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Gasholders I have known and loved ........... no 3 inside the Rochdale Gas works
Now I am well aware this is a cheat ............. less a gasholder and more the inside of the Rochale Road Gas works.But I have included it the series Gasholders.The picture is entitled Gas Works...
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A Classic Slum and other books by Robert Roberts ........... on the place he...
I first came across Robert Roberts and the Classic Slum in 1973.Waterloo Street, 1893I can’t remember if it was recommended to me or I just found it on the bookshop shelf.Either way the phrase“poverty...
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Painting Well Hall and Eltham ....... nu 2 the Greyhound
An occasional series featuring buildings and places I like and painted by Peter Topping.I was always remember this as the Greyhound and it will have been one of the first pubs I went into when I was...
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The mystery of that parade of shops on Barlow Moor Road
Now not that long ago I wrote about Audrey’s which sold everything from the best new frocks to all sorts of fine haberdasheries.*Barlow Moor Road circa 1950s-60sIt was on the corner of Barlow Moor...
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One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 77 ...... an unwelcome visitor
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 there comes a time when most of us have to make that...
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William Eric Lunt ........ a Chorlton soldier from the Great War
I am looking at a picture of William Eric Lunt which I never expected to see.William Eric Lunt, circa 1914He was born here in 1895, and died of wounds in the 36th Casualty Clearing Station at the Somme...
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From the Northern Quarter to Ontario ........ stories of 78 iconic Manchester...
So we are now being read across Canada from the sun kissed Pacific to the cold waters off New Brunswick and on from the forests of British Columbia to the Great Lakes ......... All because at this...
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On passing one of the tallest buildings in Salford
Now I am pleased Peter painted Highland House which is on Victoria Bridge Street for a variety of reasons.It is after all one of the tallest buildings in Salford, has one of those interesting histories...
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Painting Well Hall and Eltham ....... nu 3 Well Hall Cottages
An occasional series featuring buildings and places I like and painted by Peter Topping.I have always been fascinated by Well Hall Cottages which were demolished in 1923 and date from at least the mid...
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On Barlow Moor Road at the Macfadyn Memorial Church sometime in 1929 with a...
Recently I was at the Macfadyn Memorial Church on Barlow Moor Road, sometime between 1903 and 1913.And today I am back again at almost the same place this time in the 1920s. Now I can be fairly...
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Today ........... the new book on Manchester and the Great War is published
Now the book has been a long time in the writing, but Manchester Remembering 1914-18 is in the the shops from today. It is a book I have long wanted to write and draws on official reports and...
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Painting Salford .................
Now sometime ago Peter began a series of paintings of Salford.It began with a view of Salford Quays, and went on to some very fine paintings of Salford pubs.And here is another dating from...
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Cooper’s the Butcher's - Barlow Moor Road ....... another story from Tony...
This sign on a wall near the “four banks” has quite a curious history. "Coopers" the Butcher's shop, 2017The building was indeed a butcher’s shop for much of the last century but it was last operated...
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Painting Well Hall and Eltham ....... Nu 4 our house on Well Hall Road
An occasional series featuring buildings and places I like and painted by Peter Topping.Now there had to come a time when I decided my bit of Well Hall Road should be recorded.It came out of a...
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HAPPY HOMES RENT TV, how we watched in 1961
Advert for Radio Rentals, 1961Now the advert pretty much speaks for itself.The year is 1961 and the age of mass television viewing is just over a decade old. But in that time the number of families...
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Of Naples in 1961 and Little Italy in Ancoats in 1901
Rosa in Naples 1961This is one of my favourite pictures of Rosa. It was taken in Naples when she was just 21 during the summer of 1961 just after she had collected her passport. Later that year she...
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Sitting in a backstreet in Florence ......... thinking of WLS radio station,...
Florence, 2012Now if you belong to that generation which was born just after the last world war, who grew up with the sound of Buddy Holly, and the Beatles, and trembled during the Missile Crisis of...
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Ghost signs in Stalybridge
Now it has all been very quiet on the ghost sign scene.But today Ron sent me this one.He wrote, “another Stalybridge one for you Andrew, Melbourne Street. facing the river. Can't decipher the bulk of...
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From Gravesend to Ontario and back ........ the travels of great grandfather...
Now I am never surprised at how a story can travel.Montague Hall, 1914In this case it went from Gravesend in Kent to Ontario and back again.Not that our great grandfather Montague did the trip. It was...
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Painting Salford ................. Nu 2
Perhaps it is the bright sunlight and the prospect of no more holidays till Christmas that have set Peter off on his Salford series. He has promisied me a shedload of paintings both and new and he has...
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