Gorton Tank ..... another story from Tony Goulding

All F.M. 96.9 the local radio station and “The Real Voice of Manchester” is running a project exploring the history of this important feature of our industrial heritage. 

As I have a couple of friends who already contribute shows to the station, I decided to research its early years.

 Gorton Locomotive Works, 1926

This works in Gorton first opened in 1848 to build Locomotives for the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne, and Manchester Railway, shortly to become the expanded Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (1) and later, in 1897, 

The Grand Central Railway. 

Later the major reorganization of the rail network in 1923 saw the works being managed by the London and North-Eastern Railway (The L.N.E.R.) before becoming part of the nationalised British Rail on 1st January 1948. 

In its early history locomotives, such as this one built in 1905, were constructed on the site to run on the various rail tracks of the parent company, however after 1923 most new builds took place at the larger works in Doncaster; Gorton being used for repairs and refurbishment. 

It also later became a centre for the scrapping of steam locomotives as British Rail switched to Diesel / Electric operations.

GCR Class 9K (LNER Class C13) 4-4-2T 67433 

How it became known locally as “Gorton Tank” is open to question though one certainty is that it has no connection with the weapon of war, as the first use of the nickname predates, by more than 60 years, the introduction of “Tanks” on the Western Front in September 1916. 

The first record I have found of its use was in “The Ashton Reporter” of 1st August 1857 which describes a performance by The Gorton Tank Brass Band in the town’s recreation grounds the Tuesday prior 28th July.

 As can be ascertained from the above aerial photograph of the works, in the summer of 1926 it was a huge complex (estimated by The Institution of Mechanical Engineers to cover 46 acres during a visit to the site in 1929) and was a very significant employer in the area. 

This can be evidenced by the reports of the number of workers addressed on the site by the Rt. Rev. James Fraser, the reforming Bishop of Manchester. The Manchester Courier, and Lancashire General Advertiser reported the “congregation” on 10th July 1874 to be around 1,000. Seven years later the number addressed by the bishop on 25th August 1881 was estimated by The Manchester Evening News to be “--- some 1,500 of the men and youths employed ---” (2). 

There existed safety rules which were rigorously enforced with newspaper records revealing that workers were dismissed for not following them. (3) Despite this the works were a very dangerous environment. In a 25-year period spanning the end of Queen Victoria’s reign and the start of Edward VII’s there was a fatal or very serious accident virtually every year.

 As was universally the case with employers throughout the land, the First World War took a heavy toll among the “Tank’s” workforce. The “Fallen Railwaymen” database of The National Railway Museum, York records 115 hits to the search C.M.E. Gorton; the vast majority of these would have worked at the tank.

Works Plate from a G.C.R. Class 11F Locomotive

Curiously, although known for more than a century as “Gorton Tank” it is in fact located in Openshaw.

Notes: -

1) Hyde Road, the first permanent home ground of Ardwick F.C., the club which became Manchester City, was built on waste ground purchased from this Railway Company.

2) By 1907 the workforce had grown to 5,000 employees. This being the figure quoted in a report of a court case concerning the theft of copper and brass from the works; The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser of 10th May 1907.

3) In a sensational case, widely reported in the press, 65 workers were discharged on Saturday 14th August 1858. Unfortunately, no reason for their dismissal is given.

Pictures: - Aerial view of Gorton Tank (09/06/1926) by Imperial Aerial Photo Company. m67717  Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information, and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

1905 Locomotive 67433  prior to scrapping 8th November 1958; by Ruth AS CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5580155

Great Central Railway construction plate 1920 by Duncan Harris CC BY-SA 2.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85706220 

https://www.flickr.com/people/45874718@N00 

Acknowledgements: - Find My Past Newspaper Archive and National Railway Museum “Fallen Railwaymen”.

The road sign ……. a missing street …….. and a walk through Gorton

This is all that might be left of Beasley Street.

The sign, 1963

It was salvaged by Jack Beasley in 1963 and there is the obvious link.

His daughter Kirsty always thought it came from Hulme but a search of the records has so far revealed no street with that name in the area, or in Chorlton-on-Medlock for which there is a picture of the young Jack.

Beasley Street, Gorton, 1952

And of course history is messy, and doesn’t always want to work the way you wish.

The best so far is Beasley Street in Gorton, which was off Taylor Street which in turn ran down from Gorton Lane and was later renamed Bannock Street.  

It has long since gone and is under Gorton Parks Nursing Home.

In 1911 it consisted of a mix of 3 and four roomed  properties  whose occupants did a variety of skilled and unskilled jobs, ranging from labourers, to those working in the nearby locomotive works.  

Added to these there was a “Peddlar”, “a coal carter”, and “coal heaver”, along with a  “Rubber mixer”.

The three surviving photographs in the City’s Image Collection of the street from the 1960s, show houses which fit the part.*

Beasley Street, Gorton, 1959

But here the messy element re-enters the story, because the pictures are dated 1959, 1964, and 1965 which run counter to the date recorded by Jack Beasley.

Of course, the dates in the image collection may be wrong, or we are up against that inconvenient conclusion that our Beasley Street was not after all in Gorton.

Clinging just for a minute to the Gorton connection it may be that the later dated pictures are of houses that survived the first clearance.

Beasley Street, Gorton, 1964

So, I am left pondering whether the minutes for Manchester City Council for the early 60s will reveal anything on the  planned demolition of Gorton houses or someone will come up with memories of a Beasley Street in Hulme, which may have been built post 1939 and went less than 30 years later.

We shall see.

But like all good detective stories I shall close with the comment written by Jack on the reverse of the sign.

It has faded over the years but offers the date and the clue that it was taken from a building.

And for those with a literary interest there is the poem "Beasley Street", by John Cooper Clarke, which according to the poet was inspired by Camp Street in Lower Broughton.

So there you are, another twisty  bit which makes history all the more messy.

And as ever John Anthony Hewitt came up with that bit or research that seems to finish the job

"The road sign was taken from the building shown in the 1959 photo, which is the same shapes as the salvaged one. Jack's message says 'Taken from the [old?] building to be demolished, 6 July 1963' is consistent with that photo. 

Whereas both road signs attached to the wall of the building in the 1964 photo are the same, more modern design. That old building in the 1959 photo makes the old map look wrong, but look again at that building, it appears to have a few tales to tell. 

The shed along Beasley Street was a later addition, built on the remains of a demolished house. The adjoining wall on Taylor Street is also a remnant of a demolished house. The large entrance appears to be either a much altered terraced house or a later build several decades earlier judging by the grime".

Location; Beasley Street, somewhere

Jack's clue, 1963

Pictures; the Beasley Street Road sign and Jacks comment on the reverse, 1963, courtesy of Kirsty, Beasley Street Gorton, 1952, Manchester & Salford OS, and Beasley Street, Gorton, 1959, G. Gray, m26713  1964, T. Brooks, m22875, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass *

Sources; Census Return for Beasley Street, Enu 87, 292, Ardwick, South Manchester, Lancashire, 1911, Manchester & Salford Street Directory, 1911, and the 1939 Register

Chew and Furniss – the Birth of the “Blues” ... Part 2 .... another story from Tony Goulding

This is the Hyde Road Hotel which in August, 1887 witnessed the meeting where Ardwick F.C. was established. 

The Hyde Road Hotel

Two stalwarts of Gorton (Association) Football Club, Walter Chew, the secretary, and Lawrence Furniss, a former club captain, had ambitions to develop the club into a more professional concern. They wanted to be able to compete against the top teams of the day, twelve of which were to form the professional Football League on the 17th April, 1888 in the Royal Hotel on Market Street, Manchester. In part 1, I told the story of Walter Chew now I move on to that other prime mover at this meeting, Lawrence Furniss.

 While Walter Chew helped establish Ardwick as a force in local football and was responsible for a permanent ground for the club to play their matches at, it was his successor, Lawrence Wain Furniss, who oversaw Ardwick’s entry into the Football League.

  Unlike his predecessor, Lawrence was not a native of Manchester being born on the 18th January, 1858 (1) in Cromford, Nr. Matlock, Derbyshire. His father, Edwin Furniss, was the long-serving stationmaster of the village railway station. 

Cromford Station

Cromford railway station – the ornate building on the left is thought to be the original stationmaster’s house

His mother was Sarah (née Wain) which gave Lawrence his unusual middle name.  Lawrence began his working life working as a railway clerk and was working in that capacity at the time of the 1881 census which shows him as still residing with his parents in Cromford. However, at some stage during the early to mid 1880s decade he moved to Manchester. In 1891, the census recorded him as living, as a lodger, at 128, Kirkmanshulme Lane, Longsight, Manchester. His landlady Mrs. Sarah Bowker was a widow (of William a builder) who had two grown-up children also in her household. These were her son William Henry (26), a buyer for a machine maker, and her 23-year-old daughter, Ellen, an assistant schoolmistress. On the 1st June, 1895 Lawrence married Ellen Bowker at St. Mark’s West Gorton. Rather fittingly the minister conducting the service was Arthur Connell who was also to christen the couple’s first child, Elsie Kathleen, on 26th October, 1896 (born 29th September at 4, Tank Grove, Longsight) in one of his last acts before his retirement. Lawrence and Ellen had two more children, twin daughters, Marjorie and Winifred born on the 1st September, 1901 at 4, Peel Grove also in Longsight.

 As stated above during his tenure as secretary, Ardwick were able to progress to play a higher standard of football culminating in being admitted first to the Football Alliance (2)   in the 1891-2 season and then to the the newly-formed Football League Division 2 the following season. In order to achieve this Lawrence and to confront a perennial dilemma faced by sports teams over the years –to represent an institution, club or area or to try to become more successful by importing better quality players from outside (known in footballing circles as “ringers”). In 1890, Lawrence and a fellow Ardwick official, John Allison, travelled to Scotland to engage some top players of the clubs there. This was a common practice by English clubs at the time as Scottish football was until 1893 a strictly amateur game (ostensibly). The Ardwick “raiding party” were able to sign five leading players.  Lawrence has also been credited with “discovering”, while he was refereeing a game of  Northwich Victoria his former club, the Welsh Wizzard, Billy Meredith, and bringing him to Manchester City. 

Billy Meredith during his "City" playing days

Billy Meredith during his "City" playing days

Billy Meredith, born in 1874 in Chirk, Nr. Wrexham, North Wales, was possibly English Football’s first superstar playing for both Manchester Clubs over a period of 30 years.  

 Sometime during the first decade of the 20th century Lawrence and his family moved out of Manchester to Marple in Cheshire.  He is on the Electoral Roll of 1908 for the Parish of Marple which shows him living at the quaintly named Bottoms Hall, Bottoms, Roman Bridge Lakes. Living close by at “Strawberry Hill” were his older brother, Edwin, variously a land agent / farmer and the manager of a cotton mill, and his nephew Evelyn Oswald who was to die on The Western Front on the 22nd April, 1917. He was 34 years old and serving as a private, with the Durham Light Infantry, when he was killed in action in a battle for the Lens coalfield in Northern France. He has no known grave and is one of the 20,639 names commemorated on the Loos Memorial.

 Lawrence Furniss continued his involvement with Ardwick / Manchester City fulfilling various administrative functions he was a board member from 1903 but the following year fell foul of the Football Association over irregularities in the transfer of two players, J. Thornley and F. Norgrove, to the club from Glossop F.C. As a consequence, he was suspended from taking part in any football related activity from the 4th November, 1904 until the 7th May, 1907. Thus, he avoided involvement in the much more serious charges involving allegations of bribery and illegal payments to players which resulted in dramatic penalties being imposed on the club in 1906. After a spell out of football Lawrence returned to briefly take up the position as the club’s Chairman during the first World War and later held that office from 1923 until 1928. In this latter period, he oversaw the move to the club’s new ground the ambitious purpose-built Maine Road, christened by some as “The Wembley of the North” Three years after his resignation he was appointed Manchester City’s first president.  It was in this rôle that he was injured in a road traffic accident while travelling home from a reserve team match at Maine Road. He was a passenger with a club director, William Menzies Shaw, in a motor car hired from Finglands Hire Car Ltd. when it was in collision with a Manchester Corporation bus in Moss Side, Manchester. At the Manchester Assizes Civil Court on the 7th July 1938, he received £600 compensation for personal injury. (Mr. Shaw was awarded £150)

     Lawrence Wain Furness passed away at 303, Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield, Manchester on the 31st July, 1941. His home at the time was still The Old Mellor Hall, Mellor, Nr Marple, Cheshire. Two years earlier, the 1939 Register recorded him as a widowed (3) Land Agent living there with his unmarried daughter, Marjorie.

Pictures   Hyde Road Hotel m 27241 Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Archives and Information Manchester City Council. http://manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass 

Cromford Station by Geof Sheppard - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83013768

Billy Meredith - by Stevo1000 - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11452244 

Notes: -

1) Lawrence was born in 1858, although in his later years he appears to have “shaved” 4 years off his age. In 1939 he gave his date of birth as 18th January, 1862.

2) Formed in 1889 as an alternative to the football league after 3 seasons the two bodies merged with the formation of the League’s Second Division.

3) His wife had died in the September quarter of 1926 in Didsbury, Manchester.

 

Chew and Furniss – the Birth of the “Blues”, another story from Tony Goulding

Continuing the early history of Manchester City, this is the Hyde Road Hotel which in August, 1887 witnessed the meeting where Ardwick F.C. was established. 

The Hyde Road Hotel

Two stalwarts of Gorton (Association) Football Club, Walter Chew, the secretary, and Lawrence Furniss, a former club captain, had ambitions to develop the club into a more professional concern. They wanted to be able to compete against the top teams of the day, twelve of which were to form the professional Football League on the 17th April, 1888 in the Royal Hotel on Market Street, Manchester.

Walter Chew had recently acquired a new ground for the Gorton club to play on but as this was on waste ground besides some railway arches on Hyde Road, Ardwick, it seemed expedient to change the name of the club to reflect its new location. 

Walter retained the position of secretary of the newly-named club providing a stabilising factor. Although he was still unpaid his was a very important rôle as he was responsible for arranging many of the club’s fixtures (1) and for forging ever more important commercial links with local industry. Some important links were forged with local businesses, in particular, two  major factories between which the new ground 9was sandwiched .   Bennetts Iron foundry, Ardwick, at which a number of the clubs early players worked, and Galloways Boiler Works also a significant employer of the area (at one point over 800 persons had jobs in their boiler works)  who supplied some of the materials to develop the Hyde Road ground.  (2) 

Picture 2

Key: -  Dark blue G Galloways Boiler Works.

            Light green B Bennetts Iron Foundry.

            Light blue   ______   Elizabeth Street.

Walter Chew, was born in Hulme, Manchester on  the 27th, August, 1864 the second child of Thomas, a warehouseman, and his wife Sarah Ann (née Harrison). 

The census of 1871 records Walter, aged 6, living with his parents and an older brother, William Henry (9) at 16, Walter Street, Gorton. By the time of the next census in 1881, the family had moved to 12, Elizabeth Street, West Gorton. (This was the address used for correspondence for Gorton F.C. and later Ardwick’s early years) 

Walter and his brother were both employed as warehouse clerks whilst their father’s occupation was given as “calico printer’s journeyman”. There was also a new family-member, Elizabeth Ann, born in 1872. Another son, Thomas, was born in the June quarter of 1867 but sadly died in the December quarter of the following year. The 1891 census reveals the family still at Elizabeth Street, although William Henry had married in the September quarter of 1886 and moved away. Walter’s occupation was recorded as a mercantile clerk, his father was a warehouseman and his sister was described as a cigarette maker. During these years, however Walter must have also been kept very busy with his work for the Gorton and Ardwick Football clubs.

 

Elizabeth Street

Walter married quite late in life aged 36 to Dinah Smith in the December quarter of 1900; the couple remained childless. Sometime during the 1890s the Chews relocated to Levenshulme, Manchester, where in 1901 that year’s census shows Walter and his new bride living with both his parents at 13, George Street.  Ten years later he was still in Levenshulme but had moved to 14, Cromwell Grove. (3) His father, Thomas, had by then died, in the June quarter of 1907 and his widowed mother had moved to live at nearby 46, Wetherall Street. His occupation in this census was described as “clerk (counting house)” for “cotton spinners manufacturers”

       When the 1939 Register was taken, Walter had moved to 9, Redthorn Avenue, Burnage, Manchester and was recorded as a bookkeeper (retired). He was by then a widower, his wife, Dinah having died in May, 1925. Walter remained at this address until he himself passed away on the 30th August, 1948, while he was staying at Clifton, Towallt Road, Gwespyr, Nr. Prestatyn, Flintshire, North Wales. His estate, valued for probate, was the tidy sum of £4,364 – 7s – 7d. (£162,268 in today’s value)

 

He and his wife are buried in, this grave (H 1401) in the Roman Catholic section of Manchester’s Southern Cemetery. Southern Cemetery. (4)

Walter spent a lifetime in a variety of honorary positions within the game of football. After he had been succeeded as the secretary of Ardwick by Lawrence Furniss he served as the treasurer of the Manchester County Association 58 years.  He also served for a time as vice-president of the Manchester and District Referees and Linesman Association.  His earlier rôles with West Gorton, Gorton, and Ardwick were recognised in a broadcast celebrating Manchester City’s jubilee on General Forces Radio on the 26th July, 1944 together with Billy Meredith and Robert Smith.  

    While Walter Chew helped establish Ardwick as a force in local football and was responsible for a permanent ground for the club to play their matches at, it was his successor, Lawrence Wain Furniss, who oversaw Ardwick’s entry into the Football League. His story will be told in the next instalment.

Pictures   Hyde Road Hotel m 27241 and Elizabeth Street, West Gorton m 23352, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Archives and Information Manchester City Council. http://manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  Map section and Walter Chew's Grave from the collection of Tony Goulding.

Notes: -

1) Very important as Ardwick were not in a League at this time apart from Cup competitions all matches had to be fixed up on an ad hoc basis.

2) Chesters Brewery who owned the Hyde Road Hotel used by the embryonic Ardwick F.C. as dressing rooms before games was also approached for support.. The managing director of the brewery, Stephen Chester Thompson’s, involvement provided Ardwick with new turf for the pitch and a £400 grandstand at the cost of monopoly rights for beer sales at the matches. As an Alderman representing the Conservative and Unionist Party he had some very influential contacts, one of which was A. J. Balfour the M. P. for East Manchester and a future prime minister. He witnessed the 1904 Cup Final when,  with Meredith scoring the only goal, Manchester City beat Bolton Wanderers 1 – 0 , being one of the first  serving prime minister to attend a Cup Final.

3) He may have also resided at 3, Parker Street, Levenshulme as both the electoral roll in 1909 and the following year's directory show a Walter Chew at this address.

4) I am not sure what Walter's link to the Roman Catholic Church was but his connection helps to explain why Manchester for the most part managed to avoid the the deeply ingrained sectarianism associated with Football clubs in other cities especially in Glasgow and, to a lesser degree, Liverpool. It also was part of the Connells' initial idea and later the desire to create a club for all Mancunians when Ardwick was renamed Manchester City.

    Again I have to acknowledge "The Manchester City Story" (1984) by Andrew Ward.

Looking for pubs in Gorton .......... the Haxby Hotel

The Haxby Hotel in Gorton had a short life.

The Haxby Hotel, 2021

It was opened in 1933, closed in 2007 and was converted in “to a single residential dwelling” three years later*

It was part of that move to open large new pubs, which as well as catering for the new estates which were being built across the city were designed with the car in mind.

Along with the Haxby Hotel, licenses were granted at the same meeting for "The Princess Hotel at the junction of Princess Road, and the Seymour Hotel, in Upper Chorlton Road”.**

The stone inscription, 2021

The first licensee was a John Robert Fenton who had held the license of the Moulder’s Arms on Great Ancoats Street and made it clear that the new Haxby Hotel was “to be constructed at his home in Gorton”.

The Haxby Hotel, 1965

Interestingly “the Rev.R.H. Royle, rector of Our Lady and St Thomas’s Church, Gorton, supported the application [because] 'it would give his people a chance of getting refreshment at a decent place.  

At present there were 10,00 people in his parish and one fully licensed hotel.  He was convinced, he said that it was better on the whole to drink in public than to drink in private at home'”.**

A position which some representatives of the church establishment were less happy with a year later following “a postcard vote on the question of a fully licensed hotel for the Gorton estate. The poll had been taken at the direction of the Housing Committee with a majority of 524 in favour out of a total poll of 968”.***

And in 2021

Almost ninety years later those opponents might feel a little vindicated given that all three new hotels have since gone, and while the Princess and Seymour were demolished to make way for new build, at least the Haxby Hotel has survived.

Mr. Fenton meanwhile had moved on and in 1939 it was a Bryan Stanley who was calling orders.

Pictures, the Haxby Hotel, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the hotel in 1965, T Brooks, m49750, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Manchester City Council Planning Portal, 088847/FO/2009/N2

**Three new hotel licenses, Manchester Guardian, February 5th, 1932

***Hotel for Gorton Estate, Manchester Guardian, February 3rd, 1933

Fields … more fields ….. and an Iron Works..... Gorton in 1894

I suppose that if you are going to locate a new iron works, placing it amongst a heap of fields has a sort of logic.

Gorebrook Iron Works, 2021

And twenty years after the Gorebrook Iron Works set up shop there was still plenty of open land pretty much in all directions.

In 1894 to the north was a dyeworks and chemical works which utilized the  Gore Brook, a water course “whose foul condition” according to Graces’s Guide to British Industrial History “occupied many newspaper column-inches in the early 1900s”.*

Added to which just beyond the dyeworks was a “Rope, Twine, & Tarpulin Works” and a little to the east was a clay pit and brick works.

Knutsford Vale, 1894

But while the rural character of the area was muted, this bit of Gorton by Pink Bank Lane, could still boast the Crowcroft Farm and Mount Farm, and a little further south close to Matthew Lane and the Nico Ditch were Yew Tree Farm, the Print Works Farm and Green Bank Farm.

The iron works, 2021

As yet the story of the iron works is shadowy, but I know that during the 1870s and 80s it was occupied by Weild and Co., and in 1891 by Shepherd and Ayrton, and William Ayrton and Co.

In time I will interrogate the directories which will offer up more names, but for now that is it ……. a little bit of iron making in the fields of Gorton.

Except to say that the immediate area around the iron works was known as Nutsford Vale, while just a short walk would bring you to the Belle Vue Zoological Gardens.

Location; Gorton

Pictures; the Gorebrook Iron Walks, 2021, from the collection of Andy Roberts, and Knutsford Vale in 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, https://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Graces’s Guide to British Industrial History , https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Gorebrook_Ironworks

Lost in Gorton …. part 6 ….. the Gorton Four

This, I think will be the last in the short series from Andy Robertson, which I have called Lost in Gorton.

And these are four of the lost pubs of the area.

There are more but for now I will leave it at that.

For those that knew them, they will have their own stories, and for those that don’t, I shall just suggest you follow the link to that excellent site Pubs of Manchester, where the history of the Gorton Four can be found.*

Location; Gorton

Picture; the Gorton Four, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Pubs of Manchester, https://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.com/

Lost in Gorton ....... part 5 .... shopping at the co-op

Now, if you are of a certain age, you will be able to quote your divi number, from countless trips to the Co-op.

If I am honest I can’t remember ours.  We were with the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, and used our number till they switched to blue stamps.

And thinking of all things co-op, this is Andy’s picture of the Beswick Co-operative Society’s store on Hyde Road.

“Beswick Co-operative Society was registered on 4 June 1892. Its central premises were at 30 Aston New Road, Manchester. Its first president was Arthur Cuss and its manager was a John Dobson. Its first branch was opened on 25 January 1894 at the corner of Mill Street and Carruthers Street in Ancoats, Manchester.

By 1905 its central premises were listed as Rowsley Street, Manchester and it had 5,700 members. It had branches in Manchester, Ancoats, Ardwick, Bradford, Openshaw and a bakery, warehouse and stables Beswick. It traded in grocery, drapery, hardware, shoes and boots, butchering, furnishing, tailoring, coal, flour, baking and dressmaking.

By 1951 the society had 36,047 members and had its central premises at Grey Mare Lane, Manchester. It had added branches in Burnage, Clayton, Denton, Didsbury, Gorton, Levenshulme, Longsight, Rusholme and Withington. It had expanded trade into millinery, jewellery, ironmongery and tobacco. It also produced dairy goods, offered shoe repairing services and had business in meat preparation.

The society became a part of the Co-operative Retail Services in 1959”.

And I have yet to find out when it closed.

Location; Gorton

Picture; former co-op store on Hyde Road, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Sources: The Co-operative Union directories, and the published history by AE Worswick, "History of the Beswick Co-operative Society Limited from 1892-1907".

*Beswick Co-operative Society, https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/f2e8292a-178b-3996-b98b-07fd82464939

Lost in Gorton …….. part 4, the police station

I collect police stations.*

And so, I was pleased when Andy Robertson sent over this one of the old Lancashire Constabulary police station on Hyde Road in Gorton.

I have added quite a few to the collection, including the one on Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and others in Patricroft, Failsworth and Levenshulme.

They all conform to a standard design with variations, and all have that distinctive stone cladding with the date when they were opened.

By contrast those put up in Manchester were more pedestrian, with brick walls and less adornments.

I don’t know exactly when it closed, but I am guessing it will be part of the rationalizing of Manchester force in the1950s and the 1960s.  By 1969 it was occupied by  Beswick Manufacturing Ltd, Children's wear mfrs, and between  2008 and 2012 by Granite Kitchens, and was then converted into residential use.

Location; Gorton

Picture;  Police Station Hyde Road, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Police Stations, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Police%20Stations

Lost in Gorton …………. part 3, the Temperance Billiard Hall on Hyde Lane

Now there would have been a time , when you could have made your way across the twin cities playing in a different Temperance Billiard Hall every night of the week.

Temperance as was Hyde Road, 2020

Although Sundays may have been the exception.

They were built by The Temperance Billiard Hall Co Ltd which had been founded in 1906 and was based at 3 Ford Lane in Pendleton.

In 1911 the temperance empire, included sites on Moss Lane East, Stockport Road, Rochdale Road, Ashton Old Road, Bury New Road, Broad Street, Eccles New Road, Liverpool Road, Station Road, Altrincham, Cross Street Sale, Manchester Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Wilmlsow Road, Rusholme, Hyde Road in Gorton, Stretford Road, Old Trafford and Cheetham Hill Road. and

The Temperance empire, 1911

And with an eye to a good site and perhaps a captive audience some at least of the more enterprising early cinema owners chose to site their picture houses beside temperance halls. The Chorlton hall, n was next to the lavish Picture House built in 1920 while across in Cheetham  the Circuit Cinemas Ltd opened their Premier Picture Hall in 1925 which changed its name to The Greenhill when the company opened a new luxury cinema opposite.*

They can still be found across Greater Manchester and beyond, and while some retained their sporting links until quite recently, others were converted a long time ago into shops, restaurants and industrial units.

This one in Gorton has retained its familiar appearance, but long ago forsook billiards, and today is occupied by a bookies, a charity shop and a Christian mission.  The latter I suppose retains a sort of link with its past, although until recently space now given over to the mission and the charity shop, was a carpet business.

Picture; the old temperance hall, Hyde Road, 2020 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The Golden Years of Manchester Picture Houses, Derek J. Southall, 2012

Lost in Gorton …. part two the closed chapel

We are on Chester Street in Gorton, not that you will find it today, because it’s name has been changed to Carfax Street and there hangs the tale.

The Sunday School, 2020

Because Andy, in his new series Lost in Gorton, photographed the Wesleyan Sunday school building, and I went looking for it in the past.

The trick is to look up the street in past street directories, identify the place and go looking for its history.

But that name change led me down fruitless ways, and the search became a hunt for any of the surrounding streets that had retained their name and were there in 1911.

It took a bit of time, but in the end I found Cross Lane, and off it there was Chester Street, which by degree took me to the Sunday school which once was accompanied by its church.

The Sunday school and church, 1952

Both were still there in 1950, but the church has gone, and in its place is a rather tired looking industrial unit which belongs to Moon Carpet who appear to have extended into the Sunday school building.

In time I might find out more, about the church and its Sunday school.

There is an inscription above the door of the Sunday School and a date.  Sadly the inscription is too weather worn to read but the date has survived and records the building was erected in 1860.

I know that the church was part of Longsight Circuit which included chapels at Grey Mare Lane, Hyde Road, and North Road.

And here I must point out my own deliberate mistake in the title, because what is left is the former Sunday school not the chapel.

And just when you thought you had closed the book, Boomer and John Anthony added this. Boomer tells me that he is "fairly sure the writing above the date  says Gorton mission", while John Antony adds "Interesting story, Andrew, but I missed reading Part 1 (missing link?). The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on Cross Lane was founded in 1824, according to the Lancashire Parish Clerk, but who do not know the date of closure. Looking at an 1852 OS Map, the land on which the chapel was built was still apparently a field, but this just demonstrates the folly of assuming that founding a chapel and building a chapel are the same event. Extract from and link to their Website below. https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Manchester/Gorton/index.html  "

Location; Gorton

Picture; the old Sunday School Building, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and extraxt from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1952

Lost in Gorton …… part one on coming across a canal

Now Andy is nothing but dedicated, and yesterday he set off to Gorton in search of adventure.

The lost canal, 2020

He had “got up early and went to Gorton. First snap at 7.15 am”.

And I am guessing that sometime around 8.30 he happened on the canal that runs under Abbey Hey Lane.

Today it is just a scenic footpath, but at the back end of the 18th century and through the next, it was the Stockport branch of the Ashton Under Lyne Canal, which ran from Manchester to Ashton and on to Oldham.

According to Mr. Priestley’s Guide,* Royal ascent was granted in June 1792, and the year after permission was also given to “to extend the said Canal from a place called Clayton Demesne, in the township of Droylsden, in the parish of Manchester aforesaid to a place on the turnpike-road in Heaton Norris, leading between Manchester and Stockport, opposite the house known by the sign of the Three Boars’ Head, and from , or nearly from, a place called Taylor’s Barn, in the township of Reddish to Denton to a place called Beat Bank, adjoining the turnpike-road leading between Stockport and Ashton-Under-Lyne …..”**

The canal, 1830

The canal and branches “were made 31 feet wide at top and 15 at the bottom and in a depth of 5 feet.  The locks are 70 feet long and 7 feet wide”.***

And for those with an interest in recreating the business model, in 1792 the company advertised its rates as ½d per ton per mile for lime, lime stone, dung, manure, clay, sand, and gravel, and 1d for coals, cannel coal, stone, and other minerals and timber.  Three years later the rates had risen from ½d per ton per mile to 1d and 3d for all other goods.

The walk, 2020

The Stockport branch was constructed in 1793, and opened for business four years later.

It left the main canal at the Stockport Junction between locks 10 and 11 at Clayton and terminated at Stockport Basin.

It carried a mixed cargo, supplying cotton to the mills along its route as well finished textiles, as well as coal and grain.  In its earliest days it also carried passengers between Manchester and Stockport.

But like so many of our inland waterways it suffered from railway competition, and commercial carrying ceased in the 1930s, and by the 1950s was barely navigable.****

Location; Gorton

Pictures the lost canal at Abbey Hey Lane, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the Stockport branch of the Ashton-Under-Lyne Canal, 1830, from The Inland Navigation of England and Wales, George Bradshaw, 1830, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Map of the Inland Navigation and Railways of Great Britain, Joseph Priestly, 1830

**ibid Priestly page 39

***ibid Priestly, page 40

****Stockport Branch Canal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_Branch_Canal

History at the Monastery .....Gorton .....one to do in June

Who remembers the Gorton Brook Hotel which became the Gorton Arms and has now gone?

Now you know you are of a certain age when more and more old and familiar pubs have shut up shop and in some cases are just holes in the ground.

What’s more there seem to be more of them with each year that passes.

That said I never visited the Gorton Arms which stood at the end of Clowes Street and didn’t even clock its demolition.

I am not sure when it changed its name from the Gorton Brook Hotel, but as the Gorton Brook it was there by 1894 and just a few decades later it was the home of the landlord Mr Henry W Woods.

In 1911 Mr and Mrs Woods shared the nine roomed pub with their two sons and two staff.  Both Henry Wood and his wife Emily came from London, and had moved around the country.  Their eldest son had been born in Northamptonshire and their youngest in Longsight.

Alice Hibbert who worked as a barmaid was from Clapham and their general servant Bertha Lowe was from West Gorton.

So, quite a mix of accents and backgrounds and no doubt each had stories to tell over the bar to those who wandered in for a pint and a chat.

As I said I never went in but must have passed the place during the time we lived on Butterworth Street which was off Grey Mare Lane.

I did go back recently which as they say is always a mistake.  Our block of flats had long gone, as had the SGB Scaffolding yard on Pottery Lane where I worked for six months along with the big engineering works opposite.

Moreover Pottery Lane itself seemed wider and busier than it was although it did seem a bit greener than it was in 1973.

So with all those changes I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at the passing of the Gorton Arms.

And that just leaves me to point the interested to Pubs of Manchester which offers up a bit of its history along with some photographs to compliment Peter’s painting.*

Well almost the end because a few hours after the post was published Ron commented that, "it became the Gorton arms on the 1st March 1985 I know because I met my now wife there on the opening day I was a manager for the brewery and Julie was part of the bar staff there."

Location, Gorton

Painting; the Gorton Arms, © 2011 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Picture; the Gorton Book, 1971, m49676,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Pubs of Manchester, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/gorton-brook-clowes-street.html

Gorton Monastery ................... 144 years old

Now I just hope that after 144 years I could look as good as Gorton Monastery.*

It is a place I only knew of vaguely when we lived nearby and over the years I have only watched its progress with half an eye which is a shame.

More so because as Peter’s painting shows it is a fine building and so as you do I went looking for its story.

“The Church and Friary of St Francis, known locally as Gorton Monastery, is a 19th-century former Franciscan friary in Gorton. 

The Franciscans arrived in Gorton in December 1861 and built their friary between 1863 and 1867. 

Most of the building work was done by the friars themselves, with a brother acting as clerk of works.[1] The foundation stone for the church was laid in 1866 and completed in 1872; it closed for worship in 1989. It is a prominent example of High Victorian Gothic architecture,[2] and has been listed with Grade II* status since 1963. 

In 1997, Gorton Monastery was placed on the World Monuments Fund Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites in the World.

The church and associated friary buildings underwent a £6 million restoration programme supported by funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage and European Regional Development Fund.

The project was completed in June 2007 when the restored buildings opened as a venue for conferences, business meetings and community events. The building is also used for a range of concerts.”**

Now there will be  lots of people who will have their own memories, stories and pictures of the place and it would be nice if they could be shared.

And no sooner had the post gone live Marion Jackson, added that she had  "taught in the school in 1970. 

The monastery church beautiful, but the old parts of the school were very decayed, we had to avoid rotten floorboards. Gorton was being demolished around us, lots of families being moved out and cockroaches moving in overnight. 

The ladies loo was full of them each morning. But I loved the staff, pupils and the church , a happy place for me."

Painting; Gorton Monastery, Manchester. Painting © 2013 Peter Topping,, Paintings from Pictures

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

*The Monastery, http://www.themonastery.co.uk/

**Gorton Monastery, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorton_Monastery