Joseph Johnson, radical, farmer and almost a Didsbury Radical

The Peterloo Massacre still has the power to shock and ranks alongside the Sharpville Massacre in South Africa in 1960 and the Kent State killings in Ohio in 1970 as a moment when peaceful demonstrations were met with the full ferocity of State power.*

And it is of Peterloo I want to think about today and in particular the part played by Joseph Johnson, one time radical who lived in Northenden and whose political past gave rise to a potato being called the “radical.”

Now as many of you know I am searching for our radical past here in Chorlton, not out of a nostalgic wish make the place politically correct but because it seems to me that there would have been people here with views that ran directly opposite to those of the establishment and the wealthy.

There is evidence that there were people from both Stretford and Urmston present at Peterloo, and this shouldn’t surprise us either.  Both were places where there were significant numbers of weavers and these were a group who had become radicalised as their industry went into decline.  So according to one source 151 of those wounded at Peterloo were weavers, which represents 50% of all casualties whose occupations are known.**  And we had some weavers.

So it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that we made a contribution to that 80,000 strong crowd, but that is where at present we have to leave it, with just a maybe.

His home in 1905

That does still leave me with Joseph Johnson, who was on the platform in St Peter’s Field, during the Peterloo Massacre and was arrested for “assembling with unlawful banners at an unlawful meeting for the purpose of inciting discontent,”  found guilty, and on his release in 1821 settled in Northenden.

He was born in Manchester which some sources narrow down to Didsbury in 1791 and became a successful brush maker.

A strong supporter of universal suffrage and annual parliaments, Johnson joined the Manchester Hampden Club formed by John Knight. In 1818 Johnson helped John Knight, James Wroe and John Saxton to start the radical newspaper, the Manchester Observer. Within twelve months the Manchester Observer was selling 4,000 copies a week. Although it started as a local paper, by 1819 it was sold in most of the large towns and cities in Britain. Henry Hunt called the Manchester Observer "the only newspaper in England that I know, fairly and honestly devoted to such reform as would give the people their whole rights."

In March 1819 Joseph Johnson, John Knight and James Wroe formed the Patriotic Union Society. Johnson was appointed secretary of the organisation and Wroe became treasurer. The main objective of the Patriotic Union Society was to obtain parliamentary reform and during the summer of 1819 it was to hold a meeting here in Manchester at St Peter’s Field.  The rest as we know was a tragic outcome, and one which in its way was no less awful for Johnson.  For after being imprisoned his wife fell ill and died and he was refused permission to attend the funeral. ***

On his release he settled in
Northenden and we can track him in the village from 1841 through till his death in 1872.  During that time he gave his occupation variously as brush maker and later land proprietor and it will be as such that he planted potatoes which became known as “radicals” 

A fact that might have been lost to us had not another radical who described his visit to Chorlton in the June of 1847.  This was Alexander Somerville who having crossed over the Mersey recorded that

‘My companion said-“It was in this way; it was a sort of potato introduced here by Mr Johnson of Northern; and as he was a radical, they called the ‘tatoes radicals too.  Don’t you remember the song that used to be sung?  ‘God Bless Hunt and Johnson, and all who take their part;’ that was the Mr. Johnson, now of Northern, a very good gentleman he is who brought this very good kind of potato here which they call radical.”’

Which should really be the end of the story but I shall close with his will.  On his death he left £2000 and was described as “gentleman.”  I wonder if he would have approved of the description.

Pictures: Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council Peterloo, 1819, m77801, Ravenswood home of Joseph Johnson, 1905, m36100, Veterans of Peterloo 1884, m07594

*On an August day in 1819, anything between 60,000 and 80,000 men, women and children had assembled in St Peter’s Field to listen to the case for reforming the representation of Parliament.  Just before 2 in the afternoon a unit of Cavalry charged into the crowd with their sabres.  The deaths resulting from that charge have never been exactly established but sources claimed between 11 and 15 people were killed and up to 700 injured.  At Sharpeville in March 1960, after a day of demonstrations, the South African police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 69 people. At Kent State University in Ohio, four students were shot and nine wounded by the National Guard during a peaceful protest at US involvement in the Vietnam War.

**Bush, Michael, The Casualties of Peterloo, 2005

*** http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRjohnson.htm

Of floods and tourist attractions on the edge of Chorlton

Today I am on the Mersey at the edge of the township.  It is 1910 and judging by the trees we are somewhere in the summer or early autumn.

To the left is the barn of Red Bank Farm and in the distance the tower of Christ Church. It is a photograph I have used before because it perfectly captures the peaceful and benign side of the river l and yet those raised banks are the give way to what the Mersey can become.

Almost without warning it can be transformed into a heavy fast flowing roll of water that can almost over top the high banks along most of its course through Chorlton.  It has always been so and in the past it has broken over those high banks and left a wide lake.

Just what that could all mean for our farmers is there to read in the visit made to Chorlton in the June of 1847 by Alexander Somerville.

He was looking for evidence of potato blight which had destroyed the crops in Ireland and  was in Derbyshire.

And having taken in the township crossed the Mersey at Jackson’s Boat and headed on to Northenden which led him in turn to the Boat House and here

“in the absence of the potato marks, I examined the records upon a wooden post in the Kitchen of the Boat House of the highest Mersey floods since 1709.  In that year the water was a about a yard deep in the kitchen.  It was four feet six inches deep on the 21st of December 1837; it was three feet and some inches on the 31st of August, 1833.  1845 and 1828 were both years of record in the Boat House kitchen.”  

It remains a remarkable account not least because the voices of those he spoke to have been recorded in his newspaper account.

Now I have always made much of the attractions of Chorlton to the Sunday trade out from Manchester for a day in the countryside, and here Somerville did the same for Northenden and Didsbury,

“there were many sweet attractions in the meadows and the shady paths, and on the flowering sward, and by the Mersey’s waterfall, for those to hear that Manchester has many people who seek for and enjoy such delightful places of recreation.  

And I must confess that like many strangers visiting Manchester on business, or passing through it, I have been ignorant that, while it is the centre place of matchless enterprise and industry, it is surrounded with scenery of great beauty- not surpassed even by the beautiful fields, meadows, gardens, and the public pathways through them, lying around London.”

So just perhaps when he passed the banks of the river captured by our photograph he might have reflected on the two sides of our river.

Location; the Mersey

Picture; the Mersey,circa 1900 from the Lloyd Collection

Lost pubs and ghost sites ………..

Now the Tatton Arms will be known to many Northdenden residents.

According to various sources it was once known as the Boat House Inn, was built in 1873, opened the following year, and finally shut up shop in 2007.*

Since then, it has remained closed,  a prey to vandals and the attention of developers who submitted plans for the place in 2017 and again last year.

As part of his pre lockdown walks, Andy Robertson took a stroll into Northenden and recorded  the present state of the pub, along with the church and the other public houses.

And as you do I went looking for further information and came across the ghost site, from What?ub which offered up a short history, a telephone number, the facilities available and the opening times, all of which was a bit odd given that there was also a warning comments that “This pub is currently closed…… awaiting re-development”.**

But perhaps I am being a tad unfair.

Strictly speaking the entry is less a ghost site and more a mix of current and historic information allowing the reader to get a flavour of one of our lost pubs.

Location; Northenden

Pictures; The Tatton Arms, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Tatton Arms/ Boat House Inn. Boat Lane, https://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.com/2014/02/tatton-arms-boat-house-inn-boat-lane.html

**Tatton Arms, What?ub, https://whatpub.com/pubs/MAS/4462/tatton-arms-northenden

In Northenden with the Ladies Dart team and Ken's sister Dorothy

One of the very nice things about writing the blog is the opportunity you get to meet people and share their family histories.

Even more so when they are kind enough to let me share their family photographs and tell the stories behind the pictures.

I have been featuring some of Ken’s photographs and they are not only a wonderful personal record but also capture perfectly the 1950s and 60s when I like Ken was growing up.

The first is the “ladies dart team, possibly the Crown inn Northenden. 

The photo has the Stockport Express on the back so they might hav won the league! 
Second from the left is Monica Jarvis, then my sister Dot Smith, and the last on the right is Jackie Rees, I think the picture would have been taken around 1967.”

It just takes me directly back to that period.  I remember my mum with a twin set like that and can think of at least two girlfriends who had the same hair style as the young woman in the front row, fifth from the left.

Not to be out done Ken’s second picture of his sister Dorothy and Pamela McGill at the petrol station on Palatine Road in Northenden also conjures up vivid memories.

Pictures; from the collection of Ken Fish

A Didsbury Pub and the long-lost Parkway

Now, the thing about stories is you are never quite sure where they are going to go.

The Mersey Hotel, date unknown

So, when I posted a story about the Mersey Hotel which opened in 1936 and variously became known as the Snooty Fox and the Mersey Lights, I wasn’t prepared for a series of old pictures of the pub plus some fascinating memories to land on the doormat.

But they did.  George Cieslik‎ sent over some fine photographs, while Catherine shared her memory of the pub at its best, when it offered live entertainment, which had included, Little and Large, Les Dawson, and Freddie and the Dreamers and Jimmy Ruffin.

It was Jimmy Ruffin who attracted Catherine who wrote, “Thank you Andrew for bring a memory smile to my face this morning. 

I may have shared my memory before but here it is again. At 16, too young to go in the pub, myself and my friend Christine stood at the French doors at the back trying to get a glimpse of Jimmy Ruffin. We did manage to sneak in eventually!”

Princess Road, 1965

And there will be many others who also have fond memories of nights spent in the pub on the Parkway.

Which is almost a contrived link to Princess Parkway which was the grand highway out of the city to the newly built estate of Wythenshawe.

Given that the new estate would be a garden city for Manchester’s inner city residents, it followed that the road south to Wythenshawe should be have all the characteristics of a park, with a central island reserved for trees and plants and that either side of the road there would be a large expanse of grassed land.

Northenden, 1965

It ran from Wythenshawe Road, past Wythenshawe Park and on over the Mersey to the Junction with Barlow Moor Road, where it joined Princess Road and on into the city.

It was still there in all its glory when I began working in Wythenshawe and it was George’s picture of the Mersey Hotel in front of the Parkway which got me reflecting on what it had been like.

That said work had already begun to transform the Parkway into a motorway in fulfillment of the 1945 Manchester Plan, and by 1974, 50,000 trees and shrubs were torn up, along with foot bridges with more work done later in the century. **

Didsbury, 1965

Today, the traffic thunders past the site of the old Mersey Hotel, and I suspect fewer and fewer people will remember that more elegant road.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; The Mersey Hotel, date unknown, from the collection of George Cieslik, and Princess Parkway, Northenden, 1965, m38617, Princess Parkway, Northenden, 1965, m38612, Princess Parkway Didsbury, 1965, 38621, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*A New Manchester Parkway, Manchester Guardian, January 19th, 1932

**The 1945 Manchester Plan, was a bold plan to regenerate the city

***Princes Parkway, Wythenshawe’s History and Heritage, http://www.wythenshawe.btck.co.uk/DownMemoryLane/PrincessParkway

Telephone Exchanges…….. doing the essential walk and making it historic .... no. 26

I have to say, I thought telephone exchanges were as dead  as the telegram, and VHS recorders.

But not so, as Barbarella’s picture of this one in Northenden testifies.

In my defence, I have always taken them for granted, and just assumed the onward march of how we communicate with each other had rendered them obsolete.

At which point I pause for all the technical experts to explain a]why I got it wrong and b] why telephone exchanges are still needed


Location; Northenden

Picture; in Northenden, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento

The mysterious birth place of Mr James Heard

I went looking for Spey Lodge in Withington today. 

I know that it was on Palatine Road and had been there according to the census return from at least 1871 when it was still called Northenden Road.

It was somewhere down from the White Lion but so far I have yet to find it.

What drew me to the house was a far more intriguing mystery and that was why Mr James Heard who lived at Spey Lodge should describe his place of birth as Scotland on a number of official documents and yet his grave stone says New Brunswick.

Of course there may be a New Brunswick in Scotland but I have yet to find it so a Canadian link seems likely especially as his wife was born in the United States of America.

Added to this in 1871 he gave his occupation as an "American Merchant" and a decade earlier as a "Commission agent dealing mainly with the USA."

Now I also know that in 1845 Mr and Mrs Heard were in the USA because their eldest son was born there but three years later they were in Manchester.

So that North American connection seems strong and as yet I have not found any reference to his birth in Scotland, which just leaves me to go looking in Canada.

It has been a fascinating little piece of research commissioned by my friend Ken who came across the headstone in Saint Wilfred’s and wondered on the story of the man born in New Brunswick who was buried here in south Manchester.

Now I can add that when he died in 1894 he was described a “gentleman” and left £10,832.

So all that is now left is to go looking in Canada and wait also for someone to come up with some information on Spey Lodge.

But there is a Fochabers in Moray in Scotland, ten miles east of Elgin, which fits with the gravestone and moreover as someone has pointed out does have the River Spey flowing through it,but it still doesn't explain the NB.

All of which is made more messy by the discovery that William Davidson who settled  in New Brunswick "was originally called John Godsman and was born at Cowfords near Fochabers in Moray. 

As a young man he worked in the salmon fisheries in the River Spey. Some time before 1865 he seems to have changed his name to William Davidson, which was the name of his maternal grandfather, and in that year he left Scotland for Canada. 

There he and a partner obtained a land grant of 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares) forming a strip along either side of the Miramichi River, with fishing and lumber rights. In return he was obliged to clear and improve the land and bring in large numbers of settlers."*


Picture; the gravestone of M Mr and Mrs Heard, St Wilfred's graveyard, 2014, courtesy of Ken Fish

*William Davidson, Undiscovered Scotland, http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/d/williamdavidson.html

The cinema that had the lot ....... outside the ABC in Northenden

Now depending on your age you may remember the old Forum Cinema in Northenden as somewhere to watch the annual pantomime, drink tea in its cafe or take a waltz around its ballroom and of course enjoy a film.

For the Forum Cinema on the corner of Palatine Road and Longley Lane was all of these things and more.

It opened in 1934 and was run by the independent Forum Company before being taken over by the ABC chain in 1936 who continued to run it until it closed in 1974, after which it was for a while the Forum Theatre and is now an Assembly Hall for the Jehovah’s Witness.

Along the way it boasted a Wurlitzer theatre organ which had originally been installed in the Cameo Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio and had a fully equipped stage, stage house and dressing rooms.*

In its time it was known as the Forum Cinema, the ABC and the ABC Wythenshawe and unlike so many this 1,904 seat picture house opened and closed with just the one screen.

I have to say that I never went despite the fact that I regularly passed it on my way to work. That said I was always impressed by its sheer grandeur all of which is reflected in Peter’s painting.

I doubt I will ever cross the entrance hall but I am pleased that it has been saved and continues to have a presence in Northenden.

Painting; the Old Forum Cinema, Palatine Road, Northenden © Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk 
Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

* ABC Wythenshawe, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/22563

Murder and Bodysnatching in Northenden in 1902 ..... another story from Sally Dervan

Now I always look forward to stories from my friend Sally.

At 8am on the morning of 21st February 1902, shots rang out at Bradley Gate, Royle Green Road, Northenden.

The occupant of Bradley Gate , Mr John Dyson, a 33 year old solicitor had been shot dead in his bed by his former butler, Augustus Frederick Cotterill .

Cotterill ran down the stairs and out through the garden at Bradley Gate brandishing two pistols.

Two of Mr Dysons male servants followed him as he made his way down Longley Lane towards Northenden station.

The police also gave chase and shot at Cotterill, wounding him in the stomach and leg.
Cotterill slumped against an oak tree on Longley Lane and then shot himself in the head.

He was found to be carrying two pistols and 68 cartridges.

Cotterill had been dismissed by Mr Dyson 18 months previously.

The 1901 census shows Cotterill down on his luck and living in the Stockport Union Workhouse, he apparently had made a very meagre living since being dismissed by working as a part time waiter.

The newspaper reports of the crime say he was aged 70.

The workhouse records show his age as 78.

Cotterill had been dismissed by Mr Dyson because his "vindictive temper had been a by-word in the district." 

Cotterill had gained the nickname of "old Kruger"  because of his pro- Boer sympathies and just before his dismissal he had been reprimanded for ruining Mafeking Day Celebrations by hoisting his wife's black shawl from a window at Bradley Gate!

After the police shoot out and Cotterill's death his body was taken to a stable near Ford Lane.

So strong was local feeling against him that his body was dragged from the stable by a group of inebriated locals with the intention of throwing it in the River Mersey.

The task proved too much for them, so they left his body sat up on the village green where it scared a courting couple half to death before being hurriedly buried by the post box in the wall at St Wilfred’s church by local police officers.

Pictures; a newspaper report from the Manchester Chronicle, 1902, the house just before it's demolition in 1959, St Wilfred's Church, 2014