Waiting for that fast service to Central ................ standing on the platform at Chorlton-cum-Hardy railway station

Now I am part of that generation that grew up with steam locomotives.

And I don’t mean those special heritage steam trains I mean the full on thing, when everything from the intercity express down to sedate suburban commuter links and the humble unromantic goods locos were all steam powered.

All of which makes this picture postcard of our station one to cherish particularly because there are very few of the inside of the station.

I don’t have a date for this one but it will be before 1926 when an aerial picture shows the station without the footbridge which the historian John Lloyd says was removed “to save the expense of maintaining it and the public had to use the road bridge.”**

So we have just 40 or so years to play with because the station was opened in 1880 and judging by  the quality of the picture postcard I am guessing we will be sometime in the early years of the last century.

And that quality allows you to focus in on the detail from the iron work under the bridge to the signs advising passengers to use the foot bridge to cross the tracks which proved particularly relevant after the death of Mary Jane Cockrill of Oswald Road in 1909 who was run down by "a fast train approaching the station."***

I don’t think you have to have an over vivid imagination to put yourself on that platform just over a century ago.

The place is empty save for the staff and the chap in the bowler hat who I suspect runs the kiosk, so we must be in one of those in between moments and given that there are no passenger either a train has just gone through or this is that long wait between the morning commuter rush and the evening return.

And for anyone who has ever been alone on a warm summer’s day waiting for a train the scene will be all too familiar.

There will be that silence punctuated by the odd noise from the road in the distance the clunck of a shunting engine and the sound of the platform clock.

And if you have timed it wrongly there could still be a hint of steam left from the departing train and the last solitary commuter making their way out up the approach path to Wilbraham Road.

Which means that you are left to idle the time away looking at the headlines from the newspaper posters, ponder on the promises being made by the adverts and perhaps spend a penny on that weighing machine.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, date unknown

Picture; Chorlton-cum-Hardy Railway Station, date unknown, courtesy of Mark Fynn***

*Looking Back At Chorlton-cum-Hardy, John Lloyd, 1985

**Woman Killed at Chorlton In front of a railway train, Manchester Guardian, January 11, 1909 although to be accurate her death was a suicide

***Manchester Postcards, http://www.manchesterpostcards.com/index.html, 

Forgotten Chorlton ................. nu 1 on Wibraham in the 1930

Now Wilbraham Road and Edge Lane were popular locations for commercial photographers not least because of the many posh properties which stretched out on either side of these two roads all the way up from Stretford into Chorlton.

The canny photographer would not only sell the images to the postcard companies but would also have called in at each house featured in a picture offering up a print for a price.

This one was taken by Harold Clarke who lived in Chorlton in the 1920s and 30s and had a photographic business.

And as you do I have come to be quite fascinated by him and have not only written about his work on the blog but discovered that Tony Goulding who is a regular contributor is related to Mr Clarke.*

So as they say a small world, and for those who know this corner of Wilbraham Road and High Lane/Edge Lane the fun will be trying to spot the changes.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Picture; Wilbraham Road, 1930 from the collection of Mark Fynn

*Harold Clarke, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Harold%20Clarke

**Mark Fynn, http://www.markfynn.com, 

That familiar row of shops on Wilbraham Road

I don’t have a date for this picture but I am guessing we are sometime in the 1920 or 30s.

Of course I am well aware that someone out there will recognise the make and manufacturer of the the single-decker bus and will be able to offer up a date.

In the meanwhile I am content to suggest that we are on Wilbraham Road on a bright and sunny morning in early spring.

If pushed I might say it was a Sunday given the absence of people and the fact that the shops are closed.

But that said  most of the shopkeepers have their canvas awnings in place so we may just have caught this bit of Wilbraham Road before anyone has opened for business.

Now all of this is a bit of speculation so instead I shall focus on what I do know.

The block stretching down from Albany Road was once a set of desirable residential properties which date from the 1880s.

They may have lacked large gardens but there was still plenty of open land within easy reach and each had a small “green" plot at the front.

But sometime at the turn of the last century the enterprising owner converted the lot into shops which mirrored a similar development opposite and another further down beyond the junction with Barlow Moor Road.

Look closely and all the clues are there, starting with the shops themselves which are clearly additions to the original design, and to the arrangement inside where in some of them there is a set of stairs which were once the steps leading up to the front door.

