How you steal a road ……… Manchester Road in Chorlton

Now, Manchester Road is one of our ancient roads.

Manchester Road, 1854

It twisted and turned through the township from High Lane through Martledge and out across open land to The Flash where it joined  a footpath to Hulme. *

Later still in 1838, Samuel Brooks cut his own private road from Brooks Bar along the route of that footpath  and in the process utilized the Black Brook which ran beside the old footpath “as a main sewer for his property which he drained into the watercourse”.**

But given that this new swanky road which we now know as Upper Chorlton Road, was the private property of Mr. Brooks, it is more likely that those wanting to leave the village would take another route from Manchester Road along Seymour Grove, which for most of its existence was “nothing more than an old lane or rough cart road with deep ditches at each side, overshadowed by trees, and used chiefly by the farmers and foot passengers of the village”.***

Manchester Road, date unknown

All of which means Manchester Road might well be seen as one of our “superhighways”, and as such the casual traveller would have lots to see on a trip from the village out towards The Flash.

At the junction with High Lane and Edge Lane the land was slightly higher than the surrounding, and on the site of what is now Stockton Range was a fine house which was popularly called the Glass House which was known as Pitts Brow, and during the early 19th century was regarded as the most attractive spot in the whole township.

A little further was an old ash tree which lent its name to the spot just past the church, which dates from the 1870s, when the Methodists built their third place of worship, adding a large Sunday School building a decade later.

Beyond this the road snaked out to Red Gates Farm, which now sits under Chorlton Library and on to the Flash.

The bit they stole, Manchester Road, 1960s

In the 1860s the Egerton estate cut a new road running from Edge Lane via Chorlton to Fallowfield in the expectation that by opening up a direct route from Stretford to Wilmslow Road it would stimulate development in the area, which it did.

Despite crossing Manchester Road, this new Egerton highway  had little impact on our road.

But not so the planners of the 20th century, who in their grand plan to build a shopping precinct here in Chorlton, stole a stretch of Manchester Road for a car park.

The result was the loss of some grand houses which lined this bit of the road and the severing of our ancient thoroughfare.

Next; that mystery water course

Location; Chorlton

Pictures;  detail of Manchester Road from the OS for Lancashire 1854, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ Manchester Road, date unknown and the bit they stole, 1960s, from the collection of Ida Bradshaw


*The Flash is the spot where Manchester Road joins Seymour Grove and Upper Chorlton Road, and became known as West Point.

**Ellwood, Thomas, Chapter 6, Roads, The History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, South Manchester Gazette, December 12, 1885

***ibid Ellwood, chapter 6

Of Waterloo sunsets, Peckham Rye and the Pleasuance at Well Hall

Now it is just one of those things that you miss where you grew up.

Coming home, 2013

It is such an obvious statement but is none the less true.

I left south east London in 1969 for Manchester unsure what was ahead of me but convinced that I would be back, but like most plans it never happened.

Manchester is where I ended up, got married bought a house and brought up four kids.

In my twenties I can’t say I missed London and I guess it wasn’t until quite recently, long after I qualified for a concessionary bus pass and reached an age to be rewarded with the being offered a seat on the tram that I began to think of home.

Well Hall, 2011

And home really only begins when the ferry docks or the  train pulls across the river into Waterloo and then I know I am back.

Another 20 or so minutes later and after the train has taken that curve I have arrived home in Eltham.

But then because we moved around, the train could quite easily have taken me to Queens Road or New Cross and because for a long time our Elizabeth lived in Plumstead and Woolwich there was that other set of railway stations.

My kids always know which special song to play for me and ever since I first heard Waterloo Sunset it has been my tune, with a special meaning given that Kay and I would meet every Friday night under that clock.

Ten years earlier Waterloo Station would be one of the destinations along with London Bridge which would be the start of an adventure.

Woolwich, 2015

For with 2/6d pocket money and aged just ten there were lots of places you could go for a modest return fare and still have change for a variety of sweets.

Sometimes you struck gold and on other occasions you ended up in a dreary back street beside a canal with grim tall buildings all around you.

But that didn’t matter because the fun was in the expectation of where you might go and once there roaming across the city in search of anything that looked interesting.

And there were the bombsites which were still pretty much in evidence all around us.  Most of the time there wasn’t much to discover, but once we found a gas mask still in its box with the green paint and black rubber looking brand new.

Woolwich, circa 1940s

And then there was the old bombed church of St Mary’s which was a place where with a shared candle  a group of you could wander through the crypt anticipating all sorts of horrors and finding only a damp and smelly mattress.

Some adventures turned out not so well, like the time me, Jimmy O’Donnel and John Cox having walked from Lausanne Road to Greenwich, took the wrong turning by the entrance to the foot tunnel and instead of standing on the sand in front of the Naval College we turned left walked amongst the barges and sank up to our ankles in oily Thames mud.

To this day I remain ashamed that I blamed the other two when mother interrogated me on arriving home.

Worse than the interrogation was the bath that followed which seemed to take hours and involved much scrubbing to remove the dried mud from me and even longer to make my shoes half decent.

Today those trips are less perilous but no less fun and often involve a brief visit to an old haunt like the Pleasaunce at Well Hall which is only a few minute’s walk from our old house.

Cambden Church, 1904

Of course I am well aware that the places of my youth have changed and as in the case of Woolwich pretty dramatically but I don’t subscribe to that throw away judgement that places I knew are “now rubbish”, they are just different and no doubt there would be those catapulted into the 21st century from 1900 who would mourn the passing of the “smoke hole” at Woolwich and wish there were two lanes of traffic forcing their way down Powis Street.

I suppose for those of us who leave it is always a bit odd to be confronted with the disappearance of all our childhood memories.

That said I never tire of Waterloo Sunset or arriving south over the river.

Location; south of the river

Pictures from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Scott MacDonald and Elizabeth and Collin Fitzpatrick and Steve Bardrick, Camden Church Peckham Road, circa 1904, Albert Flint Photographer and Publisher, 68 Church Street, Camberwell in the series Camberwell, marked by Tuck and Sons, and reproduced courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/

A little bit of gentle humour in 1903

Now I thought about digging out a Victorian Christmas card given the date, but I have done those already in the past and anyway Christmas is pretty much covered where ever you look, so instead here is a gentle bit of fun.

It dates from around 1903 and was sold not only here in Britain but also in the U.S.A, and Canada.

And before I upset Karl who delievers our mail I shall just reiterate that the Post Office has never let us down.

Picture;  URGENT, BY SPECIAL MESSENGER from the series, comic sketches, marketed by Tuck and sons, 1903, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Christmas with the Lion …………..

The comic annual has a long history.

They were produced for the Christmas market and were a mix of the favourite stories and articles drawn from the weekly comic.

For me, its golden age was in the 1950s, and the preeminent comic book was the Eagle, with its companions, Girl, Swift and Robin.

That said there were others, and of these I suppose I was most drawn to the Lion, which like its weekly comic version was a less sophisticated product than the Eagle.

The artwork was cruder, the size of the comic smaller and some of the stories lacked the detail of my Eagle.

But I never quite forgot the Lion, and yesterday three of the annuals were sent to me by Steve.

They are dated, 1954, 1955, and 1956, and of the three it is the last that struck me most because it was the one I was given.

Who gave me the book I can’t remember, but as Dad and mum always bought me the Eagle, I guess it was an uncle.

Looking through the 1956 annual, I recognize the stories and can vividly recall some of them, and more than a few of the individual pictures.

The key stories were those that would appeal to any 1950s lad, of which space, knights in armour and westerns predominated.

I must confess back then and even now I preferred the strip cartoons and avoided those stories which were all print.

Like Eagle, the Lion annual had a its share of factual material which in 1956 included “When the Romans went Chariot Racing, “Wonders of Outer Space”, and the “World Wide Quiz”.

But there was less of it than in Eagle, and the themes were far more Eurocentric.

Added to which the books felt cheaper, partly because of the poorer quality paper that was used.

There will be those who think I am being a tad unfair and flicking through the 1954 annual there was a fascinating account of what life on the Moon might be like, which makes interesting reading sixty five years after it was written and just fifteen before the first moon landing.

And the three annuals are of their time, which rather makes them history books in their own right, and so I shall close with the "Picture Parade of Facts Near and Far", with the account of robot made by a boy in the USA and the one I vividly remember when during “a football match was in progress between two fire brigade teams at Liverpool, a cry of FIRE! Rang out.  The game stopped abruptly, and everyone looked for the fire.  It was in a player’s pocket, where a box of matches had burst into flame”.

Now that has to be very 1950s.

But having renewed an old acquitance, I happily turned to my old friend the Eagle, and spent an happy half hour.

Location; the 1950s










Pictures; from the covers of the Lion Annuals, 1954-1956 and the Eagle annual, 1956 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Suggestions for a Christmas present and an outrageous piece of self promotion ........ nu 2 Didsbury Through Time

Now very soon lots of you will be pondering on Christmas presents and so with that in mind here is the second suggestion.

Day two and Didsbury Through Time, a book designed to take you across the old township from east to west with a mix of old photographs, original paintings by Peter Topping and lots of stories from me of the lives of the people who lived behind the doors of the posh and the humble houses.

Here is the tale young Bertha Geary who heard the Flying Man and of odd goings on down at the Devils Gate and much more.

Available from us at http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or Chorlton Book shop, 506 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9AW 0161 881 6374 info@chorltonbookshop.co.uk.
& E J Morton the bookshop, 6 Warburton St, Manchester M20 6WA 0161 445 7629

Post early for Christmas ...... to a place in the 1950s

Now I think the Post Office must do things differently from when I was growing up in the 1950s.

Back then delightful and innovative posters appeared every year in the run up to Christmas.

And this is one I like.  

It comes from the collection of David Harrop who collects all things posty and thinks it dates from the 1950s.

A trawl of GPO sites didn’t advance my research and so the 1950s it is.

Today a quick flick through the internet will offer up the details of the last dates to send letters, cards and parcels to every part of the globe.

But back in the 1950s we did indeed do things differently, and posters like this were on display in Post Offices and probably other public places.

And I seem to recall as the 1950s slid into the next decade that information began appearing on the telly, with a mix of serious public announcements with rather silly ones delivered in the form of a cartoon.

And that is all I am going to say.

Location; the 1950s

Picture; Post Early, circa 1950s, from the collection of David Harrop

Suggestions for a Christmas present and an outrageous piece of self promotion ........ nu 1 Hough End Hall

Now very soon lots of you will be pondering on Christmas presents and so with that in mind over the week here are some suggestions.

Day One and Hough End Hall The Story, written by me with original paintings by Peter Topping this book tells the story of 400 years of the hall’s history from posh place, to farm house and finally a restaurant and the promise of something more.

Here are stories not only of the people of plenty but all those who have passed through in those four centuries.

But buyer beware. It was published in 2014 and while the last chapter has been eclipsed by events the rest of the history stands.

Available from us at http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ Chorlton Book shop, 506 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9AW 0161 881 6374 

Walking down Sidcup High Street in the August of 1961

Now it would be a full three years after this picture postcard of Sidcup High Street was sent before we settled in Eltham and a lot longer before I wandered down into Sidcup.

Well Hall had pretty much all I wanted back then and if I did feel adventurous  it was to Woolwich that I went.

So Sidcup in 1961was unknown to me and I haven’t been back since 1966, which means I have no idea to what extent the place looks like it did back then.

Of course the ABC cinema is no more.

It had a chequered history and lasted longer than most, having opened in 1909 as a concert hall, converted into a picture house five years later and getting an Art Deco make over in 1932.

It then went through a number of cinema chains, finally closing in 2000 and demolished three years later.

So had I ventured down into Sidcup in the 60s I could still have caught a film there but given the attractions of the Well Hall Odeon that was never to be.

All of which just leaves me to add that when Alf, Kath and Pauline sent the card on August 9th the weather “was rough but had been a scorcher” the day before.

Now I am hard pressed to remember the August of 1961 or what I was doing, but they may be those who do, and perhaps even what they were doing in Sidcup High Street all those years ago.

Picture; Sidcup High Street, from the set Sidcup by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://www.tuckdb.org/

Christmas greetings from the beginning of the last century

Christmas greetings from the beginning of the last century







Picture; from the collection of Rita Bishop, courtesy of David Bishop

The German Christmas card from Nell Lane …. 1918

There is a story here which is over-layered with a mystery, but I doubt I will find an answer to why someone would send a Christmas card from a British military hospital during the Great War.

The hospital was the old Withington Workhouse infirmary which was requisitioned to care for wounded servicemen.

Thousands will have passed through during the conflict but I am not sure that their records have survived.

Some of the men who died of their wounds are buried in Southern Cemetery, but as for the rest, I fear their records have been lost forever.

And that brings me back to the card, which was acquired by my old friend David Harrop who sent it over today.

It is a printed postcard, but carries no imprint on the reverse, leaving just the stylized picture with the word "Christmas" in German along with the reference to “Military Hospital Nell Lane Manchester 1918”.

So, was it one of a batch especially designed for German POW’s recovering in the hospital, which could be sent home for Christmas?

If so, it opens up a whole new line of research on the hospital.

Someone will know, or will make a sound guess based on information I don’t have.

And yes someone offered up an answer, which was as I supposed.  

The hospital provided care for German POW's, some of whom died and were buried in Southern Cemetery.

But what I didn't know was that, "On 16 October 1959, the governments of the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany made an agreement about the future care of the remains of German military personnel and German civilian internees of both world wars who at the time were interred in various cemeteries not already maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 

It was agreed that the remains would be transferred to a single central cemetery established on Cannock Chase for this purpose"*

Location; Nell Lane

Picture; Christmas, Military Hospital Nell Lane Manchester 1918, from the collection of David Harrop

*Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannock_Chase_German_Military_Cemetery?fbclid=IwAR2NCwTf3PWjF2Emxy6knxj-8l0-3QIiVosJ9Ici2kbzJoe_zt4vCPivWzU

One clock tower ….. a pub ….. and 4 funny looking cars ….. 45 years ago

The picture may not win any prizes for top quality image of the year.

But then it was 1979 and I was just starting out on taking photographs and developing them using smelly photography.

Still, it is sort of a record of the Town Hall, and the Town Hall Tavern taken from King Street a very long time ago

Location; King Street

Picture; One clock tower ….. a pub ….. and 4 funny looking cars, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Bryan Barlow and his wonderful bookshop on Beech Road

There will be many like me who remember Bryan the Book with affection.

I got to know him during almost daily visits to his book shop on Beech Road.

It was an amazing place which was an Aladdin’s cave of second hand books which offered up everything from novels to history books, volumes on growing plants and back numbers of Punch, Picture Post and even Women’s Weekly.

Many of the books I bought from Bryan are still on our shelves and I continue to like the idea that shops like Bryan's allowed a book a second and even a third chance to be read, liked and treasured.

Some have even made their way via our lads to Sheffield, Leeds, and even Warsaw.

I always referred to the shop  as “Bryan the Book” while my friend David called him “Chorlton Man” and while there were many other sides to Bryan these two do help describe him and his contribution to the area and in particular Beech Road.

Picture;  Bryan’s Bookshop from the collection of Lawrence Beedle

The Eltham Hutments ............ the book of the story and a thank you to Tricia

Now until very recently I had no idea that a small community of 1500 families lived close to where I grew up on Well Hall Road.

But then why should I?  They were erected in 1916 and had gone by 1937.

The first hints came from comments on  the Well Hall facebook site but it was my friend Tricia Leslie who first alerted me to the extent of this small estate and pointed me in the direction of The Eltham Hutments by John Kennett.

Mr Kennett is a respected local historian who has written extensively about the area and contributes a regular column for SE nine. **

And with the The Eltham Hutments he has uncovered a rich part of our history.

“Between 1916 and 1937 parts of the Well Hall and Eltham Park areas of Eltham were covered by temporary dwellings.  

These 1500 wooden huts were erected for Woolwich Arsenal munitions workers and their families.

To a whole generation of local people they were home yet memories of life in ‘the hutments’ are limited to a dwindling number of former residents.”***

The book covers the building of the huts, much on life in the community and their final demolition and removal.

What is all the more exciting is that Tricia has strong family links with those huts; “my grandfather is mentioned in the book as Mr W.B. (William Broadhurst) under the heading of Shooters Hill By-Pass (Rochester Way) and Re-Housing.  It was a test case that went to court.”

And she is currently researching the community which will be a fascinating addition to Eltham’s story.

Picture; cover of The Eltham Hutments, 1985

* The Eltham Hutments by John Kennett, 1985, Eltham Books

**SE nine, http://www.senine.co.uk/

***ibid John Kennett, page 1

Suggestions for a Christmas present and an outrageous piece of self promotion ......."Smile Dammit Smile!!! Chorlton" No. 5

Now very soon lots of you will be pondering on Christmas presents and so with that in mind over the next week here are some suggestions

And I shall start with Peter's silly and funny plunge into investigative journalism  with stories on “Bodies Found in Southern Cemetery”, “Chorlton Bus found on Moon”, and “Mysterious Container Found on Doorstep", along with “Books Discovered in Chorlton Bookshop”, and “Dead Shark Found in Chorlton Diving Pool”.

Available from us at http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ Chorlton Book shop, 506 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9AW 0161 881 6374 

Walks I wish I could have taken, ...... up Liverpool Road towards Deansgate in the spring of 1849

The station and staiton master's house

We are on Liverpool Road just a little under twenty years after the opening of the Manchester terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

The station and its warehouse had been opened in 1830 and so successful had the venture been that two new warehouses were added very quickly followed by a second platform to accommodate the increased number of trains, and just fourteen years after its grand start all passengers operations were moved to a bigger and grander station at Hunts Bank.

There had been high hopes in the last decades of the 18^th century that the area could be developed into an estate of fine houses like those on St John’s Street but the proposed plans to bring a railway into Manchester had pretty much scuppered that idea.

Instead the land from the Duke’s Canal at Castlefield, north to St John’s Church and east towards Deansgate was filled with more modest houses which were the homes of craftsmen, textile workers, warehouseman and a whole range of lesser occupations. 

The station master's house

Many of which were dependant on the collection of warehouses, timber yards, and coal sites which served the network of canals and now the railways.

The Duke's Canal which had come into the city in the 1760s was but the first of more canals, while our rail terminus was soon joined by the viaducts of the Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway which cut through the southern edge of the city.

So in 1849 this spot at the bottom of Liverpool Road may not have offered green fields and scenic views, but it was a place that many visitors would have flocked to because here like the cotton mills was what was making Manchester a new and different type of city. As the German Johann George Kohl wrote

“I know of no town in Great Britain, except London, which makes so deep an impression upon the stranger as Manchester.  London is alone of its kind and so is Manchester.  Never since the world began, was there a town like it, its outward appearance, it’s wonderful activity its mercantile and manufacturing prosperity, and its remarkable moral and political phenomena......”*

The entrance of the first class booking hall

And had he stood at the bottom of Liverpool Road looking up towards Deansgate this frenetic industrial landscape is what he would have seen.  Almost directly behind him was a dye works and just over the river the Regent Bridge Mill while just out of site behind the viaduct was the Elm Street Paper Mill and in all directions were  those timber yards, warehouses and coal yards.

So we shall accompany our visitor up Liverpool Road past what had once been the station entrance for first and second class passengers and was now the company’s offices.  And with a bit of luck we could get a glimpse at the three warehouses of which the first held corn, groceries and butter and the remaining two are given over to cotton. 

Here there is that smell of locomotives which is a mix of steam and oil along with the distinctive clunk of railway wagons being uncoupled and manually pushed into the warehouse on turntables. 

The station and warehouse complex, 1842

Each wagon can be unloaded beside the warehouse but the company had copied the design of the canal warehouse which allowed a boat to go into the building.  

Now this presented a problem because a railway track is not a canal and so getting the wagon into the warehouse involves uncoupling each wagon and turning it at right angles and pushing it in.

But enough of such industrial detail for just beyond this spot was the Oxnoble Inn so named after a type of potato landed at Potato Wharf and a reminder of the amount of agricultural produce that came in the Duke’s Canal.

But if you didn’t fancy the Oxnoble there are three others to chose from, starting with the Queens, Arms, the Railway and Quay Tavern and finishing with the White Lion. And if that was not enough you can throw in seven beer shops which means that a quarter of the shops along our route are given over to alcohol.

That does still leave plenty of grocers, a butcher’s, a druggist, a baker and a large number of furniture shops.  Less welcome are the fish stalls at the top of the road where it joins Deansgate.  The smell is pretty intolerable and has led to the residents’ complaining to the authorities who accept there is a problem but are not prepared to clear them away and lose the revenue that come from the stalls.**

St Matthew's 1850 from the front

On a more pleasant note there is the fine looking Sunday School sandwiched between Wellington Place and Duke Street.  

The entrance is on Liverpool Road but I rather like the rear with its rounded wall.  It was built with money voted by the Government to celebrate the victory at Waterloo and is the Sunday school for St Matthews Church which a little further up the road.

It is built in the modern Gothic style of architecture and according to one guide book “when viewed from the large open space in front has a very elegant appearance.  

The height from the ground to the top spire is 132 feet [and] the west gallery contains a fine organ by Nicholson of Rochdale and the choral service is performed here on Sundays, at half past ten and half past six.”****

All of which is fine but does not hide the fact that just beyond the church in the area known as the Haymarket was what one report described “as a great nuisance [which] at certain times  bears all the appearances of a public privy rendering access to the Church yard & Vestry  from the quarter altogether impossible.   

Looking up Tonman Street with the shambles ahead

Filth seems to have a magnetic attraction hence the whole eastern boundary of the Churchyard as well as the yard itself as far as practicable is the depot of all sorts of refuse from dead rats to decayed cabbage leaves.” 

Which “in the course of years, this open space having never been paved, its level has risen to the top of the stone parapet on which the iron palisading of St. Matthew’s church yard is fixed some 18’’ or more perhaps above the original level.  

To secure access to the Churchyard and through this east gate a sufficient space has been kept clear by propping up the surrounding accumulations with wood.”

Now that I suspect is not the sort of attraction Mr Kohl would have reported with enthusiasm, and I think it a good place to stop the walk.

The church, hay market, shambles and pubs

If we did walk on past the church and the Haymarket along Tonman Street ahead of us would have been the Alport Shambles which was also known as the Butcher's Market.  

It is there just behind St Matthews and the tall chimney may well be part of it.  

I suspect our residents would have been no happier about that place. 

Not that Ebenezer Heap of the Saint Matthew's Tavern or his fellow landlord, James Crowther of the Haymarket Inn would complain over much for long hours in the shambles meant thirtsty customers in their repective pubs.  

Something which may have also been why Mary Morrell opened her beer shop next to to the Haymarket at number one Tonman Street.

So I rather think we shall retrace our steps and look again at St Matthews Sunday school, which was opened in 1827, with its fine entrance facing Liverpool Road and the elegant mock battlements running down each side.

Next; on to Camp Street and its mean secrets, St John Street with its posh houses, and the search for the home of Cholera victims

Pictures; The former station on Liverpool Road, S. Langton, 1860, m62891, St Matthews’s Church, 1850, m71038, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, Liverpool Road from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1842-49, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Johann George Kohl, “Journeys Through England & Wales 1844, quoted from Visitors to Manchester, complied by L.D. Bradshaw, 1987, Neil Richardson

** Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, Deansgate District, Report of the Visiting Committee 1853, Appendix A.

***The Strangers Guide to Manchester, H.G.Duffield, 1858

****ibid Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association,

The secret of the Narnia Lamppost ……. the string quartet .......and four pubs

 The History talk and walk is back.

On December 15th we will be exploring tales of the odd, the scandalous and the bizarre taking in some local historic landmarks, more than a few interesting people, and of course our four local pubs.

The Narnia Lamppost, 2020

In the course of which we will look for the missing plaque to a murdered policeman in the Bowling Green, wonder why the Methodists were cheated of their Sunday school on the site of the Beech Inn, and ask who was Trevor at the Trevor Arms?  

Snow on the green, 1984

And we will end inside the Horse and Jockey who will be our hosts as we round off with tales of suspected murder, the arrest of a prize fighter and the man who stole the village green.

In between there will be that string quartet, the Narnia lamppost and myths of tunnels under the green from the Jockey to the church and on to the Bolwer

So meet on the village green by the Narnia Lamppost at 12.30 pm on December 15th and finish in the Horse and Jockey.

Tales in the Horse and Jockey, 2024

A free history talk and walk.

All welcome

Location Chorlton Green

Pictures, The Narnia lamppost, 2022, and inside the Horse and Jockey, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Chorlton Green in the snow, courtesy of Tony Walker, 1984

  

I have seen the future …… and its not that different from 1960 ……… stories from Dan Dare

Now I am a child of the 1950s.

Page 1

I may have grown into a teenager and left school in the 60s, but my formative years were set in the decade before, when the country was coming out of rationing, television was still for a few and bombsites vied with parks as places to play.

And for  my generation …. both boy and girl, Christmas meant a comic annual.

Page 2

Mine was and remained the Eagle.

The comic had first appeared in 1950, and its first companion annual was published in 1951.

Each annual was a mix of articles, hobby activities and stories, with a fair share of those stories turned over to picture strips featuring characters from the comic.

And foremost amongst the heroes was Dan Dare.

I can’t remember when I got my first annual, but it will have been around 1957, and from then on till I “put away such things” six years later the books were always part of my Christmas.

Dan Dare in the Vanishing Scientists was from vol 9 which was published in 1960, and told the story of Strombold “a renegade scientist” who has kidnapped a group of fellow scientists to use them to attack Earth.

Of course, he is defeated, but not before we have been given a glimpse of how the author thought the future would be like.

Page 8

And not unsurprisingly amongst all the rockets, and advanced technology, there was much that was just 1950s Britain, including a “midnight feast” by students at Astral College, and a  professor dressed in gown and hat.

But above all it was that good triumphed over bad, and criminals were defeated, prompting Sir Hubert Guest, head of Space Fleet to comment  that men like Strombold “try to make science work for their own power instead of humanity – and that will never do!”

And you can’t say fairer than that.

Location; the Future

Pictures; from Dan Dare in the Vanishing Scientists, Eagle Annual 9, 1960

Lost on Sidcup High Street, looking for Boots the Chemist

Now I am on a roll.

Having recently wandered up Sidcup High Street in 1961  as far as the old ABC, I back again today.

It is another picture postcard from Tuck and Son but sadly without a message on the reverse.

Still it will bring back memories for some at least with that collection of shops which include Woolworths, K Shoes and Boots.

Picture; Sidcup High Street, from the set Sidcup by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://www.tuckdb.org/

Books for Christmas …… from my chums ……. number two

When you spend your time researching and writing books it is always nice to reflect on the work of friends who have published their books this year.

And today it is the turn of my old friend and collaborator Peter Topping and our mutual friend Lindy Newns.

I have known them both for over forty years.

Both pursued very different careers before turning to books, and poetry.

Together they produced Poems by Lindy and Pictures by Peter, which inspired Peter to go on and write two more books exploring “Rhyming Poems” and Musical Nursery Rhymes.

All three are available in Chorlton Bookshop and from  www.pubbooks.co.uk

From Whitechapel to Edge Lane in Chorlton …….. in the company of Mrs. Shevloff and Mr. Lazarus

Now, I never lose that sense of excitement of standing in front of a house which was home to someone I have been researching.

Leman Street, with 117, marked in red, 1874

And more so when the journey runs back from Chorlton  to Whitechapel in London.

The person in question was Julia Lazarus who was born in 1880, to parents who were from the Russian part of Poland.

Her father and mother had been here since 1874, and he sought and was granted naturalization as a British citizen just two years after Julia was born.

Back then they were living at 117 Leman Street, in the heart of Whitechapel, which was a three-story property on the corner with Hooper Street.

The building is still there and comparing the footprint with the same site from the OS map of 1874, this was where they lived.

Mr. Lazarus is variously listed as a grocer, hotel keeper, financier and running a loan office, all within a short distance of Leman Street.

He died in 1936, by which time his daughter was living in Chorlton, at 22 Edge Lane and that is the link to one of those fascinating research projects which never quite gets finished.

22 Edge Lane, 2019

Because 22 Edge Lane, keeps throwing up little gems which offer insights in to how we lived.

The house dates back to 1865, and for almost a century, was home to “the people of plenty” who were merchants, professionals, and employers of others.

And of these Julia’s husband is quite interesting.  He too was born in Russia, was naturalised in 1909 and had a flourishing business, in Sheffield and later Manchester,  selling “hosiery, blankets, quilts, sheets, towels, plain and fancy  linens, lace curtains”, and advertised himself as  “casement manufacturers and merchants”.*

The Lazarus family at 47 Leman Street, 1895

Like Julia’s parents he first settled in London, where he met and married Julia, moved to Sheffield and sometime in the 1920s set up business in the Manchester and moved into Edge Lane.

The romantic in me often wonders whether Mr. Lazarus took the train north from Whitechapel and visited his daughter, son in law and grandchildren.

I doubt I will ever turn up the evidence, but no doubt there would have been pictures of the house of Edge Lane which made their way south, along with stories of the Manchester business.

And while writing the story of Julia and her husband I encountered people who remembered shopping at Shevloff’s premises in the 1960s.

So, there is much still to research, and in the fullness of time I might get inside number 22 Edge Lane, and more pictures of the house along with those of Leman Street.

Pictures; Leman Street in 1874, from the 1874 OS of London, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Edge Lane courtesy of Armistead Property Ltd**


*Shevloff E. B. & S. Ltd 23 High Street, Slater’s Manchester & Salford Directory, 1929

**Armistead Property, http://www.armisteadproperty.co.uk/

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

Books for Christmas …… from my chums

When you spend your time researching and writing books it is always nice to reflect on the work of friends who have published their books this year.

And to start, here is a review of the new book Longford, written by my friend Juliette which came out in September.

I have featured it already on the blog, and this month it was picked by Manchester Post*, who I thank for allowing me to reproduce the review.

It is available from Chorlton Bookshop, Waterstones and the Squeeze Press, https://woodenbooks.com/index.php

*Manchester Post Newspapers, https://communitynewsgm.co.uk/about-the-newspapers/manchester-south-post/

Mrs. Clara Nicholson of Chorlton ……. the mile of pennies ……. and a Disaster Appeal

“In the Russian famine we are witnessing the most terrible devastation that has afflicted the world for centuries.

"Hordes of starving disease infected people have left their homes" 1921

It is estimated that 35 million people will require relief.  I am sorry to say that such news as we have received points to a most appalling catastrophe”.*

The words could have come from any one of several celebrities or journalists looking to camera and reporting on a human disaster against a background of moving and awful images of starving people.

But not so, they come from the Manchester Guardian reporting on the appalling famine that was ravaging Russia in the summer of 1921.

And in the face of that famine thousands of people were on the move.  Some were heading towards Turkestan, others to Siberia and more to Poland in the knowledge that there were “no food supplies and no shelter and they are doomed to annihilation.  Of these migratory bodies only some 20 per cent are able bodied and MORE THAN 30 PER CENT. ARE CHILDREN. The condition of these last is piteous.  Many of them have been abandoned to their parents.  The people are eating grass, roots and other rubbish”. **

Now my Wikipedia tells me “The Russian famine of 1921–1922, also known as the Povolzhye famine, was a severe famine in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic which began early in the spring of 1921 and lasted through 1922. This famine killed an estimated 5 million people, primarily affecting the Volga and Ural River regions.”***

The mile of pennies, 1921

Reading the Manchester Guardian’s coverage I am struck by the depth of the crisis, and how contemporary were the appeals for help, particularly for The Save the Children Fund, which produced a series of films about the famine and the wider relief problems across Europe.

Here in Britain people were encouraged to send subscriptions responding the simple appeal “Send what you can ‘All you can- Today!”

And individuals and groups looked to the imaginative ways they could raise money and that has led me back to Mrs. Clara Nicholson of Chorlton who along with others set out to raise £220 by making a “mile of pennies”.  

The event took part on October 30th, 1921, in the waiting room of the former tram office on Barlow Moor Road, because the location was a busy spot on a Sunday afternoon.

And just like modern fund-raising activities the committee had invited the Lady Mayoress to take part, personalizing the appeal by specifying “Twenty four pennies will keep one Russian child for a week and so every step in that 'proposed mile' would bring hope and happiness where there is only despair."****

One of the members of that committee was Mrs. Clara Nicholson of Gilbrook Edge Lane, and as you do I went looking for her.

Chorlton Tram Office, circa 1920/30s

And in 1921 I found her at Gilbrook which was number 10 Edge Lane, married to James Nicholson, who was a clothing manufacture with works at Worsley Street in Hulme.

Sadly their home on Edge Lane had vanished by 1933, but I did come across their house on Wilbraham Road close to Blair Road where they had lived a decade earlier.

As yet that is about it, and the trail goes dead.

There is a Clara Nicholson living on “private means” in Oldham in 1939, but that is about it, which is a shame because I would like to know more about her charity work.

But someone may offer up more.

We shall see.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures, Cartoon and description of the mile of pennies, 1921, the tram office with waiting room, circa 1920s-30s from the Lloyd Collection

*The Most Terrible Devastation that has Afflicted the world for Centuries., Manchester Guardian, August 28th, 1921

**ibid, Manchester Guardian, August 28th, 1921

*** Russian famine of 1921–1922, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922

***From Chorlton-cum-Hardy to the Volga Valley, Manchester Guardian, October 20th, 1921