Back with James Bowes, on Oldham Road, Newton Heath sometime after 1883

284-286 Oldham Road, date unknown.

This is the third and last picture of the shops owned by James Bowes Ltd.

The company was established in 1880 on Oldham Road in Newton Heath and expanded during the next century with premises in Chorlton on Medlock, Moss Side and now Stockport.

James Bowes who founded the company was born in Hulme in 1839.

His father described himself variously as an engineer and a maker up.

The family were still in Hulme in 1851 but James had moved to Newton Heath by 1881 living with his wife and children above the shop at 286 Oldham Road.

I first came across them after Andy Robertson had sent me a ghost sign advertising the business on the side of a building on the corner of Alexandra Street and Raby Street.*

Detail of the shops owned by James Bowes

James Bowes Ltd  had vacated the shop at the end of the last century but I tracked them down to Stockport and the present owner was kind enough to supply me with some information and photographs of the first shop in Newton Heath and  the second on Higher Cambridge Street, in Chorlton on Medlock.

Both have now gone the result of town planning and commercial development.  I rather think I might just have missed the demolition of the shop in our picture.

The site is now an empty bit of wasteland on Oldham Road which once was packed with houses, shops and factories.

The sister shop on the corner of Higher Cambridge Street went a long time ago and is now a block of student accommodation.

Picture; from the collection of Paul Bowes

*James Bowes Ltd, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/James%20Bowes%20Ltd

At 33 Higher Cambridge Street looking for Bowes famous 5/11 trousers

I like this picture because the more you look at it the more you are drawn into the early decades of the last century.

We are on Higher Cambridge Street at one the shops of James Bowes Ltd.

Number 35 Higher Cambridge Street was the second of the shops opened by James Bowes who had begun his business in 1880 on Oldham Road in Newton Heath. 

Within three years of starting his business he had expanded into the neighbouring shop and later still opened this one in Chorlton on Medlock.

And as that century rolled on the firm opened other shops one of which was on Alexandra Road,* finally moving to Stockport at the end of the 20^th century.

James Bowes was born in Hulme in 1839. His father described himself variously as an engineer and a maker up.  

The family were still in Hulme in 1851 but James had moved to Newton Heath by 1881 living with his wife and children above the shop at 286 Oldham Road.

But today I want to concentrate on our shop on Higher Cambridge Street.

Like the family business in Newton James Bowes Ltd in Chorlton on Medlock occupied two shops.

They were as the sign announces “General Salesmen” dealing in anything and everything from clothes to alarm clocks, from blankets to boy’s knickers.

And if you were unsure about what was on sale, there hanging from the side of the shop was a line of carpets and rugs while the windows were filled with merchandise and hand written signs.

This after all was that period when every shop keepers motto was “pile’em high and sell ‘em cheap."

Look closely and there is a window full of “WATCHES AND ALBERTS.”

My favourite has to be “BOWES FAMOUS 5/11 TROUSERS 5/11 TROUSERS POPULAR ALL OVER THIS CITY", with the added hard sell of poster inviting you to " THINK THIS OVER."

But despite all of these goods the other serious side of the business was the  pawnbroker’s which in the years before the Great War flourished where ever incomes were uncertain and where there was a need to resort to ready cash in exchange for pawning a personal article.

In 1911 the shop was run by Wilfred Bowes, who was 26 years old and one of James’s sons. 

Now talking to Paul who is the present owner of the shop in Stockport the company continued to expand and so I guess in the fullness of time I should be able to find out if Wilfred’s brothers Edgat and James also went into the family business.

For now I shall just return to that shop on Higher Cambridge Street with its shirts at 4/11 and its Bowes Alarm Clocks “Now reduced to 2/11.”

I went looking for the place recently and of course it has long gone.

Picture; 33-35 Higher Cambridge Street courtesy of Paul Bowes

 *A ghost sign, a pawnbrokers and a row of abandoned properties,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2014-02-13T03:30:00Z&max-results=7&start=14&by-date=false

A ghost sign, a pawnbrokers and a row of abandoned properties

Well I have to say that numbers 35-53 Princess Road have seen better days.

Back in 1911 here could be found the usual collection of shops and businesses, including the London City & Midland Bank, an undertakers, a tailor, some sweet shops, a butcher, grocer, milliner and a host more.

As late as 1967 they were a thriving mix of shops offering up everything from dry cleaning to office equipment and that similar range which had been there 50 years before.

And between Barry’s the outfitters and Seymour & Storey on the corner of Moss Lane East and Alexandra Road was the cinema which in 1967 was showing Don’t Lose your Head with Sid James and Kenneth Williams.**

Now there was a planning application to demolish the lot.  The application was made in November 2013 and the City Council indicated that “prior approval to undertake the demolition is not required [because] the demolition works will not have a significant impact on the environment.”*

All of which is a prelude to the ghost sign on the side of the wall running down Raby Street.

It proudly advertises JAMES BOWES LTD, PAWNBROKERS & JEWELLERS, ESTABLISHED 1880.

And as you do I was drawn into the story of James Bowes.  In 1883 he was trading from 284 Oldham Road, Newton Heath and just three years later had expanded into the neighbouring shop.

By the first decade of the 20th century he was also operating a shop in Chorlton on Medlock and sometime after 1967 made the move to the corner of Alexandra Road and Raby Street.

I rather think this was a canny move given that in 1967 the premises was already a Jeweller and Pawnbroker’s operated by H.A.Toulmin and had a prominent position at the end of parade of shops.

Nor is that quite all because the company is still trading, having moved to Stockport town centre about twenty years ago.

Their ghost sign on the side of their old shop is an impressive one but I guess it  will soon be lost when the building is demolished.

All of which is a nice reminder yet again of the need to snap away and record our history before it goes.

And in the meantime you can always visit the digital archive of Manchester Libraries and follow D Wilgoose who in 1967 took a stroll down Alexandra Road photographing each of the shops from Raby Street to Moss lane East and lots more as well.***

Now I rather think in the fullness of time there will be more stories this parade of shops, and I certainly have not forgotten the cinema.

And James Bowes Ltd will I suspect draw me in to follow the story of a business which begins in Newton Heath and by degree crosses the city and out again all the way to Stockport.

But all of that is for another time.

Pictures; numbers 35-53 Princess Road, formerly Alexandra Road, 2014, Andy Robertson, Moss Side, Princess Road, east side, from Raby Street to Moss Lane east Creator Wildgoose, D, m38431, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

*Application No 104253/DEM/2013/S1, Manchester City Council online planning http://www.publicaccess.manchester.gov.uk/associateddocs/MCCList1.aspx?104253/DEM/2013/S1

** Don't Lose Your Head was the thirteenth in the series of Carry On films to be made. It featured regular team members Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims. It was released in 1966 and was set in France and England in 1789 during the French Revolution.

***Manchester Local Image Collection, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass