A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 9 ....... a legal agreement 1767

A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragrah and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories. 

It is one of the most revealing documents in the Bailey family collection and sets out the tenancy agreement between James Renshaw and Samuel Egerton who owned much of Chorlton.   By the contract James Renshaw was to rent “several fields, Closes or Parcels of land, ..... containing four acres,” as well “All that Messuage or Cottages and tenement.”  It laid out the timetable for paying the rent and the Egerton’s rights to any minerals found under the ground as well as all “Timber Trees Woods and Underwoods.”   It was an agreement which lasted into the 20th century with the family continuing to farm the land and live in the same farm house into the first decade of the 20th century. And at the centre of it all was the home which was only demolished in the 1970s.

Picture; from the Bailey family collection

Vanished Manchester communities ...........

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

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

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

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

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

They just record what he saw.

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

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

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

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

Home thoughts from abroad nu 4 ................ catching a train and borrowing a book

An occasional series on what I miss about the place where I grew up.*

Now when you leave the place you grew up and pretty much only go back for the odd short visit it becomes frozen in time.

Not so of course for my sisters and their families which of course is just how it should be.

All of which has made me come back to these two pictures of Eltham from the collection of Steve Bardrick.

They were taken by his grandfather sometime in the 1950s or 60s, and are just as I remember home and both in their way are special.

And the station is the first I would single out for having moved to Well Hall in 1964 I still made the train journey every week day back to New Cross and Samuel Pepys Secondary Modern School.

I can’t say I ever felt that happy about the school and so the walk up along the station approach was a mixed one and was something I did like the visit to the dentist.  You did it because you had to but it was never going to be something you chose to do.

Added to which as the trip was done during the rush hour the chances of getting a seat were never high.

That said the journey back was always something to look forward to and even now I can remember the train taking the curve past the signal box and pulling in to the station with that view of the woods above where we lived.

I never tired of it then and I still have fond memories of the scene  which signalled I was home.

The new station might be more shinny and look the part but the old one with its wooden booking hall giving out onto the platform and that cast iron footbridge are part of my Eltham.

And in much the same way so is the picture of the High Street offering as it does Woollies, the library and the electricity showrooms.

If you are of a certain age the old Woolworths will have powerful memories.
It starts with that special smell, continues with the wooden floorboards and those mahogany island counters and culminates with the sound of Apache or Telstar blaring out and those small round ice creams.

The library was to become one of my favourite’s haunts, a place you went when you needed to do some homework and better still the place to borrow an LP.

Even the electricity showroom was not without its charm with those odd shaped windows.

And by 1966 the library won out over the station, because in that September I had swapped schools and was going to Crown Woods, a place which will always be special.**

It was there I met friends that have stayed the course over the last fifty years and it was there that I discovered the magic of books, and history and a way of looking at the world which I have never lost.

All of which meant that it was looking down at the High Street from the top of the bus twice a day which pretty much took over from the walk up the station approach.

And then one day in the 1980s I returned to find that the station had moved, and later still Wilcox’s and Woollies were no more and even later still the Greyhound had been transformed

Of course there is that simple response that I should get back more often and there is much in that idea.

But even so I rather think I would still miss the old station and if I am pushed hard it will be that slow final pull into Well Hall with the view of the woods which were best seen from the old site.

And before I forget that look down on the Pleasaunce which in the summer would always be a place to stop and sit for a few minutes beside the old moat and equally old garden wall.

Location Eltham, London




Pictures; Eltham Well Hall Railway Station & the High Street circa 1960s from the collection of Steve Bardrick

*Home thoughts from abroad, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Home%20thoughts%20from%20abroad

**Crown Woods School Eltham, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Crown%20Woods%20School%20Eltham

A Saturday in Salford …… in 1977 ….. the exhibition at The Langworthy Cornerstone Community Centre ... today

Last night I was at an exhibition of photographs of a bit of Salford that was lost and has now been found again.

The pictures were taken by Steve Chapman who on a Saturday nearly 50 years ago wandered down from Langworthy to the Docks recording what he saw.

He was accompanied by Phil Portus, another young photographer and both were aware that with the programme of wholesale house clearance, buildings and a community would soon be lost for ever.

Steve reflected that as a young art student in Manchester he had followed the redevelopment of Hulme which in just a few short years had demolished rows of small terraced houses as well as shops, pubs and small workshops wiping away a close-knit community.

Steve Chapman

And having rediscovered the negatives from that Salford trip he agreed to this exhibition of his work at the Langworthy Corne stone Community Centre.

The event attracted a host of people, from family, friends, and former residence of the area including Jimmy who features on one picture with a group of his friends.

Judging by the comments the display of Steve’s pictures brought back a heap of memories and are an important record of what the area was like and will stand long after that Salford has faded from living memory.

Many will remember that Steve’s companion on the day had an exhibition a few years ago at the Cornerstone where he showcased his images.*

Steve discussing an image

Tony Flynn and Steve

Steve’s fascinating record of that past Salford is on at the Cornerstone Community Centre from  Monday through  to Friday until December.

And because I can, here is a short video made by Tony Flynn talking to Steve, Jimmy and others on the night.*

Location; Langworthy Cornerstone Community Centre

Pictures; of the evening, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2025

*Phil Portus, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Phil%20Portus

**Salford Revisited chatting with photographer, Steve Chapman, https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4359521310945096&id=100006618102433&rdid=n8TQxXnPD3dgNRUg#

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 8 ....... a railway ticket circa 1920

A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and  a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.

The railway had come to Chorlton in 1880, and provided a quick service into the heart of the city. It took just seven minutes to travel from Chorlton into Manchester and was one of the factors which helped the development of new Chorlton allowing people to work in the commercial heart of the city but live within a few minute’s walk of the countryside. I can’t tell you when the ticket was issued but I think it must have been between 1892 and 1947. I can be fairly certain because the Fallowfield Loop line to Fallowfield and Guide Bridge was opened in 1892 and the Cheshire Lines Committee or CLC which ran the lines out of Central Station through Chorlton ceased in 1947 when the railways were nationalized. Had we travelled on that ticket it would have taken us just seven minutes to get to Fallowfield, passing through Wilbraham Road station. And had we elected to go all the way to Guide Bridge we would have been on the train for just 22 minutes having passed through Levenshulme, Hyde Road and Fairfield, but our ticket was only valid for Fallowfield so I suppose that was where we would alighted.

 Picture; from the Lloyd collection

Home thoughts from abroad nu 1 ................. Well Hall Road on a warm spring day in 1965

An occasional series on what I miss about the place where I grew up.

Now I don’t do nostalgia.  It’s over rated and too often offers up a view of the past which at best is deceptive and at worse downright wrong.

But having been away from Eltham for over forty years I have bit by bit been drawn back.

It’s partly those bouts of reflection that come from someone in his seventies but also because it was one of the places I was happiest.

That said for most of that last forty years it is somewhere I only came back to on flying visits.

In the early 70s Well Hall was home between term time, and then a place to catch up with family and friends and later still where we brought the children for short holidays.

During those early visits I have to confess to a mix of feelings.  It was always nice to be back amongst familiar places but when you are 19 it is easy to be over judgemental.  After all I was living in the heart of Manchester which was vibrant and new, offering up a wealth of experiences and Eltham seemed small beer.

But I never entirely lost the pull of Eltham and in the last few years have begun digging deep into its history and remembering so much from my childhood.

So this is the first of those memories and it is nothing more than that walk I took from our house up to the High street.

We lived just beyond the roundabout and so on a warmish spring day it was no hardship to stroll down past the Odeon and the parade of shops taking a detour into the Pleasaunce before going under the railway bridge up past Spencer Gardens and that second parade of shops before reaching Willcox’s and the parish church.

More often than not there was no real purpose behind the trip which meant you could take your time, be delayed by looking in the window of the electrical shop near Wells the Chemist, gaze at one of the guitars in Norman’s before  deciding on a book from Willcox’s.

And then with the whole High Street ahead of you an hour or two could pass just looking at the shops and visiting the library.

Like others I have very fond memories of the library which offered up plenty to do, from digging out those obscure old volumes from the reference section to choosing an LP and a couple of books.

Of course Well Hall Road offered up more than just a route to the library and on other days when the sun shone it was the way up to the woods and on to Woolwich.

Now I know others will have their own favourite road and I have to concede that Court Yard and Colepits Lane had their attractions but sitting here just 4 miles from the centre of Manchester I will go for Well Hall Road.

Location; Well Hall Road, Eltham

Pictures; Well Hall Road, & Eltham Library, 2014 from the collection of Chrissy Rose

Standing amongst the groceries in Hulme ..... sixty years ago

When you look through the collections of pictures of old Manchester, you seldom find many of the interiors of buildings.

I can think of plenty of reasons why that might be so, but the result is to deprive of us a huge slice of our past.

And so, I was very pleased when my old friend Ann shared a picture she drew in the 1960s, while at Art College.

It is of the inside of her aunt’s shop in Hulme, and it takes me straight back to similar shops I remember from my youth.

These were the corner shops, which seemed to stay open all hours, and were prepared to flout the Sunday trading laws.  I can still remember being sworn to secrecy one Sunday morning when I left the local grocery shop with some product which had been double wrapped to disguise what it was.

Stuff was piled high and  bunches of bananas might share a space, with a several tins of salmon, and a pile of newspapers, while somewhere near the front of the counter would be those open boxes of loose biscuits, which always presented a challenge to see how many you could grab while the shop assistant wasn’t looking.

Added to which there was that smell, which was a mix of the competing foods on display and the bare wooden floorboards.

Location; Hulme





Picture;  Ann’s auntie’s shop in Hulme. Early 1960s, from the collection of Ann Love

A bit of the Rochdale Canal …. one old building …. and the road that just kept growing

Numbers 44 to 46 Princess Street is one of those grand late Victorian buildings which still speak of the prosperity of 19th century Manchester.

Our building, 1973

It stands on the corner of Princess and Portland Streets, stretches  down to Harter Street and occupies a big chunk of Portland Street consisting of five floors with extensive cellars.

In 1886 it was home to S & C Nördlinger and  a series of other businesses.

Its fortunes have waxed and waned over the 20th century, while in the last two decades parts of the block have been occupied by a nightclub, along with Turkish and Chinese restaurants.

I will have passed it heaps of times and not given it much thought other than that there always seems to be a bit of scaffolding on part of it.

And yesterday was no exception which would have sealed my indifference were it not for the curiosity of my companion who having clocked the open iron gates leading into a courtyard suggested we venture in.

It is as he said an opportunity not to be missed, despite the consideration that a] we might be trespassing and b] someone might just close those gates.

Looking out from the courtyard on to Princess Street, 2025

Neither of which happened and instead we were offered up a heap of photo opportunities, including the tiled walls of the interior building and the landing bays replete with an old and tired looking crane.

In 1886

Looking at my Goad’s Fire Insurance Map of 1886, the original courtyard extended almost the full length of the building with multiple points for unloading goods into the businesses.

And here was the first surprise, because an arm of the Rochdale Canal ran into the eastern side of the building running behind Harter Street.

That arm predated our building and had once suppiled a collection of coal and timber yards, the Portland Street Saw Mill and James Lord's Cotton Mill.

And originally the arm continued all the way to Faulkner Street.

But this last bit had been filled in when Portland Street was extended down to join Oxford Street in the 1870s just as Princess Street was allowed to grow and absorb what had been David Street taking it all the way to Brook Street.

Now that I accept is a tad confusing, suffice to say the real story remains the building.

Once I guess that courtyard would have been a hive of activity, but yesterday we were alone with just the ghosts of past carters and warehousemen for company, not that either of us stopped to let our imagination roam.

That courtyard, 2025

But sitting here today I decided to explore the partnership of S & C Nördlinger, and I glad I did. Mr. Charles Nördlinger was 48 in 1886 and was a"Naturalized British Citizen" having been born in Italy in 1838.  His wife Louise also gave her birth place as Italy and in one of those interesting twisty turney stories, one of her sisters was born in Switzerland and her parents came from Germany.

Lincoln Lodge, 1894

In 1881 the Nördlinger's lived at 120 Plymouth Grove, which was named Linclon Lodge and stood on the corner of Lincoln and Plymouth Groves.

It's gone now and long ago became Swinton Grove Park, but maps from the 1890s show the property as one of a pair of semi detatched houses surrounded by open land, which four decades earlier had been part of a very attractive estate of fine houses large gardens and fields.

Just what their house looked like is lost but some idea of just how grand it might have been can be guauged by its neighbour which was the home of Elizabeth Gaskell.

All of which is a long way from the Rochdale Canal and Princess Street, but that is just where stories go.

The home of Elizabeth Gaskell

Location; Princess Street

Pictures; the interior of the courtyard 44-46 Princess Street, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, the building in 1886 from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, and Lincoln Lodge, 1894 from the OS of Manchester & Salford, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archive, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and the corner of Princess and Portland Streets, 1973, m05264, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the home of Elizabeth Gaskell, 2020, courtesy of Google Maps

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 7 ....... a plough 1894

A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and  a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.

This was the last time the land opposite our house went under the plough.  The year is probably 1894 and the field was Row Acre.  I can be pretty sure that the chap at the plough was Alfred Higginbotham whose family had farmed here since the 1840s.  Row Acre stretched down from Cross Road to what is now Acres Road and was divided into strips.  Along with the Higginbotham’s parts of Row Acre were farmed by the Bailey family, Thomas White and John Brundrett, and perfectly echoed the medieval idea of a community each working a strip of land.  And of course the plough reminds us that we were a farming community. The image was originally dated 1896 but that was the year the Rec was opened, so I think we can push the date back by two years

Picture; Ploughing Row Acre before it became the Recreation Ground, 1894 from the collection of William Higginbotham

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

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

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

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

There are exceptions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Painting; Tommy Ducks © 2011 Peter Topping

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

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

A bit of nostalgia for the Eltham of the 1960s

In the garden of 294 Well Hall, June 1964

Today I have descended into bit nostalgia for the Eltham of my youth.

Now this is not something I do often, after all nostalgia is a bit of a false trail.

In my experiences the sun didn’t always shine, ice cream was limited to those blocks of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate and you only ventured upstairs on a bus if you wanted to breathe in clouds of tobacco smoke.

And yet there was something special about growing up in Eltham in the 1960s.

I guess it started with the discovery of the woods just above where we lived on Well Hall Road.

Once in there they just seemed to go on and on.  Never underestimate that sense of adventure and sheer freedom that comes from walking the woods which of course is also matched by the knowledge that you can’t really get lost, for eventually if you walked far enough there was Welling while to the north was Shooters Hill and south Eltham Park.

All of which was pretty exciting to someone whose had grown up around New Cross.

© Scott Macdonald

And then there was the Pleasuance which with its barn and moat had a charm all of its own.  Not that I knew of the depth of its history, or of Well Hall House that 18th century mansion or the connection with Edith Nesbit.

But the place still had a magic with its Tudor walls and garden and summer evening concerts which the ever present railway station and trains did not spoil.

Thinking about I spent a lot of my time at Well Hall Station travelling back to school in New Cross for nearly three years and the crowded homewrd jorney in the afternoon rush hour.  Even now I can picture the scene as the train slowed to take the curve into the station and there in the distance was that impressive view of Shooters Hill, all trees dominating the horizon.

Not that the morning rush hour was the best time to take in the place.  For me that had to be late morning on a hot sunny day with just one other passenger on the platform.

There was stillness about the place and the only distraction was the smell from the warm oil which had soaked into the old wooden sleepers and  left its trail on the ballast stone.

© Scott Macdonald

All of which was shattered with that twanging noise from the wires to the signal box alerting you and the railway staff that the train was on its way.

I continued to use the station as a way of escaping back to New Cross and my old friends for a few months, before this gawky ill at ease teenager discovered that apart from the woods and the Pleasaunce Eltham had even more to offer.

That started with exploring the High Street and continuing on down along Bexley Road past Avery Hill Park.  And had I known it to the north was Crown Woods which a little over two years after we washed up in

Eltham was where I would go.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Scott MacDonald.

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 6 .... three concrete stumps 1959

A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and  a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.

They are gone now but for almost all of the time I have lived in Chorlton, there were three concrete stumps on Wilbraham Road outside what is now the takeaway burger outlet. At some point when part of the building was the pottery studio they had been decorated with colourful tiles but I have to confess I thought little about them.  Only once did I ponder on whether they had been the base for petrol pumps which of course was what they were for here was Wilbraham Garage.  It wasn’t the first in Chorlton, that was probably Shaw’s on Barlow Moor Road but still it is an indication of how far the motor car had taken over.  The three stumps supported four pumps which stood in front of the shop and garage and like Shaw’s were in a row of conventional shops and houses.


Picture; Wilbraham Road,, A E Landers, 1959, M18423, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

When pop music was Saturday Club at home in Well Hall

Saturday Club on the Light Programme still has the power to invoke fond memories.

Now if you are my generation, born in the decade after the last World War who entered their teenage years to the sound of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Cliff Richard and who can still remember listening to “She Loves You” for the first time, Saturday Club was essential listening.

It had begun in 1955 but I suppose I was not really aware of its existence for another five years.

Back then if you wanted to listen to pop music on the radio it was slim pickings.

There was of course Radio Luxembourg which I listened to on my small transistor radio but the adverts for Horace Batchelor* plus the way the signal would fade and wane irritated me.

And on Saturday nights after the football results there was Juke Box Jury and later Thank Your Lucky Stars which showcased the latest singles and passed judgement on them.  But all too often these were shows watched by the whole family and as much as I loved my parents and young sisters there were times when you wanted to listen alone.

Now Saturday Club just fell into that requirement.

It went out after my sisters were at Saturday Morning Pictures and mum and dad were doing things.

It’s only real rival for me was Pick of the Pops the following afternoon, that rapid whizz through a week’s chart ups and downs.

This after all was the time when I was still too young to go to the dance hall above Burton's on Well Hall Road and those other live music venue like the Welcome Inn and the Yorkshire Grey were out of the question.

But then came Radio Caroline in 1964 followed by its rival radio London and things just were not the same again.

All of which is teetering on nostalgic tosh and so to the point.  Saturday Club was one of those programmes which didn’t just play records but offered up live performances with interviews which always appealed to me.

But the attention span of a teenager is fickle and with the arrival of Ready Steady Go with its visual and slightly edgy feel I was pulled in a totally new direction.

Top of the Pops might be required viewing to be shared with the whole house and discussed the following day at school but RSG had me hooked.

So bit by bit Saturday Club faded but has never quite left me, and as I head towards my 71st year I still have Tony Blackburn offering me something of the same on Radio 2 with “Sounds of the Sixties.”

Now that is perhaps the point to close but not before one last observation, which is that I know I am growing old when the music of my youth is now played on Radio 2.

Pictures; of Brian Matthew & Saturday Club, featured on Saturday Club** and Burtons in the mid 1960s


* Horace Cyril Batchelor was as an advertiser on Radio Luxembourg. He advertised a way to win money by predicting the results of football matches, sponsoring programmes on Radio Luxembourg.

**Saturday Club
This site is non profit making and solely for fans of Saturday Club to trade/swap off - air copies of the programme in whatever format eg reel to reel, cassette, cd etc, http://www.saturdayclub.info/

Salford Revisited

 One to do on Wednesday

And as they say ...... its all in the poster.

Buxton ………….. The Holiday Resort of Beauty

Now I have Steve Marland to thank for this poster.

I grew up with these posters which would be on display at railway stations, and added interest and colour to some of the grimy and slightly run down places I knew as child, growing up in the 1950s.

This poster was produced by John Canning who was who a fine commercial artist.

And rather than steal someone else’s research I will just direct you to the link Steve found for me.

Of course I could say something about Buxton, but I think the poster says it all.

Location; Buxton

Picture, “What a lovely place…..!”, circa 1950s, courtesy of Steve Marland

**John Canning, https://www.gwra.co.uk/auctions/poster-br-m-buxton-holiday-resort-beauty-by-john-c-2019mar-0508.html

When we had a post office on Beech Road

Now I am never surprised at what turns up on eBay, especially when my old friend David Harrop is involved.

At Beech Road post office, 1914

So here with a little bit of our postal history is a reminder that once we had a post office on Beech Road.

During the 19^th century it moved around a bit but by the end of that century was at number 109 Beech Road.

And on October 17 1914 one parcel passed through the post office.

Post woman, circa 1916

I would love to know where it was going and for that matter that was to receive it, but all we have is this section of the parcel.

In time I will check out who the sub-post master was on that day, but I think it could have been Mr Robert Chorley who was doing the business of selling stamps and all things posty three years earlier in 1911. 

The shop was also a stationers and this was clearly the primary business as on both the census for 1911 and the in the street directory he describes himself as a “Stationer and Sub-Post Master” and he was no doubt helped by his wife, Hannah Elizabeth. 

The couple had been married for eight years and had taken over the post office sometime after 1901.

And that is about it for now.

Location Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; parcel post markings, 1914, and post woman, circa 1916, courtesy of David Harrop

The Three Austins ….. a herd of elephants …. and a big tent in Peel Park ….. the circus comes to Salford

Now I have to thank Tony Flynn for the memory of the day Mr. Chesterfield and his circus hit town.

Not that I have ever visited one which at 74 must be some sort of record.

Mother disliked the idea of paying to see performing animals which she thought was a cruel form of exploitation and refused even to watch those broadcasts on TV which popped up in the 1950s and 60s.

And that dislike passed to me. 

That said I do like posters and Tony’s example is a fine one, more so because it dates from the year before I was born.

So there is it.

I could go into the history of the travelling circus and even mention the one that regularly came to Chorlton in the interwar years and just after.*

But I won’t …….other than to say I did go looking to find a reference in the newspapers of the week in 1948 when Fiery Jack, Marjorie and her famous Liberty Horses and John’s Dogs, danced, skipped and growled under a Salford moon, but drew a blank.

Instead I found this 1905 picture postcard from Tuck and Sons, the international picture postcard, company but turn away and avert your gaze all those who might get angry at Tuck's mistake.

So, because it is so good I will repost Tony's poster

Location; Salford in 1948

Picture; Chesterfield’s Circus comes to Salford, 1948, courtesy of Tony Flynn and Peel Park, Salford R Tuck and Sons, from the series, Manchester courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/postcards/122638

*Chorlton and a circus, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20and%20a%20circus