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Sandcastles and deck chairs beside the River Thames at the Tower of London
It is one of those odd things about growing old that you do begin to question your own memories.I was telling a friend about building sandcastles beside the Thames in the shadow of Tower Bridge and...
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The story of one house in Lausanne Road number 47 ............. Topper or Eagle?
The story of one house in Lausanne Road over a century and a half and of one family who lived there in the 1950s.*Now if there is one thing guaranteed to bring forth a shedful of memories it is the...
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The Woolwich we have lost........... at the market part 2
Now this picture could have been taken pretty much anywhere at the turn of the last century.In the collection I have similar ones of Manchester, Salford and Stockport.And all too often like those in...
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Who remembers Leaf Street Public Baths?
Now one of the things I like about writing history is that you get to meet lots of people all of whom have a story to tell, but in the way that history used to be written, most of these people would...
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A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number one ...... a bridge across...
Now this will be a short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and is also a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.They are in no...
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Photographs from the Royal Herbert during the Great War ............ a unique...
The Royal Herbert, date unknownNow the story of the Royal Herbert has just got a lot more exciting and that has a lot to do with a fascinating photograph album from the Great War.It belongs to my old...
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The Tram Shed in Well Hall Road
A short series looking at the story behind the picture.They date from when the tram service from Woolwich began and consisted of two toilets and a waiting room.Now they have always been there and I...
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Going swimming on Ashton Old Road in 1905 in the Whitworth Public Baths
Outside the Baths in 1960Whitworth Baths on Ashton Old Road is a place I have passed countless times and never even knew existed.It was just one of those buildings which you passed on the bus but never...
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The gas mask and the pub sign without a pub ............ on Queens Road with...
Me roundabout the time of the gas mask adventureNow I know that we found the gas mask in a row of derelict houses on Queens Road up past the station.I always thought that the block had been the victim...
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A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number two ........ the tram...
A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.I have chosen the tram terminus...
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Walking in Southern Cemetery and remembering the Manchester Blitz
Yesterday I walked in Southern Cemetery.The day was warm, the light perfect and once again I remembered why I liked the place so much.It is that mix of history, the abundance of nature and that sense...
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Crossing the Thames at Woolwich in 1907
Now you can never have enough pictures of the Woolwich Ferry.Anyone who was born or grew up in Eltham will have used it at sometime and for me crossing the river by the free ferry has always been...
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Birthdays, cook books and a television series .............. watching the...
Toys I knew ........... the Dinky petrol tanker, 1956Now yesterday was my birthday, not that there is anything particularly remarkable about that, after all they come round every year and at 66 there...
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A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 4........ a brick circa 1830
A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.As bricks go I do not think it looks...
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Inside the Whitworth Baths on Ashton Old Road .......... what we might lose
I am back with the Whitworth Baths on Ashton Old Road.*They date from 1890, served the community of Openshaw for almost eighty years and now stand forlorn, empty and waiting for another use.Today...
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One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 14 ........... the Mission...
This is the continuingstoryof one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*Now I like the way that what seem to be totally random bits of the past come together...
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Looking for the story of Graeme House and that Chorlton Shopping Precinct
Graeme House and Safeway, 1971We don’t do recent history very well.I guess it is simply because we take it for granted and don’t even see it as history.Added to which it is sometimes quite difficult to...
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Two pictures and four years of war .................
We are on Oxford Street sometime on November 11 1918 amongst the crowds celebrating the end of the Great War.Many standing there will have their own personal story of the war and for some the euphoria...
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The story of one house in Lausanne Road number 48 ............. the Evelina...
The story of one house in Lausanne Road over a century and a half and of one family who lived there in the 1950s.*The chair, 2015Now I like the way that what seem to be totally random bits of the past...
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Whitworth Baths on the Old Road ........... courtesy of Ron Stubley
Now for the last couple of days I have been thinking and writing about the Whitworth Baths on Ashton Old Road.The stories have brought a shedful of memories from those who remember gaining swimming...
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