Outside Beech Road Police Station ........ revealing a little of the life of PC Frederick George Ross

This is Police Constable Frederick George Ross standing with his colleagues outside the police station on Beech Road.

Now I can’t be exactly sure when the picture was taken but one source has suggested 1925.*

And that would have made PC Ross forty-seven years old.

He had joined the city force in 1904 and by  1910 was living on Priory Avenue before moving to Whalley Avenue.

Of the named officers he is the one we know most about and that is as much a bit of luck as it is research.

After all if he had not been recognised and his name added to the picture we would not have been able to discover his story.

But with a name a search of the police employment records and the census returns not only located him but provided me with the name of his wife and daughter and his own place of birth.

PC Ross had married Rebecca Jane Lawson in 1909 in Bolton and their daughter Nora was born the following year.

Like all such stories the detail is even more fascinating for while Nora had been born in Bolton she was registered at the Chorlton office and baptised at St Clements in the May of 1910 which is how we know the family were living at Priory Avenue.

Almost a year later they were on Whalley Avenue and a search of the directories will reveal when they moved from that address.

But that is not quite the end of the story because in the course of doing the research I came across a relative who had posted a series of pictures, one of Frederick and Rebecca and two showing PC Ross during police inspections one of which is dated to 1921.

And according to this source Mrs Ross was in Ireland by 1925 where she died in 1949 followed by her husband fifteen years later.

In time there will be more but for now that is all but it is a lesson in how it is possible to discover a family story.

Nor is that all, because looking at the police records what is interesting is the number of officers who were born in Ireland and Scotland, a trend which goes back beyond 1904 when Chorlton voted to join the city.

Before that date we had been policed by the Lancashire Constabulary who were responsible for building the station in 1885.

Just six years later the officer in charge was a Sergeant Milne from Ireland assisted by two PCs from Scotland and a decade on with  Sergeant Milne there were officers from Ireland and Gloucestershire as well as Lancashire.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; PC Ross, 1875-1963 from Police officers outside Beech Road Police Station circa 1925 from the Lloyd Collection

Closed Chorlton ……………

Now by any judgement Chorlton is “open for business”.

Closed, former Police Station, 2022

So, when a shop does close it pretty much doesn’t stay empty for long.

The most favoured change of use remains a bar or restaurant with takeaways a strong second, and in the last few years followed by speciality confectionery shops.

Although the tile and floor store on the corner of Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Roads is a welcome exception, as was the launderette which slid into the former Greggs pastry and sandwich place but appears to have closed.

And that is the subject for today which explores those “closed bits” of Chorlton.

Closed, Public Lavatories, 2022

The first two are those sad empty looking buildings by the bus terminus.  Both are no longer in use.

The first is the old Police Station, which is not that old.  

It replaced the one on Beech Road and dates from the 1950s and closed sometime early this century.

I can’t remember ever going in but do remember the air raid siren on its low flat roof which was occasionally tested in the 1980s.

The other closed building is the public lavatory, and here I draw a blank.  I can’t remember when it opened or when it closed.

Both properties seem to be waiting for something to happen.

Open, Chorlton Police Station, 1959

Occasionally a property board will go up for the police station inviting interested people to bid for or rent it but apart from a short period as furniture emporium like its near neighbour it sits closed and abandoned.

Which just leaves me to add that both do deserve a place on a history blog, and more so because with the passage of a few more years less people will remember visiting either, or in the case of the police station I guess it won’t be long before its place in the story of fighting crime is completely forgotten.

Well, we shall see.

Location, Chorlton

Pictures; Closed for Business, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Chorlton Police Station, 1959, m17522, 99 Beech Road, 1958, m17665, R E Stanley, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pas

Police Stations I have known ............ and plenty more that I didn’t ............. nu 1 Patricroft Police Station

Now I think it is time for a new series on police stations.*

Patricroft, 2016

As soon as I saw this one taken by Andy Robertson yesterday I began thinking that here were a shedload of stories, and then I read the email that accompanied the pictures and Andy had come to the same conclusion.

I suspect there is a book on the subject and in particular the way that the design of police stations reflects the times.

So go back into the 19th century and those built in certain parts of our inner cities were constructed like forts.

The entrance was small, the doors heavy and very solid and the ground floor windows were small and barred. All the better in the event of a riot or attack.

By the middle of the 20th century with a more relaxed approach to policing and a greater degree of social cohesion police stations become light airy and full of windows.

And that brings me to the Patricroft police station.  It was built for the Lancashire Constabulary in the 1880s and was part of a group which were rolled around the edge of Manchester and Salford at about the same time.

Bridgewater Street, 2002

Here in Chorlton and across the city in Levenshulme there are almost identical ones, all built with that stone facing and carrying the emblem of the Lancashire Constabulary.

Now in Manchester at almost the same time we have the ones built for the City police.

Some like the very impressive one  in Ancoats did indeed resemble a fort; others like the ones on Newton Street and Bridgewater Street were smaller but also combined an ambulance yard.

So there we have it another interesting picture from Andy on his travels around Salford and another series has started.

Location, Salford & Manchester

Pictures; Patricroft Police Station, 2016 courtesy of Andy Robertson and Bridgewater Street  Police Station, 2002, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Police Stations, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Police%20Stations

Outside the police station on Beech Road circa 1925

Trying to make sense of an old photograph is not always easy.  

But that is all part of the fun.

Now the caption on this photograph of the police station on Beech Road has no date but the historian John Lloyd thought it might be around 1925.

I bet there will be someone out there who could help, and I minded to ask the Greater Manchester Police Museum.*

But in the meantime I am more intrigued by the names which appear on the original picture.

P.C Butler

Only four have been identified by J.McNicholls who owned the photograph and they are; on the extreme left, PCSingleton, followed by PCButler, and in the centre Frederick George Ross and R.Burgesss next to last on the right.

It’s not much to go, and nothing has come up yet on any of the four.

But I am hopeful.  After all there are the police records which might help, and there is always the remote possibility that someone will know of them.

* Greater Manchester Police Museum, 57A Newton Street, http://www.gmpmuseum.com/

Picture; from the Lloyd Collection