So what is the story behind the mortuary on Keppel Road?

Now just sometimes you can be pulled into a story which promises to go off in all sorts of directions.

Geo. Twyford & Sons, 1962

And so it is with the mystery of the mortuary on Keppel Road which began with a request from Joe the editor of the Chorlton and Whalley Range Community Index who wrote “a builder said that the building my flat is in used to be a morgue! 

Would you know how I'd go about finding out more on this or is it anything you know about? I'm just fascinated.”

I have to confess that I didn’t have a clue but it was too intriguing to pass up.

The house dates from before 1893 but as yet I don’t have an exact date although I can track some of it residents including Mr Archibald Bowers-Taylor who was a “Wesleyan Methodist Minister (Retired)”who lived there in the April of 1911 with his wife and four children.

It may have been a temporary mortuary opened during the last world war.  There had been up to 30 casualties on the nights of the Manchester Blitz with the roads off Oswald taking a battering, but most of the dead were taken to the mortuary on Corkland Road.

Still it is just possible that someone was taken there and a folk memory has been passed down.

But the other obvious answer may be that it was at one time the house belonged to an undertaker.

My friend Ann’s parents ran their business from their home on Barlow Moor Road and there were others who did the same.

In the early 20th century Pepperdine’s had their business on Barlow Moor Road which is close enough to Keppel, and this could offer up an explanation.

Keppel Road, 1962, looking down towards Joe's house

All too often a half remembered conversation about a building or a person slowly become written in stone long after the actual truth has been lost.

And there is one last possibility which like the others trespasses on a mix of folk memory and confusion and rests on that tradition of laying out the dead in the family home.

There are those here in Chorlton who can remember the practise and testify to the visit from “the woman” who quietly and methodically looked to the dead relative before leaving the body to lay at rest in the back room or an upstairs bedroom.

It may even be that here at Joe’s house resided just such a woman which with the passing of the years and a bit of retelling became the mortuary of Keppel Road.

That said I don’t dismissany of the above  and will continue to trawl the street directories and old telephone directories.

In the meantime and for no other reason than Ann had it in her collection is a small reminder of Twyford the Undertakers who practised their trade close by.

Pictures; issued by Geo Twyford, 1962 from the collection of Ann Love, and a bit of Keppel Road in 1960, A.E. Landers m18304, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Capturing a bit of Wilbraham Road for the future

This will be a familiar picture to many, and its very familiarity is why it is here, because we all tend to take the present for granted.

The Nort Star Deli once the launderette, Buckingham Road, 2015

And not enough of us are bothering to record Chorlton as it is at present, which is a shame because had not generations of photographers gone out and snapped away at what the streets of Chorlton and Manchester were like in previous decades there would be precious few  images for people to pour over.

All of which would deprive all of us of that opportunity to crawl over the database of the City’s digital archive and post pictures of how we used to live.

So this is one from Andy Robertson’s collection which is fast becoming a powerful record of what Chorlton was like and how it was beginning to change.

After all I have forgotten what was on this corner before the cafe society revolution swept through south Manchester.

The Soap Opera, Beech Road, 2012

Now I know there will be many who remember but as memories fade it is fitting to have a permanent reminder.

And Andy remembered
“it was a launderette. I did use it once when our machine broke like it has on numerous occasions. 

The last one I used was on that parade of shops on Upper Chorlton Road, opposite . the Seymour. 

I wonder if it is still there...the laundrette I mean!”

Now as soon as he told me I also have a memory of going in there, but as it is a long way from Beech Road that is a puzzle.

Still I rather think Andy has just opened up a series of photographs which we could entitle the Lost Launderettes, which reminds me of the stories I ran on our own laundries and launderttes which are perhaps ready for a rerun.

The Launderette, Launderette, © 2013,  Peter Topping, 

In the meantime you can find them all at the link below, and having read them call in at Andy’s old “washerteria” which long ago became the North Star Delicatessen or visit the successor to the Soap Opera on Beech Road which is now a bar and restaurant trading as yes you guessed ........... the Launderette which Peter has painted not once but twice.

And just after I posted the story James Akers left a comment with a link to an interesting project he was engaged, "I had a project in 2012 showing the shop fronts of Chorlton opening and closing in real time. You can view it here,"  http://chorlton.me/

It's amazing how many business no longer exist e.g. Monkey Puzzle Toys / Sweet Tooth Cupcakery. Chorton changes so quickly.

Picture; the corner of Wilbraham and Buckingham Roads, 2015, courtesy of Andy Robertson and the Soap Opera from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Paintings; Painting; The Soap Opera, © 2011 and the Launderette, © 2013,  Peter Topping, 

Facebook; Paintings from Pictures, Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

*Chorlton's lost laundries and launderettes,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%27s%20lost%20laundries%20and%20launderettes

The story of a Nokia 3310 part 4 ....... just how do you turn off predictive texting?

I have never been a fan of predictive text, more so when the mobile I am using is fifteen years old and I have long since forgotten how you navigate the menu.

But having become the proud owner of such an ancient but stylish and iconic phone I was determined to rediscover what to do.

Now when I owned a 3310 I have to confess I found it difficult to turn off that annoying aid to speed texting so I faced the task with little hope of a successful outcome.

But having obtained a charger for the machine, got my provider to send me a free sim card and successfully activated the card and added top up I was not about to give up.

Of course the manual would help but I had long lost mine and the machine I was about to play with came from Italy and I knew Simone had long since got rid of his manual.

But a manual I found by that simple process of going on line and typing “Nokia 3310 instruction manual.”

Now for someone who often downloads old and forgotten books which have been gathering dust on a library shelf in a university somewhere in the mid West of the USA I shouldn’t have been surprised.

But I was, thereby making the point of the story which is that almost anything can be found on that electonic highway of knowledge.

So predictive texting turned off, phone fully charged and I am about to embark on sending messages from the year 2000.

Of course there is that serious point that as technology whizzes along there is that danger that we will loose the keys to unlocking what we have so carefully placed in an electronic place.

Many years ago the BBC committed a vast amount of data to a system which became obsolete and which for a long time meant that it was inaccessible.

And I wounder how long it will be before the operating platforms and software we use to store so much that we cherish will also be unobtainable.

Not so a book of a photograph album, which sits there on that dusty shelf and just requires yo to open it.

Ah well there must be a lesson there but in the meantime how neat of the electronic information highway of the 21st century to provide me with a solution to a problem of one from a past age.

Picture; Simone’s Nokia 3310, 2011 from the collection of Andrew Simpson.

What is stirring on Wilbraham Road ........ home to our first cinema?

Now if local history is about anything it is in part about recording the changes to where we live no matter how small.

So here is another from the camera of Andy Robertson who is doing a great job in capturing what was, what will be and all the in between bits.

We are back at that petrol station on Wilbraham Road.

Once the site was home to our own variety theatre which became our first cinema and then a petrol station, garage, and shop.

The full story including his pictures are here on the blog ........ so be the first today to get back to 1904 and the Whips performing at the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens before it caught the age and became the Pavilion showing Tome Mix and much more.*

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

The story of a Nokia 3310 part 3 ....... waiting for the bits

Back about to connect with the world

Now as phones go the Nokia 3310 is as obsolete as our old valve wireless and sits in the history of mobile communication somewhere in the Dark Ages.

But long after the pop up hand set, or all the variations of smart phones have had their day there will be a place for the Nokia 3310.

It was released at the end of 2000 and replaced the 3210 which was the first mass market mobile with an internal antenna, allowed you to send preinstalled pictures and played Snake.

I think mine was a 3310 but it is just possible it was a 3210, but we are talking a long time ago and it may even be that I upgraded.

Either way I have decided to downgrade to the 3310 which is perhaps no great slide back into history given that my present phone is a 6310 which already puts me walking with dinosaurs.

My old 3310 long went, having been lent to two of my eldest sons when their more clever phones gave up the ghost.  It was much knocked about and finally was held together by celotape, but still it worked, until finally with no back, chipped and scratched it was lost.

So this relic of a past age which I shall be using belonged to Simone who would have bought it sometime around 2000 in Varese a small town an hour from Milan.

It did for him for 14 years and now sits in our house waiting for the bits to bring it back to life.

Already I have the sim card and eagerly await a charger which with luck will be here within the week.

Discarded and forgotten

All of which may seem a non story but the 3310 was and is a piece of history.  Its predecessor the 3210 sold 160 million while it sold 126 million and both are still fondly remembered.

And the general consensus has been that it is a pretty neat idea to bring such a stylish and historic phone out of the past and while I may not be able to find out the price of fish in Rome, or the best route to Halifax, the battery on my 3210 will not run out by midday, when I drop it it it will just bounce and yes I will in the absence of Wi fi and internet just sit and play Snake.

So a new lease of life for an old favourite which will be better than the assortment of discarded phones I found in a draw.

All were owned by various members of the family and all abandoned for  sleeker and more expensive models.

Now there is the germ of another story.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Down on Edge Lane with the old Masonic Hall

Down on Edge Lane, February 2015

Now it has been some time since Andy Robertson wandered down Edge Lane to record the progress being made on the development of the old Masonic Hall.

Over the last few years there has been a lot of interest in the fate of the building which was once two private residences.*

And after a long period of laying empty when it was a focus for vandals, the curious and worse things began to stir just a year ago.

Down on Edge Lane, February 2014

Andy was on hand to record the start of the work here is another of his pictures as the work progresses.

And the full set of stories and historic pictures are all here on the blog.*






Pictures; down at the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane, in 2014 and 2015, courtesy of Andy Robertson


*The Masonic Hall on Edge Lane, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Masonic%20Hall%20on%20Edge%20Lane

Revisiting Sidcup High Street, 53 years after Tuck and Sons

Now I know I said that I was done with Sidcup for a while but my old friend Jean Gammon was sor inspired by those recent pictures of the High street in the 1960s that she went out and recorded the same locations today.

Of course for many Sidcup will be a regular haunt but for others the High Street, the the parish church and much else will be a distant memory.

So for those as well as for me here in classic then and now are two pictures of the High Street separated by 54 years.

And your starter for ten if you wish to take part will be to record as many of the differences as you can.

There are no prizes of course just the fun of taking part and demonstrating your knowledge.
Jean has kindly started everyone off with the comment that, “Sidcup High Street has changed a lot since 1961.  
Now, like so many other High Streets, it's street scene is one dominated by charity shops, cafes and banks.”

Pictures; Sidcup High Street,1961,  from the set Sidcup by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://www.tuckdb.org/, and the same scene in 2015 from the collection of Jean Gammons.

*Sidcup, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Sidcup