Todays restored photos is another mixed bag but with some great reminders of Eccles and Salford from the 1960s

There are views of Eccles Town Centre showing the Precinct still under construction

The MSC with a boat heading towards Salford

The Park Hotel, Monton being demolished

Looking over Peel Park towards Manchester

Lansdowne Road, Monton at twilight

Monks Hall Museum on a snowy day

Looking towards Barton Power Station

And More

We are really enjoying sharing these images and by the response to these posts so are you we are glad to say, more to come tomorrow... Enjoy

Todays selection of restored photos, show Monton Green Railway Station.

Parrin Lane

Forgotten shops

Four Lane Bridges

A long gone school

Canal Bank

High rise development & Monks Hall 

Still to come we have a selection of Hope Hospital showing nurses and staff, Eccles, Winton and Salford photos, plus a selection of photos where you can hopefully identify the location and people in the photos including a school nativity play.

More this week....Enjoy.

Todays photos are a mixed bunch, showing the construction of The Park Hotel Monton

Boy Scouts marching through Eccles

The old and now non existent Worsley Train Station

The White Horse pub

Gilda Brook Road

The Off Licence on Green Lane

Patricroft

And some very vintage looking buses in Monton

There is even a photo of a snowy day at Monks Hall Museum overlooking the newly constructed M602.

You can find links to further photos in this series below.

More photos to follow over the next few days...Enjoy.

Continuing with our series of restored photographs taken by Bernard Doyle, we are delighted to see that he had taken quite a few photographs of Salford and we would like to share this selection with you.

Views of Salford Docks with Manchester Liner ships berthed up, cars parked up on what I think is Hulton Street, construction work on the underpass on Broad Street, showing St Thomas's Church in the background, a glimpse of John Street school in Hanky Park showing Whitebeam Court and photos he has taken of the flowers in the Buile Hill park Hothouses, when it was fully functioning and a delight to visit with three large rooms of varying heat, showing tropical plants it even had a large fish pond with Koi carp.

We hope they bring back some happy nostalgic memories and more to come over the following days including Hope Hospital and staff, The Park Hotel, Monton under construction and street parades featuring local Scout and Guide troops... Enjoy.

Delighted to say that the response to the first batch of restored photos was quite frankly astonishing with several thousand views and hundreds of comments as memories came flooding back of happier days.

Todays collection show a stunning aerial shot from possibly Charter House showing a panoramic view of Eccles with the Precinct still under construction, Girl Guides and Cubs walking past Eccles Town Hall, W. Browse off licence on the canal bank, Centenary House, Monton in the snow, Jones Fashion Shop and a great view of the old White Horse pub with a vintage Lambretta scooter and motorcycle with a sidecar, something you never see these days.

Still to come are photos of Salford Docks, Hope Hospital and staff, Hanky Park and Broad Street, Eccles, Monton and Winton , which we will be posting daily.

If you recognise anybody in these photos, please let us know and we could get them a copy, also if you have any slides you may have forgotten about then please contact us, so we can share around various local sites.

So then, hope you enjoy this latest batch and plenty more to come... Enjoy

You may be aware that we at Salford Media are more than keen on both recording and saving our Cities heritage and over the years have saved many photographs, documents. books etc from being consigned to the waste bin.

You can imagine our delight when we were contacted by Phil Rawnsley who had acquired from a neighbour, Linda Charlton a large selection of photographic slides taken over a number of years by her uncle, a keen photographer and historian, the late, Bernard Doyle, which at one point seemed may be lost for ever.

However we drove to meet Phil and picked up the bag of slides and notebooks and started to clean them up and transpose to film and what a surprise we received as we went through them about 200 in all, sadly quite a few badly scratched, but what a delight the others are.

All in colour and dating from 1965 until 1981 they show Eccles, Winton, Monton, Hope Hospital, Hanky Park, Piccadilly, the opening of the M602 motorway in 1971 and a host more.

Some were sadly damaged and others had built up a layer of grime over the years but Carl has managed to do a few restorative repairs to bring them back to life.

We have far too many to put into one post, so today's selection are off Eccles and they certainly bring back the memories and I hope they do for you, and so over the next few days we will be publishing about 10 a day from various locations, also some mystery one's which we can't identify the location, but you may be able to help.

So kick off your shoes, relax and have a wander down memory lane with us... Enjoy

For me there is a simple pleasure to be had, by simply noticing things that you probably walk past every day and not even look at, take for example a few of these things I snapped on my phone today hence the quality, whilst walking in Eccles.

Decorative air bricks with wonderful patterns on them, date stones above buildings, relief sculptures, ornate brickwork especially on chimney stacks, foundation stones even decorative man hole covers.

Take a look at the outside of the Carnegie Library, Eccles which opened in 1907, it has the most stunning sculptures set either side of the windows, depicting what look like children reading and another possibly sculpting a bust of a head, cherubs set in laurel wreaths, stained glass windows, and a mosaic with the coat of arms of Eccles.

Eccles Town Hall has some really nice ornate carvings especially at the old entrance to the courts, again fluted columns, ornate air grills, stained glass windows and a stunning mosaic floor in the entrance hall, sadly the foundation stone from 1881 is obscured by a hideous looking electricity box, who ever sited it there wants a good kicking....

Joseph Holts pubs are also a good place to look for quirky ornamentations, the Edwardian examples such as The Lamb and The Royal Oak are superb examples of this again with fluted brickwork, ornate air bricks etc.

Worth a mention is the old County Bank, now The Ilirain Greek Café/Bistro which was built in 1871, this has some really nice stone carvings including the shields of The City of Manchester and the Duchy of Lancaster, stop and have a look next time you are passing, it also has a stone grotesque figure, just the one, hovering over the door of the Mobile Zone shop on Church Street.

Eccles Parish Church is a joy to look around with gargoyles, grotesques on the church roof,, a copper memorial to bell ringers high on the bell tower, stained glass windows, a sun dial, headstones lain against the church wall, we are surrounded by history, take the time to stop and look at what we have in Eccles town centre, go on educate yourself it's all free!

Today is the anniversary of the D Day landings on the beaches of France 1944, which saw combined Allied forces launch an invasion which would begin the slow overthrow of the Nazi party, I would like to share with you a story I was told by a man from Eccles who took part in the invasion and the sad consequences for him.

In 1973 I started work as a lab assistant at the Eccles Sewage Works on Peel Green Road and I have to say I enjoyed every minute, a great job working in a small lab analysing samples of waste water taken during the various progress through the treatment plant...but enough of that.

Amongst the men who worked there whose duties including maintenance work on the plant and others who worked on the filter beds and sludge tanks, not the best of jobs it has to be said, one of these men was Thomas Gubbins, a very quite, introvert loner who never mixed with the other men.

He would sit in a small pumping station and have his meals there on his own, I would pass it every day and exchange the odd greeting etc, one day the door was open and I had a look in, amongst the tools and clothing there was a collection of books, I was expecting the usual how shall we say racy literature? I was astounded to see books by Plato, Homer, Nietzche, Dickens, Proust etc not your usual fare.

I plucked up courage to speak to him and over a period of weeks I slowly gained his trust and he told me the most amazing stories of his life and what a cruel hand of cards he had been dealt.

He grew up in Frodsham, Cheshire and moved to Winton with his family in the 1930s, and worked at various jobs locally, he told me he got his call up papers aged 18 this was in 1944 and was taken to Scotland for training how to fire a rifle etc, shortly after this he was put on a train with blinds on and taken to Portsmouth and put on a landing craft heading to the Normandy beaches, prior to this his furthest outing was a day trip to Blackpool with his parents.

Telling me of the carnage that he saw on the beaches that day still affected him, he told of men being blown apart in front of him, headless men, bodies floating in the war and the constant rattle of machine gun fire and mortars exploding around him, somehow he managed to get to safety and hid in a storm drain, crying and shaking for 24 hours, he had thrown away his rifle and basically had a complete nervous breakdown.

He was taken back to England and placed in an army hospital treated and for shell shock, he never recovered from what he had witnessed that day, he was given ECT therapy amongst other things and discharged from the army a broken man, mentally and physically aged 19.

He made a slow recovery and eventually was given a job as a porter at Worsley Railway Station, a job he liked because of the relative tranquillity and he was left on his own for most of the day, he did strike up a friendship with one of the commuters, a city gent with a bowler and brolly who would say hello to him each morning, until one day the chap said goodbye to him and jumped in front on an oncoming train this horrendous sight caused him to have a further nervous breakdown resulting in a lengthy stay in Bridgewater Hospital, Eccles where he received further ECT treatment..

I left the sewage works in 1979 but kept in touch with him, he lived in Blantyre Street with his aged father, I would see him cycling around Eccles and sadly he had become a target for local children who would taunt him for his eccentricity, it has to be said that he didn't help himself by chasing them after they threw stones at him which graduated to them throwing stones through his windows, kicking his front door in, and smashing his greenhouse. 

He gained the nickname the "Mad Axeman" and his life was made a misery, his father died shortly after this and Tommy was to follow a few years later, just before he died I helped him buy a television prior to this his he would listen to a small transistor radio which was strapped to his bicycle.

Such a sad life for such an interesting man, all he wanted was to be be left on his own, read his books and potter around his tiny greenhouse, perhaps if the local kids knew about his troubled life they may have shown more respect, I would like to think so, but I am grateful that our paths crossed and I knew him for a few short years.

These days he would have been recognised as having PTSD and have received the proper care and attention he deserved and I am certain that was the case for so many soldiers coming home from World War 2, a sad reminder for this D day anniversary.

Sadly this is the final part of our 3-part series of photos of Eccles Precinct from back in the 1990's.

The Centre Manager discovered them in a drawer in his office.

We present to you the final 8 photos of some of the shops and the area around the multistorey car park.

We hope you have enjoyed this little walk down memory lane.

You can find the links to the previous sets below if you have not already seen them. 

Following on from our first batch of the cache of photographs showing Eccles Precinct from 30 years ago which Centre Manager discovered in a drawer in his office.

We present to you another 15 photos of some of the shops which sadly many of which are no longer trading in Eccles.

We have one final batch which we shall be posting up tomorrow morning.

We hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane.

Yesterday we told you how we have been loaned a cache of photographs showing Eccles Precinct from 30 years ago which Centre Manager discovered in a drawer in his office.

We have studied the photos looking for clues to determine the year they were taken. one photo shows parked cars in the delivery bay area. one has the letter P prefix which dates it to 1996, so they are almost 30 years old!

This batch shows shops which you possibly may have used, have never heard of, or had forgotten all about, who knew we had several Travel Agents, shoe shops, furniture shops, gents outfitters, Building Societies even benches for the weary shopper to sit on and watch the world go by.

Tomorrow we shall post the second batch of photographs, once again all taken in the Precinct or on the delivery bay area.

We would love it if you recognise any of the shoppers in the photos, they could be family members, friends, etc so if you do please, please let us know and we shall see if we can get you a copy.
 

More than feathers were ruffled at a meeting of The Irwell Inn, Eccles Pigeon Flying Club when two pigeon fanciers fell out with painful results for both men.

Eccles Magistrates Court in January 1923 saw J.W. Robinson who resided at Queen Street, Eccles and John Griffin who resided at Worsley Road, Patricroft  in the dock, both men had summoned the other claiming assault.

Mr F.H. Watson appearing for Robinson asked for the Court to be cleared of all witnesses before the case could start, possible intimidation?

Outlining the case he told the Court that at the request of the Secretary of the Pigeon Flying Club, Robinson with two friends, approached Griffin and asked him for the return of two stop watches that he had borrowed and not returned,

Griffin then allegedly lost his temper and hit Robinson on the jaw and both men fell to the floor fighting, Griffin then got Robinson's finger between his teeth and bit it so severely that it later required hospital treatment, blood poisoning set in and the finger later had to be amputated.

Robinson said that he required the use of the stop watches and was told by the Secretary to get them from Griffin, words were spoken and a fight broke out in which Griffin bit his finger for some two minutes causing it to be amputated shortly after.

Cross examined by Mr Ogden, Robinson denied starting the fight and that he did not know that he had broken Griffin's nose and finger and further denied stamping on his face with his clogs!

Mr Donohue the Club Secretary told the Court that the stop watches did belong to him and that he had asked Mr Robinson to ask Mr griffin to return them...was he possibly scared of Griffin?

John Egan who lived at Chandlers Square told Mr Ogden that he was with Robinson when he asked Griffin for the stop watches, both men were arguing but it was Griffin who said they should go outside on Salters Lane and fight, he denied seeing Robinson stamp on Griffin's face and knowing that Griffin couldn't stand up due to him losing a kneecap in the war.

Finally Griffin gave his side of the story and said that both men agreed to a fight but owing to his knee injury he fell over and Robinson stamped on his face breaking his nose, and he bit his finger because it was in his mouth, and then added that he caught mouth ulcers by having Robinson's fingers in his mouth...shouldn't laugh but is quite ironic.

Mr Watson then reminded Griffin that he had been previously fined for assault and described him as being, "a man who set himself against all law and order"

The Magistrate Mr F.Halsall then fined Griffin, £5 and a Guinea in costs then dismissed the case against Robinson.

A strange case, I think that Griffin was possibly a hard man and a bit of a bully who met his match with Robinson, mind you stamping on his face with his clogs was a tad severe!

A Victorian house with links to Blackpool Tower has been added to Salford’s local heritage list by Salford City Council.

Cleveland House at the junction of Eccles Old Road and Lancaster Road was built in the late 1800s and was owned by wealthy businessman William Hinmers who was a member of Eccles Congregational church.

According to the Eccles Old Road website, William Hinmers (1821-1902) was born in Guisborough in the Cleveland area of Yorkshire. He came to Salford in 1837 and became a carrier – a haulage contractor who moved goods for other businesses, in this case by the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway William lived in Farnworth and Southport before returning to Salford and purchasing Cleveland House in 1878, a 14-room detached family home, By then he was a county magistrate, chairman of the Tyldesley Coal Company, a board member at Linby Colliery and Director of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. William and another director paid for Horwich Recreation Ground in Bolton which opened in 1892, mainly for the staff of the railway company’s Horwich works.

In 1889 Manchester architects Maxwell and Tuke, who designed Blackpool Tower, designed a two-storey extension to the home with an unusual tower or turret feature on the eastern elevation, with a weathervane and decorative curved tiles on its roof.

A detached stable block was also added. This part of Eccles Old Road later became known as 'Millionaires Row'.

The property was occupied by James Higson, a master painter and decorator, Salford councillor and JP from 1906 to 1926 and later by Thomas Osborne, a corn miller and hay merchant. It remained in residential use until the late 1930s when it became a nursing home. It was acquired by the local council in 1949 and remained in use as offices until 2021. It was put up for sale in October 2022.

Salford City Council adopted its local list in 2013 with eight criteria against which any building, structure or feature could be assessed to be included. These are: architectural interest, historical interest, age, aesthetic value, local interest, group value, landmark value and social or communal value. The listing will be taken into consideration in any future planning application to ensure future use remains in keeping with the character of the property.

Councillor Mike McCusker, lead member for planning and sustainable neighbourhoods, said Cleveland House clearly met the criteria and thanked the local resident who suggested it be listed.

Quote

“It’s a snapshot of Salford’s history – built in boom times just as we are seeing now, with the city rapidly expanding. It was owned by a man who came to the city to make his fortune and another successful tradesman who was local born and bred, but both gave back to their hometown and community.”

New Years Eve a time for celebration, happiness and making resolutions, which are never kept or as the good people of Eccles used to do on New Years Eve, congregate on Patricroft Bridge to listen to the bells and hooters from the nearby docks ringing in the new year.

However it was not all hearts and flowers as was told when, William Hamilton who lived in Aldred Street appeared at Eccles Magistrate Court summoned by Lilian Chadwick for assaulting her on New Years Eve, 1922.

Mr F.W. Ogden appearing for Lilian told the Court that up to six months ago the parties were "keeping company" but the relationship was broken off by her and this is what probably accounts for the events of New Years Eve.

Lilian who lived in Bridgewater Street told the court that she and a lady friend who was with her husband went to Patricroft Bridge to join in the celebrations and decided to call into The Packet House Inn to wish Mr and Mrs Wickens - possibly the Licencees - a Happy New Year.

She saw Mr Hamilton and went to leave by a side door when she received a violent blow to the face which knocked her through a glass door and rendered her unconscious, she did deny knocking a plate of cakes out of his hands before the incident.

P.C. Coe arrived on the scene and asked Hamilton if he had anything to say, he replied that there had been a "bit of bother" but no mention was made of cakes...

He told the Magistrate that he had been keeping company with Lilian but she broke it off and said she never wanted to see him again, but she would call to the house where he was staying three or four times a week, and on the night in question he had been out carol singing with friends and decided to carry on the reverie in the Packet House Inn.

In the pub he said that Lilian knocked a plate of cakes out of his hands on purpose and to make matters worse, somebody had put their feet through his new hat and when he saw her laughing, this angered him and he admitted striking her once in the face which he regretted straight away but pleaded that it wasn't a heavy blow as Lilian was at another party a few hours later.

Under further examination he said that one of his friends who went to the pub with was so disgusted that he struck him in the face knocking him to the floor and finally he admitted that he should have wrote to her apologised for his actions.

Mr G. Holland the Chairman of the Bench said this was a serious offence and should consider himself lucky that he was being fined only one guinea instead of imprisonment.

Manchester Assizes Court heard the thrilling story of armed bank robbers from Salford who thought nothing of firing their guns at bank cashiers and policemen and how they were brought to justice.

John Foley aged 23 who was living in lodgings at Browning Street, Pendleton and the magnificently named, Bartley Iago aged 26 who was living in lodgings at, Bury Street, Pendleton were charged with stealing £244 from The Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Company and shooting at Samuel Watson and Jack Bradley with intent to murder.

The court heard that on July 18th Foley who was carrying a bag hailed down a taxi cab on Long Millgate, Manchester and asked to be taken to Crumpsall, as they approached a nearby bridge, three men stood in the road and halted the cab, got in and demanded to be taken to Heaton Park Station.

At the station they noticed a police constable on duty and then told the driver to take them to Prestwich Bank, they stopped outside the bank and the four men got out, but Foley stayed with the driver, he then noticed that all four men were carrying revolvers.

The three men went into the bank and one discharged his pistol into the ceiling, no doubt to gain attention, Mr Pimlott the bank manager was ordered at gun point to hand over the keys, two men then jumped over the counter and removed money from the tills and demanded to know where there was more, Pimlott pointed them to another cash drawer, which they quickly emptied of all the cash.

The men ran out off the bank and got into the waiting taxi and drove off, however a Mr Bradley who had heard the gunshot in the bank was standing by and decided to give chase with P.C. Murray in his van, the taxi turned onto Bury New Road but because the traffic was so heavy the men jumped out and ran up Clarks Hill.

To add to the excitement Mr Bradley crashed his van into a wall, whilst giving chase he and P.C, Murray then got into the abandoned taxi and gave chase in that, they got within yards of the bank robbers when Iago started firing at them, all four men got away.

Iago and Bartley were eventually arrested on July 24th, at Newton Le Willows the other two men were believed to have fled the country.

The Prosecuting Council said that clothing found abandoned at the scene of the robbery belonged to Iago, also both men had left their place of employment the day before the robbery and hadn't returned to pick up wages owed to them.

Iago in his defence denied the clothes were his and said that he had left his job and had walked to Bolton looking for work including calling at several farms then mentioned that he had been looking for a man called Coen who owed his landlady money, hoping to get it back and had stayed the night at a unnamed, man's house in Bolton.

The Prosecutor asked Iago if he knew that the unnamed man was the President of a branch of The Irish Self Determination League, Iago denied this.

The Irish Self Determination League was a political organisation which was the voice of Irish Nationalism in the UK with many of it's members being imprisoned by the British Government in 1923 at the height of the Irish Civil War.

Both Iago and Bartley continued to protest their innocence but couldn't come up with one witness to say where they were on the day of the robbery and stated that prosecution witnesses had been shown photographs of the men before taking part in identity parades.

After a lengthy summing up the jury found the men guilty of stealing whilst being armed, but on the charge of shooting with intention to murder, that was changed with shooting to do grievous bodily harm whilst attempting to escape.

Mr Justice Acton sentenced both men to 10 years penal servitude adding that is was a most serious offence and must be met with severe punishment.

He then commended Mr Bradley and P.C. Watson for their bravery on the day.

A lot of unanswered questions remain, was the bank robbery a possible political act and the two men who evaded capture had fled overseas, presumably Ireland?

As is my wont, I love a good mooch around charity shops finding the kitsch, bizarre and sometimes a treasure, today was such a day.

I noticed in a glass case in one of the many charity shops, in Eccles, a commemorative plate, which caused me to stop and stare, hardly believing  what I could see.

A plate showing Daniel Adamson, one of the driving forces behind the inception of the Manchester Canal project.

It reads, "Eccles and Patricroft Demonstration Ox Roasted August 31st 1885, Royal Assent August 8th 1885"

I did a bit of research and found that an ox roast took place in Patricroft where celebrations took place following the passing of the Manchester Ship Canal Bill in 1885.  

The Bill gave the go-ahead to the scheme to build a canal to link Manchester with the sea, this was welcomed by towns in the Manchester area such as Eccles as the promise of future prosperity.

I think that slices of roast ox was served to people celebrating this event but doubtful they were served on plates of this quality and money raised went to a local charity.

The Working Class Museum, Salford has one in their collection which I remember seeing many years ago.

The following photograph taken on that date is captioned "A Grand Demonstration held at Eccles, 31st August, 1885. Promoted by the Eccles & Patricroft Ship Canal Committee. Chairman W S Boddington, Esq. In celebration of the passing of the Bill. (The wagon is supplied by Stephen Shawcross of Eccles).

I have no idea who donated this plate to the charity shop but I am eternally grateful for their kind deed and it has gone to a good home...mine!

Are there many more of these plates in circulation? I have no idea how many were made and if these were sold for charity, be interesting to know.

Another peep into the pages of The Salford City Reporter from December 1922 and the tale of Mrs Lynch's lodger from Hell.

Salford Magistrates Court was told that P.C. Oakley had been called to Mrs Lynch's house at Hodge Lane at 11pm on the Tuesday evening after reports that her lodger, Reginald Edgar Walker was drunk and smashing the house up.

When he knocked on the front door, Walker asked him what right he had to be there, when told that he was a Police Constable and had been called there, he replied, 

"Keep outside, you have no business here!"

Walker then manhandled him to the door and attempted to bolt it with a poker, a tussle ensued with punches being thrown and Wallace headbutting the Constable, Oakley held onto the man until police assistance arrived and he was taken to Cross Lane police station, where he was, "very violent all the way"

In the dock, Walker was asked if he had any questions, he said that he hadn't and subsequently fainted in the dock and was revived with a glass of water.

Mrs Lynch then gave evidence and described Walker as. "a man when in drink is mad and cannot control himself and I live in terror of him, he knocks me about".

Inspector Lynch asked the Magistrate to take into account another charge, that of of damaging Mrs Lynch's, Queen Anne sideboard which had cost her £27 by smashing the glass and scratching the woodwork and then added that Walker was fined 40 shillings last year for police assault.

The Stipendiary Magistrate, Mr P. W. Atkin asked Mrs Lynch what she knew about Walker, she told him that he was a Clerk but had been unemployed for a long time and had been lodging with her for two years, but when he had a drink, he would go "mad"

P.C. Oakley was next up to stick the proverbial boot in, saying that Walker had been a proper villain to Mrs Lynch and that she was frightened of turning him out of the house...but presumably taking his weekly rent money?

Last up was Mr Walbutton from Salford probation Services who said that Walker had been employed for a short time on the Salford Housing Scheme as a clerk, but had not worked for the past nine months, and had been receiving money from South Africa, and it was his wish to go back there but didn't have the money.

The Magistrate delayed Mr Walker's departure for a month when he sentenced him to one months hard labour in Strangeways Gaol, on a brighter note for him the charges against him damaging Mrs Lynch's Queen Anne sideboard were dropped.

The Salford Housing Scheme mentioned, I have heard of this before, local unemployed men were used on building new council homes as a way to reduce the numbers of men receiving state benefits or the dole as we know it as.

Photo: Shire horses passing Cross Lane police station

Time for a dip into the pages of The Salford City Reporter from December 1922 and see what stories were making the news and we start with this curious tale of the Salford publican in court for serving a pint of beer with too much in it!

Emma Spivey the Licencee of The Miners Arms, Chapel Street, Pendleton appeared at Salford Magistrates Court charged with serving over measure in beer, yes that's correct too much as opposed too little.

On December 2nd 1922, Police Constable Whitworth took a jug into the pub and asked for a pint of beer to take out, he was served and charged sixpence, he then took the jug of beer to the nearby Pendleton Town Hall and placed in a measured bottle which showed the quantity to be one and a quarter pints,

The diligent P.C. Whitworth returned the next day with his trusty jug, ordered a pint for home and when this was measured it was found to be one and a half pints, not satisfied with this he again returned and ordered a pint which when measured was, one and a quartet pints.

He then asked Mrs Spivey to show him a pint measure, she produced a pint pot which she said that she always used, he informed her that she would be reported for giving over measure she replied

"I am always afraid of giving under measure"

Sir William Cobbett appeared for the Defence and asked P.C. Whitworth if was true that he went into the off sales department which was detached from the pub and was served by Mrs Spivey, to which he agreed, he was then asked if Mrs Spivey had pulled the beer into a stamped pint pot which had frothed over and then poured into his jug, who then pulled more beer into the jug to fill it up? again he agreed with this.

Cobbett then addressed the Stipendiary Magistrate. Mr P. W. Atkin and told him that Mrs Spivey had run the pub for the past eight years since her husbands death and the pub had been in their family for some 26 years and hadn't received a single complaint against them to the authorities.

He then added that technically Mrs Spivey was guilty of an infraction of the law, but she had done it with the best of intentions to make sure that her customers got proper value for their money. and that by adding extra beer she had no intention to defraud.

The  Stipendiary Magistrate asked Licencing Inspector Ronan why the Police Constable had been sent there? he told him that he had received a verbal complaint from.....another licencee in that district.

He then fined Mrs Spivey £5.

That does seem very harsh, the poor woman and her husband had run the Miners Arms for 26 years without any trouble but the police acting on the words of a possible local licencee, had ruined her good reputation overnight, shame on them.

Their daughter, Elsie Waters took over the pub in1949 and was 72 when the pub finally closed

The pub lasted until 1963 when it was demolished on what has passed into Salford folklore as "Black Sunday",April 28th when eight pubs in the Hanky Park area of Salford closed in one night

I was delighted to see my good friend Barry Calderwood at my house today as he usually comes bearing gifts, actually things he has unearthed with a digger on various building sites and today was no different,

He is working in Peel Green demolishing an old building which has an air raid shelter on the site, when he spied this ginger beer flagon several feet down in the soil, he kindly jumped out of the digger and rescued it for me and brought it to mine in his dinner hour.

You may recall that Barry was involved in the demolition of the Unicorn pub in Peel Green, when he unearthed a small, stone ginger bottle with the name J, Batty, Swinton embossed on it, which he once again kindly gave me.

This flagon with a handle would have contained Herb Beer or Ginger beer, basically the same thing and bears the name of the company who brewed and bottled it, L. Ellis, 596 Bolton Road, Pendlebury with the instructions that it must be returned to them.

I have several similar flagons of this size in my collection but not one bearing this name, there were several ginger beer manufacturers in that area including, Edmonson's, Batty, Simpsons, Halls etc..

The address 596, Bolton Road, Pendlebury is now the site of a garage and a Tesco mini market and close to the Newmarket pub and presumably L. Ellis's company has been long demolished.

Does anybody remember the company? I think this flagon dates from the 1920s or 1930s also a lot of the flagons had the date of manufacture embossed upon them, I know many were never returned and ended up being used a hot water bottles, this was possibly what has happened here.

Once again Barry, many thanks for your continuing kindness in saving for me pieces of our local heritage which could so easily be smashed by the digger.

If you have a similar collection as me I would love to see them or if you would like to give them a new home...I'm your man!

Whilst filming the Remembrance Sunday at Eccles yesterday I met up with my old chum, Patrick Grifin who had been a guest on the Fred and Flynny Show a couple of weeks earlier, where he mentioned that he had some family postcards from World War two that I might be interested in.

We had a chat and he loaned these three postcards, printed on flimsy card sent by his Uncle John to his sister Kath who was living on Barton Lane, Eccles from Stalag XX-A a prisoner of war camp at Turun in Nazi occupied Poland.

John an Eccles lad is believed to have joined the Lancashire Fusiliers at the outbreak of war, Patrick wasn't sure which regiment, and was sent abroad to fight, he was captured by the Germans in 1941 after parachuting from a plane and sent to Stalag XX-A where he was held until the camp was liberated by Russian troops in February 1945.

Patrick tells me that John and a few of other prisoners managed to escape from the camp but where captured a few days later, beaten and brought back, and put under high risk status.

The postcards are fascinating in that they show that prisoner has only a few lines to write upon to send his message and were heavily censored for any cryptic messages, it looks like John was a talented artist looking at the cartoon characters he has drawn upon them.

The Christmas postcard is a wonderful souvenir of the camp and depicts four smiling POW's some with sprigs of holly in their caps and Santa climbing out of a sack with Red Cross parcels for them, it was drawn by a fellow POW called Thomas Burke and says printed by "The Camp" perhaps they had a printing press in there, which would have been kept under a strict observation.

I did a bit of research into Stalag XX-A and it was a series of small forts initially used for Polish POW's  In accordance with the Third Geneva Convention, POWs below the rank of Sergeant were required to work and were attached to Arbeitskommando ("labour units") mostly located in various towns and villages in the region. They were hired out to military and civilian contractors. In the case of farm work, this was often carried out on state farms. Sergeants and above could not be forced to work and if they did so were sent to non-working camps.

Also it had a couple of notable POW's held there including Sam Kydd the actor who spent the entire war there and Airey Neave who became an MP and was killed by the INLA in a car bomb explosion as he drove out of the car park at the Palace of Westminster.

John Griffin died a few years ago and was never married but what a fascinating life he led and I would have loved to have gone for a pint with him and I am delighted that Patrick has not only looked after these postcards but has let me have a look at them so I can share through Salford Media, Cheers!