One bedsit …. the lost tennis courts …… and those dream homes …..

Number One Malvern Grove is an unimposing house on the corner of Burton Road in West Didsbury.

1 Malvern Grove, house and garden 2022

And it was where I lived for six months in my student days in 1970.

I say unimposing but once it was the smart home of Mr and Mrs Simpson, their two children and Katherine Williams who was 23, from Everton and was employed as a “general servant”.

I know the property was there by 1896 and with a bit of digging should be able establish when it was built and perhaps date the rest of the homes on this small cul-de-sac.

And with a bit more diligence it will be possible to list most of the households from when it was built through to 1911 when the Simpson’s were there and on to when it became a series of bedsits.

It had ten rooms and two cellars, and I occupied one of the back down stairs rooms which might have once been the kitchen. It was a small room furnished as I remember with a bed, a table, two chairs an electric ring and one of those water heaters which held a pint and bit of water and ate electricity.

That ground floor rear room, 2022

Like all crummy bedsits I have lived in it was basic, cold, with walls covered in woodchip and painted in multiple coats of emulsion.   All very cheap and not very cheerful.

Added to which there was that lingering smell of 10 different evening meals permeating the place and the bone cold hall.

And here I stayed for just six months, at a time when I could have been very lonely were it not for some of the other residents who took me under their wing.  

They made sure that most nights I accompanied them across the road to the Old House at Home and took pity on a student ensuring that only occasionally was I allowed to buy a round.

At the time I never thought about the house or its history, instead I was captivated by the two 1960s “dream houses” just two doors away along the Grove.  They resembled exactly properties which had featured on the back of Kellog’s Corn Flakes boxes and had been part of an advertising competition which offered up the prospect of winning one of these “dream houses”.

On cold winter nights with all their house lights on they looked inviting and comfy with the promise of warm evenings in front of a television in the company of a happy noisy family.

Albemarle Lawn Tennis Court, 1958

Over the years I have gone back, and the ghosts are still there from the lad who lived in the cellar, his mate “Strain Chocker” and the policewoman who lived upstairs.  They  mix with the memory that most Saturday night’s the population of the house doubled.

What I didn’t know was that just a few yards down what had been an unmade road was the Albemarle Lawn Tennis Court. It shows up on the 1958 OS, had two courts, a club house and an adjacent building.  The courts were accessed from Abberton Road, and the path is still there although it has been incorporated into the side garden of one of the houses.

Student days, Chatham Grove, 1970, Mike, John, and Lois

They may still have been there in 1970 I just never went to look, but now are a bit of new build called Stow Gardens, and my dream houses have gone.

All of which could have burst my bubble.  But then it is over half a century since I called Malvern Grove my home and along with the tennis courts the pub is no more and as is the house on Chatham Grove where a friend spent a time and we celebrated his birthday, with cake and tuna and sweetcorn salad.

The afternoon was memorable if only because at the age of 19 I had never had either tuna or sweet corn.

And of course back then I had no idea that the family who I shared the house with me were also called Simpson.  Not that I see any significance in that .... long ago I realised just how many Simpson's I occupy the planet with.

So that is it.

Except to say there must be people who remember the tennis courts, like me spent happy nights in the Old House, and who knows may also have lived in 1 Malvern Grove and perhaps even knew "Strain Chocker"

We shall see.

Location; Burton Road

Pictures Malvern Grove, 2022, courtesy of Google Maps, Albemarle Lawn Tennis Court, 1958, OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1958, and Mike John & Lois, Student days, Chatham Grove, 1970 from the collection of Lois Elsden

Mrs Jane Redford, Manchester's second woman councillor

I have been staring at this picture for some time.

It was taken on October 7th 1911 at the opening of Chorltonville, and somewhere amongst the worthies is Mrs Jane Redford.

She had been born in 1849 so we are looking for a woman aged 62 which narrows the search a little.

She is there because she was one of our elected city councillors having been elected the year before and in the way that these things work she was about to contest the seat again in the November.

So perhaps this was not so much civic duty as another one of the many public engagements that fall to a politician about to fight an election.

But this is perhaps to do Mrs Jane Redford a disservice. She had been active for over 30 years serving on various public bodies including the Board of Henshaw’s Blind Asylum and as a Poor Law Guardian for the Chorlton Union where she had campaigned for the provision of trained nurses for workhouse hospitals. All too often the workhouse authorities had relied on old and illiterate inmates to tend the sick.

Important as these contributions were it is her role as a city councillor which is more significant because her election in 1910 made her just the second woman to be elected to the council.

What is in some ways more remarkable is that she was not a member of the main political parties and seems to have had little in the way of an organisation behind her.

She described herself as a Progressive Candidate which had less to do with radical politics and more to do with all fashioned rate payer concerns.

Her predecessor Harry Kemp had campaigned as a progressive on the platform of advancing “good government” which involved “exercising a rigorous protest against extravagance” and “preserving as far as possible the residential character” of Chorlton.

But, and here is the interesting thing it came with a progressive take on the need for “adequate Schools, Libraries, Open Spaces, Public Baths and everything which counts for the better health and morality of the people”

And Mrs Redford echoed this in her own election address of 1911 which highlighted her record on the Education, Libraries and Sanitary Committees along with a degree of success in checking “the building of houses on the Chorlton side [of Longford Park] in order that Chorlton people may have easy access to this new park.”

It is also there in her concerns over the Carnegie grant to build a new library which she felt should have been delivered “through the ordinary means of municipal enterprise.”

Now the normal rate payer position and certainly that of her fellow Chorlton councillors along with Alderman Fletcher Moss was “for acceptance of the gift,” which perhaps marks her out as more than just a guardian of careful council spending.

And in turn points back to her wider concerns for the welfare of people.


She argued strongly that the Education Committee should experiment with vocational training and in particular training girls for domestic service which “was of all the occupations for girls that which was not overcrowded and so [they would be able to] enter service at once and claim a proper wage, instead of commencing work and gaining a precarious livelihood by cleaning steps.”


Of course it is easy to be cynical about the role of vocational education and I for one spent years arguing the need for a well balanced curriculum for young people which didn’t just push them into manual work without offering them the opportunity of a broad and challenging set of subjects.

And this seems to have been what motivated her, because while advocating the pilot scheme to train young girls she was keen that the Education Committee work with the Post Office to widen the career prospects of telegraph boys, who “were only engaged for a certain number of years as messenger carriers and when they had to find work other than that of a purely causal character the task was not a very easy one” 

The plan was provide “two or three hours instruction each day, so that when their career as telegraph boys ceased they might be better equipped to secure other and perhaps more lucrative appointments.”


Now I think it might be fair to argue that she did not embrace a clear political position which might mark off from say the vision of the new Labour Party but likewise this was no conventional rate payer politician. She had expressed her growing concern at the lack of school provision both here in Chorlton and across the city and was very active in the movement for women’s health.

There is more to find out about Mrs Redford and also stories to tell of other women who campaigned in their trade unions and local Labour Party branches for the vote, improved social conditions and a better deal for ordinary people but they are for later.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchetser

Pictures; The opening ceremony of Chorltonville, from the Lloyd collection, picture of Mrs Jane Redford from her election address by kind permission of Lawrence Beadle


References; Manchester Guardian, Harry Kemp and Jane Redford's election addresses.

Lesnes Abbey ..........once lost and now found courtesy of Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society

Lesnes Abbey was a place I discovered purely by chance in the summer of 1966.

The north wast wall of the abbey, 2013

At sixteen I was a bit old for an adventure but that was what it was and I was captivated by the place.

Now depending on your take on Tudor history it was either one of those monasteries Henry V111 knocked about in pursuit of a bit of extra cash or was a legitimate target in the campaign to reform the church of some of its more corrupt practices.

Either way it was one of the first to be closed in 1525. In time I will go looking for the records of the abbey to see how corrupt it might have been but for now I know it didn’t offer up much in the way of glittering prizes and apart from one building the entire monastery was demolished .

I have to confess that back in 1966 what I knew about the Dissolution of the Monasteries was not much and it never occurred to me to wonder how what was lost was found.

In fact it is only since I joined the Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society that I have discovered its history.

The plaque to Frank Charles Elliston-Erwood

During 1909-10 the society carried out an archaeological dig, and recently one of those involved has been honoured by a blue plaque which has been placed on his house in Foxcroft Road Shooters Hill.

This was Frank Charles Elliston-Erwood who was born in 1883 and died in 1968.

Sadly another plaque to him on the site is badly damaged so the one on Foxcroft Road is important.

And that is where I shall leave it other than to promise I will dig deep and find out more about both Mr Elliston-Erwood and the dig.

Charles Elliston-Erwood  by C A Rohn, 1953

According to the Treasuer of the Society, "the excavation between 1909-13 and report published in 1915 on Lesnes Abbey was paid for by WADAS.

I’m sure the Central Ref will have a copy, its full title is :-Lesnes Abbey in the Parish of Erith Kent by Alfred W Clapham F.S.A.  (he later became Sir Alfred Clapham) London the Cassio press 1915

It does also come up for sale now & again at £70-£90.

WADAS and Bexley Council paid for further excavations and the laying out of the site in the 1950’s Frank Elliston-Erwood worked on the 1909-13 excavation, & the 1950’s. 

He produced most of the line drawings in the report, he was a Technical Drawing teacher.

I’ve attached a watercolour of him at the 1950’s excavations, he made & is wearing our Presidential badge."

Location; Abbey Wood

Pictures; North west wall of Lesnes Abbey, 2013, Ethan Doyle at English Wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license and the blue plaque and painting courtesy of Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society

* Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society, "Report on Explorations at Lesnes Abbey Kent", several volumes 1909 to 1912

** Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society, The Hon Treasurer, 4 Hill End , Shooters Hill, London SE 18 3 NH

The day Richard took our Lych Gate to a beer shop

Now, if you make models of things, it is only proper that they should be shared with an audience, and so a couple of days ago Richard Griffiths showcased his interpretation of our own Lych Gate in the Beer House on Manchester Road.

I say interpretation but that doesn’t do justice to what is a superb model of that iconic entrance to the former parish graveyard by the old village green.

Richard  has made fine models of the Chorlton's Railway Station Box, and Dr Who’s Tardis which is one of my own favourites.

He tells me that “It was a really nice evening, lots and lots of photographs taken and overwhelmingly positive comments”

And befitting a much-loved historic bit of Chorlton, Richard included a short history of the Lych Gate, which gave context and will have helped some in the room realize the significance of the structure.

So that’s it. 

It will be going on display during Chorlton Arts Festival on May 17th and 18th  which Ricahard tells me will be in "The Grans Art Exhibition In Barlow Hal with the bonus that they have a bar" 

I have yet to ask Richard  what his next project will be but I bet it will be a good one.

What I can say is that his attention to detail is exemplary, from the fallen leaves, to the hint of moss on brick and the discarded and forgotten branch.

In previous conversations I know how long it has taken him to produce this model and I rather think there is another story from his words on the inspiration for the choice of the gate, and the process by which it all came together.

We shall see.

But just as I finished the piece Richard sent over another image taken of him beside the Lych Gate, adding "One of me with the model with me looking rather sheepish, but which gives folk and idea of the scale"

Location; The Beer House, Manchester Road

Pictures; our own Lych Gate, 2025, courtesy of Richard Griffiths

Summer days in south Manchester No 3 the Chorlton Peace Festival 1984

It is an event I have visited before, but it is well worth another outing.*

It was at the height of the second Cold War when there was a growing feeling that the world was a less safe place.

Relationships between the two super powers had entered a more hostile phase. This was only in part due to the election of hard line politicians in the west and the elevation of equally conservative leaders in the Soviet Union but also to events across the world where the USA and USSR were engaged in a new round of support for proxy governments.

