A bit of Roman history …… the search for an artist …… and a lesson on never throwing things away

I don’t now know how many editions of the History of The English Speaking Peoples I bought back in 1969, but this copy is the only one to survive.

The cover tells me there were to be 112, but I doubt I bought more than a couple.

The marketing plan seems a good one.  

Take extracts from Winston Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples, juxtapose his text with articles by some of the leading historians of the 1960s, throw in some pictures and maps along with biographies of leading historical figures and for 4/6 you had a bargain.

Well, I thought so as issue No.2 will testify.

Despite the passage of over half a century I can remember being drawn to the edition because of its connection with the Romans who captured my imagination when I was no more that eight and have stayed with me ever since.

In the winter of 1969 I would have been 18 and I almost certainly picked it up from Wilcox’s at the top of Well Hall Road and sold everything from books sweets and magazines to cards and stationary.

I guess my collection never went beyond the Romans, and Mr. Churchill’s chronicles of the Saxons, Vikings and Normans were lost to me.

But this edition was read and read again and offered up some fascinating images of which the picture of a Roman legionary set against a photograph of Trajan’s Column was a favourite.

I am not sure how many of the four legions which invaded Britain in 43 AD were equipped with the new body armour which came into use late in the Emperor Tiberius’s reign and it may be some were still wearing mail shirts.

Still that picture which came with a set of notes remained with me as the go to guide to the Roman army till I came across the books of Peter Connolly six or so years later.

And I have often wanted to reproduce it ….. but the ethics of copyright have always stopped me, which is how I went looking for the artist Julian Allen who is credited as painting it.

The plan was to ask his permission, but sadly he died in 1998, leaving me to search for his Estate.

In the meantime I have become interested in Mr. Allen who was born in 1942, studied at the Cambridge School of Art and the Central  College of Art in London and then went onto work for various newspapers as a “freelance illustrator and reporter”, before moving to America and continuing both as an artist working for publications as well as a freelance artist with “amassing an impressive list of clients including Esquire, GQ, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time, among others. In 1988 he was among five prominent illustrators invited to Korea and Japan to visit art colleges, teach workshops, and give lectures”.**

Added to this while working for The New York magazine "he covered such diverse subjects as: the Watergate scandal; the Yom Kippur war in the Middle East (where he was injured in a bomb explosion); the Entebbe rescue; gypsies in New York; the bicentennial of the Revolutionary War; youth gangs in the South Bronx and numerous stories about New York subculture, crime, politics and food”. 

I could go on but I suggest you follow the link to the biography which is posted on the Norman Rockwell Museum site which has an archive of his work.

And that is one of those nice bits of serendipity as around the time I bought the magazine I had discovered the paintings of Norman Rockwell who I first came across in my grandmother’s house in Derby in copies of the Saturday Evening Post.  

Just how that American publication got to Derby is a mystery I never thought to pursue, but some of them came back to London with me.

All of which is perhaps another story for another time.

Pictures; cover from History of the English Speaking Peoples, The Legions March, Julian Allen, map of the Roman Empire, and inside page, Purnell, 1969

*The Roman Army Peter Connolly, 1975, & Greece and Rome at War, 1981, Peter Connolly

** The Norman Rockwell Museum, https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/julian-allen

Grab it while you can ……. views of Central Railway Station*

This is in the way of a public information warning ……. take your pictures of the old Central Railway Station roof while you can.

Now I know the front is secure, and you can get clear views of the graceful arch of glass and iron from Windmill Street.

But the rear is another matter.

Once before the closure of Central it was the impressive sight passengers would get as the train pulled into the station, albeit you might have to stick your head out of the window to see it.

And then for years it was still possible to get good pictures from the metro stop, before temporary buildings went up in front of it.

But new developments rising from Windmill Street are beginning to obscure the view from the tram stop.

So I suggest you take your pictures soon

Location; Deansgate Castlefield

Pictures; the former Central Railway Station roof, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Central Railway Station, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Central%20Railway%20Station

Modern Salford bright and proud ................ nu 1 seen before but well worth another showing

Now as much as I like the images of old Salford sometimes it is worth remembering that there are some very interesting new ones going up.

Location; Salford

Pictures; Salford today, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The family that made cars in Chorlton ……..

This I think will be the last story on the Ashby family who made cars on Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton during the early 1920s.

North End Baptist Church, undated

So intriguing is the story that I was drawn in and wrote two pieces for the blog.*

There are still some mysteries to uncover like where exactly on Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton were they situated, and just why they swopped car production from Towcester in Northamptonshire to Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

But in the course of researching the Ashby family, one of my facebook friends came up with a little bit more on the origins of the the car manufacturers.

The article comes from Towcester and District Local History Society who kindly gave me permission to reproduce it.

"The North End Chapel building was erected by Baptists from Duncote on land owned by Thomas Ridgway the tea magnate, and was in use from 1853 to 1894. Thomas Ridgway himself was baptised there on 3rd June 1855.

Making Ashby motor cars, undated

In 1897 Victor James Ashby (1862 to 1938) bought the vacant building as he needed larger premises for his motor engineering firm; the former baptistry proved an ideal inspection pit in the new garage. 

At this time he built a car for family use, the "Jigger", making the twin cylinder engine himself.

As the Pioneer Motor Works business flourished. electricity was introduced and the first private telephone in Towcester was installed. 

By 1910 the old chapel had taken on a new look with added frontage and waiting area, and Victor Ashby's two children had joined the business.

His son Victor Stapleton Ashby (1892 to 1953) joined the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the First World War, serving as a Chief Engineer. 

On his return to Towcester he designed a new car, which came to the attention of Short Brothers, the famous aircraft firm. Manufacturing space was short at the Chapel at Towcester, so the car was produced at the Short Brother's factory, as the "Short-Ashby" first appearing at the Motor Show at White City in 1922. 

Unfortunately production ceased after only three years due to the general economic recession.

Green plaque, 2002

Victor Stapleton Ashby did not wish to continue the motor business when his father retired. The Pioneer Motor Works was eventually sold to Churchills, the machine tool makers. 

Later the building was used by The Plessey Company Ltd, and it is now occupied by "Go Floor It" (formerly M.J.Gowling Ltd.) Christine Williams, February 2002.

References

Much of the information on the Pioneer Motor Works was obtained from a magazine article by Nick Baldwin (source and date unknown) which also referenced the Stratford Motor Museum.

Other information from Mary Taylor."

Pioneer Motor Works, Worcester, undated

So that is it.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Towcester

Pictures; The North End Chapel, undated, Baptist Chapel as a garage, undated, and the historic green plaque. Circa 2002, courtesy of Towcester and District Local History Society

*Asby Cars,  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Ashby%20Cars

**Towcester and District Local History Society, http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/tdlhs/Places/Plaques/NEBaptist.html?fbclid=IwAR3bpe-l6gLprsDD0XuM5EpL1GaNd6KiSnUE8ZYe-1_0q7BN5A2gvfM31Vo

Bits of Stockport ……..

So with the shopping done in a certain big sports shop there was a brief few minutes to take pictures.

Every shopping trolley deserves to stay dry, 2023

And while it may seem cheap and mean to draw attention to the two cranes of which there must be more, the Stockport skyline seems less busy than that of Manchester or Salford.

Even Stockport gets its share of cranes

I await the comments calling me out.

Location; Stockport

Pictures; bits of Stockport, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ....... part 144 ……..the squirrel calls ……

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.*

Two squirrels, 2022

I can’t quite remember when the squirrels first came for breakfast, but it won’t be more than a year ago.

That said I am pretty confident that I can remember a time before there were squirrels in the Rec opposite the house.**

Although I suppose until recently I was less attuned to nature and the growing trend for what were wild animals to become urban ones.

Bagel and Tamla, 1983

Of course, having the Meadows so close might explain the appearance of Sidney and Sadie squirrel, along with that other townie animal the fox.

But I can only claim two sightings of a fox, once late at night padding off up Beech Road, and on another occasional also in the early morning when two of them took up residence outside our front door for half an hour.

By contrast the squirrels have pretty much taken up residence in our garden which I am the first to admit comes from us feeding them.

At which point I know someone will point out that feeding wild animals is wrong.  Wrong because it encourages them, wrong because it sustains them and makes them lazy and wrong because it’s wrong.

But we are locked into the breakfast ritual made all the more difficult to break given that on the dot of 7.30 they appear at the kitchen window, and who ever is sitting close to the window gets the job.

Now I very much doubt that Joe and Mary Ann ever coped with a squirrel at breakfast but they were mad keen on all sorts of animals, even leaving the house to the P.D.S.A. in their will and filling the garden with dead cats.

And there are those who can remember Mrs. Scott back in the 1960s feeding the pigeons which would surround her in ever increasing numbers on Beaumont Road making a bee line for the food she threw down.

Harvey, 1988

After the Scott’s there was a few barren years when the house was animal free, before we moved in bringing a baby black Labrador which we called Bagel followed by three stray cats, some gerbils, two rabbits one goldfish.  ***

Not all were ours and not all stayed long but the dog and the cats did.

We had already inherited one stray cat which we called Tamla Motown and took into two more who were called Harvey Moon and Henry Harris.

Tamla had been found at the back of Stephenson’s the hairdresser’s on Wilbraham Road, Harvey turned up on the doorstep and Henry was a victim of some poor behaviour on the part of a gang of lads who had left him in a plastic bag on the Rec.

Their names of course have their own stories.

Tamla speaks for itself, Harvey came from a gentle TV show of the time and Henry was named after a Labour Party canvasser who traveled all the way on the bus from Crumpsall to help in elections.

Two gerbils, 1990s

Our kids all learned to walk holding on to Bagel who like all Labradors was placid  even if he was rapacious.

A characteristic which led him to regularly raid the waste bin and even more disconcerting rise up on his back legs and sweep the work services and then eating anything that had fallen to the floor.

Nor were shoes or nylon stockings free from his avarice.

All of whom were tame compared to the squirrels, but together they are a sort of continuity which links us with Joe and Mary Ann who moved here in 1915 as the first residents.

And just as I posted the story the BBC offered this bit of news, Everyone to live 15 minutes from green space or water in England under plans.**** 

Pictures, two squirrels, 2022, from the collection of Balzano, Bagel and Tamla, circa 1983, Harvey, 1988, and two gerbils, circa 1994,from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The story of a house, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

**Scurry is the most common collective noun for squirrels, a group of squirrels is also called a dray (a nest).

***One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 51 ............ the dog, the cats, two gerbils and a couple of rabbits, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2015/01/one-hundred-years-of-one-house-in.html

****Everyone to live 15 minutes from green space or water in England under plans, By Helen Briggs

Environment correspondent, BBC News, January 31st, 2023, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64456455

That mystery in Fog Lane Park, …..

Now as bandstands go the one in Fog Lane Park was not the most attractive examples of a civic bandstand.

The former bandstand, 2020

I grew up with those elaborate iron ones which adorned the parks in my bit of south east London, and have since started collecting them.*

In that pre television, pre cinema and pre wireless age bandstands offered a place to meet, sit and enjoy live music, although by the 1950s when I was growing up they had become less popular.

And many were already sad looking rusty old affairs, which would soon be swept away.  Ours lost its fine iron pillars and decorative bits
 followed by the demolition of the brick platform.

The bandstand in 1962

So  complete was elimination of these bandstands that within a generation their very existence would be all but forgotten.

So, when Barbarella out on a Sunday walk she happened on the circle in Fogg Lane Park,and was mystified, and I have to say so was I.

I toyed with the idea of a former bowling green, but dismissed it for obvious reasons, and speculated that it might have been the site of a pond.

But, rather than stay with speculation I looked up the OS map for 1959, which clearly shows a bandstand at the Parkville Road entrance.

And quick as a flash found a 1962 picture of the bandstand.

The bandstand in 1959

I don’t know when it was built, but the park dates from 1926, and I guess that it was erected around that time or a little later.

Its design resembles the open-air theatre in Chorlton Park which was laid out in 1928.

Which just leaves me to thank Barbarella, and scoop up a description of the park from Didsbury Civic Society.

"Fog Lane Park is off Fog Lane. Didsbury.  It was purchased in 1926 by the Council and was one of first public parks in Manchester.

It is said that Fog Lane Park earned its name from a grass, commonly known as 'Yorkshire Fog' which still grows throughout the park.

The site is comprised mainly of grassland and woodland, but also contains two small lakes, shrub beds, scattered trees, rose gardens and a sensory garden and children's play areas. 

The park is particularly suited to football, having several pitches and a large grassed area.

Welcome to the park, 2020

Fog Lane has an area dedicated to the growth of wildflowers. 

These attract wildlife such as butterflies, dragonflies and a large selection of insects.  In turn, these provide food for a wide variety of birds which visit the park and are then encouraged to nest.  

These include mallards, moorhens, Canada geese, kestrels, wood pigeons, coots and the occasional heron, plus the latest additions - ring-necked parakeets.

 The park has a variety of trees and shrubs, including dawn redwood, silver birch, laburnums and flowering crabs, as well as a number of unusual specimens which have reached maturity, including hornbeams, alders, poplars, Norway maple and Indian bean.

 The park is mainly used for children’s recreation, dog walking, personal fitness including organised health walking, Saturday and Sunday league football and for educational purposes, by school groups, church groups and scout/brownie groups.

 Fog Lane Park Bowling Club and the Friends of Fog Lane Park actively work with Manchester Leisure to improve and promote the site.”**

Location; Fog Lane Park

Pictures; Fog Lane Park, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento, Bandstand, Fog Lane Park,1962, m58046, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and Fog lane Park, 1959, from the OS Map of Manchester & Salford, 1959

*The Bandstand,  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Bandstands

***More on Fog Lane Park, Didsbury Civic Society, https://www.didsburycivicsociety.org/fog-lane-park