Odd facts about Chorlton no 1 ...... when Mr and Mrs Royce lived on Holland Road

Now I like the way that I sometimes get asked to research a bit of Chorlton’s history, at which point I have to declare that it isn’t difficult, it is just a matter of trawling various official documents.

Holland Road, circa 1900

In this case tit was the Rate Books, which I used to find the address of Mr Frederick Henry Royce, he of the famous Rolls Royce partnership.

It turned out to take just a few minutes and I found Mr and Mrs Royce at 2 Holland Road, which is now Zetland Road from 1893, till February 1898.

The property was owned by Mr John Turner who owned 6 houses on Holland Road.

The annual rent was estimated at £35 and the rateable value was £29 15s.*

The property is still there, and is the first house on the western side of Zetland Road, from Corkland Road.

At which point I could go into great detail about the partnership but cars have never really interested me.

So I will leave it at that, only to say I could have taken a picture of the house today, but instead preferred this one, which dates from a little after they had left, and is of course of the other end of Holland/Zetland Road.

It is a scene I guess they would have been familiar with.

I have no idea how Mr Royce got to work, but by 1893 our railway station had been in the business of whisking commuters into the heart of the city in under fifteen minutes.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Holland Road, circa 1900, from the Lloyd Collection

*Manchester Rate Books, 1893-98

On Zetland Road with a postcard and an odd message in the March of 1905

I have looked at this postcard of “Draycott” a dozen times over the last few years and not given it much thought.

It is on Zetland Road and was sent by Edmund Holmes to his daughter Mabel in March 1905.

It was a Monday, and it was posted in Chorlton sometime before 10 in the morning.

Mr Holmes was a chartered accountant, had been born in Derby in 1849, was married to Julia and they had three girls of which Mabel was the youngest.*

Now we will never know why Edmund sent his 17 year old daughter the post card or whether the others also got one.

Perhaps the clue is on the message on the back which just says “Puzzle: Find yourself.  This is Draycott.  Love from father”

Now I am not going down the route of idle speculation.  It may have been the result of some profound discussion about how Mabel was feeling on that day or just that he saw the card on sale and decided to send it on a whim.

Commercial postcards such as this were regularly available and were often an opportunist move on the part of the photographer who would take a series of shots of houses to sell to the residents with surplus copies making their way into the local shops and station kiosk.

Edmund was part of the partnership of accountants of Morris, Gregory, Holmes and Hansford who had offices at 32 York Street, which may have meant he caught the train from the station to Central and walked the short distance along Mosley Street past St Peter’s Church and on to York Street.

Now there will have been many other routes and no doubt someone will suggest a quicker or more scenic journey but as the offices were at the junction of York and Faulkner Streets I will stick with my mine.

And before someone questions his choice of the train over the tram I have to point out that the tram service was not extended from West Point until 1907, and so on that March day I rather think he would have walked down what was then Holland Road [now Zetland Road] to Cavendish Road [now Corkland Road] and across to the station.

He may have bought the card at Mrs Burt’s stationary shop on Wilbraham Road but more likely from the kiosk on the platform.

At this point dear reader you either mutter something very rude at the degree to which I can show off with the knowledge or sit back impressed.

Either way it is a little lesson in how a postcard can with the help of the 1901 census, Slater’s Directory and the odd OS map get behind the message sent on that Monday morning.

Picture; from the Lloyd collection

*Edmund Holmes, born in 1849, Derby, Julia, 1850, Manchester, and Alice, 1880, Gertrude, 1883, Mabel, 1888

What will be the fate of Mr & Mrs Helm's fine home on the corner of Zetland Road?

Mr & Mrs Helm's house in 2015

I just wonder what Mr and Mrs Helm would have made of the fate of their fine house on the corner of Zetland and Sandy Lane.

The house dates from around 1907 and William and his wife Eva Elizabeth were there from 1911.

Just six years earlier they had been in Shropshire, and may have moved to Manchester after 1909 and just possibly were the first residents of the house.

He was a “medical practitioner” which hardly does him justice as he also described himself as a "surgeon, M.B., Ch.B. Vict."

Holland Road circa 1920

He had married Eva in 1903 and they had two daughters, one born in 1904 and the other born two years later.

And like many families of their social standing they employed  employed a cook, a governess and a housemaid.

Back then this was Holland Road only changing its name like so many in the city sometime in the 1960s.

Now there will be people who know more about the house and its occupants.

All boarded up, 2015

For as a long as I can remember it has been divided into flats.  In the summer of last year the neighbouring property was up for sale and today both are empty and the builder’s boards have gone up.

There is no application in to redevelop so I rather think we shall have to wait.

Pictures; the house in 2015, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and circa 1920s from the Lloyd Collection