And the lights go back on in Manchester ………. August 17th, 1945*

The caption in the Manchester Guardian on that day in the August of 1945 simply reported “’Manchester Town Hall flood lit for V.J. Day’ A firework has just been sent up from the great crowd in Albert Square.”

Now for those who don’t know V.J. Day’ signalled the end of the war against Japan and followed on a few months after the defeat of Nazi Germany and the close of the European war.

Of course, to be strictly accurate the lights had gone back on ending the blackout on April 30th.* 

But as the Manchester Guardian reported elsewhere in that edition “The floodlit spectacle of London is naturally much grander this time than on V.E. nights”, which I suspect reflected the greater time to organise an event.

Victory in Europe Day had been almost a spontaneous outburst of joy after six long and bitter years of war.

Sadly, there was much more to the original photograph, but the passage of 80 years and the poor storage left the picture much battered.

Location; Albert Square, Manchester

Picture; Victory High Lights In Manchester, The Manchester Guardian, August 17th, 1945 

Rational Rationing down at the gas showrooms with Miss Arscott of Whalley Range in 1940

Now this is one of those little bits of history which deserves to be brought out and explored.

It is another advert from my friend Sally who unearthed it from a back edition of the Manchester Evening News and dates from January 1940.

At first glance it is just a trailer for a cooking demonstration, but there is much more.

We are of course at the beginning of the Second World War and the country is once again coming to terms with food rationing, hence the very practical title of “RATIONAL RATIONING.”

The speaker was Dr. C. Arscott who was headmistress of Whalley Range School.

She had overseen its opening in 1939 and would be still be in post decades later.*

And Dr. Arscott was assisted by a team of cookery demonstrators who will have been familiar with the gas showrooms and similar events from before the war.

Manchester Corporation as part of the campaign to promote both the use of gas and electricity had hosted regular demonstrations during the 1930s.

So there you have it.

Picture; from the Manchester Evening News, January 1940, courtesy of Sally Dervan

*I am, yours sincerely, Miss Christine Arscott.... a story from Sally Dervan, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/i-am-yours-sincerely-miss-christine.html

The envelope that told the story of the Manchester Blitz

Now of all the records, the photographs and stories of the Manchester Blitz this little envelope is as powerful a reminder of the destruction that was heaped on the city on the nights of December 1940.

It was sent to W Marsden of 11 St Mary’s Gate but was returned to the Vicarage in High Wycombe, and the various official stamps tell the story.

It had been sent on August 20 1941 but according to the stamp the building was “Gone No Address” and to confirm the fact there was a hand written message “War Damage of property.”

Now number 11 was entirely destroyed during the Manchester Blitz along with all of the buildings opposite on the south side from Deansgate up to Cross Street.

I have yet to track down William Marsden.  I know that in 1911 the address was listed as the Union Bank of Manchester but more than that will need more research.

That said even in wartime the Post Office was more than efficient returning the letter just two days.

All of which just leaves me to go back and look at the directories for 1940 to be exactly sure what business was being conducted just before the blitz and also to look for who was living at the Vicarage.

Location;; Manchester








Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop

Growing your turnips in Chorlton Park ..... and other wartime stories ........

Just what Chorlton Park was like during the last World War will pretty much have faded from living memory, and so stories of air raid shelters and the Dig for Victory campaign among the flower beds will not be readily available.

Chorlton Park, 2020

Like Dominic Anderson I have sometimes wondered how the Park was used during conflict and was galvanised into action when he posted on the Chorlton History site, “Walking in the park today a question struck me - was the land used to grow food during ww2 and if so are there any pictures?”

Well I went looking, but have so far only turned up one which shows an air raid shelter and not a line of turnips.

That said the Manchester Guardian carried a story on October 19th 1939 that “To meet the needs of those who have taken up allotments, and of others interested, the Manchester Corporation Parks Committee has arranged with the Agricultural Committee to provide demonstration plots in the following parks: Heaton Park, Boggart Hole Clough, Brookdale Park, Queens Park, Birchfield Park, Lady Barn, Fog Lane Park, Platt Fields Park, Chorlton Park, Wythenshawe Park.

Starting on Saturday, members of the parks staff will attend to demonstrate correct methods of cultivation, including digging, manuring, and controls of pests.”*

A further series of demonstrations were planned over the following weeks and along with this “A cropping scheme for the average 300 square yard plot will be issued shortly by the Manchester Agricultural Advisory Committee and will be available to all interested.”

Digging your own food, 1940

It is unclear whether these demonstration plots became permanent and nor do we know exactly where they were located in Chorlton Park, which is a ta d annoying given that the newspaper piece specified where to go in some of the parks.

But someone may know and may even have a picture.

That said according to a later report “the trench system in the parks is nearing completion.  Approximately 10,000 people will have shelter in these trenches in Alexandra Park, Queens Park, Moss Side recreation ground, Boggart Hole Clough, Crumpsall Park, Didsbury recreation ground, Platt Fields, Manley Park, Whitworth Park and Chorlton Park.

The trenches, which are of reinforced, precast concrete covered with two feet of earth are being provided with ramps in preference to steps  and emergency manhole exits are placed at frequent intervals.”**

This was part of a much wider provision of shelters, which included the conversion of the Victoria Arches  and the underground canal near Central Station [GMex] , 

Chorlton Park and the site of the shelter, 1939

In addition the Council had indented for “28,000 Anderson steel shelters, with17,000 allocated by the Home Office” and has completed a list of 17,000 names and addresses of people in the city with basements which they desire to have strengthened and the survey of houses with suitable accommodation for brick and concrete shelters is continuing”.

All of which was a start in the preparation for the bombing to come.

And that is it other than to say some will have fun identifying the shelter in the park. And the clue I suspect is that line of chimneys in the distance.

All very different from the place today.

Down by the Brook in the Park, 2020

Location; Chorlton Park

Picture, Chorlton Park, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, “The Penguin Book of Food Growing Storing and Cooking” 1940, Chorlton Park Shelter Surface Shelter, City Engineer, July 12th, 1939, m09588 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Allotments In Manchester, Demonstration Plots, Manchester Guardian, October 19th, 1939

**Corporation Raid Shelters Manchester Guardian, June 22nd, 1939

At Victoria Station ............... on the morning of December 23 1940

This is platform 16 in Victoria Station on the morning of December 23 1940 just hours after the all clear had sounded on what had been the first night of the Manchester Blitz.

Now the story is pretty well known and so rather than retell the events of the two nights with the dismal record of death, and the destruction of property I will just linger on these two pictures.

I wasn’t there and given that the events were 77 years ago there will be few who were.

But the photographs vividly convey the damage, from the collapsed and twisted metal to the empty roof devoid of glass.

And of course there would have been that powerful smell of smoke which got everywhere and would cling to your clothes long after you had left the scene.

The images come from the collection of David Harrop and were I think press photographs.

Of course there will be people with up todate pictures of Victoria Station but I leave it up to them to post them as a comparison

Pictures; Victoria Station, December 23 1940 from the collection of David Harrop

The Chorlton mysteries …….. which stubbornly keep their secrets

Sometimes despite a heap of research the stories just don’t come together.

Bomb damage, Manchester, 1941

And so, it is with a family of four who “were killed by enemy action in March 1941” and the mysterious link between a house in Chorltonville and the Nazi propagandist, Lord Haw Haw.

Both stories emerged from conversations during the week and in their different ways both seemed promising avenues of research.

The Smith family are buried in Southern Cemetery in the consecrated section T close to Barlow Moor Road, and a search of the City Council’s burial records list them as Eliza, Joseph, Ada and May.

I haven’t seen the grave yet, but Ed passed over the details and wondered where they may have lived.

I thought the bomb maps might offer up a location for their home, but that does depend to some extent on knowing where to look.

Barrage Balloon, 1940, Chorlton

Alas so far, I can’t find them on the 1921 census or the 1939 Register and while there is a reference to an Eliza Smith born in 1866, I can’t be sure this is her.

Nor do they appear in the list of dead killed on March 11th or the following day in one data base.*

Now given the confusion of war I fully accept that some records went missing, but it just ads to my failure.

