The Red Cross Badge ........... a lost Burnage hospital and the lives of Ms Madge Millwood and Mrs Humphreys

This is less a story and more an example of just where detective work can go.

Red Cross Badge, date unknown

It started with a Red Cross badge which my friend David Harrop acquired recently.

David has an extensive collection and without that collection the book on Manchester Remembering 1914-18 couldn’t have been produced.*

A similar badge for Dover House which was on Oxford Road appears in the book but here is the one he purchased which belonged to a Red Cross volunteer at  Brook House in Levenshulme.

Now there is no inscription on the back so I doubt we will ever know who it  belonged to, but I now have a list of 43 women who served in the hospital, along with references to others from the Manchester Guardian who were awarded honours for their work.

They range from Miss Madge Millward engaged in the November of 1916 to Lillian Allen of Stockport Road, and Miss Winifred Ashcroft who volunteered at the very beginning of the Great War.

Some were married but most were single and they carried out a range of jobs from nursing to cleaning and working in the kitchens.

And during the new year I want to explore in detail as many of the 43 as I can. 

In this I will be helped by the Red Cross database which covers those who served in the hospitals.**

Many of the hospitals vanished at the end of the war. Most reverted to their pre-1914 use, while a few continued as hospitals and some became private schools.

Today people express surprise that there was once a Red Cross hospital in their midst.

Brook House, 1900

The site of Brook House on Burnage Lane has been redeveloped and the old house long gone.

And as you do I went looking for it.  There is a fine picture in the ManchesterCollection along with references in the press and street directories.

Location, Burnage, Manchester

Pictures; Red Cross badge, Brook House Levenshulme, date unknown from the collection of David Harrop, and Brook House, 1900, m16669, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council.

*Manchester, Remembering 1914-18, Andrew Simpson the History Press, to be published in February with a book launch at Central Ref on February 18.

**War-time volunteers and personnel records, the Red Cross, h

Looking in at the class of 1951 in Chorlton C of E

We are in Chorlton C of E Primary School sometime in the early 1950s.

In many ways it is one of those timeless images of school life which with a bit of judicious alteration could be any school anywhere in the country at almost any time.

The students stare back at the camera caught in the middle of a lesson with their books out on the desk while their teacher stands to one side making sure the young people are the focus of attention.

And as ever in any classroom the work of the children is there on the walls for all to see.

But what makes it unique is that it is the only post war picture of a Chorlton classroom in the collection.

Long ago I added a fine series of photographs from the late 19th and early 20 centuries, some of which were taken at the old school on the green.

None of them however were of the inside of the school and so this one is special.

Looking at the picture is to go back sixty years.

There were still ink wells in the desks and Ann who provided the picture was the ink monitor.

In the corner is an open fire which would have been lit everyday from late October and maintained during the day.

Many of the boys and even some of the girls are wearing ties and there are those zip up jackets which were called windcheaters.

I can still remember mine.  It was made of brown canvass with a chequered woollen inside and had a distinctive smell which I have never forgotten.

So much so that when I come across the smell it still has the power to transport me back 55 years to carefree days and countless adventures.

School uniforms had yet to become standard in junior schools but a sort of uniform is there.  I doubt that I ever wore exactly the same clothes to school as I did for going out to play and judging by what you see in the picture the same was true then.

And there will be many who remember those all in one desk and chair units which came in single or doubles with a lift up lid which gave access to the interior where books and that old fashioned pencil case made of cardboard could be left all day, all term and pretty much all year.

Now there is a very real danger that I shall any minute slide into a comfortable and rosy bout of nostalgia, so I will end by saying that open fires were fine if you sat three rows back.  Those at the front could be toasted while those at the back felt the icy bite of draughts from the gaps in the door leading to the corridor.

Lessons were still chalk and talk, and the cutting edge of classroom technology came in the form of the schools radio broadcast.

That said some of these were magic.

I have never forgotten the excitement of the history ones where the two children were transported back to a time before now encountering anything from dinosaurs to the wrath of Nero and it didn’t matter that they were not tied to a scheme of work which took the student from one period to another carefully worked out against a set of learning objectives and required skills.

The fun and the learning came with the story.

And that is where I shall leave our cohort of 1951, some of whom I know.

At the back is a young Ann Stevens who in the fullness of time went on to become an art teacher, somewhere also near the back is John Ager who still lives and works in Chorlton and in the middle of the front row is Mary Yeadon who went on to marry an explorer who "went up the Amazon.".

Picture; from the collection of Ann Love

Cygnus House, a building site and the ever changing landscape of Woden Street ..... nu 1 the plan

Now I am the first to admit that I have never been down Woden Street but there will be lots who have.

So for them and the many more who remember Cygnus House here is a series of pictures taken by Andy yesterday recording the start of something new.

Cygnus House was that long metallic building that ran along the side of Woden Street and had its own web site which categorised the structure as “building mysterious.”

There were a few theories as to what went on in there and I bet someone in the know will add a comment to the story explaining in detail its purpose.

I discovered it by chance looking back at old pictures of the street.

I don’t know when it was built but I can tell you it disappeared between 2008 and 2011 and leave it up to the expert to come up with more.

For now I will return to Andy’s pictures and his new project.

Many will know that he sets out to record the history of a site from its abandonment, slow dereliction and final demolition to the turning of the ground on a new build and then over the months the stages which finally lead a new block of flats or set of offices.

So watch this space.

Location; Salford







Pictures; Woden Street December 2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson

On the edge of Spinningfields

I don’t pretend it’s the best picture or for that matter one with a fascinating story but that won’t stop me.

I was out on the Manchester side of the Irwell on the edge of Spinningfields.

It was sometime around half ten in the morning.

The restaurant had a few customers but none brave enough to sit outside and there was a regular procession of workmen from the many new developments wandering off to buy a coffee and second breakfast.

I am guessing that in another few hours the place would have been full.

And as we move towards Christmas I have no doubt that the other restaurants will get their fill of customers.

Location; Spinningfields

Pictures; Spinningfields 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

So what is stirring in Spinningfields? ..............

Now here is a bit of street furniture well worth looking up when the development is finished.

I would love to see the original design brief for the four structures and look forward to looking at them when they are finished and unveiled.

For now that is all you get other than to reflect on the way Spinningfields continues to change and in the process seems to recreate some of those narrow streets which were a feature of much of the city a century and a bit ago.

So for those who have wandered down there recently there is the new build between Quay Street and Hardman Square along with the one just round the corner which has the giant lampshades added to which as the HSBC has moved out across from Carlucci’s there are new bars and restaurants opening up all the time.

You can be sniffy about Spinningfields dubbing it just a version of Docklands where the buildings have no originality and remind you of any one of a dozen modern cities.

But I like it and I suspect the criticisms of it today could have been replicated by those a century and a bit ago who saw the Victorian equivalent going up in the commercial centre of Manchester and mourned the passing of those old ramshackle wood and daub properties which stretched back into the 17th century.

And that is it.

Location; Spinningfields







Pictures; Spinningfields 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 69, ...... whose coming to dinner?

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.*

Foods from Meta, 1947

I have no idea whether Joe and Mary Ann regularly entertained people to dinner.

It wasn’t something that we did when I was growing up in London.  From memory apart from relatives at Christmas I can’t think of a seldom time when my parents had people around to share an evening meal.

I don’t suppose it was any different for Joe and Mary Ann but if they did I think they would have liked the two volumes of Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopaedia of Cooking first published in the USA in 1947.

In its time it was as essential as Mrs Beaton’s guide to household management and followed a tradition which can be traced back to the monthly periodicals issued during the 19th century and the stylish recipe books of the century before.

And likewise were replicated throughout the last century and into this one.

What they all had going for them was that they presented at a glance all you needed to know about food and how to prepare, cook and preserve a whole variety of different foods.

And looking back at them today is to experience a set of history lessons, because each book is of its time reflecting the attitudes and fashions of the day and the technology available.

So there are no microwave cookers in Meta Given’s books nor anything remotely approaching fast food.

Meta shows the way, 1947

Moreover the recopies use American measures and many of the foods listed would not have been available to Joe and Mary Ann in those post war years when there was still rationing.

Here are appetisers like Apple Tempters and Shrimp Cocktail, traditional main courses of liver and onions, broiled, fried or roast chicken and a host of puddings.

Some do tempt me but others like Italian Style Liver Marconi and Tomatoes followed by Baked Pears with Marshmallows I am happy to leave alone.

But they reflect that immediate post war period when the growing prosperity of the USA set it apart from Britain.

That said we did have Coronation Chicken that 1953 dish first served at the Queen’s Coronation meal which was a mixture of cold chicken with mayonnaise and curry.  It sounds quite tame today but against the backdrop of years of rationing I reckon it would have been pretty exotic.

Do it Yourself in the hedgerows, 1946

I have dipped into Meta Given but it is a world away from what I am comfortable with eating.

So my manual of choice is the Silver Spoon which first appeared in Italy in 1950 and like Meta was meant as the ultimate guide to food, cooking and all you wanted to know about both.

On balance it is an easier book to use but like most of us today the idea that one cook book fits all has I suspect had its day.

But I reckon Mary Ann might well have fallen back on a wonderful set of recipies, menus and food information issued by the Food Free Advice Service of the Ministry of Food..

In the years after the last world war, Britain continued to ration food and so it made sense for the Government to offer a free advice service on how to plan prepare and cook meals.

Mushroom Ketchup, 1946

This one is dated July 1946 and was designed to encourage people to gather their own food.
Hedgerow Harvest declared that “there is a wealth of wild foods in our hedgerows and fields for those who are within reach of the countryside” and provided recipes for Elderberry pudding, Blackberry or Elderberry Roly Poly, Blackberry or Elderberry Kissell and Blackberry or Elderberry Tart, along with suggestions for how to make pickles and chutneys, fruit bottling without sugar, how to preserve tomatoes and jam making.

And with the meadows largely still untouched by Corporation tipping there may have been plenty of food just ready for the picking.

Of course Mary Ann might just have made do with her own knowledge and supplemented by the shops on Beech Road.

Pictures; from rom Meta Givern’s Modern Encyclopaedia of Cooking, 1948, Chicago and  the Food Free Advice Service of the Ministry of Food, 1946,  in the collection of Vince Piggott

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

Private Willie Westgarth, a silver tea set and a story from the Great War

Now I am fascinated at the way a story can come together from a mix of unrelated events.

And so it is with Private Willie Westgarth and his silver tea set which has come on to the market on EBay.

The set includes a tea pot, sugar bowl and milk jug and comes with the inscription SAPPER W WESTGARTH ROYAL ENGINEERS THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918

And it has caught the eye of my friend David Harrop who has an extensive collection of memorabilia from the conflict some of which is on permanent display in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery.

David also drew on that collection to provide much of the material I used in the book on Manchester and the Great War due out next year.*

And so it was natural that he would decide to put a bid in which in turn made me curious about Private Willie Westgarth.

He was born in 1886 in the tiny village of Rookhope, in County Durham which is just 30 miles from where my father was born and grew up and just little further from Seaham Harbour where I spent part of the 1970s.

So that pretty much drew me in and the rest as they say was just research which took me from County Durham to the Western Front and a German POW camp.

Willie Westgarth was a mason like his father and the family lived in both Rookhope and the equally small village of Hunstanworth both of which depend for much of their prosperity in lead mining.

Mr Westgarth had married Sarah Ellis Whitfield on October 17 1914 and their son Lewis was born in the April of 1916.

He had enlisted in November 1915 and was captured in the March of 1918 during the last big German offencive.

The following year he was demobbed and I guess that sometime after that the silver tea pot service was made.

I am not sure when he died but there is a match with a W. Westgrath who died in County Durham in 1957.

And the final twist is that Rookhope is one of the Tnankful villages so named because all those that marched away in the Great War returned.

Location; County Durham and the Western Front

Pictures; Private Willie Westgarth's silver tea set courtesy of David Harrop

*Manchester Remebering 1914-18,