The hotel …. the Red Cross hospital ….. and the home of Mr. and Mrs. Barnes of Wilbraham Road

Now every house has a story ….. the challenge is discovering what lies behind the front door.

Wycombe Hotel, date unknown

And that is what brought me to the Wycombe Hotel.

It is picture which has sat in the collection for nearly a decade, and it has always been a photograph I passed over.

There is no date, no location listed on the back, and no clue as to an owner, and so I always thought its story was lost.

But not so, because on a grey wet day with the rain coming down like stair rods, I thought I would have one last go.

The house looks vaguely familiar and if pushed I would say we were somewhere on Wilbraham Road, close to the old Conservative Club.

Wycombe House, 2016

A search of the trade and street directories revealed no Wycombe Hotel, but in the 1911 directory there was a Wycombe House which was indeed on Wilbraham Road beside the Con Club

It was the home of  Mr. and Mrs. Barnes, their four children and Mary Jane Williams, who was employed as a domestic servant.

Mr. Barnes described himself a “Merchant” and is listed in the same 1911 directory as the “Managing Directory of James Barnes Ltd.” 

He died in 1921, leaving an estate worth £52,253, which went to his four children.

But more interesting in a sense than the will, is that he died in Llandudno, that gentle Welsh seaside resort which was the last resting place for many elderly and comfortably well-off ex pats from across the border.

Now, I don’t yet know when he left Chorlton, but by 1917 the house had become an auxiliary Red Cross Hospital.

I had known about the two big hospitals in the Sunday Schools of the Methodist Church on Manchester Road, and the Baptist Church on Edge Lane but Wycombe had passed me by.

A gate post, 2016

But it was a common enough practice for families to offer up their homes for use by the Red Cross, and at the end of the war not all returned to residential use.

So perhaps sometime after 1918, the house became a hotel, and only much later reverted to domestic use.

All of which means I will have to go down to Central Ref and wander over the directories for the years after the Great War looking for a hotel.

That said one always must be careful, because while researching the family I came across the military records of a young man who I took to be one of the sons of Mr. Barnes and with mounting excitement I trawled the documents only to discover it was not he.

Such are the twisty, turny, paths of research.  Still I rather think we have some of Wycombe’s story, and intime thre will be more.

Location: Chorlton;

Pictures; Wycombe Hotel, date unknown from the Lloyd Collection, and Wycombe House, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Last Car from Woolwich ..... Manchester .... Rouken Glen and pretty much everywhere ……. the story with a sad ending

Now this delightful picture postcard was posted by Tricia recently and it is an exact copy of one I have, only the names have been changed to advance the profits of the postcard company.

And to add to the story she addded another from Rouken Glen in Glasgow.

Not that there was anything odd about this. 

All the companies had a batch of general picture postcards which will have been over printed with the names of towns and cities across the country.

So, as such its connection to Woolwich or Manchester is only part of the story and instead the real story is the The Cynicus Publishing Company Ltd of Tayport in Fife, who published our cards. 

It was established by Martin Anderson, who according to one source was “better known by his pseudonym Cynicus, was a Scottish artist, political illustrator and publisher”.*

His early working life involved producing illustrations for a variety of publications, before setting up in his own business in London in 1891, and from there setting up a postcard company publishing his own designs in 1902.

After a promising start his business like many suffered from a fall in the popularity of such picture postcard and the company went into liquidation with his stocks of prints and original work were sold for a fraction of their real worth.

A further attempt at a similar business also met with failure when the market for seaside picture postcards declined with the outbreak of the Great War.

Mr. Martin produced a series of anti war posters and cards, which got him into trouble with the authorities. 

“In 1924 his Edinburgh shop was destroyed by fire, everything inside it was lost, and he did not have the funds to repair and restock it. He retired to his castle-like mansion in Balmullo to live in increasing poverty. A final edition of The Satires of Cynicus was published in 1926.”*

He died in 1932, and was buried in an unmarked grave, without a tombstone, and the final indignity was that his home was extensively vandalised after his death.

So a sad story for what was a very happy looking picture postcard.

Mr. Martin produced a series of anti war posters and cards, which got him into trouble with the authorities. 

Location, Woolwich, Manchester and pretty much everywhere, circa 1902

Pictures; The last car from Woolwich, courtesy of Tricia Leslie, and The last car from Manchester from the collection of David Harrop, circa 1902

* Cynicus, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicus

How we played ......... the Rochdale Canal ...... 1979

Water and kids pretty much go together.

When I was ten it was the River Thames.

We would wander down to that busy end of the River, far from the tourist haunts and at low water explored the beached barges and play amongst the rubbish left by the departing tide.

Usually it was nothing more than bits of orange boxes, sections of old rope covered in weed and the occasional treasure.

And on a warm August day twenty years later I came across a group of lands pretty much doing the same.

The place was the Rochdale Canal long before it got its gentrified make over, but happily after it had been saved from dereliction.

Today we would probably raise great concerns at the potential dangers the lads were inviting, but back then it all seemed different.

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures; the Rochdale Canal, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

So no more will I meet you at Kemps’ Corner

One of Chorlton best known landmarks .... rebuilt to form an extension to a bank

Kemp’s Corner is no more and lives only in the memories of  older residents.  

And yet for more than half a century it was one of the places in Chorlton which was a recognised meeting place.

It was located on the corner of Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Roads and was the site of Harry Kemp’s Chemist shop.

Now it is a story I have told before but is worth bringing out of the shadows again underling that simple observation that despite planners efforts to designate a place with an official name if it doesn’t catch the popular imagination it will not be used.

So it is with the junction of the two roads.  The official name which appeared just before the end of the last century is Chorlton Cross, but older people still think of it as Kemp’s Corner and most people today refer to it simply as the Four Banks.

Detail from the story in the Stretford and Urmston Journal, 1978

Both names arose out of popular usage, for not only was Kemp’s Chemist a prominent shop and he was a local politician but above the shop door was a big clock which I guess made meeting there that bit easy while today the presence of  a bank on each corner continues to make it a landmark.

All of which is a long way round to this newspaper report which captured the moment when Kemps’ Corner disappeared.

The Chemist had been run by the Coop for a while and then became a fast food out let but eventually the Midland Bank bought the building and set to converting it.

And the rest is almost history, for as someone said to me the idea that the place could have been known as Kentucky Fried Chicken Corner was just not going to happen.

Once the Midland had taken the corner we were on the way to the “Four Banks” which is itself an echo of an earlier name.  For back at the end of the 19th century someone had told a friend on a postcard to meet her at Bank Corner.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; the Chorlton edition of the Stretford and Urmston Journal, April 13, 1978

Almost a century of cutting hair on Wilbraham Road with the Stevenson family

Now there will be plenty of people with fond memories of Stevenson’s the hairdressers.

It did the business of cutting, shampooing and much more from 432 Wilbraham Road from 1908 until almost the end of that century.

I remember it well as does Bob Jones who shared with me some of his wife’s photographs of when she worked there in the 1960s.*

And just last week leafing through an old souvenir book I came across this 1908 advert for the shop.

Nothing quite prepares you for how different shop fronts were more than a century ago.

It starts with that large ornate lamp at the entrance which carried Mr Stevenson’s name and I guess would have been lit by gas.

And from there your eye is drawn to the shop window which conforms to that simple marketing approach of fill every bit of space with something to sell which included everything from shampoo, to umbrellas and even wigs.

Now I have no idea just how much call there was for wigs back in 1908 but Mr Stevenson described himself as not only a “hairdresser” but also “a wig maker and fancy dealer.”

I have to confess that the term “fancy dealer” had me stumped but it describes someone who sold imitation jewellery and ornaments which in the context of the shop made perfect sense.

After all having had your hair done for that night out it made sense to buy something special to go with it, and no doubt Miss Emma Stevenson who assisted in “the sales department” could be relied on to offer up expert advice.

At 27 she was 15 years younger than her brother and may well joined the business when Mr Stevenson made the move from his shop on Barlow Moor Road which I think he opened in 1899.

Back then he employed two male hairdressers and seems to have made the move to Wilbraham Road sometime between 1903 and 1908.

Now in 1903 the row of shops from Albany down to Keppel Road had yet to be added on to the front of what had been a fine set of terraced of houses.

Such I suspect was the demand for more retail properties with the growing population that the owners of the terrace recognised the commercial advantages of the conversion.

And that has seemed to have been a sound decision.  For decades it was a prime place to do business, just yards from the railway station and almost directly opposite the post office.

So much so that the Stevenson family along with Burt’s the “gentleman’s outfitters” saw no reason to move and continued offering perms and ties to generations of Chorlton people.

At some point Mr and Mrs Stevenson moved out of the flat above the shop and settled on St Werburgh’s Road where Mr Stevenson died in 1936.

But as they say that’s another story.

Location; Chorlton, Manchester

Picture; advert forJ.R.Stevenson’s, 1908 from the Souvenir of the Grand Wesleyan Church Bazaar, 1908, courtesy of Philip Lloyd and three young stylists at Stevenson’s circa 1965, from the collection of Bob Jones.

*Stevenson's the hairdressers, cutting and styling from 1909 on Wilbraham Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/stevensons-hairdressers-cutting-and.html

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ....... part 151 ….. building the boat

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

Bare frame, 1977

I doubt that many in Chorlton can claim to have had a boat built in the back garden of their house.

But that was exactly what happened in Joe and Mary Ann's property.

And despite being a builder and building many of the more modest houses in Chorlton, it was not Joe who was responsible.

It was in fact John  who on death of Mary Ann bought the house, and after a year of "renovating" the place, set off n the grand plan of building a bout from scratch.

Just when he started is now unclear but by the time I washed up in the house in 1976 the hull had been constructed and the vessel turned upright.

That "turning" the vessel had involved all of us and as you do on completion turned into a party.

Jack & John, 1977

I think that would have been in the summer of '75 and project was finished in the Easter of 1978.

Jack, 1978

And of course building it was one thing, getting it out was another, which in turn led to the demolition of the side wall which was never rebuilt for another 30 years.

I remember the early stages had been done in the cellar with the bending of the ribs completed in the dining room.

Along the way John attracted the interest of Jack Harker, who being retired quickly found a new a role, as assistant, often completing  while we were all at work.

The boat was moored in North Wales, John sold up in 1979  only for me to move back a few years later.

Out and ready, 1978

In the interim John's two companions from the  house moved in with me and in turn helped me return.

To this day we still turn up the odd bit of glass fibre and blue resin in the garden which compliment the stains in the cellar.

And that is it.

Jack Harker, 1983

Location; Beech Road

Pictures; building a boat circa 1976 from the collection of Lois Elsden and Jack Harker, 1983 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Location; Beech Road

*The Story of a House, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2023/11/one-hundred-years-of-one-house-in.html

A second hand shop, a skiffle group called the Rattlenakes, and the Bee Gees

It started as a story on the second hand shops of Chorlton, and along the way someone mentioned Chorlton Curios which was quite a coincidence because in the Lloyd Collection there is a photograph of the shop along with the three owners.

The picture was taken in October 1978, and I am a little puzzled as to how it got into the collection.

The notes on the back are less than helpful, running simply to “Former Bee-Gees L TO R Paul Frost, Mrs Frost Kenny Horrocks Former Bee Gees”.

I remember the shop and we do have two coloured glass lamp shades which I think date from the 1930s and could have been bought from the place.

A little research turned up, that Mr Frost and Mr Horrocks played in the Rattlesnakes which lasted from 1957 into 1958.  

Paul Frost is listed as vocals and drums, Kenny Horrocks, vocals and tea-chest bass, and the line up was completed by Barry Alan Crompton Gibb, Robin Hugh Gibb and Maurice Ernest Gibb who respectively were vocals, acoustic guitar, and vocals, toy guitar.*

Now I wasn’t expecting that, and I rather think there will be lots more.

All of which just leaves me with how the picture got into the collection, and here I have a vague memory of my old and dear friend Allan Brown telling me that John Lloyd one of our local historians wrote articles for the Journal and on occasion borrowed pictures from the news desk.

If so it was one that was never returned, but that is a story for another day.

I have to confess to being a cautious chap, and so until I find Mr and Mrs Frost and Mr Horrocks to ask permission to show the picture, you dear reader, just get the shop front. 

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Chorlton Curios, October 1978, from the Lloyd Collection.

*The Bee Gees Family Tree, The British Sound, July 13 2011http://thebritishsound.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/bee-gees-family-tree.html