tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25552211184284062092024-03-19T09:00:36.682+00:00Andrew SimpsonStories, people and eventsAndrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.comBlogger9099125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-80651055907760584172024-03-19T03:31:00.001+00:002024-03-19T03:31:00.120+00:00A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 8 ....... a railway ticket circa 1920<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbebbPifvJS9QBUO_eGhQf8UQFVMrlI0uw7HQnmtkr8apAXClv7zpun8Wk_PAqQXar0-dg4ij8_xYWnlVqQc3FNglG9-63SlMhyKufFzqs0nPk5eEkLHL7UX5Jl5sJN1rSWTMR-AopGrOy/s1600/Railway+ticket+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="659" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbebbPifvJS9QBUO_eGhQf8UQFVMrlI0uw7HQnmtkr8apAXClv7zpun8Wk_PAqQXar0-dg4ij8_xYWnlVqQc3FNglG9-63SlMhyKufFzqs0nPk5eEkLHL7UX5Jl5sJN1rSWTMR-AopGrOy/s400/Railway+ticket+copy.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The railway had come to Chorlton in 1880, and provided a quick service into the heart of the city. It took just seven minutes to travel from Chorlton into Manchester and was one of the factors which helped the development of new Chorlton allowing people to work in the commercial heart of the city but live within a few minute’s walk of the countryside. I can’t tell you when the ticket was issued but I think it must have been between 1892 and 1947. I can be fairly certain because the Fallowfield Loop line to Fallowfield and Guide Bridge was opened in 1892 and the Cheshire Lines Committee or CLC which ran the lines out of Central Station through Chorlton ceased in 1947 when the railways were nationalized. Had we travelled on that ticket it would have taken us just seven minutes to get to Fallowfield, passing through Wilbraham Road station. And had we elected to go all the way to Guide Bridge we would have been on the train for just 22 minutes having passed through Levenshulme, Hyde Road and Fairfield, but our ticket was only valid for Fallowfield so I suppose that was where we would alighted.<br />
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Picture; <i>from the Lloyd collection</i></div>
Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-73410325476252727662024-03-19T03:30:00.003+00:002024-03-19T03:30:00.138+00:00The grimy ones ........ our River<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitjEIlpAom3lP4bDt6q5rTbgtjlEROB1YTtlaHFMus1sICXNWX913_y4FrMdsCZfH-fBzxp6mP9awHtDXGfQvTpilw__7bbs2GTPvysZHNoxr8OyNee6KYHytSYQOlJo9q-VHpfomxbGA/s1600/img251+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1094" data-original-width="1600" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitjEIlpAom3lP4bDt6q5rTbgtjlEROB1YTtlaHFMus1sICXNWX913_y4FrMdsCZfH-fBzxp6mP9awHtDXGfQvTpilw__7bbs2GTPvysZHNoxr8OyNee6KYHytSYQOlJo9q-VHpfomxbGA/s400/img251+copy.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>Now here is another of those short series taken from the family archive.</i><br />
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All were taken around 1979 and offer up scenes of the River which we knew but most tourists seldom saw.<br />
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Location; the River<br />
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Pictures; <i>the River, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson</i></div>
Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-37940286409325009232024-03-19T03:30:00.001+00:002024-03-19T03:30:00.138+00:00Piccadilly Gardens ....... the early years nu 2 trenches in Piccadilly<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking across to the site of the MRI sometime after 1911</td></tr>
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<i>Now Piccadilly Gardens continues to excite a wealth of feelings from those who miss the old sunken gardens and have no love for that concrete slab to those who dwell on the seedy last days of the old park and point out that in these cost cutting days the present space is pretty low maintenance.</i><br />
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Of course before 1914 there were no gardens just the site of the Royal Infirmary which when it was demolished left a debate on what to do with the site.<br />
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It took a few years before the Corporation decided that this was a perfect place for a park in one of the busiest parts of the city.<br />
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This much I knew but what I didn’t know was that in the June of 1917 according to the Manchester Evening News the Red Cross “<i>found a practical use for the old Infirmary site in Piccadilly</i> ....[turning] <i>it into a miniature sector of the Western Front.</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Manchester Evening News, June 1917</td></tr>
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<i>The front line trenches and their equipment are said to be perfect in every detail. There are grim touches of realism here and there, - like the torn and tattered heap of clothing nearthe terrible barbed wire entanglements to represent a dead Boche. Some rare and valuable war relics may also be seen, including some fine specimens of enemy guns.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><i>With infinite labour the trench diggers who were the convalescent soldiers from Heaton Park, have passed right through the heavy masonry and substantial brickwork of the old Infirmary foundations.”</i><br />
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There is no record of what the <i>"convalescent soldiers from Heaton Park"</i> thought of the task and I have yet to dig deeper to discover what the public made of the <i>“miniature sector of the Western Front”</i> in the heart of the city.<br />
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But once they had explored the trenches they could go on to visit the adjoining museum which <i>“was wonderfully interesting.”</i><br />
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All of which just begs the question of why the display was produced.<br />
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Given that it had been produced by the Special Effects Committee of the East Lancashire branch of the Red Cross I suspect that along with its propaganda value it was linked to the organisation’s campaign for volunteers and funds.<br />
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I do know that <span style="color: yellow;">Heaton Par</span><span style="color: yellow;">k</span><span style="color: yellow;"> </span>had had its on set of trenches which were open to the public and no doubt so did other parts of the country.<br />
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Pictures; <i>the site of the Infirmary, date unknown from the collection of Rita Bishop and Trenches in Piccadilly ............ a New Use for the Old Infirmary Site June 1917, the Manchester Evening News from Sally Dervan</i><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-68657329295820956742024-03-18T03:32:00.004+00:002024-03-18T07:48:57.434+00:00A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 7 ....... a plough 1894<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.</i><br />
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This was the last time the land opposite our house went under the plough. The year is probably 1894 and the field was Row Acre. I can be pretty sure that the chap at the plough was Alfred Higginbotham whose family had farmed here since the 1840s. Row Acre stretched down from Cross Road to what is now Acres Road and was divided into strips. Along with the Higginbotham’s parts of Row Acre were farmed by the Bailey family, Thomas White and John Brundrett, and perfectly echoed the medieval idea of a community each working a strip of land. And of course the plough reminds us that we were a farming community. The image was originally dated 1896 but that was the year the Rec was opened, so I think we can push the date back by two years<br />
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Picture; <i>Ploughing Row Acre before it became the Recreation Ground, 1894 from the collection of William Higginbotham</i><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-83792985802857406622024-03-18T03:01:00.001+00:002024-03-18T03:01:00.123+00:00Painting Well Hall and Eltham ....... Nu 4 our house on Well Hall Road<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>An occasional series featuring buildings and places I like and painted by Peter Topping.</i><br />
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Now there had to come a time when I decided my bit of Well Hall Road should be recorded.<br />
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It came out of a conversation with Peter about the house two doors down which had been bombed in the Great War.<br />
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Tricia Lesley discovered the original war time photograph, Daniel Murphy tracked down its location to the same block where I grew up and with Tricia’s help we uncovered the full story.<br />
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All of which I have<a href="http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Zeppelins%20over%20Well%20Hall"> <span style="color: yellow;">written about</span></a><span style="color: yellow;">*</span> and with that all done I asked Peter to paint the house knowing that in doing so our house would get a look in.<br />
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But modest as I am I was content that part of it would be obscured behind that small tree.<br />
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Back in the 1960s when we moved in to 294 the spot was dominated by a tall oak tree which I guess had been planted when the estate was built.<br />
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It pretty much hid our house completely and in the fullness of time will do so again, but for now that's my old bedroom very much as I remember it and that will do for me.<br />
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Painting; <i>294 Well Hall Road, © 2015 Peter Topping </i><br />
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Web:<a href="http://www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk/"> <span style="color: yellow;">www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk</span></a><br />
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Facebook: Paintings from Pictures <a href="https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures"><span style="color: yellow;">https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures</span></a><br />
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<span id="goog_494884677"></span><span id="goog_494884678"></span>*<b>Zeppelins over Well Hall,</b><br />
<a href="http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Zeppelins%20over%20Well%20Hall"><span style="color: yellow;">http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Zeppelins%20over%20Well%20Hall</span></a><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-31414889279279410792024-03-18T03:00:00.001+00:002024-03-18T03:00:00.134+00:00 “a true representation of the present state of Manchester” …… September 1907<p><i>This representation of Manchester I like</i>.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oJDlQcDllCUfy8i7yGhd3y741_olFt0jUj7iCfFHI8tVMw_p4__oe1HHhXqGBmBuDzlHu1BLK-eeQ71yGXaLFx7WuUR1CpGv_N6Hb2bRBsNxj_KM-6yPLIULVzCzZ64oWdrjiy03olpEx02Zchu9kQfwDjGonQxUKcdbm51OrIdkM5xMO6v0LfakbA/s1854/327445927_1151241398916499_5819350615239619089_ncropadjuster.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1172" data-original-width="1854" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oJDlQcDllCUfy8i7yGhd3y741_olFt0jUj7iCfFHI8tVMw_p4__oe1HHhXqGBmBuDzlHu1BLK-eeQ71yGXaLFx7WuUR1CpGv_N6Hb2bRBsNxj_KM-6yPLIULVzCzZ64oWdrjiy03olpEx02Zchu9kQfwDjGonQxUKcdbm51OrIdkM5xMO6v0LfakbA/w400-h253/327445927_1151241398916499_5819350615239619089_ncropadjuster.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>And I guess it is the one countless people have had of our city stretching back to the time when the first smoky factory chimneys rose from the ground and helped coin that description of Manchester as the <i>“shock city of the Industrial Revolution”</i>.*<p></p><p>Certainly it chimed with an H. R., who wrote <i>"I hereby present to you Sept 14. 07 with a true representation of the present state of M/C, as it is presented to our eyes, by night. </i></p><p><i>Isn’t it really Beautiful? Doesn’t it look a healthy place to live in?”</i></p><p>He/she was writing to a Mrs. McKeilty in Ballynahinch which <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballynahinch,_County_Down"><span style="color: #fcff01;">my Wikipedia tells me</span></a> is <i>"is small town. On Census day (27 March 2011) there were 5,703 people living in Ballynahinch (2,326 households), accounting for 0.31% of the Northern Ireland total and representing an increase of 6.3% on the Census 2001 figure of 5,363."**</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVz6Smy7JVtlOetle04dgGRta2Sf0E56ngeYbRxrJzGyHTAbbsRyNCG3YOt7MZt0dk9n8t3POG6NqL1_Q0b5lSie8lNDWNoYugNaWRWuaDvpZKydurrG79kVqbLHfOFTMTveO0e0QdLWcx_6ZT3PvvmLBw2pt6OKvmy3PEjio4ob0cih6bcjhibUVsUQ/s1667/Untitled.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1397" data-original-width="1667" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVz6Smy7JVtlOetle04dgGRta2Sf0E56ngeYbRxrJzGyHTAbbsRyNCG3YOt7MZt0dk9n8t3POG6NqL1_Q0b5lSie8lNDWNoYugNaWRWuaDvpZKydurrG79kVqbLHfOFTMTveO0e0QdLWcx_6ZT3PvvmLBw2pt6OKvmy3PEjio4ob0cih6bcjhibUVsUQ/w400-h335/Untitled.png" width="400" /></a></div>Which I rather think would make it smaller than Gorton where H.R. was living in 1907 at 28 Jackson Street.<p></p><p>Reading the rest of the message I think he/she was from Ballynahinch and so the contrast with Manchester must have been very striking.</p><p>The card was published by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicus"><span style="color: #fcff01;">The Cynicus Publishing Company</span></a> of Fife and was established by Martin Anderson, who according to one source was <i>“better known by his pseudonym Cynicus, was a Scottish artist, political illustrator and publisher”.</i>***</p><p>His early working life involved producing illustrations for a variety of publications, before setting up in his own business in London in 1891, and from there setting up a postcard company publishing his own designs in 1902.</p><p>After a promising start his business like many suffered from a fall in the popularity of such picture postcard and the company went into liquidation with his stocks of prints and original work were sold for a fraction of their real worth.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikHR7SKCTQTIFRiVfPjtJUFawwrEriEyQF85QhSOVSWk_iWOaIyoM_W1iLKTcp5EO36LpsZ8UPGCvgrEl7Uuv2kQahUdtqGFU4SllbP2FpSJjvs-d4xpKP-PE9qKkI-wgqvM8ekFYUEYnWyYHmztNRyaNcWFlrtJJwm5n36wxHy8VfNr2b_1iaBPRkew/s1434/327357796_1008797263601742_4026502730728603673_n%20crop1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1434" data-original-width="1229" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikHR7SKCTQTIFRiVfPjtJUFawwrEriEyQF85QhSOVSWk_iWOaIyoM_W1iLKTcp5EO36LpsZ8UPGCvgrEl7Uuv2kQahUdtqGFU4SllbP2FpSJjvs-d4xpKP-PE9qKkI-wgqvM8ekFYUEYnWyYHmztNRyaNcWFlrtJJwm5n36wxHy8VfNr2b_1iaBPRkew/w343-h400/327357796_1008797263601742_4026502730728603673_n%20crop1.jpg" width="343" /></a></div>A further attempt at a similar business also met with failure when the market for seaside picture postcards declined with the outbreak of the Great War.<p></p><p>Mr. Martin produced a series of anti-war posters and cards, which got him into trouble with the authorities. </p><p><i>“In 1924 his Edinburgh shop was destroyed by fire, everything inside it was lost, and he did not have the funds to repair and restock it. </i></p><p><i>He retired to his castle-like mansion in Balmullo to live in increasing poverty. A final edition of The Satires of Cynicus was published in 1926.”</i>***</p><p>He died in 1932, and was buried in an unmarked grave, without a tombstone, and the final indignity was that his home was extensively vandalised after his death.</p><p>Leaving me just to say I am a great fan of his work which I <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-last-car-from-woolwich-manchester.html"><span style="color: #fcff01;">have written about on the blog</span></a>.****</p><p>Location; Manchester in 1907</p><p>Picture; <i>Lovely Manchester, 19907, from the collection of David Harrop</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzy067zxXi19iA2NssESEj-zhdf3HuqDsWQS6CIC4uyvvSTb7ztCoB-2CtNEdbQyNPABJkASh4YRx3ooXyCvKxLnUbjkHJTXcf15pnxfqiKnhd9olH4YQO_-y4n9IlR89ulzijwGx74dKgUSBPGQcUKbhgM5S35m_dgZtW0Vk5CXPsVkfELuPTJsWUQ/s1166/327445927_1151241398916499_5819350615239619089_ncropadjuster3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1166" data-original-width="1094" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzy067zxXi19iA2NssESEj-zhdf3HuqDsWQS6CIC4uyvvSTb7ztCoB-2CtNEdbQyNPABJkASh4YRx3ooXyCvKxLnUbjkHJTXcf15pnxfqiKnhd9olH4YQO_-y4n9IlR89ulzijwGx74dKgUSBPGQcUKbhgM5S35m_dgZtW0Vk5CXPsVkfELuPTJsWUQ/w375-h400/327445927_1151241398916499_5819350615239619089_ncropadjuster3.jpg" width="375" /></a></div>*Briggs Asa, Victorian Cities, 1968<p></p><p>** Ballynahinch, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballynahinch,_County_Down"><span style="color: #fcff01;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballynahinch,_County_Down</span></a></p><p>*** Cynicus, Wikipedia, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicus"><span style="color: #fcff01;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicus</span></a></p><p>****The Last Car from Woolwich ..... Manchester .... Rouken Glen and pretty much everywhere ……. the story with a sad ending, <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-last-car-from-woolwich-manchester.html"><span style="color: #fcff01;">https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-last-car-from-woolwich-manchester.html</span></a></p><div><br /></div>Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-76011701872876289832024-03-17T03:31:00.001+00:002024-03-17T03:31:00.124+00:00A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 6 .... three concrete stumps 1959<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpJNEEsfGOgvRsvLQ0w15_7rz_s_Y2LKQYk2K6BHuWXdkQsV0_bi2QrhWv7kRAqZdW0M2qMLVrcgKBcPNbUURBGtBkI8nmVG2PnkDMB7MfYXG9Uhqr-sWOITdXJD1VQwfOL4XwVZE7zp6N/s1600/613+m18423+1959+Landers+A+E.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpJNEEsfGOgvRsvLQ0w15_7rz_s_Y2LKQYk2K6BHuWXdkQsV0_bi2QrhWv7kRAqZdW0M2qMLVrcgKBcPNbUURBGtBkI8nmVG2PnkDMB7MfYXG9Uhqr-sWOITdXJD1VQwfOL4XwVZE7zp6N/s400/613+m18423+1959+Landers+A+E.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.</i><br />
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They are gone now but for almost all of the time I have lived in Chorlton, there were three concrete stumps on Wilbraham Road outside what is now the takeaway burger outlet. At some point when part of the building was the pottery studio they had been decorated with colourful tiles but I have to confess I thought little about them. Only once did I ponder on whether they had been the base for petrol pumps which of course was what they were for here was Wilbraham Garage. It wasn’t the first in Chorlton, that was probably Shaw’s on Barlow Moor Road but still it is an indication of how far the motor car had taken over. The three stumps supported four pumps which stood in front of the shop and garage and like Shaw’s were in a row of conventional shops and houses.<br />
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Picture; Wilbraham Road,<i>, A E Landers, 1959, M18423, </i>courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives,
Manchester City Council,<a href="http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass"> <span style="color: yellow;">http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass</span></a><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-90250983045808514942024-03-17T03:30:00.001+00:002024-03-17T07:31:37.868+00:00A lost Eltham Palace nu 1 ................ The Banqueting Hall<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMB0H5HyV_VbpfmrO7DDmHb3_oY_jM7YUFNzBZhiQebfg63PuuRdLr5wwdk_4X697aWwqQTf7td-pDanIdWf190Ut3-xe8wa56Z9-eyewpVQHFNetHBI7JShAIhZMhiYcpO6yocae0NjMx/s1600/gpic010.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMB0H5HyV_VbpfmrO7DDmHb3_oY_jM7YUFNzBZhiQebfg63PuuRdLr5wwdk_4X697aWwqQTf7td-pDanIdWf190Ut3-xe8wa56Z9-eyewpVQHFNetHBI7JShAIhZMhiYcpO6yocae0NjMx/s1600/gpic010.jpg" width="272" /></a></div>
<i>Now I have decided to run a few pictures of what Eltham Palace looked like in the 18th and 19th centuries.</i><br />
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It had long been abandoned as a home for royalty and its grand days were a thing of the past.<br />
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The occasional tourist up from London called in along with an interested artist keen to capture its former splendour but that was about it.<br />
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All very different from now, and a prelude to more <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Eltham%20Palace"><span style="color: yellow;">stories</span></a> of the building and its history.*<br />
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But in the meantime here then over the next few days are the Palace as you might have seen it during the early 19th century, all taken from that wonderful <span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm"><span style="color: yellow;">book</span></a> </span>on the history of Eltham published in 1909.**<br />
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Location; Eltham, London<br />
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Picture; T<i>he Banqueting Hall used as a stables from an old engraving, from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, </i><a href="http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm"><span style="color: yellow;">h</span><span style="color: yellow;">ttp://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm</span></a><br />
<br />
*The Story of Eltham Palace, <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Eltham%20Palace"><span style="color: #fcff01;">https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Eltham%20Palace</span></a><br />
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** The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, <a href="http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm"><span style="color: yellow;">http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm</span></a><br />
<span style="color: yellow;"><br /></span>
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-88389813197381139702024-03-17T03:00:00.001+00:002024-03-17T03:00:00.123+00:00The woman in a shawl at the foot of Oliver Cromwell in the summer of 1914<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>It’s the last of my Judge postcards. </i><br />
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Like the others in the series which Fred Judge took in the summer of 1914 it has much going for it not least because it isn’t the standard view.<br />
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Instead we have the statue of Oliver Cromwell matched by the Cathedral behind and balanced by the building to our extreme right.<br />
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But for me it is also the figures he has captured sitting on the steps. <br />
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There is the mixed group of boys including one in school uniform and beside him what might be a paper seller and the others, two of whom are engaged in a game.<br />
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And there is the woman in the shawl not at all interested in the camera deep in thought or perhaps listening to the chap next to her. <br />
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She is interesting because you rarely see women in shawls in post cards of the period. <br />
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They were there in the city and were often the subject of pictures taken on the poorer streets.<br />
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She makes a fitting contrast to the more elegant woman with their fine hats and expensive looking clothes off in the distance.<br />
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I wish I knew more about her, or for that matter the group standing by the tram, which is heading up to Market Street.<br />
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I can’t be sure but I rather think it is a Sunday sometime in the summer, partly because this is from the same series of pictures Fred Judge took around Manchester and may well be the next after the one on Cross Street.<br />
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In his photograph of Albert Square from Cross Street the time is just before three in the afternoon and here beside Oliver Cromwell the Cathedral clock is just coming up to a quarter to four.<br />
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Which was just enough time for him to stroll down and set up here.<br />
The crowd by and large are oblivious to his presence and just get on with the day, some no doubt heading on to Bell Vue which is the final destination of our tram.<br />
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Picture; <i>from the collection of V & G Harris</i><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-91377644093772950722024-03-16T03:30:00.004+00:002024-03-16T08:40:49.368+00:00“Influenza is still spreading in Manchester and the death rate is high”*......... stories behind the book nu 21<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>An <a href="http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War"><span style="color: yellow;">occasional series</span></a> on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War**</i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtpl6njyIEEN82eo91virHdZ3ih6IYSB0YILBrqc1LjvJ8iT19_Y2KEDGbztbfiQyESdUyP2XFPKc_Q5dIFKYcH6s-fgBOUtthwY0_L6z9J70j_eRr3ptg6IeG2GZy6E4M9njRWpT8H-zA/s1600/Flu+1.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtpl6njyIEEN82eo91virHdZ3ih6IYSB0YILBrqc1LjvJ8iT19_Y2KEDGbztbfiQyESdUyP2XFPKc_Q5dIFKYcH6s-fgBOUtthwY0_L6z9J70j_eRr3ptg6IeG2GZy6E4M9njRWpT8H-zA/s400/Flu+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All deaths in Manchester, November 1918</td></tr>
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Now however you play with the figures the flu epidemic of 1918 was an awful event.<br />
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It had begun in the summer, returned later in the autumn, and impacted on industry and commerce, briefly disrupting the tram service and leading to a closure of all Manchester schools on November 30.***<br />
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And despite the medical authorities concluding that the outbreak was <i>“reaching the culminating point”</i> and anticipating a decline from the start of December, they called for the closure of all Sunday schools and recommended that children under fourteen should be barred from cinemas and theatres.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlEqYIYbKPCuZN5BPnYxe2w-irEsJSWD5yaZedUs5xesYCjLPf3_NSNfMVcWvp2xgeJYLHP2EehTsWxwYOJto1GcEwohuelL988VhwPpvR006cLMY2w3ldUB02BruyQKkiFr4Y9DT3ywJ/s1600/Flu+2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlEqYIYbKPCuZN5BPnYxe2w-irEsJSWD5yaZedUs5xesYCjLPf3_NSNfMVcWvp2xgeJYLHP2EehTsWxwYOJto1GcEwohuelL988VhwPpvR006cLMY2w3ldUB02BruyQKkiFr4Y9DT3ywJ/s400/Flu+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manchester flu deaths as a % of all deaths in November 1918</td></tr>
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A wise precaution given that the death toll had risen through November from 81 at the end of the first week up to 297 by November 23, which is shocking enough but is more so when expressed as a % of total deaths. At the beginning of the month deaths from flu had amounted to 32% of all recorded deaths but by the fourth week that figure had climbed to 53%.<br />
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According to one newspaper the mortuaries were full, undertakers couldn’t keep pace with the orders and at the cemeteries the labour available for grave digging had proved quite inadequate.<br />
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This had led to efforts to release skilled coffin makers from the army and a call for <i>“greater simplicity in funeral arrangements and a more extensive use of the crematorium.”</i><br />
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And as ever there were those who were swift to make money from the crisis and those who sought easy explanations for its appearance.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Tv_MedFITvGToGCtc5JZmw1acDXBZlNqOte4sdaOXb1Dcr5aa314G7JxnF0pnr_yS16Pur6-oo0oMGTTUy7L08CmozzD10Z-UN28ZfozWZlxeLV91MA_LWFKKB0sqxf1FYPgnP3_jEPz/s1600/Flu.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Tv_MedFITvGToGCtc5JZmw1acDXBZlNqOte4sdaOXb1Dcr5aa314G7JxnF0pnr_yS16Pur6-oo0oMGTTUy7L08CmozzD10Z-UN28ZfozWZlxeLV91MA_LWFKKB0sqxf1FYPgnP3_jEPz/s400/Flu.jpg" width="348" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fight the Flu, 1918</td></tr>
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So the firm Genatosan Ltd offered up their <i>“Germ Killing Throat Tablet”</i> which would ensure <i>“you will be safe from Spanish Influenza and other epidemics". </i><br />
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It was endorsed by Lady Manns, Lady Jane Joicey-Cecil and Mr Matheson Lang who was ordered by his doctors to take the tablet Formamint which <i>“gave me great relief.”</i>****<br />
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It was a set of recommendations bettered only by Lady Firbank who added that “<i>Formamint tablets have completely cured my throat which owing to Influenza has been left weak and painful.”</i><br />
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But perhaps we shouldn’t be over harsh on the makers of Formamint for offering their tablet as a remedy given that at least some thought that there might a link between the outbreak and arrival of American troops who landed shortly before the epidemic began.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Or for that matter the musings of a former US President that bleach might be an effective defence against Covid.<br />
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Location, Manchester<br />
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Picture; <i>Fight the Flu with Formamint, advert, 1918</i><br />
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*<b>Manchester Influenza A High death Rate</b>, Manchester Guardian, November 9, 1918<br />
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**<b>A new book on Manchester and the Great War, </b><a href="http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War"><span style="color: yellow;">http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War</span></a><br />
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***<b>Influenza, Epidemic at its height in Manchester</b>, Manchester Guardian, November 30, 1918<br />
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****<b>Fight the Flu, advert,</b> Manchester Guardian, August 15, 1918<br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-90175174367751868792024-03-16T03:30:00.001+00:002024-03-16T03:30:00.127+00:00A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 5........ a street fire alarm 1958<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7yiUvjxPWB-sapKRNvnBbf5Gw95SiAUdUHnkh8UhCy8G6QqxFHXT2QKqomy8QBkmrSEr3kyZ71U-KpUiVihnTIyeikurLZluFDDNKdw3R1ab9T4-vpc81tXGBNxPhq-L1vpn8rcfxbcxk/s1600/Fiare+alrm+Manchester+Road+Downes+A+H+Nov+1+1958+m17988.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7yiUvjxPWB-sapKRNvnBbf5Gw95SiAUdUHnkh8UhCy8G6QqxFHXT2QKqomy8QBkmrSEr3kyZ71U-KpUiVihnTIyeikurLZluFDDNKdw3R1ab9T4-vpc81tXGBNxPhq-L1vpn8rcfxbcxk/s400/Fiare+alrm+Manchester+Road+Downes+A+H+Nov+1+1958+m17988.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.</i><br />
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In an age before we all had telephones it was necessary to be able to call the fire brigade. Back in the 1880s there was a dedicated phone in the Lloyds Hotel. Later still we got these. This was one outside the Gaumont/Savoy cinema on Manchester Road. There was another on the corner of Manchester Road and High Lane outside Oban House.<br />
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Picture; <i>Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, A H Downes, November 1st 1958, M17988, <a href="http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass"><span style="color: #fcff01;">http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass</span></a></i></div>
Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-37446305213898282702024-03-16T03:00:00.003+00:002024-03-16T03:00:00.128+00:00In St Ann’s Square with the Rotary Photo Company …… sometime in the early 20th century<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i>
Now if you wanted proof that St Ann’s Square has always been a busy and fussy place, the evidence is here in this picture postcard.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPm0k-D-iHqPRptKFUWlp9RlWF95sI5sTHUbGl656BWgLenjN79QBK_SVEBcAJH3UkMWgBUjyAGc66Fo5l7BpWnv2tOliebO4CVCk0ID4ubeggdgT5QqNjAvGgv82koNmROotMC0ema1LX/s1600/St+Anns+Square.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1012" data-original-width="1600" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPm0k-D-iHqPRptKFUWlp9RlWF95sI5sTHUbGl656BWgLenjN79QBK_SVEBcAJH3UkMWgBUjyAGc66Fo5l7BpWnv2tOliebO4CVCk0ID4ubeggdgT5QqNjAvGgv82koNmROotMC0ema1LX/s400/St+Anns+Square.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
I don’t have a date, but I am guessing we are sometime in the early 20th century, and a bit of detective work using the names of the shops and street directories will get close to when the picture was taken.<br />
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Everyone will pick up on some different bit of the picture, from the line of taxis and the cabby’s hut, to the throng of people parading through the square and that female cyclist.<br />
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And then there is another story around the company who published the picture postcard.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ruPewqMLSU_ufzyijHT3_4YCMjkl88XM41BxuR6oqRWrLMj6GpPEiR1udE_fLbqiNRVU2Y6GkVRzdEJbaAryrc3SjslO9z1VLHbnhnLyFOZicB3Xk6EoVqOiOjtCtPgnK9e2X0qSqRn3/s1600/St+Anns+Square+crop.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1278" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ruPewqMLSU_ufzyijHT3_4YCMjkl88XM41BxuR6oqRWrLMj6GpPEiR1udE_fLbqiNRVU2Y6GkVRzdEJbaAryrc3SjslO9z1VLHbnhnLyFOZicB3Xk6EoVqOiOjtCtPgnK9e2X0qSqRn3/s400/St+Anns+Square+crop.jpg" width="318" /></a></div>
I had causally thought that Rotary Photo, EC were a Manchester firm, but not so.<br />
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According to that excellent site, <a href="https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Rotary_Photographic_Co"><span style="color: yellow;">Graces Guide to British Industrial History</span></a>, they were a London business with offices at 23 Moorfields London, with works at West Drayton.<br />
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They were established in 1901, as The Rotary Photographic Co and <i>“was a huge publisher of real photo postcards. </i><br />
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<i>One of their unique novelty postcards was a 1¾ inch x 5½ inch (4.4cm x 13.9cm) photo series of bookmark cards. Most seem to have been posted in the 1903-04 period".</i><br />
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Later in the century they amalgamated with other photographic companies and were still in business in 1947.<br />
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Location; St Ann’s Square<br />
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Picture; <i>St Ann’s Square, date unknown, courtesy of Steve</i><br />
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*<b>Graces Guide to British Industrial History,</b> <a href="https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Rotary_Photographic_Co"><span style="color: yellow;">https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Rotary_Photographic_Co</span></a><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-62696796897600867192024-03-16T03:00:00.001+00:002024-03-16T03:00:00.129+00:00Painting Well Hall and Eltham ....... nu 2 the Greyhound<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>An occasional series featuring buildings and places I like and painted by Peter Topping.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4oSUtypJlp12hGuJxnUGEfm4XuR_LYxRiYjycp3z7EVSD6JyAdTaoYqCSwm3BzM02qhet80IkRHCboO7KbOYg0vV9kqs0wfx8jFhOvg-dOqTS6bWRuodLRAJXVen2UjA4Lcq9jBDZz7R-/s1600/11910616_10206238886723918_1795574652_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4oSUtypJlp12hGuJxnUGEfm4XuR_LYxRiYjycp3z7EVSD6JyAdTaoYqCSwm3BzM02qhet80IkRHCboO7KbOYg0vV9kqs0wfx8jFhOvg-dOqTS6bWRuodLRAJXVen2UjA4Lcq9jBDZz7R-/s400/11910616_10206238886723918_1795574652_n.jpg" width="302" /></a></div>
I always remember this as the Greyhound and it will have been one of the first pubs I went into when I was old enough and so I asked Peter to paint it using a photograph taken by Chrissy Rose.<br />
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Peter and I have been working together on projects for almost a decade including two books and an 80 meter installation along with various smaller displays and plenty of commissions. <br />
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And next time I am home I might book to eat in the restaurant.<br />
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Location; Eltham, London<br />
