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In search of the sellers of sleep on Angel Street …..
Now yesterday I was on Angel Street exploring the stories behind the doors of the lodging houses, of which there were many in the surrounding area.44 Angel Street, 1897, Number 44 Angel Street was...
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When Chorlton made cars ………..
It is a story I have twice come back to having had a stab at finding out where and when a firm set up here in Chorlton making cars.Shaw's Motor Garage, date unknownFirst time round I tried following up...
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Walking the River ......... by the Cutty Sark
A short series taken from one day when I walked along the River. Back then the Thames was still a place to to earn a wage and watch as ships, and barges plied their way on the water.* Location; the...
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The Manchester of 1894
I have spent part of the afternoon looking through a wonderful collection of pictures of Manchester from the late 19th century. They come from a three volume collection published in 1894 under the...
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Mrs Keal and the mystery of 419 Barlow Moor Road
Leon's, 2015It has taken sometime but I am closer to solving the mystery behind the date on the wall of 419 Barlow Moor Road. Most people will know the place as Leon’s the fabric shop but I have long...
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One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 16 ........... the plays wot...
This is the continuing storyof one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*Well Hall Road, 2014 For as long as I can remember our mum wrote plays, short stories...
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Letting history repeat itself …. standing up for Chorlton Library Live …...
Today I am thinking of how history unfolds and, in the process, repeats itself.Chorlton Library .... all things for the community, 2026Of course, it never quite does it exactly the same way but to...
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Lost along the River … somewhere beyond Ballast Quay .........
Fifty-five years ago, I regularly walked along the River from the food factory I worked at to the Cutty Sark pub.The silos, a dog and that walk, 1979It was an after-shift stroll to finish off a day in...
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Cleaning the brass and making the beds in Chorlton ........ with Miss Edith...
I wonder what Edith Ashworth made of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.She had been born in Northenden in 1880, and lived with her father and mother and four siblings in a small cottage off Mill Lane. Her father...
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One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 10........... from bread and...
This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.* Now I suspect pretty much every generation thinks that there’s was the one which has...
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The night watchman............ out on the streets of Manchester in 1896
Once the night watchman would have been a familiar sight sitting beside his hut keeping warm at the brazier and maintaining a solitary vigil over the road works or building site. They feature in much...
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One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 9........... bold new...
This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*I often wonder what those who lived in our house in the 1950swould have made of the...
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Secrets from a Chorlton grave yard ……
I am looking at the remains of a clay pipe dating from around 1831.King William lV pipe 1831-37I can be fairly confident of that date because 1831 was the year of the coronation of William lV and our...
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On the streets of Manchester, polishing shoes, selling food and offering up...
It is one of those things about city life that there is always someone who will sell you almost anything. Just over a hundred years ago down by the Cathedral walls, the artist H.Tidmarsh recorded the...
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Goodbye you came too late …. the sad story of the Bank of England
I never drank in the Bank of England.The Bank of England .... clinging on, 2025It was in that space between New Islington and Holt Town.I encountered it as a sad looking building whose customers had...
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Down on Chorlton Green with the Penny Savings Bank
I like the way stories have a habit of coming around all over again. And so it is with the Penny Savings Bank. It was set up in 1887 and according to the bank “any sum may be deposited between One...
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One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 6 ........... winter in 294
This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.* Now I can’t remember which wintry scene this will have been but I am guessing it...
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A little bit about Samuel L Coulthurst and those amazing pictures of...
Rochdale Road and Swan Street 1900This is another of those images of Manchester street life by Samuel Lawrence Coulthurst. It was taken in 1900 at the corner of Rochdale Road and Swan Street. Now at...
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Lunch time on the green by the lych gate in 1910
We are sometime in the summer of 1910 and judging by the collection of young people I think it must be dinner time. A few are young enough to be at school but four at least of the central group will...
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Walking the Thames
Now I am the first to admit it’s a bit of a silly title but that is exactly what my friend Neil did, once under the river at Woolwich and then again at Greenwich. It’s not my chosen way of leaving...
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