Lost Chorlton ……..it’s all in the ground ……

You would have to have been born before the mid 60s to remember the stretch of houses on Barlow Moor Road which were demolished to build the eastern side of the now closed Chorlton Precinct.

Wilbraham Road, circa 1911

They date from 1896 and had gone by the early 1970s if not the late 60s.

In 1911 around the time the photograph was taken the street directory lists the occupants as “Shaw Chas. & Sons, motor enginrs”, at number 42, with “Webster Thomas Frederick, Webster Misses M. & B. dress mas, and Jones Charles E. photographer”, next door and “Fugistall Charles, confectioner” at 46.

Nothing much remarkable in that given that Chorlton had been growing a pace since the housing boom which had started in the 1880s.

But the entry relating to Charles Shaw is interesting because just eight years earlier he is listed as “Shaw Charles and sons cycle dealers and agents” and hints at a man who saw an opportunity with the coming of the motor car.

So much so that by 1912 he had opened a purpose-built garage on Barlow Moor Road with a petrol pump beside the road.

And equally innovative was the presence of Mr. Fugistall at 44 Wilbraham Road who was selling that other wonder of the age providing people with a “true likeness of themselves” in the form of a photograph.

A hole in the ground, 2024

It’s all a bit of our history that has long been forgotten, but on Saturday I was down by that very spot peering into a hole in the ground.

Odd bits, 2024

As ever there wasn’t much to see and what ever was being done extended into the old Precinct, but as ever it was the pile of stuff excavated from the said hole in the ground, including what looked like a bit of water main, a variety of bricks some older looking than others and a lump of stone.

And I rather think some of those buried bits will be all that are left of numbers 42 through to 46 Wilbraham Road.  They had a short existence, but long enough to be remembered by some.

I have set my friend Anthony the task of looking through his extensive collection of street directories to track the names of people who lived in the properties from the 1920s into the 1960s.

All of which will add to our knowledge of this short strip of Wilbraham Road.

"Is it really history?" I hear Eric mutter and yes it is …. just not the stuff of war, disasters or the tales of the good and the great.

Location; Wilbraham Road

Pictures; Wilbraham Road circa 1911 from the Lloyd Collection and in 2024 from the collection of Andrew Simpson