Looking for "June" The Ladies hairdresser and Busy Bee Stores, sometime in 1930

Looking "June" the Hairdressers on Wilbraham Road

I never underestimate the power of a collection of old local adverts to offer up fascinating stories and pretty much take you all over the place.

So here in front of me are a set of those adverts which appeared on the dust jacket of a book lent out by Mr R. Greig Wilson who owned a newsagents on Sandy Lane and also ran one of our Circulating libraries.

Now circulating libraries were private affairs and existed alongside the local public library, and such was the demand for novels and lighter factual material that many of our newsagents went into business renting books out.

Busy Bee

At home in London mother was a regular at the local bookshop who also traded in lending copies and across Chorlton there were quite a few, from the one that operated on Beech Road, to Mr Lloyd’s on
Upper Chorlton Road and of course R. Greig Wilson’s on Sandy Lane.

It is a topic I have visited quite a few times over the years and no doubt will return to.

But for today my attention has been drawn to Busy Bee Stores  (W. Wellard, Proprietor) at 264 Upper Chorlton Road, and “June” The Ladies’ Hairdresser and Beauty Specialist on Broadwalk Wilbraham Road.

It will take some time to date the collection of adverts and that will involve trawling the directories but I think they will be from the 1930s.

Not that Mr Grieg has been much of a help for he was selling his “Stationary, Tobacco and Picture postcards” along with delivering his newspapers from at least 1911.

That said it will be after 1911 because down on Upper Chorlton Road at 264 was a Mr John Joseph Taylor who was a tailor.

Now Mr Wellard was trading as an iron monger at the shop by 1929 and Charles Slightman who also advertised on the dust cover was selling his newspapers and lending out his collection of over 1,000 books from his lending library on Manchester Road from 1923 through to 1935 so we are in the right decade and a bit.

"June"

And until those directories yield up a definite date I am settling for sometime in the 1930s for it was around then that “June” at the Broadwalk began Permanent Waving by the Nestlé System which was the "Radione" system in which the hair was wound dry and inserted into hollow cellophane tubes sealed at both ends, but contained moistened paper”*

Long along Wilbraham Road circa 1930s

She was in her saloon at 523 Wilbraham Road by 1929 but Karl Nessler who had perfected his alternative method of curling hair in 1905 using a mixture of cow urine and water did not come up with the improvement which he called the Nestlé System until the 30’s.

“June” charged 20/- for the process and also offered "Tinting, Manicure, Face Massage , [and] all kinds of hair work carried out by experts.”

I have often wondered whether her customers were aware that Mr Nessler had arrived in Britain from Germany in 1901 and facing being interned when the Great War broke out fled to America, or that during his first experiments on his wife he managed to burn her hair off and cause some scalp burns.

That advert for an early perm, circa 1905

All of which is a complete digression but is one of the fascinating little journeys behind which there is a serious point because together the eleven adverts will reveal a little bit more about the Chorlton of just eighty or so years ago.

And in one of those nice little twist of coincidences, 264 Upper Chorlton Road is again a hardware store specialising in much the same stuff as Busy Bee which along with offering “Glass and China [as] a speciality offered “Electric Vacuum cleaners for Hire.”

But there the coincidences stop for now where “June" permed and manicured the present proprietor offers sweets and newspapers which I suppose has almost brought us full circle.

Pictures, adverts from the dust cover of a book courtesy of Margaret Connelly, Wilbraham Road in 2014 from the collection of Andy Robertson and an  early 20th century advertisement for Nessler's permanent wave machine, transferred by SreeBot, Wikipedia

*Perm (hairstyle), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perm_(hairstyle)

One last look at that shop on 105 Manchester Road

Work on the Longford Brook Culvert, 1913

I have to say I never expected that so many people would remember Slightam’s of 105 Manchester Road.*

The family were trading there in newspapers, sweets, tobacco and postcards from the 1920s and were still there in 1980.

Added to which they ran one of our circulating libraries which were popular during the first half of the last century.

David remembered "my granny used to borrow books for a few pence from the shop, which was behind and left of the counter."

I am sure there will be others who add their memories but for now I will close the series with this picture from 1913.

From the 1911 directory

The caption just says “Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester Road, Longford Brook Culvert, date1913.” 

Now the Longford Brook is one of our water courses which continues to interest me, but for now it is the parade of shops on the opposite side of Manchester Road.

For there is 105 which back then was the business of Mr Robert Sowerbutt’s who according to the directory of 1911 a newsagent and Telephone Call Office” and well into the 1950s and early 60s the call box was still there in the shop.

Goodwin's and Sowerbutt's, 1913

And along with Sowerbutt’s there was Harry Goodwin “boot & shoe maker at 103, James Feeney greengrocer at 107 and Albert Brown draper at the end of the parade all of which are clearly visible in the picture.








Picture; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester Road, Longford Brook Culvert, 1913, m17960, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

 *Slightam’s 105 Manchester Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Slightam%27s%20of%20105%20Manchester%20Road

The story of that shop at 105 Manchester Road .......... Slightman's newsagents and 50 years of sweets, cards and grumpy service

Looking down Manchester Road in 1958

Now for those of us who were not born in Chorlton, and didn’t arrive here until the mid 1970s there is a lot of recent history that will be unknown to us.

So I welcome the memories of those who have talked about  just one shop on Manchester Road in the 1950s and 60s.

This was Slightam’s of 105 Manchester Road.

I can’ be sure when Mr and Mrs Slightam opened or when they closed, but there is a record of them trading at Manchester Road in 1923, and Andy remembers visiting the shop in 1980.

“I too remember going into Slightam's when I first moved to Chorlton in 1980. It was like stepping back in time.”

And that pretty much is how many people remember the shop.

Slightam's on a November morning

It offered a full range of services from "Newsagents, Stationers, Fancy Goods [and] Tobacconists" but also acted as a “Lending Library [with] over 1000 books.”

Lorna remembered “that it was a shop with immense character. 

Mr Slightam always wore gloves with no fingers in. I don’t think the shop changed for many years, it was like Aladdin’s cave” while Dave added that “I remember, I even delivered papers for him. 
There was an old fashioned phone kiosk in the back of his shop that took old pennies”

And David O’Reilly who was also did  a paper round for them commented "the couple that ran the shop in the late 50's and sixties, they seemed old to me!

Mrs S. Always wore a hat and my mum says this was to cover a wig?!

Mr Slightam seemed to be a surly gentleman.  I delivered papers a few times for them, but not regularly. There was a cigarette advert on the wall behind the counter- high up, perhaps Capstan, a man on a horse.”

And that rather surly attitude was echoed by Lorna

Advertising Slightam's 1966

That surly attitude to his customers was echoed by Lorna who not only remembered the inside of the shop but was also on caught in the wrong side of Mr Slightam.

“There was a little alcove where all the greetings cards were kept in boxes on the left hand side of the shop? 
You would have to ask for the type of card you were looking for, and it was usually Mr S who sorted out a small selection accordingly. 

When I was quite young, I remember going in to the shop for a Christmas card one Christmas morning. 

Mr S asked who it was for, and when I told him it was for my mother he told me off in no uncertain terms about leaving it until the last minute, and that I should be ashamed of myself! Yes, surly gentleman indeed he was!"

Now Mr Slightam died in 1984 so I guess it will have been around then that the place closed.

Mr and Mrs Slightam's neighbours 1958

And as Dave commented “it's just a shame that there are no photographs, you could have taken his whole shop and put it in a museum, and inside it was probably unchanged since the 1930’s. 

Such a pity everything got 'skipped' when he passed away.”

And that pretty much brings me back to the beginning.

This was a place which was almost frozen in time and while I never went into the shop or knew Mr Slightam,

I can think of similar shops from my youth.

They all had that same dusty smell with heavy dark wooden counters and shelves that disappeared into the ceiling and no doubt had you rummaged at the back  there would have been the odd item which was sold as new when the old king died.

And what is all the remarkable is that such shops survived into the 1980s.

But in doing so they offer up a rich and seamless set of stories which roll back into our recent past and take you off on a whole path of new research.

So in time I will follow up on Anthony’s memories prompted by an earlier story on the Slightams and their near neighbour Harry Goodwin who in 1911 was at 103 Manchester Road selling and mending shoes and who may have been the father of the Goodwin brothers who were friends with Anthony’s brother.”

Well we shall see.  And along the way bring back out of the shadows a bit more of our recent past.

Which just leaves me to finish with David again and that "really grumpy man. I remember him in a dark,navy blue sweater, the sort a sailor might wear. Behind the left counter was the lending library, I think, or was that towards the back?"

Additional research Andy Robertson, and a thank you to Lorna, Dave, David and Andy for remembering so much.

Pictures; west side of Manchester Road on the corner of Kensington Road, 1958, m17960 and 18018, November 1 1958, A H Downes, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass