Victorian Manchester Engine House saved from demolition

 Now here is a good piece of news which comes from a press release today from SAVE Britain's Heritage.*

It is, that the former Linotype Works on the Bridgewater Canal has been listed, halting its proposed demolition. 

It is a place I have written about already, and so it is encouraging that one historic building will not become a pile of rubble.

Strictly speaking it is in Altrincham and not Manchester, listing doesn't always mean it is safe,  and not all developers are unmindful of the past.

So with that out of the way “SAVE is delighted to announce that the Engine House and chimney base of the former Linotype Works in Altrincham has been listed, halting its proposed demolition. 

 Earlier this year owners of the historic Altrincham Linotype Works, Morris Homes, had applied to demolish and rebuild the unlisted canal-side Engine House as part of their wider redevelopment of the site, which is a designated conservation area.

SAVE considers the Engine House and nearby Chimney base to be of high historic significance and suitable for conversion. In response to the threat of demolition, we submitted a listing application to Historic England, and the building has now been granted grade II listed status by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.  The decision means the owners will now have to apply for Listed Building Consent in order to demolish the listed building”. *

For more information and images contact Ben Oakley, Conservation Officer at SAVE Britain's Heritage: ben.oakley@savebritainsheritage.org / 07388 181 181.

Pictures; the Linotype Works, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

* SAVE Britain's Heritage, https://www.savebritainsheritage.org/           

**Warehouses and things …… along the Duke’s Canal ……… no. 2 The Lynotype Works https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/09/warehouses-and-things-along-dukes-canal_30.html

On discovering the Sinderland Brook ……

Perhaps, it’s because most of us live in urban settings that makes rivers, streams, and brooks so fascinating.

Great stretches of some of our most interesting rivers have long ago gone underground, briefly to appear into daylight before disappearing once more, leaving their course unknown to most of us.

And even out in the suburbs and the countryside the most humble of water courses can suddenly be lost or have undergone a degree of rationalization, turning them from twisty, turny, lazy streams which wind through natural surroundings into uniformly straight lines surrounded by flat cultivated land, or worse still made to flow through steep channels where the backs rise like cliffs on either side.

Of course, I understand why in the interests of flood prevention this should be the case, but some of their magic has been taken away.

All of which brings me to the Sinderland Brook, which I first came across when Andy sent over a couple of pictures of the water course at Timperley, and which according to one source is “an important waterway and wildlife corridor …[extending] through heart of Trafford from Smiths Field to join the Red Brook in Partington”.*

And it does feature on a number of rambling and natural heritage sites, along with seasonal alerts about flooding.

But what really caught my eye was a report posted fifteen years ago, which describes plans to restore 1.8 km of the book and its floodplain which had been channelized in the late 1960s by the water Authority.**

At which point I have no intention of stealing the details from the report, which you can find by following the link.

I have yet to find out whether Andy’s stretch was included, but his pictures offer up conflicting interpretations.

And that is it.

Location; the Sinderland Brook, as it goes under the canal Timperley/Altrincham, 

Pictures; the Sinderland Brook, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Sinderland Brook, Heritage Trees, https://www.cityoftrees.org.uk/sites/default/files/AT_Sinderland%20Brook.pdf

**Sinderland Brook, https://www.therrc.co.uk/case_studies/sinderland%20brook%20issue%2020.pdf

Warehouses and things …… along the Duke’s Canal ……… no. 4 … a pressure gauge, the Prussian family, and the Great War

Now when Andy sent over a second collection of pictures of the warehouses, factories and other “things” he encountered along the Bridgewater Canal, I was quite taken by this one.

And I suppose  I was minded to reflect on the contrast between the old and the new, but when Andy also rooted out a picture of the original building from the beginning of the last century I was drawn into the story of Schaffer and Budenberg, who relocated from Manchester to Woodfield Road by the canal in 1914.*

The company originated in Prussia, and was renowned for making high quality pressure gauges, thermometers, valves and manifolds. 

The company was founded in 1849 by B. Schäffer and his brother-in-law C.F. Budenberg, and six years later the firm opened a sales office at St. Mary's Gate in Manchester, and another Glasgow and in 1876 began assembling pressure gauges and other instruments in Manchester.

By 1896 they had moved into a larger factory on Whitworth Street under the direction Fred Budenberg.

“In the decades running up to the First World War and the race for naval superiority, products had to be made in Britain if the company wanted to sell to the British Admiralty. 

To cement this the company was registered as British in 1902, even though it was still almost completely owned and controlled from Germany”.**

And then ….. came the Great War, which resulted in the Government taking over the company, although Fred Budenberg, who had been born in Britain and whose two sons were in the British armed forces in France was directed to continue running the business until the duration of the war.

In 1917 he  bought the company back, with the proviso that all Board Directors were British born, and so the Budenberg Gauge Company Ltd. was formed and shares were held by a Public Trustee. 

Location; Altrincham

Pictures; the Budenberg Building, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the Schaffer and Budenberg, Woodfield Road, circa 1914, TL3327, Trafford Life Times, courtesy of Trafford Local Studies Centre, https://www.artuk.org/visit/venues/trafford-local-studies-centre-6551

*Schaffer and Budenberg, Grace's Guide to British industrial history, https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Schaffer_and_Budenberg

** Budenberg Gauge Company, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budenberg_Gauge_Company

Warehouses and things …… along the Duke’s Canal ……… no. 3 the mystery

This is another of those industrial buildings Andy stumbled across on his walk along the Bridgewater Canal.

And like the others, I thought it was promising.

Despite it’s modern roof and squat appearance, it had all the signs of being a canal warehouse with age.

The original arched entrance and loading hatch were still there, although sometime in the past they had been bricked up.

It shows up on the 1907 OS map of Cheshire as “Canal Storage”, and there looks to be a building on the same spot in 1875, but beyond that I am at present stumped.

I have nor earlier maps of Cheshire, and my canal maps dating from the 1830s are not detailed enough to show individual warehouses.

So for now it’s a mystery.  It might date back to the construction of the canal or soon afterwards.

But someone will know, so I shall just wait and see.

And for those interested to look it up, it is in a builder's yard behind the Old Packet House on Navigation Road.

The post script.

I said someone would no and sure enough research has been done.  John Anthony located other warehouses close by, commenting "here had been fairly extensive canal wharves, mainly for coal, but also in close proximity to a brass foundry and a sawmill. To the north was the LNWR goods yard at Broadheath station, a farm and a school. It is possible these two canal stores had been used for non-coal products and materials, for example, raw cotton and finished goods that needed protection from the elements (and undesirables), and transhipment to / from local forms of transport".

While Derek Watts, turned up the 1835 tithe map which shows our warehouse.

So a job well done, and a thnak you

Location; Altrincham

Picture; that warehouse, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and detail from the 1907 OS map of Cheshire, courtesy of Digital Archives http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

Warehouses and things …… along the Duke’s Canal ……… no. 2 The Lynotype Works

Now, I tried understanding the details of linotype and it has defeated me. 

But I know it “became one of the mainstay methods to set type, especially small-size body text, for newspapers, magazines, and posters from the late 19th century to the 1970s and 1980s”. and that’s good enough for me.*

I don’t suppose it would ever have jumped up and drew me, if it hadn’t been for Andy’s two pictures of the Lynotype Works beside the Bridgwater Canal in Altrincham.

The works were built in 1897, when the Lynotype Company  having outgrown their existing factory in Hulme Street off Oxford Road, “purchased land at Broadheath, Altrincham for a new factory, which was formally opened by Lady Kelvin in 1899”.**

All of which was fascinating enough, but the trawl of references led in turn led to an article by my old Facebook chum, Steve Marland about the company’s move into property development  in the form of an estate for its workers.

Between 1897-1901, “Linotype Company built 185 houses for its employees and provided two football grounds, four tennis courts, two bowling greens, a cricket ground, a playground for children and allotments”.***

And there I shall resist from lifting more of Steve’s research and just direct you to the link to the article, leaving me just to add that the estate still exists although the properties are now in private ownership, and if you want to know where, just read the piece.

Location; Altrincham

Pictures; The Lynotype Works, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Lynotype machine, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linotype_machine

**Lynotype Company, Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Linotype_Co

***The Lynotype Estate, https://www.visitmanchester.com/things-to-see-and-do/the-linotype-estate-p252931

Warehouses and things …… along the Duke’s Canal ……… no.1 ..... Altrincham

Now I have long been fascinated by the canal warehouse.

It was in its time a revolutionary design which allowed goods to be shipped through the warehouse from either the canal side to the roadside or from road to canal.

And was later copied by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway for their warehouses.

Over the years I have wandered around the ones in Manchester, from the Dale Street Basin down to Castlefield.

