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

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

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

 Picture; from the Lloyd collection

The mystery collection........... part 1 the photographer and his subject

Now I am always fascinated by pictures which challenge you to uncover their secrets.

They are usually ones where there are few clues to where they were taken with no date and often shed no light on the identities of the people who stare back at you.

And that is pretty much what we have here from a collection of images which belong to David Kennedy.

The originals were 4 by 5 glass negatives and date from sometime around the end of the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century.

Some are of street scenes, others of men and women at work and include a fair number showing life on board a selection of working ships.

They range from causally posed scenes to ones where the photographer has caught his subjects fully occupied and perhaps unaware that they are being photographed.

Amongst these are a few which may even be family members including this one which is a favourite of mine which is one of two.

In the first the mother is staring down at her baby and in the second she smiles back at the camera while in both the photographer is caught in the mirror.

There are no clues as to where they were taken but in one there is a reference to Ostend and a few carry the names of hotels and restaurants, added to which there is a very distinctive church  all of which should help.

And so over the next few weeks I shall feature more of these images and try to get closer to solving their mystery.

Pictures; by courtesy of David Kennedy

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/

How we lived ……………. catching a bus ...... just a quarter of a century ago

Once again, I am looking at a bit of history which for many of us won’t seem like history ………. just a little before now.

And I make no excuses that this appears to be nothing more than a story about a bus timetable, because lurking behind “Your Handy Guide” there is much more, all of which is revealed in the introduction which welcomed travelers “to the first edition of this new handy timetable booklet covering all GM Buses services in the Chorlton area.

Since deregulation of the bus services in October 1986 there have been numerous changes to bus services with the tendering process leading to some routes changing between operators or possibly being run by more than one operator depending on the time of day or day of the week”.

And that gets to the heart of this little bit of history, because before bus deregulation we were served by one operator covering the whole of Greater Manchester and before that by city and district services administered by local authorities.

The creation of an elected authority for Greater Manchester was matched by an amalgamation of all the existing bus providers into SELNEC, or South East Lancashire North East Cheshire, which morphed into Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive.

Its demise at the hands of a Conservative Government lead to a plethora of independent bus companies which ran for profit and focused on the routes which offered the most in passengers.

So, the student route along Oxford Road past the university and on through Rusholme, Fallowfield, Withington and Didsbury was awash with buses.

But now we have the expansion of the B Network with the control of key elements of public transport back in the hands of muncipal direction.  Promising an integrated, cheaper and more coherent service. 

And the buses are painted yellow. I like yellow.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; “Your Handy Guide”, GM buses, 1992

What was lost is found .... the continuing story of Little Ancoats Street

 History hasn’t been kind to Little Ancoats Street.

Little Ancoats Street from Newton Street, 2019

It is one of those very narrow streets, which has never warranted much in the way of official recognition.

It once stretched from Dean Street, across Newton Street, and almost but not quite running out on to Lever Street.

Today the bit from Dean Street to Newton Street has vanished under a block of new build which was constructed in the last few years, and which wiped out the Lord Nelson pub, which was doing the business of serving beer and good cheer from at least 1841.

In that year the landlord was a Robert Walker, and a decade later it was run by a Mary Ann Belshaw and judging by the occupants listed in the Rate Books it appears to have changed hands frequently.

Little Ancoats Street from Little Lever Street, 2019

As for Little Ancoats Street, it  remains a bit of an enigma.  It shows up on maps of the early 1790s, but as yet there are no listings for who resided there in the directories, nor as yet can I find any entry in the census returns.

And that is slightly odd given that the southern side of the street consisted of residential properties during the middle of the 19th century.

Their absence from the street directories may just be because they were not worthy of inclusion, but they should appear in the census records, especially given that the surrounding streets are all included.

The stretch of Great Ancoats Street, and Ancoats Street which were either side of our street are there in the official records but not ours.

That said some of the buildings along the part of Little Ancoats Street from Little Lever Street may be the original residential properties shown on the maps of the 1840s and 50s, which may be as close as we get to their inhabitants.

But in time and widening the search I am sure the mystery of who lived in them will be revealed.

All of which leaves me with the Lord Nelson, which was demolished in 2010.  That building only dated from 1895, and while there is a suggestion that the original dates from 1830, the first reference I have is 1841.

Little Ancoats Street, 1851

Nor have the records revealed any details of either Mr. Walker  or Ms Belshaw, but I shall keep looking.

But as history often shows .... something always turns up.

And so today Derek Jackson emailed my with and stract from the 1841 census along witha death certificate for a Mr. James Owen who lived on Little Ancoat's Street.

They are a fascinating find, because with a name comes another opportuinity to search the records for the cenus returns and the stories of others who lived on this litte street.

I may even with Derek's permission explore the life of Mr Owen who was born in 1768, died in 1848 and who had been a "weaver", but on his death was described as a "labourer".

Now I have no idea if he was a handloom weaver that skilled occupation which was eclipsed by the coming of the power loom and the absorption of the trade trade into the factory system.

But if so his eventual job as a labourer might be seen as another casuality of industrilization. 

And as you do the census return showed him living with his wife , daughter and granddaughter.

So a thank you to Derek.

Location; Little Ancoats Street,

Pictures; Little Ancoats Street, 2019, from the collection of Richard Hector Jones, and in 1851,  from Adshead’s map of Manchester 1851 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Lost  Manchester Streets, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Lost+Manchester+Streets

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

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

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

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

Always make a record ……. Shudehill before a tram or the bus

How easy it is to forget the more recent changes to our city.

The tram stop, 2023

I don’t mean that time before the rise of the giant towers which now dominate the skyline in almost every direction and are very striking scene as you travel in by tram from Cornbrook into Deansgate Castlefield.

Or for that matter the journey in to the city centre along the Oxford Road corridor or Rochdale Road from the north.

I am thinking instead of the bits in between like the entrance to Victoria Station, and the tall development at Nicholas Croft.

Into the bus station, 2023

All of which is an introduction to the Shudehill Interchange, which happened while I wasn’t looking.

My Wikipedia tells me that is a “is a transport hub between Manchester Victoria station and the Northern Quarter in Manchester city centre, which comprises a Metrolink stop and a bus station.

The tracks through the site were opened in 1992; however, the tram stop did not open until 31 March 2003. 

The bus part of the interchange opened on 29 January 2006.

Construction had initially started on the bus station in 1998 and it was planned to have been completed and fully operational by 2000, but several disputes over the ownership of the site along with two public inquiries over the course of five years resulted in the construction work on the station being halted until 2003”.*

The lonely wait, 2023

Now given the date 1992 there will be those that matter I must have had “my eyes closed for a long time”.

Which is of course possible but in reality had more to do with the simple fact that during the 1990s I rarely went to Victoria Railway Station or Shudehill.

When two trams meet, 2023

But perhaps I just wasn’t that observant to the point that when our Ben talked about getting a bus from Shudehill bus station I was a tad puzzled.

All of which has now been rectified, and as an alternative to the Second City Crossing, I will take the tram from St Peter’s Square via Market Street through Shudehill and onto Victoria.

Earlier in the week Shudehill was my go to destination, which I used as the staring point for a wander up to the Rochdale Road across to Swan Street, Eagle Street and round to High Street into the heart of the Northern Quarter.

So that is it, leaving me just to post some of the “interchange" pictures and one courtesy of John Casey when the tram tracks were in the making on their way to Victoria.

That said I have to confess that there were buses on Shudehill before the Interchange and even a horse drawn mail coach service to Ashton Under Lyne at the start of the 19th century from the Hare and Hounds.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Location; Shudehill

Tram rails in the making, 1990s

Pictures; Shudehill Interchange, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and tram rails in the making, 1990s courtesy of John Casey

*Shudehill Interchange, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shudehill_Interchange

Wishing you well ........... postcards from Woolwich, Greenwich and Eltham for the summer ..... nu 1 Barrack Field

A short series with few words looking at the postcards we sent from Woolwich, Greenwich and Eltham.

On April 10 1913 SN sent this postcard from North Woolwich to Miss Waller in Cambridgeshire with the message that “this is where the King reviewed the soldiers.”

Location; Woolwich


Picture; Barrack Field Woolwich Common, circa 1913, Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/

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

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

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


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

What if Rin Tin Tin had been born a cat?

You will have to be of a certain age to remember Rin Tin Tin.

Where the North Begins, 1923

He was a star of films radio and TV and his media career stretched from 1923 into the 21st century.

But his first appearances date from the early years of cinema and later transferred to the wireless in the 1930s and on to television from 1954 to 59.

And it is those black and white televisions series that I and many of my contemporise will remember.

My Wikipedia tells me that "Rin Tin Tin (September 1918 – August 10, 1932) was a male German Shepherd born in Flirey, France, who became an international star in motion pictures. 

He was rescued from a World War I battlefield by an American soldier, Lee Duncan, who nicknamed him "Rinty". Duncan trained Rin Tin Tin and obtained silent film work for the dog. 

Rin Tin Tin was an immediate box-office success and went on to appear in 27 Hollywood films, gaining worldwide fame. Along with the earlier canine film star Strongheart, Rin Tin Tin was responsible for greatly increasing the popularity of German Shepherd dogs as family pets. 

The immense profitability of his films contributed to the success of Warner Bros. studios and helped advance the career of Darryl F. Zanuck from screenwriter to producer and studio executive".*

Of course given the longevity of his “run” there were three Rin Tin Tins and later still more stand ins who went under their own names.

Rin Tin Tin, in Frozen River, 1929

But what if Rin Tin Tin had been born a cat?  

I doubt that there would have been many adventure films set in the frozen tundra featuring a ginger cat fighting off bears, and gangs of hoodlums.

It is not so daft a question because it mirrors that equally daft excercise beloved of some historians and journalists ……. What if Hitler hadn’t been born, Maria Antonetta hadn’t liked cake, Genghis Khan had preferred fishing to a career of conquest or Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters had taken up making balaclavas?

I grant you it is entertaining and may throw light on how events can turn out but to reuse a favourite quote of mine it is as useful as “trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.”**

Not that it stops historians playing the game, and even for a while was part of one GCSE history course where students were asked to speculate on different outcomes to an event.

But for me the trouble with the task is that once you change one bit of the equation all the bits are open to being changed. 

So if Hitler hadn’t been born in the Austro Hungarian Empire in the 1880s but instead in Paris what would the impact of this antisemitic, duff artist with delusions of grandeur have been on European history? 

Or if he been born but the Great War hadn’t occurred how would his destructive passage through the 20th century panned out?

Sneaking up on Mr's Pankhurst, 2022

And how would we remember Emmeline Pankhurst’s contribution if Lloyd George hadn’t calculated that giving the vote to a section of women who were in their 30s and by and large comfortably well off might enhance his election chances in the General Election of 1918. 

Four women campaigning for change, 1905

That election was called in the December just 10 months after The Representation of the People Act 1918 which gave women over the age of 30, and all men over the age of 21, a vote in Parliamentary elections was passed.

Nor should we forget those working class women who in their workplaces and in the Labour Movement advanced the arguments for the Parliamentary enfranchisement of women, but who are in the main left in the shadows. Women like Arnott Robinson from Manchester, Ada Chew, and Annie Kenney.

As Brecht wrote ….. “So many particulars. So many questions”.***

Women demanding change Manchester, 2013

It isn’t that I don’t think the ifs of history shouldn’t be played but just that it ain’t history, and while it can be fun and entertaining as  historical fiction it doesn’t deliver the goods.

So I won’t be looking to wonder how Samantha the cat would have saved the heroine of the 1923 Rin Tin Tin  movie, Where the North Begins, seeing off the dastardly corrupt official and saving the trapper Gabrielle who she loved.

Location; any time

Pictures, Poster for the American film Where the North Begins,1923, and Warner Bros-Lithograph by Otis Lithograph, Cleveland Poster, 1923, Rin Tin Tin from the film Frozen River, 1929, Sneaking up on Mrs Pankhurst, St Peter’s Square, Manchester, 2022, and demanding change, 2013, Manchester from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Suffragettes, 1905, m48441, Annie Briggs, Lillian Forrester and Evelyn Manestra. who attacked pictures in Manchester City Art Gallery in April 1913. m08225, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass 

*Rin Tin Tin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rin_Tin_Tin

**“Worrying about the future is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life will always be things that never crossed your worried mind.” Sunscreen, Baz Luhrmann, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI

***A Worker Reads History, Bertolt Brecht, 1947

Home thoughts of Woolwich from Italy .......... June 1919

This is the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele in Faenza in  Emilia-Romagna sometime in the early 20th century.

It is a picture I like and is also one that reminds me of Varese where some of our family live.

But what marks this picture out as special is that it belongs to Daniel Murphy who told me that 'in 1914 my father joined the Royal Artillery, RHA/RFA as a driver. 

From that time until the end of the WW1 he sat astride a horse and pulled field guns and ammunition carriages into place on the front line both in France, where he was shot and suffered shrapnel wounds, and later in Egypt and Pakistan, where he contracted malaria . 

On his way home from Cairo in June 1919 he sent this postcard to his mother in Woolwich.

It reads - "Dearest mother, expect me home in three or four days after receiving this. 

Am on my way now. Love to all at home. Your loving son Jack." (Followed by many kisses)”'

Location; Italy










Picture; Piazza Vittorio Emanuele Faenza circa 1919, courtesy of Daniel Murphy

A little bit of Manchester nearly 30 years ago ......... building the First City Crossing

I am looking at another one of John Casey’s photographs.

It dates from the very early 1990s when the construction of the First City Crossing was well under way, and this is the section by Victoria Station.

We tend to overlook more recent pictures of the city and yet they can be as revealing as any of those old black and white images from the early 20th century.

And this one is no exception.

It starts with that bus in the distance in the old livery, moves onto the actual track bed being prepared and finishes with those buildings one of which I still remember visiting when it was a Post Office.

In the last year or so they have vanished while the ones to their right behind the bus went in preparation for the construction of the Urbis which is now the National Football Museum.

Equally fascinating are the images of ghost buildings.

John took a series of pictures along the route of First City Crossing and with some stunning ones of Chapel Street around the same time and I am so pleased he has given permission for them to be featured on the blog.

Location; Manchester

Picture; down by Victoria Station circa early 1990s from the collection of John Casey

Relics of Chorlton’s past … catch'em before they fade from living memory

Now, if you were born in the first half of the last century then discarded tyres will have been a familiar plaything.

One tyre and a frozen lake, 2025

They were usually to be found on bomb sites of which there were still plenty where we lived in the 1950s.

The lost shelter, 1979

Once found the tyre or tyres would be rolled, pushed or thrown, and if there were a nearby slope, then the bets were on as to how far it could travel in a straight line before bouncing off on a divergent path.

Of course, tyres remain a go to thing for kids, and those left on the Rec are put to good use.

Relics come in many different forms and the word Rec itself is now a relic, used by those who remember the two-acre ground on Beech Road before it got its upgrade to “Park”.

I can’t remember when that transition happened, and I wonder how long the original name will survive in living memory.

But the Rec or Recreational Ground is how it started out in 1896, was recorded as such in official records during a big chunk of the twentieth century, and so it is the name still used by many in Chorlton.

101 uses for the Rec, 1979

And indeed, to call it the Beech Road Park is to receive heaps of comments from those who remember it as the Rec as well as a few history lessons.

Because it was opened in 1896 along with the restored village green and was less a park and more a recreation ground with benches, flower beds and a selection of play furniture.  These were later joined by a bowling green.

To which in 1940 was added a large condrete slad with mooring hook for a barage balloon.  

The ballon left the Rec at the end of the last war but the concrete slab was still there in the north eastern corner well into the 1980s.

But if the name Rec still lives on that of Old and New Chorlton have now vanished from common usage.

Once before the housing boom of the 1880s there was no distinction, but with rapid development around the junction of Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Roads the old hamlet of Martledge was lost, people began referring to the New Town/village and the old one.  The New had the shops, some banks, and the new houses, as well as the railway station.

Old Chorlton was the village green and Beech Road which was the traditional centre of the rural community.  The distinction was still in use in the 1970s and lingered on in the conversations of a few well into the 2000s.

The Rec, Beech Road and our house, circa 1930s

At which point I could visit the stories of Kemp’s Corner and the Four Banks, but I have done that before so I won’t.

Leaving perhaps just the locations of Scotch Hill, Lane End and Brundrette’s Corner.

They too have vanished from common usage, but each had a historic origin and each can also be found on the blog or that wonderful book, The Story of Chorlton -cum- Hardy.*

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; The Rec, 1979-2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, aerial photograph of Beech Road , circa 1930s-1940s,courtesy of  Britain from Above, EPW 017620, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

**A new book for Chorlton, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 5........ a street fire alarm 1958

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

In an age before we all had telephones it was necessary to be able to call the fire brigade.  Back in the 1880s there was a dedicated phone in the Lloyds Hotel.  Later still we got these.  This was one outside the Gaumont/Savoy cinema on Manchester Road.  There was another on the corner of Manchester Road and High Lane outside Oban House.

Picture; Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, A H Downes, November 1st 1958, M17988, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Memories of Billingsgate Market, that fishy smell and the promise of the Tower

Now we are on the Lower Thames Street in 1927, and it didn’t look that different when I was regularly wandering along it in the late 1950s.

We usually got there around 10 on a Saturday by which time all the fish had been sold and apart from the odd porter there were just the men sweeping up.

That said there were still the odd bits of ice and discarded fish in the gutters and of course that all pervading smell of fish.

Had we been there a few hours earlier and the place would no doubt have been as busy as the scene in the picture postcard.

I always preferred walking down the Lower Road just because there was still so much more to see.

It started with the descent from the northern end of London Bridge down an impressive flight of stone stairs to street level and then the walk to the Tower of London.

This was one of those regular Saturday excursions which occupied most of the day and was pure magic.

Before you got inside the Tower there

were those smaller roads one of which of course had the Monument which was in  itself a pretty neat place to visit with what at the time had one of the best views across the City from its observational platform.

I can’t say I ever took much notice of St Magnus the Martyr which is clearly visible in the distance.

And now taking that route is to be amazed at the transformation of the road, but that along with Andrew’s stories of the Tower is for another time.

So I shall just close with a thank you to Mark Flynn who kindly lets the odd image from his postcard site and whose prices are very competitive.

Picture; Billingsgate Fish Market, 1927, courtesy of MARK FLYNN POSTCARDS, http://www.markfynn.com/index.html

The Typing Pool ………. gone forever?

I just wonder if the Typing Pool still exists in the same format as it did through most of the last century, and beyond.

The wide use of the type writer ushered it in, no doubt replacing the rows of clerks with pens, pots of ink, and candles.

And I suppose the arrival of the computer has pretty much killed it off.

Happily someone will know, and enlighten my ignorance, and add memories of working in the pool.

Location; a Typing pool

Picture; the Typing Pool, 1969, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY,

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 4........ a brick circa 1830

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

As bricks go I do not think it looks very remarkable but then I suppose like most of us they are not things I tend to think much about.  But this one has a story.  The clay from which it was made may have come from just north of the village where clay and marl have been dug since at least the 17th century and it was part of a fine house which was probably built sometime between 1830 and 41.  The families who lived in it were comfortably well off and were important enough to have been listed in the local directories.  But like all but two from the same period it was demolished and we lost a link with our past.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Happy birthday Lead Station

To be accurate you will have to wait till August to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Lead Station.

Welcome to  the Lead, 2025

We were there, and it has been one of those special places ever since.

Old decor different furniture, 2004

During the 1990s it was somewhere I would have a quiet coffee on days when the kids were elsewhere, later it was a drop in after work on a Friday for tapas and too many glasses of wine.

Later still we would take family and friends for a special night out and in between it has acted as a venue for business meetings.

Added to which it was the site of my 60th birthday surprise organised by Tina which l celebrated with my lads, my sisters from London and friends.

So, it really has got the lot.

And for those with a bit more historical interest, the building was originally opened as one of a group of new police stations built by the Lancashire Constabulary.

Ours was opened in 1885 and in its appearance and design mirrors others built at the same time.

Later the place became council offices for Manchester Corporation and also was home to a number of local families.

Leaving me just to point out l had originally got the anniversary wrong, suggesting it was 25 years when of course the time from 1995 to now is 30. 

To which l have Kathy Lee to thank who commented, "Andy - didn’t it open as the Lead Station in 1995? So it’s 30 this summer?"

To which l can only say l failed Maths O level in 1966 with  a grade 9.  "Nuff said"

Location; Beech Road

Pictures; the Lead Station, in 2024 and in 2004 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The shop that had almost everything ………… Lord’s Wholesale Retail Stretford Road …… 1963

It took a little while to locate just exactly where we are on Stretford Road back in 1963, but I now know the shop on the corner is at the junction with Upper Medlock Street.

And if you were to head down Upper Medlock Street you would cross, Dale Street where the car is parked by the road sign and then Bonsall Street.

Back then it was part of a tight network of streets and terraced housing, all of which was swept away in the wholesale regeneration of the area in the 1960s and again more recently.

So much so that I suspect a time traveller from 1963 would be totally confused and at a loss to find that street corner.

Happily, Stretford Road and Bonsall Street survived and offer up a means of anchoring where the pictures were taken.

So,  with that sorted the rest of the story will be about that shop and the advertising hoarding.

Lord’s Wholesale and Retail shop was one of those places that pretty much offered everything in the way of clothing, from Donkey Jackets, moleskin trousers , to rubber boots and riding breeches, reminding me of that sign “If we ain’t got it, you can’t get it”.

I do have to wonder what demand there would be for riding breeches in Hulme, although given this was still the age of the sailing ship there might well be people wanting a cabin trunk.

That said there was a full range of things anyone might want to kit themselves out for work.

And having done work for the day, the advertising hoarding on the corner of Dale Street, gives flavour of what was showing at the cinema.  Judging by what the Crescent and the Grosvenor were showing that week, my choice would have been Samson and Delilah with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamar.

But the Grosvenor only held just over 900 seats, while the Crescent had a thousand, added to which Cossack Street was closer than All Saints.*

That said in 1963 I was just 14, and I rather think Night of the Blood Beast, showing on Tuesday, Peeping Tom and Demons of the Swamp, which followed on Wednesday and Thursday would have won over on Victor Mature, but all three, along with The Bad One and Teenage Frankenstein would have been X rated, to which I would have been barred.

But  I would have drawn the line at Subway in the Sky,  which was showing on Saturday.

The film centered on an American soldier in West Berlin who goes on the run after being falsely accused of trafficking drugs. He hides in his wife’s flat where he meets a cabaret singer who helps him prove his innocence.

And after a melodrama like that, there could only be a recourse to some fried bread, and Ovaltine, given that at 14 the joys of Wilson Ales were some years in the future.

At which point I should draw to a conclusion were it not for that beer advert, which has got me a tad confused.

As a south east Londoner, newly arrived in the city in 1969, I picked up the divide between north and south which came not by way of my accent or the dominance of the Home Counties in so many things but simply the shape of the beer glass.

My friends pointed out that those dimpled pint pots were a southern affectation and they would always demand a straight glass.

Such was the chasm between me and them.

Leaving me just to record that the church at the end of row of shops was the Catholic Apostolic Church.

Location’ Stretford Road

Pictures; Stretford Road, 1963, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,  https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

*Kinematograph Yearbook 1947

The London of 1949

The Pool of London in 1909

This is the Pool of London in 1909.

Fifty years later given a few changes and a bit of bomb damage and it is pretty much as I remember it.

Fast forward another half century and I doubt that  either me or the photographer would recognise much beyond the bridge and the Tower.

All of which is not so much a trip down memory lane, but an introduction to some of the films I got for Christmas.

Of these it is Train of Events and Pool of London I want to write about.  Both were made in 1949 and are very much of the period.

The Thames, the cranes, ships and the Tower, 1909

Train of Events starred Jack Warner and was one of those disaster morality movies, where a collection of little dramas are acted out in advance of a train crash and yes the murderer and the thief do not survive the crash.

In Pool of London a fairly ordinary crime story is given bite with the exploration of one of the first inter racial relationships in a British film.

Both reveal a wonderful slice of London life on the edge of the 1950s.  Here are trams, bomb sites, the rather shabby side of a post war London and plenty of scenes now lost forever.

In that respect they are fascinating social commentaries and perfectly capture the period I grew up in.

The river was still a working river, Tower Bridge opened and closed regularly during the course of a day, the trains were all pulled by steam locomotives and there were references to rationing, shortages and the last war.

Trafalgar Square, 1955

Not that this is some rosy, cosy nostalgic trip.

The interiors of the houses remind me of how little there was in terms of affluence for most people, and there is that prevailing sense that this is still the era of make and mend.

It was also a time of blatant racial prejudice and intolerance towards “living over the brush” and one where some at least had not yet managed to forgive our former enemies.

So watching the two as I did yesterday was both a pleasure and a lesson in history.  I am too young to remember the old trams but here they were, along with some old 1949 television programmes and some fine scenes of the river, the city as well as Blackheath and Greenwich.

Now for a historian and a Londoner that can’t be bad.

Pictures; The Pool of London, 1909, from the series London, and Trafalgar Square, 1955 from the series London, both marketed by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/