In our village school on the green in the spring of 1847

Our village school on the green circa 1870

From, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, The Story*

In 1847 our village school was just two years old.  It was the second National School here in the township and replaced the first which had been established in 1817.

These were church schools and provided elementary education for the children of the poor.  They were the product of the National Society which had begun in 1811 and aimed to establish a national school in every parish delivering a curriculum based on the teaching of the church.

The new school had been built with grants from the National Society and the Committee of Council on Education   on land given by George Lloyd in 1843 “for the purpose of a school for the education of poor children inhabiting the said township of Chorlton cum Hardy......and for the residence of the master of the said school for the time being, such schoolmaster to be a member of the Established Church, and the school to be conducted upon principles consistent with the doctrines of the Established Church”

Ours was a fine brick building which could hold three hundred children which was just as well because we had 186 children between the ages of 4 and 15.  Most were at school, a few were educated at home, and fifteen were already at work.

The youngest at just ten was Catherine Kirby who was born in Ireland and worked as a house servant.

There were slightly more boys than girls and they did a mix of jobs ranging from errand boys to farm worker and domestic service and most were born here.

There may even have been more for when William Chesshyre interviewed their parents in the March of 1851 some children were described as farmer’s sons and daughters.  

They may have been at school or they may have already begun to work alongside their parents on the farm.    And as we shall see just because parents described their children as scholars was no guarantee they attended school or even if they did that they were there full time.

The national picture was one of children even younger than 10 being employed.  A labourer’s child could earn between 1s.6d and 2s. [7½p-10p] a week which was an important addition to an agricultural family’s income and in the words of one government report was “so great a relief to the parents as to render it almost hopeless that they can withstand the inducement and retain the child at school”  

But in some cases this child labour would have been seasonal.   In one Devon school up to a third of boys over the age of seven were absent helping with the harvest, while in another school during the spring upwards of thirty were assisted their parents sow the potato crop and then dig it up in the summer.  

It was just part of the rural cycle and which one contributor to the Poor Law Commissioners on the employment of women and children in agriculture in 1843 said would at least teach children “the habit of industry,”      which fitted in with the belief much held in the countryside that “the business of a farm labourer cannot be thoroughly acquired if work be not commenced before eleven or twelve.”

And yet it may be that most of our children were in school for at least some of the time because while parents did remove children out of season to help with other farm work or in the case of girls look after siblings, “in the greater number of agricultural parishes there are day schools, which a considerable number of children of both sexes of the labouring class attend.”  

*A new book on Chorlton, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton  

Picture; from the collection of Tony Walker

Animals for the pot back in the kitchens of Chorlton and Well Hall in 1848

Back in rural communities in 1848 pigs and chickens were common enough and many families aspired to keeping a family pig. 

These were kept in the back garden or yard and could be fed on almost anything and would provide a family with food for almost the entire year.

As well as fresh pork there was salted bacon, cured ham, lard, sausages and black pudding.

Beyond its food value the dead pig offered its pigskin for saddles, gloves, bags and footballs while the bristles could be used for brushes and an average pig gave a ton of manure a year.

All of this was fine but often the pig became a family pet which made its killing just that bit harder.  Not that this halted the inevitable, which tended to be done in winter.

It was reckoned that the cooler months should be preferred given that in the words of the farming expert Henry Stephens, “the flesh in the warm months is not sufficiently firm and is then liable to be fly born before it is cured.”    

So the traditional time was around Martinmas in early November which had the added advantage that cured hams would be ready for Christmas.

As for the slaughtering of the pig this was done by the local butcher who was often paid in kind, and could be a traumatic event for both pig and family.

Not that there was any set way to carry this out and stories abound of botched attempts all of which led Stephen’s to recommend that the pig be placed on a bed of straw and the knife inserted into the heart.

The event was very much a family affair with everyone pitching in to scrap the hair clean from the body by either immersing it in boiling water or pouring the scalding water over the carcase, and later salting down the meat.  Immediately after it had been killed it was hung and left for the night before being cut up.

It was a time consuming job to rub salt into the hams and not a pleasant one either.  First the salt had to be crushed from a salt block which was then rubbed into the meat.

A side could be anything up to four feet [1.2 metres] in length and special care had to be taken to rub the salt into the bone joints.  All of this left the hands red raw.

Nor was this the end of the process.  The meat then had to be soaked in water and dried before being wrapped in muslin and hung up.  Meanwhile some of the pork might be cooked up into pies and the blood made into black pudding.

The family pig was indeed an important part of the means by which many in the township supplemented their earnings.  But pigs were part of the local economy and both farmers and market gardeners would find keeping pigs a profitable undertaking.

As we have seen they could be fed on almost anything.  In winter this might be potatoes or turnips and in summer they could be left to graze in a grass field.  The going rate at market in 1844 for a pig was anything between 24s [£1.20p] and 30s [£1.50p].

Our old friend Henry Stephens calculated that two brood sows could produce 40 pigs between them and that retaining six for home use the remaining 34 could easily be sold at market.

So many of the smaller farmers and market gardeners in the township might well keep at least one sow and use it to supplement their income.

The same was true of poultry which existed happily enough in a back garden or farmers’ yard.  But I doubt that there was much to be made from selling the eggs.

A dozen eggs in the summer of 1851 might cost 4d [2p] a dozen and rise in price to 8d [4p] later in the year.

Enterprising farmers and market gardeners might store up summer eggs to sell in the winter.  This involved smearing them with butter or lard while still warm and packing them in barrels of salt, oats or melted suet then transport them into the city or sell them to egg merchants who visited on a weekly basis.

Pictures; from the Book of the Farm Henry Stephens, Vol 11 1844

THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, Andrew Simpson, 2012, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

Ours was a time still dominated by working animals

Ours was a time still dominated by working animals.

For centuries the main draught animal had been the oxen and in some parts of the country their use continued well on till the end of the 19th century and the start of the twentieth.

But by the 1840s the horse had taken over in most areas.

The horse was a familiar sight here in the township.  As well as working the fields, they would have pulled the carts and wagons of the farmers and carriers as well as the coaches of the well to do.

Horses provided work for the blacksmith, and the farrier and indirectly for the wheelwright.  Then there were the men who worked with the horses.  Of these the ploughman and the carter earned more than most other farm workers.  The carter after all was assured a regular wage because horses needed to be looked after all the year round, unlike the farm labourer who could expect seasonal periods of unemployment.

But most farm workers came into some contact with horses at some point and on the smaller farms and market gardens, the job of caring and working with horses fell to the farmer or his son.

The Bailey family on the Row who farmed seven acres had just one horse which would have doubled for both ploughing and pulling the spring cart.  

This would have been the pattern here with so many of our market gardens operating with less than 10 acres of land.

On our bigger farms there were men who were employed specifically to deal with the horses.  James Higginbotham, farmer on the green employed a carter and at Dog House Farm just outside the township eight of the men who lived on this 380 acre farm were carters.

Here horses were worked in pairs and there might be two or three teams each with a carter and mate.  The most intensive period for a working horse were sowing wheat, or turnips, carting mangels and harvest time.

Many carters formed close bonds with their horses, a bond which was deepened by the long hours they spent together.  

A carter might start as early as five in the morning as the horses were prepared for work and last after the day had finished in the fields.

The horses had to be cleaned of the thick mud they had picked up and then fed, watered and groomed.

For this a carter might be paid just over £1 a week, although James Higginbotham was less generous.  During the mid 1840s he was paying his carters between 4s 6d [22p] and 6s [30p] a week.  But these wages reflected the fact that the men lived in and so received their food and lodging as part of their wages.

This supplement could make a difference of between 5s [25p] and 7s [35p] a week.   Even given this their wages seem much lower.

From THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, Andrew Simpson, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy-new.html

Pictures; from the collections of Allan Brown, Carolyn Willitts  and the Lloyd collection

Rediscovering Ellen Warburton of Chorlton Row

Now I had almost forgotten Ellen Warburton who was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1775, and lived at one point on Beech Road roughly on the corner with Chorlton Green.

There is very little else to tell.

The birth of Ellen, 1775

I know she was there in that cottage in the 1840s and paid an annual rent of 5 shillings.  She retained her independence well into her 60s, running a home which she shared with her teenage grandson.

By 1851 the situation had changed, and Ellen aged 75 was living in the home of her now married grandson.

A decade later the family had moved to Manchester and Ellen was in the workhouse.

She was by now a very old woman, and the new home in John Street, Chorlton on Medlock was a one up one down terraced house, inside the loop of the River Medlock, hemmed in on all sides by chemical works, timber yards, and a brewery and maybe because of space or incapacity, Ellen ended up in the workhouse.

But here we have to be careful because rather than being an inmate, she might just have been a patient in the infirmary.

And that is almost it.  Other than to say her cottage looked out on fields with a clear view over to the parish church, while it fronted what was then called Chorlton Row and was opposite the Traveller’s Rest, beer shop.

Living on Chorlton Row, 1847

Her neighbours included the blacksmith, the Methodist chapel, and the well off Daniel Sharpe, whose fine house was only demolished last year and is now a supermarket.

Nine years ago, Ellen was very close to me and she featured in the book, The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, which described our township when it was still a small rural community, during the first half of the 19th century.*

But the passage of time had made me almost forget her, until last week when  I received a letter from Christine who wrote “I was given ‘The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy’ last year and am writing to thank you: what a wonderful book it is.  

I have read it several times and each time find something new……. But it’s your writing which brings the people and places and bare facts to life and relates the past to the present scenes so vividly”.

Now for any historian, such comments are welcome, but what was even more welcome was that Christine filled in a few more gaps in the life of Ellen Warburton.

In 1799 she appears in the parish register as a single mother, whose daughter was Mary, who also “appears as a single mother at her son, Joseph’s baptism on October 4 1823”.

Along with the additional information Christine sent over a copy of an entry in the parish register, recording Ellen’s baptism.  What makes this entry more interesting is that in 1847 someone had calculated Ellen’s age in that year and included it on the original document.

I guess we will never know why this was done, but perhaps it was at the request of Ellen herself or a relative.

This was still a time when many didn’t have an accurate record of family births and the requirement to officially register a birth, death or marriage had only begin in 1837, leaving the parish records the sole source of information.

That is almost it, other than to reflect on our perceived attitude to illegitimacy in the 19th century.
Despite the received view that it was frowned on, the evidence from my book and the Warburton family, suggest that the birth of a child out of wedlock was not accompanied by outrage, but that is another story which is best followed by reading the book.

So, I will close with Christine again, who wrote that “your book has special meaning for me as Ellen Warburton was my 4x grandmother and it was a huge surprise to see the names of one of the humblest of my humble ancestors mentioned in print.”

And that is a pretty good point to close.

Pictures; detail of the tithe map 1847, showing Ellen Warburton’s cottage, birth entry from the parish record, 1775

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 124 ............ poaching returns to Chorlton

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.*

They came in the night or very early in the morning and picked the entire crop of cherries from the tree in the front garden.

It promised to be a good crop, and while we lost some to the birds, there were still plenty left.

Now I am sanguine about the theft, after all in the great sweep of horrible things unfolding across the world, stealing our cherries ranks pretty low.  And I am the first to accept that I did my share of scrumping as a kid in south east London.

But theft it still is, and my only consolation is that the cherries were not quite ripe, and the thieves clearly didn’t know they were stealing Morello cherries, which are best not eaten raw.

Having had my rant I was reminded that poaching was a common occurrence when we were still a rural community.

"It was the most obvious rural crime along with stealing from the fields.   

For some this was an acceptable practice.  It might take the form of stealing game or produce from a local landowner and justifying it on the basis that the landlord had much and they had little.  

And there is no doubt that during periods of the 19th century, poverty and scarcity stalked the fields, and for many families driven by hunger poaching was a means to an end.

Rural accounts suggest this was often committed by people in the same neighbourhood.  

But our close proximity to Hulme and Manchester meant that some rural crimes were committed by urban visitors.  

So it was that in the October of 1855 an organised gang from Hulme descended on the farm of William Knight and stole eight loads of potatoes only to return the following Sunday and attempt to take another two and half loads. The crime is interesting because we have the names, addresses and occupations of the thieves. 

Just across the Mersey in the preceding decades, there were cases of poaching fraud and robbery.  Peter Gleave was fined £5 after he had been caught setting snares in the grounds of the Trafford family, James Hall had stolen money from the farmer who employed him  and three men had been apprehended for repeatedly passing fake bank notes.

And it is worth noting that the penalties if caught of poaching in the 19th century could be very severe."**

Still odd that it should reappear last night here on Beech Road.

Now I could go on, but the details of the poaching stories along with the references to the newspaper account are available in the book.**

Location; Beech Road

Picture; the poached cherry tree, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Story of a House, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

**The story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

Beech Road offers up some more stories

It’s not the best picture I have taken but this one of Beech Road early this morning offers up clues to our past.

Looking up Beech Road, June 2018

Ever since I wrote,  The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, I have been fascinated by what the township would have been like in the 1850s.*

Now that is not as difficult or fanciful as it might seem.

The book was about what Chorlton would have been like during the first half of the 19th century and was drawn from contemporary accounts, old maps, along with census returns, rate books and the tithe records.

Putting all these together it is possible to reconstruct Beech Road as it would have been, including the location of the houses, and fields, and the residents, as well as the owners of both the land and the properties, and finally what was actually being grown in the fields on either side of what was then called Chorlton Row.

So looking again at the picture, it is possible to pick out the twist in what was really just a country lane, which in 1850, accommodated a set of cottages which jutted out roughly opposite the skip and later was dominated by a huge beech tree.

Further along on the left was the home of the Holt family and was known variously as Beech Cottage and later Beech House, while out to the right was a set of fields which were a mix of arable and pasture.

Along Chorlton Row and on to Round Thorn, 1853

From where I took the picture you would also have had a fine view of Lime Bank at Round Thorn.**

The house is still there, although much knocked about and is hidden by Carringtons.

It dates back to the early 19th century and may in fact have been built during the closing decades of the previous century.

In the 1840s it was the home of the Morton family and on the evening of evening of Tuesday June 20 Mr Morton took a stroll down the Row and onto the Green and the school where on this night he would chair a meeting of the local tax payers which threatened a rebellion.

But that is a story for another time.

Location; Chorlton Row

Pictures; detail from the OS map for Lancashire 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

 https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/11/the-st

**Lime Bank, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Lime%20Bank

A little bit of Chorlton's past knocked on our door yesterday ......... Mr Renshaw comes visiting

Now I like the way bits of history pop up just when you don’t expect them.

Sampler of Miss Florence Elizabeth Renshaw, 1877

And I wasn’t expecting Mr Renshaw who knocked on yesterday afternoon on the off chance I was in.

The Renshaw’s are an old Chorlton family and can be traced back to the mid if not early 18th century.

I have a copy of the legal agreement between James Renshaw and the Egerton’s from 1767 setting out the tenancy agreement for the farm on Beech Road and the family continued to be part of our history pretty much up to today.

And a few years ago someone kindly posted this sampler made by Miss Florence Elizabeth Renshaw, 1877

But I have misfiled the name of the person who so kindly provided the image. It is somewhere but as yet it eludes me.

Now Martin my visitor is related to Miss Florence and in the course of our conversation he passed over his family tree, all of which set me off again with the Renshaw family who I first came across when I wrote that book on Chorlton-cum-Hardy.*

"There are a number of Renshaw families which are interwoven in to the history of the township.  They appear in the parish records, census returns, rate books and are on gravestones in the church yard.  They are connected in marriage to the Bailey, Chesshyre and Taylor families.  

James Renshaw began farming on the Row in 1767 and the family continued to work the land until 1844 when the tenancy passed to the Bailey family who in turn stayed until the early 20th century when they moved to Park Brow.  

Alice Bailey was the niece of John Renshaw who had occupied the farm until his death.  John Renshaw also owned  eleven cottages as well as Renshaw Buildings.  He is in the electoral register for 1832, and 1835. 

His will is in the Lewis and Bailey Collections.

Renshaws Buildings, 2011 from a photograph circa 1900

Other Renshaw’s appear on Ellwood, Chapter 4, Ancient wood and plaster Dwellings,  November 28, 1885, Chapter 16, Wesleyan Methodism,  February 20 1886, Chapter 17, Wesleyan Methodism,  February 27 1886 and Chapter 24, Shops & Schools,  April 24 1886 beaten at school.**

These include Charles, James the Methodist school teacher, Margaret, Thomas and William the hay cutter, and thatcher.

One family are also to be found in the baptismal records of the Wesleyan chapel on the Row, including, James and Elizabeth whose daughter Elizabeth was married to Richard Pearson, John and Sarah, Joseph and Jane, Thomas and Sarah, and Thomas and Susannah.”***

So there you have it, a little bit of our past in our dining room added to which Martin is now the third descendant of the Renshaw family I have met.  Years ago I became friends with Oliver whose family were related by marriage and lived on one of the farm houses on Beech Road and around the same time met Karen Lewis who also supplied material on the Renshaw family.

Which just leaves to wonder who will knock on next.

Picture; sampler of Florence Elizabeth Renshaw, 1877 and Renshaw’s Buildings, 2011 by Barri Sparshot from a photograph circa 1900

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

**Thomas Ellwood, wrote a series of 26 articles on the history of Chorlton-cum-Hardy between the winter of 1885 and the spring of 1886.  They were published in the South Manchester Gazette under the title The History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and are available in the Local History Library of Central Ref.

***ibid the Story of Chorlton-cum- Hardy, pages 266-267

Christmas in Chorlton in the 1850s ............ day two of that bout of self promotion

Now yesterday I kicked off with the first of a new series Andrew Simpson for Christmas 2016 promoting the book Manchester and the Great War due out in February of next year, and today it’s the first one I wrote.

This was The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy published in 2012

“Here for the first time is a detailed account of an agricultural community that was just 4 miles from Manchester. 

Much of the narrative is rooted in the people who lived here, using their words and records. 

It tells of daily lives, setting them in a national context, and balances the routine with the sensational - including murder, infanticide and a rebellion.

Partly a narrative of rural life, and a description of a community's relationship with a city, the book also includes guided walks around Chorlton to bring this history to life. A database of references and sources is also provided.

This is the story of a group of people that history has forgotten and scholarship has ignored.”

The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 2012, £18.99, available from Chorlton Book shop and from the History Press, http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/search-here/?s=Andrew+Simpson&p=1&ps=9

The harvest of 1847 here in Chorlton, and of ones yet to come

The grape crop, 2014

Now this crop of grapes is hardly likely to set an Italian wine producer racing to our door, but we grew them, and I harvested them and now we are working out what to do with such an abundance.

And it is for us something of a bumper crop.

Last year we had almost as many but the cold and wet weather made sure that what came from the vine was small very acid and non too sweet.

The year before had been good but not so plentiful.

All of which reminds me that the harvest is an important point of the year.

The summer of 1847 had promised to be a good one which was an important consideration for a rural community and a good starting point for our story.

After all 96 of our families were engaged in some form of farming and so a good harvest would put food on the table, guarantee work for the many and help the village through the dark cold winter a head.

Equally important for the sixteen families who made their living as tradesmen and retailers the harvest was central to their fortunes.  Only the gentry might be more relaxed at the weather.  But even they would have been aware of the distress and possible social unrest which might follow a bad year in the fields.

St Clement's Church on the green ready for the harvest festival, 1903

During that long hot summer of 1847 many in the township would have been thinking of the harvest to come and if it turned out to be a good one then the harvest celebrations might also be well remembered.

This would begin with the harvest home, where the last wagon loaded with the harvest would be decorated and escorted back accompanied by wives workers and children.

In some places the leading reaper would take the part of the Lord of the harvest and dress up and ask for money from onlookers


Later there would be the special harvest supper where the farmer rewarded his workers with food, alcohol and music.  Later still there would be the religious thanksgiving.

So as we draw to that point in the year I rather think I shall spend some time reflecting on what it meant and how it was celebrated here in Chorlton in the middle of the 19th century.

But for now I shall return to those grapes which must also say something for the soil from which they sprang.
Back in the 1840s this was Gratrix land.  He was the tenant farmer and his farm house was just opposite our vine and more about him later.

Of course in one of those outrageous bouts of self promotion I will just add that much of what I will say on harvest time comes from the book THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, but such blatant advertising should be condoned.

Picture; grapes from the vine, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and St Clement's Church, 1903, courtesy of Carolyn Willits

*THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, Andrew Simpson, 2012, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Now I am not one given to self promotion, but as we have just passed the second anniversary of the publication of  THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY,  I thought I should just mention it.*

Of course it has nothing to do with the imminent advance of Christmas more just a celebration of the story of where we live during the  first half of the 19th century I thought I would just revisit it.

I had originally planned just to write about the history of Chorlton from rural community to suburb of Manchester but there was so much material on that first fifty years that it took up the book and as someone said to me a general history of the township had already been done so instead here are the lives of the people who farmed worked and lived here between 1800 and 1850.

Modesty prevents me from saying more, except that it is available from Chorlton Book Shop.**


*A new book for Chorlton http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

**Chorlton Book Shop, http://www.fire-hire.co.uk/bookshop.html

That well known book on Chorlton's history

Now anyone who knows me knows that I am modest and not one to shout above the crowd but ever so often in a piece of outrageous self promotion I wallow in a bit of self advertising.

That said the picture is by Andy Robertson who just happened to be passing through Waterstones today, he could also have lingered long in Chorlton Book shop where I believe there are signed copies.

Picture; in Waterstone's July 15, 2014, courtesy of Andy Robertson 

*A new book for Chorlton, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

From Chorlton to a car boot sale in Cheshire

Well it had to come, the day one of the books you wrote turns up in a car boot sale.

Now David who came across a copy of The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy was a tad apologetic about bringing me the news.*

And there is something about seeing a piece of work you have laboured over pop up in the back of someone's car ready to go on a trestle table along with sundry kitchen utensils and that painting by amateur artist Aunt Ethel.

But that is the way of things.

And long ago I accepted that its retail value in the shops was undercut by Amazon and other cheap mail order firms.

David assures me that the people selling it had read it, enjoyed it but were just downsizing.

Not that I am upset, Chorlton Book shop tell me they still sell roughly one a week and have just ordered in a new batch.

It is also on the shelves of the big shops in town and continues to receive good reviews.

All this I say not out of egotism but recognition that it is still being read, so while I always knew it would never reach the sale rate of a Harry Potter novel I am pleased.

And of course this way the book is being read all over again.

David bought it at a knock down rate and has promised to review it all over again on his blog. **

So, adapting that American newspaper headline from a Presidential victory, "We all win."

Picture; adapted by Peter Topping

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

** The Didsbury Village Bookshop, http://www.didsburyvillagebookshop.co.uk/

On saying thank you and also asking permission

On the Local History shelf in Central Ref, April 2014

Now as accustomed as I am to showing off, here courtesy of David Gilligan is that not to be missed book on the story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and just to show I am not mercenary at heart this was one of two I donated to Manchester Public Libraries and can be found on the shelves at Central Ref and another in Chorlton Library.  

Thanks to David whose web site is full of interesting and thought provoking material.

And yes the book was actually in exchange for using some of the Library’s images.

Now of course there is also a serious point which is the obvious one that you should always credit your sources and above all ask permission to use images.

It can be frustrating when permission for the picture you want is not forthcoming.

I am sitting on two stories about Bradshaw’s Illustrated Handbook to London and its Environs, published in 1862.

I have quoted a few short passages but have yet to hear from the publishers who reprinted the book in 2012.

And that is after I purchased it both on Kindle and as a hard copy.

But the work isn’t mind to go throwing around so there you have it.
http://www.didsburyvillagebookshop.co.uk/

Picture; courtesy of David Gilligan, April 2014

The Didsbury Village Book Shop, http://www.didsburyvillagebookshop.co.uk/

THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY

A new book for Chorlton. 

Here for the first time is a detailed account of an agricultural community that was just 4 miles from Manchester. Much of the narrative is rooted in the people who lived here, using their words and records. It tells of daily lives, setting them in a national context, and balances the routine with the sensational - including murder, infanticide and a rebellion.

Partly a narrative of rural life, and a description of a community's relationship with a city, the book also includes guided walks around Chorlton to bring this history to life. A database of references and sources is also provided.

This is the story of a group of people that history has forgotten and scholarship has ignored.
ISBN: 9781860776717; RRP: £18.99

This beautifully produced 304pp 246x185mm hardback includes 60 illustrations

The History Press Ltd
The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Gloucestershire
GL6 2QG

http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Story-of-Chorlton-cum-Hardy.aspx

Animals for the pot back in the kitchens of Chorlton in 1848

Pigs and chickens were common enough and many families aspired to keeping a family pig.

These were kept in the back garden or yard and could be fed on almost anything and would provide a family with food for almost the entire year.

As well as fresh pork there was salted bacon, cured ham, lard, sausages and black pudding.  
Beyond its food value the dead pig offered its pigskin for saddles, gloves, bags and footballs while the bristles could be used for brushes and an average pig gave a ton of manure a year.

All of this was fine but often the pig became a family pet which made its killing just that bit harder.  Not that this halted the inevitable, which tended to be done in winter.  It was reckoned that the cooler months should be preferred given that in the words of the farming expert Henry Stephens, “the flesh in the warm months is not sufficiently firm and is then liable to be fly born before it is cured.”    So the traditional time was around Martinmas in early November which had the added advantage that cured hams would be ready for Christmas.

As for the slaughtering of the pig this was done by the local butcher who was often paid in kind, and could be a traumatic event for both pig and family.

Not that there was any set way to carry this out and stories abound of botched attempts all of which led Stephen’s to recommend that the pig be placed on a bed of straw and the knife inserted into the heart.

The event was very much a family affair with everyone pitching in to scrap the hair clean from the body by either immersing it in boiling water or pouring the scalding water over the carcase, and later salting down the meat.  Immediately after it had been killed it was hung and left for the night before being cut up.

It was a time consuming job to rub salt into the hams and not a pleasant one either.  First the salt had to be crushed from a salt block which was then rubbed into the meat.   A side could be anything up to four feet [1.2 metres] in length and special care had to be taken to rub the salt into the bone joints.  All of this left the hands red raw.  Nor was this the end of the process.  The meat then had to be soaked in water and dried before being wrapped in muslin and hung up.  Meanwhile some of the pork might be cooked up into pies and the blood made into black pudding.

The family pig was indeed an important part of the means by which many in the township supplemented their earnings.  But pigs were part of the local economy and both farmers and market gardeners would find keeping pigs a profitable undertaking.

As we have seen they could be fed on almost anything.  In winter this might be potatoes or turnips and in summer they could be left to graze in a grass field.  The going rate at market in 1844 for a pig was anything between 24s [£1.20p] and 30s [£1.50p].  

Our old friend Henry Stephens calculated that two brood sows could produce 40 pigs between them and that retaining six for home use the remaining 34 could easily be sold at market.  So many of the smaller farmers and market gardeners in the township might well keep at least one sow and use it to supplement their income.

The same was true of poultry which existed happily enough in a back garden or farmers’ yard.  But I doubt that there was much to be made from selling the eggs.

A dozen eggs in the summer of 1851 might cost 4d [2p] a dozen and rise in price to 8d [4p] later in the year.  

Enterprising farmers and market gardeners might store up summer eggs to sell in the winter.  This involved smearing them with butter or lard while still warm and packing them in barrels of salt, oats or melted suet then transport them into the city or sell them to egg merchants who visited on a weekly basis.

For most in the township the chicken provided cheap fresh eggs.

Pictures; from the Bookk of the Farm Henry Stephens, Vol 11 1844

From THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, Andrew Simpson, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy-new.html

Back on Chorlton Green with a magical evening

I hope people will forgive me if I wallow a little on the events surrounding the book launch on Wednesday at the Horse and Jockey.

Leaving aside me and the book this was one of those nights which was quite magical.

A lot of people turned up on a cold and wet night to one of our historic pubs to share an interest in the place they live.

The music from the Beech Band  was excellent and plenty of people have told me how much they enjoyed the night.  And so I will close with the night as seen through the camera and the pen of my friends Barri and Lois and her blog,
http://loiselden.com/2012/11/09/andrews-launch-party/
I can’t promise I won’t return to the night and the book but for a while enough is enough.

Picture; courtesy of Barri Sparshot

A book, an author, some fine folk singing, and lots of people at the launch*

I would just like to thank all the people who turned up on a night  when there was a rival attraction in Portugal.

The evening went well; I met up with lots of friends and enjoyed talking about the book.  Pictures from Rachael McGowan will follow.

So for now a thank you to Chorlton Book Shop who organised the launch, the staff of the Horse & Jockey who hosted the event, the Beech Road singers for some wonderful period entertainment and again to all who came along.

* http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

Picture; from the collection of Alan Brown

Another 15 minutes of fame with a book at the Horse & Jockey

It is another one of those 15 minutes of fame slots which has a lot to do with the book launch,* .... in the Horse and Jockey, the pub on the green, tonight at 8.  

Me, some friends, Les Jones and the rest of the Beech Band, Chorlton Book shop and copies of the book. 

And a thank you to everyone who has bought it and might buy it and too Emily and the staff at the Horse & Jockey for hosting the event and the book shop for organising it.

Which about covers it apart from a mention of the gerbil from two doors down.

All welcome

Picture; from the History Press.

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY is here in Chorlton

Now anyone who knows me will know I am a modest enough chap, but even I have to grab my fifteen minutes of fame and announce officially that the book is in Chorlton at Chorlton Book shop.

Early I grant you but all the more fun for that.

And the launch is still on for Wednesday November 7th at 8pm in the Horse and Jockey by the green. There will be live folk music, some interesting people, me and the book which pretty much covers it.

Available from Chorlton Book Shop,  0161 881 6374
https://www.facebook.com/ChorltonBookshop?fref=ts

THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY
ISBN: 9781860776717; RRP: £18.99, The History Press Ltd, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL6 2QG
http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Story-of-Chorlton-cum-Hardy.aspx

Picture; adapted from the original by Peter Topping

And you can read the story of the book at http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY a new history now in the bookshops

It's arrived.

THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY now in the bookshops.*

Available from Chorlton Book Shop who have been taking orders for months and will be organising the launch and book signing at the Horse & Jockey


“This richly illustrated history exposes every aspect of life in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Drawing on contemporary accounts, Government documents, newspapers, reports, antiquarian books and recent academic work, it debunks many myths about the town – and unearths some surprising truths along the way.

Local historian Andrew Simpson takes the reader to the rural cottages and houses of the past, many of which disappeared only recently and some which are still local landmarks today.

Revealing the close links between rural communities and the city and chapters on farming, local industries, shops and pubs, health, wealth and poverty, children, housework and housing, churches, entertainments and sports, crime, politics and all manner of other topics, it will delight residents and visitors alike.”



*ISBN: 9781860776717; RRP: £18.99, The History Press Ltd, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL6 2QG

http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Story-of-Chorlton-cum-Hardy.aspx

Picture; adapted from the original by Peter Topping