Park Row in Heaton Mersey gives up a few of its secrets

Now until a few days ago I was totally unaware of Park Row in Heaton Mersey or for that matter that there was once a bleach works close by.

But this tiny picturesque group of houses has drawn me in.

According to Pevsner they are “attractive early-mid Victorian terraces” and that I think is a good starting point, although in time I might also become interested in neighbouring Vale Close which “is probably 17th century.”*

It took me a bit of time to locate them on the census record and I have yet to find them in a street directory but after about half an hour of wandering across Lancashire I found them for 1911 and that revealed the entire records back to 1841.

Any one of those census records will be a wonderful insight into who lived in Park Row and how many of the residents owed their livelihood to that bleach works which was just minutes away from the houses.

And they will also tell us much about the people themselves, including where they came from, how many children they had and the degree to which people moved out of Park Row.

All of which will shed light on social mobility, overcrowding and much more.

But for now it is the 1901 census which offers up a picture of what was going on at Park Row.

In all there were 99 people living in the 17 houses of which 41 were working in the April of 1901 when the census was taken.

As you would expect over 50% worked with textiles, either as weavers, spinner’s dyers or at that bleach works.

That said only four of the forty-one would have made their way to the Upper Bleach works and it may even be that some or all of them worked at the neighbouring one.

And then there is the location of the cotton mill which employed another thirteen of our residents including nine weavers, three spinners and Mr Jackson of nu 17 Park Row who was a "weaver overseer."

Those works might also have employed  seven from the Row who described themselves variously as electricians, engineers, messengers and a carter.

In time I might even be able to discover where our three gardeners, domestic servant and housekeeper were employed.

All of which suggests that Park Row has much more to reveal.

Pictures, Park Row, 2015 and from a picture postcard date unknown, from the collection of David Harrop

*Lancashire: Manchester and the South East; Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde, Nikolause Pevsner, 2004