This I think will be the last of the stories on Warburton Street.
When I started the project, I had no idea of the age of the five cottages on the southern side of the street or who occupied them.
The houses were there by 1845, and may even be older, and in the middle decades of the 19th century they were home to labourers, farmworkers, and domestic servants.
By the beginning of the next century there were still some labourers, but fitting the times there was also was also a railwayman, reflecting the arrival of the railway in 1880, a factory worker who may have worked in Manchester or just down the road in Heaton Mersey, along with a shop assistant and a launderess.
All of which brings us to 1939 just days after Britain went to war with Germany.
In the September of that year the Government carried out a mini census, the information from which was used to generate Identity Cards for the entire nation.
It remains one of the few detailed pictures of the age, occupation, and marital status of the country, since the 1911 census, and fills a gap in what we know about the population in the early 20th century, and remained so until the publication of the 1921 census.
That said there are sections which have been redacted, but in the case of numbers 2 through to 10, all the residents are there.
And the first obvious observation is that these two up two down houses were now home to very small families, which was in direct contrast to the 1850s and 60s, when some of the properties were occupied by five and six people.
Added to their residents no longer made a living from the land, or as domestic servants.
Instead there was an Inland Revenue Clerk, two in the newspaper trade, and a raincoat machinist.
Most striking of all was Mr. Christopher Worthington who was a “Cutter of Waterproof and Anti Gas Clothing”.
At best I guess this new line in manufacture will date from just after the Munich Crisis the year before, when France and Britain finally decided that Nazi Germany was potentially a threat to the peace of Europe.
Just what happened to all the residents during the war and where they moved to afterwards, is closed to us.
There are no more detailed published surveys of households after 1939, and at best there will be the electoral registers and street directories, but these will offer up only names.
So, this seems an appropriate point to close the story of the street, other than to say the last directory records that in 1969, at no. 2 was "Jimo Cycle Services (workshop), at 4/6, Morton E. J. antiquarian booksllr at 8, Thornhill A. turf commission agt, and at 10, Gay Antiques (storeroom)".
Leaving it to Morten’s the book shop, and the other businesses to contribute a bit more to the story.
We shall see.
Location; Didsbury
Additional reserch, Andy Robertson
Pictures; the reality of war, “Distribution of Gas Masks Baby Inside Gas Mask”, August 22nd 1939, m09922, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and Warburton Street, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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| Preparing for war, 1939 |
The houses were there by 1845, and may even be older, and in the middle decades of the 19th century they were home to labourers, farmworkers, and domestic servants.
By the beginning of the next century there were still some labourers, but fitting the times there was also was also a railwayman, reflecting the arrival of the railway in 1880, a factory worker who may have worked in Manchester or just down the road in Heaton Mersey, along with a shop assistant and a launderess.
All of which brings us to 1939 just days after Britain went to war with Germany.
In the September of that year the Government carried out a mini census, the information from which was used to generate Identity Cards for the entire nation.
It remains one of the few detailed pictures of the age, occupation, and marital status of the country, since the 1911 census, and fills a gap in what we know about the population in the early 20th century, and remained so until the publication of the 1921 census.
That said there are sections which have been redacted, but in the case of numbers 2 through to 10, all the residents are there.
And the first obvious observation is that these two up two down houses were now home to very small families, which was in direct contrast to the 1850s and 60s, when some of the properties were occupied by five and six people.
 |
| Warburton Street, 2020 |
Instead there was an Inland Revenue Clerk, two in the newspaper trade, and a raincoat machinist.
Most striking of all was Mr. Christopher Worthington who was a “Cutter of Waterproof and Anti Gas Clothing”.
At best I guess this new line in manufacture will date from just after the Munich Crisis the year before, when France and Britain finally decided that Nazi Germany was potentially a threat to the peace of Europe.
Just what happened to all the residents during the war and where they moved to afterwards, is closed to us.
There are no more detailed published surveys of households after 1939, and at best there will be the electoral registers and street directories, but these will offer up only names.
So, this seems an appropriate point to close the story of the street, other than to say the last directory records that in 1969, at no. 2 was "Jimo Cycle Services (workshop), at 4/6, Morton E. J. antiquarian booksllr at 8, Thornhill A. turf commission agt, and at 10, Gay Antiques (storeroom)".
Leaving it to Morten’s the book shop, and the other businesses to contribute a bit more to the story.
We shall see.
Location; Didsbury
Additional reserch, Andy Robertson
Pictures; the reality of war, “Distribution of Gas Masks Baby Inside Gas Mask”, August 22nd 1939, m09922, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and Warburton Street, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
My old man worked for Jim's Cycle Service in the 60's and 70's before eventually taking the business over. The storage unit on warburton St had pig sties in the back yard presumably dating back to the days when it was a family home
ReplyDeleteThe Smith's lived at number 3?, Peter Smith, we played in the street during the 60's when I was at Merrill's wine and spirits, grandparents shop.
ReplyDelete