"See better days and do better things," the sad end of the Chorlton Liberal Club.

The Chorlton Liberal Club had opened in the October of 1897.

It wasn’t the first club the Liberals had had here, that was on Wilbraham Road but the new one on Manchester Road was more “commodious and suitable for the purpose.”*

Its opening was greeted “with the hope that the club would strengthen Liberalism in Chorlton-cum-Hardy” and membership figures seemed to bear this out. 

In the space of the year they had recruited another 50 members and were confident of more.  I suspect the club was only part of that success, with something also down to the influx of new people into the township.

Not that they saw it that way.  The official opening was done with a gold key and the job fell to Reuben Spencer “an old Liberal” who “hoped it would be a centre of light and leading, round which young men would be prepared to take a part in social, municipal and public life generally.”

We might jib at the emphasis on men especially as women were active in local politics and within two decades Sheena Simon was elected with a majority of over 1400 votes and 58% of the vote as the first woman Liberal councillor for Chorlton.**

Nationally the years around the opening of the club were not good for the Liberals.  They lost both the 1895 and 1900 general elections and would not be returned to office till 1906.

Locally they fared better both on the old Withington District Council and after our incorporation into the city on the Manchester City Council and by the 1920s were so evenly balanced with the Conservatives that the Manchester Guardian reported in 1928 that

“there are few wards in which Conservative and Liberal opinion is so nicely balanced.  Of the eight elections that have been fought in Chorlton since 1920 four have been won by the Conservatives and four by the Liberals.”**

But by the early 1930s the Liberals were on the defensive increasingly being squeezed by the Labour Party.

They won their last seat in 1932, saw their sitting councillor Lady Sheena Simon loose to the Conservatives the following year and after 1935 did not  contest another election  till 1946 by which time they had slipped to third place.***

I suspect this might have also been reflected in the state of the club which I remember as a slightly dowdy place by the 1970s.

All of which was a great shame.  It had been a private residence before becoming a club and I rather think might have been built sometime in the 1880s.  It last occupants had been the Lloyd family who where there in 1891.

It remained an impressive building and gained a new lease of life after the fire in the 1980s when it became the Lauriston Club.

And now with the close of the club it is again a residential property.

Pictures; the Liberal Club after the fire from the Lloyd collection, undated

*Liberalism at Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Manchester Guardian, October 11, 1897
**Not that she was the first woman councillor here in Chorlton, that was Jane Redford elected in 1910.  She was not a Liberal but styled herself a Progressive Candidate and must have been close enough to the Liberal outlook to ensure they never put up a candidate against her or other Progressives.
**The Chorlton By-Election, Manchester Guardian December 18, 1928
*** Local election results 1904-1949, compiled by Lawrence Beedle

Two elephants, a farmer’s son and a travelling circus ......... Part two

Yesterday I re ran the story of my old friend Oliver Bailey’s association with two elephants. *

To be more accurate it was Oliver’s father who was connected with the two elephants, but that was yesterday’s posting.

Today I thought I would share the remarkable account which Oliver has dug out from the introduction by the publishers to the book about the two elephants* and provide a link to the author's excellent blog on the story, http://www.jamieclubb.blogspot.co.uk/

Here you can read not only about the elephants but much more about the history of the circus.

'Salt and Sauce were owned and presented by some of the most famous show business people of their era. Their owners included Carl Hagenbeck, George William Lockhart, Herbet "Captain Joe" Taylor, John "Broncho Bill" Swallow, Dudley Zoo, Tom Fossett, Dennis Fossett, Harry Coady and Billy Butlin. Their presenters included Ivor Rosaire and Emily Paulo. Formerly members and believed to be the longest suriviving members of George William Lockhart's "Cruet", they were featured in various books, newspapers and magazines in their day, and are the focus of a new book "The Legend of Salt and Sauce".

The elephants were famed for their vast array of tricks, but also feared for their temperamental moods. Sauce (known as "Saucy" most of the time) killed George William Lockhart (her owner and trainer) in an accident at Walthamstow Station and Salt killed William Aslett (an elephant groom) when she attacked him in 1957 on Rosaire's Circus.

Despite both Salt suffering dropsy symptoms that had already killed two other members of "The Cruet" she went on to live for five decades. Her death was well documented in the Cambridge local press (source: The Legend of Salt and Sauce) when she accidentally got stuck in Vauxhall lake whilst touring with Ringland's Circus in 1952. 

After seven hours and with the aid of a crane she was freed from the lake, but suffered from pneumonia and died after a week. According to the local press over one hundred wreathes were left for her at the circus. It was predicted that her lifelong companion, Sauce, would die soon afterwards (source: Salt and Sauce were Separated by John D. Swallow), but she lived until 1960, dying from "natural causes".

The book tells the true story of Salt and Sauce, two Indian elephants, who arrived in Britain in 1902 and became involved in the live entertainment industry from the Music Hall scene to circus and finally Butlin's Holiday camp. This is the story of how the elephants became both feared and loved by some of the most famous people of their era, and how their story became mythical among the circus community."

* The Legend of Salt & Sauce: The Amazing Story of Britain's Most Famous Elephants
by Jamie Clubb with Jim Clubb  ISBN Number: 187290436X Publisher: Aardvark Publishing

Pictures; from the covers of the book courtesy of Jamie Clubb

Two elephants, a farmer’s son and a travelling circus Part One

Now the reason why Robert Bailey rode an elephant here in Chorlton in the summer of 1942 had a lot to do with the family farm. 

The Bailey farm was at the bottom of Sandy Lane and ran along St Werburgh’s Road and had a large enough supply of water to satisfy the thirst of the two elephants.

The Bailey’s also owned the land where the circus camped.

It was the strip of land which ran along the side of the railway track all the way from St Werburgh’s Road to Wilbraham Road.

And when the circus moved on the Bailey's left their cattle to graze there.

Photographs of the animals  on the land are in the local collection of Manchester Libraries and just to underline the point another photograph contains the sign “Beware of the Bull.”

Nor were these pictures from some distant past but were taken in 1959. Oliver Bailey remembers also driving pigs from the railway station along the roads to the farm.

Picture; Wilbraham Road m18513, Landers 1959, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Jack Beasley ……… his collection of Chorlton pictures ……. and a story … part 1

This is Chequers Road, sometime in the 1940s.

Chequers Road/Church Road circa 1940s

Of course, back then it was Church Road, and it is one of a remarkable collection of family snaps belonging to Kirsty.

Her family have lived in Chorlton for over 80 years and many of the photographs are of this one road

Her dad lived at number 41, and as they say the cross in the picture marks the spot.

Walk along the road today and the scene is pretty much the same, barring the inevitable number of cars and the lack of net curtains which were still a badge of respectability.

Outside 39 Church Road, with the "criss cross brown paper", circa 1939-45

Now if I wanted to hazard a guess, I think our picture will predate 1939, or certainly have been taken after 1945.

And the clue is in the absence of “the criss cross brown paper anti blast tape at the windows”, which Jack Beasley refers to on another of the pictures which was taken in the garden of 39 Church Road during the last world war.

The group consist of “Gerald Booth left, Jack Beasley, right, Gerald Vodon, [below] left, and Phyllis Vodon, [below] right”.

 Flo Beasley, date unknown

I know Kirsty has done some family research and the stories of the four will feature later, but for now I am intrigued by the unknown woman posing with a bunch of flowers.

I think she will be in the front garden of number 43, because comparing the image with others the front gate behind her is a match for number 41.*

And a trawl of the 1939 Register shows a Mrs Pauline Donbavand listed as living there along with her husband and Walter Meadows who was a Police Constable.

Pauline gave her occupation as a “Theatre Usherette”, had been born in 1909 and was two years younger than her husband.  

There is a slight confusion of the spelling of her surname which is a little unclear from the official record and Police Constable Meadows is listed as married but his wife is missing.

But like census returns, the 1939 Register was conducted on one night in early September and Mrs Meadows may have been elsewhere.

Added to which our unknown lady may not be Mrs Donbavand.  

According to Kirsty  she  could actually be  "my grandmother Flo Beasley", and certainly looking at family photographs there is a resemblance between the lady with the flowers and her grandmother.

So I rather think that is our mystery woman.

Outside 41/43 Church Road, date unknown

Equally intriguing is the way that some entries are redacted, so while Florence, Lilian and George Beasley appear, another two are hidden from view. 

That said I know that Florence was a “Bedding Machinist”, Lillian a “Shorthand typist” and George a "sapper" in the “Royal Engineers”, added to which an official returned to the list and changed Lillian’s status from single to married and including her new surname of Symonds.

There was nothing odd in the official alterations, as the 1939 Register was a working document and was used both for compiling the war time Identity cards, and for the new National Health Service which came into being in 1948.

Leaving me just to reflect that 83 years ago the occupations of those on Church Road, included two “house painters and paper hangers” a “retired Foreman lamp lighter”, an “Electrical engineer” along with a "chimney sweep", "a salesman", and a lorry driver.  With these were the familiar “unpaid domestic duties” and with a nod to the war, an “Auxiliary Fireman based at No.158 Manchester", and a number of servicemen.

I wonder what a contemporary tally of occupations would reveal.

Location; Chequers Road/Church Road, Chorlton

Pictures; Church Road circa 1939-45, from the collection of Kirsty

*There is however one hiccup and that is the modern street numbers for 41 and 43, do not correspond to what I think was the case in 1939 which may mean there was a change of numbers after 1939 ..... or I have just got it wrong.

 

“Tonight I will go to sleep knowing that everyone I love will be safe” ......... May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day and “the end of the German War”

Homecoming, Bellville, autumn 1945

“Tonight I will go to sleep knowing that everyone I love will be safe.”

Even now that one line entry in a diary has a profound effect on me.

It was written in the late evening of May 8th 1945, at the end of the first day of peace in Europe.*

For some it had been a riotous night of fun, dancing and abandonment, for others a time of quiet reflection on the cost of six years of a hard war.

I don’t know what my parents and grandparents did on that night.  Nana I expect spent some of it thinking of her son who was buried in a cemetery in Thailand and must also have wondered what her native Germany would be like.

She had been born in Cologne a city which like so many was now a desert of rubble, wrecked streets and shattered lives.

Granddad no doubt was in a pub while mum and dad would have been celebrating in their different ways.

It is of course an event fast fading from living memory and will soon join the experiences of those who lived through the Great War as a piece of history only now visited through the films, books, memorials and personal accounts of that earlier conflict.

Celebration, Hallstead Avenue, Chorlton, May 1945

And so here are just a few images of the days following the end of the conflict in Europe.

During the spring of 1945 it was clear that the war was drawing to a close.

In March the Western Allies had crossed the Rhine in to Germany and in April the Red Army was in Berlin.

The death of Hitler on April 30th moved things on and on May 7th in the early hours of the morning the German army in the west surrendered.

Despite no immediate official announcement the news spread that the war was over and later in the day the Government confirmed that Germany had surrendered and that May 8th would be a national holiday and designated it Victory in Europe Day.

The Manchester Guardian reported that here in the city,

“At ten o'clock Albert Square had become a great dancing floor, upon which partnerships were formed on a free and easy plan. Music came from the town hall and reached the crowd through loudspeakers. 

Homecoming, Belleville, 1945

A popular prank was to climb on to the roofs of the air-raid shelters to dance - probably it was the men of the navy who began it. 

But whoever set the example found abundant followers, and presently the girls of the WAAF and the ATS showed a readiness to participate. Without ceremony dozens of them were hauled to the top amid a good deal of cheering. 

Fireworks were occasionally thrown into the air, and there was an unexpected supply of paper hats, streamers, confetti and other carnival accessories which, after years of a paper famine, would have been thought to be unobtainable.” *

And across the country and beyond celebrations were planned and carried out.

I am not sure that our own celebrations happened on that night.

Reunion, Belleville, 1945

These were spontaneous events and what was clearly a formal sit down affair needed planning.

I have every confidence that someone will have recorded the evening in their diary and we will learn the date and perhaps something of the mood in the school hall.

The Government had already said that

“Bonfires will be allowed, but the government trusts that only material with no salvage value will be used.” 

And that “until the end of May you may buy cotton bunting without coupons, as long as it is red, white or blue, and does not cost more than one shilling and three pence a square yard.” 

Strangely for such a momentous event the expressions on the faces of the group seem sombre.

A party, School Hall, Chorlton Green, May 1945

There are a few who are smiling and some who look slightly baffled but the rest just stare back at the camera.

Perhaps the time lag between the victory news and the celebration party was enough for the euphoria to wear off, or maybe uppermost in many people’s minds was the sacrifice in treasure, lives and lost time.

I remember an old friend from Ashton-Under-Lyne  saying to me that her abiding memory of the war was how it "had robbed her of a good six years of  my life.

Instead "of just growing up and having the sort of fun a teenager should have there was always anxiety. 

You were worried about your own safety and that of your family and the knowledge that any boy you grew fond of might be killed.”

And that is perhaps the moment to close.

Pictures; Chorlton in 1945 from the Lloyd collection and homecoming of the Prince Edward Hasting Regiment, Belleville Ontario, autumn 1945 from the collection of Mike Dufresne.

*Manchester Gurdian May 9 1945

Childhood in Chorlton in the 1940's …………part two

The continuing story of growing up in Chorlton in the 1940s by Ann Love

Ann lived on Barlow Moor Road.

"Running the height of the house, was a stained glass window, which illuminated the staircase, and on sunny days made lovely coloured reflections down the stairs.

The middle floor had a large landing, with doors leading off to the two front bedrooms, a small dressing room above the hall, granddads bedroom above the kitchen, the bathroom and bedroom, and a large room over the downstairs workshop.

On the landing were a linen cupboard, and a grandfather clock with a large glass case full of stuffed birds.

Sometimes the clock would strike thirteen times at midnight.

I slept in one of the front bedrooms, which had a huge mahogany wardrobe, about 9ft wide and 6ft high.

Even allowing for the fact that things look bigger when you're small, it was huge...

There were spaces for hanging clothes at each side, the middle door was a mirror, with drawers behind.

When I was about seven, it was fashionable to have lead strips on the windows, and I remember being ill in bed at the time, and watching this being done to our windows.

The man stretched a string w covered in chalk, and snapped it against the window to make a line, then glued the lead strip in place.

I think children used to be ill much more when I was young; I had whooping cough when I was about four, and my parents used to take me to Hoylake, so that the sea breeze would take it away.

I remember that I had been going to Tap and Ballet lessons at a Dance School down Groby Road, but after whooping cough I still had an irritating cough, and had to give it up.

There was a very large room above the downstairs workshop.

It must have been a beautiful room, with a bay window at the side of the house, and another large window overlooking the garden.

When my parents were first married, it was their private sitting room, but in my time it was used for storage – bolts of taffeta for the coffins, rolls of kapok, brass nameplates, and handles for coffins, boxes full of gowns to put on the corpses, as well as several large pieces of ornately carved furniture."

Pictures; the house in the 1950s, and drawings of the interior and exterior from the collection of Ann Love

© Ann Love

Looking down on Chorlton in 1927

I like aerial photographs of Chorlton and this one has the lot.

Looking down on my bit of Chorlton, circa 1930s-40s

My friend Bill sent it over  and it comes from Britain from Above.

And what makes it particularly special is that there,  to the left is Beech Road, the Rec and our house.

It was taken in 1927, and the picture offers up some interesting detail.

