Picking up the packet boat from Stretford and then post haste to Castlefield on the Duke’s Canal

Now I often write about living in the township in the mid 19th century and I reckon if I had wanted to travel into Manchester it would have been by water.

The price of a package ticket

So if I could have afforded it I would have chosen one of the twice daily package boats from Stretford along the canal which transported passengers in comfort and speed.

A ticket for the front room cost 6d [2½p] and the back room 4d [1½p].*

This was travelling in style.   These packet boats were fitted with large deck cabins surrounded by windows which allowed the passengers to sit “under cover and see the country” glide by at the rate of six miles an hour, made possible by  two or sometimes three horses which pulled the packet.  And if that was not style enough the lead horse was guided by a horseman in full company livery.**

Cornbrook south towards Stretford

It was a pleasant enough journey for most of the route was still across open farm land and it was not till Cornbrook that the landscape became more industrial.

From here on there was no mistaking that the final destination was that busy, smoky and energetic city.

The chemical and dye works of Cornbrook gave way to saw mills, a textile factory, paper mill and all manner of wharves and ware houses before the packet arrived in the heart of Castlefield.

But we all know that I wouldn’t have been in the money and so there would have been no fast packet boat for me and no walk out of the village along the old road to Stretford, instead it would have been a longer and slower tramp, north through Martledge.  But that is another story for another time.

Pictures; Packet boat charges from Pigot and Slater’s Directory of Manchester and Salford 1841, and detail of the Cornbrook stretch of the Duke’s canal from the OS map of Lancashire, 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*This was beyond what most of our residents could afford.  A domestic servant might earn 2s 9d [13½] while that of a labourer was 13s.6d [57½p].

**Slugg, T.J., Reminiscences of Manchester, J.E.Cornish, Manchester 1881

Looking out on one of our farms from our house on Beech Road

I have always been fascinated by the Bowling Green Farm which stood on what is now the junction of Beech Road and Beaumont Road.

The Bowling Green Farm, date unknown

Part of the reason is simply that we live opposite in the house Joe Scott built who was also responsible for demolishing the farm house sometime in the 1940s.

There is strong evidence that it was there by the 1750s and had a mixed existence.

In the 1840s it was the home of Samuel and Mary Gratrix, who were in their early 70s.  They employed a farm labourer who lived with them.

Mr Gratrix's home and land on the right of the map, 1844

Now that is a little surprising given that they only farmed an acre of land which was located to the south and east of the farm, and consisted of parts of five fields which were a mix of arable, pasture and part of an orchard.

By 1852 the farm had passed into the tenancy of Peter Langford, who a year before had farmed an acre of land by Oswald Field.  The family appear to prosper because just nine years later they have 16 acres and employed two labourers.

And the family remained on the farm until 1909.

With a bit more digging it should be possible to firm up the final date because just two years later the house was home the Mylett family and the connection with the land seems severed.  He was a coal merchant.

Chorlton Row, 1854

I know that Mr and Mrs Mylett had three young children and that their home had six rooms.

And it is that small detail about the house which as ever draws me into the property.

There will be lots more to finds out, but the romantic in me has wandered back into the 1840s, when the Gratrix family had clear views north across the fields to High Lane, south towards Chorlton Brook, and no doubt passed the time of day with whoever was walking down Chorlton Row from Barlow Moor Lane to the village green.

Plan of the farm house, circa 1930s

And there would have been plenty of them, from the itinerant traders in from Manchester with everything you might want, to those wanting to use the blacksmith down by the Wesleyan chapel and of course those wishing to call in at one of the beer shop and pubs.

Samuel Gratrix might well have supplied some of the food eaten by the Holt family who lived just east of his farm in the impressive Beech House which was set in a walled garden.

And I guess will have sold much of his crops at the Manchester markets.

All of which just leaves me to puzzle over the foot print of the house on the old maps which doesn't quite match the plan in the 1930s.

But that is for another time.

Location; Beech Road

Pictures; the Bowling Green Farm, date unknown from the collection of Tony Walker, the plan of the farm circa 1930 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Mr Gratrix's fields, 1844, from the OS Lancashire, 1854, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Tracking the age of your house in Chorlton

Now one of the first golden rules of research is that you never turn down any information you are given.

It might not fit with what you are doing but from experience it will sometime in the future.

Age of Buildings of chosen area

All of which is why I leapt at the offer from Phil Portus of an undergraduate project he undertook on Chorlton in the summer of 1968.*

Phil was in his first year of a Geography and Geology BSc and set out to answer the question “to what extent did Urban growth after 1850 proceed within the physical framework of pre-existing patterns of land ownership” which involved using the tithe map of 1844 and comparing it with OS maps of the period from the 1840s across the rest of that century and into the next.

The final piece of work included his written answer along with a series of beautifully drawn maps and overlays showing land ownership in 1844, the age of buildings from before 1844 through to 1955 and two detailed overlays of land ownership and the age of properties on the northern side of Beech Road from St Clements to Barlow Moor Road and back to Hardy Lane.

What is all the more remarkable is that this of course was done before the internet which meant that there was no recourse to online searches and pretty much everything was drawn from documents held in the archives and local history library down at the Ref.

And judging by his conclusions also involved a lot of field work out on Beech Road and the neighbouring roads observing the properties and matching their position against the field boundaries and the tithe plan.

All of which contributes to our knowledge of the history of Chorlton.

Detail from Age of buildings in chosen area

But like all research it also offers up unexpected information and prompts for further research.

So while I knew that the social housing which stretches south down Barlow Moor Road dated from before the Second World War I had never researched it in enough detail to come up with an end date of 1923.

Likewise Phil confirmed what I always suspected that small pockets of infill development around Ivy Green were undertaken between 1939 and 55.

Which just then left those unintended consequences, like the date that Church Road became Chequers.

Now I am not alone in spotting just how many name changes were made, and plenty of people have their own personal one, but I had always been puzzled as to when this might have happened.

The logical date was when we voted to join the city in 1904 but the changes were much later with people suggesting the late 1960s or early 70s and Phil at least has confirmed that Church Road was still in use in 1968.
That said Stephen has commented, "I can't agree with the idea that Chequers Road only got that name as late as 1968. I was at St John's RC primary school from 1955 to 1962, and it was Chequers Road then. 

Maybe some locals still referred to the old name. I still think of Zetland Road as Holland Road, it's old name, as the name change took place after I had ceased to use it on a daily basis to get to and from school."

So there you have it, a piece of research undertaken forty-nine years ago which  is still doing the business but may need a revisit.

*Salford Project, http://www.philportus.co.uk/salford-project/

Picture; overlay of properties on the north side of Beech Road, 1968 courtesy of Phil Portus

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 3........ the tithe map 1845

A short series featuring objects which tell a story of Chorlton in just a paragraph and  a challenge for people to suggest some that are personal to their stories.

The tithe map perfectly captures a moment in our history.  Here were recorded the fields, buildings and roads in 1845.  But there is much more because the map and its accompanying schedule lists who owned the land, who they rented it to, the size of each field, its value and above all its use. It will also tell you who lived in the houses.

Now  we live facing the Recreation Ground and beside us was the Bowling Green Field, farmed by Samuel Gratrix, and owned by the Egerton’s.  It was an acre of arable farm land and its value was 3s 10d and directly opposite us was Row Acre which is now the Rec

Picture; by courtesy of Philip Lloyd

Lydia Brown ……… Chorlton farmer and businesswoman comes out of the shadows ...... after 176 years

I wish there was more to know about Lydia Brown, because back in the middle decades of the 19th century she was a busy woman, here in Chorlton.

Brook Farm, undated

She lived at Brook Farm, and farmed 70 acres of pasture and arable land, stretching along the Brook from the Bowling Green pub almost as far as Barlow Moor Road, and south across the meadows.

She also had portfolio of properties, which included the smithy worked by William Davies on what is now Beech Road, the house and workshop of William Brownhill the wheelwright on Sandy Lane and a number cottages, one of which was occupied by John Axon who had been one of the founder members of our own brass band.

And she was a formidable woman, strong enough in her own knowledge of farming to call down her landlord who was George Lloyd who she spoke of contemptuously as “Squire Lloyd” .

Brook Farm, no. 314 and fields, 1847

This I know because in the summer of 1847 she told the journalist Alexander Somerville that Mr. Lloyd was damaging the land she farmed by his refusal to allow her to cut down a line of ash trees.

These, Alexander Somerville commented were “not only objectionable as all other kinds are in and around cultivated fields but positively poisonous to other vegetation, …… causing much waste of land, waste of fertility, and doing no good whatever.  Squire Lloyd is the landlord.  

Mrs. Brown, a widow, is the tenant.  She keeps the farm in excellent order so far as the landlord’s restrictions will allow.  

But neither herself nor her workmen must 'crop or lop top' a single branch from the deleterious ash trees”.

Now, there is something quite exciting at being able to hear the words of someone who lived in the heart of the township a full 173 years ago,

But there isn’t much else.

Despite trawling the census returns for Chorlton I can not find any reference to her, although tantalizingly there is a Mary Brown, in 1841, who despite the different name fits the profile.
Mary like Lydia was 50 in 1841, both had a son of the same name and both were married to a Johnathan.

Jonathan and Lydia Brown appear in the baptismal records for 1823, 1825, 1828 and ’31.
Jonathan described himself as a publican and according to Ellwood in his History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, he was the tenant at the Horse & Jockey.  Jonathan is in the electoral register for 1832, 1835 and 1840 with freehold buildings at Lane End and on Chorlton Row, which fits with the properties listed as belonging to Lydia from 1844 onwards.***

The gravestone, 2011

And that is about it.  Brook Farm where she lived was on the site of the old dairy, which in turn was redeveloped into a  collection of des res properties on Brookburn Road opposite the school. I do have one picture of the house and know that it had nine rooms.

But we do have her gravestone which is still in the parish churchyard and is in itself a link to Mrs. Brown.

I just wish there was more.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; Brook Farm, undated, from the Lloyd Collection, the tithe map showing Brook Farm and some of the land farmed by Mrs. Brown, 1847, and the gravestone of Mrs. Brown, 2011, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Somerville, Alexander, A Pilgrimage in Search of the Potato Blight, Manchester Examiner, June 19th, 1847

**Ellwood, T, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy Chapter 23, Inns April 17th 1886, South Manchester Gazette

***Chorlton Row, is now Beech Road

A book called Alice …. a thunderstorm ….and the lazy buzz of visiting bees … the non-history story

August into September used to be known as the silly season when with Parliament in recess along with the law courts nothing much stirred leaving the media to fall back on trivia to sell newspapers and generate income from advertising.

Driven from the Rec ... hot days, 2026

It would be the time of “man bites dog”, “looking for the sea at Southport” and “spotting the first onion sellers from France”.

And despite that it is only June, and recent stories of earthquakes in Venezuela, wars in the Middle East and that unfolding speculation on who will be Britain’s next Prime Minister, here in Chorlton it all seems to be what the Americans would call a “slow news week”.

All of which I guess is down to the heat wave which has driven me into the coolest part of the house.  Shutters and curtain drawn, windows closed and the admission that the last time I went out was Monday.

It has however given me more time to reflect on smaller bits of history and to explore phrases like “Piffy on a rock bun”, “Black as New gate’s knocker”, and “looking like Reggie Page”. Some are very personal and arise from our own family while others have a wider context and some are rooted in historic events. *

And there are those which like me and my friends have used for decades and no doubt were picked up from our youth.  One such was when my friend Lois responding to the present heatwave describing the moment as “boiling” while many of us have and do say I am “starving”. 

Now neither can logically be true but they perfectly describe a moment.

Alice trying to play croquet with a flamingo, 1865

And that brings me back to one of my favourite bits from Through the Looking Glass where Humpty Dumpty remarks, “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less’”.

An absurd comment but one which chimes in perfectly with the utterances of some politicians and much of what is peddled on social media and is just “fake news”, although even the word fake news has been hijacked to rubbish what has been verified as accurate.

All that said there is nothing fake about the heat wave.

Inside our house it is currently 29° while outside its 32° but which pales when set against the 34° being suffered by one of my sisters in southeast London.

Alas the promised thunderstorms passed off with just three claps of thunder and the accompanying streaks of lightening at 5 this morning.

It was enough to get me up, water the garden and enjoy the lazy buzz of some friendly bees who were more active than I have been all day.

All of which is very unhistorical so I shall close with a review of the summers from the mid-1840s.

Back then we were still a rural community with most of our population deriving a living from the land or in associated trades. So, the weather was more than just a hot day to endure.  

Hot days looking for bees, 2026

My copy of “Agricultural Records” reports that 1842 and 1843 were “fine dry summers with a good harvest” while 1844 was “a year of drought with disastrous harvest", followed by a year when the summer was “cold with a fairly poor harvest”.***

Happily, 1847 and 1848 offered up mixed weather but the harvests were plentiful although the quality was low.

And anyone who has studied social unrest will know that a succession of poor harvests brings hardships to the poor and anxiety for the people of plenty, who well remembered that the bumper French harvest of 1787 gave way to two bad years and a revolution.

Location; where ever  it is hot

Pictures; Driven from The Rec, Beech Road, empty at midday, 2026, and hot days looking for bees, Royal Horticultural Gardens, Bridgewater from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Alice trying to play croquet with a flamingo, John Teninel, 1865, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carrol, 1865

*"'When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.

'The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

'The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all’”.

Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll, 1871

**Piffy on a rock bun …………… and other travels with my past, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/06/piffy-on-rock-bun-and-other-travels.html

***Agricultural Records, AD 220-1977, J.M. Stratton and Jack Houghton Brown, 1978

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

Mr. Taylor’s very old cottage ……….. on the edge of the meadows

Now I am back with a familiar picture which has appeared before on the blog.

Mr. Taylor's cottage, date unknown

The caption just says, “old cottage near the meadows, Chorlton-cum-Hardy”, and to add to the lack of detail the image is undated.  

I might be able to track down when the image was first used by the Reaud picture postcard company, because we do have a catalogue number.

Trying to locate exactly where it was continues to be a challenge, but I think we are on what is now Brookburn Road, with the Bowling Green Hotel roughly behind us on what is now a new build, but was once the United Servicemen’s Club.*

The footprint of the cottage conforms to a property shown on the OS map for 1894, and is similar to ones which show up on earlier maps from 1854, back to 1818.