What made it all the more dangerous was that a new generation of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems had come on stream just as the Cold War deepened and hardened.

The US cruise missile which was being deployed in Britain and West Germany took just 15 minutes to reach its targets in the USSR while American Pershing missiles and the Russian equivalent took just 4 minutes from launch to detonation over the cities of Europe.

So there we were in the Rec on a hot day listening to music, engaged in some politics but above all just relaxing with friends and family.

And having posted the story someone left a comment who helped organise the event and reminded me that there had been a badge designed for the event, which I have, and decided to update the piece with a picture.

It was a designed by Jim De Santos.

Location; The Rec

Picture; from the collection of Tony Walker, and Andrew Simpson

*Dangerous times and peaceful protests, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/03/dangerous-times-and-peaceful-protests.html

As others see us ......... Well Hall in the summer of 1966 by Ian Nairn

The thing about guide books is that they date so quickly.  

But that can be what makes them so intriguing and that pretty much sums up Nairn’s London.*

It was published in 1966 and I picked up my copy over 20 years later from Bryan the Book.

And that is a tale in itself given that Bryan’s bookshop on Beech Road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy is 214 miles from Well Hall where I grew up.

Nor is that all for the original cover price was eight shillings and sixpence and I bought it for 40p.

The publisher warned that “some of the entries are already disappearing; so go and see the rest quickly.”

That said it is reassuring that the places in Well Hall and Eltham visited by Mr Nairn are still there, although not all are described in that fulsome and respective manner of most guide books

So in writing about Eltham Lodge he comments, “nothing great, but worth at least a sentimental journey to see this grandfather of all Georgian brick Boxes.”

But I am pleased my own estate fared not only better but also was described with a little affection.

“Well Hall Estate, Eltham Sir Frank Baines and others, 1916

This extraordinary place was designed in seven days as a rush job to house war-workers for Woolwich Arsenal.  It seems an odd recipe for one of the best housing estates near London.  

Perhaps the architects imply did not have time to air their preconceptions, and the local officials their disastrous application of bye-laws.  

Comfortable, cottagey design, slate and stucco, taken out of the rarified atmosphere of the garden cities, always trying to see streets as entities rather than collections of units.  

The best part is Ross Way, running from Well Hall Road at the junction of Rochester Way.  

This curves round a gentle slope with a raised footpath and uses every possible trick of gables and end walls.  

Half way along, footpaths run off under archways as part of a fairy-tale composition which by an irony is more like a German village than anything else.”***

It is a long time since I have looked through the book but with a wet weekend ahead I think I shall spend a few hours crossing London courtesy of Mr Nairn.

And as the publisher promised the book is the first of a series with one planned for the Industrial North, which sadly was never written which is a shame because  having said some nice things  about where I grew up I wondered if he would do the same for where I now live.

Well we shall see.

Picture; cover from Nairn’s London, 1966

*Nairn’s London, Ian Nairn, 1966

**ibid page 207


***ibid page 208

North across the City from Central Ref …… and on to Greater Manchester …. a thank you

This is a thank you to all the people who regularly make our books a success.

For two decades Peter Topping and I have written heaps of books about the history of Manchester and beyond.

Over the years they have included Viki, Andy, Jo, Debs and Linsey at Chorlton Bookshop who have acted not only as book sellers but ambassadors for the Simpson Topping partnership in all things past.

And since October they have been joined by the staff at Central Ref who run the Information Centre and sell our tram books.

We were there today with more copies of books of the History of Greater Manchester By Tram, The Stories At the Stops.

The first covered Trafford Bar to East Didsbury and the second Cornbrook to Exchange Square.  Our third book in the series will take you from Market Street via Shudehill down to Victoria is currently in preparation.

Eventually we will write about all the 99 stops on the eight routes, picking stories at each stop which will build into a unique and comprehensive history of Greater Manchester, including the grisly, the surprising and the unknown with a dollop of fun.

So that is it.  A big thank you to the team on the front desk, to Jacki Pugh from archives, and Beverley at Chorlton Library  where the stories all began.

And if you can’t get into Central Ref the first two in the series can be found in Chorlton Bookshop, and Waterstones on Deansgate as well as from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk, price £4.99*

Location; Central Ref, St Peter’s Square

Pictures; the team at the Ref, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

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

Driving down into Knott Mill ……… 1969

For all those who remember taking that short journey into the  air before descending equally quickly towards Knott Mill and the city centre.

Location; Manchester

Picture; that elevated road in the sky, 1969, courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY,

Tony Lloyd ….. the exhibition

I didn’t know Tony Lloyd that well but those who did spoke of a caring principled individual who made his mark through civic service.

 My wikipedia tells me that he was "a British Labour politician. He served as a member of Parliament (MP) for 36 years, making him one of the longest-serving MPs in recent history. 

He served as MP for Stretford from 1983 to 1997, Manchester Central from 1997 to 2012, and represented Rochdale from 2017 until his death in 2024. 

He was Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner between 2012 and 2017 and served as the interim Mayor of Greater Manchester in his last two years in the role".*

And before that he was a councillor for the Clifford Ward on Trafford Council from 1979 to 1984 becoming Deputy Labour Council Leader.

All of that and more is available to read, but what I found particularly illuminating was an exhibition devoted to the life and work of Tony Lloyd supported by the Communications Union.

Here can be found pictures, and stories along with tributes from friends, political colleagues and opponents as well as heaps of memorabilia.

In an age when it is “clever” to be cynical and deride those who chose a career in public service, this exhibition is a timely remember of what that service can achieve.

The exhibition is in the basement of Manchester Central Reference  Library, St Peter’s Square till, June 30th 2025**

Location; Central Ref

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

*Tony Lloyd, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Lloyd

**Tony Lloyd Exhibition, https://librarylive.co.uk/event/tony-lloyd-exhibition/

Beech Road 1980

Now I always think that some of the most fascinating pictures of Chorlton are not those of a hundred years ago but the more recent.

Often these we remember because they are our past and yet in a strange way they can seem as remote as a photograph of Beech Road taken at the start of the last century.

So it is with this one taken by my old friend Tony Walker in 1980. Richardson’s still bears its name of the Beech Tree Bakery with its pine panelling.

The Police Station is still an office for the City Council and away in the distance we still had a Post Office.

Looking more closely I am struck at how in 1980 Beech Road was still a conventional parade of shops. Next to Richardson’s was the fabric shop Marcele Materials and further down the Wool Shop as well as one of the two butcher’s while the boarded premises had been a grocery store.

 Completing the row was the Chinese takeaway of Mr Chan and the furniture place, where you could get anything from a three piece suite to a 1950 rotating ash tray.

And facing them was another butcher’s shop, a hardware place a grocers and further down Muriel and Richard’s veg shop. Within two decades many of them had gone.

Picture; Beech Road circa 1980 from the collection of Tony Walker

Travels with a box of toffees to the Tower of London and beyond

The quality of the images is a bit iffy, but they perfectly recreate the London I knew when I was growing up.

London Bridge , 1956

They come from the book, London by Cyril Bunt which was published in 1956 in a series called Journeys Through Our Early History.

Mr. Bunt wrote a lot of books in the 1950s and most were aimed at children as is this one, which recreated the city as it might have been in Saxon time.

And here I have to admit that of all the periods of the past, the Saxons and Vikings rank pretty low on my step ladder of interesting periods in history.

Still, Mr. Blunt did  a good job of making Saxon London believable, and in the process filled the book with a series of interesting illustrations of London life in the Dark Ages.

But what really drew me in, were the pictures of the city in 1956.

True, they may have dated from a few years earlier, but they were close enough to set my memory running.

Cranes, and boats and cars, 1956

It starts with the skyline which is not dominated by tall commercial blocks reaching to the clouds, but by nothing taller than a church spire.

