Lost tramway signs ………………

Now there will be those who shake their heads in dismay at this picture of a Manchester Corporation Tramways sign and mutter how boring.

But not so, because it is a fine example of one of our lost bits of street furniture.*

I have no date, or location, but I like it.

Location; somewhere in Manchester

Picture; Manchester Corporation Tramways, date unknown, from the collection of Allan Brown

*Street furniture, lost and found, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Street%20Furniture%20lost%20and%20saved

Taking the petrol pump for granted ................ and other stories

Today and for the next few weeks I shall be celebrating the humble petrol pump, through the art work of my friend Ann Love.

A few weeks ago I wrote about those pre-war petrol cans which were essential, given the scarcity of petrol stations which forced motorists to carry a supply for emergencies.

They cans came in different shapes and colours and usually bore the name or logo of the petrol company.

And fired by that story Ann told me of an art project she undertook back in 1964 which
described the early history of the petrol pump and was illustrated by her own series of pictures.

I have to confess that I had not really given the petrol pump much thought, but like so many things it is a bit of our history which is easily taken for granted.

The idea had originated in the USA and was brought back to Britain by a member of the AA and in 1919 the AA opened ten filling stations which were staffed by their men in uniform who only sold to AA members.

Needless to say the concept caught on, and Ann went on to document the story through the inter war years and on into the 1960s.

It is a fascinating story but what really draws me to the project are Ann’s pictures which are now themselves a bit of our past.

A few depict petrol pumps and garages which were still standing relatively recently, including a pump at the bottom of Claude Road in Chorlton in south Manchester.

And I bet these pictures will set off a string of memories on the part of readers, who in turn might offer up their images and stories.

There my even be someone who remembers pumping the fuel from the pump by hand, and then checking the quantity in a measuring can, which as Ann observes was justified given that some garage owners fiddled the gauge.

But that is it for now.

Location; everywhere

Pictures; petrol pumps and filling stations 1963-64 from the collection of Ann Love

The Letter Box graveyeard and other posty stories

In The Woolwich Drill Hall circa 1965

Now one of the places I wish I had visited back in 1965 was the old Woolwich Drill Hall in the company of my friend Jean because there I would have seen a pretty impressive collection of old Victorian pillar boxes.

I suppose we take the pillar box like the telephone kiosk for granted and only really begin noticing them as they disappear from our streets.

And as you would expect here there is a rich and fascinating history, which is best told by Jean.

Victorian Letter Box

“In 1963 the Post Office began to replace all the single-aperture posting boxes in Central London with double-aperture ones.  

Concerned about the loss of so many Victorian examples, which were now being sold for their scrap metal value, I persuaded the manager of the SE London Postal District to send all those he recovered to the former Drill Hall in Woolwich, where I could try to identify the rarest examples and find them a Good Home.   

This he did, and I spent many Saturdays there in the task selecting boxes of all types for donation to a suitable museum. 

As I was in the early stages of researching the history of the many different kinds of Victorian letter boxes (which was to lead to my book The Letter Box, published in 1969), this gave me a unique opportunity to examine at close quarters and in one place the great variety in size and design. 

One of these recovered boxes was donated to The Eltham Society, which then (in 1965) had hopes of opening a small museum of local history in the Orangery. 

The first of many, 1952 Whitehall

Today, I am still looking after this 'Penfold' pillar box (named after its designer, J W Penfold, and dating from the 1860s) in my garden.

One of the replaced pillar boxes (of which all trace was sadly lost ) was England's first pillar box of the present Queen’s reign - erected in Whitehall, near the Horseguards' Parade in November 1952. 

Scotland's first pillar box of the present reign was unveiled at the Inch Housing Estate, Edinburgh, on 28 November. 

Within 36 hours it had been daubed with tar and, after a few more such incidents, it was blown-up by a home-made bomb.  Why?  

This was because it bore not only the legend Post Office and the crown of St Edward but also the E11R cypher, which was offensive to Scots as there had been no previous Scottish monarch of that name and, even worse, England's Elizabeth 1 was responsible for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scotland. 

A little bit of Scotland in Yorkshire

Early in 1953, the Secretary of State for Scotland proposed that future posting boxes and mail vans intended for use in Scotland should bear no cypher at all. 

His suggestion was taken up by the Post Office and, henceforth, these bore only the legend Post Office and the Scottish Crown. 

One of these Scottish post boxes was inadvertently sent to Keighley in Yorkshire- but this went unnoticed by the locals!

Many years later Royal Mail, in order to meet the demand for period letter boxes in special locations, commissioned facsimile 'Penfolds' for places such as Chislehurst in Kent.”

Story and research by Jean Gammons, November 2013

Source; The Letter Box – a history of Post Office Pillar and Wall boxes by Jean Young Farrugia-(Centaur Press 1969).  Further information can be obtained from the Letter Box Study Group www.lbsg.org

Pictures from the collection of Jean Gammons

The age of the parking meter was short ....... we won’t see their like again

Now I am always surprised at what was once familiar street furniture can disappear like snow in the winter sun.

And looking at this 1968 picture of St Peter’s Square there will be a few who wonder what I am on about.

But I suspect that anyone born in the last two decades may wonder what that poll with the domed shaped device beside the car was used for because the age of the parking meter has come and  gone.

It was a short life.

The first in London was installed just fifty years ago which post dated their introduction in an American city by just 40 odd years.*

There are some  in Central London but 3,500 have gone leaving just 800.

And as ever, I can’t remember exactly when they vanished from the streets of Manchester and Salford.

At which point I know someone will come up with chapter and verse and also point me to the surviving ones somewhere.

As it is there were parking meters here by 1961 when the barrow boys of Back Piccadilly were concerned that their livelihood was under threat from the introduction of parking meters along the narrow street in November of 1961.*

Our image was taken in the October of 1968.

And for me the bonus of the picture is that it shows those lost buildings, one of which went I think sometime in the early '70s and the other very recently.

Location; Manchester







Picture; St Peter's Square, 1968, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Time runs out for the parking meter, Josie Barnard, The Telegraph, November 07, 2017, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/4029123/Time-runs-out-for-the-parking-meter.html

**Back Piccadilly may lose barrow Boys, Manchester Guardian, November 20, 1961

Mending the light bulb on Randolph Street in 1962 ..... when gas was king

 Now, there is so much going on in this picture that its hard to know where to start.

But I suppose it is the man with the ladder, mending the street lamp.

He appears in several different pictures in the collection and was clearly being followed around.

Just why is now lost, but I suspect as the collection was originally from the City Council it will be to do with maintenance of Corporation property and possibly the problem of vandalism.

Some of the images show a broken glass covering.

In another the man appears to repairing the bracket or gas pipe, and yes I think this might be a gas  street lamp .

And before Eric of Northenden takes me to task, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that gas street lamps were still in use in Ardwick in the 1960s.*

All of which is confirmed by a small story in the Manchester Guardian which reported on February 22nd, 1966 that the “City’s last gas lamp” was taken down.  In a ceremony, attended by “50 people , including civic chiefs, gas officials, residents and cameramen, who crowded the top of Aden Street, Ardwick, yesterday  to say farewell  to the last of Manchester’s one time 21,682 gas lamps.

The lantern of gas lamp No. 1635 was taken down and ceremoniously presented to Councilor Joe Ogden, chairman of the gas lighting committee who said he would offer it up to Manchester Museum as a souvenir”.**

That momentous event was still four years away when our man put his ladder up against the lamp post on the corner of Randolph Street, and drew the attention of children, who may have been more fascinated by the photographer than the lamp man.

Either way they broke off from playing in the street to watch, not that the two lads in the distance, the window cleaner or the woman on her way to the corner shop seemed at all bothered.

There were two Randolph Streets listed in the directories, one in Crumpsall and the other in Levenshulme, and I am minded to think this is Crumpsall.

Although I could be wrong, probably am, leaving me confident that someone will know.

Location; Manchester

Pictures,  Gas Street lamps, Manchester, 1962 -3691.4 and 1962 -3692.1, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Manchester Gas Lighting, https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=736794.0

**City’s last Gaslamp, Manchester Guardian, February 22nd, 1966

When in Münster ….. always clock the street furniture

Today I have inducted into my Hall of Fame collection of all things street furniture this slightly worn but fine example of a round metal access cover.

A bit of essential Münster, 2026 

What it leads to I have no idea but the inscription records “Stadt Munster 1200 Jahre 1993 Tiefbauamt Budens”, which translates, “City of Munster 1200 Years 1993 Civil Engineering Office Budens”.

And that  is enough for me.

My Wikipedia tells me that Münster is an "independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. 

It is in the northern part of the state and the historic capital of the Westphalia region” 

Its attractions include, “St. Paul's Cathedral, built in the 13th century in a mixture of late Romanesque and early Gothic styles. 

The Prinzipalmarkt, the main shopping street in the city centre with the Gothic city hall dating from 14th century in which the Peace of Westphalia treaty which put an end to the Thirty Years' War was signed in 1648.  

St Lambert's Church (1375), with three cages hanging from its tower above the clock face. In 1535 these cages were used to display the corpses of Jan van Leiden and other leaders of the Münster Rebellion, who promoted polygamy and renunciation of all property.”*

Along with palaces, a fortress, botanical gardens and much more.

St Lambert's Church, Münster, 2026

To this can be added our street cover which like all such things is a reminder of the onward march of all things municipal, and more specifically the provision of a heap of services funded locally by elected authorities all designed to advance the health, protection and well being of residents be it Münster, Manchester or down town Madrid.

And in case you missed it

And which include everything from sanitation, drinking water, power supplies, parks and schools.

So, hats off to the City of Munster, and thank you to my touring chums who sent over the images.

Location; Münster

Pictures; Münster street cover and St Lambert’s Church, 2026 

* Münster, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnster

Gasholders I have known and loved ........... no 2 Liverpool Street Salford

Now I knew when I launched the new series on Gasholders I was pretty confident it would make a stir.

And sure enough my friend Andy couldn't resist offering up three of his pictures of the gasometer on Liverpool Street.

All of which I am confident is just the start.

Location; Salford



Picture;Liverpool Street, Salford, 2017, from the collection of Andy Robertson


*Gasholders, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Gasholders

Gasholders I have known and loved

Now I grant you they may not seem the most compelling things to write about or indeed to asdmire.

But if you are of a certain age and lived close to a city or town centre they will have been part of the landscape.

I grew up near one and lived close to another when we occupied a flat in east Manchester.

Most of us will have taken them for granted and yet in their way they were a marvel of the 19th century and as much an symbol of that period as the steam engine or the dark satanic mills.

Until recently I have no idea there had been one on King Street West near the House of Fraser although I do have a fine picture of the coking room of the one on Rochdale Road.

Once the manufacture and storage of “town gas” was an essential part of each town and city and were just taken for granted.

So here in a new series are two pictures of the one in east Manchester from the camera of John Casey dating from the 1980s.

Be warned ............ more will follow.

Location; East Manchester

Pictures; the gasholder in east Manchester, 1980s from the collection of John Casey

*Gasholders, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Gasholders

Who laments the passing of the old milk machine?

It is as much a piece of history as the Penny Farthing bike or the old fashioned tram.  

I am trying to remember when I would have used one.  I suppose it would have been after the pub in those years when I was a student and living in a bed sit in Withington.

There used to be a milk machine by the Scala Cinema which in turn was beside the White Lion. And I guess it would have been that bit of forward thinking about milk for breakfast which would have got me using it.

But then without a fridge and with most shops having closed by nine in the evening buying your emergency milk from a machine made sense.

Of course getting the cartoon open was another matter.

All of which  got me thinking about the age of the vending machine which I assumed came along in the 19th century.

And there I was wrong, there is a reference to one in the first century when Hero of Alexandria came up with a machine to dispense holy water.*

The first modern one was introduced onto a London street in the early 1880s and sold post cards.  For me the first I really remember were the Five Boys Chocolate bars usually on railway stations and which could be guaranteed to deliver slightly dry flaking chocolate which had gone white at the edges. There were also the polo mint machines and the chewing gum ones.

Along with the cigarette machines they were just one of those bits of street furniture you took for granted.  I don’t really remember when they began to disappear to be replaced by the giant all glass fronted multipurpose dispenser.

As for the milk vending machine I rather think they began to vanish in the 1970s, possibly in the wake of the supermarket revolution along with cheap fridges.  For who would want to stand at what was often a shabby and knocked about machine, fumbling for the sixpence only to discover the coin had got stuck, the machine refused to accept it or worst still there were no cartoons left?

This one was on on Shude Hill and was photographed in the March of 1960 which may have been at the height of their popularity.

I suppose they fitted into that new high tech way of life that was the late 1950s and 60s, and I have to say that thinking back to the period it does look ultra modern and there was something novel about getting your milk this way instead of from a milkman.

Not of course that the milkman visits many houses anymore and I hear today that one more newspaper is about to turn itself over to an electronic version.

As someone who grew up in the 50s thinking that milk delivered to the door step along with a daily newspaper was the hall mark of civilized life this all seems a little sad.

And if  I don’t stop I am in danger of sounding like my uncle who still could not bring himself to accept the fall of Constantinople.

Pictures; vending machine on Shude Hill taken by L Kaye, March 1960, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, m59879, m59878, m5987, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

The Coal Hole Hall of Fame ………no. 6 …… one road seven covers

Now I am impressed.

Back in 2019 Karine discovered seven coal hole covers on Kirkside Road in Blackheath, and quick as a flash she photographed them and sent the images across.

What strikes me is that not only are they in good condition, but there are five different designs, with two  carrying the name of Peppercorn Brothers, Deptford, who according to one source, were provision dealers, dealing in “Furniture, Carpets, Pianos, Lino, and Second-Hand furniture”. *

“John Peppercorn was born in 1843/4 and died in November 1915.  He was a businessman and local politician active in south east London.

Born in Deptford, he was one of several sons of Joseph Peppercorn, a Bedfordshire born grocer and cheese monger and his wife Ann Howard née Down from Devon.

After serving an apprenticeship, John set up in business as a grocer by 1870, when he married Florence L Poulton from Torquay.

His business prospered and by 1898 he was described as a large draper or merchant. 

In that year he won a seat as a Progressive Party member of the London County Council representing Greenwich. 

He only served a single three-year term on the county council, standing down at the 1901 elections.

When the first elections to the Metropolitan Borough Councils were held in November 1900, Peppercorn stood for election to Deptford Borough Council but was defeated, with the Moderate Party gaining control. By 1905 he had gained a seat and served as Mayor of Deptford for 1905-06.

His business became a limited company, Peppercorn Brothers Limited of Greenwich and Deptford, and he retired to Lee, where he died aged 70”. **

Now there is a lot more research to do on the man, and the firm, and at the end of it we may discover that his is not our man.

In the meantime, I will just leave you with the five, and thank Karine for taking the trouble to photograph them.

I would happily send her a gold-plated coal hole cover, but I couldn’t stretch to such an expensive exercise.

 I have however inducted the seven in the Coal Hole Cover Hall of Fame.

Location; Blackheath














Pictures; coal hole covers, Kirkside Road in Blackheath, 2019, from ye collection of Karine Lepeuple

*There is a picture on the Bexley Archive of a shop front of Peppercorn Brothers, dated 1900 which announces that the firm sold,  “Furniture, Carpets, Pianos, Lino, and Second-Hand furniture”.

*Shop front of Peppercorn Brothers Provision Dealers, Deptford c.1900. Images from Bexley Local Studies and Archives, https://www.boroughphotos.org/bexley/dew172/

**John Peppercorn, London Wiki, https://london.fandom.com/wiki/John_Peppercorn

Even coal holes cover can be mysterious ……. out in Greenwich

Now, I have a new obsession, and it is those iron coal hole covers, which have all but vanished.

Once they were a feature of most houses, came in all sorts of designs and some carried the name of the iron foundry where they were made.

They were the point where the coal man poured the coal down into the cellar, and I just can’t get enough of them.

A few days ago, I made an appeal for pictures and was impressed by the number of people who share my love of all things coal and metal.

And so here are two, sent in by Steve Smith, and because I grew up in Eltham just south of Woolwich, the first is my favourite.

I went looking for Lloyd and Sons, and although I came across some promising leads I have yet to find them in Woolwich at the time their coal hole cover was made.

But I bet someone will have chapter and verse.

And I am hoping that they can help with the second which looks to have the name Deptford and Lewisham on the cover.

I think the image has been reversed and I am useless at decoding such things.

Steve tells me both came from Greenwich.

And the rest as they say awaits developments.

Leaving me just to repeat the appeal for pictures of iron covers, which don’t have to be coal, I am happy to receive all sorts.

And just after I posted the story, Michael C Wood sent over a corrected version of the last cover with the comment, "Here’s a flipped version of that cover.  Just opened it in ‘Paint’, and Rotate/Flip Horizontal".

Location; Greenwich

Pictures; coal hole covers, dates unknown, from the collection of Steve Smith

Street furniture from a holiday ……

There are many ways to share a holiday ….. from picture postcards to instant mobile photos and of course the post trip presi.

Madrid, 2025

And then there are those from my old chum, who knowing my fascination for street furniture and trams will send me regular items for the collection.

So, over the last few years I have added trams from Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and Switzerland, along with heaps of street grids from everywhere.

And having received a sanitation cover from Porto last week he came up  trumps with this delightful one from Madrid, the inscription which runs "Ayuntamiento de Madrid" and "Alumbrado Publico" which roughly translated is “Madrid Town Hall” “Public Lighting” .

I can not better the pictures and have only this sad looking post from outside the Library, which reveals that behind that black layer of resin is a rusting bit of metal.

All of that said, there is an importance to all such street furniture, some of which has long since been relegated to the dustbin of history as technology has made them redundant but still can be striking to look at and have a story.

Chorlton, 2025

I just await his collection of Roman lead pipes and aqueducts.

Location; Madrid, and Chorlton

Pictures; from Madrid courtesy of a chum, 2025 and Chorlton, 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Pictures from Porto ………… and a bit of street furniture from around the corner

Or as we often say in our house … “a wall of sardines, date stamped, and a bit of street furniture brought to you by Fucoli-Somepal”.

A wall of sardines, 2025

Now I have no idea sitting here in Chorlton as to why these tins of sardines each bear a different date, other than you can search for the year you were born and take home the contents ready to eat on the anniversary of your birth.

And that was the assumption of my pal who sent over the image on his trip through the Portuguese town of Porto.

SANEAMENTO, 2025

That said there will be someone who has taken a similar picture and has the knowledge of just why a company would date stamp their tins of sardines.

Happily, I am more at home with the metal street cover which bears the words SANEAMENTO which is Portuguese for sanitation, and underneath it Fucoli which is the company that makes such essential street items.

Their web site announces that “At Fucoli-Somepal, we pride ourselves on providing durable and long-lasting ductile iron products for wastewater applications. Our expertly engineered solutions are designed to perform exceptionally well, even in the most challenging conditions”.  Added to which their products are “100% made in Europe”.*

This Porto “ductile iron product” is a grand addition to my collection of street furniture which extends way beyond street covers to include stink poles, vending machines, and ghost signs, as well as redundant telephone kiosks, Lucy Boxes, and streetlamp posts.

The list is endless, and pretty much covers anything which at some point in time has occupied a street corner, plastered on a wall, stood on a pavement or the middle of a road or just outside a shop.**

A Lucy Box, 2021

Once they did the business but progress has reduced them to rusting, neglected and forgotten bits of our history.

Like those Lucy Boxes which according to my I Spy Lucy Boxes, site, a "Lucy box" is a name applied to boxes, about 3 feet high, about 2 feet wide and about 18 inches deep, which are to be found on pavements throughout the city.   

Such boxes were originally used in connection with the tram network and then with the trolley bus network; and as part of the general electricity supply network; and for telephone purposes”.***

To these I could add horse troughs and finger posts.  

For those who like me who were born in the first half of the last century, the horse trough were a common sight still fulfilling their purpose of offering drinking water to thirsty horses which pulled the milk floats and assorted carts and wagons. While finger posts with their destination indicators pointing in different directions remain far more attractive than those giant metal signs in day glow colours. 

And looking at this vending machine from the middle decades of the 20th century it is hard to remember that there was a time when you could get cigarettes, chocolate, chewing gum and even milk and orange juice from a machine which required to to do no more than put your money in a slot and pull the right lever.

No complicated battery of buttons to assist in making a choice between a bewildering selection and which requires a card rather than a few coins.

But then as now there was always that danger that the machine refused to give you anything ..... reminding me of that old sad lament ...."here I stand, paid a penny and only ......".

All of which is a long way from Porto in Portugal and so given that we have shifted in time and space, I shall close with this wonderful sign from the age of the old Manchester trams.

It is undated but I think will come from the 1930s or 40s.

Tram sign, undated

And I wonder if it will have a longer life than the sign to the lavatories in a department store in Manchester I collected yesterday.

2025

Well we shall see.

Location; on any street, shop wall at anytime in the last two centuries.

Pictures; wall dated stamped sardines, and a bit of street furniture brought to you by Fucoli-Somepal, 2025, A Hardy & Padmore of Worcester Lucy Box, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertso the forgotten machine in Deal, 2016, courtesy of Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick, Manchester Corporation Tramways, date unknown, from the collection of Allan Brown

* Fucoli-Somepal, https://www.fucoli-somepal.pt/EN/produtos/produtos/agua-residuais-saneamento#

**Street furniture, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Street%20furniture 

*** I Spy Lucy Boxes , http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/lucy/lucyboxes.htm

The history of Eltham in just 20 objects ........Nu 9 a water trough chosen by Jean

The challenge is to write a history of Eltham in just 20 objects which are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

And here my friend Jean has chosen a horse tough and describes her choice.

This is a photograph of a disused Horse Water Trough still in position in Bexley Road, the road linking Eltham with the neighbouring town of Bexley.

With the growing awareness in the late 19th century of the need for such street furniture, to ease the way of the hundreds of workhorses pulling wagons and vehicles of all kinds up and down the highways of the kingdom, stone troughs of the kind shown in this photograph were provided throughout the country through the generosity and compassion of individual benefactors, and many survive to this day.

The one provided on the Bexley Road was presented by Sir Spencer Maryon-Wilson of Charlton House, Greenwich.  Charlton House is one of the finest Jacobean mansions in the London area and it remained the home of the Maryon-Wilson family until 1916, when Sir Spencer Maryon-Wilson moved out of the house which was being used as a hospital for officers during the 1st World War.

Charlton House and Park were sold to Greenwich Borough Council in 1925, and Sir Spencer Maryon-Wilson died in 1944

Location; Eltham

Picture and text; courtesy of Jean Gammons

A little bit of Derbyshire's history .... in the Lake Didstrict

 It has been a while since I inducted an object into the Street Furniture Hall of Fame.

This one comes from the Lake District and was uncovered by a chum last week.

Like all the inductees it comes with a history which in this case starts in two places in north Derbyshire. 

Stanton and Stavely were centres of iron manufacture in the 19th century.

Stanton began making iron products in 1846 and Staveley in 1863. 

They merged in 1960 and were nationalized in 1967, only to be priviatized later, acquired by a French company before the works in both places were closed down in the early 21st century.

I will leave it to someone else to explain the rest of the inscription.

For the very interested, there are various sites for each company detailing their history, their significance to the local econmies and their fate, with heaps of pictures.

Location; the Lake District

Picture; from a chum, 2025

Some more bits of Chorlton just clinging on …….. and some that have gone

Anyone who doesn’t share my fascination for coal holes and street furniture should turn away.

Barlow Moor Road, 2020

 I have been tracking them for years, and while some have been lost under a layer of cement, enough survive to make it a bit of a collecting hobby.

 Once, pretty much any building with a cellar had a coal hole, and the lids came in different shapes and designs.

 Usually they were round, but never underestimate the ingenuity of foundries across the country to come up with slightly different variations on a simple shape  which included the company name and a few twiddly bits.

 I first started collecting them a few years ago and since then people have sent me their own and others from their collections.

Wilbraham Road, 2020

More than a few have survived on the stretch of Wilbraham Road which runes up to the junction with Albany and Corkland Roads.

 Most of these I collected a few years ago, but inspired by a morning of watching the paint dry on a sideboard, I zipped off on Sunday and came up with a few more, of which the first was outside Max Spielman and the rest were on the east side of Wilbraham Road.

 That said two have been lost under a smear of concrete, one of which tempted a passer by to add their own comment in the fast-drying cement.

 All of which just leaves me to make that appeal for pictures of more, which in the fullness of time can be inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Along with the picture it would be helpful to add the location.

 At which point I could go into the history of the coal hole, offering up the numbers of coal men in south Manchester at the beginning of the last century.

Wilbraham Road, 2020

 But I have done that already, so where would the fun be in that?

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; coal hole lids, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Coal Holes; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Coal%20hole%20covers

Even coal hole covers can be mysterious ... out in Greenwich with a puzzle

Now, I have a new obsession, and it is those iron coal hole covers, which have all but vanished.

Once they were a feature of most houses, came in all sorts of designs and some carried the name of the iron foundry where they were made.

They were the point where the coal man poured the coal down into the cellar, and I just can’t get enough of them.

A few days ago, I made an appeal for pictures and was impressed by the number of people who share my love of all things coal and metal.

And so here are two, sent in by Steve Smith, and because I grew up in Eltham just south of Woolwich, the first is my favourite.

I went looking for Lloyd and Sons, and although I came across some promising leads I have yet to find them in Woolwich at the time their coal hole cover was made.

But I bet someone will have chapter and verse.

And I am hoping that they can help with the second which looks to have the name Deptford and Lewisham on the cover.

I think the image has been reversed and I am useless at decoding such things.

Steve tells me both came from Greenwich.

And the rest as they say awaits developments.

Leaving me just to repeat the appeal for pictures of iron covers, which don’t have to be coal, I am happy to receive all sorts.


Postscript .............. and a thank you to Sue Hennessey and John Baker who instantly recognised the back to front name in the middle of the second cover as Haycraft & Son.

Location; Greenwich

Pictures; coal hole covers, dates unknown, from the collection of Steve Smith

Saving the odd old road sign ....................... another street furniture story

Well it had to happen ............. the one bit of street furniture I have consistently ignored, so here is the start of a series on the humble road sign.

I say road sign because as everyone one knows, Chorlton-cum-Hardy never did streets, just roads.
I rather think a “street” might have crept in with all that new development over the years and we did have our own Lloyd Street back in the mid 19th century but that is it.

And of course more recently there has been the renaming of roads.

But for now I just want to focus on the road sign like this old traditional one on just round the corner from us.

You can still see them on the sides of buildings but they are in decline, replaced by the easier to read but a bit bland version of today.

And while I am on it perhaps a supplementary series could be the road/street names themselves.  Most are in memory of long gone local heroes, like Mr Brundrett, Mr Needham and of course those big landowners, the Egerton’s and Lloyds.

But sometimes the odd names strike you, like Ney Street in Waterloo in Ashton which I will leave you to ponder on, given that Marshal Ney was one of Napoleon’s generals and Napoleon of course was defeated at Waterloo.

Or Battle of Tel el- Kebir Street in Sunderland or the equally imaginative Faucet Street in the same town and our own Anita Street which more than a few people will be able to furnish the full story.

So that is it ............ road signs the new series to sit beside the other street furniture series, which include, finger posts, water troughs telephone kiosks and pillar boxes, not forgetting those huge iron street ventilation pipes.


That said my old friend in Adam in Peckham has started the research going, so lots I suspect still to come.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; Provis Street, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Of polo mints….. chewing gum ….. and Five Boy’s chocolate ….. the vending machine ...no. 1

Now at 74 those modern vending machines which are built like a house, offer infinite variety of things to eat do rather challenge me.

Polo mints in Chorlton, 1958

All of which is an alert to a grumpy story, which was brought on by the discovery of the DVD, “Classic Vending Machines of the 1960s. Film, Refreshing Look, Features Footage Of Classic & Vintage Vendo Antique Vending Machines For Cola, Soda, & Soft Drinks”.

It was rated as having 4 out of 5 stars, but alas was unavailable.  I doubt I would ever buy it, but it did rather fascinate me, and set me off thinking about those vending machines of my youth.

They were far less complicated than their great grandchildren and the earliest I used dispensed polo mints, chewing gum and Five Boy’s chocolate.  

They were sturdy, no nonsense machines, which made no demands on you other than put your money in the slot, turn the handle and watch as the item fell out.  

There were no flashing lights, no messages about how much money had been fed in, and no window to watch as the product made its way down from the holding position to the flap where it could be collected.

A slew of machines, on Princess Road, date unknown

Instead you put in the money, turned the handle, and waited, and if you were lucky you heard the mints or chocolate land with a thud where upon you could retrieve it. 

But sometimes you got nothing because the machine had not been refilled and like as not you didn’t get your money back either.

Added to which there was no guarantee the product was still within its sell by date.  

Too many times on deserted and grim railway stations the vending machine offered up bars of chocolate which were crumbly at the edges, covered in white dots and tasted stale.

I was too young to use cigarette machines, but by the end of the sixties there were those tall and robust machines which delivered cartoons of milk and orange juice., which were a life saver at the end of the day when all the shops had closed.

So, in memory of some of those machines, this is the first of a short series on those simpler style of machines.

Location; Manchester

Pictures, polo mints at 362 Barlow Moor Road, A H Downes, May 1958, m17608, and a slew of machines Princess Road, date unknown, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  and https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk