Who moved that bus stop? …………. and other challenges to my memory ….Didsbury …. 1967

It started with a conversation with my friend Barbarella about the lost shops of Didsbury, and in particular, the stretch from M&S to the Santander Bank.

I casually mentioned the photo shop close to the bank and then doubt set in as to whether it had been there back in the 1970s, when I waited for a bus, or indeed if it was still there a few decades later.

Now, I know there is one there today, but thought it might have moved from where I remembered it.
 So as you do I checked out the site on street google and while there is a photo shop, there is no bus stop, and there hangs my dilemma, because for years I stood at that bus stop and would often give up on the bus and go in and buy some film.

These were the decades when I still used smelly film, developing them and printing them at home, along with a sideline in colour slides, which with trial and error led me to prefer Agfar film.

But as so often happens the absence of that bus stop led me to question my memory.

And then  Barbarella restored my memory with “Now it’s opposite the Coop and the next one just passed Saints and Scholars”, which was confirmed almost immediately afterwards when I came across another picture from 1967.

There was the bus stop, and more importantly there was the camera shop, complete with Agfa sign.

I did then go looking at the bus routes on the destination board, which even I thought points to me really needing to get out more, but if you want to give the full flavor of Didsbury in the 1960s, you must dig deep.

That said my guide to bus routes for 1969, shows that none of the three services were running by then, which make me wonder if there was a second bus stop with more services and which of the three went into town, and which headed towards Barlow Moor.

Someone will know, and they may also be prompted to share their memories, sparked perhaps by the picture of Wilmslow Road in 1969.

We shall see.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Wilmslow Road, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

On this day in 1911 ……….on Wilmslow Road

Now, I know exactly where we are on Wilmlsow Road, and I know exactly when we were there.

Walking the Coronation, 1911

And this is because the crowds passing in front of us were part of Didsbury’s contribution to the celebrations to mark the coronation of King George V, on June 22nd  in 1911.

The picture was part of a collection which appeared in the Souvenir of the Coronation Festivities Held at Didsbury, June 22nd, 1911, by Fletcher Moss.

As to the location, the clue is in the name of the shop keeper who was John Thomas Ashworth whose stationers’ shop was on the corner of Wilmslow Road and King Street which is now known as Kings Lynn Close.

Looking on, 1911

Like many such shops he operated  a private lending library, and with a view to advancing his business, he has chosen not to pull down the blinds, leaving the contents of the windows to be seen by all who chose to look in.

And I rather think that is him looking down at the procession.

He was fifty years old, had been married to his wife Betsy, for seven years, and had been trading from the shop since at least 1901.

We will never know where his wife was at the moment the picture was taken, but next door, the Jones family appear to have invited a heap of people.  Mr. and Mr. Jones ran a fruit and veg shop, and lived with their grownup son Percy, who was a clerk in the Manchester Shipping Warehouse.

Wimlsow Road and Kings Lynn Close, 1967

It would be tempting to speculate on who the invited guests were, but perhaps it is enough, that on that day we have identified some of the spectators.

And to those who are confused or doubt where we are, here included in roughly the same spot in 1967, which just leaves everyone to wander down to Kings Lynn Close and marvel at the transformation.

Location; Didsbury,

Pictures, Wimlsow Road, from the Souvenir of the Coronation Festivities Held at Didsbury, June 22nd 1911, Fletcher Moss, and in 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

*1911 census, Enu 04 42, & 40, Didsbury,  South Manchester, Lancashire

Coffee…… a bag of coal ….. and a new TV channel ………. Didsbury 1967

I think this might be the last in the series of Didsbury in the 1960s.

I say that but I am sure it’s a promise I won’t keep.

This picture from 1967 is one of my favourites from the collection and features a building whose story I keep coming back to.*

For now I shall reflect that I doubt many of those sipping their coffee on Costa will know that the corner plot was once occupied by the National Coal Board, or that the distinctive ghost sign on the gable end was hidden under a layer of black paint.

What really caught mu interest was BSM Radio with its advert for BBC 2.

This was after all 1967, and until the arrival of BBC 2, we had just the two channels, which were black and white.

The first colour transmission I saw weas the following year, when in London at least BBC 2 broadcast live coverage of Wimbledon in colour.

Just how many of those passing along Wilmslow Road on that winter’s day had BBC 2 is unknown, but I doubt it will have been that many.

And in the same vein I wonder just who remembers Price’s the bakery shop, BSM Radio or Distinctive Fashions, which is now also part of Costa Coffee?

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Wilmslow Road, 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,  https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

Admiring the simplicity of Didsbury Library ……… 1963

It’s been a while since I have been in the library and had quite forgotten the simplicity of the design.

It was built in fulfilment of a promise made when Didsbury, along with Burnage, Chorlton, and Withington, voted to join the City in 1904.

That said it would be another 11 years before Didsbury’s residents got their new Library, but when it was finished it was a brand-new Library, fit for a new century and replaced a small municipal library which had opened in 1908.

While it’s outside was in the words of its architect “'designed in the fifteenth century gothic style with tracery windows and emblems of Science, Knowledge, Literature, Music and Arts and Crafts in stone distributed over the building.” *

Internally it belonged to the 20th century with electric light which “was designed to allow the public free access to the shelves, browsing and reading areas. The walls were tiled to dado height, the floor cork carpeted and the oak furniture, fittings and partitions cost £600”.

But it wasn’t the first library, because back in the May of 1854, a more modest venture was opened in the National School.

It was the work of a group of wealthy residents and “the inauguration meeting was held in the schoolroom, which is to be used for the library and reading room and is well adapted for the purpose being lighted with gas and well ventilated.  The stock of books in the library at present is not large, but they are well selected, and there are ample funds for the purchase of more when needed”. **

The subscription had been “fixed as low as possible, - a penny a week, - in order to diffuse the benefits of the institution as widely as possible”.

And as befitted the age, more than a few speakers at the opening meeting took the moral high ground, with one asserting that the library would act as a counter to the “the public house which was the resort only of those who had no other enjoyment”.

While another “referred with regret to the fact that ‘Roderick Random’ was the most read book in the noble Free Library of Manchester and while admiring the humour of the author he feared the book was perused for its  objectionable features, and he advised them to purge their library of anything injurious to the morals of the people”.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Didsbury Library, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk

*The Didsbury Library, Manchester Guardian May 17th, 1915

**Opening of Didsbury Library and Institution, Manchester Guardian, May 17th, 1854

Don't get me on the subject of wool shops ...........

Now I belong to a generation that was dragged round wool shops as a child.

My mum, her friend and later my sisters all knitted and so the trip to the shop was a regular part of my Saturdays.

It started with the knitting pattern, went on to an endless discussion about the colour of the wool and finished with walking home with loads of the stuff.

Then there was the smell.

Wool shops had a distinctive smell, which was a sort of warm perfume smell which followed you home and stayed where ever mother was knitting.

There was something else about the wool shop which for years I couldn’t quite work out what it was, and then recently it came to me, it was always so very quiet, as if there were secrets about knitting that could only be uttered in a low almost conspiratorial way.

Ours was a traditional wool shop. The wooden shelves which reached to the ceiling were made of a deep dark wood which shone in the sunlight and were heaped high with wool.

 And then there were the wooden and glass counters which today you only see in shops pretending to be old. Through the glass top you could see more wool and all sizes of knitting needles.

So the day Mrs Rogers announced that she was going to try out a knitting machine it was if she had admitted to multiple affairs over the preceding twenty years.

I wouldn’t mind but it wasn’t even that she was going to buy one; all she wanted to do was try it out.

 But that marked her out as a flighty thing who would soon be buying a Christmas cake instead of making one and no doubt had already used custard powder and meat spread.

Nor did the torture of the wool shop stop there. Once home the wool had to be wound into balls, which could be only done using the back of a chair but usually involved me having to stand with my arms outstretched and the wool was pulled from me and went into balls.

So I suppose I chose to ignore the wool shop on Wilmslow Road, and then it had gone.

And in memory of that wool shop and many others I shall leave you with this classic pattern from our Jillian who collects them, in the hope that she will knit me a balaclava.

Location; Wilmslow Road,

Picture; Wilmslow Road, 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY
and knitting patterns, 1930-1970 from the collection of Jillian Goldsmith

Didsbury as it was ………………….. in 1967

I like this picture.

We are looking down Kings Lynn Close to towards Wilmslow Road.

Now, I could say lots more, but where would the fun be in that?  Instead I will leave it up to you, to spot the changes to the shop on the corner, and clock the different businesses on the main road.





Location; Didsbury

Picture; Kings Lynn Close, 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,  https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

Didsbury as it was ………………….. in 1967

Now, this is how I remember that stretch of Wilmslow Road, from Kings Lynn Close down towards Albert Hill Street.

For Kansas Fried Chicken, read Edwyn’s and for the Halifax, Mark Down the supermarket and so on.

Back in 1911, the list ran John William Miller, fruiterer, and Jn Williams & Sons Ltd, grocer.

And for those who long ago exchanged Wilmlsow Road for other places, here courtesy of Andy Roberston, is much the same scene today.

What I like about Andy's picture is that it has been taken from the upstairs of a bus bound for Chorlton.

Location; Wilmslow Road, Didsbury

Picture; Wilmslow Roadm 2019,from the collection of Andy Robertson, 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,  https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

Visions of a future ……. Didsbury ……. 1965

I arrived here just four years later, ready to do a post grad course and on to a career in teaching.

Location; Didsbury

Picture;Visions of a future,  "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection",

Didsbury ……. 1963

40 or so years after it opened its doors.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; The Library,  "Courtesy of 
Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection "

Binswood in Didsbury, 611 Wilmslow Road ...... begins to reveal its story

Now the thing with stories about old houses, is that they draw you in and can take you off in all sorts of directions.

And so it was with Binswood which is on Wilmlsow Road in Didsbury.

It started with just a picture of “Binswood Red Cross Old People’s Home", sent to me by my old friend David Harrop and given that he is particularly interested in the Red Cross hospitals from the Great War, I made the assumption that the house had served as a place to care for wounded servicemen.

A search in the Red Cross book of war time hospitals published in 1916 didn’t show Binswood, but then the charity continued to acquire properties right up to the end of the war.

And it may be that it will turn up as a hospital, but I think not.

In 1918 it appears in an article in the Manchester Guardian which includes a list of subscribers to the Christmas Comforts Fund and there at Binswood Didsbury was a W. Ruttenau who sent in £3. 3s.

And the property looks still to be a private residence in 1949 when it came on the market advertised by J.H. Norris & Son as “one of the finest large RESIDENCES, situate Binswood, corner of Fog Lane; large accommodation includes three fine entertaining rooms, ten bedrooms, billiards room, etc; 6,679 sq yards; vacant possession”.*

This may well have been when the property was bought by the Red Cross.  A decade later there is a photograph of the house with a notice board announcing that it belongs to them and in 1967 The Guardian carried an “Appeal for a lift for the elderly”.

“The British Red Cross Society (East Lancashire branch) is appealing for contributions towards the sum of £7,000 needed to install a lift and make other improvements at Binswood, 611 Wilmlsow Road, Didsbury, Manchester, a short-stay home for the elderly”.**

Since then the house has returned to residential use and sometime in 2017 was redeveloped, with the addition of a new block which has been given the name of “The Fairfax” and sits beside “Binswood Hall”.

And as you do I went looking for the property and found that the new block offers 12 energy efficient executive apartments on of which one was on the market for £399,950.***

That just leaves me to track back the history of Binswood.  I know who was living there in the early 20th century and that it appears on the OS map of Didsbury in 1894.

So a trawl of the rate books and directories will establish when it was built and those directories may also reveal when it ceased being a Red Cross Home.

We shall see.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Binswood, date unknown, from the collection of David Harrop, and in 1959, J.F. Harris, m42289, & in 1967, W. Kay, m41900, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Sales By Private Contract; Manchester Guardian, July 15, 1949

** Appeal for a lift for the elderly, the Guardian September 5, 1967

*** 2 bedroom apartments for sale, The Fiarfax, 611a, Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, rightmove, http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-64063198.html

For all those who left Didsbury a long time ago ………

I am not a great fan of the now and then sets of pictures.

Kings Lynn Close, 2020

But I have to be careful, because I did collaborate on a then and now book on Didsbury’s past, so I shall push on with these two.*

We are on Kings Lynn Close on a bright day in February.

And for those that remember the day, it was pretty much the only dry day for weeks.

So as the rain wasn’t coming down like stair rods and the clouds were not scrapping the tops of buildings I set off into the township.

By the time I got back on the tram and headed into town the weather had turned, but that’s another story.

For now it is Kings Lynn Close and the view up towards Wilmlsow Road.

Kings Lynn Close, 1967

For some the value of the image will be in the snap shot of shops on the main road, which will stir a few memories.

But I am equally interested in the clutch of buildings to the left.

There is much the same, including those large metal trolleys and the simple observation finding a parking spot back in 1967 was like today, a reward in itself.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; looking out from Kings Lynn Close, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,  https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

*Didsbury Through Time, Peter Topping & Andrew Simpson, 2013, A new book for Didsbury, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Didsbury

A little bit of that Coronation celebrations from 1911 …….…..

This is part of the Coronation procession passing down Wilmslow Road at the corner of King Street on a June day in 1911.

There can be no one from that crowd who is still alive today, and apart from a detailed description of the festivities in in a souvenir book and some press cuttings I doubt I will ever turn up anything else which can tell me more about that day in Didsbury.*

Or so I thought, but Barbarella, in response to my story on the Coronation procession, sent me over a picture of this coronation mug.

Like many such artefacts it turned up in an Oxfam shop, and while there will have been thousands in circulation back in the day, I would be surprised if there are any more knocking around in Didsbury.

It was produced by Grimwades of Stoke on Trent, who are famous for their Royal Winton range of earthenware and fine bone china.  The company was established in 1885 by two brothers, and continued into the 1960s, when it was taken over.

Barbarella’s mug has survived over a century and I suppose is lucky to be in one piece.

The romantic in me would love to know its history, including it line of owners.

I suspect it will have been carefully placed on display for decades, before changing fashions and different owners finally consigned into a charity shop from where it has returned to a place of care and safety.




Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Wimlsow Road, from the Souvenir of the Coronation Festivities Held at Didsbury, June 22nd 1911, Fletcher Moss, and the Coronation mug, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento










* the Souvenir of the Coronation Festivities Held at Didsbury, June 22nd 1911, Fletcher Moss

On Barlow Moor Road in 1960 ..... and back to Wilmlsow Road

Now here is a picture which began on Wilmslow Road, boved to Barlow Moor Road and has returned to its original destination.or 

It was drawn by my friend Ann in 1960 which might account for me being unable to recognise it.

But then again I was wandering this bit of Didsbury only nine years later so I should be able to remember.

That said I bet there will be someone who does and who will come back with the names of all the shops, what they sold and a pithy little tale about Ingham Hughes, Estate Agent.

When I first ran the story back a few years ago, I placed it on Wilmslow Road, but was never really convinced, always coming back to that parade on Barlow Moor Road.  To my shame I was too lazy to go back and change it.

And when I re posted it today  I kept Wilmlsow Road in the title, but by popular consent we are on  Barlow Moor Road, but always go back to the artist who assures me "It really was on Wilmslow road. Didsbury.  At the end of Barlow Moor Rd, turn right towards Stockport (as on the 16 bus) and these shops were about  100yds along on the right".

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Wilmlsow Road, 1960, Ann Love

Travels through the village ………… part 1

The idea is very simple, select almost the same spot along Wilmslow Road through the village, and throw in a series of picture post cards taken from almost the same place over the last century.*

So here are the first two, from the 1960s and 1950s.












Location; Didsbury Village

Pictures; the Village, the 1950s and 60s







*The location of the village green  was down by the Didsbury Hotel and Old Cock.

Travels through Didsbury ………… on a Saturday in February …. shoes, shoes, and more shoes

With the demise of traditional retail, squeezed by supermarkets and online shopping, the charity shop and bar culture have saved many a High Street.

Mind, Albert Hill Road, 2020

Didsbury has its share of both, and I think we are the winners.

Leaving me just to do the lazy thing, and throw in a picture of that bit of Wilmslow Road, which includes the shop which now trades as Mind.*

Back then it was occupied by Edwards who was one of our butchers, and whose immediate neighbours, included an iron mongers and and yes .... a shoe shop.

And because this is 1967, the ironmongers, quick to exploit the then fad of the time, has turned the basement over to a "DOˑITˑYOURSELF" department in the basement.

Those old enough will remember Barry Bucknell and a series of TV programmes .

Wilmslow Road, 1967

At best they empowered people to improve their homes, and at worst led to wholesale destruction of traditional features with cheap materials, with the result that four decades on householders tore out the hardboard which covered ornate doors and beautiful fireplaces.

But such stories are best left to another time.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Albert Hill Road, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Wilmlsow Road, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk

*mind, https://www.mind.org.uk/

Out on Barlow Moor Road remembering the Teacher’s Centre

2015

Now I still think the decision of the City Council to establish a Teachers Centre on Barlow Moor Road was a bold and progressive thing to do.

It was a place where teachers could meet, advance their knowledge and skills swap ideas and study in the  library.

Originally it had been a large private residence and in the fullness of time I will go its history.

I started going there in 1973 and used it fairly regularly throughout the rest of the decade and into the next.

1965

I have yet to track down a history of the Centre but rather think it was opened in the mid 1960s and lasted till budgetary cuts led to its closure and ultimately the sale of the two buildings.

I lost touch with the place years ago and so Andy Robertson’s two pictures are a welcome reminder of one of those key moments in my life when getting married and starting work in Wythenshawe coincided with my visits to the Teacher’s Centre.

At the time I took the place for granted and gave no thought to how grand the building would have been when it was a family home.

A little of the style and detail was still there to see including the fireplaces and plaster mouldings above the picture rails and the glass windows.

1974

Thinking about it I wonder if the staircase up to what had become the library made the same creaking noise back at the beginning of the last century, which may border on questionable speculation  but makes a link with its past.

And by one of those wonderful twists of chance I rather think that one of the people in the 1965 picture is Joan Leighton who was my first head teacher which makes the link I was looking for.

She is sitting on the right of the picture beside the lady with the hat.

2015

Now I can't be sure what the meeting was about but around 1965 she was part of a team of Humanities teachers working towards a book on the city's recent past which drew on the interplay between geography and history.

It was a book I used less than a decade later.

And then there is one final link and it is the the hall which stood beside what had been the rear of the house.

It was a functional bit of a building with no pretence to be anything other than what it was.

Beyond the glass fronted entrance was a large space which pretty much resembled any school hall built in the three decades after the last war and was the first casualty of the new development.


Pictures; Didsbury business centre.com, once Teachers Centre 2105 from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the Humanities room of Teacher’s Centre, 1965, m66479, and the hall, 1974, m21496, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Back with that ghost sign on Burton Road and memories of "sweet shops galore"

Now I like returning to stories, especially ones where people pick up on what I have written and take the tale just that bit further.

Today on Burton Road, 2014

So yesterday I posted about a ghost sign on Burton Road, and I half expected that my friend Sally would be able to tell me more.

She grew up just off Burton Road and more over went to school with the son of the chap who ran the shop which once proudly displayed the sign on the gable end.

"The newsagents as I remember it was called Gibsons.

There were so many sweet and cake buying opportunities in that area its a wonder all of the children were not morbidly obese, but we weren't, because we played lots of rounders and Rally Vo and we had Chopper bikes.

Back in 1962

On Burton road , just in the stretch between Nell Lane and Cavendish Road , there was Bancroft's, Lyngrays, Gibsons, Duwe's another shop (that was actually two shops) and sold greetings cards and stationary in one bit, while the other side was called 'The Chocolate Cabin' and sold the sort of boxes of chocolates you only really saw at Christmas .

If you dared to turn the corner onto Lapwing Lane, there was Smiths and Bennetts , both newsagents and sweet shops.

And a short walk up to ‘the terminus ‘ at the top of Lapwing Lane would bring you face to face with chocolate machines , where you could get those square bars of Cadburys Fruit and Nut..

And still in 1962

Under the veranda at the Terminus was also Inmans newsagents ... More opportunities to get rid of your 'spends.' "

And along with these priceless memories she dug up a series of pictures which complimented mine and showed Burton Road back in 1962, which is pretty much how I still remembered it a decade later just before it began to change into what we know now.

But that is another story which of course I hope Sally will tell.

And in 1995

In the meantime having wandered down Burton Road it looks today and in 1962 I decided to visit just once more sometime in 1995.

By then the big hoardings on the gable end had gone and there was our sign which of course is still there today and where we started the story.

Sadly the newsagents is no more an in the course of the last two years has been a restaurant offering up different cuisine.

And that pretty much is that for now.

Picture; the ghost sign on Burton Road in 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and in 1962, by J F Harris, m42962 & m42961  and in 1995 by M Luft m21519, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass