The lost pubs of Chorlton No 2, The Feathers

The Feather’s was another of those lost pubs I rarely drank in which may or may not account for its short existence.

It opened in November 1959 and just about staggered into the 21st century.  Near the end it seemed to have a number of fresh openings followed by swift closures and is now a supermarket.

Its attraction were the small front rooms which were just the right size for a gathering of a few friends or when you fancied escaping from the usual haunts.

It was opposite the cinema but I never remember visiting it after a film.

Picture; December 1959, R.E.Stanley, m49581, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford nu 8 .... Chapel Street

Now before anyone says anything I am quite well aware that Chapel Street is neither lost nor forgotten.

Anyone who has tried to cross the road from Trinity Church to the other side during the rush hour well testify to that.

But for JBS who sent this picture postcard on July 12 1905 at 3.30 pm Chapel Street as she experienced it has long gone.

She had arrived that morning “all safe ..... weather Beautiful, if I can I shall stay here till Wednesday providing I can find lodgings.”

I can’t be sure but given that the card was addressed to a Miss Smith of 78 Wellington Street, Batley, I think we can assume she was from Yorkshire.

And the rest as they is up to the curious to match her lost Chapel Street with ours today.

Location; Salford 3

Picture; Chapel Street, 1905, from the collection of Mrs Bishop

Last Train to Clarksville ....Daydream Believer ..... and a romantic moment accompanied by the Monkees

Now you can be quite sniffy about the Monkees, which were an assembled band for television, and featured as such on NBC television from 1966-1970.

1967

I first saw them sometime around 1966-1967 on the BBC when the show went out on an early evening Saturday slot.

I have to admit to my shame that I publicly followed the line that they were not serious musicians, but secretly I liked them.  Some of the songs have survived the test of time, and are still exciting to listen to while the story lines were funny.

But that is not surprising given some of the songs and scripts were written by accomplished and well known professionals, added to which some of the Monkees themselves became popular musicians.

I suppose my time with them will have been during 1966 and early 1967 when I was dating Jennifer who like me went to Crown Woods.  Jennifer’s father was in the army and she was one of the students who spent term time living in the Lodge which was attached to the school.

1969

So on some Saturday nights we spent a few hours in the common room watching the Monkees and other things before I was banished before lights out ….. or I suspect when she had enough of me.

Such is the twisty turny time of adolescent love.

Even now some of those Monkess songs take me right back to that period of intense emotions with the girl I thought I had fallen in love with in that room.

And in a year and a bit on after we had long parted it was where I sat some of my A levels, and during the efforts to construct an essay on King Lear or Disraeli my mind would wander back to the daft moments with Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork and  Davy Jones of the Monkees and Jennifer.

Location; the 1960s

Pictures, the Monkees, 1967, and 1969, from the collection of NBC

Four petrol pumps ….. three concrete stumps ........ and two pizza shops

There will be many who remember the three concrete stumps outside what are now Pizza Hut and Domino’s on Wilbraham Road.

1959

And there may still be some who can recall the four petrol pumps which stood on those concrete plinths.

They are gone now but for almost all of the time I have lived in Chorlton the stumps were there.

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.

And last night with the help of Anthony Petrie I went looking for the history of the garage, the pumps and the concrete plinths.

He has access to four street directories spanning the early and middle decades of the last century.

Street directories record the residents and businesses street by street, with separate listings in alphabetical and trade order.

2023

The Manchester and Salford directories go back to the late 18^th century becoming more detailed during the following two centuries.

The last was published in 1969 and because they were compiled and published annually offer up a record of who and what was where and how in some cases occupants moved around the twin cities.

In 1954 613 Wilbraham Road was home to Wilbraham Garage which is still listed there in 1961, leaving me just to book into Central Ref and go looking either side of 1954 and 1961 to establish when the garage opened and when it closed.

1985

But in the nature of these things, I bet someone will know.

For now I can just record that in 1929 the site was home to the accountant Harry Moorhouse who had diversified into cinemas and owned a chain which stretched across Manchester.

Although I rather think his house was demolished or seriously altered to accommodate the garage.

We shall see.

But that is not quite the end of the tale, because here after perhaps 40s years are two of the tiles made by the Pottery Studio.

For almost four decades they were part of the tiled surround to our bath.  

And when the old bath went and were replaced by a walk in shower only a handful survived.

Perhaps not a petrol pump or concrete stump but a reminder of that spot.

Location; Wilbraham Road

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 in 1985 from the collection of Tom McGrath  in 2023, courtesy of Google Maps, and two of the tiles from the Pottery Studio, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Find out more about the story on Sunday when you can join me for The short Chorlton History Walk that’s got the lot ……. at 2pm oiutside Benitos on Wilbraham Road, which is part of  Chorlton Get Together; https://chorlton.coop/event/get-together-2023/

The Didsbury mystery …… and “a right pong”

Now I say mystery, but I suspect there will be an avalanche of answers to the simple question, what is it?

The mystery object, 2025

The blog regularly gets requests to search out people, places, and events, as well as being offered pictures and stories, and so I welcomed the message from Dominic Parker who wrote in “Hi Andrew, big fan of your work!  Wondered if you could enlighten as to what this is?

Craigmore Avenue and the Mersey, 2025

It’s in a garden I maintain on Craigmore Avenue West Didsbury.  My own theory is its some sort of ventilation for an old tip or something like that, it kicks off a right pong every now and then”.

Craigmore Avenue is off Princess Road close to where the Mersey does one of its loops and is sited on what was Redbank Farm.

I can’t be exactly sure when the avenue was cut but it will be sometime after 1936.  The OS map for that year shows the farm still there but the 1938-46 version records the presence of the avenue with its houses.

Looking at all the maps going back to 1818 there is no indication of a water course feeding into the Mersey at this spot.

But the City Council conducted widespread controlled tipping which at the time lauded as the new and scientific way was “'controlled tipping'.  Here the rubbish is dumped on low lying land and is spread carefully out and ‘sealed’ by covering with a thick layer of soil. 

Redbank Farm and the Mersey, 1894

Then another layer of waste is put on top, ‘sealed’ and so the land is built up into what becomes in a year or two solid land.  

Just as the clinker obtained from the incineration method is put to good use in road making, the controlled tipping method is usefully applied to filling up waste land, and as you will find on the Mersey Bank at Wythenshawe that a large area of waste land previously liable to floods has been built up by this method into high solid land, grass-grown and suitable for all sorts of purposes, such as playing fields and parks...”

Now just exactly where around Craigmore Avenue the City Council may have undertaken tipping is as yet unclear but with a bit more research and perhaps some anecdotal memories, we may be able to establish if this were so.

I don't think that the Corporation would build on tipped land, and there is no evidence on the maps from the 1930s that the area by Redbank Farm was tipped on, especially given that the farm had existed on that spot from the early 19th if not the late 18th century.

The Mersey and Redbank Farm to the left, 1915

Despite the Mersey’s unpredictable flood record, generations of farmers would bot choose to build and live in a farm so close to the River.

So, it is over to the experts. …. Sorry Dominic.

And just an hour after the story went live we had the suggestion that it was a "Septic tank vent" which has form, but I think all the houses will have been connected to the sewage system, but it will be interesting to hear from local residents.

Location; Close to the Mersey in West Didsbury

Pictures; the mystery object, Dominic Parker, 2025, Craigmore Avenue, 2025, courtesy of Google Maps, Redbank Farm 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archive Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ The Mersey at Red Bank 1915 from the Lloyd collection

*Our City, Manchester 1838-1938, the Manchester Municipal Officer’s Guild, 1938

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford nu 6 ............ Gravel Lane

Now I know that strictly speaking Gravel Lane is neither lost nor forgotten.

It runs from Blackfriars Road up to Greengate, but that first chunk is hidden underneath the railway viaducts which make it a tad foreboding.

But if you do wander into that dark cavern you will be rewarded by some fine cast iron pillars on the corner of Viaduct Street.

These support the original Liverpool and Manchester Railway’s track which was constructed in 1844 and while it was a substantial structure carrying four railway lines it was not yet the structure we know today.

Back in the late 1840s looking out from the north side of Trinity Church there was still a wide expanse of space beyond which were a  Rope Walk, a series of mills and foundries and a timber yard.

Gravel Lane, 1849

And a walk up Gravel Lane in 1849 would have taken you past the Methodist Chapel, a whole shed load of houses with access to some closed courts and Christ Church which stood between King Street and Queen Street.

All a little different today.

Location; Salford

Pictures; Gravel Lane, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the area in 1849, from the OS for Manchester and Salford, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

A name …… some reports ...... a heap of friends ...... and the memories …… Crown Woods ..... 1966-68

Just what survives from our school days is a lottery.

It’s usually a mix of luck, self-interest, and our parent’s determination to save something of our childhood.

Me …….. I have just five school photos from my days at Samuel Pepys Secondary Modern, nothing from my Junior School and little from my time at Crown Woods.

 And I guess it’s the absence of much from Crown Woods that irks me the most given that they were the happiest of my school days.

Just why they were lost is still a puzzle, but I have rediscovered the reports from our Stella.

All five of us went through its doors, from September 1966 when I was 16 and new to the Sixth Form to my four sisters who attended in the late 60s into the next decade.

The reports span the winter and summer of 1970/1971 and are fascinating on many levels.

First of course they remind me of our sister and that in itself is a bonus.

But then there is the school badge and the names of the teachers including Mrs. Husain who was my first tutor and head of History but who had become a deputy head by 1971.

And there is the style of reporting which I recognise so well from my 35 years of teaching.

Some of the comments are spot on, others very subject specific and some vague and generalized.

All of which I can vouch for over the decades in what I struggled to write about my students, running from the supportive, constructive to the diplomatically critical.

“Always remember” I told myself that “this is a person, not a number on a register who should always be treated with respect”, unlike one poor soul who a colleague of mine in the 1970s summed up as “feeble”, no more no less.

But reports are not all of what lingers with most of us.  For me it is the friends I made, and who I still talk to today fifty-eight years after I met them along witha heap of memories which range from the good to the indifferent and the bad.

In there I include some girlfriends, some impressive teachers and the drama and musical evenings which still live with me.

And now I read that the successor to the Crown Woods I knew is discussing changing the school’s name.

Am I sad? Well, a little, but then the building I knew has already been demolished and it is over half a century ago that I went there.

Added to which of the seven educational institutions I studied at and taught in, only one has survived, and that was Edmund Waller in New Cross. The rest from my secondary school to Crown Woods, the places I did a degree and obtained a Cert Ed along with the schools I taught at ... all have gone. Some are now apartments, or housing estates while one changed its name, was then demolished and is now an academy with a new name.

So, not much to show for the biggest part of my life as a student and teacher.  Still to misquote Rick Baine from the film Casablanca we will always have the memories.*

Location; Eltham

Pictures; report for Stella Simpson, 1971 in the Simpson collection

*“We will always have Paris” Rick Baine, Casablanca, 1942

A little bit of Derbyshire's history .... in the Lake Didstrict

 It has been a while since I inducted an object into the Street Furniture Hall of Fame.

This one comes from the Lake District and was uncovered by a chum last week.

Like all the inductees it comes with a history which in this case starts in two places in north Derbyshire. 

Stanton and Stavely were centres of iron manufacture in the 19th century.

Stanton began making iron products in 1846 and Staveley in 1863. 

They merged in 1960 and were nationalized in 1967, only to be priviatized later, acquired by a French company before the works in both places were closed down in the early 21st century.

I will leave it to someone else to explain the rest of the inscription.

For the very interested, there are various sites for each company detailing their history, their significance to the local econmies and their fate, with heaps of pictures.

Location; the Lake District

Picture; from a chum, 2025

New pubs for old and a disappointed confectioner

I rather think there must have been something in the air in the early months of 1907.

In the February there were two applications in front of the annual licensing meeting for the city of Manchester for new pubs in Chorlton.  Well I say new but in both cases they were for the demolition of existing buildings and their replacement with new ones.

The licensing records for the city are a wonderful treasure trove and I have to say I have trawled them over the years.  Sadly our own records only appear after 1904 when we were incorporated into Manchester and for the records of 19th century Chorlton you have to look elsewhere.

But for today thinking of the 1907 debate on new pub build the details are all here and it makes fascinating reading.

Now we had plenty of places.  Some like the Greyhound, the Bowling Green Hotel, Horse and Jockey, and Royal Oak could trace their history back to the beginning of the 19th century if not earlier, while  the Beech appeared at the beginning of the last century.  Others like the Travellers Rest and Black Horse along with countless unnamed ones were really just beer houses and surfaced and disappeared during the 19th century. Most had very short lives and more than likely existed as a part of a family strategy to make ends meet, opening when things were tight and closing when the family fortunes improved.

The exception is the Travellers Rest at the bottom of Beech Road which was opened in the late 1830s ran through to the early years of the 20th century and for most of that time was run by the Nixon family who could claim to be one of our well established families.  Samuel Nixon senior ran the Greyhound over the Mersey, his son and daughter in law ran the Travellers Rest and their son and grandson ran the stationers and newsagents on Beech Road.

