Honouring Manchester’s six VC’s from the Great War

Now I don’t pretend that any of the pictures I took today at the ceremony to honour the six men from Manchester who were awarded the Victoria Cross during the Great War are up to much, but that really didn’t matter.

Today ....... remembering the six

The ceremony and the honour the City bestowed on the six men is the important thing.

The service was attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, civic dignitaries, MPs and representatives of the families of the six men.

During the course of the ceremony the names and citations for the awards were read out.

It was a moving act of recognition and was attended by a large group of the public.

Location; Manchester

Picture; today at the Cenotaph, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Back in Well Hall in the 1940s

Now I have James Garner to thank for these three photographs of which the ones of his grandmother and Mrs Powell are my favourites.

James Garner's grandmother

They come from that excellent site about the Progress Estate and got me thinking just how many photographs will exist of Well Hall and Eltham.

Some were made by commercial photographers and were reproduced on picture postcards plenty of which are still in circulation.

Many more will be the family snap, often taken in a hurry and sometimes a tad out of focus but as important as those professional images.

If you are lucky there will be a name and with a name you can begin to track the history of the person staring back at you.

And if you are very lucky some of that story will be supplied by the family, so James was able to add that his great grandparents moved to The Progress Estate, moving from Oxford shortly after it was built.

"Digging though my grandmother's photos, I have found a number of photos from their house at 80 Whinyates Road, and of their neighbour Mrs Bartholomew.

Mrs Rose

I'm not too sure of the years, but I'm guessing 1940s.”

But even if the identity of the individuals is unknown they can still offer up a wonderful treasure of detail about how we lived.

I remember my mother and grandmother both wore similar wrap around aprons to the one worn by Powell.

They were cheap, effective and are as much a part of history now as the telegram or the wireless.

Today an apron might be worn just for the duration of preparing and cooking a meal and perhaps not even then.

Back when I was growing up the wrap around apron went on at the beginning of the day and pretty much stayed on all day, taken off perhaps only to go to the shops.

St Barnabas circa 1957

And for most of us there are also the detail of the houses in the background which fasten the location to the estate and look so little different from today.

All of which just leaves that last picture of St Barnabas sometime around 1957 just as it was re-emerging form its years of bomb damage.

So that just leaves me to thank James again point you to the link below and make an appeal for similar images.



Pictures; courtesy of James Garner

* Progress Estate, London, SE9, http://progressestate.blogspot.co.uk/, Whinyates Road, http://progressestate.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/whinyates-road.html

History in the making ................. A Journey to Canada ........... not to be missed

As someone who spent his career teaching history and continues to have a passion for the subject I think the Together Trust should be applauded for their new project involving young people in telling the story of British Home Children.

The project has featured on their blog already and today they reveal the nest phase.

“Our Heritage Lottery Funded project ‘Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces’ is back in full swing again. Over the summer we’ve been busy working on our new film ‘A Journey to Canada’, where our young people have partaken in new experiences and worked in front of the camera, to produce a historical documentary based on the Together Trust’s past.* 

We are really excited to reveal the result of this work, which will be shown for the first time during two live performances at the Together Trust Centre in November. 

‘A Journey to Canada’ builds on previous work completed by young people at the Together Trust, who have been learning about the experiences of orphans who used to live in the charity’s homes in the early 1900s. 

The film centres round young people today experiencing activities that would have been undertaken by these 19th century orphans, embarking on their journey to Canada to start a new life. 

We are now working on two live performances in which to showcase the film. Combining multimedia and live performance it promises to be an entertaining delve into the charity’s history."

And for the rest you will have to follow the link to the blog.  Couldn’t be easier.

*A Journey to Canada - diary event, Getting Down and Dusty, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/


Picture; courtesy of The Together Trust, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-together-trust.html

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 63 that bridge

Now I know that this isn’t a street and I daresay is not lost or forgotten, but I wonder how many people use it.

It’s the one that crosses Watson Street from the Great Northern Warehouse to the side of GMex which then offers up a quick route to the tram stop at Castlefield Deansgate.

Location; Manchester

Picture; the bridge over Watson Street, circa 2009 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Pictures from an Eltham bus ........ nu 6

The top deck of a London bus has to be a pretty neat way of seeing the world below.

And when it is the same bus at about the same time every day then you have got yourself a project.

All you need is a camera and the patience each week to record the same spot.

It helps if there is a major new development underway like the one in the High Street and the rest as they say is Larissa Hamment’s “Pictures from an Eltham bus.”*

And as Larissa says, "the Old Co-op /Poundland building...going to be the new cinema... works starting now, Greggs are still refusing to budge... but believe Nando's & Zizzi pizza chain are going in as the restaurant choices..!"

Location, Eltham High Street, Eltham, London

Picture; October 2016 from the work at the old Co-op/Pound Shop, from the collection of Larissa Hamment

*Pictures from an Eltham bus, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Pictures%20from%20an%20Eltham%20Bus

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 64 ............ the Rec and that corner

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.*

The Rec and that corner, 2016

I very much doubt that Joe and Mary Ann ever gave that much thought to this corner of the Rec.

If I am honest until recently I can’t say I have either but in its way it has a lot going for it.

For a start it always gets the attention of the travelling circus who use the railings to hang a bill board announcing their imminent arrival and in between it can be guaranteed to host a regular series of smaller posters appealing for help to find lost cats and  news of forthcoming craft and vegan fairs.

And for those unwilling to go to the expense of a laminated piece of card tied to the railings there is always the chalked message in various colours with arrows pointing off in different directions.

It is also a natural meeting point.  So for the last three years it has been where a group of youngster congregate before going off to school and for others it is the corner to meet up in advance of an afternoon  relaxing on the grass or playing on the swings.

But the railings haven’t always been there.  During the last world war they disappeared and were only reinstated much later.

See saw, prams and litter, the Rec in 1910

And in the last century and a bit the recreational ground has lost its park hut, briefly gained a barrage balloon, seen its ornamental flower beds come and go and more recently acquired a set of swings and climbing features.

Not that these were the first.

Back soon after it was laid out just before the end of the 19th century there were a set of those see saws which offered up a bit of harmless entertainment but in the wrong hands could deliver a very uncomfortable ride depending on how hard your partner bounced on the thing.

I have no idea whether Joe and Mary Ann took a turn round the Rec. When they first moved into the house the park was less than twenty years old but even then was at the mercy of those that left litter on the paths and grassed areas and trespassed on the flower beds.

More recently it was where our lads played constant games of football from pretty much the crack of the day till it got dark.  And even now there are those on Wilton who tell me they could set their clocks by my nightly warnings that it was almost time to come in.

So popular was the Rec with our older three and their friends that we had a special box set aside for the football boots and old trainers belonging to them all.

Today of course the football is confined to a Christmas Day kick about and the rest of the year is left to the teams of children who use the place.

Mr Higginbotham ploughing Row Acre, circa 1895

All of which just leaves me to reflect that when Joe and Mary Ann moved into the house in the autumn of 1915 the memories old Mr Higginbotham the farmer ploughing  his share of what was then called Row Acre would still be commonplace.

The land  had been farmed as long thin strips of land running across from Beech Road towards High Lane.

His strip ran parallel to Cross Road and this may well be him ploughing the land for the last time in about 1895.

Just fifty or so years earlier he and a fellow farmer had passed the day with the journalist Alexander Somerville who had walked the 4 miles from the city to investigate stories of potato blight.

He didn’t find any but instead was treated to tales of fruit flies and the intransigence of one local landowner.

But that is for another time.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; the Rec, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, The Rand ploughing Row Acre courtesy of Mr Higginbotham, circa 1895 and the Rec in 1910 from the Lloyd Collection

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

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 62 Exchange Square

Yesterday I was looking down Corporation Street and the absence of tram tracks, and it was natural to wander back into Exchange Square which is one of the new open spaces in the city.

But in the space of the time since it opened it has undergone lots of changes.

I was never one who welcomed the Wheel to the Square but I have become a fan of the new seating and water features which rarely seems to be on.

And of course to these changes can be added the metro stop and pretty soon the completed tram track which bring trams down from Cross Street, completing the Second City Crossing.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Exchange Square, circa 2002 from the collection of Andrew Simpson