Lunch time at the Lloyds …..

The Lloyd’s is one of those big pubs with heaps of history and a popular venue.

And on Friday there were the happy regulars who told me that they were “always here” and pointed to a picture of the Lloyd’s Three by the bar.

Added to these there was a family who had popped in for a quick half an hour before heading off on a journey with a suitcase, the woman with her phone and the man with his pint.

And as I snapped away, they were joined by a party on a late lunch meet up, bumped into Alan and watched as couples fell into the pub for a lazy drink and chat.

Location; The Lloyds

Pictures;  Lunch time at the Lloyds, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Gaze upon the Rec ...... and spot the changes .....

The blog doesn't usually do then and now pictures ...... well not unless there are  accompanying stories which elaborate on the changes, explores why they happened and concludes with heaps of references.

Looking across the Rec, 2023

But today  I rather think I will leave it at the pictures, taken a year or so apart in The Rec from almost the same spot.

This morning had I thought about doing a then and now I would have paced out my position, but I didn't.

Lost to sight, the Irish Club and car park, 2024

On a cold autumnal morning with plenty of pale sunshine I had just wanted to record an empty Rec, but that big block of apartments dominated the scene.

Of course from spring through the summer it is hidden but as the leaves fall there it is growing by the day.

And for those who will ask, the Irish Centre is still there although it is not open, and for those who want more, the club started out as a Masonic Lodge, and site of the apartments was a bowling green.

Location; the Rec

Pictures; looking across the Rec in 2023, and 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The remarkable Madge Addy from Chorlton part 2 discovering more

Now yesterday I began the story of Madge Addy f from Chorlton who served in the Spanish Civil War, went on to be an undercover operator in wartime France and was awarded the OBE.*

British nurses on the front line in Spain, date unknown

It is a remarkable story of courage and indeed of modesty because despite facing some very dangerous situations in both Span and France she does not seem to have sought publicity.

To date I can find no obituary from a leading newspaper on her exploits and have uncovered just one photograph.

Aid for the Basque Heroes, circa 1936-39

There will be more.

In the space of a day I found where she was living in 1911 aged seven, a detailed description of role with Special Operations Executive from 1940 and a growing number of the letters she sent back from Spain to raise funds for the Republican cause.

But lots still remain very shadowy.

One newspaper reported that she had been working in Chorlton before she went to Spain and I am hoping that she will be on a trade directory for 1937 which may give us an address.

And that is important given that there are moves to commemorate her work with a plaque and while the library may be a fitting spot so might the building she lived or worked in.

Today I have been helped by the International Brigade Memorial Trust who have promised to put me in touch with the trustees of the Manchester branch and also Angela Jackson who has written about Ms Addy.

And I now know that she married a second time in 1955 and her husband was Thorkold Hansen who she worked with in France which is important because although she is widely known as Madge Addy, it is by Hansen that I have uncovered more about her.

Madge Addy, 1938

Equally it was as Marguerita Holst that I first uncovered a reference to the OBE she was awarded.

There will be more and that just leave me to make an appeal for anyone who can help.

Location; Chorlton, Spain, and beyond




Pictures; British nurses at work on the front line in Spain courtesy of International Brigade Memorial Trust, the poster Aid for the Basque Heroes, S H Prives, from The Palette and the Flame, 1980 

*The remarkable Madge Addy from Chorlton part 1 ....... the Spanish Civil War and secret operations in France,
**International Brigade Memorial Trust,  

The mystery behind the Maypole on Wilbraham Road

Now I grant you as mysteries go it ain’t Agatha Christie or even a Sexton Blake but I am intrigued by the wrought iron arch behind the Maypole grocery shop at number 41 Wilbraham Road.

Maypole Dairy, 41 Wilbraham Road

The shop opened in 1909 and was still trading fifty years later and is now part of LewisBet, the Bookmakers.

Today the gap between the Maypole Diary and what is now Barclays Bank is a small retail unit.

When this was constructed is unclear but in 1959 it is there and part of the grocery shop.

But that doesn’t help with my bit of ornate iron work.

It may of course still be there and I suppose I should pop down and explore, or at the very least ask the owners of R J’s the barber shop to have a look out back.

That ironwork

But where would the mystery be in that?

Even if it is still there, that doesn’t help with the question of why it was erected.

Maps of the period do not help although the 1907 map does hint at something beside the bank and back then this was the Manchester and County Bank who may have decided on putting up a bit of decorative iron work, but I somehow doubt it.

Of course Mr Lloyd who added this to his collection may have mistaken this Maypole Dairy for another, opening up the possibility that this isn’t Wilbraham Road, but I doubt it.

We shall see.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; the Maypole Dairy Wilbraham Road, circa 1909, from the Lloyd Collection

The remarkable Madge Addy from Chorlton part 1 ....... the Spanish Civil War and secret operations in France

This is the story of Madge Addy who worked in Chorlton, was a nurse in the Spanish Civil War and was awarded an OBE for her wartime work as an undercover agent in occupied Europe during the last world war.

Ms Addy, 1938

It has been a bit of a challenge to uncover the story because while most of the references give her name as Madge she was actually Marguerite and was married twice, first to a Mr Holst and later a Mr Hansen.

