One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 35 what was lost is now back, the fire place

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.*

As you would expect the place has been much knocked about, not least by John who lived here for just a few short years in the 1970s.

In that time he ripped out the two downstairs fire places, many of the features including the picture rails and covered every room wood chip.

Not that back in 1974 I would have done any differently in fact I own up to talking out a perfectly good wooden airing cupboard from the bathroom.

Such are the acts of vandalism on a proud old house.

One of the fire places was replaced in 1984 which is a lesson in history.

It had come from east Manchester where fire places, original baths and toilet fittings were being taken out of houses which then found their way to south Manchester to replace ones that had been pulled out a decade before from houses in Chorlton, Withington and Didsbury.

In our case this included one of those very old and very heavy cast iron baths, and the lead water cistern encased in a wooden frame with its slightly rusting iron fittings, which perched high up on the wall.

I had entertained ideas that we would use a length of copper pipe from the cistern to the lavatory but the builders insisted we used lead, so we got their pipe from their old lavatory and in exchange they got our 1970s low level plastic cistern

It took longer to reinstate the other fire place, but a few years ago this is what we did and what follows is just the story of that change.

Now there will be those who mutter self indulgent nonsense, but I think there is a point here which put simply is that houses should be respected as should the original intentions of the person who built it and first lived in it.

Compromises have to be made in the light of changing living styles but not at the expense of the house.

Otherwise you may like us spend a lot of time undoing what has been thoughtlessly done.

Neither of the fireplaces resemble the originals but these were not very attractive and dominated the rooms, so I suppose sometimes a little innovation is acceptable.

Of course the devil was in the detail and it took many visits to Insitu to resolve our differences over which to go for, but in the end we struck a deal where by I got the fire place surround and Tina the tiles which worked.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

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

A brick wall, a set of plans and a photograph reveal the work of a children’s charity

Now I am going to leave the story of what this unpromising piece of brickwork is all about to my friend  the archivist at the Together Trust.

She  has matched a hidden brick wall with some old plans, a photograph and come up with another story on the work of  the Victorian charity, The Manchester and Salford Boys' and Girls' Refuges.

It began in 1870 here in Manchester and  strived to improve the lives of children left destitute, maltreated and exploited.
It is still engaged in this task today

Just follow the link, Digging for Victory, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/digging-for-victory.html#more

Picture; courtesy of the Together Trust, http://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

Hough End Hall, that place not quite in Chorlton

This is the last of the three photographs from A Short History of Chorlton, written in 1933 by J.D.Blyth.

The picture was taken by F Blyth in the same year who also printed the book while on his second year course at the Technical College.

“Hough End Hall which was just outside the township in Withington had been home to the Mosley’s while Barlow Hall on the southern edge of Chorlton had been owned by the Barlow family.  Both in their different ways fit into the conventional image of old landed families.  

The Mosley’s had moved into commerce in the late sixteenth century, sided with the Royalist cause in the Civil War and suffered  from spendthrift  gambling members in the eighteenth, finally selling the Hall on to the Egerton’s around 1751. 

Hough End Hall been built at the end of the sixteenth century.   By 1847 it was a farmhouse and was the home of Henry Jackson who farmed 220 acres beyond the eastern boundary of the township. 

This made it one of the largest farms in the area, and Jackson employed 13 labourers, nine of whom lived in the hall.  It was still an impressive sight, leading one observer to write that its
‘ivy-covered walls, its clustered chimneys and its gabled roof, present a picturesque and pleasing appearance.*

Nor did the ivy or its more functional purpose as a farm obscure its classic Elizabethan design.  It was built of brick with three stories. The centre piece was flanked by a bay or arm at each end and a little advance bay in the centre which gave it the characteristic E shape.      

The large communal areas were sometimes later partitioned off into smaller rooms and the census of 1911 describes Hough End Hall with eleven rooms.”

From; The Story of Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

* Brooker, Rev John, A History of the Chapels of Didsbury and Chorlton, Chetham Society, Manchester, 1857,

Picture; of Hough End Hall 1933, by F. Blyth, from A Short history of Chorlton-cum-Hardy by J.D. Blyth, 1933

The Flying man over Didsbury in 1911

Bertha's postcard

I am looking at a postcard of Didsbury sent in the summer of 1911.

But the scene is not as important as the message on the back, for Bertha Geary aged just 13 of School Lane has heard history.

“We saw the flying man on Tuesday night fly over head.  Beaumont is his name.  I wish you could have seen him.  It made such a noise.”

He was André Beaumont and he was one of 30 competitors in the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Air Race in 1911. Flying in a Blériot XI he was the first to complete the course which was no mean achievement as many of the aircraft either failed to take off or crashed along the way.

So to him went the £10,000 prize awarded to a man whose real name was Lieutenant Jean Louis Conneau of the French Navy.

All of which today we take for granted but was pure magic and wonderment to young Bertha, after all the persistent buzzing of the aircraft’s engine above her head was something new and I guess louder than anything she had yet encountered.

Bertha's message

The streets were still dominated by the horse drawn vehicle, few had telephones, and radio as a form of mass entertainment was still in its infancy.

So hers was a generation which would embrace profound changes, and this drew me towards Bertha Geary.

She was born in Prestwich in 1898, and her father described himself variously as a school keeper and general labourer.  One of her elder sisters worked as “children’s milliner” and the other made “children’s costumes.”

There the trail goes quiet for Bertha, because if she married I can find no record, nor of when she died but she did leave one clue and that was her address on the postcard.

It is a simple but vital clue which allowed me to track her family on the street directory for 1911, establish a surname and search the census for that year.

It is one of those little rewarding pieces of research which has made writing the new book so much fun.

Didsbury Through Time aims to chronicle the changes in Didsbury over the last century and a bit mixing old images of the place with new photographs and paintings by local artist Peter Topping and concentrates also on the people who lived there.

Mikael Carlson owns and flies two of these Blériot XI

So along with Bertha there are stories of the great and good and the humble and industrious ranging from Fletcher Moss the historian and politician to William Wrightham cab driver and Mary Garside the cook at the Priory.

Many of the original pictures have been donated by local people and we would hope that there may be others who would like to become part of what we are doing by lending their photographs or even sharing their memories of what Didsbury was like.

For more information about how you can become part of this project contact Peter at peter@paintingsfrompictures.co.uk      

Picture; Bertha's postcard from the collection of Paul O'Sullivan and photograph of a Blériot XI, J.Klank, September 2007

Walking through the history of Manchester’s Jewish Community with Bill Williams, the pictures

Now I knew the walk and talk through Manchester’s old Jewish Community, would be good, and according to Bernard it was.

Sadly I missed it but Bernard posted the pictures on face book and left a commentary of the day.
 And here it is.

"Bill starts the walk outside Chethams and on the spot at 144 Long Millgate where stood the Nathan Brother's house, one of the first places where the itinerant Jewish pedlars first settled in Manchester

Bill talks to the group at the bottom of CheethaM Hill Road, opposite what was the Red Bank district whose poverty was described by Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England, and in which many of the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe settled 

Bill is appalled that no recognition is given to this historically important community and the district has now been renamed the "Green Quarter" to help sell the new blocks of flats — with 

Bill talks to the group opposite what was the Redbank district where many of the first Jewish immigrants from Easter Europe settled

The new synagogue, built almost next door to the Great Synagogue now demolished

Everybody thoroughly enjoyed the walk and talk -many thanks, Bill"

Pictures and words courtesy of Bernard Leech

A little bit of the Romans in Bristol

Now I am not sure how many people read the blog in Bristol or for that matter the south west, but that won’t stop me announcing a new exhibition on ROMAN EMPIRE ‘POWER & PEOPLE from September 21st till January at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery*

I am hoping that we will get down to see it, after all it's just about three hours from Chorlton and there are also our close friends Lois and Barri just down the road in Weston, so we shall see.

"Roman Empire: Power and People brings together over 160 stunning pieces from the British Museum to explore the story of one of the most powerful empires the world has ever seen.  

Highlights include sculpture from the villas of the Emperors Tiberius and Hadrian, coins from the famous Hoxne treasure, beautiful jewellery and even near-perfectly preserved children’s clothing from Roman Egypt. 

The exhibition explores the wealth, power and organisation of the Empire, but also how the Romans viewed their provinces and other peoples. Religious, military and personal objects give an insight into the lives of people across the Empire, from northern Britain to Egypt and the Middle East. These fascinating objects show how the influences of the many people and places that the Romans came into contact with were absorbed and adapted into the Empire.

The exhibition debuts at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and is the only stop in the south-west before touring the UK.

With thanks to Exhibition Sponsors Brewin Dolphin and Bond Dickinson and Education Sponsor Bristol Water. 

Roman Empire: Power & People is supported through the generosity of the Dorset Foundation. The exhibition has been developed in partnership with Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives and The British Museum."

So not one to miss then.

*Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
Queens Road Bristol, BS8 1R http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/leisure-and-culture/roman-empire-power-and-people

Leaf Street Swimming Baths, the first of a set of stories

I pretty much took the old Victorian and Edwardian Swimming Baths for granted. 

After all when you are ten the ornate splendour of the wrought iron, the bright glazed tiles and the stained glass is just background to  the business of playing in the water.

I wish I had taken more interest in my surroundings and so now fifty years on I am having to rediscover that magnificence of the Municipal Public Bath.

Sadly all too many have gone, victims of changing recreational habits, cost cutting exercises and the fact that some at least had come to the end of their useful life.

All of which is the lead into a new series on Manchester and Salford’s Swimming Baths and Washhouses.

Now I have always had a fascination for them and the part they have played in the provision of public services by local governemnets.

And this was further advanced by the talk recently at Chorlton History Group on the Swimming Baths of Greater Manchester.*

So this is the start of the series with a second look at Leaf Street Baths in Hulme.

In 1860 the Manchester & Salford Baths and Laundries Company opened their third public baths in Hulme.

The company had been formed in 1855, and built baths in Salford, Mayfield at Ardwick and Victoria Park.  Its assets were bought by Manchester Corporation in 1877.  The company had added a Turkish bath in 1860 which was the first in a public baths in Manchester.  The Leaf Street Baths were demolished in the clearances of the 1970s and today the site is open ground.

When I first posted the story I pondered on who remembered them and the response has been impressive.

There are those who wrote to me describing their first swimming lessons and those who still have their certificate proudly proclaiming their achievement at swimming a length, and memories from Tom who supervised children from nearby Royce School when they attended in the early 1970s.

Nor were the baths just a place for recreation, most also had a washhouse and facilities for families and individuals to take a bath, and in the case of Leaf Street it's own Turkish Baths.

Next, Whitworth Baths on Ashton Old Road and later the role of the Municipal Public Baths in keeping the people of the twin cities clean

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-swimming-baths-have-to-be-one-of.html

Pictures; Leaf Street Public Baths, 1920, m57327 and entrance m57328, Bath cubicle for private washing washing, 1920, m57333 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council