In the Archives

A hectic Wednesday but managed to make my appointment to look at the archived minute books of the M&SE Co-op Society. It is more an arrangement. They are in Central Reference library, Manchester but not held on site. So you have set a date when you want them available at the desk to peruse. Then it's handed over one item at a time.

Managed to find a few nuggets in between reading about the price of eggs, literally the monthly price of eggs in 1930 as the market was competitive with falling prices.

Found information about the stables at the back which cost £1,000 to build along with a yard. However not completed until after February 1930 after they had to complain to the builder to finish the work. By which time they had advertised internally for a charge-hand to run milk & egg deliveries. A weekly wage of 70/- (that's £3.50).

Now I know what they look like - ledgers with ink pen writing, and if you're very lucky typed sheets - I can find the answers to the questions. The problem with history is that answers only beget more questions.

Hidden Stream

Chorlton has lots of hidden streams running through it. They didn't fill them in they just got a culvert over the top. A lot of these were built around 1905-1910 by the City Engineers and later they built roads and houses over the the culverts. This is one that runs from Barlow Hall then through Barlow Wood, Chorlton Golf Club, back of the old Hardy Farm site and eventually to the River Mersey.

The other Friday, my old mate Andrew who does all this old history milarky like myself did some exploring on the Meadows and stumbled across it. It's even got a bridge over it with an overgrown path that leads to a fence surrounding the golf greens. Perhaps in the past it might have been used by farms carts. But you have to ask the question. Why cart all these bricks down here to build something that nobody now has a use for? It must have been of some significance at the time to cross the stream without getting wet wheels or feet.

After that we went to Cafe Ark at the Mersey Valley Visitors Centre for coffee and Eccles cake - photo. It's great when you live in the urban but you can dip into the countryside with just a short walk.

Co-op Candidates 1934

A first venture into local politics for the members of the Guild, Co-op Party and local Labour Party was in 1934.

"We are particularly proud of the fact that Barlow Moor Guild has put up a candidate for its own ward, and we have a whole-hearted enthusiasm amongst all the members of the Guild that should go a long way in attaining the result we are aiming for, that for the first time in municipal history the Didsbury Ward will be represented on the City Council by a democratic candidate, who is also of the M&S Co-op Party and a Guild worker."
Barlow Moor Guild Report in the Manchester & Salford Co-operative Herald October 1934

An optimistic outlook for an election contest in a safe Tory seat. There were two other candidates nominated by the Co-op Party - Mrs. Clara Bamber in Chorlton; and Mr. William Taylor (then Secretary of Withington Constituency Labour Party) in St. Luke's ward. A grant of £3 3s. (£3.15) was made to the Manchester Labour Party towards the expenses of a poster campaign. Also the Directors of the Co-op Society designated three cars to be placed at the disposal of the three candidates to be available from noon on polling day.
M&S Co-op Party Report in the Manchester & Salford Co-operative Herald December 1934.

Thursday 1st November 1934 - Manchester Municipal Elections
Didsbury ward
S.P.Dawson (C) 3027
W.Ingham (Lab) 1355

An unsuprising result against the sitting Conservative, Councillor Lt-Col S.P.Dawson MM who was first elected for Didsbury in 1928. As of yet I've been unable to find a picture of Mr.Ingham, his name crops up a number of times in Labour and Co-operative reports in this period.

The other results were :
Chorlton ward -
W.Somerville (C) 4,580
Clara Bamber (Lab) 1,664

St. Luke's
T.R.Ackroyd (L) 1873
W.Taylor (Lab) 1341

Hardy Lane 100 years ago

Taken from Slater's Street Directory of Manchester & Salford published 1909. As you will observe - no house numbers, two farmers (Hardy Farm with James Brundrett, and Hardy House Farm with James Richardson), a pub (that's at Jackson's Boat). A cricket club founded in 1885 - the ground is still there but the cricket stopped a few years ago. Chorlton Golf Club carries on but the club house moved down the road to Barlow Hall at sometime in the 20th Century. Everybody else resides in a a block of cottages called Hardy Cottages or The Block House.

Bridge at the end of the Lane

Hardy Lane is a no through road for traffic but it carries on as a footpath to Jackson's Boat. It deviates from its original course in places. At the end is an iron footbridge over the River Mersey to the pub and Rifle Road.

The bridge was opened on Friday 14th October 1881 and you had to pay a toll to cross it until sometime in the 1940's. The name of the iron manufacturer was E.T. Bellhouse who had the Eagle Foundry off Oxford Street in Manchester. I only recently found out that this was no ordinary foundry but a remarkable one. Edward Taylor Bellhouse (b. 1816) was the leading manufacturer of iron portable buildings, and did constructions for Balmoral Castle, in Peru, Argentina, Melbourne, some railway bridges, hydraulic presses, the list goes on...

This was one of his last constructions, though the firm carried on until around 1893. E.T. Bellhouse died on Thursday 13th October 1881 - the day before the bridge opened.

Lots of information in Chapter 4 E.T. BELLHOUSE AND CO. ENGINEERS AND IRON FOUNDERS - all 38 pages (PDF)

Time for Tea

There is a small kitchen that goes with the meeting rooms, and you know where this leads. Meetings and a cup of tea, possibly a biscuit or two. It would possibly have been Co-op 99 Tea. Always described as an iconic brand, and it has an interesting history.

"Many inter-war tea advertisements made health claims for their products, Brooke Bond launching their popular 'Digestive Tea' at 2/6d a pound in 1932, which echoed the claims of Ty-phoo. Brooke Bond was, however, overtaken by the Co-operative Wholesale Society which promoted its 'No.99' blend, implying 'just what the doctor ordered'. In the 1930's the CWS held 30 per cent of the tea market, the largest share of all."
from Liquid pleasures: a social history of drinks in modern Britain by John Burnett - 1999.

In 1929 when this Co-op store opened Britons were consuming 10 lbs of tea per person in a year. That's 4.55 kilos of mostly loose tea, though tea bags were invented in 1903. The '99' health connection is that doctors in assessing vocal fremitus ask the patient to repeat the phrase 'ninety-nine' whilst placing the palm of the hand on the patient's chest. They probably still do.

'99 Tea' used to be blended and packaged at a CWS tea and coffee works in Crewe, Cheshire until the 1980's. Don't know where it is assembled now, but it is fairtrade these days.

Home delivery

Home delivery
Originally uploaded by co-ophistorian

A great source of co-op photos is co-ophistoran on Flickr. Mostly views from the Midlands. This delivery bike scene is from 1979 and the bike is a lot older than that.

The Buildings Near The River

Still intrigued by the two buildings that were on Hardy Lane, west of Hardy Farm half way to the River Mersey. They also appear on Hennet's Map of Lancashire. This map was surveyed in 1828 and 1829 and published in 1830 by Henry Teesdale to a scale is 7½ ins to 10 miles.

The surveyor was George Hennet, who is very possibly the chap with the same name who became the noted railway engineer. See Wikipedia entry. Need to find out more about the floods in the 1850's when these buildings were destroyed or abandoned and do not appear on later OS Maps of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. See earlier posts with the label 'maps'.