There is a  tram cruising down Barlow Moor Road, and there is still some open at the top of Beech Road by the tram terminus.  That land I think was built on sometime in the 1950s or 60s.

Beech Road, a lost farm, the Rec and a bowling green

And looking carefully at Beaumont Road, it is just possible to see the old farmhouse set back from Beech Road, which Scott the builder didn’t demolish until sometime in the 1930s.

Its replacement I am fairly confident was not built until after the war in 1945.

Which just leaves the eagled eyed to spot that to the north of Rec, there is still the bowling ground belonging to the Masons.

This would not become a carpark until the early 1960s.

And the photograph clearly shows the farmyard of what had once been Bailey’s Farm, and would not become Ivy Court until the late 1970s.

On Barlow Moor Road

I could go, but that would spoil the fun, so I shall close by pointing to the buildings on Barlow Moor Road, just south of Beech Road.

The Chorlton Ballroom is still looking splendid, and it would be many decades before it became a series of nightclubs, before being knocked down for a fast food outlet.

And beyond the ballroom, there is Lime Bank, which dates from the late 18th century.

So I shall just thank Bill Sumner who found and sent the image over to me.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; aerial photograph of Chorlton, 1927, Britain from Above, EPW 017620

The Chorlton farthing, halfpenny and penny from Reynard Road …. bringing luck to the house

Now, there will be someone who can offer up a full and detailed explanation for the practice of putting coins in or around the entrance to a house.

I am guessing it will be a pre Christian practice.  

One suggestion I read referred back to “Italian folklore probably - it's so that money will flow freely into the home and that the people inside prosper”, and another reminded me that coins were placed at the foot of masts in sailing ships.

My grandparents found a coin dating from King George III under the stone step in their two up two down on Hope Street in Derby, which dated the row of terraced houses .

And Jaime who lives on Reynard Road sent over these coins adding, “Good morning Andrew, I thought I’d share another interesting thing about our house. 

We are having some work done and my builder found some old coins in the old door frame.  There’s a 1927 penny, 1939 farthing, 1942+1943 half pennies. 

They were in the old back door frame. I think at a later date a small extension was added”.

The houses date from the early 20th century, and so as Jaime says the extension will have been added later sometime after 1943, but I suspect not long afterwards, but maybe after the war.

In 1939, a Mr. Sydney Mckew who was a long distance lorry driver shared the house with Ada Faulkner and George Hayes, which for the time being is s close a we are going to get to those coins and the little back extension.  

Ada was twelve years older than Sydney and described her occupation as “Unpaid domestic duties”, while George was 29 and was “Milk Roundsman”.

In time we may find out more about the three and push forward the time when they lived in the house to when the coins were deposited.

But for now that is pretty much it, other than to reflect that there will be many like me who not only remember all of the coins Jaime sent over but will have used them until they became history with the move to decimal coinage.

Although I have come across and written about other odd objects found in houses, including the Salford shoe, and the 1910 cheese sandwich.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; “Four coins from a doorway", 2021, from the collection of Jaime Cockcroft-Bailey

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 15 a barrage balloon

Continuing the story of Chorlton in just a paragraph. They are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.

It was on the Rec not far from where the children’s play area is now located.  Until the late 1980s it was still possible to see the concrete bed which helped secure the balloon.

Picture; from the collection of Allan Brown

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 10 ....... bomb damage 1940-41

 A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and  a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories. 

Well I suppose I can be accused of cheating because here is not one object but a row of objects on either side of Claude Road.  But in a very real sense they form a whole, because they are the houses which were rebuilt after a night of air raids which also claimed the cinema on Barlow Moor Road.  Nor were they the only ones. On May 1^st 1940 a direct hit on the corner of Chatsworth and Cavendish Road destroyed two houses and killed seven people. There were also fatal hits on Brantingham, Cheltenham, Scott, Torbay, and Dartmouth and on Cavendish Road on the night of May 1^st 1941.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

What did Chorltonville do in the last war?

South Drive, 1913

Now I always thought that Chorlton had by and large escaped the damage done to other parts of the city during the last war.

But that was not so and there is plenty of evidence that we got our fair share.*

Some of that evidence came to light in this edition of the Chorltonville News in the form of a compilation of extracts from the minutes of the Association for the war years.***

"In spite of its peaceful location, Chorltonville did not entirely escape the Second World War.  

Nell Lane, 1941

In June 1940 one of the estate workers, Pat Carly Jnr, was called up for military service and left.  An entry in 1944 records that he was then serving in Burma, and would like to take up his job “if he is spared to return”.  

Pat’s departure must have hit the family finances, because in July 1940 his father, also Pat Carly, requested a rise in his wages.  

The Committee agreed to an increase of three shillings and sixpence (about 18p) per week.  Mr Carly again applied for an increase in December 1941, due to war conditions.  

He was given an increase of four shillings (20p) per week, but granted it as a War Bonus – maybe so that it could be withdrawn after the war.

Also in 1940, the Committee was chasing up an application to Manchester Corporation for air raid shelters for the estate, “pointing out that no provision whatever had been made by the Corporation in case of emergency”.

Barrage Ballon on the Rec, 1941

Manchester’s Town Clerk was, apparently, not sympathetic.  He declined to provide the shelters, as the policy of the Corporation was to supply protection only for people caught by an air raid on the streets.  

The Clerk said that “each person who can afford to do so is expected by the Government to arrange for their own protection whilst they are at home”. 

The Committee accepted this decision, but protected their position by writing to the Corporation stating “that no responsibility can be taken by the Committee in the event of any unfortunate situation”.


The war evidently affected both finances and availability of people.  At the 1941 AGM, the Treasurer reported that the accounts were “as good as could be expected under current difficulties”, but still showed a deficit of over £37.  

The meeting voted a levy comprising a basic charge of 16 shillings, plus 3½d for each linear foot of frontage - under £1.50 for most houses.  

A deputy Auditor had to be found, as the elected Auditors were unavoidably absent.  The minutes do not say the reason, but one was still on “enforced absence” the following year, so presumably had been called up.

In May 1942 the Army erected Nissan huts behind Chorltonville alongside the cobbled lane by Brookburn School.  The Secretary wrote to the Royal Engineers (at Mayfield Rd in Whalley Range) asking whether the huts were for barrage balloons or gun emplacements, “as the Committee were most anxious that the presence of these things would render the Estate a target for the enemy”.

The Royal Engineers suggested he contact the balloon section, so the Secretary went to the local unit at the Recreation Ground in Cross Rd.  The corporal there had no knowledge of the huts and referred the Secretary to the Manchester RAF.  

The RAF replied with the enigmatic statement that the huts’ presence “does not increase the vulnerability of the estate to enemy air attack”.  The minutes do not say whether the Committee was reassured by this.

The Meade, 1913

The Committee was more successful in 1943, applying to the Corporation for extra street lights.  

Lamp posts were not in use because of the blackout, but they noted that the Corporation had introduced a modified form of lighting on some roads.  

They requested that these be introduced to Chorltonville, because of the danger to pedestrians using the roads and footpaths.  The Corporation agreed, and added dimmed lighting around the estate.

Interestingly, there is no note in the minutes recording either VE or VJ Day, but at the 1946 AGM, the Chairman tidily summarised:

“he spoke of the work of the past year, carried out under conditions as in the War, though happily the final Conflict had come to an end.  He continued that this Estate had been maintained under very fair conditions, and proposed that the levy stay the same.”

Pictures; Barage Ballon on the Rec, from the collection of Alan Brown detail from bomb damage at Nell Lane, 1940, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, m09736, and pictures of the ville from the Lloyd collection

* http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20in%20the%201940s

** http://www.chorltonville.org/index.htm

*** reproduced courtsey of Chorltonville News

A story of a night of bombing, and of the casualties and the loss of our post office

On the night of December 24th and into the early morning of December 25th 1940 thirty people died in Chorlton.

They were all victims of the second night of the Manchester Blitz in which an estimated 644 people were killed and another 2,000 injured.

Of the 30 who died here many came from just two roads while the rest were spread out across the township.  Most of the bodies were taken to Withington Hospital, a few to Embden Street mortuary and a few to the Cavendish Road [now Corkland Road] mortuary.

And I suppose it was the fact that the mortuary on Cavendish Road was just round the corner explains why Mr and Mrs Carr were taken there.

They lived at 549a Wilbraham Road* which took a direct hit from a high explosive bomb.  Their home and two others which stood on the site of the modern post office were destroyed.

I would like to write more of Ernest and Gene Carr but so far I have only been able to turn up his death certificate which recorded his death on that December night and that he was just 44 years old.  It isn’t much but it is a start.

So in the meantime I shall concentrate on their home and what happened on the site before and after that night.

Earlier in the century 549a had been one  of three houses which were originally numbered, 3, 5 & 7 Wilbraham Road.

Yesterday I began the story of the three houses which stood on the site. Numbers, 3, 5 and 7 had been built sometime after 1885 and were typical of the new sort of properties that were being built to meet the influx of people to Chorlton.

Many of these were professionals; a few owned their own businesses and a lot more worked in the offices and big shops of Manchester.  They were attracted here by a train service which could whisk them into the heart of the city in under 15 minutes and the fields, farms and open country which for many was even closer.

So along with a surgeon and his family at number 1 the remaining three were the home at various times to a retired cotton merchant, a widow “living on her own means”, Edward Ireland who had  a number of photographic studios in Manchester, and a doctor, dentist and a oil trader.

And the size of the houses reflected the inhabitants.  Number 1 had twelve rooms, 3 and 5 eight rooms and number 7 9 rooms.

Each had cellars, a decent front garden and a longer one at the back stretching down across what is now the sorting office and yard.

But like other stretches of property in this new part of Chorlton they were soon developed with the addition of shop fronts and perhaps with an eye to even greater profits the owners sub divided the shops.

 In 1911 at number 3a there was Harvey Goodwin, confectioner, at number 3 Mrs Ethel May, cycle dealer, while at 5a Stuart Gray ran a tobacconist and in number 5 C. &W. Copping advertised themselves as china merchants.

The last of our three had become the post office in 1901 and remained so until the night of December 24th.

The Chorlton bomb maps show the impact of the high explosive bomb on the three properties and photographs from the late 1950s show the remnant which was the bit that jutted out still in use.

In 1959 it was being used as the Conservative Party Committee rooms.

But the keen eyed will spot that the building which would have been there is missing and eventually even this little left over bit of the old post office was demolished and the site became the forecourt for what has variously been Lipton’s and Ethel Austin.

Now those of you keen on a bit of modern archaeology will be able to see the clue to what had been number 7 and it is the cemented up side of what is now the gable end of the phone shop. Back in the 1950s this was Brighter Homes, the paint and wall paper shop.

Any one growing up in those post war years will remember the gaps in houses and the same raw cement walls where part of the terrace had been demolished.

And looking at the 1959 picture it is just possible to see the space where numbers 3 and 5 had been which in 1961 became our new post office.

It was an obvious place to build it close to the old one and utilising a bombsite.

I did wonder whether there might have been a plaque to record the event of that nights bombing, but then even here in Chorlton there would have been plenty of candidates for such a memorial.

And at the time there would have been plenty who remembered the event and maybe even knew Ernest and Gene Carr.

But what was once a common experience is fast passing out of living memory and soon I doubt that any one will even pass a thought to the odd space that runs from the Gable Nook Nursery to the row of shops by the bus stop.

Pictures; Numbers 1-7 Wilbrahan Road, circa 1891 from the Lloyd Collection, The old Post Office with its front extension circa 1910 from the collection of Philip Lloyd, the remnant of that same post office in 1959, A.E. Landers, m18242, and the modern Post Office and the old, A.E. Landers, 1961, m18511, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

*493a has been number 5 Wilbraham Road in the early early of the last century

Rare and fascinating …….. the 85 year old relic

This could possibly be the last Anderson shelter in Chorlton.

Anderson Shelter, 2021

I know there was one on Upper Chorlton Road, but I am not sure it has survived.

This one is on Sandy Lane, and in 1939 the house beside it was occupied by Mr. & Mrs. Craven.

James Craven was born in 1896, and his wife Hilda seven years later.  On the 1939 Register he described himself as a "Textile Agent", working for himself, while Mrs. Craven was engaged on  “Unpaid Domestic Duties”. 

In all probability they were the first residents in the house which was built in 1935, and may well have been responsible for erecting the shelter.

Andersons were designed in 1939, could accommodate six people and were made of six galvanized panels which were bolted together.  They were 6 feet high, 4.5 feet wide, and 6.5 feet long.

They were either buried deep in the ground and with a covering of soil on the roof, or in some cases installed inside people's houses and covered with sandbags.  They were issued free to all householders who earned less than £5 a week.

But for those earning above £5 a week  there was a charge of £7 .

One and a half million shelters of this type were distributed between February 1939 and the outbreak of war, and  during the war a further 2.1 million were erected.

In 1945 householders were expected to remove their shelters and local authorities began the task of reclaiming the corrugated iron, and those householders who wished to keep their Anderson shelter could pay a nominal fee to retain them.

I first saw the Sandy Lane one back in the mid 1970, but never did anything about.

But back in 2021 I knocked on, got permission, and discovered that it sat level with the ground, leaving me to wonder whether the Craven’s or some one else had rescued it from the ground and rebuilt it on top. 

Anderson Shelter in the making, 1939

Or maybe it was never sunk into the ground.  

The present owner offered to move the bins, but I rather like them where they are, a reminder that the shelter and the bins, along with the garden are an essential part of the house.

Location, Chorlton

Pictures, the Anderson Shelter, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the first delivery of an Anderson Shelter, somewhere in Manchester,1939, Daily Herald, m09587, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass 

Mrs Crump of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and a piece of broadcasting history

Now this is another of those stories which has much more to offer.

Back on January 1 1947 Mrs Elsie May Crump appeared on Woman’s Hour which had first aired three months earlier in October 1946.

According to the synopsis of that day’s edition which was described as
“a daily programme of information, entertainment, and music for the woman at home “  and sandwiched between  James Laver on ' Why do men dress like that'; Ruth Drew , Jeanne Heal , and Guilfoyle Williams on ' Answering Your Household Problems'; there was” Mrs. Elsie May Crump on What I think of Woman's Hour after three months ' “

And of course the participation of Mrs Elise Crump was something that just had to be followed up.

She described herself as a working woman who worked in her husband’s butcher’s shop.

Now that shop was nu 24 Oswald Road on the corner with Nicholas and according to the directories the business is listed under her name from 1935 to 1969.

The shop is no longer a butcher’s shop but was still selling meat in 1980 under the name of Arnold's, and that of course is an invite to anyone who knows more about Mrs Crump and that shop to send in their memories and perhaps even a picture.

I do have one picture of her taken during the January programme but copyright prevents me from publishing it until I have asked the BBC so for now all I can offer up is an entry in the 1946 telephone directory.and one of Andy Robertson's pictures.who when I asked if he had a photograph of the place went out an hour ago and took this one in the rain.

Now that is a pretty good example of updating a story.

So there you have it a bit of Chorlton’s history along with a big bit of broadcasting history.

Picture; extract from telephone directory, 1946, courtesy of ancestry.co.uk, and the shop from the collection of Andy Robertson, 2014

Additional research by Andy Robertson

Mrs Lomax's box mangle at Hough End Hall sometime in 1940

I can remember confiding in someone recently that I knew more about Hough End Hall in the 19th century than I did about the place in the last sixty years.

A box mangle

All of which is now being turned around as people come forward with their memories along with some photographs and a suggestion of where to go looking for the documents.

Chief amongst those with memories is my friend Oliver Bailey whose family rented the hall and the surrounding land from 1940 before buying it from the Egerton estate in the early 1960s and selling it on to a developer later in that decade.

Oliver not only has provided a set of vivid descriptions of the hall and farm buildings along with a plan and the names of some of the men who also worked there but has helped make sense of the place at the end of its time as a working farm.

I was fascinated by the mangle room which shows up on the 1938 Egerton survey.

It was on the first floor to the south of the main entrance and in the middle of the room was “an old mangle that was basically a large box full of cobbles that rolled back and forth on rollers on the wooden base when it was worked by turning the handle.”*

And recently Oliver was “at Mottisfont in Hampshire and they had a box mangle so I thought I would send you a photo.”

It is  one of those wonderful little bits of history that helps bring me closer to the time when the hall was a working farming inhabited by the Lomax family who were there from 1847 till Mrs Lomax died in 1940.

All of which now pushes me on to search for photographs of the Lomax family.

At present there is one picture which I think will be their children in the garden of the hall in the early 20th century but I am confident that in time someone will unearth an image.

After all until yesterday I had no idea what a box mangle looked like.

Picture; box mangle from Mottisfont in Hampshire courtesy of Oliver Bailey

*Oliver Bailey

Mrs. Mary Francis Kelsall of Chorlton ……… politician ……. textile worker …… and mother

I like the way that a story I wrote just a few days ago can come back with a series of twists.*

Mary Frances Kelsall, on her 90th birthday, 1979

In this case it began with a story of a Mr. Brightman who stood for election to the City Council in the November of 1945 for the Chorlton-cum-Hardy ward. ** 

Election leaflet, Chorlton -cum-Hardy Labour Party, 1945

His running mate was a Mrs. Kellsall and I promised to return when I knew more about her.

And out of the blue Trevor James emailed me with, “I know of Mrs. Kelsall. I did quite a bit of family history work for a lady in Wisconsin – on a quid pro quo basis, as she did lots for me in the USA. 

As our research progressed, parallels grew. It ended up with finding that my mother had travelled daily into town with a distant relative of [the Wisconsin lady] – the said Mrs. Kelsall. This was immediately post-WW2. 

The Kelsall’s lived on the Barlow Hall estate, on Floyd Avenue.”***

And that was enough to spur me on, fulfil the promise, and fin her I did. 

Doreen, Frances & Mary Francis Kelsall, 1928

She was Mary Frances, born in 1889, married in 1913, with two children, and died in 1985.

In 1921 the family were at 10 Bland Street Moss Side, and she worked as a shirt machinist for Central Shirt Co, at 19 East Street, which employed 739 people.

The firm is listed in the 1911 directory in a building it shared with various companies, including a merchant, embroider hat manufacturer shipping merchants and Milling engineers.  The large building was at the end of East Street as it ran into Bale Street and stood opposite the famous Tommy Ducks pub.

By 1939 she was living at 18 Floyd Avenue off Barlow Moor Road.

And in 1945 according to the minutes of the Chorlton Labour Party she was one of six members who were invited to attend a selection meeting “for the final choice of candidates”. ****

Looking through the record of the Party for the 1940s I can at present find only one other reference to her, which was in June 1945 when she is listed as a sub agent in the forthcoming General Election.

At that particular meeting the group had discussed the “broad principles of the campaign”, along with “general arrangements for meetings, committee rooms, clerical work, literature and canvassing”.*****

Mr. Brightman had been appointed agent and the sub agents were Mr. Luly for Withington, Mr. Ball for Chorlton and Mrs. Kelsall for East Didsbury.All of which appeared in an account of Mrs. Kellar on Friday, but what was missing was a photograph and I began the piece lamenting that “I doubt I will ever turn up a picture of Mary Frances Kelsall”.

Manchester Labour and Election News, October, 1945

And now like a corporation bus I have two both of which turned up at the same time, for which I have Mary L Price of Wisconsin to that thank.

She is related to Mrs. Kelsall and kindly offered up the three images.

So finally, I can look on her, while as yet there is only Labour Party election leaflet featuring her name and policies, I am confident more will out.

And on a personal note I was the election agent for the Chorlton Labour Party from 1980 till 1987 and again during the early 1990s. As such I oversaw the historic first victory of a Labour candidate in Chorlton in 1986 and was one of the sub agents in the Manchester Withington Parliamentary election which saw Keith Bradley elected as the first Labour MP.

Chorlton Labour Party Election material, 1980

I don't know if Mrs Kelsall was still living in the area or if she retained her political beliefs but I like to think it makes a link between me and her.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures: Mary Frances Kelsall aged 90, 1979, and in 1928 with her two children, courtesy of Mary L Price, and Election material from 1945, courtesy of M G Wittard, and Chorlton Labour Party Election material, 1980, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Mrs. Mary Frances Kelsall ……… an election …. and the search for her story, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/11/mrs-mary-frances-kelsall-election-and.html

**Mr. Brightman ….. Chorlton-cum-Hardy……… and the election of 1945, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/11/mr-brightman-chorlton-cum-hardy-and.html

***Trevor James, November 21st 2022

****Minutes of the Chorlton Labour Party September 13th, 1945

*****Minutes of the Chorlton Labour Party November 6th, 1945

Growing your turnips in Chorlton Park ..... and other wartime stories ........

Just what Chorlton Park was like during the last World War will pretty much have faded from living memory, and so stories of air raid shelters and the Dig for Victory campaign among the flower beds will not be readily available.

Chorlton Park, 2020

Like Dominic Anderson I have sometimes wondered how the Park was used during conflict and was galvanised into action when he posted on the Chorlton History site, “Walking in the park today a question struck me - was the land used to grow food during ww2 and if so are there any pictures?”

Well I went looking, but have so far only turned up one which shows an air raid shelter and not a line of turnips.

That said the Manchester Guardian carried a story on October 19th 1939 that “To meet the needs of those who have taken up allotments, and of others interested, the Manchester Corporation Parks Committee has arranged with the Agricultural Committee to provide demonstration plots in the following parks: Heaton Park, Boggart Hole Clough, Brookdale Park, Queens Park, Birchfield Park, Lady Barn, Fog Lane Park, Platt Fields Park, Chorlton Park, Wythenshawe Park.

Starting on Saturday, members of the parks staff will attend to demonstrate correct methods of cultivation, including digging, manuring, and controls of pests.”*

A further series of demonstrations were planned over the following weeks and along with this “A cropping scheme for the average 300 square yard plot will be issued shortly by the Manchester Agricultural Advisory Committee and will be available to all interested.”

Digging your own food, 1940

It is unclear whether these demonstration plots became permanent and nor do we know exactly where they were located in Chorlton Park, which is a ta d annoying given that the newspaper piece specified where to go in some of the parks.

But someone may know and may even have a picture.

That said according to a later report “the trench system in the parks is nearing completion.  Approximately 10,000 people will have shelter in these trenches in Alexandra Park, Queens Park, Moss Side recreation ground, Boggart Hole Clough, Crumpsall Park, Didsbury recreation ground, Platt Fields, Manley Park, Whitworth Park and Chorlton Park.

The trenches, which are of reinforced, precast concrete covered with two feet of earth are being provided with ramps in preference to steps  and emergency manhole exits are placed at frequent intervals.”**

This was part of a much wider provision of shelters, which included the conversion of the Victoria Arches  and the underground canal near Central Station [GMex] , 

Chorlton Park and the site of the shelter, 1939

In addition the Council had indented for “28,000 Anderson steel shelters, with17,000 allocated by the Home Office” and has completed a list of 17,000 names and addresses of people in the city with basements which they desire to have strengthened and the survey of houses with suitable accommodation for brick and concrete shelters is continuing”.

All of which was a start in the preparation for the bombing to come.

And that is it other than to say some will have fun identifying the shelter in the park. And the clue I suspect is that line of chimneys in the distance.

All very different from the place today.

Down by the Brook in the Park, 2020

Location; Chorlton Park

Picture, Chorlton Park, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, “The Penguin Book of Food Growing Storing and Cooking” 1940, Chorlton Park Shelter Surface Shelter, City Engineer, July 12th, 1939, m09588 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Allotments In Manchester, Demonstration Plots, Manchester Guardian, October 19th, 1939

**Corporation Raid Shelters Manchester Guardian, June 22nd, 1939

Back at Hough End Hall, horses, bombs and a motel

There is nothing more exciting to anyone interested in the past than the memories of people who were there.

You can trawl through official documents, scan the maps and pictures of a period or place but the oral testimony of someone who experienced the event, touched the building or just passed through that moment in time is magic.

And if they are still alive it gives you the opportunity to quiz them, asking questions and revealing much that would otherwise never be revealed.

So I am always pleased when my old friend Oliver Bailey offers up more memories of Hough End Hall which he knew as a boy and young man.

Here are the priceless details which will never show up in the census returns rate book records or street directories, and I doubt will ever have been recorded elsewhere.

"The name of the Suffolk Punch plough horse was Bonnie and the crop that was grown in the field she used to plough was Kale. There were also to corrugated iron sheds in that field at the time.

Another horse in the field was in livery and belonged to the greengrocer at the corner of Wilmslow Roadd and Barlow Moor Rd in Didsbury

In the early to middle fifties there were several plans to develop the Hall itself, as my father was trying to dispose of it and the council didn’t want to take it over. 

One of them was to turn it into a sort of motel with the hall itself as a restaurant and some accommodation with a bedroom block in what used to be the orchard and so would be shielded from both Nell Lane and Mauldeth Rd. 

Included in that plan was a service station on Mauldeth Rd but a leap too far for the thinking of the time.

The old original entrance to the Hall was the main avenue through Chorlton Park from Barlow Moor Rd.

There used to be two Beech trees, one in each corner of the front garden as well as a Weeping Ash on the right lawn and a Yew on the left.

And then there was Bomb Crater Corner

This happened on the night of the Manchester blitz* and another bomb fell in the orchard. 

It is also rumoured that two or more fell in the bog at the side of the Chorlton Brook as there were craters but it is not known if they exploded. The target of course, was the railway line to London.”

©Oliver Bailey

*December 1940

Picture; the hall from the south east, 1945 T Baddeley, m47846, and in 1952, T Baddeley m47851, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?