Outside the Red Cross Hospital in Sale in 1915 with a gramophone, a nurse and some wounded soldiers

During the Great War the Red Cross established hospitals across the country to care for the wounded returning from the battlefield.

They were the product of prewar planning, were opened in our cities, towns and villages and most disappeared within months of the Armistice.

The buildings were returned to civilian use, the equipment ranging from beds to blankets and typewriters were auctioned off and the memory of the hospitals faded from memory.

Today I doubt that many people will know of the existence of these hospitals near to where they live and yet they were supported by local people who cared for the sick prepared meals and did the washing and regularly raised funds for these voluntary hospitals.

Chorlton had two, Didsbury three and there were more in Whalley Range, Withington and Sale.

In fact pretty much all our suburbs would have had at least one hospital.

Some were in private homes, others in Sunday Schools and in some in church halls.

All of which leads me to David Harrop’s latest acquisition which is a postcard of the Red Cross Hospital in Sale in 1915.

Now I have no idea where it was but someone will.

Already when David posted the image of facebook my old friend Neil was quick off the mark with suggestions.

Sadly like many it has been demolished but I am hoping that there will be more pictures, perhaps an official document or newspaper report to tell us more.

And there is plenty in this photograph to start us off.

To our left standing beside a nurse are a group of soldiers two of whom have crutches and another who looks to be wearing “hospital blues” which were worn by many of the men recovering from wounds.

And then to the left there is one of those windup gramophones which suggest that something special was happening.

It may have just been one of those rare impromptu moments, a combination of a sunny day, a few idle hours and wish to listen to a selection of the popular “hits” of the day.

But given that all Red Cross hospitals were supported by fund raising activities we might just have stumbled on just such event.

I have to say I rather like both ideas and that seems a good point to close.

Picture; Sale Red Cross Hospital, courtesy of David Harrop

Telling the story of that house in Sale ............ part 3

How do you tell the story of a house?

Vernon Lodge, circa 1880s

You could start with the simple facts of when it was built, the additions over the years and its change of use from perhaps family home to multi occupancy to care home and somewhere along the way its conversion into a block of offices.

Or do you focus on the people who lived there trying to weave a set of stories out of the historic record and pitching their lives against the big events of the last few centuries.

Which ever approach you adopt it is as true for the council house, or semi as it is for the palaces of the people of plenty.

And that brings me to the final story of Vernon Lodge which has stood on Marsland Road since 1851.

It was built for Peter and Mariana Royle who made it their home with a brief interruption for the next forty years.

Peter and Mariana remembered in glass, circa 1851

So completely had they made it their own that they had their initials placed high up on the outside wall and again in a beautiful stained glass window above the entrance door.

He was a surgeon with a practice in the centre of Manchester on Lever Street where they had first set home after their marriage in 1843.

But it would be Vernon Lodge which would be where their children grew up and no doubt would continue to think of as home long after they had all moved on.

And moved on they eventually did.

I can’t be sure when they finally gave up Vernon Lodge but while they were there in 1891 they had gone a decade later when the place was home to Mr and Mrs Cunnigham their three young children and two servants.

By 1911 they too had moved on and the Lodge was the residence of Mr Heath who described himself as an employer and whole sale druggist his wife of 21 years and their children.

Vernon Lodge, 2016

After which at present I know only that a C.G. Spence lived there because in the December of 1944 he was elected as a member of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire.

It is not much so far but there are other forms of records which will help tell the story of those that lived there, and in time I will chart the changes to the area and the Lodges’ transformation into a the guest house it has now become. Today it is Brooklands Lodge.

Pictures; Vernon Lodge, circa 1880 and stained glass window courtesy of Mr and Mrs Vernon owners of the Lodge

Painting; Vernon Lodge  © 2016 Peter Topping 

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

*Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1944, Vol 96.

**Brooklands Lodge, http://www.brooklandslodge.co.uk/ 208 Marsland Rd, Sale, Manchester M33 3NE
0161 973 3283