Mrs. Beatrice Annie Bayfield another story from Tony Goulding

This is one of those stories which arise from an unintentional discovery while researching something completely unrelated.

I have recently written of this blog of the pioneering female journalist Madeline Alberta Linford; I have now discovered another, and in a quite remarkable coincidence she also lived on Claude Road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Although perhaps not as illustrious as her fellow writer, Beatrice still has an interesting and important life story to reveal.

 Mrs. Bayfield was born Beatrice Annie Hodgson in the Hulme district of Manchester during October 1867 to   William Hodgson and Mary Ann (née Dawson). Her father was a Lancaster-born butcher who had, as recorded in the 1871 census, a butcher’s shop at 117, Stretford Road, Hulme, Manchester. The 1881 census record shows the family (1) had moved to 17, Moss Lane West, Stretford, Lancashire. A decade later in the census of 1891, William, by then a widower (2) and working as an "inspector of gas”, was living at 101, Crosscliffe Street, Moss Side, Lancashire with four of his children. Interestingly, while her older sister, Jessie Till, was recorded as a schoolmistress no occupation was entered for Beatrice Annie.

23, Beechwood Avenue, December 2023

An explanation of this is revealed by the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser of Thursday 21st September 1893 which advertised the commencement in its Weekly Supplement of an extremely interesting original story entitled “The Mystery of the Mervyns” by Miss Beatrice A. Hodgson - “a young and accomplished local writer”. 

Beatrice was also very active in the Pankhurst's Women’s Franchise League, addressing many meetings around the greater Manchester area and the West Riding of Yorkshire. She was also a member of the Women’s Liberal Association. Both her advocacy of Women’s Suffrage and her Liberal political persuasion would I hazard to suggest have hampered her having further stories published in the chauvinistic and right leaning “Manchester Courier ------”.

Beatrice married Herbert Bayfield a “buyer foreign shippers” in the Chorlton Registration District during the December quarter of 1897. Newly-married the couple settled in Chorlton-cum-Hardy where they remained throughout the next 40+ years. Their first home was number 29, Whalley Avenue (off Sandy Lane), but the 1901 census shows they had moved to another rented property, 23, Beechwood Avenue, further along Sandy Lane. 

With Herbert, however, having a successful career in shipping (3) by 1911 the couple were able to purchase this large house on the edge of the newly developed garden village of Chorltonville, “Fern Lea”, 61, Claude Road. 

61, Claude Road, December 2023

Meanwhile, Beatrice continued in her endeavours promoting the extension of the franchise and women’s causes generally. She began travelling more widely, addressing meetings in Worcester, Coventry, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire and elsewhere. In the afternoon of Wednesday 6th May 1908, she shared a platform with Margaret Ashton (soon to be elected as Manchester’s first woman councillor) at a meeting in Manchester’s Co-operative Hall chaired by Dr. Rhodes, of Didsbury, to discuss a proposal to provide Nursery Training Schools for the city. (4)  At this time Beatrice styled herself as Mrs Hodgson Bayfield.

     Beatrice remained a life-long Liberal. During the first decade of the 20th century, she had toured giving a series of lectures to local Womens Liberal Associations some of which included a lantern slide show.  

In the 1911 census in which she was recorded as a lecturer and journalist her employer is given as The National Reform Union a body with strong links to the Liberal Party. Later in 1929 she stood, unsuccessfully, as the Liberal Party’s candidate in the Manchester (Gorton) constituency in that year’s General Election. She was one of just 61 women candidates (25 Liberal, 28 Labour and 8 Conservative) to stand in this landmark election, the first in the U.K. in which both sexes had an equal franchise. Beatrice continued her writing career alongside her political one. 

Once women had gained equal franchise with men in 1928, she turned more towards how that should be used to improve women’s lives. In the late 1920s and early 1930s she contributed letters and articles to “The Vote” the Organ of the Women’s Freedom League with the: - 

She also wrote for The Manchester City News whose issue of 13th November 1937 reported that she had penned her first play and was going to produce it herself at St. Werburgh’s Hall, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The two-act play was titled “Neptune and the Lifeboatmen” with the proceeds donated to the National Lifeboat Institution of which Beatrice was the President of its local Ladies Guild.

Mrs. Bayfield was a member of several public bodies. Amongst these were The Manchester Public Assistance Committee and the Board of the Manchester and Salford Co-operative Society. The membership of this latter body caused her some difficulty when she stood in the Liberal cause in the 1929 election for which she sought advice from the editor and owner of The Manchester Guardian, the fellow Liberal C. P. Scott.

Mrs. Beatrice Annie Hodgson Bayfield died of a heart attack at her home on 17th January 1939 aged 71. She was cremated at the Manchester Crematorium on 20th January. Her estate was valued £524-18s-10d 

Pictures: - Mrs Bayfield candidate for Manchester Gorton from The Vote, April 27th courtesy of British Newspaper Archive, and “Objects----” of THE VOTE, from The Newspaper Archive on Find My Past. Others from collection of Tony Goulding.

Notes: -

1) The Hodgson family consisted of Beatrice Annie’s parents, and four siblings an older sister, Jessie Till, 

2) Beatrice’s mother died on 5th November 1884 and was buried in Ardwick Cemetery, Manchester. In the same grave were interred three of her children who died young William Lincoln (died 5/3/1867 aged 11 months) Ernest Dawson (died 1/12/1868 aged 4 years) and Mary Adelaide (died 1/4/1878 aged 10 months).

3) Herbert’s career appears to have involved widespread frequent travel as for both the 1901 and 1911 censuses he is absent from home. He was at home for the 1921 census in which his occupation is recorded as Managing Director of a Shipping Merchants.

4)  As reported in The Manchester Courier--------, the following day. The sub-heading for their story “Utopian Scheme Discussed” was indicative of “The Courier’s” usual stance on such matters.

While writing about this lady I became aware of how few women had featured in my stories for this blog to date. I am glad that this and my recent telling of Madeline Linford’s story have at least addressed this imbalance.

Madeline Alberta Linford .... another story from Tony Goulding

A friend recently requested that I research the early life of this woman, who, she informed me, was a pioneering female journalist with a distinguished career at the Manchester Guardian.

Madeline

To my chagrin, although this illustrious lady lived in Chorlton-cum-Hardy for more than 50 years I had no prior knowledge of her, or so I thought. 

Worse, after spending some time researching her, some of the relevant records began to appear familiar. 

It was then that I realised I had mentioned her in a previous story on this Blog on 10th September 2021. 

It was a story about 1, St. Clement’s Road and its occupants before it became the presbytery of Our Lady and St. John’s Roman Catholic Church. Madeline was only briefly referred to as the daughter of the family who resided there between cc 1905-1909.  

In my defence, I would point to the final sentence of that story “There are further stories to tell concerning the four children, but these will have to wait for another time”. 

Perhaps I sensed there was an important story to tell about Madeline, but it has been overlooked. Time to put the record straight.

Other than to state that Madeline Alberta Linford was born on 16th January 1895 in Kilmalcom, Renfrewshire, Scotland I will say nothing about her family background as it is well-covered in the story written in 2021.

1, St. Clements Road

1, St. Clements Road, was Madeline’s first address in Chorlton-cum-Hardy which she described in her own words as “a large suburban house, with unused attics where my friends and I acted plays. There was a bad-tempered horse and an even worse-tempered coachman and above a splendid loft full of hay”.  

By her own account Madeline did not have a very happy childhood and found solace initially in reading and, from the age of 10, writing.

When she was 12 years old, Madeline was sent to a private boarding school, St. Catherine’s in Bramley, Surrey. 

She stayed there for five years despite her father, Albert Wallace Linford, having a mental breakdown and being committed to a private asylum Haydock Lodge, Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire from 1908 until his death on 9th June 1913.  

Her father’s illness imposed a substantial burden on the family with the loss of his income compounded by the expense of his care in the asylum. Her mother moved with her two oldest children to much smaller accommodation, 13, Oak Avenue, also in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. It was only with the aid of family that Madeline and her younger brother were able to remain at their respective boarding schools. Her brother, Vivian Haldane Bruce was at Aylwin College in Arnside, Westmorland. 

 Her father’s committal, she never saw him again, with its attendant financial distress, coupled with a couple of childhood illness, made Madeline’s first year at St. Catherine’s a miserable one. She later settled into the routine of life in the Church of England single-sex boarding school excelling, as would be expected, in English.

The family’s financial situation gradually improved after their move to a smaller property and the two older children started working; Elsie Dorothy as a music teacher in a private school at 3, York Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Arthur Forbes as a clerk in a fire insurance office. 

Matters further improved, monetarily, following her father’s death, on 9th June 1913, and after such a long-drawn out illness there may also have been a sense of closure if not relief. 

Of course, just over a year later the First World War began and with two young men of, or approaching, military age in the family fresh worries enveloped the Linford household. 

In the event both Madeline’s brothers emerged from the conflict relatively unscathed. Arthur Forbes did see some service in France, with the Durham Light Infantry, but due to recuring skin problems was invalided home and saw out the remainder of the war as a Corporal (and unpaid acting Lance Sergeant) in the Army Pay Corps in Nottingham.  

Vivian Haldane Bruce did not reach eighteen until March 1918 and was enlisted the following month on 26th April 1918. Initially he joined the Inns of Court Officer cadets but again due to frequent bouts of sickness (bronchitis) he was transferred to the London Regiment 14th (1st London Scottish) battalion. After being with the colours for 11 months to the day he was discharged with a (temporary) ill-health pension on 26th March 1919.

The family had another member involved in war work; Arthur Forbes married Miss Nellie Locke of 40, Reynard Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, at Christ Church, West Didsbury, Manchester on 15th June 1918. She had worked at the Red Cross Hospital in the Baptist School building on Wilbraham Road, from April 1917 until April 1918 engaged in kitchen and later nursing duties.

The inter-war period were good years for Madeline both professionally and domestically. Her relationship with her mother became much closer especially when the family moved from the house in Oak Avenue with all its associated sad memories to 95, Claude Road, Chorltonville a “gay little house in a garden suburb” as Madeline described it.

95, Claude Road 

Madeline’s journalistic career really took off with her assignment to travel and report on the relief efforts of the Friends missions in France, Austria, and Poland, her first trip, unaccompanied, was at the end of 1919. 

She returned in early 1921, this time with a chaperone! This is an example of the powerful reporting she sent back as copy: 

"Dateline: Vienna 6 December 1919

The child welfare work of the Mission naturally includes the expectant mothers.  They are perhaps the saddest people in Vienna. 

After long years of privation and hopelessness and the sight of the diseased and wretched children already in the world there is no joy or pride in motherhood here". Manchester Guardian, 12 December 1919

On the back of these successful trips, she was a natural choice to be the editor of the newly launched “Women’s page” of the paper. It was to be aimed at the “intelligent woman” and soon attracted contributions from all the prominent female writers of the day. Madeline remained at its helm until it was discontinued on the outbreak of war in 1939. 

In this period also, were published A biography of Mary Wollstonecraft and a series of five novels: “Broken Bridges”, “Roadside Fire”, “A Home and Children”, “Bread and Honey”, and “Out of the Window”. (2) 

The last of these novels was published in 1930 and although she did have several short stories published subsequently, she never returned to lengthier ones. This seems a pity as the review of her third novel in the Illustrated London News of 20th March 1926 closed with the lines, “Miss Linford has stepped into the sure ranks of novelists who count”.

Madeline hinted in her own writing at a reason for the lack of more novels, following the death of her mother in 1935 she lost the habit of “daydreaming”. She also moved out of the house on Claude Road to Flat 2 in this large house at 552, Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. 

552, Wilbraham Road

The 1939 Register shows her younger brother living, with his new wife, Kathleen Mary (née Bedell) whom he married in Finchley Parish Church, North London on Saturday 30th July 1938, living close by at 532, Wilbraham Road. 

Less than a mile away, at 30, Cromwell Road, Stretford, lived Mr. & Mrs. George Frederick and Elsie Dorothy Holgate, Madeline’s sister and brother-in-law whose wedding took place at Manchester Cathedral on 2nd October 1926. 

Arthur Forbes Linford, her older brother, had moved on promotion to Wembley, North London in the 1920s. (3)

During the Second World War, Madeline continued her journalism as the Manchester Guardian’s picture editor and combined this with working for the Women’s Voluntary Service (W.V.S.) the note on her entry in the 1939 Register indicates that this involved A.R.P. reports in some way.

Post World War 2, Madeline continued as the paper’s picture editor for a time until she took early retirement in November 1953 and moved to Windermere in the Lake district from where she still occasionally submitted articles to the Manchester Guardian, the last in 1965. She found a house close to where her sister and brother-in-law had moved to: - Burnside Cottage, Kendal Road, Bowness-on-Windermere, Westmorland.

 Madeline died, the last of the four Linford siblings to do so, on 16th June 1975 at The Bay View Nursing Home, Windermere Road, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria. Her estate was valued for probate purposes at £14,968. (Equivalent to £111,000 today). 

Her home address at the time of her death was Oak Hill, Lake Road, Windermere. 

 Pictures: - Portrait of Madeline is a small extract from the Guardian’s photograph of its 1921 editorial staff. Others from the collection of Tony Goulding.

Notes: -

1) Manchester’s poor rate books show this was Madeline’s address from 14th October 1921.

2)  “Out of the Window” first published in 1930 by Ernest Benn Limited, has just been reprinted and published in paperback by Persephone Books. 

3) Arthur Forbes Linford died on Monday 20th May 1963. He lived at “Arnellan”, 146, Slough Lane, Kingsbury, North-West London, a branch inspector for an insurance company and latterly the manager of its Hendon Branch, he was also for 37 years acted as secretary to the trustees of the Kingsbury Charities. (Wembley News 24th May and 7th June 1963.

Acknowledgements: -   First and foremost, I have made extensive use of Michael Herbert’s Blog about Madeline "M.A.L: the writing and journalism of Madeline Linford, 1916 to …at https//:madelinelinford.wordpress.com especially the extracts of her writings. Otherwise just the usual sources found on Find my Past most helpfully the Newspaper Archive and the Red Cross Archive at https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/our-history/museum-and-archives