Pushing water up a hill …… looking for Mr. Mills in 1851

 Sometimes you know you are on a loser, but a mix of curiosity and a bit of stubbornness allied to the sheer fascination of digging deep into the past won’t allow you to stop.

John Broome and Jonathan Mills, 1828

And so it was with John Broome and Jonathan Mills who I first came across in a court case in 1828.

They were alleged to have taken part in a very nasty piece of vindictive bullying against a fellow apprentice in the Soho Iron Works in New Islington.

So far I haven’t been able to find out their fate at the Quarter Sessions only that they had both been ordered to find “sureties of £20 each to answer to any indictment at the sessions which having found, they were discharged”.*

Now £20 was a lot of money and there is no indication as to how they raised it.

But that was enough to set me off.

Not that I expected I would find out much.

After all we were dealing with two young men in 1828, who might not have lived long enough to make it into either the 1841 or 1851 census, and who any way could have moved away from Manchester or just slipped through the historical records.

Arthur Street, 1851

And it wasn’t a promising start because there wete plenty of John Broome’s in Manchester in the 1850s, but none quite fitted the profile.

Johnathan Miller was a tad different, because I found a Johnathan Miller on both the 1851 census in the Rate Books. This Mr. Mills gave his occupation as “Mechanic” and his age of 42 would have meant he was 19 in 1828, so just possibly still an apprentice.  

6 Arthur Street, 1901

He was living at 12 Arthur Street with his wife and three children in the heart of Ancoats, surrounded by textile mills engineering works and other industrial premises, all of which used machine power and in turn would have employed mechanics.

The family had been there from at least 1845 and were still there eight years later.  A decade later the family on Ashton New Road in Audenshaw and he described himself as a “labourer in a Chemical works”.  

I doubt we will ever now why he slipped down from a skilled job to being a labourer and while it is attractive to speculate it will not get us anywhere.

Of course this whole trail is based at present on two census returns and the assumption that this is our man, and that is a big assumption.

But the search did reveal a little bit about Arthur Street, which was bounded on two side by the River Medlock and on a third side by a railway viaduct and was located to the south of Fairfield Street closes to London Road Railway Station. 

It is now under the new development which is Mayfield. 

The family were paying a weekly rent of 3/8d and the maps of the period and a series of photographs taken around 1900 suggest that they were two up two down terraced properties.

Back of 6 Arthur Street, 1901

So a step up from the back to backs which many occupied but sufficiently close to the river and heavy industry to have offered little in the way of green verdant pastures.

And there the search for Jonathan Mills peters out,  reminding us that even if this is our man plenty of that water has flown back down the hill to make him and his family pretty obscure.

Location; Manchester in the mid 19th century

Pictures; extract from the Manchester Guardian, 1828, deatil of Adhead’s map of Manchester in 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/, the site in 2023, courtesy of Goggle Maps, and 6 Arthur Street, m10771, Back of 6 Arthur Street, Bradburn A,m10771, Back of 6 Arthur Street, Bradburn A,m10772 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Arthur Street, now part of the Mayfield development, 2023

*Manchester Guardian, July 5th 1828

On encountering Holt Town ……

It was always a given that long after the bulldozers had gone into clear areas which were deemed no loner fit for purpose the pubs would remain standing amongst the rubble.

The Bank of England .... clinging on, 2025

For some they represented a silent testament to what had been a thriving community, and for others reinforced the power of the breweries who were just waiting for the people to return. 

One of Pollard Street Mills, 2025

And that is pretty much what I felt as I walked from Holt Town towards New Islington along Merrill and Pollard Street.

Till now it’s an area I had only read about.

According to that excellent site “Modern Mooch”, Holt Town was established in 1785 “by David Holt and was “described as the only known example of a factory colony in Manchester, that is, an isolated mill complex with housing for the workers” *. 

Which didn’t quite go the way Mr. Holt expected as he went bankrupt nine years later and his mill went up for sale, but the dye was set for Holt Town and to quote Modern Mooch again “The area has seen a transition, in some two hundred years or more, from a leafy rural idyll, to smoke choked industrial hell and back again".

The River Medlock, 2025

So, as we progressed from the tram stop there were vestiges of that old industrial place, along with a former bank and some social housing.  

You can see the River Medlock and walk the City Walk from the Etihad Stadium to Holt Town along a footpath bordered on one side by vegetation and the tram track.

But some of that social housing which was relatively new has gone and the City Council after a period of consulataion has announced  a major regeneration opportunity for Holt Town "to develop a new mixed use neighbourhood, highly sustainable with thousands of new homes of different types and tenures – from family housing through to age friendly and key worker apartments - incorporating high quality green spaces surrounding a 1km play street spine, provision of new local services, cultural opportunities, and significant affordable workspace.  

Situated along the Medlock Valley between the bustling areas of Ancoats and New Islington and the dynamic zones of Sportcity and the Etihad Campus, investment in Holt Town will unlock a missing link.**

All of which looks quite exciting and mirrors the development that had already taken place in New Islington, and replaced the Cardroom Estate of the 1970s.   

Heading towards New Islington and the city centre, 2025

The crossing point is roughly where Carruthers Street meets Pollard Street.  One side of Pollard Street is faced by the Ancoats Mill and a line of former mills, while looking towards the city there is New Islington and that forest of residential towers which dominate the skyline of the centre of Manchester.

Mills, pubs and new apartments, 2025

And the corner is also home to a pub … the Bank of England.  

It didn’t quite survive to greet the return of people now occupying New Islington having closed sometime between the June of 2017 and the May of the following year.

I suppose that does prove the given assumption that pubs always survive redevelopments, so while it does look in a sad state, it is for sale and may yet catch the tide of residential change.

It was called the Bank of England and in a sniffy moment I assumed this was a new name, which was more in keeping with the late 20th century.

But no, The Bank of England was serving beer and cheer from at least 1841and I suspect will prove to be much older.  

In that year it was run by Nathan Wilson who was from Yorkshire and was 48 years old. A decade later he shared the pub with his wife, Margaret, their daughter and two bar staff.

Its estimated annual rent was £35 which put it a head of the nearby properties.

And I suppose it does rather prove the point that pubs do hang on while everything around them changes.

"See better days and do better things", the Bank of England, 2025

The Bank of England out lasted its industrial neighbours as well as the Liverpool and Manchester Bank just back up Merrill Street and was still in business when the estates of publicly owned houses were being demolished.

So I wouldn’t bet on its final demise just yet.

As for now its continued presence offers a backdrop for the less than skilled art of the spray can.

Location Holt Town

Pictures; Holt Town and towards New Islington, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Holt Town Manchester – Part One, February 9, 2017, Modern Mooch, https://modernmooch.com/2017/02/09/holt-town-manchester-part-one/ 

 And 

Part Two, May 1st, 2020, https://modernmooch.com/2020/05/01/holt-town-part-two/

**Major Holt Town regeneration programme proceeds following public consultation January 25th, 2025, https://www.manchester.gov.uk/news/article/9623/major_holt_town_regeneration

Never let prejudice get in the way of history ….. walking New Islington

Now, I have a habit of getting sniffy about the new names developers and city planners give to old bits of Manchester.

The Ashton Canal, 2022

So, over the years I have been a bit dismissive of the names like The Northern Quarter, Spinnyfields, and New Islington.

Only to find that there is often a basis for these names.

And so, it is with New Islington which is that area roughly between the Rochdale and Ashton Canals.

In my ignorance I assumed the name had been dreamed up by some smart backroom young thing as an echo of that other place in London.

But not so apparently back in 2000, the residents of what was then called the Cardroom Estate were asked to choose a new name for the area in advance of regeneration plans and with the help of Urban Splash “choose the area’s new name (taking their inspiration from the name of a road that ran through the estate)”.*

New Islington, 1851

This was New Islington Road, which was cut sometime between 1844 and 1853, and in turn references the name New Islington which appears on maps dating back into the 18th century.

So once again the lesson is never get sniffy before looking back into the past.

And the history of the area pretty much confirms that simple observation that canals make for development.

In the late 18th century Green’s map of 1794 shows the area as open land but indicates the line of the “Intended Ashton Canal" while Johnson’s map of 1819 shows a only limited development.

Relics, 2022

That said between the OS map of 1844 and Adshead’s map of just seven years later New Islington has followed the patten of other parts of the city and is characterised by acres of densely packed terrace houses, textile mills, dye works, plenty of coal yards and a foundry.

