Dark deeds, silly stories and a walk through Martledge in 1900, part of Chorlton Book Festival, November 15-23

Contact information, Chorlton Library, Manchester Road, M21 9PN, www.manchester.gov.uk/chorltonfestival 0161227 3700

More thoughts on those Gangs of Manchester from the Together Trust

Released from Strangeways

I am back with the Scuttlers, those gangs of Manchester which Andrew Davies has written about.*

He was recently talking about them at the Post Box Cafe and I picked up on his interesting conclusion that it was the development of the Lads’ Clubs which drew potential members away from the gangs.

These clubs were started up in some of the strongest centres of Scuttler activity and it occurred to me that there were other groups which  also have helped provided alternatives for these lads of which the Manchester & Salford Boys’ & Girls Refuges was an obvious candidate.

And as ever the archivist of the Together Trust which is the successor of the charity had thought of it first, so here are her thoughts, which can be read by following the link, Preventing Scuttling, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/preventing-scuttling.html

Picture; courtesy of the Together Trust

*Davis, Andrew, Gangs of Manchester, 2008
Andrew will be speaking on the Gangs of Manchester at Post Box Cafe on November 7th at 7.30

When “poverty busied itself”....... a little bit of the grim side of Manchester & Salford in the 19th century, tonight at the Post Box Cafe, with historian Andrew Davies, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20in%20the%201890s

On a sunny day during the Whit Walks of 1969

I am back with the Whit Walks when the congregations of the local churches chapels and Sunday Schools walked in procession through the streets of the city as a witness to their faith.

These were really big events with hundreds turning out to walk the few miles and thousands more lining the streets.

These were really big events with hundreds turning out to walk the few miles and thousands more lining the streets.

So I have returned to some of the pictures taken by Adele’s father in 1969 and it’s all here from the children taking the event with varying degrees of seriousness to the mums walking in the procession or along side

  

At their front door others have come out to watch and every where people are enjoying an event which dates back to the 1820s.

So these are just as importnat as any of those the posed carefully composed images of professional commercial photographers.

And in a way they are more significant because  but these pictures were taken by some one  who lived where the procession was passing and had links to both the Walks and the people in them.

And something of the fun and pride of the participants comes through from Adele’s pictures.

Pictures; courtesy of Adele

Aerial views of old London

Now I may have been born there but London is no more my home.

After all when you have lived for in Manchester for 44 years, this is pretty much home.  

But I do get drawn back to the city of my birth, write regularly about south east London and in particular Eltham where I grew up.

That said I am pretty impressed with the blog from Spitalfields Life and a collection of early aerial pictures of London, which are well worth a visit.*

Picture; header from the site

*Spitalfields Life, http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/10/27/aerial-views-of-old-london/

Down in Furness Vale with a colliery and a pantomime

Time to mention Furness Vale Local History Society again.*

I collect history societies and while I can’t always get to their meetings I relish reading what they are doing, what is currently being researched and just a little bit about their history.

Like all societies they have a programme of events and a blog which features stories from the area.

And I was caught by this one on "Furness Clough Colliery, the Brickworks and the canal wharf which were all linked by a narrow gauge tramway.  There is no record of the date of construction although it was certainly in existence in 1810."**

Now if you want to know more you’d better follow the link at the bottom and in the meantime if you live in the area why not go to their January Meeting on Victorian Pantomime in Manchester.



*Furness Vale Local History Society http://furnesshistory.blogspot.co.uk/

****http://furnesshistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/r-e-knowles-siding.html

At the Southern Hotel with memories of Bodingtons beer, good company and the Buzz

For over 80 years the Southern was just one of those places you went to.

It served Bodingtons, was big enough to accommodate family gatherings as well as impromptu events and had the Buzz.

So that pretty much covered everybody from the houses behind the pub to those who wandered over from the centre of Chorlton and to the adventurous who travelled here for the comedy and music.

It was one of those big old Manchester pubs which will hold fond memories for many.

And then it closed in the April of 2011.  Rumours have continued to circulate about a future use and now I hear it may become a restaurant which may just work given that there will be a metro stop close by.

In the meantime here is Peter’s painting which shows the place off at its best.

Picture; Painting of The Southern Hotel © Peter Topping, paintings from pictures
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

On birthdays, presents and comics

Now the thing about birthdays is the way they assume less importance with the passing years.

This of course maybe a very personal thing and I will be the first to admit that even given that there are fewer  years ahead of me than behind today does not have the same magic as it once did.

That said I am still a sucker for Christmas and in that great divide which pitches you either into the Christmas camp or the New Year one I am and remain a Christmas person.

But birthdays are a tad different.

My first 18 pretty much have been forgotten except for the one when I became six.  I remember the cake, and more importantly one of the presents which was a Regent petrol tanker made by Dinky.

And it remains with me because just a month later my twin sisters were born.

Of the rest they have faded, except for those that were marked by presents from my sons.

This one I think we will celebrate with the big meal given that our eldest has his birthday almost a week later and his partner celebrates hers in early November and as it falls in half term we may be able to gather everyone together.

But all of this is less about me than a reflection the toys that passed through the house over the last four decades and more.

My petrol tanker survived another half dozen years becoming more chipped, losing its tyres and eventually it ladders.

To buy the same today could cost me up to £300 a salutary lesson in keeping care of your toys.
In much the same way the Lego bought for the boys has long ago been consigned to bin liners in the cellar.

The pirate ship, the castle and loads of small cars, planes and helicopters is now a jumbled pile of coloured bricks, wheels and assorted figures.

In the same way the Hornby train set which father lavished hours of time creating during  my childhood was sold when we moved to Eltham.

A loss which I still regret, even given that I doubt there would have been anywhere for it at Well Hall Road or for that matter that at 14 I was over bothered.

Of course just two years later I was but by then there was no getting it back.

All of which makes me reflect on birthdays, both their promise for the year ahead and the presents from the year before.

At least with a bit of care and some financial out lay I have recovered some of the comics of my youth which as they say is another story.

Pictures; Eagle comics from the collection of Andrew Simpson