Stories from a Didsbury picture ….. no 5 …. always respect the River Mersey

This will be the last of the short series featuring a picture from Andrew and a story from me.

Didsbury floods, 2021

I began the short run after Andrew offered up five images, each of which linked the present with Didsbury’s past.

I had no idea where each story would take me, and over the course of the week, the stories have ranged from Withington Hospital, the first occupants of Knight Road, and the TransPennine Trail, with a sideways glance at defribialtors, the history of a much loved fishmongers, and  Didsbury’s own railway station.

And I end with “The flood basin from the gardens of the University Vice Chancellor’s house Broomhurst”, which is a salutary reminder of the power of the River Mersey and its importance to the township.  

Didsbury Floods, 1930

Over the centuries the river has been both a gift and at times a threat.  

On the upside the Mersey has provided a natural barrier in more unsettled times, driven the mills along its banks and provided supplies of water.  

But it remains a formidable and at times a dangerous force that can breach the defences and flood large parts of the neighbouring land. 

Today the flood prevention schemes allow for excess water to be released into catchment basins.

But as the recent floods have demonstrated, even with such schemes, homes can still be in danger.

Andrew is the Labour Councillor for Didsbury East on Manchester City Council please contact me at cllr.a.simcock@manchester.gov.uk

Location; Didsbury

Picture; “The flood basin from the gardens of the University Vice Chancellor’s house Broomhurst”, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Didsbury, 1930

Stories from a Didsbury picture ….. no 4 …. a railway ticket, a trail .... and the tram

Of all the images Andrew shared with me as part of the picture challenge, this in some ways is my favourite.

A tram, a trail, and the ghost of the railway, 2013

Here is the newly opened Metro link, which follows the route of the old railway line and offers up access to the TransPennine Trail.

So in one one spot we have a shed load of Didsbury’s history.

The railway line dates from 1880, and ran from Central Railway Station out to Didsbury and on via Heaton Mersey, Cheadle Heath and Hazel Grove to Derbyshire and finally London.

Sadly, it closed for passenger traffic in 1967, followed two years later by freight trains, and the track was lifted in 1970.  The railway station lingered on till 1981 when it was demolished for the present small shopping precinct.

And at this point the purists will point out that the station was not here, where Andrew took the picture.

But I shall pass over that observation and record that when the railway station opened like others along to route back into town it proved very successful.  So that "by 1900 over 200, 000 passengers bookings per year were being made at Didsbury and the South District train service was running at a ten minute frequency during the busy time periods”.* 

Locomotive-45602 and train heading north to Manchester in 1954

And the introduction of a tram service using the old route has proved equally successful, even if at times those of us further down the line in Chorlton can sometimes find that there are no seats left when the East Didsbury service to  town rolls in.

Which I fully accept is a churlish observation, especially on a Didsbury story so I shall conclude with that reference to the TransPennine Trail, which “is an exciting route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders linking the North and Irish seas, passing through the Pennines, alongside rivers and canals and through some of the most historic towns and cities in the North of England.

The Trail from coast-to-coast between Southport and Hornsea is 215 miles (346km) long.

A north-south route connecting Leeds and Chesterfield, a spur to York and a spur to Kirkburton means there are approximately 370 miles (595km) of Trans Pennine Trail available to explore”.**

Didsbury Railway Station in 1951

And according to another source is the Trans Pennine Trail "is a long-distance path running from coast to coast across Northern England entirely on surfaced paths and using only gentle gradients (it runs largely along disused railway lines and canal towpaths). 

It forms part of European walking route E8 and is part of the National Cycle Network as Route 62 (referencing the M62 motorway which also crosses the Pennines).

Most of the surfaces and gradients make it a relatively easy trail, suitable for cyclists, pushchairs and wheelchair users. The section between Stockport and Barnsley is hilly, especially near Woodhead, and not all sections or barriers are accessible for users of wheelchairs or non-standard cycles. Some parts are also open to horse riding.

The trail is administered from a central office in Barnsley, which is responsible for promotion and allocation of funding. However, the twenty-seven local authorities whose areas the trail runs through are responsible for management of the trail within their boundaries. 

Didsbury railway ticket, date unknown 

The idea originated from Barnsley, where the head office is now based. Work on the trail started in 1999. Early development was boosted by a £5 million investment by the Millennium Commission. The trail was officially opened in September 2001. 

However, the route was not fully completed until late 2004. It cost £60 million to construct”.***

Which just leaves me to thank Andrew, and point out that no originality was damaged by my overuse of sources which I plundered for the story.

Andrew is the Labour Councillor for Didsbury East on Manchester City Council please contact me at cllr.a.simcock@manchester.gov.uk

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; The day the TransPennine Trail and Metrolink opened in May 2013 looking south east from Didsbury Station with the Sandhurst Road overbridge in the background, from the collection of Andrew Simcock,  Didsbury Railway Station in 1951, m63442 and Locomotive-45602 and train heading north to Manchester in 1954, m63444, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and Didsbury Railway ticket, courtesy of Disused Stations, http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/d/didsbury/index.shtml

*Didsbury Railway Station, Disused Stations, http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/d/didsbury/index.shtml

** the TransPennine Trail, https://www.transpenninetrail.org.uk/?doing_wp_cron=1613039562.5268790721893310546875

***The TransPennine Trail, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_Pennine_Trail

Stories from a Didsbury picture ….. no 3 …. the defibrillator and a shop with history …..

This is number three in the short series where Andrew Simcock offers up a picture and I go looking for a story.

Andrew’s caption reads, “Eddie at Evans fishmongers takes delivery of a defibrillator at 1, Barlow Moor Road”.

A defibrillator is one of those essential devices which save lives, and according to the British Heart Foundation “is a device that gives a high energy electric shock to the heart of someone who is in cardiac arrest. This high energy shock is called defibrillation, and it's an essential part in trying to save the life of someone who’s in cardiac arrest.

You don’t need to be trained to use a defibrillator – anyone can use it. There are clear instructions on how to attach the defibrillator pads. It then assesses the heart rhythm and will only instruct you to deliver a shock if it’s needed. You cannot deliver a shock accidentally, the defibrillator will only allow you to shock if it is needed”.*

And here I have to applaud the work of Catherine Brownhill and Jenny Slee in Chorlton as well as Andrew in Didsbury who have been working to get the use of defibrillators more widely understood, and placed in shops and public buildings across south Manchester.  There will be others I know, and apologies for not mentioning them.

So, back to Eddie and his defibrillator at 1, Barlow Moor Road, which trades as Evans of Didsbury and will be well known to many as the purveyors of fine fish and much more.

And as you do I went looking for the history of the building.  The site has been occupied since 1845, and with a bit of digging I will no doubt be able to push that date further back into the 19th century.

That research will also offer up the names of the owners and tenants and just what was being sold.

In 1901, 1 Barlow Moor Road was vacant while the adjoining property at 52 Wilmslow Road was occupied by Mr. Samuel Millington who was a fishmonger and manager working for Albert & Edward Evans Co,  Fishmongers, who rented the shop from T Seymour Mead.

He was there by 1898, and remained in the property till his death in 1930.

In time I will go looking for the story of the Millington family.

For now I know that their youngest son who was born in 1898 soon after the family moved to Didsbury, followed his father, and described himself  in 1939 as a “Fish, Poultry and Fruit Merchant, shopkeeper”.

Nine years earlier he was listed as a “Fish and Poultry Salesmen”, leading me to ponder whether he followed his father into the shop.  

What is clear is that by 1939 he was living with his wife, Ida Mary and Mr. Charles Oswald Bullogh a retired Civil Servant, in a fine detached house in Sandacre Road in Wythenshawe.

Ernest had married Ida in 1928.  She was from Salford and while I don’t as yet have a date for Ernest’s death, I know that Ida died on January 19, 2004, making her 102.

They appear to have travelled to Canada, and the USA, and most intriguingly there is  Police record of Ernest’s arrival in Antwerp in Belgium, which for a moment set my imagination running, but as it was an immigration record I suspect just confirms that they travelled.

All along way from Barlow Moor Road I know.

But that is how the story turned out.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; “Eddie at Evans fishmongers takes delivery of a defibrillator at 1, Barlow Moor Road, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simcock 

Andrew is the Labour Councillor for Didsbury East on Manchester City Council please contact me at cllr.a.simcock@manchester.gov.uk

*British Heart Foundation; https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/how-to-save-a-life/defibrillators

Stories from a Didsbury picture ….. no 2. ….. Knight Street

This is Knight Street, and it is the backdrop for our story from the challenge of taking a photograph from the collection of Andrew Simcock and finding a story.

Knight Street, 2021

In 1881 the paint was almost just dry on the fifteen houses that make up Knight Street. 

The first eight were built by Mr. George J. knight in 1879 and a year later they were joined by the remaining properties.

It is not clear whether George Knight built all of them, and while the style would suggest he did, those remaining properties were owned  by an Edward Barratt.

They commanded annual rents of between £9 and £10 and in the April of 1880 all but one was occupied.

We know the names of those early residents and using the census from the following year it is possible to build up a profile of the 62 people who lived there.

Their origins were as varied as their occupations and point to how Didsbury, like Chorlton-cum-Hardy and other parts of south Manchester were attracting people from across the country.  

So, while some were from Didsbury, they were outnumbered by those who were born in London, York, and St Helens as well as others  from rural locations in Somerset, Berkshire, Cumberland, and Sussex.

A few worked as gardeners, and we did still have an “agricultural labourer”, but these were in the minority, and the prevailing mix of jobs leaned heavily towards skilled workers and those in industry.

There were two bricklayers, two stone masons, a seamstress, dress maker, decorator, and midwife.

And it is more than likely that those engaged in “industrial” occupations will have worked in Manchester, or just over the border in the Heatons.  The railway had arrived in Didsbury in 1880 which offered swift journey times into the heart of the city, and the textile works in Heaton was not that far away.

Knight Street, 1956

The next task will be to ask Andrew how large the houses are and compare that with the size of the families who lived there, looking also at the age distribution.  I would like to have offered up the name of the people in Andrew’s house in 1881, but the numbers on both the rate books and census return don’t match the modern street numbers.

But I can tell him that in 1901 the Bradbury family were living in his house.  Mr. Alfred Bradbury was 35, born in Manchester and was a carter, carrying bricks.  His wife Edith was a year older and came from Withington and their three children were Frederick aged 6, John aged 4 and Alfred six months.  

They appear to have moved around, with Frederick having been born in Wilmslow, and the youngest in Withington.  A decade later they are still there, with their eldest two working as an assistant groundsman and assistant butcher.  The census also offers up that in 1911 their house consisted of just four rooms.

There is more but I think that is it for now.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; cleaning Knight Street’s gutters, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simcock, and Knight Street, 1956, Manchester & Salford OS                                     

Andrew is the Labour Councillor for Didsbury East on Manchester City Council please contact me at cllr.a.simcock@manchester.gov.uk

Stories from a Didsbury picture ….. no1. ….. a bike, a campaign and a much loved street ...

Now the challenge was straightforward.

I asked Didsbury resident Andrew Simcock to supply a series of photographs from his collection and what follows is a story which might drift off in any one of a number of directions.

And because I have been featuring Warburton Street recently it seemed an obvious first story.

I first came across the street back in 1969, when like a lot of young students living in the south of the city, I ended up in the bookshop, and 50 odd years later I trawled the records to see who lived there.

And along with the inhabitants of no.4, I followed the lives of many of the people that called Warburton Street their home, from the 1841 census onwards.

All of which brings me to no. 8, which in 1911 was home to the Schofield family.  Mr. Walter Schofield was a “night soil man", while next door there were the Blomileys, two of who worked as labourers, one was a charwoman and the youngest member of the family was a “gardener’s apprentice”.

Fast forward 81 years and no. 8 was the cycle shop of Neil Walton which leads to Andrew’s photograph and his story which I shall leave him to tell.

“It’s 1992. Neil Walton now runs the cycle shop on Warburton St, John Major has unexpectedly won the 1992 General Election and the Save Withington Hospital Campaign is in full swing. 

Campaign Treasurer Andrew Simcock and  MP Keith Bradley meet outside the cycle shop. 

Neil has donated a bicycle as a competition prize. Andrew will go to the offices of the Penwith Pirate in Penzance after he completes his Manchester to Lands End cycle ride. 

He will collect a sheaf of competition entries. 

Local school children had written in conjunction with the South Manchester Reporter to predict how many miles Andrew had cycled. The entrant closest to the 376 mile will win the prized bike”.

There will be many who remember the campaign and Andrew’s cycling adventure as well as Neil Walton’s cycle shop, but memories fade, bits of recent history are left unrecorded and newcomers are oblivious to events which are just a few decades old.

So that is it.

My thanks to Andrew for the picture, and the bit from our not so long ago history.**

Location; Didsbury

Picture; outside no.8, 1992, from the collection of Andrew Simcock

*Warburton Street, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Warburton+Street

** Andrew is the Labour Councillor for Didsbury East on Manchester City Council please contact me at cllr.a.simcock@manchester.gov.uk

First in the Fight ……………………… launches at the People’s History Museum …………. Today

Now I am looking forward to the book launch of First in the Fight today at the People’s History Museum.

According to the press release, First in the Fight has been “written by Helen Antrobus and Andrew Simcock, and with 20 individual Women in Print illustrations, First in the Fight tells of a city where, from the women who marched to St Peter’s Field flying the flag for reform to the first entrepreneurs, women have stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight for equality and change.

First in the Fight has been on a fascinating journey of its own, beginning with the public campaign championed by local councillor Andrew Simcock that led to the creation of the Emmeline Pankhurst statue, that now stands in St Peter’s Square in Manchester.  

All 20 women featured in the book were also part of the campaign, with their stories united by historian and author Helen Antrobus in First in the Fight.  

