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Standing in front of the Rivoli on Barlow Moor Road sometime in 1936
Now I can’t be certain when this photograph of the Rivoli on Barlow Moor Road was taken but given that the cinema opened in November 1936 and closed because of bomb damage four years later it will be...
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Discovering more on that bomb that fell on Well Hall Road in 1916
This is one of those stories which are still as they say in the making but with the help of Tricia I think much of the lives of the family who died on Well Hall Road in the August of 1916 will be...
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Celebrating a year of peace on Salford streets in the summer of 1919
Now my grandparents never talked about the Great War.It was something they lived through and seemed happy not to dwell on.Nor did they or my mum and dad spend much time looking back at the rerun.To be...
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Stories of the Great War from Eltham and Woolwich ............. nu 1 the...
An occasional series reflecting on the impact of the Great War.Now I have to say I never really knew the story of the war memorial outside Christ Church on Shooters Hill.I will have passed it countless...
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New memorials for those of the Great War.......... stories behind the book nu...
An occasional series on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War*Now I have been thinking of just how we remember those who took part in that conflict which is a century away...
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When Tom Mix played at the Pavilion, our first picture house
Now Tom Mix is someone I have come to know though sadly I have never seen any of his films.He was an American film actor and starred in many early western movies.He appeared in 291 short films and...
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Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 78 Gaythorn Street and...
I like the way that a demolition site can reveal a rare glance of a building which has pretty much been hidden for a very long time.The City Road Inn, 2016In the case of the City Road Inn it is more...
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Pictures from an Eltham bus ........ nu 7....... "They're coming along now.!"
The top deck of a London bus has to be a pretty neat way of seeing the world below.And when it is the same bus at about the same time every day then you have got yourself a project.All you need is a...
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A wopping big bit of Eltham’s past ........... and the historian who wrote it
Now everyplace deserves a historian and a good history book and Eltham had R.R.C.Gregory who wrote the Story of Royal Eltham in 1909 which remains a fine account of the area’s history.*Mr Gregory was a...
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Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ........ nu 40 Chapel Street
Now I know Chapel Street is nether lost nor forgotten but over the next few days here are a few photographs that were taken on a June day this year.And like all good pictures and stories I leave the...
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Ms Margaret Barclay of Chorlton and her ordeal in the snow
Now I wonder what happened to Ms Margaret Barclay of Hartington Road in Chorlton.In the January of 1939 "she went for a ramble across the Yorkshire moors during which she collapsed in the snow.She was...
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When you could skate on Oswald Road .................The Chorlton-cum-Hardy...
Now I have a problem with this picture. It was painted by the local artist J.Montgomery. I say local because almost his entire collection of paintings feature Chorlton or Whalley Range. But that is all...
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The Lost Rivers of Manchester
The lost rivers of Manchester have an abiding fascination for me not least because there are so many of them and also so little evidence of where they run.Until fairly recently I could name just a...
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More from the Royal Herbert and that unknown nurse
Myself, date unknownNow while I am pretty sure where this picture outside the Royal Herbert was taken I am no nearer to finding the identity of the nurse.*The caption just says “myself” and while there...
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The Remembrance Service at Southern Cemetery ............... today
Today marks the end of the Great War and comes only a few weeks after the end of the Battle of the Somme which had begun in July 1916.Later today there will be a service of Remembrance at Southern...
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Stories from Naples in the spring of 1944
I am reading Naples '44* and it is one of those delightful moments when history and my fascination for Italy collide.It’s 1944 and Norman Lewis is a British intelligence officer with the allied armies...
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Stories of the Great War from Eltham and Woolwich ............. nu 2 losing...
Now I wonder how the individual stories of people living on the Progress Estate played out after the Great War*.The estate as most people are aware was built for Arsenal workers. The first to move into...
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Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ........ nu 41 Chapel Street
Now I know Chapel Street is nether lost nor forgotten but over the next few days here are a few photographs that were taken on a June day this year.And like all good pictures and stories I leave the...
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Letters home from school ....... nu 1 about attendance
Now I like the way that yesterday’s mundane correspondence becomes today’s piece of history.So I was pleased when my fiend Ann offered to share some of her school letters and reports.She attended...
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Listening to Leonard Cohen opposite the Yorkshire Grey on a cold December...
Now like many I have just heard the news that Leonard Cohen has died.Me in 1966I will leave the tributes and the detailed story of his work to others who will do it much better than me.Instead I want...
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