Author Topic: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?  (Read 752751 times)

cheethamgirl

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Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« on: 07:26:12, 23/12/10 »
Anyone care to share memories of Cheetham & Cheetham Hill in this era?  Remember: Lorenzini's ice cream parlour; Herbert St wash house; Saturday matinees at The Temple Cinema; the parks at Elizabeth St, Heywood St & Waterloo Rd; taking the bus from Queens Rd garage to Grey Mare Lane Market; rag & bone men & coalmen had horse drawn carts; Saturday afternoons watching Dixon of Dock Green & Doctor Who & the Daleks (in black & white); Saint Chad's School; the buzz of the industrial sewing machines in the shirt factories and the girls in there singing "Volare"; Titanics' delicatessen (started by a survivor); being kept at home whilst the Moors murderers were snatching children off the streets; corner shops; elderly neighbour chaps who'd been gassed in the trenches of world war 1;  when Cheetham got 'slum-clearance' demolition in 1969; the wonderful Jewish bakery down Waterloo Rd; the fish & chip shop in Garnet St that sold 'babies 'eads', etcetera etcetera? ::)
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

cheethamgirl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #1 on: 13:30:19, 28/12/10 »
This forum has gone very quiet of late.  Am I the only Cheetham person on here?  Come on  Celeste, you were born here, weren't you?  I'd love to hear other folks' memories of the area.  I recall Mike Harding ("The Rochdale Cowboy", now presents folk on the radio) was our bus conductor on the no 59 out of Queen's Rd Garage.  My parents lived in Crumpsall initialy (I was born in Crumpsall Hospitall) and my mother had a little part-time evening job as a barmaid at the Belmont Hotel. She used to buy me a bottle of Schweppes Bitter Lemon and bring it home as a treat. I went to St Chad's Infants school down Cheetham Hill Rd - we could smell the cornflake smell from the local brewery - and later I transferred to St Clare's in Blackley.  Next, I went to Notre Dame.  My mother and I used to walk up Cheetham Hill 'village' on a Saturday morning and walk all the way down agian with bags of shopping from Lennon's supermarket.  Before that opened however, we used to get a Friday evening delivery of groceries from Mr Ashley, the charming grocer whose shop was on Cheetham Hill Road, near the junction with Waterloo Road.  Anyone remember what were the "babies' 'eads" sold at the chippies? 
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

Greengate Girl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #2 on: 15:11:32, 28/12/10 »
I'm not from Cheetham- I'm from Salford, but we did go to the Jewish Bakery on Waterloo Rd,
the bread and bagels were gorgeous. As for babies 'eads,we didn't get them from the chippy,
my Mother made them. (0ur babies 'eads were Dumplings-were yours?)xxxx
I was as pure as the driven snow, till I drifted. Mae West.

cheethamgirl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #3 on: 16:07:39, 28/12/10 »
Hi Greengate Girl.  The chippy in Garnet St, not far from Elizabeth St., used to sell steak & kidney puddings.  Unlike the pies, these were made from soft, suet pastry, steamed and tipped out of tin moulds, upside down onto your chips.  The base of the pudding was fairly translucent, and you could see the gravey swimming beneath.  Locals used to say these reminded them of the soft spot on a baby's head (fontanelle) so, from long before my time, these puddings were known locally as "babies' 'eads"   :-\  Gruesome but true!  Your Mum's dumplings intrigue me though.  Perhaps it was the similar suet texture which gained them that title?
 
Did you ever have that lovely jewish loaf which was in 4 or 5 'humps', quite a well glazed dark crust with poppy seeds on, but white and like cotton wool inside? Delicious.  And the bagels and their biscuits too.  I can still recall the flavours.  :D
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

Greengate Girl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #4 on: 09:39:40, 29/12/10 »
 ;) Hi Cheethamgirl, Ooh I love steak and Kidney puddings, my hubby makes a luscious one. Our dumplings
are just suet, flour, salt and pepper and bound with water and rolled into little balls, then put into beef
oir chicken broth. When they swelled they rose up and looked like "babies 'eads". Yummy. Yes we got that gorgeous bread with the glaze and seeds,also a large plaited loaf. Memories eh? :D
I was as pure as the driven snow, till I drifted. Mae West.

cheethamgirl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #5 on: 11:48:53, 29/12/10 »
ooh, now you've got me into gastronomic memories!  I had a cousin came to stay with us in Chetham when we were adolescents and she found our chippies much different fom their London ones.  London chippies sold saveloys, big orange frankfurter type sausages, which we never had, but she never saw a steak & kidney pudding in her chippie.  Also, our chippie used to sell bottles of Dandelion & Burdock which she developed a taste for.  My cousin still speaks fondly of what she calls Dandelion & Baldock!
 The Jewish bakers in W'lo Rd used to have a huge batch of a kind of shortbread type biscuit and whenever my Mum & I went in, the ladies would give me one for nothing, as I was quite a cute kid back then.
 
I lived in Huxley Avenue, and when I was a teenager, the laundry at the Cheetham Hil end became a chippie but was run by Chinese folks.  I used to chuckle when they'd hold the plastic vinegar and salt bottles above your chips and ask if you wanted "sore finger?", then they'd ask if you wanted "[censored] else?"
   
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

cheethamgirl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #6 on: 11:55:39, 29/12/10 »
Speaking of Salford though, as quite a small child I used to wander off by myself and would walk all the way into Salford to manley park or right down to 'The Cliff',w here the wind would whistle across the plain.  I spent 2 years at Salford Tech doing a bilingual secretarial course.  Some of our lectures were held in a building known as Brunswick which was further out, I think Pendleton way.  I liked Salford.  As students we used to frequent the Flat Iron pub and read Walter Greenwood's '  Love on the Dole'.  I think I was as thin as a matchstick girl in those days - not quite so willowy now!   ;D
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

Greengate Girl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #7 on: 19:02:24, 01/01/11 »
I lived in a different part of Salford than the parts you mentioned, but of course I knew of themWhen I was very young I used to shop at Salford Precinct(near the college) which in those days was a lovely shopping area. I havn't shopped there for years
as I have lived away from there for 33 years. I go visiting there though as my family still live there.
    Hope you have had a good Christmas and New Year Cheethamgirl.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
By the way I've read-and seen the film "Love on the Dole".  Enjoyed.xxxxxxxxxxxxx
I was as pure as the driven snow, till I drifted. Mae West.

cheethamgirl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #8 on: 09:28:30, 02/01/11 »
And a Happy New Year to you too Greengate Girl.  If you hve any more fond recollections, do include them.  You can't beat a bit of nostalgia - better than neuralgia any day!
 
All the best.
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

tony dixon

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #9 on: 13:07:54, 02/01/11 »
I didn't live in Cheetham but I travelled up and down Cheetham Hill Road to and from work 5 days a week  (1960 -65)

I met my then girlfriend ,who lived in Heaton Park, at work and every Wednesday night we would alternate between the Temple cinema and The Premier. This would be followed by a couple of drinks in The Temple and The Halfway House respectively before I put her on the bus.

Happy memories.


Greengate Girl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #10 on: 17:43:55, 02/01/11 »
 :) We used to go along Bury New Road (quite near Cheetham Hill Rd) on a Sunday. There were lots of shops along there, in those days belonging to Jewish people. There was a furniture shop along there
belonging to 2 brothers, real gents. I bought an oval onyx and brass occasional table which is still in
use today, had it about 34 years. Shops there were thriving.
I was as pure as the driven snow, till I drifted. Mae West.

cheethamgirl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #11 on: 08:07:07, 03/01/11 »
I just had a browse through one of a series of booklets I bought on my last visit back to Manchester some years ago: More Tales of Manchester Jewry by Monty Dobkin, in which he lists from a 1927 directory, all the shops along Bury New Road.  Some of them were still there in the 1960s.  There was a fishmongers called Gordon's, which in 1927 was owned by one Rose Gordon, but which in my day was owned by a short, pale-faced, bald Jewish gentleman, who was not named Gordon but who had kept the name on the shop front. I do not mean to be disrespectful to the old gent, but he really did resemble some of the fish on his slab! My memory deceives me now as to which was Bury New Road and which was Bury Old Rd.  As for The Temple, I have a picture of the pub & cinema taken in the 1880s which, if I could work out how, I might upload onto this site.  The cinema, which kep going for 40 years, had two integral shops.  On the left was a barbers (I used to go and wait for my father on a Saturday as he had his hair cut, and the kindly barber used to put some 'bay rum' on my hand).  On the right was a 'high class confectioners' where we used to buy posh chocs before going into the cinema.  I used to attend the Saturday matinees here, seeing awful westerns, cliffhangers and the 3 stooges.  BTW Tony, you're not by any chance related to my old school friend Barbara Dixon (now Blakely) from Alkirington are you? That would make the world small!   ;D
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

tony dixon

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #12 on: 11:27:40, 03/01/11 »
Here's a shot from 1959 - look forward to your photo when you up-load it.


My family were from the North East - we moved down here in the mid 40's - so any connection with your friend is, I'm sorry to say, unlikely.
« Last Edit: 16:21:50, 25/07/14 by Chris »

Greengate Girl

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #13 on: 11:46:57, 03/01/11 »
 :)  I used to live off St Simon St which was just a short walk to Bury New Road which is a stones throw
to Strangeways Prison. Bury Old Road, if I am not mistaken, is in the Prestwich area. I love to see photos
on this site- I havn't the foggiest how to put them on myself, but there are loads to see here, I look at
them often.xxx
I was as pure as the driven snow, till I drifted. Mae West.

tony dixon

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Re: Cheetham/Hill 1950s/60s?
« Reply #14 on: 11:54:50, 03/01/11 »
........And here's Gordons.

« Last Edit: 12:01:20, 08/01/13 by Chris »