And in the same way I haven’t been able to make a link between a house in North Meade and Lord Haw Haw, which was the was the “nickname applied to William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to the UK from Germany during the Second World War. 

The broadcasts opened with "Germany calling, Germany calling", spoken in an affected upper-class English accent”. **

The possible link was suggested by one of our guests at the recent book launch, who said her mother had maintained that there was a connection between the house and the Nazi who had been an active Fascist in the 1930s before fleeing to Germany just before the outbreak of the war. ***

The census returns for 1921 and the 1939 Register threw up different people living at the property but as yet I can’t trace a connection to either the British Union of Fascists or to William Joyce.

The Meade, circa 1930

Nor so far I have come across a reference to Joyce in Manchester, despite trawling the Manchester Guardian, but then he was “Director of Propaganda for the British Union Of Fascists” and as such spoke at meetings around the country, so it is possible he appeared at a BUF meeting in the city or the surrounding area. ****

Now I not arrogant enough to suppose that just because I failed someone else will not be more successful, which lays down a sort of challenge.

But for now that is it, other than to record that Chorltonville appears unvisited by Goggle Maps which would have been a quick way of refreshing my memory of the said house on North Meade.

Chairs as weapons, Rotherham, 1936

So, we have all learnt something, apart from those residents of Chorltonville who already knew that Goggle Maps has not wandered down its leafy ways.

The Meade, 1913

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Blitz bomb damage, 1941, m08608, Fight at fascist Meeting, 1936courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,  http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass barrage balloon on the Rec circa 1941 from the collection of Allan Brown, and the Meade, 1913, and circa 1930s from the Lloyd Collection

*Luftwaffe Over Manchester, The Blitz Years 1940-1944, Peter J C Smith, 2003, Neil Richardson

**Lord Haw Haw, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Haw-Haw

*** The book …. some poems … a cake and the mystery of Lord Haw Haw in Chorltonville, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-book-some-poems-cake-and-mystery-of.html

****Fight at Fascist Meeting Chairs as Weapons, Manchester Guardian February 14th 1936

“If you go into the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise”........... looking for that air raid shelter in Parrs Wood

Now I know there will be someone who will remember the air raid shelter on the Gateway Estate which was built “12 feet below Kingsway.  Accommodating 120 people the shelter cost £800 to build and had a concert room, whist and bridge parlour, and lounge.”*

According to the Manchester Evening News “the shelter club was the idea of Mr William Ponsford who was a builder [and] in the dugout which is fitted with steel doors there is a piano and a radio-gramophone.  

One room has accommodation for dancing.  Gas-proof ventilation is installed [and] the shelter has two dug-out entrances and back exit and many of the tenants are already using the shelter as a social club.”

On one level it strikes you as a jokey little piece which even today has a charm overlaid with hints of Dad’s Army, but of course that is to take away the very real danger of bombing raids.

For me it is there in the description of those steel doors and the gas proof ventilation, this was after all a time when we could not be sure that gas would not be used as a weapon.

It was so potent a concern that it had led to the issue of millions of gas masks and warnings about going out without one.

And given that fire bombs and one high explosive device did fall on Parrs Wood Mr Ponsford was right to make the effort more so given the devastation that fell from the skies the following December.

All of which leaves me to ponder on what happened to that shelter.  Sally who found the piece tells me that the Gateway Estate was behind the pub, so I await the memories and stories of the Parrs Wood shelter to bubble to the surface.

Pictures; from the Manchester Evening News, January 1940, courtesy of Sally Dervan


*THEY CAN DANCE IN A RAID, Manchester Evening News, January 1940

Putting the record straight ……the story of the German refugee I got wrong

Now anyone engaged in historical research knows that there is never any final certainty in the conclusions you drew from what history has left behind.

Albert Square, October, 1939

So, the confident assertion is blown away on the discovery of new evidence, and worst still the historian who cuts corners, or parks an inconvenient fact will sooner or later be proved wrong.

And to make matters worse, it was my story developed over a few days from a chance discovery of a wartime crime.*

It had begun when I was looking for the date of Queens Court in Didsbury, and discovered that in 1940 one of the residents had contravened the Official Secrets Act and after a trial held in camera was sentenced to six years hard labour.

July, 1940

His crime had been discovered when the police were investigating the failure of a young German refugee to notify the authorities of a change of address.

She had come to Britain in early 1939, and was not interned on the outbreak of war, because she was judged a “refugee fleeing Nazi persecution”.

She did however under the Aliens Act have to notify the police if she moved home, and this she didn’t do on the advice of that man she had fallen in love with.

He was the official who had broken the law, and she had been employed as a domestic servant in the flat he shared with is wife.

At some point in early 1940, he left his wife and began living with his former servant in a house in Old Trafford.

May, 1940

All of this had been covered by the Manchester Guardian and armed with their names I went looking for them in the historical records and while his life after prison is unclear, I did discover a reference to her at the tribunal which determined she shouldn’t be interned.

The names fitted as did her occupation, and I went onto follow up on the name of her employers at the time, who were a Russian Jewish emigre family in Liverpool.

Queens Court, 2020

Superficially it all fell together, and I reasoned at some point she left Liverpool for Didsbury in Manchester.

There were too inconvenient facts from the newspaper coverage, one of which was her age which did not tally with that on the tribunal record and a reference to her having been living in Macclesfield.

The first I reasoned was a journalistic mistake, and while I couldn’t reconcile Macclesfield which seemed an inconvenience to the time line I chose to park it, convincing myself that it didn’t alter the story.

But it did, and I have Tony Goulding to thank for digging deeper and reconciling the mismatches.

“I was intrigued by your story today about the refugee and the man charged with offences against the Official Secrets Act.  

As by coincidence I was already looking at the Alien and interment records for a future story of internees/aliens living in Chorlton-cum-Hardy I decided to investigate the case myself to see if I could add anything to the story. 
      
Having read a number of newspaper accounts of the case I was perplexed by a couple of things . 

Treatment of Aliens and in particular a Mr. Solf, March, 1940

Firstly the age of the refugee was consistently given in the paper as 20  which meant she was born in 1920. 

Then the according to the 'alien' records the refugee staying with Mrs.  Cashden at Ducie Street, Liverpool was born in Nurnberg on 28th March,1913  which would make her 27 in 1940 then there was a puzzling Macclesfield connection. 

Eventually I hit upon the solution surprisingly there were two refugees with the same name  the one in Liverpool and another who was living with a Dr.Harry at "Fernlea", 1, Walker Street, Macclesfield  . 

This one was born in Heidelberg on 12th April 1920. 

Armed with this information I was able to track the fate of the refugee from the court case. Apparently she was interned for the duration of the war first in Strangeways then eventually via a short spell in Holloway in London to Rushen camp on the Isle of Man It is possible that she was released on 2nd  July 1942. when she was reclassified. 

July 1940

What is certain however was that she left for the United States on 13th July, 1947 one of 200 passengers on the "De Grasse", a ship of CIE. GLE. Transatlantique. At this time, according to the ship’s passenger, list she was working as a dressmaker and living at 40, Bramham Gardens, Earls Court, London. 
   
I thought I would send you this information via E-mail rather than comment on your post for you to decide how you would like to use it”.

To which the obvious course was to ask Tony whether he or I should write the correction, which I did, with many thanks to him .......... And the lesson remains .... always check your facts.

Pictures; headlines from the Manchester Guardian, March-July 1940, Albert Square, October 18th, 1940, m75475,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Queens Court, Didsbury, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento

* Stories of Nazi persecution, Russian emigres and a wartime crime ............. Nuremberg, Didsbury, Minsk and Liverpool, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/05/stories-of-nazi-persecution-russian.html

Catherine Murnane: - Victim of German bombing 1/6/1941 ... another story from Tony Goulding

To mark remembrance month, I was going to complete the story of the Firewatchers who died as a result of the German Luftwaffe bombing of Manchester on the night of 1st June, 1941.

I decided to shelve this to a later date, however, and tell the story of just one victim of that night. 

In this way wishing to highlight the fact that each of the over a million names on the Commonwealth War Graves was an individual person.

Catherine was born in Stockport, Cheshire on the 19th March, 1902 the first child of Robert John Garside, a machine fitter at a printer’s and his wife, Catherine (née Dunne). 

