One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ....... part 142 …….. a rent book

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since. *

This is the rent book to one of the properties on Neale Road owned by Joe Scott.

In the early 20th century he built much of the small houses behind Beech Road and more off Oswald Road, which he rented out, and there are still people who remember him fondly and thought him a good landlord.

By the 1930s he had branched out from the two up two down terraces to larger semidetached properties along Beaumont and Belwood.

But well into the 1960s many of the properties in his “empire” were still for rent like this one on Neale Road.

It consisted of four rooms with an extension and small yard to the rear, and in 1968 the rent was 28 shillings and 11d a week.

Contained in that rent was the cost of the rates “borne by the landlord” which amounted to 14 shillings and 4d.

Now, according to one source the average manual weekly wage in 1968 was £22, and those interested can follow up price comparisons on a variety of web sites matching the income, with a basket of goods matching the two with the cost of the rent on Neale Road.*

And for those very interested, a search on property sites for Neale Road offered a modern rental demand of £1000 per calendar month.

So, you take your figures and do your sums.

Equally interesting is the details of the tenants “rights” as laid down by the 1957 and 1965 Rent Acts and reproduced in the Rent Book.

Of course, anyone who has rented a property during a great chunk of the 20th century will be familiar with the details in the rent book including their responsibilities as well as those of the landlord, and feel secure in the record of what they have paid and rent day.

In the case of Neale Road that was Monday and the AB listed as collecting payment was Alf Bradbury who worked for Joe and lived himself on Sandy Lane.

Today, anyone renting will most probably conduct most of their business with a landlord online and when I mentioned rent books to our Joshua he smiled and mumbled “Dad old stuff”.

What fascinates me about the book is that it is a direct link to Joe who lived in our house for over half a century.

Moreover it might add to the research on his death which I think was in the early part of 1968, and seems to be verified by the record of payments in the rent book which stop on Monday August 19th 1968, despite the tenant remaining in the property into the 1970s, when they bought it.

It might just be that the last payment represents the point when the property was transferred to a new landlord or when a new rent book was issued in the name of Mary Ann Scott.

We shall see. 

Location;, Manchester

Pictures; Rent Book for a house on Neale Road, 1968, courtesy of Ian Henderson

*The story of a house, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

**Retrowow, https://www.retrowow.co.uk/social_history/60s/earnings_1960s.php