In our village school on the green in the spring of 1847

Our village school on the green circa 1870

From, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, The Story*

In 1847 our village school was just two years old.  It was the second National School here in the township and replaced the first which had been established in 1817.

These were church schools and provided elementary education for the children of the poor.  They were the product of the National Society which had begun in 1811 and aimed to establish a national school in every parish delivering a curriculum based on the teaching of the church.

The new school had been built with grants from the National Society and the Committee of Council on Education   on land given by George Lloyd in 1843 “for the purpose of a school for the education of poor children inhabiting the said township of Chorlton cum Hardy......and for the residence of the master of the said school for the time being, such schoolmaster to be a member of the Established Church, and the school to be conducted upon principles consistent with the doctrines of the Established Church”

Ours was a fine brick building which could hold three hundred children which was just as well because we had 186 children between the ages of 4 and 15.  Most were at school, a few were educated at home, and fifteen were already at work.

The youngest at just ten was Catherine Kirby who was born in Ireland and worked as a house servant.

There were slightly more boys than girls and they did a mix of jobs ranging from errand boys to farm worker and domestic service and most were born here.

There may even have been more for when William Chesshyre interviewed their parents in the March of 1851 some children were described as farmer’s sons and daughters.  

They may have been at school or they may have already begun to work alongside their parents on the farm.    And as we shall see just because parents described their children as scholars was no guarantee they attended school or even if they did that they were there full time.

The national picture was one of children even younger than 10 being employed.  A labourer’s child could earn between 1s.6d and 2s. [7½p-10p] a week which was an important addition to an agricultural family’s income and in the words of one government report was “so great a relief to the parents as to render it almost hopeless that they can withstand the inducement and retain the child at school”  

But in some cases this child labour would have been seasonal.   In one Devon school up to a third of boys over the age of seven were absent helping with the harvest, while in another school during the spring upwards of thirty were assisted their parents sow the potato crop and then dig it up in the summer.  

It was just part of the rural cycle and which one contributor to the Poor Law Commissioners on the employment of women and children in agriculture in 1843 said would at least teach children “the habit of industry,”      which fitted in with the belief much held in the countryside that “the business of a farm labourer cannot be thoroughly acquired if work be not commenced before eleven or twelve.”

And yet it may be that most of our children were in school for at least some of the time because while parents did remove children out of season to help with other farm work or in the case of girls look after siblings, “in the greater number of agricultural parishes there are day schools, which a considerable number of children of both sexes of the labouring class attend.”  

*A new book on Chorlton, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton  

Picture; from the collection of Tony Walker

A community play ............ for a community festival

Our arts festival is now in full swing and yesterday one of the events caught perfectly the guiding principle of “a community Arts Festival for and by Chorlton people”.

It was billed in the programme as “A Play In A Day – Workshop” which took place in one day involved 30 participants, followed by a performance and no experience was needed.

And in the words of Jules Gibb the project director "This play has been created today in the true spirit of the Arts Festival- by forming an inclusive community of local people. 

The participants have never worked together before and have created this piece in an afternoon. 

They tell an important story. 

Ada Nield Chew was a self-educated young factory girl when she took on the patriarchy and capitalism single handedly. 

She went on to become an important campaigner for women’s rights, suffrage and socialism. 

She started her activism in Crewe and after her marriage lived in various addresses in the northwest.

 From her address in Chorlton she continued her work unionising and organising women workers everywhere along with her daughter Doris."

And the rest was a rewarding day for the actors and an equally enjoyable night for the audience.

Which is all I have to say other than I am glad I went and include these sleeve notes from Jules on Ada Chew,who "was a Staffordshire lass and travelled on the first Clarion Van which left in the 1890’s from Chester and travelled across the north and Scotland speaking to women about the ILP and union membership. 

The Vans had three feminist activists on board. On the first one was Sarah Reddish and Caroline Martin as well as Ada. 

The Vans were horse drawn and George Chew was the driver. He was from Rochdale but an active ILP member. After their marriage they settled in Rochdale. 

Ada continued her activism from there and travelled with her baby daughter all over the country. The family definitely lived at the Chorlton address according to Doris Nield Chew the daughter. 

They finally settled in Burnley where Doris got the education that was denied her Mother. She graduated in History from Mcr University and taught History in Burnley Grammar School. 

She published a book of her mother’s writings". 

Location; Chorlton Arts Festival

Pictures; “A Play In A Day”, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Chorlton Arts Festival started on May 8th and runs through to May 21st, with 200 events across Chorlton, covering all the Arts. 

*Chorlton Arts Festival, https://chorltonartsfestival.org/

Walking along the High Street in the spring of 1851

Sherard House in 1909 from the garden

This is one of those walks I wish I could have made in the spring of 1851.

It would have started at the church and finished up just past the smithy by Eagle House and along the way we would have seen some fine old houses including Sherard House, Merewood House and Cliefden House, poked our noses into Sun Yard behind the pub of that name at the collection of wooden cottages and perhaps passed the time of day with some of the residents of Jubilee Cottages which were also tucked away behind the High Street.

Now Jubilee Cottages have quite caught my imagination.  They had five rooms with three up and two down looked east across the fields and had longish gardens at the rear.

The High Street, 1858-73

I often wonder how John Fry who owned them felt about the fact that despite being known on maps as Fry’s Buildings they were by common consent called Jubilee Cottages a name which had stuck from when they were built in 1833 and continued in usage on the census returns.

I have to confess that I am drawn to these along with the cottages of Sun Yard and those of Ram Alley, more perhaps because the big houses are well known as are their occupants.

And so starting tomorrow I rather think I will dig deep into their stories, while not ignoring those fine houses.  After all more than one of them while they may have looked to the casual passerby as an 18th century property were really much older.

Pictures; detail of Eltham High Street from the OS map of Kent, 1858-73 First Edition, and Sherard House from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers,http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

Mancunian Way ............. a little bit of excitement in 1967

Now I bet there will be more than a few people who would want to nominate this as one of the most boring picture postcards of all time.

But that would be so unfair, given that that the concept and construction was bold, leading the Manchester Guardian to comment that the “Mancunian Way is surprisingly good.  

The actual structure is extremely light and elegant in appearance”.*

And I am not going to disagree, with a civil engineering project which was ten years in the planning and construction and is as much a part of our past as the Town Hall, Free Trade Hall and Piccadilly Gardens.

That said and on its first day, fewer motorists used it than were expected, this was in the view of the Police because few people yet knew about it.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; The Mancunian Way, circa 1990s, from the collection of picture postcards of Rita Bishop

*Mancunian Way; will today be opened officially by the Prime Minister, Ashworth, Graham W, The Guardian, May 5th, 1965

When the bulldozer came to Beech Road ………… well almost

I just missed the battle which if lost would have seen a swathe of properties from Crossland Road north across Beech Road and encompassing Acres Road demolished because they were judged “unfit for human habitation”.

Summer Cottages, 1958

I knew that there had been plans, and at one stage a small row of cottages off Beech Road were demolished in the early 1970s.

These were Summer Cottages, and were probably the last one up one down cottages and occupied part of what is now The Forge.*

And I always thought that Summer Cottages were the properties that Richard and Muriel often referred to as part of a clearance scheme. 

Richard and Muriel ran the greengrocers on Beech Road and Richard in particular was still quite cross about the plan a decade later.

The City Council had already demolished some cottages at the top of Sandy Lane in the 1950s or 60s and went on to clear Brownhills Cottages also on Sandy Lane and another row on High Lane.

Crossland Road, 1972

But I was unaware of the extent of the planned clearance around Beech Road.

It would have included the demolition of some of the houses on Crossland, Road, all of Redbridge and Stanely Grove, some of the shops on Beech Road  as well as Acres Road and possibly a section of Whitelow and even Chequers Road.

The Guardian in the March of 1974 reported on a City Council scheme to demolish 750 properties in the Slade Lane, Chorlton, and Didsbury areas.

Here the residents of the proposed area reacted with a mix of dismay, anger that there homes should be labelled “slum dwellings” and resolved to organise to oppose the plans.

Stanley Grove, 1972

A resident’s association was formed which linked up with similar groups across the city and worked with experts from Manchester University, Town and Country Planning specialists and commercial companies along with “The People of Chorlton”.

Their report dated March 1974 arrived in our house yesterday and it makes for fascinating reading.  

It consists of three parts, which are the Residents’ Case, the Social and Planning Context, and Technical Report.  The third part is supported with costings, suggested alterations to named properties, and a time scale.***

By October the City Council had revised its plans and chose to renovate the properties, a wise decision which has left us with so many fine 19th century houses and retained something of the character of old Chorlton.

Redbridge Grove, 1972

There is much still to so.  I would like to clearly define the area which would have been redeveloped, and solicit the memories of those who took part or just remember the campaign.

Some of those are listed in the report.

Added to this there will be the minutes of the various City Council committees and the story as reported by the local newspapers.

So much still to do.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Summer Cottages, R E Stanley November 1958 m17666,  Crossland Road, H Milligan, m18209, m18209, and m17732,  Stanley Grove, 1972, A Dawson m18210 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Acres Road, 2023, courtesy of Google Maps

Acres Road, 2023

*Summer Cottages, the hidden homes behind Beech Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2012/04/summer-cottages-hidden-homes-behind.html

**Taken for Granted? Gillian Linscott, Guardian March 23, 1974

***Chorlton Village, the residents association’s case for improvement March 1974

****Council’s about turn on Housing, Michael Morris, Guardian October 3rd, 1973

Just how much we forget …………….. Manchester ……. 1964

When you live in a place, it is easy to miss how it is changing.

This is Piccadilly in 1964, and I can remember going in all of those shops and standing at that bus stop.

More than half a century on, I can’t now tell you where we were going from that  bus shelter, or just when the buildings and their occupants changed, or for that matter whether I prefer the scene now or then.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Manchester Piccadilly, 1964, 1964-0386 "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection"

As others saw us ........... Eltham in 1858 according to the Melville & Co's Directory

Front cover of the Directory

“Eltham is a small ancient but pleasant town and suburb of London adjoing Lee, eight miles S.E.from London, in the lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, Blackheath hundred, union of Lewisham, West Kent. 

The population, with Mottingham, in 1851 was 2,437.  The church of St John is a plain edifice, but was considerably improved and enlarged in 1819.  The living is a discharged vicarage, in the diocess of London.  

There are six alms-houses, founded by Thomas Philpot in 1680, and Foster’s Almhouses.  There are two chapels-one for Independents, and the other for Wesleyans.

Mottingham is a hamlet, partly in the parish of Eltham church, and three miles N.W. from Bromley.
POST-OFFICE-James Lawrence, Postmaster.  Money Orders are granted and paid at this office.”

And in 1858 that was pretty much all you needed to know.

Eltham Lodge in 1909

The directory listed 65 names under Gentry, and all the familiar big houses are there.  So Mrs Wood was living at Eltham Lodge, James Vicat at Southwood House, Mrs Lucy Lambert at Eagle House and Alfred Bean Esq in Castle House.

But more interesting are those listed under Trades.  Here are the people who toiled for a living, getting their hands dirty busying themselves from dawn till dusk.

And there are the usual mix of trades ranging from blacksmith, carpenter and tailor to those selling everything from food to drugs running private schools and even a collector of taxes.

As ever a significant number of those engaged in meaningful activity were the beer sellers and publicans who amounted to 17% of the trades listed.  Of these quite a few ran beer shops as opposed to inns.  They owed their existence to the 1830 Beer Act which allowed anybody to brew and sell beer for a small charge.

Often these beer shops were no more than the front room of a house and many of them did not last long.

Some at least may have been a short term strategy lasting just long enough till an alternative means of income could be found.

I rather like Melville & Cos Directory for Eltham and I rather think I will return to it, looking in more detail at the people it listed, checking them off against the census returns for 1851 and 1861 and exploring where they lived.

Pictures; front cover of Melville & Cos Directory of Kent, 1855, and Eagle House, from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm