Now every bit of Chorlton has its own story and Chorltonville is no exception.
Most people will know it began as a bold venture to supply decent homes at affordable rents on a plot of farm land at the beginning of the 20th century.
There had been a modest pilot scheme which had been built behind Upper Chorlton Road, but the ‘ville was the big one.
The houses were built in record time and by April 1911 the first residents were showing up on the census for that year.
They were tenants rather than owners but within a decade the association had been wound up and the properties began to be sold off.
The estate has remained a popular place to live and many of my friends have passed through or chosen to settle and bring up their families in this quiet secluded place.
Something of its history has featured in our book the Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy* .
And with that in mind I went back to the records to see just what the demographic of the estate was like back at the beginning of the last century.
It is a big task and involves trawling the census returns street by street. So far I have been looking at South Drive, and have covered just 39 homes, from numbers 1 to 65, and 2 to 22. There are gaps which suggest some homes were vacant and I am fully aware that this is but a small sample but it’s a start.
What strikes you is the number of residents who gave their occupation as a commercial r travelling salesmen.
In all there were 14 of the 39 engaged in the job, along with a number of clerks, two shop keepers, two teachers and a University lecturer.
And what is particularly interesting is that some at least of these occupations reflect the new industries.
One of our salesmen was selling telephones, another electrical cables, and a third heating, ventilation and lighting, while Ms Vera Harris of South Drive was a typist.
But amongst all this “new stuff” there were the more traditional ways of earning a living of which domestic service featured highly. Of our 39 residents, six employed a servant and one family had two.
It will be interesting to see how this small sample compares with the rest of the ‘ville and with the whole of Chorlton. But that is a very big undertaking. An earlier study suggested that in total 29 households in Chorltonville employed a servant.
So, for now I will just close with the reflection that a walk down South Drive in the April of 1911 would have been punctuated by a hosts of accents including more than a few from London, as well as the North East, a few from Northern Ireland and two from the USA and two more from Sweden.
All of which makes the place as cosmopolitan as it is today.
Location; Chorltonville
Pictures South Drive, early 20th century from the Lloyd Collection
*The Qurks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping, 2017
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| South Drive, 1913 |
There had been a modest pilot scheme which had been built behind Upper Chorlton Road, but the ‘ville was the big one.
The houses were built in record time and by April 1911 the first residents were showing up on the census for that year.
They were tenants rather than owners but within a decade the association had been wound up and the properties began to be sold off.
The estate has remained a popular place to live and many of my friends have passed through or chosen to settle and bring up their families in this quiet secluded place.
Something of its history has featured in our book the Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy* .
And with that in mind I went back to the records to see just what the demographic of the estate was like back at the beginning of the last century.
It is a big task and involves trawling the census returns street by street. So far I have been looking at South Drive, and have covered just 39 homes, from numbers 1 to 65, and 2 to 22. There are gaps which suggest some homes were vacant and I am fully aware that this is but a small sample but it’s a start.
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| The Tradesmen calls, 1913 |
In all there were 14 of the 39 engaged in the job, along with a number of clerks, two shop keepers, two teachers and a University lecturer.
And what is particularly interesting is that some at least of these occupations reflect the new industries.
One of our salesmen was selling telephones, another electrical cables, and a third heating, ventilation and lighting, while Ms Vera Harris of South Drive was a typist.
But amongst all this “new stuff” there were the more traditional ways of earning a living of which domestic service featured highly. Of our 39 residents, six employed a servant and one family had two.
It will be interesting to see how this small sample compares with the rest of the ‘ville and with the whole of Chorlton. But that is a very big undertaking. An earlier study suggested that in total 29 households in Chorltonville employed a servant.
So, for now I will just close with the reflection that a walk down South Drive in the April of 1911 would have been punctuated by a hosts of accents including more than a few from London, as well as the North East, a few from Northern Ireland and two from the USA and two more from Sweden.
All of which makes the place as cosmopolitan as it is today.
Location; Chorltonville
Pictures South Drive, early 20th century from the Lloyd Collection
*The Qurks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping, 2017
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