I wish I had a picture of Miss Clara Atkinson.
I found her by pure chance and as so often happens I have become interested in her life.
From 1901 and perhaps earlier she was living on Groby Road and was buried in Southern Cemetery on September 3rd 1942.
I came across her in one of the Corporation employment registers detailing those who worked for the library service in the years up to 1914.
Now in the great sweep of history the Corporation employment registers may seem small beer but not so.
The five books contain a list of Council employees, their birth date, year of engagement and their status along with their salary.
So I know that Miss Clara Atkinson was born on May 29 1877, began work as a Library Assistant in the September of 1900 on a weekly wage of ten shillings and that by 1914 she was receiving £1.4 shillings.
Her father was a meat inspector and in the two decades after she was born the family lived on Water Street close to the Abattoir settling in Chorlton sometime around 1901.
By then her father was dead and she shared the house on Groby Road with her mother and four sisters none of whom married and all of who were buried in the family plot between 1939 and 1959.
As yet the story is quite sparse but I have high hopes that more will be revealed.
It may be that there will be someone who remembers the family and there lurking in an old family album will be a picture of Miss Atkinson and perhaps her sisters.
After all 40 years is quite a long time to live in one place and there might also be more in the Library archive.
She began work at Chorlton Library on Rusholme Road. The Library and the road have long since gone but the road ran from Ardwick Green to Oxford Street and the library was on the corner where it crossed Upper Brook Street.
Our first municipal Library was not opened until 1908 and it would be another six years before the present one was opened in the November of 1914.
Of course she may have worked there at some stage after it opened but at present I just don’t know.
That said we may strike lucky and find something in the archives on one of her sisters who also worked as a librarian.
And the those records are a treasure trove of information including completed application forms, list of those employed in 1912 with their salaries and much more.
So I rather think we have only just started with Miss Clara Atkinson of Groby Road.
I hope so because it will reveal much about the working conditions, expectations and leisure activities of a young woman at the beginning of the 20th century.
Picture; the headstone of the Atkinson sisters in Southern Cemetery, August 2014 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
From 1901 and perhaps earlier she was living on Groby Road and was buried in Southern Cemetery on September 3rd 1942.
I came across her in one of the Corporation employment registers detailing those who worked for the library service in the years up to 1914.
Now in the great sweep of history the Corporation employment registers may seem small beer but not so.
The five books contain a list of Council employees, their birth date, year of engagement and their status along with their salary.
So I know that Miss Clara Atkinson was born on May 29 1877, began work as a Library Assistant in the September of 1900 on a weekly wage of ten shillings and that by 1914 she was receiving £1.4 shillings.
Her father was a meat inspector and in the two decades after she was born the family lived on Water Street close to the Abattoir settling in Chorlton sometime around 1901.
By then her father was dead and she shared the house on Groby Road with her mother and four sisters none of whom married and all of who were buried in the family plot between 1939 and 1959.
As yet the story is quite sparse but I have high hopes that more will be revealed.
It may be that there will be someone who remembers the family and there lurking in an old family album will be a picture of Miss Atkinson and perhaps her sisters.
After all 40 years is quite a long time to live in one place and there might also be more in the Library archive.
She began work at Chorlton Library on Rusholme Road. The Library and the road have long since gone but the road ran from Ardwick Green to Oxford Street and the library was on the corner where it crossed Upper Brook Street.
Our first municipal Library was not opened until 1908 and it would be another six years before the present one was opened in the November of 1914.
Of course she may have worked there at some stage after it opened but at present I just don’t know.
That said we may strike lucky and find something in the archives on one of her sisters who also worked as a librarian.
And the those records are a treasure trove of information including completed application forms, list of those employed in 1912 with their salaries and much more.
So I rather think we have only just started with Miss Clara Atkinson of Groby Road.
I hope so because it will reveal much about the working conditions, expectations and leisure activities of a young woman at the beginning of the 20th century.
Picture; the headstone of the Atkinson sisters in Southern Cemetery, August 2014 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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