Stories of Hough End Hall in the 1970s

Now I am intrigued by these three images of Hough End Hall.

They are some of the last from those in the digital collection and date from 1970.

It is a period in the hall’s long history that I know very little about.

From the 1920s it had been in danger of demolition when the new road to the south was being planned and later still there were suggestions to retain the facade while knocking down the rest.

During the next decade there were counter calls for its restoration along with proposals to give it a community use but nothing happened and it remained in agricultural use up to the mid 1960s when it was sold to a development company who after two unsuccessful attempts managed to get panning permission “for the restoration of the hall with two small office blocks.”*

 The original plan had included a filling station which the Corporation opposed as “damaging to the character of this old Historic Building.”

The final deal involved the developers “signing an agreement with the corporation which would ensure the restoration of the hall” and additional conditions  “about tree protection and landscaping.”

And “stipulating that restoration should retain the original character and that  all external material must be similar to or in keeping with those originally used” with the further proviso  that there “was to be no additions or alterations.”

It was a stipulation which failed to be kept for despite the Corporation’s denials there were accusations from the Ancient Monuments Society that the restoration had been “botched including reconstituted stone for the window mullions, sills and heads and that the inside had been gutted.”

Meanwhile the office development according to the letting agents, Dunlop Heywood changed hands “so many times that nobody knew what was happening,”

Finally International Colloids sold out to Burns Anderson in association with Norwich Union and at this point the hall structure was strengthed to allow the building of Mauldeth House  which might have threatened the foundations of the old building.

And it is here that our three pictures come into play, for the first two clearly show the extent to which the exterior was “restored.”

Then and now that works stands out and hits you in the face.

But that said the Hall is now tucked away and dwarfed by the two office builds.

The first was completed in 1970 and was named Crown House and its four storeys accounted for 25,000 square feet of office space.

Three years later it was joined by the even bigger Mauldeth House with 50,000 square feet spread over seven floors.

I am not sure that it is one of those stories which has turned out well.

*Hall or nothing at all, Robert Waterhouse, Manchester Guardian, April 21 1973

Pictures; Hough End Hall in 1970 by H Milligan, m48587, m47856 and m47854, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Mrs Nellie Davison at Well Hall .......... stories behind the book nu 27 making the connection

An occasional series on the stories behind the book on Manchester and the Great War*

Places Nellie would have visited, the parish church, 1915

By now I shouldn’t be surprised at how what seem random bits of history have a habit of becoming entangled and by degree draw me into the story.

Of course I know that theory that you are only seven handshakes away from  the great and the famous but I was not prepared for just how close I came to a couple who lived in Manchester during the Great War.

They were George and Nellie Davison who were married in 1908 and settled in Romiley after living here in Chorlton-cum-Hardy and in Hulme.

George Davison enlisted in 1914, spent time in Woolwich and Ireland and died on the Western Front in 1918.

Duncan and Nellie Davison circa 1916

Over the last three years I have slowly worked my way through the letters he sent and a collection of his photographs, papers and medals.

Nellie spent time with him both in Woolwich and in Ireland which I thought must have been unusual but perhaps not.

And then yesterday I came across a comment from George that a Mrs Drinkal missed Nellie commenting that “she was lost" without the presence of his wife.  Now that letter was sent from Woolwich which offered up a tantalizing clue as to where Mrs Davison stayed and perhaps where George was billited.

Well Hall Road, 1915

And with the help of my friend Tricia from Bexleyheath we think we know where that house was.

Having found one link to a Mr Drinkal I passed the task over to Tricia who came up with the goods

He was she told me “living at 7a Elmbrook Street which appears to be hutments on the site of where the Well Hall Odeon later stood.

William Henry Drinkal and Hilda May Garrod were married in 1916 at Dunmow in Essex and had their first child in 1917.”

All of which fits because a W H Drinkhall witnessed George’s will in March 1918.

Now I know the spelling is different but the coincidences are too close and so I can now place our Nellie in Eltham in 1916 on Well Hall Road.

And the real prize for me is that the Drinkal home was just minutes from 294 Well Hall where our family lived from 1964.

294 Well Hall Road, 2015

So there you have it.......  half a century may separate me from George and Nellie but there is the link.

It would be easy get a bit silly about the connection but for someone who has spent the last few years getting to know Mr and Mrs Davison, sharing their ups and downs and his final fate there is something powerful in knowing that we share the same place.

All of which just leaves me to thank Tricia, and remind  those who live in Manchester that the George Davison collection will be part of the exhibition in July to commemorate the Battle of the Somme in the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery.

Research by Tricia Leslie

Location, Well Hall, Eltham, London

Pictures; from the collections of David Harrop and Andrew Simpson

Painting; 294 Well Hall Road, © 2015 Peter Topping

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

*A new book on Manchester and the Great War http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

You wait for a vintage car and seven turn up at once .........

Now the picture credit says 1979 but I rather think we are a year or more ahead of that date.

I remember coming across the cavalcade of vintage cars but never bothered to record when or where.

And that must be a lesson to us all.

A little bit of research thirty or so years later I can confirm I was on Sackville Street and the building directly opposite is Velvet House which is now apartments.

Location; Manchester

Picture; circa 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Down by the Oven Door on Beech Road in 1976

I could have cleaned the picture up, played with the settings and achieved a clearer image but that would have been to lose something of what Lois took in the winter of 1976.*

It is, and I know Lois will forgive me for saying so a snap, taken with one of those inexpensive cameras we all had back then and at the mercy of the light and much else.

But that gives the picture something of its value.

This is how pictures often turned out and at the time we took that for granted and were still happy with the result.

For those familiar with the Beech Road of bars, restaurants and quirky, interesting little shops this is another world.

This is the Beech Road I remember, a collection of work a day shops offering everything from apples, cabbages, and fish to paraffin, and oiled string.

At the bottom to the right was the Open Door a reminder that we had a choice of where we bought our fresh bread and cakes as we did for our meat and groceries.

And I am pretty sure Lois would have taken the completed film to Joy Seal's the chemist just a little back between what had been the Police Station and the wool shop.

Location; Beech Road


Picture; looking down Beech Road in 1976 from the collection of Lois Elsden

*Chorlton in the 1970s, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20in%20the%201970s

A Christmas sometime between 1955 and 61

I don’t usually do nostalgia, but this week is an exception.

So for all those who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s here is a selection of the presents that came into our household each Christmas from 1952 till 1963.

They are not in any order and lean heavily on my own child hood experiences, but I bet they could be replicated by many who read this.

And for those whose childhoods came later there will be in another post, with images of Barbie Dolls, the Bay City Rollers and Mud annuals, along with scaletric, my little Pony and the Turtles, including all four sourced from the cellar.

Of course if I wanted to really revel in nostalgia I could invite contributions on the upstairs of Quarmby’s, the sparkling and  groaning shelves of Woolworths and that paradise for all ages which is Toys R Us.

I don’t recall doing the storehouse Father Christmas and think we avoided it when the lads came along, but I have always been a sucker for Christmas trees.

They have to be so big that you end up chopping a bit off the bottom, come from a forest somewhere and have a mismatch collection of decorations which are as much about past Christmases as they are about elegant design and appearance.

Only recently I gave up on the multi coloured tree lights and went with the wishes of our Josh that they should be all one colour.  And every year we still put the Christmas angel designed by Saul somewhere near the top.

That said there is always that debate when to buy the tree, too early and it runs the risk of losing its needles and too late and all that is left are those sad two foot specimens which have a bit missing in the middle.

But the event is as much about family traditions as anything so despite being 41 Ben will still get a Beano album in his stocking and Luca a selection of wine gums, fruit pastilles and the odd Kinder egg.

And because I grew up in the 50s and that pretty much has frozen in time the Christmas I like, we shall bring out the Monopoly board, insist that everyone tries a selection of the festive nuts, and gather to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

That said there will be the addition of those nice things to eat that Tina grew up with at home in Italy, at least three phone calls to Varese during the day and a visit from Ron and Carol.

All that and the Christmas football match which the boys and their friends play for half an hour on the Rec sometime after the presents and before the big meal.

It is a tradition which they have played for as long as I can remember, and over the years the event has pulled in friends, and anyone who is around the house on the day.

But mindful of my responsibilities I stay indoors, tending the fires, laying the table and reflecting on past family gatherings.

That said a few things have changed.  Back in the early 1950s we still attached candles to the tree, went out for a brisk walk up to Peckham Rye and ate directly after the Queen’s broadcast.

Not that it ever seemed to snow back then either.  But as they say be careful about what you wish for.  Back in the afternoon of Boxing Day in 1962 the snow fell across Peckham, New Cross and Eltham, and continued for months.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The bridges of Salford and Manchester .......... nu 8 back with a favourite

The day back in November was grey and cold and the clouds seemed to touch the ground.

So I cheered myself up with another picture of that bridge I like.

Location; the River Irwell,














Picture; The Irwell Road Bridge, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The stocking filler …. 1924

So …. I couldn’t resist this one.

I have no date for the 12 picture postcards that made up the series, but given that one of them was for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway which was formed in 1924, we must be sometime in the 1920s, through to the nationalization of the railways in 1948.

So far only six of the original twelve have turned up, but they include examples of railway locomotives from the LMS, the Great Western, The London & North Eastern Railway and the Southern Railway.

Each carries the flat layout on one side and instructions on the reverse for making the model.

Of the six I have chosen only two of which the first is an LMS loco and the second a Southern Railway.

And the logic behind the choice is simple, dad always had a sneaking admiration for the LMS, although given he was from the north east I would have thought that he might have settled on the LNER. card.

But his parents were Scottish and had only crossed the border at the turn of the last century, so I see where his sympathies may have laid.

So, having opted for the LMS. card, I then fell on the Southern Railway loco, simply because I grew up in south east London which had been served by the S.R  which became the Southern Region of British Railways.

But when it came to it, I couldn't ignore the GWR or the LNER and threw those into , with, and here I accept I am being nerdy, two more from the  LMS which because one ran on the London & North Western Section, and the other the Caledonian section, they carried a different livery.

And that is it. 

 For those who have forgotten a present, it should be possible to download the image, enlarge and print.

Merry Christmas

Pictures; Model Railway Engines, marketed by Tuck and Sons, circa 1924, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdbpostcards.org/

Of artificial Christmas trees and memories of Well Hall in December

I don’t have a picture of our old Christmas tree.

It was bought in the late 1950s and served us well both in Lausanne Road and then at 294 in Well Hall, and was still in use till Dad died in 1994.

Mother was the romantic one of the pair.  She wrote plays, short stories and laboured on an unfinished novel of life in south east London.

But like all women of her generation she could be extremely practical and unsentimental, hence the no nonsense, no pine needles artificial tree.

It was really just a wooden pole painted green with a series of green brush cleaners with blobs of white.

Long after we had all left home dad continued to bring it out and even while he grumbled at “all the bother” he still dressed it and gave it pride of place.

Even today in Chorlton surrounded by natural Christmas trees our old artificial one has a special place in my memory, and underlines that simple truth that all of us bring to the event a set of traditions reaching back deep into our family history.

So a little bit of the late Edwardian and inter war Christmases experienced by my parents rubbed off on me as a child and rolled on in to how we celebrate the event.

For us kids it began with the arrival of Uncle George, the obligatory visit to see the Christmas lights on Oxford Street and the brisk walk up to the High Street or the woods after the presents had been opened on the day.

The evening began with a game of monopoly and followed on with whatever the television had to offer.

And in the long ago days, dad would be back at work on the 27th, Uncle George stayed on for the January sales and that was pretty much it.

The tree once taken down joined the box of glass decorations and those large pear shaped lights on a shelf in the big cupboard in the hall and it was grey and cold till spring.

Pictures; glass decorations from an advert for 1950s Christmas decorations on ebay and Christmas in Chorlton from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A familiar scene of Chorlton Green .............. with a few twists

Now at first glance, this appears a run of the mill picture of Chorlton Green with the lych gate, parish church yard and the pub in the distance.

Look a bit closer and there is still a telephone kiosk at the head of the lane, the church yard has yet to have its makeover and the United Servicemen’s Club was still selling pints.

We are on the green in the late 1970s or early ‘80s and it would be a full thirty years and a bit before the village school would be converted into residential properties.

The small housing development along Finney Drive was not more a than a decade old and the large barn which once belonged to Mr Higginbotham the farmer and which was on our right was still used by the building firm of Walkers.

Which just leaves me to say that the little lane behind the telephone kiosk will be as old as the church yard which dates back to the 16th century, and had you strolled down it at any time from the 18th century into the 19th  it would have taken you  past a farm and its out houses to the pond beside the old Bowling Green which a series of landlords rented out to gentlemen anglers.

Later after the pond vanished it was still used as a cut through and at one time was known by Marion's children as the Bumpy Way.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Chorlton Green circa 1978 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The bridges of Salford and Manchester .......... nu 7 walking over the river

Now this one sprang up when I wasn't looking.

And just because it is silly I shall aim to walk over each of the Salford bridges before Chris on the same day.

Location; Salford

Picture; the Irwell Street Bridge, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Lost Chorlton pictures ......... no 17. .........

It’s odd just what you forget.

Now Richard and Muriel’s green grocer’s shop on Beech Road is remembered with fondness by many of us but its neighbour on the corner with Acres Road has long been a mystery to me.

I know that back at the beginning of the 20th century it was an iron mongers and later before the last world war was a cycle shop that also did repairs.

After that I am a bit hazy until in the late 70s it was briefly a piano shop before its long association with food and booze, first as Cafe on the Green and then a succession of bars and restaurants.

My old friend Marjorie remembered that after the war it became a hairdressers which in 1969 was listed as “Joan Newman ladies Hairdresser”.

And I just assumed that by the time I washed up on Beech Road in 1976 it was already a piano shop.

But not so because in 1979 I took this picture of Richard and Muriel’s and clearly it was still a hair dressers, which begs the question did I imagine the piano shop or have I just got my chronology a bit wrong?

Location; Chorlton




Picture; Beech Road, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The bridges of Salford and Manchester .......... nu 6 looking over the river from the Irwell Street Bridge

Now I have always taken this one for granted which is a shame because it is not only a fine looking bridge but stands out on the river.

But as Bill pointed out I omitted to include the Irwell Street Bridge in the picture.

And so you will either have to go back to nu 5 or wait for number 8.

Such is the joy of the blog.
Location; Salford

Picture; the Irwell Street Bridge, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Walking Eltham High Street .........1905

Now, I make no apologies about posting this image with little in the way of explanation. 

Eltham High Street, 1905

It comes from that smashing little book Eltham Village published in 1984.*

The caption says "Old Eltham High Street and the Brewery circa 1905.  The stationers, diary and corn chandlers opposite St John’s Church prior to road widening”.

The fun will be taking the names of the proprietors and that of the Rising Sun’s landlord and searching for them on the census records.

But that is for another time.

Location; Eltham

Picture; Old Eltham High Street and the Brewery circa 1905, from Eltham Village.

*Eltham Village,  Gus White, Ian Murdock and Paula Richardson in 1984 and published by G & Pi Publications Eltham

Down in the parish churchyard by Chorlton green in 1976

Well having almost exhausted the collection of images on Chorlton in the 1980s, I think it’s time to wander back another decade.

We are in the parish graveyard in 1976 and I have to say despite walking through the place many times I have no recollection of it looking like this.

And I pretend to be a historian.

Still looking back through the back catalogue the place was like this in the 1970s and as you would expect plenty more from before.

So I shall leave you with Lois’s picture of the graveyard just before it was cleared and landscaped, but if you want more follow the link.*

Picture St Clement’s churchyard in 1976, from the collection of Lois Elsden

*St Clement's Church
http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/St%20Clement%27s%20Church

The bridges of Salford and Manchester .......... nu 5 the Irwell Street Bridge

Now I have always taken this one for granted which is a shame because it is not only a fine looking bridge but stands out on the river.

Location; Salford










Picture; the Irwell Street Bridge, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Uncovering the secrets of Ivy Court on Eltham High Street

Now I am intrigued by this picture which dates from 1909.

The caption just says, “site of the London and South-Western Bank (High Street), House formerly the residence of the late Miss Fry, now of Mr Coulson).”

Not much to go on I grant you but a start.

The bank had been formed in 1862 and merged with Barclays in 1918, all of which would seem to put our picture on the site of the modern Barclays Bank in the High Street.

But this was built in 1932 which seems a long time between our picture and the current building dispensing its cash.

And so to Miss Fry who was one of two sisters who lived on the High Street at Ivy Court.

They were the daughters of John Fry, who owned Jubilee Buildings as well as other properties and was one of those self made men.

The family home was on the north side of the High Street behind a long garden which fronted the main road and commanded a fine view up across fields to the woods beyond.

The house had ten rooms and this was where Harriet and Lydia saw out their days.

Harriet died in 1895, and Lydia in 1907 and thanks to their father they lived on “income from interest” and both left effects worth over £1200.

Their house is still there behind the bank.  “An ornamental iron gate alongside [the bank] frames a path leading to a house of the mid 1820s in a secluded location [which] is now offices.”*

Mr Frederick Colson and his wife Lucy and three children were still in Ivy Court in the April of 1911.

He was a solicitor and the family had moved from Westmount Road where they had been a decade earlier.

Their new address was listed as 29B, which helps  solve the mystery of when the bank was built.

Back when the Fry sisters lived at Ivy Court it was numbered 29, but by 1911 number 29 has the postal address of the London and South Western Bank, and was also home to Harry Wallis the bank manager and his wife and daughter.

So sometime after our two chaps posed infront of Ivy Court part of the garden became a bank and in the fullness of time Barclays chose to demolish their old premises and build the one we see today.

All of which now just requires a picture of Ivy Court as it is now, down that path from the High Street, beside the bank.

And as you would expect my friend Jean is already on to it which will make for another story.

*Spurgeon, Darrell, Discover Eltham, 2000

Picture; Ivy Court, from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

Christmas with the Lion …………..

The comic annual has a long history.

They were produced for the Christmas market and were a mix of the favourite stories and articles drawn from the weekly comic.

For me, its golden age was in the 1950s, and the preeminent comic book was the Eagle, with its companions, Girl, Swift and Robin.

That said there were others, and of these I suppose I was most drawn to the Lion, which like its weekly comic version was a less sophisticated product than the Eagle.

The artwork was cruder, the size of the comic smaller and some of the stories lacked the detail of my Eagle.

But I never quite forgot the Lion, and yesterday three of the annuals were sent to me by Steve.

They are dated, 1954, 1955, and 1956, and of the three it is the last that struck me most because it was the one I was given.

Who gave me the book I can’t remember, but as Dad and mum always bought me the Eagle, I guess it was an uncle.

Looking through the 1956 annual, I recognize the stories and can vividly recall some of them, and more than a few of the individual pictures.

The key stories were those that would appeal to any 1950s lad, of which space, knights in armour and westerns predominated.

I must confess back then and even now I preferred the strip cartoons and avoided those stories which were all print.

Like Eagle, the Lion annual had a its share of factual material which in 1956 included “When the Romans went Chariot Racing, “Wonders of Outer Space”, and the “World Wide Quiz”.

But there was less of it than in Eagle, and the themes were far more Eurocentric.

Added to which the books felt cheaper, partly because of the poorer quality paper that was used.

There will be those who think I am being a tad unfair and flicking through the 1954 annual there was a fascinating account of what life on the Moon might be like, which makes interesting reading seventy-one years after it was written and just fifteen before the first moon landing.

And the three annuals are of their time, which rather makes them history books in their own right, and so I shall close with the "Picture Parade of Facts Near and Far", with the account of robot made by a boy in the USA and the one I vividly remember when during “a football match was in progress between two fire brigade teams at Liverpool, a cry of FIRE! Rang out.  The game stopped abruptly, and everyone looked for the fire.  It was in a player’s pocket, where a box of matches had burst into flame”.

Now that has to be very 1950s.

But having renewed an old acquitance, I happily turned to my old friend the Eagle, and spent an happy half hour.

Location; the 1950s










Pictures; from the covers of the Lion Annuals, 1954-1956 and the Eagle annual, 1956 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ....... part 157 ..... old traditions …. new customs ..... and a challenge to Brexit

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

Nougat, and Roccocò napoletani , 2025

I have no idea how Joe and Mary Ann celebrated Christmas, but given that they moved in soon after the start of the Great War when certain foods were becoming scare, and prices were rising I suspect “all the trimmings” were in short supply.

By contrast the rising prosperity after the Second World War will have seen an increasing abundance of nice things for the table, although I am guessing what they ate will have been reflected by the fact that they were born in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and that moulded their tastes.

In the same way when we came to celebrate Christmas in the house in the mid 1970s, the traditional festive dinner and the extra bits like boxes of Quality Street and preserved fruits rubbed up against pasta, and curry.

So always a blend of the new and the old.

And that hasn’t changed.  This year Rosa brought over a variety of Italian sweets including Roccocò napoletani  which are Neapolitan Christmas biscuits.

They are made with mixed spices, nuts and candied fruits, and are rather crunchy on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside. 

They are traditionally made starting on December 8, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and enjoyed throughout the holiday season, ending with Epiphany on January 6. 

These days post Brexit her cache of Italian food is far more modest, while one year an entire suitcase was given over to oranges, heaps of nougat, nuts, cooked meats and even a chicken, not to mention packets of coffee.

More nougat and Ptasie mleczko, 2025

And not to be out done our Julia came from Warsaw with a packet of Ptasie mleczko which my Wikipedia tells me translates into “bird's milk which is a confectionery originating in Poland and is a small, chocolate-covered bar with a soft marshmallow-like interior.

E. Wedel is one of the most recognized chocolate confectioneries in Poland, having exclusive rights for the name Ptasie mleczko. Its owner created the original "bird's milk" in 1936”. 

So that is it.  Other brands of “interesting foods will be available" in other people’s homes.

And extending out beyond Christmas, I am consrtantly attracted to the food served up by Jewish friends during Hanukkah.

Location; Beech Road

Pictures; special treats from Naples and Warsaw, 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Story of a House, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2025/12/one-hundred-years-of-one-house-in_12.html

** Ptasie Mleczko, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptasie_mleczko

Four screws, a couple of nails and a gallon of paraffin ....... Beech Road before now

I am looking at a picture of Beech Road from 1979, which I took just three years after I settled here.

Hardware, grapes and melons, 1979

It’s not a remarkable image and that is the point.

To the extreme right just beyond the edge of the photograph was Mr. Henderson’s butcher’s shop while just in view is the hardware store and next to it what had been a Howarth’s greengrocers.

But I rather think that by 1979 Howarth’s has passed into the hands of the plant and flower shop whose main business was located on Wilbraham Road.

Washing, photos and lots more, 1969

Today almost 50 years on butcher’s is a clothes shop and the hardware and green grocers have become a studio and gallery.

Back all those decades ago this stretch of Beech Road was a mix of retail businesses, offering up all the usual stuff, from waxed string and paraffin to sliced Sunblest, potatoes and much more.

The much more included a fabric shop, several bakeries, a launderette, three butcher’s shops as well two offi’s and a barber’s, to which I could add the short-lived Amusement Arcade and Sunflowers.

All of which many will remember with fondness in that time when you still shopped locally and daily because the fridge and freezer revolution had yet to arrive.

Looking back it is easy to fall into the trap of nostalgia, but it’s as well to remember that despite the number of grocery stores, the variety of food on offer was limited, and sometimes perilously close to their sell by dates.

I still recall our local shop in Peckham which was full of tinned food and had a choice of cheese …. white or red while proudly displaying their biscuits in open boxes for all to paw through.

It had the lot, 1979

All perhaps a tad grim, but set against this was that Aladin’s Cave which was the hardware store, where you could buy four screws, a couple of nails and a light bulb taking in that pungent mix of smells which came from the bare floor boards, paraffin and freshly sawn timber.

So, to re-echo an older theme, was it better back then or just different?

Hand written answers on a postcard with a 1d postage stamp of the old Queen affixed in the space indicated.

Location; Beech Road before now

Pictures, numbers 38 & 40 Beech Road, 1979 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and in 1969 from Manchester & Salford Directory, courtesy of Andy Robertson

A happy Christmas from the 1950s

 It's not often you get a Christmas card from the 1950s dropping through the letter box.

Anyone who regularly read the Eagle comic will recognise the rocket ship and the names Digby and the Meakon.

At which point l shall not say any more about the two or the Christmas decorated ship hurtling through space.

Instead l will just confess that the card was no time travelling bit of Christmas cheer, instead it came from The Eagle Society that society of like minded happy bunch dedicated to keeping the memory of the Eagle alive.*

And ofcourse l have been one of those happy members for four decades and an "Eagler" since 1957.

The card was last year's offering and l eagerly await the 2025 one.

Pictures; Christmas Card from the Eagle Society, 2024, and Operation Silence from the Eagle Annual, 1956.

*The Eagle Society; https://eagle-times.blogspot.com/

The bridges of Salford and Manchester ........... nu 4 two for one

Now I am the first to admit the lighting is all wrong and I suspect the composition is iffy but its a picture of a bridge.

Which actually contains two ....... one behind the other and three if you count the  the footbridge.

And that is all I am going to say.

Location Salford

Picture; the river and the bridge, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Stories of the Great War from Eltham and Woolwich ............. nu 1 the milestone on Shooters Hill

An occasional series reflecting on the impact of the Great War.

Now I have to say I never really knew the story of the war memorial outside Christ Church on Shooters Hill.

I will have passed it countless times, but when you are young war memorials scarcely register especially when there is the promise of an unknown adventure in the woods behind.

But reading it now is to be reminded of the terrible loss of life during the Great War.

The inscription is simple and to the point.

What gives the memorial its added significance is that it is part of an older milestone of which I knew nothing.

And for that knowledge I have Tricia Lesley to thank who unearthed a wonderful history of Woolwich which gives a detailed description of the milestone and the war memorial.

“Originally on the other side of the road, having been placed there by the New Cross Turnpike Trust, the eighth milestone out of London on the Old Dover Road was accidentally fractured by a Borough Council steam roller during road repairs in 1903.

The Dartford plate had been totally destroyed in the collision.

It was thrown aside to be broken up but Vicar Wilson, with authority from the Borough Engineer removed the pieces to the church grounds where they were dowelled together and set up near the church door.

When the church war memorial was being discussed, Col. Bagnold, chairman of the parish war memorial committee, suggested fixing on the eastern side of the stone a plate indicating the distance to Ypres, with the addition of figures telling of the casualties incurred in defending the salient.  

The Director-general of the Ordinance Survey was called and arrived at the figure of 130 miles to the cloth Hall, correct to one-tenth of a mile.

The whole memorial was unveiled by Major General Sir Webb Gillman and dedicated by the Rector of Woolwich in October, 1922."*

All of which leaves me to say I have the book on order, and wish I had the opportunity to repeat the magic adventure in the woods.

Pictures; memorial stone, courtesy of Running Past, @running_past, Shooters Hill, courtesy of Jean Gammons, 1977 and cover of The Woolwich Story 

* The Woolwich Story, 1970, E. F. E. Jefferson.