5 historical things you might not know about Manchester - #1

There's so many interesting things about Manchester that some of the smaller details often get overlooked, or don't fit into bigger stories. So, here are a list of five loosely-related facts about the city that are still surprising.
1. Ice-cream cones invented by Italian immigrants in Ancoats
2. Meaningful street signs in the arty Northern Quarter
3. Nathan Mayer Rothschild's home on Mosley Street
4. The origins of organised vegetarianism
5. A huge misconception about Rolls Royce and the Midland Hotel!
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[@flyingfox7854]

I remember as a kid in Chorlton -on - Medlock … (1950’s/60’s) the ice cream sellers coming round the back entry’s ringing a hand bell … Bens ice cream ….. Granellies ice cream ….. and Sivories ice cream …. In the 1950’s they would push a sort of handcart around … then later on they would have a small pony cart ….. my mum would send us out with a bowl for a shillings worth of ice cream and some wafers as a summer Sunday treat …. Ahhhhhhhh those were the best days of your life ……..

[@stemcg1983]

Just wanna say cheers mate. I'm a Manc born and bread from Gorton. I now live on Glossop. Always loved a bit of history and geography, I've always been fascinated with the yanks though ...due to various things, sports, movies etc... I've binged watched your videos over the past few weeks and I just want to say keep it up mate, I appreciate your hard work and content. It's made me want to explore town again, just like I did as a kid buying a £1 stagecoach bus day-saver at the weekend and going moochin about with my mates Planning on going on a mooch again very soon, deffo staying in the Midland as a treat once this bullshit is over. Cheers mate

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Haha great thank you that very nice. I'm lucky I live close enough to town to get a mooch around these days

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Haha great thank you that very nice. I'm lucky I live close enough to town to get a mooch around these days

[@bernardmcmahon5377]

Nice one mate

[@norbertmartin458]

Cheers Ollie. As Manchester was the Northern centre for Nation newspapers (and local). and being a retired Compositor who worked on Guardian, People, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Football Pink. I would really be interested in your thoughts on this subject. None remain. Even Manchester Guardian changed its name then went to London. Keep em coming Ollie. Many thanks

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Great stuff. I used to have a colleague who worked at the printworks when it was still a printworks

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Great stuff. I used to have a colleague who worked at the printworks when it was still a printworks

[@brenda6580]

Great video, looking forward to seeing more.

[@douglasthompson296]

Hi mate, an algorithm just pushed this into my watch list. At least I learned something new today about those Northern Quarter street names colours. Marvelous what you can learn from YT 😏😎 cheers

[@pablodebruyne3834]

Ollie I’m an exiled Mancunian living in Austria and love watching your videos. Thanks for putting all the work and effort into bringing these videos to us the masses. Cheers fella please keep them coming

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Cheers thank you

[@FanUtd535]

Top stuff. Hope there will be more of these. Really enjoyed it. So drizzly old Manchester came up with the ice cream cone😳🤣🤣 Brilliant!

[@thatguyfromcetialphaV]

I'm not a Manc but I do love the place and have bern there a lot. Pay a visit to the Avro museum at Woodford.

[@juliepownall1063]

Cool interesting thanks lm from Manchester too 🐝

[@dougieadamson7028]

Keep enlightening us.

[@frankkellyukulele9978]

Just spent the afternoon binge watching your channel! KEEP THEM COMING

[@MarkJT1000]

Often wondered about those street signs and never knew about the origins of the ice cream cornet. Great info ! Shame about the Midland Hotel tho.

[@MrMegan1962]

Great channel mate what a shame about Royce and Rolls, great story.

[@robertwiddasart6947]

Informative, thanks !

[@jimmyviaductophilelawley5587]

Brilliant work olly. ...Didn't know 95 per cent of this stuff...thanks!

[@andrewlucas6214]

Great video...a nice antidote to all the formulaic stuff on tv

[@neilsutcliffe9782]

Is that some Bee Here Now merch I spotted?

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Haha maybe. Coming to a local car boot sale near you soon...

[@bernardmcmahon5377]

Not sure I noticed it, ha, ha 👍👍

[@EnglishGrave]

Absolutely beautiful, do enjoy your productions. Good work!

[@Jammo1978]

Sense of irony that the vegetarian rev was called cowherd 😂😂😂

[@GNeuman]

Brilliant video

[@loftyskies123]

im born and raised in moss side ,loved it back in the 60s and 70,s . then i moved to Blackpool where i always said i would live .

[@mikethepsych2084]

Good effort, mate

[@frankkellyukulele9978]

Another excellent vid again ,Thank

[@Rodrigomendesdf]

nice content mate, I'm moving back to Manchester after 2 years far away, loving to learn more about the city

[@MichaelThomasDev]

Nice one mate

[@extrude22]

Another enjoyable video. Keep up the great work!

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Thanks!

[@nikbennett4894]

Really enjoying these, mate. Originally from Openshaw.

[@flyingfox7854]

I remember one of my first jobs after leaving school at 15 …. Apprentice electrician working in George Street behind the Art Gallery … all those streets where China Town is today … most of the business’s were Jewish textile merchants … I remember on particular firm was Tony Levy & Co …. and the lifts in the building were all powered by water ! There was a rope in one corner of the lift cage going through a hole in the floor and the ceiling of the lift cage which you had to pull …. either upwards or downwards depending upon which floor you wanted … I believe that there was a central pumping station somewhere that provided the hydraulic power for a lot of the building’s in central Manchester …. even the Town Hall was powered by hydraulic water power. You can still see some of the large water pipes in the Town Hall ( unless they’ve taken them out during the restoration …. Hope not as they are part of the history of the city) …..

[@jackieb7883]

Really interesting.Hope you do more.

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Thank you!

[@Artois2011]

Another fantastic video!! Greatly appreciate the effort you put into these, so entertaining and informative!! Where can I get the T-shirt? It's really great!! Looking forward to the next one! Cheers! 😃✌👍🇺🇸

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Thank you! Very kind. Sorry its a one-off tshirt someone got me as a gift.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

Great video

[@colinseeney471]

Very interesting and I learned something 👍

[@chrisshaw9836]

brill vid, thanks

[@mikeclarke3882]

Thanks for that Ollie....who'd have thought it eh...cornets came from Manchester, wait till I tell the ice cream man who comes round here on Saturdays. Thanks too for doing something about the ads. And let me know were I can get my tee-shirt from, a bit of a bobby dazzler that one mate.

[@duxberry1958]

that was really nice

[@chrisshaw9836]

i absolutely love my city, salford, very proud, i say im from salford in manchester. what a top city, music, industry, friendly people love it, these vidz are great matey. thanks

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Thank you! To be fair, the vegetarian one is 90% a Salford fact, not Manchester.

[@markanthony4655]

Would that be why there is a Claremont Road in Moss Side, just off Princess Road close to Hulme in reference to the Ernest Claremont as he seems to be forgotten in the subsequent later (famous) history of Rolls Royce ? My Grandparents frequented the Claremont Pub on Claremont Road in the evening after work as they lived on Hartington Street and the Claremont was their "local" at the end of the street.

[@BeeHereNowuk]

I'm not sure but it sounds likely.

[@EarlEBird-fz6yr]

Fascinating stuff. I was born in Withington, lived in Stretford and now live in Bowdon. The Vegetarian Society is in Altrincham, albeit I am informed that they are moving?

[@johnfisher697]

Where abouts in Withington?

[@garyleroy6999]

Do veggies have meetings? Ha ha, great vids mate.

[@davidsedlickas8222]

Brilliantly done. Gold Star awarded.

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Thank you very much!

[@chriswilliams9754]

I’m sure that Cox’s Bar was the bar of The Great Central Hotel. Am I right or is my memory playing tricks on me?

[@bernardmcmahon5377]

Excellent presentation thanks. You have a good knowledge of the history, you’ve probably read ‘the Manchester man’ , set in early 1800’s a story based on some true ish events,.Salford

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Yes I've read that a long time ago

[@paulworthington8666]

When we lived at 6 Peel Street in Hanky Park, Pendleton, in the 1950s, our Italian ice cream man came around in a wee two wheeled cart drawn by a very sweet-tempered little brown pony. When I was about five, my M&D had sent me out with my thrupenny bit to buy a delicious cornet of icecream with rasberry sauce. While I was standing close to the cart, somebody's daft dog came barking up and startled the pony, who jerked the cart a bit forward, its big iron-rimmed wheel rolling over my foot. It hurt, but the cobbles in the road were very rough and uneven, and my little foot was between two of them, so it was only bruised, nothing broken. But the icecream man was very upset. He jumped out of his cart and was full of concern, taking my shoe off and bringing a little bag of ice from his cool box to ease the swelling. I think the good man was hurt more than I was. Like most Italians, he loved bambini and was distraught about hurting one. We got an embarrassing amount of free icecream ever afterwards.

[@tommytrinder.1226]

Great music!

[@chrism8705]

Very interesting be nice when you can get out and about again

[@danielbofinger]

Thank you for another lovely and interesting video. Since you’re doing such great research one thing might be clarified here: Sadly Manchester and Ancoats are not on the world Heritage list and not even on the tentative list.if used to be on the latter but it got removed probably due to the inscription of Liverpool in 2004. Also two other cradles of the industrialisation” are inscribed with Ironbridge Gorge and the Derwent Valley Mills. I still think Manchester could and should find a focus to be inscribed.

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Ah good to know thank you

[@susanroberts2289]

Why do we believe historians speculating on the Rolls and Royce meeting place and not the people who were their contemporaries who wrote about it at the time. I’m old now and the untruths and speculations modern historians misinterpret about “my era”, the 1940’s and 50’s are mind boggling.

[@Salford66]

Enjoyed the video thanks. I have to say though that it isn't implausible for someone to walk for 10 minutes from a train station to a hotel. Particularly if the person concerned is well to do and the hotel is the finest in town.

[@professorpodcast3029]

"Small City" I'm not sure that the UK's 3rd largest metropolitan area with a population of over 2 million people is small... oh wait...

[@georginaguerrero1231]

What kind of accent do you have?, thanks for asking, thanks for sharing.

[@BeeHereNowuk]

Its a mix of Manc, Oldham and Yorkshire. Its weird I know

[@georginaguerrero1231]

@@BeeHereNowuk it's definitely lovely.

[@AJM-timecop]

Remember the Savoris van coming down the road in the 70s.

[@johnfisher697]

I do as well, Siv's was really nice Ice-cream, one of the vans used to stop right on the corner where I lived in Withington, driven by a man called Bert. Happy days.

[@AJM-timecop]

@@johnfisher697 99s : ) I was born in Withington. Brought up in Heaton Mersey & Cheadle Hulme.

[@johnfisher697]

@@AJM-timecop Where abouts in Withington?

[@AJM-timecop]

@@johnfisher697 Nothing too glamorous. Withington Hospital.

[@johnfisher697]

@@AJM-timecop Yes I know where you mean, Christies and Nell Lane ( both Withington hospitals) I went to Parrs Wood High from 67/72 sadly no longer there, again lots of happy memories.

[@theowdgit9790]

Beltin' 👍👍👍

[@mattnolan5527]

the people of manchester sent Oswald Mosley packing when did that happen

[@Mr.Grimsdale]

Are you aware that when the Manchester City Council originally used the 'BEE' symbol they had a very insulting phrase with it that was aimed at the working class i.e the worker-bees.

[@susanroberts2289]

The further we move from a historical date the more likely it is that the following generations speculate with their own theories. When I was born (in the 1940’s) we carried on with our Victorian granny’s traditions and used their utensils and copied their ways and are au fait with their skills that sometimes come in useful today. The ‘youngsters’ today have never known most of those things. I have listened to contemporary “historians” and antique dealers who have expounded and come up with howlers. So, to get to the point, why didn’t the grown ups of the 1900’s-50’s, who would surely have met and talked with R&R, deny anything about The Midland Hotel meeting. The truth is that no one seemed to have a reason to do so. So regarding the meeting of Mr Rolls and Mr Royce, I’m sticking with The Midland Hotel.

[@stephenbowker824]

👍👍🖐

[@paulfoster2984]

Great Video, But your music is about 20 times louder than the rest of the video.

[@whyyoulidl]

I'm kinda realising just how warm and nice Mancunians are (see comments below); I'm well-jell. But glad to watch all the same :-)

[@duxberry1958]

i,m due another walk around manny taking fotos

[@stephenhall3515]

Interesting but your lighting, audio and general technical standards need a lot of work.

[@stevecooper3010]

Cowherd,come on that can't be right for a vegan

[@joewragg4934]

Something tells me he’s veggy or vegan 😂

[@jewishwhitetiger]

Born Salford hope hospital!! All of Manchester came under Salford 100 and first lord mayor of Manchester lived in Salford!! Right now I wrote to Manchester Council to have mosley street change as Mosley was connected to NAZI'S! Oswald Mosley had Hitler as his best man at his second wedding in Berlin and his sister was more Nazi then Nazis by mi6 reports! But I think Manchester should change the name of Mosley street as mosley was father to so many hate groups that came from his Nazi group.

[@yungpep]

TuT

[@garethbelk4065]

above all else its the worst city in the western world, harsh?? I used to think it was the worlds worst until i started my world journeys of 25 years, i was given the title of world master traveller at the end of my 2nd world journey, i went through a number of latin american countries and yes their cities were dreadful, also india, thats why i cut manchester back to just the western world. Visited alot but its so dishevelled and poorly designed, there was an IRA bomb a few years ago but u cant tell what was bombed what was not, in a word "UGLY"

[@steveyogilmore5314]

Started off ok then went downhill with your lefty'ism beginning to show through.

[@UnbelievableEricthegiraffe]

It also Catered for the Politics of your ilk Oswald Mosley was mentioned. .

[@bernardmcmahon5377]

Just telling it how it was , in a bit of a light hearted way

[@blotski]

Oh, come on. He mentioned that capitalism wasn't possible without the people at the bottom doing the work, which is just a fact, and that a known fascist who was kept under arrest for much of the war as a national threat, was given a less than warm welcome in Manchester. If that's annoying 'lefty-ism' it says more about how far to the right you might be than anything.

[@steveyogilmore5314]

@@UnbelievableEricthegiraffe would you try to say that with a boot between your teeth ?

[@steveyogilmore5314]

@@blotski Absolutely, Mosley was indeed a national threat and fair enough. There has never been a successful pure, socialist state that has ever worked. Millions of people have staved off almost certain death from starvation due to capitalism ie. India and China.