Beer houses had come into existence with the Beer Act in 1830 and were designed to break the hold of the gin shops by permitting individuals to brew and sell beer for the price of a two guinea license.  In some cases like the Black Horse at Lane End and the beer shop run by Brownhill the wheelwright they were closed down when they continued to flout the license.

All of which brings me back to February of 1907. The Royal Oak had been selling beer since at least the 1830s and was the last beer house on the way out of the township to Manchester.  As such it was well placed to cater for farm labourers and the passing trade to and from the city and in its time had seen its fair share of unruly behaviour and worse from its customers.  But it was just a small house and I guess George Henry Kelsey could see the potential.  After all he had managed to get 800 residents to sign a petition “in favour of the new scheme.”* On top of which he was prepared to close his pub, the Sir Ralph Abercrombie in Great Ancoats-street for a newly built Royal Oak.

But the views of 800 residents were caught light in the balance when set against “several owners of property near the Royal Oak who were against the rebuilding.”  And Mr Kelsey may well have judged the wind when one of the licensing committee referred to the 800 as “the poor deluded people” who “in many cases because they were attracted by the prospect of a new building in place of a tumble down structure.”

There may have been more but it has been lost in time and the application was withdrawn but not after a sarcastic exchange where the committee man remarked that the applicant in withdrawing was “a very wise man” to which the reply was “I am sure I feel very gratified by that statement.”

And the same “tide in the affairs of men” was running equally against the tenant of the Bowling Green who wanted to reduce "from 1,335 feet to 1,126 feet the drinking area of the house and to have three rooms instead of ten” by demolishing the old building and putting up a new one.

It was a proposal which was not met with much enthusiasm, foundering on the official line that “there were too many licenses in old Chorlton already."  So I remain surprised that they decided to “visit the place and form our own conclusions on the spot.”

And equally surprised that within the year the old 18th century building was torn down and replaced by a new one.

The politics and workings of the committee remain a mystery to me and looking at previous decisions by earlier bodies the same holds true.

So back in 1893 when the responsibility for granting a license was with JPs, the session granted an application from a Mr Thomas Barrows of 46 Beech Road for an off wine and spirit license was successful while that of Charles Prince Hill confectioner of 28 Wilbraham Road was turned down.  He had wanted a license “to sell beer not to be consumed on the premises” and it was “not his intention to carry on a jug trade, but merely to serve families bottled beer.  The neighbourhood had increased largely and the license would be a great boon.”**

The opposition was limited to a local resident and another from Manchester Road who represented the British Women’s Temperance Association.  So in all “of the 4,700 persons in Chorlton-cum-Hardy only two had come forward to oppose the application.”  And the application was refused.

Perhaps it was because there were two businesses almost directly opposite selling alcohol or that it would be a change of direction for the 31 year old confectioner who had been on Wilbraham Road from at least 1891.


Now in time I might pursue Mr Hill who was still there in his confectioners in 1903 but had moved on by 1909 and it might be that he was successful elsewhere.

*Manchester Guardian February 8 1907
**Manchester Guardian August 23 1893

Pictures; from the collection of Tony Walker

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford nu 5 ............ what you find on Blackfriars Road

I am always fascinated by those narrow little passageways which hold the promise of all sorts of dark stories.

Passageway, 2016

Now this one has no name, and leads to Harding Street which today just gives access to a car park under the railway arches from Salford Approach.

So our little passageway seems hardly worth a second glance, but not so.

Go back to 1849 and it led to a closed court called Nightingale Square which in turn took you on to Harding’s Buildings which was the original Harding Street.

Here could be found 23 properties some of which were back to back and a whole warren of alleys on either side.

All were lost with the construction of the new railway viaduct and Exchange Station in 1884.

All of which just leaves me to go looking for the two buildings that stood on either side of our passage.

These were the Salford Library and Mechanic’s Institution to the left and The Royal Archer Public House to the right.

Now I am pretty sure there will be someone who can point me towards pictures of the Library and offer up rich stories of its contribution to Salford life.

In the same way I am also confident that The Royal Archer will reveal something of its past/

This I suspect will start with the names of some of the landords and if we are lucky a date for its opening.

It was there by 1849 and may well be much older than that.  In 1851 it was run by Margaret Horton and with a name we may be able to find out more.

Sadly Harding's Buildiings and Nightingale Square were not considered important enough for inclusion in the directories.

But Margaret Horton should be on the 1851 census and by following the streets from her pub it might be possible to come across both Harding's Buildings and Nightingale Square and in turn uncover the people who lived there.

We shall see.

To which Alan Jennings has added "You mention the Royal Archer, It can be traced back to about 1779 when Samuel Chantler opened an Alehouse called the Black Bull, In 1812 it was listed as the Robin Hood, occupied by Robert Armstrong, After Margaret Houghton the landlord was Thomas Callow in the 1860s. The pub stood on land owned by the Earl of Derby, and it was acquired by the Corporation when the new Blackfriars Road was being planned. In 1873, Thomas Sykes was the tenant and he applied to transfer the licence to a new Royal Archer Hotel which was being built on Lower Broughton Road, the transfer was eventually granted a few years later. I hope that this helps, Andrew."

Thank you Alan.

Location; Salford

Pictures; passageway on Blackfriars Road, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the area in 1849, from the OS for Manchester and Salford, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

When Crown Woods went vinyl ………………..

I will always be grateful to Crown Woods.

Being 16 and turning up at Crown Woods, 1968

It took a raw sixteen-year-old newly arrived in the September of 1966 and offered up an exciting new world.

My previous five years had been spent at a secondary modern school in New Cross which was the end result for all of us who failed the eleven plus and were judged academically unsuited to the world of Shakespeare, John Donne, and Shelley.

To be fair many secondary moderns did punch above their weight, put students through O and A levels and suggested some of us could walk the hallowed corridors of universities.

That said I had an indifferent five years and was ready for Crown Woods.

And what a revelation it proved to be, from the teachers to the assumption that we would get involved in the drama, and musical productions, while encouraging us to cross the city in search of plays and films just because they were being performed.

crown woods at southwark, 1966

These jaunts included nights at the Old Vic, and Joan Littlewood’s theatre in Stratford as well as tiny amateur presentations of the classics in small smelly venues over the River in obscure parts of north London.

Musical night, 1966

All of which complimented the big inhouse drama productions from the Price of Coal, Crown Woods at Southwark, heaps of music nights and the small intimate evenings hosted by the English Department.

Over the years I have written about those experiences but until yesterday I wasn’t aware that Crown Woods had gone vinyl.*

It was in 1978 and consisted of selections from a series of concerts performed in 1977/78 school year, and the magic is the variety.

Crown Woods went vinyl, 1978

From the classics to items from popular musicals and jazz, and as befitted a comprehensive school the participants were drawn from all age groups.

The magic was in the variety, 1978

My only regret is that I wasn’t there although there will be people who remember those three magic nights and my have participated in one of the concerts. 

But by 1977, I was doing my bit for education in an inner-city Manchester school trying to emulate the spirt of Crown Woods.

That said I came across a copy on ebay for sale at £24.**

It is listed as "CROWN WOODS SCHOOL IN CONCERT   L.P.  EXCELLENT CONDITION. CATALOGUE NUMBER:  SPS130

This brilliant album by Crown Woods was released on a private pressing back in 1979. This copy is in great condition (as described above).  Along with some truly timeless music it has a great sleeve!  RARE !!"

Now I am intrigued that it was a private pressing, and wonder just how many were made.

I am tempted to make a bid but that would involve repairing our record deck, but that might just be the incentive I need.

A different sort of musical event, 1968

For now I will just reflect that Crown Woods did allow me to stage a folk concert which I guess at 17 was something given the artists who turned up.  

With that passage of time I have no idea how much they were paid.

Leaving me just to thank Chris Mentiply for permission to reproduce his copy of the LP and make a story.

And to conclude where I began that Crown Woods did really offer up the lot.

 Location; Crown Woods, Eltham

Pictures; That raw 16 year old, 1966 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Musical nights at Crown Woods from the collection of Ann Davey 1966, crown woods at southwark, 1968, Margaret Copeland Gain, and Crown Woods, the vinyl from Chris Mentiply

*The class of 68, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20class%20of%20%2768

**Crown Woods in Concert, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112343918748

Adventures in the east .... across three centuries ....from Holt Town to New Cross

The thing about adventures is that they should be spontaneous with only a limited idea of where to go.

Tram spots and the adventure start, Chorlton, 2025

The downside is that you will have not given much thought to what you might want to eat and drink as the day wears on.

Aged 10 and with the whole of London at our fingertips, supplies were usually limited to a bottle of lemonade, which could be supplemented by a hollowed out round loaf of bread, which might be filled with a bag of chips, if we were lucky to find a chippy.

At Central Ref with the library staff, 2025

During the long walk or train ride, you ate the inside of the loaf which later provided the perfect receptacle for the chips, or crisps. It was and remained the perfect adventure meal.

And now aged 75 after decades of work and bringing up the kids the adventures are back although the gigantic chip sandwich is a thing of the past.

All of which is an introduction to the  jaunt across the eastern side of the city through Holt Town, and New Islington which filled my Wednesday.

We had been in Central Ref delivering our latest book to the library’s bookshop. 

It is the third in that popular series telling the story of Greater Manchester By Tram, which explore all ninety-nine metro stops across the eight tram routes.*

Each book is a mix of original paintings, period pictures and stories of the area around each stop, cost £4.99 and are available from Chorlton Bookshop, Waterstones on Deansgate, Central Reference Library, and from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk

Ancoats Mill, 2025

And having discharged that task and with the sun shinning and a full day ahead we jumped the tram at St Peter’s Square and headed out east to the Etihad Stadium.

It was inspired partly to explore the route of the next book but more to look up the place on the edge of Man City’s ground where I had lived for a magical year back in 1973.**

This was Butterworth Street flanked by Grey Mare Lane on one side and Mill Street in the shadow of the recently closed Bradford Colliery in the heart of what was still industrial Manchester.

It was a forlorn quest which I knew was fruitless given the redevelopment of the area and sure enough all that was left was the remnant of Rhyl Street which once gave off on to Butterworth Street from Mill Street and now was buried under Alan Turing Way with our apartment and my memories.

And that same message of what redevelopment means stuck with me as we travelled back via the tram to Holt Town, and onto New Islington.

Holt Town was developed at the end of the 18th century and quickly became a workhouse for the city with plenty of textile mills, gas works, and rows of terraced housing.***

That wooden figure, 2025

In turn bits were redeveloped in the middle decades of the last century and there is promise of a new redevelopment.

Forlorn and forgotten spot, 2025

At present the new social housing sits beside the former mills amongst open spaces and closed pubs. 

And here and there are those small businesses like the car wash firm on the corner of Beswick Street.

There will be plenty of stories like that of the forlorn wooden statue just off the main road, which I vaguely remember fronted a small modern row of shops. They have gone but the surrounding posh red brick walls have also survived, although they are steadily being overtaken by bushes, long grass and trees.

Equally sad looking is the nearby Ancoats Mill which will have its own story, and these I think will be the core of the chapter on Holt Town in that new book which will also include Piccadilly Gardens, Piccadilly Railway Station, and the Etihad Stadium.

For more research we walked into New Islington and found a place to sit and watch the boats on the canal while sipping coffee and indulging in a couple of pastries.

I talked about including New Cross on the corner of Oldham Road and Great Ancoats Street which was a popular meeting place of dissent in the 18th and early 19th centuries along with accounts of the Ashton and Rochdale Canals.

And here we met up with two tourists down from Middlesborough, discussed what might go into the other chapters and marvelled at the transition of the area.

Of course, had we taken a slight diversion we would have come across Tony’s Fish and Chip shop on Piercey Street which would have allowed me to recreate that bread and chippy meal of my youth.

Down to New Islington and the city centre, 2025

But somethings are best left in the past.

Location; Holt Town and beyond

Pictures; different bits of Holt Town, 2025,  from the collection of Andrew Simpson

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

**Travels through the 1970’s …… via Grey Mare Lane ..... Bradford Colliery and some fireman's flats, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2025/04/travels-through-1970s-via-grey-mare.html

***Holt Town, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Holt%20Town

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford nu 4 ............ Caxton Street

Caxton Street is the one that runs from Chapel Street to the railway viaduct but once upon a time ran on as Union Street under the train tracks to Posey Street..

Now I say that but am well prepared to be corrected.

I should have crossed the road and followed Caxton Street up to the brick wall but I didn’t and so may have lost a clue.

Back in 1849 there were 76 properties strung out along Union Street

Location, Salford

Picture; Caxton Street, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The class of ’68 part 8 ……. doing drama the big way*

Now if you went to Crown Woods in the 1960s and into the next decade, chances are you will have been part of the big block buster performances, involving the English, Music and Art departments.*

The Price of Coal, November 1968

And if that performance was The Price of Coal which was performed in November 1968, then you could add the History department to that list.

These were the inclusive productions which set out to include as many students as possible from all age ranges, skills and talents to show case the school and show just what a comprehensive school could achieve.

The Price of Coal, not only brought together the traditional departments but was researched by students doing history, and told the story of the impact of coal mining in the late 18th and 19th century.

It was performed in the same year that Newcastle Playhouse’s production of "Close the Coalhouse Door" which was written by Alan Plater, based on his friend and mentor Sid Chaplin's mining stories, and with music by Alex Glasgow – all three of them born in the County Durham mining area.

I should remember The Price of Coal, and Peter Grimes, because I entered the school aged 16 in the September of 1966.

Peter Grimes, March, 1968

But I did perform in two others which were All that life can afford and Crown Woods at southwark.

These productions were were spoken of with a mixture of pride, but also a nonchalance, based on that confidence that this is what a comprehensive school can do.

I have no doubt that the neighbouring schools of Eltham Green and Kidbrook did the same, but Crown Woods was my school.

And for someone who came from a small all boys secondary modern, on the borders of Brockley and New Cross, Crown Woods was something very different, very exciting and ultimately very rewarding.  

Not only for his academic standing but also because it was a co-educational school and for a lad from a single sex institution that was something else.

But that is for another story, leaving me just to thank Margaret Copeland Gain, who sent over the two covers from the productions of The Price of Coal and Peter Grimes.

crown woods at southwark

Location; Crown Woods, Eltham

Pictures, covers from the productions of The Price of Coal, crown woods at southwark,and Peter Grimes, 1968, courtesy of Margaret Copeland Gain

*The class of '68, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20class%20of%20%2768

**Close the Coal House Door, Alex Glasgow, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGPSqE74F0Q

Travels through the 1970’s …… via Grey Mare Lane ..... Bradford Colliery and some fireman's flats

 This is where we lived for one carefree year when we were very young.

Home, Butterworth Street, 1986

It was the January of 1972, and we had been married for a month. We were just 23 and 21 years old and starting out on an adventure.

And where better to do that, than in a block of former fireman’s flats on Butterworth Street which was one side of the Mill Street Police Station in Bradford Manchester.

There were six flats, and they comprised the entire stock of student accommodation at that time owned by Manchester Polytechnic, and we were the first six families to occupy them.

It was a complete contrast to south Manchester and student land where we had both lived for two years but we loved it.  The winding gear of Bradford Colliery was just down the road, there were still heaps of small iron works and on certain days the sky could be a different colour depending on the stuff coming from the chimneys of Clyton Aniline.

The city centre was just a short train or bus ride away and directly outside our door was Grey Mare Lane Market which offered up all we wanted including a wonderful record stall from which I bought and still have the LP, Easy by Marvin Gaye and Tammy Tyrell.

Flats and a police station from Rhyl Street, 1991

The summer of 1973 I spent working in the scaffolding yard of SGB on Pottery Lane and at weekends we explored what was left of area, from Philips Park and out along Ashton Old Road.

But the place was already undergoing redevelopment.  Across from us was the new Grey Mare Lane deck access complex which at night resembled an ocean liner.

And all around there were open grassed spaces which was all that was left of the rows of terraced houses which had once been home to hundreds of families.

The colliery had closed just five years before we arrived, but the head gear was still there, until one day when we were out it was demolished.

Butterworth Street, 1948

It is easy to become nostalgic about our time there, but even then you couldn’t escape the industrial side of the area with its noise and smoke.

We lasted just a year which had less to do with the factories but simply that at the end of the year we had graduated, and while the Polytechnic allowed us to say for a while eventually were given our marching orders.

As it was we just moved up Ashton Old Road to Ashton Under Lyne which meant for a few years we passed Grey Mare Lane most days on the 218 into town.

And then I moved again and that was it apart from occasional forays out towards Philips Park, until this week when I washed up at the Etihad Stadium and on an impulse went looking for Butterworth Street and Mill Street.

I already knew that the complex had gone and worked out that our flats were now under Alan Turing Way.

All that remains of Rhyl Street, 2012

That said nothing quite prepares you for the moment when you locate the precise point where you lived.

Mill Street still exists and so does the remains of a short stretch of what was Rhyl Street which ran along side the Police Station and led into Butterworth Street.

It is just a few yards of tarmac, which in places has worn away to reveal the original stone setts.

Not much but all there is left.

And I guess it won’t be long before it too vanishes.

Already much of the original street plan from the early 20th century has been swept away by a new network of roads which run in different directions.

I wasn’t surprised and certainly not upset, it is only to be expected in an area which is being redeveloped, but I am glad I got close to the old flat.

And it will give me a topic of conversation the next time I meet up with a former policeman who walked the beat from Mill Street Police Station.

Which just leaves me to quoute from that excellet site Architects of Greater Manchester who posted three newspaper articles about the Police Station's opening on October 2nd, 1903.

Inside the police station, 1991

This was one is from the Manchester Guardian from October 2nd, 1903 reporting that "A new police station which has been erected in Mill-Street, Bradford, Manchester, was opened yesterday by Mr. W. Trevor, chairman of the Watch Committee of the Corporation. 

The station has cost £25,000, and will take the place of the old headquarters of the C Division in Fairfield-Street, as well as of several sub-stations. The building contains separate departments for police and firemen, together with housing accommodation for several men of both forces. In the police department there are thirteen cells, and these, like the rest of the building, are lighted by electricity. 

The fire department, at. the corner of Mill-street and Rhyl Street, has been arranged on most modern lines. with open stalls for the horses on either side of the engine-house, and sliding poles from the men's quarters on the floor above. The new station contains a section of the Horse Ambulance Corps".*

 And that is it, other than to say the sky could be different colours. I had begun to doubt that, but my friend Chris who had grown up off Grey Mare Lane confirmed it.

And from David Bullock came this "Great article Andrew. You’ve got the location spot on in the modern photo, opposite the doctors. What colour was the sky, yellow, orange or a bit of each? Walking the quiet streets at night you could hear the low hum of machinery that never stopped and the sporadic blasts of steam being vented. There was also the ever present chemical smell in the air. I’m sure you were kept awake at night by the stray dogs in the kennel in the station yard barking. It was uncanny how the dogs who wouldn’t stop barking always managed to escape.

Location; Mill Street, Butterworth Street, and Rhyl Street

Pictures; Butterworth Street, 1986,m 15551, and Rhyl Street, 1991, m55776, Inside the staion, 1991m55773, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  Mill Street and Rhyl Street, 2012, courtesy of Google Maps, and the area in 1948, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1922

*Architects of Greater Manchester 1800-1940

https://manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk/buildings/new-police-station-mill-street-bradford-manchester

Two pictures ….. and more stories

I have Steve Casson to thank for these two picture postcards of the old St Clements’s Church and the Bowling Green Hotel.

St Clememt's Church, date unknown

I don’t have dates for either, but the battered state of the cards suggests we are back in the 19th century.

And that distressed state adds to their impact, offering up heaps of possible stories, of who originally owned them, how they survived and how eventually they passed to Steve.

But there is even more.

So, in the case of the church there are those steps leading up to the rear of the old Bowling Green Hotel.  

I say old because the pub was demolished to make way for the present building which dates from 1908.

All of which suggests that our photographer was standing roughly on the site of the new pub.

I had never realized that the old pub stood on a slight rise.

The image also gives a fine view of the church from an angle I have also never seen, and along with the details of the windows and great east window there is the pipe of the Arnott stove which was used to keep the church warm.

Bowling Green Hotel, date unknown

The picture of the Bowling Green Hotel is one I am familiar with, but never ceases to interest me.

Steve has also passed over a series of newspaper clippings covering the removal of the headstone memorial to PC Cock who was murdered in Whalley Range, and an act of vandalism to the churchyard when gravestones were toppled over.

PC Cook’s story is in itself a fascinating one offering up an insight into how some mistrusted the Irish, after suspicion fell on the Hebron brothers who were agricultural labourers from Ireland.

Luckily for them the real murderer confessed.

Mr. Casson in the former churchyard, 1978

The memorial stone to the policeman was removed in 1956 to the head quarters of the Lancashire Constabulary at Preston, and in its place is a modest stone inscription close to the Lych Gate.

For years there was also a wooden noticeboard above the bar in the Bowling Green which recounted the story of the murder, but alas it disappeared a long time ago.

But at least we now have this collection of material connected to the church and graveyard.

Steve told me that "I would be confident that the photos were at one time in the possession of Fred maybe through his connections as verger". 

Mr. Casson had been a verger at the church from 1930 till its closure in 1940, he served in the Great War in the Lancashire Fusiliers and was the local window cleaner. 

Location; Chorlton graveyard

Pictures; the old St Clements’s Church and Bowling Green Hotel, undated, newspaper clipping from the Journal April 13th 1978 featuring Mr. Casson, courtesy of Steve Casson