The Corn Exchange, Manchester

My photograph of the Corn and Produce Exchange, founded in Manchester in 1837, altered in 1897 and rebuilt in 1903. I worked here in the early 1980s when it was a slightly more hidden gem, hidden behind a triangular office block (Royal Insurance?) and opposite the white-tiled Manchester Arndale Centre. It is greatly changed now and looks across a public space to a new Metrolink stop; the interior is also greatly changed, it was very dark and tired when I worked there, a preponderance of brown wood and green tiles, now it is home to many restaurants and cafe bars. All of which made it difficult to choose my best picture from the last few years; this picture needed quite a lot of editing to remove tables and chairs, unsightly electricity cables and boxes and the legal signage for wheelchair users, etc., (so it’s good to know that these things are in place), and to make it more as I remembered it, but I also liked the way the sun caught the writing around the door and highlights the cleaned-up ‘heraldry’ above. I think it shows the entrance to the building in a good light. (Edited with Affinity Photo)

The Daily Express Building, Manchester

Daily Express Building, Manchester

We called it the Daily Express Building (it’s just the Express Building on the photo) and we used to pass it late at night (as Great Ancoats Street in Manchester was then on the direct route from Wrexham to Leeds, no M56 or M62) and we were on our way, in our Morris Traveller, to visit mum’s cousin in Leeds. Every time we went past the building mum and dad would point it out because, in those days and late at night, the building was lit up like Blackpool Illuminations and the printing presses were running, much of them visible through those wonderful glass walls-of-windows. It really was a sight to behold. Photo taken 4th Sept 2019 with some cropping and editing to remove traffic and huge advertising signs.

Anglo Scots Research

The Anglo Scottish Family History Society is part of the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society at http://www.mlfhs.org.uk. The ‘Anglo-Scots’ was formed by members of the MLFHS who also have ancestors across the border and they typically hold a meeting once a month at the Manchester Central Library. Members of the MLFHS, however, have access to the Society’s forum, an excellent place to ask for help with Manchester and Scottish research.