New for old ……. on Oldham Road

Now, numbers 180 and 182 Oldham Road may not have achieved a prize for the most remarkable building on Oldham Road, but they were representative of a type of commercial building which date from last quarter of the 19th century.

1960

According to one source the properties were built sometime around 1870,* and by 1911 were home to Refuge Assurance Building.

By 1960 the building was still offering mixed usage with part of the ground floor given over to retail and the rest as offices.

I can’t be sure of its history for the rest of the last century, but in 2017 it was home to a solicitor, before plans were submitted to redevelop the site.

These faltered and a revised scheme was submitted which retained the frontage of the old building while creating a new build behind.

2021

And it was this finished property which Andy recently photographed.

Location, New Cross

Pictures;  162-66 Oldham Road, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson, Oldham Road, 1960, m36525, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass 

*Heritage Statement 162-166, Oldham Road, Paul Butler Associates, July 2017, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=OT8EP3BCMXQ00&activeTab=summary

** 117014/FO/2017 | Retention of the facade of existing building together with single storey roof top extension and erection of four storey extension to form 28 residential apartments and creation of ground floor commercial together with associated car parking and other works | Mount Pleasant House 162-164 Oldham Road Manchester M4 6BG, Manchester City Council Planning Portal, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=OT8EP3BCMXQ00&activeTab=summary

Stories from the Rec ……. no. 1 …..the Saturday after the Friday holiday……. tales from our times

The sun was out, and so were the visitors to the Rec.

The responsible visitors used the bins.

The less responsible visitors discarded their rubbish where they sat.

Happily, the man in the high viz yellow shirt and black shorts was out by 7 picking the bits no one wanted to take home.

Location; the Rec

Picture; bins on Beech Road, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson 

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 94 ….. Portugal Street

I don’t suppose Portugal Street was ever anything to set the heart beating.

Portugal Street looking north, 2021

It runs parallel to Oldham Road in New Cross, is narrow and forbidding with a big chunk of it bordered on both sides by car parks, and scrap yards.  At one end there is some new build with views of barbed wire and the backs of properties, some of which look to be very old, while at the other end it faces on to Ancoats Green.

It was cut sometime before 1793, and with in a year the entire northern side had been developed.

And by 1851 the south side had also been built over and the street with a mix of industrial units, and terraced housing some of which were back to back and looked out on to closed courts, and for good measure a  branch of the Rochdale Canal terminated at the street end.

Portugal Street, looking north, 2021

So not exactly a street to feature in the 19th century equivalent of House and Home.

Nor was it worthy enough to be included in street directories at the time, and when by 1911 it makes it into Slater’s Directory, of the 81 properties only 10 are mentioned.

That said I was drawn to the entry for 16 & Portugal Street which was occupied by “Simon Robino, mechanical organ maker” who has featured on the blog already.*

Of the other nine, there are a few shop keepers, a coal merchant and a selection of industrial manufacturers including a toy maker.

Portugal Street, facing north, 1962

All of which suggests Portugal Street never really lifted itself out of obscurity, and while there may be photographs f the street dating back into the 19th century, so far most of the  ones I have uncovered date from the 1960s and show scenes which are no more memorable than the ones captured by Andy on a recent visit.

None of which is surprising, as the residents of our street were never going to move amongst the circles of the great and good of Manchester’s social circle.

In 1851 the annual rents for the properties varied from £7 down to £2, and given that what you got was what you paid for, we can be pretty confident that it wouldn’t amount too much.

Portugal Street, 1849

But there are plans a foot to lift the street.  When I was last down there in November of 2020, the plot on the corner with Poland Street, stretching back to the main road had been developed with a new block which incorporated the  frontage of the old Refuge Assurance Building at 180 & 182 Oldham Road.**

And the year before an exciting volunteer project had begun to improve Ancoats Green.***

So maybe after two centuries and more  something is happening to Portugal Street.

Portugal Street, 1907

After all many of its terraced properties were well past their sell by date by the beginning of the last century.

Location, New Cross

Pictures;  Portugal Street, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson, Portugal Street facing north, 1962, T. Brooks, m10415a, Portugal Street & No. 3 Prussia Street, near Oldham Road, 1907, Jackson, J, m10411courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Portugal Street in 1849, from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1849, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

*A story that has yet to have a conclusion... Simon Robino from Italy, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-story-that-has-yet-to-have-conclusion.html

**New for old ……. Oldham Street

*** Volunteers transform Ancoats park to create community space for all residents, Maya Black, January 21st, 2019, MEN, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/in-your-area/volunteers-transform-ancoats-park-create-15710129

Stories of Prime Ministers and the history of the office ...... on the wirelesss today ....one to listen to

Now I am looking forward to The liminal premiership .....The Prime Minister at 300, which is the first of three episodes.

10 Downing Street, 2013

It starts at 11 am, and will then be available to listen to again shortly afterwards.

"It's 300 years since Sir Robert Walpole took office as the first recognisable office holder of Prime Minister. 

To mark the anniversary, the historian and biographer Sir Anthony Seldon, examines how the role came about and why it has survived despite various crises and periods of change in the life of the nation. What do Walpole and Boris Johnson, the 55th occupant of the office, have in common?

Robert Walpole, 1742

Former Prime Ministers, Foreign Secretaries, Cabinet Secretaries and others at the heart of government talk about the pressures on the modern office and the responsibilities that come with it. 

Has the job become too difficult to perform effectively and what could be done to enhance the role of Prime Minister?

The first programme explores the origins of the office and how it was shaped by two of the longest serving Prime Ministers, Sir Robert Walpole and William Pitt the Younger.

Producer: Peter Snowdon"

Picture; 10 Downing Street, 2013, Sergeant Tom Robinson RLC, Images are downloadable at high resolution, made available at http://www.defenceimagery.mod.uk for reuse under the OGL This file is licensed under the Open Government Licence version 1.0 (OGL v1.0) and Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, 1742, Arthur Pond, National Portrait Gallery

*The liminal premiershipThe Prime Minister at 300, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tp7p

Out in Chorlton with the football team in 1920

Now I say 1920 but it could equally be any time between then and 1922.

And this I know because it comes from a collection of family photographs belonging to Peter McLoughlin.

Unlike many collections these can be dated, often have a location and most of them Peter is able to identify the individuals in the pictures.

So he was able to tell me that "the player third from the left between the goalkeeper and the tall man, was my mother's boy friend who appears in plenty of the pictures including one where he is sat on a motor bike outside my mother's house on Hawthorn Road."

And that will date it to between 1920-22.

Now just before the Great War and into the interwar period Chorlton had a number of football clubs, some lasted longer than others but their story is not well documented.

I have written a few stories about them and have had contributions from Tony Goulding but I am no expert and pretty much confined myself to filling in the gaps from material supplied by Ann Love whose dad played for Chorlton Albion in the 1920s.*

But I know that during the last two decades of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth Chorlton supported a wide range of sporting and cultural activities including amateur dramatics and opera.

Most had developed as our population grew and drew their support from those new comers who occupied the newly built houses around what is now the Four Banks and the old station.

But some like bowling and our brass band go back to when we were still very much a rural community.

There were bowling clubs attached to both the Bowling Green and the Horse and Jockey well before the 1860s and our first brass band was established sometime around 1820.

Until Peter confirmed the location I thought that it might be the meadows but just possibly up by Hardy Lane or even on a make shift pitch at Turn Moss and of course there was always that rather awkward thought that it may not even be Chorlton.

But the team played down there on the meadows which makes for a nice bit of continuity even if it does  raise the question of which local team they were.

And like all good pictures it leaves me with a few more questions of which the one that fascinate me most is the identity of the man with bike.

I can't think he was the manager or trainer which leaves me wondering whether he was their sole supporter or just someone who was passing and was curious enough to be caught on camera.

Picture; from the collection of Peter McLoughlin date unknown

*Chorlton Football Clubs, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20Footbal%20Clubs

Travels along Oldham Road ..... a pub … a canal …… and a name change

It would of course be stating the obvious to say that Oldham Road has changed over the last 80 years.

Oldham Road, 2021

For those who walked the stretch in the 1950s from Great Ancoats Street up to what is now called Ancoats Green, the scene would be pretty much the same as it had been at the turn of the last century.

The northern side was dominated by railway lines and the good station, while opposite was still a mix of terraced houses and small industrial units, only the open space of Ancoats Green was still recorded as a Recreational Ground.

All of which was an off shoot for trawling back into the history of the building which Andy photographed recently and which goes under the name of LBNS Nail Supply, but was once the Wheatsheaf.

The Wheatsheaf, 1986

The pub closed sometime between 2011 and 2014, and there will be someone out there who can offer up an exact date, and maybe some memories.

For now I can track it back to 1827 when it was run by a John Stafford.  He is recorded as occupying the house the year before but according to the rate books in 1826 it was still a residential property.

Fast forward to April 1911 and the Wheatsheaf was run by a Lucinda Lynch who at 33 was already a widow, and shared the pub with her brother and sister.

Mrs. Lynch appears a fascinating subject for more research, especially given that a few months later a Lucinda Lynch sailed for New York, another namesake was buried in Dublin in 1933, and yet a fourth was running a boarding house with her husband in 1901.

This last Mrs. Lynch married Peter Lynch in 1893, when he was 63 and she was 34, but like so much research the devil is in the detail, and the publican of the Wheatsheaf would have been just 15 when Mr. Lynch walked his Mrs. Lynch up the aisle, and their maiden names was not the same.

So as l have wandered off on a fools errand I will close with that startling discovery that just behind the pub was an arm of the Rochdale Canal, which terminated Portugal Street.

The area behind Oldham Road, 1851

In 1851 it served the glass bottle manufactory of J Woolfall and the Cross and Openshaw Cotton Mill, the Falcon Mill and McGregor’s Iron Works.

A full century later and part of the land on eastern side of canal arm had become our Recreation Ground while the rest of the land on both sides was given over to small factories and the Corporation Yard.

Leaving me just to explore the strange demise of Prussia Street which was located just to the east of the Recreation Ground, was renamed Kemp Street and is now Wadeford Close.

It was Prussia Street way back into the early 19th century, but along with German Street nearby it fell victim I suspect to the Great War.  

Today as Wadeford Close it has an odd existence, running from Oldham Road to Portugal Street, before becoming a footpath only to become Wadeford Close again where it continues till it joins Jersey Street.

All of which reinforces just how much this patch has changed, in less than eighty years.

Location; New Cross

Pictures; LBNS Nail Supply, Oldham Road, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson, The Wheatsheaf, 1986, m50788, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the area in 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester,  courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

After the party goers left ………..Monday on Beech Road

With the rules about outdoor eating and drinking still to be relaxed, this half empty bottle of Cherry Cola will have nothing to do with the Lead Station.

Instead, it will be that opportunistic decision to use the Lead’s tables, for a brief sit down coupled with a lazy disregard for the discarded bottle.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; the discarded bottle, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson