So, who did pay for the Chorlton Conservative Club back in 1891? ……… And why it matters

Now there will be some who dismiss the question either because they hold no time for the Conservative Party and others who can’t see the relevance given that the club was sold off around 2013 and was converted it into residential use.

The end of the story, the Conservative Club, 2013

But for over 120 years it was one of our biggest buildings, and with its clocktower was a local landmark.

Added to which, plenty of people will have attended all sorts of dos in what was the Public Hall, along with quite a few well-known actors who performed in repertory companies on the stage of that Public Hall.

And for anyone interested in our history, knowing who helped pay for its construction will help offer up a better understanding of who voted Conservative in Chorlton  in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as providing an insight into Chorlton-cum-Hardy, just as the township was evolving from an agricultural community into a suburb of Manchester.

I have long been intrigued by those who took a risk and subscribed in the new Conservative Club which opened in Chorlton in 1892 and have written about them. *

The share book opened on February 20th, 1891, and between that date and November 7th of the same year, 118 signed on the dotted line handing over a minimum of £1, with some putting down a lot more.

Mary Jane Weeks takes a punt, 1891

So far, I have only analysed the first 50 and they are an interesting cross section.

As you would expect there were a few individuals who bought between £100 and £250 in one purchase, while sliding down the scale there were quite a few buying just one share.  Of those that splashed out, one was the MP, John William McLaren of Whalley Range, another was a merchant and another two described themselves as engineers.

At the other end over a third bought shares worth between £10 down to £1, and as you would expect their occupations were also more modest, with a collection of clerks, shop keepers and craftsmen.

The Register, 1891

The largest single group of subscribers were professionals, including John William McLaren MP, a doctor and architect, three engineer’s and our own Charles Ireland who described himself a “Photo Artist” with a chain of Photographic Studios in Manchester and across the Northwest.

Occupations of the first 50 subscribers, 1891

But there were also plenty of businessmen, some who still made a living from the land, and commercial and traveling salesmen and one who was employed in a warehouse.

And with a few notable exceptions, most of our subscribers lived in properties on roads which were cut between 1880 and 1890.

These were the homes of the middling people who rented or bought properties on Albany, Chequers, and Stockton Roads as well as Oak Avenue and Whitelow Road. There's were the substantial tall semi detached houses, home to many who worked in the city but like the "country feel" of Chorlton, which still had plenty of open land.

Most of the 82 I have so far looked at were men, but there were a few women, and one in particular who gave her occupation as domestic servant.

She was Mary Jane Weeks who held shares amounting to £2. She had been born in 1849, in the small market town of Hathereigh in Devon, and was working as a servant by 1871.

Two decades later she was employed by the Adams family in their house on Chequers Road. Her employer, Mrs. Elizabeth de Worth Adams, had also taken out a subscription for £20 and both ceased membership in February 1900.

It may be that Ms. Weeks followed her boss in to subscribing on the basis that this was a venture worth investing in.

Of course, we will never know.  She died in January 1917 and was buried in Southern Cemetery.

The next task will be to research each of those early subscribers and in particular to dig deeper into their occupations because it has always been easy to categories some of them.

Share holdings of the first 50 subscriber, 1891

So I can be pretty sure Mr. Arnold Bryce Smith was one of our more wealthy inhabitants, for while he described himself as a “Calico Printer” he lived in the fabulously big house called Rye Bank which was on Edge Lane. *

But the jury is out on Mr. William Chester Thompson, of Manchester who listed his occupation as brewer, although as he subscribed £25 I think he was not from the factory floor.

It really all will be down to the detail.  That said some are easier to identify, like Mathew Henry Holland of the Horse and Jockey, Mr. and Mrs. Lomax who farmed the land around Hough End Hall or the prestigious Samuel Gratrix of West Point on the border with Whalley Range.

The New Conservative Club, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1892

Leaving lots of the “middling people” who were clerks, shop keepers and salesmen.

All in all, the register will gives us a fascinating insight into the Chorlton of the 1890s.  Not all the subscribers will have voted Conservative, and some may just have fancied an investment while others may even have just wanted to join a club.

We shall see.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; The Conservative Club in 2013 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, in 1892 from the Manchester Courier, April 30th, 1892. and the cover and a page from the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club, Limited, Register of Members, 1891

*Chorlton Conservative Club Financing, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20Conservative%20Club%20Finances

**Register of Members Chorlton-cum-Hardy Conservative Club Limited 1892-96

***Rye Bank, Edge Lane, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Rye%20Bank