The thing about family history is where it leads. You start by wanting to trace a family member, and soon you begin to uncover how their lives related to what was going on around them in both time and place. All of which means that often the family historian is not just collecting a list of past ancestors but researching the house they lived in, their living conditions and their place in society.
Suddenly the decision of a great uncle to go to sea was not because of a sense of adventure but an escape from grinding poverty, unemployment and limited life chances. In the case of my grandfather it reflected a set of social policies which determined those in care would be better off by being removed from their home town. This same policy sent his brother to Canada with 170 other children to start a new life working on farms across the north east seaboard.
In the case of my friend Karen her research led her to the Renshaw family who had farmed on Chorlton Row from the 1760s and lived on the site opposite what is now the Rec on Beech Road. When the last of the Renshaw’s died the farm passed to his niece. The will not only details this simple bequest but goes on to list the distribution of his portfolio of properties to his relatives.
At a stroke it is possible to unlock not only the close links between a number of local families here in the township but get an insight into the entrepreneurial culture which led a farmer to build a set of brick cottages at Martledge on the site of the present Royal Oak. Nor was he alone in doing this. We have other speculative builders one of whom was the wheelwright and another a tailor. It was a surprise to uncover this pattern of property development in a small rural area but made sense given that exactly the same was happening in all our major towns and cities at the same time. I am grateful to Karen for both sharing the will and allowing me to use it in my book on Chorlton in the early 19th century.
Picture; Renshaws Building circa 1895 are to the right of the old Royal Oak beside and infront of the bank. Renshaw built the cottages sometime before 1832, and they were demolished in the 1920s to make way for the present Royal Oak. Picture from the collection of Marjorie Holmes
Suddenly the decision of a great uncle to go to sea was not because of a sense of adventure but an escape from grinding poverty, unemployment and limited life chances. In the case of my grandfather it reflected a set of social policies which determined those in care would be better off by being removed from their home town. This same policy sent his brother to Canada with 170 other children to start a new life working on farms across the north east seaboard.
In the case of my friend Karen her research led her to the Renshaw family who had farmed on Chorlton Row from the 1760s and lived on the site opposite what is now the Rec on Beech Road. When the last of the Renshaw’s died the farm passed to his niece. The will not only details this simple bequest but goes on to list the distribution of his portfolio of properties to his relatives.
At a stroke it is possible to unlock not only the close links between a number of local families here in the township but get an insight into the entrepreneurial culture which led a farmer to build a set of brick cottages at Martledge on the site of the present Royal Oak. Nor was he alone in doing this. We have other speculative builders one of whom was the wheelwright and another a tailor. It was a surprise to uncover this pattern of property development in a small rural area but made sense given that exactly the same was happening in all our major towns and cities at the same time. I am grateful to Karen for both sharing the will and allowing me to use it in my book on Chorlton in the early 19th century.
Picture; Renshaws Building circa 1895 are to the right of the old Royal Oak beside and infront of the bank. Renshaw built the cottages sometime before 1832, and they were demolished in the 1920s to make way for the present Royal Oak. Picture from the collection of Marjorie Holmes
No comments:
Post a Comment