Snaps of Chorlton nu 7.............. on Needham Avenue in 1953

Now I am back with one of those family snaps of Chorlton.

Pictures like these were seldom meant to be a statement of high art just an instant reminder of a happy time.

It was sent to me by Susan Barlow who told me that two of her uncles are amongst the bunch of children caught on camera.

And I remember having similar tank tops, and v necked sleeveless jumpers, baggy shorts and grey socks with the a coloured strip.

Those of us of a certain generation will remember those long summer days which started with a game in the street unhindered by cars, moved on to an adventure in the park or on the meadows and finished at tea time with a glass of orange squash before a meal with dad and mum.

And snaps like these are an important part of our history and so the more observant will have spotted the big pram which was large enough to take the baby, a shed load of shopping and the posher models had suspension delivered by leather straps which could be adjusted.

We bought one in the 1980s for our Joshua.

It was second hand and in the playground at Brookburn more than one person claimed it had been theirs before being passed on.

And once it was no longer used for babies and the shopping its chassis offered up a DIY go cart.

Location; Chorlton

PIcture; Needham Avenue, 1953, from the collection of Susan Barlow

A Salford coal merchant and his two daughters who lived on Needham Avenue in Chorlton

This is Jacob Brimelow, coal merchant and I am guessing we will be somewhere in Salford. 

I don’t have a date but as Jacob was 25 in 1901 and a year later the family migrated to Australia where they stayed until the 1920s it is just possible that we are back in Salford just after they returned.

And there is a lot more to the picture because the wagon carried the name of William Perkins who was one of 11 coal merchants who had their offices at the coal depot on Ordsall Lane in 1911.

Jacob’s father had also been a coal merchant but appears to have changed occupations having described himself as a commercial clerk in 1881 but a decade later was selling coal.

And it may be that we can pin point that change to sometime after 1886 because in that year he is absent from the trade directories.

So with a bit more digging we should able to get an exact date for when he began trading and likewise when in the 1920s Jacob was also plying the Salford streets.

All of which brings me back to that picture and a date.

Look closely and at the rear of the wagon is a motor car while the hat and coat of the woman looking on suggest sometime in the 1920s or possibly early 1930s.

And I think we are dealing with something special for neither Jacob or the lad on the wagon are dirty or in their everyday work clothes.

Added to which the horse is decked out in gleaming brasses and head gear which may mean we are at the start of a special parade, but what that was is for now anyone’s guess.

But I have every confidence we shall.

Not that that is the end of the story, for two of Jacob's daughters who were born in Australia were later to settle in Chorlton and live beside each other in Needham Avenue.

Picture; Jacob Brimelow, date unknown, from the collection of Susan Barlow and familly.

Rolling back the history of that building on Needham Avenue

The entrance

Now here is a mystery I have been putting off solving.

For years I have passed the building on Needham Avenue beside the Post Office yard and wondered about its origin.

Today it is a set of 12 workshops and I do have a memory of it once being a printer’s and there’s even a suggestion that once it had a connection with a local brewery who used the premises in the 1930s.

In the fullness of time I shall trawl the street directories and they should shed light on its previous use, its earlier owners and perhaps when it was built.

Now I can be confident that it dates from sometime between 1894 and 1907.

Oakley House in 1894

Back in 1894 the site was still part of Oakley House which dated back to the beginning of the 19th century and must have been a pretty impressive place.

It had previously been known as Oak Bank and was home in its time to the wealthy Morton family and later still the Cope’s who ran a chain of wine shops and drinking establishments in Manchester.

It stood in its own grounds which ran along Barlow Moor Road as far as Sandy Lane, and was bounded by what are now Zetland, Corkland and Wilbraham Roads.

By 1894 the estate had shrunk too little more than a pocket hemmed in by the houses on Corkland Road, Wilbraham Road and Maple Avenue and while its garden still extended west to Barlow Moor Road this too would be surrendered to housing by the beginning of the 20th century.

Today all that is left is a stone gate post with the name of the house and a bit of the old garden wall.

The building today

Not much I know but a bit more than I knew before.

And it is just another example of how you set off with one story and end up with two.

All of which brings me back to those 12 workshops and the building itself.

The interior is of a very high level of workmanship and the entrance with its tiled frontage is indicative of the quality of time and effort that went into its construction.

Which makes me wonder again who built and owned the property and for what purpose was it originally constructed?

And the answer may be in William H. Wallworth who was living at number 2 Needham Avenue in 1901.  He described himself as a corn miller and baker and ran his own business.  He is also listed in the  1901 trade and business directory at the same address which may suggest that his bakery was our building.

The building today

A decade earlier he had living on Great Ancoats Street and his business premises were listed as number 90 Great Ancoats Street and 76 Port Street.

So sometime around 1901 or a little earlier he, his family and the business vacated to Chorlton.

It is not conclusive yet but I think the first use that was made of our building was as a bakery.

Still there is more research to do and so we shall just have to see.

And just as the story was posted Andy tells me that there is a picture of Mr Wallworth's son in his father's carriage outside the bakery on Needham Avenue in 1910 in the collection of Greater Manchester County Record Office, 328/12.

Now that I will have to see.

And it all  fits with Wallworth Avenue which was that that short stretch of what is now Needham Avenue running off from Barlow Moor Road to the junction of Priory Avenue where it continued as Needham.

So our baker seems to have been quite a significant chap and justifies even more research.

Pictures; from the collection of Andy Robertson, detail of Oakley House & Chorlton from the OS for South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

On Needham Avenue watching out for the first cakes from Parker's bakery

Now I am back with that building on Needham Avenue.

Like many people I had often pondered on its origins, and only recently discovered it had been built by a baker who gave his name to part of what is now Needham Avenue.

This was a Mr Walworth who had started up in business at the beginning of the 20th century relocating from Great Ancoats Street.

And now with the help of Sanda Hapgood I can add another chapter in the story because by 1934 it was run by P Parker who had branches across south Manchester.

But as this advert in the parish magazine shows Needham Avenue was the office and factory where it was all produced.

Picture, P Parker, Needham Avenue, from the St Clements’s Parish Magazine, courtesy of Sandra Hapgood

So when did this building become the one we know on Needham Avenue?

The bakery, 1908

Now I am fully prepared for the debate that might unfold about this picture and the degree to which it could be the building at the bottom of Needham Avenue.

Until quite recently you had to pass it on the way to collect parcels and undelivered letters from the Post Office counter and like many I have often wondered about its origins and only recently discovered it had been built by a baker who gave his name to part of what is now Needham Avenue.

This was a Mr Wallworth who had started up in business on  Great Ancoats Street relocating to Chorlton at the beginning of the 20th century.*

I had always assumed that the present building was pretty much what Mr Wallworth had commissioned but not so.

The advert, 1908

Looking closely at the picture dated 1908 and comparing it with the present building it is possible to see
some similarities but that said it did undergo a radical redesign.

This had happened by the late 1950s and might well have been the work of Mr Parker who took over the bakery in the 1930s, if not earlier.

Now there will be people who might just remember that redesign.  My friend Ann visited the bakery in the 1950s with her father and there will be others whose memories may stretch back even earlier.

Well we shall see.

Picture; advert for F.W.Wallworth, Famaily and Wholessale Bakery, 1908 from the Souvenir of the Grand Wesleyan Church Bazaar, 1908, courtesy of Philip Lloyd

*Needham Avenue, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Needham%20Avenue

On Needham Avenue sometime around 1958

Now we will all have pictures like this and along with their personal value they offer up a wonderful snap shot of Chorlton.

In their way I find them more fascinating than those ancient photographs from the turn of the last century.

I think it is partly because we tend to ignore more recent images as somehow not really history and that is a shame especially as they can provide a vivid commentary on how things have changed in the last half century.

So here in 1958 in Needham Avenue are three young men beside a fine example of a Foden’s lorry.

The building which was once the bakery belonging to Mr Needham is just there to the right.

Picture; Needham Avenue, circa 1958, courtesy of Susan Barlow