A little bit of Ordsall Lane in the April of 1911 and a correction to the original story

Ordsall Lane, 1894

I was on Ordsall Lane recently on that short stretch between Woden Street and Everard Street.  It is a mix of flats, houses and some open land.

And like so many city landscapes what you notice is the solitary pub which in this case is the Bricklayers Arms facing Woden Street.

What is a little odd is that the entrance is not on the main road but up the side of some open land that leads to an alley and on to Freya Grove.

Now that is odd as you would expect the entrance to be on the main road, and it looks very much as if the building has been turned sideways.

But not so because originally that open land was the continuation of Woden Street and our pub was built with its entrance facing that street.

All of which is a clue to the whole sale redevelopment of the area along this bit of Ordsall Lane.  I say development but it is more the demolition of what was there and in particular a row of houses that faced our pub and ran down from Woden Street to Everard Street.

That said I have to admit to getting this bit a tad wrong, for only a few hours after I posted the story I received this comment  from Bernard . 

"Andrew I lived in The Bricklayers Arms from 1948 to 1954. 

At that time the front entrance was on Ordsall Lane and the address was 148 Ordsall Lane. This would fit in with the 1911 street directory as shown in your article. The front door was blocked up when the pub was extended and now there is just a window there."

Outside the Bricklayers Arms, circa 1950

This is a photo of me and some friends at the Woden Street entrance to the Bricklayers taken c1950. 

Before the pub was extended in 60s the front door was on Ordsall Lane and the address was 148 Ordsall Lane."

Now that is what I like about the blog, not only are people reading it but they are kind enough to make a contribution.

And as you do I became interested in them after having come across the Edwards family who lived at number 168 in 1911.  There were nine of them living in just five rooms and that was all I needed to draw me in.

Looking at the remaining 13 houses was to be taken back to that classic period of inner city living where rows of small terraced houses were home to large households.  Most of the row boasted five rooms but a third had just four and crammed into the block were a total of ninety-three people, some of whom did come from large or extended families but in other cases were a mix of family and lodgers.

So at number 160 Mr Tierney along with his own family of eight added five lodgers to what was just a five roomed property, and while this was the most extreme case of overcrowding plenty of the houses had lots of people squeezed in.

The Street Directory, 1911

Here were the usual mix of occupations including labourers, carters, cotton workers, shop assistants and one insurance agent.

Some of the householder varied their occupations depending on whether they were talking to the people who compiled the street directory in the November and December of 1910 or the census enumerator in the April of the following year.

So Mr Cooke had become a hardware dealer in April but earlier had been happy to be listed as “iron monger and grinder,” while Mr Dean chose to specify that he was a herbalist rather than plain shop keeper.

What is surprising is that there was very little in the way of turn over between the six months or so from November to April with only three changes of occupation.

Now I don’t pretend that this is anything more than a snap shot of a few households in some small bit of Salford, and I would like to acquire a picture of the properties, but in the meantime next time I stand with my back to that pub and gaze across Ordsall Lane I will have something more to stir my imagination.

Picture; detail from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ picture of Bernard and friends, courtesy of Bernard and detail from Slaters' Directory of Manchester & Salford 1911