Memorial to Manchester’s Civilian War Dead; Piccadilly

In 1911, the census records her as the eldest of five children, with 4 younger siblings, 3 sisters (Mary, 7, Eileen, 4, and 10-month-old baby, Florence) and 1 brother Robert who was 3. 

The family were then living at 19, Wally Street, Broughton, Salford. Catherine was joined by another brother, Joseph on the 20th February, 1912 and a fourth sister, Winifred, on the 11th may, 1913.

She married Matthew Murnane in Salford during the September quarter of 1929 and in 1939 the National Register recorded the couple at 15, Eskrigge Street, Salford with Catherine described as a “Mantle costume baister” Matthew was a "General labourer (heavy worker)”.

Catherine was a Senior Air Raid Warden and was killed at Hacking Street in the Salford part of Cheetham Hill on on the 2nd June,1941.

Pictures; From the collection of Tony Goulding.

On walking through Piccadilly Railway Station ...........

 War memorials are meant to be seen.

It is one of the ways we both mark the sacrifices made by that generation of men and women who were swept up by the conflict, and also of course a way of remembering those who died.

Which brings me to these memorials on Piccadilly Railway Station.

The first stands by the ground floor entrance looking out towards busy taxi rank.

The other is a new memorial to “the memory of the Manchester Employees of the London North Western Railway Company who sacrificed their lives in the service of their country during the Great War and as a grateful tribute to all who served”.

It replaces ab older one which has been lost which stood in the London Road Goods Department.

Both have featured before.

Location; Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station

Pictures; war memorials, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A not so festive request ................ in the event of being bombed out December 1941

I cannot think how it must have felt to have sat down and planned for the unthinkable.

But across the city and across the country that was what people were being asked to do in the event that their home was destroyed by enemy action in the December of 1941.

Now the Corporation had already put out warnings about what to do in the event of an air raid, had organised the transportation of children out of the city at the outbreak of the war and administered much else to do protecting its citizens.

Earlier In the September of 1939 the Government had undertaken what amounted to a mini census which formed the basis of much war time planning from ration books and indemnity cards  to the establishment of the post war National Health Service.

And by December 1941 people will have been used to the detailed government regulations, restrictions and inquisitiveness which burrowed deep into everyday life.

Even so it must have been hard to fill in a form which told the authorities where you planned to go in the event of being bombed out.  It was the unthinkable and in its way no less awful than the one that confronted my generation about what do in the event of a nuclear strike by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

What is all the remarkable is the way that these little bits of that earlier conflict have survived, not in a museum or in an archive but in someone’s home, casually put away at the end of the war and then with the passage of the decades become part of the collection of “things” which are part of one family’s history and by extension what defines them.

So I have Jayne to thank for this document entitled “HOUSES DAMAGED BY ENEMY ACTION, MUTUAL AID BILLETING ARRANGEMENTS.”

It fell through the door on December 1941 a full year after our Christmas Blitz, but having filled in the form was never sent off, I suspect because there was no one that they could go and stay with.

Pictures; “HOUSES DAMAGED BY ENEMY ACTION, MUTUAL AID BILLETING ARRANGEMENTS” 1941 courtesy of Jayne Bailey

A ticket to Leave ............. coming home from HMS Pembroke February 11 1944

This is another one of the small bits of history which I have never seen before.

Back during the last world war they would have been issued in their millions and most will have been lost, discarded or destroyed long ago.

At the time they would be prized as the passport home even if it was for just a short period.

Now the granting of leave was an essential part of maintaining morale but most history books gloss over this aspect of military service and until now I had never seen a document relating to it.

My own uncle never managed to get home after his temporary posting to Wilmslow in the December of 1940 from where he was sent via South Africa to Greece and after the fall of that island on to Egypt, and Basra before finally arriving in the Far East where he was captured in 1942.

In time I hope to be able to track down Mr Williams who was granted leave from HMS Pembroke on February 11 1944.

I do know that HMS Pembroke was a shore establishment located in Chatham and that along with a barracks there was an HMS Pembroke 1 which was an accounting base from 1940 till 1960 so just possibly our Mr Williams was involved in clerical duties.

We shall see.

Picture; Leave Ticket, February 11 1944 from the collection of Jayne Bailey

Auxiliary Fire Servicemen ......... a story from Tony Goulding

Firemen parading in Piccadilly in memory of Blitz casualties 1941

Among the firefighters being remembered on this parade were five members of The Auxiliary Fire Service who are buried in a communal grave in Manchester’s Southern Cemetery. 

As I referred to in a recent post their names are honoured by inclusion in a separate section of the memorial to Manchester’s civilian war dead located in that Cemetery.

All five men died on the two nights of heavy bombing on 23rd and 24th December, 1940 known as the “Christmas Blitz”.

Thomas Killeen:-

Thomas was born on11th April, 1901 and lived at 1, Salisbury Street, Moss Side, Manchester. The 1939 Register gives his occupation as a “general labourer” and indicates that he was married but was living alone – suggesting that he was in casual employment possibly in the building trade.

Other than these rather bald facts I could find no more definite information about his life. However from his surname he was likely to have been of Irish origins and was possibly born in Ireland. (1)
   
He died on 23rd December, 1940 at Mosely Street, Piccadilly, Manchester.
 

Section of memorial tree in Piccadilly, Manchester, 2019

William Henry Anderton:-

William was born on 4th October, 1896. He was christened at St. Gabriel’s, Hulme, Manchester. His father was also a William Henry and his mother’s name was Annie (née Tapster).
   
William married Bertha Hughes in the June quarter of 1927 at Bolton’s Emmanuel church and their son Derrick was born in the March quarter of 1931. His occupation in 1939 was a cutter and winder and he resided at 10, Russell Street, Hulme, Manchester.
William also died on the first night of “The Christmas Blitz” the 23rd December, 1940.
   
His Fireman’s Number was 2068

Joseph Scollick Hopwood:-

Joseph was born in the Ardwick area of Manchester on 22nd May, 1906. His father, also named Joseph Scollick, a grinder had married his mother Elizabeth Anne (née Whalen) in Manchester during the December quarter of 1904.
     

In 1939 Joseph was living at 84, Rusholme Grove, Rusholme and working as a furniture porter.  He married Elizabeth (née Court) at St. Luke’s Church Chorlton-on-Medlock in the June quarter of 1928 and had two sons: Joseph born on 2nd October, 1929 and Norman born in 1934 (June quarter).
 
Joseph died on 24th December, 1940 at George Street / Parker Street in the

William Hector Varah:-

 William was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester on 20th February, 1910. His parents were John Edward Varah, a very prosperous grocer and Elizabeth Annie Ellams; however the exact details of his birth and infant years are unclear. John Edward Varah died on 28th November, 1937 at the County Mental Hospital while residing at 103c, Cambridge Road, Southport, Lancashire. It is safe to assume William Hector also lived in this town and that he was the William Varah who  married Violet Grace, née Roskell, (in Southport Methodist Church  on July 1st, 1932) This union ended in divorce on Monday 2nd December, 1935 due to William’s infidelity with a woman in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester.(2)
   
 In 1939, William Hector is recorded as a manager of an outfitters, “Miller’s Stores”, living at 8, Willoughby Avenue, Didsbury with his wife Doris (née Harrison)(3)who he married in South Manchester in the September quarter of 1937. His son Barry D. was born in the same quarter!
   
William Hector was killed instantly on 22nd December, 1940 when a High Explosive bomb fell on the Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury Road, Old Trafford, Stretford, Nr. Manchester. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records give his address as 44, Poplar Grove, Brooklands, Sale, Cheshire.

Charles Henry Smith:-

Charles Henry Smith, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s website, was aged 44 and residing at 26, Prescot Street, Hulme, Manchester when he was killed by German bombing on Monday 23rd December, 1940 at Mosely Street / Piccadilly, Manchester.
 
Unfortunately the 1939 register does not record Charles Henry at this address Which circumstance combined with his exceptionally common surname results in his story being mostly untold.(4)

Tony Goulding © 2019

Location; Manchester

Pictures;  Firemen parading in Piccadilly, Manchester, in memory of Blitz casualties 1941
m 09510, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass section of memorial tree in Piccadilly, Manchester, and other images, 2019, from the collection of Tony Goulding

NOTES:-
1) The surname “Killeen” is normally spelt with two “L”s and I found only one record of a Thomas Kileen with a single letter “L” of the correct age in the censuses of 1911 either of England and Wales or of Ireland. This was of a pupil at St. Patrick’s Industrial School in Kilkenny, Ireland who was born in Wexford, Ireland.
2) The divorce was reported in “The Lancashire Evening Post”. Also around this time there was a case of fraud brought against a William Varah, in Southport the details of which, as reported in the “Liverpool Echo” on 2nd March, 1933, are strong indications that it was William Hector.
3) Doris Harrison was also previously married (rather neatly) in Ormskirk, Lancashire in the December quarter of 1928 to a Mr. Roland Pugh.
4) There is a record of a Charles H. Smith born on 4th November, 1896 (and therefore the correct age) living at 468, Stretford Road, Manchester with 15, year old Thomas and another minor : presumably his children. As this man is the only instance of such an entry of the right name and age in the Register for Manchester it is possible that he is “our man’ but that is pure conjecture.

The Blitz Glass .........two unique pieces from Manchester Cathedral

I am looking at two pieces of Victorian stained glass which were rescued from Manchester Cathedral after the intensive bombing on the nights of December 22/23 and 23/24 1940.

The glass, 2018

Today, I doubt that there will be many people alive who saw the original stained glass windows and so these two pieces have a significance.

With time and research we might find other bits which survived but for now I am happy with these.

They were handed over to David Harrop by Sylvia and Tony Carroll and will go on display in his permanent exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery.

A“All the Victorian stained glass was destroyed during the Manchester Blitz in 1940.  Until the late 1960s, only two windows had been replaced, notably the Fire Window by Margaret Traherne (1966). The dean and chapter commissioned Tony Hollaway to prepare a scheme for re glazing the cathedral, with priority to the five western windows: St George (1973), St Denys (1976), St Mary (1980), 

The glass, 2018

according to one source,

The Creation (1991) and The Apocalypse (1995). To commemorate the restoration of the cathedral following an IRA bomb in 1996, the Healing Window by Linda Walton was installed in 2004”.*

So I am pleased that they will be on display and again be seen by people.

The Cathedral, 1941

The two pieces were photographed outside the Lodge in the June sunshine.

Location; The Remembrance Lodge, Southern Cemetery, 2018,








Pictures; Victorian stained glass from Manchester Cathedral, 2018, courtesy of David Harrop and Manchester Cathedral Bomb damage, 1941, B B Jay, m08594, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Walking in Southern Cemetery and remembering the Manchester Blitz

Yesterday I walked in Southern Cemetery.

The day was warm, the light perfect and once again I remembered why I liked the place so much.

It is that mix of history, the abundance of nature and that sense of tranquilly.

All of which makes it somewhere that draws you in.

For most of course it is to visit the graves of family members but there are regular talks and walks focusing on the monuments of the good and great and more than a few given over to spotting the varied wildlife.

And many of those guided tours will end at the memorial to those civilians who died during the Second World War.

It is on the eastern side of and the simple and modest monument records the names of those who died and are buried in the cemetery.

It is a humbling experience to sit in front of the mass grave and read off the names, more so because as you would expect there are whole families interred here like the Hopkins family of Fernleaf Street Moss Side.

They were killed on December 23 1940.*

Mr Hopkin was 31 his wife 29 and their two children were just five and two.

And close by on the following night Marjorie and June Hall died in Heron Street in Hulme.

Marjorie was 19 and June was five months old.

Now 75 years separate us from the events of those December nights, long enough for many of the survivors to have also died and with them the vivid memories of the blitz and the subsequent bombing that went on into the middle of the war.

All of which makes it important I think to pause and visit memorials like this one along with the Tree of Remembrance in Piccadilly.**

And even in this year of anniversaries which began in the August of 2014 with the start of the Great War  continued with the great battles of the Western Front, concluding in December with the Manchester Blitz it is still easy to become blasé about the loss of life and the small individual tragedies as well as the big events.

So I will take time off again to visit the memorial in the cemetery and combine it with a visit to the permanent exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge by the gates.

I was there yesterday with David Harrop who maintains the exhibition from his collection of memorabilia spanning both world wars along with material from the history of the Post Office.

And much of it has a direct connection to Southern Cemetery ranging from medals of men who are buried here to letters, postcards and stories of the blitz.

Most are the everyday things that would have come through the letter box and were happily discarded when the war ended including a leaflet on what to do after the bombing and letters and postcards.  There are even a few souvenirs bought as part of a war drives to raise funds for charities.

And this porcelain piece which may postdate the war.

Pictures; from the collections of David Harrop and Andrew Simpson

*Greater Manchester Blitz Victims, http://www.greatermanchesterblitzvictims.co.uk/index.php

**In Piccadilly Gardens at the Tree of Remembrance, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/in-piccadilly-gardens-at-tree-of.html

In Piccadilly Gardens at the Tree of Remembrance

Now I have passed that metal tree in Piccadilly Gardens countless times and only once wondered about its story.

But in my defence I have always been in a hurry and rarely linger in the gardens, all of which is a shame and a lesson about looking more carefully at what you pass because this is a memorial to all those who died in Manchester during the Second World War.

The first to die were the Andrews’s family on August 30th 1940 in Hulme and the last was Ms Lilly King of Beswick on July 28 1942.*

The heaviest death toll was during the Manchester Blitz in December 1940 when on two nights 680 people were killed and 2,360 were wounded.

Many of these are buried in Southern Cemetery where there is another memorial.

But for now I want to stick with the Tree of Remembrance which stands on the Mosley Street corner of the gardens.

It was commissioned by the City Council and completed to coincide with the anniversary of Victory in Europe Day in May 2005.

The memorial was designed by the artists Wolfgang Buttress and the ten metre high tree has metal rings around the trunk that have engraved upon them the names of the Manchester people who lost their lives.

Now I am sure I will have been aware of its official opening back in 2005 but never made the link with the sculpture that I pass regularly so I have David Harrop to thank for reminding me of its presence.

David also has a permanent exhibition commemorating the lives of those who lived in Greater Manchester during the two world wars.

Fittingly it is in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery close to the Blitz memorial and during the next few months running up to December David is mounting a special display of memorabilia focusing on events of 1940-41.

Amongst the items there are letters, postcards and official communications including a leaflet on what to do if your home had been bombed.

These are the very personal sides of what was one of those great events in that war and it is easy sometimes to overlook that fact.

So setting aside the statistics and the cool judgement of historians, those bombs fell on people, and some of them we will have known.

Now Mr Richard Arthur Dunkley of Whitfield Street, Chorlton on Medlock was not known to me, but he appears on the tree and I discovered he was killed during the air raid of December 26th.and was taken to the Mansfield Street Mortuary.  He was 39 and had been born in Hazel Grove.

He was one of twenty people killed that night in Chorlton on Medlock of whom three were unidentified.


Pictures; Tree of Remembrance, 2015 from the collection of David Harrop

*Luftwaffe over Manchester, The Blitz Years 1940-1944, Peter J C Smith, 2003

Today over Chorlton .............. 75 years ago

Now today is the anniversary of the day the first bombs of the Second World War fell on Chorlton.

I say the first but that is not strictly accurate.

There were a series of them that fell on September 4th 1940 between 2.55 am and 10.55.*

Now I don’t know where they fell but I do know that no one was killed.

The air raid alert had sounded at just before 3 am and lasted for ten minutes with the all clear being sounded at five past three and then just seven hours later there was a second alert which began at 10.35 am and continued till just before 11 am.

The Manchester Guardian didn’t carry the story and I have yet to crawl over the Manchester Evening News but somewhere there will be a record of the event.

All of which just leaves me to thank David Harrop who told me about the bombs and remind you that his Battle of Britain and Blitz exhibition is currently on show at the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery

Pictures; the Heinkel He 111 over Poland, September 1939 from the German Federal Archive featured in  Heinkel He 111 Wickipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_111

*Luftwaffe over Manchester, The Blitz Years, Peter J C Smith, 2003