Another little bit of our history soon to disappear? ............. Out on Pollard Street

Now this building may  now have vanished.  

It stands on Pollard Street just off Great Ancoats Street between what is left of Boond Street and Mundy Street.

I was first alerted to it by Angie who told me that
“it dates from 1889 and was the private dining rooms for Hetherington’s Vulcan Works on Pollard Street.

They made the machinery that went into the cotton mills. 

In 1930 it became W H Barnes & Son a shirt manufacturer it went on to be a printing shop signs etc before ending up as a sewing shop eventually being abandoned sometime in the late 90's.”

And it is one of those places I must have passed loads of times giving it only a second’s thought.

Today it stands out surrounded as it is by open land  and new blocks of flats away in the distance.

An application to demolish was made back in May 2013 and was granted.*

Pictures; the building today from the collection of Angie Thomas and back in 1967 beside the Auld Lang Syne Inn by H.L. Price, m10453, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Manchester City Council Planning Application Documents, 31 Pollard Street, 101896/DEM/2013/N2 http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=externalDocuments&keyVal=MJHRFOBC06N00

"Going, going almost gone" from the camera of Andy Robertson marking the end of a little bit of Princess Road

The corner of Princess Road, on a wey August day, 2014

I am impressed by Andy Robertson’s determination to record the way that Chorlton is changing and not just Chorlton.

In the last six months he has wandered across south Manchester, into the city centre and over the border into Salford.

Each set of pictures is followed up by research and in many cases a personalized comment drawn from his own memory.

The same spot in February, 2014

So here we are on Princess Road and a set of buildings which Andy has been visiting since February.

Back then they were all still standing although all were closed and waiting the inevitable.

Both of us were drawn to the corner shop with its huge ghost sign which in turn led me to uncover the story of James Bowes Ltd established in 1880 and still going strong in Stockport.

Now Andy is not alone in watching the progress of these properties, for many people have fond memories of living and shopping there and have posted both their own pictures and memories on social networking sites.

And by Monday even this will have gone

But the buildings have all but gone, and I suspect Andy’s photographs will pretty much be the last.

All of which should remind us of the importance of recording what is passing.

Pictures; Princess Road August 2014, from the collection of Andy Robertson

More trams in Chorlton from Sunday July 27 when the sun shone

I have to say on a grey wet day with a sky like lead that just a week ago the sun was cracking the paving stones.

And as if to celebrate the weather back then there were trams running up from St Werburghs, along Mauldeth Road West and Hardy Lane, crossing the meadows and on to Sale.

They were doing the daylight tests following on from night trips back in June.

Now I missed them but Michael Thompson was there and took a series of pictures along with a short film which mark one of those little historic moments.

I only wish he had been snapping just over a century ago when the Corporation trams rumbled up from Barlow Moor Road past our road.

Not that he would thank me for that.

Here are three from that day.

I had promised some during the week but instead chose to travel the trams to Ashton, Bury and Altrincham, and now there is every prospect that within a few months I will be out heading south across the Mersey all the way to the Airport.

Now that will be fun.


Pictures; day runs of the Metrolink trams, July 27, 2014

Garden Villages, ... better planned homes, stories of social housing in Well Hall and Chorltonville

Chorltonville

I am always on the lookout for stories about social housing which were and are a testament to the belief that everyone should live in decent houses which were well planned, well-built and in surroundings which were pleasant.

Just round the corner is Chorltonville which was conceived as just such a project by businessmen who though that good affordable housing should be the lot of those who lived in Hulme and Moss Side.

Now we have just had the anniversary of the building of the ville which was in 2011 and it will soon be time to celebrate another.

This was the Well Hall Estate, later called the Progress Estate and where I grew up.  It was built for the workers of the Woolwich Arsenal in 1915 and to mark its coming centenary the residents association have launched a site dedicated to its history.

Ross Way, the Progress Estate, Well Hall

And so for anyone who like me is fascinated by these bold adventures into Garden Towns this one is worth  a visit http://progressestate.blogspot.co.uk/

Here can be found the history of the place, the memories of those who lived there, along with plenty of period pictures.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Progress Estate Conservation Area, Character Appraisal Greenwich Council

And for stories of Chorltonville and Well Hall, go to http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorltonville http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Well%20Hall

If you go down to the meadows at Chorlton, a story and some exciting news from David Bishop

We are on the meadows sometime just before the end of the 19th century in the company of Mr Higginbotham and his men.

It is one of the popular pictures from the Lloyd collection and I have used it more than once in stories about the meadows.

But today I want to point you in the direction of a fascinating article by local botanist David Bishop on his blog, Friends of Chorlton Meadows.

We share an interest in this stretch of land roughly to the south of the Brook and on to the Mersey and often reflect on what it might have been like to walk the fields when they were farmed as meadowland.

And that is exactly what David has done in this excellent article, A New Plan to Restore the 'Jewels in the Mersey Valley's Crown.'**

Nor is that all for he also reveals some exciting new developments but for those you must follow the links and read the story.

Pictures; Mr Higginbotham and men on the meadows, originally in the collection of the Higginbotham family and now part of the Lloyd Collection

*The Meadows, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Meadows

** Friends of Chorlton Meadows, http://friendsofchorltonmeadows.blogspot.co.uk/

A long lost scene of our parish church yard ......... now just a memory

I don’t have a date for this picture of the parish church yard but it can be no later than the early 1980s.

Looking north towards the green

Now this I know because early in that decade the ancient headstones some dating back to the mid 18th century were taken away and the area landscaped.

I suppose I should ask Roger Shelley who took the photograph and kindly gave me permission to use it but that would be too simple.

Instead I shall just fall back on my memory of those winters when it snowed heavily and I can think of a few.

Of course there will be someone who has access to the records and will confidently come back with a list of possible dates but in a sense that is not as important as that simple observation that this scene with the snow covering the headstones will be unfamiliar to many.

For those born in the late 1970s and after it will not even be a distant memory.  That said I bet there will be many like me who would be hard pressed to remember those headstones even though we walked passed them and may even have the odd photograph tucked away somewhere.

And in a real sense the graveyard had already passed into it history having been closed in the 1880s and pronounced full.*

Sixty years later in 1940 the church which had served the township since the beginning of the 19th century closed and was demolished in 1949, bringing an end to a history of worship on this site which went back to the early 1500s.

During 1979 and again the following year Dr Angus Bateman carried out a series of archaeological digs which revealed something of the church and the lives of the community.**

All of which I think makes this picture a unique record of a piece of our history now almost as distant as the time when our people were burying their dead in the space between the green and the church.

Picture; from the collection of Roger Shelley, https://www.flickr.com/photos/photoroger/

*The Great Burial Scandal, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-great-burial-scandal.html from the series, St Clements Church, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/St%20Clement%27s%20Church

**Digging in the parish church yard, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/digging-in-parish-church-yard.html

Out along the Ashton Canal discovering another ghost sign

Seen from the canal

Ghost signs are often all that is left of a business which once thrived, served the community and have long since vanished.

You can find them almost anywhere and until recently I took them for granted.

But these faded hand painted signs and their glass enamelled equivalents tell a story of our commercial and industrial past encompassing the corner shop to the giant enterprise and I am fascinated by them.

And so are other people.

Ron Stubley captured this one while on a walk along the Ashton Canal at Crabtree Lane in Clayton commenting that he took them with me in mind.

On Crabtree Lane

Angie Thomas followed this up with some research discovering that “Eva Brothers Ltd were Forgemasters and Engineers since 1889.”

And with that as a start I wandered off to that excellent site Grace’s Guide* to find that in 1909, “the partnership of James Eva, Archibald William Eva, Victor Eva, Arthur Eva, and Frank Eva, carrying on business as Forge-masters, at Crabtree-lane, Clayton, Manchester, under the style or firm of "EVA BROTHERS," was ended. 

All debts due would be settled by Archibald William Eva, Victor Eva, Arthur Eva, and Frank Eva, who continued the business under the same Style.”

And during the rest of the last century it was acquired by various companies until in 1982 it was bought by Anglo-Indonesion Corporation plc which is where the story ends although I am sure there is someone who can add more.

On the VIA LUIGI DE MAIO

So I shall leave the Ashton Canal and Eva Brothers and end with another ghost sign but one I found in Sorrento a few days ago which no doubt will get a few people muttering about holidays in the sun.

But given we were there I couldn’t resist capturing this one on VIA LUIGI DE MAIO.

It was according to the fast fading sign a shop selling furniture but was now a pizzeria and one day I shall try to find out more.

Pictures, Eva Brothers, Crabtree Lane, Clayton, 2014, courtesy of Ron Stubley and the ghost sign on the VIA LUIGI DE MAIO, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Grace's Guide, British Industrial History, http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Eva_Brothers