A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 19, a Liverpool half penny dated 1791

Continuing the story of Chorlton in just a paragraph. They are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.

For the last two objects I tried to choose one of the oldest and newest which help tell the story.  This Liverpool half penny is not the oldest object to have come out of the past that belongs to a silver half groat of Charles found in the parish churchyard but at 1791 the half penny is beaten only by a contract dating back to 1767.  Half pennies like these were not strictly coinage but tokens which were only redeemable at the warehouse of the merchant who issued them.  But during the 17th and 18th century there was little low denomination coinage issued and so enterprising businessmen here in Manchester and in Liverpool and other Lancashire towns made their own.  Our coin was issued in 1791 in Liverpool as part of a very large series by Thomas Clarke who produced ten tons of these copper coins between 1791 and ‘94.   Clarke was a Liverpool merchant. The coin itself although common remains a beautiful piece of work.  The obverse side shows a ship under canvas with crossed laurel branches beneath and the inscription Liverpool Half penny.  The reverse bears the motto and arms of Liverpool. Ours had not fared so well and part of the upper mast and rigging from the ship had worn away.  I have no idea how it ended up in the parish churchyard or whether it had been used or was just a keepsake, but its Manchester equivalents may well have circulated in the township and there may even have been a reciprocal agreements between the merchants of Manchester and Liverpool.  Read the full story in Chorlton-cum-Hardy a new history due out later this year, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton


Picture; detail from the report on the Archaeological dig conducted by Dr Angus Bateman during 1980-81

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 18 Marriot's Court

This is Marriot’s Court which for some people will just be a cut through from Spring Gardens to Brown Street and for others that narrow little street beside the Post Office.

Marriot's Court, 2016

But for me it is one of my favourite little streets, more so because back in the 1970s the building opposite the Post Office was home to a Curry House and a little jewellery shop which always caught my eye.

If I am honest I never clocked its name or for that matter the history behind the street.

Had I paused to think about the origins of Marriot’s Court I might have wondered who Marriot was and where the court was situated.

The court was easy enough to find it was on the north side of the street under what is now the Post Office and was there by 1793.*

But as to who Marriot was that has proved more difficult.  In 1775 a Thomas Marriot was the Borough Reeve for Manchester which was the most important municipal post and just twenty years later there are four Marriot’s listed in the street directory for 1774.

So you can take your pick from Mrs Marriot who lived at nu 6 Princess Street, Richard Marriot, a “fustian manufacturer" listed at the Bridgewater Arms yard, Christopher Marriot manufacturer who lived on Alport Street and William Marriot, yarn merchant residing at 41 Cannon Street.

Any one of these might have gone in for some speculative building leaving their name as testimony to their enterprise but I just don’t know.

Marriot's Court, 1851

The Rate Books are no help for while there is a William Marriot listed in 1768 and a Richard Marriot in 1798 neither has properties on Marriot Court and there are no others listed for the period from 1768 until 1802.

As for the occupants of the court which provided part of the streets name there no records although we do know that in 1850, at nu 9 there was Spencer John & Son  who were manufacturers, along with Samuel Sedgewick Goodwin, solicitors and John Prince, share broker.

Marriot's Court, 1900

Later in the century all the properties on the northern side were swept away to be replaced by the Post Office.  Work began on the new building in 1881 and was finished six years later which in turn was demolished in the 1960s.

I just missed visiting the old Post Office by a few years which is a shame particularly because I would have been able to see the large memorial to the men of the Manchester Post Office who died in the Great War.

It consists of a Winged Victory at the centre, holding a flaming torch flanked by a young boy and girl and at their feet are the symbols of war including a helmet and a sword.

After the closure of the Post Office the memorial went on its travels and currently resides the entrance to the Royal Mail Sorting Depot on Oldham Road.

Now I could have just left it there but in trawling the Annals of Manchester I came across this entry for 1775 when Mr Thomas Marriot took up his office of Borough Reeve, “the Theatre Royal, in Spring Gardens was built and opened on June 5.  The first stone was laid of the Gentleman’s Concert Room in Fountain Street.  

Marriot's Court, 1793

Mr Richard Arkwright took out another patent for carding, drawing and moving frames.

The ducking-stool was still in use.  

It was an open bottomed chair of wood, placed upon a long pole, balanced on a pivot, and suspended over a sheet of water at Pool Fold***  I

t was afterwards suspended over the Daub-holes- the Infirmary Pond – and was used for the purpose of punishing scolds and disorderly women.”****

Now I have no idea what Mr or Mrs Marriot would have made of all that or whether they frequented the Theatre Royal or even if they took a stroll down to Pool Fold but two centuries and a bit on I suspect they would have been a little miffed that their court had disappeared.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Marriot's Court, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Marriot's Court, 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, in 1900 from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps,  and in 1793, from Laurent's map, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Laurent’s Map

**Scholes Directory, 1794

***Pool Fold ran from Chapel Walks to St Market Street and is part of Cross Street

****Axon, W.E. The Annals of Manchester, 1885, p103

Painting that house in Eltham for just £4 12s 6d ............

I don’t do nostalgia and I am very quick to always point out that prices in the past must always be compared to take home pay.

But that said I have to admit paying £4 and a bit for having the outside of your house painted does seem eye watering.

The figure comes from a short extract taken from The Woolwich Story, which was published in 1970.

It is an excellent book containing heaps of information about the history of Woolwich including this short extract about Eltham at the beginning of the 1930s.

“This period saw the disappearance of the ‘Cinder Path’, the rough short cut to the older houses in Grangehill and Westmount Roads, before Westmount Road was connected to Well Hall Road.
Houses here and on the Castlewood Estate were being sold for £700.  Unlike most Eltham property these were freehold.  My own house near the Catholic Church of the Martyrs cost £650. 

 I arranged a mortgage under the Small Dwellings Acquisition Act and borrowed the balance. Today [1970] it is worth at least £3000.

In 1930 I paid £4 12s 6d for a highly satisfactory exterior decoration which would cost £48 today. Hence the popularity of ‘Do it yourself’.

In 1931a man varnished our front door for 3sand our baby’s pram cots£5. 5s. 0d

My post pinhead suit for the christening was made to measure for £4 10s.0d and just before the second war came along, we bought a 14½ square yard Axminster carpet for £9 9s.0d."

In 1930 the average wage for a timework labourer in the engineering field was just under a shilling per hour; it dipped in 1933-4, then climbed again to around 1s 2d by 1938.

Most workers in heavy industry and agriculture, who were male, were paid proportionately more than female workers in the same or other sectors.

 In October 1938, the average hourly wage for adult males was just under 1s 6d, nearly double the average hourly wage for women, which was 9d. **

Location; Eltham in the 1930s

Picture; cover, The Woolwich Story, 1970

*The Woolwich Story, E.F.E. Jefferson, 1970

**Wages in the 1930s, http://www.ehow.co.uk/info_12269131_wages-1930s.html

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 18, a map and what we have lost since 1907

Continuing the story of Chorlton in just a paragraph. They are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.

In just 40 short years much of our open land which had once been farmland and market gardens had been built over. Most of this development had happened around what was Martledge in that area stretching from the metro station west to Oswald Road and east along Barlow Moor Road. But to the south beyond Beech Road out past the Brook and onto the Mersey it was still by and large untouched, and the sight of meadowland and cows being brought back to be milked have only just   faded from living memory. Claude and Reynard Roads gave out onto fields and just a little further down Beech Road if I had a mind I could have walked the field boundaries all the way to the river.
Picture; detail from the 1907 OS map from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Messages from the Royal Herbert to Nelson in Lancashire

Now this photograph of the Royal Herbert will be familiar to many and it is one that I have featured countless times.

But what makes this one unique is the message on the back which was sent to a Mrs Durson in Nelson, Lancashire and takes us back to the Great War.

It was written by Bert who was recovering in the hospital to his sister and is dated May 1st 1916 and begins with apologies for not writing and goes on to report that “I am making good progress and I  am being allowed up for an hour this afternoon.”

All of which you might expect from a letter home from a soldier in hospital, but what is more revealing is its reference to conscription.

So having commented on his own health and the weather Bert went on to ask about Frank and expressed the “hope they haven’t taken him away from you yet, but you know it’s only a matter of time for all eligible men now. 

 Our Bob will be 18 next month and that will be another of us in the army.”

In all the letters and postcards I have read from the Great War this is the first I have come across where someone directly comments on the impact of conscription on his own family.

And it also points to the sacrifice almost every family was making for the war which in this case amounted to three from the same family.

Of course if any of us track our own families the chances are there will be a similar story.

We can count a great grandfather, one of our grandfather’s two great uncles and two uncles who joined or rejoined the Colours from 1914-18.

Ours all came through but as yet I have no idea about Bert, Frank of the youngest lad.

Location Woolwich, Nelson

Pictures; from a postcard of the Royal Herbert, 1916 from the collection of David Harrop

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 37 ........ Market Place again

This is another of those streets which has not only been forgotten but was lost forever in the redevelopment of the area on the northern side of Market Street in the late 1960s and 70s.

Market Place, circa 1886

For the curious wanting to try and locate where it once began on Market Street stand with your back to the Royal Exchange, just a little up from Exchange Street facing Marks and Spencer and you are pretty much looking at it.

Today  there is an echo in the still relatively recently cut  New Cathedral Street heads off in the same direction as our old street.

Mr Kenyon's pub

Now I can’t be sure of the date of the picture, but in 1886 Samuel Kenyon was running the Wellington Inn and opposite him Mr S Hanson was dealing in all manner of “hosiery” shirts and a lot more.

Nine years later and the Wellington was being run by Mrs Elizabeth Kenyon and a Mr James S Hanson is trading from the property opposite.

Of course our picture postcard has been retouched and was sent in 1905, long after Mr Samuel Kenyon had passed on.

All of which is a lesson in what you do with a picture postcard of a historic part of the city.

And that is about it.

There will be people who remember the old Market Place and the shed load of little streets courts and alleys that led off.

Market Place circa 1880s

Which just leads me to make an appeal for any stories, pictures or memories of the place that Derek the Developer did for it

I am sure that these may well include some of those fascinating places with names like Blue Boar Court, Bull Heads Yard, Sun Entry and Angel Yard.

Well we shall see.

And for the very observant, yes Market Place did feature in an early story in the series, but back then I had forgotten I had this fine image of the place, and so what goes round comes round.

Or something like that.

Now for those wanting to recreate the walk, you can't.

New Cathedral Street, 2016

The best I can offer is the map, some pictures which can be found on Manchester's Local Image Collection and New Cathedral Street, which as I said almost follows the same route.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Market Place, circa 1886, from the collection of Mrs Bishop, New Cathedral Street, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson,  and and the area in the circa 1880s from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 10 Four Yards

Now I was never much good at maths or for that matter being able to make judgments about distance.

So I can’t say whether the distance between John Dalton Street and King Street is Four Yards.

To be fair the Laurent’s map  of 1793 suggests that it might have only run from John Dalton Street to South Kings Street and our little stretch might have not actually been part of the original.

Look closely at its alignment now and back 223 years ago and it doesn’t quite match up.

All of which just leaves someone to go and measure the distance or better still unearth some dusty document which gives a definitive answer.

So for now I will continue to use it as a alternative to a very busy Cross Street.

Location; Manchester



Picture; Four Yards, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson