One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 71 ...... colder inside than out

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 house in 1974

Now apart from a couple of days when we had a hard frost this year like the last few has been very mild.

All of which is good news for our heating bills, but it is hardly likely to put me in a pre Christmas mood.

I feel it should be much colder ....... the sort of cold which is bone deep and sends you out for the catalogues advertising holidays in the sun.

But that isn’t to be and yet not that long ago by December in the absence of central heating the house resembled an ice box.

Joe and Mary Ann will have been running coal fires from early October, but John who bought the house in 1974 ripped the fireplaces out and installed just one gas fire in the front room.

And so as the temperatures tumbled life beyond the immediate zone of that gas fire was miserable.

From the side in 1974

We argued over whose turn it was to make the coffee and despite the fire hazard the four gas jets on the cooker would be lit while the kettle boiled.

Not that any of that compared to waking up and discovering ice on the inside of the windows.

This will be familiar to anyone of a certain age as will the hot water bottle and the wild winter draughts from under the front door.

Of course Joe and Mary Ann will have had all the means to combat the worst excesses of this cold onslaught.

Unlike us they will have had carpets throughout and would not understand the idea of stripping varnishing and exposing the floor boards.

Only those in deepest poverty neglected to cover them in carpet or lino.

And it followed that as summer moved into winter the light curtains would be replaced by heavy duty ones which were lined and the curtain rail behind the front door would get its own thick curtain.

I can’t be sure if Joe and Mary Ann ever had a kitchen range.  The house certainly dates from a time when they will still have been installed, but Joe was quite progressive and may have opted in 1915 for a gas cooker which could be bought or rented from the Corporation.

The rear in 1974

But if they did this will have been on pretty much continuously.  It will have heated the water and been used to cook on.

And at least one of the downstairs fires will have been lit in the morning and maintained through the day.

At home this was the first thing dad did in the old house while in Derby the task fell to my grandmother who made sure that by 7 in the morning the front room fire was established, which in a small two up two down helped heat the whole house.

None of this will have stopped those bone aching cold mornings but I suspect Joe and Mary Ann were a lot warmer than us when I first came to live her.

Pictures; the house in the 1970s from the collections of Andrew Simpson and Lois Elsden

*The story of house,

78 Manchester Pubs .... a book for Christmas due out this week

Now here is a first ........ the story of 78 of our iconic Manchester pubs.

It is less a guide and more a detailed set of tales featuring the people who lived, worked and drank in those 78 historic boozers from the Northern Quarter down to the Universities.

They are grouped together in easy to do walks, and so along with those stories there are descriptions of the areas where the pubs are situated, allowing the causal tourist to put the pubs into a context and making it easier to understand why one was named after a potato, and another changed its name to fit the politics of the age.

The book is lavishly illustrated with period maps, old photographs and original paintings by Peter.

All of which means you can use the maps to walk around the city as it would have been a century and a half ago, and look at how each pub has changed over time.

And along with this there are 78 original paintings of each pub and 15 more of the buildings and places associated with the pubs.

For some it will be a perfect Christmas stocking present, and for others a serious contribution to our history.

So as they say “we commend” this 382 page volume of the 78 in the sure knowledge that you will find the stories interesting, the pubs delightful and the walks instructive.

Manchester Pubs - The Stories Behind The Doors – City Centre, Peter Topping and Andrew Simpson

ISBN 978 0 995705 50 0 Price £18.99

We are taking Pre-orders now and hopefully the book will be ready for sale on 20th December 2016 at www.pubbooks.co.uk 

The book can also be obtained from  Chorlton Bookshop, 506 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9AW 0161 881 6374 info@chorltonbookshop.co.uk

Looking for Madge Addy from Chorlton

Now the search for Madge Addy has got just that bit more complicated and that is problem.

Madge Addy, 1938

In 1938 she was working in Chorlton cum Hardy before she left for Spain and a hospital ward where she tended the sick and wounded during the Civil War.

Later she went on to work for the Special Operations Executive in occupied France risking her life aiding escaping allied soldiers and carrying secret documents even travelling on German commercial flights.

For these brave exploits she was awarded the OBE.

She died in 1970 but her passing appears to have gone unrecorded by the media and so because of this and her remarkable work in Spain and France there is moves to place a blue plaque here in Chorlton.

And here is the rub because so far all attempts to locate where she lived in Chorlton have drawn a blank.

Ms Addy doesn’t appear in the directories for 1938 or the 1939 Register, leaving just an appeal for anyone who might know her and there are no references to her address on the newspaper article of the time.

And all this matters because there are moves to commemorate her with that blue plaque which it is hoped could be fixed to the house she lived in.

So at present that leaves the appeal for anyone who may have known her.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; Miss Addy, 1938

A tram ............... a name and a journey

Now this is a tram story.

So turn away all those who prefer the bus, drive each day in a car or have never taken to that mode of transport which travels equally happily on the city’s roads and railway track.

Me, I just love the tram and will go out of my way to use it even when it is more sensible to go by bus.

It is of course partly because trams are quicker and more direct but also because they give you a clear view of where you are passing through.

And when they travel along the old railway network there is a sense of going back in time.

So when the Metro extended to East Didsbury from town I jumped at the opportunity to travel on what had once been the passenger railway line from Central Railway Station out to Stockport and Derbyshire.

Metro did it in two chunks, terminating at first at St Werburghs and then comleting the route to East Didsbury which meant with a bit of imagination you could think yourself back to steam locomotives and a time when Chorlton had a railway station called Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

And it was at East Didsbury that David spotted tram number 3020 “working the Deansgate, East Didsbury service” which just happens also to a have a name.

It is the Lancashire Fusilier and David tells me he thinks it is the only tram currently to have a name, and that pretty much is the end of the story.

Except to say like Alfred Hitchcock, David couldn't resist getting in his own picture.

Location. South Manchester

Pictures; name plate of the Lancashire Fusilier, number 3020 courtesy of David Harrop and another by me ........ an East Didsbury tram passing through St Peter's Square, 2014 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Looking for the story of Brookfield House on the edge of Chorlton Park

Brookfield House, 2014

Now over the last few months I have been reflecting on the fate of Hough End Hall and its future.

And occasionally I have also written about Brookfield house which stood directly opposite.

It stands on the edge of Chorlton Park.

Now I can’t be sure of when it was built, but there are buildings on this site as early as 1750.

Brookfield House, circa 1913

That said I suspect this one dates from the early 19th century.

In the 1840s it was the home of an accountant and later the doctor James Partington.

Strictly speaking it was actually in the township of Withington as was Hough End Hall.

I am not sure when it passed into the ownership of the Corporation but I guess it will have been in the late 1920s when Chorlton Park was finished.

Brookfield House today

It is somewhere I have tried to get into but with no success, although I am reliably told that there is nothing left inside of the original building.

The Corporation seemed vague about its history and I was surprised that part of it is still in residential use and perhaps at some time in the future I may be able to find out more.

Pictures; Brookfield House, circa 1913 from the Lloyd Collection, and the building today from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Selling the donkey for the war ........ Mr Booker a Red Cross Fund and a day in Stretford

Now here is one of those fascinating postcards which lifted the carpet on a bit of history.

The caption reads “Mr Booker sold to aid of British Farmers Red Cross Fund at Stretford for £395. 6. 0. October 1915.”

And that is all there is.

But of course that was just the incentive to dig deeper.

The British Farmers Red Cross Fund was one of a number run by the society and part of the thousands established during the Great War to raise money for everything from Belgian Refugees to socks for men in the trenches.

"The British Farmers Red Cross Fund mainly raised money through agricultural sales. Around 1,600 were organised during the war. The proceeds were earmarked for particular schemes, such as providing motor ambulances, cars and lorries to the various battle-fronts. More than 150 ambulances were provided in this way.

Hospitals, known as British Farmers Hospitals, were supported by this fund in Belgium, France and Serbia.

The fund received a total of £1,024,808 19s 2d."*

The picture postcard has just been acquired by my old friend David Harrop who want to make it a feature of his display at the book launch in February  next year of my book Manchester Remembering 1914-18.**

But more of that later, for now it is that donkey that fascinates me and of course the event that it participated in.

Given that we have a date and a place it should not be too difficult to unearth a newspaper story.  There is nothing in the Manchester Guardian but somewhere in the archives of the local heritage centre there will be something.

And there may be a clue in the company who produced the card which was Inghams.

There is a reference in the trade directories to a J Ingham & Sons, Photographers, Withington Road, Brooks Bar, in 1911 which just might be them.

They appear to have been in business from the 1870s and into the 1930s and there is also a reference to them in Sale Through Time which records “that a local landmark was John Ingham & Sons, photographers on the opposite corner of Aston Lane and Washway Road at Winton House.”***

So with all that local connection it is quite possible that Mr Ingham & Sons  took the opportunity to wander down in to Stretford in the October of 1915 to snap Mr Booker.

Location; Stretford

Picture; Mr Booker sold to aid of British Farmers Red Cross Fund at Stretford for £395. 6. 0. October 1915.” Courtesy of David Harrop

*British Farmers Red Cross Fund, 

** *Manchester Remembering 1914-18 by Andrew Simpson will be published by the History Press in February 2017

Order now from the History Press, or Chorlton Book Shop,  0161 881 6374

***Sale Through Time, Steven Dickens, Amberley, 2013

Remembering the Spanish Civil War .......... one to do next year

The Spanish Civil War began eighty years ago when a group of generals declared war on the democratically elected government of Spain.

Aid for the Basque People, 1936-39

It finished three years later with the defeat of that government and the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship which lasted until 1975.

It was for many at the time the fault line which divided progressive Europe from a repressive authoritarian and conservative set of values which many had thought shattered by the French Revolution.

And added to this was the participation of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany on the side of the Generals marking the war a test of whether the dark forces of totalitarianism would triumph over democracy.

Here in Britain as well as around the world men and women of all classes chose to support the legitimate Government.

Some were active in raising funds for food and medical aid while others made the difficult journey to Spain to fight or work in the hospitals.

I had quite forgotten just how strongly I felt about that war until recently when in the space of a few days I began researching the story of Madge Addy and met Dolores Long the daughter of Sam Wild who was the last commander of the British Battalion of the International Brigade.

Liberty's Volunteers, 2017

Miss Addy volunteered to serve in a Republican hospital, was active in promoting the cause of the legitimate Government writing detailed letter home about the conditions she encountered and she was the last British nurse to leave Spain as the Nationalist Generals succeeded in defeating the Republic.

Dolores kindly agreed to share information on Ms Addy along with her own work in maintaining the publics’ interest in the Spanish Civil War and the role of the British men and women who went out to help.

All of which leads me to an advance notice for a conference on the war early next year.

It will take place in March in the city centre and details are available by following the link, http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/

And nearer the time I will return with more details along with some articles from Dolores.

Location; Manchester & Spain

Pictures; the poster Aid for the Basque Heroes, S H Prives, from The Palette and the Flame, 1980 and poster of the conference courtesy of International Brigades Memorial Tust