Choosing your history book …….. the last of the tributes to Neil & Sue Richardson

I have been reflecting on the impact of those fascinating but inexpensive history books produced by Neil Richardson.

Andy's choice

And to finish the short series I thought I would post some of the choices of my friends. 

Bill's choice

Tony, Andy and Bill in their different ways have advanced our historical knowledge of Greater Manchester, and both sent in some of their collection bought from Neil Richardson.

Modesty prevents me from adding mine, ……….. that and the simple fact that many of those I have bought over the last 40 years have ended up being given or lent to friends.

Pictures; Choices, Tony Flynn, Andy Robertson and Bill Sumner

OK you can come in now …… Chorlton Library welcomes you back

Well actually it is tomorrow and is part of a rolling programme of events starting when the doors open to invite back the friends of the library, and the curious.

The restored dome ready for the grand reopeing, 2025

This is followed by the official launch and fun day on Saturday April 4th.

The first opening, 1914

To which on the following Saturday at 2pm I shall be talking about the history of Chorlton and the library.

And as ever it will be a mix of the serious, the daft and a collection of all the things you wanted you know about Chorlton’s past but never knew who to ask.

Which is all I want to say.

Leaving me just to thank Beverly and the Library staff, along with Sally Dadhwal who asked me to give the talk and supplied some pictures of the library during its refurbishment.

The restored entrance, 2025

To these I can add Councillors Matthew Benham, John Hacking and Tina Kirwin-McGinley who also sent me pictures and to Peter Topping who composed a ditty on the Library’s reopening

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; the refurbished dome, 2025, courtesy of Sally Dadhwal, and the Manchester Courier, November 5th, 1914

So ……… who pinched the tennis courts by the Lloyd’s Hotel?

Now, everyone knows that the Lloyds has a bowling green, which will date from soon after the hotel was built in the late 1860s.

The Lloyds, 1970

Thomas Ellwood, our own historian writing in 1886 said that along with the bowling green there “is a bowling club which meets every Wednesday during the season”.

Adding “recently a lawn tennis club has also been started”.

This I suspect had something to do with Mrs. Crabtree who ran the pub in the 1880s and by all accounts “improved the place considerably in various particulars” and it may have been her who encouraged the bowling green members to build their own club house and as an enterprising woman with an eye for business also laid out a lawn tennis court on the open land along side Whitelow Road.

The growing population brought in by the housing boom centred along the Edge Lane/Wilbraham Road corridor and around what until recently was the “Four Banks” stimulated a growth in both cultural and sporting groups, and Mrs. Crabtree’s tennis courts may have played to that interest.

The Lloyds in 1894

But none of the maps dating from the 1880s onwards show the presence of those tennis courts, and while the same maps do not indicate other courts which were in place by the late 19th century and survived into the1900s, it suggests that ours did not last long.

Certainly, by the mid 20th century the site had become a car park, and so the mystery remains.

And a mystery not helped by the lack of any reference to the tennis courts in the rate books.

Mrs. Ada Crabtree is there as the tenant of the pub from 1884to1887, followed by Richard Crawshaw, but no tennis green which as an asset should have turned up in the Rate Books.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; The Lloyd Hotel with that public lavatory, 1970, A Dawson, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass the Lloyds in 1894 from the OS map of South Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, https://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Ellwood, Thomas, Inns, Chapter 23, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, South Manchester Gazette, April 17 1886

When the Woolwich Ferry saved me from a telling off .......... 132 years of crossing the River

You can never have enough pictures of the Woolwich Ferry, and so it proved again yesterday when I posted a picture of one of the old ferries.

1905

Now I say the old ferries, but the James Newman, John Burns and Ernest Bevan were the newcomers, going into service in 1963.

Before them there was the The Squire which started ferrying passengers and things in 1923, followed by the Will Crooks, and The John Benn seven years later.  

They replaced the Gordan, the Duncan and the Hutton, the first of which began chugging across the river in 1889.

And before that, the Royal Arsenal operated their own ferry service in 1810, followed by various commercial venture.

Nor I suspect was the Royal Arsenal the first, because given the need, there must have been  plenty of enterprising people who saw a potential money making enterprise.

2012

So with all those in mind, and in honour of the Ben Woollacot and the Dame Vera Lynn which are the two new ferries which entered service in 2019, here  is another ferry story which features some of those ferries dating back to 1905.

