Of gas masks and foot tunnels ........ a story from Roger Callow

May 19, 2018, 7:00 pm

≫ Next: Kemp’s Corner on the corner of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads .......... sometime in the early 1960s

≪ Previous: “Perhaps forgettable but not forgotten” ....... another unremarkable building joins so many

I recall finding a boxed gas mask in our shed at Greenvale Road in the mid fifties when I was about 6 years old and taking it indoors to ask my mum about it but when my father saw me with it he went ballistic and snatched it away from me and put it in the dustbin.

Nothing more was said about it and I can only think that it had brought back some bad memories for him which leads on to the next story which I learnt from him when he was in his nineties.

Father worked at the Royal Arsenal throughout the war as one of the engineers who bored out the large naval guns and volunteered to became an Auxiliary Fireman (AFS) and fire watcher at the Arsenal.

Some of the tales he had to tell were quite horrific i.e. digging out workmates from bomb shelters that had suffered direct hits during the many bombing raids aimed at the works. I can only assume that the sight of the gas mask 2 brought back those bad times and accounted for his behaviour.

As he lived at East Ham for much of the war, his route to the Arsenal often took him through the foot tunnel when the ferry wasn't operating which was mostly after dark and his biggest gripe was how his way home through the tunnel was often impeded by the many people who took shelter there during bombing raids.

I can understand his frustration at this when you consider he would have to spend long hours on the roof of his workshop watching as the bombing raid moved slowly up the river targeting the many buildings and facilities that made up the Royal Arsenal which stretched for many miles downriver and his job would involve spotting what type of bombs were dropping i.e. incendiary or high explosive or a mix of both.

This often meant he would remain on the roof dealing with incendiary bombs that fell on on it but not knowing if a high explosive device may come down among them.

I can understand his frustration with the families in the tunnel when he would be looking forward to getting home after spending a night wondering if it may be his last night which it was for many AFS colleagues. His night did in fact come up when he was blown from his roof by a high explosive bomb and the ensuing injuries saw him off work for a little over 6 months and the fact that he was only paid for two weeks of that period, didn't help matters.

He often said that he and his fellow fire watchers most probably endured more high explosives being aimed at them than the soldiers on the front line.

©Roger Callow, 2018

Pictures; Heinkel He 111 over Poland, September 1939 from the German Federal Archive featured in Heinkel He 111 Wickipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_111 , Woolwich Foot Tunnel circa 1916, courtesy of Kristina Bedford from Woolwich Through Time, Kristina Bedford, 2014, Amberley Publishing

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Kemp’s Corner on the corner of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads .......... sometime in the early 1960s

May 19, 2018, 7:30 pm

≫ Next: Walking Well Hall in the April of 1844

≪ Previous: Of gas masks and foot tunnels ........ a story from Roger Callow

The name Kemp’s Corner is not so familiar now but once and until quite recently it was the place you arranged to meet up.

In that pre-mobile age when arrangements to meet someone had to be done in advance and then stuck to
Harry Kemp’s chemist shop was the perfect spot.

Not only was it on the corner of two busy roads with plenty of bus stops but there was a large clock above the shop.

Harry Kemp had opened his shop in the early years of the 20th century, had another one on Beech Road and was one of our three councillors who were elected in 1904 after Chorlton along with the other three townships had voted to join the City.

It continued as a chemist well into the century and is now the HSBC.

All of which makes this picture quite a find. It is one I haven’t seen before and I have to thank Mark Flynn for permission to reproduce it.

Mark as a vast collection of picture postcards.

Pictures; Kemp's Corner, circa early 1960s courtesy of Mark Fynn

*Manchester Postcards, http://www.manchesterpostcards.com/index.html

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Walking Well Hall in the April of 1844

May 19, 2018, 7:30 pm

≫ Next: The Cranes of Salford ...... number 7 ....... Media City

≪ Previous: Kemp’s Corner on the corner of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads .......... sometime in the early 1960s

Well Hall in 1746

Walk along Well Hall Road which runs from the High Street north to Shooters Hill on a sunny day and it is a pleasant enough trip which starts with the church takes in the Tudor Barn and the Progress Estate before finishing with the common and the woods.

Had you done the same journey in the spring of 1844 it would of course have been very different. Back then it consisted of some farms, a posh house and a collection of cottages with the odd pond and lots of open land.

These were a mix of arable, meadow and pasture land with the woods stretching off north and east bordering Shooters Hill.

Here were agricultural labourers, a blacksmith, some “middling families” and an assortment of others who made their living from teaching to tailoring.

And it is these people’s lives in this small hamlet north of Eltham High Street that I want to explore.

Well Hall House, 1909

1844 is a good point to start because in that year the tithe map and schedule had been published which detailed who owned the land, who rented it and the use it was put to along with its value.

So just north east of the Pleasaunce was Andrews Meadow which was a six acre plot of meadowland farmed by Samuel Jeffryes and owned by Sir Gregory Page Turner and a little further north and on the land that would become the Well Hall Estate was Bridge Field and Eleven Acres which confusingly was actually 26 acres of arable land.

Now there is no reason for me choosing these two fields over others except that I am drawn to any piece of land with my name and to the field where our old house now stands. All of which is a bit self indulgent and so back to the inhabitants of Well Hall.

Baptismal record of Charlotte, daughter of Samuel and Frances Jeffryes, 1837

As ever it is the people of property that we know most about and two of these were Samuel and Frances Jeffryes.

We know their children, where the family lived, something of how they made a living and even how Samuel voted in the key Parliamentary elections of 1837 and 1847.

Now the picture is not complete and there is much research still to be done but there is enough for a story.

Samuel was born in 1803 and came from Shropshire. Frances was five years younger and had been born in Wales. Their early married life was spent in Shropshire in the village of Sutton where they had five children but by 1837 they were in Eltham and it was here that Frances gave birth to another eight who were all baptized in the parish church.

Burial record of Samuel Jeffyres, 1867

At one point in the late 1830s they lived in Well Hall House which was that large eighteenth century house beside the Tudor Barn but were on what is now Eltham High Street quite close to the church by 1844.

He variously described himself as a “farmer” and a “gentleman” and in the 1840s farmed over 250 acres north of the High Street much of which boarded Well Hall Lane. And despite moving to Westminster both were buried back in the parish church.

It would have been a short walk from their home on Eltham Street to the church but a slightly longer one from there down to Well Hall for their route would have taken them west past the church to what is now Sherrard Road down past the big pond in Homefield and then on by twists and turns to Well Hall House the home of the Reverend Charles Gulliver Freyer and a short walk on to the six houses a little beyond Kidbrook Lane occupied by John Evans and six other families.

And beyond this just open fields up to the common and Shooters Hill, which is all to the good given that this is fast becoming just a travelogue.

Location; Well Hall, Eltham, London

Pictures; map of Well Hall in 1746, Engraved by Richard Parr, surveyed and published by John Rocque, 1746 IDEAL HOMES: A History of South East London, the Universiyuy of Greenwich, http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/resources Well Hall House 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,remaining images from the parish records of St John the Baptist

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The Cranes of Salford ...... number 7 ....... Media City

May 20, 2018, 6:30 pm

≫ Next: Memories of West Side Story, Flubber, and much more ...... back at the Odeon in Manchester

≪ Previous: Walking Well Hall in the April of 1844

From the series, the Cranes of Salford ...... number 6 ....... Media City

Nothing more to say.

Location; Salford

Pictures; Media City, 2017, from the collection of Andrew Robertson

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Memories of West Side Story, Flubber, and much more ...... back at the Odeon in Manchester

May 20, 2018, 6:30 pm

≫ Next: With granddad and his cup of soup outside the Post Office on Wilbraham Road

≪ Previous: The Cranes of Salford ...... number 7 ....... Media City

Now a whole generation has grown up since the Odeon in Manchester went dark.

That said there will still be plenty of people who remember it in its glory days just before and after the Second World when a night out at the flicks began with queuing round the cinema for the big film, led in by a uniformed attendant and shown to your seats by a uniformed usherette.

I remember seeing West Side Story, Woodstock and a whole tranche of children’s movies at the Odeon.

And of these, because West Side Story was a special date I splashed out on the Circle.

Back then there was still an air of grandeur about the place and you felt you were taking part in a proper night out.

But the Odeon closed in 2004 and after a long time it finally started being demolished in 2017.

Andy Robertson charted its demolition and was back last week recording the next instalment which looks to be the first stages of the build.

Watch this space.

Location; Manchester

Picture, the site of the Odeon, 2018 from the collection of Andy Robertson

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With granddad and his cup of soup outside the Post Office on Wilbraham Road

May 20, 2018, 7:30 pm

≫ Next: “At present we do nothing at all other than parade” ......... sharing a day in 1915 with George Davison at Woolwich Barracks*

≪ Previous: Memories of West Side Story, Flubber, and much more ...... back at the Odeon in Manchester

Now I bet a lot of people remember the TV advert for Heinz soup with granddad.

But I had completely forgotten that it also appeared on posters until Ursula shared this picture with me.

We are on Wilbraham Road sometime around 1980 by the post office and Ursula and her friend Helen are in front of the side wall of what was once Lipton’s, became Ethel Austin and is still going strong selling all manner of clothes.

To the left you can just make out the sign for the Asian restaurant and opposite was the wool shop.

I don’t ever recall going in the wool shop but have fond memories of the restaurant and also the travel agents next door.

In that pre internet age if you wanted a holiday or even to book train tickets in advance you relied on the “expert” who talked on the phone to “other experts” and in the space of 20 minutes sorted out your requirements while you waited .

And it was there that I sorted out a long weekend to Paris, with the chap behind the counter arranging the trains to London, the connecting trains to Dover and from Calais along with Channel crossing and the hotel.

All around were posters for places from Greece to Frinton along with coach excursions and train destinations I never heard of.

It was cluttered old fashioned and a world away from the modern shop with its bank of computers, instant internet access and currency exchange.

And I have Ursula to thank for sparking off the memories of the day she and her best friend Helen posed in front of granddad and his cup of soup.

“My friend Helen was my best friend through secondary school - she also went to St. John's primary as I did. It was Helen's idea to pose for that picture.

She grew up on St Anne's Road and introduced me to the wonders of King Spot - and Chorlton Cinema where her mum was a cleaner at one point.”

Now I have every confidence that there are similar pictures of Chorlton out there, tucked away in old albums, stuffed at the bottom of wardrobes or just laying around in the attic and I would welcome sharing them with the blog.

And of course if there is a story as well so much the better.

Picture; Wilbraham Road, circa 1980, courtesy of Ursula Achah

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“At present we do nothing at all other than parade” ......... sharing a day in 1915 with George Davison at Woolwich Barracks*

May 20, 2018, 7:30 pm

≫ Next: Piccadilly Gardens ....... the early years nu 3 a plan for a new civic attraction .... 1920

≪ Previous: With granddad and his cup of soup outside the Post Office on Wilbraham Road

Mr and Mrs Davison and their son, 1916 Ireland

Now I went looking for anything that might have happened on October 27 1915 but the databases proved unrewarding.

“Unfortunately” according to one “there are no historic events for this date” other than it was the day that Herschel Saltzman was born and as everyone knows he “was a Canadian theatre and film producer best known for his mega-gamble which resulted in his co-producing the James Bond film series with Albert R.”**

So a day of little significance which was pretty much how George Davison of the Royal Artillery described that Monday in 1915 to his wife in a letter home.

Woolwoch Barracks circa 1914

He had enlisted the year before had spent Christmas and most of 1915 in Ireland before briefly being posted to Woolwich and judging by his comments the army was not quite ready for his arrival.

There were no beds but he had managed to “find two blankets and use my coat and trousers for a pillow – the floor is the only bed and it is abominably draughty. Our German friends (?) chipped pieces off the barracks the other day and part of the roof is being temporarily held up by wooden joists.”

And time hung heavily “at present we do nothing at all other than parade at 6 o clock am 8 am and 1.45 pm to see if any clothing is available. There are no knives forks or spoons to eat with so you can imagine the result when fingers have to be used.”

George's letter to Nellie, October 27 1915

His experiences were no doubt echoed by his companions and conditions must have been grim given “that there are 1500 more men than the place will accommodate” which accounted for meal times being “something approaching a football scramble.”

Added to which he was still unable to “send a complete address [because] there are about 1000 other recruits to be dealt with before I get posted to any Battery.”

But there were compensations and George had managed to get the pendant and chain his wife had asked for.

Now on the surface it is an unremarkable letter but of course that is what makes it so important, for here stuck in Woolwich was George Davison biding his time as the army coped with the huge numbers of men who had volunteered since the outbreak of war.

For anyone who knows Woolwich Barracks George’s description of his time there will be of special interest more so because of the reference to Zeppelin raids.

And here I have to own up to a personal connection because just under a year after the letter was written the house two doors down to ours on Well Hall Road was destroyed by a Zeppelin bomb.

History of War, Part XXIV October 27 1915

Nor is that the only link with Mr Davison because for a while he lived here in Chorlton-cum-Hardy just a short walk from our house on Beech Road.

But even if there were not these personal links I have over the last year become close to the man as I work my through the collection of letters he sent home to his wife.

The George Davison Collection is a wonderful insight into how one family coped with the Great War and is a neat contrast to a contemporary account of the war issued by the Manchester Guardian every fortnight.***

And by sheer chance the first volume I have is dated October 27 1915 and covers the Italian Campaign, Russian Domestic Politics and the war on the Western Front with the added bonus of a series of adverts for everything from A Sun Bath to Valkasa the Tonic Nerve Food and the Manchester Guardian Christmas Gifts Fun known as "Tommy's Christmas which was “open again for the supply of Comforts for Lancashire and Cheshire Regiments at the Front.”

I will never know if Mr Davison read the history or if he benefited from “Tommy’s Christmas.”

By November 1915 he was back in Ireland and there he would stay till he was posted to the Western Front.

Pictures; of George Davison his wife Nellie and son, the extract from his letter, postcard of Woolwich Barracks and over of the History of War, courtesy of David Harrop.

*The George Davison collection is a unique record of material held by David Harrop and includes letters postcards, official documents many personal items from when Mr Davison was born in Manchester to his death on the Western Front in June 1918 and continues into the middle of the century. George Davison, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/George%20Davison

**HISTORYINDATES, http://historyindates.com/27-october-1915/

***The Manchester Guardian History of the War

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Piccadilly Gardens ....... the early years nu 3 a plan for a new civic attraction .... 1920

May 20, 2018, 7:30 pm

≫ Next: That special excursion from Alex ..... taking in a big square, a very tall building and ending with a museum

≪ Previous: “At present we do nothing at all other than parade” ......... sharing a day in 1915 with George Davison at Woolwich Barracks*

Now if you are of a certain age the old Piccadilly Gardens will be a special place and even now generate a lot of heated debate about the present site.

A plan for the gardens, 1920

So here over the next few days are stories of the early years of those gardens.

In the Middle Ages it was nothing more than a site used to excavate clay for building and was simply known as “daub holes,” but in 1755 it became the home of the Manchester Royal Infirmary which continued to offer up medical care until 1910 when the hospital relocated to Oxford Road.

And then for the next twenty years the debate raged about what to do with this hole in the ground at the very centre of the city.

And it was indeed a hole in the ground which had been left over from the demolition of the old MRI leading one journalist to comment “the place has remained year after year a good imitation of a rubbish heap or the ruins of some volcanic upheaval.”*

And before the gardens ..... a hole in the ground 1917

The proposals ranged from an Art Gallery, to a tramway terminus and an underground railway centre and for a while part of the site was occupied by Manchester’s Reference Library.

But in 1920 the City Council decided to convert the site “into a pleasant garden.

The existing hollow in the centre of the site is to be utilized for a sunken garden on the Dutch style and its banks will slope up to a border of flowering plants.”*

The gardens opened in the September of 1921 and in a revealing comment from one of the speakers the new civic attraction was planned only as a temporary measure until a new art gallery was constructed on the site.

Well that’s a twist in the story I didn’t know about.

Location; Manchester

Picture; the proposed gardens in 1920 from the Manchester Guardian, October 1920, and detail from a picture postcard of Piccadilly , 1917, from the collection of Rita Bishop

*After Sixteen Years :A Garden for Piccadilly; Manchester Guardian, October 23 1920, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

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That special excursion from Alex ..... taking in a big square, a very tall building and ending with a museum

May 20, 2018, 7:00 pm

≫ Next: Sailing with the Phoenicians to the Tin Islands and more ......... A Picture History of Great Discoveries 1954

≪ Previous: Piccadilly Gardens ....... the early years nu 3 a plan for a new civic attraction .... 1920

This is a tram story, although along the way it reveals a bit of detective work, includes one of those preservation societies and ends in a museum which was once the HQ of the secret police.

And it started with a series of tram pictures posted by my friend Kathy when she was in Berlin.

Now I can’t resist a picture of a tram and so when she posted a collection on to social media I was hooked.

This is tram 5984 on route 63.

Intrigued I looked over my pocket guide to Berlin tram routes, but nowhere is there a route 63, although there was once a 60 and a 66 which trundled respectively along Schöneberg, Lindenhof – Charlottenburg, Königin-Elisabeth-Straße and Schöneberg, Wartburgplatz – Steglitz, Thorwaldsenstraße.

But number 60 was withdrawn in 1962 and 68 the following year.

Undeterred I went looking for Sonderfahrt which appears on the destination board at the front of the tram only to discover it is not a place but German for special excursion.

This in turn led me to Historic Preservation Association Nahverkerhr Berlin e.V which in association with the Berlin Transport Company was running a special trip on May 20 from the Alexanderplatz, to Hohenschönhausen, which is now a museum but was once the headquarters of the East German Communist Ministry of State Security, the Stasi.

The Society and the transport company run regular trips once a month between April and November using historic trams.

This Sunday “depending on the weather and technical conditions, the Reko train and the T24 with 2 sidecar are to be used”. Now I have no idea whether Kathy’s tram was the Reko or T24, but someone will which which save me a search.

The trip apparently cost 6 € for adults and 3 € for children between 6 and 14 and on that sunny day in Berlin there was a choice of the 11 am trip or another at 2pm.

The Berlin tram network is one of the oldest, having been established in 1865 and is the third largest tram system in the world beaten only by Melbourne and St Petersburg.

Just leaving me to say, that Alexanderplatz is a major transport hub, is often referred to as Alex by Berliners* and one of the buildings close by is the iconic Fernsehturm or TV Tower which is the second tallest building in the European Union.

Location; Berlin

Pictures; tram 63, in Berlin, May 20, 2018, from the collection of Kathy Lee

*Actually being pedantic, and not wanting to be told off, when Berliners refer to Alexanderplatz, as Alex, they generally are referring to a larger neighbourhood stretching from Mollstraße in the northeast to Spandauer Straße and the Rotes Rathaus in the southwest or so Wikipedia tells me

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Sailing with the Phoenicians to the Tin Islands and more ......... A Picture History of Great Discoveries 1954

May 21, 2018, 6:00 pm

≫ Next: A day in the Quays ......... celebrating Salford

≪ Previous: That special excursion from Alex ..... taking in a big square, a very tall building and ending with a museum

I am back with another of those history books written for children in the 1950s.

Many of the ones I was given at the time have survived and sit on our book shelves along with others that I have bought over the years.*

What makes A Picture History of Great Discoveries different is that while it was originally published in 1954 it has been reissued along with A Picture History of Britain.**

They were part of a series which also included the history of France and Italy and were striking in their use of colour and dramatic images.

That said I never quite took to these books in the way that I did to those of R.J. Unstead whose pictures were simpler and more realistic.

But the images in both books are of their time and reflect a style of painting which will be all too familiar to anyone who grew up in the 1950s and 60s.

And Great Discoveries is also a book of its time when it was still fashionable to write about voyages of exploration and the discovery of the “New World” with that Eurocentric notion that these were places which having been lost were now rediscovered.

I doubt that the peoples of the Americas, or Africa and the Far East ever quite saw it that way.

Still A Picture History of Great Discoveries remains a fascinating glimpse into how children’s history was written over sixty years ago and by extension how our view of the world and its history was shaped.

Picture; cover of A Picture History of Great Discoveries

*Books Children, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Books%20Children

** A Picture History of Britain,http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/a-picture-history-of-britain.html

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A day in the Quays ......... celebrating Salford

May 21, 2018, 7:00 pm

≫ Next: No Fear Here ....... reflections from Manchester on the London outrage .... a year on

≪ Previous: Sailing with the Phoenicians to the Tin Islands and more ......... A Picture History of Great Discoveries 1954

There may be some who mutter this isn’t really Salford, not the one I remember, and that will be true.

But all places change and reinvent themselves and Mr Muggins in 1760 may well have reflected that the grand Victorian buildings that rose on the streets of Salford weren’t to his taste.

So here are some of Andy Robertson’s pictures of Salford taken on a bright sunny day in 2017.

Location; Salford

Pictures, Salford, 2017 from the collection of Andy Robertson

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No Fear Here ....... reflections from Manchester on the London outrage .... a year on

May 21, 2018, 7:00 pm

≫ Next: On Beech Road 40 years ago looking for a second hand telly and electric fire

≪ Previous: A day in the Quays ......... celebrating Salford

As my adopted city prepares for that concert today my thoughts are with London where I was born spent my youth and where many of my family live.*

I won’t attempt to write about the terrible incident, which will be done during the day and into the week by people far more eloquent than me.

So I will just leave it at that, and instead post two of the pictures which have come to symbolise how we in Manchester have reacted.

We are #Manchester ....# We Stand Together, and No Fear Here was painted on the wall in The Northern Quarter, and still people come to St Ann’s Square to lay flowers and pause for a moment’s quiet reflection.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; No Fear Here, May 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in St Ann’s Square, May 2017, courtesy of Jt Thomas

*Originally posted in June 2017

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On Beech Road 40 years ago looking for a second hand telly and electric fire

May 21, 2018, 7:30 pm

≫ Next: Down on the Kent coast at the seaside in the 1930s

≪ Previous: No Fear Here ....... reflections from Manchester on the London outrage .... a year on

This is another of those images of the more recent past and one that plenty of people will remember.

As it happens I was recently talking to Alan who owned the business at 115 and as you do we reflected on what Beech Road had been like in the 1970s which in turn led to the original story and being a tad lazy I shall just let you go back and read it along with the other stories.

Picture; from the collection of Lawrence Beedle

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Down on the Kent coast at the seaside in the 1930s

May 21, 2018, 7:30 pm

≫ Next: The stories we all have to tell ...........

≪ Previous: On Beech Road 40 years ago looking for a second hand telly and electric fire

Now for reasons I won’t go into I never went on holiday to the seaside as a child.

Apart from one disastrous day at Dover waiting to meet my dad off the ferry with a coach load of returning tourists my summer holidays were spent with my grandparents in Derby.

Sand, sea under a Greek sun would be years away, but for those who could do the yearly break at a resort on the coast was a must.

So I am back with some old photographs of the way we used to do it during the middle decades of the last century.

The weekly paid holiday and relatively cheap train fares made the seaside holiday pretty standard.

In many parts of the country most of the factories would shut down for Wakes week and on mass it seemed large parts of our towns and cities exchanged grubby streets and noisy factories for the fresh sea air, fish and chips on the pier and the dreaded landlady.

Those who worked together, got on the same trains and went to the same holiday destinations. So much so that places like Blackpool talked of Glaswegian week and the beaches, trams and pubs would echo to the different accents of the different Lancashire mill towns throughout the summer.

All of which is a lead in to these two photographs of Harold and Alma Morris somewhere by the sea in Kent.

Both in their different way capture perfectly what those holidays were like. Paddling in the water was just that with the trousers rolled up a smile for the camera and that knotted handkerchief, less a parody on more a reality.

And of course at some stage that pose on the shingles, prepared for a heat wave but mindful that even in June a British summer can prove a tad cold. Alma stares back at us with her towel over her legs, less a modest pose and more I suspect a necessity.

The other thing that strikes you are the cigarettes, this was after the period when most people smoked, when men’s fingers were stained yellow with nicotine and the upstairs on the bus offered up a dense cloud especially first thing in the morning.

I don’t pretend that these pictures are unique but these are less often seen than perhaps was once the case and they capture a way of leisure that has changed.

Many resorts couldn’t cope with the competition from cheap package holidays to destinations where the sun was guaranteed, and are now pale shadows of their former selves; others like Blackpool have reinvented themselves as the place you go for a weekend away or that all important stag or hen night.

So I am pleased Jean shared these pictures of her uncle Harold and aunt Alma doing the week by the sea.

Pictures; from the collection of Jean Gammons.

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The stories we all have to tell ...........

May 21, 2018, 6:59 pm

≫ Next: Look away ......... all who mourn the passing of the Withington Scala

≪ Previous: Down on the Kent coast at the seaside in the 1930s

Now writing can be a solitary affair, after all at the end of the day it is you, your imagination and a keyboard.

And in much the same way most of the research I do is in front of that screen, trawling online records or in an archive centre where they may be lots of other people, but like me they are engaged in their own searches, convinced that no one else could be interested in what they are doing.

So it is always fascinating to read about attempts to bring writers together, where they can share their experiences and learn from each other.

The solitary in me has kept me away from writer’s groups, but my friend Lois who is a successful novelist plunges deep into the process, and not only runs such groups but also participates in literary festivals in the south west.

She like me has a blog and I make a point of going to it most days.

Yesterday she was back writing about her history writing group which she says is, “isn’t a genealogy group, [but] is for people who want to write about their family, to write their family’s history. There’s usually about ten of us which is a bit of a squash in our front room, but today for various reasons – people on holiday, people poorly, people cat-sitting, there were just four of us”*.

What followed was a revealing set of stories, which are best read by following the link.

No more to say ..... just read the post and then the follow yo from today.

Picture; from the collection of Lois Elsden

*FAMILY HISTORYSTORIANS, https://loiselden.com/2018/05/21/family-historystorians/

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Look away ......... all who mourn the passing of the Withington Scala

May 22, 2018, 3:59 am

≫ Next: Charles Rennie Mackintosh is in town ....... from today until June 5

≪ Previous: The stories we all have to tell ...........

I have fond memories of the Withington Scala, although what I saw there over the years is now a blur.

But it was handy for the White Lion and that “dive bar” which was actually just part of the converted cellars but to a 19 year old student had an appeal.

As I remember it was covered with posters for Watney’ Red Barrel, which some smart thing in an advertising agency thought would work if the beer was endorsed by a collection of former Soviet leaders, from Lenin to Khrushchev.

I don’t recall Stalin in the parade but I might be wrong.

But back to the Scala, which opened sometime before 1914 as the Scala Electric Palace on Cooper Street could hold 500 cinema goers and was owned by the Scala Electric Palace (Withington) Company.*

And like many picture palaces it fell on hard times in the late 20th century, finally closing and being demolished, although there were brave rescue attempts.

Even so it lasted longer than many of our old early 20th century cinemas.

Andy Robertson, that keen recorder of all we have lost, what we are about to lose and what we have gained, was in Withington said yesterday for a haircut, commenting that “my haircuts are as rare as my visits to Withington which is mainly because I get my haircut in Withington.

I digress. I think this may be my first picture of the building on ex cinema land, and, something is happening on the corner of Parsonage Road”.

Now not wanting to correct Andy, but he had taken a series earlier last year when the new build was under construction, but here is the almost finished property.

And not content with the successor to the Scala he also snapped that other new build almost opposite, on the corner of Parsonage Road.

This too he had photographed in 2017, when Derek the Demolisher was doing his worst.

At the time I did some research on its history, and ended up remembering that sometime in 1980s I had eaten there when it was a Lebanese restaurant.

Well I say Lebanese, but like the films at the Scala, I can’t remember.
But the nice thing is, that someone will, and I have every confidence will tell me.

They may also check the planning portal to see what the new building will be.

I, being lazy will leave it to them.

Location; Withington

Pictures; new build in Withington, 2018 from the collection of Andy Robertson, and Wilmlsow Road the White Lion, Scala Cinema, 1960, from the set Withington Lillywhite, Tuck & Sons, courtesy of TuckDB, http://tuckdb.org/history

*The Kinematograph Year Book, Program Diary and Directory for 1914

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Charles Rennie Mackintosh is in town ....... from today until June 5

May 22, 2018, 6:30 pm

≫ Next: At Manchester Airport with Les Entremets et Canapes

≪ Previous: Look away ......... all who mourn the passing of the Withington Scala

Now last month I wrote about Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish architect, designer and artist and Peter Topping’s homage to the man which consisted of a set of attractive picture postcards.

Well, starting today Peter is exhibiting a collection of material directly influenced by Mr Mackintosh to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Scottish artist’s birth.

The exhibition will be at Tutku Cafe, 428 Barlow Moor Road, M21 8AD, is hosted by Chorlton Voice - AKA Chorlton Civic Society and Paintings from Pictures, and will run from May 23rd to June 5th.

* The day a bit of Glasgow came to Chorlton ........ Charles Rennie Mackintosh, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/the-day-bit-of-glasgow-came-to-chorlton.html

** Charles Rennie Mackintosh 150th anniversary, 2018 Peter Topping,

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

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At Manchester Airport with Les Entremets et Canapes

May 22, 2018, 6:30 pm

≫ Next: A day in the Quays ......... celebrating Salford

≪ Previous: Charles Rennie Mackintosh is in town ....... from today until June 5

Now I first flew in 1982 and I have to admit I was 33 which these days is I guess quite old.

But my dad was in his mid 60s and my mum and three of my sisters never took to the air.

So by the time I walked through the doors of Manchester airport it had become a big place and today is even bigger.

I was reminded of all of this when I came across a menu for the restaurant at the airport which I think dates from either the late 1950s or early 1960s.

And right away we are in a different era, for the whole thing is in French with of course an English translation. So the Les Entremets et Canapes [sweets and savouries] consisted of 21 dishes including Parfait Ringway [Vanilla and Strawberry Ice, Cherries, Chopped Nuts, Fruit salad], Campe aux Sardines [Sardines on toast] both at 3s 6d.

There was a Guide to Culinary terms and that invitation to elegant dining with the food “cooked beside your table” which included Tournedos Ringway at 10s 6d, Poulec a la Broche at 21s and Steak Tartar for 12s 0d

There was “VIN EN CARAFE, Rouge [red] at 10s 6d, or 5s 6d and Blanc, [white] for 10s 6d or 5s 6d”

Now I am fascinated by the firm who did the catering. This was The House of Smallmans who were based in Rushholme and in 1962 at Heald Green, and will be worth a little research.

But in the mean time I shall close with some other images of the airport in the 1950s ranging from the restaurant to the departure lounge.

Pictures; menu cover, courtesy of Jan Crowe, and airport pictures, Manchester Restaurant, m6219, and Manchester Lunge at Passenger Check in, m62618, 1953, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

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A day in the Quays ......... celebrating Salford

May 22, 2018, 7:00 pm

≫ Next: A picture a day Beech Road .... sometime in the 1880s

≪ Previous: At Manchester Airport with Les Entremets et Canapes

There may be some who mutter this isn’t really Salford, not the one I remember, and that will be true.

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A picture a day Beech Road .... sometime in the 1880s

May 22, 2018, 7:00 pm

≫ Next: Looking at the Well Hall we have lost, Nell Gwynne's Cottages, 1908

≪ Previous: A day in the Quays ......... celebrating Salford

A picture a day

During this week of May I have decided to feature a picture a day, drawn from the collections that span a century and more of Chorlton

Picture; from the collection of Tony Walker

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