Pictures from Porto ………… and a bit of street furniture from around the corner

Or as we often say in our house … “a wall of sardines, date stamped, and a bit of street furniture brought to you by Fucoli-Somepal”.

A wall of sardines, 2025

Now I have no idea sitting here in Chorlton as to why these tins of sardines each bear a different date, other than you can search for the year you were born and take home the contents ready to eat on the anniversary of your birth.

And that was the assumption of my pal who sent over the image on his trip through the Portuguese town of Porto.

SANEAMENTO, 2025

That said there will be someone who has taken a similar picture and has the knowledge of just why a company would date stamp their tins of sardines.

Happily, I am more at home with the metal street cover which bears the words SANEAMENTO which is Portuguese for sanitation, and underneath it Fucoli which is the company that makes such essential street items.

Their web site announces that “At Fucoli-Somepal, we pride ourselves on providing durable and long-lasting ductile iron products for wastewater applications. Our expertly engineered solutions are designed to perform exceptionally well, even in the most challenging conditions”.  Added to which their products are “100% made in Europe”.*

This Porto “ductile iron product” is a grand addition to my collection of street furniture which extends way beyond street covers to include stink poles, vending machines, and ghost signs, as well as redundant telephone kiosks, Lucy Boxes, and streetlamp posts.

The list is endless, and pretty much covers anything which at some point in time has occupied a street corner, plastered on a wall, stood on a pavement or the middle of a road or just outside a shop.**

A Lucy Box, 2021

Once they did the business but progress has reduced them to rusting, neglected and forgotten bits of our history.

Like those Lucy Boxes which according to my I Spy Lucy Boxes, site, a "Lucy box" is a name applied to boxes, about 3 feet high, about 2 feet wide and about 18 inches deep, which are to be found on pavements throughout the city.   

Such boxes were originally used in connection with the tram network and then with the trolley bus network; and as part of the general electricity supply network; and for telephone purposes”.***

To these I could add horse troughs and finger posts.  

For those who like me who were born in the first half of the last century, the horse trough were a common sight still fulfilling their purpose of offering drinking water to thirsty horses which pulled the milk floats and assorted carts and wagons. While finger posts with their destination indicators pointing in different directions remain far more attractive than those giant metal signs in day glow colours. 

And looking at this vending machine from the middle decades of the 20th century it is hard to remember that there was a time when you could get cigarettes, chocolate, chewing gum and even milk and orange juice from a machine which required to to do no more than put your money in a slot and pull the right lever.

No complicated battery of buttons to assist in making a choice between a bewildering selection and which requires a card rather than a few coins.

But then as now there was always that danger that the machine refused to give you anything ..... reminding me of that old sad lament ...."here I stand, paid a penny and only ......".

All of which is a long way from Porto in Portugal and so given that we have shifted in time and space, I shall close with this wonderful sign from the age of the old Manchester trams.

It is undated but I think will come from the 1930s or 40s.

Tram sign, undated

And I wonder if it will have a longer life than the sign to the lavatories in a department store in Manchester I collected yesterday.

2025

Well we shall see.

Location; on any street, shop wall at anytime in the last two centuries.

Pictures; wall dated stamped sardines, and a bit of street furniture brought to you by Fucoli-Somepal, 2025, A Hardy & Padmore of Worcester Lucy Box, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertso the forgotten machine in Deal, 2016, courtesy of Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick, Manchester Corporation Tramways, date unknown, from the collection of Allan Brown

* Fucoli-Somepal, https://www.fucoli-somepal.pt/EN/produtos/produtos/agua-residuais-saneamento#

**Street furniture, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Street%20furniture 

*** I Spy Lucy Boxes , http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/lucy/lucyboxes.htm

The canal, some lost buildings and a moment from 1978

 This is Canal Street in 1978, and for me and those friends who went to the old College of Commerce it is  familiar scene.

Canal Street and the Rochdale Canal, 1978

Now the blog doesn’t do nostalgia, it is a pernicious and deceptive trick, where the sun always shone, Wagon Wheels were always big, and people left the doors unlocked.

The fact is that there was never  a perfect golden time, and if people did leave their doors unlocked it was simply because there was nothing in the house worth stealing.

The canal, 1955

That said, the picture does conjure up nostalgic memories.  By 1978, my student days at the College were six years in the past, I was gainfully employed, and still finding lots of time to wander the streets of the city, with a camera and heaps of historical curiosity.

But perhaps because I walked Canal Street so many times I don’t think I ever photographed the canal from this angle.

David Ward-naden did, and it is a perfect piece of history.  Beyond the bridge and to the right the buildings which fronted London Road and have long gone, as has the cark park of the college which was behind that white wall.

David reminded me that this has once been an arm of the Rochdale Canal which serviced a series of warehouses, one of which in the early 1970s was converted into the library of the college.

And that in turn led me back to a series of stories I did of that spot, and in particular of Back Canal Street and Little David Street which ran parallel to Camp Street.  

Only Little David Street still exists and it is now just an alley which at present id fenced off.  Back in the early 19th century the two streets which ran off Chorlton Street terminated at the edge of the canal arm.*

In 1841, 81 people lived in 22 of the 28 back to back properties which had been built as one up one downs at the beginning of the 19th century.

The area, 1955

Here lived a mix of families who earned their living as labourers, textile workers with the odd craftsmen.

The properties were swept away and replaced by a new commercial building, but as late as the 1950s, the canal arm was still in use, and the site was not cleared until the middle of the next decade when the College of Commerce was built.

That too has now gone, with the old tower block redeveloped for residential purposes, and a new block standing on the site of the old car park.

Such is the passage of time over 40 or so years.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Canal Street and the Rochdale Calana, 1978, from the collection of David Ward-naden British Waterways narrow boats, proceeding to Hassall's Warehouse, Ducie Street, leaving Chorlton Street Lock, 1955, m54248, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .... nu 64 Little David Street, a lost canal a cafe and a plan, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Little+David+Street

The lost Eltham & Woolwich pictures ...... no. 39 ..... a day in the summer of 1978 at the Pleasaunce

It will have been a day in August and having aimlessly wandered around Well Hall with a camera I washed up at the Pleasaunce.

Like so many people from Eltham, the Barn and the gardens are a special place.

It is that mix of history, the moat, and the walks around the flowerbeds and away into the secluded areas.

As a youngster I never tired of the place and later I would make a special trip to whatever exhibition was being staged upstairs.

And then I moved away and the visits were limited to summer holidays and it would have been on one of these that I took the photograph.

For four decades it was one of the pictures I took of Eltham and Woolwich in the mid ‘70’s which sat undisturbed in our cellar.

But all good things eventually come to light.

They were colour slides which have been transferred electronically.

The quality of the original lighting and the sharpness is sometimes iffy, but they are a record of a lost Eltham and Woolwich.

Although in the case of the Pleasuance looking at recent pictures taken by others not much has changed.

And that is reassuring.

Location; Eltham

Picture; Eltham, circa 1978, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Marjorie Holmes, 1921-2014, a dear friend and historian of Chorlton

Marjorie with her mother, circa 1929 on the lockups by Chorlton Green

Over the years Marjorie had become a close friend, and because she lived just around the corner we saw each other regularly.

She delighted in hearing the news of my four lads and in return I would listen attentively to her stories of growing up in Chorlton.

For Marjorie really was a Chorlton girl, born here in 1921 and an apart from war service this is where she lived.

A letter from Marjorie

And so she was a fund of stories, pictures and memorabilia which I have plundered over the years.

But there was never anything precious about Marjorie and so as I dug deeper in the history of our township she was always wanting to know more, adding my research to her memories and always there to encourage me “to push on, find out more and don’t forget to tell me.”

More memories

From her I have that vivid memory of a young girl entranced at watching the blacksmith on Beech Road performing his “magic of heating and hammering,” which more than once made her late for school.

Or her memories of the old parish church with its blue ceiling and white star, illuminated in the early morning sunshine.

Jasmine Cottage, painted by Marjorie

Hers were I think some of the last living memories of a building closed in 1940 and demolished in 1949 and which had served our community since it was opened in 1800.

And of course I could go on, but it would be wrong just to present my friend as a living piece of history for she was much more, including an accomplished artist a brilliant conversationalist and someone who was not averse to a risque joke.

In later years she would often refer to me as her toy boy and I will value that as much as I valued her friendship and what I learnt from her about the place we both loved.

So on an upbeat note and with the permission of Bernard here is part of a conversation* she recorded for Chorlton Good Neighbours.**






Pictures; from the collection of Marjorie Holmes

*In conversation with Marjorie Holmes, http://chorltongoodneighbours.org/2011/04/26/marjorie-holmes/

**Chorlton Good Neighbours, http://chorltongoodneighbours.org/

Sad stories of the deaths at Sally's Pond..... out on Turn Moss …….

This is the newspaper report on the death of Samuel Wood, for which Chris Geliher sent over to me about an hour ago.

Manchester Evening News, 1887

Chris added that “I came across this and thought it might be of interest to you Andrew if you haven't already seen it. It comes from the Manchester Evening News and is dated July 14th 1887”. 

Now I hadn’t and the story drew me.

Sally's Hole, Sally's Pond, 1958

Sally’s Hole was a pond on Turn Moss, whose name is lost centuries ago but the popular understanding was that a young woman named Sally downed in the water and that the death was suicide.

It is a place I often write about.”*

Today despite being filled in sometime in the 1960s the location can still be found just off the old carter’s track that leads out across the meadows to Stretford.

It surrounded by trees and overgrown vegetation and get there just as the light is fading and it sems a foreboding place which even in summer is dank and dark, and standing there offers up an unsettling feeling where anything is possible.

Alas the trees and vegetation are relatively new and instead through the 19th century and beyond the pond was in an open space with views in all directions, but even so it had a reputation as a place not to linger.

Travis Street, 1916

But linger I did  and began looking for the three named individuals who played a part in the story.  Woods, turned out to be Samuel Woods who was living on Travis Street in 1884 and paying a weekly rent of six shillings which was a cut above most of the rents paid.  

The street is still there running from Fairfield Street to London Road, but all the houses have gone, and today it is bordered at one end by part of the Mayfield Railway station and with the rest being grass verges hiding a series of nondescript car parks.

And so far that is about it for Mr. Wood, sadly the genealogical platforms show that he shares no one who has claimed his as a relative.

And another account, 1887

As for Henry Mellor he was 21 when he came across the body and described himself as a “gardener domestic” living with his parents on Chorlton Green.

PC Hobden has yet to come out of the shadows, but his records may be in the archives of the Greater Manchester Police Museum, and there is more on Henrry Mellor.

And I bet the two of them will have talked about the incident and in doing so rekindled the scary mystery of Sally’s Hole.

Leaving me just to thank Chris, who turned up another press cutting which allows a little more detail and the chance of more researc,

Picture; Sally’s Field, J Montgomery, 1958, copied from a 1945 photograph, m80104, Travis Street, 1916, m10665, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Sally's Hole,  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=sally%27s+hole

Historians of Chorlton .......... N.Fife

One of the things I like about local history is the way it draws people in. 

People who have no historical training, possibly finished school well before their 15th birthday would fight shy of claiming that they are historians, nevertheless are driven by curiosity and a sense of belonging to research, record and write about their community in the past.

In doing so they add to our knowledge and in the opinion of my old friend Ian Meadowcroft make a vital contribution to the work of all historians.


So it is with Mr N. Fife, who in the late 1970s wrote about the history of Chorlton. It was hand written and to my knowledge has never been published.

Like other historians of the township he draws on the work of Thomas Ellwood who wrote 25 articles for the South Manchester Gazette in the mid 1880s but also brings his own deep knowledge of the place. Tucked away on one page is a description of the old water pump which served the Renshaw and Bailey families who lived in a farmhouse on Beech Road. It was still there in the 1970s but has long since gone. 

There is also an account of the archaeological digs carried out in the parish church by Angus Bateman and his team in the late 70s and early 80s. It remains one of the only descriptions of those excavations, and until the discovery of Angus’s own reports provided the only detailed picture of what was uncovered.

Picture; page from the manuscript “A Time to look back and think” by N.Fife from the collection of Tony Walker

Stories of demolition part 2 ……. Manchester 1971

Sometimes you come across a picture which is not  just a record of an event, but offers up so much more.

So here we are with an unnamed building somewhere in the heart of the city going through the last stages of its demolition.

The fittings have gone, along with the doors and even some of the fire places, leaving it a precarious place for the demolition teams, who seem to thrive on the chaos, the smell of  dust, broken plaster, and the odd surprise.

Location; Manchester

Picture; demolition, 1971, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

The lost Eltham & Woolwich pictures ...... no.18 the Plaisteds

A short series on the pictures of Eltham and Woolwich in 1976.

For four decades the pictures I took of Eltham and Woolwich in the mid ‘70’s sat undisturbed in our cellar.

But all good things eventually come to light.

They were colour slides which have been transferred electronically.

The quality of the original lighting and the sharpness is sometimes iffy, but they are a record of a lost Eltham and Woolwich.

Location; Woolwich




Picture; Woolwich circa 1976, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Historians of Chorlton ...... John Lloyd

Written in 1990

Anyone interested in the history of Chorlton owes John Lloyd a lot. 

He wrote the first ever general history book on the township in 1972, and went on to publish a collection of photographs drawn from his and other people’s collections.*

Now he was not the first historian to do so. 

Thomas Ellwood wrote 25 articles between 1885-6 about the history of township and both John Lloyd and Ellwood relied on the earlier work of the Reverend John Booker who wrote a series of histories of the chapels around Manchester in the late 1850s.

 His History of the Chapels of Didsbury and Chorlton, Chetham Society, 1859 is a very detailed account not only of the parish church but also of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

But neither Booker’s account nor Ellwood’s articles are easily accessible and the great value of John Lloyd’s 1972 book was that it incorporated these earlier histories with a final chapter describing Chorlton during the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Cow Lane, date unknown

Sadly the 1972 edition is out of print but his picture book has been recently reissued.

In the concluding chapter he reflected on the pleasure and challenges in writing his book and looked back to the comments of Ellwood who in the May of 1886 had written “his task had been laborious but pleasurable” adding “the present author can echo the same sentiment ........ in another half century another chronicler will be able to take today’s story into the ever unfolding record of events”

*The Township of Chorlton cum Hardy, John M. Lloyd, E.J. Morten, 1972, and Looking Back at Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Willow Publishing, 1985

Picture; article written in 1990 and published in the Reporter and Cow Lane date unknown, from the collection of Rita Bishop

Stories of demolition part 1 ……. Manchester 1971

Sometimes you come across a picture which is not just a record of an event, but offers up so much more.

So here we are with an unnamed building somewhere in the heart of the city going through the last stages of its demolition.

Most of the fittings have gone, and along with one whole side of the building, exposing all that is left.

Fireplaces appear suspended in midair, empty doorways lead no where and even the act of walking across a floor is no longer possible

Location; Manchester

Picture; demolition, 1971, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

The lost Eltham & Woolwich pictures ...... no.10 the ferry or the tunnel?

A short series on the pictures of Eltham and Woolwich in 1976.

For four decades the pictures I took of Eltham and Woolwich in the late ‘70’s sat undisturbed in our cellar.

But all good things eventually come to light.

They were colour slides which have been transferred electronically.

The quality of the original lighting and the sharpness is sometimes iffy, but they are a record of a lost Eltham and Woolwich.

Location; Woolwich

Picture; Woolwich circa 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Rediscovering our rural past, Thomas Ellwood and Mrs W C Williamson

We owe a great debt to the historians of the late 19th century who captured the memories of the people who lived in south Manchester when most of it was still countryside.

Thomas Ellwood and Mrs Williamson were working at a time when the rural communities of Chorlton, Burnage, Fallowfield and Rusholme were on the cusp of disappearing.

Within a generation they had all but gone and with it was went a rich storehouse of stories and popular culture.

Today what was left is fast fading from living memory, so with in another decade I doubt that there will be any left who remember the blacksmith on Beech Road or being sent to one of the local farms to collect fresh milk and butter.

This makes it exciting when there comes along an opportunity to give a wider audience the chance to read about that rural past.

Thomas Ellwood lived here in Chorlton and during the winter of 1885 into the spring of ’86 he collected and wrote accounts of Chorlton dating back into the 17th century.

These were published in the South Manchester Gazette and are available in Central Library, but they are on microfilm which makes them a tad more difficult to read.  Some of the articles reappeared in various church magazines but I have yet to find a complete set outside the Gazette.

In the case of Mrs Williamson her work appeared in a slender edition in 1888 and I have only been able to put my hands on one copy again from Central Library.

However Bruce Anderson whose local history site I have mentioned from time to time has digitized his own copy along with a number of other histories of Burnage, Fallowfield and Rusholme and they appear on Rusholme and Victoria Park Archive at  http://rusholmearchive.org/

‘Sketches of Fallowfield and the surrounding Manors, Past & Present’ By Mrs Williamson, “gives a very interesting account of how Fallowfield developed from fields between Rusholme & Withington in the 14th century, gradually becoming a desirable neighbourhood with church, chapel & schools in the third quarter of the 19th century. 

There are three maps, 1818, 1843 and 1885 that illustrate the changes during these years.”

She lived in Fallowfield with her husband, Professor William Crawford Williamson FRS. He was an eminent Victorian scientist who was appointed as the first Professor of Natural History (Geology, Zoology and Botany) at Manchester in 1851. 

Williamson was one of the great Victorian naturalists who knew and actively corresponded with Charles Darwin, Louis Agassiz, T.H. Huxley and other great scientists of the day. 

He also knew John Dalton and famously tended the great man during his final days, feeding him broth and other liquid sustenance. Williamson trained as a doctor and practised as an eye surgeon as well as pursuing his studies in the natural sciences.”

