But that was exactly what happened in the January of 1904, when the ratepayers of Chorlton along with those of Burnage, Didsbury, and Withington were asked to take a leap and join the big city neighbour.
We had been part of the Withington Urban District Council
since it was set up in 1876 and bits of
its legacy are sill knocking around if you know where to look. Some of the streets grids still bear the name
Withington UDC and out by the meadows are the remains of the sewage works,
although I have to confess my favourite bit of this long vanished little local
authority is Withington Town Hall.
Now it is one of those places I have passed countless times
and even once sat in the great hall during an election meeting in 1987 but at
the time never really thought much of it.
I always thought of it as a pale imitation of the Town Hall in Albert
Square, but then there was a time I didn’t much care for it either. Of course I have changed my opinion about
both.
In that town hall on Lapwing Lane took place some of the
really important debates about the development of the township including the
extension of the sewage system, the provision of more schools and of course the
amalgamation with the city.
Manchester had been steadily expanding from its creation as
a borough in 1838.* So it was natural that those areas to south which included
the Withington UDC and Moss Side should at some point look to the advantages of
being incorporated.
For some the advantages were so clear that they openly campaigned
for our inclusion. The Withington
Amalgamation League set up in 1902 argued that the rates would fall, and we
would gain “libraries, baths, reduction in water and gas rates, lower cemetery charges,
music in recreation grounds better fire and police protection more deliveries
of letters, technical classes, shares in tramway and electricity profits and
the prospect of Ship Canal and School Board rates decreasing.”**
This was for many an offer to good to refuse and one that
was shared by the City Council. At their
October meeting in 1903, much was made of the assets that Withington would hand
over to the Corporation, including the newly built “hospital to which attracted
20-30 acres of land, ....[and] beyond that land for a smallpox hospital, a
field for the extension of the tram services and the sewage farm, 80 acres in
extent.” And as Fletcher Moss pointed out
amalgamation would bring Alexandra Park “that large park into the hands of the
Council” and furthermore “the Corporation was the largest ratepayer in the
Withington district and by far the largest owner of freehold estate with the
possible exception of Earl Egerton” which meant they would be no longer paying
out rates to Withington UDC.
And it seemed only to get better. Under the terms of amalgamation all existing
staff of the Withington UDC were taken on by the Corporation and “the price and
conditions of supply of gas, water and electricity to the inhabitants of
Withington shall be the same as those of the citizens of Manchester. That all future tramways inthe district of
Withington shall be laid as double linesalong carriage ways not less than 32
feet wide between curbs. That two free libraries
and two swimming baths to be established in different parts of Withington
within five years..... that for a period of twenty years the rate shall not exceed 4s in the £.” There was to be a special Withington
Committee of the City Council.
Of course there was opposition some of which centred on whether
the rate deal could have been improved, and the degree to which the assets were
being handed over too cheaply but even these tended to accept that eventual
amalgamation was inevitable.
So it fell to the vote of all rate payers which curiously
was done by postcard. “A circular on the
subject to be posted to ratepayers on the Thursday of January 21st,
along with a reply postcard to be returned by the morning of the 26th”which
according to one aggrieved letter writer gave only the weekend and the Monday
with no public meetings before returning the vote. This might strike us as an odd way to vote but was the method
which had been adopted by the various poor law councils in the townships since
1834.
The result was pretty conclusive with 4,086 voting for
incorporation and 805 against. And in
the April of the same year Moss Side UDC also voted by 2,781 to 643to join the city.
The result was bizarre, because the electors chose one from each of the parties standing, which may reflect the wish to give each party a fair chance which was how
one voter told me she would vote in 1982 when all three council seats here in
Chorlton were being contested.
Picture; Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and
Archives, Manchester City Council, Withington Town Hall, October 16th
1906 m52133, election result from the collection of Lawrence Beedle
* When it was formed from the city centre, Ardwick, Beswick,
Cheetham, Chorlton upon Medlock and Hulme.
And despite being unable to expand to the west because of Salford, took
in Harpurhey, Bradford with Beswick and Rusholme in 1885, followed by Blackley,
Clayton, Crumpsall, Moston, Newton Heath, Openshaw and West Gorton five years
later and Heaton Park in 1903.
**The advantages to be derived by this district becoming amalgamated within the boundaries of the city of Manchester, Withington Amalgamation League, 1903
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