Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 95 Royton Street ...

 You won’t find Royton Street.

Spinningfields, 2020

It vanished long ago under the Spinneyfields development but for a century and more it lay between Hardman Street and Cumberland Street.

Not that you would have found it that easily, because it was one of those closed streets shut off by two narrow passages which gave off to more closed courts.  The curious or those in the know could access it by one of two streets which ran between Hardman and Cumberland Streets of which only one had been given a name.

Royton Street, 1849

To add to its obscurity, it failed to get into any of the street directories during the 19th century, but it did boast the St Mary’s Roman Catholic Chapel School.

But in 1851 it was home to 399 people who lived in 39 houses, nine of which were one roomed back-to-back properties, and the remainder, consisted of four rooms with weekly rents ranging from 1 shilling [5p] to 5s [25p].

Their occupations included textile workers, laboures, retired soldiers, a sailor, a French polisher and an architect’s assistant.  Added to these there were a number of skilled artisans including a group of “shoe makers” a tailor, a “Gold Beater” and “Cabinet maker”.

The east side of Royton Street, circa 1880-1900

During the course of the 19th century some of houses were replaced by industrial units, including two steam printers and a paper warehouse, so that by 1951, the western side of the street had been swallowed up by another printing press and all the houses along the entire length of the street had gone.

I can’t be sure when Royton Street was cut, but the first reference to it in the Rate Books is 1828, although there is a suggestion that it might have already been there by 1819.

It has yet to pass out of living memory and I am sure I will have known it, but with the passage of over 53 years these narrow streets off the beaten track were places you found by accident and didn’t always return to.

Today the closest I think the inquisitive will get to walking its length will be along the Avenue which runs down from Deansgate, past Spinningfields Square finishing in front of Manchester Crown Court.

The Avenue, 2020

On a pleasant day the shops, bars and restaurants which flank the Avenue on both sides attract plenty of passersby but perhaps not as many as the developers expected.  

Still the swish retail outlets and the swanky eating places are a long way from the Royton Street of the 1850s.

But I am drawn to that earlier place, partly because of the wealth of information about its inhabitants which shed light on how we lived 170 years ago in this part of the city, but also because there is a personal link.  

It is not me, but a Facebook friend whose family were on Royton Street from at least 1851 for two decades, and continued to live in the area up into the middle of the last century.

Royton Street, 1951

Alan Jennings who introduced me to his ancestors has written a vivid account of their lives, and in particular those who served during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars through to the Great War, and Alan’s own service with the Colours.

Now that is the story of personal history I like.

Location; Manchester

Pictures;  Hardman Street, and the Avenue, 2020, from  the collection of Andrew Simpson and Royton Street in 1849, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1844-49, and Royton Street circa 1880-1900 from Goad's Fire Insurance maps, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/and Royton Street 1951, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford

That club on Brookburn Road in Chorlton ....... and a fascinating find

This is the United Services Club on Brookburn Road, just thirty years after it was opened in 1928.

The club in 1958

I have to confess to only ever being inside once, for the birthday of Muriel who ran the greengrocer’s shop on Beech Road, but that as they say is another story.

Instead I am following the story of the club, prompted by a set of documents sent over to me by Steve Casson which include the first two balance sheets of the club from 1928.

The then secretary was the brother of Steve’s grandfather which makes it a bit of personal history.

The club was officially opened on Saturday May 26th, by Councillor Burrows, and had cost £685 and according to a press story was “equipped as a library, with provision for billiards and other games, and a license is attached.

The present membership is 111, [and] it is to be a non-political club, .... and one of its objects is to aid wives and dependents of members in cases of hardship.  The hon. Secretary is Mr. H. Gales, late of the Grenadier Guards”.*

The same report offers an interesting insight into Chorlton at the time, with Councillor Burrows commenting that “Chorlton was the largest ward of any in the municipality in the country, and it had the biggest ratable value of any suburban area under the Manchester Corporation”.

The balance sheet, 1929

And to add just a little bit of colour to the event “The Chorlton Band played selections on the green, before the opening ceremony, and later, in the club, and an evening concert followed”.

Now, I never actually spotted when the club closed, and saw the slow development of the site into residential properties, which are now going through more change.

There will be people with stories of the club, but apart from the two balance sheets, so far the only other story is that of how in 1936 various members were fined for “supplying drink during non-permitted hours”, but in their defence it was pointed out that “the club had been registered for eight years and hitherto had been conducted without complaint against it.”**

Looking at the two statements, what is interesting is that on the first one dated January to December 1928, the bar takings were £1069, compared with the following year when the takings were £2439, so all was well in 1929.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; United Servicemen’s Club, 1958, R.E. Stanley, m17686, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, balance sheet for the British Legion, 1929, courtesy of Steve Casson


*British Legion Club for Chorlton, May 28th, 1928, Manchester Guardian

**Offences at a Club, January 16th, 1936, Manchester Guardian

Discovering Eltham

Cover of the new edition 2000

I am back in Eltham where I grew up in the 1960s on the Progress Estate.

They say you should never go back to the places of your childhood and there is something in that.

Either they look smaller and are just that bit different or whole landscapes have so altered that you begin to question if your memory is serving you well.

Now my bit of Well Hall looks much the same but they have moved the station built a motorway and many of my favourite haunts in the High Street have changed.

All of which is a lead in to Discover Eltham by Darrell Sprugeon.*

It is a “comprehensive guide to Eltham, New Eltham, Mottingham, Kidbrooke and Shooters Hill.”  So it pretty much covers everywhere I went as a child and certainly everywhere I would want to take my own grown children who while they are all Mancunians have a soft spot for where dad lived.

Mr Spurgeon sets out to offer his reader a mix of history, and places to see which are all wrapped up in a series of walks “but only where places of interest are concentrated within an area which makes walking practicable and interesting.”

Tudor Barn, Well Hall, 16th century

So “beside the famous buildings of royal Eltham, the area covered includes Wren’ great almshouse of Morden College, the extraordinary Sevendroog Castle, set amongst the ancient woodland of Shooters Hill, the Tudor remains of Well Hall, many interesting Victorian churches and two striking churches of the 1930s, two remarkable housing estates of the 20th century; sites of industrial archaeology, interesting pubs; many of which remain rural in character, and much more.”

And there is much I didn’t know. So despite living close to the church of St Barnabas on Rochester Way, I had no idea that this red brick Victorian church was originally the chapel of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Woolwich.  It was “built in 1859 and dismantled and re-erected brick by brick on its present site in 1933.”

Nor did I know of the existence of three streams which flow through Kidbrook and feed into  the Quaggy River.  Of course the clue is in the name Kidbrook, which is clearly derived from the Upper, Mid and Lower Kidbrooks.

Now water courses are a particular interest of mine.  Most today are buried underground all but forgotten but they were vital to our rural communities providing water and acting as boundary markers.

Progress Estate, Ross Way, 1915

I have to own up that it is the Eltham walks which fascinate me most.

And here there is plenty to read and see because Mr Spurgeon includes a selection of photographs along with the text and maps.

The first edition came out in 1992 and a second much revised eight years later.  I have both in front of me.  

The earlier version I bought on Amazon and the later one has come courtesy of the author.

And as a historian what I finds particularly interesting are the changes to the area in that eight years. All of which makes the book a fascinating chronicle of how Eltham has developed.

I rather think that I shall take both with me on some of the walks, thereby getting an insight into the Eltham of 1992, 2000 and of course today.

Pictures; courtesy of Darrell Spurgeon

 *Spurgeon, Darrell, Discover Eltham and its Environ, Greenwich Guide Books, 1992, revised and updated  2000

When you make cheap comments about James Fraser ….

So earlier today I was a tad unfair to James Fraser, former Bishop of Manchester.

James Fraser, former Bishop of Manchester, 2026

His statue stands on the northern side of Albert Square hard by the water fountain looking out on Princess Street just yards from where Cross Street enters the square.

From his lofty position he has observed plenty of the changes to the area including the construction of the Second City Crossing which takes trams from St Peter’s Square down to Exchange Square and onto Victoria.

Perhaps happily he also faces outwards and so has never looked down on the several make overs to Albert Square and its eight long years as a construction site during the Town Hall’s refurbishment.

 But as that draws to its conclusion the square is home again to the Manchester Markets, and the Manchester Wheel, and that is where I have been unfair to James Fraser because yesterday, I posted an image of the bishop apparently standing,  aloof from all those seasonal preparations.

Making it worse with the caption “James Fraser turns his back on fun”.

James Fraser with his back turned, 2026

It was cheap and suggested that perhaps he was a party pooper.  Now I have no idea if he was a man devoid of humour, but a little research has thrown up that he was a deeply caring individual who applied his religious conviction in very practical ways.

My Wikipedia tells me he “was a reforming Anglican bishop ….. An able Church administrator and policy leader was active in developing the Church's approach to education and in practical politics and industrial relations. Though his views were ecumenical and he was respected within a wide variety of religions”. *

So much so that he was remembered as the "bishop of all denominations”.

I could go on but that Wikipedia article does it all too well and includes his work on child labour in agriculture, his wider work on education, industrial relations, and commitment to the co-operative movement as well as his defence of a fellow clergy man who fell foul of the establishment.

Moreover, I was intrigued by the comment from the Bishop Fraser Trust, that he “was a figure defined by service, humility, and a deep commitment to the people he served. Appointed in 1870, he quickly earned widespread respect by rejecting the comfort of a traditional bishop’s residence and choosing instead to live in the city centre, close to the community". **

The x marks the former  residence of James Fraser, 1894

And that led me to search out his residence, which in 1881 was at 177 Bury New Road in Broughton. 

His home was a terraced house, close to an Engraving Works a several brickworks and within walking distance of rows of more modest homes.

That said his neighbours in 1881 listed their occupations as merchants, accountants, solicitors, and doctors, as well as a surgeon and an Inspector of Mines.

So, perhaps his afternoon conversations over the garden wall were not with labourers, road sweepers, and washerwomen, but nor was he living in a palace or in the leafy green out suburbs.

And that is where I shall leave it along with an apology for using him in such a cheap and trivial way.

Location; Albert Square

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2026 and the former residence of Bishop Fraser, from the OS map of  South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*James Fraser, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fraser_(bishop)

** Bishop Fraser Trust, https://www.tbft.uk/about-us/welcome-from-the-ceo

36 barrels of gunpowder ..... that horrendous act .... and a noisy night of fireworks

Now there is a pernicious and pervasive way of thinking which looks for conspiracy everywhere.

Mutterings and secret plans, 1604

As a way of looking at the world it isn’t new, and can be traced back to those who wile away the wasted hours seeking to disprove that there ever was a moon landing, to the sinister Protocols of the Elders of Zion which was a fabricated antisemitic text, and runs back into the mists of time.

All that is needed is an event which someone will seek to deny, or bend to their own political purposes.

And we are all familiar with the assertion that the Covid virus was not real, but when challenged with the evidence, advocates often switch tack and argue that it is in the interests of “them” to manufacture the scare, thereby to increase the powers of State surveillance, or manipulate the international markets.

Attempting to refute them is like counting the grains of sand in a bucket or pushing water up hill.

More recently I have followed the line of that radical 18th century writer Thomas Paine who wrote “To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, ….. is like administering medicine to the dead”.  

It a powerful guide to how to treat the outlandish arguments of those who have travelled beyond the borders of reason and reminds me of Deborah Lipstadt’s often referenced explanation for why she doesn’t debate with Holocaust Deniers because it is as pointless as discussing with “flat-Earthers or the Elvis-is-alive people”.*

All of that said there is a fine line between conspiracy theories and reinterpretations of past events. **

And as this is November 5th it neatly leads into the failed Gunpowder Plot, that awful act of planned terrorism which was so horrendous that its failure continues to be celebrated every year since Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators were caught and executed.

In recent years the celebrations have been eclipsed by Halloween, so while the fireworks will burst on either side of November 5th and continue like a damp squib for perhaps a week few kids now take to the street asking for “a penny for the Guy” and heaps will not even know the historical significance of burning the guy and setting off fireworks.

Plotting the unthinkable 1604

Suffice to say the story goes that a group of “Catholic gentlemen” in the face of continued official hostility to Catholics chose to stage a coup by blowing up the House of Lords at the opening of Parliament on November 5th.  

If it had succeeded the entire political establishment would have been killed, the State left leaderless and in the vacuum the plotters would have placed the King’s daughter on the throne and manipulated her to run the country.

So far so good, but it failed. 

The ringleaders were captured, tried, and executed and things got a lot worse for Catholics.

But even at the time some questioned elements of the plot, citing the King’s chief advisor as implicated in a “set up”.

Conspiracies and disasters, 1970s

In the 1890s and since some historians have revisited the story, deconstructed the events and the evidence, discrediting the official version.

All of which offered some of us a fine set of history lessons where we presented the traditional account, offered up suspected flaws and led our year 8 history students to draw their own conclusions.

In 1996 the historian Antonia Fraser presented her interpretation which while it accepted that there was a plot challenged bits of the narrative. ***

And over the next few days I shall revisit her book, reading it as the last fireworks burst into the night and reflect that while there are and have always been real conspiracies, the default line of many is to see conspiracies where they don’t exist, and trade on assertions and half-truths.

Pictures; a contemporary drawing of the Gunpowder Plot Conspirators, Crispijn van de Passe the Elder, and a popular badge from the 1970s

Guy Fawkes, Catesby and Winter, 1604

*Thomas Paine US History, https://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/c-05.htm

**“administering medicine to the dead” ……. The American War of Independence ..... and Thomas Paine, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2021/11/administering-medicine-to-dead-american.html

*** The Gunpowder Plot, Terror & Faith in 1605, Antonia Fraser, 1996

So ……… who pinched the tennis courts by the Lloyd’s Hotel?

Now, everyone knows that the Lloyds has a bowling green, which will date from soon after the hotel was built in the late 1860s.

The Lloyds, 1970

Thomas Ellwood, our own historian writing in 1886 said that along with the bowling green there “is a bowling club which meets every Wednesday during the season”.

Adding “recently a lawn tennis club has also been started”.

This I suspect had something to do with Mrs. Crabtree who ran the pub in the 1880s and by all accounts “improved the place considerably in various particulars” and it may have been her who encouraged the bowling green members to build their own club house and as an enterprising woman with an eye for business also laid out a lawn tennis court on the open land along side Whitelow Road.

The growing population brought in by the housing boom centred along the Edge Lane/Wilbraham Road corridor and around what until recently was the “Four Banks” stimulated a growth in both cultural and sporting groups, and Mrs. Crabtree’s tennis courts may have played to that interest.

The Lloyds in 1894

But none of the maps dating from the 1880s onwards show the presence of those tennis courts, and while the same maps do not indicate other courts which were in place by the late 19th century and survived into the1900s, it suggests that ours did not last long.

Certainly, by the mid 20th century the site had become a car park, and so the mystery remains.

And a mystery not helped by the lack of any reference to the tennis courts in the rate books.

Mrs. Ada Crabtree is there as the tenant of the pub from 1884to1887, followed by Richard Crawshaw, but no tennis green which as an asset should have turned up in the Rate Books.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; The Lloyd Hotel with that public lavatory, 1970, A Dawson, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass the Lloyds in 1894 from the OS map of South Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, https://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Ellwood, Thomas, Inns, Chapter 23, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, South Manchester Gazette, April 17 1886

The one on the corner of Concert Lane and Spring Gardens …..

I must have passed this building countless times since I washed up in the city in 1969.

Where Spring Gardens meets Concert Lane, 2026

Back in the late 60s as a student at the old College of Knowledge on Aytoun Street I roamed streets exploring.

Concert Lane, 2026

Concert Lane, 2026

Afterall when the choice was the library or exploring, exploring always won out.

So, in a few short months I had got to know the back streets and alleys, a heap of interesting buildings which have long been lost and a collection of historic pubs and seedy cafes.

And yesterday I decided to look up the history of 47 Spring Gardens which occupies a triangular plot where Concert Lane and Spring Gardens run into each other.

Not that Spring Gardens always came this far south.

In the 1850s it stopped at King Street and seems to have been extended down to Chancery Lane by 1888.

All of which means there will be more research to do and along the way I shall delve into that narrow thoroughfare that is Concert Lane.

Location; Spring Gardens

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

 

In the kitchen ……………. in 1959

Now I had all but forgotten this metal food processor.

Long before the swish big electric models, most homes had one of these.

Ours was used to mince the meat from the Sunday roast, and I suspect everything else.

It was made of metal, was operated by hand, and sat on the kitchen table.

Unlike this one, ours had a clamp, which meant that when it was not in use it would be stored away, freeing the table for other uses.

And like so many objects from the family home, I have no idea what happened to it.

I do know that in the fullness of time the basic gas cooker on the left of the picture was replaced by a similar model on the right.

Mum and Dad, I recall bought into a Cannon cooker around 1963, which survived the move from Peckham to Well Hall and lasted well into the 1980s.  Its novel feature was that it had the grill above the hob, which at the time we thought was quite neat.

All of which leaves the source for the picture, which comes from Manchester and was one of three featuring the food processor.

I am not sure why they were taken but I suspect they were part of a series focusing on modern kitchens.

In these energy conscious days, I rather think I would like a hand operated model, if only because they were so easy to use.

At which point I am sure someone will provide advice.

And they have, Barbarello pointed out that a modern version is now being sold, and more than a few have pointed out that we called them a "mincer" which I thought was just a name unique to our family.

Then to finish off Chris Payne sent over a picture of his family mincer, which I instantly recognised as the model we had in or house.

Location; Manchester

Picture; the food processor or mincer, 1959,"Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk 

 , and the more humble one, from Chris Payne, 2020

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 19 ........... Back College Land and the vanished Press House Steps

Back College Land, 2016

Now Back College Land looks like it should have some dark and unseemly past with more than a few dreadful tales.

Sadly if they exist I haven’t found them.  Instead there is just this very narrow street connecting Parsonage with College Land.

I think I can date it to sometime between 1793, and the following year when what looks like our street ran back from College Land towards some open land bordering Parsonage.

Just a half century on from that and it is a clearly defined place with even narrower thoroughfares leading off into closed courts on its southern side and a stables on the northern corner beside Parsonage.

I had hoped that it might have a listing on the street directories but it doesn’t which means its residents are pretty much lost to us.  Although Parsonage has offered up names which were on the 1851 census, Back College Land has as yet to offer up its people.

Back College Land and Press House Steps, 1851

Having said that the return for Parsonage did reveal the details of those who lived directly opposite our narrow street.

These were the residents of Press House Steps.  The census records that 122 people lived in just 33 properties bordering the river.*

They worked at a mix of jobs including a porter, some textile workers, and as milliner along with some hat makers and even a poultry dealer.

In the absence of our people from Back College Land I rather think those of Press House Steps will prove most interesting.

We shall see.

And if they prove to yield up some stories it will be a fitting reminder of the people and the place given that it had been swept away by 1900 when the the showrooms and work place of Orme and Sons, makers of Billiard Tables stood on the site.

Location; Manchester

*Press House Steps, Enu 1bb, 20-24, Market Street, Manchester, 1851

Pictures; Back College Land, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Press House Steps, 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

The London of 1949

The Pool of London in 1909

This is the Pool of London in 1909.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trafalgar Square, 1955

Not that this is some rosy, cosy nostalgic trip.

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

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

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

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

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

Who pinched a Chorlton pub?

Now when you have spent a decade and a half crawling over Chorlton’s past it is always nice to find something new, and something you didn’t know.

The mystery Holly Bush Inn, 1900

So yesterday while searching for an image of a lost pub on Market Street in town I came across two paintings of a Chorlton pub called the Holly Bush Inn.

Both were by painted our local artist J Montgomery and are dated 1900 and 1967.*

J. Montgomery is an an artist I know well and there are heaps of his paintings in Manchester Library’s Image Collectoion.  

Most were painted from picture postcards which have now been lost and so are themselves a unique record of Chorlton’s past.

Until that is this one, which does not appear in any historical record for the 19th into the 20th century.

I wondered if he had confused Chorlton cum Hardy with Chorlton on Medlock but a check of the pubs listed in The Old Pubs of Hulme and Chorlton on Medlock by Bob Potts drew a blank.**

The mystery Holly Bush Inn, 1967

And anyway Mr. Montgomery knew his Chorlton.  

It might however been mis catalogued, but I doubt that too.

So, it seems a mystery.  

It could have been one of those short lived beer shops which sprang up and vanished leaving little trace.   

One such doble fronted “superior” establishment was run by Mrs Leach which was the scene of a dreadful stabbing in 1847. 

The press coverage of the time never offered up a name for the beer shop but it was roughly on the site of the modern Cromar on Manchester Road.

But it had long gone when Montgomery painted his picture from a1900 picture postcard and certainly would have been long forgotten when he reprised the subject in 1967.

And here we do have to be careful because in labelling his paintings he sometimes wrote the date of the postcard and at other times the date of when he created the image.

That said I could be wrong and there may once have been a Holly Bush Inn, which may have been pinched or converted into any one of a number of different uses.

We shall see.

Location; sometime and place in Chorlton

Pictures; The Holly Bush Inn, 1900, m49891, and 1967, m80053, J Montgomery, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*J. Montgomery, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Montgomery

**The Old Pubs of Hulme and Chorlton on Medlock by Bob Potts, 1997

All Saints Day ...... that day of remembrance

 Mine wasn’t a religious upbringing.

Remembering the dead, 2026

Father on occasion might hum an old Scottish Protestant marching song while mother came close to becoming a Catholic.

Gathering in the growing dusk, 2026

But nether sought to impose any religion on any of us and my religious knowledge was pretty much confined to school assemblies and what I picked up from doing O level RE and even that was nothing more than a nod from the teacher that it might be an easy exam to do.

And indeed, it was easy.  

I had to study a set number of texts from the New Testament which I enjoyed. 

It was essentially a test in memory and comprehension and appealed to someone who was already learning how to interrogate historical sources.  

The upshot was that I passed, and still today retain a heap of memorable lines from the Bible which can still be used to make a point.

All of which is an introduction to All Saints Day that day when many around the world remember family members who have died.  

According to Dr Michael Carter of English Heritage All Saints Day "was originally a commemoration of martyrs, people who died for their faith, but was later expanded to include all saints, as the name suggests”. 

To which was added All Souls' Day by the “The Abbott at Cluny in the late 10th/11th century [which] is very concerned indeed about souls languishing in purgatory being tormented by demons. 

The new feast becomes established on the 2nd of November and is for the faithful departed who have yet to be purged of their sins so they can go to heaven. 

Lights in the night, 2026

And it spreads throughout Europe. Once again, it has special church services, especially the saying of prayers and masses for the dead and the ringing of bells as a prompt for people to say prayers for the dead and to give comfort to souls in purgatory.”

I first came across it in Naples with the Festival of the Dead and was drawn to the idea of that special day to remember the family.

And more especially the tradition of visiting the cememetry with candles and family members brought together by the common act of rememberannce.

So I was pleased when our Julia in Warsaw  messaged me with "We had All Saints here on Sunday  and I took some pictures which I am sending over".

The collection are from the local cemetery and yesterday along with our Saul Julia lit candles at the grave of her great grandfather, grandfather and parents.

Julia's family grave, 2026

The grave is adorned with a figure of an owl and an eagle..... "Owls for wisdom, eagles for bravery".

"Owls for wisdom", 2026

"Eagles for bravery", 2026

Location; All Souls Day, Warsaw

Pictures; from the collection of Julia Czajkowska, 2026

*A brief history of Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day with Dr Michael Carter https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/halloween-saints-souls/

Location; All Souls Day, Warsaw

Pictures; from the collection of Julia Czajkowska, 2026

*A brief history of Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day with Dr Michael Carter https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/halloween-saints-souls/

New pubs for old and a disappointed confectioner

I rather think there must have been something in the air in the early months of 1907.

In the February there were two applications in front of the annual licensing meeting for the city of Manchester for new pubs in Chorlton.  Well I say new but in both cases they were for the demolition of existing buildings and their replacement with new ones.

The licensing records for the city are a wonderful treasure trove and I have to say I have trawled them over the years.  Sadly our own records only appear after 1904 when we were incorporated into Manchester and for the records of 19th century Chorlton you have to look elsewhere.

But for today thinking of the 1907 debate on new pub build the details are all here and it makes fascinating reading.

Now we had plenty of places.  Some like the Greyhound, the Bowling Green Hotel, Horse and Jockey, and Royal Oak could trace their history back to the beginning of the 19th century if not earlier, while  the Beech appeared at the beginning of the last century.  Others like the Travellers Rest and Black Horse along with countless unnamed ones were really just beer houses and surfaced and disappeared during the 19th century. Most had very short lives and more than likely existed as a part of a family strategy to make ends meet, opening when things were tight and closing when the family fortunes improved.

The exception is the Travellers Rest at the bottom of Beech Road which was opened in the late 1830s ran through to the early years of the 20th century and for most of that time was run by the Nixon family who could claim to be one of our well established families.  Samuel Nixon senior ran the Greyhound over the Mersey, his son and daughter in law ran the Travellers Rest and their son and grandson ran the stationers and newsagents on Beech Road.

Beer houses had come into existence with the Beer Act in 1830 and were designed to break the hold of the gin shops by permitting individuals to brew and sell beer for the price of a two guinea license.  In some cases like the Black Horse at Lane End and the beer shop run by Brownhill the wheelwright they were closed down when they continued to flout the license.

All of which brings me back to February of 1907. The Royal Oak had been selling beer since at least the 1830s and was the last beer house on the way out of the township to Manchester.  As such it was well placed to cater for farm labourers and the passing trade to and from the city and in its time had seen its fair share of unruly behaviour and worse from its customers.  But it was just a small house and I guess George Henry Kelsey could see the potential.  After all he had managed to get 800 residents to sign a petition “in favour of the new scheme.”* On top of which he was prepared to close his pub, the Sir Ralph Abercrombie in Great Ancoats-street for a newly built Royal Oak.

But the views of 800 residents were caught light in the balance when set against “several owners of property near the Royal Oak who were against the rebuilding.”  And Mr Kelsey may well have judged the wind when one of the licensing committee referred to the 800 as “the poor deluded people” who “in many cases because they were attracted by the prospect of a new building in place of a tumble down structure.”

There may have been more but it has been lost in time and the application was withdrawn but not after a sarcastic exchange where the committee man remarked that the applicant in withdrawing was “a very wise man” to which the reply was “I am sure I feel very gratified by that statement.”

And the same “tide in the affairs of men” was running equally against the tenant of the Bowling Green who wanted to reduce "from 1,335 feet to 1,126 feet the drinking area of the house and to have three rooms instead of ten” by demolishing the old building and putting up a new one.

It was a proposal which was not met with much enthusiasm, foundering on the official line that “there were too many licenses in old Chorlton already."  So I remain surprised that they decided to “visit the place and form our own conclusions on the spot.”

And equally surprised that within the year the old 18th century building was torn down and replaced by a new one.

The politics and workings of the committee remain a mystery to me and looking at previous decisions by earlier bodies the same holds true.

So back in 1893 when the responsibility for granting a license was with JPs, the session granted an application from a Mr Thomas Barrows of 46 Beech Road for an off wine and spirit license was successful while that of Charles Prince Hill confectioner of 28 Wilbraham Road was turned down.  He had wanted a license “to sell beer not to be consumed on the premises” and it was “not his intention to carry on a jug trade, but merely to serve families bottled beer.  The neighbourhood had increased largely and the license would be a great boon.”**

The opposition was limited to a local resident and another from Manchester Road who represented the British Women’s Temperance Association.  So in all “of the 4,700 persons in Chorlton-cum-Hardy only two had come forward to oppose the application.”  And the application was refused.

Perhaps it was because there were two businesses almost directly opposite selling alcohol or that it would be a change of direction for the 31 year old confectioner who had been on Wilbraham Road from at least 1891.


Now in time I might pursue Mr Hill who was still there in his confectioners in 1903 but had moved on by 1909 and it might be that he was successful elsewhere.

*Manchester Guardian February 8 1907
**Manchester Guardian August 23 1893

Pictures; from the collection of Tony Walker

So what was Southern Street in Castlefield once like?

Southern Street in 2003

This was Southern Street, off Liverpool Road during a chunk of the 1980s  and into the next two decades it was one of the stops on an annual walk and talk I did in the Castlefield area.

During the course of those years it underwent profound changes with most of what had been late 18th century houses demolished or converted into flats and offices.

Of course part of me was saddened by the loss of these old properties but the upside is that the street is once again a place where people live and work.

Looking down Southern Street 2003

And that has to be a good thing.  By the 1980s there were few businesses left and within the next twenty years even they had gone.

I remember talking to some of the men who worked in Andrew’s Garage in the centre of Southern Street along with the owners of the printing business at one end of the street and the motor bike shop at the other.

Collectively their memories spanned back into  the 1950s and in the course of the next week or so I want to look at that lost Castlefield.

But for now I shall just reproduce something I wrote back in 2003 and leave you to reflect on just how much this little bit of Castlefield has changed.

“Southern Street in 1851 shows the same pattern of housing occupation as other working class parts of the city.  

In many of the houses there is evidence of overcrowding and cellar occupation.  

So at 3 Southern Street, 15 people are recorded there in 1851, with 5 living in the cellar, 2 in one room, 4 in another and 4 in the garret.   

Numbers 3 & 5 Southern Street, 2003

Number 5 has 11 people.  Across the street number 12 &14 are now a garage.  
In 1851, 7 people are listed as living in number 14.  

It is easy to appreciate the degree of squeeze when you measure the size of these properties.  

Put more simply when you look down Southern Street, remember that the 1851 census recorded 81 people living in this small street, which was a drop from the 200 living there a decade before.

Numbers 3 & 5 Southern Street is worth looking at in detail, as they may not be there for much longer. 

The block has been bought recently and while there is some doubt about the future plans I can’t see them staying in their present state.  

They were surveyed in 1993.  The houses consisted of three floors and a cellar.  The second floor dimensions of number 3 are 22 feet 6 inches back from the front and 16 feet 4 inches from side to side. Number 5 varies slightly at 22 feet 2 inches by 17 feet.  

Numbers 12 & 14 Southern Street, 2003

Evidence for the cellar windows can still be seen but much else has undergone changes.  

Ground and first floor windows are not original and the door to number 5 has been enlarged. 

All the evidence suggests that they were built sometime around 1794.  

Houses on Southern Street, Barton Street and Worsley Street are shown on a map of that year, when Liverpool Road was still called Priestner Street and terminated at Collier Street.  

Street Directories record people living in them from 1795.  This fits in with what we know of the surrounding streets.  

Evidence from the title deeds of the White Lion Inn and the Oxnoble Inn show that that six plots of land were sold in 1782. In 1804 the Oxnoble plot was sold again on condition that it was built upon within two years.”*

Location; Manchester

*Castlefield, Andrew Simpson, 2003

Pictures, Southern Street and Liverpool Road, 2003

Round About A Pound A Week ......... London life and London Poor ..... 1913

“Take a tram from Victoria to Vauxhall Station.  

Get out under the railway arch which faces Vauxhall Bridge, and there you will find Kennington Lane.  

The railway arch roofs in a din which reduces the roar of the trains continually passing overhead to a vibrating muffled rumble.”

And with those opening lines Mrs Maud Pember Reeves plunged into a detailed account of the lives of families struggling to make ends meet in the Lambeth of 1913.*

She was a social reformer and feminist who served on the Executive Committees of the Women’s Trade Union League, the National Anti Sweating League, and the Central Committee for Women’s Suffrage along with the Committee of the Fabian Society.

And it was after a lecture given to the Fabian Women’s’ Group on the Economic Disintegration of the Family in 1908 that she and other members of the group set about recording the daily budgets and lives of working class families in Lambeth.

The book details everything from the area where they lived to the daily battle to bring up a family in damp and lousy properties, while balancing a household budget and the ever present threat of unemployment.

It is a book which compliments that of Robert Roberts’s description of life in Salford at much the same time. **

So given that I will no doubt be returning to the book I shall conclude with a little more from the opening chapter

Lambeth, 1874

“From either end of the arch comes a close procession of trams, motor-buses, brewers’ drays, coal lorries, carts filled with unspeakable material for glue factory and tannery, motor cars, coster-barrows, and people. 

It is a stopping-place for tramcars and motorbuses; therefore little knots of agitated persons continually collect on both pathways, and dive between the vehicles and descending passengers in order to board the particular bus or tram they desire.

At rhythmic intervals all traffic through the arch is suspended to allow a flood of trams, buses, drays and vans, to surge and rattle and bang across the opening of the archway which faces the river.

At the opposite end there is the cross current.  The trams slide away to the right towards the Oval. In front is Kennington Lane and to the left at right angles, a narrow street connects with Vauxhall Walk leading further on into Lambeth Walk, both locally known as the Walk.

Such is the western gateway to the districts stretching north to Lambeth Road, south to Lansdowne Road, east to Walworth Road, where live the people whose lives this book is about.

They are not the poorest people of the district.  Far from it!  

They are, putting aside the tradesmen, whose shops line the big thoroughfares such as Kennington Road, or Kennington Park Road, some of the most enviable and settled inhabitants of this part of the world.  

The poorest people- the river-side casual, the workhouse in-and-out, the bar room loafer – anxiously ignored by these respectable persons whose work is permanent, as permanency goes in Lambeth and whose wages range from 18s. to 30s a week.

Picture; cover Round About A Pound A Week, , Virago ed 1979 featuring an image from the Greater London Council Photograph Library and detail of the area in the 1870s from the 1874 OS for London, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

* Round About A Pound A Week, Maud Pember Reeves, 1913, Virago ed 1979

**The Classic Slum, Robert Roberts, 1971

That unusual picture of the old parish church ….. with a heap more

 This is one of my favourite pictures.

It has appeared countless times before on the blog, and I never tire of writing about it.

This is the old St Clement’s church which stood in in the parish graveyard on the edge of the village green.

I can’t be sure when the photograph was taken, but it was a Reaud picture postcard and was sent to a Miss Clay of Brooks Bar in the September of 1904.

By then the parish church which had served the township since 1800 had just another 37 years, before it was closed because of frost damage, and its congregation joined those of the new church on Edge Lane.

This tall brick church had replaced an earlier timber building which dated back to the early 16th century, and had originally been the Chapel of Rest for the Barlow family.

It is an unusual image and despite its “colorization” has a lot to offer.  Even after a good ten years of researching its history I have to say it is an ugly building, made more so by the two extensions added in the 1830s.

To our left is an old cottage which dates from the early 19th century and may already have been there when King George lost the American colonies.

In 1841 it was home to John and Mary Taylor. 

In the June of that year he had described himself as an agricultural labourer and a decade later aged 72 he was still working on the land while his wife took in laundry.

Now it is impossible to say which farm he worked for or whether he was part of the casual workforce which found work where they could, but there were three farms around the green and another along what is now Brookburn Road

They rented the house from John Renshaw who had owned properties around Chorlton and paid him 1/6d a week in rent. Now this was about the going rate for such a cottage although rents began at just over a shilling [5p].

The cottage stood on open land with fine views back across the green and out toward the Mersey. Like most homes of the day there was a small cottage garden.

Now using the tithe map it is possible to locate the spot the picture was taken and this was Lough Orchard Meadow which in 1845 was one of the fields James Higginbotham rented from the Egerton estate.

Like the surrounding fields it was meadowland which was set aside for growing early grass.  

Mr. Higginbotham rented land across the township, and lived in the farmhouse facing the church school across the village green.  His house is still there, although the barn beside it has been converted in to residential use.

I will leave it up to you to suggest exactly where that field is today.

Leaving me just to comment on the buildings to the east of the church which included another barn, while  lost behind the trees is the Old Bowling Green Inn, which dated back to the late 17th century and was torn down in 1908 to build the present pub.

And for those who like detail there are the arms of what will be a cart, sticking up into the air.

Pictures; St Clement’s Church, circa 1900, and Mr. Taylor's cottage, circa 1900, from the Lloyd collection