It is a wonderful book because it draws on the memories of those who experienced that rural life, and was a great help to me when writing my own account of Chorlton in the first half of the 19th century.*

And so for anyone wanting a vivid firsthand account of the handloom weavers of Burnage or the rush cart ceremony of Rusholme, Mrs Williamson and Bruce’s site have got to be worth a visit.

*THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy-new.html

Pictures; Chorlton from the collection of Tony Walker, cover of Mrs Williamson's book from the collection of Bruce Anderson

Calling on the past with a package of Manchester stories

I was wearing my light weight raincoat..... I was neat, clean, had my note pad and  two pens and I looked the part.  I was what I should be a dedicated researcher and proud of it.  I was calling on Ron in Central Ref with the promise of some priceless history.

Well as an introduction to a story I think Raymond Chandler did it better in 1939, but then I wasn’t about to unravel some rather unpleasant crimes and equally unsavoury characters.*

Instead I was on a mission to collect some picture postcards from Ron who wanted them to go to a new home.

Now in Raymond Chandler’s novel the prize was four million dollars but I rather think Ron’s picture postcards will do for me.

They are after all a double prize for any historian, offering a picture of a place at some moment in time long before now, and because more often than not there is a fascinating message on the back they offer up names, addresses and events.

All of which can be followed up.

So on an unremarkable postcard of Wilmslow Road, young Bertha Geary had written to her friend “we heard the flying man,” who turned out to be a French pilot taking part in the 1911 Daily Mail All Round Britain Air Race” and because she included her own address I found her.

She had been living on School Lane, was just 13 and that day had set off with her parents for a walk.

But for most of us it will be the picture on the front and for me it doesn’t have to be an image from a century ago.

This one of Piccadilly Gardens from 1970 is as intriguing as any from the more distant past and reminds me of that other much favoured quote “the past is a foreign country they do things differently there.”**

And for many this will be a scene which is so unfamiliar as to be a foreign place, and yet the photograph was taken in 1970 and the gardens only got their makeover very recently.

It is a treasure of an image and makes me wonder what Ron has for me.

Location, Manchester

Picture; Piccadilly circa 1970 from the collection of Sally Dervan

*”I was wearing my powder-blue suit... I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.”  The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler, 1939

**“The past is a foreign country they do things differently there."  The Go-Between, L.P. Hartley, 1953

Looking for the man behind the book .......... Mr Jefferson and The Woolwich Story

Now I have become fascinated by Mr Jefferson who wrote a history of Woolwich which was published in 1970.

Woolwich in the 1940s

So far all I l know is that he lived in Eltham from the 1920s and was President of the Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society.

He may have been a teacher and certainly the style of his book suggests someone who was easy at communicating complicated and detailed stories of the past in a simple and direct way.

But I have made a start by joining the Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society which at £10 is a small price to pay for an entry into such an august body.

And that really for now is all I have to say other than if there is anyone who knew Mr Jefferson or has some information on him I would love to hear from them.
In the meantime I shall go and ask the Eltham Society who may also be able to help.

Location; Woolwich & Eltham

Pictures; Woolwich circa 1930s-50s, courtesy of Steve Bardrick.

The Bella Napoli on Kennedy Street ............ where we learned to love pizza

Now I won’t be alone in having fond memories of the Bella Napoli on Kennedy Street.

Neapolitan pizza, 2017

It opened in 1973 just three years after the Isola Bella and we were there pretty much from the beginning, and carried on going throughout the 1970s.

Since then I have eaten pizza in Naples, tried the Metre Pizza, sampled Bob Amato’s special from his wood burning oven in the garden, and regularly bought slices from the Chinese takeaway in Varese.*

But it was at the Bella Napoli that I had my first pizza.

Back then it tended always to be the quattro stagioni, accompanied by a glass of wine and followed by chocolate ice cream.

I can’t remember how we came across, it probably on one of our wanders around town, and it was our place, which we shared with family and friends but remained “our place.”

It was situated on the corner of Kennedy Street and Clarence Street, you entered by a small door beside which was that illuminated glass window made up of the bottoms of wine bottles.

You went down a flight of stairs where there were a dozen tables with red table tablecloths, and a bar with I think the oven beyond that.

At the back was the entrance to the lavatories which were shared with the Isola Bella and above you there were a set of large pipes which I always assumed were to do with the ventilation.

The other end of Kennedy Street, 2017

The menu came on a large piece of white card with a picture of Vesuvius and list of half a dozen pizzas.

It was simple, cheap and friendly.

Once when I was with a works colleague who was a linguist and attempting to show off his Italian he spent a full five minutes conversing with the waiter in Italian only to discover the waiter was Spanish.