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Painting; <i>Ye old Greyhound © 2015 Peter Topping from a photograph by Chrissy Rose 2014</i><br />
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Web:<span style="color: yellow;"> <i>www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk</i></span><br />
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Facebook: Paintings from Pictures <i><span style="color: yellow;">https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures</span></i><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-49465330880219121522024-03-15T03:31:00.001+00:002024-03-15T03:31:00.130+00:00A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 4........ a brick circa 1830<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAunJvr8i2VN5_-A2XKpdbypcfjyUEM5v1RCfAYRWZmfMEo4vgjDFcSEWFFnCjEG8prvJt_p51zfdAGW62hZqH3zJZpm-LCG8SpJyr8KJDUf8bHU5c2FdudcVj_UIY3rDRMPJWemsXWbto/s1600/A+brick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAunJvr8i2VN5_-A2XKpdbypcfjyUEM5v1RCfAYRWZmfMEo4vgjDFcSEWFFnCjEG8prvJt_p51zfdAGW62hZqH3zJZpm-LCG8SpJyr8KJDUf8bHU5c2FdudcVj_UIY3rDRMPJWemsXWbto/s320/A+brick.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.</i><br />
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As bricks go I do not think it looks very remarkable but then I suppose like most of us they are not things I tend to think much about. But this one has a story. The clay from which it was made may have come from just north of the village where clay and marl have been dug since at least the 17th century and it was part of a fine house which was probably built sometime between 1830 and 41. The families who lived in it were comfortably well off and were important enough to have been listed in the local directories. But like all but two from the same period it was demolished and we lost a link with our past.<br />
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Picture; <i>from the collection of Andrew Simpson</i><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-91266409958681269052024-03-15T03:30:00.001+00:002024-03-15T03:30:00.121+00:00Painting Well Hall and Eltham ....... nu 1 the Library<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>An occasional series featuring buildings and places I like and painted by Peter Topping.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaCtSIPDaIeLAKfnF9YRmT1wUgyCouzs60AqwFhlGRpc7XBmbNFDY4kUdNtlo-iQD_QVJKl68HJB30II9YXzyuoQDhZJSOTMxgl9ceB51K6Hb0NuY6Wkf1loYXI4bafGFg0whPE8JlQx0R/s1600/11911939_10206236529024977_353390006_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaCtSIPDaIeLAKfnF9YRmT1wUgyCouzs60AqwFhlGRpc7XBmbNFDY4kUdNtlo-iQD_QVJKl68HJB30II9YXzyuoQDhZJSOTMxgl9ceB51K6Hb0NuY6Wkf1loYXI4bafGFg0whPE8JlQx0R/s400/11911939_10206236529024977_353390006_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Like many in Eltham I continue to remember the library with great fondness. It was a place I used a lot, borrowing books and records from its collection and spending hours in the reference section.<br />
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It was also where our Stella worked and for all those reasons it was the first building I asked Peter to paint using a photograph taken by Chrissy Rose.<br />
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Peter and I have been working together on projects for almost a decade including two books and an 80 meter installation along with various smaller displays and plenty of commissions. <br />
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And that is all I want to say. <br />
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Location; Eltham, London<br />
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After all I have <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Eltham%20Library"><span style="color: yellow;">written about the library</span> </a>already and its history is well known.*<br />
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Painting; <i>Eltham Library © 2015 Peter Topping from a photograph by Chrissy Rose 2014</i><br />
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Web: <a href="http://www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk/"><span style="color: yellow;">www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk</span></a><br />
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Facebook: Paintings from Pictures <a href="https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures"><span style="color: yellow;">https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures</span></a><br />
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* <b>The Library on the High Street,</b><span style="color: yellow;"> <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Eltham%20Library"><span style="color: yellow;">https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Eltham%20Library</span></a></span><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-91043629258922900852024-03-15T02:30:00.011+00:002024-03-15T09:29:14.221+00:00Happy birthday …. Woyaya<p>I say happy birthday Woyaya, but to be accurate the LP of the name by Osibisa was released in 1971 it was just that we bought it in the March of 1974.</p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GdpLS3B_CjeDEHrqx7v_F53aJNu2o_80n9HvbcQg0qoNH_FwgQLSgq4pbHHnRyxIMZEGyiqf6VWy-FigP-zI6fsyjrsb3wX76B2fF2Xghm-dHR1nlf8q-vjO3BoubJztL8UIXqHzK_ZZ9uYe9VyLAICqu0G6lRLO2x_CRUC5s_tSeHSHuc4xl9F1VaN2/s459/thumbnail%20(7).jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="458" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GdpLS3B_CjeDEHrqx7v_F53aJNu2o_80n9HvbcQg0qoNH_FwgQLSgq4pbHHnRyxIMZEGyiqf6VWy-FigP-zI6fsyjrsb3wX76B2fF2Xghm-dHR1nlf8q-vjO3BoubJztL8UIXqHzK_ZZ9uYe9VyLAICqu0G6lRLO2x_CRUC5s_tSeHSHuc4xl9F1VaN2/w399-h400/thumbnail%20(7).jpeg" width="399" /></a></i></div><i><br />“We give you our treasure”</i> they sing and <i>“Be Happy”.</i><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7D6uW4_fmAjDjy5D6XoW6o731GgnJn9j3hlIcfXFAaBXk8pzes2OgQYmDd52AhyphenhyphenUgxQ8-lVh_NPyI1-jKf3n2A0F1d46ziGQeSlisQG_Q-mqNBJpmum9fOp7GBoZD4cZkGvFRp1f9zOHrUiG_rE-Y84DClIx-XNqhgRb58BVM7u6yqSr54WrVh-mIIxYd/s489/thumbnail%20(2).jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="489" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7D6uW4_fmAjDjy5D6XoW6o731GgnJn9j3hlIcfXFAaBXk8pzes2OgQYmDd52AhyphenhyphenUgxQ8-lVh_NPyI1-jKf3n2A0F1d46ziGQeSlisQG_Q-mqNBJpmum9fOp7GBoZD4cZkGvFRp1f9zOHrUiG_rE-Y84DClIx-XNqhgRb58BVM7u6yqSr54WrVh-mIIxYd/s320/thumbnail%20(2).jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>It’s not the oldest LP in the collection, that falls to Peter Seeger at Carnegie Hall recorded in 1963 but it remains a favourite of mine.<p></p><p>It has travelled with me across Manchester to Chorlton and a full half a century since I bought it it still gets played with pleasure.</p><p>And reminds me of a magic night in the Til Kenedy building which was in the early 1970s home to the Student's Union of Man Poly in All Saints.</p><p>Exactly when we saw Osibisa is lost in time but l guess it will have been around 1971.</p><p><br /></p><div><br /></div>Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-12270146427961161472024-03-15T02:00:00.007+00:002024-03-15T12:33:57.387+00:00When a picture postcard doesn’t reveal a story ………<p><i>I doubt I will ever discover much about J Heath who inhabited 50 Port Street sometime in the closing stages of the Great War.</i></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv0tY1jYel8GUDhMr-7eQsjXjArqYuWUv0E1ojY3LYHml0ESVq76vbPRdNiMBtt5_e9fqMvohlmhTLRKR-p1QwpBq9jpe7QSnuQqR3LWkBjVcpQRKtJHiGEo8mdp33o551xqftIyt0xfJJpvoIsUtNUZ3qm5sLxlZIgkn4-iAKMNkSGUSQIlSFpKORVQ/s2001/DHarropp.jcroppg.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="2001" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv0tY1jYel8GUDhMr-7eQsjXjArqYuWUv0E1ojY3LYHml0ESVq76vbPRdNiMBtt5_e9fqMvohlmhTLRKR-p1QwpBq9jpe7QSnuQqR3LWkBjVcpQRKtJHiGEo8mdp33o551xqftIyt0xfJJpvoIsUtNUZ3qm5sLxlZIgkn4-iAKMNkSGUSQIlSFpKORVQ/w400-h240/DHarropp.jcroppg.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Tank in a street, undated</span></td></tr></tbody></table>So far, I have only this picture postcard to go on which shows a tank on what might be a Manchester street with a reference to J Heath. <p></p><p>It is undated and a brief sweep of the media for the period offers up no clues, but if it is Manchester it may have been in conjunction with Tank Bank which was a scheme to raise money for the war effort, and which involved a tank, lots of publicity, and expectation that heaps of money would be raised.</p><p>The Tank Bank came to Manchester in December 1917, and in just two days raised £870,444 which the Manchester Guardian proudly declared was more than Liverpool or Sheffield had raised.*</p><p>Either way it appears to be a <i>“tank picture”</i> marketed by J Heath, who may have been John Edward Heath who is listed as a printer in 1911 at 27 Newport Street in Rusholme.</p><p>But in 1911 the property in Port Street is occupied by a Frederick Armytage who was a confectioner.</p><p>All of which leaves me to say it is all still out there to uncover.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTY-KORRzBxsFNdq9de7exa2COrkeiqzjzafzX-ZnAee99nYT75_yLpgwQVouHARdsX-Hz74tYR6ttYIo-1h7_qvqIfAFzCNmeie-VOF63ut_Y4dxeJ8T0bvfMMF_Gadb0PcgJho9Bs9ZicyJyT6etBk1kSn_E0XBmehQ7XsoKjWqGQju1ZX2oCbeHAg/s1024/Port%20Street.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1024" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTY-KORRzBxsFNdq9de7exa2COrkeiqzjzafzX-ZnAee99nYT75_yLpgwQVouHARdsX-Hz74tYR6ttYIo-1h7_qvqIfAFzCNmeie-VOF63ut_Y4dxeJ8T0bvfMMF_Gadb0PcgJho9Bs9ZicyJyT6etBk1kSn_E0XBmehQ7XsoKjWqGQju1ZX2oCbeHAg/w400-h254/Port%20Street.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Port Street, 1985</span></td></tr></tbody></table>Both 27 Newport Street and 50 Port Street still exist and in the case of Port Street has undergone a bit of careful restoration.<p></p><p>I can’t find the pictures I took a few years ago so have fallen back on this one from 1985.</p><p>Last year it was a hairdresser’s and 37 years ago was trading as the Salford Sewing Machine Centre, and I bet has been many other things.</p><p>Of course the tank might not even be on a Manchester street, and J Heath might have only marketed the card.</p><p>But happily someone will know.</p><p>And just a few hours after the story went live I had this interesting, informative and thoughtful contribution from Tankmanc,</p><p><i>"Hi. I've been directed to this article by a friend. I'm a) a Mancunian and b) if I might say so, a minor authority on vehicles, armoured or otherwise, of the Great War. </i></p><p><i>You might care to have a look at our website. Anyhow, about your postcard. J Heath will be the printer/publisher. I am not certain that the tank is a Tank Bank. </i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfeQ5WQO34qVSlnV4_1Oxe3sZMopCaR92LPI287OjxCb8W_gwAmavoUBbSoNpMiNBtC4Y_kca2j3BNgx04iXMT7ynYZI_iTV3Wkjoudu8k13uZ2Xesj1Kh838m4F0CcWpbnW2tbVhAW8brCXsfhgh12-0_s6ZlW2TzDNC2Qh2ls0c2PfGBGLSSYSJvk7B1/s1597/DHarropp.jcroppg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1597" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfeQ5WQO34qVSlnV4_1Oxe3sZMopCaR92LPI287OjxCb8W_gwAmavoUBbSoNpMiNBtC4Y_kca2j3BNgx04iXMT7ynYZI_iTV3Wkjoudu8k13uZ2Xesj1Kh838m4F0CcWpbnW2tbVhAW8brCXsfhgh12-0_s6ZlW2TzDNC2Qh2ls0c2PfGBGLSSYSJvk7B1/w400-h176/DHarropp.jcroppg.png" width="400" /></i></a></div><i>For a number of reasons, I think it could be a Presentation Tank, one of many that were presented to towns, cities, even villages, around the country as sort of war trophies. From memory there was one at Platt Fields, one at Milnrow, one at Crompton, and several more in Greater Manchester. Unfortunately, there is no number visible on this tank, or we'd be able to place it . </i><p></p><p><i>The background, though, is interesting. There appears to be 4 or more fluted stone columns and part of a building. Putting 2 & 2 together: this could be the colonnade from the old Manchester Town Hall, which in 1912 was moved from King St to Heaton Park. It's still there. Have a google. You'll see what I mean. If that's the case, </i></p><p><i>I would say this is not the Tank Bank but a Presentation Tank. What's equally intriguing is why the soldier on the right appears to be hand drawn and superimposed. History repeating itself. I could be wrong, but I'll put this before one or two people who are even better informed than I."</i></p><p>Location; Manchester</p><p>Pictures; <i>Tank in a street, undated, from the collection of David Harrop, and 50 Port Street, 1985, M. Luft, 1985, m04948, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, </i><a href="http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass"><span style="color: #fcff01;">http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass</span></a></p><p>*The Tanks Second Try, Manchester Guardian, December 19th, 1917</p><p><br /></p>Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-68312904403453613832024-03-14T03:30:00.001+00:002024-03-14T03:30:00.130+00:00Behind number 14 Major Street in the winter of 1905<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqSCVEksIwvdcrPdFMhgqEmYrULdjdnqFsihnqB4ymPQ_Z-XcQ319xlnWYPdCgQ2Hxd2s7f7Ila_sECGzs0HRsWNxHOWPhK7OoEHueFJkuNACY-liDdYtIF_GR5ngut3frBnxzhp32N-J/s1600/ChildrensShelter1905.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqSCVEksIwvdcrPdFMhgqEmYrULdjdnqFsihnqB4ymPQ_Z-XcQ319xlnWYPdCgQ2Hxd2s7f7Ila_sECGzs0HRsWNxHOWPhK7OoEHueFJkuNACY-liDdYtIF_GR5ngut3frBnxzhp32N-J/s1600/ChildrensShelter1905.JPG" width="277" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">14 Major Street, 1905</td></tr>
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<i>Now as ever there is a story behind this picture.</i><br />
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We are on Major Street in 1905 and the building is the Boys’ and Girls’ Refuge which was established in 1884.<br />
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It was the second shelter opened by the Manchester & Salford Boys’ & Girls’ Refuges offering food and shelter to destitute young people.<br />
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The first shelter had been opened by the charity on Quay Street and later relocated to Strangeways but the scale of the problem was such that one refuge was not enough.<br />
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That lack of provision was highlighted <i>“in the winter months of 1871 when three boys applied at the Refuge looking for shelter. </i><br />
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<i>As the home was already full, they had to be turned away. Seeking warmth and shelter and being unable to afford three pence to stay in a lodging house for the night they had wandered up to the brickfields of Cheetham. </i><br />
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<i>A few days later a newspaper reported on the demise of a young boy who had been burned to death at one of the brick kilns in the neighbourhood. This boy was one of the three who had, had to be turned away much to the consternation of the committee. </i><br />
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<i>It was this incident that convinced the charity that they needed another building in which to receive any child in need of help, whatever the hour. </i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2cFdfSqNWXzgXoJ_iBg-nIAH15pH7QBxdtqwUAk-vKNsvxx0CQ3jeo466E0AJndjBDSSLqmZ60p9ntLTSRHzlz5WZfjvcQXhfxyAysFiqBX8slCNTrrEtuuqIeTbG3sK6Aewgt5RbQR8o/s1600/Unknown.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2cFdfSqNWXzgXoJ_iBg-nIAH15pH7QBxdtqwUAk-vKNsvxx0CQ3jeo466E0AJndjBDSSLqmZ60p9ntLTSRHzlz5WZfjvcQXhfxyAysFiqBX8slCNTrrEtuuqIeTbG3sK6Aewgt5RbQR8o/s1600/Unknown.jpg" width="261" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On admittance, date unknown</td></tr>
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<i>The result was the Children’s Shelter at 14 Major Street. Open all day and all night children in need of shelter could be brought and receive food and a bed for the night, whilst their individual circumstances were investigated. It ensured that no child requesting aid would ever be turned away again.”*</i><br />
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The story comes from the <a href="http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/"><span style="color: #fcff01;">excellent blog of the Together Trust</span><span style="color: blue;"> </span></a>which describes the work of the Manchester & Salford Boys’ & Girls’ Refuges during the 19th and 20th centuries and is a first stop forthose wanting to trace family members who were cared for by the charity.<br />
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I am always impressed by the extent of their archives and the help offered by the archivist to those who want to know more about an ancestor.<br />
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Sadly for anyone wanting to stand in front of number 14 Major Street it has long gone.<br />
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To be truthful there is very little left of Major Street which runs from Aytoun Street down to Princess Street<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR32QoSl6qN04f4MKhB2G90BFkY7c-s46s6dVp6mJ5x-z5-8LDWpAfVTLBtreENJuG0IGL8gk6mI7-7QfN8zJztFA3OE4LPDW04hgIPmUcW10RhuL_I8UNNgZZQs-iruqP1VAU8R9Bmiw1/s1600/Major+St.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR32QoSl6qN04f4MKhB2G90BFkY7c-s46s6dVp6mJ5x-z5-8LDWpAfVTLBtreENJuG0IGL8gk6mI7-7QfN8zJztFA3OE4LPDW04hgIPmUcW10RhuL_I8UNNgZZQs-iruqP1VAU8R9Bmiw1/s1600/Major+St.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Major Street in 1886**</td></tr>
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On the corner with Princess Street there is the old Mechanics Institute where the TUC met in 1868, but walk the length of the road today and it is dominated by two car parks a whole tranche of huge office blocks dating from the end of the last century and the beginning of this one and stuck in the middle is the bus station.<br />
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As for number 14 which was on the right hand side just down from Aytoun Street that is now one of those car parks.<br />
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At which point I could I suppose regret its passing but it was just a building and the work of the charity still goes and in the fullness of time I hope the archivist will be able to shed some light on what life was like at number 14 Major Street.<br />
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Reading back stories from the blog there is much that would help anyone wanting to know about its work and much to set interested descendants on a path of discovery.<br />
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All of which leaves me to point you in the direction of that <span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/"><span style="color: yellow;">blog</span></a> </span>and in particular the rest of the story on the opening of number 14.<br />
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Pictures; <i>14 Major Street, 1905 and one of the young people cared for by the Trust courtesy of the Together Trust,</i> <span style="color: yellow;">h</span><span style="color: yellow;">ttp://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-together-trust.html</span><br />
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*<b>The Second Annual Meeting</b>, <a href="http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/"><span style="color: yellow;">http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/</span></a><br />
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**Slater's Directory of Manchester & Salford, 1886. [Part 2: Trades, Institutions, Streets], page 508, Historical Directories, <a href="http://cdm16445.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/collection/p16445coll4/searchterm/Lancashire/field/place/mode/exact/conn/and/order/nosort"><span style="color: yellow;">http://cdm16445.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/collection/p16445coll4/searchterm/Lancashire/field/place/mode/exact/conn/and/order/nosort</span></a><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-70625242827328325002024-03-14T03:28:00.001+00:002024-03-14T03:28:00.248+00:00A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 3........ the tithe map 1845<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQfuKGPqZScD-6aNKLZPc0Q_8tApkj-Px9TbYXyYGlo8sx-Lbwb4YWkciuYXPBCrGy2XOChNQALdrb-jlTE1EbQlwbW5E-GbWdozT8TNhRRWFyQfIbsja-RjGEoG1VZrqalKHSB0cCQsrk/s1600/%255B61%255D+The+Village+e%252C+180s+190s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQfuKGPqZScD-6aNKLZPc0Q_8tApkj-Px9TbYXyYGlo8sx-Lbwb4YWkciuYXPBCrGy2XOChNQALdrb-jlTE1EbQlwbW5E-GbWdozT8TNhRRWFyQfIbsja-RjGEoG1VZrqalKHSB0cCQsrk/s400/%255B61%255D+The+Village+e%252C+180s+190s.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The tithe map perfectly captures a moment in our history. Here were recorded the fields, buildings and roads in 1845. But there is much more because the map and its accompanying schedule lists who owned the land, who they rented it to, the size of each field, its value and above all its use. It will also tell you who lived in the houses.<br />
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Now we live facing the Recreation Ground and beside us was the Bowling Green Field, farmed by Samuel Gratrix, and owned by the Egerton’s. It was an acre of arable farm land and its value was 3s 10d and directly opposite us was Row Acre which is now the Rec<br />
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Picture; <i>by courtesy of Philip Lloyd</i><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-12464809830065484922024-03-14T03:00:00.001+00:002024-03-14T03:00:00.431+00:00Posters from the Past ........... no 12 ......... something is stirring down in Woolwich<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Now <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Posters%20from%20the%20Past"><span style="color: yellow;">the project</span></a> is simple, take a modern image of a building we all love and turn it into the style of poster which was popular in the middle decades of the last century.*<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkAEMNPqB8tFj-TKOREwlVfAh4E_3Q23plnoHnLjKdkdEf6d1xMM7aej86daSKO7DEY59WWpkbDpsPSdgxLh3gjUXyzhfjMiQx0g96knvaK64Sw4Ys0i02MrN7pdfVxTHQsKfaQHKInfI/s1600/Woolwich+2+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkAEMNPqB8tFj-TKOREwlVfAh4E_3Q23plnoHnLjKdkdEf6d1xMM7aej86daSKO7DEY59WWpkbDpsPSdgxLh3gjUXyzhfjMiQx0g96knvaK64Sw4Ys0i02MrN7pdfVxTHQsKfaQHKInfI/s400/Woolwich+2+poster.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
And supposing these figures had been in place in 1946, may be the Tourist and Information Office of the Borough of Woolwich might have used them to draw those who seldom cross the river from the north of the city to see our bit of London.**<br />
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Greenwich might have had the Naval College, and the Royal Observatory and later the Cutty Sark but we had the Royal Arsenal, a pretty busy market ,and trams that could take you south to the delights of Shooters Hill, Well Hall Pleasaunce and Eltham Palace.<br />
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All of which makes me think I shall nominate some more places for Peter to paint and reproduce as posters from the past.<br />
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And of course invite people to submit their own copyright free iconic image<br />
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Location: Woolwich<br />
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Painting; <i>Coming home to Woolwich, © 2017 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,f </i>rom a photograph by Colin Fitzpatrick, 2012<br />
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Web: <a href="http://www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk/"><span style="color: yellow;">www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk </span></a><br />
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**<b>Posters from the Past, </b><a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Posters%20from%20the%20Past"><span style="color: yellow;">https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Posters%20from%20the%20Past</span></a><br />
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** <b>Assembly</b>, by Peter Burke, Woolwich Arsenal 2001<br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-86124806630784428272024-03-13T14:56:00.003+00:002024-03-13T15:14:34.023+00:00 One clock tower ….. a pub ….. and 4 funny looking cars ….. 45 years ago<p><i>The picture may not win any prizes for top quality image of the year.</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLnXvg-vFZ3G6V_-kGdnP_uRA0LgmBF_pC1c3dpgk0K76sI4IzHdYfVARqIYzSwOOJo-P4zaXN3v4QbrkQma2AdfQFzF3KjeZMVmogFC5wXMPs-1SwnLdztOJxB28Y4xoCErrMob66NazDtbTJQJ25E-y8QEd2dCmfr43MFE5Jg2dQWN0TTmdDjkMt86q1/s1645/Town%20Hall.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1645" data-original-width="1096" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLnXvg-vFZ3G6V_-kGdnP_uRA0LgmBF_pC1c3dpgk0K76sI4IzHdYfVARqIYzSwOOJo-P4zaXN3v4QbrkQma2AdfQFzF3KjeZMVmogFC5wXMPs-1SwnLdztOJxB28Y4xoCErrMob66NazDtbTJQJ25E-y8QEd2dCmfr43MFE5Jg2dQWN0TTmdDjkMt86q1/w426-h640/Town%20Hall.png" width="426" /></a></div><br />But then it was 1979 and I was just starting out on taking photographs and developing them using smelly photography.<p></p><p>Still, it is sort of a record of the Town Hall, and the Town Hall Tavern taken from King Street a very long time ago</p><p>Location; King Street</p><p>Picture;<i> One clock tower ….. a pub ….. and 4 funny looking cars, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson</i></p>Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-51181793595331094872024-03-13T03:31:00.001+00:002024-03-13T03:31:00.128+00:00A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number two ........ the tram terminus 1928<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsDk8339HyOfuUcn2gk19UnhWUCWnBATga0X8tiy9haAq2UEeCLUFqxSUNQcxua2_1mkZl8weyS93BN046bqGyP0LmWbkVYSORSC63qW7gg8btM2qEquBZw-bRIkGzlUCPuMbKzUH5LrVZ/s1600/A+tram+terminus+Ll+15+scan0029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsDk8339HyOfuUcn2gk19UnhWUCWnBATga0X8tiy9haAq2UEeCLUFqxSUNQcxua2_1mkZl8weyS93BN046bqGyP0LmWbkVYSORSC63qW7gg8btM2qEquBZw-bRIkGzlUCPuMbKzUH5LrVZ/s320/A+tram+terminus+Ll+15+scan0029.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a few paragraphs and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.</i><br />
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I have chosen the tram terminus sometime around 1928. Trams took the township out of the era of the horse drawn coach into the 20th century. In 1903 the route from Belle Vue via Brooks’ Bar and Upper Chorlton Road was extended to West Point at Seymour Grove and four years later was extended again to Lane End,the junction of Sandy Lane and Barlow Moor Road. And in that year of 1928 Manchester trams carried 328 million passengers on 953 trams via 46 routes and along 292 miles of track. We had indeed become part of the city.<br />
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Picture; <i>from the Lloyd collection</i><br />
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Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-31833856784115317162024-03-13T03:30:00.001+00:002024-03-13T03:30:00.266+00:00Posters from the Past ........... no 11 ........ coming home<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Now<a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Posters%20from%20the%20Past"> <span style="color: yellow;">the project</span></a> is simple, take a modern image of a building we all love and turn it into the style of poster which was popular in the middle decades of the last century.*</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK3RfL9q5kUmYNl9wkq_HtyLgwVHgqKfboat5ANyrnJwLqks2o5DiM33fsiqlt2BXUdvgvoMs_x5CXWSBI3A027VQiiadOz83O0VSATcKlJe_apltAs4hEM9rljK5Qe8HncuFilmEV3P4/s1600/Woolwich+1+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK3RfL9q5kUmYNl9wkq_HtyLgwVHgqKfboat5ANyrnJwLqks2o5DiM33fsiqlt2BXUdvgvoMs_x5CXWSBI3A027VQiiadOz83O0VSATcKlJe_apltAs4hEM9rljK5Qe8HncuFilmEV3P4/s400/Woolwich+1+poster.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Although in this case it is the ferry, which for many of us will always be special.<br />
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As kids it was the start of the adventure that took you across the river to that <i>“other place”</i> and for countless grownups the way you got to work.<br />
