Withington Hospital ....... sixty years ago

 This is Withington Hospital in 1965.

Withington Hospital from Cavendish Road, 1965

And it’s a lesson in how quickly we forget.

The image was taken from Cavendish Road and shows the rear of the complex, with the large field in between.

I must have passed it heaps of time but when confronted with the picture I was puzzled, and it took a few minutes rummaging through old maps and even older photographs to fix the place.

The view along with the hospital have long gone.

Interestingly the caption of the colour slide offered up the title “Union Workhouse”, which of course is what it was.

The hospital and field, 1956

Built in the early 1850s by the Chorlton Union, it replaced the smaller workhouse in Hulme and remained as such till the 1930s.

The hospital and field, 1935

Today some of the hospital buidlings have been converted into residential use and apart from a property in Styal, the only surviving building from the age of the Workhouse in south Manchester is the former offices of the Chorlton Union in All Saints.

In its day the offices administered the work of poor relief across south Manchester and early in its history added an infirmary to the workhouse.

The infirmary was requestioned during the Great War and served as a hospital catering for casualties from the battle front and some of those who died are buried in Southern Cemetery.

I rather think the recovering wounded in their “hospital blue” uniforms may have made good use of the field.

There are a few images from Manchester Library’s archive of images which show the field but none that I can find which places it beside the hospital.*

So perhaps a unique image.

Location; Withington Hospital

Picture; “Withington Hospital, former workhouse, seen from behind”, 1965, The 1965 Collection, the hospital and field  1956, from the OS Map of Manchesterster & Salford, 1956, hospital & field, 1935, m53369, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

* Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

The votes have been counted ...... Chorlton and Didsbury decides

So a day after we went to the polls here are the results.

The sun shone for most of the day, the political parties offered up their own take on what would happen, while the pundits on endless news programmes examined the possible out comes, projecting as yet imaginary results as suggestions for the forthcoming General Election.

Today as the results tumbled in those spokespersons and "expert" analysts set to with the partial results to make of what they would.

And the first to declare was Chorlton.

Compiled from the The Elections Office, Manchester Town Hall, https://www.manchester.gov.uk/electionresults

Lonely houses ………. on the edge of Chorlton …. and a mystery

When you get it so wrong!  

The story below now carries one of those WARNINGS ....... that reading it will fully take you into La La Land, because having written it yesterday, posted it today I can confess this afternoon it is all wrong.

Manor Drive, 1975

Thereby proving that history can be misleading, or just simply I need to back to research school.

And I have Chris O' Connor to thank for putting me straight.

The cottages in the story were further north of Red Bank Farm which featured in the story.

So tomorrow there will be the start of the correction .... read on only if the weather has stopped you going out.

Now if you take a stroll down Manor Drive there are some very large houses.

Red Bank Farm and those buildings, 1845

But tucked away at the top of the road are a line of more modest properties and it is these that I have become interested in.

It all started last week when I was a guest in one of them enjoying a Macmillan cake and coffee morning, and during my stay our host referred to the houses as belonging to the farm which had stood close by.

This was Red Bank Farm, and it was located by a loop in the Mersey and was on the very edge of the township.  In the 1840s it was farmed by James Alderley who rented 47 acres from the Egerton estate and was a mix of arable and meadow land, with field names like Linney Eye, Barn Field and Backside Field.

Look at any of the old maps from 1845 onwards and there can be found a line of buildings which look to be a combination of some residential properties and what might be a long farm building.*

Earlier maps from the beginning of the 19th century also hint at the presence of these buildings.

And so, the search began.  I was confident that we would turn up some farm workers who occupied the properties, but the census returns, and Rate Books have yet to identify any candidates.

Red Bank Farm, circa 1900

The Alderley family continued at Red Bank into the 20th century, growing the number of acres they farmed, before moving to the much bigger Barlow Hall Farm sometime after 1901.

Their place was taken by James and Mary Ryan who had worked Old Fold Farm in Burnage in 1901 but a decade later had taken up residence at Red Bank.

But there is no sign of anyone else in the vicinity.

So perhaps sometime after the demise of the farm the near by buildings were converted into cottages.

That said I might have it wrong, and our cottages are what was once the farmhouse, unlikely I think but Red Bank Farm is listed as having 10 rooms in 1911.

At present I don’t have access to much after 1911.  The census for 1921 doesn’t show the Ryan’s at Red Bank, nor does the 1939 Register.

All of which leaves me to go into Central Ref and trawl the directories for the period after 1911, and hope that someone in the cottages has their deeds which might just offer up the names of who occupied them and when the first residents moved in.

We shall see.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manor Drive, Dawson, A, 1975, m18084, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Red Bank Farm from the Tithe map, 1845, and the Mersey and Red Bank Farm, circa early 20th century,  from the Lloyd Collection

*The tithe map of 1845, the 1854 OS map of Lancashire and the 1894 OS map of South Lancashire.

Chorlton & Didsbury voted ….. Local elections May 2022

So yesterday we went to the polls.

Midday in the sun at the Polling Station, 2022

Once upon a time in Manchester the counts would be conducted on the night, and within a few hours the results would be known.

That immediacy added to the drama of the election.

After a long day of campaigning, a brief visit to the pub to thank all the volunteers, the candidate, agent and a small team would make their way into town and the Town Hall where the counts were undertaken.

And in some cases arriving at the same time as the ballot boxes.

The contents of those boxes would  then be delivered to the relevant "counting room", the ballot papers counted to verify that all had arrived,  followed by the serious business of counting each candidate's votes.

These would be put into bundles which would be stacked at the front, and as the count continued it would be possible to estimate who was winning.

The rest was the declaration of the winning candidate, some cheers, speeches from the winner and losers, and then into the night to celebrate or not at a venue booked in advance.

But now many local authorities choose to count the votes the following morning, when all, and most importantly those doing the counting are fresh.

All of which makes perfect sense but delays the results, and takes the edge off the drama while leaving  the candidate, a few more hours of waiting.

Still in the case of Manchester some of the results will be through by midday, unlike the remote parts of Scotland where we might have to wait days.

But nothing like that stretch of eternity in the 1945 General Election when the results of the "service votes" held in far away theatres of war took weeks to trickle home.

So, this blog story has come to you later in the day, courtesy of the Elections Office at the Town Hall and the Manchester Evening News.*

Leaving me just to reflect that turn out in the 4 seats was higher than in other parts of the city, with Chorlton on 41.21%, Chorlton Park on 36.73% , Didsbury East, 44.61% and Didsbury West at 44.61%.

And at the Manchester City Councils, Election site, you can trawl past local, national and European results, and for those even more nerdy there the election records on the Guardian newspaper site right back into the 19th century.

The Guardian results along with the Guardian and Manchester Guardian are available online from Manchester Public Libraries.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Polling Stations, May 5th 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Local Election Results, Manchester City Council, https://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500329/elections/4981/the_next_election/3