By the time this picture was taken Mr Burt and Mr Stevenson could proudly point to having been two of the first to set up there and  would continue to trade for decades to come.

And that just leaves me to thank Mark Fynn and point you to his excellent site of picture postcards.*

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Pictures; Wilbraham Road circa 1920s-30s, courtesy of Mark Fynn

*Manchester Postcards, http://www.manchesterpostcards.com/index.html

Forgotten Chorlton ................. nu 3 clocking the changes at the tram terminus on Barlow Moor Road

Now this is the last of the pictures from that excellent site run by Mark Fynn.*

And as a bonus here are two.  I was going to say in the series of then and now, but quite clearly both are from then.

The first will not be that long after the tram terminus was constructed, from what had originally been land belonging to the Holt family who had lived in Beech House from the 1830s till the beginning of the 20th century.

The house and gardens stretched from the corner of Beech Road along Barlow Moor Road to High Lane and then just behind Cross Ross Road.

With the death of Mr Holt the land was sold for development and the Corporation took a strip which became the terminus.

Before that the trams had stopped at Lane End where Sandy Lane and High Lane met Barlow Moor Road.

And with that bit of tram history I will leave you to compare the two pictures, spot the differences that a few decades make to  a scene and take yourself off to the corner of Beech and Barlow Moor Roads and judge how another sixty years have transformed our terminus.

Picture; Barlow Moor Road circa 1900s and again 1950s, courtesy of Mark Fynn

*Mark Fynn, http://www.markfynn.com

Forgotten Chorlton ................. nu 2 on Edge Lane sometime in the early 20th century

Now what do you say about a picture of Edge Lane sometime in the early 20th century?

I suppose the obvious one is the lack of traffic, the curiosity shown by passers by at what the photographer was doing and just maybe the woman on the bike.

What always fascinates me is the way that in a few short years people became so familiar with pictures and cameras that the appearance of a commercial photographer would not create a stir.

But back when this one was taken pretty much everyone on the lane stopped to stare.

All except the woman on the bike who perhaps had seen it all before or was on an important errand which could not be interrupted by idle curiosity.

I would love to know which it was but that will never happen so instead I shall just thank Mark Fynn who gave me permission to reproduce the image from his excellent site.*

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Picture; Edge Lane circa 1900s, courtesy of Mark Fynn

*Mark Fynn, http://www.markfynn.com

Exploring that lost building on Barlow Moor Road

Now if like me you have wandered out of Max Speilemann’s and wondered what once stood on that bit of open land next door, Mark Flynn’s picture helps supply an answer.

Barlow Moor Road, circa 1960s © Mark Flynn

In time I will find out when it was demolished but it was there when Lilywhite Ltd were marketing their picture postcard of Barlow Moor Road sometime in the 1960s.

And it was there by 1893 but I can’t as yet find an occupant until 1909 when Evan and Robert Jones were trading as seed dealers from the building.

The rate books for the late 19th century are unclear as to who might have owned or rented it and the census returns don’t help.

That said it looks like a stables and so might just have been connected to the large house which sat in its own grounds between what are now Barlow Moor Road, Wilbraham Road and Corkland Road.

The lost building, circa 1960s

It was called Oak Bank and was there from the early 19th century if not earlier and was a fine house enough to have had plenty of outhouses including a stables.

But for now the origins of what was once the seed merchant’s business is lost to me.

I have asked my old friend Andy Robertson to go digging in his directories for the late sixties, and if it proves still to be listed then it went just before I arrived in the 1970s.

We shall see.

And that just leaves me again to thank Mark Fynn and point you to his excellent site of picture postcards for sale.*

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Pictures; Barlow Moor Road  circa 1960s courtesy of Mark Fynn

*Manchester Postcards, http://www.manchesterpostcards.com/index.html

Kemp’s Corner on the corner of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads .......... sometime in the early 1960s

The name Kemp’s Corner is not so familiar now but once and until quite recently it was the place you arranged to meet up.

In that pre-mobile age when arrangements to meet someone had to be done in advance and then stuck to
Harry Kemp’s chemist shop was the perfect spot.

Not only was it on the corner of two busy roads with plenty of bus stops but there was a large clock above the shop.

Harry Kemp had opened his shop in the early years of the 20th century, had another one on Beech Road and was one of our three councillors who were elected in 1904 after Chorlton along with the other three townships had voted to join the City.

It continued as a chemist well into the century and is now the HSBC.

All of which makes this picture quite a find.  It is one I haven’t seen before and I have to thank Mark Flynn for permission to reproduce it.

Mark as a vast collection of picture postcards .

Pictures; Kemp's Corner, circa early 1960s courtesy of Mark Fynn

*Manchester Postcards, http://www.manchesterpostcards.com/index.html

The Lloyd’s ................... one I’ve never seen before

Now I never pass up the opportunity to preview a new picture of Chorlton.

This one is the Lloyd’s sometime in the 1940s.

And it is the small detail I like.

I doubt many will remember that wall to the left of the pub.

At some point a long time ago it was demolished and this became a car park.

Before that this will have been the site of the pub's tennis courts.

It comes from the site of Mark Fynn

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester
















Pictures; The Lloyd’s circa 1940s courtesy of Mark Fynn


*Manchester Postcards, http://www.manchesterpostcards.com/index.html

The mystery of that parade of shops on Barlow Moor Road

Now not that long ago I wrote about Audrey’s which sold everything from the best new frocks to all sorts of fine haberdasheries.*

Barlow Moor Road circa 1950s-60s

It was on the corner of Barlow  Moor Road and Needham Avenue and one of the two shops is now Duffy’s.

The story set off a whole shed load of memories and so when I came across this picture post card from Mark Fynn’s excellent site I knew I had to ask permission to use it.**

Mark has some fascinating picture postcards covering pretty much everywhere.

So with that out of the way its back to that picture of Barlow Moor Road sometime in the 1950s or 60s, and my interest is drawn to that last parade of shops which runs from Needham up to Maple Avenue.

The parade showing circa 1950s

Look closely and the parade of five shops turns out to be two distinct buildings which have been transformed by the addition of a new brick frontage which in the 1950s still carried a terracotta name tablet above the shops.

And here it gets even more complicated, because in 1903 there was just one property on the corner of Needham and Barlow Moor and four years later there is still a gap between that house and the one at the start of Maple Avenue.

By 1911 the row was fully developed but that still does not answer the question of when that yellow brick frontage was added and for that I suspect we will have to wait till someone with a set of deeds comes forward.

I know that in 1911 number 67 which is now numbered 392 was J T & Sons Ltd, dyers and cleaners and if you count along from Needham Avenue in our picture the fourth shop is still a dry cleaners..

The parade sometime after 1911

And that transformation might well have been soon after 1911 because in a detail from another of Mark's postcards which can not be much later  the conversion has been carried through and  the first house on Maple Avenue has been incorporated into
the parade and the uniform brick frontage added.

So for those who want to help me out and fasten the date they will have to trawl through the directories from 1911 till that conversion is listed.

And at some point that launderette will appear.

It must have been relatively new in the 1950s and there will be those who remember it.

 I am trying to think whether I am one of them, which if I am places its demise to sometime after 1976.

But that was a long way away from that sunny day when a commercial photographer snapped this bit of Barlow Moor Road.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, date unknown

Picture; Chorlton-cum-Hardy Railway Station, date unknown, courtesy of Mark Fynn

*Down at Duffy's thinking about Audrey's and the man who sold a nit comb, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/down-at-duffys-thinking-about-audreys.html

**Manchester Postcards, http://www.manchesterpostcards.com/index.html

St Catherine’s churchyard ................. the day it snowed March 2016

Now never let it be said that Andy Robertson is a fair-weather photographer.

In his pursuit of recording the buildings of Greater Manchester I have known him to go out as the rain was coming down like stair rods, watch as litter was blown past him in a gale and yesterday he took this picture as the snow tumbled down from the sky.

This is St Catherine’s graveyard on Barton Road of which I knew nothing, so I turned for help to Mark Fynn who came up with this image of the church from around 1905.

Mark has a collection of old picture postcards .

Location; Barton Road-upon-Irwell, Greater Manchester


Pictures; St Catherines’ churchyard, 2016, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the church circa 1905 courtesy of Mark Fynn

*Manchester Postcards, http://www.manchesterpostcards.com/index.html