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The lost houses of Princess Street begin to reveal their secrets
Now you won’t find these two properties.Brook Street as wasOnce and for a very long time they stood with a collection of similar buildings just down from Charles Street on Princess Street.They...
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Remembering Byrom Street in Manchester in the 1950s
Byrom Street, 1944It is easy to over romanticise life in the narrow streets of places like Castlefield, Hulme and Ancoats in the middle decades of the last century.There was certainly a sense of...
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On trams David has seen .............. Manchester tram number 3118
Now there will be those who collect stamps and others who have spent a lifetime on the edge of railway station platforms jotting down the numbers of passing locomotives.Recently I even encountered a...
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A pint in the Racecourse Hotel at Kersal before blowing it on the 3.20
Now this is one of the stories I am going to pretty much leave at the pictures.We are on Littleton Road, Lower Kersal and Andy Robertson had taken himself off down there yesterday.And this is the...
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Mr George Dansie of Barforth Road Peckham Rye ......... currently residing in...
Now yesterday I came across one of those fascinating links that connected my current city of Manchester with where I grew up in Peckham on Lausanne Road.George writes home, 1917And the connection was a...
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On the streets of Manchester protecting destitute children in 1870
It will have been a cold one on the streets of Manchester last night and I cannot begin to appreciate just how hard it will have been sleeping rough.Emma before admission to the charityAnd yet the...
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Rediscovering our recent past the Coldharbour Estate in Eltham sometime in...
I rather think that we often overlook our most recent past.There was one history teacher of mine at Samuel Pepys Secondary Modern School who maintained that if wasn’t at least a hundred years old it...
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One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 68, ...... the hot water...
Thecontinuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*The house in 1974Now I have no doubt that Joe and Mary Ann would have...
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Private Willie Westgarth, a silver tea set and a story from the Great War
Now I am fascinated at the way a story can come together from a mix of unrelated events.And so it is with Private Willie Westgarth and his silver tea set which has come on to the market on EBay.The set...
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With the Christmas markets on a bright sunny afternoon in Varese
Today it was one of those perfect December days in Varese.The sun shone and despite the bitter cold and the hint of snow on the mountains above the city the first Friday of December was a busy one.Not...
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Peel Park, Salford, 1905
We are in Peel Park sometime before 1905The post card was sent in 1907 and what seems odd was sent to Miss Hodgson and Miss Richards who were on holiday in Blackpool on the North Shore "wishing they...
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Suggestions for a Christmas present and an outrageous piece of self promotion...
Now very soon lots of you will be pondering on Christmas presents and so with that in mind over the next three days here are some suggestions.Day One and Hough End Hall The Story, written by me with...
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Sarah Sutton, a life lived out on the Row
There are no pictures of Sarah Sutton, nor to my knowledge has she left a diary, or anything which might tell me about her life.She was born in 1821 in Withington and lived with her husband in a wattle...
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Sherard House and Church Row in Eltham in 1841 and Richard White census...
Sherard House from the garden, 1909This is Sherard House and once again I set out to describe the place and once again I have got side tracked.But I shall start with a little of what I know. It stood...
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The lost houses of Princess Street ........... part two ......... Mr...
Now Mr Crabtree’s plumbing business has come in for some attention recently.118-120 Princess Street as was, 2015It occupied numbers 118-120 Princess Street just down from Charles Street.It was doing...
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Barclay’s Sparkling Beer ....... a journey from Well Hall across to Southwark...
Now even I have to admit that it isn't the most zippy title but it does pretty much sum up the journey I have been on.After all when Steve Bardrick turned up two cans of Barclay’s Export Sparkling Beer...
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Technical School Salford, 1905
Now the date for this postcard is June 26th 1905 which will be the date it first went on sale.It comes from the collection of Raphael Tuck and Sons Ltd who I wrote about yesterday. The card was...
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Suggestions for a Christmas present and an outrageous piece of self promotion...
Now very soon lots of you will be pondering on Christmas presents and so with that in mind here is the second suggestion.Day two and Didsbury Through Time, a book designed to take you across the old...
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Another side of the remarkable and popular Manchester photographer Robert Banks
Uppermill circa 1890Robert Banks was one of those remarkable Victorian self made men, who went from being a woollen piercer in a mill in Uppermill to a celebrated and sought after Manchester...
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Back on Chorlton Green with a painting and a debate
Down on the Green, 2012Now here is one of those simple lessons about our recent past.This is the old village school on the green which along with the schoolmaster’s house was built by public...
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