Unseen photographs of Hough End Hall and Mrs Annie Elizabeth Roberts

Now the story of Hough End Hall never quite leaves me and I have always been prepared for new pictures and new tales of the lives behind its doors.

Mrs Roberts in the garden, circa 1920s

About a year ago I was given an album of photographs of the last family to live in the hall and farm the surrounding land.

And then more reently I met Mr Stuart Bolton who kindly shared some pictures and newspaper clippings from his great grandmother who worked at the hall.

She was “Annie Elizabeth Roberts, nee Halfpenny; formerly Bateman. I believe she worked at Hough End Hall for about twenty years, from the 1910s to the 1930s.

I think the first one was taken in the 1920s and the second one was taken by the newspaper photographer in the early/mid 1960s.

I am also attaching the clipping from the newspaper which we think it was from the Manchester Evening News from the early/mid ‘60s, unfortunately it’s not dated.”

Mrs Roberts, by the Hall, in 1963

The pictures are just sheer magic and offer up more on the history of the Hall when it was still a working farmhouse.

Until recently there were few images of the building and the family from the early 20th century and these add to our knowledge.

There will be no one now who remembers the garden when it was in its pristine state and pretty soon the memories of the hall in its last sad stage during the 1960s will also fade.

And it is well to remember that from the early 1920s the fate of the Hall hung in the balance.

Newspaper story, possibly the MEN, 1963

There were plans to demolish it for the new road which was planned to run out of the city to and despite more than a few imaginative suggestions for its use during the inter war years it eventually became prey to vandals.

Nor were the developers kind to it.  In the words of one expert they “botched “the job of restoration and then proceeded to hide the hall behind those two ugly office complexes.

Its subsequent use as a restaurant, pub and offices met that all the internal features have long gone, leaving on the original Elizabethan staircase which now resides in Tatton Hall.

So Stuart’s pictures and the story that I know will emerge from them will advance our knowledge and in the process if he is happy I shall tell the story of his great-grandmother.

Location; Hough End Hall

Pictures; Annie Elizabeth Roberts and Hough End Hall from the collection of Stuart Bolton

When the Ferry met Dan Dare and arrived on our door mat ...... a thank you to Tricia

Now I had no idea that the Woolwich Ferry would fall through our letter box today.

I say the Ferry but it was one of those cut away diagrams which featured in the Eagle Comic.

All of which made it a nice double whammy because as everyone knows I have a “thing” for the Ferry, but also because The Eagle was and still is my comic.

It was launched in 1950 and around 1959 I discovered it in the classroom of 3B in Edmund Waller School on one of those wet playtimes, and I was hooked and I spent a chunk of the ‘90s buying up copies, eventually splashing out on whole volumes.

But Vol 13 No. 32 which came out on August 11 1962 wasn’t one of them although it will have been one I read.

And now it has joined the collection which is all due to Tricia who knowing my fascination for the Ferry found it on eBay and the rest was a click of the mouse and a trip to the post office.

It arrived today and I am a very happy chap.

The cutaway diagram was one of the most popular features of the comic and week in week out we would be treated to the workings of the Routemaster Bus, the Spitfire, endless submarines, railway locomotives and even a series on atomic powered vehicles, including an aircraft and rocket.

It fitted the optimistic 1950s when all things seemed possible, including the fact that the top test pilot for Space Fleet would Dan Dare who had been born in Manchester and the head of the organization would not be an American or a Russian but Sir Hubert Guest.

That said Space Fleet was under the direction of the United Nations.

By the time the Woolwich Ferry appeared Dan Dare had been bundled away to the inside and LT. Hornblower, RN carried the front page while the cutaway now sat at the back.

None of this has diminished my pleasure at re-reading an old friend after fifty-six years.

And yes I have poured over the cutaway and even fancy I have located my favourite seat.

So here for all is the cutaway with special thanks to Tricia and links to stories about the Eagle Comic*, Comics of the 1950s**, and Eagle Times***, which is the journal of the Eagle Society

Location; Woolwich, 1962

Picture; The New Woolwich Ferry and the front cover of the Eagle, Vol 13 No.32 August 11 1962

*The Eagle; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Eagle

**Comics of the 1950s, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Comics%20of%20the%201950s

*** Eagle Times, Annual subscription UK £29, overseas £40, and as a start you can visit the site https://eagle-times.blogspot.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford nu 5 ............ what you find on Blackfriars Road

I am always fascinated by those narrow little passageways which hold the promise of all sorts of dark stories.

Passageway, 2016

Now this one has no name, and leads to Harding Street which today just gives access to a car park under the railway arches from Salford Approach.

So our little passageway seems hardly worth a second glance, but not so.

Go back to 1849 and it led to a closed court called Nightingale Square which in turn took you on to Harding’s Buildings which was the original Harding Street.

Here could be found 23 properties some of which were back to back and a whole warren of alleys on either side.

All were lost with the construction of the new railway viaduct and Exchange Station in 1884.

All of which just leaves me to go looking for the two buildings that stood on either side of our passage.

These were the Salford Library and Mechanic’s Institution to the left and The Royal Archer Public House to the right.

Now I am pretty sure there will be someone who can point me towards pictures of the Library and offer up rich stories of its contribution to Salford life.

In the same way I am also confident that The Royal Archer will reveal something of its past/

This I suspect will start with the names of some of the landords and if we are lucky a date for its opening.

It was there by 1849 and may well be much older than that.  In 1851 it was run by Margaret Horton and with a name we may be able to find out more.

Sadly Harding's Buildiings and Nightingale Square were not considered important enough for inclusion in the directories.

But Margaret Horton should be on the 1851 census and by following the streets from her pub it might be possible to come across both Harding's Buildings and Nightingale Square and in turn uncover the people who lived there.

We shall see.

To which Alan Jennings has added "You mention the Royal Archer, It can be traced back to about 1779 when Samuel Chantler opened an Alehouse called the Black Bull, In 1812 it was listed as the Robin Hood, occupied by Robert Armstrong, After Margaret Houghton the landlord was Thomas Callow in the 1860s. The pub stood on land owned by the Earl of Derby, and it was acquired by the Corporation when the new Blackfriars Road was being planned. In 1873, Thomas Sykes was the tenant and he applied to transfer the licence to a new Royal Archer Hotel which was being built on Lower Broughton Road, the transfer was eventually granted a few years later. I hope that this helps, Andrew."

Thank you Alan.

Location; Salford

Pictures; passageway on Blackfriars Road, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the area in 1849, from the OS for Manchester and Salford, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Home Thoughts of Woolwich ....... no. 1 ….. the badge

Sometimes it is as simple as a badge, which after 40 years brings back a bit of history.

Having left Well Hall in 1969 for Manchester, I only visited the Tramshed on brief visits home, but it was a popular place for our Elizabeth.

Location; Woolwich

Picture; the badge, circa 1970s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

When Mr & Mrs Allendale sold apples at that shop on the corner of Wilbraham and Keppel

That shop having its makeover, June 2015

Never underestimate the power  of memory,

Recently I reflected on the changes to that shop on the corner of Wilbraham and Keppel Road.

But the occupants of the place during the last century were a bit hazy.

That is until I posted the story and then with the help of a shed full of people those long  lost businesses came flooding back.

Back in 1960 with the Allendale's

In the 1980s into the 90s it was the Cheese and Bacon shop which always seemed very busy and operated that old 19th century maxim of offer the customer a wonderful array of good food as they walk in through the door and display much more in the long window.

We went there and I was sad when it closed.

What I didn’t know was that during the 1940's for two decades it was Allendale's the fruit and veg shop.

Now it had been Pauline Kelly who told me about Allendale’s, and Sandra who found the 1960 picture on the digital archive.

And I bet it will bring back a host more stories.

More so because of the cast iron and glass veranda which occupied the Keppel Road side.

Underneath the veranda, 1960

It can’t think it was original to when the shops were built and must have come down in the late 1960's or 70's but what a wonderful addition it must have been allowing the Allendale’s to serve out on the street in all weathers and capturing passing trade.

Added to which it that pre slick marketing age no one thought that trays of fruit on upturned wooden boxes would deter interested customers.

And that is about it, until more stories come flooding in about the Allendale's, and the cheese and bacon shop which they did just minutes after this was posted.

Lesley Smith remembers that the Cheese & Bacon shop was run by a Mr and Mrs Carney whoretired to Wales.

So the stories aren't over yet.

Picture; the shop on a June day in 2015 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and in 1960 by A E Lander’s m18303, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

The Chorlton History Wall ........ looking for a new home

After two years the third Chorlton History Wall is on the move. 

It was the latest in our series where art meets history telling the story of a particular spot in Chorlton over the last three hundred years.

It  appeared on the builder’s boards at the site of the former Chorlton Swimming Baths and Leisure Centre and became a tourist attraction following the very popular 80-meter installation which told the story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy from 1500 to the 21st century.

It ran across 16 large panels along Albany Road and part of Brantingham Road, included Andrew’s stories, Peter’s original paintings.

You could walk from Chorlton Green just before Henry VIII walked up the aisle with Ann Boleyn and traverse the centuries discovering the changes to where we live, ending at the former Cosgrove Hall Productions, home of Danger Mouse, Chorlton and the Wheelies and Count Duckula.

No less bold was the wall telling the story of Denbigh Villas on High Lane, which mixed the story of the two houses with accounts of the surrounding area.

And now the Manchester Road wall is on the move having done the business of recording the history of the former swimming baths and the surrounding area.

The three panels Stretching across seven meteres looked back to when this part of Chorlton was open fields with names like Gilbury Marsh and Horsefield, accompanied by tales of “dark doings” and culminating with our own Carnegie library and its links to the Titanic.

Suggestions for a new home have included Chorlton's Community Garden, a spell in Chorlton Library or perhaps ome of our local schools.

And in the spirit of community history all suggestions are welcome

Location; Manchester Road

Pictures; bits of the History Walk

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford nu 4 ............ Caxton Street

Caxton Street is the one that runs from Chapel Street to the railway viaduct but once upon a time ran on as Union Street under the train tracks to Posey Street..

Now I say that but am well prepared to be corrected.

I should have crossed the road and followed Caxton Street up to the brick wall but I didn’t and so may have lost a clue.

Back in 1849 there were 76 properties strung out along Union Street

Location, Salford

Picture; Caxton Street, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Chorlton Office, a pair of boots and a bus stop ................

This is one of my favourite pictures of Chorlton in the 1960s which comes from  George Cieslik’s collection.

I do like those images of the not so distant past, when much of what you can see is almost like today, but not quite.

And this one is no exception.

There in the distance is the old cinema, and in front, the building which over the years has had many different uses, from doctors’ surgery to a café, an antique shop and more recently a DIY centre and discount store.

Back in the 1940s it was still a residential property and out of the blue a few years ago someone contacted me with the story of when they lived there.

The keen observer will spot that the church on the corner of Barlow Moor Road and Sandy Lane had yet to be demolished, while the parade of shops opposite the cinema had yet to lose their stone ornaments.

But for me it is the very little details that make this photograph so fascinating.

It starts with the building which is now the home of diving club but back then was still the Chorlton Office and looks little different from when it was opened in 1915 as part of the terminus for the Corporation trams.

And that raises the question of just when the cast iron and glass veranda was spirited away.

And then for me there are the tiny personal things, starting with the old bus stop sign, with the Corporation logo, which was still in use when I washed up in Manchester in 1969 and the boots the woman beside the lamp post is wearing. 

They will have had a zip up the front, were made of felt with rubber soles, and an imitation fur lining, and were the bees’ knees back in 1962.

Others of my generation will single different things out, from the Belisha Beacons to the Morris Minors, and some like me will remember how the cab of the white lorry looked so modern when compared to others on the road.

And that is, other than to thank George for another slice of 1960s Chorlton.

Location; Barlow Moor Road

Picture; Barlow Moor Road, circa 1962 from the collection of George Cieslik

A little bit of Woolwich ........ from Manchester

Now I like the way a picture of a place I remember so well from my youth just pops into my in tray.

And so it is with this fine photograph of Plaisted’s Wine House.

Over the years I featured lots of images of Plaisted’s from a nice one taken by our Colin and Elizabeth to ones I took in the 1970s.

What makes this one just that bit unique is that it comes from the collection of Ron Stubley who like me lives in the far North ........ beyond the river, Watford Gap and even Birmingham.

Ron like me collects interesting buildings and so on a visit to Woolwich back in 2012 he added this one to the album.

He sent it over about 15 minutes ago with the comment “I'm sure you'll like this one Andrew”, and of course I do.

I shall now wait to see what other gems from Woolwich he may have.

Location; Woolwich

Picture, Plaisted’s Wine House, 2012, from the collection of Ron Stubley

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ...................... nu 1 St Simon Street, a wireless and sixty earth rods

Now you can still walk along St Simon Street but it no longer follows the route that it did when it led from Blackfriars Street to the Anaconda Works of Frederick Smith and Co who were producing some pretty nifty things in brass at the beginning of the 20th century.

This I know because in Dad’s garden shed in Well Hall Road in south east London he had sixty brass Earth Roads still in their cardboard boxes.

The rods are 46 cms [18”] in length, are fluted and pointed at one end  with a screw and terminal cap at the other.

According to the description on the side of the box “A good Earth connection to a wireless receiver cannot be over emphasised.  It provides a definite relief from howling and mush.  It improves selectivity and volume.  

The Anaco S (registered) Earth Road is made by engineers who have specialised for over 50 years in the manufacture of electronic conductors....with the object of producing a connection giving the lowest possible earth resistance and to be entirely free from incipient corrosion of any type.  

The improvements produced by the use of this earth are permanent and no replacements are necessary.” 

So there you have it.  Our Dad at some point acquired sixty of these rods.  I have no idea why and we never got round to asking him.  I have no idea when he got them but there they were in 1994, having been manufactured I guess sometime in the early 1920s.

Of course some will have chapter and verse on both the date of the rods and the history of the Anaconda Works.

I know that they were Type W “would not crumple when driven into the ground” and the instructions  direct me to “ease the screw on terminal cap, insert the earth wire from set into bottom grove and tighten up screw to hold wire in good contact with rod.”

All I need now is the wireless .............. something dad didn’t have in the shed.

But like many of my generation I do on occasion refer to the “wireless” remember with fondness the Home Service and the Light Programme.

None of which of course helps with St Simon Street which at the beginning of the 20th century ran from Blackfriars hugging the south side of the river and ending at Springfield Lane.

Today it takes a different route and my bit of St Simon’s Street along with Frederick Smith & co’s Anaconda Works has gone.

Location; Salford

Pictures; box and earth rod circa 1920s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Losing another Chorlton ghost sign …….

I rather think if I go back later this afternoon this ghost sign will have gone.

It was uncovered as work progresses on what was “Close”, the “Male Grooming” shop at 539a Wilbraham Road.

It was doing the business of all things male grooming from 2012 and was still last year.

Now for those who don’t know ghost signs are all that remain of a business, or product that no longer exists, and so here we have two, the former sign high up at the top of the building to Close, and uncovered for a brief while that of "J.M. Trophies, Engraving and Shoe Repairs".

I have a vague memory of the trophy shop, but it is vague and may not be real.

But since I have been in Chorlton for fifty years I might have passed it, which just leaves someone to come forward who used the place.

I know that back in 2008 it was "NV The Dawn of a New Era in Tanning" while in 1969 it was home to the Manchester Corporation Rating Office and before that I have yet to discover.  I know that the building dates from around 1904 but that at present is it.

Not that I shall be deterred from finding out more.  There are the street directories which lists businesses, and the Rate Books so with a bit of research the story of 539a Wilbraham Road will be revealed.

As for its future, a quick loo at the City’s Planning Portal has not shown up anything.

Location; Wilbraham Road

Pictures; ghost signs on Wilbraham Road, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A Didsbury picture ……. an 1885 sales catalogue ….. and the story of Johnson, Clapham & Morris .... makers of all things galvanized iron

Now, I remain fascinated at the route which took me from a framed page of a sales catalogue on a wall in a house in Didsbury via a shop in Pembrokeshire back a century and more to Johnson, Clapham & Morris, makers of all things galvanized iron.

The framed Lamp Belge from the sales catalogue, 1889

The framed sales catalogue was a present to a friend , who having admired it in the said shop got it as a Christmas present.

And in turn when Barbarella posted the picture to me I knew there was a story, although just where it would take me was unclear.

As ever the starting point was the name of the firm and its location on Lever Street in town.  There is no property number on the catalogue, but the directories placed the firm at 24/26 Lever Street, which is between Stevenson Square and Bunsen Street.

They were here by 1886, and it will be easy to track back to when they left their premise at 27 Dale Street.  I know that they were on Dale Street in 1876, and that they had a warehouse in Liverpool and offices on Winchester Street in London, with their works in Newton Heath.

According to that excellent source, Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, the company was founded sometime around 1814, and they specialized in “reinforced brickwork and the clothing of steel-framed and reinforced concrete buildings”, which rather skates over the detail, which was pretty much everything involving metal. *

Johnson, Clapham and Morris, Lever Street, 1886

Their 1876 poster announced  that they were “Iron, Tin Plate, Wire and Metal Merchants, manufacturers of Galvanized Wire Netting, and Sheep Fencing,  Strong Wove Wire for Malt Kiln Floors, Smutt Machines and Mining Purposes”, along with Miner’s Safety Lamps and Lightning Conductors”.

So, I am not surprised that thirteen years later their catalogue included The Lamp Belge, which I am guessing were copied from the original designs which were made in Belgium.

The company was still in business in 1961 when they were “Engaged as metal, electrical and hardware manufacturers and factors, [with] 560 employees.”**

I took a virtual wander down Dale Street and Lever Street, and both sites are still occupied by what look to be late 19th or early 20th century buildings, but I am  not sure if either were connected to Johnson, Clapham & Morris.

Goad’s Fire Insurance maps of 1884 show the firm’s office and warehouse taking up all of the space between Stevenson Square and Bunsen Street, and suggests they were one building, whereas today number 26 is different in design and size from number 24.

The choice of lamps, 1886

All of which leaves me to go off and compare the 1884 map with later ones.

And there I thought the story had ended but not so, because Grace’s Guide offered up one little and very personal surprise, which was that Mr. Richard Johnson died at his home in Chislehurst in Kent, a place I knew well, and one where my girlfriend of the time lived.

I followed her north in 1969, which was not the best way to choose a degree course, especially as she returned home three months later.

I stayed and have yet to find way back.  But that is a story for another time.

Location; Didsbury, Manchester

Pictures; The Lamp Belge, from the 1889 sales catalogue of Johnson, Clapham & Morris, courtesy of Barbarella Bonvento, the warehouse of Johnson, Clapham & Morris, from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, Lever Street, 1886, courtesy of Digital Archives Association,  http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

* Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Richard_Johnson,_Clapham_and_Morris?fbclid=IwAR06SdLJWpL2hEwB1-6Dqo1Opshx6DLaQ7sSWSFY9J_yRL7E9fu_WXT30JA

**ibid Grace’s

What did you find in the cellar of Hough End Hall in the summer of 1965?

If you are of a certain age you will probably remember playing in Hough End Hall.

Of course we are talking about the 1960s when the place had long been abandoned as a family home and was yet to become a restaurant.

Back then it was an adventure playground for many of the children roundabout and bit by bit their memories are surfacing of what the Hall was like and what they did there.

Now everyone has their own stories and Ian who would have been about 11 remembered the cellar and what seemed “to be a gigantic set of leather and wooden bellows along with two stone fire places one of which was propped up against the wall and the other resting on the floor.

We tried to get the bellows to work and when that failed wrapped a rope around the tall fireplace and swung from side to side.

There were also big bags of what looked like salt.

And when we tired of the cellar we went on to play in the valleys of the roof.”

Ian is the first to admit that given that it was a long time ago, “my take on what I remember may be different to others, and perhaps the bellows could have been smaller or even larger.”

Either way it is a fascinating glimpse into a period in the Hall’s history which has sat in the shadows for too long.

But more of those memories are now coming to the surface and in time I hope for more.

Location, Hough End Hall, Chorlton, Manchester

Pictures; the Hall in the mid 1960s from the collection of Roger Shelley, https://www.flickr.com/photos/photoroger/

Trolleybus 698 Woolwich-Bexleyheath ….. now that’s a zippy title

Now I have my old friend Richard Woods to thank for igniting memories of trolley buses.

 Tolleybus no. 1768, 2014

He sent over a link to a trip from Woolwich to Bexleyheath in 1959 on Trolleybus 698, which followed on from an equally fascinating home movie about the old, old Woolwich ferry as it crossed the River in 1961.*

Of the two the Ferry will always be more special to me.

Not so the trolley bus which seemed calculated to make me feel very wretched.  

I think it was the mix of heat, that faint smell of disinfectant and the slight whirring noise, which guaranteed to make me feel sick before the end of any journey.

So, I approached TROLLEYBUS 698 Woolwich-Bexleyheath with a bit of trepidation, but was won over by the scenes as it made its almost silent smooth way from the cinema facing the River.

A Manchester rival, 1955

It is a spot I remember well, because a decade later I stood at the same place waiting for a bus to work, and remember that even on summer’s day it could be a miserable place at 6 in the morning, made worse in winter when the rain came off the water and penetrated each layer of clothing.

My Wikipedia tells me that “Trolleybuses served the London Passenger Transport Area from 1931 until 1962. For much of its existence, the London system was the largest in the world. It peaked at 68 routes, with a maximum fleet of 1,811 trolleybuses”.** 

So that is it.  

For some the attraction of the home movie will be the trolley bus, for others the scenery and for anyone born after 1962 perhaps it will the novelty of seeing this thing that looked like a bus with echoes of the tram.

One of my nieces did recently ask me what was a trolley bus?  To which this film does the bit. 

Location; on the trolley bus from Woolwich

Picture; Preserved London Transport Q1 class trolleybus no. 1768, on display at the Regent Street Bus Cavalcade held as part of the Year of the Bus. No. 1768 ran on services in West London between 1948 and 1961. Following its withdrawal, it was retained for preservation. As of 2014, it was owned by the London Transport Museum. June 2014. Author; Bahnfrend. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Manchester Corporation Trolley Bus, 1955, m48371, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  

*TROLLEYBUS 698 Woolwich-Bexleyheath London 1959, YouTube, by Alan Snowdon Archive, https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=old+woolwich+ferry+engine+videos&&view=detail&mid=3DACF91326BDA4A52B813DACF91326BDA4A52B81&rvsmid=37FDE2E288F635F8664937FDE2E288F635F86649&FORM=VDQVAP

**Trolleybuses in London, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybuses_in_London

The lives behind the doors ….. numbers 2-14 St Andrew’s Square

Now, it has become quite popular to take a house and tell its story over time.

St Andrew's Square, 1849

Long before a certain television series did just that with a property in Liverpool, I had done the same for our house in Chorlton, along with the two I grew up in, in south east London, and the home of our Josh and Polly who live in Leicester.

And over the years I have dipped into the history of heaps of houses, including Homer Street and Coronation Square, both of which were in Ancoats and which were developed in the late 1830s.

Back then the area was just beginning to change from what one account described as a place “of fields [where] the waters of the River Medlock which are close by ran pure and sweet and were the home of beautiful trout.” *

Within a generation the fields had been covered with mills, factories, foundries and dye works along with mean terraced housing and the Medlock began its long association with filth and pollution.

The area, 1819

And so to the challenge laid down by Bob and Del Amato to find out about what was there on the site of what is now their business. **

The warehouse of Amato Food Products stands on what was once a row of fourteen terraced houses which faced St Andrew’s Church. 

I can’t be exactly sure when the square was developed, but the church was opened in 1831 but by 1839 the properties show up in the rate books.

Eighteen years earlier according to Johnson’s map of 1819 the area up from the river to the canal was still open land although already it was edged with buildings.

St Andrew's Square, no 2 at the bottom, 2021

But the 14 properties along the southern side of the square were a cut above their neighbours .

The houses consisted of five rooms and they commanded a weekly rent of just over 5 shillings, which is higher than the surrounding streets.

And many of the residents were drawn from the skilled working class, including a railway clerk, a tailor, a dressmaker and a bookkeeper, along with a salesmen, painter and book keeper.

Their origins were as varied as their occupations with a fair few having come from Scotland, Yorkshire and the Lakes, with others from Cheshire as well as Salford.

I could have picked any of the 14 homes but ended choosing no. 2 St Andrew’s Square for no other reason than it was the first in the row as entered the square from St Andrew’s Street.

Today it is the western end of the Amato warehouse, but in 1851 it was home to Mr. and Mrs. Cruickshank, and their five children, Elizabeth, May, Emma William and James.

Mr. Cruickshank was 43 years old, had been born in Manchester and gave his occupation as a Miller.  His wife Hannah was three years younger and was from Salford.  Three of the children were born in Chorlton on Medlock and the youngest in Oldham, and despite the fact that they ranged in age from 20 down to 13, only William who 15 is listed as working.

Looking east along the square, 2021

I doubt that any of them had attended the school at the other end of the square but certainly some of the children from the other houses will have done.  

The school appeared in an earlier blog story but deserves to be revisited.***

What is interesting is that the square does not appear in the street directories until the beginning of this century, by which time our house was occupied by Samuel Boole who was a labourer for Manchester Corporation, his wife Ethel, their five children and Ethel’s mother.  

Like many families of the period, they appear to have moved across the city, and we can track their movement by where their children were born. The eldest of the children was born in Chorlton-on Medlock and the rest in Ancoats.

In time I shall dig deeper into the stories of both the Boole family and the Cruickshank’s, as well  the occupants of the other thirteen houses.

Inside the warehouse, 2021

All of which just leaves me to ponder on what remains may lie below the warehouse.

Location; Ancoats

Pictures; St Andrew’s Square, 2021, courtesy of Angela Wallwork, and St Andrew’s Square in 1849, OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1844-49,  and the area in 1919 from Johnson's map, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Commemorative Booklet, St Andrews Church Ancoats, 1831-1931

** Amato Products Ltd, https://amatoproducts.co.uk/

***Looking for the lost ...... one street over time in Ancoats ..... no 4 the school by Homer Street https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/07/looking-for-lost-one-street-over-time_7.html

Touching home ……… two buses and heaps of Well Hall memories

Sometimes you need nothing more than a picture to create a flood of warm memories.

So here are two from my friend Chrissy Rose who like me grew up in Well Hall.

Both the 161 and the 122 passed outside our house, and all of us used them.

They were the workhorses of our childhood. 

The 161 took us south to the High Street, while the 122 whizzed us down to the Yorkshire Grey and on to Lewisham.

And both went north to Woolwich, offering up views across the Common and then down into the town.

That said it was always the return trip, passing the old Police Station on Shooters Hill and then the descent to the stop just beyond 294 which we called home for 30 years.

So thank you Chrissy, and I invite all of you to share your memories.

To which Chrissy has added "They were so special those old buses my uncle was a conductor at Catford garage , I bet he had a few stories to tell. Imagine now all that smoke on the top deck. I wonder if it's possible to date them by the registration numbers".

Location: somewhere with the 161 and 122.

Pictures; Two Eltham buses, date unknown, from the collection of Chrissy Rose

The photograph, a house on South Meade, and a mystery

I am looking at a picture of a group or workmen outside a house on South Meade and at first glance there doesn’t seem to be anything unusual about what I am looking at.

The men represent a cross section of skills, ages and experience, and may well have posed for similar photographs across Chorltonville.

But I know exactly which house this was and have already begun to discover its history which starts with the simple fact that it has been occupied by only two families in the century and a bit since it was built.

And so, while we will never know the identity of the men staring back at us, we do have the deeds, as well as a collection of documents relating to its construction, which will help tell the story of this particular house.

The first family to move in was Mr. and Mrs. Jones.  In 1939 he described himself as a “Commercial Traveller in the Gas Industry”.

Everyone will find something interesting in the picture, with some focusing on the appearance of the men, the presence of the apprentice boy, and the flat caps and pipes.

The building contractor was Thomas Whiteley and a search might turn up something about the building firm, but I doubt that will extend to a list of employees.

For now, until Laura passes over its history for me to look over, we are left with the photograph of the workmen and the image of the house.

But for now, it is exciting that we are able to pin a group of craftsmen to one house sometime in 1911.

Leaving me just to ponder on Mr. and Mrs. Jones and a mystery which might be answered by those documents.

We shall see.

Location; Chorltonville

Picture; workmen outside South Meade, 1911, courtesy of Laura Hopkins

Special thanks to Laura, who kindly showed me the picture and has promised to lend me the house documents and to Jude who lives next door, and first told me about the picture.

Looking for the lost ...... one street over time in Ancoats ..... no 5 “debris and desolation”

The story of one street in Ancoats, and the people who lived and worked there.*

Ancoats residents, 1920

Now I am a little closer to being able to date the end of Homer Street.

It went in the big slum clearance push in the 1930s when a large chunk of the area around St Andrew’s Church in Ancoats went in matter of a few years.

Homer Street dated from 1837 and so just missed its hundredth birthday

And while some may have mourned its passing I doubt that there were many.

According to the Corporation there were 1,045 properties in the area around St Andrew’s Church of which “990 were occupied dwellings and 47 business premises leaving eight properties either derelict or unoccupied.”**

They were in the words of the Manchester Medical Officer of Health both unfit and “dangerous or injurious to health [and in his opinion were] a clearance area.”

Homer Street, 1894

He added that “in general the dwelling houses were of a similar type throughout the area, all fronting directly on to the streets, which generally speaking were somewhat narrow.  

These were conditions one generally found in the area of this type of small houses; narrow passages and high back yard walls. 

Of the houses 872 fronted into streets 39 feet or less in width, 469 on to streets of 24 feet or less.  The yards in the majority of cases were small and the property in the majority of cases was old.

There were 154 houses over 100 years old, 109 over 90, and 723 over 60 years old.  The density was 79 houses to the acre on net area and 52 to the acre on the gross area.”

Now like many I lived in a small two up two down terraced house in the 1970s and such properties can still be found across the country are still doing the business of keeping people warm, and comfortable and will still have a long life ahead of them.

But these were built at the end of the 19th century and by and large had been well maintained.

Those like the one my grandparents occupied in Hope Street, dated back to the beginning of the 19th century and were past their sell by date by the 1930s, but lingered on into the 60s.

Not so Homer Street or it neighbours, Andrew’s Square, Gees Place, Dryden Street and Marsden Square, all of which had all gone by 1938. The Corporation judged that many were worth less than £50 and “719 in the area were verminous.”

Of course there were objections, ranging from the landlords of some of the properties to those who thought that the replacement homes in Smedley were not suitable, leading one witness to at the inquiry on the clearance plans to describe them as “barracks” adding it was not acceptable to “make the British workman, after he has done his work climb six flights of stairs.”

Back of the demolished school, 1966

Some also questioned the policy of not rebuilding new homes in the area, pointing out that for some the cost of travelling from the new estates in places like Wythenshawe was very expensive.

But the Corporation “had zoned the whole of the area for light industrial purposes” and this was pretty much how it turned out.

The old school on the corner of Homer Street which had been opened in 1836 went, and the site became a sheet metal works while the rest of Homer Street was left as open land finally becoming a bus depot in the 1960s.

That industrial development was slow to come and in the August of 1939 the Reverend A. R. Denn of St Andrew’s wrote to the Manchester Guardian that the cleared area as “a scene of debris and desolation” with “the remains of houses in various stages of demolition.  Some buildings remain standing with broken windows and derelict doors.  

All around one may see the foundations of houses and the remains of door steps and yards, brick bats and odd pieces of stone are strewn about on all sides, whist here and there nature tries to cover up this hideousness with weary looking grass.”***

Adding that it “reminds one of the pictures of Flanders during the last war, and resembles nothing so much as the after-effects of an air raid.”

And while his observations may well have been accurate and echoed many who felt “it was not a square deal for those who have to live and work amid it”, it is worth pausing to reflect on what the Corporation was trying to do.

According to Alderman Jackson that was nothing less than a programme “to tackle about 30,000 houses in Manchester” at a time when the City was still recovering in many ways from the Depression.

There is nothing now to see of Homer Street.

For a while the plan of the streets continues to appear on maps but by 1960 even these have gone.

But nature and commerce abhor a vacuum and the site had undergone new development with the empty and derelict bus depot replaced by a large modern food warehouse.

Location; Ancoats

Pictures; Mothers' Outing, St Andrew’s Church,1920,  m70137, and Sheffield Street back of St Andrew's Church,  Revill and Son Ltd, 1966 Brooks T, m12041 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and Homer Street, 1894, from the OS South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Homer Street, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Homer%20Street

**Ancoats Clearance Order, Manchester Guardian, September 26, 1934

***Debris and Desolation, A.R. Denn, letter to the Manchester Guardian, August 4, 1939

****Amato Food Products, http://www.amatoproducts.co.uk/

Lost scenes of Well Hall

Now this will be the last for a while of pictures of Eltham trams taken from that wonderful book on Eltham and Woolwich Tramways.*

But that said given that there are equally fascinating pictures of Woolwich, Charlton and Lee Green I reckon I will be back.

And one of the reasons is that each of the pictures reveals a lot about how we lived back nearly three quarters of a century ago.

So here is one that will be familiar to many.
We are on the platform of the old Well Hall Station looking down on the parade of shops and taking in the that climb up to the Woods.

It’s a scene I remember very well.

Of course by the time I was making that journey up from the station to 294 Well Hall the trams had long gone but I think the bakery was still there and the scene is not so different today.

That said the last time I looked 24 HOUR MINICABS were now operating from the shop but you can still make out on the side of the building the ghost sign for “Fyson’s Bakery Makers of Daren Bread” which has fared better than the chemist which once occupied the site.**

Or for that matter Daren bread which was a brown loaf popular in the 1930s and 40s which may also have been sold in the old Co-op which is just visible behind the tram.

I missed that Co-op building by a matter of months.  It had opened in 1906 and was demolished in 1964 just as we arrived.

It may still have been there but if so I don’t remember it or its successor being built,

And that is the value of the picture for despite the bits that seem familiar it is a scene which has vanished.

The tram went in the early 50s, the co-op in the 1960s and sadly for me at least the old station two decades later.

Pictures; looking down from Well Hall Station, date unknown, from the collection of E. Course and reproduced from Eltham & Woolwich Tramways, 1996

*Eltham and Woolwich Tramways, Robert J Harley, Middleton Press, 1996, https://www.middletonpress.co.uk

**Ghost signs in Well Hall, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/ghost-signs-in-well-hall.html