Such are the silly moments that stick in your memory and despite these and many other memories I have no pictures of either the outside or the interior.

But someone will, and in the fullness of time I hope will share them.

And it was while I was browsing the net for pictures that I came across an article from the Manchester Evening News recording the death of the owner of the Bella Napoli.

And from the Pizzeria I Decumani****

This was Evandro Barbieri who arrived in Manchester from Milan in 1958 aged 21.  He began work as a waiter in the Midland Hotel and in 1970 opened the Isola Bella, followed by a series of other Italian restaurants.**

If I look hard enough I will I suppose find out when it closed but that won’t do anything for my memories, so I don’t think I will bother.

Instead I shall think also of the cannelloni which in those red and cream ceramic dishes,and which if you weren't careful was so hot it burned your mouth.

Later long after the Bella Napoli had gone we would take each of the older kids for a special birthday meal at an Italian restaurant, each had their own favourite.

For Ben it was the Isola Bella, for Josh Bella Italia and for Saul that one on the corner of Deansgate and Blackfriars Street.

It's pity they couldn't have shared Bella Napoli.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Naples in 2017 from the collection of Saul Simpson, Kennedy Street, 2017 courtesy of Andy Robertson and a pizza from the Pizzeria I Decumani

*Pizza, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Pizza

**Tributes to Italian pioneer 'who brought pizza to Manchester', Todd Fitzgerald, December 14 2012, updated January 24 2013, http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/tributes-to-italian-pioneer-who-brought-698919

****Pizzeria I Decumani, Via dei Tribunali, 58 80138 Napoli Italy‎ +39 081 557 1309

Home Thoughts of Woolwich ....... no. 1 ….. the badge

Sometimes it is as simple as a badge, which after 40 years brings back a bit of history.

Having left Well Hall in 1969 for Manchester, I only visited the Tramshed on brief visits home, but it was a popular place for our Elizabeth.

Location; Woolwich

Picture; the badge, circa 1970s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Remembering Sparks the garage on Chorlton Green

Now here is one of those lessons in how history can pretty much fall off the edge of the counter without any one much noticing.

We are on Chorlton green sometime in the 1970s looking across at Sparks the garage.  Like most people I just took it for granted and was not even aware that once this had been one of our farm houses.

And somehow despite passing through the green all the time I failed to clock that Sparks had shut up shop, and what had once been the garage offices had been returned to residential use or that where once mechanics had toiled over leaky engines, broken exhausts and crunched side panels there were now flats and houses.

So for anyone who never knew or worse still had forgotten here is a picture of the garage.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Picture; Chorlton Green circa 1975 from the collection of Tony Walker

That remarkable painting of Eltham Palace .........

I like this water colour of Eltham Palace by my old friend Peter Topping.

The painting, 2025

Like many people I continue to be fascinated by Eltham Palace along with the Tudor Barn, its more humble companion just down the road.

So, if you grew up in Well Hall and were interested in history then these two old buildings were special.

Back in the 1960s the Palace was only open on Thursdays and Sundays which meant timing a visit to the school holidays or a Sunday.

But admission was free and from May to October the doors were open from 11am to 7pm and in the winter from 11am till 4, which gave plenty of scope to wander the Great Hall and indulge in shock and awe, made all the more so when I discovered the Palace's history and its place in Shakespeare's plays.

The guide book, 1958

All of which meant I could often be found on Thursday afternoons standing below the great wooden roof letting my imagination roll away.

Later still as I became less interested in the doing's of royalty and more in the lives of those who worked to keep the posh people happy I started to explore what it meant to be a kitchen servant, a laundry woman or the man in charge of the cole house.

Not an easy piece of research but I was helped by a delightful little book from the Ministry of Works published in 1958 for one shilling which acted as the "Official Guide-book [to] Eltham Palace Kent" 

Not that the author "D.E. Strong, M.A., D.Phil, formerly Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monument" gave any time in his description to our kitchen servant,  laundry woman or the man in charge of the cole house, but in the back of the book there are two plans based on the work of John Thorpe, who was the Elizabethan surveyor.

And there amongst all the important state rooms are the places that kept the Palace working, from the Slaughter House, Cole House, Pastry, Spicery and "My Lord's Butry"

The plan, 1958, based on the two Elizabethan plans

Too which I can add that series of fine line drawings of the Palace in a state of decay in the 18th century when it was a home to cows and other live stock which appear from time to time on the blog.

All of which is a far cry from Peter's painting made all the more remarkable because he is from Preston, has lived in Manchester for half a century and only knows of the palace's existence because I wax lyrical about the place on cold winter evenings in the Horse and Jockey, that Inn on the Green.

And just as Peter left Preston, I left Well Hall for Manchester in 1969,but still miss Eltham, its Palace and the Progress Estate where I gew up.

So much so that everyso often Peter comes up with another painting of home.* 

Painting; Eltham Palace, Peter Topping www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Pictures; Plan and front cover from Eltham Palace Kent, Ministry of Works Official Guide-book, 1958

*Painting Well Hall and Eltham, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Painting%20Well%20Hall%20and%20Eltham

Tony Walker

This week I was thinking of my old friend Tony Walker.

He had long been recording the history of Chorlton and had a wonderful collection of photographs books and vivid memories of the place he had grown up in.

Tony could turn his hand to almost anything. A keen photographer, and model aeroplane maker, he had taken to computers and merged his love of Chorlton’s history and photography creating a wonderful web site containing a fine collection of stories and information about the area. I still return to his collection of photographs, including a series of aerial pictures which combined his love of model making, photography and history.

What I like about this picture is the way it shows Higginbotham's farm house and what would have been the barn and farm yard, and parish church yard in the process of being landscaped.

To which Paul Maylor has added, "The photo shows an aerial view which also includes the buildings of Chorlton Evangelical Church, including the church lounge, which was built around 1982, so I would put the date as no earlier than 1982".

Picture; looking down on the parish church yard, circa 1980, from the collection of Tony Walker, circa 1980s

A History of England in 25 Poems ...... on the wireless today

The idea of using the writings of authors, playwrights  and poets to help describe the history of a country is not new, but I am enjoying Radio 4's  Book of the Week with Catherine Clarke's A History of England in 25 Poems " to explore the ways in which poetry has shaped English identity".*

The first three poems were broadcast this week and the fourth is due today.

And that really is it, other than to quote the sleeve notes from the book which tells me that  "This is the history of England told in a new way: glimpsed through twenty-five remarkable poems written down between the eighth century and today, which connect us directly with the nation’s past, and the experiences, emotions and imaginations of those who lived it.

These poems open windows onto wildly different worlds – from the public to the intimate, from the witty to the savage, from the playful to the wistful.

They take us onto battlefields, inside royal courts, down coal mines and below stairs in great houses. Their creators, witnesses to events from the Great Fire of London to the Miners’ Strike, range from the famous to the forgotten, yet each invites us into an immersive encounter with their own time".*

And my copy is on order from Chorlton Bookshop, which having ordered yesterday I am told should be with me today or tomorrow.

*A History of England in 25 Poems by Catherine Clarke, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002jspr

**A History of England in 25 Poems, by Catherine Clarke, Penguin Books, £20

Stepping out in the Woolwich foot tunnel in 1916

I can’t say I enjoy using the foot tunnels under the Thames.

There would have been a time when walking under the river using the Woolwich or Greenwich tunnel was an adventure.

But then I was only 10 and like the Underground these days if there is a surface alternative I will take it.

It may mean using a bus on a congested road in the rush hour but I prefer it.

Looking back I am surprised I was so nonchalant at the illuminated sign at Rotherhithe warning of “MEN WORKING ON THE PUMPS” and thinking what that meant for the short journey to Wapping.

And the same unease resurfaced when I read that the refurbishment of both the Woolwich and Greenwich tunnels included work to reduce leakage, improve drainage as well as installing new lifts, CCTV communication facilities and signage.

Of course the tunnels are quite safe but at 67 I shall continue to use the ferry or take the longer route and cross by bridge up river.

That said this 1916 image of the Woolwich foot tunnel from the collection of Kristine Bedford perfectly captures how I remember the place.

The tunnel was “built by Walter Scott and Middleton, opened on 26 October 1912 [and offered] a free 24/7 alternative to the ferry crossing, which was periodically suspended during bad weather.”*

Now whenever I used it I was pretty much on my own and that long walk with the echoing sound of my own feet, the light and the stone pavement stretching out for nearly a third of a mile was always an experience.

Added to which there was that slow incline down and the then the slight rise which indicated that the journey was nearing its end.

Once upon a time just before six in the morning and at the end of the day it would have been a much busier place, particularly when the ferry was not running, but this empty scene is how I remember it and given my disinclination to wander underground it will remain a memory.

Picture; Woolwich Foot Tunnel circa 1916, courtesy of Kristina Bedford

*Woolwich Through Time, Kristina Bedford, 2014, Amberley Publishing,

When East Manchester became Eastlands

Now there will be those who accuse me today of just taking a few pictures of east Manchester and coming up with some not very subtle sentences to connect them together.  

