I do have to admit that one of the most exciting sides to researching and writing about history is when almost out of the blue stories come together.
It was while I was exploring that picture of Miss Wilton’s private garden on the green which was about to be made a public space in 1897, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2012/02/miss-wiltons-private-garden-story-of.html that I came across the Molloy family who lived just a few doors down from Miss Wilton.
There they were in the 1891 census in that house which stands beside the modern Horse and Jockey looking out on to the green. It is not as old as the block which houses the pub but it was there by the 1840s.
In the spring of 1891 they were living with their four children in that house. This much I had picked up from the census return for that year and I suppose that would have been that. I finished the post by wondering how their four children would have taken to the opening up Miss Frederica’s garden given that it would have been a playground and garden by their front door.
But then I remembered coming across a photograph of James Molloy’s business premises at 35 Barlow Moor Road along with his trade card. He was a plumber but given that Barlow Moor Road is very long and that there was no date on either the picture of the card just assumed that it was at the Didsbury end of that long road and was no concern of a Chorlton historian.
And there I was so wrong. In the 1891 census James described himself as a plumber and the sign above the door of the house by the green is advertising “James Molloy Plumber”. The following census a decade later has the family at 35 Barlow Moor Road which is on that stretch from the junction of Wilbraham Road heading south towards Needham Avenue. By this census one of the four children who posed in the picture a decade earlier had died. This would have been a tragedy for any family but for the Molloy’s it was only one of six such awful events. Sarah Molloy gave birth to eight children but only two were alive by 1911.
35 Barlow Moor Road was a seven bed roomed property and the photograph shows it had a yard at the back. Using the street directories for 1911 and counting back from Needham Avenue it was the 13th property next to Suffield the watch maker’s shop. All of which should make it easy to locate but hasn’t been so. Photographs of the period do not match exactly what is there today and so I gave up.
Instead I concentrated on the picture and the trade card. Standing and appearing to supervise must be James Malloy while amongst the pipes and felt are two of his employees. Seldom do we find people on pictures which we can identify but this is one. And his trade card is equally illuminating.
James Molloy was no jobbing plumber, he was not only a “registered sanitary plumber” but was also an “authorised gas and water fitter” and hired out gas cookers.
Gas cookers had become increasingly popular from the 1880s and Manchester Corporation through its Gas Committees had pioneered rental schemes from 1884. In 1935 they had showrooms at 140 Deansgate and 116 Wilmslow Road. The design of the more basic models is little different from today, with an oven which could take 4 shelf settings, a top with the gas rings and a toaster above that.
In 1929 the Gas Committee had sold five and half thousand cookers and rented out another 1,798. *
And somewhere within this trade fitted our James Molloy
Pictures, from the collection of Tony Walker
* How Manchester is managed, Manchester Corporation, 1935,
It was while I was exploring that picture of Miss Wilton’s private garden on the green which was about to be made a public space in 1897, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2012/02/miss-wiltons-private-garden-story-of.html that I came across the Molloy family who lived just a few doors down from Miss Wilton.
There they were in the 1891 census in that house which stands beside the modern Horse and Jockey looking out on to the green. It is not as old as the block which houses the pub but it was there by the 1840s.
In the spring of 1891 they were living with their four children in that house. This much I had picked up from the census return for that year and I suppose that would have been that. I finished the post by wondering how their four children would have taken to the opening up Miss Frederica’s garden given that it would have been a playground and garden by their front door.
But then I remembered coming across a photograph of James Molloy’s business premises at 35 Barlow Moor Road along with his trade card. He was a plumber but given that Barlow Moor Road is very long and that there was no date on either the picture of the card just assumed that it was at the Didsbury end of that long road and was no concern of a Chorlton historian.
And there I was so wrong. In the 1891 census James described himself as a plumber and the sign above the door of the house by the green is advertising “James Molloy Plumber”. The following census a decade later has the family at 35 Barlow Moor Road which is on that stretch from the junction of Wilbraham Road heading south towards Needham Avenue. By this census one of the four children who posed in the picture a decade earlier had died. This would have been a tragedy for any family but for the Molloy’s it was only one of six such awful events. Sarah Molloy gave birth to eight children but only two were alive by 1911.
35 Barlow Moor Road was a seven bed roomed property and the photograph shows it had a yard at the back. Using the street directories for 1911 and counting back from Needham Avenue it was the 13th property next to Suffield the watch maker’s shop. All of which should make it easy to locate but hasn’t been so. Photographs of the period do not match exactly what is there today and so I gave up.
Instead I concentrated on the picture and the trade card. Standing and appearing to supervise must be James Malloy while amongst the pipes and felt are two of his employees. Seldom do we find people on pictures which we can identify but this is one. And his trade card is equally illuminating.
James Molloy was no jobbing plumber, he was not only a “registered sanitary plumber” but was also an “authorised gas and water fitter” and hired out gas cookers.
Gas cookers had become increasingly popular from the 1880s and Manchester Corporation through its Gas Committees had pioneered rental schemes from 1884. In 1935 they had showrooms at 140 Deansgate and 116 Wilmslow Road. The design of the more basic models is little different from today, with an oven which could take 4 shelf settings, a top with the gas rings and a toaster above that.
In 1929 the Gas Committee had sold five and half thousand cookers and rented out another 1,798. *
And somewhere within this trade fitted our James Molloy
Pictures, from the collection of Tony Walker
* How Manchester is managed, Manchester Corporation, 1935,
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