All change in Manchester
In the early part of this week, I visited Manchester to speak at a conference on next generation broadband. Now I was brought up in Manchester and went to school and university there, so it’s always a pleasure to return to the city which has undergone enormous redevelopment since I left in 1971. Also I still have relatives there, so I spent the night before the event with my brother, his partner and their delightful daughter (my niece) and then, after the conference, I had dinner with my step-mother and her partner.
My brother drove me through the part of Manchester where we lived as kids more than 40 years ago. We lived in a district in the south of the city called Fallowfield which was always popular with students and is now dominated by them. More specifically, we lived behind and above a dry cleaning shop on Wilmslow Road called “Silver Wings” where our mother – a single parent with three children – was the shop manageress. All the shops in the parade have now changed ownership and where we used to live is now a Kentucky Fried Chicken!
July 19th, 2013 at 4:41 pm
I lived in Landcross Road, Fallowfield from 1959 to 1979 and remember Silver Wings. Hope’s Hardware, Coe’s Bakery (renamed the Swiss Apron), Eric Bromley’s bike shop, Ogden’s off licence.Hutchings model shop, which later became a record shop, True to Time shoe repairs on the corner,Taylor’s newsagents and Malcolm Bishop’s which sold home furnisings and was spread over three shops.
July 19th, 2013 at 4:48 pm
You have a good memory, Dave!
July 19th, 2013 at 4:59 pm
Yes, but what about ‘Romano’ the ladies hairdressors shop, which is the one and only shop along that strip of Wilmslow Road that has remained from the period of the late 1960s/early 1970s
July 19th, 2013 at 7:16 pm
Hi Roger, Yes, I do remember a lot from my childhood, much more than nowadays. From what I recall,there was a ladies hairdressers called Nino Milano Studio (which I think is still there). I’ve got a feeling Silver Wing’s became a Canadian Charcoal Pit. There was a Greengrocers originally called Ellis’s which later became Kent’s and during some construction work around 1973 it fell down. There was also a butcher’s called Stockdales and a chemist called Harari’s. There was also a Laundrette called ‘Felix’s’
Across the lights there was a Bathroom showroom called Mathers and as a kid I was captivated by the bathroom suites which went round on a central roundabout. There was another greengrocers called Unwins and another Chemist called Ellam’s. Opposite Fallowfield Station was the post office, a cake shop, Interflora and a supermarket called Burgons.
I wish I could remember things I did this week with the clarity I have of 50 years ago!
July 19th, 2013 at 8:58 pm
What a memory, Dave.
I use to work at Kent’s as a teenager to earn a bit of money. I believe that Mr Kent was a German who found a change of name by looking in the telephone directory.
At 234 Wilmslow Road where our mother ran the “Silver Wings” shop, our living room was on the first floor above the shop and I enjoyed looking at people using the post box and bus stop outside the shop.
March 5th, 2024 at 4:49 pm
I lived on Mabfield Road in Fallowfield with my parents from December 1957 (I was just two years old when we moved there) until November 1963. My parents paid £1,000 for the semi detached house near Platt Fields park. We loved it there. I do remember Malcolm Bishops, but I couldn’t remember the name of the local Hardware shop (Hope’s Hardware), so I was pleased that Dave Hill had such a good memory! I still have a couple of little china ornaments my Mum bought from that shop over 60 years ago! I attended St. James Primary School (Little Birch), and have very happy memories indeed of the few years I spent living in dear old Fallowfield. Nice that other people have such fond memories too.