"Sellers of Sleep" .............

Angel Street, 1901

Sometimes a phrase captures your imagination, and so it is with "Sellers of Sleep", which is a French, term for the owners of those properties which offer up a bed and little else.

I came across the description on a Radio 4 programme about Marseilles, and it perfectly describes those places where the poor and destitute might pay for the chance to sleep under a roof for the night.

They are of course a part of history , and can be found in Ancient Rome, Medieval London and pretty much everywhere.

And it took me back to a story I had written earlier about 44 Angel Street as I wandered down the street in the company of Samuel L Coulthurst who took a series of pictures of the people and their homes including one rare shot of the inside of number 44.

And today I am back having spent my time crawling over the census return for the same street in 1901.

The pictures reveal a row of late 18th and early 19th century houses similar to those which were going up across the city in the boom years as Manchester quickly became “the shock city of the Industrial Revolution”*

Angel Street, May 1898

The south eastern side from what is now Rochdale Road up to St Michaels’s Fields had been built in 1794 and those we can see in the pictures were there by 1819**

What makes Coulthurst’s pictures all the remarkable is that having identified the houses it is possible to discover who was living in them just a few years later.


On Angel Street in 1898
Now I would love to be able to record who exactly was living at number 44 when in the May of 1897 Samuel took his pictures, but I can’t.

The best I can do is identify who was there on the night of March 31st 1901 when the census was taken.

There were thirty two of them all male ranging from William Paxton aged 22 from Wigan who described himself as a street hawker to Thomas Reed from Ireland who at 74 was still working as a labourer.

All  them earned their living from manual work or the slightly more precarious occupation of selling on the streets.

Outside 44 Angel Street, May, 1897

Most were single although a few were widowers and while the largest single group had been born here there were those from the rest of Lancashire, as well as Ireland Scotland and even London.

I try not to be sentimental but you cannot help feeling a degree of sadness that so many of these men well past middle age were living crammed together in a common lodging house with nothing but a few possessions and the knowledge that with old age, sickness or just bad luck the future might be the Workhouse.

History of course has been unkind to them and most will have few records to stand as witness to their lives and so during the course of the next few weeks I want to track some of them and discover what their lives had been like.

In the process I think we will uncover something of that shifting population at the bottom of the income pile and the extent to which they went from one overcrowded property to another.

Sadly the identities of those staring back at us are lost and so who they were and what happened to them cannot be revealed.

Patrick Corner

But that is not completely the case, because I think standing outside number 44 with his flat cap and parcel under his arm might just be Patrick Comer whose name appears above the door and who fourteen years later is still registered at the address on the street directory.

If this is him he seems to have had a varied life.  Born in Manchester sometime around 1850 he was variously a dyer, a joiner and in 1911 was both listed a step ladder maker and a clothes agent.

He never strayed far from Angel Street and can be found on Mount Street which runs into Angel Street and on Rochdale Road close by.

As for the others they are unknown and I doubt would still have been living at number 44 by 1901.

The very nature of these lodging houses meant that the residents were short term stay but we shall see.

Most of Angel Street also consisted of lodging houses and as I trawl the census return they reveal a rich cross section of those at the margins of late 19th century Manchester life.

Inside no. 44 Angel Street, 1897

And they point to number 44 being a tad unusual in that it was entirely male orientated.  The other lodging houses had more of a mix of men and women, married as well as single and some unmarried women with young children who defiantly refused to describe themselves as either married or widowed.

It will indeed be a fascinating exploration of this part of the city.

Now that should be the end but there is just one last discovery, for I have tracked Mr Samuel L Coulhurst.***

He was a book buyer from Salford, born in 1868 and living at number 4 Tootal Road Pendelton and in the fullness of time I think he also deserves a closer look.

Location, Angel Meadow, Manchester

Pictures; Angel Street, 1900, m85543 44 Angel Street, 1897, m08360, 44 Angel Street 1898, m00195, and Angel Street common lodging house, 1897, m08365, S.L.Coulthurst, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities, 1963

**The south east side of Angel Street are missing from Laurent’s map of Manchester in 1793 but are there the following year on Green’s map while the side photographed by Coulthurst show up on Johnson’s map of 1819.

 ***Angel Street, Manchester artist and photographers, Manchester housing conditions, Manchester in the 1900s, Rochdale Road, Samuel L Coulthurst

Another side to the remarkable Mr Banks, celebrated photographer and now artist

Trade card, 1885

Now somewhere I know I will find at least one of the three “life size busts , painted in oil on canvas, from photographs” of “Messrs, John Slagg, Jacob Bright and Robert Leake.”*

And in the fullness of time I will also unearth a picture of Cheetham Reform Club which was on the corner of Bignor Street and Heywood Street.

It was opened in 1882, and I suppose it was fitting that these three paintings should have been commissioned by the Club because back in 1880  John Slagg and Jacob Bright had laid the foundation stone for the building and with their fellow MP Robert Leake had spoken of the importance of the new club to Cheetham.

Along with a large local crowd there was a "special party" who had made their way from that other Reform Club in the centre of Manchester and had arrived in a hired coach.

Looking at maps of the period it was an impressive pile with a large bowling green set in open spaces on the edge of some densely packed housing.

From the Manchester Guardian, 1882

But the Reform Club was not what drew me into the story that was our old friend the photographer Robert Banks, who rose from fairly humble beginnings to be a well known Manchester photographer.

Many of his public photographs of the city and including lots of public events are still available as are the personal photographic images of people who attended his studios, but until now I had no idea that he also painted.

Selling Valentin Cards 1872

I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised given that he was at one time employed by the Oldham Chronicle as an “illustrated artist” and later when he opened his own studio at Uppermill in 1867 he advertised Valentine Cards.

But there is the first reference to something as grand as full scale paintings.

A royal event, 1911

All of which points up that simple observation that there is always more to find out about things and as I finish writing this I have in front of me a photograph by Mr Banks which I haven’t seen before.

It is of the visit of Edward VII and Alexandra for the official opening of the new Manchester Royal Infirmary on Oxford Road in 1909.

Now this is quite surprising given that he was very effective at publishing his own work much of which appeared in souvenir collections soon after the great event had occurred.

And in this I have been lucky in that my friend Sally came across one of these books, “much knocked about, missing its cover and spine but full of wonderful images of Manchester.”

So there you have it, another story on Mr Banks with a side of the man I knew nothing of and the hope that his paintings will emerge from the shadows.

Pictures; trade card advertising Robert Bank’s studios circa 1885 and advert from the Oldham Chroncile, 1872, courtesy of Saddleworth Museum, http://www.saddleworthmuseum.co.uk/, newspaper report from the Manchester Guardian and  the Royal visit, 1909, Robert Banks, m72040, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Cheetham Reform Club, Manchester Guardian, September 20 1882

The remarkable Mr Banks from factory worker to photographer by Royal Appointment

Oldham Street looking towards New Cross

There is something magic about this picture of Oldham Street which dates from around 1900.

And I am not alone in thinking this.  My friend Sally commented that “the image draws you in” and certainly you feel right at the heart of the city on a busy working day.

We are actually just past Hilton Street looking up towards Great Ancoats Street and New Cross.

Off to our right at numbers 56-58 was Abel Heywood & Sons, the booksellers who had in their time published some of the most important books on Manchester.

Beside them at number 60 was Marks and Spencer Ltd and beyond were the businesses of White the manufacturing jewellers whose sign dominated the skyline and the equally impressive sign of Crosby Walker Ltd whose draper’s shop stretched across numbers 82-86 Oldham Street.

In between were a branch of Maypoles’ the grocery chain, a Yates’ Wine lodge, and assorted photographer’s tailors, coffee merchants and confectioners.

My own favourite, at number 62, is the premise of Miss Isabella, servants registry office which is a reminder that this is still the age when even relatively humble homes aspired to at least one servant.

What is all the more  remarkable is the number of photographers who were offering their services in this small stretch running from Hilton Street up to Warwick Street but then photography had come of age and one of its best exponent was none other than Robert Banks who took this picture.

He had been commissioned by the Corporation as early as 1878 to photograph a series of pictures of the newly opened Town Hall and went on to compile sets of albums including the opening of the Ship Canal, the unveiling of Queen Victoria’s statue, and King Edward’s visit in 1909.

Many of these appear in an old and battered book which Sally picked up recently.

The cover and binding had long ago been lost but the pictures were intact and they are a wonderful record of our city just a century and a bit ago.

Here are celebrated some of the great achievements of the Victorian period, from the towering textile warehouses, to the impressive public buildings and in between street scenes of everyday life.

But few now know much about Mr Banks.  Back in 2011 a collection of his images was published by the History Press along with a short biography but the book sadly is now out of print.*

All of which is a shame because his was an interesting life and reflects that classic view of the self made Victorian.

He was born in 1847, his father was a journeyman carpenter, and at fifteen he was employed as a woollen piercer in Upper Mill.  At the age of twenty he was an illustrated artist working for the Oldham Chronicle and in 1867 had set up as a photographer in the High Street at Uppermill.

Reception Room, Town Hall

Now that move of course glosses over a lot because the step from illustrator to photographic studio I doubt could have been easy but at present I have no idea at the capital needed to begin such a venture or how he might have financed it.

Suffice to say that by 1873 he had moved to Manchester, set up home at 73 Alexandra Road in Moss Side and was renting a studio at 73 Market Street.

Over the next thirty years the business moved from Market Street to New Cross, and on to Franklin Street and Victoria Street and in 1903 was at 126 Market Street.

Likewise the family home was variously on Alexandra Street, and later Mytton Street, but the buildings have long since been cleared.

That said it may be possible to locale the studio in Uppermill and there remains the census records from 1861 onwards and the Rate Books along with possible references in the Manchester Guardian.

I rather think I will also contact his biographer just because Mr Banks is an interesting chap who began in a factory and  along the way was given  the title By Royal Appointment.

Pictures; courtesy of Sally Dervan

Contributory research from James Stanhope-Brown

*Manchester From the Robert Banks Collection, James Stanhope-Brown, 2011, the History Press

At St Chad's in Saddleworth with the remarkable Mr Banks sometime in 1880

Now I am back with Mr Banks that remarkable photographer. 

Selling a photograph circa 1880

He was one of those self made Victorians who rose from humble beginnings to become a celebrated photographer capping his career with that seal of official approval which comes from the title “By Royal Appointment.”

He has caught my interest ever since my friend Sally began posting his photographs of Manchester in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

From 1873 and into the next century he recorded the great events of the city, along with the everyday life on the streets and portraits of the good and worthy of Manchester.

But here is one of those pictures he took of Saddleworth where he had his first studio.

The studio dated from 1867 and this picture of St Chad’s from around 1880.

St Chad's today

Now I don’t often do a then and now but I couldn’t resist in this case.

So here is his picture which appeared on photographs he sold  and the church as it is now courtesy of Saddleworth Churches.*

And because the pictures deserve a bit more here is the story of the church.

"There has been a place of Christian worship on the Parish Church site since 1215 AD, when the first Saddleworth Church was established as a chapel of ease as part of the Rochdale Parish, but in time became the possession of Whalley Abbey. 

St Chad's in the 1880s

Under the suppression of the churches by Henry VIII, the Abbey had to submit Quick Chapel€™, as it was then called, to the jurisdiction of Rochdale and more recently in 1866, patronage was transferred to the Bishop of Manchester.

The current grade 2* listed re-build, which stands in it’s own conservation area, is late Georgian. 

The interior, which includes the original gallery, has a pleasant warmth to it emanating a surprising light and colour. 

The stained glass tells the tale of the wildness of the weather in this area and the church does possess a fine Capronier depiction of the Visit of the Magi.

How to find us: Saddleworth St Chad Church, Church Road, Uppermill, Oldham OL3 6LW"

So there you have it a little bit more on Mr Banks and the story of the church he snapped.

 Pictures; St Chad’s circa 1880s, Robert Banks, courtesy of Saddleworth Museum, http://www.saddleworthmuseum.co.uk/ and St Chad’s today courtesy of Saddleworth Churches, http://saddleworthteam-cofe.org.uk/contact/

*Saddleworth Churches, http://saddleworthteam-cofe.org.uk/contact/

Out with the photographer Robert Banks on the streets of Manchester sometime before 1912

Now I can be fairly confident that Mr Banks took this picture of Oxford Street sometime before 1912, but more about that later.

In the meantime I shall start with the man himself who had one of those remarkable careers which seemed to epitomise the self made Victorian man.*

He stands alongside some of our other Manchester photographers.**

He was born in 1847, he father was a journeyman carpenter and at the age of 15 he was working as a woollen piecer in a mill.*

And yet within a few years he had become an illustrator on the Oldham Chronicle and at 21 had opened a photographic business on the High Street in Uppermill all of which was but a prelude to a successful career in Manchester.

Having set up business in the city in 1873, he quickly won a series of commissions and as they say never looked back.

During the rest of the century and into the next he photographed many of the most important events that occurred in the city and was quick to issue these in collections for sale.

And never one to miss an opportunity I am told that having taken pictures of the unveiling of the statue of Queen Victoria he made a special journey to Windsor Castle and presented them to the Royal Family.***

But he will also be remembered for a wonderful collection of street scenes like this one of “Oxford Street from Whitworth Street. [Showing] on the left St Mary’s Hospital and Total’s Warehouse, and on the right the Theatre of Varieties and St James’s Hall, with St Peter’s Church in the distance.”

It is a scene few now remember.

St Peter’s Church and the hospital were demolished a long time ago and the elaborate facade of what is now the Palace Theatre disappeared behind those drab tiles in 1957.

And what no one will now  recognise is the building beyond the theatre with its tall clock tower, for this was St James’s Hall, built in 1884, closed in 1907 and briefly reopened as a cinema in 1908 and was replaced in 1912 by St James’s Buildings which still stand on the site today.

Something of what the hall was like can be seen from the Gould’s Fire Insurance Map which dates from around 1900.

But that is enough for now.  My friend Sally has kindly given me more of Mr Bank’s pictures from a collection she bought and I now have a promise of some of his earlier photographs taken in Saddleworth which the Museum there has promised to pass over.

So it rather looks as if there will be lots more of Robert Banks to come.

And as often happens, someone has helped with the story.  Lee Hutchins has written that "St Peters Church in the distance was taken down in January 1907 and St Mary's Hospital to the left was completed in 1901 so taken between 1901 and 1906"


Pictures;, Oxford Street before 1912, courtesy of Sally Dervan and detail of St James’s Hall from Gould’s Fire Insurance Map, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Robert Banks, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Robert%20Banks

**Manchester artist and photographers, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20artist%20and%20photographers

***from a conversation with James Stanhope-Brown who also told me that sadly there is no reference in the Royal collection to the event.  He has also published Manchester From the Robert Banks Collection, in 2011, the History Press

Another side of the remarkable and popular Manchester photographer Robert Banks

Uppermill circa 1890

Robert Banks was one of those remarkable Victorian self made men, who went from being a woollen piercer in a mill in Uppermill to a celebrated and sought after Manchester photographer who eventually gained the title by Royal Appointment.

Now I have written about him on a number of occasions, but knew nothing of the man or his achievements until my friend Sally began sharing his pictures.

And it would appear few other people knew much about him either and sadly the one book published on his work is now out of print.**

So not deterred by such minor obstacles I went looking for him and as you would one of my first ports of call was Uppermill and the Museum at Saddleworth.

And Mr Peter Fox the curator was able to supply both more of the story and some wonderful earlier images including this delightful advert dating from March 30 1867

Reverse of a photograph, circa 1890s

“ADVERT : R. BANKS, PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO, UPPERMILL
R. Banks respectfully informs the Public that he has now opened a Photographic Studio at Uppermill, Saddleworth - Open daily from 9 till dusk.****

I wondered at how Robert Banks had managed to set himself up given his earlier occupation but it appears he had joined a photographic club drew on their advice and I guess either borrowed or saved for his first camera.

So I shall leave you with this early Banks photograph from  Uppermill, and promise you more.

Picture; courtesy of Saddleworth Museum, http://www.saddleworthmuseum.co.uk/





*Robert Banks, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Robert%20Banks

**Manchester From the Robert Banks Collection, James Stanhope-Brown, 2011, the History Press

***Saddleworth Museum,

****Oldham Chronicle

That amazing Mr Banks ....... his pictures and other practitioners of his trade

Now I remain fascinated by what can turn up in an old cupboard, under the floor boards or in this case the family picture album.

And for what follows I have my old friend Oliver Bailey to thank, who having read the story on the photographer, Robert Banks, sent up a selection of the trade cards which accompanied some of the family pictures.

Oliver told me that "glancing through your blog on I saw the name Banks, which rang a bell as he was one of many that took photos of different branches of the family and I attach copies of mountings he used plus a list of all the practitioners of the art that the family used".

All of which was a find indeed.

Mr Banks was born in 1847, his father was a journeyman carpenter, and at fifteen he was employed as a woollen piercer in Upper Mill.  At the age of twenty he was an illustrated artist working for the Oldham Chronicle and in 1867 had set up as a photographer in the High Street at Uppermill.

From there he set up in Manchester, was employed to take family photographs, and went out on to the streets of the city to record what he saw.

He was commissioned by the Corporation in 1878 to photograph a series of pictures of the newly opened Town Hall and went on to compile sets of albums including the opening of the Ship Canal, the unveiling of Queen Victoria’s statue, and King Edward’s visit in 1909.

The mountings on the back of Oliver’s family photographs record the growing success of Mr Banks who by degree began opening studios across the city and beyond including Blackpool.

Along with these cards, Oliver provided a list of 35 other photographers, many of whom were working outside Manchester and include places ranging from Todmorden, Southport, Rochdale, Pendleton, Halifax and Burnley.

At which point I will have to go back to Oliver and enquire as to how so many far flung photographers were snapping the family.  I suppose the explanation for some like Southport, Hollingworth Lakes, and Douglas in the Isle of Man will be holiday opportunities, But Sierra Leone will throw up a story.

The list is a treasure trove, because it offers the chance to pursue the careers of each of these picture takers.
I know the Manchester ones will be there in the local directories which I have but the ‘out of town’ ones are all new to me and over time I will pursue them.

Just leaving me to thank Oliver, whose family farmed in Chorlton from the 1760s.

Location; everywhere






Pictures, trade cards from Robert Banks, late 19th, early 20th centuries, from the collection of Oliver Bailey

On Blackfriars Street in 1894

We are on Blackfriars Street sometime at the beginning of April 1894.

Now I can be pretty certain of that because our old friend Samuel L Coulthurst wrote the location on the picture and the dates on the adverts place it just before April 7.

It is that classic image most of us have of a northern city.

One of the women wears a shawl; another is in one of those long dresses with a white apron while the men all wear the distinctive hats of the period or the equally characteristic flat cap.

It is a period when the young still dressed like their elders and so in the centre is a youngster who looks just like a cut down version of the men around him.

And it is all in the detail, from the enamel jug held by one woman to the slightly dirty hands of one the men.

I would love to know what is going on, for while the woman in the shawl looks directly at Mr Coulthurst, the attention of the rest has been caught by something we cannot see.

The clue may be the half obscured man facing us who at pinch might be singing or addressing the crowd.

It may be a fancy on my part but there is just a hint that the woman with the shawl and jug looks a tad apprehensive, but I might be wrong.

The original notes accompanying the photograph may help but sadly I don’t have access to them.

They appear to have been quite detailed including a description, catalogue number and the photographer’s name.

And the image formed part of a wider collection which had been commissioned by the Manchester Amateur Photographic Society which under took the first photographic survey of Manchester and Salford between 1892-1901.

So our Blackfriars picture is one of these.

But even given the absence of those notes there is much that the photograph offers up.

On the wall there are countless adverts which take us back into Manchester and Salford of the 1890s.

Alderman Dickins who features on the Sale of Works ad for April 6 & 7 was a prominent Conservative politician on the city council who in 1894 was in his mid 50s and described himself as a cotton merchant.

Croxton Park Races was an annual event which drew large crowds.

They were held near the village of Waltham of the Wolds which is in Leicestershire and is another example of the degree to which Victorian past times had long since extended beyond local boundaries.

It appears to have begun in 1821 and lasted till 1914.*

That said I doubt that any of our crowd would have made that journey.
And for now I will leave them watching the event captured by Mr Coulthurst.

There is more here, like the location of the grand house at OLD TRAFFORD,   SOLD FOR AUCTION and what looks to be the announcement of an election.

But they will wait for another time.









Picture; Blackfriars Street, 1894, Samuel L Coulthurst, m 80496, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Croxton Races: pre 1881, Waltham on the Wold, http://local-history.org.uk/waltham/croxton-races-pre-1881/

A little bit about Samuel L Coulthurst and those amazing pictures of Manchester street life

Rochdale Road and Swan Street 1900

This is another of those images of Manchester street life by Samuel Lawrence Coulthurst.

It was taken in 1900 at the corner of Rochdale Road and Swan Street.

Now at this point I would normally go off and look for a story behind the image but today I am more
interested in Mr Coulthurst.

There are 171 of his photographs in the digital collection of Manchester Libraries, covering everything from those street scenes to buildings and portraits and taken between 1890 and 1920.*

There is also a book of his pictures which sadly is out of print. **

For a long time Mr Coulthurst was just a name I saw in the credit to the photograph I was studying but as more of his images turned up I became interested in him.

He was born in Blackley, described himself variously as a “book buyer” and “stationary buyer" and lived in various parts of Manchester and Salford.   He married Annie Higson in June 1900 and he died in Helsby in 1939.

Samuel Lawrence Coulthurst, 1890

And despite a series of wonderful photographs of the twin cities, I have only been able to turn up a poor quality photograph of the man himself.

But I have high hopes that something better will turn up.

After all he appears to have been well known during the late 19th century, exhibiting at the Royal Photographic Society in 1897 and was a member of the Manchester Amateur Photographic Society which under took the first photographic survey of Manchester and Salford between 1892-1901.

In 1901 232 platinotype prints were handed to the Manchester and Salford Reference Libraries.

A third copy was retained by the Society but over the years a number have gone missing. The photographs are mounted on sheets of card, either singly or groups of 2 or 4 photographs per sheet. Manuscript details are written in ink beneath each image giving a brief description, a number and the photographer’s name. ***

Now there is a lot more I want to know about Mr Coulthurst and I have contacted both Manchester Amateur Photographic Society and the Friends of Salford Museum’s Association.

In the meantime I will leave you with this small piece of his personal life.

In the March of 1922 Samuel and Annie took a cruise to Lisbon, Madeira and the Canary Islands.  I would just love to see any photographs of that trip, but I fear they have been lost forever, which brings me back to those of the digital archive which I will be going back to over the next few months.

Pictures; Rochdale Road and Swan Street, Samuel L Coulthurst, 1900, m41073 and Samuel L Coulthurst, 1890,  m72750, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Manchester Local Image Collection, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php

**The Samuel L Coulthurst Photographs: Victorian Salford and Manchester, 1995, Friends of Salford Museum’s Association

***National Archives, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=124-2373&cid=0#0

Of grand pictures, the 1893 Cup Final and the jubilee of the 1832 Moorcock murders....... more from the camera of Mr Banks

Inside the Ryalands, circa 1900

Now Mr Banks can never be said to have missed an opportunity.

He was one of those self made Victorians who rose from humble beginnings to become a celebrated photographer capping his career with that seal of official approval which comes from the title “By Royal Appointment.”

He has caught my interest ever since my friend Sally began posting his photographs of Manchester in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

From 1873 and into the next century he recorded the great events of the city, along with the everyday life on the streets and portraits of the good and worthy of Manchester.

And ever mindful that all this was a job he was quick to turn his pictures into books.

Added to this he had a range of studios across the city and beyond including his first in Uppermill and one in Blackpool.

Much of his work like those of the newly opened Town Hall and later the Ship Canal captured that mix of civic pride and entrepreneurial drive which was the age.

Watching the 1893 Cup Final

But he was in touch with what people wanted and in the collections there are plenty of pictures of well known Manchester Streets and popular events, like this one at the Manchester Athletic Ground in Fallowfield.

“The Stadium opened in 1892 and I believe this photo is taken at the cup final match between Wolves and Everton in 1893 which according to one report had an attendance of 45,000 which was quite something given that he stadium had a capacity of 15,000. Fallowfield stadium was demolished in 1994 and is now Richmond Park Halls of Residence.”*

Mrs Simpson, circa 1882

Not that these were all.  In the early years he advertised a range of Valentine cards and continued to do the real commercial business of the individual and group portrait.

And by one of those wonderful coincidences I have two of the Simpson family who lived in Hulme, and ran a dairy business spanning the century from 1850 to the 1940s.

They are typical of the work Mr Banks produced and all of them come with his trade card on the reverse allowing you to clock the addresses of all his studios with a handy reference number should you wish to reorder your picture.

Here they are the grand and not so grand, striking the classic pose and using the studio props to celebrate a moment in their life.

The identities of many are lost with time but a few have survived with some details written on the back

Moorcock Inn, 1882

But as much as I find these fascinating it is the public pictures which draw you into his work and for me this one from 1882 near where he set up his first studio.

It is of the ‘Moorcock Inn‘, Bills o’ Jacks, Greenfield and was taken during the jubilee of the Moorcock Murders, which had happened on April 2nd 1832 when a landlord and his gamekeeper son were violently murdered at a remote pub on the edge of the bleak moorland above Greenfield near Saddleworth.**

But that of course is another story for another time.

But ever mindful of its commercial possibilities Mr Banks was there to exploit that Victorian passion for a gruesome murder and no doubt hoped that the jubilee of that event would add to his professional and financial standing.

Next; a little bit more on his life and some of his early adventures.

Pictures; picture of the inside of the Ryland’s Library, circa 1900 and  Manchester Athletic Ground, 1893,  courtesy of Sally Dervan, Ms Simpson from the collection of Ann Love date unknown, and the ‘Moorcock Inn‘, Bills o’ Jacks, Greenfield, 1882, courtesy of Saddleworth Museum, http://www.saddleworthmuseum.co.uk/

*Sally Dervan

**The Bill o' Jacks Murders, Mysterious Britain & Ireland,
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/england/greater-manchester/folklore/the-bill-o-jacks-murders.html

On Angel Street with Matilda Walker and her two children

Anyone who has grown up in a terraced street in the older parts of our towns and cities will recognise the wicket that has been chalked on the side of this brick wall.

In the absence of parks, playing fields and any green spaces the street was where you played.  In the winter you kicked a football and in summer you played cricket.

So I guess Mr J Jackson might well have pitched up with his camera sometime between May and September judging by the chalk marks on the wall.

Now the date was 1909 but I am curious as to where all the people were.  This after all was still a time when the arrival of a photographer drew the crowds.

They came and stood staring at the camera with a mixture of curiosity, bravado and  more than a little vanity.

Some posed, most just looked on in bewilderment and a few steadfastly refused to acknowledge the presence of this man and his camera.

Within a few decades so commonplace would the camera be that people ignored its presence and just got on with life.

But here in 1909 I would have expected more, especially on Angel Street that narrow and crowded street which connected Rochdale Road with St Michael’s Fields.

This was a densely populated area dominated by the “common lodging house” and so you do wonder where they are.

Mr Jackson’s picture is from  the St Michael’s Field end and our property is up for sale.

Now with a bit more research I should be able to tell you more about it.

In the meantime I shall just share a little of the work I have done so far on Angel Street.

It is a slow laborious task because I am transferring the 1901 census returns on to a spreadsheet but when it is completed I will have a full record of who lived here including their occupations, age, and place of birth and marital status, all of which will provide a background to the area.

And in time I shall be able to track some of residents back across the decades around the city and determine to what extent many of those who ended up in these cheap over crowded lodging houses were the flotsam and jetsam of Manchester, destined to move from one crummy set of rooms to another.

The advantage of the spread sheet is that it allows you to sort the data in any way you want, looking for patterns in age range, occupations and places of birth.

So far I have searched just a handful of these lodging houses but they reveal a remarkable number of young women with children who described themselves as single, running counter to that commonly held belief that they would describe themselves as married or widowed.

Women like Matilda Walker who at the age of 23 was bringing up two children aged four and three months at number 17 Angel Street.

She gave her occupation as charwoman and I wonder how she balanced working with looking after her daughter Sarah and the baby John.

She would have been just 19 when she gave birth to the first and there will be a story here.

Of course the research area is limited to just one street but I suspect there will be enough here to keep me busy for a while.

Picture; Angel Street, 1909, J Jackson, m00198, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Peeling back the story of the Molynneux Brothers and thier connection to Manchester & Woolwich

This is one of those stories which bring together Manchester and Woolwich along with a soldier from the Great War and a new resource for anyone interested in our photographers from the 19th and early 20th century.

Sent by George in October 1915 from Woolwich

And not for the first time it confirms my belief that history is messy and can take you in all sorts of directions.

Now I have been writing about George Davison who served with the Royal Artillery from 1915 till his death on the Western Front in the June of 1918.*

Much of what I know of him comes from the Davison collection which contains letters and postcards he sent to his wife Nellie during the Great War, his school records and references to his first job, and his political affiliations.

It comes from a much bigger set of material which has been collected by David Harrop and contains memorabilia from both world wars and much more on the history of the postal service in this country.

George and Nellie Davison with their son, 1915

So back to George Davison who was born in Harpurhey and in the October of 1915 was stationed in Woolwich where sent a series of postcards back to his Nellie in Bedford Street Hulme.

And as you do I idly clocked the name “Molyneux Brothers” who issued the postcards.

They were turning out scenes of Woolwich during the early 20th century and I had come across some of the pictures of the Arsenal about a year ago.

At the time I was curious did a bit of digging but came up with nothing and left it.

But Mr Davison’s post cards renewed my interest which led me to Photographers of Great Britain & Ireland 1840-1940.***

They had a reference to the brothers which in turn led me to explore the census returns and electoral registers for Woolwich which turned up the two brothers with one of them at William Street and another at Thomas Street and  business addresses at both William Street and Welllington Street.

From Slater's Directory, 1911

But that wasn’t all for today Ron who runs the site was back with more and like all good messy history it brought the brothers here to Manchester.

In 1874 there is a reference  to a James Molyneux on Great Ducie Street in Strangeways with another listing a few doors up for 1890 as well as at Norfolk Street in Hulme in 1876.

Unknown Victorian woman date unknown

Nor is this all for in the first decade of the 20th century T & A Molyneux were trading as printers on Great Jackson Street in Hulme.

Of course they may not be related but I think there is a connection.

“I believe James Molyneux was born in 1845 in Liverpool. He was at 65 Great Ducie Street in October 1874 as he registered the death of Samuel Melville, of the same address. Samuel was a fish and poultry dealer but I wonder whether Samuel's wife Ellen Emma might have helped around the house for James as part of their lodging. 

In 1881 James was living at 65 Great Ducie Street with Mary Ann Harrison, servant, Mary White servant and Fred Harrison (presumably some relative of Mary Ann) aged 13 an apprentice. 

I have looked at 55 Great Ducie Street in the 1891 census but it is recorded as uninhabited so I don't why that was.”***

Reverse of  Manchester woman image

The father of our two Woolwich brothers was a John Molineux also from Liverpool who by 1891 was living in Woolwich with his wife Ellen and five children the eldest of whom was called Mary Ann.

Now Mary Ann was born in 1871 in London and so while she cannot be Mary Ann Harrison it was the common practice then as now for children to carry the name of a family relative or close friend.

In the same way the elder of out Woolwich brothers was a John which I know was a common enough name but might link us to the Mr Molyneux of Great Ducie Street.

All of which just leaves the occasional miss spelling of Molineux for Molyneux which appears in one  Manchester directory for the early 20th century but then even printer’s can make mistakes.

So I shall continue to go looking for the Molyneux Brothers both here and in Woolwich.

The buildings they lived in and traded from will have long gone, but there is much information out there including official documents and maybe the odd trade card along with a picture from the digital archive.

We shall see.

And as I finished the story Ron kindly sent me some pictures from the Molyneux Studios
that were taken at 65 Great Ducie Street.

They include both the images of sturdy Victorian worthies and the reversse of the pictures which acted as a trade card, and I am fascinated by the connection with the United States.

All of which just adds another trail to follow up and which is a long way from Woolwich, but then That is how I like my history, messy, diverting and always full of questions.

* Woolwich in 1915, a Manchester soldier and a love letter from Chorlton,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/woolwich-in-1915-young-manchester.html

**David Harrop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/David%20Harrop

*** Photographers of Great Britain & Ireland 1840-1940, www.cartedevisite.co.uk

Pictures; courtesy of David Harrop of Woolwich on Green Hill and the Davison family from the collection of David Harrop and unknown Victorian woman and card  from the Ducie Street studio courtesy of Ron Cosens, Photographers of Great Britain & Ireland 1840-1940

Trying to find the lives of the people behind the doors on Angel Street

Now tracking down the residents of some common lodging houses in the seedier part of Manchester in the late 19th century was never going to be easy.

But as part of the story of the people behind the doors of Angel Street it was something I wanted to do, if only to give these long lost people some substance.

After all living in a common lodging house and sharing a room if not a bed with a group of strangers marks you out as at the bottom of the pile and the chances are you will leave little of anything behind.

So in I wanted to piece together their lives before they arrived in Angel Street in 1901.

Some had been married and will have run a family home, others might have always been on the move from one temporary accommodation to another, but the census returns would at least anchor them somewhere every ten years before 1901.

And it would throw light on their occupations helping determine whether they had always been in jobs which were low paid, casual and uncertain.

There were 112 to choose from and not being a statistician I went for ten to begin with.  These included the young Matilda Walker aged 23, a single mother of two who gave her occupation as charwoman, a number of middle aged men and women from Manchester and two elderly men born in Ireland.

To make it easier to track the women I went for those who said they were single and pretty much split the men between those who were married and those who were unmarried.

Now any one who has searched for family relatives will know that crawling over the official records can lead to countless alternatives and a lot of dead ends.

And so it has been with my ten.  In some cases a census return would yield up a clue only to be marginalised when three other likely candidates offered themselves up.

Worse still many just didn’t appear at all.  They seem to have evaded the enumerator on census day, were not baptised and passed away leaving not even a death certificate.

Of course they will be somewhere but as yet not where I can find them.

I rather think some will have gone under different names, perhaps others left the country or were just never at the right place to be caught on an official document.

Matilda who was born in Salford may be the daughter of John and Matilda who were living at 33 Back Hampson Street in Greengate in 1891.

She is the only one roughly of the right age to show up on a census return, but I can’t find her for a decade before and likewise I lose her after 1901.

Nor have her children fared any better.  Sarah had been born in 1897 and John in 1901.  Of John there is not even a birth record and for his sister a choice of two 14 year olds who in 1911 were working as domestic servants, one in Surrey and the other around the corner from Angel Street.

Of the other nine there were a few false dawns and more dead ends.

Not that I shall stop.  The exercise remains a valid one and so I travel in hope.

Picture; Angel Street, 1900, Samuel L Coulthurst, m08978, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Behind the door of 44 Angel Street revealing stories of the "common lodging houses"

Angel Street in 1901

I am back on Angel Street between 1897 and 1901.

Recently  I wandered down the street in the company of Samuel L Coulthurst who took a series of pictures of the people and their homes including one rare shot of the inside of number 44.

And today I am back having spent my time crawling over the census return for the same street in 1901.

The pictures reveal a row of late 18th and early 19th century houses similar to those which were going up across the city in the boom years as Manchester quickly became “the shock city of the Industrial Revolution”*

The south eastern side from what is now Rochdale Road up to St Michaels’s Fields had been built in 1794 and those we can see in the pictures were there by 1819**

What makes Coulthurst’s pictures all the remarkable is that having identified the houses it is possible to discover who was living in them just a few years later.

On Angel Street in 1898

Now I would love to be able to record who exactly was living at number 44 when in the May of 1897 Samuel took his pictures, but I can’t.

 The best I can do is identify who was there on the night of March 31st 1901 when the census was taken.

There were thirty two of them all male ranging from William Paxton aged 22 from Wigan who described himself as a street hawker to Thomas Reed from Ireland who at 74 was still working as a labourer.

All  them earned their living from manual work or the slightly more precarious occupation of selling on the streets.

Most were single although a few were widowers and while the largest single group had been born here there were those from the rest of Lancashire, as well as Ireland Scotland and even London.

I try not to be sentimental but you cannot help feeling a degree of sadness that so many of these men well past middle age were living crammed together in a common lodging house with nothing but a few possessions and the knowledge that with old age, sickness or just bad luck the future might be the Workhouse.

History of course has been unkind to them and most will have few records to stand as witness to their lives and so during the course of the next few weeks I want to track some of them and discover what their lives had been like.

Outside 44 Angel Street in  May of 1897

In the process I think we will uncover something of that shifting population at the bottom of the income pile and the extent to which they went from one overcrowded property to another.

Sadly the identities of those staring back at us are lost and so who they were and what happened to them cannot be revealed.

But that is not completely the case, because I think standing outside number 44 with his flat cap and parcel under his arm might just be Patrick Comer whose name appears above the door and who fourteen years later is still registered at the address on the street directory.

Patrick Comer

If this is him he seems to have had a varied life.  Born in Manchester sometime around 1850 he was variously a dyer, a joiner and in 1911 was both listed a step ladder maker and a clothes agent.

He never strayed far from Angel Street and can be found on Mount Street which runs into Angel Street and on Rochdale Road close by.

As for the others they are unknown and I doubt would still have been living at number 44 by 1901.

The very nature of these lodging houses meant that the residents were short term stay but we shall see.

Most of Angel Street also consisted of lodging houses and as I trawl the census return they reveal a rich cross section of those at the margins of late 19th century Manchester life.

And they point to number 44 being a tad unusual in that it was entirely male orientated.  The other lodging houses had more of a mix of men and women, married as well as single and some unmarried women with young children who defiantly refused to describe themselves as either married or widowed.

Inside number 44 Angel Street, 1897

It will indeed be a fascinating exploration of this part of the city.

Now that should be the end but there is just one last discovery, for I have tracked Mr Samuel L Coulhurst.

He was a book buyer from Salford, born in 1868 and living at number 4 Tootal Road Pendelton and in the fullness of time I think he also deserves a closer look.

Location, Angel Meadow, Manchester

Pictures; Angel Street, 1900, m85543 44 Angel Street, 1897, m08360, 44 Angel Street 1898, m00195, and Angel Street common lodging house, 1897, m08365, S.L.Coulthurst, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass


**Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities, 1963

**The south east side of Angel Street are missing from Laurent’s map of Manchester in 1793 but are there the following year on Green’s map while the side photographed by Coulthurst show up on Johnson’s map of 1819.