This year we will holiday at home

Now here is one I couldn’t resist.

And for all of us who have at times pondered on saving the holiday money and staying at home our friend on the deck chair with fan, fish and paddling pool might just have hit on something.

Picture, “WITH A LITTLE IMAGINATION YOU CAN TAKE YOUR SEASIDE HOLIDAY AT HOME, from the series, Economy Hints, date unknown, by Tuck and sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Adventures in Greece ........ a ferry and a trip into the unknown

My uncle was just 19 when he washed up in Greece, while I was 32.

Arriving by sea

He went onto Basra, and the Far East having already travelled to Cape Town and up the Suez Canal.

By comparison I had done two long weekends in Paris by the time I was 31.*

But his journey’s had been with the RAF, and South Africa and the Suez Canal were stopping off points on his way to war.  His arrival in Greece coincided with the German invasion, which ended with the Fall of Greece and the British retreat to Egypt, while his arrival in the Far East happened just as the Japanese captured Singapore.

Scenes from off the beaten track

All of which made my travels very tame.

But I did get to Greece in the summer of ’81 and while my contemporaries had blazed a trail back packing across the country a decade earlier, I was happy enough to have got there just forty years after Uncle Roger.

Nothing ever quite prepares you for that wall of heat that meets you as you disembark from the aircraft, or the sight of your first Greek island from a ferry which left the Piraeus in the early hours of the morning.

It is easy after a while to get blasé about the view from the sea of a Greek town with its untidy collection of buildings rising in steps from the harbour up to the skyline.

But every time we have done it I never lose that sense of excitement and while I have done my share of bars and “authentic Greek restaurants” I have also taken myself off and explored the quieter places.

The ferry adventure

Often they are the back streets, which during those hot hours of midday till three are usually deserted, with everyone choosing to rest inside their houses.

But of course tourists and especially those from northern Europe, like the famous song, are the  ones to “go out in the midday sun”, accompanied only by mad dogs and other Englishmen.

Still at the time it fed my sense of curiosity and that was all to the good.

Although left to my own devices I was able on occasion to get hopelessly lost, like the time I took the short ferry ride from where w were staying to the main harbour.  The trip took minutes, but the return journey lasted an hour as I had chosen a ferry travelling around the island.

After a day on the beach

And while I remained calm I did ponder on just how far the journey would take and what I might encounter along the way.

Still to this day I burn with embarrassment at the mistake, but it was an adventure and of those at 73 I still revel in.

Location; Greece, 1981

Pictures; Poros in Greece, 1981 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*It would spoil the story to admit that I had at 19 been taken on a trip across the Mediterranean visiting Naples, Athens, Istanbul and Majorca but I was very young and the attractions of the cruise ship won over the sights of three ancient cities.

Travelling in Greece in the summer of 1981 without a mobile, or a credit card

Travelling in Cephalonia

Now I never did Greece in the 70s.

That was when many of my friends travelled the islands.

Back then it was all pretty much an adventure, starting with the night flight to Athens and then in the early morning the taxi to the Piraeus followed by the ferry and a series of island hopping journeys.

But even in the 1980s when I first began going there was still an element of hit and miss.

The roads and the rail network were yet to benefit from EU money and of course many of the places we washed up in were remote and still fairly basic.

Added to this there was our own lack of knowledge and fore thought like the year we booked two islands on either side of the mainland, opted to do our own transfers and discovered both the delights and the nightmare of a ferry from one island to one Greek port followed by a taxi drive across Greece to another port, another ferry and the second island.

Asos

In the meantime we lost our companions who had all the paperwork for our new accommodation and managed to arrive ahead of them at the island with only a vague idea of where the resort was.

Today our friends would be a mobile call away but 25 years ago that little communication revolution had yet to arrive.

And so once again I am reflecting on the extent to which things have changed.  In Asos on Cephalonia there are two telephone kiosks for those who do not want to use a mobile.

They take telephone cards and are quick and efficient, although I have to say at present the one in the village square is broken.

Back in the 1980s everything was different for once you had found the kiosk you might have to wait in line joining a handful of other tourists and locals wanting to phone off the island.

Nor was this restricted to Greece.  Later in the 1990s in Spain you still had to book an international call, wait to be called by the official, and watch as the minutes shot by and hoping that for some vague and unspecified reason the line would not go dead in mid sentence.

The telephone card

And phones are not the only mark of how things have changed.

Back in Asos there is no bank, post office or cash dispenser, but little over 20 minutes away in the port of Fiscardo I counted several holes in the wall and of course in the capital there are plenty.

All of which means the days of travellers cheques are for all but the cautious traveller a thing of the past.

But how different back in the 1970s when an acquaintance  who had been back packing across Crete one summer ran out of money and opted for the simple expedient of staying over on the island and working on a local farm till the following year.

The farmer’s family treated him very much as their own, and thirty years later they still had his photograph on the kitchen wall.  It was faded and he looked a lot younger but it was him framed by an olive tree and a vine.

There is of course a danger at this point of sliding into romantic tosh.  As a parent with children who did their “travelling year” I would have been mortified at such a turn of events.  But then that is what adventures are about and such concerns have to be put into perspective.

The phone in Asos which didn't work

My own uncle was just 19 when he embarked on a journey which took him by wartime convoy from Liverpool to South Africa and through the Suez Canal to the Fall of Greece in 1940 and back via Egypt to Basra and eventually to the Far East.