All very different from the smart properties which today line the canal along with the equally smart bars, restaurants, and heaps more including a free school and the aptly named Cotton Field which is “an idyllic water park where you can escape the hustle and bustle of the city. 

Improvement works have recently been completed, and it’s used daily by families and people young and old for fitness and sport, walking and picnics*.**

The multi coloured set of homes, 2022

I am glad I took Timmy tram yesterday and visited the area, motivated by curiosity and the sunshine.

The challenge now is to go back and wander the New Islington of 1851 and in particular to get a sense of who lived there and where they may have worked.

And while that is in progress I think a few more visits back to the area, perhaps looking at how many of the old streets have survived along with buildings from the mis 19th century, and matching those discoveries with the continued rose of the new tower blocks.

Rising blocks, 2022

Location; New Islington

Pictures; walking New Islington, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

*The regeneration of New Islington - Creating Manchester's most thriving neighbourhood, urbansplash, https://www.urbansplash.co.uk/blog/the-regeneration-of-new-islington

**This is the place: why New Islington is now the best place to live in Manchester city centre, I Love Manchester, Chris Greenhalgh, January 10th 2020, https://ilovemanchester.com/new-islington-best-place-to-live-manchester-city-centre

Coming into Manchester from the East ..............

Anyone familiar with the songs of Arlo Guthrie will vaguely see the poor attempt to connect his song on arriving home in Los Angeles with my journey back into the city on the tram from Ashton.*

Looking out from New Islington, 2023

On a whim I had stopped off at New Islington, and before exploring the ever changing “new quarter”, I stood for a minute and recorded the view off into the distance.

New Islington, 1819

The new developments have just left a window which frame the glass and iron roof of Piccadilly Railway Station.

And yes, I am aware that technically New Islington is not a new quarter of the city, because it is listed as such on Johnson’s map of map dated 1819.

But for a while the name went underground.

Location, New Islington

Picture, Looking out from New Islington, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and detail of New Islington  from Johnson's map of Manchester, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

In the company of the birds, 2023

*Coming in from London, from over the Pole

Flyin' in a big airliner

Chickens flyin' everywhere around the plane

Could we ever feel much finer?

Comin' into Los Angeles

Bringin' in a couple of keys

Don't touch my bags if you please, mister customs man” 

Coming into Los Angeles, Arlo Guthrie, 1968

Stories of ghost buildings …………..

I am looking out of the window of a long-vanished building.

The room with a view, 2023

Today all that is left are two sides which run along a section of The Ashton Canal.

To my rear is the New Islington metro stop and beyond the window in the distance is Great Ancoats Street.

And until recently I had no idea of its existence until I started exploring and writing about  New Islington which is that area between the Ashton Canal to the south and the Rochdale Canal to the north.*

The Soho Iron Works, 1849

My building or at least the two walls were part of the Soho Iron Works which operated from this spot by at least 1810.  

This I know because according to one source in that year Peel, Williams & Co acquired the works, which they ran along side their Phoenix Foundry in Shudehill.  

“Pigot and Dean's New Directory of Manchester and Salford published in 1821 contains an entry for the firm, listing Peel and Williams as 'iron and brass founders, Phoenix Foundry, Shudehill; roller and spindle-makers, water-press and steam engine manufacturers, and gas-light erectors, Soho Foundry, Ancoats.' 

In 1839 Peel, Williams and Peel began manufacturing railway locomotives, which were trialled on the Liverpool - Manchester line. By 1861 a local directory described the company as 'Peel, Williams and Peel, steam engine makers, iron and brass founders, engineers, millwrights, boiler, gasometer and hydraulic press makers, Soho Iron Works and Forge, Pollard st, Great Ancoats st.' 

In the following year Peel, Williams and Peel was awarded a medal for their machines at the 1862 London Exhibition”.**

More ghost windows, 2023

The firm remained in business till May 1887 when the site was advertised for sale by auction, and in 1895 the building was occupied by the Union Alkali Company and described itself as a Chemical Works and were still there in 1928.

Intriguingly my Goad Fire Insurance map of 1928 references that part of the building along side the canal had been damaged in a fire in 1843, which followed on from an earlier fire in 1828 which had destroyed the older part of the foundry but spared the newer build.

Newspaper coverage of the 1828 fire included a letter which rebutted criticism of the conduct of the Norwich Union firemen who according to Thomas Bedford, Foreman of the millwrights “behaved themselves during the fire at Soho in a manner becoming their situation”.***

Just what they were accused of has yet to come to light.

But trawling the same paper there is one of those little bits of news which offers an insight into factory life and involved a court case where two apprentices were charged “with unwarrantable assault on a fellow -apprentice who having refused to fetch some water into the shop” was suspended in the air by a chain until he passed out and was rescued by workmen.**** 

"unwarrantable assault", 1828

I will go looking for the two accused who were John Broome and Jonathan Mills but I suspect history has long ago forgotten them if it ever bothered to notice them.

Still the romantic in me wonders if they too like me stared out of my window, which the historian in me concedes is pure tosh.

Location Pollard Street, New Islington

Pictures, relics of the Soho Works, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and map of the Soho Iron Works, 149 from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1989, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ and the site in 2023, courtesy of Google Maps.

Soho Iron Works site, 2023

*New Islington, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2023/03/walking-new-islington-and-thinking.html

**Peel, Williams and Peel, Soho Iron Works, Science Museum Group Collection, https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/ap14659/peel-williams-peel

***Peel and William’s Fire, Manchester Guardian June 21st, 1828

****Thursday, Manchester Guardian July 5th, 1828

Walking New Islington ……. and thinking about the Northern Quarter and other places

 New Islington is that area bordered by Great Ancoats Street and sandwiched between the Rochdale and Ashton Canals, and it is a place I keep going back to.

New Islington, 2023

To the casual visitor it looks an impressive place dominated by the marina and a mix of residential properties which are constantly being added to.

So much so that there seems to be a permanent workforce in their hard hats and high vis jackets busying themselves, while the locals walk their dogs, take coffee in the bars and watch the regular tour parties soaking up the history of the area.

It drew me in and I have been writing about it ever since, walking the streets of the area back in the mid-19th century and crawling over the lives of those that worked and lived there.*

Before my first trip I did get sniffy about the name, thinking it was one of those made up developers names for an area which for centuries had an older name.

Relic of a warehouse window, 2023

But not so because the name New Islington appears on Johnson’s map of Manchester for 1819 and was later signed off by being given the name of a street which was cut before 1844 and ran from Union Street to Woodward Street.** 

All life flocks to New Islington, 2023

And I did go back and check because of an on going discussion on the Northern Quarter, which is I accept a made up name, coined in the 1990s during the regeneration of the area bounded by Victoria and Piccadilly Railways Stations,  and the streets around Oldham Street.

The discussion if that was what it was began with an anonymous comment that the Northern Quarter didn’t exist, didn’t appear on  maps and furthermore the landlady of the Millstone pub on Thomas Street had never heard of the name.

And despite gentle reference to when the name was adopted, and the fact that it is there on finger posts and literature, my anonymous commentator would have nothing of it and repeated and repeated his denial of the existence of the Northern Quarter.

Looking out from New Islington metro stop, 2023

At which point I heeded the advice of the 18th century radical Tom Paine and judged that further discussion would be like giving medicine to a dead man or continuing to rebut the idea that Elvis is not dead and the World is flat. 

Place names change or evolve.  Some last the course and others disappear like snow in the winter sun.  

Old and new, 2023

Those that survive are often not the product of the City Planner or an enterprising developer but arising out of popular usage.  

So in Chorlton for 30 or so years the junction of Barlow Moor Road and Wilbraham Road has been known as “The Four Banks” as there was indeed a bank on each corner.  While the official name Chorlton Cross never caught on.

It will be interesting to see with the disappearance of three of the 4 banks how long the name will linger on.

And in the same way one corner of “The “Four Banks” had been known as "Kemp’s Corner" because of the presence of Harry Kemp's’ chemist shop with its giant clock, which was the preferred meeting place in a pre-mobile age.

So I await for my anonymous commentator to return with more tales of the Northern Quarter.

And I was not disappointed because anonymous bounded in with a comment on the absence of any reference in the maps to New Islington.

Clearly anonymous didn't read the reference to the name appearing on Johnson's map dated 1819.

So rather than let anonymous claim it is all just fake names, and fake locations  I have now  included a detail showing New Islington.  

Johnson recognises New Islington, 1819

His comments are displayed below and it is worth saying that his assertion that the name is made up by the Town Hall can be checked out from what I said in an earlier story and other articles on the net.  

Leaving me to reflect that I have attempted to give medicine when I said that was daft and challenged Flat Earthers … so to quote the Roman poet Catullus "no more, hard against the wall".

Pictures; walking the Northern Quarter on a March day, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and detail from Johnson's map of Manchester, 1819, by kind permission of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*New Islington, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20Islington

**Never let prejudice get in the way of history ….. walking New Islington, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/07/never-let-prejudice-get-in-way-of.html

Looking for Mrs Elizabeth Cunliffe ………

History has not been kind to Elizabeth Cunliffe. 

The Soho Foundry Tavern, 1851, Great Ancoats Street

So far, she features in just one historical record, from the 1851 census after which there is nothing.

For a brief while I thought I had found her ten years earlier and again for the last three decades of the 19th century, which would have made an interesting story as it tracked a young farm servant to a woman “living on her own means” aged 93.

But on closer inspection the young farm worker is not the elderly woman with money behind her.

Sadly, they were neither born in the same year or in the same place, and so what could have a fascinating story charting a remarkable journey turns out to be nothing more than a shared name.

Nor is the young Elizabeth aged 16 and living on a farm close to Liverpool the 26 years old woman who had married a James Cunliffe and described herself as a “Publican” on the 1851 census.

But there is enough left in that one record to pursue Mrs Cunliffe.

They were living at 251 Great Ancoats Street, close to where the Ashton Canal runs under the road at New Islington.*

Great Ancoats Street, 1962

Mr Cunliffe was a “Boiler Maker employing six men” and while he appears on the Street Directory at 251 Great Ancoats Street he is not listed amongst the eight men of that name in the alphabetical section of the same directory.  

Those eight included a bricklayer, provision dealer, tanner, and mechanic, along with a beer retailer, crate maker, dyer and weaver.

Nor can I find any listing for Elizabeth in the directories despite the reference to her as a publican. 

Now that is intriguing because there was the Soho Foundry Tavern on Great Ancoats Street which is recorded on the Rate Books as a pub at 251 in 1854 and 1855, and its occupant was her husband.

So if this was their pub, they must have taken it over sometime during 1851 because at the start of the year the Soho Foundry Tavern was run by an Ann Goff and by 1863 by Joseph Abrahams.

Moreover I know that in 1847 they were in Newton Le Willows and by 1849 were here in Manchester, because Thomas their eldest had been born outside the city while the birth place of their daughter May was here in Manchester.

All of which looks more than a bit confusing and messy.  But it was not uncommon for families to have more than one occupation, and well into the 20th century some pubs were run as a secondary business.  

I thought at first that perhaps Mrs Cunliffe was actually a beer retailer, which was an occupation made possible by the 1830 Beer Act which allowed anyone who could afford to pay two guineas for a license to brew and sell their own beer from their home.  Often the beer was dispensed from one room of the family home, and some beer shops morphed into pubs.

Looking towards Great Ancoats Street, 2022 from New Islington

But the Soho Foundry Tavern was not a beer house/beer shop.  It is listed a public house, took up a large footprint on the maps and commanded a higher rateable value than the surrounding premises all of which suggests it was a going concern.

And that pretty much is that other than to record that a James Cunliffe was running a beer house in the 1880s at 347 Great Ancoats Street which commanded a rate of just £20 compared to the £50 paid for the Soho Foundry Tavern thirty years earlier.

I say that is it, but the mystery thickens slightly because the Elizabeth Cunliffe who appears in the census records for 1891 and 1901 may not share the same birthplace or date of birth as our Elizabeth from Great Ancoats Street, but she was living in Newton Le Willows which was also the birthplace of her husband James Cunliffe and their son Thomas.

So lots more research to do.

To which John Anthony Hewitt has added, "Hi Andrew, I have a marriage for a James Cunliffe, full age, Boiler Maker, Eccles Street, Liverpool, to Elizabeth Welsh, minor, Eccles Street, Liverpool, at St Nicholas Church, Liverpool, 30 March 1845. His father, John, was a Contractor, and her father, Thomas, a Shoemaker. Source: (https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2197/images/englb5617_283-nic-3-31_m_00034?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=wBg19&_phstart=successSource&pId=1703824) 

This would fit with the 1851 Census ages, 31 & 26, giving years of birth as ca. 1820 & ca 1825. 

Also, I noticed the 1851 Census recorded James Cunliffe as born in Ashton-le-Willows, which was another name for Ashton-in-Makerfield; old maps (NLS) also record 2 names for Newton-le-Willows, the alternative being Newton-in-Makerfield. Source for Ashton-le-Willows: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol4/pp142-148 "

And also fits with the 1841 census entry which shows the two of them living and working on a farm.

Location; Great Ancoats Street

Pictures; walking New Islington, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Goolden's Buildings, T Brooks,1962,m11279,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*New Islington, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=New+islington

Gooldens Buildings in New Islington ………. Lost and now redicovered

Now this is one of the best views across to what was Gooldens Buildings, which stood just a short distance from Great Ancoats Street and faced the Ashton Canal.

Looking towards Gooldens Buildings, 2022

If I wanted to be entirely accurate the buildings were just a little past the lock keepers gate house heading east to the main road.

Sod’s Law dictated that I wasn’t looking for them when I wandered around New Islington on Monday, and the exact spot was occupied by builders on a break, the odd parent with a push chair and heaps of passers-by, making taking pictures a bit difficult.*

Gooldens Buildings, 1851

Nor had I heard of the eight properties which made up “Gooldens Buildings”, but as you do having decided to investigate what the area was like in the mid-19th century they seemed a perfect starting point.

Three of the eight were back to backs and the remainder seem to have had a backyard.  

They formed a rough L shape with the larger houses fronting the canal and the smaller ones running off at right angles, beyond which there were more houses and one of those closed courts of 13 back-to-back one up one down properties looking onto Booth’s Court, where sunlight and fresh air struggled to penetrate.

Gooldens Buildings started as a row of houses but appear to have given its name to the stretch of thoroughfare along side the canal up to Great Ancoats Street.  So long after the original houses had vanished or were converted into retail and industrial use, the name Gooldens Buildings remain.

By the 1920s some of the site had become a collection of warehouses and a factory and later still in 1953 the footprint is the same.  Tantalizingly there is only one picture of the street dated 1962 showing the corner of Gooldens Buildings and Great Ancoats Street with a hint of one of the warehouses.

The canal close to Gooldens Buildings, 2022

The first reference to the eight properties of Gooldens Buildings, dates from 1833 and the last from 1890.  These come from the Rate Books and offer up the names of various owners and residence over those 57 years.

As to exactly when they were constructed is still in doubt, but I think it will be sometime after 1819 because they do not appear on Johnson’s map of that year.

All of which leads me to burrow down into their history and explore who called them home.

The census returns show that in the spring of 1851 there were 49 people living in the row, whose ages ranged from the newly born to 76, with 42% below the age of 21.

Most were born in Manchester with a few from Cheshire, one from Yorkshire and one from Hertfordshire.

Their occupations were pretty much what we might expect of an area bounded by two canals and surrounded by textile factories.

Gooldens Buildings, 1962

The largest grew worked in a variety of jobs to do with the manufacture of cotton, four described themselves as “Canal Boat” men, and the remainder consisted of a Stone Mason, two Hawkers, a salesman, charwoman, launderess, along with a carter, “"and a house servant.

Their rents ranged from 2/9d to 4/9d, when an average wage might be £1.**

In time I will pursue the life stories of the 49 including tracking them across the city using the Rate Books and census returns, and possibly the street directories, although I doubt any would have been deemed worthy enough to have featured in the lists of residents of Manchester in the mid 19th century.

The promise of more residents, Gooldens Buildings, 2022

For now, I will reflect that Gooldens Buildings and the surrounding area will have had a density of living only matched again in the 21st century as New Islington continues to be developed as an attractive part of the inner city.

But unlike today with its mix of waterside attraction, a park and interesting bars and restaurants I think this bit of the city would have been less desirable in 1851.

During the day the noise from the textile mills, and foundries and the ever present danger the two canals presented to young children  Made New Islington a less attractive place to live.

Location; New Islington

Pictures; walking New Islington, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Goolden's Buildings, T Brooks,1962,m11279,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*New Islington, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20Islington

**2/9d was two shillings and 9 pennies.  There were twenty shillings to a £ and 12 pennies made up a shilling.  Converting these sums to post decimal currency has little meaning and perhaps matching earnings with rents makes more sense, although there are comparison historical sites out there.