghan who I worked with and told a wonderful story about him.

But Cliff just keeps popping up. I have his book, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1999, one of my sons bought a DVD of his on the history of Manchester and Brian the Book often talked about him.

Rereading his book I am struck by his deep knowledge of the township and his modesty, particularly his concluding words where he acknowledges his debt to both John Lloyd and Thomas Ellwood.

His book has many pictures which are not in other published collections and this alone makes his Chorlton-Cum-Hardy so interesting. Its other great strength is that Cliff includes more recent photographs. So we have scenes of the shopping precinct, the Royal Oaks at the point of demolition along with the Princess Club which I remember variously as Valentines and Ra Ra’s and its replacement MacDonald’s. There is even one of the Mersey Hotel that great barn of a place soon after it was renamed the Mersey Lights.

None of these places existed in the dim and distant past and many will remember them. I know I have spent evenings in the Royal Oak, afternoons in the Mersey Hotel and nights I would rather forget in Valentine’s. Val reminded me recently of her memories of “Chorlton Palais and later Valentines, I loved Chorlton Palais but it was two buses and difficult to get to.”

Gone also are the Southern and the Feathers and of course all the cinemas.

Picture; the parish church yard and over the meadows, 1979  from the collection of Andrew Simpson

One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 17 ........... the Gas Board

This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*

It is funny how the names of things stay with you, long after events have rendered them obsolete and consigned to history.

So, it is with the Gas Board, which was created just a year before I was born, and lasted until I was fully grown.

To be accurate there were twelve gas boards covering the country, and they had been created in 1948 by the Labour Government which nationalized the 1,062 privately owned and municipal gas companies.  They were  the Eastern, East Midlands, Northern, North Eastern, North Thames, North West, Scottish, Southern, South Eastern, South West, Wales, and West Midlands. Each area board was divided into geographical groups or divisions which were often further divided into smaller districts.

Ours was the South Eastern Gas Board, and here is the meter card for our house.

Not that we paid for our gas by slot meter.  Dad had switched to paying quarterly, and so this payment card belonged to one of the previous owners, who was a G. Broome.

That said I do remember the chap who came to read the meter at regular intervals, a practice which lasted well into this century.

After which we opted to read it ourselves and send the reading in online and this in turn was replaced by a device which did it for us, and now by Hive, that box of tricks which pretty much does it all.

Despite all this buzzy technology I have never quite got round to referring to our gas provider by their name, and still talk of the Gas Board.

But then I also still talk about the wireless when everyone else calls it a radio.


Location; Well Hall

Pictures; the Gas Board  Slot Meter Record Card, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall

Historians of Chorlton ............ Thomas Ellwood

There have been many who have written about the history of Chorlton.

Almost all of them draw on twenty-five articles written in the winter and spring of 1885-86 by Thomas Ellwood.

These were published in weekly instalments in the South Manchester Gazette and reappear as articles in the Wesleyan and Parish magazines throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ellwood in turn drew on an earlier work on the histories of the churches and chapels of south and east Manchester written thirty years earlier as well as contemporary documents.

 But the real strength of his account is that much of it is based on the oral testimonies of some of the oldest inhabitants of the township, people who had had been born at the very beginning of Ellwood’s century and who confidently recorded the customs and people of an even earlier time.

Picture;  from The Manchester City News, Saturday March 4th 1922

Walk Chorlton's past .... Sunday September 22nd ...... still time to book tickets ......

 Chorlton Book Festival is back and with it comes that ever popular history walk which takes a stroll across Chorlton, exploring our past.

The graveyard, 2008

It has been a feature of the festival for the last decade and a bit, lasts for about an hour ending in the café at the Edge Theatre for a light meal.

During the make over, 1981

This year by popular request we will be back in the graveyard by the village green uncovering the history of the old parish church, and the stories of some who were buried there.

They include Thomas Walker who campaigned against the slave trade, supported the French Revolution and was tried for sedition, along with a mix of the “good, the bad, and the ordinary". 

Along with the good and worthy, will be the Nixon family who ran a beer shop on Beech Road, the last women to do penance in the parish church, and the story of the Great Chorlton Burial Scandal.  There will be news about the efforts to improve the graveyard, and the restoration work on the Lych Gate.

All this and a look at the archaeological digs in the 1970s and 80s which offered up some gruesome discoveries, followed by a preamble via the village green and other historic spots to the Edge.

Narnia on the Green, 2022

There will be a few stops to top up the stories and heaps of opportunities to ask me interesting historical questions about things no one else will tell.

We will meet at the Narnia lamppost on the village green at 2pm and aim to be in the Edge roughly an hour and a bit later. 

Tickets cost £9.92  and include oodles of Chorlton stories and a meal in the café.

All events are bookable through Chorlton Book Festival, https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/chorlton-book-festival-2024-3536319

Location; Chorlton Green

Pictures;  Chorlton graveyard, and village green 1978- 2022 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Of polo mints….. chewing gum ….. and Five Boy’s chocolate ….. the vending machine ...no. 1

Now at 74 those modern vending machines which are built like a house, offer infinite variety of things to eat do rather challenge me.

Polo mints in Chorlton, 1958

All of which is an alert to a grumpy story, which was brought on by the discovery of the DVD, “Classic Vending Machines of the 1960s. Film, Refreshing Look, Features Footage Of Classic & Vintage Vendo Antique Vending Machines For Cola, Soda, & Soft Drinks”.

It was rated as having 4 out of 5 stars, but alas was unavailable.  I doubt I would ever buy it, but it did rather fascinate me, and set me off thinking about those vending machines of my youth.

They were far less complicated than their great grandchildren and the earliest I used dispensed polo mints, chewing gum and Five Boy’s chocolate.  

They were sturdy, no nonsense machines, which made no demands on you other than put your money in the slot, turn the handle and watch as the item fell out.  

There were no flashing lights, no messages about how much money had been fed in, and no window to watch as the product made its way down from the holding position to the flap where it could be collected.

A slew of machines, on Princess Road, date unknown

Instead you put in the money, turned the handle, and waited, and if you were lucky you heard the mints or chocolate land with a thud where upon you could retrieve it. 

But sometimes you got nothing because the machine had not been refilled and like as not you didn’t get your money back either.

Added to which there was no guarantee the product was still within its sell by date.  

Too many times on deserted and grim railway stations the vending machine offered up bars of chocolate which were crumbly at the edges, covered in white dots and tasted stale.

I was too young to use cigarette machines, but by the end of the sixties there were those tall and robust machines which delivered cartoons of milk and orange juice., which were a life saver at the end of the day when all the shops had closed.

So, in memory of some of those machines, this is the first of a short series on those simpler style of machines.

Location; Manchester

Pictures, polo mints at 362 Barlow Moor Road, A H Downes, May 1958, m17608, and a slew of machines Princess Road, date unknown, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  and https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk

OK everyone …… you’ve got eight days of our own book festival starting today ......

The Chorlton Book Festival is back.*

It starts tomorrow and runs through till the 28th in venues across the township.

If I have got my sums right this will be the 20th year when Manchester Libraries have invited heaps of authors to talk about their work and share readings from their books.

I am a great fan, not least because since 2009 I have hosted a history walk and talk during the week.

But to say more would be outrageous self promotion so I will leave a gentle plug for me till the end.

As it is still the middle of August, events and venues are still being finalised.

That said I have already booked tickets for two shows.

On September 21st Brian Groom will be speaking about his new book "Made in Manchester" which is a “A rich and vivid history of Britain's second city through the people who made it.

Long before Manchester gave the world titans of industry, comedy, music and sport, it was the cosmopolitan Roman fort of Mamucium. 

But it was as the ‘shock city’ of the Industrial Revolution that Manchester really made its mark on the world stage. 

A place built on hard work and innovation, it is no coincidence that the digital age began here too, with the world’s first stored-program computer, Baby.

A city as radical as it is revolutionary, Manchester has always been a political hotbed. 

The Peterloo Massacre is immortalised in British folklore and the city was a centre for pioneering movements such as Chartism. Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst hailed from here and the city still treasures its wilful independence.

Manchester’s spirited individuality has carried through into its artistic output too, bringing the world Anthony Burgess, L.S. Lowry, Jeanette Winterson, Joy Division and Oasis. Mention United or City almost anywhere and you’ll find fans, and opinions.

Until now, this magnificent city did not have its definitive history. From the author of the bestselling Northerners, this work of unrivalled authority and breadth tells the story of a changing place and its remarkable people".

The event takes place at the Chorlton Central Church on the corner of Zetland and Barlow Moor Roads stating at 6.30pm

And having renewed my knowledge of the city’s history, on the 27th I will be in the Edge Theatre to listen to Juliette Tomlinson introduce her debut novel, "Longford", which is set in the year “1864, in the great city of Manchester was Cottonopolis, rising with the sound of industry, and the boom of a hundred mills.

At the heart of its energies was John Rylands. 'the greatest merchant prince the world has ever seen'. 

This is the story of an empire built by a true Manchester man, given meaning and worth by the extraordinary woman who loved him.

Juliette Tomlinson has worked as a bookseller, and then in publishing. 

She lives in Stretford, Manchester, yards from Longford Park, which was a part of her childhood. 

The story will continue in a second book, Sunnyside”.

The talk starts at 2 pm till 4pm in the Edge on Manchester Road.

Which just leave me, and that history walk on Sunday the 22nd.

This year by popular request we will be in the graveyard by the village green exploring the history of the old parish church, and the stories of some who were buried there.

They include Thomas Walker who campaigned against the slave trade, supported the French Revolution and was tried for sedition, along with a mix of the “good, the bad, and the ordinary". 

Together they offer up a rich history of how Chorlton was from the late 18th century into the 20th.

After the talk we will have “light refreshments" at the Edge Theatre.

So there you have it.

All events are bookable through Chorlton Book Festival, https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/chorlton-book-festival-2024-3536319

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; book covers by permission of the authors, Chorlton graveyard, 1978 and 2008 from the collection of Andrew Simpson