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Looking for the changes on Manchester Road in just over half a century
Now I suppose I can see why this bit of Manchester Road tended to be ignored by those commercial photographers of the early 20th century.They concentrated on those other bits of Chorlton usually...
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Walking the Woolwich foot tunnel in 1916
I can’t say I enjoy using the foot tunnels under the Thames.There would have been a time when walking under the river using the Woolwich or Greenwich tunnel was an adventure.But then I was only 10 and...
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Remembering the 1950s in the company of Neil Kinnock, Bobby Charlton, Joan...
You know you have reached that age when they start writing books about the time you were growing up.In my case it is the 1950s which by and large has not had a good press.It was eclipsed by the shiny,...
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The first Christmas card of November
Now if like me you are old enough to remember those letters to the Times on hearing the first cuckoo of spring, here is another.In this case it’s the first greetings card for Christmas.A first in that...
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Walking along Court Yard in the June of 1841, looking for John Martin and...
Court Yard, 1858-73“If you take up a position upon the spot where what we now call the Court-yard meets the High street, you will be standing at the centre of village activity and trade in olden...
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Following the Chorlton History Trail down to Oswald Road in 1907
Now I am pretty pleased with the Glad to be in Chorlton History Trailsand I doubt that there are many other places where you can read about the history of a locality by visiting a succession of local...
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The story of one building in Chorlton over three centuries ............. part...
Number 70 in 2014Now over three centuries a building can pretty much be many things to many people and so it is with number 70 Beech Road.It began as a beer shop was briefly home to an upholsterer, and...
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When St Andrew’s Day and a little bit of south east London come together with...
Uncle George, circa 1918Now St Andrew’s Day pretty much went unremarked in our house and that I find odd given that my grandparents crossed the border in to England just a century and a bit ago and...
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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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Travels across the Universe with a good guy .......... Dan Dare Pilot of the...
Now you can either face the world with the simple philosophy that the bottle is always half full or retreat into a dismal dark place, where it is always half empty, the sun never shines and the number...
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Looking out from Broad Oak Farm, Didsbury in 1910
This is the road leading from Broad Oak Farm to Wilmslow Road in 1910 and you don’t need much imagination to be back there in the yard with Mr Jackson who took the picture. Road from Broad Oak Farm,...
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Down a narrow alley to Mortgramit Square in Woolwich in 1908
Down an alley from Woolwich High Street, 2013Sometimes Woolwich can still send you back into that past of narrow gas lit alleys, dark corners and unsafe places.So with a little bit of imagination as...
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The story of one building in Chorlton over three centuries ............. part...
The Travellers Rest, 1901The continuing story of one building in Chorlton over three centuries*For just seventy years number 70 Beech Road was a beer shop, trading variously as the Robin Hood, the...
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Another story from Tony Goulding .... THE OXFAM SHOP at 494, Wilbraham Road,...
This post is prompted by a request from an acquaintance and a fellow local history enthusiast who, knowing that I was a volunteer at the Oxfam Shop, asked if I could confirm her memories of its...
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Wondering about Michael, Philip and the cocoa factory on Kender Street
I wonder what happened to Michael Tickner, Philip Broome and Paul Driver.They along with Jimmy O’Donnell, and John Cox were part of the class of ‘61 which started at Samuel Pepys in the September of...
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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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The story of one building in Chorlton over three centuries ............. part...
The continuing story of one building in Chorlton over three centuries*Number 70 Beech Road, 2015Now it is a lesson to us all, well to me any way that it is so easy to take a building for granted.So...
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Lost Woolwich .......... no 3 relaxing in the allotments 1905
Now of all the places I knew in my youth I have to say Woolwich is one of those that has undergone some of the most radical change.So much so that big chunks of it I have difficulty recognising.The...
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Thinking of a Victorian picnic in Alexandra Park and a new book
I doubt we will ever know who threw these bottles away in Alexandra Park or exactly when.The smart money will be on it being a picnic on a warm summer’s day at the end of the 19th century.All of which...
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Standing at the end of the platform waiting for the express to thunder past
Ask me what I remember about growing up in the 1950s, and somewhere there will be train spotting which was a cheap hobby and could be indulged in on your own or in the company of friends.It also had...
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