Will those responsible ……… return the drinking fountain to the Rec on Beech Road

It is one of those silly stories which started with a couple of pictures of the Rec in the early morning.

Early morning on the Rec, 2021

And progressed through to a newspaper report from September 1897 of an ordinary meeting of the Withington Urban District Council at which Mr. Burgess “intimated that a gentleman in Manchester, whose name he would not at present mention, had offered to give a drinking fountain to be placed in Chorlton-cum-Hardy”.*

I had been looking for information about the early years of the Recreation Ground on Beech Road.**

It had been opened in the May of 1896, and was gift form Lord Egerton of a strip of land which had for centuries been known as Row Acre.***

And here I went very  wrong, because so engrossed was I in the research that the fountain and the Rec came together and for a brief while I went searching for just where the drinking fountain might have been located on what is now called Beech Road Park.

Waiting for something to happen, 2021

All of which will allow Mr. Pedantic of Provis Road to mumble that the story is a nonsense, and artificially connects pictures of the Rec on a Tuesday morning with the real drinking fountain which was on Chorlton Green.

And he would be right, leaving me to reflect on that earlier bit of public open space which is surrounded by two pubs, the old parish burial ground, the village school along with two former farm houses.

Today most of us think of Chorlton green as an open space of grass ringed by trees but this was not how it has always been.

Before the turn of the 19th century it may have been much bigger and indeed for most of that century was not even open to the people of the village, having been enclosed by Samuel Wilton and not returned to public use until the 1890s.

And then for a great stretch of time remained without grass but did have a pretty neat water fountain.

The Green, circa 1900

The picture dates from 1906 when the Horse and Jockey was still just a set of beer rooms on either side of the main door, Miss Wilton’s outhouse still jutted out from the building and the space between the main entrance and the sweet shop was still a private residence.

I have always liked the lamp which stands on the green, with its hint of Narnia.

And back in the May of 1986 I can remember walking past it in the early evening and coming across a string quartet playing around its base.  Today people would just take it in their stride mutter something about it being typically Chorlton, but back then it struck me as the promise of things to come.

Which later that night with the defeat of the Conservative candidate and the election of the first Labour Councillor it  indeed seem to herald something new.

But being a historian I have to own up to the fact that the following year the Conservatives were back but they were on borrowed time, and 1987 marked the final year that a Conservative would be elected from Chorlton to the Town Hall.

The year before may have been the first string quartet on the green but it has not been the last.

The drinking fountain, circa 190o

I have to say I prefer the grass but lament the loss of the fountain.  

First it lost its cups and then vanished sometime in the 1920s or 30s.  To my mind that was a loss.  Public fountains are wonderful places to meet people, spend time chatting and just having a drink on a hot day.

Once it would have been the village pump which offered all three and which on hot summer days had the added bonus of a place the kids could play.

Now there is a lot more history to explore in the photograph of the fountain but I rather think I will leave that for another time.

To which Michael Wood has added, "My recollection is that the fountain on the rec was located centrally outside the shelter, as on the attached snip from the georeferenced maps website showing OS 25” 1892-1914 series.  

It was the same design as was used in Chorlton Park near the tennis courts, a perfunctory iron structure with domed hoods over the outlets, operated by a button on top -  nothing like the elaborate ornamental feature on the Green.  Can’t find an image at the moment, but I could draw one!  

The Rec, 1914

They must have been a common municipal feature in their time, but by the mid-sixties they were semi-functioning or defunct. "

And I hope he does, as it is I never knew about the bandstand.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; the Rec very early on a Tuesday morning from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the drinking fountain on the green, circa 1900, from the Lloyd Collection

*District Councils, Manchester Guardian, September 10th, 1897

**Public Recreation Grounds at Withington, Manchester Guardian, May 18th, 1896

***Breaking News ……….. the Rec on Beech Road is officially opened, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/04/breaking-news-rec-on-beech-road-is.html

One old picture ….. a mystery location ….. and the Chorlton debate

Now I have Lee Hutchings to thank for this image.

He posted it today on a Chorlton Facebook site and it invites intriguing questions of just where we are, and the identity of the three individuals.

I doubt we will ever know their names but with a location we might be able to check on the occupants of the house and make a guess using the historical records.

Which of course just leaves the hunt for that location.  We are looking out on a well-established front garden with a lane and fields beyond, with just a suggestion of open water in the distance and a date of 1898.  There is furthermore a reflection of another house in the windows of the front door, which must have been opposite ours.

The lamp would perhaps indicate that the lane was well used or important enough to have public lighting at a time when this was not common in Chorlton.  

The first four street gas lights date from 1875 and a trawl of the records of the Withington Local Health Board and its successor the Withington Urban District Council might reveal the onward march of lighting provision and in turn reveal possible locations which match our picture and the date.

And I rather think our house might be one of a pair, which could narrow the hunt slightly.

So, with an address we could hit lucky and find occupants who resemble the people in the photograph.

The three look as if they are posing with that uncomfortable attempt to “look natural” which is rather negated by the artificial pose of the dog on the chap’s shoulder.

Already and rightly so there has been some speculation on where we are. The consensus so far is Beech Road with the Rec directly opposite.

It is plausible.  The Recreation Ground was opened in 1896, and our picture is dated two years later, but I think not.

This stretch of Beech Road facing what is now Beech Road Park down to Ivy Farm was undeveloped and remained so until Joe Scott built the row of terraced houses in 1915.

Wilton Road could be an alternative but there were no houses matching that reflected building nearby.

All of which leaves Cross Road, its houses are all in situ by the late 1880s and just maybe that reflected building has a mirror in the tall mid 1870s buildings on the corner of Cross Road and Beech Road.

But I am unconvinced, leaving me to think we still have a mystery.

And of mysteries I am fascinated by the thumb print on the picture. It is fruitless to wonder how we could identify it but it is one of those exciting but intangible bits of history which march alongside speculation on the identity of the last person to handle the grave goods of Tutankhamun or the strand of hair placed in a locket beside the ancient burial of a young bride.

But enough of such romantic tosh ….. bring on the debate on the location of our house.

But answers will only be judged worthy of consideration if like John Anthony Hewitt you make out a compelling case.

It maybe just be that we should be looking elsewhere and that open land in the distance is not the Rec but open fields yet to be built on.

We shall see.

Location; as yet unknown

Picture; the mystery house the unidentified people and a street gas lamp, courtesy of Lee Hutchings, 1896, restored and colourised 2026

When the tower of tyres ....... left our Rec

So farewell that tower of tyres,

You were a constant feature of the Rec. 

And while some may have castigated your presence

As a blot on the beauty of Lord Egertos’s gift,

You were many things to many people.

You served as a climbing frame, 

A game of rolling tyres

And even a place to hide.

But now you have gone,

Taken on a Wednesday morning

By men of the Council.

No more will Declan in his early tasks

Of clearing the rubbish from last night’s revellers

Collect you up 

For fresh adventures by children of all ages.

Why you went is a mystery

But in your going

A little bit of the Rec has been lost.

I don’t suppose the curfew bell

Will toll the knell of your parting pleasures.

Nor the weary commuter homeward bound

Mourn your passing 

But I will 

Location; the Rec

Pictures; those lost towers of tyyres, 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A little bit of our unremarkable past ...... that hut in the Rec

Now here is a little piece of our past which makes me very happy.

The picture was taken in 1980 and confirms that I wasn’t imagining that once the Rec which new comers call Beech Road Park did indeed have its own hut.

I have no idea when it was built.

I know that it doesn’t appear on photographs from the 1900s but is there by the 1940s, because it shows up in a picture of our own barrage balloon.

Nor am I quite sure when it vanished.

All of which I suppose is indicative of the state of my memory.

But there it is, and for those now in the 40s who sat on its bench on long winter’s nights passing the time till they were old enough to visit a pub, here is a memory.

And soon after the story was posted, Bruce Wemyss commented, 

"Andrew Simpson I remember it well in the sixties and would guess it was removed in the early 70s 

It was turned on by the Park Keeper each spring and back off again in the Autumn Chorlton Park and Longford park each had a couple 

They where double sided and operated by pressing a Brass button on the top of the font 

They we’re all the same design I suspect Manchester Corporation will have some pictures hidden away somewhere 

As a footnote In the sixties and early seventies we local lads played football in the Rec most weekends and summer evenings sometimes with games going on all day and well into the evening breaking off to go home for lunch and tea it was not unusual for there to be 12 to 15 on each team Great times I feel very lucky to have grown up in Chorlton back in the day"

All of which was repeated by my own kids, who did the same Bruce, and had to be called in at night
  

We even had a special box full of their friends football boots for the games, and my lads would exhaust shed loads of their friends which came and went.

Location; Chorlton.

Picture; the hut on the Rec and football games, 1980, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Easter on the Rec ……

Now I have lived across from the Rec for half a century, and I never tire of the place*.

It has hosted concerts, the Beech Road Festival, heaps of impromptu football matches between our three kids and loads of their friends and is one of the go to places for our grandchildren.

And because it is special I regularly return to it exploring its history and just taking pictures of how it has changed over the years. **

There will now be no one who remembers the recreation ground being opened 130 years ago but there will be plenty with fon memories of the bowling green, the old fashioned see saw, and the years when it lost its railings.

And for some it is remains a test of just how "Chorlton" you are, becuause  if you refer to it as the "Rec" then you can claim to have been in here long enough to be regarded as Chorlton.  

For every one else who know it only as Beech Road Park that could be a mark of how far you still have to travel.

Our three always call it the Rec and why not, given that all were grew up opposite it from birth and our Saul was actually born upstairs in the big front room overlooking the place.

Of course such a judgement could be regarded as pure tosh and what counts is how much you like Chorlton and especially Beech Road.

And that is it.

All of which is an introduction to a series of photographs I took a few days ago.

Location; Beech Road

Pictures; Easter on the Rec, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Rec, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Rec

**Breaking News ……….. the Rec on Beech Road is officially opened, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/04/breaking-news-rec-on-beech-road-is.html

When the Rec had a bowling green ………..

Now, I don’t remember the bowling green on the Rec, by Beech Road, but lots of people over the years have talked about it.

I have always thought it was on the south side of the Rec, close to Wilton Road, but not so.

It occupied a space in the north west corner, and this I know because I am looking at the OS map for Beech Road, dated 1956.

I know the bowling green was not in the original plan for the Recreational Ground and had disappeared by the 1970s.

Just when it was deemed no longer a recreational asset will be down to people’s memories and a trawl of subsequent maps.

And back then there was that other bowling green beside Cross Road, it became the car park for the Irish Club.

All of which leaves me to wait for comments of those who remember the bowling green on the Rec and when it disappeared.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; detail from the OS map for south Chorlton, 1956, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk 

Eighty-six years in the story of the Rec on Beech Road

I don’t usually do then and now pictures, and certainly not without a story, but today I shall.

Here are two both from the Wilton end of the Rec.

They are separated by about 80 years, and in the interval we had a bowling green which many remember, but not me.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; on the Rec, sometime in 1900 from the Lloyd Collection and again in 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Two parks .....a recreation ground ..... the stolen village green ..... and the Mersey Valley ... now that's our new book

 The story of Chorlton’s open spaces has yet to be told, and with that story will come heaps of memories.

Alexandra Park, 1937

And prompted by those two thoughts, Peter and I have embarked on the our next book which will explore the stories of all our open spaces from the Rec on Beech Road, to Chorlton Park, Alexandra Park and that large open piece of land out by the Mersey.

Chorlton Park, circa 1930s

Along the way we will take in Chorlton Green which was stolen by Sam Wilton sometime in the early 19th century, and only returned to the village after the death of his last daughter in the 1890s..

Added to this we will include a chapter on the bowling greens as well as the fields and market gardens when Chorlton was still a rural community.

We are particulary pleased that my old friend David Bishop has agreed to write the chapter on the Meadows.  

The Meadows, 2019

David is a well known botanist who regularly is asked to speak on a range of topics related to his work and recently addressed an American University.  

He was in at the beginning of the project to turn the neglected area of land by the river into the Mersey Valley, and in fact started exploring the area soon after the sewage works had closed down in the 1970s.

There will be those who question the inclusion of Alexandra Park, but both our families have used the facility over the years, and I bet lots of Chorlton people also have fond memories, so it’s in the book.

Nor will we stop there because we could also include people's gardens, providing of course they would be happy to show them off, once a year when Chorlton proud gardeners open their gardens to the public.

The Meadows, 1979

And that just brings me to the request because there will be lots of people with their own stories, and pictures which we would like to include., and of course those gardens. 

These can be sent as a comment to the blog, or to the Facebook sites, Chorlton History, and Glad to be in Chorlton, or by phone to me on 0161 861 0105.

So to start you all off.  There was a barrage balloon of the Recreational Ground, Chorlton Green once had a drinking fountain, The Meadows regularly hosted winter skating and Chorlton Park was built with a civic theatre.

The lost drinking fountain, Chorlton Green, circa 1900

Location; Chorlton and a few bits beyond

Picture; Sunday in Alexandra Park, 1937, from Manchester, heart of the Industrial North, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, 1937, Chorlton Park circa 1930s, and the lost water fountain on Chorlton Green, circa 1900, the Lloyd Collection, and the Meadows in 2019, and 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

That unseen picture of Beech Road ……. playing on the Rec and heaps more

This is a picture postcard of the Rec which I haven’t seen before and comes courtesy of Bob Jones who posted it recently on social media.

The Rec, undated

It was taken when the recreation ground was still quite new, and I guess dates from sometime between 1896 and 1903.

Now this I know because the Rec was opened in 1896, while Wilton Road which runs along its western side was cut no later than 1903.

The Manchester Guardian was on hand to report the opening in the May of 1896, which was attended by Lord Egerton accompanied by a selection of civic worthies.

They had already presided over a similar ceremony in Withington, and with these two events done, the official party drove “past Chorlton green, the land of which has also been given by Lord Egerton and laid out by the Council [before] the chief visitors took leave of the party and drove to the Stretford station on their way to Knutsford”.*

Playing on the Rec, date unknown

All of which may have been distant history to the children playing on the apparatus, but for those of us of a certain age will be instantly recognizably as potential bone shakers, where the person on the one end made a sudden and swift movement resulting in his companion bouncing into the air and coming down with a thud.

The shelter, Claremount House and those seats

And for those who are devotees of sheds and shelters this one of the earliest images of our own place to sit when the rain came down or just while away the time away from parental observation.

What the postcard also reveals is that lamp post directly in front of the building and what looks to be a set of ascending seats.  Just what they were for is unclear, but perhaps were erected for an event.  

It is even possible that they were built for the opening ceremony on May 18th 1896, and if so we could be dealing with the aftermath, when the guests had gone leaving a group of children to to be photographed by the man with the camera.

That said the leaves on the trees seem to suggest a moment later in the year. 

Beyond are the rounded windows with their pointed tops of Claremont House and Heath Bank, which were numbers 5 and 7 High Lane.

I can’t be exactly sure when they were built but they show up on a map dating to 1881 and I can track them through the Rate books back to 1892 when number 7 was owned by a James and William Botham who were “Grey cloth agents”.**

Almost the identical spot, 2023 

And just to show I am never too proud to stand corrected, "Unknown" posted to comments to the blog which are, 

"Hi - it is not a lamppost - it is a support pillar - other pix show it connecting top centre with the cross beam of the shelter. Happy to help. Continued from Happy to help:

Also, the "ascending seats" are horticultural frames - they are wooden enclosures with glazed hinged tops, under which plants were nurtured".

Thank you

Location; the Rec

Picture; Recreation Grounds, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, undated, courtesy of Bob Jones and in 2023 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Public Recreation Grounds at Withington, Manchester Guardian, May 18th, 1896

**Grey goods “are loom state woven fabrics, or unprocessed knitted fabrics. Greige goods undergo many subsequent processes, for instance, dyeing, printing, bleaching, and finishing, prior to further converting to finished goods such as clothing, or other textile products. Greige goods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greige_goods

Summer days in south Manchester No 3 the Chorlton Peace Festival 1984

It is an event I have visited before, but it is well worth another outing.*

It was at the height of the second Cold War when there was a growing feeling that the world was a less safe place.

Relationships between the two super powers had entered a more hostile phase. This was only in part due to the election of hard line politicians in the west and the elevation of equally conservative leaders in the Soviet Union but also to events across the world where the USA and USSR were engaged in a new round of support for proxy governments.

What made it all the more dangerous was that a new generation of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems had come on stream just as the Cold War deepened and hardened.

The US cruise missile which was being deployed in Britain and West Germany took just 15 minutes to reach its targets in the USSR while American Pershing missiles and the Russian equivalent took just 4 minutes from launch to detonation over the cities of Europe.

So there we were in the Rec on a hot day listening to music, engaged in some politics but above all just relaxing with friends and family.

And having posted the story someone left a comment who helped organise the event and reminded me that there had been a badge designed for the event, which I have, and decided to update the piece with a picture.

It was a designed by Jim De Santos.

Location; The Rec

Picture; from the collection of Tony Walker, and Andrew Simpson

*Dangerous times and peaceful protests, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/03/dangerous-times-and-peaceful-protests.html

School’s out for summer …. the day after

The summer term ended with strong sunshine and a party in the Rec.

Heaps of kids, parents and picnic stuff spread out across the grass and all was fun, play and noise.

Saturday came with rain, and the reminders from the day before.

One discarded Brookburn sweatshirt and rubbish bins appropriately filled to the brim and three abandoned tyres.

Location; The Rec, 

Pictures; School’s out for summer, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The sweetness of doing nothing …….

There is an Italian saying ….. “La dolcezza del non fare niente” which simply translates into the “The sweetness of doing nothing” …….

In the Rec, at Beech Road and on the Green, yesterday.

Location, around Beech Road

Pictures; The sweetness of doing nothing, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

 

The missing three …. tales from the Rec

Odd what people discard on the Rec, and even odder when no one comes to retrieve them.

Early on one day last week I came across the discarded three mirrored by a fourth on a bench nearby. 

And a full  six days later they are still there …. testimony to the many different ways people use the Rec as well as the mystery of why no one came to claim them.

Location; The Rec

Pictures; the missing three and another, 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson 

Tales from Beech Road …. one lost tree … three forgotten coats

 Yesterday I came across the three forgotten coats on the Rec.

Three coats, 2025

A full day later they are still there, but maybe by the afternoon they will be collected.

Alas no such chance for the tree on Beech Road close to the Lead Station.

I don’t remember when I last saw it but chopped down it is now.

It might have been diseased, or perhaps just upset someone.

Location; Beech Road

One tree 2020 now gone

Pictures, three coats in the Rec, 2025, and the vanished tree on Beech Road, 2020 before it vanished, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Rec in 1933

Long before it was Beech Road Park it was the “Rec” and depending on which name you use marks you out as a newcomer or a local.

 Now we have always called it the Rec and so do all my children which I guess says something about us.

Of all the pictures of the Rec in the collection this is my favourite and I have to own up it’s because it features our house.

The date on the postcard is 1933 and the path running along the inside parallel to Beech Road has long gone.
Otherwise apart from the size of the trees it is a scene not so different from today.

Picture; from the Lloyd collection

In the Rec on Beech Road in the spring of 1910

I am back in the Rec and the year is 1910, and judging by the trees I guess it is late spring.

The recreation ground is a little over ten years old and there will be people in the picture who will remember when as Row Acre it was still farmed in long strips by tenant farmers.

The Bailey/Renshaw family whose farm was just behind the photographer on the other side of Beech Road had been farming their strip on Row Acres since the 1760s, while the Higginbotham’s who had the strip beside Cross Road had been in Chorlton from the 1840s.

The accompanying caption refers to the absence of the big see saws which were to the right of the picture just behind the man with the sack but I rather think they were still there but just out of sight.

Then as now it was a busy place with plenty of people taking advantage of a sunny day. In the distance a woman sits on a bench and chats with the mother pushing the pram.  Away in the distance and partly obscured by the trees are other prams.

But we are drawn to the two children who I guess are on their way to school.

The young girl carried a book and seems a little over dressed for the sunny weather, but then spring can be deceptive and what starts as a cold day can turn on a sixpence.

Now there will be those who are better than me at determining the time of day from the shadows cast by our two school children and will be able to suggest whether they are on their way to school or returning at midday.

Either way it is business as usual for the chap with the sack standing behind the bush and like the two young people his attention has been caught by the photographer.

In 1910 the presence of a camera could still draw the curious, and the vain.  Give another decade and the photographer will pretty much be ignored.

But on this spring day in 1910 some of those passing through the Rec can still be fascinated by the photographer and his camera.

And it is worth remembering that back then there were few open spaces for people to sit, for while to the south of our scene there were plenty of fields these were working fields.

The green had only recently reverted to a public place having been the private garden of the Wilton family for most of the last century, and Chorlton Park would not be laid for another decade and a half.

From time to time there were proposals for small parks using bits of open land like the one in the 1890s to utilize a strip of land by Corkland Road, and another for playing fields near Oswald Road School but they never materialized.

So for most of our children it would have been the fields and perhaps the Cliffs which ran alongside the brook just beyond Barlow Moor Road.

It had been a strip of woodland which combined the magic of running water, trees and was sufficiently hidden from view to make it a wonderful place to play.

But by the beginning of the 20th century there were few trees and by 1910 some of it atleast had vanished under Chorltonville.

Which takes me back to the Rec and all those people enjoying the sun on a spring day.

Picture; from the Lloyd Collection