Opps …….. when you get things wrong …..... apologise ....

So, after years of telling the story of Samuel Mendel who was the classic tale of fabulous wealth, and a  less than elegant descent into more straightened circumstance I have to confess I got a bit of it wrong.

Mr. Mendel, undated

He had made his wealth transporting textiles to India and Australia around the Cape of Good Hope faster than any of his rivals, and from his offices in Cooper Street and a succession of warehouses around the city he was recognised as a successful entrepreneur who was never out of the papers.

Manley Park, 1894

The wealth that he made was poured into Manley Park a fine house in Whalley Range and a huge art collection.

But it all went wrong, and almost at the turn of a sixpence, the frown of fortune resulted him going bankrupt, and the sale of his fine mansion and his art collection.

All of which I have chronicled but the exact nature of his fall I got wrong. *

I followed the received knowledge and reported that his fall was the changing shipping routes which followed the opening of the Suez Canal, which his rivals adopted making his long routes around the Cape of Good Hope redundant.

And I was wrong, a mistake I have Brian Groom to thank who pointed out to that suggested I “amend the blog to remove one of the biggest lies in Manchester history IMHO. It drives me bloody mad! Sam Mendel did NOT go bankrupt at the time that he sold his Manchester business interests. 

Manley Park, undated

He remained a wealthy man for several years and, at one point, even bought the Manley Park estate back. In the end, his real financial downfall came from the fact he continued to invest unwisely in art and ended up owing Thomas Agnew, his art dealer of choice, a considerable amount of money. Mendel had helped make Agnew a very wealthy man, so it was with considerable reluctance that he did indeed commence bankruptcy proceedings against the ageing Mendel. 

However, the proceedings were paused as soon as Agnew discovered that Mendel was in very poor health. They were never resumed, because Mendel died. There were subsequent rumours spread that Agnew had tried to take the very bed that the dying Mendel lay in during the final weeks of his life. 

Agnew, justifiably enraged, sued the person making the accusations and won. Even on the very brink of financial ruin, Mendel was able to leave a reasonable sum to his widow. Gone were the days of what would today be a billionaire lifestyle, but she would have still been comfortably middle class”.

All of which was new to me and of course makes for a much more interesting story.

Leaving me just to thank Brian and record that his two books on the history of the North have rightly received much praise.

They are Northerners A History, From the Ice Age to the Present Day, and Made in Manchester A People’s History of the City that shaped the modern World.

I got the Northerners as a Christmas present and thoroughly enjoyed it and will be splashing the cash on his second one.

So my apologies to Mr. Mendel and always own up.

Pictures; from Manley Park, undated, from the  Lloyd Collection and map of Manley Hall from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1888-93, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and  picture of Sam Mendel, from a photograph by Franz Baum, 22 St Ann’s Square, Manchester Old & New, 1896, Manchester

*Samuel Mendel, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Samuel%20Mendel