Anyone who was born or grew up in Eltham, will have used them at sometime, and for me crossing the river by the free ferry has always been magic.

It might not take long but in the short time while on board the trip offers up spectacular views, and of course that distinctive smell that you only get from big powerful rivers.

I have never lost my love of the Woolwich Ferry, so much, that a few years ago on missing the M25 on our way north from Kent, I seized the opportunity to make the river crossing at Woolwich.

2021

Now I could have owned up straight away and blamed my map reading, but instead as you do I turned it into an adventure, confident that Tina would also fall for the magic of  the ferry.

The journey from Well Hall up to Shooters Hill was pleasant, the fall down into Woolwich quite spectacular and the river crossing something else.

Of course those of us who have used it all our lives can be a tad dismissive of the journey.

You often have to wait a long time to get on, the trip across is short and often accompanied by gust of cold river wind, but it can still be pretty good.

On the day we made thee crossing, the sun was hot, the water almost blue, and we were set up for the long drive north.

2021

But then even for that short journey the Thames didn't disappoint us.

I do miss the cranes and barges, and the busy doings of a working river.

And before I slip into romantic tosh about a bustling living water way it is as well to remember it was dirty, noisy and for those who made a livelihood beside the river it was hard dangerous work and the rewards were not always that good.

2012

But it was my river.

Location; Woolwich, London

Picture;  the Woolwich Ferry, 1905 courtesy of TuckDB, http://tuckdb.org/postcards, the ferry in 2012, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Dame Vera Lynn courtesy of Gary Luttman and Paula Nottle

Chorlton Pubs and Bars ........ the gang of '36 at the Horse and Jockey

Now I like the way that people continue to be generous with both their family pictures and the memories.

So I was very pleased when this one was sent to me by Yvonne.

The Horse and Jockey will always be special to me, not only because as one of our oldest pubs it featured in my first book and was the venue for its launch but also because as the “Pub on the Green” it has been at the centre of much of Chorlton's history.*

But rather than ramble on I will share Yvonne’s description of the picture.

"Hello Andrew!  I enjoy reading your post on the Chorlton Blog.  

I was born there - leaving when I was 8.  I have a photo of my mother and sister with their 'gang' from about 1936 outside the Horse and Jockey.  

It’s of a 'gang' of 'teenagers' just before the War outside the Horse and Jockey. 

My mum Dilys on the left, her sister Gwen on the right. She used to tell us all their names but the only one I can remember is Joe Rook!”

And that is a pretty good start.

Yvonne hopes it will “stir some memories up” and so do I.

In the meantime I will go looking for Joe Rook in the historical records.

All of which just leaves me to thank Yvonne.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; A 'gang' of 'teenagers' outside the Horse and Jockey circa 1936 courtesy of Yvonne Richardson

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 

Miss Edith Townley of Woolwich and a story of Rectory Place

Now Miss Edith Townley of 13 Rectory Place Woolwich remains a mystery.

Miss Edith, 1917

And that is after my friend Tricia joined in the hunt.

I first came across Miss Edith on a postcard dated 1917 which had just been acquired by David Harrop who knowing my links with Woolwich passed it onto me and I couldn’t resist attempting to find her.*

Tricia also took up the search.

Her grandmother and great grandmother had lived in Rectory Place and so like me there was a connection as she says  “looking at Vincent’s book of Woolwich it states that Rectory Place and the streets to the north of it were built on the Glebe or Rectory land in the 1820's. 

A G.F.S., charirty stall, 1928

The rectory itself was built in the midst of 3 acres of garden, orchard and pasture which has since been considerably curtailed. The remainder of the glebe was advertised to be let.

The first Woolwich bank of which there is any mention was a private concern known as Noaks & Ward and then later as Budgen Ward & Co, and was held in a house in Rectory Place, later occupied by Mr T H Jones and known as Glebe House.

I have tried to search for your Edith Townley on the Electoral Roll but have had no luck. There was no electoral roll books for 1916 & 1917 and of course woman did not finally get the vote until about 1928 and then only if they were over 21. Some women got the vote in 1918 but only if they were over 30 and a home owner.

A church garden party, date unknown

The address for Edith states GFS Lodge which is a Girls Friendly Society which I am guessing is some sort of safe haven for young girls like Edith. Strangely enough I could not find anything for her on the census either.”

Now I had come across the GFS **in connection with some stories I wrote about a Miss Wright who ran a branch of the organisation here in Chorlton-cum-Hardy and the history of the society is well worth a read.***

And a fresh look at the organisation may well bring us closer to Miss Edith.

But for now I will close with another even more personal link between Tricia and Rectory Place because Tricia sent me a picture of “my great uncle known to us as blind uncle Bill although he was baptized as Henry Bertie Schofield Holmes.

He lived with his parents Henry William & Ellen Holmes ( my gt grandparent)  at 31 Rectory Place from early 1900's - 1950ish.

Mr Holmes, date unknown

He used to sit on a chair in St Mary's Passage reading a braille bible and I think passers by would give him money. He wasn't born blind but became blind when he was a young boy after playing cricket in the sun without wearing a hat and apparently got sun stroke.

Whether that was true or not I don't know. My mum said he was a lovely man that was popular with everyone.”

Location; Woolwich, London

Research by Tricia Leslie, 2016







Pictures; postcard to Miss Edith Townley, 1917 courtesy of David Harrop, GFS and Guides’ Stall from the 1928 St Clements’s Bazaar Hand Book courtesy of Ida Bradshaw,  pictures of a garden party organised by the church, date unknown, and picture of Mr Holmes, date unknown from the collection of Tricia Leslie

*So who was Miss Edith Townley of 13 Rectory Place in Woolwich and how did she spend the Christmas of 1917? http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/so-who-was-miss-edith-townley-of-13.html

**The Girls Friendly Society, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Girls%20Friendly%20Society

**The Girls Friendly Society, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Girls%20Friendly%20Society

*** *Girls Friendly Society, http://www.gfsplatform.org.uk/

Our history ….. revisiting the debt we all owe to Neil and Sue Richardson

Yesterday I wrote about Neil and Susan Richardson and the contribution they made to the history of Greater Manchester.

Neil and Sue published a series of books, many written by unknown authors and local historians which might not otherwise have got onto the bookshelves.*

Some were personal memories of growing up in places like Salford and Ancoats, while others were meticulously researched descriptions of everything from the Pal’s Battalions to housing conditions in the twin cities and beyond.

I never met Mr. Richardson although I did talk to both him and his wife Sue over the phone about possible publishing projects as well as ordering up some of his books.

Nor did I mention that Mrs. Richardson has continued to run the business which I should have done.

So I was very pleased when a heap of people came forward and offered up their memories of Neil and Sue, the contribution they have made to the history of our region, as well as offering a place for writers who might not otherwise got their works into print.

I would like to include all of them, but in some cases I haven’t yet got permission to use their comments, but Tony Wolstenholme found and sent over a link to the Guardian’ obituary for Mr. Richardson who died in 2006.** 

Tony Flynn added that, Neil was “A very good friend of mine I met him in 1976 when he was the printer for Salford University despite having a degree in physics, we shared a mutual interest in local history and pubs! 

Together we researched and he published our first book, History of Salford Pubs Volume One in 1977, we then did three more volumes aided by Allan Gall, I then wrote several books on my own all published by Neil and I have to say if not for Neil, myself and many other people wouldn't have got their works in print. 

His sad death in 2006 was a terrible blow for many people, his wife Sue has carried on his good work and she should be congratulated and supported by buying her publications of Neil’s back catalogue, contact her on 01204 578138, a lovely woman".

And Salford Media*** added links to interviews with Sue Richardson, about Neil, and her work in continuing the business and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4CofYgHBg0 ****

So that is it, other than to say just how many people hold Neil and Sue Richardson in high regard for what they have done to bring our past alive and to thank Tony Flynn for the videos, Tony Wolstenholme for the obituary and many others who have recorded their thoughts.

Location; the past in Greater Manchester

Picture; covers from Waterways Into Castlefield, John C Fletcher, 1989, Visitors to Manchester, L D Bradshw, 1987, Salford's Pubs, Neil Richardson, Tony Flynn, Alan Gall, and The Old Pubs of Hulme and Chorlton-on Medlock, Bob Potts, 1997, Neil Richardson

*Neil and Sue Richardson publishers, 01204 578138, wattywalton@btconnect.com  A full list of all the Neil Richardson Publications is available from Sue Richardson by sending a stamped addressed envelope to 88 Ringley Road, Stoneclough, Radcliffe, Manchester M26 1ET.

Or from MLFHS, https://mlfhs-online-shop.myshopify.com/collections/neil-richardson-publications?page=1

** The Books That Defined Salford & Manchester: Local History Books Galore And All For Sale, Michael Powell, The Guardian, November 15th 2006,  https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/nov/15/obituaries.mainsection?fbclid=IwAR0dSXHeaAZWQN8tca2xfGnj-9gK8wbOQrJGdt9bbzqxKfk42sMRHhiTVLM

*** Salford Media, https://www.facebook.com/salfordmedia and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4CofYgHBg0

****Conversations with Sue Richardson, with Tony Flynn, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4CofYgHBg0... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4CofYgHBg0

When our history came as inexpensive and varied stories ……. a tribute to Neil & Sue Richardson

Now in an age when we can all access the past by surfing the net, which delivers television programmes, books, and countless photographs as well as a shedload of different original sources it is easy to forget that it was not always so.

Indeed, slide back to the early 1980s and anyone interested in history was pretty much limited to the works of professional historians, and a scatter of documents many of which were difficult to obtain.

And given the cost of books, most of us were still reading the events of the past courtesy of a lending library.

So full credit should be given to those small publishers who were producing books at affordable prices and equally important were willing to offer opportunities to local historians as well as “people with a story to tell” to write about their chosen interest.

Here in Manchester one of the foremost small publishers was Neil Richardson who lived in Radcliffe.

I never asked him how he got into the business, but I bet there will be someone who can provide his story.

Suffice to say that during the mid-1980s I started coming across soft back booklets on a range of subjects related to the history of Greater Manchester.  

Some were descriptions of growing up in places like Salford and Ancoats in the early decades of the last century, while others focused on the unwritten histories of the Pal’s Battalions which formed Kitchener’s Army during the Great War.

They were popular with the public because many told stories which were directly a part of ordinary life.

"Memories of Manchester" by Charles Naan described the streets and characters of Bradford and Beswick and later his time as a policeman on the beat across the City.

While Bob Potts wrote about the pubs of Hulme and Chorlton on Medlock at a time when they were vanishing as quickly as snow in the winter sun and in the process spent hours carefully researching each drinking place.

This I know because years later he kindly passed over his research to me, which was as comprehensive and historically detailed that I suspect it will never be repeated.

And that points to the simple fact that may of those who wrote for Neil Richardson did so with a wealth of knowledge supported by hours of interviewing people as well as wading through records held across the twin cities and beyond.

These included the Archive and Local History Library in Central Ref, as well as Salford Local History Library, Cheetham’s Library and the Greater Manchester County Office, and in the case of Eddie and Ruth Frow, their own vast collection of Labour history which is now the Working-Class History Library.

Much of that research broke new ground, like “Working Class Housing in 19th Century Manchester, The Example of John Street, Irk Town, 1826-1936” by Jacqueline Roberts published in 1999.  

It was an in-depth study of a few streets on the edge of Angel Meadow, and followed on from the collaborative work she had done recording buildings from the late eighteenth, and early nineteenth century. *

Few of the thousands which were thrown up in the decades of Manchester’s rapid expansion had survived and by the 1980s many of those were under threat of demolition.

As was the way of life of the many who lived in inner city areas Manchester which  were vanishing as their homes were cleared away and communities relocated in the new estates.

And one of my favourite accounts is still The Manchester Village by Frank Heaton who collected the memories of those who lived in the collection of streets running back from Deansgate towards the river and roughly bordered by Quay Street and the end of Castlefield, and subtitled “Deansgate Remembered”.

To which there is also  “Manchester’s Little Italy, Memories of the Italian Colony of Ancoats” by Anthony Rea.

To these Neil Richardson also added a selection of British and foreign descriptions of Manchester from the 1500s to 1865, several street directories, as well as plenty of other accounts drawn from across Greater Manchester.

By today's standards they may seem a little down market, with some images a little tired looking and  the print which reminds you of old computer printers.

But don't let that side track you, the history is fascinating is often written with passion, and thanks to Neil Richardson a whole lot of people got to tell their stories of places that have vanished.

And that I think is pretty neat.

Location; Greater Manchester

Pictures, covers of The Manchester Village by Frank Heaton, 1995, Radical Salford: Episodes in Labour History Edmund and Ruth Frow, 1984 and “Manchester’s Little Italy, Memories of the Italian Colony of Ancoats”, Anthony Rea, 1988

*The Early Manchester Dwellings Group

Turning up bits of Chorlton’s history in the most unexpected places .... the T shirt

Now here is a bit of history, and like lots of good history it is something that takes us directly to one person’s story.

It belongs to Francesca who wrote “I helped Bob, my uncle in Buonissiomo during the holidays and it was always busy. 

Still have the black T shirts with the logo on the sleeve we were given as uniform.”

Francesca had left the comment as part of a series of posts following a story I did on Buonissiomo which was the Italian deli on Beech Road.

So there you have it a little bit of Chorlton’s history along with a big bit of Francesca’s.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Buonissiomo T shirt, courtesy of Francesca

Exploring the story of Mr Holdaway of Lewisham

Now here is a double mystery and a celebration of a fine ghost sign.

Myrom Place, Belmont Hill, 2017

Ghost signs are the names of businesses and products which long ago vanished.

They were painted directly onto the walls of buildings and sometimes even on to the roof of a property.

This one is courtesy of my friend Ryan and is on the gable end of what is now Cafe Delight on the corner of Belmont Hill and Myrom Place just off Lewisham High Street.

In time I will go looking for Mr C. Holdaway to solve the mystery of when he was in business and maybe I will also get an answer to what a crainer was.

I can only suppose it was linked to the profession of painting and decorating, but a search has not revealed an answer.

I have found a reference to a Mr Callum C Holdaway who was married in Lewisham in 1958 and other people with the same surname in and around the area from the beginning of the last century into the 1960s.

And here in advance of posting the story I discover that a crainer was a grainer, ...... all to do with how you read the sign.

It was my friend Bill Sumner who told me that he "used to admire that graining or scumbling as we called it.

A  local landlord in Gorse Hill did the fronts of a whole block of houses with it and they were the smartest houses in the district for many years. It was possible to choose any type of timber and have your windows and doors painted and grained to suit. 

I still have a set of the steel combs that were used, and somewhere have my brothers books that he showed to customers so they could make their choice. He became a master decorator after doing National Service"

Well that saves me from looking a twerp and makes perfect sense.

Leaving me to ponder on whether the bubble writing at the bottom of the wall will still be there in a decade.

Location; Lewisham

Picture; ghost sign, Myrom Place, 2017 courtesy of Ryan Ginn

A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects ... number 14 ……. a very special memorial

The story of Didsbury in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph or more.

There are a number of war memorials in Didsbury, but the most prominent is the one beside the library.

It was unveiled on July 2nd 1921, and was dedicated to “The memory of the sacred dead of this village who, having left all that was dear to them endured hardships, faced dangers, and finally paid the supreme sacrifice in defence of our King and Country”.

The fourteen men responsible its erection were listed in the order of service, and they were, John T Seale, Rupert C Samuels, James Clayton Chorlton, James Frederick Motorhead, Thomas William Evans, Frank Taylor, G. Biddle, F. Merrill, C. B. Owen, J Davenport, Councilor E. D. Simon, George Edward Crowe, T Malloy and R Bramwell

Of the fourteen, eight have come out of the shadows, and their backgrounds throw an interesting light on how such committees were constituted.

One was a doctor, one a surveyor, one was employed by Manchester Corporation and the remaining five were manufacturers, and all by 1921 were in their late 50s and into their sixties.
George Biddle and Frank Taylor both had sons who died in the war and were commemorated on the memorial, and interestingly of the eight, these were the two men who were not professionals or manufacturers.

The order of service consisted of 10 pages, detailing the address, the hymns and men commemorated, and begins with a dedication that “The memory of the sacred dead of this village who, having left all that was dear to them endured hardships, faced dangers, and finally paid the supreme sacrifice in defence of our King and Country”.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Order of Service, 1921, courtesy of David Harrop

At the opening of the Well Hall Odeon, May 20th 1936

Now it would be a full 28 years after the Well Odeon was open that I first saw a film there.

And of course I have no idea what the film was or for that matter almost any of the pictures I went on to see at the place.

But it was a regular haunt made more so because I had the job of taking my sisters there on a Saturday morning.

Of all the picture houses I have been in there, was something special about the Odeon.

It started with that unique box office in the centre of the foyer, that thick carpet, the decor and of course the smell.

Put them all together and you felt that this was somewhere special, a place not only to be entertained but a place where for a few hours the daily routines along with the niggles of the day could be forgotten.

And these picture houses were designed for just that purpose.  Plenty of homes back in 1936 were still austere places little in the way of luxury and by comparison drab and dim and cold.

But the Well Hall Odeon radiated style from that tall glass and tiled tower to the sweep of the entrance roof.

And it was big. It dwarfed the houses that surrounded it stretched back and was only really challenged by the church opposite.

So I am really pleased that Chrissie shared the souvenir programme with me.

Location; Well Hall, Eltham, London

Picture; souvenir booklet of the opening of the Well Hall Odeon, 1936 courtesy of Chrissie Rose

The Lost Chorlton pictures ......... no 9. ......... Beech Road

Now I had quite forgotten this picture, which had sat as a negative in the cellar for four decades.

And I am rather pleased it has come to light.

We are on Acres Road and to our right is the box factory which had once been a laundry, and opposite is the hair dressers which was to become Cafe on the Green.

Directly ahead is the pet shop which closed earlier in 2019, and beside it The Village Wholefood Shop.

Back then there was a debate about that bit of open land, with some of the traders urging the Corporation to make it into a car park which the Council agreed to if the traders made a contribution to the cost.

This never happened and what had once been a fine house before it was demolished remain open land for another decade.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Beech Road, 1979 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Who pinched a Chorlton pub?

Now when you have spent a decade and a half crawling over Chorlton’s past it is always nice to find something new, and something you didn’t know.

The mystery Holly Bush Inn, 1900

So yesterday while searching for an image of a lost pub on Market Street in town I came across two paintings of a Chorlton pub called the Holly Bush Inn.

Both were by painted our local artist J Montgomery and are dated 1900 and 1967.*

J. Montgomery is an an artist I know well and there are heaps of his paintings in Manchester Library’s Image Collectoion.  

Most were painted from picture postcards which have now been lost and so are themselves a unique record of Chorlton’s past.

Until that is this one, which does not appear in any historical record for the 19th into the 20th century.

I wondered if he had confused Chorlton cum Hardy with Chorlton on Medlock but a check of the pubs listed in The Old Pubs of Hulme and Chorlton on Medlock by Bob Potts drew a blank.**

The mystery Holly Bush Inn, 1967

And anyway Mr. Montgomery knew his Chorlton.  

It might however been mis catalogued, but I doubt that too.

So, it seems a mystery.  

It could have been one of those short lived beer shops which sprang up and vanished leaving little trace.   

One such doble fronted “superior” establishment was run by Mrs Leach which was the scene of a dreadful stabbing in 1847. 

The press coverage of the time never offered up a name for the beer shop but it was roughly on the site of the modern Cromar on Manchester Road.

But it had long gone when Montgomery painted his picture from a1900 picture postcard and certainly would have been long forgotten when he reprised the subject in 1967.

And here we do have to be careful because in labelling his paintings he sometimes wrote the date of the postcard and at other times the date of when he created the image.

That said I could be wrong and there may once have been a Holly Bush Inn, which may have been pinched or converted into any one of a number of different uses.

We shall see.

Location; sometime and place in Chorlton

Pictures; The Holly Bush Inn, 1900, m49891, and 1967, m80053, J Montgomery, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*J. Montgomery, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Montgomery

**The Old Pubs of Hulme and Chorlton on Medlock by Bob Potts, 1997

A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects ... number 20 ……. go east

The story of Didsbury in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph or more.

I began the series with a bus garage and the demise of the old Corporation trams, and we have come full circle.

Today, you can head east from the city centre and be in the heart of Didsbury in next to no time.

And that journey will take you along the old railway track constructed in 1880, which at the time was a major new contribution to how we travelled into the city and travelled home.

So, it is fitting that 143 years after the railway came to Didsbury, we can once again take the trip “that takes the strain”. 

Location Didsbury

Picture; travelling home, 2016, Market Place, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Clocking the continuity of Beech Road …………… now that’s a zippy title

Now, despite all the new restaurants, wine bars and gift shops that present themselves along Beech Road, it is easy to overlook the continuity of businesses.

Beech Road circa 1900

So, take this old image of the road, from some time around the turn of the last century, and it is possible to spot the bakery on the corner with Neale Road, and the newsagents at the junction with Chequers Road.

And long with these there was the wine merchants of Mason & Burroughs, which continued to trade under the name of various companies until as Victoria Wines it closed about a decade ago.

Added to these, there has been a pet shop at various locations along Beech Road, and a stationer.

Mason & Burrows, 1900

Some like the newsagents can claim to have always traded as such right back to when Mr. Nixon opened in the early 1900s.

And while Mr. and Mrs Nixon were new to the trade, his father had run the stationers, in what is now 68 Beech Road and his grandparents had offered up beer and cheer in the Traveler’s Rest from the 1840s.

Nor is that the end, because Mr. Nixon’s great grandfather ran the pub over the water in what is now Jackson’s Boat, while Mrs. Nixon’s grandfather was Brownhill the wheelwright.

Today, the newsagents is run by the Etchells family who have been there since the 1960s, and next door in what is now a Chinese takeaway, opened as fish and ship shop at the same time as Mr. Nixon began selling newspapers.

All of which leads me back to Mason & Burrows, which is now occupied by épicerie Ludo, a place I have long been a fan of.  For here can be found a wonderful range of freshly baked bread, an equally interesting selection of wines and lots more food in between.

épicerie Ludo, 2018

For those of us who missed Buonissimo after it closed, the return of a deli on to Beech Road is most welcome, and I have to say that Ludo and Darren go out of their way to source my requests.

So, there it is, …………… and for those who didn’t know, the Co-op at the bottom of Beech Road, follows in the footsteps of the one that stood almost opposite.


Of course, patterns of shopping have changed and our tradional shops which included a grocer, a green grocer, butchers, hardware store and even a televion repair shop have gone, replaced by the advent of cafe society, the gift shop and the hairdressers.

Cafe Society, 2004

Location; Beech Road







Pictures; Beech Road circa 1900, from the collection of Rita Bishop, épicerie Ludo, 2018, courtesy of the owners, and café life, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Painting Well Hall and Eltham ....... nu 8 ....... magic days and evenings by the Tudor Barn

An occasional series featuring buildings and places I like and painted by Peter Topping.

The Barn, 2017

I am guessing we all have our favourite memories of the Tudor Barn and the Pleasaunce.

Mine run from wandering around the gardens on warm sunny days with a girl friend enjoying that heady sense of romance mixed with the memories of the sunlight playing on the moat and the orange coloured brick work of the Barn

And if there is one special memory it will be of a Blues and Folk night sometime in the summer of 1966.

I can’t remember who was on but there was something magical about sitting in the small open air theatre listening to the music with all that history as a backdrop.

Junior Showtime in the Pleasaunce, 1967

For years afterwards I cherished the poster of the event which I bought for a shilling  from the entertainments office of the Council, and as you do I pasted it on the wall of my bedroom.

It featured a guitar and a pair of Chelsea boots in black on a white background and always reminded me of the Pleasaunce.

For my sisters one of their special moments might well be those summer entertainments put on during the holidays and featuring all sorts of kid’s entertainers.

By chance one of those Junior Showtime’s was photographed by the local paper and the clipping with our Jill aged about nine staring back at the camera has survived.

And there hangs a perfect moment in time down at the Tudor Barn.

Painting; The Tudor Barn © 2017 Peter Topping from a photograph by Scott MacDonald circa 2013

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

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

Picture; Well Hall courtesy of Scott McDonald and Junior Showtime, August 20 1967 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects ... number 19 ……. the tourist’s tale ….

The story of Didsbury in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph or more.

I doubt that Alexander Somerville was the first tourist to fall in love with Didsbury.

He was a journalist and in the June of 1847 had come over to Chorlton looking for potato blight, moved across the Mersey by the Greyhound pub at Jackson’s Boat and ended up in Didsbury.

A place he wrote “of great beauty- not surpassed even by the beautiful fields, meadows, gardens, and the public pathways through them, lying around London.” *

And went on to revel in the place, stating boldly, “Let the traveller, passing out of Cheshire into Lancashire by the Northern Ferry, who loves to loiter on the road, and see sights, come at the hour of summer sunset.  

Let him approach Didsbury, and look back suddenly through the trees, the traveller will see the houses standing on the brow of eminence, and the gardens with them, and the people looking out of opened windows, the very houses gazing, as it were, with wonder; and the old church, with its graveyard, and the dead of a thousand years around it, standing in the very brink of the eminence.”*

And yes I know Ford Lane, 1933, is not Alexander Somerville in 1847, but try finding an appropriate image.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Ford Lane, from the collection of A.H. Clarke, 1933

*Somerville, Alexander, A Pilgrimage in search of the Potato Blight, The Manchester Examiner, June 19th, 1847

A home for our Lady?

 Breaking  news. 

There may be a future for the mosaic on Stockton Road.

It is a story l have already visited and back then there were heaps of uncertainty about the mosiac which had been hidden for many years.*

The site was once a Catholic school which later became an Islamic high school for girls and is now about to be redeveloped.

That redeployment cast a shadow on the mosaic but now according to the Manchester Evening News there are plans to save it.**

Location; Chorlton

Picture; the mosaic, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* What fate our Lady?  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2024/07/what-fate-for-our-lady.html

**The race againist time to save a historic Manchester mosiac, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/the-race-against-time-to-31285880

Bits of the City I forgot

 This is a view of Chetham’s I had almost forgotten.

The School, 2025

It faces on to Walker’s Croft, and once just a couple of decades ago this spot offered up views across a plot of sunken land to Victoria Station.

In 1951

The story of Chetham’s is well known but this spot is less so.

In 1851

At the end of the 19th century the land was covered by hotel, corn mill and gymnasium, and by 1951 it appears on the OS map as a “ruin”.

And a century before was a densely packed mix of properties.

I miss that open space that dropped down from the road side and depending on the time of year was thick with trees and bushes.

But also other things which are best left unmentioned.

Location; Walker’s Croft

Picture; Chetham’s 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the area between Walker's Croft and Victoria Railway Station, 1951 from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1951, and in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

On finding Mr Hanburys forgotten shopping bag ...... tales from a Chorlton supermarket

Now a little bit of our collective past bounced across my screen in the form of an old shopping bag from Hanburys.

A treasure from Hanburys, date unknown

It was sent over by Catherine Brownhill who found it in the attic, adding, “Look what turned up amongst a pile of old photos whilst having a COVID-19 loft clear out”.

For those who don’t know, Hanburys was the supermarket which occupied what until recently was the Co-op store on Barlow Moor Road.

Now, I liked Hannburys.

It was a no-nonsense place, which dispensed with elegance, and panache for branded goods sold a little cheaper than elsewhere.

At Christmas its loyalty card was just that ……. a tiny piece of card which was stamped every time you shopped there during the months of December.

And like Kingy across the road it was viewed with affection by those who shopped there, and on a busy day there might be a few who remembered when the building had been our first purpose-built cinema.

The cinema, 1928

It opened in the May of  1914, as the  Palais de Luxe, changing its name to the Palace around 1946, and closed in 1957.

After which the building was owned by Radio Rentals, and then sometime before 1969 it was taken over by Tesco and traded as such, until 1974.

This I know because of a reference in the planning records which record “Continuance of use of radio and television service centre as supermarket”.*

Now given that it was already trading as a Tesco store, I think this might have been the moment when it was sold on to Hanburys, which was a chain of stores across the north which had its origins, when Jeremiah Hanbury opened a small store in 1889 in Market Street, Farnworth, selling butter and bacon.

Forty years later the business was bought by Bolton wholesale grocers E.H. Steele Ltd, and in 1997 the 31 Hanbury’s stores in the north west were acquired by United Norwest Co-op.**

There will be those who are sniffy at featuring a shopping bag from a lost supermarket, but it is history, and what is more it may have been one of those bags which Hanburys started giving away in that short period when we were profligate with plastic bags.

And here I need some help, because I am trying to remember whether Hanburys followed the practice of Safeway and offered you big brown paper bags, which were sturdy but came without handles.

The empty building, 2019

And now the site is just an empty bit of cleared land.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Hanburys shopping bag, courtesy of Catherine Brownhill, the closed Co-op store, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the Palais De Luxe cinema, circa 1928, Charles Ireland, GD10-07-04-6-13-01 courtesy of East Dunbartonshire Archives 

*Manchester City Council Planning Portal, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=ZZZZZZBCXT638&activeTab=summary

**List of supermarket chains in the UK, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_supermarket_chains_in_the_United_Kingdom