And that is not so far off the mark.  Yesterday I was reflecting on the changes that overtook the area in just over a decade and half and today I want to continue the theme.

We washed up on Butterworth Street in the January of 1973 and I suppose made a little bit of history.  We and the other five couples were all students or husband and wives of students who attended Manchester Polytechnic which had taken over six flats in the complex that had once housed the Mill Street Police Station, Fire Station and Ambulance Station.  Only the police remained and the six flats which had once been home to the families of fire fighters were now the first residential accommodation run by Manchester Poly.  So in a sense we were making history, while all around us something of a bigger bit of history was unfolding.

East Manchester was one of the centres of industrial production.  Here was the colliery, gasworks, chemical plants, and iron and steel foundaries bounded by the canal and railway lines, and because all these places of enterprise needed a work force here too were the rows of terraced houses, corner shops and pubs.

We arrived just as the area was changing.  Bradford Colliery had closed in 1968 and at the same time many of the old terraced houses were being cleared to make way for the large block of flats close to Grey Mare Lane.

Gazing out across the market at the decks of flats at night was I have to say an impressive sight and reminded me of ocean liners out at sea.  But Fort Beswick had a much shorter life than the terraced houses it had replaced and came down just twenty or so years after they had gone up.  Even at the time they presented a grim appearance in daylight and the idea that families with very young children would be comfortable or safe on the top decks of the block now seems a little absurd.

But there were still plenty of the old traditional houses around and what contributed to their demise was the swift deindustrialization of the area.  In 1951 72% of Britain’s working population was engaged in manual labour* and here in east Manchester they had their pick of places to work.

Just up the New Road was Clayton Aniline, with its tall chimney which belched out different coloured gasses at different times and turned the sky different shades.  Then there were the wireless works up by Philips Park, the canal, the railway lines and countless small lock workshops along with the gas works and the big engineering factories down through Openshaw and into Gorton.

Despite the closure of the colliery in 1968 there was much still working when we arrived five years later. But just a decade and a bit after that much of it had gone. The area was renamed Eastlands and ambitious plans were drawn up to make it the centre of our bid for the 1996 and 2000 summer Olympic Games.  Neither submissions were successful but it was where Manchester hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games with its exciting new stadium on the site of the old Bradford Colliery.

In a rather odd twist of coincidence my eldest son found work during the Commonwealth Games at the stadium which had been built almost on the spot where just thirty years earlier I had lived.  Nor was this all, for his journey to work along the Ashton Old Road took him close to where I had worked.

I went looking for both sites recently.  The scaffolding yard on Pottery Lane is an open space, and Butterworth Street and our block of flats is just hardcore under Alan Turing Way.  Although I did find a tiny stretch of the road that ran between Mill Street and Butterworth Street along the side of our block, not a blue plaque I grant you but all that is left of when we were there, and of course in a bigger way a little bit of what was there when Eastlands was East Manchester and there were factories, and foundries and much else that was industrial.

Pictures; Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, Butterworth Street, Luft M 1991, m55776, Grey Mare Lane, 1962 Hotchin, F, m15440, Grey Mare Lane, Hotchin, F, m15450, Grey Mare Lane flats, Milligan, H, 1971, m12519, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Faces from a Library …..Chorlton stories across a century

I bet few people look up at the guardians on their columns at the entrance to Chorlton Library.

Afterall they are high and a century and bit of Manchester weather has done much to erode some of their features.

But there they are, and yesterday I wondered just who they were.*

The practice of Medieval craftsmen working on the great cathedrals of Europe often chose fellow work mates as models offering up all manner of comic and rude depictions of what they might do on top of their columns.

And that led me to ponder were ours modelled on real people, perhaps even Chorlton residents or just stock faces turned out almost on a conveyor belt by a craftsmen mile away and just imported in.

At present I don’t know, and yesterday I wasn’t even sure if we were dealing with just a couple of faces repeated around the columns, and being totally honest assumed there were but three which might be six.

But then Sally at the library did what I should have done on Sunday and carefully studied all of them, which revealed that there are four per column, and all the faces are different, which led me to revisit the library and capture them all.

And I am glad I did.

I may be no closer to knowing who they were but at least I know them better.

Silly history but like so much of what engages me about the past they have slid out of the shadows, and that is good enough for me.

Location; Chorlton Library

Pictures; Faces from a Library, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*So……. who were the Chorlton Six?, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2025-09-23T03:00:00%2B01:00&max-results=7