In the police lock up on Eltham High Street

The Cage, circa 1909

Following on from our map of Shooters Hill I thought I would present you with another image short on text.

This is the ‘Cage’ or lock up which stood on the northern side of the High Street close to the Presbytery of Christ Church.

The Presbytery was once Eagle House but more about that later. In the meantime  I shall turn to the historian, R.R.C.Gregory whose descriptions of the places and people of Eltham can not be bettered.

So while he may not have had the advantage of online resources to track the individuals who lived here he could call on the memories of people who had been born in the opening decades of the 19th century and who in turn could fall back on stories from earlier generations.  Writing in 1909 when the lock up was still on the High Street Mr Gregory commented

‘Prisoners could be not accommodated in the old [police] station, so had to be taken to the “Cage” or Lock-up,” which is still in existence, at the entrance, on the right, to the wood-yard, near the old Workhouse.  “The Cage” in fact, is in the corner of the garden of Eagle House.  The entrance is from the High-street, where the door may be seen, secured by a padlock.’

Pictures; “the Cage” from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm 

*R.R.C. Gregory, The Story of Royal Eltham, 1909

Who owns our history?

It is an interesting question made more so by the explosion of interest in family history and the disturbing if confusing news that Barnardos may be considering destroying its entire collection of old photographs of children who were in their care.

John Kelly September 1885 before being admitted into the care of  the Trust

In the space of less than a decade the number of resources available online for the historian to crawl over has been immense.

It ranges from census material to parish records and on through wills, tax details and books long out of print most of which were beyond the hands of any but a few scholars.

Of course much has been lost, including many of the records of the Workhouses, hospital documents and sadly some parish records.

So for all that I can access there is much that I can’t.

And not for the first time I have pondered on how this could have happened.

In some cases it is of course just rotten bad luck, which allowed vital records to be stored in a building prone to water damage or to later enemy action in two world wars.

Then there is just that simple fact that today’s officials are not always aware of what the historian of the future will regard as important.

Who in the mid 19th century could predict that the salaries of cotton workers or the transit records of a railway company could be of any interest?

Then I suppose it is the sheer volume of information which before the digital age prompted frightening storage issues.

And all of this before we consider the question of confidentiality.  As much I would want to read my great grandmother’s health records I do wonder if I would want my intimate information on show for all to see.

So I have welcomed the latest post from the archivist at the Together Trust which grapples with some of the practical issues surrounding the records of children who went through their care.*

John Kelly, Arpil 1886

For anyone wanting help from the Trust to track family members there is a rich source of information along with expert assistance from the archivist,.

These include reports and pictures of the children admitted into the care of the Trust like young John Kelly who found his ay in their care in 1885.

But out there it can still be bewildering charting your way through the official records hoping that material has not been lost or destroyed, that it is available to be searched and above all that it does not cost too much.

There are self help groups and the cost of accessing online records is getting cheaper and more is available.  I have always been very pleased with ancestry.co and marvel at how much they have made available and will do so.

But  some things remain locked away, others are restricted and some have just gone forever.

So in some ways I am less concerened with who owns the records, after all most are in the public domain even if they cost, but it is more the issue of who has the say in what survives which really is about the control of our past.

*Picture of You http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/picture-of-you.html#more

Picture; courtesy of the Together Trust, http://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

Chorlton Cricket and the search for its history

Chorlton Cricket Club has a long history but even I was not prepared for just how long.

I first came across the club when I was researching Hardy Cottages which stood on Hardy Lane and were popularly known as the block because of their shape.

The cottages were close to the cricket ground and may have been built sometime in the 1870s.  At that time Hardy Lane was much a narrow country lane which ran from Barlow Moor Road and just petered out a little past Hardy Farm.

My old friend Oliver Bailey had lent me a picture of his uncle with some of the cricket team and I always had a mind to take it further.

And  Philip one of my new face book chums put me in touch with one of the stalwarts of the club.  This was Derek who first played for the club as a junior in 1942 aged 11.

I had tracked the club back to the early 1890s where they regularly appeared in the sporting pages of the Manchester Guardian.  It never occurred to me to push the search back any earlier.

If I had I would have discovered that the club was formed in 1885 and their first home was that wonderfully named Cow Lane.

Cow Lane ran from Edge Lane up on to the Isles, but was lost in the late 19^th century after Wilbraham Road was cut in the 1860s.  The line of the lane is there and today is under Hampton Road.

It is a little difficult to locate exactly where on Cow Lane the club was. The OS map for 1888-93 shows what might be a club house just before Hampton Road bends to the west.

At that time the area was dominated by Hampton House which was set back from both Edge Lane and Cow Lane in its own grounds.

The club moved in 1901 to Hardy Lane and here it stayed.  All of which opens up a whole series of intriguing questions, from where exactly the club was on Cow Lane to why it moved.

Sadly Derek died before I could meet him but our conversations on the phone revealed a rich history of the club and the area.

Pictures; Norman Bailey circa 1919-1920, courtesy of Oliver Bailey, Hardy Lane and Hardy Cottages courtesy of Carolyn Willits, and Cow Lane from the Lloyd collection

Old houses and forgotten stories, four houses on Wilbraham Road in 1911

Gable Nook today

Now I have passed this place loads of times and never given it a seconds thought.

I know that today it is a nursery but would be hard pressed to remember when the business started up.

It  is still a pretty impressive building and its business potential was not lost on Mr Alfred Mumford M.D., M.R.C.S.A., L.S.A, Surgeon who was here from the beginning of the 20th century and turned part of this 12 roomed property in to  a doctor’s surgery.

After all the house which was known as Gable Nook, commanded a prominent position on the corner of what was a busy road, facing as the railway station.

These were developments mirrored opposite where an equally fine row of late Victorian houses running from Albany down to Keppel Road lost their elegant front gardens and became shops.

Gable Nook extreme left circa 1900

And round about the time that Mr Mumford was converting Gable nook into a surgery, Dovedale or number 5 had become a hosiery shop and number 7 the post office, leaving only number 3 with its equally fine name of Mayfield as a private residence.  But not even Mayfield could buck the trend, and a year later two shops had been added to its front which in turn was replicated at number 5.

Many of the original occupants were professionals; a few owned their own businesses and a lot more worked in the offices and big shops of Manchester.  They were attracted here by a train service which could whisk them into the heart of the city in under 15 minutes and the fields, farms and open country which for many was even closer.

from the Slater's Manchester, Salford and Suburban Directory 1911

So along with a surgeon and his family at number 1 the remaining three were the home at various times to a retired cotton merchant, a widow “living on her own means”, Edward Ireland who had  a number of photographic studios in Manchester, and a doctor, dentist and a oil trader.

And the size of the houses reflected the inhabitants.  Number 1 had twelve rooms, 3 and 5 eight rooms and number 7 9 rooms.

Each had cellars, a decent front garden and a longer one at the back stretching down across what is now the sorting office and yard.

But like other stretches of property in this new part of Chorlton they were soon developed with the addition of shop fronts and perhaps with an eye to even greater profits the owners sub divided the shops.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the Lloyd collection

Wishing you were here, Eltham in the past Nu 3 Eltham Green

We have walked west from the parish church and have just about reached Eltham Green.

In the distance are those fine detached and semi detached houses built in the late 1840s.

And some at least of the land on the northern side was Glebe Rectoral land which went with the other benefices of the local clergy.

Over to our right hard by the road was the pound which was the area designated to take stray animals until their owner could be found and fined.

Picture; The Eltham Green from the Eltham End, 1909,   from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

Summer days in south Manchester No 8 on the meadows circa 1900

It’s a picture that often crops up in the collections and the reason is obvious.

For while large parts of Chorlton were fast being built over, the meadows and the area between the brook and the Mersey remained open land.

Now this was mainly because we are on the flood plain of the river and back then people were well aware that you don’t build on a flood plain.

And when you do the houses are apt to be washed away as were the two cottages in Hardy which were flooded out in the mid 19th century and abandoned.

So this area was developed as meadowland and in the summer months was a perfect place to come and walk.

The bridge was one of those used to cross the irrigation channels which crossed the land and were used to flood the fields.

Picture; summer on the Meadows, circa 1900 from the Lloyd collection

Back on Alex Road South with a college, the park and two missing houses

The entrance to the college

Yesterday I wandered out and found that house next to St Edmunds on Alex Road South and pondered its future.

It is not quite clear what is happening to it but its two neighbours went a long time ago and in so doing provided accommodation for a lot more people than the occupants at numbers 18 and 20 in the spring of 1911.

These were the two houses which stood on the plot of land which runs up to Mayfield Road.

In 1911, number 18 was occupied by Martha Murphy aged 70, her sister Mary Watts, 74, Elizabeth Watts, 72 along with Lucy Kathleen Warrior who was 46 and Sophia Fildes also in her 70s who was visiting.

St Edmund's Church and the homes of Mrs Chapman, Mrs Murphy and Mrs Lord 

Now as you do I was drawn in to the household.  Elizabeth Watts was described as a servant, while Miss Warrior described herself as a Nursing sister, which made sense given the advanced ages of the other three.

And I have to say I rather think they must have rattled around in what was an eleven roomed property.

Next door at number 20 Mrs Lord and her three daughters shared the ten rooms with a servant and Mr Joshia Freldendred who was a Builders Merchant.

The park directly opposite the college

All of which is an introduction to the magnificent St Bede’s which is best seen on a bright sunny day rather than wet grey ones which give the place a rather gloomy appearance. It dates from the early 1880s and I have to confess was a place a rarely spent much time looking at.

But not so the park directly opposite.  We have spent pleasant times there with the children attended various musical and political events and marvel still at how pleasant the place is.

It was opened in 1868 and covers a 60 acre site.

So there you have it, not bad for a morning out on Alex Road South as the sun shone.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and detail of the park and road from the OS for South Lancashire, 1888-93, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/