The cottage opposite the Bowling Green Inn

During the 1840s, it was home to a John Taylor who had been born in Chorlton in 1784, and gave his occupation as an agricultural labourer.  

The cottage was owned by the executors of John Renshaw who had an extensive property portfolio across the township, including Renshaw’s Buildings which were on the site now occupied by the Royal Oak Hotel.

By 1851 Mr. Taylor was still in a Renshaw property but had moved to a house in Martledge.

Judging by the census return from that year he was still working, although does appear to being sharing the home with a Mary Taylor who was six years younger and described herself as a “laundress”.

In time it will be possible to track some of the other residents, and determine when the house was demolished which I think may be the mid 1920s.

I have always been fascinated by this picture, particularly because it offers up an image of cottages which had once been typical of the properties in the township and may date back to the late 18th century.**

It looks to be larger than some labourer’s homes, which were one up one down, and it has space for a cottage garden.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; “old cottage near the meadows, Chorlton-cum-Hardy”, undated, from the Lloyd Collection, and its location from the Tithe map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1845

* That club on Brookburn Road in Chorlton ....... and a fascinating find  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/08/that-club-on-brookburn-road-in-chorlton.html

**A property roughly in the right place shows up on Yate’s map of 1786.

What we did in October when we were still a farming community

Cows on the meadows, 2003

An occasional series reflecting on what we did in the township when we were still a small rural community.

Now if I had been farming here in the 1850s I might well have turned to The Book of the Farm by Henry Stephens.*

It was written in 1844, and ran to countless editions. It was the manual for anyone wanting to be a farmer.

Everything is here from what crops to plant and when to how to make a well, as well as sound advice on hiring labourers, the construction of a water meadow, and the best location for the milk house and cheese room. I learned which materials were best for building a farm house and how much I could expect to pay for materials, as well as the most up to date scientific information on planting wurzels.

It was a practical book and so “the cost of digging a well in clay, eight feet in diameter and sixteen deep and building a ring three feet in diameter with dry rubble masonry is only L5 [£5] exclusive of carriage and the cost of pumps.”

He calculated that 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.

Nor should we forget that these animals were destined for the table and so the slaughter of pigs was best done around Martinmas in early November because “the flesh in the warm months is not sufficiently firm and is then liable to be fly born before it is cured” and doing so in early November had the added advantage that cured hams would be ready for Christmas.

But today and over the next few weeks I want to drop in to another farming book which is H Rider Haggard’s A Farmer’s Year, written in 1898 and published the following year.

Now he was farming in Norfolk a full half century later than Mr Stephens and of course Norfolk isn’t rural Chorlton or Eltham or anywhere in south east London..

Harrowing in Mustard on stubble

That said this is what he wrote for the beginning of October.

“Since harvest about 250 loads of manure have been carted from the yards direct to the various fields where they are to spread, and sundry dykes on the marshland have been drawn.  

Also a little thrashing has been done and we sold some barley at sixteen shillings and fifteen shillings according to its quality.

Today October 5th we are ploughing on the bean stubble but with the soil in its present condition it is dreadfully hard work for the horses.”


*Stephens Henry, The Book of the Farm, 1844

** Haggard, H Rider, A Farmer’s Year,  1899

Pictures; the Meadows, courtesy of David Bishop 2003, and Harrowing in Mustard on stubble from A Farmer’s Year, 1899

In Manchester voting in the Parliamentary election of 1844

“This day may be characterised as one of great activity, bustle and preliminary preparation, on both sides, for the completion of the canvas, and for bringing up the voters”*

Manchester Guardian, May 1844

And in the 171 years since the election of 1844 little has changed for the election team, the candidates and the voters.

So while there is not the violence or the bribery and voting is carried out in secret there is much that would be familiar to a voter from 1844 looking at an election today.

They might be surprised at how restrained the candidates were when talking about each other and mystified at the lack of dirty tricks and intimidation practised by the leading members of the political factions.

But they would be at home with the banners and posters and the sheer excitement of the outcome.

Yesterday we followed our 27 voters into Manchester from Chorlton where they voted at the Bush Inn on Deansgate.

James Bracegirdle, Methodist

They were a mixed bunch of “gentlemen,” business types and farmers.  Over half qualified to vote by virtue of owning property while the remainder were tenant farmers.

But only two were absentee voters, which contrasts with another rural area down south where just fifty percent lived in the place they cast their vote.**

It is a practice which sits a little uncomfortably with our modern ideas of democracy as does the practice of voting openly and having your vote recorded in the Poll Books.

Now not all of these Poll Books have survived but where they do they give a fascinating insight into how a community might vote.  Of course some care has to be taken with them.

Our 27 represented about 9% of the entire adult population and there is plenty of evidence that the open nature of voting led to some tenants feeling that they could be intimidated by the landlords.