The stories featured in First in the Fight are those of Margaret Ashton, Lydia Becker, Louise Da-Cocodia, Margaret Downes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Annie Horniman, Sunny Lowry, Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst, Mary Quaile, Elizabeth Raffald, Esther Roper, Enriqueta Rylands, Olive Shapley, Shena Simon, Marie Stopes, Ellen Wilkinson and Emily Williamson”.

Now both the subject matter and the story of how the book was written is fascinating and one I shall be returning to over the next month and a bit.
Location; People’s History Museum, November 14th, 6.p.m

Pictures; statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, St Peter’s Square, and cover of First in the Fight, courtesy of Andrew Simcock

The beer festival .......the swing band and an apology

Now, the 12th Didsbury Beer Festival was a success.

The Swingin' Affair Big Band

There were lots of people there, and lots of them had travelled some distance to enjoy the event.

Leaving aside those of us who had taken the tram from Chorlton, along with those who had crossed the city from the north, there were beer fans from Yorkshire, Somerset and the south east.

And I doubt anyone was disappointed by the range of beers on offer, or the wonderful Swingin’ Affair Big Band, which were everything Andrew Holland told me they would be.

Andrew Simpson, Andrew Simcock, and Peter Topping

Peter and I were there from just after midday and within the space of a few hours the venue was full, and plenty of people showed an interest in our new book, Manchester Pubs – the Story Behind the Doors- Didsbury.

And here I have to offer up an apology to Andrew Simcock, who supplied some excellent photographs of the Royal Oak, and as ever we were careful to acknowledge Andrew in both the credits and again in the story.

But somewhere along the line those credits disappeared, and it remains a mystery, for which as the author I have profusely apologized to Andrew.

Emmeline Pankhurst

And as these things go I know Andrew will not have made the same mistake with his new book, First in the Fight,  which is out later this month, which began as an account of the project to create a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, and developed into much more.

According to the press release, First in the Fight has been “written by Helen Antrobus and Andrew Simcock, and with 20 individual Women in Print illustrations, First in the Fight tells of a city where, from the women who marched to St Peter’s Field flying the flag for reform to the first entrepreneurs, women have stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight for equality and change.

First in the Fight has been on a fascinating journey of its own, beginning with the public campaign championed by local councilor Andrew Simcock that led to the creation of the Emmeline Pankhurst statue, that now stands in St Peter’s Square in Manchester.  

All 20 women featured in the book were also part of the campaign, with their stories united by historian and author Helen Antrobus in First in the Fight.  

First in the Fight

The stories featured in First in the Fight are those of Margaret Ashton, Lydia Becker, Louise Da-Cocodia, Margaret Downes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Annie Horniman, Sunny Lowry, Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst, Mary Quaile, Elizabeth Raffald, Esther Roper, Enriqueta Rylands, Olive Shapley, Shena Simon, Marie Stopes, Ellen Wilkinson and Emily Williamson”.

Now this may seem a long way from the Didsbury Beer Festival, but not so as Andrew was there all three nights working as a volunteer behind the counter and was on hand to have his picture taken with us.

Pictures; the Swingin’ Affair Big Band, 2019, and part of the Beer Festival, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the picture of Andrew, me and Peter, along with the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simcock

First in the Fight ……launches at the People’s History Museum …... November 14th

Now I am looking forward to the book launch of First in the Fight next month at the People’s History Museum.

According to the press release, First in the Fight has been “written by Helen Antrobus and Andrew Simcock, and with 20 individual Women in Print illustrations, First in the Fight tells of a city where, from the women who marched to St Peter’s Field flying the flag for reform to the first entrepreneurs, women have stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight for equality and change.

First in the Fight has been on a fascinating journey of its own, beginning with the public campaign championed by local councillor Andrew Simcock that led to the creation of the Emmeline Pankhurst statue, that now stands in St Peter’s Square in Manchester.  

All 20 women featured in the book were also part of the campaign, with their stories united by historian and author Helen Antrobus in First in the Fight.  

The stories featured in First in the Fight are those of Margaret Ashton, Lydia Becker, Louise Da-Cocodia, Margaret Downes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Annie Horniman, Sunny Lowry, Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst, Mary Quaile, Elizabeth Raffald, Esther Roper, Enriqueta Rylands, Olive Shapley, Shena Simon, Marie Stopes, Ellen Wilkinson and Emily Williamson”.

Now both the subject matter and the story of how the book was written is fascinating and one I shall be returning to over the next month and a bit.
Location; People’s History Museum, November 14th, at 6.pm.

Pictures; statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, St Peter’s Square, and cover of First in the Fight, courtesy of Andrew Simcock