While the river is still a busy working place with cranes, warehouses, and ocean-going ships.

During the 1950s I regularly walked over London Bridge, usually on a Saturday as the start of an adventure which often ended at the Tower of London, but which would also take in  the fish market and the equally smelly little streets around the Monument.

Never underestimate the excitement of setting off armed with just your pocket money of 2/6d, and knowing after you had paid the price of the return to London Bridge, the rest was yours too spend on whatever came your way.

This involved a packet of Poppets*, which were always bought at the same slot machine just outside London Bridge Railway Station.

Now when you are ten, there are plenty of adventures you want to share with your friends, but the Saturday morning trips were best done without the distraction of others, partly because I never quite knew where I was going to end up, but also because to share the walk got in the way of my imagination.

And there was plenty of scope for that in those twisty streets around Billingsgate.

Walbrook, 1956

Get there early enough and the workmen were still cleaning the streets of discarded fish and ice, which gave off that distinct smell.

Even more exciting was the Tower itself which was free to youngsters on a Saturday, and no matter how many times I went, each dollop of the Castle’s history was new all over again.

On a particularly hot sunny day there was the option of going down onto the beach in front of the Tower at low tide, and while there was still sand, it was strewn with the debris of the river, from lumps of wood, broken bottles and unpleasant things which had once been alive but were no longer.

The River at King's Reach, 1956

Alternatively, there was always the aimless walk around the city, which by degree might end up at St Paul’s, the Embankment or eventually Trafalgar Square.

All of which was a long way from London Bridge, but then there was always a bit of that 2/6d which could be used to buy a journey on the Underground.

Looking back, those adventures lasted but a few years, and the move to Well Hall offered up different things to do.

And when I did retrace my steps a decade or so later, so much had changed that the magic was lost.

Location; London

Pictures; London in 1956, from London, Cyril Bunt 1956 

*Poppets were  soft centered toffees, which came in a small red carton.  They came on to the market in 1937 and wee made by Payne’s in Croydon, and to my surprise  are still manufactured today.

Be Happy ………… Manchester ….. 1979

With the passage of over 40 years I have no memory of who or what this group of clowns was doing in St Ann’s Place.

I didn’t ask, and they never said but I can remember thinking it was fun and I had to take some pictures.

Today I might be a little more circumspect at snapping strangers, but I rather think the older me would be bolder and would engage them in conversation.

But I didn’t and that is my loss.

Still I do have the images and remember the expressions of puzzlement on the faces of the passers-by.

Today, such scenes are far more common place, although they do tend to happen on Market Street, which given the large numbers of people makes sense.

They may have been from Drama Department of the Poly, but I don't know, and it would idle speculation to try and determine where they were from.

That said someone might recognise themselves.

We shall see.

Location; St Ann’s Place

Pictures; Be Happy, circa 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Chorlton's own Lych Gate ... now on Manchester Road

 I'm a great admirer of Richard Griffiths' skills as a model maker.

And over the last brace of months he has been working on a representation of the Lych Gate which once was the entrance to the parish graveyard on the green.

The original dates from the jubilee of Queen Victoria, was a symbol of the Great Chorlton Church Schism, and has been recently restored by the City Council.

And Richard's model is a wonderful piece of work.

You can see the unveiling today at the Beer House on Manchester Road tonight  at 7.30 this evening.

So, a bit of history, a chance to talk to Richard and have some beer.

One to do.

Location; Manchester Road

Pictures; The Lych Gate, 2025, courtesy of Richard Griffiths

A garden in Martledge on an August day in 1882

It looks like a fairly ordinary Chorlton garden and if pushed you might suggest a location bordering the meadows which pretty much means Meadow Bank or Ivygreen Road.  

But the title is the giveaway for we are in the garden of Sedge Lynn* and the open land beyond is not the meadows.  We are facing Oswald Road, and the long roads of Newport, Nicholas and Longford and the year is 1882.

In fact to be exact it is August 11th 1882 which was a Tuesday and judging by the light sometime around midday, but I could be wrong about the time.

It is the third of my pictures by Aaron Booth of Martledge where he with his family lived during the last two decades of the 19th century.

I would like to think we are looking at a garden in transition and given that they may only have been in the house for a few months that seems plausible.  So here is a Victorian garden in the making with its Victorian wooden wheelbarrow, spade and packing case and perhaps at a moment when the labourers had gone off for lunch.  Of the three in the collection this casual and untidy scene for me is the most endearing and sets you down on an ordinary day when ordinary things are being done 143 years ago.

And then there is the view.  Back then it was open land popularly called the Isles because of the large number of ponds and small streams that crisscrossed the area.  The land here is clay and for centuries it had been dug up to make bricks or as marl to spread on the fields.  The pits then filled with water and gave the place its distinctive feature.  I counted 17 such ponds around Oswald Field in 1841, and they were a mix of the small and very large.

The Booth family would have had an interrupted view across the Isles towards Longford Hall only obscured by a row of trees.  It was a view which would have lasted into the late 1890s, but within another decade it would have been lost as the first rows of houses went up on the newly cut roads of Nicholas, Newport and Longford and behind them the sprawling brickworks.

All of which makes our picture a poignant image and one made a little more special because the photograph was donated to the collection by one of five daughters.

* Sedge Lynn stood on Manchester Road on the site of the old cinema and became the Coop Funeral Undertakers

Picture; courtesy of Miss Booth, 1882, from the Lloyd collection

A hat ...... a lost industry and our Dad

Now this is a hat story.

That hat

There is nothing over remarkable about the hat opposite, which belonged to my father and long ago migrated north from London to Manchester, then sat in our cellar for decades gathering dust, until it ended up with our eldest, who wanted something of granddad’s.

All of which is natural enough and I bet many of us will have something similar whether it’s a pocket watch a ring or an old diary.

Ours just happens to be a hat although we do have the ring, the diary and plenty of other odd bits and pieces.

And when I post the story, my sisters will recognise the hat instantly because Dad always wore it, although he varied it with a beret.

Dad, circa 1930s

But the beret was only for going to work while the hat was for trips to the High Street and further afield.

Likewise my granddad and his brother would never be seen without a flat cap when they were out and about.

I think all four of us will be hard pressed to remember a time when Dad didn’t wear something on his head when he left the house.

And that of course was because he was of that age when virtually all adults wore something whether it was a hat, a beret or a scarf in an unbroken chain stretching back into the past.

All of which was good news for towns like Denton and Stockport which thrived as centres for hat manufacture well into the last century and for those with an interest the hat museum in Stockport is an excellent place to learn about the trade.

But in the 1960s wearing a hat started dropping out of favour.

I don’t recall wearing one or ever wanting to do so and only briefly took to a hat after Dad died but always remained a tad self conscious about being out wearing one.

All of which means I suspect that mine is the generation that helped kill off the fashion and by extension contributed to the demise of a whole industry.

Economists will point to deeper reasons for the end of a centuries old business but I cannot escape a bit of the blame.

So I am pleased we still have dad’s hat, if only to remind me of him and a piece of clothing which has all but vanished.

Payn's the outfitters, 1960s

I can’t be sure how old our hat is but I am guessing it must be at least from the 1960s, and was bought from G A Dunn.

Dunn’s were chain of men’s outfitters dating back to 1887 with shops across the country.

As well as hats it sold suits, shirts ties and jackets and trousers.

I chose Payn’s in the High Street rather than Dunn’s where I bought my first “sports jacket” in 1966, a Norfolk jacket the following year and a selection of those knitted ties which were the bee knees back in the ‘60s.

Me, the sports jacket and the two Ann's, 1968

What has only struck me just now as I look at the hat, is the connection between me and Dad, because although I never wore a hat we shopped at similar places, although I doubt Dad would ever have gone into Harry Fenton’s almost opposite Payne’s which was the cutting edge of all things “mod”.

But the clothes from Payn’s and Dunn’s were designed to last and so long after I had discarded the ties and cuff links dad was known to have added them to his wardrobe.

Now long after the two jackets, the knitted ties, cuff links and shirts that I bought have been lost, we still have the hat.

It has been cleaned and brushed and looks very much like it did when dad wore it and now has pride of place amongst our Ben’s clothes.

But stories should always end where they began.

So, just after I had posted this story, our Elizabeth sent over another picture of Dad's hat.

Other uses for Dad's hat, 1963

I had quite forgotten this photograph of the hat, and my two sisters.  With the the picture, Elizabeth added "Here is a picture of our Theresa wearing Dad's hat. Think she is not happy with me as I have the scooter and I think she wanted it".

Leaving aside the family squabble, what strikes me is that Dad allowed his hat to be used as a plaything, but, then judging by when the photograph was taken which looks to be summer, Dad would have been away and mother was always a little more casual about letting us play with "grown up" clothes.

And for those who want to know, it will be the summer of 1963, and we were in the garden of 26 Lausanne Road, in Peckham, before the move to Well Hall in Eltham.

Location; Eltham & Peckham

Picture; Dad’s hat, circa 1964, dad and “friend” circa 1930s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, an advert for H C Payn, from This is Eltham, 1967, the sports coat, 1968 courtesy of Ann Hatch nee Davey and our Elizabeth and Theresa and Dad's hat, 1963, the Simpson Collection

In Albert Square with the unusual ..........

Now for anyone born before 1970 there will be nothing odd about a bus stop in Albert Square, or the parked up black cabs.

Equally the presence of two underground public lavatories either side of Albert will be no surprise.

That was just what the square was like, pretty much from its construction to sometime in the 1980s or '90s, when the public lavatories, the taxi rank and the bus stops disappeared.

And like so much modern history I can’t remember exactly when it all happened.

Of course the serious side of me knows that I should go off and find out but I bet someone will know and come back with chapter and verse which is always more fun.

Added to which they, or some else, will also be able to explain what happened to the two public lavatories.

Were the fittings carefully and lovingly taken out, and perhaps placed elsewhere or was the void just back filled?

And if it is the latter that raises fascinating thoughts about the discoveries and theories put forward in future archaeological papers on the “Role and significance of underground public services”.

Still for now, I can’t say I miss the bus stops and take pleasure in just sitting in the square, admiring the Town Hall, and pondering on the plight of those underground public lavatories.

Leaving me only to admit that there is still a taxi rank in the Square and the buses still stop but not not directly outside the Town Hall.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Albert Square, 1978, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Surprising and not so surprising scenes travelling through Stretford

If you take your inspiration from that 1946 song by Bobby Troup and plan to motor west, ….. travelling the highway that's the best, you can get your kicks on Kingsway and down Urmston Lane.*

Face at the window, Eastern & Western Boutique,2025

Well I might be stretching the credulity of even the best friends of Stretford, but on a warm sunny Saturday  walking through the township there was plenty to taken in .

Car Park, 2025

On the way I bumped into my old Facebook chum Bill Sumner and his wife who let me into the secret of that old farm on Urmston Lane, clocked the sad and lonely looking Robin Hood and took pleasure in the odd Stretford scenes, from the face in a shop window and a bit of carpark, while remembering that tip to “never point your camera into the sun”.

So istorically the farm will offer up some interesting stories and there will be lots more to find out about the  the Robin Hood.

And no doubt more than a few helpful hints about how to take pictures into the sun.

Looking in from Urmston Lane, 2025

We shall see.

“Never point your camera into the sun” 2025

Location; Stretford

Pictures; Face at the window, Eastern & Western Boutique,  car park,  “never point your camera into the sun”, Kingsway, passing farm buildings Urmston Lane, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Route 66, Bobby Troup, 1946, version by Chuck Berry, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqhQSfFtOVE