Now, I am never surprised at how easy it is to get sidetracked during a piece of research.
And so today, while crawling over back copies of the Manchester Guardian, for the 1850s, I fell across “Horses, Carriages, Hackney Coaches and Omnibuses in Manchester”. *
Not perhaps the most riveting of titles as a subject to over excite the breakfast conversation, but it revealed some fascinating detail of how we lived.
In particular, this table, which “exhibits the number of horses in private use for riding, & the number of draught horses, within each township of the borough”.
At first glance it might appear trivial but as the article points out, “How distinctly the suburbs preferred for the dwellings of the wealthier classes are marked out in this table, by the preponderance in the number of private riding and carriage horses over those for draught.
The townships thus distinguished are, Broughton, Burnage, Cheetham, Chorlton-Upon -Medlock, Crumpsall, and Rusholme. In the other seven townships, the draught horses or those used for business, predominate over those used for personal locomotion.”
Of course, it may not be a startling observation, for those well versed in the growth of the twin cities, but it fascinated me.
Location; Manchester and Salford
Picture; from the Manchester Guardian, 1850
* Horses, Carriages, Hackney Coaches and Omnibuses in Manchester, Manchester Guardian, February 23rd, 1850
Not perhaps the most riveting of titles as a subject to over excite the breakfast conversation, but it revealed some fascinating detail of how we lived.
In particular, this table, which “exhibits the number of horses in private use for riding, & the number of draught horses, within each township of the borough”.
At first glance it might appear trivial but as the article points out, “How distinctly the suburbs preferred for the dwellings of the wealthier classes are marked out in this table, by the preponderance in the number of private riding and carriage horses over those for draught.
The townships thus distinguished are, Broughton, Burnage, Cheetham, Chorlton-Upon -Medlock, Crumpsall, and Rusholme. In the other seven townships, the draught horses or those used for business, predominate over those used for personal locomotion.”
Of course, it may not be a startling observation, for those well versed in the growth of the twin cities, but it fascinated me.
Location; Manchester and Salford
Picture; from the Manchester Guardian, 1850
* Horses, Carriages, Hackney Coaches and Omnibuses in Manchester, Manchester Guardian, February 23rd, 1850
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