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This is what you could call a lifestream. The three "f"s of food, football, fotographs
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May 07 2012
M&S Co-Op Loaf 1929
Horse drawn drey shewing off the new hygenic bread in a paper wrapper
Horse drawn drey shewing off the new hygenic bread in a paper wrapper
May 06 2012
April 26 2012
April 21 2012
April 13 2012
April 10 2012
April 04 2012
On schedule
Three months gone, and have actually kept to the schedule of every month a short video knocked out and uploaded. Not many people watch them. It is not the material to go viral. But really I make them for myself and are mildly, advisedly quite mildly amusing. Don't take yourself too seriously.
Now if I can only keep this going, maybe even to do a bit of promotion more than just a tweet. Stop hiding your light under that bushel.
Those are the ones from February and March, and January is in a earlier post. Next up a bit of black and white in a Lumiere style - static camera no effects.
April 02 2012
April 01 2012
Coffees of Empire
You somehow feel that Britain has come to terms with its imperialist past. The recent BBC Tv five part series "Empire", an excellent travelogue / documentary with Jeremy Paxman suggests that.
Here is coffee essence a peculiar British product. A thick gooey syrup that was suppose to taste like coffee after hot water was poured over it. It is still retailed in places but I can't bear to purchase any. I remember it first time around. Ingredients : 40% water, 30% sugar, 26% chicory essence, 4% coffee essence, stabilisers and thickeners.
The label says everything about Empire and that later creation the Commonwealth. Manufactured by Patterson & Sons in Glasgow from 1875. The iconic label of an military officer in the Gordon Highlanders and a Sikh gentleman being a waiter / batman serving up the delicious sweet drink. That was the black and white days. Now the firm is a brand of the McCormick & Company (think of those over-priced Schwartz herbs and spices) it has been re-designed with both chaps sitting together enjoying the beverage. There was an intermediate design of the chap in his turban standing with the tray airbrushed out. Redolent of those Stalinist era photographs, when the old Bolsheviks got removed from the picture after Uncle Joe had them executed.
Getting back to the beverage I've always wondered why Britain, in the days of Empire, never got to grips with coffee making at home? Also the use of chicory in this product is an interesting and separate story. It can make an acceptable drink when there is a coffee shortage but there wasn't one.
March 31 2012
Road or it that Lane Re-opened
At last the roadworks are gone, the road re-opens again. But when the construction team comes to lay down the tram track then severe distruption will be for months. The picture is at night and has a quality like an oil painting, yes it is blurred. That's the bookies at the corner of Hardy Lane and Barlow Moor Road. Need to take more photographs for this junction will change forever.
March 30 2012
Butter of Empire
The advertisement is from Friday 17th April 1931 in the Manchester Guardian. Another in the series of Foods of The Empire. It says it is the first direct consignment, presumably from New Zealand to the Manchester Ship Canal. The S.S. Surrey was a steamship of the New Zealand Shipping Company. Built in 1919, with a tonnage 8,580 and like many of their ships was named after an English county. The ship was sunk in 1942 in the Second World War.
The New Zealand Produce Association had offices in Tooley Street, London and was set up by the CWS and the Marketing Association of New Zealand in 1922 after a visit by a CWS delegation to New Zealand. It served importers of agricultural produce which the CWS required for its factories. An international co-operative undertaking by both producers and consumers.
Links : New Zealand Shipping Company History
Cocoa of Empire
The English and the Scottish CWS opened a cocoa factory in Dallow Road, Luton, in 1902. Like the British Empire it is gone now, demolished early in 1970. It is now a site of the Guardian Business Park, near the junction with Vernon Road. The poster dates from 1906 and is a contrast between an idealised view of work in West Africa and the impressive building with smoking chimney to demonstarte a hive of industry in Luton.
Nowadays the cocoa and chocolate is advertised as a Fairtrade product, the workers in West Africa have their own co-operative, but no sign of any factories in the UK, or wherever it is processed in the EU.
Links :
Divine Chocolate
Teas of Empire - previous post
March 26 2012
Guild Purchases Competition
The photograph is of a handsome cup and it is going to awarded to the co-operative guild that has made the most purchases over the last six months. Twenty four out of the thirty three guilds entered in 1949, that would include women's and mixed guilds. Maybe three of the men's guilds did too.
There was a meeting in the large hall at the Downing Street, Ardwick to announce the winners. Well Barlow Moor Mixed Guild nor Chorlton Women's Guild receive a prize. That was claimed by Yew Tree Women's Guild with an average purchase of £53 13s 10¾d. In modern decimal money that's about £53.68p, not sure about those three farthings. If use the National Currency Currency Converter has the spending power of £1,223 today. No respresentitive from the Yew Tree Guild was present that Friday 2nd December 1949 so arrangements had to be made to pass it on.
Suppose you want to know who came second, well that was Cornbrook Mixed Guild, and third was the previous year's winner Greenheys Mixed Guild. "Trade continues to move forward and at the present time the Society was recording no less than £13,000 per week increase" said Mr. J. Clarke JP who announced the winners.
Reference : Manchester & Salford Co-operative Herald January 1950, page 26.
March 24 2012
Road or is that Lane Closure
Hardy Lane is behind those red and white barriers. It's one of those cold but bright winter's day that we photographers love 'cos the sharp contrast and long shadows. You may want to compare this to all of thirty six years ago in an earlier post.
Photo credit : © Copyright Phil Champion and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. Thank you for your comments and your photos, much appreciated.
Links :
http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/SJ8293 covers this area, 113 photographs to date...I live in a nearby grid square and no one has uploaded yet, looks like I've got another task to do.
March 23 2012
150 years in 2013
Work is already under way by some professional historians at Universities in Liverpool to produce a book. Another book? Well as they point out in this initial article co-operation has been ignored for too long in the media, and in the school curriculum....
Link - you can also download a PDF from here.
March 20 2012
First lorry
This is the first M&S Co-op lorry purchased in 1909. It's a Pagefield two-ton truck which was manufactured by Walker Brothers in Wigan. The story reads "The Society's first motor and its first load. This will as be seen a precious cargo of the celebrated and unequalled Crumpsall Cream Crackers......At the head of the motor is Mr. Brierley, the society's stable superintendent. He has a great admiration for horses, but he speaks very highly of the motor and its work."
To me it looks like a flat bed lorry and I'm thinking all that work needed to load it and then handball all those boxes off into the warehouse. No pallets and forklift trucks back then.
March 19 2012
Horse Transport
We're back here in 1929 when the Hardy Lane store opened. There was a small stable block at the back of the shop completed over 18 months the shop opened. It's a familiar story of having to get the builder back to complete the job after promising to finish the construction. It was still standing until the recent re-modelling of the premises though the couple of horses that would have stabled had been long been put out to pasture.
There are those who are still with us who can still remember horse drawn transport of food, fuel and sundries. Not just home deliveries of bread, coal and milk but the transportation of supplies from depots to the shops.
In these photographs the M&SE Co-op are shewing off just a few of their working horses, and they had over seventy, for a May Day parade. There was a large procession under grey skies and the threat of rain. It assembled at Ardwick Green and went to Belle Vue to hear the speeches.
Wish I knew more about horses, you know breeds, hands height, and all that harness work. However you can still appreciate that attraction of looking at and being near horses. They add to any parade.
The M&SE founded in 1859 adopted home deliveries within their first year of existence. It was free of charge which has never been the norm in grocery retail. At first it was just a handvan, but several months later this was supplemented with a horse and cart.
"It was soon seen that if the business was to be substantially expanded then some means must be found to save members the inconvenience of carrying their purchasing any distance, and when this was obviated by buying a horse and van the further need arose of establishing branches nearer to cater for members as near to their homes as possible."
Home delivery wasn't a luxury for the carriage trade and the well healed middle classes it was used by working class customers. The first M&SE Co-op was in the densely populated area of terraced houses, mills and foundries of Ancoats.
When this co-op society expanded onto the new housing estates the delivery service came too. Also another branch at the south of the estate, on Merseybank Avenue was established. Same as back in 1859-60.
References : Manchester & Salford Herald 1909 page 150. The Manchester Guardian January 8th 1909. These are articles at the time the Society's Golden Jubilee.
March 17 2012
Horses 1929
Deliveries in the old days
Deliveries in the old days
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