The last of the unseen pictures of Chorlton-cum-Hardy

This the last of six picture postcards of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, marketed by Rapid Art Photography Company, sometime in the 1930s.

And of the six, this is the only one I have seen before.

The other five were all of familiar landmarks but taken from unusual angles, making them just that bit different.*

But this one of St Werburgh’s pretty much conforms to your standard image.

The foundation stone for the church was laid in 1899, and it opened three years later, and in the words of one of our historians was “to fulfil the spiritual needs of the people who had come to live in the new house built near Chorlton Station and Alexandra Park Station on the Fallowfield Line”.**

The full story of the church and all the other places of worship across Chorlton and West Didsbury can be found in Chorlton-cum-Hardy Churches, Chapels, Temples, A Synagogue And A Mosque.***

Which just leaves me to return to the choice of the six images for the picture postcards.  One was of Chorlton Park, a second was of Hough End Hall, and third looked out across Chorlton Golf course, leaving two of the River Mersey and Jackson’s Boat and this one of the church.

There is no logical theme underlying the choice, and while some fit together by virtue of their proximity to each other, St Werburgh’s sits alone.

Perhaps they were a random choice made by someone sitting in the headquarters in London or the favourites of the photographer, but what ever the reason for the selection they are different from the usual set of Chorlton images.

And that is it.  I thank Jennie Brooks for finding the six and Michael Billington for emailing them over to me.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; St Werburgh’s Church, circa 1930s, courtesy of Jennie Brooks

* Chorlton Pictures the unseen 6, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20Pictures%20the%20unseen%206

**Templar, Nora, Chorlton-cum-Hardy Fellowship of Churches, 1988, page 12

*** Chorlton-cum-Hardy Churches, Chapels, Temples, A Synagogue And A Mosque, Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping, 2018

Hough End Hall …… from the unseen collection of Chorlton pictures

It is easy to miss Hough End Hall.

It is partially hidden by two rather ugly office blocks, has a school and carpark to the rear and can only be glimpsed from the main road which nearly caused its destruction.

Many people will automatically assume it is part of Chorlton, and it does lookout on Chorlton Park, but it was once the home of the Lords of Withington, it’s inhabitants were listed in the census returns for Withington and it was built by an Elizabethan businessmen who had bought up into the connection with Withington.

The hall was built in 1596 by Sir Nicholas Mosley, passed into the estate of the Egerton family in the 18th century, and from then on was variously a farmhouse, restaurant, set of offices, and after an uncertain period when it was empty and waiting a buyer, it became an Islamic Centre.

All of which brings me to the picture postcard, which is one of six, dating from sometime in the 1930s, and were marketed by the Rapid Art Photography Company.

The Hall in the picture is in its last phase as a farmhouse, and by the time the photograph was taken, the land around the farmhouse had shrunk from 250 acres in the 1850s down to just three.

By 1940, the tenancy passed to the Bailey family who were just across the road and worked the three acres in conjunction with their own farm.

In the 1960s, the bailey’s sold the hall and plot to a developer. And later in the century it became a restaurant.

Since the beginning of the 20th century the hall, has seen off plans to demolish it for a road widening scheme, been the centre of a series of creative idea to transform it into an art gallery and community hub and is now an owned by an Islamic group.

What I like about the picture, is not only the image of the hall, but the surrounding detail, like the farm cart casually left in the garden, the outhouses and the glimpse of the fields in the distance.

Which just leaves me to close with the book on the hall, which I wrote with Peter Topping back in 2015.

It tells the story from when Sir Nicholas splashed out some of his money made in London to replace a much older family home, which was no longer to adequate to showcase the family's success.

The book covers the tops turvey history of the Mosley family, its time as a farmhouse, spanning 250 years and its time as a restaurant, containing many old black and white photographs, a series of original paintings by Peter, and contemporary accounts as well as my stories.

Location; Hough End Hall






Picture; Hough End Hall, circa 1930s, from a picture postcard, courtesy of Jennie Brooks

*Hough End Hall The Story Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping, 2015

That “bright little suburb” ………… Chorlton-cum-Hardy and its pub across the water

Now I can see that attraction of these two picture postcards which were marketed by the Rapid Art Photography Company sometime in the 1930s.

In the previous fifty years, great swathes of Chorlton had been built over, and what had once been fields, farms and market gardens had become rows of terraced and semidetached houses for the middling people who worked in the city and wanted the vestiges of a rural setting when they came home.

And that stretch of land from the old Chorlton village to the Mersey offered just that degree of open countryside, with the added benefit of a pub on the banks of the river.

None of this was lost on the Manchester Guardian which reported on May 10th, 1914, that “Jackson’s Boat is the picturesque connecting link between Chorlton and Sale.  There is no boat there now, whatever there may have been at one time, but there is a half penny toll bridge for foot passengers and a pleasant inn.  You need not pay the half penny if you prefer to take a glass at the inn”.

Concluding that “Chorlton itself is a particularly bright little suburb.  

It somehow has the clean, cheery, holiday aspect of a seaside resort.  

Chorlton has been described as the favourite suburb of newly married couples, and perhaps what one notices is a honeymoon atmosphere”.*

And where better for a romantic stroll than across the Meadows to the pub across the water.

The footbridge dates from the 1880s and replaced an earlier one constructed by Samuel Wilton in 1818, although landlords of the pub continued to retain the right to ferry people across the river by boat and charge a fee well into the 1830s.**

In its time the pub was known variously as the Old Greyhound, the Greyhound and the Boathouse, and dates from the 1780s.

And for the eager tourist wanting to travel out from the city centre, “the tram fare to Chorlton is 1d to Seymour Grove, or 1½d. right through to the village, [while] a third class  railway contract costs 18s a quarter, which works out at about 1s 5d. a week”.

To which I can only add that on the side of the trams and over printed on the railway tickets should have been the simple entreaty “Go South you young couples”.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Jackson’s Boat, circa 1930s, courtesy of Jennie Brooks

*Where to Live and when to Buy, The Manchester Guardian, May 10th, 1914

**Jackson’s Boat, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Jackson%27s%20Boat

A golf course a new park for south Manchester and a bit of a storm

Now someone will be able to place just where this picture was taken, although the passage of almost 90 years might be a challenge.

The photograph was one of six, marketed by the Rapid Art Photography Company, sometime in the 1930s.

By which time Chorlton Golf course had seen off a plan in 1914 by Manchester Corporation to appropriate part of the course for a new super park for south Manchester.*

Naturally the 450 members of the club opposed the scheme, but there was a recognition that the park would “benefit the entire southern side of the city [and] do more for that part of Manchester than Heaton Park does for the northside.”*

In addition, the Corporation  had proposed “a town planning scheme which means at least wide roads, better houses, gardens and tree planting” and offered up the possibility of following other big city parks with “playing fields for football and cricket and a lake for boating”.

And not for the last time looked to improving the road link between Manchester and Cheshire with a major road using “the track known as Hardy Lane and then over the Mersey by Jackson’s Bridge”.

To which some pointed to the total impracticability of the park and highway on what was a flood plain.

But I rather think what did for the park scheme in 1914 was the outbreak of war just five months after the plan was first floated.

Location-Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; Chorlton Golf Club, circa 1930s, courtesy of Jennie Brooks

* Barlow Hall, a court case and the promise of a park for Chorlton and Didsbury on the banks of the Mersey; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/11/barlow-hall-court-case-and-promise-of.html

*The Proposed new Park for Manchester, the Manchester Guardian, April 11, 1914 

Chorlton Park ….the Southern Hotel, and the Rapid Art Photography Company

Now I like the way  you can still turn up rare and unseen pictures of Chorlton.

So, I was pleased when an old friend emailed me with the news  “Jennie unearthed a packet of six postcards of Chorlton  in an envelope which you may or may not have seen. I suspect there will be nothing new here, but I thought I'd send you them nonetheless just in case.

I particularly like the one of Hough End Hall with the handcart".

The six are of familiar Chorlton landmarks, but I have only ever seen one of them before, and the remaining five are all taken from an unusual angle or contain little bits of detail which make them both fascinating and unique.

And Michael is right about the one of Hough End Hall, with its handcart and views out across open fields, which makes it special enough to be featured later in the week.

For now, it is the picture of Chorlton Park, with the Southern Hotel in the distance and the barn at the junction of Nell Lane and Mauldeth Road West which interest me.

The postcard was never sent, and so bears no postmark, nor is there a date on the card.

But we can at least get a rough starting date, because Chorlton Park was opened in1928, while permission to build the Southern Hotel was granted three years later.

And for those interested in such things, mighty had been the tussle to gain permission, with opposing parties commissioning rival polls of the residents, fears that it was too close to a local school, and if built it would draw people in to Chorlton for the sole purpose of drinking.*

The first poll of 1,665 people in the neighbourhood showed that only 570 were in favour of erecting the pub on the corner of Nell Lane and Mauldeth Road West.  But a subsequent poll of those living on the Council estate surrounding the pub showed a majority in favour which was enough for the Committee of the Council to grant permission to build it.

All of which just leaves the mystery of the company who marketed the card.

I only had the initials R.A.P.CO Ltd, London EC4 to go on.

It wasn’t a firm I was familiar with but as you do a trawl of the internet revealed that this was the “Rapid Art Photography (R.A.P. Co. Ltd) and were based at Chelsea Bridge, London EC4 as well as offices in Brighton, Eastborne, Bournemouth, Croydon, Dover, Folkestone, Southsea and Hastings..
R.A.P Co. Ltd and the logo ‘R A Series’ appear on many postcards, usually accompanied by a local publisher’s name”.**

And that in turn threw up a short but detailed history of R.A.P Co. Ltd, which I shan’t steal, but instead direct you to the link.***

Leaving me just to thank Jennie Brooks who found the six picture postcards, and Michael Billington who sent them across.

Location; Chorlton Park, date unknown

Pictures; Chorlton Park, date unknown, and envelope of, R.A.P Co. Ltd,  courtesy of Jenni Brooks

Next; Hough End Hall


*A New Chorlton Hotel, Manchester Guardian February 6, 1931

**Postcards Of The Past
Old Postcards & Photographs, http://sandgrownlass.co.uk/old-postcards/postcard-publishers

***Rapid Art Photography (R. A. P.) of Brighton, Eastbourne & Hastings, http://photohistory-sussex.co.uk/EastbneRapidArtPhotographyRAP.htm