Looking for Mr Waller, wealthy industrialist of Didsbury, benefactor of Withington Methodist Chapel and owner of 45 Dale Street

Groombridge House, 1894

One day I will find an estate agents description of Groombridge House which stood on the site of Christie Hospital.

That said I haven’t yet been able to locate a picture of the place which I guess is not surprising.

It was set back from the main road in spacious grounds with tree lined walks and a fair number of outhouses and was the home of Mr Ralph Waller, wealthy cotton spinner and benefactor of the Wesleyan chapel in Withington.

Now I had promised myself that his would be one of the homes I went looking for ever since I came across his factory and shows rooms which stretched along Tariff Street and on to Dale Street.

I am not quite sure whether Mr Waller built the block but he owned them by 1858 and they were still in the family’s possession over 40 years later.

By then his textile business seems to have shrunk and the showrooms and part of the factory were rented out to other businesses.

But it will have been this textile enterprise which had allowed him to buy and rent out properties in Withington and Didsbury as well as acquiring Groombridge House.

I can’t as yet discover whether he built it or just bought it but it was a striking statement of his prosperity.

It had 19 rooms a rateable value of £230 with an additional assessment of £11 for the surrounding land and dominated the corner of Wilmslow Road opposite the old green.

And it continued to dominate that spot until it was demolished to make way for the Christie Hospital which was “to be built in the grounds of Groombridge House.”*

Withington Methodist Church 2015

All of which means I missed Mr Waller’s house by over 80 years but not to be short changed there is still the church he made a major contribution to.  This is the Methodist Church close by Withington Library which was built in 1865 with a huge contribution from our Mr Waller.

And along with the building there are his reported words made at the laying of the foundation stone in the August of 1864.

His was a long and rather  detailed speech which ranged over all that Britain could be proud of, from the “Queen and our institutions, the civil and religious liberty and impartial administration” down to “our almshouses our infirmaries, our hospitals our mechanical genius our magnificent warehouses and factories” and much more.

But at the heart of the delivery was a strong religious note which focused on “our open bible our Protestant Christianity and the many thousands of places of worship that stud the land.” **

It isn’t perhaps the most fashionable of things to say today but rereading it is to get a sense of the man long after Groombridge House has vanished.

45 Dale Street, 1972

And there are still a few places which bring you close to him.  One is his first textile mill in Glossop which he occupied briefly in the 1850s and is still standing and the other is no 45 Dale Street which for almost40 years was his showroom and warehouse.

I doubt that there is anything left in what was the factory on Tariff Street but I know there could be a few clues in number 45.

And as the building is currently being renovated to reopen later in the year as Tariff and Dale I have the promise of exploring the place while that work is underway.

The owner of the new business who also owns the Lead Station in Chorlton made the offer recently and it will be one I want to take up.

So while I can no longer stand outside his house I might just be able to get a little closer to a bit of history.

Pictures; detail showing Groombridge House 1894, from the OS of South Lancashire 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ Withington Church, 2015 courtesy of Withington Methodist Church, http://www.withingtonmethodistchurch.com/ and 45 Dale Street, 1972, L Kaye,m01240, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?

*In Manchester, the Manchester Guardian, May 16 1929.

**New Wesleyan Chapel at Withington, Manchester Guardian, August 22 1864

The house, a field and the stories of Mr. Nathan Slater and Henry Hawkins ……… 175 years of Didsbury’s past

Now, you just never know where a story will go, and I was not prepared for the twisty turny tale that started with a request for information on a big house on the corner of Lapwing Lane and Wilmslow Road.

The house of Mr. & Mrs Hawkins, 2019

Today it consists of six apartments, but for most of its existence it would have been home to one of the more comfortably well-off families of Didsbury.

It was built in 1896 and was owned and ocuppied by Henry Herbert Hawkins who was still there in 1911.  

He listed himself as an export brewer and in 1894-5 had offices in no 5 Cross Street which is just along from Market Street towards Albert Square. 

He was born in 1852, and married Florence Elizabeth Foster in the Methodist Wesleyan Chapel on Stockport Road.  They had two children and employed three servants.

They were clearly on the way up because in the late 1880s and early 90s they were in Chorlton in a semi on Barlow Moor Road and later still in Victoria Park.

Their new home had ten rooms and was situated at spot which had still been fields in the early 1890s commanding uninterrupted views south to Parkfield Road and on down past the railway line to the tennis courts and North Street.

The fields of Mr. Slater opposite Fog Lane

And it was the field that interested me, because in 1845 this had belonged to a Nathan Slater who also owned land across Didsbury.

He is a shadowy figure, who only appears in the rate books for Didsbury in the 1840s, but there is a Nathan Slater resident in Manchester in Booth Street in 1841 who is listed in the census return and several directories, who reappears as a merchant in Withington in 1852.

Back in 1841 he owns the Crown Inn on Booth Street and here the mystery deepens, because the property is occupied by fourteen people, one of whom is Mr. Slater, and what might be his mother, and twelve others of whom one is an Isaac Thorniley who nine year later is himself listed as the landlord of the pub.

The Crown Inn, 1851 facing Booth Street

The building is large and so could accommodate all fourteen, but on the maps of the period it is situated on the corner of Fountain Street and Nicholas Street, directly opposite Booth Street.

So, it is a tad confusing, which leads me back to that field and Mr. Slater, who might have inherited the land or given that he styled himself a “wine spirit merchant” he may have decided to diversify during the 1840s.

There are no records in the rate books that he owned the land before 1845, but that might just be one of the records that have been lost.

But I will still go on looking for him and just where he lived in Withington and trawl the documents for more on the family that came to live in the house which was built on his land.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Mr.& Mrs. Hawkings house, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the field belonging to Mr. Slater in 1845, from the OS map for Lancashire, 1854, and Booth Street, Nicolas Street and Fountain Street, 1851, from Adshead's map of Manchester, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

When Mr Bacon mapped Chorlton & Didsbury and a lot more

I am looking at a copy of Bacon’s Waistcoat-Pocket Map of Manchester and District.

There is no date but it must be after 1880 and no later than 1900.

Now I can be fairly sure of this because the map shows the railway line through Chorlton and also Oak Bank a fine big house which stood on the site of Needham Avenue which puts it in that twenty year frame.

The railway line out of Manchester to Didsbury and beyond was opened in 1880 and Oak Bank was demolished sometime just before or after the beginning of the last century.

All of which makes it a nice addition to the maps of the area, but also offers up a fascinating bit of history.

It was printed on cloth, and was designed to fit in to a waistcoat pocket making it a pretty handy map and I guess would have been the Google app of its day.

According to one source Mr Bacon was the first to produce maps as small as this for popular use and seems to have carved a niche for himself.

He was an American who was born in 1830 and died in 1922 and according to another authority, “amongst his other enterprises he wrote medical booklets and sold sewing machines and portable gymnasiums. 

He went bankrupt in 1867 but opened again in 1870 at 127 Strand and soon prospered.

From 1883 until at least 1918, maybe later, he published a series of thick Library Atlases for [London which]  contain either or both 4 inch and 9 inch scale maps, a street index and various and varying supplemental maps, often with a "copious letterpress". 

Bacon never produced 'the best map’; he always sold 'the cheapest'. I have recently seen several early editions of these atlases overprinted with postal district numbering. Therefore, they must have been printed after 1917, when numbering was introduced.”*

And he produced many more covering our major cities and towns as well as the Lake District and the Isle of Wight, along with a series of “Cyclist Road Maps of England.”

But it is this little map of Chorlton, Didsbury and Manchester which has caught my interest and as ever I am indebted to David Harrop who lent it to me, along with a large amount of material from the Great War, some of which has come out of his excellent exhibition at the Remembrance Lodge in southern Cemetery.

So a thank you to him, a reminder that the collection is a must to see and a promise that over the next few weeks more of his collection will appear here on the blog.

Pictures, Bacon’s Waistcoat-Pocket Map of Manchester and District, circa 1880-1900 from the collection of David Harrop

* A list and brief history of London Atlases, http://www.maps.thehunthouse.com/Streets/History_of_London_Street_Maps.htm

Down at Christ Church that church in the fields

Now I have to say that Christ Church in West Didsbury has rather been ignored by me.

Christ Church in 2014

As Andy Robertson says “the old main gate and old main entrance are now only about 2 metres from the kerb of one of the busiest roads in Manchester.”

Not that it was always such for back in 1881 it was still surrounded by open countryside standing on Christ Church Avenue which was a wide tree lined avenue leading from Barlow Moor Road down to the Rectory and church which had been built in 1881.

And given its location it was known as Christ Church in the fields.

I have come across a few pictures of the church but this one of the Barlow Moor Road and the arched gateway to Christ Church Avenue about 1925 fascinates me.

The lodge is to the right and a for sale sign to our left.

The gateway in 1925

In 1932 Princess Parkway was cut south of Barlow Moor Road as the main link to the newly developing estate of Wythenshawe, and it was built over Christ Church Avenue and eleven fine looking houses with gardens were built from the corner of Barlow Moor Road down to the church.

So Christ Church Avenue had a short life, just a matter of 51 years, which means that I will have to do some more digging.

Christ Church Avenue in 1894

I am hoping that there will be people with memories of the church in the years just before and after the new road was cut.

And it maybe that there will some more photographs of the building and surrounding land.

I hope so.

But in the meantime here is Christ Church Avenue in 1894 courtesy of the OS map for South Lancashire.

Picture; Christ Church in 2014 from the collection of Andy Robertson, the arched gateway from the Lloyd Collection, and map detail from the OS for south Lancashire, 1888-93, courtesy of
Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

Park House in Didsbury ….. Mr. Bradshaw’s Guides …… and Mrs. Ellen Blacklock

This is Park House, and back in 1892 when it was built, it commanded fine views, east across the fields, and south towards the estate of Scotscroft.

Park House, 2019

It was set back from Wilmslow Road, was fronted by an impressive circular drive, with outhouses to the north and had fifteen rooms.

Now I say it was built in 1892, but it may have been earlier. 

The owners of the building which is now a hotel will be able to firm up that date, but I know that it does not appear in the Rate Books before 1892.

And if I have got this right, its first resident was a Mrs. Ellen Blacklock, who was a widow, who gave her occupation as a partner in the printing and publishing company of Blacklock, which  were “engravers, printers and publishers and publishers of Bradshaw’s Guides”.*

Park House, 1893

And yes, these were the same Bradshaw’s Guides which have featured on that television series with Michael Portilo.

They were a mix of railway timetables, and guidebooks.  The timetables were essential in an age when there were a multiplicity of different railway companies, and matching arrival and departure times could be critical. 

And because the railways offered cheaper and quicker travel around the country and beyond, the discerning traveler will have found the descriptions of places and hotels very useful.

The Guides were originally published by W.J. Adams, but by 1882 if not earlier Henry Blacklock was responsible.

The offices of Blacklock’s were in Albert Square, where they occupied a large building between Queen Street and Lloyd Street, facing out onto Albert Square.

H. Blacklock, printers, Albert Square, circa 1890

The Blacklock’s were in residence on Wilmslow Road by 1871, and in 1892 Mrs. Blacklock moved into the newly built Park House, which was owned by James Watt.

Her tenancy there was short, and she died in the following year, leaving £34, 153.

After which the house was occupied by a Mr. Frederick Bridgford, who was a “Land Agent” and still there a decade later.

In time I will return to Park House and burrow deeper into its story.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Park House, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson, Park House in 1893, form the OS map of South Lancashire, 1893, and the company offices, on Albert Square, circa 1890, from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, circa 1900, courtesy  of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Slater's Durectory of Manchester & Salford, 1886