Buxton ………….. The Holiday Resort of Beauty

Now I have Steve Marland to thank for this poster.

I grew up with these posters which would be on display at railway stations, and added interest and colour to some of the grimy and slightly run down places I knew as child, growing up in the 1950s.

This poster was produced by John Canning who was who a fine commercial artist.

And rather than steal someone else’s research I will just direct you to the link Steve found for me.

Of course I could say something about Buxton, but I think the poster says it all.

Location; Buxton

Picture, “What a lovely place…..!”, circa 1950s, courtesy of Steve Marland

**John Canning, https://www.gwra.co.uk/auctions/poster-br-m-buxton-holiday-resort-beauty-by-john-c-2019mar-0508.html

The Three Austins ….. a herd of elephants …. and a big tent in Peel Park ….. the circus comes to Salford

Now I have to thank Tony Flynn for the memory of the day Mr. Chesterfield and his circus hit town.

Not that I have ever visited one which at 74 must be some sort of record.

Mother disliked the idea of paying to see performing animals which she thought was a cruel form of exploitation and refused even to watch those broadcasts on TV which popped up in the 1950s and 60s.

And that dislike passed to me. 

That said I do like posters and Tony’s example is a fine one, more so because it dates from the year before I was born.

So there is it.

I could go into the history of the travelling circus and even mention the one that regularly came to Chorlton in the interwar years and just after.*

But I won’t …….other than to say I did go looking to find a reference in the newspapers of the week in 1948 when Fiery Jack, Marjorie and her famous Liberty Horses and John’s Dogs, danced, skipped and growled under a Salford moon, but drew a blank.

Instead I found this 1905 picture postcard from Tuck and Sons, the international picture postcard, company but turn away and avert your gaze all those who might get angry at Tuck's mistake.

So, because it is so good I will repost Tony's poster

Location; Salford in 1948

Picture; Chesterfield’s Circus comes to Salford, 1948, courtesy of Tony Flynn and Peel Park, Salford R Tuck and Sons, from the series, Manchester courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/postcards/122638

*Chorlton and a circus, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20and%20a%20circus

Jewish Women in Britain ……. the poster

Now I had quite forgotten the exhibition ……… Jewish Women in Britain, which ran from May 1992 through till the January of the following year.

But then it was a full 33 years ago and so I think I can be excused.

The poster hung for years in the kitchen until steam and age made me take it down with the intention of having it professionally mounted.

But as often happens the plan never happened, and it shuffled around the cellar until I came across it recently.

So for no other reason than I like it, here it is, scanned in two sections, waiting to be skilfully re-joined.

Location; The Manchester Jewish Museum















Picture; Jewish Women in Britain ……. the poster, 1992

Post early for Christmas ...... to a place in the 1950s

Now I think the Post Office must do things differently from when I was growing up in the 1950s.

Back then delightful and innovative posters appeared every year in the run up to Christmas.

And this is one I like.  

It comes from the collection of David Harrop who collects all things posty and thinks it dates from the 1950s.

A trawl of GPO sites didn’t advance my research and so the 1950s it is.

Today a quick flick through the internet will offer up the details of the last dates to send letters, cards and parcels to every part of the globe.

But back in the 1950s we did indeed do things differently, and posters like this were on display in Post Offices and probably other public places.

And I seem to recall as the 1950s slid into the next decade that information began appearing on the telly, with a mix of serious public announcements with rather silly ones delivered in the form of a cartoon.

And that is all I am going to say.

Location; the 1950s

Picture; Post Early, circa 1950s, from the collection of David Harrop

Posters from the collection

Nothing more than a poster

Pictures; posters from a collection, 1970-1993

One poster .... in a different time

 It was over 50 years ago that we acquired this poster from the off-licence on Well Hall Road.

At the end of the summer when we left home for Manchester it came with us, was blocked mounted and has followed me from homes across Manchester and beyond.

And since l washed up in Chorlton in 1976 it has graced the walls of five different rooms. 

Looking at it now it can be criticised for some of its underlying assumptions, but it remains special.

Location; Well Hall in Eltham, Manchester, Ashton and Chorlton

Picture; Whitbread Tankard poster, circa 1972

Visions of a better world .......... nu 3 the political poster

Labour 1945

Now I have been thinking of election posters.

And it is easy to stick with those issued by the Party of preference.

But that would be to ignore a great chunk of history.

In 1945 the war in Europe had ended in May and the wartime Government announced a General Election for July 5th.

It was the first in ten years and given the popularity of Winston Churchill many assumed the Conservative Party he led would be victorious.

Conservative 1929

But while the war time leader was popular there was a mood for change and one that the Conservatives were not seen to be able to deliver. For many they were associated with the grim years of the 1930s dominated by mass unemployment, the Means Test and appeasement.

Some with longer memories reflected on the failure of the 1918 Conservative dominated government of Lloyd George and succeeding Tory governments to make Britain a land fit for heroes after the Great War.

This was in direct contrast to the policies of the Labour Party who were committed to social reform, ranging from a national health service, a new housing policy and an expansion of state funding for education.

Their slogan And Now Win the Peace offered a bright new future which reflected the aspirations of those who had fought in the Peoples’ War.

Liberal Party early 20th century

And for those who want to follow up on the remaining two posters with their visions of a better Britain the stories can also be read on the blog.*

Picture; Labour Party Campaign poster 1945, Labour Party, and reaming posters from Politics: Exploring the Political Poster in Britain which was on display at the People's History Museum, Manchester, in 2012, http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/picturing-politics-exploring-the-political-poster-in-britain/

* Posters of the 20th century, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Posters%20from%20the%2020th%20century

Posters from last century

 We are in  Tel Aviv with a poster from Yizhar Olive Oil company in 1939.

Picture;  the National Library of Israel / Shenkar Institute for Research and Documentation of Design in Israel Archive

Stories from an election, Chorlton May 1980

It was the first year into a Conservative Government and the 1980 election campaign in Chorlton was fought out on both local issues and national ones.

The Conservative called on the electorate to “Stop The Labour Rot in Chorlton” the Liberals pointed to their growing “revival in the city of Manchester” and Labour reflected on the cost to the electorate after a year of Conservative Government.

So here are extracts from leaflets that the three parties pushed through doors in the May of 1980.

The Conservative candidate was Maureen Vince, the Labour candidate was Harold Brown, and the Liberal candidate was John Commons.

Some wondered about a slogan that called for the electorate to "Stop the Labour Rot in Chorlton," when all three elected councillors were Conservative, but the upshot was a Tory victory, although their vote was well down on previous years.

And in 1986 Labour gained its first council seat here in Chorlton with the election of David Black.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Twenty years of political history ……..

It is 43 years ago that Glyn and Hazel brought back this poster from Paris.

It celebrated two decades of political activity by the Unified Socialist Party.

Now the history of the PSU is easily accessible and so instead I will just leave you with the campaigns and events commemorated on the poster, and the rest as they say is mine and many other’s political past.

Added to which some are very relevant today.

It came back as a rolled up poster, was block mounted a few months later and during the last 43 years has moved around the house, from the dining room, to the kitchen and now upstairs in the study.

And it has appeared on the blog before, bu that hasn't stopped me bringing it on again.

Location; our house

Picture; 1960/1980 NOTRE ESPOIR A20 ANS, 1980, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Just in case you don’t know where you are ……..

Now, the railings that front the Rec have become a bit of a free advertising site.

On any one day there can be posters advertising missing pets, the regular visits of the travelling fair, and the annual event that is the Chorlton Arts Festival.

And yesterday it was the turn of Beech Road itself to get pride of place on the corner with Cross Road.

I suppose it was designed to make sure that the Friends of Beech Road travelling here from all corners of south Manchester and beyond knew they had arrived.

To which the poster confirms that here on the world famous throughfare our visitors can “Shop, eat and explore”.

All of which is reassuring.

Of course, there was a time during and directly after the last world war when the Rec was bereft of its railings.  

Taken up I suspect to aid the war effort and not replaced until long after VE Day.

Just when they were put back I suspect is lost, but someone might remember, and indeed there may be someone who was there when the workman came and took them down.

And soon after the story was posted one person contacted me to say they were still missing when she moved to Chorlton in 1954.

I shall go looking for a reference to the events but for now every morning I will gaze out at the poster just to confirm where I live.

And then on my way down the road I will pass the other two Beech Road posters just in case I thought ours was the only one.

So good they named it twice more.

And judging by a little before 3 pm today so did heaps of people witnessed by the long line of cars whose drivers can't quite get the idea that you park on the road not the pavement.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; Poster corner, 2023, and a heap of badly parked cars, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Beech Road, circa 1940s-1954?  from the Lloyd Collection

Posters from the Past ...... no 21 ....... Deansgate Castlefield ….. Gateway to Manchester

 Now the project is simple, take an image of a building we all love and turn it into the style of poster which was popular in the middle decades of the last century.*

And because so many of us use the tram and will pass through Deansgate Castlefield it seemed a logical choice to use the Metro stop for a poster.

Of course, there will be those from the Friends of the Metro Link who will point out that strictly speaking Cornbrook should be given the title of Gateway to Manchester, Salford and beyond.

It is after all one of the main switching points and I believe is also the hub of the electronic stuff which makes the network function happily.

But I like Deansgate Castlefield better.

Location; Deansgate Castlefield

Painting; Deansgate Castlefield, © 2023 Peter Topping,  Paintings from Pictures, from a photograph by Andrew Simpson, 2023

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk 

*Posters from the Past, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Posters%20from%20the%20Past

Now I collect or rather I did collect political posters.

But mine came from the moment they were produced and would have spent time in the front window, calling for action or support on a heap of now half-forgotten campaigns, most of which were lost.

So, they are as they say the history “I lived through” and as a result are faded, dog eared and creased.

I am occasionally temped to dip my toe in the water and look on the internet or in those posh places which masquerade as antique emporiums but are really just secondhand shops.  But most of the posters are into good a condition and anyway cost an arm and a leg.

All of which is an introduction to these two posters. 

The first comes from the second General Election of 1974 when after a Tory Government had presided over a three-day week, when power cuts and closed factories prompted the Labour Party to run with “Remember the last time the Tories said they had all the answers”.

The second dates I think from the early 1980s, when the recession was in full swing, and unemployment has passed the three million mark.

Both made their way from a window to a wall and finally a series of resting places before coming out into the sunlight again

Location; the 1970s and 80s

Pictures; “Remember the last time the Tories said they had all the answers”, 1974,  and 100 Companies circa early 1980s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Five Boys ……. the White Rose of York ……. and a tale from a railway station

I think you will have to have eaten a truck load of Five Boys chocolate bars to remember this poster.

Once a long time ago the five boys were everywhere, often to be seen on enameled metal boards at railway stations.

And it will be on a railway station, that I first had a bar of Fry’s Five Boys.  I can’t remember which railway station or exactly when, but it will have been in the late 1950s and was bought from one of those old fashioned sturdy metal vending machines.

The sort that could double as the design for a battle tank, and despite being in situ for perhaps half a century showed little evidence of wear other than a slight rusting at the edges.

Sadly, the chocolate had not fared so well.  When unwrapped the edges had that whitish appearance and the taste had lost its intensity, all of which suggested its time in the vending machine stretched across the seasons, and it may well have endured more than one winter and a spring, summer, and autumn before I slipped the sixpence in the slot.

Although I doubt that the bar was a contemporary of the picture postcard which was issued by Tuck and Son in the series of “Celebrated Posters” which went on sale in 1904.

Interestingly the majority of the cards were all to do with food, and so to close I have opted for two more chocolate posters, which were from Rowntrees, and another from Fry's

Location; 1904

Pictures; “Celebrated Posters”, 1904, marketed by Tuck and Sons, and reproduced courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdbpostcards.org/

Favourite Election Posters ........ 1931

An occasional series about my favourite election posters drawn from all the political parties over the last two and bit centuries.

Picture; Sacrifice, The Labour Party, 1931

Equality of Sacrifice .............

This remains a favourite poster of mine, which is as relevant today as it was in 1931.

The 1931 General Election was fought against the backdrop of a huge economic crisis. Two years earlier the Wall Street Crash in the U.S. had shattered economic confidence leading to a depression. Factories closed and by the end of 1930 the unemployment rate in Britain had doubled to two and a half million.

The Labour Government struggled to cope with attempting to maintain a balanced budget while providing assistance to the poor and unemployed.

In an effort to reconcile the contradiction they appointed a committee to review public spending which recommended public sector wage cuts and large reductions in public spending, including payments to the unemployed.

The majority of the Labour Party disagreed and in the subsequent deadlock there was a flight of finance out of the country.  Ramsay MacDonald the Labour Prime Minister offered to form a National Government with the Conservatives and Liberals.

Just a few Labour MPs joined him and a little later he called a General Election fought on the issue of the need to introduce public spending cuts in the interests of the country.

Picture; Sacrifice, 1931