Another story from Tony Goulding .... Brownhills Buildings and “Brownhills the Saddlers” ------ linked? You decide!

For much of my childhood I lived on Ansdell Avenue and have vivid memories of playing in this back entry, which ran alongside Brownhills Buildings. I first became aware of “ Brownhills the Saddlers” during the 1970’s my family  having moved to Cundiff Road  and I recall purchasing asset of tungsten darts (which I still possess) from the shop around the end of that decade. 

Brownhill's Buildings, 1973

What follows is an attempt to assuage my curiosity concerning a link between these two places.
   
The history of Brownhills Buildings is already extremely well documented on this blog. For my purposes it is suffice to reiterate that they were built in the middle part of the 19th century by Chorlton-cum-Hardy’s wheelwright William Brownhill (1) and remained a feature of the Sandy Lane area until being condemned as unfit and demolished by the city council in 1972.
 
As with most such research the starting point for this enquiry was the 1881 census which shows a William Brownhill, born in 1839 in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, with a saddler’s business on Chester Road, Stretford.

Brownhill's shop, 2017

A look into earlier censuses (2) shows that this William was the son of the William Brownhill the builder of the Buildings which bear his name. Later records show that William Jnr’s  son Arnold(3) took over the business and up until at least the time of the 1954 street directory a shop was still trading under the name of “William Brownhill and Sons the Saddlers” on Chester Road (4) (5)
             

However, there is some doubt how, if at all, that business in Stretford is linked with these old premises on Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Directories of the 70’s and 80’s combined with a certain amount of local knowledge tell us that the proprietors of this shop from that time until it ceased trading in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century were Frederick  Allen and his wife Jean W.(née Parker).

As yet I have been unable to trace a familial connection. It is possible that the name “Brownhills the Saddlers” merely continued to be used as by that time it had become such a well established trading enterprise.  What is known: is that Arnold Brownhill married late in life, to Hilda (née Cookson) at All Saints Church, Stretford on the 28th August, 1909. Arnold and Hilda had no children and both passed away during the early 1940’s.
     
Of Arnold’s siblings only his youngest sister, Hilda appears to have a further connection to Chorlton-cum-Hardy. She married Lionel Nixon at St. Clement’s (Old Church) on the 11th October, 1906.
Lionel, the son of Samuel Edward Nixon the deceased Post Master, was residing at 18, Church (now Chequers) Road at that time. The 1911 census shows the couple running a stationer/tobacconist business together at 44, Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Beech Road, 1968 from a photograph, 1947

No children are recorded but Lionel and Hilda appear to be “care givers” to Hilda’s 34 years old brother Leonard William who is described, rather unkindly, on the census as “feeble minded”. Interestingly, also, Lionel’s occupation on his wedding certificate differs from the 1911 census entry; it shows him as a “cha(i)rliner”
                    PICTURE 3

Finally this picture discovered in the Manchester Local Images Collection really “queers the pitch” as it purports to show two shops on Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The full caption states that this is an “oil painting taken from a 1947 photograph.”
         
After spending some time looking through census returns, street directories and rate books this picture remains a bit of an enigma. I’ve found no evidence of any “Brownhills” on Beech Road. There was however a smithy operated by the Clarke family (John and his sons Charles and Bould) from 1860 until the mid 1930’s.

The smithy was located on Beech Road adjacent the Methodist church building now functioning as a restaurant under various guises. However the date of 1947 is misleading as by that date the “smithy” was long gone , the 1939 register records that both it at no.127 and adjoining 129, Beech Road were both void properties.

© Tony Goulding, 2017

Pictures; Brownhill's Buildings, H.Milligan, 1973, 17696, and  Beech Road,  J.Montgomery Oil Painting of Beech Road, 1968 (from 1947 photograph) m80148  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

and Brownhill's shop, 2017 from the collection of Tony Goulding

Notes
1) William’s house and workshop were at the Barlow Moor Road end of Sandy Lane an area then known as “Lane End”
2) Especially the 1861 census which records the 22 year old William still living at “Lane End” with his father but already working as a saddler.
3) Not to be confused with his nephew and namesake Arnold the son of his brother James who had taken over his father’s wheelwright business. Young Arnold died tragically, aged just 4, after he was bitten by a rabid dog on 28th July, 1882. A report in “The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser” dated 15th describes how the lad developed symptoms of rabies on Monday 11th and despite the ministrations of the young Doctor Arthur A. Pownall of Derwent House, High Lane he  died of Hydrophobia on Wednesday 13th September, 1882.
4) Originally at no.1154 later moved a little way to no. 1194.
5) William Jnr. was baptised in St. Clements, Chorlton-cum-Hardy on the 7thof April, 1839. He married Maria Langford in Manchester Cathedral during the September quarter of 1861.  Several of the couples children continued to be christened at St. Clement’s but, on 5th November, 1871, Arnold was baptised in St. Matthew’s Church, Stretford

See also One family trading on Beech Road from 1841, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/one-family-trading-on-beech-road-from.html

Clyne House in the Royal Botanical Gardens ............. another forgotten hospital from the Great War

Patients and staff, Cyne House, 1917

Now there will be some who know of Clyne House and can instantly point to where it was, but I am not one of them.

All I had to go on was this picture postcard dated Christmas 1917 and the caption “Clyne House, Military Hospital.”

It appears in a list of wartime hospitals offering no address but somewhere along the way I picked up a reference to the Royal School for the Deaf and Dumb which had been relocated from Salford in 1825 to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Old Trafford.

The school in the Royal Botanical Gardens, 1893

The school remained on the site until 1956 and there are pictures of the building from 1900 and shortly before its demolition in 1962.*

And like many other large buildings it was offered up as a Red Cross Hospital caring for men recovering from wounds and diseases.

In time I think I will go looking for more information on the hospital but I fear it will be an uphill struggle.

Patients and staff, 1917

Despite being staffed and often funded by local contributions the historical foot print of these hospitals is all too vague.

Most were established in schools, church halls and other public buildings with quite a few converted from private residences.

Once the war was over, all the equipment was auctioned off and most of the buildings were returned to their pre war use.

All of which meant that with in a generation they were all but forgotten.

But the clues are there, sometimes in the form of a newspaper report or a letter from a grateful soldier and if you are really lucky there will be a detailed account.

The work of one Red Cross Hospital in Didsbury appeared regularly in the Manchester Guardian while another on Edge Lane in Chorlton was included in a detailed report by the Red Cross of their hospital in south Lancashire and another on Manchester Road in Chorlton was the subject of a letter to the local parish magazine.**

Patients and staff Clyne House, 1917

In time I know I will return to Clyne House and discover more.

But for now I will just finish with a special thank you to David Harrop who has a vast collection of memorabilia from both word wars.

They cover everything from letters and postcards home to medals and souvenirs, all of which bring a wonderful insight in to the lives of people caught up in these huge conflicts.

And some of them form part of a permanent exhibition at the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery.







Picture; of Clyne House, Military Hospital Xmas 1917 from the collection of David Harrop and detail of the Edge Lane Bowling and Tennis Club, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1893, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Trafford Lifetimes, http://legacy.trafford.gov.uk/content/tca/search_results.asp?fTown=3&fDecade=*&fKeyword=Clyne+House

**Red Cross Hospitals, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Red%20Cross%20Hospitals

***David Harrop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/David%20Harrop 

A little bit of Copenhagen on Oldham Road ........ lost Manchester pubs number 20

I have Andy Robertson to thank for introducing me to the Copenhagen.

That said the invite was too late to allow me to get a drink in the place.

Andy sent these pictures over yesterday and afternoon with the comment that “this is 909 Oldham Road, Newton Heath. 

From what I can gather the pub closed sometime early 2000s. 

When I first came to Manchester in the early 70s I was told about the infamous Oldham Road pub crawl. 

Why they thought I might be interested I do not know! Alas I never ventured.

The Crown & Kettle still exists at number 2, but could this be the only other pub building still existing on Oldham Road all the way from town to Newton Heath.”

Now I leave the answer to that question to hang in the air but I bet Hannah will know and if she doesn’t will set the question going on her Saturday radio programme.*

According to the excellent Manchester Pubs site, the Copenhagen may have still been open as late as 2012.**

All of which makes me wonder whether once Peter and I have finished the Chorlton Pubs book and on the back of the very successful Manchester Pubs book we should entertain the idea of the “Lost Pubs of Manchester.”

But as Eric would point out “what is the fun of a book on lost pubs?  It isn’t as if you can visit them and order up a pint of bitter with a dash of lemonade with a side glass of Creme de Menthe?"

So there you have it, and in the absence of an endorsement from Eric I shall just ask Andy to wander into Oldham and see what pubs he can find to photograph, and in the meantime he could look up Oldham Road in his 1969 durectory and tell me how many pubs there were on that long road.

Location Oldham Road

Pictures; the Copenhagen, 2017, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and in 1961, T Brooks, m36807, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Listen to Hannah's Bookshelf - every Saturday 2-4pm on North Manchester 106.6FM http://hannahkate.net/about/

** Pubs of Manchester, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Copenhagen%20-%20Oldham%20Road

“willingly, smilingly and as though theirs is the privilege”* ......... stories behind the book nu 12

An occasional series on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War.**

Now I was fully prepared and planned for a series of stories on the Red Cross during the writing of the book.

It after all along with St. John Ambulance provided the Voluntary Aid Detachments which ran the auxiliary hospitals catering for sick and wounded servicemen returning from the battle fronts.

The V.A. Detachments had been established in 1909 as part of the preparations for a major Continental war.

Here in Manchester it fell to the East Lancashire Branch of the Red Cross which along with St. John. Ambulance ran not only the auxiliary hospitals transported the sick and wounded from ambulance trains to hospitals in the City and the surrounding townships and organised “comforts.”

Early in September of 1914 the branch had described its role as “a voluntary organisation supported by public subscriptions ....... to supplement the medical services of the army and navy and to supply comforts to soldiers and sailors in addition to those provided by the authorities.”***

And pretty soon I came across the story of the Canadian V.A.D.

It didn’t strictly fit into the book but I became intrigued given that my own BHC great uncle had served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force from 1915 through to the duration.

It was established in the November of 1911 as an “organisation of Voluntary Aid in Canada.  

Committees were created in each district and they were charged with the responsibility of organising Voluntary Aid Detachments in connection with the Militia, [and] the duty of organising the V.A.Ds should be given over to the St. John Ambulance Association [with] the first being in Halifax.  

The second at Quebec, and Montreal and Ottawa quickly following.”****

Much of what I have discovered so far has come from a fascinating book written in 1917 by Miss Thekal Bowser who was a Red Cross nurse.

She was born in 1873 served in France and died aged 46 just one year after the end of the war from an illness she had contracted while at the Front.*****

There is not much on the Canadian V.A.D., in the book but it is a start and as these things work it has drawn me back in to looking at great uncle Roger’s war record.

So there you have it, no research is ever wasted and in the fullness of time he and Canadian V.A.D., will feature in a future research project.

Well we shall see.

Location; Canada

Picture; Willow Bank Red Cross Hospital, Moss Side, circa 1914 courtesy of David Harrop,


* Bowser, Thekla, The Story of the British V.A.D Work in the Great War, 1917 pages 70-71

**Manchester and the Great War, Andrew Simpson, was published in February 2017, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

*** The Red Cross in Lancashire, Manchester Guardian, September 12, 1914

****ibid Bowser, Thekla, page228

*****Ida Thekla Bowser, https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/4943202#timeline

War Baby ......... stories by Eddy Newport no 24 .... another war

Another in the series by Eddy Newport taken from his book, History of a War Baby, Father Ted, and mother Edie.

Ted aged 23 as Corporal E Newport soon to be a sergeant

Ted’s war history has never been documented until now. All I have to go by is the stories Ted told me in his later years.

They are as true as he told them. Dad was a musician and a very useful boxer he won trophies as a bantamweight for his regiment.

Ted age 23 as Corporal E Newport, soon to be a sergeant.

WW2 was declared by the Prime Minster Neville Chamberlain in September 1939 and all the forces were mobilised.

The Territorial Army were called up and were got ready to be sent to France and Belgium with the British Expeditionary Forces to stop the Germans from doing their worst.  Ted was soon to be off to war.

One evening in a pub, The Plume of Feathers Greenwich, in front of all his army friends he got down on one knee and proposed to Edie.

Wedding day, 1939, Jim, Dad, Mum, Ginny, David

No time was wasted in fixing up the wedding at the local church, not even  time for a white dress to be made, just a service and a small reception back at Edie’s mum’s flat in Doddington Grove.

Her brother Jim gave her away and Ted’s brother David the best man.

The only photos were taken were on a box Brownie camera and of a very poor quality.

A staff car from the army was borrowed from Ted’s commanding officer to bring Edie to the church.

Probably first married photograph

This wedding was done on the cheap, Mother said in later years she would have liked to have had a proper wedding, but it was not to be. They had a little time to themselves at a seaside resort in Devon.

After that, it was back to army training preparing to go with the Expeditionary Force.

As dad was a musician and his bad eyesight had graded him as a B2 solder his rank was made up to a sergeant and he was in charge of a platoon of men responsible for setting up a field hospital away from the action.

He said his expertise was digging a very big hole in the ground and covering it up with sandbags. So armed with his rifle, shovel and packs of field dressings off he went.

But not before he had got Edie pregnant.

 © Eddy Newport 2017

Pictures; from the collection of Eddy Newport

Stories of Empire, and a context for one British family

A shipping list of the hopefuls

Sometimes you can just lose perspective when researching a family relative.

I always told myself that in telling their stories I wanted to put them into the bigger picture.

As intriguing as the life of my great uncle might be it is nothing unless you place him in the context of where he lived, when he lived and what was going on around him.

He was a British Home Child, and understandably his life and the difficulties of tracking down a man born in 1898 who spent his early years in institutions and then left for Canada in the May of 1914 can become so absorbing that you don’t see the wood for the trees.

Laura Hall

Now all of us who have researched BHC are aware of the social and economic background that led well meaning organisations and individuals to sweep up children in Britain and relocate them to Canada, Australia and the other colonies of the former British Empire.

And I guess we have all come across those back in the home country with an eye to empire. For them these children were also about putting down a population in a colony still being built, who in time with family, a farm and a flag would bind these new territories to the mother country. Barnado himself is reputedly to have talked about the children he sent as “bricks for empire.”

Of course the bigger picture helps place BHC in a context. We had been sending our criminals and unwanted children to North America, the West Indies and later Australia since the 17th century while in the 1840s the Poor Law Commissioners and local land owners connived a scheme to send the unemployed across the Atlantic.

A testimonial

So I suppose I should have not been surprised to read about the Free Passage Scheme which at the end of the First World War offered a “Free Passage Scheme for ex-servicemen, ex-servicewomen and their dependants to emigrate to the colonies and dominions of the Empire,”* and was followed by the larger, Empire Settlement Act of 1922 to emigrate large numbers of British women as domestic servants.

Now I knew vaguely about the Empire Settlement Act, but it was her article in the  BBC History Magazine “Our Excess Girls” which drew me into the story.

It has been written by Lucy Noakes  and was a curtain raiser to her book From War Service to Domestic Service: Ex-Servicewomen and the Free Passage Scheme 1919–22, OUP, 2010.

It is a fascinating story and fits well with the idea of the mother country populating the outposts of Empire.

There were she writes a “complex network of interlinked beliefs and policies concerning both the relationship between the metropole and the Empire, and the perceived necessity for social stability in Britain and in the dominions and colonies.” 

But in the case of over 4, 000 young women it was the opportunity for a new life often in domestic service.

Laura Pember, nee Hall, 1947

And like so much in history there is a direct echo with my own family.

My great aunt who had been born in the Derby Workhouse in 1902 and like my great uncle had spent her early years intuitions before being sent into service at the age of nine went across to Canada in 1925.

She was one of the beneficiaries of the many schemes for the settlement of people in Canada.

I guess she was part of the program providing transportation assistance and guaranteeing standard wages and transition support for more than 22,000 domestic workers between 1919 and 1930.

Hers is a story I have yet to tell. Great aunt Dolly had planned to stay in Canada just a short while, and took only a few clothes in a suitcase.

She had been encouraged to go by her brother who was my BHC. The plan was for her to meet him in British Columbia but she got no further than Ontario where she stayed, married and raised a large family.

Put their two life stories together and I begin to have something more than just a family history.

Add in another uncle who spent his entire working life in Africa and great uncles who plied the oceans as ships engineers and it is the start of my family and an Empire.

Pictures; Laura Pember nee Hall, and letter from C. Dould, from the collection of the Pember family, shipping records from the collection of Andrew Simpson 

*Lucy Noakes, BBC History Magazine “Our Excess Girls” March 2012

Me, a camera and bits of the City I like ..............Nu 5 Castlefield

Now all these pictures have already appeared but that has never stopped me wanting to use them all over again to explore my City.

Location, Castlefield, Manchester

Picture; Castlefield, 2003, from the collection of Andrew Simpson