U.S.D.A.W. in Manchester another story from Tony Goulding

 U.S.D.A.W. (The Union of Shop, Distributive, and Allied Workers) has a long-established connection to the Manchester area.

U.S.D.A.W. Sign – March 2025

In its current configuration it dates from 1947 when the Manchester based National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers merged with the National Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen, and Clerks which was based in London although one of the smaller unions which pre-existed the consolidated union also had its offices in Manchester. 

As its name indicates it is a major union in the retail trade; currently it represents over 360,000 members and for almost a year in the late 1970’s I was a member when I was working for Lewis's, Manchester.

“Oakley”, Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield

For over a century this house, “Oakley” a Victorian villa, at 122, Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield, Manchester (1) was home to U.S.D.A.W. and its predecessor. Kelly’s 1933 Directory of Lancashire, Manchester, Salford, and Suburbs reveals that the Union’s fortnightly journal “The New Dawn” was produced in the building its editor was Mr. Lewis Lumley.

“The New Dawn” masthead of Vol. 1 number 1 – January 1921

Lewis Lumley was born in Oldham on 4th December 1872. His birth details are shrouded in uncertainty; according to the1881 census he was the youngest child of Lewis Lumley, a joiner and his wife Elizabeth (née Singleton).

However, Elizabeth is recorded on the census return as born in 1828 and other records show she had already given birth to eight children one of whom was also named Lewis. This Lewis was born in Oldham, Lancashire during the September quarter of 1863 then promptly disappeared from all records! The issue is further clouded as one source states that the mother’s maiden name of the Lewis Lumley born in December 1872 was “Lumley”. It is quite possible then that he was the child of an unmarried older “sister” brought up as his grandparents’ child to avoid scandal.

 Lewis (1872 version) began work as a grocer’s assistant but by the 1901 census he had become a manager of a co-operative society’s coal depot. A decade later he was a full-time union organiser with The Amalgamated Union of Co-Operative Employees.

 This union developed from a meeting in Romiley, nr. Stockport in 1891 and was one of the unions which formed the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers in January 1921.

In Oldham during the December quarter of 1896 Lewis married a United States born, Annie Wood. In the March quarter of 1898 Lewis and Annie had a baby girl, Nora followed on 15th August 1909 by another daughter, Marjorie.

Lewis was struck by a double tragedy in 1920 when his wife Annie died during the June quarter only for his daughter, Nora, to pass away at the young age of 22 the following quarter. In Manchester Cathedral during the December quarter of 1922, Lewis remarried Sarah Urmson; a near neighbour when the family home was on Green Lane, Oldham Garden Suburb.

In the early years of the First World War Lewis settled with his young family in another house in Oldham Garden Suburb, 3, Brae Side. He remained in this house until he died, aged 88, at the Oldham and District General Hospital on 3rd December 1961. His estate was valued at £6,060-2s (=£112,000 today). His 93-year-old second wife, Sarah survived him by just a few months passing away in a nursing home in Saddleworth, Yorkshire on 7th March 1962. Usdaw’s headquarters moved out of the Wilmslow Road property in early 2020 but due to Covid restrictions they didn’t move into their current offices at the Voyager Building, 2, Furness Quay, Salford Quays, Manchester until August 2021.

Tram 3080 Bound for Manchester Airport on Hardy Lane, Chorlton, 2025

Given the unions long association with the area, it is quite fitting that it has chosen to advertise on the livery of Metrolink Trams which it has done intermittently since August 2021. Originally their advert was carried by tram 3064 whilst currently it can be seen on tram 3080.

Pictures: - Masthead of “The New Dawn” courtesy of The University of Warwick’s, Modern Records Centre. 

 http://modernrecords.warwick.ac.uk

Others from the collection of Tony Goulding

Notes: -

1) Oakley House was built circa 1830 according to a report of the 12t July 2022 by the Planning Inspectorate of the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government regarding an appeal against a refused planning application for a proposed development of the site. As can be seen from the recent photographs the appeal brought by U.S.D.A.W. and the developer Watkin Jones Group Ltd. was unsuccessful.

Immediately prior to it becoming a union headquarters Oakley had been a private hotel operated by George Stephen Simmons. His story and those of the houses previous occupiers may well form the content of a future post.

  Acknowledgements: -

 As well as the value of Find My Past's Newspaper Archive and other records I would also like to acknowledge the British Trams Online for the tram numbering, Martin Sanders of Warwick University' s Archives for permission to use "The New Dawn" masthead, and Clare Jones of U.S.D.A.W. for details of the union’s move from Oakley.