All of which makes trawling the records that bit more difficult.

According to one source, she was “from the Chorlton-cum-Hardy area of Manchester. She arrived in Spain in 1937 and became Head Nurse at a hospital in an old monastery at Uclės in Castile. Like some of the other British nurses, she was also involved with the fund-raising campaigns back home. 

Madge would write detailed letters about the work being done in the 'Manchester Ward' at the hospital in Uclės to the Chairman of the North Manchester Spanish Medical Aid Committee to help with the campaigns for medical supplies. 

She was the last British nurse to leave Spain but what happened to her after that did not come to light until recently. 

Spain Fifgts for Independence, poster, 1936-39

She married the Norwegian she had met in Spain, Wilhelm Holst, and during the Second World War she went on to play a vital role in setting up the famous 'Garrow-Pat O’Leary' escape line, working with MI9. 

She was awarded the OBE for her work in France; her bravery included travelling as a Norwegian subject on German civil flights, carrying secret messages sewn into the lining of her fur coat. 

As an English woman operating in enemy-occupied territory, she would have known what the penalty would be if caught.  Madge Addy died in 1970.”*

But there is much more including some of the letters she sent home from Spain and an article from the Manchester Guardian which she gives a description of the revenge carried out by the victorious forces of Franco on the civil population and those who sided with the defeated democratic government of Spain.

Wilbraham Road,, Chorlton, circa 1930s

Like all good stories I came across it by chance after Cllr Shelia Newman had been asked to look into the possibility of erecting a plaque to the memory of Ms Addy.**

The cost will be met by voluntary subscriptions which just leaves a decision on its location.

Now there is a reference to Ms Addy having a hairdressing business in Chorlton just before she left for Spain, so a search of the trade directories may reveal an address.

Beech Road, Chorlton, circa 1930s

In the meantime I think I have found where was living in 1911 which was 58 Rusholme Grove with her widowed mother and five siblings.  Ms Addy was seven and her mother is described as a “dressmaker.”

The house was on the south side of Rusholme Grove was demolished sometime in the 1970s but that address is a start and over the next few weeks I want explore what I can of her story.

There may even be people who remember her and have more letters, pictures and stories of this remarkable woman.

Location; Chorlton, Spain, and France

Pictures; Ms Addy in 1938 courtesy of Shelia Newman, Chorlton in the 1930s from the Lloyd Collection  and Spain Fights for Independence, For Peace and Solidarity Among All Peoples, G. M. 1936-39, from The Palette and the Flame, 1980 

*From foodships to the front lines: a forgotten Manchester heroine of the Spanish Civil War
By Angela Jackson,

*From Foodships to the front lines: a forgotten Manchester heroine of the Spanish Civil War, Angela Jackson

**Cllr Shelia Newman, cllr.s.newman@manchester.gov.uk  0161 234 1841 (Town Hall)

Forgotten Chorlton ................. nu 1 on Wibraham in the 1930

Now Wilbraham Road and Edge Lane were popular locations for commercial photographers not least because of the many posh properties which stretched out on either side of these two roads all the way up from Stretford into Chorlton.

The canny photographer would not only sell the images to the postcard companies but would also have called in at each house featured in a picture offering up a print for a price.

This one was taken by Harold Clarke who lived in Chorlton in the 1920s and 30s and had a photographic business.

And as you do I have come to be quite fascinated by him and have not only written about his work on the blog but discovered that Tony Goulding who is a regular contributor is related to Mr Clarke.*

So as they say a small world, and for those who know this corner of Wilbraham Road and High Lane/Edge Lane the fun will be trying to spot the changes.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

Picture; Wilbraham Road, 1930 from the collection of Mark Fynn

*Harold Clarke, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Harold%20Clarke

**Mark Fynn, http://www.markfynn.com, 

Piccadilly Gardens ....... the early years nu 4 on a warm summer's day in 1956

Now this just captures a carefree summer’s day in Piccadilly Gardens back in the 1950s.

It was taken in 1955 and pretty much has the lot.

The two stylish young women attract some but perhaps not that much attention.

For whatever reason the two  men in suits stare away while the chap next to them is lost in his newspaper.

So it is down to the woman in the hat and two others to glance at the passing of those stylish young women.

There will be many who remember sitting in the sunken gardens during their break from work, and when I washed up in Manchester in 1969 this was still a popular way of passing the hour on a sunny day.

My friend Sally came across the image in the digital archive collection but when I went looking for the picture the site had gone down which is a shame because I would like to think thee may have been some extra information.

And as ever it is the tiny detail that draws me in.

My Nana had a hat just like and mum had the identical sun glasses which also reminded me of her usual spectacles which were pink plastic with wings at each corner.

Thinking back they were exactly like the fins on those ever so large American cars that sum up the style of the 50s.

As were those big while plastic ear rings designed to look like flowers.

Which brings me back to those two elegantly dressed young women.

In time when I can access the Manchester collection site I may discover that this was a fashion shot but it is equally likely that it was just a random shot on a hot summer’s day.

Either way it is one to treasure.

Picture; courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass