A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects number 6 ........... a Victorian postbox and the story behind the wall

It began with the Victorian postbox set in the wall on Wilmlsow Road, and a vague feeling that here was a bit of research that might uncover some of Didsbury’s history.

The Post Box, 2019

I had no expectation that I would be able to date precisely the installation of the box but reasoned that as I dug deep into the archives something would popup, and of course it did.

As ever the starting point was the big house which stood behind the brick wall.

This was Fairfax House, which dates to 1872, when it was owned by William Jabez Muckley.

The property sat in its own grounds, a little away back from both Wilmslow Road and Fog Lane, and consisted of eleven rooms with views south across the road towards Didsbury Priory.

I say it dates to 1872, and on that I am fairly confident, because it doesn’t appear listed in the rate books any earlier.

That said the post box could have been inserted at any time between 1872 and 1901, but I suspect we can narrow that a little, as ours matches a design which was in use from 1881 to the death of the old Queen.**

But I am prepared to be corrected by an expert in all things posty.

Fairfax House, 1894

So, for now I shall climb the wall and deal with Mr. Muckley, who was still in residence at Fairfax House, until sometime just before 1891.  After that, we can track him to Essex where he had retired and would live out his remaining four years.

He turns out to have been an interesting chap, having been Principle/Headmaster of the Manchester School of Design which also went under the name of the Academy of Fine Arts and the School of Art

It was located on Bond Street which is now part of Princess Street and he was there by 1879 if not earlier.

The school has gone along with Fairfax House, but the romantic in me likes the idea that he might just have popped out and used the post box.

But I suspect it is more likely he asked one of his eight children or better still the servants of which there were two.

Either way that tpost box and the brick wall is all there is left of Fairfax House.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; the post box, 2019 and Fairfax House, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Those very old cottages on Grange Lane ……..in Didsbury

I rather think that Grange Lane in Didsbury is one of those very old thoroughfares, which the romantic in me would like to think is “half as old as time”.

Grange Lane, 1854

It is there on the 1845 tithe map and is hinted at on older maps running back from 1819 into the 18th century.

All of which offered up a possible date for those two cottages on the lane which go under the names, Beech Cottage and Moor Cottage.

I became interested in them last week when someone asked me what I knew of their history, and very quickly got submerged in the research.  

They appear on that tithe map, are listed in the rate books, and the occupants can be identified on each of the census returns from 1841 through to 1911, with a further reference on the 1939 Register.

But what I should have done before picking over their stories in the dusty archive, was to have turned to the Didsbury historian, Ivor R. Million.

And there on pages 64 and 65 of his A History of Didsbury is a detailed account which offers up a date of 1701 when the owner Zechaeus Bancroft died and they passed into the possession of a family called Fildes. 

“In 1793 Thomas Fildes sold the property to James Ward, the village schoolmaster, who lived there till his death in 1822, .. when his son, James Ward … sold it to Mrs. Francis Barlow of Wilmslow.  It was probably James Ward who demolished the existing cottages  and built new ones with a barn and shippon attached.  These buildings can still be seen.

The main cottage, known as Moor Cottage is the home of Miss Joyce Owen.  Around the chimney stocks can be seen protruding bricks which show that originally the roof was of thatch.

The cottages which are now numbered 2, 4, and 6 Grange Lane were also the property of the Fildes family.  They were in the ownership of that family as early as 1752and as late 1845.  In all probability they were among the premises which the family inherited from Zechaeus Bancroft”.*

Now Mrs. Barlow and the Fildes family appear on a number of historical documents stretching from 1849 through to 1939, and I guess with more digging there will be more.  Mrs. Barlow is recorded in the Rate Books for 1849, and the Filde family in 1875.  

The Fildes are also there on the 1871 census as occupying the three cottages, and I know from the Rate Books, that Ann Fildes owned one of the cottages, James Fildes another and John Fildes the third.  Interestingly the estimated annual rental value varied on the three, with John’s assessed at £10, Ann’s at £7 and James’s cottage at £5.

Grange Lane, 2020

Six years later each had recorded their occupations with James and John describing themselves as  gardeners, and Ann as a launderess.

But there are some puzzles which have yet to be sorted, and one of those is that in 1871 the census record shows that only two of the cottages were occupied.

That said members of the family were still occupying one of the cottages as late as 1939.  This was number 6 which was occupied by Eliza, Maude and James, who were the children of James Fildes and were born between 1873, and 1887, all were single, and listed their occupations as “tailorees,, unpaid domestic duties, and gardener (incapacitated)”

And that for now is it. 

Leaving me just to say I will go looking for more information including why Beech Cottage was designated as a Grade II listed building in 1952.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Grange Lane, 1854, from the OS map of Lancashire,  courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Grange Lane, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson 

*Million, Ivor R., A History of Didsbury, 1969, pages 64-65

The Manchester pawnbroker and his fine cottages in Didsbury ….. doing the essential walk and making it historic .... no. 5

This is Warburton Street in Didsbury, and if you should care to walk it, it won’t take long.

Warburton Street, 2020

In fact, it will be but a matter of moments to walk its entire length from Ogden Street to Wilmlsow Road.

In happier times that short walk would have lasted a tad bit longer if you had called in to Morten’s the Booksellers, followed by a meal in the restaurant next door, and finishing at the two  gift shops which are positioned at either end of the street.*

Warburton Street, 1911

The row of shops looks old, and as you do I decided to peel back their stories.

In 1911, those same properties were home to “Jn Crompton & Sons, paint stores", at number 2, William Richardson, platelayer at number 4, and Mrs. Emma Smith at number 6, who was listed as “householder”, and was a launderess, while finally at number 8 was Mr. Schofield who was a “night soil man” who worked for Manchester City Council.

While on the opposite side there lived a gardener, a hairdresser, two labourers along with the stables of the Midland Railways.

All of which is a neat cross section of the working resident of Didsbury, and by extension of the occupations of many who lived in Manchester.

Four decades earlier and those occupations were rooted in the land with a mix of agricultural labourers, and gardeners, along with a charwoman and domestic servant to cater for the wealthier.

Warburton Street and Hardman Street, south of the National School, 1845

But with a nod to the future one man described himself as “winder in a cotton factory” and another as "a grocery porter.”

Go back another twenty years to 1851 and along with those agricultural workers there were two of Didsbury’s last cotton weavers.

The census returns for the middle decades of the 19th century show that families were large, with anything between five to six people crammed into what were just two up and two down properties.

And using the Rate Books it is possible to track back and find not only the tenants but also the landlords.

In 1911 the entire south side of Warburton Street which consisted of our five houses, along with Hardman Street and Ogden Street were owned by a Charles Haynes who took home £147 from just these streets.

Mr. Haynes's stamping ground, 1851

In time I shall go looking for him, but for now I am content to explore the life of his father, Richard Haynes, who was born in 1802, married Harriet Farrington in 1821, aged just 19, and by 1848 was operating as a Pawnbroker at 30 Pump Street which was off London Road.

For the next decade and more he plied his trade on Pump Street and also Minshull Street, before moving to Didsbury.

A move which in part might have been motivated by his growing property empire, which he may have built.

Pump Street, 1850

Just when that was is as yet unclear.

The first entry in the Rate Books for Warburton Street is 1849, but they appear on the tithe map four years earlier, and Mr. Richard Haynes was in business by 1841, so he might well have accrued enough capital to sink his money into property.

And nothing quite surprises me about the man, because back in 1841 he is listed as a baker working from Back Acton Street, which was off Pump Street and ran parallel with London Road.

Just when he escaped the city and the murky world of pawnshops is unclear, but by 1861, he and Harriet are at number 3 Hardman Street, in a house which commanded fine views of the fields all the way down to Didsbury House, with the added bonus that his growing property empire was just a minute’s walk away.

Hardman Street with Warburton Street and the National School, 1854

And so assured was he of his new position in Didsbury society that he described himself as a “Proprietor of Houses”, and all reference to him in Manchester is absent from the records.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Warburton Street, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Back Pump Street, 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, and Hardman Street, 1854, from the OS map of Lancashire, 1854, , courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Orchard Interiors & Gifts 2, Warburton Street, No. 4 Dine & Wine, 4 Warburton Street, E.J. Morten Booksellers, 6 Warburton Street, Harriet and Dee, Cards and Gifts, 8 Warburton Street