Passing the time ............... waiting for the tram

An occasional series of pictures of people and places.

Location; Market Street, Manchester

Pictures; People & Places Manchester, 214, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Urmston ............. a new history

Now just by chance I stumbled across my copy of John Gorton’s Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland and as you do I went looking for what he said about Urmston.

Urmston in 1833

The dictionary came in three volumes and was published in 1833 and is a fascinating read.  That said Urmston got just three lines.

 “URMSTON, Population 645.  A township in the parish of Flixton and hundred of Salford.  Ten poor children are taught by means of a small bequest.  John Collier, commonly called Tim Bobbin, the author of the ‘Lancashire Dialect,’ was born here in 1708.”

I had hoped for more but that is all you get.  Still it’s a start and offers up some promising areas of research.

Urmston in 1853

On the other hand I could just wait for the new book on Urmston’s history which is being written by my old friend Mike Billington.

Mike is one of those chaps who can multi task with the best of them.  He is a teacher, musician and artist, local historian and bee keeper and is now engaged in writing about his home town.

Over the last century and a bit there have been a number of books on Urmston's past.
There were two which were , both published in 1898 and since then Mike tells me there has been the "very laudable books by Alan Crossland and the joint venture by Karen Cliff and Vicki Masterson who have to the material available on the area. However, Alan’s books was 1983 and the Cliff/Masterson  book in 2000 so there is a niche for an up to date and more substantial book."

So Mike’s project is to be welcomed especially as he aims to pick up and focus on some of the people who lived out their lives in what in the early 19th century was still a small rural community just over seven miles from Manchester.

All of which just leaves me to suggest that if any one has pictures, stories or other bits and pieces which might help to contact him on 0161 881 0936.
Location; Urmston Greater Manchester

Pictures; extract Urmston, Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland, John Gorton, 1833 Vol 3, p 667 and Urmston from the OS for Lancashire, 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Manchester and the Great War .................

August 1914

I have to confess that I have been away from the project for a while but during the next few months I shall be working on a new book for the History Press on Manchester and the Great War.

Now we all have our own images of that conflict and for most of us they will involve young men in ill fitting uniforms and women at work in munitions factories.

Less familiar will be those of people queuing for food, the lines of policeman escorting enemy aliens into custody and the vast tide of voluntary work played out in Red Cross hospitals across Manchester and countless fund raising events.

And then there will be the way those men women and children faced up to to the war with that mix of courage, stoicism and sacrifice.

It draws on a vast collection of unseen material including letters, photographs, official documents and a wealth of everyday objects including picture postcards, souvenirs and very personal family memorials dedicated to those who died in action.

November 1918

Together they offer up a unique picture of a city at war.

Much of the material has been donated by David Harrop who also offered up ideas, advice and above all encouragement.

And it is two of his pictures which I have included today.

The first is of the Cheshire Yeomanry, mustering at Brook Street in Macclesfield on August 4th 1914 and while it isn’t Manchester and will not appear in the book it captures perfectly the preparations on that first day of war.

The second is a scene on Armistice Day as the crowds gathered close to the Palace Theatre.

Location; Macclesfield, August 1914, Manchester, November 1918

Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop

Student days take 2 circa 1972 ............ a story from my friend Lois*

You know the phrase about returning to one's childhood, well, I think we are returning to our student-hood. 

For some reason we hadn't anything in particular for dinner tonight, so we peered into the freezer, found three random plastic boxes of stuff, mixed them together and had them with pasta... to be honest, they did compliment each other - vegetable soup, pasta with tomatoes and chorizo and four lonely meatballs with new potatoes.

However... when I say we are returning to student-hood, I definitely don't mean we're returning to live in the way we had to live when we were doing our degrees.

Our student days were very different from those our children experience now; we had no halls or residence or student accommodation, we lived in dire bedsits and so called flats, in the worst areas.

These places were unheated, with old falling to bits furnishings, filthy carpets, the most basic of kitchens often with only a Baby Belling for a cooker, and no fridges let alone freezers! There were shared bathrooms (honestly, my kids would just refuse!) often dirty despite our best 18 year-old efforts, vermin ridden (fleas, mice, rats for example...)

We tried hard to keep the places we lived in clean, using a dustpan and brush because there was no hoover or cleaner, we took our clothes to the launderette each week and ironed them on the table (we bought an iron but couldn't afford an ironing board) we used bleach everywhere (there weren't the array of super-cleaning materials there are now) and we did our best...

... but you know what student life is like... papers everywhere, open books upon open books, piles of texts (books not mobile phone messages!) forgotten coffee mugs, things put down and then forgotten...Looking round my workroom now there are several piles of different papers beside me, a folder of things about Anglo-Saxon on the floor, a folder of an old story I'm thinking about rewriting, booklets of English exercises I've written for my English conversation classes, and two mugs i have forgotten to take downstairs... oh and a cookery book, a register, some archaeology magazines...

Location; Manchester

Picture; Mike, John, Lois, circa 1970, Chatham Grove Withington, Manchester, from the collection of Lois Sparshot

*Lois Sparshot, http://loiselden.com/2016/01/31/student-days-take-2/

When you get it wrong ........ just own up ........ the corrected story of J & S Eyres of Miles Platting

Now I like the way that in the course of just 24 hours a story about a humble street drain cover excites a fair bit of interest and along the way corrects a little of what I had originally written and adds even more.*

J & S Eyres, Lord Street, 1963

It was Graham’s picture of a 1936 street grid that led me to J and S Eyres who made it.

They were a Manchester firm founded in 1897 and in 1911 were operating on Lord Street, Miles Platting and filed their last set of accounts in 1987.

At which stage I confess I got the wrong Lord Street citing the one near Strangeways which everyone knows is not Miles Platting.  Well everyone but me.

And so I have Edward Ball to thank for correcting me.  He very gently pointed out my mistake, offered up some pictures and thought that they might still be in business.

The street grid that started it all off, 1936

This was confirmed by Peter L Quinn who added that he had worked there for five years.

So there you have it which just leave me to thank Edward and Peter and hope that  this is just the start of the continuing story of J & S Eyres which in time will allow me to offer an update to the entry in Grace’s Guide to Industrial History.**

Location; Miles Plating, Manchester,




Pictures, Lord Street, showing J and S Eyres, 1963, T Brooks, m30010, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and that street grid, 1936, courtesy of Graham Gill

*Street grids I have known part 2 ................... the story of J and S Eyres of Miles Platting, Manchester, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2016-02-01T03:30:00Z&max-results=7

** Grace’s Guide to Industrial History,  http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Main_Page

Street grids I have known part 2 ................... the story of J and S Eyres of Miles Platting, Manchester

That street grid, 2016

Yesterday I pondered on the humble street drain cover.*

They are one of those things we just take for granted and yet they also have a history.

At the time I was interested in the now defunct local authorities who commissioned their making and whose names can still be found on a grid that still does the business.

It was Graham’s picture of this 1936 one that set me off and prompted a few people to ask about J and S Eyres who made it.

And that set me off.  At present there isn’t too much, but there are some fine photographs on the net of men making working in the foundry along with a sort account in Grace’s Guide to Industrial History.**

J & S Eyers, Lord Street, 1963

They were a Manchester firm founded in 1897 and in 1911 were operating on Lord Street, Miles Platting and filed their last set of accounts in 1987.

That said quite a few people have written in to say that a company bearing part of the name is still there.

And that just leaves me to make the appeal again for more stories and pictures of street grids and right now for a bit more on J and S Eyres.

Location; Miles Plating, Manchester,

Pictures, street grid, 1936, courtesy of Graham Gill and Lord Street, showing J and S Eyres, 1963, T Brooks, m30010, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Looking for our vanished history on the side of the road ........... the drainage grid, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/looking-for-our-vanished-history-on.html

** Grace’s Guide to Industrial History,  http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Main_Page

Finger posts I have seen .................. down in Urmston

Now since I ran the story of finger posts a fair few people have reported sightings and here is one just down the road.

It was taken today by my old friend Andy Robertson at the junction of Urmston Lane and Sandy Lane.

I remember passing it a few moths back and didn't think of taking its picture.


Location, Urmston, Greater Manchester,

Picture; finger post, 2016, from the collection of Andy Robertson