Manchester in the September of 1969, memories from the new boy

Manchester sky line the old and new, 1970

Now had I been born just a decade earlier the chances were I would have done my time as a conscript in the army.

As it was at the tender age of 19 in the September of 1969 I arrived in Manchester with a suitcase and an address in Withington and the promise of an academic career at the newly formed Manchester Polytechnic.

There were those at the time and since who have bemoaned the end of National Service, but not I suspect many of the young men who for eighteen months marched and drilled.

Three years after the last world war the Government decided to retain conscription which meant that healthy young men aged between 17 and 21 years old were expected to serve in the Armed Forces for 18 months, and remain on the reserve list for four years.

They could be recalled to their units for up to 20 days for no more than three occasions during these four years. Men were exempt from National Service if they worked in one of the three "essential services": coal mining, farming and the merchant navy for a period of eight years. If they quit early, they were subject to being called up.

The future College of Commerce, 1965

But all that I missed and instead a year later than most of my friends I left home with all that brash confidence of youth to do three years with John Donne, William Shakespeare the odd romantic poet and lots of dead historians.

And fifty-four years later I am still here and hence this occasional series of reflections on the city that adopted me and in particular the places I remembered as a young Londoner in the September of 1969.

Not that this will be one of those sentimental journeys into a comfortable world which was better than now.

Just a few miles from where I read Wordsworth and explored the events of the Industrial Revolution and the complexities  of the French Fifth Republic, the Corporation was sweeping away a century of sub standard housing and coffee meant a lukewarm brown liquid with a hint of beans and a mass of frothy milk.

But there was a buzz about the place.  It was there in those bright new buildings of glass and steel which were going up around the city, the modern station concourses at Oxford Road and Piccadilly and the Mancunian Way.

For me it was the contrasts.  Sitting in the old Milk Maid facing the gardens, there was a panorama of the old Victorian city with its mix of elegant show warehouses, offices and shops while above us was the impressive Piccadilly Hotel.

And yet just a few minutes away were the tiny side roads dominated by shabby industrial buildings where somehow the light and warmth of the sun rarely penetrated.

The City Barge, Rochdale Canal, 1970

Now many of these places I discovered on long walks around the city when we should have been in the library.

I guess Canal Street pretty much sums up those walks.  I was drawn to it because it was close to the college and was bounded by the Rochdale Canal.

Back then both the canal and the street were drab, non descript and a little tired looking.  The attempt at something more exciting was summed up by the City Barge Restaurant in the stretch of the canal from Chorlton Street to Princess Street.

It was of course out of our price range but had the promise of something new and exciting and something to aspire to.

Still we had those wonderful three course meals offered at lunch time in the city centre Chinese and Asian restaurants for just three shillings a head.  Even now fifty six years on I smile at how sophisticated I thought I was when eating Banana Fritter and captivated by the Chinese version of custard.

Looking at the City barge from Princess Street, 1970

Which I suspect is just beginning to border on nostalgic tosh, so I shall close with that more serious reflection that in that drive to bring Manchester into the 1960s there was a serious attempt to sweep away all that Victorian heritage.

And so between new office developments, shopping precincts and traffic flow schemes some fascinating buildings and important bits of our history disappeared.

And more of that serious stuff another time.

Pictures; the new College of Commerce in construction, W Highham, 1965, m64167, and City-Barge-Restaurant Canal-Street, Dawson-A, 1970, m49402, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

What a difference 47 years can make ........ The Rochdale Canal transformed

Forty-seven years is a pretty big chunk of any one’s life and in my case falls short of the six decades I have lived here in the city.

It is also the space between the pictures taken by a young art student and roughly the time I revisited the place with some of my own.

The canal was finished in 1804 and ran for 32 miles across the Pennines from the Duke’s Canal at Castlefield Basin to join the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire. In his description of the canal network published in 1830 Priestley was in no doubt of the canal’s importance.

