Now there is a bit of a debate on social media this week as to just when Chorlton-cum-Hardy, became just plain Chorlton.
Chorlton -cum-Hardy was the historic name for the township which was bounded by the Mersey on one side Hulme on the other and Withington and Stretford.
It was made up of the townships of Chorlton, Hardy, and Martledge, and the name appears to have gone out of official and popular use sometime in the 1970s.
Just when that was is open to debate. There are plenty of people who will remember growing up when the name was still in use, and I guess it will be a badge which distinguishes you from old and new Chorlton.
As does those who still use the term Rec rather than Beech Road Park.
I have yet to plot our official transformation to plain Chorlton but there will be some way of finding out, which I suspect will start with the post office, and post marks.
There may also be an official note in the minutes of the Corporation’s highways department but that will take a long time to find out.
In the meantime, I know that Hardy as a hamlet disappeared in the 1850s when the last cottages hard by the Mersey were abandoned, and Martledge which was the area around the library was lost in the big building boom of the 1880s.
So, within a couple of generations of that housing boom, the name Martledge had vanished and instead people talked about the New Village or New Chorlton to distinguish the area from the older settlement around the green and along Beech Road.
And for those intrigued by lost names, Beech Road had traditionally been called Chorlton Row and appears to have been renamed in the 1870s, while the area called Ash Tree which stood close to the Methodist Church was so called because of an ash tree which grew in the road.
Leaving me just to comment on Lane End, and the Flash.
The first was at the junction of High Lane, Barlow Moor Road and Sandy Lane, and made perfect sense given that until well into the early part of the 19th century, Barlow Moor Road was called Barlow Moor Lane.*
The Flash was where Manchester Road joined what is now Seymour Grove, and was also known as West Point.**
I could go on ….. adding Kemp’s Corner and Brundrett’s Corner to the list, along with the lost road names, but I won’t, and will just wait for the comment which offers up the definitive date of when we moved from Chorlton-cum-Hardy to Chorlton.
And reflect that as Chorlton cum-Hardy we have over the years been the butt of comic and music hall jokes and featured in that wonderful lament for the passing of the branch lines by Flanders and Swann in 1963 which included the memorable line, “No churns, no porter, no cat on a seat, At Chorlton-cum-Hardy or Chester-le-Street”***
Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Pictures; Chorlton and Hardy, 1818, from Greenwood's map, 1818, the railway station, date unknown, rom the collection of Tony Walker, and the train route from Central Station south towards London from MILE BY MILE ON BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS, S.N.PIKE, published by Aurum Press Ltd, and original Mile by Mile on the L.M.S. 1947
*Walking in the north of the township through Martledge in the summer of 1847 part 2, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2013/05/walking-in-north-of-township-through.html
**West Point on the edge of Chorlton, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2017/10/west-point-on-edge-of-chorlton.html
***The Slow Train, Flanders and Swann, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6OHD2uCpfU
