The Essoldo, Blockbusters and plans for a new Morrisons on Barlow Moor Road

The cinema in 1959

Now when Mr Stanley wandered down Barlow Moor Road and snapped his picture of the Essoldo Cinema in March 1959, he pretty much set up the confusion which still exists today and allows some to mix up what was the Blockbusters store with the picture house.

And you can see why because the two were very close together.  Moreover the shape of the old Blockbuster is similar.

But that is about it.

Looking along to KFC and Blockbusters, 2014

The building was once accordling to Mr Stanley a  “public market place” which closed sometime before 1939 and then reopened as "E.Boydell and Co. Ltd, painting and finishing department, agricultural machinery.”

The OS map for 1934 shows the site with a building which conforms to the present footprint but with no name or explanation of its use.

In the fullness of time I shall wander off to the archives at Central Ref and work my through the street directories to establish when the market place was opened and closed and the dates of its change of use.

It was still operating as E.Boydell and Co. Ltd in 1959 because it was the next in Mr Stanley's collection of pictures of Barlow Moor Road, and though I should remember it back in the 1970s I don’t.

E Boydell & Co. Ltd in 1959

And it won’t be long before any such confusion between the old cinema and Blockbusters will be gone forever, because plans are in to demolish the building and in its place, the

“erection of three-storey mixed use building comprising 3no. retail units of (Class A1) retail space (762 square metres total) at ground floor with 12no. two bed apartments on above two floors following demolition of existing retail store”* and interestingly enough something of the history of the site including where the Essoldo once stood can be seen as well.**

All of which I suppose takes us full circle to that market place which I guess was constructed with an eye to the new estates which were opening up south of the Brook and out beyond Mauldeth Road West.

An empty Blockbusters, 2014

So there you have it, the much talked of Morrison’s new store looks to be on the cards and if you didn’t know of the plans now you do with a little of the story of the site before now.

As ever it was Andy’s picture of the old Blockbuster’s which set me off and yet again there he was with his camera recoding what will soon be gone.

Pictures; the empty Blockbuster’s 2014, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the Essoldo Cinema m09200 and  E.Boydell and Co. Ltd, m m17528,  March 1959,  R E Stanley, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Manchester City Council Planning Applications, 105734/FO/2014/S1 http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=N5T7KZBC6K000

** Manchester City Council Planning Applications, http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage

Back along the Rochdale Canal in the heart of the city

I have decided to revisit the Rochdale Canal.

It is a place that has held a special fascination for me ever since I first discovered it in the early 1970s, and as foolish as it sounds thought of it as somewhere which was pretty much all my own.

Of course back then it was very neglected and not that well known, despite the fact that it ran through the heart of the city from the Dale Street Basin near Piccadilly down to Castlefield.

And so back then I had it almost to myself, although I now discover that friends like  Eileen Blake had also discovered it at the same time.

To start the series off again I thought I would post one of the pictures I took just two years ago when I was showing the canal off to my sister’s partner.

This spot is always one of my favourites, and just as I started the post Andy Robertson sent me his own picture of the same lock keeper’s house today and a reminder that back in 1972 H

Milligan had recorded the same building.

Now I could go into a deep historical account but will just leave it there for now.

Pictures; the canal by the Deansgate Bridge, 2012, from the collection of Andrew Simpson,  the same spot in 2014 by Andy Robertson and back in 1972, H Milligan, m05522, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass


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

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 54 ............ a pop corn maker and the kitchen range, and everything in between

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.*

Popcorn Maker, Andrew James 2014

I wonder what Jo and Mary Ann would have made of our popcorn maker or for that matter any one of the numerous electrical gadgets which have found their way in to the house since I moved here in 1976.

Some like the Hoover, electric iron and kettle will not have struck them as odd, and they would have taken the television and telephone in their stride.

All were around before or soon after they moved into the house in 1915 and even that television was in its way only an extension of the wireless.

And given what I know of them they would have been the first to embrace new household machines.

Manchester Corporation Electrical Works, 1915

By the mid 1920s they had a phone, and Joe was advertising that all the houses he was building including the garages had electricity through out.

Indeed the house finished in 1915 was powered throughout with electricity relying only on gas for cooking, which was in direct contrast to the new estate of Chorltonville which had been built just four years earlier and still had gas lighting.

If Joe had fitted a cooking range it had gone by the 1970s and judging by some pictures of the houses they had opted for a television by the mid 1950s.

But I wonder about the popcorn maker and I doubt that they would have given all those games consoles a home.

Of course you can never be sure and it is easy to make assumptions about people in the past.

And of these the worst is to conclude that they would have had trouble with the changes that tumbled past them during the last two centuries.

Household appliances, 1955

More than once I have pondered on my dad and my uncles who were all born on either side of 1900 and drew conclusions about how they adapted to a world which went from horse drawn carriages to jet aircraft in a handful of decades.

I suspect they took it all in their stride much as I have done.

I may have grown up with the television, the motor car and the telephone but the mobile and the smart variations of the mobile along with the computer, the internet and all that follows from online shopping are both new and exciting.

And what follows from that is that equally misguided belief that the time we live through is unique in being a period of change.

Now it is true that the speed of technological innovation seems to be quickening but each generation has had to cope with profound change which has been has challenging as anything I have come across.

The copper in the cellar, Mary Ann's first washing machine, 1915

So as I wander through the
house there is not that much that I think would surprise Joe and Mary Ann.

Perhaps the number of power points in the kitchen which currently stands at eighteen but you can never have enough power points, and Mary Ann would I think have seen the logic of more over less.

And as much as I am impressed with the opportunity the internet presents of instant communication with Canada, and Australia their telephone already did the business.

So in their way each of our gadgets is pretty much just an extension of what Joe and Mary Anne already took for granted.

As for the popcorn maker, well if they had discovered the pleasure of eating the stuff I am sure they managed with a saucepan and a bit of oil.

Pictures; popcorn maker 2014, household appliances 1955 from the collection Graham Gill and the rest from the collection of Andrew Simpson

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

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 53 ............ rediscovering curtains and respecting the original design

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.*

Now if there is one thing I can be confident about it is that Joe and Mary Ann would not have gone in for stripped floors, window blinds and open plan.

Good quality carpets, thick heavy duty curtains and individual rooms made sense back in 1915 and as I know to my cost still do today.

When John bought the house on the death of Mary Ann he got rid of the carpets, sanded the downstairs floors and replaced the curtains with blinds.

And I followed suit when I bought the house a couple of years later.

It all fitted with that Habitat life style my generation embraced but made for a house of a thousand draughts.

At which point someone will proffer advice on how to seal the gaps in the floorboards, suggest a call to their favourite double glazing company and remind me of the value of wearing  another jumper.

All of which may have some merit but ignores the simple fact that Joe and Mary Ann had the right idea as I can testify now that we have gone back to curtains.  

They are heavy wool lined and while they have cut the bay off from the rest of the dining room at night have made the place so much warmer.

And the point is less about saving on the fuel bill and more about respecting the original design of the house.

It is a theme I have reflected on in the past but one which it won’t harm revisiting.

This house has a simple lay out which works.  There are two largish ground floor rooms, a smallish kitchen and pantry all leading off from the hall which means that different things can be going on at the same time in different rooms with little danger that one activity will intrude on someone else in another room.

Now had we knocked through from front to back that flexibility would have been lost, like wise running the kitchen into the dining room would have left us at the mercy of anyone coming in late from work and wanting to cook while we were watching television.

And it has to be said that the whole history of house design over 5 centuries has been to move away from one large communal living area to smaller more intimate spaces.

It is all very nice to open up the house so everyone can feel part of the family, but if 30 years of bringing up children has taught me anything it is that kids pretty much like to be on their own for large chunks of the time and there is nothing wrong with that.

I grew up having to endure the television choices of my parents, wishing that there was somewhere I could take friends and above all have those private telephone conversations well out of ear shot.

In our small house that meant hours in cold bedrooms and trips out to the telephone box at the end of the road.

So despite the atrocious things I have done to the house over the last 38 years, if Joe and Mary Ann walked in through the front door today the place would not offer up to many surprises.

Pictures; from the collections of Lois Sparshot and Andrew Simpson

*The story of a house,

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

Discovering something new about Victorian Churches at Furness Vale on February 3rd

Now I was pleased when Neil told me he had made the long journey by bike to Furness Vale to hear one of the talks put on by the history society and even more that he enjoyed the presentation along with the nearby restaurant I suggested he tried.

So I hope that he will be suitably inspired to catch the next one which will be on Victorian Church Buildings in the North West on February 3rd.

But if like me that will not be possible I recommend their newsletter.*

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

The ghost sign that has survived another year .......... the Overbridge and Springfield Mills in Salford

Sometimes a ghost sign doesn’t get any more dramatic than this.

We are on Sherborn Street yesterday afternoon in the company of Andy Robertson who shot a series of photographs of all that is left of the Overbridge and Springfield Mills.

He was last there in February 2014 and the remnants of the mill are still standing although I guess only just.

When I wrote about it a year ago I didn’t hold out any expectations that it would survive but here it is.

That said any one who likes ghosts signs and old mills I reckon you get down there soon.

There is something very impressive about this relic of a once proud mill caught in the fast fading sunlight of a winter afternoon.

It was a listed building, appears as one of the 51 Salford mills and in time I will discover its history.

I know that in 1951 it was owned by Halls Threads Ltd because I have come across an advert for the firm and the Mill.

Added to which there are a number of references on the net to it.

So not just a ghost sign but a bit of a survivor.

Pictures; the Overbridge and Springfield Mills in Salford, 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Who remembers working at the Overbridge and Springfield Mills in Salford?, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/who-remembers-working-at-overbridge-and.html

Back in the 1970s watching men at work on the canal

Earlier in the week I posted three pictures of the Castlefield area taken by David Easton.

And here are two more.

All were taken from a moving train and David apologised for “the quality of these images. 

I hope they are of some interest though. 

Those of Castlefield were taken from a moving train and have been scanned from ageing slides. 

This was about 1972/3 when there was still some barge traffic on the Ship Canal. 

Some barges occasionally found their way onto the Bridgewater Canal although I think the warehouses were already out of use.”

Pictures; from the collection of David Easton