And in a little less dramatic way when it was my turn to leave home to pursue a degree course in Manchester in the September of 1969, I left London with just a small suitcase travelling alone and arriving at Piccadilly with only a vague idea of where I was going to stay and how to get to the college the following day.

But enough of such hard worn stories, things move on and usually for the better.

Location; Asos

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Saving that bit of Chorlton’s history for another century and a bit …..

For many the Lych Gate on the village green is one of the iconic images of where we live.

Meeting at the Lych Gate, circa 1900

It has stood at the entrance to the old parish burial graveyard since 1887 and was erected to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee.

And long after the parish church was abandoned and demolished and most of the gravestones carted away it stood as a reminder that this was the spot where most of Chorlton were baptised, married, and finally buried stretching back into the 17th century.

But this listed building is now in need of some tender care and attention.

It last had a make over in 1993 when the bell tower “was repaired with specialist Victorian tiles from Staffordshire”. *

Repairing the Gate, 1993

The need to revisit the building was raised by Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping earlier in the year as part of a bigger initiative to restore the former parish graveyard.

The Gate and the green, 1981

Suggestions included relocating the remaining gravestones, creating a ramp at the southern entrance, and a series of story boards which would explain the history and significance of the site.

Central to the plan would be the establishment of a Friend’s group of volunteers who would adopt the graveyard, and in partnership with the City Council look to maintain the place and look to its future.

To this end Andrew and Peter contacted Cllr Mathew Benham who organised several meetings with Neighbourhood Services and the plan for the Friend’s group is advancing.

And last week Cllr Benham alerted us to the exciting news that there is an application in for “fabric repairs and redecoration of the Lych Gate and boundary wall”.**

The Lych Gate, 1980

The application from the City Council to do the work was submitted in May and is now out for consultation, and you can see the plans in detail by following the link below.

There will be many who will greet the news with great pleasure.

Some, because the Lych Gate is a special part of  Chorlton while for many others it will be the memories of hearing the bell at New Year or from illicit games in the tower. 

Through the gate and into the graveyard, 2022

And for those who would like to know more about the history of the graveyard, the church and the lychgate, I shall suggest the book by Andrew and Peter, The Lych Gate and Grave Situations beyond, from that popular series nothing to do in chorlton, available from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk and Chorlton Book shop, and The Story  of Chorlton-cum-Hardy,  Andrew Simpson.

So that is it for now.

Other than to say the report of the 1990s repairs needs a tad correction, because the gate dates from 1887 not 1897 and the church was demolished in 1949 not 1930.

Location; Chorlton Green

Pictures; The Lych Gate, circa, 1900 from the Lloyd Collection, Target Tower Repairs, South Manchester Express and Advertiser, 1993, and pictures of the Rec, 1980, 1981, and 20023 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Target Tower Repairs, South Manchester Express Advertiser, April 8, 1993

**Listed building consent for fabric repairs and redecoration of the Lych Gate and boundary walls, 136990/LO/2023, Manchester City Council Planning Portal, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=RURB6TBCJOG00 

In Albert Square in June 1932

Now this is not one of the best quality postcards in the collection but it is one of the only ones I have of the Town Hall and Albert Square in the 1930s.

The exact date is a bit in doubt but the image was registered on the catalogue list of Valentine & Sons on June 28th 1932, although it may have been taken earlier.

The company of Valentine & Sons began producing photographic postcards in the early 1860's and continued as an independent company for a century before being taken over in 1963 by John Waddington and later sold on to Hallmark Cards INC of the United States in 1980.*

And as you do I have become more interested in Valentine’s but that is for another time, suffice to say the collection is with the University of St Andrews**

Going back to the Town Hall it is a scene which I pretty much remember from when I arrived in 1969.

Of course the trams had gone, along with the old fashioned taxis and the Town Hall had just been  cleaned up, but otherwise it is a scene that looks familiar enough.

But the space behind Albert was still the taxi rank, and the buildings to the left of the tram were still there, not that I can remember them.

But then I was just 19 and that long old block of grime and smoke covered offices and shops held no special attraction.

Looking back I wish I had taken an interest in them.

Certainly those remaining to the north and south of the square are fine buildings and have adapted well to a new century.

As of course has the Town Hall which is a place I never tire of visiting.

Picture; from the collection of Alan Brown

*University of St Andrews Valentine Collection, University of St Andrews 1999, revised 2010
**http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/imu/imu.php?request=home

Looking at Heywood’s lost pubs

“An early Saturday morning trip to Heywood, Rochdale, a town which once reputedly had the most pubs per head of population”.

The Summitt, 2023

And with that opening comment Andy Robertson sent over a collection of some of the lost pubs of Heywood.

I am sure there will be plenty who have fond memories of the ones he featured and others who will be queuing up to send their own pictures of their favourite place where beer and cheer were dispended.

And that is it.

Location; Heywood

The Heywood, 2023

The Brick House, 2023

Pictures; lost pubs of Heywood, 2023,  from the collection of Andy Robertson

The Brunswick, 2023

The Three Terries, 202

 

Holiday snaps ....... I keep coming back to nu 3 ... the end of the road

We had become grown up and hired a car and this pretty much was the end of the road

Location:; Greece

Tomorrow ............... Rome

Picture, Greece, 2012, from the collection of Andrew Simpson