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The last time I used it was when we were heading back north from Deal and having lost the M25 I managed to navigate a route that took us in to Eltham past our old house at Well Hall, and always one to seize an opportunity I suggested we make the river crossing at Woolwich.<br />
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And that pretty much restored my creditability. Tina who is Italian just loved the experience.<br />
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And yes I know we had had to queue and the journey takes just a few minutes but she found it magic as did I.<br />
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All of which just leaves me to adapt that Samuel Johnson comment about London, “<i>the best prospect any of us can see is the ferry crossing at Woolwich that takes us home.”</i>*<br />
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Location: on the Thames at Woolwich<br />
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Painting; <i>Coming home to Woolwich, © 2017 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures, from a photograph by Andrew Simpson, 2012</i><br />
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Web: <a href="http://www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk/"><span style="color: yellow;">www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk </span></a><br />
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*<b>Posters from the Past, </b><a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Posters%20from%20the%20Past"><span style="color: yellow;">https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Posters%20from%20the%20Pas</span>t</a><br />
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**<i>“The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!”</i><br />
Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides</div>
Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-39547983931100008302024-03-13T03:00:00.001+00:002024-03-13T03:00:00.132+00:00Deansgate remembered ................ stories from the Fox Inn on Byrom Street nu 1 .... a beginning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>For many Deansgate is just a road which takes you from Knott Mill down to St Mary’s Gate.</i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBDK0bUW_sjpx0yLoLFjlq3ssGDGKatPT79hLxNtVwBk8Iw5V1KDflFhBTyahaM8fm6fcyZSoy0tZ7nm8zMvGwQZcpj1P1jZG4B7r7r-H2ZrHjmarT-ORIHTY-CIdoEwaNGaMEaQqJOWk/s1600/Debs+Brack+great+granddad%2527s+pub+crop+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBDK0bUW_sjpx0yLoLFjlq3ssGDGKatPT79hLxNtVwBk8Iw5V1KDflFhBTyahaM8fm6fcyZSoy0tZ7nm8zMvGwQZcpj1P1jZG4B7r7r-H2ZrHjmarT-ORIHTY-CIdoEwaNGaMEaQqJOWk/s400/Debs+Brack+great+granddad%2527s+pub+crop+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Fox Inn, Byrom Street, circa 1914</td></tr>
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If you are lucky and the traffic flow is kind you can do the route in minutes.<br />
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If like me you prefer to walk it offers up a shed load of interesting buildings from the old public library between Liverpool Road and Tonman Street past the John Rylands and down to the Burlington Arcade.<br />
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And if you turn off and stroll down Liverpool Road towards the Duke’s Canal and Castlefield you will be rewarded with a rich lump of history.<br />
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Here was our Roman fort and and small town, the Manchester end of the Bridgewater Navigation, as well as the site of the first passenger railway station in the world and heaps more including one of the first recorded Cholera cases back in the 1830s.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJRsnbck4NzFd2r_WX8nPIr1Kk1WlLzz5neLibNehHPS_obkmLegqwx-p68WJZ7vSBdkhjkYQuEydZt6BJQdQbkumK9jI48Ops4iU-SFEj8P3LqqooDDoFvpD2Tl_Wo86_YKcDMKmuLs4/s1600/Debs+Brack+great+granddad%2527s+pub+crop+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJRsnbck4NzFd2r_WX8nPIr1Kk1WlLzz5neLibNehHPS_obkmLegqwx-p68WJZ7vSBdkhjkYQuEydZt6BJQdQbkumK9jI48Ops4iU-SFEj8P3LqqooDDoFvpD2Tl_Wo86_YKcDMKmuLs4/s400/Debs+Brack+great+granddad%2527s+pub+crop+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Johhny Lee, young Charlie and Joe Gibbons</td></tr>
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And it was a place teeming with people making it in the words of the historian Frank Heaton a <i>“Manchester Village.” </i> It runs down from Deansgate towards the river, bounded on one side by a set of railway viaducts and on the other by Quay Street.<br />
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I first became fascinated by it almost four decades ago and keep getting drawn back.<br />
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And in those forty years I have <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Castlefield"><span style="color: yellow;">researched and written</span></a> about the area, walked its streets in the company of friends and conducted guided tours of its history.**<br />
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So with all of that behind me I was very pleased when Debs got in touch and supplied this picture of the pub her grandmother was born in on August 26 1908.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGkbBi_dZU8ZPs-lKrfhoq4q7X4YbjIy6FD5s2EefHr3rwz4q99k12-JAL-sKmReEExWN0B0uSMgqwvXaCbqCASrF1y-v6ktOfrlwucW-8kJe4Hf1HAtbyC6DkqxHeJLuuUAz-cTq_H1o/s1600/Debs+Brack+great+granddad%2527s+pub+crop2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGkbBi_dZU8ZPs-lKrfhoq4q7X4YbjIy6FD5s2EefHr3rwz4q99k12-JAL-sKmReEExWN0B0uSMgqwvXaCbqCASrF1y-v6ktOfrlwucW-8kJe4Hf1HAtbyC6DkqxHeJLuuUAz-cTq_H1o/s400/Debs+Brack+great+granddad%2527s+pub+crop2.jpg" width="328" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William Henry Forth, Doris and Florence Forth and Betty Marr</td></tr>
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Doris Brack nee Forth grew up in the Fox Inn on Byrom Street and she recorded her memories of the pub and the area in a series of interviews with Mr Heaton who included some of them in his book.<br />
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They are a vivid picture of a vibrant working class area in the years after the Great War.<br />
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So over the next few weeks with the help of her granddaughter Debs I will be exploring those tapes and piecing together the story of <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Deansgate"><span style="color: yellow;">a community</span>.</a>***<br />
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It starts with the Fox Inn and this wonderful picture. I know that standing i the doorway beside her father William Henry Forth are Doris and her sister Florence and their friend Betty Marr and Johhny Lee, her cousin Charlie and Joe Gibbons.<br />
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Now that’s a good start.<br />
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Location Byrom Street, Deansgate, Manchester<br />
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Picture; T<i>he Fox Inn, circa 1914, courtesy of Debs Brack</i><br />
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*<b>The Manchester Village Deansgate Remembered</b>, Frank Heaton, 1995, Neil Richardson<br />
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**<b>Castlefield,</b> <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Castlefield"><span style="color: yellow;">https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Castlefield</span></a><br />
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***<b>Deansgate</b>, <a href="https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Deansgate"><span style="color: yellow;">https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Deansgate</span></a></div>
Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555221118428406209.post-25378264855884171362024-03-12T03:29:00.002+00:002024-03-12T13:30:38.740+00:00A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number one ...... a bridge across the Mersey 1816<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Now this will be a short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and is also a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.</i><br />
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They are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2XGligCAS20EXfIwvl8i1Mlm-ftCe_w5oeBqLxrULzd0OJILNFyjSnkrZt0tXCCgrphfx4lg2YATCPcoAtf5pluXnwvKJFTtEs24fi9ZqWdVIgcq08HbLch0-Xxoq-YvkWkgAFDUCdrWB/s1600/A+bridge+Ll+2+oo8.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2XGligCAS20EXfIwvl8i1Mlm-ftCe_w5oeBqLxrULzd0OJILNFyjSnkrZt0tXCCgrphfx4lg2YATCPcoAtf5pluXnwvKJFTtEs24fi9ZqWdVIgcq08HbLch0-Xxoq-YvkWkgAFDUCdrWB/s320/A+bridge+Ll+2+oo8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
This was the first bridge across the Mersey on the edge of the township. Samuel Wilton built it in 1816 at a cost of £200, but the ferry and the right to transport passengers across the Mersey were still in place in 1832 when the pub and the surrounding land were put up for sale.<br />
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At the time it was the landlord of the pub who benefited from the ferry charges. The toll of a 1d to cross the bridge was abolished in the 1940s.<br />
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Picture; <i>from the Lloyd collection 1865</i><br /></div>
Andrew Simpsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215799385557042486noreply@blogger.com3