This is another of those images from John Casey.
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Location; Salford
Picture; Chapel Street, circa 1980, from the collection of John Casey
Location; Salford
Picture; Chapel Street, circa 1980, from the collection of John Casey
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Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ....... nu 30 Chapel Street sometime in the 1980s
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Eltham High Street in the summer of 1915 and again sometime in the 1960s
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We are looking at the parish church on a warm summer’s morning sometime in 1915.
It is a picture I have grown to like and given that I have just bought the postcard I am quite pleased with myself.
Now I say bought, but in fact I have ordered it up and if it hasn’t been sold I shall soon be the proud owner of a little bit of old Eltham.*
So back to the picture which has enough detail to mark it off as an image from almost a century ago.
The tram is about to leave travelling along Well Hall Road which was cut just over a decade before and on the eastern side of the road there are none of the familiar shops while just out of the picture on the extreme right was Eltham’s third Congregational Church.
It was built in 1868 “in a strong Gothic Style with a tall spire and was demolished in 1936.”**
And while I don’t usually do then and now pictures I couldn’t resist adding the second photograph which I guess is from the 1960s.
This is the Eltham I remember.
But all of that smacks of nostalgic tosh, and no doubt any youngster who had stood beside the photographer in the summer of 1915 may well have muttered something similar when Burtons opened its grand new shop on the corner of Well Hall Road and the High Street in 1937.
Now I have to confess the shop with its great Ionic columns and pilasters at first floor level still dominates the corner even if the sleek 1960s Italian suits, jackets and ties have been replaced by fast food and soft drinks.
It was there that I would buy my Penguin Classics many of which still sit on the bookshelves here in Chorlton.
But again I am in danger of sliding into nostalgia so it’s best to leave these two pictures in the past, until my post card arrives from Mr Flynn which no doubt will set me off again.
And in the meantime I would welcome any images of Eltham which will provide the material for more stories.
Pictures; Eltham in 1915, courtesy currently of Mr Flynn and Eltham in the 1960s
*MARK FLYNN POSTCARDS http://www.markfynn.com/index.html
**Spurgeon Darrell, Discover Eltham, 2000
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Taking up the new craze of Glider Skating down at the Gliderdrome on Barlow Moor Road in 1939
The dance hall had been renamed the Manchester Gliderdrome and the event was billed as 'the modern ballroom craze that is sweeping Europe"
For those keen enough to roll up there were "free skates and tuition" with sessions which lasted all day into the evening and for anyone who wanted just to watch Spectators were charged 6d to “See the Happy ‘Gliding’ Fans.”
Now with some research it should be possible to track down how long the craze lasted.
So the search is on to find anyone who was there.
In the meantime it adds a bit more to the story of the Chorlton Palais which went on to become a string of nightclubs before finally closing to make way for a fast food outlet.
My friend Ida remembers it from the mid 1960s when "it was always busy"and Adge told me that "we went to the Princess Club('the Prinny') on a regular basis in the late 60'/early 70's, it was always rocking!
Saw some great acts there inc' Ben E King Emile Ford and Long John Baldry amongst others.
It was always packed to the rafters and, at the end of the night, the last song was always "Hi Ho Silver Lining", everyone in the place joined in (all well lubricated) I can see and hear it now in my head. It was also the place I had my first dance and snog with my (now) wife."*
And years later I was there when it had morphed into Valentines and later Ra Ra’s
Picture; Gliderskating, Manchester Evening News, 1939 courtesy of Sally Dervan
Princess Ballroom, R.E.Stanley, May 1959, m17616, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives,Manchester City Council,http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
*When you could see Tom Jones, Ben-E-King, and Dell Shannon in the Princess on Barlow Moor Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/when-you-could-see-tom-jones-ben-e-king.html
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Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ....... nu 31 the old Ship Inn
This was the very first picture John Casey shared with me.
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John took the photograph in the early 1980s and posted it beside a story I ran on the old Ship Inn.
And any one who has recently wandered down this bit of Salford may find the contrast striking.
Location; Salford
Picture; the old Ship Inn, circa 1980, from the collection of John Casey
And any one who has recently wandered down this bit of Salford may find the contrast striking.
Location; Salford
Picture; the old Ship Inn, circa 1980, from the collection of John Casey
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Lost scenes of the Far East.......... Ceylon 75 years ago .... no 9 in the market
In 1944 a young Bob Ward was aboard HMS London stationed in the Far East.
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During his stay on the island of Ceylon he recorded some of the everyday scenes he came across.
This is a record of some of what he saw.
There is no order or theme just a set of images which Bob passed over to his grandson who spent three months on the island in 2009.
Location; Sri Lanka
Pictures; Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward
During his stay on the island of Ceylon he recorded some of the everyday scenes he came across.
This is a record of some of what he saw.
There is no order or theme just a set of images which Bob passed over to his grandson who spent three months on the island in 2009.
Location; Sri Lanka
Pictures; Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward
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On Shooters Hill in 1872
I am on one of those journeys and I am pretty much going to let the map do the business.
We are on Shooters Hill in 1872 and we are looking at the OS map of London for that year.
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Now maps especially old ones can at first glance be difficult to make sense of. So to help the Bull Inn is there almost dead centre.
It was a much bigger place than we know today and was built around 1749, although it could be older. It was demolished in 1881 to make way for the present one.
And dotted around are the fine houses of the rich set back in their own grounds.
What I particularly like are the signs for pumps.
Picture; detail from the OS for London, 1868-72, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/
We are on Shooters Hill in 1872 and we are looking at the OS map of London for that year.
It was a much bigger place than we know today and was built around 1749, although it could be older. It was demolished in 1881 to make way for the present one.
And dotted around are the fine houses of the rich set back in their own grounds.
What I particularly like are the signs for pumps.
Picture; detail from the OS for London, 1868-72, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/
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“that plague has entered almost every house in the village which contains children.”
The April and May of 1886 were anxious times for any in the township with children for we were in the grip of a measles epidemic.
This according to one resident “has been ranging for many weeks now” with the result that “between two hundred and three hundred of our children have been attacked and five or six have died.”*
And the issue was bound up with bigger concerns of the general lack of sanitation and the tardiness of the public health authorities to act in the face of the epidemic
There had been growing disquiet about the high level of pollution in Chorlton Brook since at least 1875 with the local board a decade later commenting that it “is being constantly polluted with the sewage and other liquid refuse of several large manufacturing towns” and “emits most noxious odours and offensive gases which pollute the air.”**
And in 1881 a government inquiry called for the closing of the parish churchyard because the place was not only full but in an effort to accommodate more bodies, the authorities had resorted to removing some and burying others within 22 inches of the surface. Added to this there was the assertion that there “were a great number of houses here which are jerry built... and one or two spots where hollow places have been filled up with stuff which is nothing more than night soil.”
And at the heart of the rebuttal was the plain fact that “The death rate varies, as we all know, in the different townships, but the rate per 1,000 in different townships of children under five years of age in 1885 was as follows, Withington 3.3, Didsbury, 4.3, Chorlton-cum-Hardy 3.2 Burnage 5.5 showing very much in favour of Chorlton.”
But then there are statistics and dammed statistics, and when the figures are viewed over a longer period there may well have been less room for complacency. Taking the years from 1881-4 together and comparing the death rate across the townships Chorlton recorded the highest deaths of under fives per thousand of the population.
But measles is not caused by poor sanitation. And in the absence of hard evidence about the state of housing conditons it is difficult to draw a conclusion about the general threat to public health.
By the 1880s there were only six houses left which were wattle and daub which one Parliamentary Committee had argued were often no better than hovels. True there were plenty of brick built cottages which were just one up one down and many that predated 1840 and there was still overcrowding in some of them. But Dr Rains maintained that “the main drainage of the place being very good, that all dwellings are connected therewith, under the superintendence if the surveyor to the Local Board.”
Nor if he can be believed was there any evidence of Typhoid during the period which along with Cholera is a bed fellow of unsanitary conditions.
So despite the concerns over the smelly brook and the odd set of bones on the highway perhaps he was right when he asserted that people wanting to settle here could be confident that Chorlton was “more healthy than most others round Manchester whatever their elevation may be.” And he had come “here for the good of my health in June 1868.”
Of course I might yet be proved wrong. But then that is the fun of history. You do the research, draw the conclusions, write what you think and then something new pops up. Well we shall see.
Location; Chorlton, Manchester
Pictures; extracts from the Manchester Guardian, 1885
*Samuel Norbury Williams, letter to the Manchester Guardian May 17th 1886.
**Pollution of streams in the Withington District, Manchester Guardian September 12 1885
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Madge Addy ........ nurse and secret agent comes out of the shadows
Now the remarkable story of Madge Addy is about to reach a much wider audience and with that I hope we are one step nearer commemorating her achievements in two of the major armed conflicts of the 20th century.
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Ms Addy was born in Rusholme, lived in Chorlton and volunteered to serve as a nurse during the Spanish Civil War.
She wrote regular letters home highlighting the bravery and the hardships endured by the supporters of the democratically elected Government of Spain which was fighting a rebellion of Nationalist army officers.
The war marked the fault line between the progressive and democratic forces of Europe who were pitched against the conservative and far right groups which included Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
After the defeat of the Republican Government by the Nationalist Ms Addy went on to serve as an agent for the British in occupied France during the Second World assisting escaping allied POWs and carrying secret documents on commercial German airliners.
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Her activities have been largely forgotten and neither the Guardian or the Times carried an obituary when she died in 1970.
But this is now being rectified by Chris Hall who has not only been researching her life but is working towards the erection of a blue plaque.
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And now after four stories on the blog Ms Addy has featured in the Manchester Evening News, will be in the next edition of Chorlton’s Open Up magazine and will appear on Granada News and Nursing Standard.
It is only as it should be for a woman who risked much but never seems to have wanted to publicise her achievements.
There may be some who also have knowledge of Madge or would like to make a contribution to the cost of the plaque and if so please contact Chris by email at christoff_hall@yahoo.comor on0161 861 7448.
Location; Chorlton, Spain, France
Picture; Nurse Madge Addy giving a blood transfusion; Daily Worker, November 11, 1938 and Madge Addy, 1938
She wrote regular letters home highlighting the bravery and the hardships endured by the supporters of the democratically elected Government of Spain which was fighting a rebellion of Nationalist army officers.
The war marked the fault line between the progressive and democratic forces of Europe who were pitched against the conservative and far right groups which included Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
After the defeat of the Republican Government by the Nationalist Ms Addy went on to serve as an agent for the British in occupied France during the Second World assisting escaping allied POWs and carrying secret documents on commercial German airliners.
But this is now being rectified by Chris Hall who has not only been researching her life but is working towards the erection of a blue plaque.
It is only as it should be for a woman who risked much but never seems to have wanted to publicise her achievements.
There may be some who also have knowledge of Madge or would like to make a contribution to the cost of the plaque and if so please contact Chris by email at christoff_hall@yahoo.comor on0161 861 7448.
Location; Chorlton, Spain, France
Picture; Nurse Madge Addy giving a blood transfusion; Daily Worker, November 11, 1938 and Madge Addy, 1938
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Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ....... nu 32 the Old Shears Greengate
Now this is a story for which all the credit goes elsewhere.
The picture is another from the camera of John Casey and the description of the pub was taken from that excellent site on the history of Manchester and Salford pubs.
And that is that.
“Described as a dinner time, factory workers type boozer in the 1970s, the Old Shears offered hand-pulled Wilsons plus Carlsberg and Watneys Red for the less discerning drinker.
The Old Shears on Greengate, just over the River Irwell into the neighbouring city, can be traced back to about 1760.
The pub was also named the Rising Sun (1805-1809) and the Iron Bridge Tavern (1824).
Wilsons Brewery took the Old Shears in the 1940s and it thrived until the late 1970s when the nearby bus stations at Chapel Street and under the Greengate arches closed, and the new Trinity Way ring road cut Greengate in half.
The pub shut for good in 1987 and was derelict and roofless until its demolition in 1993.
Its location was on Greengate just at the end of New Bridge Street where the car park is now.
Back in the mid 1800s it would have faced the old Green Gate fruit & veg market here at Salford Cross / Market Cross.”*
Location; Salford
Picture; the Old Shears circa 1987, from the collection of John Casey
* Pubs of Manchester, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/old-shears-greengate.html
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Wandering the city in July .......... nu 1 a statute
It was the one day lat July when the weather was just about OK.
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And that really is all there is to say.
Location; Manchester
Picture; St Ann’s Square, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
And that really is all there is to say.
Location; Manchester
Picture; St Ann’s Square, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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On Shooters Hill in 1909
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| Looking down Shooters Hill in 1909 |
I had planned to write about them today but instead I couldn’t resist showing this picture of Shooters Hill looking west down the road.
It is taken from the book The Story of Royal Eltham which was written by R.R.C. Gregory in 1909 and although it has long been out of print it has been carefully digitalised by Roy Ayres and can be seen online at http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm
And so back to our picture which was taken just 70 or so years after yesterday’s story.
Picture; from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm
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When flooding stopped the trains
It might seem a last exhausted stab at stories about Chorlton and flooding but this one is interesting and set me off on one of those little historical adventures.
The picture is undated and could be anytime in the 20th century.
There are newspaper reports of flooding on the line in 1926 and 1954 and I rather think it might be the latter, given the style of the clothes of people on the platform, but I might be wrong.
But after “a day of heavy rains in the North West, the red (flooding imminent) signal was given” in the early hours of January 21st 1954* and from Salford along to Didsbury “the river was rolling into the densely populated area of Meadow Road” in Salford and shortly after 2 a.m. the Mersey was said to be pouring over its banks into large parts of the Didsbury and Northenden areas.”
And here we had “one of the most serious cases of flooding in the Manchester area,” as "Chorlton Brook overflowed in the late afternoon over the railway lines. The flood waters were thirty inches deep below the platforms and made the station impassable ....... an official at the station said late last night that the water had started to rise shortly after the rush hour, until it became so deep that there was a danger of it reaching the fire boxes on the trains.”
So there you have, not I suspect the last flood story but enough for now.
Picture; from the Lloyd collection, extract from the Manchester Guardian January 21st 1954
*Manchester Guardian January 21st 1954
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Just thirty years ago on Withy Grove .......... from the new collection
Now I maintain and I maintain most strongly that some of the most fascinating images of the twin cities come from the last four decades.
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The old black and white photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are a passport back into a time before now but in their way so are those taken in the last four decades.
They show a Manchester and Salford which is almost like now but not quite and so bits are familiar but others might as well be from 1900.
It is like looking through a dirty window which offers up only half a picture.
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All of which is an introduction into a new collection from John Casey which he has been kindly sharing with me over the last few weeks, and as he sends them across I have been featuring them.
Here are two of Withy Grove from the 1980s which will set people going. For some it will be spotting the buildings they remember and for others it will be a revealing insight into what has gone.
What intrigue me also are the two pubs. The Lower Turks Head was for a while closed and only reopened recently while the Hare and Hounds had a very different colour scheme.
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Many will know that these two along with another seventy six have been close to my heart over the last year as I worked with Peter Topping on the book Manchester Pubs*
I could at this stage make some quite valid links to John’s pictures of the two pubs and what the pubs look
like today as seen in the book.
But that would be outrageous self promotion.
Instead look out for the story on the Swan with Two Necks which never made the book but was caught on camera by John in the 1980s.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; Withy Grove in the 1980s from the collection of John Casey
You can order the book from www.pubbooks.co.ukor Chorlton Bookshop.
*A new book on Manchester Pubs, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20Pubs
They show a Manchester and Salford which is almost like now but not quite and so bits are familiar but others might as well be from 1900.
It is like looking through a dirty window which offers up only half a picture.
Here are two of Withy Grove from the 1980s which will set people going. For some it will be spotting the buildings they remember and for others it will be a revealing insight into what has gone.
What intrigue me also are the two pubs. The Lower Turks Head was for a while closed and only reopened recently while the Hare and Hounds had a very different colour scheme.
I could at this stage make some quite valid links to John’s pictures of the two pubs and what the pubs look
like today as seen in the book.
But that would be outrageous self promotion.
Instead look out for the story on the Swan with Two Necks which never made the book but was caught on camera by John in the 1980s.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; Withy Grove in the 1980s from the collection of John Casey
You can order the book from www.pubbooks.co.ukor Chorlton Bookshop.
*A new book on Manchester Pubs, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20Pubs
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Wandering the city in July .......... nu 2 a shop
It was the one day last July when weather was just about OK.
And that really is all there is to say.
Location; Manchester
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Picture; St Ann’s Churchyard, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
And that really is all there is to say.
Location; Manchester
Picture; St Ann’s Churchyard, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ... nu 33 Chapel Street and a question
Now I wonder how many people showed an interest in buying this rather run down property.
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And there must have been a lot given that according to the for sale sign “this valuable site [was]on sale extending to the river and with a good frontage.”
We are on that bit of Chapel Street just past the Ship Inn. Directly next to the block on the left was Hatton’s Court which indeed did lead down to the river.
Back in 1849 the building fronting the river was a tannery which by the 1890s was a sugar refinery.
All of which means that there is more to discover.
For now I am fascinated by the Botanic and Porterstores along with the boot maker with the prices on the window.
Location; Salford
Pictures; Chapel Street, R.Pattreioux,m77250, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
We are on that bit of Chapel Street just past the Ship Inn. Directly next to the block on the left was Hatton’s Court which indeed did lead down to the river.
Back in 1849 the building fronting the river was a tannery which by the 1890s was a sugar refinery.
All of which means that there is more to discover.
For now I am fascinated by the Botanic and Porterstores along with the boot maker with the prices on the window.
Location; Salford
Pictures; Chapel Street, R.Pattreioux,m77250, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
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Lost pubs of Manchester ......... no 15 Swan With Two Necks at Withy Grove
Now I never visited the Swan With Two Necks on Withy Grove and now I never will.
According to one sourceit had been doing the business of serving up beer from 1795 and certainly twenty years earlier there had been a building on the site.*
By 1821 the landlady was a Lydia Oliver who was still there in 1827 and according to the rate books owned property in the surrounding streets.
The rateable value of the pub was £100 in 1823 and this far exceeded the rates of other buildings on the road and puts the other pub just a few doors down in the shadows. This was run by Alice Wilmott who is listed as paying just £45 for the front two rooms of no 5 Withy Grove.
All of which makes Ms Oliver an interesting person to research, but for now all I know is that she was dead by 1841 because her properties are recorded as being managed by Executors.
There is a reference to a Lydia Oliver who was buried in Cheetham in September 1838 and whose death was registered by the Chorlton Union a few days earlier.
If this is our Ms Oliver, she had been born in 1765 and was 73 at her death.
So I shall return to the pub which vanished only relatively recently and is now the site of a takeaway business.
Back in the 1820s the pub was simply known as the Swan and I shall go looking for just when it gained that extra neck but it was trading with that new name by 1844 and in 1911 was run by a the Kinaman family.
Martin Kinaman was 51, and from Ireland and had been married to Clara Ann for twenty one years.
They had five children of whom the eldest Claire Kathleen at 19 was serving as a barmaid and that April of 1911 they shred the six roomed property with Amy Gough who was 31, from Manchester and described herself as a “housekeeper.”
And for those who want to know more about the pub in more recent times that excellent site Pubs of Manchester has a good description which should be read in conjunction with the four photographs of the pub since 1959 on the local image collection.
These later pictures are themselves facinating for showing the transfoirmation from traditional exterior to one in keeping with the 1970s.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; Swan with Two Necks, 1980s from the collection of John Casey, the pub in 1959 by H W Beaumont, m50619, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and in 1970 by A Davison, m50620, and map showing the pub in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*Pubs of Manchester, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/swan-with-two-necks-withy-grove.html
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| Swan With Two Necks, 1980s |
By 1821 the landlady was a Lydia Oliver who was still there in 1827 and according to the rate books owned property in the surrounding streets.
The rateable value of the pub was £100 in 1823 and this far exceeded the rates of other buildings on the road and puts the other pub just a few doors down in the shadows. This was run by Alice Wilmott who is listed as paying just £45 for the front two rooms of no 5 Withy Grove.
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| Swan With Two Necks, 1851 |
There is a reference to a Lydia Oliver who was buried in Cheetham in September 1838 and whose death was registered by the Chorlton Union a few days earlier.
If this is our Ms Oliver, she had been born in 1765 and was 73 at her death.
So I shall return to the pub which vanished only relatively recently and is now the site of a takeaway business.
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| Swan With Two Necks, 1959 |
Martin Kinaman was 51, and from Ireland and had been married to Clara Ann for twenty one years.
They had five children of whom the eldest Claire Kathleen at 19 was serving as a barmaid and that April of 1911 they shred the six roomed property with Amy Gough who was 31, from Manchester and described herself as a “housekeeper.”
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| The Swan With Two Necks, 1970 |
These later pictures are themselves facinating for showing the transfoirmation from traditional exterior to one in keeping with the 1970s.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; Swan with Two Necks, 1980s from the collection of John Casey, the pub in 1959 by H W Beaumont, m50619, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and in 1970 by A Davison, m50620, and map showing the pub in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*Pubs of Manchester, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/swan-with-two-necks-withy-grove.html
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The story behind the story of an Eltham postcard
Now as everyone knows there can always be more than one story behind a picture postcard.
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The first is the image on the front which in an instant tells you so much about a place in the past.
And then there is the name, address and message on the back which can be equally revealing.
The skill of the historian is to marry the two sides and tell a story, but just sometimes that story cannot be told and that is what happened to my friend Tricia who found this postcard on eBay back in September.
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She told me that having found it “I did a little research on the information on the back and managed to trace the family history of the person it was sent to.”
The research led to a connection with the garage beside the church and a family who had lived in Eltham.
Tricia managed to trace the family, met up with one of them and handed over the postcard.
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It would have made a compelling story but given that one of the familiy did not want the details made public Tricia quite rightly chose not to publish it.
But there is always a story in a story and for me the story is less aboutt the family and more about how one postcard in the hands of a skilled researcher can reveal much that might otherwise have been ignored or lost.
It involved Tricia's leap of imagination to use the name and search through social networking sites and then the diligence to match these against people and those listed and then try and make contact.
And I like the final touch of Tricia's in choosing to reunite the card with the family a full seventy seventy years after it was sent.
Location; Eltham
Picture; Eltham Church circa 1940s from the collection of Tricia Leslie
And then there is the name, address and message on the back which can be equally revealing.
The skill of the historian is to marry the two sides and tell a story, but just sometimes that story cannot be told and that is what happened to my friend Tricia who found this postcard on eBay back in September.
The research led to a connection with the garage beside the church and a family who had lived in Eltham.
Tricia managed to trace the family, met up with one of them and handed over the postcard.
But there is always a story in a story and for me the story is less aboutt the family and more about how one postcard in the hands of a skilled researcher can reveal much that might otherwise have been ignored or lost.
It involved Tricia's leap of imagination to use the name and search through social networking sites and then the diligence to match these against people and those listed and then try and make contact.
And I like the final touch of Tricia's in choosing to reunite the card with the family a full seventy seventy years after it was sent.
Location; Eltham
Picture; Eltham Church circa 1940s from the collection of Tricia Leslie
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In search of the Rough Leech Gutter
Every winter we get the Edge Lane Lake which depending on the amount of rain that has fallen can either be a puddle or some quite extraordinary expanse of water.
Not that I ever gave it much thought but more recently it has seemed to me that this is the Rough Leech Gutter.It’s there on the old maps from the 1840s and runs from St Werburghs, following a line which takes in Corkland Road before cutting down close to the Four Banks and heading off towards Edge Lane and on to Turn Moss.
On its course and in its time it would have provided water for Pit Brow and Clough Farms as well as the grand house at Oak Bank before emptying into a large pond by Turn Moss Farm. Already by 1841 a small section where it crossed High Lane and Edge Lane was culverted and it may just be that this now very old brick or stone culvert is the cause for the “lake.”
And there were lots of them.
All now have vanished underground with the exception of Chorlton Brook which appears into the light at various points around Chorlton before flowing into the Mersey.
There are some that crossed what is now Chorlton Park, another which seems to have flowed close to Acres Road and others which were probably no more than ditches for most of the year.
A few might have dried up but the others will still be there quietly and unobtrusively trickling along, hidden and forgotten.
And by and large they are just that. I asked the Corporation for any records and they passed me on the Environmental Agency who were very helpful and very thorough but could only tell me about the Chorlton and Longford Brooks.
Not that this should surprise us for many of these water courses will have gone underground from the 1840s through to the beginning of the 20th century.There may be records in the papers of the Egerton and Lloyd estates who owned most of the township, but I doubt there will be any other records.
So in the absence of paperwork it’s down to looking at that maps and listening to people’s experiences, which is how I can be fairly certain that the Rough Leech Gutter follows close to the line of Wilbraham Road somewhere by Silverwood Avenue going under Brundretts Road before appearing at Edge Lane. And it was a chance remark that I made on one of my recent walks and talks which prompted Tony who lives on Brundretts to tell me of the damp cellars at one end of the road.
And damp cellars are a possible clue. But there are others. Phillip Lloyd once told me that his mother could remember the sound of Longford Brook which flows further north and west of the township as it made its way underground. But as he said to hear it you had to be up early have no surrounding noise and hope for a day of rain the evening before.
Still they are all there and I suppose the best I can say they are all in the book.
Pictures; detail of the 1841 OS for Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/and the collection of Andrew Simpson
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Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ... nu 34 a reassuring discovery
And so it is with the Salford Arms.
Not that I have ever been inside and I am sure that there will be plenty of people who will be able to tell me just how the pub has changed in the last thirty or so years.
And while it has retained the clock face the hands have gone replaced by a smiley face.
Location; Salford
Pictures; Chapel Street, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and sometime around 1980, m77250, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
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Looking into the future of Eltham High Street in 1975
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| The High Street in 1910 |
The book was part of a planning consultation and fell through the letter box after I had long left Well Hall for Manchester.
I am not sure what my dad and sister Stella thought of the process, or the ideas but now both the planning exercise and their suggestions are as much a piece of history as any of the stories I usually write.
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| The High Street in 1971 |
And for me the images have a special connection. Our Stella worked at the library and from 1964 till I left Well Hall in '69 it was a regular venue, along I remember with Marks & Spencer's where I bought my first ever fruit yogurt.
Now that is not only revealing a secret but says so much on the new horizons which were opening up for a lad from south East London.
Pictures; from A Future for Eltham Town Centre, Greenwich Borough Council, Planning Department, 1975
*Of town plans and visions of a future that never quite happened, Eltham in the 1970s and Manchester in 1945.http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/of-town-plans-and-visions-of-future.html
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