One more lost scene of Chorlton ......... from the winter of 1963-4

 In memory of Ida Bradshaw who died on New Year's Eve and whose funeral service too place on Wednesday in St Clements, here is the first of three stories she inspired.

Ida, 1941-2026

It was taken in the winter of 1963-4 from the back upstairs window of Ida Bradshaw’s house on Neale Road.

Today the view would be obscured by the flats of Lawngreen, but back then it was all that was left of the farm yard, workshops and land of the farm which had fronted the parish graveyard for two hundred years.

To the right in the background is the Bowling Green Hotel, to the left the houses which face Brookburn Road. 

And away in the distance are the meadows.

 What is perhaps remarkable are the buildings on the horizon just left of centre.

 These I think were the homes of the sewage workers and stood just to the left of the little footbridge across Chorlton Brook.

It is still possible to make out a break in the hedge where the garage of the properties was situated. There are those in Chorlton who remember living in one of them.
Nerdy perhaps, but still real living history. If anyone has any pictures of Chorlton I would love to see them.

Picture; from the back upstairs window on Neale Road from the collection of Ida Bradshaw

Ida Bradshaw Chorlton historian ...... and friend

There will be many in our community who were saddened at the news that Ida Bradshaw has died.

Ida in 2019

She always styled herself the "unofficial archivist of St Clements Church" and she was my friend. 

Her passion for Chorlton's history was infectious and l welcomed her regular phone calls about some "new find" that she had uncovered from her trawl of the church archives.

More than that l often benefited from one of her discoveries which in turn found themselves into a blog story.

And Ida was many other things.

I still have her folders of art and craft work recording not only her own output but pictures of exhibitions and group activities.

All of which kept her busy and sometimes it was difficult to pin her down to meet up as she mixed church business, trips to Central Ref, and visits to parishioners along with Saturday mornings at some craft event.

Catherine Brownhill remembers, Catherine Brownhill "A truly wonderful lady Andrew. I was introduced to Ida through Chorlton Civic Society. 

Her enthusiasm for her interests was infectious. Her love of perfume bottles and the presentation talk she gave about them will stay with me for a long time".

Ida in 2002

And I know many others will also have fond memories of Ida.

So I couldn't finish without expanding on her interests in embroidery and her work for Chorlton Arts Festival.

In 2002 The South Manchester Reporter commentated on her contribution to that year's events with, "As part of the Chorlton Arts Festival, St Clements Church on Edge Lane threw open its doors for an exhibition and demonstration of local arts and crafts. 

Visitors through out the week were able to come and enjoy watching things being made as well as admiring the creations on display.

Among the people demonstrating their skills was embroidery expert Ida Bradshaw."

And along with our conversations on all things Chorlton history this picture of Ida the embroidery expert is a nice way to remember her.

Her funeral will be at St Clements Church on Wednesday February 4th at 11 am.

Picture; Ida Bradshaw, 2019, from the collection of Peter Topping, and Ida in 2002, courtesy of South Manchester Reporter, May 30th, 2002

“Don’t put your daughter on the stage” …… seven years of the Chorlton Repertory Club ... part 1

The Chorlton Repertory Theatre Club is one of those half-remembered stories. 

Enjoying the theatre programme for January 15th-20th, 1951

It was where some of our well-known actors and comedians first strutted the boards including Avis Bunnage, Joan Sims, Harry Corbett and Ronnie Barker and over the years was at home in both the Lloyds Hotel and the former Conservative Cub

Cast of All The Year Round, April 7th, 1951

And here I am indebted to Ida Bradshaw who first told me of its existence, offered up a short history of the club and preserved fifteen theatre programmes from 1951-52.

She told me the “club was established in 1946and although it had no theatre of its own, offered up a weekly repertory performed by a professional company.  Initially it used a large room connected to the Lloyd’s Hotel and then moved to Chorlton Conservative Club.

It was the brainchild of two actors.  James Lovell and Arthur Spreckley.  The club played to full houses in Chorlton.  However, problems pre-empted by the sacking of Lovell began to mount and by 1951 the club was making a loss.  Membership was dissolved and blame was laid at the door of television and bad weather.  But Alan Bendle observed that ‘of the 1952 performances, perhaps only six of the 52 were successful’

A professional producer was employed in 1953 who immediately gave the company notice.

In 1954 the Chorlton Theatre Club became home to Piccola Theatre Company, which brought to Manchester  a group of young actors, designers and directors, many of whom were to leave their mark on the world of theatre.

For two seasons productions included The Women Have their way [ Frank Dunlop] and Maria Marten in the Red Barn [Richard Negri] provided an early opportunity to assess the talents of individuals who were to become more familiar to Manchester audiences”.

Drama off stage, February, 1949

And there is much more.  

The Manchester Guardian carries 131 references to both theatre companies, and it makes for fascinating reading because amongst the reviews of performances, there is the starling announcement that the club committee had “terminated the contract of the manager producer …. Mr. James Lovell”.

And if that wasn’t enough of a dramatic turn worthy of its own drama productions, just a month later  “the management committee …. was yesterday voted out of office at a special general meeting it had called to secure a vote of confidence” to rebut a call by 283 members of mount an investigation of the said committee..**

A thank you, October 29th, 1951

Now I have to say it all sounds very exciting with “some seven hundred people attending the meeting at the Princess Ballroom, Chorlton-cum-Hardy”, the revelation of huge financial losses and the possibility that the “spring programme ‘would lead to insolvency in four to six weeks’”

All of which was compounded by accusations that committee was pursuing a vindicative policy.

And with tensions mounting the Committee declared “that there was another booking of the hall and the members had to clear the furniture before leaving” , a challenge met by shouts of no confidence in the committee, a demand for a vote to replace it with a new one.

All of which I didn’t know when I began leafing through the 14 programmes, looking for references to local companies who provided props, smiling at the problems of fuel shortages and impressed by the planned  theatre improvements.

Introducing a viper, July 16, 1951

And along with various Christmas socials and fund raising activities there was the raffle for a “Beautiful Television, which may just have been a viper introduced by the club with its promise of varied entertainment in front of the fire with no recourse to a trip out on wet cold night.

A play a week, October 29th, 1951

There is so much more, but sadly I fear the Club has all but moved  out of living memory.

But if the grownups are now in short supply there may be a few of their children who went along to performances of “Christmas in the Market Place” which promised to be “A most delightful and happy Yuletide play for young and old” which were to run from Boxing Day 1952 through to January 3rd 1953.

So there is much still to do.  

Starting with the stalwart cast listed in each of the programmes, looking through all 131 references in the Manchester Guardian along with more from other Manchester papers, and finally tracking down a scrap book and perhaps the records of the club.

And as a start I know that Jean Parry the star of  All The Year Round in 1951 came from Salford was born in 1925 and died in 2005, and I have three pictures of her cast member Jean Ryder from 19159.

It's a start.

Theatre Comfort, October 29th, 1951

Location Chorlton

Pictures; selection of theatre programmes of the Chorlton Repertory Club, 1952- 1953, from the Ida Bradshaw Archive and extracts from the Manchester Guardian, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Chorlton Repertory Dispute, Manchester Guardian, February 8th, 1949

**New Repertory Committee A Chorlton Vote, Manchester Guardian March 1949

Snaps of Chorlton No 1 a lost road and a demolished house from Ida

Most of the images we see of Chorlton in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries were the work of professional photographers. 

They arrived in the township, focused on the popular bits and sold them on to the postcard companies.  Sometimes on the off chance they prowled the new roads of New Chorlton and the Ville, taking pictures of individual houses and offering them at a knock down rate to the residents.

Then there were the serious amateurs like Aaron Booth* who in the early 1880s was taking photographs of Martledge. But there are also the snappers, who captured whatever took their fancy.  Often the images are a little blurred and in many cases have a significance lost in time.

And so with this in mind here is the new series.  Snaps of Chorlton, is an occasional rummage through pictures most of which were never meant to be shared beyond the family. Of course the advent of the camera phone has given this a new lease of life.

But for now I am concentrating on old fashioned images and I am starting with two from Ida.  The first was taken by her dad and while the date is unknown it must be before the development of the precinct, because this is Manchester Road from the corner of Wilbraham Road.  Back then it is still a tree lined road of big houses which gently curved round past the Savoy Picture House and around the library.  The car park has yet to break the sweep of the road.

It is a scene I featured recently from a 1938 postcard but is well worth another look.

The second is more recent.  We are on Beech Road, after the demolition of Row House and the factory which stood beside it.  And Ida’s picture perfectly reflects that other thing about snaps which is that they seldom are of popular or photogenic views which makes them equally important.

Row House dated from the early 19^th century and had quite a history.  Here lived the Blomely’s who gave their name to the fish pond that ran from Acres Road up to Chequers Road, and also lived William Batty, politician, jeweller and Methodist  For a while the house was used as our “Penny Reading Room”, while the adjoining building had been a laundry and factory.

So its passing which generated a stir at the time is important as it was one of the last examples of an early 19^th century property in the township.  And here I have a confession, for I have a brick from the house.  I asked for it and the demolition gang a little bemused handed it over.  It was handmade, perhaps with clay from our own clay pits off Oswald Road and I guess was put in place around about 1800.

And a little later Ida took her picture.

Location; Chorlton, Manchester

Pictures; from the collection of Ida Bradshaw

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/aaron-booth-and-his-pictures-of.html

One more lost scene of Chorlton ......... from the winter of 1963-4

It was taken in the winter of 1963-4 from the back upstairs window of Ida Bradshaw’s house on Neale Road.

Today the view would be obscured by the flats of Lawngreen, but back then it was all that was left of the farm yard, workshops and land of the farm which had fronted the parish graveyard for two hundred years.

To the right in the background is the Bowling Green Hotel, to the left the houses which face Brookburn Road. 

And away in the distance are the meadows.

 What is perhaps remarkable are the buildings on the horizon just left of centre.

 These I think were the homes of the sewage workers and stood just to the left of the little footbridge across Chorlton Brook.

It is still possible to make out a break in the hedge where the garage of the properties was situated. There are those in Chorlton who remember living in one of them.
Nerdy perhaps, but still real living history. If anyone has any pictures of Chorlton I would love to see them.

Picture; from the back upstairs window on Neale Road from the collection of Ida Bradshaw