A Salford bridge over the Irwell …..Mr. Richard Husband …. and a twisty turny story

It started with this picture of the plaque commemorating the opening of the Cromwell Bridge over the river, linking Pendleton to Broughton.

2021

Now I don’t usually go looking for the stories of the good and the great because they tend to have acres of print already dedicated to their lives and achievements.  Instead, I prefer those individuals who at best history has forgotten and at worst never even noticed.

But Mr. Richard Husband who was born in 1816 and died a wealthy man in 1898 seemed a bit of a challenge.

He is listed on Salford City Council’s civic history as Lord Mayor from 1881-82, again in 1882 to 83 and finally between 1897 to 1898, and that is it, unless I have missed something.

So, it was down to an old fashioned and laborious search through the census returns and street directories, which established he was a hat manufacturer employing 15 men, and lived variously in Pendleton, and Alderley Edge, before following the well-worn path of the ageing rich and settling first in Southport and finally in the Lake District.

But such a distinguished civic career meant that the Manchester Guardian showed an interest in him, even if sadly it was after his death while still in office as Lord Mayor.

1898

And here his life proved twisty turny, having been a teacher in the National School in Oswestry, and afterwards a bank clerk he moved to Manchester in 1836 and rose to head clerk in a construction company. 

“On surrendering this position, he took up a patent for hat making the invention of a friend.  The enterprise occupied him for many years and achieved great success"*

I have yet to find where his hat company was based, but I will.

He was elected to the Salford Town Council in 1857, and despite a short break remained as an active member of the Council through to his death.

Outside politics he raised a company in the 1st Salford Volunteers, and gave extensively to charity.

2021

He “was Conservative in politics, but took little share in the management of the party.  He had a great dislike for the interference of the community in any matter that could possibly be left to individual initiative.  

For this reason, he was never reconciled to the Education Acts, and much other legislation, both Liberal and Conservative was equally distasteful to him.  Nor had he any share of the Toey Hankering for Protection but was a steady follower of Cobden”.*

All of which makes me think he was not sympathetic to any State interference on behalf of those who because of ill health, or unemployment needed health.

But maybe I am doing him a disservice and I should go looking for any pronouncements he made in the press or details of his judgements as a JP, before I draw any further conclusions.

So a work in progress, leaving me just to say …. “a man of his time”, but a man who signed up at the Towers for that visionary project which was the Manchester Ship Canal.

Location; Salford

Pictures; the plaque on Cromwell Bridge, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Memorial Notice The Mayor of Salford, Manchester Guardian, April 15th, 1898