A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects number 11 … .the plan of a pub

The story of Didsbury in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph or more.

I am looking at the plan of the lost Ring o’Bells, which stood the site of the Church Inn which in turn became the Didsbury Hotel.*

The plan is dated 1821 and formed part of the sales transaction by which Mr. Bethell bought the Ring o’Bell,s which he later demolished for his new pub which he called the Church Inn.

The name, the Ring o’ Bells goes back a long time and was a venue for the annual election of the township’s constable, was used by various Friendly Societies and once for a short while was used to hold a suspected criminal.

Added to which like many public houses it was occasionally used for the public sale of local properties.  In 1822 “at the house of Mr. Bethell, the Ring o’Bells in Didsbury the valuable estate of Mr. Lawrence Walker of Heaton Norris”, was for sale, along with several parcels of land, and “an excellent DOUBLE and SINGLE PEW, in Didsbury Chapel.  The large pew is subject to an annual payment of £1.1s and the other of 10s”. **

The same adverts provide a clue to as when the Ring o’Bells became the Church Inn, because in 1830 the sale of the home of Mr. Leech was offered up as “a Desirable Country Retreat” to be sold “at the house of Samuel Bethell, the sign of the Church Inn, Didsbury”.***

Location; Didsbury

Picture; map of the Ring o’Bells and surrounding area

* Plan of the Ring o’Bells, 1821, DCB 1595/36/8, Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, http://www.cheshirearchives.org.uk/home.aspx 

*Valuable Estate in Didsbury To Be Sold by Auction, Manchester Guardian, September 14th, 1822

***Desirable Country Retreat Manchester Guardian, May 1, 1830

Casa Italia ….. a jar of Brylcream, and a row of cottages …….. Didsbury across a century

The great fun of historical research is you never quite know what you will turn up.

Casa Italia 2020

So here I was last Saturday back in Didsbury trying to get a picture of Casa Italia without a car getting in the way, and failed yet again.

Why Casa Italia? Well I like I the restuaraunt, and it has proved to be the only place locally that stocks Nocino.*

But enough of such stuff, and instead it is the history of the building I want to explore.
Just when it stopped being a Carrington’s and became the Casa Italia I have yet to find out but I know that back in 2014 I might just have been able to get my Nocino here from this branch of the Carrington empire.

Chritian Reading Room, 1959

I will have passed the building countless times during the 1970s and 80s, and I gave it little attention.

I do remember that one side was a Christian Science Reading Room, while the other half was a Gents Hairdressing Saloon, which as well cutting hair and selling that certain package “for the evening sir”, had jars of Brylcream.

Now you have to be of a certain generation to remember Brylcream, with its distinctive smell and its ability to hold hair in place.  It was one of those products that was a bit of a right of passage, because you only started to use it  in your teens.  Out had gone the toy trains, comic annuals and instead there was the full tilt pursuit of fashion, music, and going on a date.

My flirtation with the stuff didn’t last long, but for a short while it and Old Spice were part of getting ready to go out.  The downside was the smell and the greasy marks it left on furniture, and in my case the comments of one early girlfriend, appalled at what it did to her hands after fondly running her fingers through my hair.

Hair curs and Brylcream, 1959

It was I now know an emulsion of water and mineral oil stabilised with beeswax and it  is still available today.  Alas those who know me, will smile at the thought that I once had hair and might choose to use the stuff.

Back in 1969 the owner of the hairdressers was a Mr. T Smith and the shop had been dispensing Brylcream, hair cuts and much more a decade earlier.

In time I will go looking for just when it ceased to do Brylcream, haircuts, and for that matter when the building was constructed.

At the turn of the century the site had been a row of cottages which were still there in the 1920s.

But at some point these were replaced with our building, which is quite distinctive with that frieze at roof level.  Look very closely and it is just possible to pick out that the design is a series of identical flowers in full bloom.

F. Lees, bird seed and Spratt's

Decades of paint have now obscured the finer details but they are still there.

And what is even more fascinating is that there was another block further north along Wilmslow Road, on the corner with what is now North Street.

It was not as substantial as ours but it had the same design below the foor and may have been by the same architect.  In 1959 it was occupied by F. Lees who described himself as a “Seed Dealer” in the directories but whose shop front announced that here was Didsbury Pet & Garden Stores ….. The Shop for Spratt’s.”  Offering dog food and bird seed in “packets and Bags”

Those cottages, 1906

All of which just leaves me to plunge into the census returns and explore the occupants of those cottages who in 1901 included a certain Mr. William Wrightman who described himself as a cab driver and ten years later was running the Station Hotel on the corner of Wilmslow Road and what is now North Road.

As ever, there is more , but that is for another time.  In the meantime I shall book my time into Central Ref to trawl the directories to discover just when our floral adorned shops were built.

And a thank you to andy Robertson who trawled his copy of the 1969 Directory.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Casa Italia, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, the same block in 1959, J.F. Harris, m42647, and that other block on the corner of what is now North Street, in 1959, J.F. Harris, m42644, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and the row of cottages circa 1906

*Nocino is a wonderful liqueur from the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, and is made from unripe green walnuts, rivaled only by Lemoncello.

Saturday in Didsbury

Location; Didsbury

Picture; To let, Wilmslow Road, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson