Something new for Chorlton ....................

Now here is a smart idea.

Think of somewhere in Chorlton that is special to you.

It could be one of those iconic buildings like the Lych Gate by Chorlton Green, or the Library on Manchester Road or your favourite pub, and then share the image with a friend.

And for good measure add a message on the back.  It doesn’t have to be an essay just a simple “hello,” “wishing you were here” or “come over for dinner.”

Then, and here is the very clever idea send it by post, remembering of course to put a stamp on the card and add the address .

No fiddling with a smart phone, which means you won't have to  remember to save the picture, spell the message correctly and do all this before the battery runs out.

Moreover it avoids that other great pitfall of placing it on social media thereby avoiding the embarrassment of sharing it with people you would rather not know that your favourite place is a post box on Edge Lane

And at the end of all this, your friend, family member or next doors cat will have a permanent reminder of how thoughtful you are.

Moreover the said picture with its message will sit on the fire place or on the pinboard for as long as they want.

It’s an idea that I am sure will catch on.

Peter Topping thinks so, so he has turned some of his paintings into picture postcards and is selling them for just 75p each.  They are available from Chorlton Book shop and this is number 3 in the series.

And ever mindful to capture the moment he is open to suggestions for more iconic images. All you have do is contact him on the link below.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Paintings; Scenes of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, © 2013 Peter Topping

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

Leaf Street Baths in Hulme .............what was lost has been found ............ if just for a short time

Open to the sunlight again .............. the pool, 2016

I am always fascinated when a bit of our collective history is found.

In this case it is the pool of the Leaf Street Baths in Hulme which vanished during the clearance programmes of the 1970s.

It is place I have written about before *and features in the series on our Public Baths.**

To be honest my path to Leaf Street Baths had been via the old workhouse which had been established by the Chorlton Union in the 1830s and which within two decades had been replaced by the bigger and more impressive workhouse in Withington.

Leaf Street Baths, 1920

So in the course of the research I came across  the Manchester & Salford Baths and Laundries Company which opened Leaf Street in 1860.

This  was their third public bath house since the company had been formed in 1855, and it built baths in Salford, Mayfield at Ardwick and Victoria Park.  Its assets were bought by Manchester Corporation in 1877.  The company had added a Turkish bath in 1860 which was the first in a public baths in Manchester.

The Leaf Street Baths were demolished in the clearances of the 1970s and today the site is open ground.

Tiles unseen for nearly half a century

Well it is open ground but not for long because there are plans to build here and that takes me to these two pictures of the uncovered baths which were taken by Ian Wilson.

I had no idea that just below the surface bits of those baths were still there or that they would be uncovered.
When Ian posted the pictures on facebook they brought forth quite a few memories from people who had learned to swim there and I suppose for them as much as for me seeing the pool open to the sunlight again is quite wonderful.

Entrance, 1920

All of which just leaves me to suggest you take a visit down there before they vanish again.***

Location; Leaf Street, Hulme





Pictures; Leaf Street Baths, 2016, from the collection of Ian Wilson, and Leaf Street Public Baths, 1920, m57327 and entrance m57328, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Leaf Street Swimming Baths, the first of a set of stories, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/leaf-street-swimming-baths-first-of-set.html

**Manchester and Salford's Public Baths, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20and%20Salford%27s%20Public%20Baths 

***170 new homes expected to be built in Hulme, Bell, Alex MEN, August 3 2015, http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/170-new-homes-expected-built-9780001

Down in Dorking with a mystery never to be told

Now I have never been to Dorking but I know someone who has and while walking down the High Street Lois came across a faded painted sign announcing “Antique Furniture China Curios & Prints Repairs a speciality.”*

It’s on the gable end of nu 261 the High Street which in turn is sandwiched between the flower shop “Blooms of Dorking” and a group of residential properties.

The sign is much faded and for those who don’t know it is a ghost sign, one of those adverts for a business or a product which has long ceased trading or is no longer on sale.

Usually you also get a name, but not so with this one.

Which means tracking down its story will be difficult.

I am guessing that the elegant late Victorian building that is no 261 once offered the antique service but it is now for sale with “terms agreed" and I doubt that I will find a clue there.

Nor do I think Blooms will help given that in 2008 it was called Thistles and is probably under new management.

All that is left is to trawl the street directories which at some point will deliver a name alongside the correct business.

But Dorking is a long way from Manchester and so I think it will remain a mystery.

To which some will mutter that it doesn’t really matter which is a line I don’t agree with.  All our ghost signs have a story sadly this one isn’t ready to be told yet.

Location; High Street Dorking

Pictures; ghost sign Dorking, 2016 from the collection of Lois Elsden

*Lois Elsden loiselsden.com, loiselsden.co.uk

Looking across a sky line ............... different uses for a car park nu 1

Now the thing about sky lines and roof tops is that you don’t often get to see them.

So unless you are in a very tall block of flats or have climbed to the top of a church tower or chimney stack you ain’t going to get a decent view over Mr and Mrs Bain’s house to the hills beyond.

And these days most church towers are just not high enough and very few of those chimney stacks survive.

All of which ushers in an alternative use for a multi-storey car park, and as someone one who never learnt to drive and doesn’t own a car that is an appealing use for those big blocks of concrete.

Andy Robertson thought so to and yesterday took these from the top of the Stretford car park.

I don’t suppose I should announce that, given that car park owners are forever finding ingenious ways of getting extra cash from people.

But I couldn’t resist these there, each of which has something to offer.

And as we have had a shed load of stories on different types of street furniture and ghost signs ............. perhaps “Skylines and roof tops I have seen” could just be the new one.

We shall see.

Location; Stretford








Pictures;  Skylines and roof tops, 2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson

So where is this chap?

Now never one to pass up a detective story here is one for anyone with a magnifying glass, a second hand violin and time on their hands after solving the case of the Red Toad Diamonds.

It is the mystery of what happened to this chap.  I have written about him before and he reappeared in a story yesterday. For nigh on 80 years he adorned the top of the Assize Courts in Manchester and ended up in the garden of Bailey’s farm on the corner of Sandy Lane and St Werburgh's.*

And then he disappeared and that disappearance has set quite a few people off on wanting to know his final resting place.

None more so than my new friend Catherine who even gave him a name.

I would like to think he went to a good home somewhere in Chorlton or perhaps he is looking across to the rose bushes in well healed Bramhall.

Sadly it is more likely that he is hardcore under one of our motorways.

Still we shall see if there are any takers.

But at least today I have found out a bit more of its origins.  Oliver who lived on the farm  remembers, "exactly what happened to it as it was removed before Baileys sold the farm house. 

Its origin is that it once adorned the law courts in Manchester (see Manchester Shield) and after they were demolished, my father purchased it from the demolition company. 

As far as I remember it originally had two small horns where the lighter patches are on its head but they were broken off, possibly during removal so there were two small square plugs to show where they had been. I remember it taxed our ability to off load it from the Land Rover and then put it in position in the back garden.

In any event, it isn't one of the Queen's beasts as at one time we were in touch with the College of Heralds to find out what it might be."

Location; unknown

Picture; stone figure 1980, from the collection of Tony Walker

* A little bit of the old Assize Courts in a farm house garden in Chorlton, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-little-bit-of-old-assize-courts-in.html

“All gone now” ................... after two centuries Mr Sharpe’s house on Beech Road is no more

Now the last little bit of Mr Sharpe’s house which stood on Beech Road from early in the 19^th century has gone.

I suppose with hindsight its departure was never in doubt after the fire that destroyed half its roof back in 2011.

It had stood empty for even longer and I am told efforts to locate its last owner proved difficult with more than one story that he/she lived in the U.S.A.

It is a building I have often written about and at one time wondered if it would be sensible to try and buy it.*

Sounder counsels prevailed but in the course of telling its story I have come across quite a few people who remember it and have links with it, all of which means that it will not go away, even if as Mike Lever’s pictures taken yesterday show there is now just an empty space.

Location; Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; “All gone now” ............ 2016, Daniel Sharpe’s house, from the collection of Mike Lever

*Daniel Sharpe and 131 Beech Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Daniel%20Sharpe%20and%20131%20Beech%20Road

Holiday snaps ....... I keep coming back to nu 1 ... doing the Roman thing

Yes it’s Bath or Aquae Sulis as we fans of all things Roman say.

I have to say the museum was well worth it.

And that is all I am going to say.

Tomorrow ............... Greece

Location: Bath





Picture, Bath, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson