A new history of Chorlton in 20 objects, number 5, calling the emergency services

We are on Upper Chorlton Road in 1960 with what was once a familar object.

It serves to remind us that not too long ago the idea of a hand held communicator was judged pure science fiction and for that matter making a telephone call still meant going out of the house and depending where you were waiting to use the phone.  So it made sense for the emergency services to provide this service.

And yes of course this is Whalley Range but Whalley Range and Chorlton have pretty much walked together.

Location; Whalley Range




Picture; Emergency telephone, Upper Chorlton Road, August 1960, A.H.Downes, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Bus tickets through history ..... the story of Greater Manchester in 10 objects ... no.1

Now as everyone knows …….. even the humble bus ticket can offer up a bit of history.

The bus ticket, circa 1969-1971

And so it is with this SELNEC bus ticket

I don’t have  a date for it other than Andy Robertson paid his fare on November 4th and boarded a central SELNEC bus.

The ticket can’t be any older than 1969 because that was the year when a unified bus company covering the whole of greater Manchester was established.

It was initially known as SELNEC, or South East Lancashire North East Cheshire.

A SELNEC Central bus, 1972

Its orange and white livery would not have been my choice but then having to choose a colour scheme which did not upset the local feelings of the eleven participating bus companies would always have meant coming up with something very different.

This was a huge undertaking, covering a large conurbation and an operation broken down into four divisions, each with their own different coloured logo.

And for those who like these things here are the eleven corporation companies, the number of vehicles they brought to the enterprise and the division they belonged to.

The individual bus companies and their fleets, 1969

It is not the first time I have written about SELNEC and it won’t be the last, suffice to say it arrived at the same time I arrived in Manchester in 1969.*

Five years later it became the Greater Manchester PTE  with the newly created county council replacing the joint transport authority.

And since then, privatization changed the landscape yet again.

But for those who remember it, SELNEC remains a fascinating period in the attempt to create a regional bus company.

And the footnote ...... I had assumed the ticket could date from 1969 when SELNEC arrived and 1974 when it became Greater Manchester PTE, but this could not be, because in 1971 Britain went decimal so thank you to anonymous for pointing out my error.

Location; South East Lancashire North East Cheshire

Pictures;
SELNEC, bus ticket, 1969-1971, and Leyland Atlantean Double deck bus, from 1972, operated by SELNEC, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Of trolley buses and a company called SELNEC, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/10/of-trolley-buses-and-company-called.html

Sunset, Greenwich, 1904

The third of four picture postcards of Greenwich.

Sunset, Greenwich by Professor Van Hier

Picture, Sunset, Greenwich, in the series, On the Thames, issued by Tuck & Sons, 1904, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

A new history of Chorlton in just 20 objects no 3, the graph and the housing boom 1901

“Twenty years ago, when the railway station was opened, Chorlton was a struggling hamlet, or at least, a village.  Ten years later it had 4,741 inhabitants which number has by this time doubled, the April census showing a population of 9,026.”*

All of which is a fair explanation on how New Chorlton came into existence and the small rural community of Martledge disappeared under roads, bricks and small gardens.

Our housing boom was created by a demand to live close to the countryside but within easy reach of the city centre.  The arrival of mains water in 1864, a sewage works and gas in the 1870s followed by the railway in 1880 created the infra structure which allowed the two big landowners to sell land off in small units on favourable terms to speculative builders.  And the rest as they say is what made New Chorlton.

*March of the Builder, Manchester Evening News, September 20, 1901.  Thanks to Lawrence Beadle who supplied me with an original copy of the article.  Until he passed over this copy I had to rely on a typed version which had omitted the table showing the increase in houses.

Picture; graph taken from data in March of the Builder, Manchester Evening News, September 20, 1901

Of trolley buses and a company called SELNEC

The trolley bus never did much for me.

They were much quieter than the bus or the old trams but they always made me feel ill.  I think it was the combination of the heat and the smell of the leather seats with the disinfectant which I found uncomfortable.

Stevenson Square December 1966, the last Manchester trolley bus

But they were a common enough sight in many of our cities to warrant a bit of a story.

I can’t remember using them at home but London Transport operated them for thirty years on 68 routes with 1811 trolley buses.

Here in Manchester the service which began in 1938 covered 9 routes using 189 vehicles.

Ours came off the road in 1966 and this one in Stevenson Square was the last in the December of that year.  Stevenson Square was the terminus of trolleybus services to Audenshaw and Stalybridge.

Piccadilly with an Ashton-Under-Lyne trolley bus, 1960

Nor were we alone in operating trolley buses, and it is equally possible that had you jumped on a trolley bus to Ashton-Under-Lyne it would have been the blue and cream ones operated by Ashton Corporation.

They had been quicker off the mark staring operations in the February of 1925 on five routes with just 19 trolley buses and like Manchester abandoned them in 1966.

This was just three years before I arrived in the city so the sight of this Ashton trolley bus in Piccadilly around 1960 is one lost to me.

But I do just remember the sheer number of corporation bus companies in the city in 1969.

The green livery of the joint Transport and Electricty Board

Along with the disticntive red livery of Manchester and the blue and cream of Ashton there was the green of Salford and the green of the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board along with the maroon and cream colours of Oldham.

And no doubt if I dug deeper I could come up with the routes of some of the neigboring authorites whoses trams, trolley buses and motor buses entered the city.  All of which came to an end in 1969 with the formation of a unified bus company covering the whole of greater Manchester and initially known as SELNEC, or South East Lancashire North East Cheshire.

A SELNEC bus, 2008

Its orange and white livery would not have been my choice but then having to choose a colour scheme which did not upset the local feelings of the eleven participating bus companies would always have meant coming up with something very different.

This was a huge undertaking, covering a large conurbation and an operation broken down into four divisions, each with their own different coloured logo.

And for those who like these things here are the eleven corporation companies, the number of vehicles they brought to the enterprise and the division they belonged to.

Now that will endear me to some but risk the derision of others who mutter train spotter, which is a little inaccurate given that this began as a story about trolley buses and has gone way beyond that.

So with that in mind I shall take leave of the almost silent successor to the tram.

Stalybridge bus station and the last Ashton trolley bus, 1966

Pictures; Manchester Corporation trolley bus, Stevenson Square 1966, and Ashton-Under-Lyne Corporation trolley bus, Stalybridge bus station, 1966 © Alan Murray-Rust, geograph.org.uk Wikipedia Commons, Ashton-Under-Lyne Corporation trolley bus in Piccadilly, 1960, and Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley & Dukinfield Transport & Electricity Board motor bus from the collection of J.F.A.Hampson, SELNEC Bus, Mikey from Wythenshawe, Museum of Transport, Wikipedia Commons

Travelling the River at Greenwich …… with thoughts on old friends and new ones

Now I like the way stories shoot off in unexpected directions and so it is with this one which flows from descriptions of the river, to mutual friends and acquaintances and ends up with a new friend.

Looking at out on my River, 1979

When I was growing up, we were never far from the Thames, which offered up a place to play when I was young, and later where I photographed the water traffic, the warehouses, power stations and pubs that stretched its length from Deptford, through Greenwich to Woolwich.

As kids our adventures ran from playing amongst the barges at low tide to the west of the Greenwich foot tunnel and taking that slightly unnerving trip under the river.  

Later still there are the memories of sitting in front of the Cutty Sark pub watching the pleasure boats head down river and listening to the barges gently banging to together in their wake.

Working the River, 1979

And like many of my generation I retain a love for the Woolwich Ferry, which offered up endless short but free rides with stunning views.  

It was also the Ferry which got me out of trouble after I misjudged a journey back from Kent towards Manchester and having messed up with M25 I tried to retrieve the situation by taking Tina through Eltham, passing the old family house on Well Hall Road and making the river crossing at Woolwich.

And it worked, because Tina who is Italian was entranced by that short river crossing, and still a decade later talks about the magic of the River.

So, I was pleased to come across a book on the Greenwich river side, written by Mary Mills who knows the area well, was a Greenwich Borough Councillor for a ward that hugs the shoreline, and has written several other accounts of the area along with a history of the gas industry in south east London.

The Greenwich Riverside, 2021

The book, “The Greenwich Riverside. Upper Watergate to Angerstein" is an “in-depth itinerary along the Greenwich riverside from the Lewisham border to the Charlton border. This is not a book about the areas the tourists visit - but about what was, and is many ways still is, an industrial and residential riverside with a strong relationship to river-based work and activity. 

It looks at how the area developed because of river use, but also how the proximity of the Royal Court, and closeness of the City of London influenced the nature of much activity. It is also a story of some superlatives - the first this, the biggest that, and how the world changed because of what went on here”.

My copy sits on a shelf in the study as I write, and in the meantime, I am also thinking of how Mary and I came across each other and became friends.

And that is one of those odd events, because she discovered a book I had written which included Alan Hollingun, who like me lives in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in south Manchester.**

Alan Hollingun, 2017

Alan and Mary grew up together, and by chance she came across the reference to him on the internet in my book and  as she says “there he was, couldn't believe it!  When I was in the juniors he was in the babies and us big kids always had to look out for the little ones.”

So that is it …… the story that travels from Manchester, home to south east London and settles on Woolwich and Greenwich, and reflects on the friends we make along the way.

Location, Greenwich, and Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; views of my River, Greenwich, 1979, the cover of The Greenwich Riverside. Upper Watergate to Angerstein, and Alan Hollingun, painted by Peter Topping, 2017, from The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 2017

* The Greenwich Riverside. Upper Watergate to Angerstein, Mary Mills, 2021, available on Amazon

**The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, Peter Topping, 2017

Manchester and the Great War ... tomorrow

Tomorrow the story of how Manchester faced up to the Great War.

Clara in the uniform of the East Lancs, undated

Those who participated in the Great War are now dead and their children will soon also have passed away

Added to which some at least of the war memorials are at risk of being lost either through neglect and the passage of time or in the case of a few taken down and just casually forgotten about.

All of which does nothing for our perception of that conflict which is now overlaid with misconceptions and omissions

Their images are frozen in a moment in time, so we either see them as young and eager staring back at us in ill fitting uniforms and in grey munitions overalls or more recently as frail old men and women with faltering voices and walking sticks who were venerated as the last of their generation

But that is to forget that the majority of them lived full productive lives, contributed to their community, and got on with the daily demands of work family and holidays long after the war had been consigned to school history books

"The Manchesters are 'holding their own'", undated

So just under an hour we will explore how the city prepared for the war, the impact of the fours of conflict and how the event was commemorated and remembered.

And as a double bonus  Steve Millward will tell the story of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition Of 1857 - still the largest art exhibition ever staged in the UK, and probably the world.

Starts at 1pm till 3pm at Manchester Methodist Church on Manchester Road, on Saturday November 15th.

Admission £6

Location;Manchester Methodist Church

Pictures; Clara in the uniform of the East Lancs, undated and "The Manchesters are 'holding their own at Haywards Heath'", from the collection of David Harrop

Feathered Dinosaurs ..... on the wireless today

Now this is one I enjoyed listening to today.*

It is from the In Our Time series and was first broadcast on October 26th in 2017.

"After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects he and his experts have tackled. In this sixth of his choices, we hear Melvyn Bragg and his guests in 2017 discussing new discoveries about dinosaurs.

Their topic is the development of theories about dinosaur feathers, following discoveries of fossils which show evidence of those feathers. 

All dinosaurs were originally thought to be related to lizards (the word 'dinosaur' was created from the Greek for 'terrible lizard') but that now appears false. 

In the last century, discoveries of fossils with feathers established that at least some dinosaurs were feathered and that some of those survived the great extinctions and evolved into the birds we see today. 

There are still many outstanding areas for study, such as what sorts of feathers they were, where on the body they were found, what their purpose was and which dinosaurs had them.

With Mike Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol, Steve Brusatte, Reader and Chancellor's Fellow in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh, and, Maria McNamara, Senior Lecturer in Geology at University College, Cork

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Picture; Doris the Dinosaur, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Feathered Dinosaurs, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b099v33p

A synagogue ......Mr. & Mrs. Solomon ....... and Manchester's Corporation Street

So long before the construction of motorways and airports wiped out some of our favourite buildings  there was Corporation Street. 

The synagogue on Halliwell Street, 1849

It runs from Cross Street and was cut in the late 1840s, and like all such major developments resulted in the demolition of buildings and the loss of smaller streets.

One of those buildings was the synagogue on Halliwell Street which had opened in 1825.

The inaugural stone had been laid the year before at a ceremony which had started with prayers at the “temporary place of worship on Long Millgate  …. [after which] the reader and congregation walked in procession to Halliwell Street to perform the laying of the first stone of the intended new synagogue when very appropriate and impressive prayers, composed for the occasion were said by the reader, after which thirty persons sat down, at the Wilton Arms to an excellent dinner”.*

Just over a year later in the September the Manchester Guardian reported on the consecration of the new synagogue which it wrote “is in every respect suitable for the performance of divine worship”. *****

It was according to one observer an unpretenious red brick building which replaced a temporary place of worship which had been in Ainsworth Court off Long Millgate.

Access to the Court was through a narrow passage.

Sadly the Manchester Guardian didn’t comment on its closure or demolition but did give a detailed account of the new synagogue on Park Street Cheetham Hill Road on March 25th 1858.**

Halliwell Street on which the early synagogue was built was swept away with the coming of Corporation Street, but the 1851 census provides us with a very clear picture of its inhabitants, including Soloman Philips who was the appointed overseer for the synagogue, along with a Miss Levy who described herself as a Professor of Hebrew.

In all there were seventy four residents living on the street, twenty-one of whom were children under the age of 14. The seventy four had  birth places which ranged from Manchester and Salford to Liverpool, Warsaw and Hamburg. 

Their occupations were varied but erred on the side of skilled artisan, including watchmaker and milliner to a professor of Music and a veterinary surgeon alongside the more humble jobs of launderess, matchmaker and traveller along with the delightful “Ender and Mender”.

Mr. Philips had come from Warsaw, and his wife Sarah from Koosemer in Poland  No pictures have survived of their home on Halliwell Street but it commanded an annual rent of £18  which translated into a weekly rent of six shillings which was above that of properties in the surrounding streets.

And it does appear that their house survived the destruction of the synagogue and part of the road it stood on because in 1861 Philip and Sarah are still here at number 9, which sometime during the decade before had been renumbered as no. 4.

Now that remanent is part of Balloon Street which has also been much truncated, but as Balloon Street it is a reminder of that 18th century pioneer of all things ballons.  

This was James Sadler who according to my Annals of Manchester "ascended in his balloon on May 12th 1785 from a garden behind the Manchester Arms Inn Long Millgate, which was then a private house”***. 

And not content with that seven days later “made his second balloon ascent, but on alighting was obliged to let it drive in the wind”.

Indigo Hotel, Todd Street, 2025

Leaving me just to say that there is a plaque commemorating the synagogue on the wall of the Indigo Hotel on Todd Street, close to where the synagogue stood. The text says, "Manchester's First Synagogue, 1825-1858 stood near this site until its demolition in the construction of Corporation Street".

Location; Shudehill

 Picture; the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1844-49, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Indigo Hotel, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Manchester Guardian, August 14th, 1824

** The Manchester Guardian, September 10th, 1825

***The Manchester Guardian, March 26th, 1858

****Axon, William, The Annals of Manchester, 1885

***** Davies, Ethan, Manchester's first synagogue recognised with plaque in special ceremony, Manchester Evening News, July 13th, 2022, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchesters-first-synagogue-recognised-plaque-24477558

A new history of Chorlton in just 20 objects no 4 the community newspaper 1984

From January 1984 to sometime in May 1986 Chorlton had its own community newspaper. The first editorial set the style “Let 1984 come alive with Chorlton Green....Chorlton Green is a community newspaper, and offers Chorlton the voice it’s never had before – in personal opinion, in creative work and as an information exchange”. And over the next two years the paper covered a lot of what went on in Chorlton and never shied away from controversial stories but could also ponder on the return of the tram and a time in the future when we might become “South Manchester’s Bohemian Heartland” including an “artist’s quarter” with a “glossy sheen of alternative bookstores, exotic antique shops, delicatessens and specialists in ....countercultural accessories”.  All of which makes the story one to explore in more detail at another time.

Picture; courtesy of Bernard Leach.

At Greenwich Hospital in 1902

An occasional series featuring the postcards of Tuck & Sons and images of Greenwich at the very beginning of the 20th century.

Now I have rather neglected Greenwich and yet it was and is one of my favourite places.

I worked for a while at a camping shop on the road into Greenwich and spent three summer vacations working at a food factory on the river just minutes away from the Cutty Sark Park, which in turn was a place I remember fondly.

And of these it will be those warm summer evenings sat on the low wall opposite the pub drinking and chatting with friends and listening to the sound the barges made as they banged together in the wake of a passing ship.

This is the Hospital from a card dated 1902

And it is the detail that draws you in.

So for me as much as I am impressed by the buildings it is the humble working barges that I find fascinating.

Not of course that I am going to to romanticise working on the river.  It was hard dangerous and at times very unpleasant.

Anyone who has been caught in a chill wind blowing off the river in the depths of winter will know what I mean.

Picture; Greenwich Hospital,in the series, London, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Living beside the Medlock in the shadow of railway viaducts in 1851

I am looking at 14 and 16 Victoria Terrace in 1900, and by the time the picture was taken they had been standing for just over 60 years.

They formed a row of properties half of which faced out on to the River Medlock with the rest looking out on to Coronation Square.

All together there were fourteen of them, and along with another ten houses they formed a small enclave behind Fairfield Street, bounded by the river to the east and south, surrounded by textile mills, and in the shadow of a tall railway viaduct.

In all probability they were built sometime around the coronation of the old Queen, and the first recorded reference to them is 1839 in the Manchester Rate Books which records that they were owned by a William Walker.

The houses in Victoria Terrace consisted of four rooms and had been built as back to backs, while the remaining houses on Coronation Square were a mix of two, three and four roomed houses.

In 1841 these 24 properties were home to 120 people, a decade later to 104, and in 1891 there were still 71 residents.

Given the location of this small enclave, most families derived a living from unskilled occupations, of which in the 1840s and 50s was primarily linked to the textile trade.

Just across the river in full view of nos 14 and 16 was the Ardwick Mill on Crane Street and within a few minutes walk there was the weaving shed of the Maskery Mill,and several other textile factories along with a brewery, an iron works, saw mill and timber yard.*

By 1891, reflecting the changes in the area, there had been a decline in the number of residents who worked in the textile trades, and an increase in those who worked for the railway companies, or described themselves as skilled workers.

There was overcrowding, and some properties were sublet, and the worst cases were in the smaller properties of Coronation Square.

And armed with the census returns for 1841, 51 and 91, it is possible to identify the families who occupied each property, and as you would expect there appears to have been a steady change in occupancy.

There is still much to do, including tracking the age profile of the residents and their places of birth, alongside a detailed analysis of just how overcrowded some of the properties were.

But there will be some mysteries which I doubt it will be easy to clear up. 

And of these the one that jumps out at me comes from our picture, for below that precarious looking walkway suspended over the river, there is evidence of a another storey, complete with windows and even a door.  But what is missing, is the means of access to that set of rooms.

Given that these two were back to back properties, there seems no obvious way to get to them.

Other photographs dating from the early 20th century showing them being demolished only serve to add to the confusion.

That said I am sure some will come with a theory and possibly the answer.

In the meantime I shall continue to trawl the census returns, and rate books, looking at the occupations, and ages of our residents with a view to collecting a detailed picture of our little enclave.

Pictures; 14 and16 Victoria Terrace, 1900, m11490, and 1904,  m11495, A Bradburn courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the area in 1849, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1848-49, and in 1851 from Adshead map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Maskery Mill Union Street, the Mount Street Dye Works, Mount Street, Pin Mill Cotton Factory, Pin Mill Brow, Ancoats Bridge Print Works, and Ancoats Bridge Mills, Ancoats Hollow. 

A pub, an inscription, and the start of a detective story …… with a confession

I remain intrigued by the discovery at the Bowling Green Hotel of an inscription which looks to have the date 1698 carved into it.

The inscription, 2020

The story was  posted this week, with the speculation of a link between that 17th century inscription and the bowling green, coupled with an appeal to crowd fund for improvements to the green.

It is a fascinating find and could push the story of the site back a century from the conventional assumption that the first pub was opened in the1780s and takes us back to what might have been the first dwelling on the site.

According Thomas Ellwood who wrote a series of articles on the history of Chorlton-cum-Hardy which were published in the winter of 1885 and the spring of the following year, “The oldest inn in the centre of the village  is the Bowling Green Hotel, adjoining the old church – the usual situation for a village public house.

The old Bowling Green Hotel. date unknown

Formerly there stood here one of those ancient wood and plaster dwellings.

The present house was erected about a century ago.  It was first a farmhouse and hostelry combined and belonged to the Egertons of Tatton, but is now owned by Mr. Wm Roberts, the well-known brewer.

Edward Mason was the person who obtained the first licensee of the house, the business afterwards being continued by his son Edward, who was also a land surveyor.  The tenants following were George Whitelegge, William Partington, Charles Chambers,  A. P. Philips, and Edward Richards.  The tenant at present is James English.  There is a bowling-green connected to this inn.

A pond formerly existed on the plot of land bounded by the green behind, and the Chorlton brook, and had a small island in the centre.  This was let during the tenancy of Edward Mason, jun to a gentleman for fishing, but on the making of the main sewer through the village by Lord Egerton, it was drained and filled up.”

Now, Ellwood’s account is fascinating, not least because he drew on the memories of those who had lived in the township all their lives, and would in turn have called up the memories of their parents and grandparents, which might well take us back to the time King George lost the American colonies.

The old Bowling Green Hotel, date unknown

To these we can add the records from the Rate Books which list the owners, and the occupants of our building, starting with the earliest surviving entry which was for 1844.  The records confirm Mr. Ellwood chronology of owners and landlords and offers updates for when they took over the pub.

But what also comes out from those records, is that the first reference to a bowling green only comes in 1862, along with the first refence in the books to the name the Bowling Green Hotel which appears twelve years later.

Of course, history is messy, and the records as ever throw up conflicting evidence.

So, while both the Tithe map of 1845 and the OS map of 1854, show the pond there is no indication of a bowling green. That said the earlier map does list the pub as the Bowling Green Inn, which would suggest that there was indeed a bowling green to the east of old pub.

Ken playing the green, 1979

Frustratingly Mr. Elwood did not elaborate on the bowling green, although he did go into some detail on the green associated with the Horse and Jockey and a later one on the corner of Cross Road and High Lane, recording that “Bowling has always been popular in Chorlton, the well conducted greens being attended solely for healthy exercise and recreation”.

Adding “The village can boast of no fewer than six bowling greens, three in connection with the hotels, and three maintained by subscription. ……… The game may be indulged in by the public at the Lloyd’s Hotel, the Bowling Green Hotel and the old inn at Jackson’s Boat”, [with] another bowling green connected with the Chorlton Reading Rooms, [Beech Road] where the working men of the village assemble”.***

At which point I was tempted arrogantly to conclude that the Bowling Green Hotel’s link to a very old bowling green was unlikely, but history may prove me wrong.  John Lloyd in his book on the history of Chorlton-cum-Hardy commented that “the reputed date of the Bowling Green  Inn is 1693”which comes close to our inscription.****

To which can be added the assertion that “Crown green bowling of a sort is actually recorded in 1600 being played at the Bowling Green Hotel in Chorlton”.*****

Looking towards the Bowling Green, date unknown

Now that reference to 1600 will have to be followed up, but intriguingly, Olive Donohue, who is the secretary of the Chorlton Bowling Club has other sources which show a connection back to the 17th century.

All of which means that this story may have plenty more surprises to come, and along the way, confirm that simple observation that you should never make definitive assumptions about events in the past because the evidence can leap out of the shadows and bite you on the bum.

In the meantime I will finish with that crowd funding appeal, from the club’s Facebook site, "It’s our intention to conduct a crowdfunding campaign ahead of the start of next season (2021), but in the meantime here’s our banking details, in case anyone feels like making a donation. The green itself is in urgent need of some TLC, and grass seed, fertilizer, new sprinklers, etc. can be quite costly".******

Location; Chorlton

The new Bowling Green, 1978

Pictures; The old Bowling Green Hotel, date unknown, from the collections of Allan Brown, Tony Walker,and the Lloyd Collection and Ken playing the green in 1979

*Elwood, Thomas, Inns, Chapter 23, The History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, April 17th, 1886, South Manchester Gazette.

**George Whitelegg[e] 1841-1859, William Partington, 1859, 1868, Charles Chambers, 1872-3, Edward Richards 1874-1884, James England, 1884, owners, Egertons up to 1859, William & Elizabeth Partington, 1859, Charles Chambers 1872, William Roberts 1874

***Elwood, Thomas, Bowling Greens Chapter 26, The History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, May 17th, 1886, South Manchester Gazette.

****Lloyd John, The Township of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1972, page 60

*****Cheshire County Bowling Association, Centenary Souvenir Booklet, 1910-2010, Cheshire County Bowling Association

****** Bowling Green Hotel Bowling Club, Crowd Funding Appeal, Bank sort code: 20 26 20 (Barclays, Chorlton) Account no: 6019 2988

Even coal holes cover can be mysterious ……. out in Greenwich

Now, I have a new obsession, and it is those iron coal hole covers, which have all but vanished.

Once they were a feature of most houses, came in all sorts of designs and some carried the name of the iron foundry where they were made.

They were the point where the coal man poured the coal down into the cellar, and I just can’t get enough of them.

A few days ago, I made an appeal for pictures and was impressed by the number of people who share my love of all things coal and metal.

And so here are two, sent in by Steve Smith, and because I grew up in Eltham just south of Woolwich, the first is my favourite.

I went looking for Lloyd and Sons, and although I came across some promising leads I have yet to find them in Woolwich at the time their coal hole cover was made.

But I bet someone will have chapter and verse.

And I am hoping that they can help with the second which looks to have the name Deptford and Lewisham on the cover.

I think the image has been reversed and I am useless at decoding such things.

Steve tells me both came from Greenwich.

And the rest as they say awaits developments.

Leaving me just to repeat the appeal for pictures of iron covers, which don’t have to be coal, I am happy to receive all sorts.

And just after I posted the story, Michael C Wood sent over a corrected version of the last cover with the comment, "Here’s a flipped version of that cover.  Just opened it in ‘Paint’, and Rotate/Flip Horizontal".

Location; Greenwich

Pictures; coal hole covers, dates unknown, from the collection of Steve Smith

Two pictures and four years of war .................

We are on Oxford Street sometime on November 11 1918 amongst the crowds celebrating the end of the Great War.

Many standing there will have their own personal story of the war and for some the euphoria of Armistice Day will be tinged with the loss of someone close to them.

But on that Monday just over a century ago there is no doubting the relief that it was all over, a feeling echoed again just twenty-seven years later on the evening of VE Day and summed up by the diary entry of a young woman who wrote “tonight everyone I know will be safe.”*

The day was well documented as was August 4th four years earlier and contrary to the received account of the declaration of war the mood was not one of universal acclamation.

Across the country in the run up to the war there had been opposition expressed in letters from church organisations, newspaper editorials and motions passed at trade union conferences, and on the streets there was not always that spontaneous outburst for a war with Germany.

Robert Roberts remembered that in Salford “there was no great burst of patriotic fervour.  Little groups of men and women together stood talking earnestly on the shop or at the street corner, stunned a little by the enormity of events.”

And yet once the war had begun recruitment centres across the country were overwhelmed by volunteers, so much so that here in Manchester many wanting to join the Colours were turned away and in the first months of the war the City raised a full eight battalions of volunteers complementing the battalions of reservists who had already been sent to the Front.

And that neatly brings us to the second picture which is dated August 4th 1914 and was taken in Brook Street in Macclesfield with a group of men from the Cheshire Yeomanry.

Together they span the Great War and I am grateful to David Harrop from whose collection theyare from.

Pictures, Armistice Day in Manchester November 11 1918 and August 4 1914 with the Cheshire Yeomanry at Macclesfield, courtesy of David Harrop

*Of course the war in the East against Japan would go on till the August and it would be many more months before my family learned of the death of my uncle who had died in a POW camp in 1943.

