The one about a murder ….. a property developer ….. and a map … Stanley Grove

Now there is always a story, and I am never surprised at how twisty turny they can be.

So, yesterday I posted a story about the 1881 map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and how it had settled a few mysteries as well as offering up a few new ones.*

But I wasn’t  quite prepared for the speed with which that map handed me yet another story

This one centred on Stanley Grove which is off Crosland Road, behind the green.

And it started when Jeremy replied to the story with a question about the date of the map and the houses on Stanley Grove, which he thought had been built in around 1887, but appear on the 1881 map.

It is the sort of participation I welcome, not least because I have been known to get things wrong.

But in this case, the map and Stanley Grove fit together, because I found the houses on the 1881 census, and with a bit of digging pushed the date of the properties back to 1878.

They appear in the Rate Books which list both the tenants and owners of all the buildings in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, the value of each property and whether it was for commercial or domestic use.

The first entry for Stanley Grove is 1878, so I think we can be confident that is the date they were built.

And here the story goes off in a different direction, because they were owned by a Frances Deaken, who turns up in other sources as a property developer, and whose father had been murdered in 1847 .**

The family had been market gardeners way back into the 19th century and in the middle decades they lived in Martledge which was one of the three hamlets of Chorlton –cum-Hardy.

In the 1840s they farmed 3½ acres when Mr Deakin’s father was murdered in a beer shop in Chorlton in 1847.

The family received much sympathy and financial help not least because Mrs Habron was left with a large family of young children.

The family appear to have survived the tragedy and prospered. By 1881 Francis Deakin was farming 36 acres and employing 16 men and 3 boys and lived at Brookfield which still survives and is the house in Chorlton Park opposite Hough End Hall. 

In that same year Mr Deakin farmed land near Hough End hall and so I suspect it might well be that the land was around Brookfield House in what is now the park.****

So, that is it, the story that started in Stanley Grove and ran out across Chorlton, taking in a murder, a property developer and a map.

Pictures;  Stanley Grove in 1881, from the map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1881, Withington Board of Health, courtesy of Trafford Local Studies Centre, Stanley Grove, H Milligan, m18209, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and Brookfield, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Settling a few old mysteries and uncovering a few new ones ……. Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1881, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/11/settling-few-old-mysteries-and.html

**When the story of a murder reveals an earlier tragedy and a family that made good, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=deakin

****Looking for the story of Brookfield House on the edge of Chorlton Park, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/looking-for-story-of-brookfield-house.html