Crossing in to Stretford in the winter of 1857

Sometimes it is so easy to become parochial and so today I decided to reflect on how things were at the end of Edge Lane, over the Duke’s Canal in Stretford.

The writer Edwin Muir came in the winter of 1857, travelling from the heart of the city by train along a railway which was just eight years old.

It was a journey of contrasts.

Leaving “the huge manufacturies, and the miserable chimney tops of Little Ireland, down by the dirty Medlock; we ran over a web of dingy streets, swarming with dingy people............  left the black stagnant canal, coiled in the hollow, stretching its dark length into the distance , like some slimy  snake.”*  

And clearing the “cotton mills, and dye works, and chemical manufactories of Cornbrook,”    the train entered open countryside before arriving at Stretford station which had been built in 1849 and on leaving that station Muir saw  a “great tract of meadows, gardens and pasture land.”   

Stretford like Chorlton was by the 1840s and 50s  pouring its agricultural produce into the city.  In 1845 over 500 tons of farm produce were coming by road into the City each week from Stretford.**  

These carts were piled high with fruit and vegetables of which rhubarb was a particularly profitable crop.  The carts left Stretford just after midnight for the markets and while one family member remained to sell the produce the rest returned with the cart loaded with manure reading to repeat the operation the following day.  

This prompted one observer to describe the place as “the garden of Lancashire.”***  

And it had become  a major centre for the processing of pigs for the Manchester market as well the manufacture of black puddings and had gained the nicknames of Swineopolis and Porkhampton.  

During the 1830's, between 800 and 1,000 pigs were slaughtered each week and sent into the city.****  

Most came from Ireland, via Liverpool and were transported into Stretford by barge.  On arrival the pigs were kept in cotes kept by the local landlords.

The Trafford Arms charged one penny per pig a night and had cotes for 400 pigs.*****    Not surprisingly in 1834 there were 31 pork butchers in Stretford compared to one in Chorlton and five in Urmston.  

It was also he wrote all “fruit, flowers, green market stuff, black puddings, and swine’s flesh in general – these are the pride of village.”  

And he was also full of praise for both the black puddings and the local speciality known as the Stretford goose.  This was made from pork stuffed with sage and onions, which he thought “was not a bad substitute for that pleasant bird.”  

So, Stretford had much going for it and in the late 1840s and 1850s with a population which was already about six times larger than ours so I rather think I shall continue with Stretford travels, and in the fullness of time, “Pick up the package and travel post haste to Castlefield along the Duke’s Canal”  explore asking for “parish relief from the overseer of St Mathew’s”  as well taking a fresh look at the Kickety Brook and maybe just gawping at the fine houses along Edge Lane on the way home to Chorlton.

Pictures; detail from the OS map of Lancashire, 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Muir, Edwin, Lancashire Sketches, Alexander Ireland & Co  Manchester p
  **Scola, Roger, Feeding the Victorian City, Manchester University, Manchester,
  ***Leech, Sir Bosdin, Old Stretford, Privately Printed 1910

  ****Cliff, Karen & Masterton, Vicki, Stretford: An Illustrated History

  *****Brundrett, Charles, Brundrett Family Chronicle The Book Guild