"The canal is one of the main links in the chain of inland navigation between the east and west seas, being made for vessels of such size as enables them to navigate the tide way, and to pass between Liverpool and Hull without the expense of reshipping their cargoes, thus affording great advantages to the populous towns of Manchester, Rochdale, Halifax, Wakefield and other son the banks of the intermediate rivers. The Baltic produce can thus be readily conveyed into Lancashire and the manufacturers of Lancashire in return exported through the ports of Goole and Hull to Hamburg, Petersburg, Lubeck and other continental markets. The stone from Cromwell Bottom and its neighbourhood is hereby also conveyed to Rochdale and Manchester. These connections are likely to make it ultimately an undertaking of considerable profit to the proprietors.”*

So our own international highway and one that carried everything from “corn, timber, woollen cloth, coals and raw materials.” But like all our canals find it difficult to compete with the railways and finally closed in 1952, although the section through the heart of the city from Castlefield to Piccadilly proved profitable and stayed open.

Location; the Rochdale Canal


Pictures; from the collections of Eileen Blake and Andrew Simpson , map of the canal network around Manchester from Bradshaw’s map of 1830, The Inland Navigation of England and Wales, and the extract from Joseph Priestley’s Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, 1830 courtesy of Digital Archives http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

* Priestley, Joseph, Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, 1830, Page 579

That house over the canal ……….. 41 Chorlton Street

Now, I am reunited with a building that has fascinated me for over 52 years.

The house in 2016

It is the one that stands on Chorlton Street and straddles the Rochdale Canal.

I always assumed it had once been the home of the lockkeeper, and alternated between thoughts of how cool it would be to live there, with the obvious ones of living directly over a stretch of water on a very busy city street.

Back in the early 1970s it seemed to be unoccupied and as the years went by I had less reason to go down that part of Chorlton Street and just forgot about the place.*

But now I see it appears to be occupied again, and after someone recently asked me about it, the fascination has returned, and with it a mystery.

It does not appear on street directories for the 19th or early 20th centuries, and in 1851 is clearly shown as two buildings, one of which is a warehouse and a place of business and the other residential.

The warehouse and house, 1851

That said a Mr. John Holroyd is listed in the Rate Books for 1863 occupying 41 and 43 Chorlton Street in a property owned by the Rochdale Canal Company.  

All of which was confirmed by a street directory for the same year which describes him as “Lock keeper”.

And as every researcher knows once you have a reference in the historical records, it all comes together.

So, the same Rate Books record the property belonging to the Rochdale Canal from 1847 through into the late 19th century but the census returns stubbornly refuse to record who lived in 41 and 43.

Just occasionally there is a break through and from 1871 through to 1895 and I know that Barton Manchester and his family were there.  

A decade earlier he had been working the canal boats as an assistant, and on the night of the census was with William Wignall and Mr. Wignall’s family on a 50 ton “flat” boat moored on the Dukes Canal.

The house, 1955

He married Elizabeth Baron in 1867 and four years later they were settled in the house over the water.  He described himself as as a waterman.  Ten years later is listed as a “Lock keeper” and he and Elizabeth had a young family with the eldest of the four children aged 7 down and the youngest just 1.

And there the family stay, until his death in 1895.  Elizabeth had died in 1890 and both are buried in Philips Park.** He left £502 and a family that were launched on careers which took them away from the waterways.  The eldest was a clerk to a solicitor, and by 1911 was a “Railway Traffic Regulator", while the others were in various skilled occupations.

In time I will search out their lives, but for now I wll close with what little more I know of Mr. Manchester.  I doubt we will find a reference to his birth or any earlier historical records before 1861.

I know that when he married Elizabeth he was illiterate, giving his mark beside the signature of his wife.  

But there is a clue to that earlier life, and that comes from his first name, which is replicated by another “waterman” who in 1861 was plying another canal, working a boat with his father and family.  He too was called Barton, and I wonder if there is any connection with the aqueduct that carried the Duke’s Canal over the river Irwell at Barton -Upon-Irwell.

The house and canal, 2016

Fanciful perhaps, but possible.

Leaving me just book time to explore the lives of Thomas and Mary Holroyd, Willam Diamond, and Alexander Heap all of whom at some point resided in that house over the canal on Chorlton Street.

