I wish there was more to know about Lydia Brown, because back in the middle decades of the 19th century she was a busy woman, here in Chorlton.
She lived at Brook Farm, and farmed 70 acres of pasture and arable land, stretching along the Brook from the Bowling Green pub almost as far as Barlow Moor Road, and south across the meadows.
She also had portfolio of properties, which included the smithy worked by William Davies on what is now Beech Road, the house and workshop of William Brownhill the wheelwright on Sandy Lane and a number cottages, one of which was occupied by John Axon who had been one of the founder members of our own brass band.
And she was a formidable woman, strong enough in her own knowledge of farming to call down her landlord who was George Lloyd who she spoke of contemptuously as “Squire Lloyd” .
This I know because in the summer of 1847 she told the journalist Alexander Somerville that Mr. Lloyd was damaging the land she farmed by his refusal to allow her to cut down a line of ash trees.
These, Alexander Somerville commented were “not only objectionable as all other kinds are in and around cultivated fields but positively poisonous to other vegetation, …… causing much waste of land, waste of fertility, and doing no good whatever. Squire Lloyd is the landlord.
Mrs. Brown, a widow, is the tenant. She keeps the farm in excellent order so far as the landlord’s restrictions will allow.
But neither herself nor her workmen must 'crop or lop top' a single branch from the deleterious ash trees”.
Now, there is something quite exciting at being able to hear the words of someone who lived in the heart of the township a full 173 years ago,
But there isn’t much else.
Despite trawling the census returns for Chorlton I can not find any reference to her, although tantalizingly there is a Mary Brown, in 1841, who despite the different name fits the profile.
Mary like Lydia was 50 in 1841, both had a son of the same name and both were married to a Johnathan.
Jonathan and Lydia Brown appear in the baptismal records for 1823, 1825, 1828 and ’31.
Jonathan described himself as a publican and according to Ellwood in his History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, he was the tenant at the Horse & Jockey. Jonathan is in the electoral register for 1832, 1835 and 1840 with freehold buildings at Lane End and on Chorlton Row, which fits with the properties listed as belonging to Lydia from 1844 onwards.***
And that is about it. Brook Farm where she lived was on the site of the old dairy, which in turn was redeveloped into a collection of des res properties on Brookburn Road opposite the school. I do have one picture of the house and know that it had nine rooms.
But we do have her gravestone which is still in the parish churchyard and is in itself a link to Mrs. Brown.
I just wish there was more.
Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Pictures; Brook Farm, undated, from the Lloyd Collection, the tithe map showing Brook Farm and some of the land farmed by Mrs. Brown, 1847, and the gravestone of Mrs. Brown, 2011, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
*Somerville, Alexander, A Pilgrimage in Search of the Potato Blight, Manchester Examiner, June 19th, 1847
**Ellwood, T, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy Chapter 23, Inns April 17th 1886, South Manchester Gazette
***Chorlton Row, is now Beech Road
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| Brook Farm, undated |
She also had portfolio of properties, which included the smithy worked by William Davies on what is now Beech Road, the house and workshop of William Brownhill the wheelwright on Sandy Lane and a number cottages, one of which was occupied by John Axon who had been one of the founder members of our own brass band.
And she was a formidable woman, strong enough in her own knowledge of farming to call down her landlord who was George Lloyd who she spoke of contemptuously as “Squire Lloyd” .
 |
| Brook Farm, no. 314 and fields, 1847 |
These, Alexander Somerville commented were “not only objectionable as all other kinds are in and around cultivated fields but positively poisonous to other vegetation, …… causing much waste of land, waste of fertility, and doing no good whatever. Squire Lloyd is the landlord.
Mrs. Brown, a widow, is the tenant. She keeps the farm in excellent order so far as the landlord’s restrictions will allow.
But neither herself nor her workmen must 'crop or lop top' a single branch from the deleterious ash trees”.
Now, there is something quite exciting at being able to hear the words of someone who lived in the heart of the township a full 173 years ago,
But there isn’t much else.
Despite trawling the census returns for Chorlton I can not find any reference to her, although tantalizingly there is a Mary Brown, in 1841, who despite the different name fits the profile.
Mary like Lydia was 50 in 1841, both had a son of the same name and both were married to a Johnathan.
Jonathan described himself as a publican and according to Ellwood in his History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, he was the tenant at the Horse & Jockey. Jonathan is in the electoral register for 1832, 1835 and 1840 with freehold buildings at Lane End and on Chorlton Row, which fits with the properties listed as belonging to Lydia from 1844 onwards.***
 |
| The gravestone, 2011 |
But we do have her gravestone which is still in the parish churchyard and is in itself a link to Mrs. Brown.
I just wish there was more.
Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Pictures; Brook Farm, undated, from the Lloyd Collection, the tithe map showing Brook Farm and some of the land farmed by Mrs. Brown, 1847, and the gravestone of Mrs. Brown, 2011, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
*Somerville, Alexander, A Pilgrimage in Search of the Potato Blight, Manchester Examiner, June 19th, 1847
**Ellwood, T, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy Chapter 23, Inns April 17th 1886, South Manchester Gazette
***Chorlton Row, is now Beech Road
Very interesting flow of history
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