Christmas was a simpler affair in times gone by
BEFORE Mad Friday, trees marooned by a sea of wrapping paper and continental markets, Christmas was a simpler affair in Manchester.
As these pictures show, families and neighbours found different ways to mark the holiday season.
Archive pictures from Salford’s Local History Museum show how Christmas was celebrated, dating back to the 1920s.
The photographs taken from across the decades show how our communities sang carols, met Santa Claus or enjoyed a Christmas party
A light covering of snow at Salford’s Seedley Park, showing the keeper’s lodge, was made into a 1920 Christmas card. And a picture from 1933 shows nurses and babies on ward A2 at Hope Hospital bedecked in decorations.
Post-war austerity did not dim the joy of celebrating December 25th.
The year after the end of the Second World War Salford was still recovering from the trauma of the Blitz which had targeted the docks.
But a wonderful image captures the moment Father Christmas – not City and United players – visited poorly children at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
Santa also popped up at Walkden shopping precinct in 1968 and a year later landed at Barton Airport to attend the Lancashire Aeroclub’s children’s party.
Ward & Goldstone, based in Frederick Road, was one of Salford’s biggest industrial employers in the 1950s. Founded in 1882 by James Ward & Meyer Hart Goldstone, it remained a family firm especially during the era of Sampson ‘Mr Sam’ Goldstone. It manufactured a range of electrical goods, including cable, plastic mouldings for plugs and car parts. It was a big supplier to Woolworth’s. A photograph taken, possibly in the 1950s, shows workers inside the factory at Christmas time.
A group of women workers were snapped in party mood at the Magnesium Electron factory in Swinton in 1968.
A picture which was the essence of what Christmas should be about was one of pupils at Clarendon Primary in 1975 having a party.