Just nine years earlier the vote in Chorlton mirrored the wishes of the big Tory grandees who forcibly expressed their preferences.  So of the sixteen tenant farmers who were qualified to vote, twelve farmed land from one of these big Tory landowners.

They may not have voted for the “big family’s wishes” and it is equally possible that they shared the same outlook, but as we saw yesterday the Tory candidate received 72% of the vote here.

Jeremiah Brundrit, Methodist

Of course some of our electors were well off enough to be independent of any such intimidation and this may have included the small group of Methodists.

In total we have the names of 72 Methodist families who were active in the years up to 1851 out of a total of 119 families.  Not all of these have revealed their occupations but of those who have, seventeen  were farmers and market gardeners, nine  in trade and retail, forty four were labourers, one, Betty Moores was a charwoman and one a servant.***  
There were also a policeman, a coachman and a sailor.

Few of the farmers worked large amounts of land; most were market gardeners making a living from less than 5 acres.

But even given this middling to lowly economic status Chorlton Methodists represented a large number of those entitled to vote in the reformed Parliament.

In 1832 of the 21 electors, eight were Methodists of which 5 were freeholders and three tenant farmers.

I doubt that will ever know whether they went together to Manchester to vote and sadly the Poll Book for 1844 is not available so it is impossible to hazard who they voted for or if they all voted the same way.

At least we know that James Holt of Beech House consistently voted Tory.  He had a fine house in a large estate stretching from the corner of Beech Road, down to High Lane, along High lane almost to Cross Road and back along Cross Road to Beech Road.  He had made his money in calico engraving in Manchester and moved from his fine house in St John’s Street to Chorlton in the 1830s.

But he retained his right to vote in Manchester and had two votes.  And his story is for another time.

Pictures; from the Manchester Guardian, May 1844, Jeremiah Brundrit and James Bracegirdle from the Wesleyan Handbook, 1909, data from the electoral register for 1832

*The Manchester Guardian May 29 1844
** This was Eltham in Kent where only 35 of the 67 electors lived in the district.
*** Beech Road Baptismal Records 1807-1847 from The Register of Baptisms, In the Wesleyan Chapel Radnor Street Circuit 1830-1837, microfilm MFPR2120, Local History Library Manchester City Council Libraries, Beech Road Baptismal Records 1807-1850,

When we made cider and perry here in Chorlton in 1847

Back in 1847, the journalist Alexander Somerville had walked the lanes of Chorlton looking for evidence of potato blight, that disease which had destroyed the crops in Ireland, and was already in parts of northern Derbyshire.

He didn’t find any but recorded his conversations with some of our local farmers, one of which was James Higginbotham whose land included a strip along what is now the Rec on the corner of Beech Road and Cross Road.

The conversation turned away from potatoes to fruit which made up a significant part of the crops we grew for the Manchester markets and included raspberries, rhubarb, currants and gooseberries and above all apples and pears and in particular the Newbridge pear, and Rose of Sharon apple.

Look at any old maps from the mid 19th century and you are struck by the number of orchards across the township.  Most would have gone to the markets, but some would have been turned into cider and perry and drunk at home.

So it was of particular concern to James Higginbotham that in the June of 1847 his apples and pears were doing well.  As he said to Somerville who dutifully reported the conversations,

“The insects had made great havoc among the fruit in the adjoining orchard during the hot sunny days of May and the first week of June but the cold of last week and the rain of this had come in time to save still a good quantity.  He pointed to his Rose of Sharon apple trees which had bloomed so profusely as to be wonderful; they had been invaded by a terrible army of insects, and had hardly been able to maintain the conflict; but the myriads of diseased invaders wrapped in their winding sheets of cobwebs and laying upon the ground, where the rain had carried them, showed how beneficial the cold and rain had been.  There was still a goodly show of apples left, and the Rose of Sharon branches were again fresh, beautiful and healthy.  The Newbridge pears clustered upon the trees as if the invaders of the orchard had never been.”*

It is a priceless piece of reporting and not just because here are the voices of the people who lived in Chorlton over 160 years ago but because it provides us with the actual names of what types of apples and pears were grown here.

And I am indebted to Mary Pennell of the National Fruit Collection** who kindly dug out some information about both crops. “Newbridge – is in fact a ‘perry pear’. It is also known as ‘White Moorcroft’. Rose of Sharon – an apple variety that was exhibited from Cheshire in 1934. Unfortunately this is the only record for this apple but at least we know that it did at least exist at some stage.”  All of which is very exciting, well to me anyway.

Our Newbridge pears are harvested from the first to the third week in October about the same time as the Rose of Sharon apples.  Now what for me is revealing is that here we have the first evidence that along with cider our farmers were growing perry pears and must have been making perry.  And for anyone unsure, perry is made in much the same way as cider.

So there you have it, and tomorrow I think I shall pursue the story but in the meantime you can look again at the Newbridge pear and pear tree.  And reflect that some of the fruit trees which are there in our gardens may be have links to those seen by Somerville and farmed by Higginbotham.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; Newbridge pears and pear tree from the National Fruit Collection

*Manchester Examiner, Saturday June 19th 1847

**http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/

The lost orchards of Chorlton

Today I went looking for the Newbridge pear and the Rose of Sharon apple.

They had been grown here in the 1840’s and had caught the eye of the journalist Alexander Somerville who reported that both pear and apple were “fresh, beautiful and healthy.”

I wrote about them recently and it occurred to me that I should go on an adventure with my old botanist chum and see if we could locate any last vestiges of them.  David reckoned that there were still orchards on the other side of the Mersey not far from Jackson’s Boat, but the weather was against us and never being one for getting wet the quest has been postponed.

But in the meantime I set out for find the ones that Alexander Somerville described.  Now these belonged to the farmer James Higginbotham and they took in the land either side of what is now Crossland Road up as far as Higson Avenue.

But there were others dotted across the township.  Now the productive life of an apple tree is about 30-40 years although some can go for 80 to a 100 years,* so with this in mind I doubt that any we find today will date from 1847, but you never know.

So I travel in hope, but even if we don’t find any Newbridge pears or Rose of Sharon apples what fascinates me is that they confirm the possibility that were making cider and perry here in the township.  Of course most of our apples were sent to the Manchester markets but some will have been retained for home use.  And because the Newbridge pear is a perry pear it follows that either we were making perry or we were sending it on to be turned into perry.

All of which also means there is now the hunt for an old press, and if that could be found I would really be very pleased.

*And there are examples which were planted at the beginning of the 19th century

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; Higson’s orchard from a detail of the OS map of Lancashire, 1841, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

Walking in the north of the township in to Martledge in the summer of 1847, part one

Barlow Moor Lane, north to Martledge, a journey which will take in some great houses, a shop, farms and a pub as well as cottages of wattle and daub and brick

Barlow Moor Lane is a long road.

Standing at the point where the Row joins Barlow Moor Lane we have a choice, turn north and journey on to Martledge and then out of the township by various routes to Hulme and
Manchester, or south to Hardy Lane and on to the Mersey, Withington and Didsbury.

Martledge is much overlooked in most histories of the township so north it is.

And we will start with the Holt estate again.  Leaving the Row and heading north up Barlow Moor Lane we follow the east wall of the Holts, all the way to Lane End.  Everything on this side of the road dates from after 1908 when the last of the Chorlton Holts died and the estate sold off.

It finished at Lane End.  Directly opposite where today Sandy Lane begins was the grocer’s shop of Jeremiah  Brundrett.  It was a large house at one time known as Lilly Cottage.

The Brundrett’s were there long enough for the spot to become known as Brundrett’s corner  Facing the shop roughly on the site of the church was the home of Caleb and Ann Jordril.   Here was one of the last wattle and daub cottages.

Continuing north along the lane our journey would pass open fields until we reached the edge of Martledge.

Here to our left was Clough Farm and on our right Oak Bank House.

The farm stood roughly between Groby Road and Silverwood Avenue.   In that summer of 1847 it was occupied by Margaret Taylor and it would have been her farm land we would have seen as we walked up Barlow Moor Lane towards her home.

Today all of the land from Silverwood Avenue back towards High Lane and right back to Lane End was rented by her from the Egerton Estate.  There were 10 acres in all and it was a mix of arable, meadow and clover and included part of Scotch Hill.

Margaret was forty-seven.   Hers was no easy life.  To make 10 acres of land work and bring in a living required hard work.

Over and above the big points in the agricultural year of sowing, planting and reaping, there were the constant demands of weeding, chasing off pests and the journeys to the markets in Manchester.

These were tasks usually carried out by the whole family, but during the 1840s, she lost both her parents and two sisters which left her with just her 11 year old nephew.   Now Margaret was not alone in facing such loss, or in bringing up the child of her a relative.

Easing the chronic overcrowding meant that at least one child might be farmed out to relatives and Edward her nephew had been at Clough Farm since he was five and would still be there when he was 15 by which time she had married John Stretch.

From their fields they would have been able to gaze across at Oak Bank, one time home of William Morton and later the Cope family.  Oak Bank was a substantial building standing in its own grounds close to the modern junction of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads.

Nothing now exists of the house but the path leading to it is now Needham Avenue. The house was situated in a garden which covered the area running on either side of Needham Avenue as far as Barlow More Lane in one direction and Corkland Road in the other.

The estate also included a large meadow field and small wood stretching back from Needham along Barlow Moor Lane to Lane End.

It had belonged to William Morton who had been there since 1821, but on death his will stipulated that the house and land had to be sold within five years.  

When this happened is not known but in 1845 a Miss Crofton was there paying rent to the Executors of Mr Morton.  

By 1847 the house and land were in the possession of Frederick Cope who rented both to John.  This was a short term arrangement and by 1850 the Cope family were living at Oak Bank.

William Morton had described himself as a member of the gentry.   Frederick Cope was a wine merchant who ten years earlier had been living with his wife and children on Oxford Street, close to where the University now stands.  Elizabeth had died by 1851.

Adapted from THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

Pictures; map of Barlow Moor Lane, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/  picture of Jeremiah  Brundrett, Wesleyan Handbook, 1908, courtesy of Philip Lloyd, and gravestone of the Morton family in the parish churchyard, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

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

The lost cottages of Hardy ……………. the lonely outposts of Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Now I am returning to the story of the lost cottages of Hardy, which was the furthermost out post of Chorlton, hard up against the River Mersey.

Typical Chorlton cottages

Just how many people lived in the stretch of land roughly from Hardy Farm to the river crossing at Jackson’s Boat is difficult to estimate.

Thomas Elwood, writing in 1885, records that,  “The hamlet of Hardy consisted of groups of cottages between Hardy Farm and Jackson’s Boat, the last of which were taken down shortly after the flood of 1854, when the meadows were flooded to a depth of three feet.  

These ancient cottages were situated on an eminence at the extreme end of Hardy Lane and were occupied by John Marsland and John Burgess”. *

Hardy in 1854, with the cottage east if Hardy Farm

A search of the maps of the mid-19th century show the cottages just east of Hardy Farm and an earlier map dating from 1830 shows three properties, one of which is at the end of the lane running to the river crossing.

But despite knowing the names of two of the occupants, the historic records have yielded few details.  Neither John Marsland or John Burgess, show up in the rate books for the period up to 1854, and there is an ominous silence in the rate records for any properties other than Hardy Farm.

That said both men and their families were living in Chorlton in 1841 and 1851 and are recorded beside each other and close to Hardy Farm.

Hardy in 1830

So that I think places them in the hamlet in the early 1840s.

Leaving just the mystery that only one property is mentioned in the tithe records for 1845, east of Hardy Farm.  It belonged to the Egerton’s and was part of the land and buildings rented from the Egerton’s by Samuel Dean who lived in the much grander Barlow Hall Farm.

All of which does rather seem very pedantic.

But I remain fascinated by those cottages and the people who lived there.

Both Mr. Marsland and Mr. Burgess were agricultural workers and given that their homes were part of Samuel Dean’s portfolio of houses and land, I guess they worked for him, and in 1851, Charles Marsland was listed as a farm servant living at Barlow Hall Farm.

The census returns also give a clue to just how long the Marsland family had lived in the cottage, because none of their children were born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.  In 1841 Charles who was the youngest, was fifteen years old and had been born in Sale.  Nor were the Burgess family from Chorlton, which suggests they were part of that huge group of agricultural workers who moved around looking for work.

Wattle and daub Cottages

Hardy would have been a pretty remote spot, with the village with its church and two pubs a full fifteen minutes’ walk away, and nothing in either direction save the river, Hardy Farm, and of course the pub over the water at Jackson’s Boat.

Their homes would have been made of wattle and daub, which would have rendered them no match for those floods of 1854, which is where I shall leave the lost cottages.

Location; Hardy

Pictures; Chorlton cottages, drawn by Bari Sparshot from original old photographs, map of Hardy in 1854, from the OS for Lancashire, 1854, and Hennet’s map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1830, courtesy of Digital Archives Association

*Elwood, Thomas, Chapter 1, The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, November 7, 1885

House Yard Road ...... the one we lost

It’s the cut through from the village green down to the Bowler we all use.

House Yard Road, 2023

Or at least we use when we don’t want to walk on the gravestones in the graveyard, or fancy chancing the narrow pavement along St Clements Road.

That said its not always the most enticing cut through.  

In winter it can be wet, muddy and slippery under foot while in high summer the vegetation can be a challenge as it stretches out across the path.

For most people that is it, but for those of us a tad older, its northern end did have that telephone kiosk which once had stood on the green.

X marks House Yard Road, 1845

And like most of us I took it for granted as just an unnamed strip of land which over the years had become an unofficial path.

But not so, because it did have a name, and it did lead somewhere other than the Bowling Green Hotel.

For this was House Yard Road and it led to the farmyard and barn of William Knight, or it did in 1845.  

By the early 20th century the farm had gone but the site was home to a collection of workshops and lock up garages, until thy all vanished to make way for Finney Drive in the 1960s.

The Knight family farmed in the township from at least 1832, and farmed enough land to qualify for a vote in Parliamentary elections at a time when the entire electorate of Chorlton was just 32 men out of a total population of about 750.

In 1845 William Knight rented 72 acres land from the Lloyd estate, which marked him out as one of the more prominent farmers.  His land was a mix of arable, pasture and meadow land spread out across the township.

His son ran the Robin Hood pub in Stretford, before moving into the township to farm on the green in the 1850s after the death of his father. 

House Yard Road, circa 1910

He is also on the electoral register for 1854-55, can be found in the minutes of the Vestry or Ratepayers and was part of the inquest held at the Horse and Jockey into the murder of Francis Deakin and he was buried in the family grave in the parish church yard.

And earlier in 1824 a Thomas Knight was listed in Pigot and Dean’s Directory of Manchester & Salford as “vict Old Greyhound, (boat house) Chorlton”, and Martha Knight was listed in Baines’ Directory for 1824-5 as running the “Boat House” in Chorlton.  This later became the Old Greyhound and still the Bridge Inn and today is Jackson’s Bridge. 

All of which means that House Yard Road will have been a busy place, and walked over by the Knight family, along with their agricultural labourers and perhaps heaps of others making their way to the Bowling Green Hotel, or the pond beside the pub to do a bit of illicit fishing.

So, our little cut through has indeed some history.

Location; that cut through beside the old parish graveyard

House Yard Road, so good we included it twice 2023

Pictures; House Yard Road, 2023 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and circa 1908 from the Lloyd Collection, and in 1845 from the map of the Tithe Schedule

Those amazing Arnott stoves which heated our parish church in 1847

The church and Bowling Green Hotel from Chorlton Croft circa 1890

Recently I featured that picture looking towards the village from Chorlton Croft.

And in the course of the story mentioned the arnott stoves which heated our parish church.

Now I have lived with arnott stoves ever since I first came across them listed in the contents of the church in the 1847.*

But I realeize that for most people they may not so familiar.  So here courtesy of F J Ferris is a description of
Dr Neil Arnott and his stove.**

'Dr Neil Arnott 1788 - 1874  was a man of many talents including physician, public health reformer, inventor, patentee, lecturer and author. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society on 5th January 1838 with the following citation 

"Neil Arnott MD of Bedford Square a Gentleman well aquainted with the various branches of science being desirous of becoming a fellow of The Royal Society. We the undersigned of our personal knowledge recommend him a deserving of that honour and as likely to prove a valuable and useful member" 

Dr Arnott

He was born in Arbroath Forfarshire Scotland on the 15th May 1788. Educated by his mother at the parish school of Lunan, then at Aberdeen grammar school. In 1806 he graduated with an MD from Marischal College Aberdeen. He received his Diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1813 and was awarded his MD the following year.

 He expressed his concern about what he called the four necessaties of life, Air Warmth, Aliment and Exercise. All these factors must have created his interest in heating and ventilating which started with his involvement in matters related to public health and the need for improved ventilation in buildings. 

This led in 1838 to his publishing of the book titled "Warming and Ventilating" which explained the principles used in the Arnott slow combustion stove. The Royal Society awarded him the Rumford medal on 30th November 1854. The medal citation read "For the successful construction of the smokeless firegrate lately introduced by him and for other valuable improvements in the application of heat to warming and ventilating of apartments". In 1855 he published another book on the smokeless fireplace.
During the 1840's and 1850's Arnott is living at 38 Bedford Place in London. By 1861 he marries for the first time late in life to Marianne, and they move to a new residence at 2 Cumberland Terrace, Marylebone in London.

It appears that the Arnott stove was first manufactured following the publishing of his 1838 book."Warming and Ventilating", and although it states that the stove was Patented this was not the case. Letters to The Times newspaper called the absence of a Patent  "a serious misfortune to the public".
  
The fact that Arnott did not patent the invention of his stove allowed other people to copy the design principle, and many different firms then manufactured the Arnott Stove making variations to his original design which subsequently led to problems with the stoves performance, reliability and safety. 

See The Times newspaper articles.   In every street in London stoves were offered for sale bearing Arnotts name, of which not 1 in 50 was made in accordance with the design principles described by Arnott. So, imperfect stoves together with their incorrect use and firing method brought the invention into disrepute.

The Arnott Stove

During the 1840's and 1850's Arnott is living at 38 Bedford Place in London. By 1861 he marries for the first time late in life to Marianne, and they move to a new residence at 2 Cumberland Terrace, Marylebone in London.

It appears that the Arnott stove was first manufactured following the publishing of his 1838 book."Warming and Ventilating", and although it states that the stove was Patented this was not the case. Letters to The Times newspaper called the absence of a Patent  "a serious misfortune to the public".
  
The fact that Arnott did not patent the invention of his stove allowed other people to copy the design principle, and many different firms then manufactured the Arnott Stove making variations to his original design which subsequently led to problems with the stoves performance, reliability and safety.'

*Archdeacon Rushton’s Visitation 1847

** Researched, prepared and written by F J Ferris for the Heritage Group of the CIBSE,
http://www.hevac-heritage.org/victorian_engineers/arnott/arnott.htm

Pictures; looking from Chorlton Croft from the Lloyd collection and picture of DR Arnott and stove courtesy of  F J Ferris