Ephemera

Samuel Gratrix Junr & Brother was established in the Alport Town area of Manchester by the mid 19th century, their Lead Mills being just off Watson Street and adjacent to the Manchester & Salford Junction Canal. The business traded as lead, glass, oil, paint, and colour merchants, brass founders, metal workers, sanitary plumbers, and electrical engineers. The Lead Mills and most of Alport Town were swept away with the construction of the GNR warehouse between Watson Street and Deansgate in the early 1890s. This meant that Gratrix relocated to new premises; Alport Works on Quay Street, as illustrated on the letterhead. Compensation for the compulsory purchase of the Lead Mills amounted to £56,622 after arbitration. Photographs of Alport Works are hard to find and I have only seen images giving glimpses of the building which was demolished in the 1960s. By the 1960s the business seems to have become glass merchants Samuel Gratrix Ltd based in Trafford Park.

John Green Ames appears to have established a canal carrying business by the early 19th century and he was was a member of the Inland Waterway Association for Apprehending and Prosecuting Felons in 1804. The firm of J.G. Ames & Company specialised in transport by water to and from Bristol and the West of England via the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and River Severn. At the end of the 1820s their services from Derby comprised a boat to Stourport, Gloucester and Bristol on Tuesday and Friday; another to Worcester, Kidderminster, Cheltenham, Bath and the West of England three times a week; and a slow boat to Bristol every day. They also operated similar services from Liverpool and Manchester with wharves at Dukes Dock and Castlefield respectively. I suspect that the business was based at Stourport and it was from there that it was noted that Ames' partnership John Adams was dissolved in 1831 on the retirement of John Green Ames in 1831. The business continued as Ames & Co. This ticket was carried with goods being carried by the company from Manchester to Great Haywood at the junction of the Trent & Mersey and Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canals, and would have been used in calculating the toll charges. In 1832 the majority of long distance carrying was likely to be by canal whenever possible. The boats carried a wide variety of goods rather than the single bulk cargoes of later years. In this case 5 tons 1cwt 1qr of sundry goods (which were probably all rated the same for toll purposes) and 5cwt of empties.

George Vint & Brothers was an established business at Idle, Bradford, by 1862 when they displayed an obelisk in stone from their Gazeby quarries at the London Exhibition. On 30th June 1873 the partnership between George Vint and Ebenezer Sharp Vint, trading as George Vint and Brothers was dissolved, with George continuing the business on his own account. This was just before the Shipley branch of the Great Northern Railway was opened and provided an outlet to markets across Britain. The line was open for mineral traffic from Laisterdyke to Idle on March 9, 1874, the first truck-load of flags being sent by G. Vint & Brothers who soon opened a stone sawmill and siding at Friar Mill just south of Idle Station. The firm also appears to have been making bricks at New Wortley, Leeds in 1877. The business continued to expand towards the end of the 19th century and in 1896 the quarry at Idle Moor employed 18 men underground and 19 on the surface, whilst at Summerfield Quarry there were 4 underground and 3 on the surface. In 1904 the Abbey Quarry at Idle was noted as supplying stone for public buildings in Leeds, York, Bradford, and Manchester. In 1917 stone was supplied for the monument at Whitby to those lost in the wreck of the hospital ship 'Rohilla'. Vint Bros also supplied stone for the construction of the New Theatre, Oxford, in 1933. The then proprietor of the business, William Harper, residing at 33 Moorside Road, Eccleshill, Bradford, was declared bankrupt in June 1939.

Judging by the image on their billhead, J & J Parish had a sizeable yard and workshop. No doubt there was plenty of work for them in 1920s Withington, Manchester. The business was started as a partnership between Jethro and Joseph Parish but Jethro became sole proprietor in 1890.

Malkin Tiles was an offshoot of the earthenware company Edge, Malkin and Co. Initially they traded as Malkin Edge & Co, later becoming Malkin Tiles and eventually Malkin Tileworks. Manufactured a wide range of tiles, mainly moulded and encaustic dust-pressed. Eventually absorbed into H & R Johnson in 1968. More information here: www.thepotteries.org/potworks_wk/050.htm

I suppose this could be called a waybill, although it does not list the consignor(s) or consignee(s) of the goods. It was used to give details of the cargo for use in charging toll by the Canal Company. On November 3rd 1832 Pickford & Co's Boat was loaded at Preston Brook with sundries and cotton twist for delivery at Stoke, Horninglow, Derwent Mouth, and Derby, on a journey that would have been on the Trent & Mersey Canal to Swarkestone and then along the Derby Canal. The Railway Age was yet to arrive and the canals were the main bulk carriers of goods.

North Staffordshire Railway Dividend Warrant , 1867. I wouldn't mind achieving that sort of return at the moment!

A souvenir saved from my first ever trip to London in 1966. With the electrification from Liverpool and Manchester to London having just been completed, all passengers on the new services were given this leaflet to make the speedy trip more interesting. Inside is a straight line map of the route with snippets of information about the places passed. The introductory text opines: " You will find the service speedy, reliable, comfortable and clean. We hope you enjoy it " I certainly did enjoy my journey in what was then brand new Mark II stock.

The Isle of Man Railway system was not long off the final closure of most lines when I visited in 1967. The whole system had closed after the 1965 season but was briefly revived when the Marquess of Ailsa obtained a lease and reopened all three routes for a final time in 1967. Both the Peel and Ramsey lines shut following the 1968 season and the tracks on those lines was removed in the 1970s. The green and red printed timetables on yellow card are a souvenir of that summer when you could still enjoy Victorian narrow gauge travel on a whole network of lines. Not that all was steam; the two ex County Donegal railcars were in use and I saw them running back-to-back on some services towards St Johns.

North Western Timetable Winter 1968-69

North Western Timetable Winter 1967-68

Memories of bus travel in the 1960s with this recently discovered ticket that was lurking in a drawer that I was clearing out. I used to love travelling on North Western buses.

In 1853 I wonder how many of the workmen would have been able or inclined to read this notice? By inference it appears to have been ok to smoke and use naked lights in pits where gas was not present. As far as I know all the Poynton pits were gassy!

It's amazing what you can find in drawers and cupboards that you haven't looked in for a long time. This flyer for the Manchester City Transport Airport service I must have picked up in Manchester in 1967. I certainly remember the service starting in 1966 (I think) and the coaches as they were such a contrast to the red buses operated by the council in Manchester.

The Macclesfield Express newspaper is celebrating its bicentenary in 2011 and has just published a facsimile of the first edition of the Macclesfield Courier from which it has evolved over the years. In my collection of local ephemera are a number of invoices issued by James Swinnerton who was proprietor of the paper in the 1840s and 50s when it was published as the Macclesfield Courier and Herald. This example was sent to Mr Thomas Bullock of Sutton, a local silk manufacturer, invoicing him for his subscription to the paper. For eighteen months from June 1848 to December 1849 the cost was 33 shillings which is 22 shillings per annum. Today the paper costs 57p which is just slightly more than you would have paid for 6 months of issues in 1848!

Lining Mr Norris' pew - £1 14s 0d. Invoice from Samuel Plant to the Trustees of St George's Church, Sutton. The billhead features a goodly selection of the very latest in furnishings for the discerning Maxonian. A search of the trade directories reveals that his premises were at 58 Mill Lane which is nowadays Michael Dale Photography.

Eleanor Thistlethwaite, Confectioner, charged 5s 0d for a pigeon pie in 1853, which was certainly not cheap. The shop was at 11 Chestergate in Macclesfield and is now Jones' Jewellers.

Thos Alman, General & Furnishing Ironmonger, 24 Mill Lane, Sutton. 1 coal box repaired for the grand sum of 1s 3d. The premises which stood over, and at the south side of, the archway that led to the Victoria Mills were demolished when the Silk Road was built through to Mill Lane. This particular billhead has special significance to me because we lived in the flat over the shop in the mid 1970s. At that time it was the 'Home Improvement Centre' selling double glazing.