To which I can now add this from Hayley Flynn, "I thought you might like some info I found on the house on Chorlton Street over the canal. 

I'm writing a little bit about it at the moment and noticed you'd also been curious over the years - love the occupants you tracked down - Barton Manchester! 

This is the recent update I've written in my article: 

It seems that the Canals and Rivers Trust were the owners of the house until it was sold to an individual, Michael Maybin, in the early 2000s. Maybin continued to live in his flat in Hulme, presumably renting the property out. He died in 2019, evidenced by a police appeal to locate his next of kin; since then the house has remained occupied.

When you look on google maps it's after 2019 that the front of the house has physical changes too, which I guess would signal new occupants but I've not found any new documents relating to the owners so maybe it's still part of his estate".

Location, Manchester

Pictures; 41 Chorlton Street, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson,  British Waterways narrow boats, proceeding to Hassall's Warehouse, Ducie Street, leaving Chorlton Street Lock, 1955, m54248, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and 41 &43 Chorlton Street, 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester 1851 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Little David Street, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2016/10/lost-and-forgotten-streets-of_14.html

**Philips Park Cemetery, Plot FNon Conformist 426 

It’s the history …. not the quality

I am on Camp Street looking across the Rochdale Canal.

The quality of the images is not wonderful but then they were taken with a cheap camera in 1978, and the negatives have sat in the cellar for 40 odd years.

The original prints were lost a long time ago, but today I digitized those negatives, and they reveal a bit of Manchester now vanished.

Back then the area was waiting for something to happen, so while the Courts were just up the road doing the business of dealing with lawbreakers, and the College of Commerce was still introducing students to the wonders of accountancy, the law, and even a mix of Arts degrees Camp Street was a pretty forlorn spot.

For three years at the start of the 1970s I had wandered down it, exploring this part of the city instead of going to the library in the Aytoun College of Knowledge.

Back then there was an old-fashioned transport café, and those line of parking meters, while the skyline was dominated by buildings most of which have long gone or been turned into other uses.

And that really is that.

Location; Canal Street

Pictures; the Rochdale Canal, 1979 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

One canal …… 18 pictures ……. 45 or so years ago …… walking the Rochdale in 1979

A short series bringing together for the first time pictures I took walking the Rochdale Canal from Princess Street to the Castlefield Basin.

Most have appeared before but not together in the order in which I walked the Canal back in 1979.

But given my memory and my total failure to make notes of each shot at the time I took them some may well be out of sync.

This is the end of the journey, and features pictures I don’t think I have used before.

The Rochdale Canal runs out into the Castlefield Basin under the Castle Street Bridge, at Lock 92.

In the 1970s and into the next decade this was still a shabby, slightly edgy, but wonderful place, which was, and is, at the centre of much of our industrial past. 

It was a major switching hub, where the river, the new railways and the canal network  met, supplying the diverse industries of the city.

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures; The Rochdale Canal, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One canal …18 pictures ,walking the Rochdale Canal in 1979, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20canal%2018%20pictures

One canal …… 18 pictures ……. 45 or so years ago …… walking the Rochdale in 1979

 A short series bringing together for the first time pictures I took walking the Rochdale Canal from Princess Street to the Castlefield Basin.

Most have appeared before but not together in the order in which I walked the Canal back in 1979.

But given my memory and my total failure to make notes of each shot at the time I took them some may well be out of sync.

Back then the canal was still in a shabby state and despite the work of restoration there was still an air of decay, which was added to by the state of the buildings which stood along its path.

Many had seen better days, a few were derelict waiting for something to happen, and since I walked the walk some have been demolished and some have been renovated.

We are now about to go under Century Street and travel along the Gaythorn Tunnel, before reappearing in daylight beyond Deansgate.

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures; The Rochdale Canal, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One canal …18 pictures ,walking the Rochdale Canal in 1979,  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20canal%2018%20pictures

One canal …… 18 pictures ……. 45 or so years ago …… walking the Rochdale in 1979

A short series bringing together for the first time pictures I took walking the Rochdale Canal from Princess Street to the Castlefield Basin.

Most have appeared before but not together in the order in which I walked the Canal back in 1979.

But given my memory and my total failure to make notes of each shot at the time I took them some may well be out of sync.

Back then the canal was still in a shabby state and despite the work of restoration there was still an air of decay, which was added to by the state of the buildings which stood along its path.

Many had seen better days, a few were derelict waiting for something to happen, and since I walked the walk some have been demolished and some have been renovated.

And, so have the half sunken vessels which lay where they had sunk slowly rotting away.

It always amazed me that long after the restoration of the canal the three were still there, although as befitting the new tidied up canal they have finally gone.

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures; The Rochdale Canal, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One canal …18 pictures ,walking the Rochdale Canal in 1979, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20canal%2018%20pictures

One canal …… 18 pictures ……. 45 or so years ago …… walking the Rochdale in 1979

A short series bringing together for the first time pictures I took walking the Rochdale Canal from Princess Street to the Castlefield Basin.

Most have appeared before but not together in the order in which I walked the Canal back in 1979.

But given my memory and my total failure to make notes of each shot at the time I took them some may well be out of sync.

Back then the canal was still in a shabby state and despite the work of restoration there was still an air of decay, which was added to by the state of the buildings which stood along its path.

Many had seen better days, a few were derelict waiting for something to happen, and since I walked the walk some have been demolished and some have been renovated.

The real surprise was the conversion of the railway arches into Deansgate Locks which are described as the “Trendy nightspot for those who want to party the night away. You'll find establishments such as The Comedy Store, Revolution and Baa Bar. This canal side location is perfect for those who want to stay in one area, find DJ's playing all night and plenty of cocktails".**

All a bit brighter than 40 years ago when the best you could hope for was a passingboat.

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures; The Rochdale Canal, 1979, 2003, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One canal …18 pictures ,walking the Rochdale Canal in 1979, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20canal%2018%20pictures

**Deansgate Locks, https://www.visitmanchester.com/things-to-see-and-do/deansgate-locks-p37991

One canal …… 18 pictures ……. 45 or so years ago …… walking the Rochdale in 1979

A short series bringing together for the first time pictures I took walking the Rochdale Canal from Princess Street to the Castlefield Basin.

Most have appeared before but not together in the order in which I walked the Canal back in 1979.

But given my memory and my total failure to make notes of each shot at the time I took them some may well be out of sync.

Back then the canal was still in a shabby state and despite the work of restoration there was still an air of decay, which was added to by the state of the buildings which stood along its path.

Many had seen better days, a few were derelict waiting for something to happen, and since I walked the walk some have been demolished and some have been renovated.

But as rundown as the canal was, and perhaps because it was so messy, and out of sight,  it was from time to time part of the urban playground.

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures; The Rochdale Canal, 1979,  from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One canal …18 pictures ,walking the Rochdale Canal in 1979, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20canal%2018%20pictures

One canal …… 18 pictures ……. 45 or so years ago …… walking the Rochdale in 1979

 A short series bringing together for the first time pictures I took walking the Rochdale Canal from Princess Street to the Castlefield Basin.

Most have appeared before but not together in the order in which I walked the Canal back in 1979.

But given my memory and my total failure to make notes of each shot at the time I took them some may well be out of sync.

Back then the canal was still in a shabby state and despite the work of restoration there was still an air of decay, which was added to by the state of the buildings which stood along its path.

Many had seen better days, a few were derelict waiting for something to happen, and since I walked the walk some have been demolished and some have been renovated.

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures; The Rochdale Canal, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One canal …18 pictures ,walking the Rochdale Canal in 1979, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20canal%2018%20pictures

One canal …… 18 pictures ……. 45 or so years ago .......... walking the Rochdale in 1979

 A short series bringing together for the first time pictures I took walking the Rochdale Canal from Princess Street to the Castlefield Basin.*

Most have appeared before but not together in the order in which I walked the Canal back in 1979.

But given my memory and my total failure to make notes of each shot at the time I took them some may well be out of sync.

Back then the canal was still in a shabby state and despite the work of restoration there was still an air of decay, which was added to by the state of the buildings which stood along its path.

Many had seen better days, a few were derelict waiting for something to happen, and since I walked the walk some have been demolished and some have been renovated.

Once you had walked underneath St James’s Building and Oxford Road you had a clear waljk down the canal as far as the bridge which carried Albion Street into town.

Today this section is flanked with modern buildings but in 1979, the walk took you past a heap of warehouses and factories dating from the 19th century and offered up fine views of the Refuge Building.

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures; The Rochdale Canal, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One canal …18 pictures ,walking the Rochdale Canal in 1979, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20canal%2018%20pictures

 

How we played ......... the Rochdale Canal ...... 1979

Water and kids pretty much go together.

When I was ten it was the River Thames.

We would wander down to that busy end of the River, far from the tourist haunts and at low water explored the beached barges and play amongst the rubbish left by the departing tide.

Usually it was nothing more than bits of orange boxes, sections of old rope covered in weed and the occasional treasure.

And on a warm August day twenty years later I came across a group of lands pretty much doing the same.

The place was the Rochdale Canal long before it got its gentrified make over, but happily after it had been saved from dereliction.

Today we would probably raise great concerns at the potential dangers the lads were inviting, but back then it all seemed different.

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures; the Rochdale Canal, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Mystery solved ….. and a confirmation of the honest and right way to do things ....

I won’t be alone I think in wondering why I haven’t been able to access Manchester Libraries digital collection of photographs.

St Andrew's School, 1920 Ancoats

At the last count there were over 80, 000 with some of them also appearing on a Flicker account.

A long time ago I sought permission to reproduce images from the collection on the blog with the clear understanding that I would acknowledge Manchester libraries and include the reference number and credit the photographer.  To which I also added the date.

But for perhaps six months the site has been down and despite requests for information all I got was that it “had issues”.  

This week in response to another request I got the promising reply that “Unfortunately the site is provided by a third-party company and there are still apparently problems that they need to fix, although we are assured it is nearly ready. In the meantime, you can see most of the images by going to http://gmlives.org.uk/results.html and selecting photograph as the category”.

All of which is very promising but makes me reflect on the request I made a decade and a bit ago to use their pictures is the simple observation that I don’t hold the copyright and like any images which I haven’t created they are not mine to use without permission.

Now I know in the case of the 80,000 most were donated by individuals who perhaps are the real copyright holders, but it remains the case they ain’t mine to use unless I ask and get the go ahead.

Not that that troubles many on social media who happily download and post away with no reference to where they came from, where they were taken and a date.

At best they leave a caption along the lines of “an old part of the city” which is as useful as reflecting “it was different in the past”.

Dates, locations and the name of the author are all important in providing context to the image, and help tell a story.

 Palais De Luxe cinema, Barlow Moor Road, circa 1928

And it matters.

Years ago someone reposted a picture I had used of an old Chorlton cinema, ignored  the story that came with it and so rendered its real value worthless.

Because the source came from an archive in east Scotland in a collection devoted to the Lion Foundry and had been taken by a local Chorlton photographer called Charles Ireland in the early 1920s.

All of which was important in telling the story of this cinema and throwing light on the fact that it had been taken to illustrate the cast iron and glass veranda which fronted the building. 

Equally important was Charles Ireland who not only lived in Chorlton but was a recognised photographer with studios in Manchester.

Abandoned, Rochdale Canal, 1979

Finally, the date helped locate the films being shown that week and provided extra information on the concert party that was down to perform live.

Angel Street, 1900

All of which means that using the catalogue entry is important, as is seeking permission.

When it comes down to it someone took the picture and at the very least they or the present holders should have the right to decide where and how it should be used.

And it is not enough just to mutter “well it was out there so its fair game to be used”, which in a different context could be used to justify walking away with a bike parked outside a shop.

Many of us have seen images we have taken, or accounts we have written stolen and reused on the most inappropriate sites in a context which does little credit to the original piece of work.

Common Lodging House, Angel Street, 1897

So I shall be pleased when those 80,000 images are back online and will continue to be careful to credit Manchester Libraries and offer up all the information from the catalogue.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; St Andrew’s School, Homer Street, 1920, m48646, Angel Street common lodging house, 1897, m08365, Angel Street, 1900, Samuel L Coulthurst, m08978, S.L.Coulthurst, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass,  The Rochdale Canal, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Palais De Luxe cinema, circa 1928, Charles Ireland, GD10-07-04-6-13-01 courtesy of East Dunbartonshire Archives

The Rochdale Canal 1974

I have always been drawn to canals and also to railways, but canals have that added attraction of water which most of us fine compelling.

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But what really attracts me are not  the water way holidays with those old converted narrow boats or the modern zippy but ugly little cabin cruisers, it is the way a canal takes you right back to that working industrial Britain of the late 18th and 19th century Britain.

Back then they were not genteel extensions of the rolling countryside but busy places where hard people competed, working long hours in all sorts of weathers carrying everything from coal to fine bone china.

Now I not against the modern transformation of our waterways for without the holiday and pleasure cruises I doubt that the canals would still be with us.  All that hard work, dedication and financial sacrifice by the canal enthusiasts who dug out the mud, restored the lock gates and reopened these lost waterways is balanced now by the tourist and boat owner.

So I was so pleased to receive a set of photographs of the Rochdale Canal in 1974 from Eileen Blake. She used them for an A level course and they are the very stuff of what makes a canal fascinating to me.

They are of that section which connects the Duke’s Canal at Castlefield with the Dale Street Basin.

This was the Manchester terminus for the Rochdale and from there it is possible to head out east of the city on the Ashton Canal.

Here then are a selection of Eileen’s pictures with more to follow and later something of my stories of walking this part of the canal.

Pictures; from the collection of Eileen Blake ©

Walking the Rochdale Canal …… all flowers, water and mills

On a warm sunny day, there is nothing better than a stroll along a canal.

Of course the hardy and resolute will do the walk in all weathers, even when the rain is coming down like stair rods and bouncing off the water.

But in spring and summer there is much more to see, and lingering beside a lock gate or admiring the canal architecture is so much more appealing.

And that is what Andy did yesterday, choosing to stop by the Victoria Mill which my Wikipedia tells me, "is a Grade II listed nineteenth century cotton spinning mill in Miles Platting, Manchester. It was a double mill designed by George Woodhouse completed in 1869.

It was built alongside the Rochdale Canal and Varley Street, Victoria Mills were constructed for William Holland, of the Adelphi Mill, Salford. 

It was designed by George Woodhouse of Bolton. It was designed as a six storey double mill with shared engine house. It had an octagonal chimney. It was worked to the 1960, and has now been converted into office space and residential."**

It is a mill I knew nothing about, and as you do I went looking for more, which I discovered in the form of another history of the building, and the site of the present owners advertising its role as a commercial and residential property.**

Location; Mile Platting

Pictures; the Victoria Mill and the Rochdale Canal, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

* Victoria Mill, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Mill, 

**Victoria Mill, https://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/outside/victoriamill.html, http://whitecroftgroup.com/projects/victoria-mill

Sitting beside the M&S Junction Canal Basin …….. and waiting for the Bridgwater to reopen

Now Manchester may not be the premier Venice of the North, which is a title claimed for a number of cities from Birmingham, to Amsterdam, as well as places in France, Germany, Poland, and Russia.

But we do have our canals and the basins at Castlefield and Dale Street are  pretty attractive place to spend away a few hours with or without a boat.

We also have the lost canal arms which were branches off the main waterways which ran into warehouse and factory complexes.

I have always been fascinated by the one around the Aytoun and Whitworth Street area.

But today it is the arm that ran off the Rochdale Canal, under Great Bridgwater Street, and terminated beside Calder Street.  It is still marked as active on the OS map for 1950 and carried the title of the M&S Junction Canal Basin.

In my early years in the city, I knew nothing of it, so I am not sure if it was filled in or lay derelict, during the middle decades of the last century.

Either way it now forms part of the revamped area around the Bridgewater Canal.

Andy was there recently, and recorded the scene.

Somewhere I have an earlier set of pictures but back then we tended to go in the bar opposite the Bridgwater, and I must confess the drink won over the photos.

And that is all I have to say, although doubtless there will be someone who can help me with my lack of canal knowledge, and also suggest the name of the bar which I do remember had the word piano in its name.

Happily soon after I posted the story, Gordon Howe, got back with the name, which was Pitcher and Piano.

So at least Gordon has a sense of history.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Around the Bridgewater Hall, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Tales of past canals …. Shelton Lock and adventures with a narrow boat .... 1947

Now, I have been fascinated by canals ever since I came across a disused one close to where my grandparents lived in Chellaston.

I would have been no more than 10, and the sight of an overgrown waterway with the lock gates hanging at crazy angles as they rotted away from neglect, set me wondering about the purpose of this stretch water.

Of course,  I didn’t think about its history, or its future, after all most 10 year old’s only live in the present, and when I went looking for Shelton Lock just about a decade ago, it had vanished.

It stood by the trolley bus terminus, but after 62 years even the terminus has  gone leaving just the New Bridge Inn as a clue to the canal, which is now a footpath.

All of which is an introduction to Narrow Boat, by L.T.C. Rolt, who recorded a series of canal trips in 1939, at a time when the canal network was in decline.

The volume of traffic had been declining for over half a century and with it was the strong possibility that a way of life which had existed for 170 or so years would also go.

In his introduction he wrote, “Most people know no more of the canals than they do of the old green roads which the pack-horse trains once travelled.  

The canal network around Manchester, 1831

Of all the authors who have written of their journeyings about England, only Mr. Temple Thurston chose to travel by water, and his delightful book ‘The Flower of Gloster’, being published nearly thirty years ago, stands on the small shelf in my library which is sufficient to contain all that has been written on canals.  

For they have lapsed into the  neglected obscurity which overtook the turnpikes when the railway disposed the stage-coach and ruined the great posting house along Watling Street and the North Road.  Now the motor-car has brought the road into its own again, but the canals gave withdrawn still further into the shadows.  

Knowledge of them is confined to the narrow hump-backed bridges which trap the incautious motorist, or to an occasional glimpse from the train of a ribbon of still water winding through the meadows to some unknown destination”.*

The Rochdale Canal, 1979

Which is pretty much where I came into the story in 1959, looking over the bridge at Shelton Lock and wondering at that sheet of still green water, almost entirely hidden by reeds broken only by the odd floating bit of debris.

Fifteen years earlier most of canals were still being used, and this was what allowed Mr. Rolt to borrow a relative’s narrow boat and make a series f journeys, which became the book.

The Rochdale Canal, 2003

But Narrow Boat is not just a catalogue of watery adventures, but a record of the men, women, and children who still worked the canals, and description of their way of life.

There is  a detailed glossary at the back, which includes a definition of a barge and how it differs from a narrow boat and much else.

Added to which there are some fine period photographs and a wealth of images by the artist Eric Gaskell, whose chosen method was the lino cut.

So far, I am only on chapter one, but have also ordered up ‘The Flower of Gloster’, which between them will add to my knowledge of the of a time when many people had turned their back on canals.

And I notice that his map includes the Derby Canal which ran through Shelton Lock, which means I might just get a description of the waterway in happier times.

Leaving me just to say that the canal was closed in the 1960s, but there are plans to excavate it.**

Alas while he got as far as Middlewich, the glories of our own canals in Manchester were a narrow boat too far.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 1979-2003, map of the canal network around Manchester from Bradshaw’s map of 1830, The Inland Navigation of England and Wales, and the extract from Joseph Priestley’s Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, 1830 courtesy of Digital Archives http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

*Narrow Boat, L.T.C. Rolt, 1944 page 11

**Shelton Lock, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelton_Lock and The Derby Canal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_Canal#:~:text=The%20Derby%20Canal%20ran%2014%20miles%20%2823%20km%29,in%201793%20and%20was%20fully%20completed%20in%201796.

 

The Rochdale Canal offer up its surprises ……

I wonder what generations of those who navigated the canal over the centuries would make of these two figures.

I like them.

Enough said.

Location; Manchester

Picture; surprises along the Rochdale Canal, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson