When the 1950’s came back to Beech Road

Daft title I know but the sign outside Etchells’ on Beech Road with its promise of assorted different lollies will resonate with anyone who grew up in the 1950s and 60’s.

Beech Road, 2025

And it is less for those assorted different lollies and instead the pale yellow background, coloured strips and its distinctive blue lettering.

Eldorado, 1959

We were a Wall’s house but I know that other brands were available including Lyons Maid and El Dorado.

But for us it was that family brick with its vanilla, strawberry and chocolate sections called Neapolitan.

That said I had no brand loyalty as a kid and on occasion in Woolworth’s would buy one of those round ice creams in its round cornet which I think belonged to Lyons Maid.

And if really pushed might indulge in a Topper from Eldorado, but the flavour of its inside was bland.

I suppose we also fell on Wall’s because at 1922 it was the oldest and therefore was a brand both mother and father would have recognised unlike its whipper snapper rivals of Lyons which dated from 1925 and the baby Eldorado which only appeared in1952.

Wall’s also appeared in the Eagle comic that go to boy’s paper of the 1950s, which was my weekly read. It had its own picture strip in which Tommy Walls would battle the bad, the very bad and even more bad villains.

Tommy Walls, 1950

At which point I could go into the history of the company’s and focus on all those Italian ice cream makers who worked our towns and cities in the late 19th and twentieth centuries, but I won’t.  Nor will I feature the work of Mrs Thatcher as one of scientists engaged in making whipped lighter ice cream thereby adding more air than white stuff to the finished product.

Although I am tempted to linger on the practice of selling the stuff in small metal containers at a penny ago, but the dreadful knowledge that the said bowls were not washed out between licks is a topic best left to those stern and heavy books on how diseases spread.

And that is it.

Location; Beech Road

Pictures; On Beech Road, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and advert for Topper Ice Cream Lollie, 1959, from the Eagle Comic, May 30, 1959, Vol. 10 No.22, and Tommy Walls from the Eagle, April 18th, 1950

The latest makeover on Beech Road ……..

Now with every bit of change there is a lot of continuity.

2023

So today I spotted the latest bit of makeover to Etchells the newsagent which has done the business of selling comics, magazines, newspapers, and a heap of other things since the 1960s.

1979

They are one of the Beech Road institutions and leaving aside the two pubs can lay claim to being the oldest continuous commercial property on the road where I live.

Not only that but the shop has always been a newsagent stretching back into the early 20th century.

At one time it was also a private lending library, and one part of the shop was originally a cobbler.

So, there you have it a bit of change to set against a continuity of retail service.

2000

And for those that remember it here is the poster on the wall celebrating the Beech Road shops at the turn of the century.

Circa 1900

Leaving me just to reflect on that wonderful Radio 4 comedy about a Scottish newsagent, but that is a blog for another time. *

Location; Beech Road,

Pictures, Etchells on Beech Road, 2023, 2000, & 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and circa 1900. 

*Fags, Mags and Bags, Radio 4 BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fbnb7

Shadows at the newsagents …….

Now I have been following the continuing changes to Etchells on Beech Road.

Work began earlier in the month when the tile cladding came off and revealed a bit of the story of the shop which dates to the start of the 20th century.

The removal of the tiles revealed clues to the original lay out of the shop including the front door and a window looking out onto Beech Road.*

Small history perhaps but fascinating none the less for a building which can lay claim to having always been a newsagent.

And one which in its earlier days was run by Lionel Nixon who was the grandson of the family who ran the beer shop which is now 70 Beech Road. 

They were Samuel and Sarah Ann Nixon, and they were in residence offering up beer and cheer from the 1840s, while Samuel’s father was landlord of that pub over the water once known as the Greyhound, but now Jackson’s Boat.

Ever since work started, I have been going down and photographing the progress, and this Sunday with the new rendering on and the sun shining the wall was a backdrop for these shadows.

And that pretty much is that.

Location; Beech Road

Pictures, Shadows at the newsagents ……. 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*When archaeology came to Beech Road ……, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Beech%20Road

When archaeology came to Beech Road ……

It will be a long time since anyone has seen the brickwork of the newsagents on Beech Road.

After the tiles, 2022

But this week the tiles which went on sometime in the 1980s have gone revealing more than a few clues to the history of the building.

It is rare that you get a chance to match old photographs with the stripped away cladding of decades and cross reference these with the historic records.

I know that in 1911 the original living quarters of the business could be accessed by a front door to the right of the big shop window beside which was another window.  All of which would suggest that what is now the back of the shop was the living room.  

Long before the tiles, 1911

And yesterday’s picture reveals the ghost door and window exactly where they should have been.

Now I can’t be sure when they were bricked up but I am guessing it will be before 1959, when Mr. R E Stanley photographed the shop and revealed a similar bricked up doorway on what is now the Chequers side of the shop.

A ghost door and its companion window, 2022

The rate books and census returns point to the shop having been built in the 1890s along with a property on Chequers Road which is now part of the shop.

This other building was listed as no.57 Church Road [now Chequers Road] and at one stage was occupied by a boot maker, which is confirmed by finds made in the 1990s of leather offcuts in the cellar.

Small history perhaps but fascinating none the less for what it offers up about a building which can lay claim to having always been a newsagent.

And one which in its earlier days was run by Lionel Nixon who was the grandson of the family who ran the beer shop which is now 70 Beech Road. 

They were Samuel and Sarah Ann Nixon, and they were in residence offering up beer and cheer from the 1840s, while Samuel’s father was landlord of that pub over the water once known as the Greyhound, but now Jackson’s Boat. 

The continuity of our newsagents is mirrored by no.70 Beech Road which with No.68 may be the oldest commercial buildings still doing what they had been designed to do when they first opened in the 1830s.

And the shop before the cladding, 1979

Location; Chorlton

Pictures, that newsagents, 2022 and 1979,  from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1911 from a picture postcard, courtesy of Dave Bishop

A little bit of Chorlton’s history on a wall ……….

Now when this poster went up on the wall of Etchells newsagent all of the images were very much of the present.

But the passage of the years has meant that some of them have slipped into the past.

And so the fun will be trying to work out just what bits of our history are here.

It would help if I could remember when it was made and when it was placed on the wall.

But I can’t, although there will be someone who does, and I can confidently say it was there by 2014.

Added to which I must confess I have just taken it for granted over the years, but not now.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; A little bit of Chorlton’s history on a wall, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Early morning on Beech Road …….May 18th

Location; Beech Road

Pictures; four for Beech Road, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Cometh the hour …. Cometh the people ……………. Etchells of Beech Road

It goes without saying that our medical staff, and emergency services are the heroes of the moment.

And along with these there are the staff in the supermarkets and the lorry drivers bringing the food, and many others.

More than once I have highlighted the friendly and efficient service offered by Beech Road Pharmacy, and today I will add Etchels, the newsagents and local store on Beech Road.

They have been our newsagents since the  1960s, and last week they announced their intention to deliver essential supplies of milk, bread and eggs to those who can’t get out.

And as we have been self isolating for a fortnight, Barbara and Craig, dropped off our first essential “shop”.

C & W Etchells, 44 Beech Road, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M21 9EL, 0161 881 1764

Location, Chorlton

Painting; C & W Etchells, 2017, Peter Topping, featured in The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, & Peter Topping, 2017