Andrew Simpson

Eltham Lodge, 1909

I am back in Eltham Lodge that fine 17th century mansion just a little along from Court Yard.

It is a place I am increasingly drawn to and especially as I uncover more about Benjamin and Anna Wood who moved there in 1838, and set about restoring some of its features.

The house was set in 144 acres which included the 48 acres of Front or North Park, the 74 acres of South Park along with three large ponds,“pleasure gardens, assorted out buildings, smaller gardens and part of the Park Icehouse.”*

Their particular contribution was to uncover the 17th century tapestries which had suffered from the change of taste sometime perhaps in the early 19th century.

Tapestries in the house, 1909

These they had discovered on their first visit to the property hidden behind patterned wall paper in the billiard room and once uncovered were to remain a feature of the house throughout the rest of their occupancy.

So much so that “the aged Mrs Wood during the closing years of her life”, would sit in the room with the old tapestries “call to attention them, long, long after she herself had ceased to be able to see them.”**

And she long out lived her husband who had died in 1845 leaving her to remain in the house until her own death in 1889.

Now my interest in Benjamin and Anna is not only because of their love for Eltham Lodge but because along the way I discovered Mr Wood was an MP and a man who had challenged the odds by working his way up from humble beginnings. His father was a serge maker and Mr Wood’s once remarked “that he had left Tiverton [Devon] a poor boy, and that he owed all his wealth to the industry which he learnt from the good example set by his parents who were poor but honest people.”***

And his business career seems to bear this out, having for many years “followed the business of a hop-merchant, and by that occupation managed a large property, [was also a large shareholder in many companies, and was a very magnificent contributor to all charitable institutions.”****

So I doubt that we should be surprised that he left £80,000 to his wife, along with a £1,000 to his brother, two nephews and Gordon Whitbread a further £100 in annuities to one of his sisters and legacies and bequests to other family members.

He was then a man of property and as such was involved in the politics of Southwark where he had lived since 1810, first as a commissioner of police and then as an MP.

The carved staircase, 1909

He was a radical although some of his political opponents as well as the electorate questioned the degree of his commitment to change.

Now at present I have just the reports of the 1840 by election which are as you might expect pretty partisan.

Still it is a start and with a bit more digging I suspect there will be plenty more about Benjamin’s politics but for the present I shall just record that he was successful and in his first year attended 188 of the 256 divisions which ranked him in the top eight.

Next; the Southwark election of 1840 and a closer look at Mrs Wood.

Pictures; Eltham Lodge, 1909, 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

*Tithe Schedule for Eltham, 1839
**R.R.C. Gregory, the Story of Royal Eltham, 1909

***The Observer, Sept 21 1845, courtesy of Trevena

****The Observer, Aug 17th 1845, courtesy of Trevena

My memories of Ashton are pretty much frozen in time.

We settled down on Raynham Street in the March of 1974 and I left three years later.

I have been back but each time I return the town has changed just a little bit more and it becomes more difficult to locate places I once knew and in some cases impossible now even to remember what they were called.

One whole strip of shops on Penny Meadow has gone including the newsagents along with the old PSA building round the corner.

And while the Albion warehouse was still there I tried but failed to remember the name of the pub opposite.

It was a place we used sometimes when we couldn’t be bothered to walk the extra distance to the Lord Napier.

Now the Lord Napier usually won out because it had a couple of lava lamps and back in the 70s I was a sucker for a lava lamp.

Sadly the name of that other pub eludes me even now.

I notice that in Andy Robertson’s picture it is called Sullivan’s and back tracking through Google street maps that was its name back in 2008.

And in much the same way that building on the corner of Whiteacre Road and Botany Lane is only a vague memory.

Of course those who still live in Ashton will remember both but I am at a loss, and points to that simple truth that sometimes you should never leave going back to a place for too long.

During the same visit I went looking for the house of Pam and Ian.

Rhey lived in one of those really tall properties looking out on the railway line.

It may have been located on Ashlynne but I can't be sure. All I do remember is that back when they moved in they made the awful discovery that there was no power to the upper floors of the house.

They thought there was power after all when they viewed it there were power points but when they came to move in with all that optimism of first time buyers, the power points had vanished leaving only the screw holes and no electricity, and if that were not bad enough the previous owner had taken all the lamp bulbs, which made moving in on a cold Saturday in January no fun.

Our more modest house on Raynham Street proved less of a disappointment but that is another story and leaves me only with the memory of standing outside the Albion waiting for the 153 express into Manchester at 6.30 in the morning, which pretty much meant that during the winter I only saw Ashton in daylight at weekends.

And since posting this this morning someone in Ashton has told me that Sullivan's was the Corporation and with that the memories flood back.

Pictures; of Ashton-Under-Lyne 2105, courtesy of Andy Robertson

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

It never pays to lose sight of planning applications, but I did, and it is only today that I have picked up on the story of number 28 Edge Lane.*

28 Edge Lane, 2018

Back at the beginning of May the plans to demolish number 28 and build ten houses on the site caused a stir.**

For me, apart from the loss of a fine looking building there was the historical significance of the property which dates back to 1865 and is representative of the first wave of housing development which crept up from Stretford railway station into Chorlton.

This development predated the big housing boom of the 1880s, and they were homes at the top end of the range.

But number 28 was also home to George Davison, who lived there with his parents during the early years of the 20th century.

And it was here that he wrote a series of “courting letters” to Nellie who he later married. The letters form part of a bigger collection which includes those he wrote while serving with the Royal Artillery during the Great War.

They are a fascinating insight in to life in uniform and in particular his concerns for Nellie and his young son Duncan facing the shortages and uncertainties of the war back at home.

George, Nellie & Duncan Davison, 1916

All of which takes me back to 28 Edge Lane and the news that the planning application to build those houses and demolish George’s old home were withdrawn on May 18.

It is fitting that I should now be writing about that decision in early June given that Mr Davison was killed on the Western Front on June 17 1918.

There may be those who cavil at a link between his death and a planning application, and others who bemoan the loss of more houses in the area.

But I would disagree, my own personal feeling was that this was a development too far, and that was shared by others, along with the questions of affordability of the new properties.

Walking up the house, 2018

All of that said, for me, it is also about the survival of a bit of our history which may be in danger again.

During the last decades of the 20th century there had been applicatin in to redevelop the site.

One was turned down, and others despite being approved came to nothing.

So there is every reason to suppose that fresh plans will bubble to the surface at some point, leaving all of us to remain vigilant.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Edge Lane, 2018 and the Davison family, 1916 from the collection of David Harrop

*At 28 Edge Lane, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/At%2028%20Edge%20Lane

**Planning Application, 119208/FO/2018 | Erection of 10 four-bedroom, three-storey houses with associated parking, landscaping and boundary treatment following demolition of existing house | 28 Edge Lane Chorlton Manchester M21 9JY, Manchester City Council Planning Portal, http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=P4SU9FBCK4L00&documentOrdering.orderBy=documentType&documentOrdering.orderDirection=ascending

At a church garden party, date unknown

Now I would dearly like to know lots more about the Girls’ Friendly Society or for that matter the night a chap from the Town Hall came to talk on the sanitation in Manchester to a selected group of earnest young men

Come to think about it I would just love to know all I can about the meetings that went on at the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute which hosted a whole shedful of activities which were run by St Clement's Church.

I had no idea that the Institute existed and it was only while I was looking for something entirely different on Whitelow Road that I came across a reference to the club on an 1934 map.

And with a bit of digging out of the shadows came the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute which offered a whole range of entertainments and serious events to the parishioners of St Clement's during the early decades of the 20th century.

It was there by 1911 and possibly a full decade before and may have continued until the 1920s.

Just possibly in the garden of the Institute

At the time St Clement's did not have a church hall and so used eight of the rooms in the house leaving three for Samuel Holt and his wife Christina who in 1911 were described as the caretakers.

During that period it offered a whole range of activities from sewing clubs to lectures and according to Ida Bradshaw was pretty much used during the day and the evening.

All of which brings me back to the Girls’ Friendly Society which was a means by which young women, some of whom may have been servants and living away from home could meet and make friends.

Here in Chorlton most homes employed just the one domestic servant who was expected to carry out all the duties of maintaining the house and had little spare time, so I rather think our Friendly Society must have been a life line for some of them.

Sun and strawberries

And I expect some of them went on the one trip I know the Institute organised to Southport in a charabanc.

Of course much of the documentation will have been lost but there may be an odd newspaper story or photograph and perhaps even a stray letter which makes reference to the Institute.

The house dates from around 1881 and was the property of William Batty who rented it out to various tenants of which Mr and Mrs Crowhurst are the most intriguing.

Thomas Messenger Crowhurst described himself as an “artist, art teacher and landscape painter" while his wife ran a “Ladies School” from the house.

Mr Billing and Miss Attwood, 1913

And it may be when they vacated the property Mr Batty offered it to the church.

All of which opens lots of avenues of research possibilities starting with Mr and Mrs Crowhurst, and Mr Holt the caretaker, and Mr Edgar Taylor who in 1910-11 was the Secretary.

He was an accountant, lived on Park Road and may yet yield up some information.

After all we do have one wedding which took place at the church in 1913 and as Miss Vivien Horsfall Attwood was reported as being from a popular and well known family she may well have spent time at the Institute..

Speculation perhaps but worth following up.

Added to which there are the newspapers which might carry stories of events and perhaps even names which could take us even further.

And it may be that a photograph I had long thought was in the grounds of the church could be in the garden of the Institute.

So I rather think we have not heard the last of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute.

Pictures, a garden party, date unknown, and Mr Hugget Billing and Miss Vivien Horsfall Attwood A Chorlton Wedding, the Manchester Courier, April 17 1913, from the collection of Sally Dervan

Now Hill Street was not a place I ever went to when I lived in Ashton, but we were walking back from the Portland Basin Museum and this was the route we took.

The Brass Works, 2016

I have to say I was impressed with the museum which “is housed within the restored nineteenth century Ashton Canal Warehouse in Ashton-under-Lyne.

The museum combines a lively modern interior with a peaceful canal side setting.

It is an exciting family friendly museum, with something for all the family."*

Walking back it would have been pretty easy to miss the Britannia Brass Works which doesn’t much look like the sort of foundry I am used to.

The Brass Works, 1899

So I am hoping that there will be someone out there who can offer up the story of the place and perhaps also something on S Parron.

I know that the Britannia Brass Works was established in 1872 and that just twenty seven years later “Mary Eastwood of Britannia Brass Works Ashton-under-Lyne trading as Walter Eastwood as a Brass Founder and Brass Finisher" had gone bankrupt.**

On a happier note the places was still turning out bits of brass in 1922 when it was "the JUNCTION IRONWORKS CO., Mechanical Engineers, Bentinck Street, Ashton-under-Lyne. T. A.: " Junction Ironworks, Ashton-under-Lyne." T. N.: Ashton-under-Lyne 435. Established 1902. Directors: Fred J. Reed and Harry Jackson.”***

And the rest from 1922 till now will I hope be revealed soon.

Location; Ashton-Under-Lyne

Picture; The Britannia Brass Works, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Portland Basin Museum, http://www.tameside.gov.uk/museumsgalleries/portland

**London Gazette, November 7 1899

***Whos Who in Engineering, 1922, Graces' Guide to British Industrial History, http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1922_Who's_Who_In_Engineering:_Company_J

Now, there is always a story, and someone will come up with a plausible tale about the statue of the stag in a field in the Lake District.

I suppose once it adorned the entrance of some stately home, which may or may not have had stags roaming across its parkland.

Its owners, no doubt thought that it conferred an ancient dignity on what may well have been a relatively new property.

And there may well be the expert who will weigh in with a detailed description of this one and a more general account of this sort of stone adornment.

Well, we shall see.

In the meantime I wonder what will happen to it.

It might end up as a prop for a television company or more likely it will once again front a house, bought by an owner desperate to impress.

But the way these things work, the house will be a more modest affair and our stag is more likely to sit at the bottom of the garden, close to the small fish pond and just to the left of the stone sun dial.

Location; the Lake District

Picture; stone stag waiting for a new home, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Now here is one of those little mysteries which I know we will never quite get to the bottom of.

The picture postcard is entitled Kersal from the Cliff and is a fascinating snap shot of the river and surrounding area.

But as ever it is the message on the back which for me is equally interesting.

It is from Edna writing to Miss Hilda Pursall, c/o The Brightside & Carbrook Co-op Society, City Stores, Exchange Street, Sheffield.

Edna proudly tells her friend that she was “having a great time. Church marked with a cross is where I am staying. There are 14 Boys & only 2 girls.”

The card caught the 1.30 post and was sent on June 16, 1931.

Now Edna makes reference to the 1.30 bus so I guess she caught an earlier one and posted it on the way.

The post mark might even give me a clue as to where, so I shall go and ask David Harrop who passed the card over to me from his collection.

In the meantime I went looking for where she lived because most helpfully she added it to the back. It was “Thorncliffe," Vine Street, Kersal.

Now I am unsure what the property was in 1931 but two decades earlier it was the home of Thomas Crompton Waterhouse who described himself as a “cotton manufacturer” and earlier an importer of “foreign dress goods” with offices at 27 Church Street, Manchester which runs from High Street to Tib Street.

I can’t be sure if the building that occupies the site today is the one he carried on his business from or whether he would approve of its current use as a tattoo parlour.

Now that is bit away from “Thorncliffe” at 18 Vine Street which was a sixteen roomed house and was a tad smaller than the rectory which had 21 rooms but head of its neighbours.

In time I will take a walk down Vine Street.

Sadly a similar trip to City Stores, Exchange Street in Sheffield will draw a blank because it has long gone possibly under a recent development on an unremarkable 1960s shopping precinct called the Castle which itself has all but been knocked down.

This I know because our Josh and Polly live close by and the last time we were there it was a pile of rubble.

And that really is a long way from Kersall.

Location; Salford

Picture; Kersal from the Cliff, circa 1931, from the collection of David Harrop

I am back with the Story of Eltham Palace by Roy Brook and what a treasure trove is here.

For a start it is not just about the Palace and the royal residents who lived there but also an account of the many people who visited it and left their mark on the place and the surrounding area.

One of these was Sir John Shaw who became tenant of both the Palace and its grounds in 1663 and who went on to build Eltham Lodge.*

The Shaw’s continued to live there until 1820. During the next 19 years it was the home of Lord Wynford, Lady Crewe and Lord Rivers and from 1840 was occupied by Benjamin and Anna Wood.

He was a banker and politician. He died in 1845 and Mrs Wood continued to live there until her death in 1889.

The chapter on the house contains a fine plan of the ground floor.

Now I have never wandered through its doors so it is interesting to get a sense of what the place was like.

The house faced north and even now the first glimpse of the property as you walk towards it is pretty impressive.

And beyond that front door was the hall and off to the left the parlour. There were two separate staircases in the centre of the house and the breakfast and dining rooms were at the rear facing south over parkland.

“The windows were originally stone mullioned, but the stone was replaced by sash-bars in the time of George II.

The flat roof probably had a balustraded roof gallery as its central feature when originally built.

Most of the ceilings on the ground floor and first floors are richly modelled with ornament of seventieth and eighteenth century floral design. The parlour on the ground floor has high walls richly decorated with Rococo plaster-work containing the portraits of Roman emperors.

On the first floor the Grand Parlour on the south side originally contained six Flemish tapestries, of scenes from classical mythology.”**

And as you would expect it attracted visitors one of whom was the diarist John Evelyn who recorded in his diary in July 1664 that

“went to Eltham to see Sir John Shaw’s new building; the place is pleasant if not too wet, but the house is not well contrived especially the roof, and the rooms too low pitched; the orangery and aviary handsome and a very large plantation.”

And if you want more there is always Mr Brook’s book or perhaps a visit to the Lodge.

Pictures; from the cover of the Story of Eltham Palace, and exterior and interior of Eltham Lodge from the collection of Jean Gammons.

*Eltham Lodge, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Eltham%20Lodge

464 Wilbraham Road, home to Miss Wright circa 1900

Now Miss Wright of Chorlton has been found.

She was and continues to be a clue to the storyof the Girls Friendly Society and the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute which have featured in stories over the last few days.*

The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute was based for a while in one of the big houses in St Clements Road and the Girls Friendly Society met there during the early decades of the last century.

In 1928 Miss Wright was the President of the G.F.S. and I always knew that if we could find her we would come to know more about both the society and the Institute.

And yesterday Sandra Hapgood came up with Miss Wright’s story which came to light in the 1934 St.Clement’s church magazine in which “she is mentioned as Branch President Miss Wright of 464 Wilbraham Road (now the RBS)

The Acting Branch President was Mrs Evans of 99 Claude Road [and] in 1934 they met every Thursday in the New School (St. Clements) 7.40 - 9.45pm.”

It may also be that the short description of the "G.F.S" in the magazine was actually written by Miss Wright.

"The long, light evenings have gone, so it was with a certain amount of pleasure that we turn to meetings indoors for our recreation and instruction.

During October, on Thursday evenings, G.F.S members will commence their various activities, including musical drill, country and ballroom dancing, ping-pong and other games, needlework - and chatting by the fire.

The evening of Thursday, October 18th, has been reserved for a Lantern Lecture, to which an invitation has been extended to all. Details of the lecture will be announced nearer the date."**

Looking down Wilbraham Road, circa 1900

Sandra adds "it is signed M.I.W and I thought we had Miss Wright's initials but sadly not.
M.I.W is Miss Wilson the headmistress of the Infant school at that time.”

Now all of that helps with the Institute which was the home of Mr and Mrs Crowhurst in the 1890's who ran a “Ladies School” there and which may have been rented out to the church by its owner William Batty around 1900.

The house was still listed as a club in 1934 but as the new school had been built on St Clements Road some at least of the events that were hosted there had moved across the way.

All of which for me is a fascinating little bit of our local history more so because it is a bit that now sits very much in the shadows.

So I shall go looking again for Miss Wright, Mrs Evans and the others who will tell me more about the Institute and the G.F.S., which just leaves a thank you to Sandra.

Picture; the corner of Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Roads and Miss Wright’s house, circa 1900 from the Lloyd Collection

*The Girls Friendly Society, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Girls%20Friendly%20Society

**St Clement’s Church Magazine, 19232, courtesy of Sandra Hapgood

Now the romantic in me would like to think that George Davison bought one of these as a souvenir for his wife Nellie and their son Duncan.

The Woolwich Tank, circa 1918

He was in the Royal Artillery and was stationed in Woolwich during the Great War, first in 1915 and then again in 1917, and 1918 while they were living in Manchester.

That said Nellie spent time with him in “digs” in Ireland and Woolwich so it is very possible that she would have come across this piece of crested china, and took it home from London.

Pieces like this were very popular during the Great War and were turned out in their thousands.

The coat of arms of Woolwich

The porcelain companies, seeing the potential of war souvenirs switched from models of Blackpool Tower and Ann Hathaway’s cottage to tanks, battleships and ambulances.

They turned out identical ones, with just the name of a different town or city and coat of arms to distinguish them.

Sometimes in their zeal to market across the country they got it wrong, so while you could have bought an ambulance or tank with Manchester’s coat of arms, you could also have bought a model battleship, despite the fact that there was no such ship in the Royal Navy during the conflict.

The Davison's, 1916

Our Woolwich tank is in perfect condition, and bears the name Shelley China, which was a Staffordshire pottery company founded in 1862, only ceasing as an independent business in 1966.

What I particularly like about this one is that it has been acquired by my old friend David Harrop, who is the also the custodian of the George Davison collection which is a fascinating archive of letters, personal documents and pictures, spanning the period from George’ birth in 1886, through to his war service and into the 1950s.

Mr Davison was killed on the Western Front in June 1918, but his wife continued to add to the collection throughout a big chunk of the century.

And what makes the collection just that bit personal for me, is that he appears in the book I wrote about Manchester and The Great War, but more than that he was at one point in 1918 living just down from our family home on Well Hall Road prior to embarkation for France.*

This I know because we have his will he made out in March 1918, witnessed by a Mr Drinkwater who lived on what is now the old Well Hall cinema.

And in a letter to Nellie he refers to her stay at the house which was just minutes from ours.

Nor does the connection end there, because before he married Nellie, he lived in Chorlton-cum-Hardy just a short walk from where we live now.

And while there, at Barway House on Edge Lane he wrote a series of courting letters to Nellie.

Shelley China

All of which makes the tank and the story very personal.

When David told me he had the tank the message just said “Tank coming home” and while it is not going back to Woolwich it will be joining the George Davison collection, and will have pride of place in a major exhibition to mark the end of the Great War, which will be on show at Central Ref from September 2018.

Location; Woolwich, Manchester

Pictures; the Woolwich Tank, circa 1918, George Davison, his wife Nellie and son Duncan, 1916 from the collection of David Harrop

*Manchester Remembering 1914-18, Andrew Simpson, 2017, the History Press,

https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-great-war-how-we-remember-it.html

Saturday 16 June (11.00pm to 4.30pm)
Cross Street Chapel, Cross Street, Manchester M2 1NL
FREE admission
Il mercatino del libro – Italian book market
Browse for those special second hand and rare one off books for adults and children.
Garofalo pasta tasting (12.30pm to 1.30pm)
Pop-in to taste this exceptional Italian pasta which may have only arrived in the UK recently but in Italy it's existed since 1789.

Sunday 17 June
Manchester Day with Al Bacio and Dom’s
Join us for mouth-watering Italian food and drink throughout the day.
Al Bacio Restaurant, 10-14 South King Street, Deansgate, Manchester M2 6DW
Dom’s Tavola calda, 40-42 Deansgate, Manchester M3 1RH

Wednesday 20 June (6.30pm)
Divine Monsters: From Past to Present
The Portico Library, 57 Mosley Street, Manchester
Art Historian Sara Riccardi will explore the historical representation of 'bestiari', which belonged to the wider collective Medieval imagination, of which Dante and Gessner were part. Sara will also present and explore the beautiful facsimiles of some illuminated early manuscripts of the Divina Commedia on display at the Library.
Barbara Bertoni of Imago, the Italian publishers of the facsimiles, will be on hand after the talk to discuss the manuscripts with you.
Drinks and Italian snacks to follow:
£5 members of Portico and Dante
£6 non-members / £4 students and unemployed
Booking required: Library tel. 0161 2366785
events@theportico.org.uk or dante@newfuture.org

20-22 June (9.30am – 4.30pm)
The Divine Comedy: Early Manuscripts
The Portico Library, 57 Mosley Street, Manchester
FREE admission
Over just three days facsimiles of six of Dante's early illuminated manuscripts will be shown at The Portico Library. You will be able to view these stunning reproductions of the “Divina Commedia” up-close and discover some of the history of these amazing books.

Thursday 21 June
To learn more about the technical details of the manuscripts, drop in to the library at 3.00pm on 21 June to talk to Elena Palladino, Rare Books and Special Collections Librarian – member of Societa’ Dante Alighieri.

Friday 29 June (1.00pm)
Cross Street Chapel, Cross Street, Manchester
Location; Manchester

Picture; courtesy of The Dante Society 2018

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 old man selling newspapers, a woman selling potatoes and a boy polishing shoes, while up by the Infirmary at the top of Market Street he painted another street vendor selling food.

Not far away by Hunts Bank late at night young children plied the streets selling newspapers in the early hours of the morning.

And just this month out on Market Street the crowd surged past the burger van, negotiated the balloon man and stopped to buy a political paper.

Pictures; Manchester street sellers by H.E. Tidmarsh from Manchester Old and New, William Arthur Shaw, 1894 and from the collection of Andrew Simpson, June 2013

And over the next few weeks I shall focus on more of the street vendors who plied the streets of Manchester in the late 19th century and their counterparts who still do the same business today.

“Just spotted the third of the two towers ( I know this is neither mathematically nor grammatically correct) but this is how it will be described henceforward......and after that the fourth of the two towers”....... Andy Robertson June 2018

And so begins another series of pictures and stories to accompany the rise of yet another tall residential block, which will no doubt come to match the existing two which are fast reaching into the sky and their completion date.

Those two are the Owen Street towers and I have written about the extensively since Andy first started sending over the pictures.

Future historians will have a lot to thank Andy for, because for a decade and a bit he has been recording the changing sky line of the Twin Cities of Manchester and Salford.

Unlike some photographers who take the carefully posed shot and move on Andy returns regularly to the same developments chronicling each stage from demolition to new build and on to the final completion.

And he has a knack of finding those properties which are doomed to vanish.

That said he is a accomplished photographer and many of his pictures would stand out just for their artistic merit let along their place in our history.

So this will only be the beginning of the “third of two”.

Location; beside the Owen Street Development,

Picture; the “third of two”, 2018 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Owen Street ....... scenes from a development, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-new-manchester-owen-street-scenes.html

Now shop fronts and their entrances do get rather overlooked, which is a shame, because the old traditional ones which will date back a century or more are vanishing.

I fully accept that back then they were fairly uniform in their design but the move to big glass fronted entrances in the 1950s and 60s did for many of them.

Since then a lot more have vanished as town and city centers get re designed.

All of which makes a visit to Ashton quite rewarding.

Lots of them still exist and unlike their counterparts in south Manchester have not become smart cafes, or wine bars

Instead they are still offering up the sort of things that elsewhere you can only get online of a big supermarket.

Which just leaves me to thank the owners of Corletts Interiors on Stamford Street for letting me take a picture of their shop.

And I rather think I have a new short series in the offing.

Location; Stamford Street, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Tameside

Picture; Corletts Interiors, Ashton-Under-Lyne, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Location St Ann’s Square

Picture; The conversation, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

It began as a story about a Salford postcard and a question about Gertie and Delia who were mentioned on the back which became the inspiration for Sue to research the family and write the story.

The Salford postcard, circa 1900

John McCabe was baptised at St. Nicholas, Dublin in 1854, he moved to England as a young man firstly to an aunt in Macclesfield and later to Manchester where he married Margaret Maloney a Galway girl in 1875 at St. Wilfred’s in Hulme.

Numerous children came along in the following years the eldest Julia in 1876 followed by John, Margaret,
Frederick, William, Florence, Theresa, Bridget (Delia), Matilda (Tilly), Joseph and Gertrude (Gertie) in 1891.

Quite possibly there were more children (I haven’t found out about ‘Geff’ mentioned by Delia on the postcard to Gertie) born to this Irish catholic family before Margaret’s life was cut short in 1897.
John having been left widowed with children ranging from infants to children of a working age with presumably no family locally had little choice but to admit at least two of his young children into the care of Holly Mount.

Holly Mount, 1894

The orphanage/ school of Holly Mount in Tottington on the outskirts of Bury admitted children from poor catholic families who else-wise were destined for life in the Workhouse. The establishment was run efficiently by the Sisters of Charity of Jesus Christ a Belgian order of nuns.

A board of guardians administered financial matters.

It would have been a formidable place for the young girls to enter sharing living space with over 200 other young girls. It was normal for girls to remain here until reaching 13 years of age an acceptable age at the time to begin a working life.

As with other similar institutions the girls were taught numerous domestic duties to equip them for married life and often a life in domestic service.

Not unsurprisingly John still of a reasonable age remarried in 1899 to Emily Roberts and sired at least two children with her and raised her son William alongside them. 1901 the new family are living in Hulme with only Theresa from his first marriage living amongst them, Tilly and Gertie are to be found on the census for Holly Mount. John passed away aged 73 years old in South Manchester.

Bridget, fondly called Delia from the postcard married Charles Dunderdale in 1928; a widower 20 years her senior with an already adult family. Passing away in 1941 Charles left a reasonable sum of money to Delia, she herself died in 1963 her probate details her beneficiaries as Matilda Evans and Mary Gertrude Grant widows.

Manchester Royal Infirmary 1950, where John Wilcox was a patient

From searching through local records it is confirmed the ladies are her sisters Tilly and Gertie.
Matilda, (Tilly) had been born in 1887 and as we know from earlier spent some time after her mother’s death at Holly Mount.

She married John Wilcox a Rubber Heel Moulder in 1909, a daughter Lilian was born soon after and as often happened died in infancy. A son Harold was born in the early part of 1911, by the time the child is one month old John Wilcox is a patient in Manchester Royal Infirmary.

The cause or illness I do not know or in fact if he ever returned home, it is documented though he passed away in 1913. One hopes Tilly found happiness again in 1916 when she married James Evans having at least four children with her second husband she passed away in 1975.

Of Gertie as yet I haven’t located her marriage although we do know she married a man with the surname of Grant, perhaps this was also a second marriage and so proving problematic to locate.
Florence married Giovanni Geri and passed away in 1966.

Other siblings I have yet to find in their adult life, I’m sure a bit more digging will unearth more information and I will update accordingly.

What we can learn from this family is life wasn’t always easy or kind in the 19th century or indeed the 20th century and many families were separated due to the death of one or both of their parents at a tender age; including my grandmother who was suddenly orphaned at eight years old, but that’s a story for another day.

© Sue Tydd 2017

Pictures; Peel Park, circa 1900, marketed by Tuck & sons, from the collection of David Harrop, Holly Mount School, 1894 from the OS map of South Manchester, 1894 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/Manchester Royal Infirmary, 1950 , m52916, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Here we are again with that house tucked away down an alley beside a bank on the High Street.

It was the home of the Fry family, possibly from 1819 and certainly through that century till the last of the Fry sisters died in 1907.

And it is a story I keep returning to, partly because it says a lot about a middling family here in Eltham during the 19th century and because it is a case book example of how you start with a name, go on to locate the family home and along the way discover that a property you thought lost is still there.

Now all of that you can read about by following the link to Ivy Court, John Fry or the Fry sisters.

I fear nothing will remain of the original features, but the firm may be in possession of the deeds which will date the building tell us a lot about the Fry family and may well throw up other interesting stories.

Picture; Ivy Court today courtesy of Jean Gammons

1816 should have been a good year, it was after all the first year of peace since Waterloo, the battle that had ended the long wars with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France which had run with only a short break since 1792.

But it was according to one writer, “the year without a summer, when weeks passed into months and the sun did not appear to ripen the produce [and] there was just torrential rain and thunderstorms.”*

Leading to harvest failures, distress and unrest across Europe and the US.

The terrible weather was connected to the “biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history, which had taken place on the other side of the world.”

According to the agricultural records ** for 1816 it was a wet summer with a very poor harvest with snow lying on the ground into mid April.

The temperature for July and August was 4-8⁰ below average and the heavy rains were accompanied by strong winds, which meant that the harvests began late with the result that in the Midlands and the North corn was still in the fields in November. Sheep rot was prevalent, hay scarce and much livestock sold for lack of keep.

All of which is easy to gloss over until you try to fix this to people’s lives. The cost of wheat rose to 78s 6d a quarter which would have a real impact on the cost of bread which remained a staple part of the diet of most families.

Here in the township we were dependant on agriculture. Of the 119 families, 96 were directly engaged in farming and another 16 engaged in trade, manufacture and crafts. So a poor harvest impacted not only on those who harvested the crops, but the blacksmith, wheelwright and countless others.

Only the people of plenty might escape hardship and for them the lack of food in the community raised the spectre of unrest and trouble.

There are accounts of people walking from Wales into England begging for food, along with demobbed soldiers wandering the country looking for work.

The unrest is reflected in the resumption of Luddite activity in the North, food riots and protests in London where some carried the French revolutionary flag.

Little in the way of evidence for the township has survived although the records for Stretford show the demand for poor relief. The death rate that year was not exceptional and generally reflected what we might expect with younger people dying than any other age group and these were concentrated mostly in the summer months.

I doubt that we escaped lightly from that year without a summer but as yet the township has not revealed its secrets.

We would have seen high levels of ash in the atmosphere which would have led to the spectacular sunsets seen in the paintings of Turner but more will be revealed through more diligent research.

Picture; Chichester Canal, circa 1828, J.M.Turner

*Jad Adams, 1816 The Year Without A Summer, BBC Who Do you Think You Are Magazine, Issue 60 May 2012
**Agricultural Records J.M.Stratton 1969

Now this is a perfect example of how not to take a picture.

Or more accurately how to catalogue an image.

I think it is Ashton-Under-Lyne, but could equally be Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Back in 1978 I took a lot of pictures which I never bothered to print. They remained negatives which with the passage of time and the end of my dark room sat in the cellar, neglected but not quite forgotten.

But with Christmas came a scanner which can turn them into an electronic image.

I have to say looking at the random group that have come out of the shadows, they are a mixed bag. Many I remember taking, others are now just a mystery.

Added to which I was not always that good at developed the film and so some are over exposed and others very dark, but they are all a record of a lost time.

Like this one which could be Ashton or Chorlton, or somewhere else.

Location; I don’t know

Picture; back alley, 1978, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Chancing the odds with Benjamin Wood, MP for Southwark and resident at Eltham Lodge

Home Thoughts of Ashton in the 1970s .............. part 7 things you forget

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

On Edge Lane ..... with a piece of good news

Searching for the Girls’ Friendly Society in that big house on St Clements Road in 1911

The Britannia Brass Works Ashton Under Lyne ........... a ghost sign that passed me by

A story of vanity, a field and a stag wanting a home

1931 on Vine Street Kersal .........with a link to Manchester and Sheffield

Back at Eltham Lodge, courtesy of Captain Brooks and his book on Eltham Palace

On finding Miss Wright of Chorlton .............. unlocking a bit more of our history

A tank, a souvenir, and the soldier far from home in Woolwich

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On the streets of Manchester, polishing shoes, selling food and offering up fun balloons

“Just spotted the third of the two towers” ........ stories of more development

Shop doors I have known ................... Stamford Street Ashton-Under-Lyne

The conversation

Stories behind a Salford postcard ...... from Sue Tydd

Uncovering more of that hidden house in Eltham High Street

1816 .... the year without a summer

Somewhere .......... a misplaced picture from 1978