A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects ... number 18 ……. the charity shop

The story of Didsbury in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph or more.

Now it is stating the obvious to say that the charity shop has come to be one of the main players on most of our high streets.

The demise of the traditional shops like hardware stores, grocers, and haberdasheries, has been filled by a range of charities which vie with estate agents and bars as the dominant business most of us will visit.

And there is nothing wrong in that.

Of course, the continued presence of that virus, and restrictions on how we shop, may prove fatal for some.

But I suspect they are here to stay.

Location Didsbury

Picture; Barnardo's on Wilmslow Road, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects number 9 ........... Goodbye teachers

The story of Didsbury in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph or more.

It was billed as “The People’s Farewell to Didsbury” and marked the end of over 200 years of teaching on the site that looked out on the village green.

Sometime around 1812, the fine house known as the Pump House, became a boarding school.

Later it was turned into a theological college and later still into teacher training college.

And before that was a private residence dating back to about 1744.

The stone cladding to what was originally a brick building was added by the Wesleyans when they took it over in 1841.They also added the wings at either side and that is what generations of people from Didsbury have seen as they pass by.

 And in 1965 Manchester Corporation added a set of teaching buildings and a gym to mark the expansion of the site into a teacher training college.  My brief contribution to its history was as a postgrad student between 1972 to 73.

All of which meant I was not going to miss the farewell Didsbury Picnic in the June of 2014, to mark the closure of the site and its move to Hulme.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; The People's Farewell to Didsbury, June 25th, 2014

A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects number 1 ........... a bus garage

The story of Didsbury in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph.

This is all that remains of our bus garage which was opened in 1926. Since the beginning of the last century Didsbury had been served by trams and in 1928 the Corporation had 953 trams running 46 routes along 292 miles of track but the decision had been taken to replace them with motor buses and trolley buses.  Our garage was designed to take fifty buses and served Didsbury well for 45 years but the amalgamation of the county’s bus services and the inevitable rationalization of depots meant that it was closed in 1971.









Painting; Clock Tower at Tesco’s Didsbury  from the series East Didsbury, © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures, Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Sharing a fine meal with a bit of history ..... in Didsbury at 4 Of Us .... part 1

Now if like me you have knocked around in Didsbury for over 40 years you will know that restaurant beside the Old Cock.

In its time it has had different names and was variously a “streak house” and more recently a companion to Dimitris’s the Greek Taverna on Deansgate.

Today it is called 4 Of Us, was opened nine months ago by four friends and is also a wine shop with an impressive range of wines on offer.*

Some of these we were treated to as samples by our host Magda, who chose two English wines and ones from Austria and Slovakia.

Of the five we sampled it was the two English wines we preferred, and one of these accompanied the meal.  

I could of course at this point list the food on the menu, but where would the fun be in that when by following the link, you can discover it for yourself along with the all the wines on offer.

That said I do have to mention my dish which the menus describes as “roasted cauliflower fricassee, curried aubergine, baby spinach and chick peas”.

As a vegetarian who tends to go for the “same stuff”, this was a wonderful blend of some simple ingredients with a fine light sauce.

All of which just leaves the history of the building which over the next few days I will endeavour to research.

Back in the 1970s I can’t remember even clocking the building on the odd visit to the Old Cock when we would miss the odd lecture, preferring a pint of Badger’s Surprise to an hour on the Philosophy of Education.

Years later and in front of a classroom in Poundswick High School in Wythenshawe I  sometimes reflected how the pub had been the better choice.

But we were post grads doing the year course for a Cert Ed, and had the arrogance of graduates who had made a career of missing lectures during the previous three years.

Suffice to say I know that in 1901 the building which is home to 4 of Us was a “pastry and confectioner’s” run by a Mary Sharp.

And that leaves Martha Dimond also a confectioner and Arthur Garret  Gibons  who described himself as "Baker and confectioner", all of whom occupied the place in the decades either side of 1911.

So more to uncover.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures, at the 4 Of Us, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2024

*4 Of Us, https://fourofus.co.uk/

That spot on the corner of Wilmslow Road ……….

I have always taken the small garden area on the corner of Wilmlsow Road and Grange Road pretty much for granted.

And couldn’t tell you exactly when it turned from open space to an attractive landscaped area which is  just suited to sit and watch Wilmlsow Road hurry past.

But someone will know, and I hope tell me.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; That spot on the corner of Wilmslow Road, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A Didsbury door …… February in Didsbury

Location; Stenner Lane, Didsbury

Picture; Didsbury door, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Wild Life Hotel…… February in Didsbury

Location; Parsonage Gardens, Didsbury

Picture; Wildlife Hostel, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

That church ……….. February in Didsbury

Location; Wilmslow Road, Didsbury

Picture; the former church, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

 

Didsbury Pictures …….the rest room

Location; Didsbury

Picture; the rest room, Wilmslow Road, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson 

It’s what they do in Didsbury ............

Saturday on a Leap Day in Didsbury

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Wilmslow Road, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Somewhere to go ……….

On passing the Mad Giant and thinking of going in.

Location Didsbury

Picture; Passing the Mad Giant, 2020 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A little bit of the story of that public garden on Grange Lane. ……

How easy it is to take bits of Didsbury for granted.

I recently passed that small bit of public garden on the corner of Wilmslow Road and Grange Lane and for the first time ever took a picture of the space which a few days later appeared on the blog.

And as you do I pondered on the origin of the spot, which I assumed had once been something else.

But as hard as I tried I couldn’t remember what might have been here before the garden.

Opposite, the site of the garage had once been the grounds of Manor House which in 1911 was home to Mr. and Mrs. Mason, and their seven servants. He was the owner of a cotton mill, which may have been in Ashton-Under-Lyne.

But however, adapt he was at managing a factory, he seems to have got a little confused at completing the census return. All nine of the people at the house were described as British subject by parentage and he recorded that the house had 31 rooms.

Now there were some big houses in Didsbury, but 31 rooms seem a tad too many.  That said some one in the know, steeped in Didsbury history will put me right

And they may also offer a history of a little public garden.

The OS maps for the late 19th and early 20th centuries  show it as open land with trees, as do the photographs from the same period.

Up till the 1950s and maybe into the following decade there was a low wall around the area, and in one picture there were giant flower tubs beside the trees, while in earlier photographs there was a picket fence running alongside facing the shops.

So that is it.

The bit of Didsbury I took for granted.

Although having said that ….. you did get a bit  on Mr. Sidney Mason.

My friend Barbarella told me the shop on the corner was once a Post Office, and I can confirm that in 1911 it was indeed “The Post Money and Telegraph Office” and Mr. George Edward Scott was the Post Master, while those who like contrasting facts, a big chunk of Grange Lane consisted of three, four and five roomed properties.

And that really is it.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; that public garden on Grange Lane, in the 1950s, the 1900s, from picture postcards, and in 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Casa Italia ….. a jar of Brylcream, and a row of cottages …….. Didsbury across a century

The great fun of historical research is you never quite know what you will turn up.

Casa Italia 2020

So here I was last Saturday back in Didsbury trying to get a picture of Casa Italia without a car getting in the way, and failed yet again.

Why Casa Italia? Well I like I the restuaraunt, and it has proved to be the only place locally that stocks Nocino.*

But enough of such stuff, and instead it is the history of the building I want to explore.
Just when it stopped being a Carrington’s and became the Casa Italia I have yet to find out but I know that back in 2014 I might just have been able to get my Nocino here from this branch of the Carrington empire.

Chritian Reading Room, 1959

I will have passed the building countless times during the 1970s and 80s, and I gave it little attention.

I do remember that one side was a Christian Science Reading Room, while the other half was a Gents Hairdressing Saloon, which as well cutting hair and selling that certain package “for the evening sir”, had jars of Brylcream.

Now you have to be of a certain generation to remember Brylcream, with its distinctive smell and its ability to hold hair in place.  It was one of those products that was a bit of a right of passage, because you only started to use it  in your teens.  Out had gone the toy trains, comic annuals and instead there was the full tilt pursuit of fashion, music, and going on a date.

My flirtation with the stuff didn’t last long, but for a short while it and Old Spice were part of getting ready to go out.  The downside was the smell and the greasy marks it left on furniture, and in my case the comments of one early girlfriend, appalled at what it did to her hands after fondly running her fingers through my hair.

Hair curs and Brylcream, 1959

It was I now know an emulsion of water and mineral oil stabilised with beeswax and it  is still available today.  Alas those who know me, will smile at the thought that I once had hair and might choose to use the stuff.

Back in 1969 the owner of the hairdressers was a Mr. T Smith and the shop had been dispensing Brylcream, hair cuts and much more a decade earlier.

In time I will go looking for just when it ceased to do Brylcream, haircuts, and for that matter when the building was constructed.

At the turn of the century the site had been a row of cottages which were still there in the 1920s.

But at some point these were replaced with our building, which is quite distinctive with that frieze at roof level.  Look very closely and it is just possible to pick out that the design is a series of identical flowers in full bloom.

F. Lees, bird seed and Spratt's

Decades of paint have now obscured the finer details but they are still there.

And what is even more fascinating is that there was another block further north along Wilmslow Road, on the corner with what is now North Street.

It was not as substantial as ours but it had the same design below the foor and may have been by the same architect.  In 1959 it was occupied by F. Lees who described himself as a “Seed Dealer” in the directories but whose shop front announced that here was Didsbury Pet & Garden Stores ….. The Shop for Spratt’s.”  Offering dog food and bird seed in “packets and Bags”

Those cottages, 1906

All of which just leaves me to plunge into the census returns and explore the occupants of those cottages who in 1901 included a certain Mr. William Wrightman who described himself as a cab driver and ten years later was running the Station Hotel on the corner of Wilmslow Road and what is now North Road.

As ever, there is more , but that is for another time.  In the meantime I shall book my time into Central Ref to trawl the directories to discover just when our floral adorned shops were built.

And a thank you to andy Robertson who trawled his copy of the 1969 Directory.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Casa Italia, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, the same block in 1959, J.F. Harris, m42647, and that other block on the corner of what is now North Street, in 1959, J.F. Harris, m42644, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and the row of cottages circa 1906

*Nocino is a wonderful liqueur from the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, and is made from unripe green walnuts, rivaled only by Lemoncello.

Passing the church on Albert Hill Street ………………

It’s the one on Albert Hill Street, and was the Primitive Methodist Church.

In 1911 it proudly announced that its “Services were at 10.45 am and 6.30 pm on Wednesday’s and 7.30 pm on Sunday with a Sunday School”.

And for those who prefer it in colour, rather than "arty farty monochrome", here is the original colour version. Two for one ...... now that's an offer not to be turned down.

Location Didsbury









Picture; the one on Albert Hill Street, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Down at Parrs Wood Court with some bombs, a few stories and an electric lift

Now as landmarks go Parrs Wood Court is a pretty bold statement of design and until recently dominated the junction of Wilmslow Road and Kingsway.

Back in 1939 when it was built it offered all that you could want, with central heating, electric lifts and apartments spread over five floors.

Here, as the Manchester Guardian's advert said was a block of “modern apartments with one or two entertaining rooms [and] one to four bedrooms if required, [which was] conveniently situated on the Wilmslow Road end of the Kingsway with  bus and tram routes and adjoining East Didsbury Station.”*

The flats went on the market in the May of 1940 and I can see the attraction.

Those buses, trams and trains could whisk the residents of Parrs Wood Court in to the heart of the city while the newly built Kingsway offered the car owner a more direct route than the old congested and busy Wilmlsow Road.

Added to which the block looked out on to the 50 acre Parrs Wood Estate which offered more than a hint of a rural landscape.

And I suspect a location which for some might have seemed a safer place to live as German bombs began to fall from the skies.

But perhaps not that safe, given that during the December of 1940 four fire bombs landed just a little to the north and a high explosive bomb fell almost directly opposite in the grounds of Parrs Wood House.

Still the Court survived and Peter’s painting captures the grandeur of its design which has been lost in many of the photographs of the building.

This one taken from a picture postcard sent in 1951 does little to convey the full presence of the block but its value is the detail it offers up of the surrounding area.

There in the distance is the old bus depot which has long since gone while outside the flats is one of with those iconic concrete bus shelters some of which were still around in the 1970s.

Now it is a full seventy-five years since those flats went on sale and it would be an interesting project to track down some of the first and then subsequent residents who made Parrs Wood Court their home.

Painting; Parrs Wood Court, East Didsbury, © 2013 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

Picture; Parrs Wood Court circa 1950, from the collection of Paul O’Sullivan, Manchester Guardian advert,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass 

*Flats at Parrs Wood Court, Parrs Wood.  East Didsbury, Manchester, Manchester Guardian, May 11 1940

The great East Didsbury dilemma ...... the train or the tram and a history lesson

Now if I lived in East Didsbury, let’s say in Parrs Wood Court or the new build beside it I think I would find it difficult to choose between the train or the tram to get me in to the city centre.

Given that I am a tad lazy I suspect it would be the train which would whizz me into Piccadilly in no time but if I worked by Central Ref I might on the other hand opt for the slower more picturesque journey on the Metro which would drop me right outside.

Of course there would have been a time when the only train available would have been that from Didsbury Station which opened for eager passengers in 1880 leaving me a full 29 years to wait to travel from East Didsbury and Parrs Wood on the line operated by the London and North Western Railway which started in 1909.

And those full of railway knowledge may point out that the Didsbury line from Central closed in 1967 leaving me no option but to fall back on the red Corporation bus or the that train from East Didsbury.

Having said that I have sat on that station and watched all those express trains from the airport slice the air as they hurtle nonstop through East Didsbury before arriving at Piccadilly.

It's pretty annoying given that there is a train which you can see and hear  but it ain’t going to stop, while just across the road there will always be a tram.

But then I live in Chorlton and if I choose to travel by tram in the rush hour I can be fairly certain that I will have to stand for the entire journey on a tram which began its journey at East Didsbury..

Painting; East Didsbury Station,  © 2015 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

Faded glory ....... February in Didsbury

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Faded glory, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

All that Didsbury can offer…… February in Didsbury

Location; Wilmslow Road, Didsbury

Picture; All that Didsbury can offer, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Church ……… February in Didsbury

 Where else would you go on a grey day which promised little?

That said a heap of runners were making their way back from a jaunt along the River and opposite the Parsonage was preparing for another Saturday morning Art class.

But the church and the surrounding graveyard was empty.

Location; Church of St James, Stenner Lane, Didsbury

Picture; Church of St James, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Didsbury shapes ……….. February on Wilmslow Road

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Didsbury Shapes, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson