A map, dance lessons in the Con Club and a mystery

Now here is one of those fascinating little bits of history which like so many is the result of nothing more dramatic than turning out a cupboard drawer.

It is a map of Chorlton drawn on linen and takes us back to dance lessons in the late 50s and a friendship.

And because my friend Ann found the map I will let her tell the story

“I was putting something away in a drawer, and came across this map.

When I was 13, I used to go for dance lessons at 'Rogers and Lamont', who used to be in the room above the Conservative Club, on Wilbraham Road. 

I met a boy there, who used to walk me home. He was 16, and worked at a printers in Manchester, and to show me where he worked, he drew me this map on linen.

That was 60 years ago. I wonder if he is still alive?  I'd love to be able to tell him I've still got his map.”

I hope he is too and during the evening I shall go looking for him.

It may lead nowhere but I will enjoy the search.

And of course for anyone with a keen interest in the bus routes of 1956 David was helpful enough to add these to the map.

The 94 and 82 were still running when I washed up here in 1976 and I often took the 82 in the 80s all the way up to Oldham to visit my friend Lois, while the 94 whisked you down Manchester Road along Seymour Grove and off into town via I think Deansgate.

I do have a 1961 bus timetable and map so I shall go and look at that, but I am pretty sure that before the night draws in someone will have been in touch with the routes and times.

And I rather hope this will stir the post and we get some memories of Rogers and Lamont, dance lessons and maybe even David.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; hand drawn map of Chorlton, circa 1956 by David Jones from the collection of Ann Love

Back with Derrick A. Lea in the Chorlton of 1955

It’s one of those odd things that we have few pictures of Chorlton in the 1950s. 

Now there are a few fine collections in the Local History archive* but nothing compared with the huge range and number from the beginning of both the 20th century and the last decades of the 19th.

So when examples come up it is as well to include them in the story of Chorlton.

And so here we have another from the pen of Derrick A. Lea who drew pictures of the area in the 50s.  As I have said before along with J Montgomery Mr Lea is a bit of a mystery.

I know a little about him including where he lived in Chorlton and that some of his pictures were turned into greetings cards and that is about it.

Now given that pictures as opposed to photographs of where we live do not turn us as regularly his collection are quite unique.

This one is of Wilbraham Road sometime in 1955 and it appears to be a warm day in perhaps March or early April because despite the absence of any leaves on the trees people are walking around without those heavy overcoats everyone seemed to wear during the period.

Of course there may be a bit of poetic license here but there is much that is just as it should.

And it is a scene that has changed.  The Conservative Club and Public Hall was still solid reminder of the fact that Chorlton elected Conservative politicians to the Town Hall  and would do so until 1986.

In much the same way the Lloyd's Hotel has not changed overmuch since it was built in 1870

But with the benefit of hindsight we know that Mr Lea’s picture captured a Chorlton that has now gone forever.  The Conservative Club and Public Hall closed earlier in the year after the Conservative Association had wound itself up and currently the plans are to convert the building into flats.

The Lloyd’s may appear superficially the same, but internally much has been altered.  The small rooms have been knocked through, and the staircase taken down.

I can’t say the changes are for the worse.  I remember it from the late 1970s and early 80s as a place waiting for something to happen.

All of which would have pleased its landlady back in the 1880s.  This was a Mrs Crabtree who by all accounts “improved the place considerably in various particulars” and it may have been her who encouraged the bowling green members to build their own club house which was open on Wednesdays during the season.

She was an enterprising woman with an eye for business and also laid out a lawn tennis court on the open land along side Whitelow Road.

By the time I had washed up in Chorlton the tennis courts had become a drab car park while going inside the pub was like stepping back into the 1950s.

Nor did much seem to improve during the course of the next decade, and sadly the place became somewhere you went to only for a quick during before eating on Wilbraham Road.

But the place has undergone a series of makeovers in the course of the last few years, and is really a fun place to drop into for a drink, a meal and soon the launch of our new book, nothing to do in chorlton, Martledge Lost and Found.

Which brings me back to Wilbraham Road in 1955.

Picture;  Wilbraham Road in 1955, Derrick A. Lea


*http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

So just who owned Chorlton’s Conservative Club in 1891?

Now this is not an arcane question but gets to the very heart of who lived in Chorlton, and what their political affiliations were in the February of 1891 and by extension what our township was like at the end of the 19th century.

The Con Club, 2013

And of course, at the outset I have to say that the history of political clubs over the years, is that many members join because of the social attractions rather than the political outlook of the club.

It is true of Labour clubs as it is of Conservative ones, and no doubt also of the old Liberal clubs.

That said I am intrigued by those who took a risk and subscribed in the new Conservative Club which opened in Chorlton in 1892.

The share book opened on February 20th, 1891 and between that date and November 7th of the same year, 118 signed on the dotted line handing over a minimum of £1, with some putting down a lot more.

So far, I have only analyzed the first 50 and they are an interesting cross section.

As you would expect there were a few individuals who bought between £100 and £250 in one purchase, while sliding down the scale there were quite a few buying just one share.  Of those that splashed out, one was the MP, John William McLaren of Whalley Range, another was a merchant and another two described themselves as engineers.

The first 50 subscribers, 1891

At the other end over a third bought shares worth between £10 down to £1, and as you would expect their occupations were also more modest, with a collection of clerks, shop keepers and craftsmen.

The most interesting was Miss Mary Jane Weeks who bought two shares in the February and made her living from working as a domestic servant for a family living on Chequers Road.

I suspect some saw it as a solid enough investment, but it was one which Miss Weeks and a few others tired of very quickly, with a handful ceasing to be members within a year.  In the case of Mary Jane, she lasted just seven years.

The Con Club, 1908

Others stayed the course, bought into more shares,  and continued as members long after they had left the area, and were only parted from their membership by death.

So the task will be to finish collecting the data on all 118, with a side look at those who joined in the following decade, and then matching them against the other official records of Chorlton, from census returns, to directories and electoral rolls.

All of which lead to a better understanding of who our residents were and why so many chose to take a punt with a a share in the Conservative Club and Public hall.

Well that's the plan.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; The Conservative Club, 1908, from the Lloyd Collection,  and in 2013 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Register of Members Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club Limited 1892-96

“Don’t put your daughter on the stage” …… seven years of the Chorlton Repertory Club ... part 1

The Chorlton Repertory Theatre Club is one of those half-remembered stories. 

Enjoying the theatre programme for January 15th-20th, 1951

It was where some of our well-known actors and comedians first strutted the boards including Avis Bunnage, Joan Sims, Harry Corbett and Ronnie Barker and over the years was at home in both the Lloyds Hotel and the former Conservative Cub

Cast of All The Year Round, April 7th, 1951

And here I am indebted to Ida Bradshaw who first told me of its existence, offered up a short history of the club and preserved fifteen theatre programmes from 1951-52.

She told me the “club was established in 1946and although it had no theatre of its own, offered up a weekly repertory performed by a professional company.  Initially it used a large room connected to the Lloyd’s Hotel and then moved to Chorlton Conservative Club.

It was the brainchild of two actors.  James Lovell and Arthur Spreckley.  The club played to full houses in Chorlton.  However, problems pre-empted by the sacking of Lovell began to mount and by 1951 the club was making a loss.  Membership was dissolved and blame was laid at the door of television and bad weather.  But Alan Bendle observed that ‘of the 1952 performances, perhaps only six of the 52 were successful’

A professional producer was employed in 1953 who immediately gave the company notice.

In 1954 the Chorlton Theatre Club became home to Piccola Theatre Company, which brought to Manchester  a group of young actors, designers and directors, many of whom were to leave their mark on the world of theatre.

For two seasons productions included The Women Have their way [ Frank Dunlop] and Maria Marten in the Red Barn [Richard Negri] provided an early opportunity to assess the talents of individuals who were to become more familiar to Manchester audiences”.

Drama off stage, February, 1949

And there is much more.  

The Manchester Guardian carries 131 references to both theatre companies, and it makes for fascinating reading because amongst the reviews of performances, there is the starling announcement that the club committee had “terminated the contract of the manager producer …. Mr. James Lovell”.

And if that wasn’t enough of a dramatic turn worthy of its own drama productions, just a month later  “the management committee …. was yesterday voted out of office at a special general meeting it had called to secure a vote of confidence” to rebut a call by 283 members of mount an investigation of the said committee..**

A thank you, October 29th, 1951

Now I have to say it all sounds very exciting with “some seven hundred people attending the meeting at the Princess Ballroom, Chorlton-cum-Hardy”, the revelation of huge financial losses and the possibility that the “spring programme ‘would lead to insolvency in four to six weeks’”

All of which was compounded by accusations that committee was pursuing a vindicative policy.

And with tensions mounting the Committee declared “that there was another booking of the hall and the members had to clear the furniture before leaving” , a challenge met by shouts of no confidence in the committee, a demand for a vote to replace it with a new one.

All of which I didn’t know when I began leafing through the 14 programmes, looking for references to local companies who provided props, smiling at the problems of fuel shortages and impressed by the planned  theatre improvements.

Introducing a viper, July 16, 1951

And along with various Christmas socials and fund raising activities there was the raffle for a “Beautiful Television, which may just have been a viper introduced by the club with its promise of varied entertainment in front of the fire with no recourse to a trip out on wet cold night.

A play a week, October 29th, 1951

There is so much more, but sadly I fear the Club has all but moved  out of living memory.

But if the grownups are now in short supply there may be a few of their children who went along to performances of “Christmas in the Market Place” which promised to be “A most delightful and happy Yuletide play for young and old” which were to run from Boxing Day 1952 through to January 3rd 1953.

So there is much still to do.  

Starting with the stalwart cast listed in each of the programmes, looking through all 131 references in the Manchester Guardian along with more from other Manchester papers, and finally tracking down a scrap book and perhaps the records of the club.

And as a start I know that Jean Parry the star of  All The Year Round in 1951 came from Salford was born in 1925 and died in 2005, and I have three pictures of her cast member Jean Ryder from 19159.

It's a start.

Theatre Comfort, October 29th, 1951

Location Chorlton

Pictures; selection of theatre programmes of the Chorlton Repertory Club, 1952- 1953, from the Ida Bradshaw Archive and extracts from the Manchester Guardian, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Chorlton Repertory Dispute, Manchester Guardian, February 8th, 1949

**New Repertory Committee A Chorlton Vote, Manchester Guardian March 1949

Miss. Mary Jane Weeks ……… domestic servant and shareholder in the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club

Now history is messy and doesn’t always conform to rigid rules of historical development.

The Conservative Club and Public Hall, 1908

And nowhere is this more the case than in the individuals who came forward to buy shares in the new Conservative Club which opened for business, in 1892.

This was after all the party of class which represented the people of plenty.

But as we all know amongst their ranks no less than their loyal voters were people drawn from all classes.

And here it is easy to be dismissive and sniffy about those who consistently voted Tory despite coming from humble beginnings.

My father was a working class Tory.  He drove coaches all his life, and yet he voted for the party which on the surface was least likely to look after him.  That said mother was Labour and she always maintained that her vote cancelled out Dad’s which was a start on the way to a Labour Government.

The political side, 1980s

Here in Chorlton throughout the late 19th century and into the first two decades of the next the Liberals and Conservatives fought it out, and at a local level this often resulted in the electorate returning candidates from both parties on alternative years  to the Town Hall.

But like elsewhere after the last world war, the Liberals were eclipsed and the Tories came out on top, dominating local elections until 1986 and continuing to return an MP until Keith Bradley’s victory in 1987.

And I have long been fascinated by what makes people from the working class vote Conservative.  There will be many explanations and the idea that they were all just class traitors is not good enough.

So that has led me to the big book of subscribers for the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club.  The land had been handed over by the Egerton’s in 1891, and the subscription fund opened that year.

As you would expect here can be found the very wealthy, including Samuel Gratrix of West Point in Whalley Range who bought £200 worth of shares, and a collection of our farmers, merchants and businessmen.

The club up for sale, 2013

Here too was Charles Ireland who owned a string of photographic shops, as well as estate agents, civil engineers down to shop keepers and warehousemen.

Some may have been drawn by the politics, while others by the social attractions of the club

And along with all these was Miss. Mary Jane Weeks, who held shares amounting to £2.

What makes her interesting is that she was domestic servant, working for the Adams family from at least 1891 through to 1911 and possibly beyond.

She had been born in 1849, in the small market town of Hathereigh in Devon, and was working as a servant by 1871.

I would like to know more about Miss. Mary Jane, but so far there are only the census returns to go on, but something more will turn up.

 And in the same way in the fullness of time, all the subscribers will be plotted and their lives revealed.

All of which will help get a better understanding of who voted Conservative in Chorlton  in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as offering up an insight into Chorlton-cum-Hardy, just as the township was evolving from an agricultural community into a suburb of Manchester.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; The Conservative Club, 1908, from the Lloyd Collection,  in 1980, from the collection of Tony Walker, and in 2013 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Register of Members Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club Limited 1892-96

Public Hall or Conservative Club?

The Conservative Club remains an iconic local land mark.  

Whatever you think of the politics of the place and there are many I know who refused to step into the building that has dominated the corner of Wilbraham and Manchester Roads for a century and more.

It was opened in 1892, on land granted by the Egerton estate and the building was paid for through an issue of shares.  What is interesting is that the shareholders consisted of the very wealthy  local professionals, tradesmen and farmers as well as domestic servants and warehouseman.

Which I suppose was partly a tribute to the political manoeuvrings of Disraeli with his brand of one nation politics and the astute way his government positioned itself ahead of the Liberals when it extended the franchise to sections of working men in 1867.  It may also have something to do with that old Tory paternalism which in the early decades of the 19th century saw leading Tories attacking factory conditions and the laissez faire politics of successive Whig governments.

But here I conceded I shall have to do more reading.  In the meantime I shall fall back on some research by my old friend Lawrence who has dug deep into the history of the building and points up the role of the Public Hall which was on the upstairs of the Con Club and was accessed by a separate entrance.

The “Public Hall” offered a venue for everything from amateur dramatics to political speakers and campaigns which in some cases ran contrary to the political views of the Con Club. Victor Grayson Socialist MP for Colne Valley spoke in the hall in 1908 and was heckled by members of the public, some I suspect who had made their way up from the Club below.  A number of drama groups also performed here along with a young John Thaw.*

“The architects were Darbyshire and Smith, who very well known especially for building theatres including the Palace in Manchester) and pubs like the Marble Arch on Rochdale Road.   The front entrance went into the Conservative Club and a side entrance on Manchester Road went upstairs to the Public Hall which had a stage.   

The capacity was given variously as 700 to 800. There was a separate entrance to backstage area, a caretakers building at the rear and kitchens in the basement with a lift system to bring food upstairs.

The foundation stone was laid on Saturday April 25th l 1891 by Cunliffe Brooks and Lady Brooks and there was a dinner and speeches in the Lloyds opposite.

A year later the Club was opened on Saturday April 23rd 1892 by Lord and Lady Egerton along with Lord Cross an old Tory grandee, who had been Home Secretary in the Disraeli Government.

And three years later the clock which had been paid for by  subscription was unveiled.  It  was made by William Potts & Sons of Leeds  had three faces was lit by gas.”**

It was the first public clock in Chorlton and takes us back to the fact that the building was more than just a Con Club.  For the best part of a century it had also been a public place and from this seems to have risen the confusion as to the name and purpose of the building.

Many old postcards from the early decades of the 20th century refer to the building as the Public Hall not the Conservative Club leading one local historian to wonder which it was.  I guess for many in Chorlton it depended on who you were and how you visited the place.

Now I could have featured one of the many old photographs but instead have chosen Peter’s painting of the Club shortly after it closed for the last time.  Peter as you know paints the pictures and I tell the stories so it seemed fitting that this should be the image to use, especially given that the future of the building is still in the realms of speculation.

Picture; The Conservative Club, September 2012, © Peter Topping, web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk  facebook: www.facebook.com/paitningsfrompictures

* John Thaw, 1942 –2002) was an English actor, who appeared in a range of television, stage and cinema roles, his most popular being television series such as Redcap, The Sweeney, Home to Roost, Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC.
** read Lawrence’s blog at http://hardylane.blogspot.co.uk/

Chorlton Conservative Club and that post card from Spain nu 2 ........... a new mystery

Now it is odd just how stories come about.

Yesterday a new friend in Spain sent me a post card addressed to "Miss M Calderbank, Chorlton Conser, Club, Wilbraham Road, Chorlton. C. Hardy, England."

There was no date and I doubted that I would ever know who Miss M Calderbank was, or how the postcard got back to Spain.

But within an hour of posting the story Annette, Della and Marie all replied with memories of Melody Calderbank.  Annette went to Levenshulme High School with Melody, Della remembered her parents Dick and Mona and Marie told me she would now be in her fifties which might date the postcard to around 1974.

But the best was that Melody's sister was also in touch commenting that "my sister is 66 now...... I'm 56...she married in 1972 when she left the Conservative Club...so post card could be older..."

Of course that just led to the mystery of how the picture postcard from Chris to Melody having arrived in Chorlton made its way back to Spain.

The answer is a bit more sinister and suggests that Miss M never got the card.  Emma who sent me the card wrote that, “la postcard was rescued with another hundred , more or less , of a factory that recycled papel. todas rescued postcards have ornaments with pictures of Gypsy dancing sewn , so I think someone post , many years ago stole to coleccion.hay postcards to many parts of the mundo.I try to arrive but that some difficult. Que joy arrives.”

So perhaps Melody never got to know of the holiday Chris had in Spain and in turn Chris may well have just mumbled something about the Spanish postal service.

All of which is a nice lesson i how even the most mundane events have a habit of offering up a story of how we live.

Today the message would have been sent as a text, or from anyone of a number of different social media platforms, included would have been a photograph of the beach and perhaps even a selfie.

It would have been instant unlike our postcard which even in the 1980s would probably have arrived long after the suntan had begun to fade.

And the same social media platform allowed Emma to find me and pass on the postcard which perhaps 47 years later will allow Melody to be reunited with the postcard from Chris and along the way has given me a new friend from Spain who I might add has a better command of English than I of Spanish.


Location; Chorlton & Spain

Painting; The Conservative Club  © 2012 Peter Topping

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Picture; the postcard, date unknown, courtesy of Emma Gilarranz Gutierrez

A Chorlton mystery under a Spanish sun

Now I have no idea who Mel is or was or when she received this postcard from Chris, but it’s an intriguing little mystery.

I am sure someone will know of Miss M Calderbank who either worked, or lived at the Chorlton Conservative Club.

And maybe even the surname of Chris who confided that “the sea is far to rough for the boat.”

What makes the postcard just that bit more interesting is that it was sent to me by Emma in Spain, which begs the question, of why was it not posted?

Or if it was how did it end up back in Spain?

All very intriguing and within the hour Annette, Della and Marie all replied with memories of Melody Calderbank.  Anntte went to Levenshulme High School with Melody, Della remembered her parents Dick and Mona and Marie told me she would now be in her fifties which might date the postcard to around 1974.

But the best is that Melody's sister has also been in touch commenting that "my sister is 66 now...I'm 56...she married in 1972 when she left the Conservative Club...so post card could be older..."

So not bad as a start and more to come.

Location; Chorlton & Spain

Picture; the postcard, date unknown, courtesy of Emma Gilarranz Gutierrez

Chorlton-cum-Hardy's own clock, another story from Tony Goulding

Having done a literary tour around South Manchester writing about the area’s various clocks I thought it was about time I looked at Chorlton-cum-Hardy's own prominent public clock.

Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club Clock 

It adorns this substantial building which has been a landmark of Chorlton-cum-Hardy since the latter part of Queen Victoria’s reign. It not only served as the club of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Association but also incorporated on its upper floor a public hall which had a separate entrance.  

It was opened on St. George’s Day, 23rd April 1892. 

This was an extremely lavish event (1) with the dual nature of building being recognized by a joint ceremonial opening. 

Firstly, the club was opened, with a golden key provided for the ceremony, by Sir John William MacClure, the Member of Parliament for the Stretford constituency of which Chorlton-cum-Hardy was then a part. Lady Egerton was then given a silver key to officially open the Public Hall.

Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club Clock 

The building was designed by the Manchester firm of architects Darbyshire and Smith. (Alfred Darbyshire from Salford and Stockport born Frederick Bennett Smith) and constructed on land donated by Lord Egerton. The plans included a clock tower but the clock was not itself fitted until funds had been raised through a further public subscription.   A feature of the clock is how it is positioned at an angle to give a better view of the three faces. Unfortunately, the clock is no longer working and is stopped at 12-28.

The activities of the Conservative Club which included a thriving billiards section may be worthy of further study, for now, however, it is the story of the Public Hall part of the building which is the focus of my attention. In a previous post on this Blog, I have written about some of the political meetings held in the hall including a raucous one in which the Socialist firebrand of the day Victor Grayson was the main speaker. 

I now wish to detail some of the other events which were held in this venue which in its heyday of the late Victorian and Edwardian era was the first and for a time only place of entertainment in the rapidly expanding suburb of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. In spite of its location in the same building as a Conservative club local Socialists of South Manchester often used the Public Hall.  One such use occurred on the 15th October, 1896 when the Hall was the location for “The Greatest Lantern Show on Earth” given by the fabulously named Whiffly Puncto assisted by Barnum 11 and the Clarionettes. This was a magic lantern show staged as part of a nationwide movement inspired by The Clarion newspaper to promote socialist ideas through the conduit of a variety of cultural and sporting activities. The tickets for the event were sold through Mr. Harry Charles David Scott of 47, Keppel Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy the secretary and former treasurer of the local Socialist Society.

Clarion by Robert Blatchford, 1900

Whiffly Puncto was the pseudonym of William Palmer a multi-talented artist and pioneer Socialist who was one of a group of journalists who in 1891 resigned from their jobs with Edward Hulton’s “Sunday Chronicle” and launched their own weekly paper the socialist leaning “The Clarion” (2) on the 12th December 1891 from a small office on Corporation Street, Manchester.

William Palmer was born in Bury, Lancashire, on the 3rd November 1860 to Walter Palmer, an engineering turner, and his wife Ellen (née Shuttleworth). When he was still only 16-years-old his mother died in 1877.  His father moved to Burnley, Lancashire, his home town, where he remarried before the year was out, Elizabeth Margerison. William who remained in Bury was by then training as an artist and in the 1881 census is recorded living as a lodger of Robert Smith, a master decorator (employing 4 men and 2 boys) and his wife, Amelia, at 14, Haymarket, Bury, Lancashire.

William Palmer married Elizabeth Green during the December quarter of 1887 in the Chorlton registration district of Manchester. The 1891 census records the couple residing at 82, Bedford Street, Moss Side, Manchester with the first two of their three children (all boys) Harry born in 1888 and Robert Alexander (3) born on the 29th November 1890. A third son, William arrived in 1895 and sometime after his birth the family moved to Ashton-on-Mersey, Cheshire. In 1901 they were living on Cross Street, but later moved to 6, Albany Terrace in that town. By 1911 the family had re-located again and 6, Warwick Road North, Old Trafford at which address William remained until his death during the December quarter of 1941. 

William Palmer otherwise Whiffly Puncto was variously described as an “artist”, a “newspaper artist, a “cartoonist”, a “social campaigner”, an “art and literary critic”, and a “lantern lecturer”. He was also for a time the deputy editor of the “Clarion”. In the Edwardian era William moved into the theatre world. He was responsible for the dramatization of Walter Scott’s novel “Ivanhoe” which was staged at the Queen’s Theatre in Manchester in September 1906. He also painted some of the scenery for the show; a task he undertook for a number of other shows.

Towards the end of his working life William worked for 14 years for Co-operative Insurance Society, Manchester before retiring in November 1930 having reached the age of 70.

 Another group which regularly made use of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Public Hall in its early days were “----Our clever local amateur Thespians, the George Alexander Dramatic Club --”. (4)   They were formed at a meeting on Monday 16th December 1895 at the Forsyth’s Rooms in Deansgate, Manchester. The president Mr. John J. Wood welcomed well over 50 members at this inaugural session. This club was one of a number formed in the late Victorian age in honour of Mr. George Alexander a hugely influential actor/manager and impresario, who was a great champion of the amateur stage. He was the honorary president of this South Manchester based one as well as others in Leeds, London, and Glasgow.

 For more than a decade at the turn of the 19th/ 20th centuries they performed plays at the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Public Hall which received rave reviews from the three main Manchester newspapers of the day: The Manchester Weekly Times, The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser and The Manchester Evening News. Interestingly perhaps the most glowing reviews were published in The Manchester Weekly Times, possibly due to the fact the leading female parts in the production were variously portrayed by Mrs. Emma Attwood and Miss Vivien Horsfall Attwood the wife and daughter of the paper’s editor Benjamin Stidstone Attwood.  The family were living at 15, Cavendish (now Corkland) Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester on both the 1901 and 1911 censuses.  By the time of the death of Emma the wife and mother on the 10th March 1920 they were residing at 55, Claude Road, also in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, with Benjamin remaining at this address until he too died on the 18th April 1927. 

Finally, this clock with its connection to the Conservatives had a rival for the pre-eminent clock of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Further up Wilbraham Road on the corner with Barlow Moor Road stood Harry Kemp’s Chemist’s shop which boasted a large clock. Now Harry Kemp was staunch Liberal and represented the area on the Manchester City Council and he possibly added the clock to his building as a challenge to the Tory one up the road.

A.H. Downes - Harry Kemp’s Clock - April 1959

Pictures: - Clarion by Robert Blatchford, the editor. https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2019/07/Clarion  Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119348871 Harry Kemp’s Clock from m 17486 A.H. Downes April 1959 and m 18414 A.E. Landers 1960. Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Archives, and Information, Manchester City Council http://manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass 

Clock from Wilbraham Road 1960 – A.E. Landers

Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club Clock from the collection of Tony Goulding.

Notes: -

1) The Conservative supporting “Manchester Courier -------) published a very detailed account of this opening as it had the laying of the club’s foundation stone by Sir William Cunliffe and Lady Brooks almost a year to the day previous on the 25th April 1891. This ceremony included a procession of carriages from the Brooks’s home, Barlow Hall. Interestingly the stone  was vandalised a few days later.

2) Clarion newspaper spawned a number of social and sporting clubs which served to further propagate Socialist ideas; the chief amongst these were the Clarion Cycling Clubs.

3)  Robert Alexander served with the Manchester Regiment during the First World War seeing action in Egypt and on the Western Front and being promoted to the commissioned rank of Second Lieutenant near the end of the war on the 30th October 1918. He later held some high posts in the Co-operative movement and was appointed to the House of Lords by the Labour government of 1945. His final rôle was as the chairman of British Rail’s London Midland Area Board (1955-1960).

4) Quoted from The Clarion’s review on the 15th February 1905 of performances by the club of a farce - “Aunt Jack” by barrister and dramatist Ralph Robert Lumley.

The Con Club on Wilbraham Road ............. a painting and a mended clock

The thing about a landmark is that it pretty much gets taken for granted, which I suppose is my excuse for not giving much attention to the Con Club on Wilbraham Road.

The former Conservative Club, 2012

It had already been there for over 80 years when I washed up in Chorlton in 1976 and given that I didn’t share its political views it was somewhere I never visited.

More recently I had occasionally wandered past watching the work being done to transform it into residential properties but hadn’t even noticed that the clock was working again.

It was Peter who alerted me to that small change in the building’s fortunes when we were talking about his painting of the place.

The club had opened in 1892 with a blaze of confidence and a profound belief that Chorlton was a place that the Conservatives would always do well in which is pretty much how the late 19th and early 20th centuries proved to be.

So while they alternated in power locally with the Liberals in the years after the Great War, Chorlton was theirs from the early 1930s till the late 1980s.

But political fortunes can wain and so it was with both the Liberals in the interwar years and the Conservatives after 1985, which in the case of the Con Club led to its sale.

The Conservative Club and Public Hall, 1908

And that in turn made me think of the Public Hall which was part of the Conservative Club.

This too was a bold stroke and offered a venue for everything from amateur dramatics to political speakers and campaigns which in some cases ran contrary to the political views of the Con Club. Victor Grayson Socialist MP for Colne Valley spoke in the hall in 1908 and was heckled by members of the public, some I suspect who had made their way up from the Club below.

A number of drama groups also performed here along with a young John Thaw.*

“The architects were Darbyshire and Smith, who very well known especially for building theatres including the Palace in Manchester) and pubs like the Marble Arch on Rochdale Road.   The front entrance went into the Conservative Club and a side entrance on Manchester Road went upstairs to the Public Hall which had a stage." 

Now I wish I had known all of that when I first walked past it in 1976.

Painting; The Conservative Club  © 2012 Peter Topping

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Picture; the Conservative Club and Public Hall, Chorlton 1908 from the Lloyd Collection

* John Thaw, 1942 –2002 appeared in a range of television, stage and cinema roles, his most popular being television series such as Redcap, The Sweeney, Home to Roost, Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC.

** from Lawrence Beedle,  http://hardylane.blogspot.co.uk/

Stories of the Library Theatre, its new home and the Public Hall in Chorlton

I went looking for pictures of the Library Theatre but so far have come up with just two.

Home, May 2015

Now given that the company performed in the basement of Central Ref from 1952 I would have thought I would have found more.

It was a theatre I enjoyed going to.

Unlike the Royal Exchange which was stunning and the Opera House where you could suffer from vertigo if you went cheap, the Library Theatre was small and intimate and quite special.

So while it was a traditional theatre you were never far from the actors and the action and that counted for a lot.

During the 40 years I went there you never quite forgot that this was a municipal enterprise.

It was built in 1934 as a lecture theatre and became the home of the Library Theatre which was run by the Libraries Committee from 1952.

The Lecture Theatre, 1934

I have a vague memory that during the interval in the early 70s they played a light show on to the safety curtain using what I think was a variation of a larva lamp.

Now I might be wrong on that but the place was distinctively different from your run of the mill commercial theatres.

It started with its location in the Ref which meant that your first introduction to the theatre was entering the library past those impressive columns and moving through the Shakespeare Hall and down that sweep of stairs.

And on a slow night in the large Social Sciences Room when the studying was not going well we sometimes drifted down to see if there were seats available.

First Street, May 2015

Usually we were successful and would sit in the cafe area as the last of the students departed to be replaced by the theatre set.

And now it has gone but having said that has not travelled far for in conjunction with the Corner House it will reopen at Home on First Street.

This looks an exciting new place and all credit to the City Council for helping push the project through with the same vision that saw them build Central Ref eighty one years ago and create the Library Theatre in 1952.

The Conservative Club and Public Hall, 1908

And that in turn made me thing of the Public Hall here in Chorlton in what was the Conservative Club on Wilbraham Road.

This too was a bold stroke and offered a venue for everything from amateur dramatics to political speakers and campaigns which in some cases ran contrary to the political views of the Con Club. Victor Grayson Socialist MP for Colne Valley spoke in the hall in 1908 and was heckled by members of the public, some I suspect who had made their way up from the Club below.

A number of drama groups also performed here along with a young John Thaw.*

“The architects were Darbyshire and Smith, who very well known especially for building theatres including the Palace in Manchester) and pubs like the Marble Arch on Rochdale Road.   The front entrance went into the Conservative Club and a side entrance on Manchester Road went upstairs to the Public Hall which had a stage." 

Pictures; The Home May 2015 from the collection of Mike Lever, the lecture Theatre, Central Ref, 1934, Kemsley Studios, m81032, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the Conservative Club and Public Hall, Chorlton 1908 from the Lloyd Collection

* John Thaw, 1942 –2002) was an English actor, who appeared in a range of television, stage and cinema roles, his most popular being television series such as Redcap, The Sweeney, Home to Roost, Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC.

** from Lawrence Beedle,  http://hardylane.blogspot.co.uk/

Chorlton Conservative Club from a political statement to a 21st century set of flats, ....... the planning application

Now it is sometime since I have written about the Chorlton Conservative Club.  

http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20Conservative%20Club

It opened in 1892 with a blaze of confidence and a profound belief that Chorlton was a place that the Conservatives would always do well in which is pretty much how the late 19th and early 20th centuries proved to be.

So while they alternated in power locally with the Liberals in the years after the Great War, Chorlton was theirs from the early 1930s till the late 1980s.

But political fortunes can wain and so it was with both the Liberals in the interwar years and the Conservatives after 1985, which in the case of the Con Club led to its sale earlier this year and a lot of speculation since on the future of the building which I can now confirm will be a conversion into thirteen flats if the planning application is accepted by the Corporation.

The plans make fascinating reading.  Amongst the documents is a detailed Heritage Assessment report which not only covers the history of the building and some fine photographs but also the plans for the conversion which on the way provides an insight into the existing building.

These can also be viewed on line at the above address of if you want go to http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/custom_scripts/public_access.php and quote the reference 101230/FO/2012/S1

So for anyone interested in what is a significant historical building in the township or like me never entered the building when it was the Con Club I would recommend looking up the planning application.

Pictures; from the  collection of Andrew Simpson

Stories from a Conservative Club and thoughts on yesterday’s election

Yesterday I was reflecting on the sale of the Conservative Club, and as you would expect the comments have begun to flood in.  ;

My favourite so far comes from Lawrence, who remembered there “was a Job Club in the place in the late 1980’s during the Thatcher era,” and "that the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Socialist Society had a public meeting there around 1904.”

And for those of you who remember Brian Relph you will smile as I did at Lawrence’s tale of how Brian had been “sent a letter saying he was banned from drinking in the Club because he had been spotted helping Labour in an election. He kept it for years and laughed that it took them years to realise he was a Labour man.”

All of which is in direct contrast to their popularity here in Chorlton just over a century after the Club was opened in 1892.

As late as 1987 the Conservatives could still poll over 2, 000 votes in a local election, but last night they managed just 180, trailing far behind the Greens, Lib Dems and the Trade Unionists Against Cuts.

Bu it was Labour’s night with Shelia Newman getting 2,433 votes and giving her 56% of the vote.

And for me one of the abiding memories of yesterday was walking down to vote with four of our grown up children around me.  Tina had ready voted but the rest of us went down together. Quite something.

Picture; from the Lloyd collection

So it's farewell to the Conservative Club on Wilbraham Road

I wonder just what the full story is behind the sale of the old Conservative Club.  It was opened in 1892, just nine years after the Conservative Association of Chorlton met at the Lloyds Hotel and took the decision to ask the Egerton estate for some land to build a club.*

During a large part of the 20th century Chorlton returned Tory MPs and councillors. From 1918 to ‘23 and again from 1931 to ‘87 we had a Tory MP.

But from the mid 1980s this dominance seemed less secure, and in the May of 1986 the first Labour councillor was elected in Chorlton and a year later Keith Bradley became the first Labour MP for the Withington Constituency.

So the sale of the building marks perhaps the final chapter in the Conservative presence in south Manchester.  And on this election day I have to record that no Tory literature has been delivered and I have yet to be see one of their canvassers.  Come to think of it the Lib Dem presence has also been low key and our only contact with a political party has been from Labour.

Now I have mixed feelings about the sale of the old Con Club.  Setting aside my own political views and reflecting just on the building it marks the passing of a place that has been a venue for many cultural activities since it opened.  Almost from 1892 it was known as the Public Hall and in its time has had a skittle alley, rifle range and bike park and at least one amateur dramatic group performed there.

Not that I have ever crossed its doors and I have to confess I don’t think any of my friends have either, and more recently other venues seem to be more popular for hosting events.  All of which raises the question of what will be the future of the place?

It is a big building and could I suppose be converted into flats. There are plenty of big properties around Chorlton which have gone this way, and just this month the old school house on the green has undergone its transformation into four houses.

But I guess it is more likely that it will if sold be demolished and replaced by that sort of development which went up on the car park by the Lloyds.
And so with it will go a landmark and a bit of history, not perhaps one that I am entirely comfortable with but still a bit of history.

So I shall close with this photograph of the building which dates from I think sometime in the 1920s.  There are plenty of pictures of the place in the collection, and all could have a claim on being shown.  There is the earliest, which may date to 1895, a few hand painted postcards and some from the 1950s.

But this one has a story and the clue is there on the notice board.  Amongst the announcements for a mass meeting with the MP is an advert for an event with Thomas Scalan who was an Irish barrister, nationalist politician and  the MP for North Sligo from 1909 to 1918 before returning to the Bar in the 1920s.  He was also the barrister who represented the Seamen’s and Firemen’s Union at the inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

I would love to know why he was here, but so far there are no press references to him appearing in Chorlton.  Of course he may have been speaking on his role in the Titanic inquiry or on his view on alternative voting systems but that lies in the realm of speculation.  So I won’t go there.

Either way if the sale goes ahead and the developers take over it will mark one more step in the passing of conservatism here in Chorlton.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the Lloyd collection