A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragrah and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.
Wednesday, 8 January 2025
A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 9 ....... a legal agreement 1767
A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragrah and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.
The twisty, turny tale of Elizabeth Jane Dean …….. Didsbury, Manchester and Heaton Mersey
If there were ever any pictures of the people who lived in Warburton Street at the beginning of the last century they have all been lost, or at best sit in an album, or cupboard, unlikely ever to see daylight.
And that is a shame because we know who they were, and something of their lives and families.
By extension it is possible to uncover many of the residents of the five cottages on the south side of the street back to 1845, along with the man who built and owned them.
The question as ever, is who to pick, and just what their stories might tell us about Didsbury.
I started with 1911, partly because I had the street directory for that year in front of me, and because the 1911 census was the most detailed of the eight census returns for the years 1841-1911.
Of the five, number 2 was occupied by John Crompton and Sons, and was listed as “paint stores”, no, 4 was William Richardson, plate layer, and no.6 was Mrs. Emma Smith who described herself as “Householder, but who I know was a “launderess”.
To which I can add that later in 1911, no 8, was home to the Schofield family, and that Mr. Walter Schofield was a “night soil man", and at no. 10 were the Blomileys, two of who worked as labourers, one was a charwoman and the youngest member of the family was a “gardener’s apprentice”.
And to complete the picture, while Mrs. Smith lived alone in her four roomed cottage, the six members of the Schofields has to manage in their two up two down, and the Blomiley’s to squeeze their lot into just three rooms.
The occupations of our residents might seem at variance with the popular image of Didsbury as a well healed and comfortably prosperous suburb of Manchester, but amongst the professionals, and wealthy business families there were still many who made their living from servicing “the better off”.
Mrs. Smith would have washed their linen, young Jane Blomiley cleaned their houses, and Mr. Schofield and one of the Blomiley’s were engaged as night soil men removing the contents of the privies of the rich.
And that left Mr. William Richardson a platelayer who ensured that the tracks on the stretch of line from Didsbury Railway Station to Manchester Central were up to the scratch.
But instead of these families it is the story of Miss Elizabeth Jane Dean who captured my interest.
In the January of 1911 she was living on the opposite side of street, by the April had moved to Countess Road, of Hardman Street and earlier had lived at both no. 4, as well as no. 1 Warburton Street.
Added to which she spent her early years in the heart of the city in the space between the Rochdale and Ashton Canals behind Great Ancoats Street.
She was born in Didsbury in 1860 and was living on Warburton Street by the following year with her mother and sister. Over the next few years, the family moved to Hardman Street, but are lost to the records after 1866, until Elizabeth Jane turned up in Ancoats on Lees Street in 1871, living with her grandmother.
Just where her mother was living is unclear, and a decade later Elizabeth Jane is just a few streets away, staying with her uncle and aunt, and described herself as a “Winder”, before reappearing in Didsbury, back with her mother on Warburton Street in 1891.
Trying to unpick the story underneath the census return is complicated, open to speculation and may just not be my business.
But her mother at some point had married a Mr. Blomiley, but by 1891 was a widow.
She shared the house with a son who carried the name Blomiley, and Elizabeth Jane, and a grandson aged two, whose surname was Dean.
It would be easy to leap to the conclusion that the young grandson was Elizabeth Jane’s, and certainly a decade later Elizabeth Jane acknowledged that this was her son and records a second one born in 1896 when she would have been 36.
All of which is rather murky and leaves me reflecting on what Elizabeth Jane might have made of her life in the city, in an area sandwiched between those two canals, and surrounded by textile factories, iron works and coal yards.
It goes without saying that this new world of noise, steam, and drab streets would have been a world away from Didsbury which in the 1870s still had the appearance of a rural community even if it was filling up with houses and people.
I cannot be sure just when Elizabeth Jane gave up the factory and the house on the street by the canal, but her eldest son was born in Didsbury in the summer of 1888, which gives us a possible date.
Her later life was spent as a “tailoress”, and the last reference to her so far comes from the 1911 census which records her living on Countess Street, just minutes away from where she began life in 1860, living with her eldest son, and an Elizabeth Ann Woods aged 31.
A decade earlier Miss Woods was described as the foster sister of our Elizabeth Jane, which raises some intriguing questions about who her parents were given that she lived at no. 4 Warburton Street with Mary Blomiley and Elizabeth Jane.
So that is about it.
We began on Warburton Street, and have pretty much ended up there, having travelled into the city and back out again, explored the occupations of some of the residents and along the way discovered a little of the life of one Didsbury resident.
But not quite, because just as I was finishing, I came across Mary Dean, who had been born in 1828, baptized in St James Parish Church, and at the age of 32 had given birth to Elizabeth Jane. Her father was a handloom weaver, and in 1841 the family lived in Barlow Moor.
Ten years later and Mary was a employed as a house servant at Mersey Bank House in Heaton Norris, whose owner was the grand Sir Ralph Pendlebury, who proudly recorded on his census return that he was not only a Knight but a factory owner, “employing 170 hands”.
All of which I think will takes us off on a new journey.
 |
| No. 4 Warburton Street, 2020 |
By extension it is possible to uncover many of the residents of the five cottages on the south side of the street back to 1845, along with the man who built and owned them.
The question as ever, is who to pick, and just what their stories might tell us about Didsbury.
I started with 1911, partly because I had the street directory for that year in front of me, and because the 1911 census was the most detailed of the eight census returns for the years 1841-1911.
Of the five, number 2 was occupied by John Crompton and Sons, and was listed as “paint stores”, no, 4 was William Richardson, plate layer, and no.6 was Mrs. Emma Smith who described herself as “Householder, but who I know was a “launderess”.
To which I can add that later in 1911, no 8, was home to the Schofield family, and that Mr. Walter Schofield was a “night soil man", and at no. 10 were the Blomileys, two of who worked as labourers, one was a charwoman and the youngest member of the family was a “gardener’s apprentice”.
And to complete the picture, while Mrs. Smith lived alone in her four roomed cottage, the six members of the Schofields has to manage in their two up two down, and the Blomiley’s to squeeze their lot into just three rooms.
The occupations of our residents might seem at variance with the popular image of Didsbury as a well healed and comfortably prosperous suburb of Manchester, but amongst the professionals, and wealthy business families there were still many who made their living from servicing “the better off”.
 |
| Barlow Moor, 1854 |
And that left Mr. William Richardson a platelayer who ensured that the tracks on the stretch of line from Didsbury Railway Station to Manchester Central were up to the scratch.
But instead of these families it is the story of Miss Elizabeth Jane Dean who captured my interest.
In the January of 1911 she was living on the opposite side of street, by the April had moved to Countess Road, of Hardman Street and earlier had lived at both no. 4, as well as no. 1 Warburton Street.
Added to which she spent her early years in the heart of the city in the space between the Rochdale and Ashton Canals behind Great Ancoats Street.
She was born in Didsbury in 1860 and was living on Warburton Street by the following year with her mother and sister. Over the next few years, the family moved to Hardman Street, but are lost to the records after 1866, until Elizabeth Jane turned up in Ancoats on Lees Street in 1871, living with her grandmother.
 |
| Elizabeth Jane's Manchester, 1881 |
Trying to unpick the story underneath the census return is complicated, open to speculation and may just not be my business.
But her mother at some point had married a Mr. Blomiley, but by 1891 was a widow.
She shared the house with a son who carried the name Blomiley, and Elizabeth Jane, and a grandson aged two, whose surname was Dean.
It would be easy to leap to the conclusion that the young grandson was Elizabeth Jane’s, and certainly a decade later Elizabeth Jane acknowledged that this was her son and records a second one born in 1896 when she would have been 36.
All of which is rather murky and leaves me reflecting on what Elizabeth Jane might have made of her life in the city, in an area sandwiched between those two canals, and surrounded by textile factories, iron works and coal yards.
It goes without saying that this new world of noise, steam, and drab streets would have been a world away from Didsbury which in the 1870s still had the appearance of a rural community even if it was filling up with houses and people.
I cannot be sure just when Elizabeth Jane gave up the factory and the house on the street by the canal, but her eldest son was born in Didsbury in the summer of 1888, which gives us a possible date.
Her later life was spent as a “tailoress”, and the last reference to her so far comes from the 1911 census which records her living on Countess Street, just minutes away from where she began life in 1860, living with her eldest son, and an Elizabeth Ann Woods aged 31.
A decade earlier Miss Woods was described as the foster sister of our Elizabeth Jane, which raises some intriguing questions about who her parents were given that she lived at no. 4 Warburton Street with Mary Blomiley and Elizabeth Jane.
 |
| Heaton Bank House, 1851 |
We began on Warburton Street, and have pretty much ended up there, having travelled into the city and back out again, explored the occupations of some of the residents and along the way discovered a little of the life of one Didsbury resident.
But not quite, because just as I was finishing, I came across Mary Dean, who had been born in 1828, baptized in St James Parish Church, and at the age of 32 had given birth to Elizabeth Jane. Her father was a handloom weaver, and in 1841 the family lived in Barlow Moor.
Ten years later and Mary was a employed as a house servant at Mersey Bank House in Heaton Norris, whose owner was the grand Sir Ralph Pendlebury, who proudly recorded on his census return that he was not only a Knight but a factory owner, “employing 170 hands”.
All of which I think will takes us off on a new journey.
But before I do, I am adding a comment from John S Horton, "Sir- regarding the gentleman engaged as a plate layer, being an ex railwayman born in Didsbury but growing up in Kent, 'platelayers' worked on and were allocated 'patches' of line for which they were responsible for maintaining, not only the track but also the vegetation on the embankments and drainage, but the 'patch' was only 2 miles long, and therefore the gentleman would not have been responsible nor would it be possible for him to maintain the line as far as Manchester Central. Such a distance would have engaged several Plate layers or even gangs to maintain however I am happy to be corrected if my understanding is incorrect".
Adding, "sorry to have disrupted your wonderful tale, - the platelayer would have been under the authority of the “District Engineer” . Said platelayer would notify the signalman of his “direction of work” be it towards “Withington and Albert Park” Station ( Down Line) or towards the bridge over the track carrying “Kingsway”., (Up Line).
The signalman would notify the platelayer of any reported track issues by train crew, be it “wet patch” caused by blocked drainage, making the train bounce as it went over and if at line speed could cause a derailment, engaging the platelayer having to “dig out the offending patch and re pack with fresh ballast” or by simply jacking up the track with his portable bottle jack and placing a simple soup tin full or less of small stones/ gravel to level the track up. I could go on and on but don’t want to bore you lo
".
Location; Didsbury, Manchester, and Heaton Mersey
Pictures; No. 4 Warburton Street, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Barlow Moor, 1854, & Heaton Mersey, 1854, from the OS map of Lancashire, 1854, Elizabeth Janes’ Manchester between the two canals, 1894 from the OS map of South Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
Location; Didsbury, Manchester, and Heaton Mersey
Pictures; No. 4 Warburton Street, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Barlow Moor, 1854, & Heaton Mersey, 1854, from the OS map of Lancashire, 1854, Elizabeth Janes’ Manchester between the two canals, 1894 from the OS map of South Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
Snaps of Eltham nu 1, the High Street in 1977 and an appeal
 |
| The High Street, 1977 |
The pictures came back from Boots in those little envelopes, were handed out for a few days and then carefully put away and forgotten.
Some will have made it to the photograph album but like as not there will be no date and no logical sequence.
I should know, our house is littered with them.
Now unlike the serious photographer most of us snap away at what takes our fancy and in the process capture images which are important to us, often unusual and always an important record of how Eltham has changed.
Tricia, Kath and others have been out over the last months sending me the most wonderful pictures of the town today but I bet out there will be shed loads of old pictures,ranging from a afternoon in the Pleasaunce to aunt Vi’s wedding at the church in 1953.
So here is the appeal, if you've got them, want to share them and even better if there is a story please pass them over.
You can get in touch using the comment box, twitter or facebook.
Picture; the High Street in 1977, from the collection of Jean Gammons.
The mystery collection........... part 2 working the ships
I don’t know who they were or when and where the pictures were taken.
They come from a collection of glass negatives dating from the very beginning of the last century and were saved from being thrown away by David Kennedy.
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.
If I have favourite it is the one of the three crew members taking a rest and staring back at the camera.
Working these ships was not easy and the rare moments for relation must have been treasured even if in this one there seems to have been a fair degree of acting in front of the lens.
But work and the demands of running such a ship will have crowded out many opportunities for play.
All of which just leaves me that image of the woman caught walking away from the photographer and like all good pictures you are left wondering what she was doing.
Pictures; by courtesy of David Kennedy
Tuesday, 7 January 2025
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/
 |
| Miss Edith, 1917 |
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 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 |
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 |
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/
A day and a bit on the Rec ……
Now everyone does a snow picture.
So here are three taken on the Rec today at half past seven in the morning, yesterday in the late afternoon and the day before when it snowed proper.
Location; Beech Road
Pictures; Snow days and not so snow days, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2025
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.
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”.
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
Pictures; “Your Handy Guide”, GM buses, 1992
Monday, 6 January 2025
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 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 |
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 |
But as history often shows .... something always turns up.
And so today Derek Jackson emailed me with an extract 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. and a an Ann Jones aged 20 and her daughter of six months.
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
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
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 |
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/
Location; Woolwich
Picture; Barrack Field Woolwich Common, circa 1913, Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/
Sunday, 5 January 2025
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 |
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.
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.
.jpg) |
| Four women campaigning for change, 1905 |
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 |
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
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 .
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
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.
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
Saturday, 4 January 2025
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 |
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 |
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 |
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
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
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.
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
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