A new history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 1, the king William IV clay pipe

The King William IV clay pipe

It was found during the archaeological dig of the church in the 1980s.  It can be dated to between 1830 and 1832, and may have been bought to commemorate the coronation of William IV.  It bears the inscription “William IV and Church” around the rim and is highly decorated with the royal coat of arms flanked by a lion on one side and a unicorn on the other.  It is also unusual because it was found in one of the graves inside the church.  The final burial in the grave was that of Thomas Watson aged 54 in 1832.  There are those who might well imagine the pipe being placed alongside the coffin of Thomas Watson in imitation of the ancient practice of placing grave goods alongside the departed.  The less romantic will counter with the obvious observation that it was the casual act of one of the grave diggers.  Either way it is unusual for the bowl to survive.   More commonly it is the stem which is turned up and even these are found as fragments.*

Picture; detail from the report on the Archaeological dig conducted by Dr Angus Bateman during 1980-81

* From THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

Nothing more evocative than a bus stop

How easy it is to forget or never knew an older way to travel by bus through Salford.

And just for good measure because I can and because once I chanced my pocket money on a machine like this, here is how sweets were dispensed long before now

Leaving me just to complete the trio of lost Salford transport, with the bus to the "Docks" which is now as much a lost item as an old penny, the Bandit biscuit and jumping on a slow moving bus from the rear.

Location; Transport Museum, Queen Street, Manchester

Picture; Salford Bus Stop, vending machine, and the 71 Bus, undated, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2024 

From Plumstead to Croydon via Canada, and the Western Front ........ with a sideways trip to Rochdale

I am looking at a picture of Alfred Frederick Shrub, taken in the studios of Joseph Gothard.

The story of this young man is a fascinating one, which like many of his generation ended on the Western Front during the Great War.

The photograph belongs to my old friend David Harrop, who because he knows I grew up in Woolwich, thought I would be interested.

And so, began a journey across the early 20th century, taking me by stages to Canada, Croydon and on to New Zealand and Rochdale, and linking together the young Alfred with his photographer.

On the surface there was not much to go on.

The address of the studio was 45 Plumstead Road, which was that short street between Burrage Road and Maxey Road facing the Royal Arsenal.

Sadly, none of the properties still exist, and judging from the historical records Mr. Gothard did not linger over long  in Woolwich.

Nor would it seem did Alfred’s family.  I know they were here by 1900, because of the inscription on the back of the photograph, and the census record for 1901 which has them at 9 Nyanza Street, but they may not have stayed much longer.

And the clue is suggested by the admission book of Plumstead Road school which has Alfred attending from November till just December 1902.  There after the next official record is of them living in Croydon in 1911.

But it is the Canadian connection which has yet to be fully researched, because I know from Alfred’s military records that he was born in Braccebridge, Winnipeg, in Manitoba in 1896, which it turns out is incorrect.

Braccebridge is in Ontario, and was the first of the mistakes on his military records.

I suppose the family must have spent time there, and given that his father was a general labourer Mr. Shrub may have been working on a civil engineering project, or they have just taken a chance on the New World.

Either way they were back by 1900 to have the picture taken in Mr. Gothard’s studio and for some one to write on the back of the photograph, “This his Alfred Frederick Shrub 4 years  old 1900”, and for some else to add “WW1 Casualty, The Queens Regiment Pte No S/5792”

The military records show that he enlisted in the October of 1914,  aged 18, and died on March 18th, 1915.

But here there is a slight confusion given that a Private Alfred Frederick Shrube was present at the wedding of James Edward Lawrence, also a soldier and Eva Amelia Shrub on September 2nd, 1917, at Christ Church, Croydon.

It may be a coincidence, but our Alfred had a sister by that name and the family had been in Croydon six years earlier.

It is one of those twisty turny stories I like, made that bit more interesting because his mother was born in India in 1869.

And because the search for Mr. Gothard was equally messy.  He came from Yorkshire, was in Norfolk in 1891, listing his occupation as photographer, a decade later was in Plumstead, only to move again to Rochdale in 1911, with his New Zealand wife and child.

All of which leaves me to say I doubt we have heard the end of either families.

Not least because my friend Tricia has promised  to go looking n the archives, down at Greenwich.

Location; pretty much all over

Pictures; picture postcard of Alfred Frederick Shrub, 1900 from the collection of David Harrop