The short life of a Chorlton Post Office ….. and the lost Fleming Hall

 It began life shortly after Chorlton’s main Post Office on Wilbraham Road was badly damaged during the Manchester Blitz in December 1940.

Chorlton Post Office,  Manchester Road, 1941-1961

That Post Office had opened in 1905 and did all things posty till the night of December 24th into the early morning of December 25th when enemy action destroyed many properties across the city including here in Chorlton where thirty people were killed.

Just how soon after that event the Post Office took over number 70 Manchester Road is unclear.

Back in 1929 the site had been home to "Meta Manufacturing Co Ltd" and in 1954 the “Sub Post Office and MO Office” shared the site with “Liner Concrete Machinery Co Ltd service depot”.

But in 1961 we had a brand-new Post Office very close to the original 1905 building, and I guess soon after the temporary Manchester Road premise was vacated.  Just when that will be down to trawling the street directories for the years after 1961.

Chorlton Post Office, Wilbraham Road, 1905-1940

So, a short history but one that still plays a prominent part in some Chorlton people’s memories and perhaps this story will bring forth more accounts of the place.

And in conversations with friends I discovered more about the bomb-damaged Post Office.  For a short while in the 1950s into the 60s, it fronted the Fleming Hall, which was the centre of the local Conservative Party.  This was a bit of our recent past and I am indebted to my old friends and fellow historian Lawrence Beedle who told me it was named after Edward Fleming 1891 - 1950. He was the Tory MP for Withington Constituency 1945 - 1950. He then stood for Moss Side when the boundaries were redrawn and Chorlton was put in that Constituency.

Fleming Hall, Wilbraham Road, 1950?-1963?

It’s the 1950 General Election and sadly Mr.Fleming died on the 17th February during the campaign. I think he took a turn for the worse at his sister’s house on High Lane. Anyway, polling was immediately suspended by all the local parties. The Tories went on to win the General with Winston Churchill.

Moss Side Constituency voted two weeks later and elected Florence Horsborough. She’d lost in Midlothian and Peebles but got another crack at obtaining a seat. Manchester’s first woman MP, first woman in a Conservative cabinet".**

Chorlton Post Office, Wilbraham Road, 1961

Other friends have also shared their recollections of the hall which I wrote about in a series of posts and are available by following the link.***

And that is it.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, East Side: Corner of Keppel Road and Manchester Road, looking southeast, showing Chorlton Post Office (No. 70) 1958, m11798, former Post Office, Wilbraham Road, 1959, A.E.Landers, m18242, and in 1961, m18511, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the Post Office in 1907 from the Lloyd Collection

*Kelly's Directory of Manchester & Salford, 1929 & 1954

** Lawrence Beedle

***Fleming Hall, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=fleming+hall