The first of the new history walks was so successful that I am looking forward to the next, which starts on the village green and will proceed up Chorlton Row to Barlow Moor Lane.*
There will be a lot to see, including the Wesleyan chapel which was just over 20 years old, Mr William Davis’s smithy, a few fine houses, and two farms, along with some wattle and daub cottages and a pond.
More over there was that ever important consideration of who on the Row we should be polite to.
Chief amongst these will have been Mr Holt who had made his money in Manchester, where he still owned an extensive portfolio of property, but had decided that the air of Chorlton was more to his liking.
His house stood at the top of the Row where it joined Barlow Moor Lane, and the grounds then extended down to Lane End, along High Lane and back by Cross Road.
There were others who we might doff our cap too if we were on the Row but more about them later.
What makes the walk special is that we shall be following in the footsteps of the journalist Alexander Somerville who was the last British soldier to have been publically flogged.
In 1847 he had walked the lanes of Chorlton looking for evidence of potato blight, that disease which had destroyed the crops in Ireland, and was already in parts of northern Derbyshire.
He didn’t find any but recorded his conversations with some of our local farmers, one of which was James Higginbotham whose land included a strip along what is now the Rec on the corner of the Beech Road and Cross Road.
The conversation turned away from potatoes to fruit, which made up a significant part of the crops we grew for the Manchester markets, and included raspberries, rhubarb, currants and gooseberries and above all apples and pears, and in particular the Newbridge pear, and Rose of Sharon apple.
And if you want to know what Mr Higginbotham told Alexander Somerville, then you had best join us on Sunday, April 29th at 1.00pm on Chorlton Green beside the Narnia lamp post
So that just leaves me to say, that the maximum for the walk is 50 and knowing how popular it will be it is best to book ahead by contacting peter@pubbooks.co.uk or text 07521557888 leaving your name and the names of the people you will be bringing.
Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping in association with Chorlton Voice.
Location; Chorlton Row
Pictures; Chorlton Row, 1854, from the OS for Lancashire 1854, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ Sutton’s Cottage circa 1892, photograph from the Wesleyan Souvenir Handbook of 1895 from the collection of Philip Lloyd
*Chorlton Row is now Beech Road and Barlow Moor Lane is Barlow Moor Road
**The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, is available from Chorlton Bookshop or from www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or 07521557888
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| Walking up Chorlton Row in 1847 |
More over there was that ever important consideration of who on the Row we should be polite to.
Chief amongst these will have been Mr Holt who had made his money in Manchester, where he still owned an extensive portfolio of property, but had decided that the air of Chorlton was more to his liking.
 |
| Sarah Sutton's Cottage, wattle and daub house, 1892 |
There were others who we might doff our cap too if we were on the Row but more about them later.
What makes the walk special is that we shall be following in the footsteps of the journalist Alexander Somerville who was the last British soldier to have been publically flogged.
In 1847 he had walked the lanes of Chorlton looking for evidence of potato blight, that disease which had destroyed the crops in Ireland, and was already in parts of northern Derbyshire.
 |
| The home of Mr Holt circa 1908 |
The conversation turned away from potatoes to fruit, which made up a significant part of the crops we grew for the Manchester markets, and included raspberries, rhubarb, currants and gooseberries and above all apples and pears, and in particular the Newbridge pear, and Rose of Sharon apple.
And if you want to know what Mr Higginbotham told Alexander Somerville, then you had best join us on Sunday, April 29th at 1.00pm on Chorlton Green beside the Narnia lamp post
So that just leaves me to say, that the maximum for the walk is 50 and knowing how popular it will be it is best to book ahead by contacting peter@pubbooks.co.uk or text 07521557888 leaving your name and the names of the people you will be bringing.
Location; Chorlton Row
Pictures; Chorlton Row, 1854, from the OS for Lancashire 1854, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ Sutton’s Cottage circa 1892, photograph from the Wesleyan Souvenir Handbook of 1895 from the collection of Philip Lloyd
*Chorlton Row is now Beech Road and Barlow Moor Lane is Barlow Moor Road
**The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, is available from Chorlton Bookshop or from www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or 07521557888
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