Outside Beech Road Police Station ........ revealing a little of the life of PC Frederick George Ross

This is Police Constable Frederick George Ross standing with his colleagues outside the police station on Beech Road.

Now I can’t be exactly sure when the picture was taken but one source has suggested 1925.*

And that would have made PC Ross forty-seven years old.

He had joined the city force in 1904 and by  1910 was living on Priory Avenue before moving to Whalley Avenue.

Of the named officers he is the one we know most about and that is as much a bit of luck as it is research.

After all if he had not been recognised and his name added to the picture we would not have been able to discover his story.

But with a name a search of the police employment records and the census returns not only located him but provided me with the name of his wife and daughter and his own place of birth.

PC Ross had married Rebecca Jane Lawson in 1909 in Bolton and their daughter Nora was born the following year.

Like all such stories the detail is even more fascinating for while Nora had been born in Bolton she was registered at the Chorlton office and baptised at St Clements in the May of 1910 which is how we know the family were living at Priory Avenue.

Almost a year later they were on Whalley Avenue and a search of the directories will reveal when they moved from that address.

But that is not quite the end of the story because in the course of doing the research I came across a relative who had posted a series of pictures, one of Frederick and Rebecca and two showing PC Ross during police inspections one of which is dated to 1921.

And according to this source Mrs Ross was in Ireland by 1925 where she died in 1949 followed by her husband fifteen years later.

In time there will be more but for now that is all but it is a lesson in how it is possible to discover a family story.

Nor is that all, because looking at the police records what is interesting is the number of officers who were born in Ireland and Scotland, a trend which goes back beyond 1904 when Chorlton voted to join the city.

Before that date we had been policed by the Lancashire Constabulary who were responsible for building the station in 1885.

Just six years later the officer in charge was a Sergeant Milne from Ireland assisted by two PCs from Scotland and a decade on with  Sergeant Milne there were officers from Ireland and Gloucestershire as well as Lancashire.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; PC Ross, 1875-1963 from Police officers outside Beech Road Police Station circa 1925 from the Lloyd Collection

A final goodbye to the City’s Police Headquarters ………

 Another bit of the city’s history finally vanished last week.

The courtyard, circa 2018

There will be many who remember the old headquarters of the City of Manchester Police on the corner of Bootle Street and South Mill Street.

And for many it was just a place you took for granted.

Looking back at the collection I only took one picture of the building and that dates from after it had finally closed when weeds were sprouting up in the man courtyard.

That said I could only find three images of the place in Manchester’s Local Collection, but happily the Manchester Guardian was on hand to report in detail what it called the “Northern Scotland Yard”. *

It opened on July 17th, 1937, cost £100,000 and was according to the Manchester Guardian “an example of how the needs of one municipal department has been met by another municipal department.  The city architect, Mr. G. Noel Hill and his staff designed the whole of the building, fittings, furniture, and decorative schemes.” **

The Police Station, 1972

The building was equipped with a back up electrical supply, a crime information room with radio equipment, “an extensive department for fingerprint records and the examination of fingerprints.  

A chemical laboratory, with a balance room and store, and an optical laboratory, with two dark rooms equipped for criminal investigation.  

The optical laboratory is a general optical workshop and maybe used as a photographic studio”.

And because it was the both the City Police Headquarters and home to A Division of the Force, there were two kitchens and dining rooms “equipped with up-to-date gas cooking apparatus”. 

The large rectangular courtyard measured 150 feet by 50 feet, occupied the centre portion and was partly roofed over making it “convenient for dealing with motor vehicles”.

But by the beginning of this century, it was no longer fit for purpose and was slowly run down, leaving the site an attractive potential for developers.

Gone, 2022

And recently the demolition of the building began with Andy Robertson on hand to record it.***

Now Andy will keep going back till not one brick is left standing, and so this is Sunday he was there to see all had been knocked down.

Leaving him to return at a later date to see the site cleared and the process of building a new start in earnest.

Location Bootle Street, Southmill Street and Jackson’s Row

Pictures; looking into the courtyard, circa 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Police Stations, Police Headquarters, South Street, Bootle Street, Manchester, h. Milligan, 1972, m55810, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and all that is left, 2022, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Northern Scotland Yard, Opening of the Manchester’s New Police Headquarters, Manchester Guardian, July 17th, 1937

**City Police Headquarters, Jackson’s Row, Manchester, Manchester Guardian, July 16th, 1937

***That iconic Police Station in the heart of the city, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/04/that-iconic-police-station-in-heart-of.html

Manchester in the sunlight ………....

Castlefield and in particular the roads surrounding Liverpool Road continue to change.

This was the site of the old police station and the façade still exists.

Location; Bridgewater Street, Castlefield

Picture; Manchester in the sunlight , 2022, and the former Police Station, 2001 &2010, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

So when did our Police Station close and does that help date my picture of a Corporation bus?

The Police Station 1959

Now there are no prizes for knowing where this is although in the way of these things it may not be with us for much longer.

It’s the police station on Barlow Moor Road and since it closed it has been up for auction,* had a for sale sign and given the demand for prime sites  will be
snapped up.

And of course that got me thinking about how we had a police station at the top of Beech Road and another further down.

It’s one of those little bits of detective work that you visit and revisit but never quite find the answer, but I have been spurred on my ex neighbour John who was curious to know when the old one at 99 Beech Road closed.

The former Police Station, 1958

I remember it as council offices back in the 1970's and early 80’s long before it became the Lead Station.

It was opened in 1885 by the Lancashire Constabulary, and was part of D Division of the City of Manchester Police in 1938 and during the last war it was also used by the ARP.

But by November 1958 when Mr Stanley took its picture the building seems to have become entirely residential which would fit with the story of the now closed station up by the bus terminus .

It may even be that it had opened before that date and so I am off looking for the date of the closure of one and the opening of the other.

And for those interested in these things that will involve trawling the street directories asking people and visiting the archives.

At the bust terminus, circa 1961?

In the meantime it may have also set me the task of correcting an earlier story which proved popular.**

A couple of days ago I posted a fine picture of the bus terminus in the summer of 1961.

Now I can’t remember why I thought it was 1961 but comparing it with our police station I am beginning to wonder if I got it right.

Those buses obscure the corner of Beech Road which makes it difficult to be sure and at the time I wondered if the police station was there.

And a few people confirmed it was.

"Lock & chain," 1959

All of which just leaves me to look more closely at the poster beside the police station advertising the Manchester City Police as a worthwhile career, along with a boxing event and that warning to cyclists to “Lock and chain.”

So somethings don’t change then.

Pictures, Chorlton Police Station, 1959, m17522, 99 Beech Road, 1958, m17665, R E Stanley, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
 and the bus station circa 1961 from the collection of Sally Dervan

*Lot 039 Former Chorlton Police Station, rightmove, http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-32001118.html

**Catching the 81X from Barlow Moor Road in the summer of 1961, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/catching-81x-from-barlow-moor-road-in.html

An ex-Police Station and a gunsmiths ……….. Cheadle Hulme

Now,  Andy didn’t elaborate on the connection, and so I will leave that to the imagination and perhaps the curiosity of a reader to dive into the story of both.

Andy tells me that “Cheadle Hulme Police Station was built in 1911/12, with quarters for a married sergeant and three cells”.

It is the first Cheshire police station I have come across, and it differs to those erected by Lancashire which relied heavily on stone to face the front of the building or the more utilitarian ones built by Manchester City Council in the late 19th and early 20th century.

But I am confident that Andy will offer up more examples in the near future.

For now, I shall just say that it stands on Station Road, just round the corner from the gunsmiths which was established in 1968 and has its own facebook page.

Opposite the shop is the war memorial, and by one of those odd twists of coincidence, back in 1972 I commuted in to Cheadle Hulme every week day for three months doing a teaching practice at the Direct Grant Grammar School, which to this day seems a bizarre experience given that I attended a secondary modern school.

Not that my route took me past the police station or the gunsmiths, and after a fruitless twenty minutes with google maps I gave up my search for the route I took from the railway station.

But like all things it will come back.

Location; Cheadle Hulme

Pictures; Cheadle Hulme, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Lost in Gorton …….. part 4, the police station

I collect police stations.*

And so, I was pleased when Andy Robertson sent over this one of the old Lancashire Constabulary police station on Hyde Road in Gorton.

I have added quite a few to the collection, including the one on Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and others in Patricroft, Failsworth and Levenshulme.

They all conform to a standard design with variations, and all have that distinctive stone cladding with the date when they were opened.

By contrast those put up in Manchester were more pedestrian, with brick walls and less adornments.

I don’t know exactly when it closed, but I am guessing it will be part of the rationalizing of Manchester force in the1950s and the 1960s.  By 1969 it was occupied by  Beswick Manufacturing Ltd, Children's wear mfrs, and between  2008 and 2012 by Granite Kitchens, and was then converted into residential use.

Location; Gorton

Picture;  Police Station Hyde Road, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Police Stations, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Police%20Stations

Police Stations I have known ............ and plenty more that I didn’t ............. nu 1 Patricroft Police Station

Now I think it is time for a new series on police stations.*

Patricroft, 2016

As soon as I saw this one taken by Andy Robertson yesterday I began thinking that here were a shedload of stories, and then I read the email that accompanied the pictures and Andy had come to the same conclusion.

I suspect there is a book on the subject and in particular the way that the design of police stations reflects the times.

So go back into the 19th century and those built in certain parts of our inner cities were constructed like forts.

The entrance was small, the doors heavy and very solid and the ground floor windows were small and barred. All the better in the event of a riot or attack.

By the middle of the 20th century with a more relaxed approach to policing and a greater degree of social cohesion police stations become light airy and full of windows.

And that brings me to the Patricroft police station.  It was built for the Lancashire Constabulary in the 1880s and was part of a group which were rolled around the edge of Manchester and Salford at about the same time.

Bridgewater Street, 2002

Here in Chorlton and across the city in Levenshulme there are almost identical ones, all built with that stone facing and carrying the emblem of the Lancashire Constabulary.

Now in Manchester at almost the same time we have the ones built for the City police.

Some like the very impressive one  in Ancoats did indeed resemble a fort; others like the ones on Newton Street and Bridgewater Street were smaller but also combined an ambulance yard.

So there we have it another interesting picture from Andy on his travels around Salford and another series has started.

Location, Salford & Manchester

Pictures; Patricroft Police Station, 2016 courtesy of Andy Robertson and Bridgewater Street  Police Station, 2002, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Police Stations, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Police%20Stations

When the picture becomes the story ....... the Police Station on Didsbury Road

Sometimes, it is enough to post the picture.

This is the old police station on Didsbury Road, in Heaton Mersey.

I have no idea when it was built, and no idea when it was decommissioned.

But here it is, courtesy of David Harrop who sent it over this morning and I suspect took the picture before breakfast.

From the series on Police Stations.

Location; Heaton Mersey

Picture; the Police Station on Didsbury Road, 2018, from the collection of David Harrop

Eltham Police Station .............. one of those buildings I have always taken for granted

I don’t suppose I am the only one who takes the more recent buildings of Eltham for granted.

The big brick built police station at the High Street end of Well Hall Road doesn’t have the style or elegance of its Shooters Hill counterpart but I grew up with it and it has just been a part of the landscape as familiar as the old Burtons, the fire station and St John’s Church.

If I am honest I have to say it is an ugly building and while it is a perfectly functional piece of architecture it does nothing for me.

Not that I have ever been inside and until this week I wasn’t even aware that it was just open from 10 am to 6 pm on Tuesdays through to Saturday which is a bit of news that has left me without a story because for years I dined out on telling people how we had had two police stations at either end of our road.

Now the Shooters Hill one which was opened in 1905 has long closed  and the other at nu 2 Well Hall Road seems a pale shadow.

But the place will have a history and so I shall set myself the target of looking for its history.

And like you do I have wondered about when it was built and  turned to the Greenwich Heritage Centre who came up with a date between 1936-39.

"The only clues as to the date of the station I’ve found come from the electoral register and the ordnance survey map. The ordnance survey as revised in 1936 shows the site on which the station would come to be built as empty. 

Fortunately, it appears that when built there were three flats incorporated into the station - for married members of the force or possibly caretakers, I would imagine – which means that the police station, with its residents, was included in the electoral register. 

The first time it appears is in October 1939. So 1936-39 is as close as I can come to a date."

And that is just perfect.

And Garry Luttman has added "As an update Andrew, the front counter is now permanently closed. The building is still operational, but no one knows for how much longer. Most London boroughs now have only one centralised police station".


Location; Well Hall Road, Eltham, London

Picture; Eltham Police Station, Well Hall Road, 2015, from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick

*Greenwich Heritage Centre, http://www.greenwichheritage.org/site/index.php

Walking through Levenshulme’s history part 2 ............. a police station, and some Victorian antique lace

Now somewhere I should be able to find the name of the architect who designed the police station in Levenshulme and with a bit of digging discover the exact date it was built.

I have passed it loads of times but it has taken Andy Robertson’s picture to focus my attention on the place.

It resembles pretty much the one on Beech Road which was built in 1885 and I guess will have been part of Lancashire Constabulary’s push to modernise its police stations.

The answer will lie in the archives of the Greater Manchester Police of the Lancashire County Archives, which will also offer up a date for when it closed.

That said there will be someone out there who knows and I hope supplies the answer.

For now it is just another of those buildings in Levenshulme which have long since become something else.

It’s neighbour the imposing old Town Hall deals in all manner of antiques and the bits and bobs that once were popular, then became unpopular and are again much sought after.

I should know on many a wet Saturday in the winter we have wandered through its many rooms.

For Tina who is Italian much of the stuff is fascinating and attractive, while for me the items bring back a shedful of memories and a realisation that what was once banal or commonplace has achieved collector’s status.

Who knows perhaps buried deep inside the cellars of the old police station will be some treasures as yet undiscovered.

Pictures; Levenshulme Police Station, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the station in 1959, H Milligan, m39759, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Outside the police station on Beech Road circa 1925

Trying to make sense of an old photograph is not always easy.  

But that is all part of the fun.

Now the caption on this photograph of the police station on Beech Road has no date but the historian John Lloyd thought it might be around 1925.

I bet there will be someone out there who could help, and I minded to ask the Greater Manchester Police Museum.*

But in the meantime I am more intrigued by the names which appear on the original picture.

P.C Butler

Only four have been identified by J.McNicholls who owned the photograph and they are; on the extreme left, PCSingleton, followed by PCButler, and in the centre Frederick George Ross and R.Burgesss next to last on the right.

It’s not much to go, and nothing has come up yet on any of the four.

But I am hopeful.  After all there are the police records which might help, and there is always the remote possibility that someone will know of them.

* Greater Manchester Police Museum, 57A Newton Street, http://www.gmpmuseum.com/

Picture; from the Lloyd Collection