In Flanders Fields ....... the exhibition at Central Ref

Now the exhibition by David Harrop, commemorating the contribution of the people of Manchester and Salford, during the Great War has been running at Central Ref for just over a month and a bit.

And judging by the comments made to David and the messages left in the visitor’s book it has made a profound impression on many who have seen it.

As it should, for here are the medals, letters, photographs and incidental memorabilia which belonged to those who went through the four years of war.

Much of what is on display is the ordinary things of life, from the saucy postcard sent back from the Front, to a touching family picture of a soldier in uniform standing next to his wife and child.

I asked David to select each week one cabinet which could be featured on the blog.

This is Cabinet 2 and David tells me it “includes, the porcelain figure of a Tommy lobbing a grenade with Manchester coat of arms and a china tank with the Stockport coat of arms”. 

The conker cross commemorating munitions workers. Conkers used in the munitions industry!

And the medals of Thomas Evans, a young man from Levenshulme, who was in the Salford Pals and was killed on the Somme".

The exhibition is on the first floor of Central Ref and runs until the end of November.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Cabinet two, of the In Flander’s Fields exhibition, courtesy of David Harrop

Manchester Retold ......A City’s Journey Through History

Now this will prove popular, ....... hence the advance warning.

From Peterloo to World War Two, discover Manchester's pivotal moments in history. Join the History Press for a special evening of readings and book signings with local authors including:

Graham Phythian
Joanne Williams
Michala Hulme
Sheila Brady
Andrew Simpson
with Michael Billington as MC

This event will take place in the Performance Space of Central Ref.

The event is free ...... but with only 108 places you are advised to follow the link and book soon.*

And as we roll through to the event the blog will feature each of the authors.

* https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/manchester-retold-a-citys-journey-through-history-tickets-51397657778?aff=ebdssbdestsearch#

Visions of a better world ....... no. 4 .... the trade union banner

Now I can’t be exactly sure of the date.

It will be sometime in the 1970s or ‘80s and it will be in Manchester.

So that narrows it down but not much.

It might have been in support of the Firefighters pay claim of 1977 or the day of action undertaken by a host of public service workers two years later.

Equally it could have been anyone of a number of demonstrations I attended during those two decades.

Location Manchester

Picture; trade union banners; circa 1970-1988, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Searching for a date in an old Salford picture

It will I think be very difficult to date exactly this picture of a group of Salford Mill women and by extension know what was being celebrated.

It might be Empire Day which would place it on or after 1904 when the event was started or just possibly to mark the end of the Boer War which was two years earlier.

And it will hang on which of the women in the picture is Annie Holland.  She was born in 1889 and grew up around on Cobden Street in Salford and was the grandmother of Alan who has kindly allowed me to use three family photographs of Annie.*

Annie  is one of the women at the back on the right which puts the picture sometime after 1911, which means we might be looking at the celebrations for the coronation of King George V in that year or more likely an event during  or after Great War.

Now this is not the youthful face that stares out of us from the earlier photograph  so I minded to think we must be mch later, but just when is still unclear.



*Annie Holland in Salford in 1911

Picture; Salford Mill women courtesy of Alan

On coming across a Roman ruin

We came across the Largo di Torre Argentina by accident on the way to the Colosseum. 

The weather had been hot all week and so we had set out early to catch the cooler air, and as we came across the square I took some photographs and we moved on.

Only later when I did the research did I discover that here were four Republican temples and a bit of the theatre of Pompey which was also where Julius Caesar had been assassinated. Not bad going for our first morning in Rome.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Salford Pubs ............. the Packet House Barton Road

Now here is a pub with a history.

It’s just I haven’t got round to looking it up.

Packet Boats ran regular services along our canals.  They offered up to two rates for the wealthy and the middling customers and some had huge panoramic windows and were even pulled by horses with riders in livery.

The Packet House is not one I know so its a thank you to Andy and also to Bill who points out that its "a good old Eccles Barton on Irwell Eccles Pub, not in Salford really but for boundary changes. Always well kept and popular locally but I bet not many know the significance of the name."

And P.J. Thompson who had already corrected me quite rightly with "it's not really a Salford pub, Eccles had nothing to do with Salford before 1974 and had its own council, town hall and mayor."

Now this is what I like.

Location, Salford

Pictures; the Packet House, 2016 courtesy of Andy Robertson

My Salford ..........nu 7 a memorial

Now I don’t claim that any of the following short series of pictures of Salford are magnificent photographs but I like them.

Location; Salford























Picture; Salford 2008 from the collection of Andrew Simpson