But never quite made it to Altrincham, where Andy found this one, commenting “I stumbled across this by accident. It is a canal warehouse opposite the coal wharf in Broadheath, Altltrincham. It has an opening for a branch of the Bridgewater Canal. It was built in 1833 and is listed. I am hoping I can get a photo of it facing the canal”.

It looks very forlorn, is dwarfed by its modern neighbours and is waiting for a friend to give it a new purpose.

From the canal side you can see the large arched entrance which allowed goods to be taken directly into the building to be unloaded, while on the road side there are the characteristic loop holes used to load and unload material.

Some of those in town have made imaginative use of those arches and loop holes by adding glass and making them a feature.

I hope something equally imaginative happens to this one.

Leaving me just to mention Mr. Bradshaw’s superb collection of canal maps which were made in the 1830s, before he sought fame and wealth with his railway guides, and Joseph Priestly’s  wonderful “Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways Throughout Great Britain” which he published in 1831.

And Mr. Priestly’s book is a veritable goldmine of facts about the canal network, mixing the history of each waterway with a description of the routes and the tonnage charges.

So for the Bridgewater the account includes, that “The primary object of ‘The Father of British Inland Navigation’, as the Buke of Bridgewater has been justly styled , was to open his valuable collieries at Worsley, and to supply the town of Manchester with coal, at a much cheaper rate than could be done by the imperfect navigation of the Mersey and Irwell. 

The original  line to Hempstone takes a south-westerly course from Longford Bridge, crossing the Mersey by aqueduct; by the town of Altrincham  and Dunham Massey."*

Sadly, the account doesn’t mention individual warehouses .. but I suppose that would be asking too much.

Still someone will know more about Andy’s warehouse, and in the fullness of time offer up the story.

For now, that is it, other than to say this is the first of an occasional series on the warehouses and things, along the Duke’s Canal.

Location; Altrincham

Pictures; http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

*“Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways Throughout Great Britain”, Joseph Priestly, 1831

Altrincham then and now ……………..

Now yesterday I posted a picture of the Station Approach and New Stamford Street in Altrincham at the turn of the last century and bewailed the fact that I couldn’t find any of the photographs I had taken of the same place a few years ago.*

And quick as a flash George Cieslik came up with an even better one of the roads sometime around 1900, but alas nobody has sent over a modern image.

But all that is now put right because that tenacious photographer Andy Robertson, he of countless photographic projects dropped some off he taken in 2015, commenting” the best I could come up with, February 2015.

Well he needn’t have apologized because they were just what I wanted.

So here from George and Andy are two images of the place separated by perhaps a hundred years.

Location; Altrincham




Pictures; Station Approach and New Stamford Street in Altrincham, circa 1900 courtesy of George Cieslik, and in 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson



*At Altrincham ......... looking for pictures, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/09/at-altrincham-looking-for-pictures.html

At Altrincham ......... looking for pictures

Now, I can’t find any of the pictures I have taken over the years of Altrincham, and in particular Stamford New Road with its clock tower and transport hub.

And that is a shame because I rather wanted to compare the modern scene with this one from sometime at the beginning of the last century.

But I can’t, but I am sure someone will have a picture of the spot today, and thoughts on a date for our rather fuzzy one from the collection of Allan Brown.

And a better one from George Cieslik‎, who has more in his collection which will in time make their onto the blog

Location; Altrincham



Picture; Station and Stamford New Road, Altrincham, date unknown, from the collection of Allan Brown and Stamford New Road, courtesy of  George Cieslik‎

The cabinet maker, a restaurant called Tre Ciccio and a story of Altrincham

Now I like the way that stories have a habit of bouncing back, which is what happened to the one about an  Altrincham ghost sign.*

At the time, the picture of the brick warehouse with the name G.W. BONSON picked out at the top of the building was just an interesting example of a ghost sign, which is a record of a business long gone.

In this case, it refers to G.W. BONSON who after setting up a carpet beating business at the age of 23 in 1881, moved into this fine brick building in 1894, and started trading as a cabinet maker, upholsterer and furniture outlet.

At the time, that was pretty much it, and while I promised myself I would go looking for more on Mr Bonson I never did.

And then by chance a friend took us on a mystery trip to a new restaurant.

We had no idea where we were going or what to expect, but as we walked up Moss Lane into the heart of Altrincham, there was Mr Bonson’s warehouse, complete with the ghost sign and below it picked out in black the name Tre Ciccio!**

I have to say eating pizza in the former warehouse gave me  a sense of continuity with the past, and that becomes the rest of the story which began when two friends“started one magical summer’s evening meal in the Campania region of Italy, and ended by becoming the masterminds behind who we are today.

Invited to the extremely popular La Terrazza in restaurant in Calvanico by the lovely Scafuri family, we experienced an evening like we never have before.

From owner Michele managing his hungry guests from his scrap of paper and pen, to the mouth watering authentic Neapolitan pizzas, roast chicken diavola, Cacciatore and freshly picked porcini mushrooms that we devoured, we were left craving much, much more!”.

More than that it set them off with the idea that these simple Italian dishes could work here, and the success of the restaurant Tre Ciccio! proved them right.

We were there last night, on a cold Thursday evening and the place was full.

At which point I could write in detail about my pizza, the starters, or Tina’s roast chicken, but I am no food writer, just a jobbing historian, so instead I shall let the pictures do the business and recommend the place.

And as historian I was intrigued at how the shop had been converted into the waiting area where you can watch the pizza’s being made before gently being slid into the giant wood burning pizza oven.

The old wooden ceiling and some of the original features have been retained, while in contrast the restaurant which was the workshop, has a contemporary feel with a roof which can be pulled back on those rare days when the sun shines and you could be under a Neapolitan sky, consuming San Marzano tomatoes, Amalfi lemons & buffalo mozzarella direct from the south of Italy.

And that is about the extent of my food writing, so instead I suggest you step into Mr Bonson’s warehouse and enjoy a night at Tre Ciccio!

Location;   Tre Ciccio! Altrincham

Pictures; Mr Bonson’s warehouse, 2016, from the collection of Andy Robertson, remaining images courtesy of Tre Ciccio, 2018

*Finding a ghost sign in Altrincham, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/finding-ghost-sign-in-altrincham_19.html

** Tre Ciccio!   https://www.treciccio.co.uk/

A reminder of that time when we mended things ........ down on Church Street in Altrincham

Now given that I have the maps and directories for Altrincham in time I should be able to make a good stab at finding out about this building.

It sits beside another oldish building and one that might be relatively new.

Of course the research will do the bit but in the meantime I couldn’t resist posting these two pictures from Andy Robertson’s Altrincham collection.

We are on Church Street not far from the station and number 18 fascinates me.

It looks to be one of those properties that has been overlooked by developers and council planners and you wonder how it has survived.

But that is not all, what is equally intriguing is the business that operates from inside, because this is the Altrincham Shaver and Repair Centre, and here amongst other things you can get your Kenwood Mixer repaired and I guess much else.

Once upon a time shops like these were common, for who would want to go out and buy a new electrical product when it was possible to get that expensive and cherished item repaired?

And the chap in his brown overalls could pretty much be guaranteed to mend anything as long as the parts were available.

The one near us as I was growing up was magic.

Every corner of the shop was piled high with electrical goods and there was that dusty, musty smell which greeted you as you went through the door.

You offered up the broken thing, Mr Anson would scrutinise it, mumble a bit and if it was doable would retreat to the back room and work a bit of that magic.

Alternatively if parts were needed it was left in that back room until it was fixed at a fraction of what it would cost to buy new.

And that was how it was done.  Things were repaired when they broke and while they might not have looked as elegant at least they worked.

So I am pleased that Andy turned up this place and reminded me of how things used to be done.

Picture; Church Street, Altrincham, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson 

Finding a ghost sign in Altrincham

Now I rather think there is no end to which Andy Robertson will go to record the history of our buildings.

Armed with his camera in one hand and his newly acquired concessionary travel pass in the other I have every confidence that his journies will take him to the far edges of Greater Manchester.

And long may they do so because he has been building up a wonderful record of the often swift changes into the twin cities and the neighbouring townships.

Earlier in the month he ventured out to Altrincham and here is the first in that series.

And where better to begin than with a ghost sign on Moss Lane.
It belonged to G.W. Bonson and at present I know nothing about them, but it is a fine example of its type.

What’s more you get a nice piece of industrial archaeology because at some stage the lower set of windows were bricked up and it would be interesting to know why.

That said there will be someone who know Altrincham well and may well be familiar with the building and its history.

For now I shall just add it to the growing collection of ghost signs and decide which of Andy’ Altrincham pictures to do next.

Picture; on Moss Lane, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson