An empty police station and a ghost sign

Now the blog knows no geographical boundries, so here we are on Gloucester Road in Bristol with a ghost sign.

My old friend Barri who took the picture commented that “this ghost lettering is on the front of the now disused Horfield Police Station which is just off Gloucester Road in Bristol.

I think it has been disused for at least15-20 years, because I have never seen any policemen going in or out.

It was owned by Bristol Council, and was developed in 2007-8 by ArtSpace as studios and rehearsal rooms.

However this didn't last and the building is now empty and awaiting redevelopment, still owned by the council.

I don't know much more about it than that, apart from it was built in 1903.”

And that is about it for now, but as you can never have enough ghost signs and this one is a good one I await someone adding to the story.

Picture; Horsfield Police Station, Gloucester Road, Bristol, 2014 from the collection of Barri Sparshot

A rare picture of the township and a possible date

This is another of those pictures which is fading from living memory.

I don’t have an exact date but it will be some time during or after the early 1930s.

Chorlton Park behind the school was established in 1925 at about the same time that Nell Lane was widened. 

Further to the south where Hardy Lane runs into Barlow Moor Road, there is the parade of shops which includes the old Manchester & Salford Co-op store which was opened in 1929.

Despite the swift development of housing across Chorlton in the years from the late 1870s there was still plenty of open land around during the 1930s. There are still barns close to Hough End Hall and the brook still meanders through green fields.

Picture; from the Lloyd collection

One to do ............ The Peak Forest Canal talk tomorrow at Furnes Vale

Now canals have always had a special fascination for me and I reckon the talk at Furness Vale History society on the Peak Forest Canal System promises to be a good one.

The illustrated talk will be at Furness Vale Community Centre, Yeardsley Lane, on Tuesday January 6 at 7.30.

Non members are always welcome and admission is £1.50 including refreshments.

*Furness Vale History Society, http://furnesshistory.blogspot.co.uk/

The mystery of the hole in the ground on Wilbraham Road, and the continuing story of a garage

Well the holidays are over and we are back with that garage on Wilbraham Road.

It is a place I have been revisiting every so often courtesy of Andy Robertson’s pictures, and this one was taken just before Christmas.*

In the space of a few short weeks there has been lots of progress and Andy remarked that the “tanks are now in place. I assume they must be deeper than they are wide and we now know what that big hole was for.”

All very different from the old petrol stop that occupied the site in the 1960s and the even earlier cinema and variety theatre which stood here from the early 20th century.

Picture; the garage on Wilbraham Road, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The story of a garage, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20garage

Walks, talks and an exciting new history project here in Chorlton during 2015

Now I am not one to indulge in much pre New Year planning but I have been bending my mind to a new set of talks, walks and an interesting project based around the idea of a history club at the Post Box Cafe.

Beech Road in the late 19th century

During the next few months I want to re run a series of walks around historic Chorlton, starting with Beech Road in 1847.  You know the theme, what could you have seen and who would you have had to be polite to?

Assuming of course that like me the chances were you would have been pretty low down the pecking order.

I come from a long line of agricultural workers, itinerant traders and textile workers, so had I been here in the township in 1847 I have no doubt that I would have been working on the land and doffing my hat to the people of plenty who passed by on important business.

But I also have amongst the family one young man who was sent out to Canada in 1914 as part of the British Home Child scheme which sought to place young people on farms and as domestic servants.

Application for a British Home Child, 1914

It was and remains a controversial policy which if you are generous was aimed at giving a fresh chance to children from broken homes, some of whom were destitute and others in the care of the Workhouse.  But it was also seen by many as a way of exporting “problem children” who experienced maltreatment and abuse at the hands of employers who in turn were often motivated by the opportunity to acquire cheap labour.

During the Canadian migration which lasted from 1870-1930 over 100,000 young people left these shores and today as many as 10% of all Canadians are descended from British Home Children.

It is a story which is not well known in this country and is still one which has not been fully explored in Canada and sits beside the practice of sending young people out to Australia which only ceased in the 1970s.

So it will be one of the forth coming talks at the Post Box Cafe which has been hosting history talks for the last few years.

Mushroom darner 1930

And the Cafe will also be the venue for an interesting new project based around the idea of a history club. Chris and I have not fully worked out the details but I think we would be looking to encourage people to bring along and share some historical objects which they could talk about for a few minutes.

It might be a photograph or souvenir and the together we could explore the significance of the object and begin to place it in the broader context of our shared history with the emphasis always being a mix of fun enlightenment.

So the wooden mushroom used for darning socks might compete with a set of brass rods used in connection with the early radios only beaten by that faded picture of grandfather in his Great War uniform and the torn admission ticket to a concert of the Beatles.

All will have stories behind them which will delight, enthral and broaden our knowledge.

Not a bad start then for someone who never plans anything.

Pictures; Beech Road, from the collection of Rita Bishop, mushroom darner, and Application for a Boy from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Starting a diary on January 1st 1918

Now I have never been good at keeping diaries.

I would start with good intentions but never got past January 15th.

Of course the great diaries of history reveal much about life in the past and with that in mind one day I shall visit the unabridged writings of Samuel Pepys.

But diaries come in all shapes and sizes and do not have to be written by the great and the good to offer up insights into the past.

Last year my friend Elaine passed over a small diary written by a neighbour covering the single year of 1946.

It was a present from his mother and is the size of one of those old driving licenses and went with our young man all the way to Egypt.

The opening pages vividly record army life, from the cleaning of equipment, to inspections, and plenty of marching exercises, interspersed with going to the cinema, listening to the radio and trying to get into dances.

It is I guess the everyday preoccupations of a young man in the services.

But running through the first part of the diary is that sad reference to the woman he had fallen for.  In early January he writes that “I still love her” and this remains a a constant through the early part of the diary, getting shortened to “I.S.LH” and although she went off and married someone else she remained special to him.

I promised myself I would read the whole diary and in the fullness of time write more about his experiences of life in army in the 1940s.  Of course I didn’t having got distracted by other projects but I rather think it is time to do so.

And this is partly motivated by my friend Ann who has passed over this image of another diary and who I am hoping will tell me something about the person who owned it.

Picture; diary from 1918 courtesy of Ann Love

* The lost diary ............ life in the British Army in 1946, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-lost-diary-life-in-british-army-in.html

Down on Henry Square with the old Corporation Baths

It is one of those simple things that so often you don’t see what is just in front of your eyes, and this pretty much is all I can say about the old Corporation baths in Henry Square.

I must have passed them countless times but never gave them a second glance, and to be honest to my abiding shame knew nothing of their history or their closure in 1975 and it has taken this painting by Peter Topping and a fair bit of coverage in local social media sites to alert me to their story.

According to that excellent site Ashton-Under-Lyne.com, “they were opened in 1870 at a cost of £16,000. 

It was one of the first and largest municipal swimming baths.

The building, designed by Henry Paul and George Robinson, is constructed almost entirely of brick, with some stone decoration. It was built in a Byzantine style and has a 120 feet high tower which housed the flues from the steam boilers and heaters.

Sixty per cent of the building was occupied by the main Swimming Bath. 

The pool was 100 feet long and 40 feet wide and was originally used mainly by male bathers, with a three hour period on Thursdays for ladies.

In the eastern section of the building was a smaller pool, 27 feet long and 15 feet wide, for the use of female bathers. 

During the winter months, when the main bath was closed, the smaller pool was used by men and women at different times. 

There were also private bathrooms and Turkish baths. Part of the building was used as a police station and a station for one fire engine.

When the baths were built, the pools did not have a water filtration system, but were refilled weekly, making use of the water supply from the newly-opened Swineshaw Reservoir. 

The water was replaced on Tuesdays. The charge for swimming was six pence on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but only two pence from Friday to Monday, when the water was somewhat dirtier! 

A water filtration plant was eventually installed in 1915.”*

And that is all I am going to quote,  because in line with my often rehearsed line on these things if someone else has done the research and written up the story to them goes all the credit  and so if you want more you must visit Ashton-Under-Lyne.com

Painting; Corporation Baths, © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

*Ashton-Under-Lyne.com,
http://www.ashton-under-lyne.com/history/baths.h