When a ghost sign in Heaton Mersey reveals a story from the Great War

The ghost sign on Didsbury Road

I like the way that a story can turn on a sixpence and take you off in a way you could not quite have envisaged which is what happened with the ghost sign on the side of a building on Didsbury Road.

My old friend David Harrop spotted it for the first time recently despite having regularly passed the house.

Neither of us thought the sign that remarkable.

It didn’t promote a product or give the name of the retailer who may have had it painted, and only part of it had survived.

So on the surface not the most interesting of signs but as ever there is a story and a little bit of a mystery.

The faded letters proclaim “DAILY BUSINESS AS” which I can only assume finished with the word “USUAL” but what that business was and why it was painted on the side of building is lost.

But there was also the word “Supper” beside the door which would suggest that it had once been a “chippy” although someone else remembered it as a wool shop.

Either way it had retail history and that was what offered up by the twist in the tale because back in 1911 it had been “a well known green grocery business” run by Mr and Mrs Grime.*

Private Ernest Grime 1886-1917

Robert and Elizabeth Grime had been born in Heaton Mersey and in 1911 had been married for thirty-five years.

They had eight children and had been selling apples, pears and potatoes from their shop from at least 1891.

A decade earlier Robert had been a porter and carter, an occupation he shared with his brothers and father who all lived at Long Row on Didsbury Road with his sister who described herself as a cotton winder.

In time I will explore more of the lives of Robert and Elizabeth Grime but for now it’s their youngest son who interests me because in 1916 he enlisted, was posted to the Welsh Regiment and died in action on December 24 1917.

According to the Stockport Advertiser “he was 34 years of age, unmarried and before enlisting assisted his father in the well known green grocery business.  

He was widely known in Heaton Mersey, Didsbury and district and was greatly respected.  He was a steady industrious young man with a high moral character which endeared him to a large circle of friends and he will be sadly missed.*

He had enlisted in the December of 1916, completed “nearly twelve months training [and] went on active service on December 10th, 1917 and was killed in action on December 24th having been in the firing line only one full day.”*

It is a story we will all be familiar with but for me it is the connection with that house on Didsbury Road.

I doubt that I would ever have come across Ernest Grime but for David Harrop who having taken the picture of the ghost sign told me of about the death of this young man.

The memorial cross, 1917

David as many will know has a large collection of memorabilia from both world wars and has a permanent exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery.












Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop

*Stockport Advertiser, January 25, 1918

At the war memorial in Heaton Mersey ..................

The war memorial on Didsbury Road, date unknown

War memorials are I think very personal and while we treat them with respect and interest they are rooted in their own locality acting as a focus for local acts of remembrance and as places which still have a profound meaning for anyone associated with the men and women they commemorate.

So while I have passed the memorial at Heaton Mersey many times I never stopped to look at it until today.

It is located on Didsbury Road in front of St John the Baptist and consists of a stone cross with metal panels on the base engraved with the names of those from Heaton Mersey who fell both world wars.

In all there are the names of 102 men who died in those two conflicts and amongst them is the name of Ernest Grime who was killed on December 24th 1917, just 14 days after he had arrived in France and on his first day in the line.

I doubt I would ever have come across Private Grime were it not for one of those odd series of chances which started with a photograph of a ghost sign on the side of a house on Didsbury Road and the discovery that this had been his home which is just a few doors down from the memorial

Private Ernest Grime, 1886-1917

According to the Stockport Advertiser, “he was widely known in Heaton Mersey, Didsbury and district and was greatly respected.  He was a steady industrious young man with a high moral character which endeared him to a large circle of friends and he will be sadly missed.”*

Now I have David Harrop to thank for the photograph of the ghost sign and for telling me about Private Grime.

David as many will know has a large collection of memorabilia from both world wars and has a permanent exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery and this November will be taken part in remembrance services in both Manchester and Stockport.

So it is fitting that I should conclude by mentioning the service at St John’s Parish Church on Sunday November 8th at 10.30 whose day school Ernest attended.

David will be there reading a poem and exhibiting a Tower Poppy, a memorial cross and other items from his collection.

The memorial cross is particularly poignant because it is an iron grave marker used to identify the burial plot of a fallen soldier and dates from the year Private Grime was killed.

Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop

*Stockport Advertiser, January 25, 1918

Remembering those from Heaton Mersey who served in the Great War, today and tomorrow at Heaton Methodist Church

Now until recently I had no idea of the number of buildings which were turned over to Red Cross Hospitals during the Great War.

But bit by bit their history is coming to light.  Most were in buildings donated for the duration of the conflict and ranged from Sunday School Halls, to private residences and were used for soldiers recovering from wounds and illnesses.

They were partly funded by voluntary contributions and many of the staff were volunteers, and once the war was over the contents of the hospitals from beds to bed pans, blankets, typewriters and crockery were auctioned off.

Most of the buildings returned to their pre-war use and within a generation the presence of these Red Cross hospitals was forgotten.

Today only a handful of people may know of the existence of one in their neighbourhood.

So to help focus on these over the weekend there will be an exhibition at Heaton Methodist Church and a tour of the homes of the men from Heaton Mersey who served during the war.

The exhibition at Heaton Methodist Church, Cavendish Road, will be open from  10 – 4, today and  2-5 Sunday with the  walk at  1pm on  Saturday  and 3pm Sunday

* Heaton Methodist Church, https://www.facebook.com/hmmchurch

Pictures; courtesy of David Harrop