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Coming soon a new book on Manchester and the Great War ............ to be...
Now the book has been a long time in the writing, but Manchester Remembering 1914-18 will be in the shops in February of 2017 It is a book I have long wanted to write and draws on official reports and...
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Beware what you going looking for......... stories behind the book nu 22, the...
An occasional series on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War*Students at St Clement's school. Chorlton-cum-Hardy, date unknownNow one of the concerns exercising many people...
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Salford’s Pubs ............. a priceless collection of drinking places
This is a book I forgot I had.It was written by Tony Flynn and Alan Gall and published by Neil Richardson, price £1.50The discovery was the prize for having to tidy and clear the cellar. Now there are...
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Lesnes Abbey ..........once lost and now found courtesy of Woolwich and...
Lesnes Abbey was a place I discovered purely by chance in the summer of 1966.The north wast wall of the abbey, 2013At sixteen I was a bit old for an adventure but that was what it was and I was...
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What did Mrs Wood of Eltham Lodge do during the day?
Eltham Lodge from the front, 2000I wonder how Anna Wood spent her days in Eltham Lodge.She was a woman of some wealth and standing in the community and there is plenty of information on how her class...
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Newport Road ............. sometime between 1907 and 1910
It is the total absence of cars that marks the picture out and the fact that it is another of those scenes you do not often see in books. It is Newport Road sometime between 1907 and 1910, and if I...
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Out with the photographer Robert Banks on the streets of Manchester sometime...
Now I can be fairly confident that Mr Banks took this picture of Oxford Street sometime before 1912, but more about that later.In the meantime I shall start with the man himself who had one of those...
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Remembering the Spanish Civil War .......... one to do next year
The Spanish Civil War began eighty years ago when a group of generals declared war on the democratically elected government of Spain.Aid for the Basque People, 1936-39It finished three years later with...
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Lost and forgotten streets of Salford nu 1 ................. Booth Street
Now Booth Street is just what you would expect of one of those twisty little streets off Chapel Street which make their way down to the river.Booth Street, 2016Unless you have business down there I...
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Selling the donkey for the war ........ Mr Booker a Red Cross Fund and a day...
Now here is one of those fascinating postcards which lifted the carpet on a bit of history.The caption reads “Mr Booker sold to aid of British Farmers Red Cross Fund at Stretford for £395. 6. 0....
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Looking for the story of Brookfield House on the edge of Chorlton Park
Brookfield House, 2014Now over the last few months I have been reflecting on the fate of Hough End Hall and its future.And occasionally I have also written about Brookfield house which stood directly...
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One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 16 ........... a revolution...
This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*Now this was Dad's welcoming present to 294 when we moved in in 1964.I say Dad's but...
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A tram ............... a name and a journey
Now this is a tram story.So turn away all those who prefer the bus, drive each day in a car or have never taken to that mode of transport which travels equally happily on the city’s roads and railway...
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Lost and forgotten Streets of Salford Nu 3 .......... Clowes Street
Of the threes streets that stretch from Chapel Street down to the river Clowes Street has fared the worst.Clowes Street, 2016True, at the bottom there are some new blocks of flats overlooking the Irk...
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Looking for Madge Addy from Chorlton
Now the search for Madge Addy has got just that bit more complicated and that is problem.Madge Addy, 1938In 1938 she was working in Chorlton cum Hardy before she left for Spain and a hospital ward...
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78 Manchester Pubs .... a book for Christmas due out this week
Now here is a first ........ the story of 78 of our iconic Manchester pubs.It is less a guide and more a detailed set of tales featuring the people who lived, worked and drank in those 78 historic...
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Shopping on Well Hall Road in the summer of 1907
Well Hall Parade in 1907Now I am back with two more from Greenwich’s collectionof old photographs.They are both of Well Hall Road and are separated by just eight years.Of the two the first offers up...
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A tram and the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood
I suppose that old W.C. Fields line, “Never work with children or animals” could be adapted to include never write stories about trams because they have a habit of taking over. I never realized just...
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One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 71 ...... colder inside than...
Thecontinuing storyof 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 apart from a couple of days when we had a hard frost...
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Lost and forgotten streets of Salford nu 4 ............ Caxton Street
Caxton Street is the one that runs from Chapel Street to the railway viaduct but once upon a time ran on as Union Street under the train tracks to Posey Street..Now I say that but am well prepared to...
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