A Printing Press ……. that historical mill and the entry device ……… down by the Medlock

Now you know a place is on the skids, when all the not so smart entry devices seem broken.

Admitting no one, 2021

These are from the entrance to Hotspur House, on Cambridge Street which is better known as the Hotspur Press.

My copy of  Pevsner refers to it as "Medlock Mill, circa 1811 on the N bank of the Medlock.  A range of 19thcentury offices fronts and follows the curve of  the road , and the converted mill (Hotspur Press) rises behind.  Cast iron columns and timber beams , the variety of column types suggesting successive alterations, but the full story is difficult to divine from what little can be seen behind the partitions and false ceilings”.*

The OS map for Manchester and Salford in 1849 shows a footbridge running south from the mill over the Medlock allowing access to the Cambridge Street Works, while behind was the Manchester Gas Works which at the time boasted six gasometers of varying size.

Medlock Mills, 1849

And dotted around the Medlock Mill were a series of other textile mills and dye works.

Most people will know the building as the home of Percy Brothers and the Hotspur Press.

Which brings me back to those entry devices, and the future of the building.

Back in 2018 there was a lot of interest in plans to redevelop the site, which would have involved a 28-story tower block, the conversion of some of the former mill in to “170 apartments, shops, offices, restaurants and potentially a gym, bowling alley or medical centre” along with the demolition of part of the building”.**

There was opposition to the plan, both on grounds of the size of the tower block and the demolition of part of the mill.

The Hotspur Press, 2017

It would appear that planning permission was approved in December of 2018.***

But I seem to be missing something because just over three years later there seems to be no development, and and according to the  City’s planning portal permission was granted in October 2020.****

So perhaps things will soon begin to move.

As ever a trawl of the planning documents offers the Archaeological Assessment of the site by the University of Salford, which like all such reports is a fascinating document revealing much about the building and the surrounding site.*****

The Medlock, 2021

And along with details of the development of the area are the names of the mill owners which will lead me off through the dusty archives of the rate books and lead to some interesting discoveries.

So that is pretty much it, no doubt in the near future those entry devices will be thrown into a skip and with the completion of the development residents will stare down at the passage of the Medlock.

Location; Chorlton-on-Medlock

Pictures; Around Cambridge Street, 2017-2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the Medlock Mill , 1849, from the OS map of Manchester & salford, 1849, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, https://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Cambridge Street, Manchester, Clare Hartwell, Pevsner Architectural Guides, Penguin Books, 2001 page 318

The Hotspur Press, already surrounded by developments

**Some of the Hotspur Press could be demolished despite warnings from conservationists, Jennifer Williams, December 10, 2018, Manchester Evening News, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-hotspur-press-city-centre-15520203

***Manchester’s Hotspur Press Plans Given The Green Light, mcr Property Group, https://www.mcrproperty.com/2018/12/14/manchesters-hotspur-press-plans-given-green-light/

****120635/FO/2018 |  Hotspur Press 2 Gloucester Street Manchester M1 5QR, Manchester City Council Planning Portal, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=PBP6U6BC03O00

*****Hotspur Press, Archaeological Desk Based Assessment, Ian Miller, Report 2013/33 University of Salford Manchester, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/files/578C61E347E26EBEB06F969C8D3983AD/pdf/120635_FO_2018-ARCHAEOLOGICAL_ASSESSMENT-941351.pdf

The Salutation gives up some of its secrets

The Salutation, 2014

Now I came very late to the Salutation.

In fact despite knowing about it for a full four decades I went there for the first time just three years ago.

I was in the company of my old friend Joe and having done an exhibition at the Art College we fell into the pub and spent an enjoyable afternoon.

Unlike me it has been one of Joe’s haunts from when he was a student at the College and its mix of good beer, interesting characters and historic setting regularly drew him back.

But I have to confess I knew nothing of its history and so after looking at Peter’s painting I resolved to do the business.

The lazy side of me started with an MEN article that “170-year-old Hulme pub gets £235k makeover,”*which takes you back to 1844.

But not content with that I dug deeper and came up with Elizabeth Beverley who was running the place in 1840s and seems to have been there from 1833, and a full eight years earlier it was run by Thomas Beverley.

Elizabeth stayed in the Chorlton on Medlock area until her death in 1866, but seems to have given up the Salutation sometime between 1844 and 1849.

The Salutation, 1849, surrounded by houses timber yards and mills

Thomas remains a shadowy figure who appears in the rate records living in different parts of the city and may have had various jobs before becoming a publican.
Elizabeth was his second wife and they married in 1820 just five years after his first marriage.

All of which is a long way from the Salutation but in the course of wandering through the story of the Beverley’s we have at least pushed the date of the pub back a full twenty years.

It is there listed in the directories for 1828 but not for 1825.

There may be references to it in the licensing records but that will have to wait.

But I remain intrigued by Elizabeth Beverley and I am off to see what the rest of her life reveals.

Painting; The Salutation,© 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

Picture; detail from the Manchester & Salford OS 1844-49, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Joy as 170-year-old Hulme pub gets £235k makeover, March 2014

Back with James Bowes, on Oldham Road, Newton Heath sometime after 1883

284-286 Oldham Road, date unknown.

This is the third and last picture of the shops owned by James Bowes Ltd.

The company was established in 1880 on Oldham Road in Newton Heath and expanded during the next century with premises in Chorlton on Medlock, Moss Side and now Stockport.

James Bowes who founded the company was born in Hulme in 1839.

His father described himself variously as an engineer and a maker up.

The family were still in Hulme in 1851 but James had moved to Newton Heath by 1881 living with his wife and children above the shop at 286 Oldham Road.

I first came across them after Andy Robertson had sent me a ghost sign advertising the business on the side of a building on the corner of Alexandra Street and Raby Street.*

Detail of the shops owned by James Bowes

James Bowes Ltd  had vacated the shop at the end of the last century but I tracked them down to Stockport and the present owner was kind enough to supply me with some information and photographs of the first shop in Newton Heath and  the second on Higher Cambridge Street, in Chorlton on Medlock.

Both have now gone the result of town planning and commercial development.  I rather think I might just have missed the demolition of the shop in our picture.

The site is now an empty bit of wasteland on Oldham Road which once was packed with houses, shops and factories.

The sister shop on the corner of Higher Cambridge Street went a long time ago and is now a block of student accommodation.

Picture; from the collection of Paul Bowes

*James Bowes Ltd, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/James%20Bowes%20Ltd