Andrew Simpson

The Imperial in 1980 I am back with the old Imperial Cinema on Chorlton Road with some of Andy Robertson’s pictures. Like so many of ...

This is one of those pictures which I never dreamed I would come across. We are looking at Hartley’s College and it is another from V...

We are in the grounds of the Independent College in Whalley Range and the year is 1934. Our picture is a postcard which “R” says “is a...

I like this picture of the Independent Lancashire College in Whalley Range. It had been here since 1843 and even before it was finishe...

Now I couldn’t resist using this receipt for the wedding reception of Mr and Mars Sherratt which was posted recently on facebook by their da...

Now there will be the pedant who points out that the lake in Alexandra Park is still there and perhaps someone else who challenges linkin...

This was the Allied Library which was on the corner of Upper Chorlton Road and Wood Road North. It had grown as a chain of rental li...

Now here is a mystery I haven’t been able to solve. I am looking at what I thought was an old cinema, long since converted into other u...

There has been a post office on Upper Chorlton Road for over a century and for most of that century it was run by the Lloyd family. Of ...

I only ever once visited the Whalley Hotel which I think was sometime around the summer of 1975. There was never any particular reason ...

“Wally of the Whalley” Says Goodbye It is one of those headlines that you just can’t miss. “Wally of the Whalley” Says Goodbye appear...

The Hall in 1879 Yesterday I was pondering a visit to Manley Hall in the June of 1879.* This had been the grand home of Samuel Mend...

Now I don’t usually do stately homes, but back in 1879 I might just have made the effort to visit Manley Hall which had once been the...

I wonder when these petrol pumps on Upper Chorlton Road were taken away. They were recorded by A.H.Downes in the summer of 1960 and wer...

I am on Upper Chorlton Road in 1960 with A.H. Downes who took a lot of pictures of the area. In the distance you can just make out the ...

Now the Seymour has passed into history and soon memories will fade that this was the last pub before the long dry walk along Upper Chorlto...

Now here is a bit of history that I bet lots of people know but has passed me by and it concerns St Margaret’s playing fields in Whalley Ra...

It was Keir Hardie who called Alex Park “the people’s park” in 1893 and I rather think that remains a pretty good alternative name for the ...

So, after years of telling the story of Samuel Mendel who was the classic tale of fabulous wealth, and a  less than elegant descent into mor...

History hasn’t been kind to that grand old house at the end of Upper Chorlton Road close to the former Whalley Hotel. Wellfield, 2023 Once i...