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Down at Christ Church that church in the fields
Now I have to say that Christ Church in West Didsbury has rather been ignored by me.Christ Church in 2014As Andy Robertson says “the old main gate and old main entrance are now only about 2 metres from...
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One Friday night in Edmund Waller in the November of 1963
Every generation has that defining moment when a public event triggers a lasting memory of where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.For my parents it was the death of President...
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A Christmas sometime between 1955 and 61
I don’t usually do nostalgia, but this week is an exception.So for all those who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s here is a selection of the presents that came into our household each Christmas from 1952...
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One big House on the High Street
2015Now I have written about Cliefden House on several occasions, and will go back again in due course.*In the meantime here are three photographs over a full century and a bit and each has it’s own...
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Gazing into the secrets of that warehouse on Hulme Hall Road .................
There is always something quite fascinating about the partially demolished buildings from our industrial past.Much of what is on display as the building falls to the demolition ball would never usually...
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A little of what we have lost, Wilbraham Road in 1955
Sometimes I think it is the more recent photographs of Chorlton which are the more fascinating, and in their way the more revealing of how we lived.And so I am drawn to this one of Wilbraham Road...
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Saying goodbye and other family stories of migrations past and present and to...
Today has been one of those momentous days for our family.Our Saul having finished working on a project on the shores of the Great Lakes is heading north to spend time with our cousins in Ingersoll...
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Sailing with the Phoenicians to the Tin Islands and more ......... A Picture...
I am back with another of those history books written for children in the 1950s.Many of the ones I was given at the time have survived and sit on our book shelves along with others that I have bought...
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Peeling back the story of Tripp’s Corner on Barlow Moor Road
Looking down Barlow Moor Road to Tripp's corner, 2015Now I wonder how many people still refer to this strip of shops on Barlow Moor Road as Tripp's Corner.John Tripp was a grocer from Swansea in Wales...
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On coming home ............. arriving at Well Hall station
Now I have no idea when this picture was taken but it brings back powerful memories of the old Well Hall Station.From 1964 through to 1966 I stood on that platform along with shed load of commuters...
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On a day in 1910 at Kemp's Corner
Kemp's Corner, 1910I am in Chorlton on a sunny day in the summer of 1910 and today I just want to reflect on what you could have done on that day.So we shall start with the picture which is the...
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Forget Me Not ................. a new play on British Home Children at the...
A fascinating short piece on Woman's Hour today from BBC Radio 4 on the migration of children to Australia.*“Forget Me Not currently at the Bush Theatre in London examines the consequences of the...
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Looking at Ancient History
This is another of my favourites and well worth a look at.In just over 100 pages R J Unstead presented the young reader of the late 1950s with a sweeping story of the lives of people from Ancient...
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Looking for that lost story of Woolwich Arsenal
Today, I went looking for A Woolwich Arsenal Mystery, a tale of Sexton Blake.This front cover of the 1907 edition was found yesterday by my friend Kath and both of us decided that this offered up a...
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A painting, a hospital and a story of a local building company ................
This is Stretford Memorial Hospital on Seymour Grove, or at least it was because it closed in October of this year.And that closure ended a century of medical care which had begun with the Great...
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A day in December on our High Street ................. nu 1 the Library
Now if you still live where you grew up the chances are that you take it all for granted.For those of us who long ago moved away from Eltham that is something we can’t do.So here for the next few days...
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Christmas greetings from the beginning of the last century
Christmas greetings from the beginning of the last centuryPicture; from the collection of Rita Bishop, courtesy of David Bishop
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A chance find and the beginnings of a story on Wilbraham Road
Now this is a story that has yet to find an ending and in the telling will eventually reveal much about how and why Wilbraham Road follows the course it does.The three proposed routes crossing close to...
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A Picture History of Britain
I first came across A Picture History of Britain, by Clarke Hutton on a wet winter’s day sometime in the 1950s. It had been published in 1945 and I guess the Oxford University Press were on to a winner...
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Robin .... A Christmas Annual from the Hulton Press, in 1953
This is the last of those comic annuals which were published by Hulton Press.Robin was aimed at very young children and while I remember getting the comic and perhaps even the first annual in 1953...
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