Catching the bus at Brooks's Bar in 1905

I am back at Brooks's Bar in about 1905.  

Now I can’t be exactly sure of the date but this horse drawn bus travelling the route from the Prince of Wales to Chorlton appears in other pictures in the collection where we do have a date.

It is in the livery of Manchester Corporation and soon after this picture was taken Manchester began using motor buses.* Inside sits a solitary passenger.

But what I am more drawn to is the section of Withington Road to the left of the photograph.  Today this section consists of a series of terraced houses set at right angles to the road, but in 1905 they were a stately line of impressive houses.

They were the homes of a tobacconist, greengrocer, photographer and commission agent and in the fullness of time I will track down Mrs Nellie Titley's tobacco shop  the green grocer's of Robert Burns and the address of the photographic business of J Ingham & Sons, all of whom may have taken our bus to work.

What however, really interests me it is  the hand cart up ended by the entrance to one of the houses.  It is not something you would see now and I wonder why it was there.

In 1905,  such hand carts were common.

Workman used them  as did the knife grinder and other tradesmen.  It is perhaps a sobering thought that before such a man could start work he first had to wheel the cart, tools and equipment to where he was working.

Location; Whalley Range, Manchester

*A Short History of Public Transport in Greater Manchester, http://www.gmts.co.uk/explore/history/history.html

Picture; from the Lloyd collection

A day on Dane Road in Sale

Now I am fairly confident that as soon as Andy’s picture of the Bridge Inn goes live on the blog someone will offer up a detailed history of the pub and more than a few interesting stories.

And while I won’t put him on the spot I bet my friend Bill will be one of the contributors, which instead just leaves me to concentrate on the image.

Andy sent it over a few days ago with a New Year greeting and the comment that he took the picture on his way home from work.

I did go looking on the OS for 1870 which shows a collection of buildings on the site but alas I have no directories for the area and so will wait comments.

Location; Sale

Picture; the Bridge Inn, Dane Road, Sale, 2017 from the collection of Andy Robertson

The links that bind us to Canada ...... reflections on the 150th anniversary

Now my connection with Canada goes back a long time and strictly speaking predates my birth and that of my mother’s and began in 1914 when my great uncle Roger was shipped over as a British Home Child and continued when his sister joined him eleven years later.

Food parcels from Canada, courtesy of our cousin Chris, 2014

She entered the country on an Empire Scheme, married and had an extensive family.

We knew her as aunt Dolly.

My sister’s corresponded with her in the mid 1970s and that was about it until I discovered great uncle Roger.

Neither I nor my sisters knew anything about him or for that matter another great uncle who died aged six months in 1902.

Nor did we know that great aunt Dolly had been born in the Derby Workhouse or that she and her siblings including my grandfather had grown up institutions managed by the Derby Poor Law Union.

Such are the revelations that come when you begin the “family history trail.”

Great aunt Dolly and family, circa 1940s

For anyone who has gone looking for their family and in particular a BHC none of this will be surprising.

It is a given that for many of us our own family story can be a mystery which is made more difficult to unravel when promising leads get nowhere and you confront some pretty awful discoveries.

But the upside is that you slowly do get to know about your past and along the way make contact with relatives you never knew.

And that for us that has meant a whole new “half family” who share our great grandfather and extensive family in Canada who are descendants of great aunt Dolly.

Poster, date unknown

Through my half cousin in Kent we learned a little more about our great grandfather Montague and this we have shared with my relatives in Canada who in turn have provided much about our great aunt.

And of course in the process we have discovered so many more family in Canada, which culminated with our Saul spending a month with them last year, almost a century after great uncle Roger and great aunt Dolly crossed the Atlantic.

Added to this has been new friendships forged through that shared interest in BHC, and include Lori, Susan and many more.

All of which means that this British Home Child story which will go on and as we celebrate 150 years I would like to republish a few of the stories of the family.

Location; Gravesend, Derby, Ontario

Pictures, food parcel from Canada, great aunt Dolly and family from the collections of the Simpson and Pember families, and Canadian poster courtesy of Neil Simpson

Stories behind the book ........ nu 3 making new friends

Now what I like about writing books is that once the research and the writing has been done and the finished product sits there on the shelf the fun has only just begun.

Since we published Manchester Pubs in late December we have had a shed load of enquiries followed up by heaps of sales.

And with all that has also come the opportunity to meet new people and renew old friendships.

So last week we met up with Paul and his son in the Beech which seemed an appropriate venue to sell the book.

Paul lives in north Manchester and went to Salford University and was a mine of information about some of the old pubs on Greengate, Chapel Street and Lower Broughton.

Like wise our neighbour Jill knocked on just the day before Christmas Eve and bought a copy for her husband as a surprise presi.

And tonight Peter is off to meet up with the Central Manchester CAMRA Branch Meeting at The Britons Protection to talk about the book.

I wanted to go but we still have family over from Italy, and there hangs a tale because Franca whose command of English far out strips my Italian has taken a copy back to Italy and when the second wave arrived from Milan on New Year’s Eve they also fell on the book.

All of which leaves me to reflect that a little bit of Manchester now sits on shelves just north of Milan.

And for those with an eye for detail I direct you to the picture opposite which with tongue in cheek Peter has adapted from a 1904 photograph of Portland Street.

You can order the book from www.pubbooks.co.uk or collect it by prior arrangement from Chorlton, and that is all you are getting for now.

Pictures; Portland Street, Princess Street corner, T. Baddeley, 1904, m04857, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Dolly and her Zebra ................. at the Longford in Stretford this January 78 years ago

Now when you spend your time writing about the past sometimes you know pretty much when to let the story tell itself.

So here we are at the Longford in Stretford with Dolly & her Zebra.

It was billed as a stage show for the family with “Stars of Radio and Circus” and in the January of 1940 who could compete with that?

And the fact that it is 1940 means that it was the stars of the wireless who were the attraction including Less Allen who was  a Canadian saxophonist and vocalist popular in Britain during the 1930s, Dominic Roche and my own favourites Clapham and Dwyer who were a comedy duo through out the 1920s in to the 40s and were once banned by the BBC for six months from the Light Programme for a risque joke.

According to one source after a page of their script went missing the two ad-libbed with

"What’s the difference between a champagne cork and a baby?” asked Clapham. When Dwyer replied that he didn’t know Clapham retorted: “A champagne cork has the name of the maker on it”*

All of which was a long way in the future when Dolly and her Zebra took to the stage of the Longford.

And that is about all I have to say unless of course someone volunteers a memory of the event.

Pictures;advert for the Longford, January 1940, from the collection of Sally Dervan

* Clapham and Dwyer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_and_Dwyer

What Charles Dickens might have said about the book Manchester Pubs and New Years Day

Now it has to be pretty much a given that most people will be not be doing much on New Year’s Day.

You could of course go for a bracing walk, write an entry in the diary cousin Mary gave you for Christmas, or watch endless repeats of old TV comedies.

I suppose the walk will do you good, the diary entries will peter out in March and timeless comic classics are neither timeless nor classic on the 15th rerun.

So as Mr Dickens might have suggested why not settle down to a good book.

And in a bout of outrageous self promotion I will suggest the new book on Manchester Pubs, which hit the shelves in late December is a capital choice.

It is less a guide and more a series of stories of each of the 78 iconic pubs featuring original paintings by Peter Topping, a wealth of historical detail from me, ranging from the trivial to tales of mystery, dark deeds and more than a few odd encounters with Eric.

The 78 pubs are grouped in fifteen walks offering the adventurous an opportunity to discover the history of some of the most important parts of the city including the site of the Astley Arms which in 1821 was home to Mr Thomas Evans, who dispensed beer and cheer to all who fell into his pub.

Earlier in the year archaeologists discovered a fine set of objects including a stoneware bottle from J Moorhouse & Co, Hulme; a crockery set bearing the name of the Astley Arms and its first landlord, Thomas Evans and a glass bottle with the logo of a workman's arm.

You can order the book from  www.pubbooks.co.uk and that is all you are getting for now.

But if you want to read about how the book came about just follow the link A new book on Manchester Pubs

Tony Goulding’s ...... CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY HISTORY QUIZ - CHRISTMAS 2016 Part two the answers

Yesterday Tony challenged you ........... how well did you go?

1) What was the surname of the 2 brothers charged with the murder of P.C. Cock in 1876?  Ans.  Habron, William and his older brother John. John was acquitted, William, however, was found guilty and was only saved from the gallows by the intervention of the Home Secretary who having granted a reprieve commuted the sentence to penal servitude for life. This was exceedingly fortunate as only a couple of years later another man the infamous Charles Peace admitted to committing the crime whilst awaiting execution for a different crime.

2) Which football league club was the young footballer, Peter Mee playing for at the time of his tragic drowning in the river Mersey near Jackson’s Boat in, November, 1923? Ans. Southport F.C. then in the old Division 3 North.

3) Whilst on the subject of football who was George Best’s landlady, while he was living in the area in the l960’s /early 1970’s? Ans. Mrs Fullaway, at 9, Aycliffe Avenue.

4) Which curate at St. Clement’s church committed suicide by taking an overdose of Laudanum at his lodgings on Stockton Road? Ans. Roland Joseph Blain.

5) What year did McDonalds restaurant on Barlow Moor Road open? Ans. 1989 – (December)

6) Which family was virtually wiped out by the bomb that also destroyed the old Chorlton-cum-Hardy Post Office in the “Christmas Blitz” of, 1940? Ans. The “Carrs”- father, Ernest mother, Jeanne, son William (9), and daughter, Hazel (11).

7) Which surname links the history of Chorlton Good Neighbours with the old off-license on St Anne’s Road? Ans. Krell. Mrs Muriel Krell was a “Good Neighbours” administrator in its early years, whilst the off-license was run for the best part of four decades by a Mrs. Bertha Solomon under her maiden name of Krell.

8) Who was the parish priest of “Our Lady and Saint John’s” during the Second World War who had been awarded an M. C. in the First? Ans. Canon Edward McGuiness.

9) Which saint was the original Roman Catholic Church on the High Lane/Chequers (ex-Church) Road corner dedicated to? Ans, Saint Augustine. There had been a previous priory dedicated to Saint Peter located near where Needham Avenue is now.

10) Which soldier on the Manchester Road Methodist’s War Memorial has a double entry? Ans. A.C Wagstaffe on the front is also included on a side panel (as A Clifford Wagstaffe) of men recorded on a memorial of the Primitive Methodist’s Church on High Lane, added when that church closed in the mid-1960’s.

11) Which member of the Royal Family visited Cundiff Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy on the 24th October, 1969? Ans. The Princess Royal at the time Princess Anne – she came to lay the foundation stone of a home for the Multiple Sclerosis Society which was never subsequently built on the site where Arden Court is now.

12) Many sons of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Whalley range were killed on 20th July, 1916 whilst serving on the Somme as part of a “Public Schools and University’s “battalion attached to which regiment? Ans. The Royal Fusiliers it was one of the so-called “Pals” battalions.

© Tony Goulding, 2016

Pictures; of Beech Road in January 2009 from the collection of Andrew Simpson