Back with Mr Pooley’s fine Buildings, just short of their 200th birthday

Now I am back with Pooley’s Buildings, which sit on Princess Street, off Chester Road.*

They date from 1820 and still have an elegance about them which is nothing to how they would have appeared when new.

And Andy Robertson ventured back  to photograph the rear of the building and in doing so captured something of just how grand they were and indeed still are.

In the 1820s the houses looked out on a large open area boarded by trees, and were set in two large gardens which ran down to the Corn Brook with Corn Brook Park situated directly behind.

This is the fourth of the stories on the properties, which have wandered over Mr Pooley’s business interests, including his portfolio of properties, his factories and his bankruptcy and looked at the history of the property which at one stage belonged to the army and is now back in residential use.

The romantic in me would love to think that at one stage he walked the gardens, but I am realistic to know they may have looked very different.

In fact the OS map for the 1850s shows that they had lots of trees, with decorative borders and other features.

And that just leaves me with the water pump, which may date from Mr Pooley’s time or was added later.

Location; Hulme













Pictures; Pooley's Buildings, 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson


 *Pooley's Buildings, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Pooley%27s%20Buildings

More secrets ........ from Mr Pooley’s grand houses in Cornbrook

Now, I always knew there would be more to find out about Pooley’s Buildings which stand at the end of Princess Street, just off Chester Road.

Pooley's Buildings, 2018

They date from 1820 and still have an elegance about them which is nothing to how they would have appeared when new.

Back then the houses looked out on a large open area boarded by trees, and were set in two large gardens which ran down to the Corn Brook with Corn Brook Park situtated directly behind.

This is the third of the stories on the properties, and yesterday I reflected on how little I knew of their owner who was Mr John Pooley.

A close up, 2018

So I am indebted to Derek Watts who uncovered a heap of information on Mr Pooley’s business interests.  I knew that he had a portfolio of properties bit in the city centre and on Hulme and had come across a reference to a cotton factories run by the Pooley’s.

But Derek unearthed a short pieced from that excellent site, Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, which referred to the textile business of the John Pooley.*

In 1798 Boulton and Watt supplied the Mr Pooley and his partner with a”sun and planet beam stem engine of which the original drawings can still be seen.

The houses in 1849

The company prospered only to go bankrupt in 1827, leading to the sale of the mill’s machinery the following year.

But within a year the bankruptcy had been superseded and in 1841 they appear in the street directories as “John Pooley and Son, cotton spinners, Clarence Street, Hulme; John Pooley, house - Princess Street, Hulme; John Pooley jun., house - Clarence Street, Hulme” only to fail again in 1853."*

Despite these troubles Mr Pooley retained his property empire, which brings us back to his grand buildings on Princess Street.*

I found some of the residents in the 1851 census, and just assumed the houses stayed residential properties, but not so, according to Adam Brock they had a very different story, which was that they became, “the officers mess for a large part of the 19th century before being made into a soldiers retirement home in the early 20th. I have seen photos of old soldiers sitting in the covered area. I'm recalling from memory, so apologies for not being able to provide more detail.

Its lovely building, royalty visiting the barracks dined here. I actually have a relation who rented a flat in the building”.

All of which intrigued me and as you do I went looking for the cross over point which seems to have been 1868.

The mill, the tunnel and the barracks, 1849

In that year Mr Pooley is still listed in the Rate Books as owning them, but from 1869, they appear to belong to others**, and in 1876 they are listed as “Army HQ Offices Northern Division, and in 1911 are referred to as Cavalry Barracks,  Major W W Scott Commander Army Service Corps".**
As such they will have been connected to the Cavalry Barracks which was located close by.

After 1911, there is at present a blank but I doubt that it will remain so for long.
For now I will just conclude with a short extract from Grace’s Guide which uses the 1849 OS map to point out that “the [Pooley] mill was located on the edge of the Manchester conurbation. A few hundred yards to the west were fields and parkland. Immediately south of the mill were large cavalry barracks. 

The mill was fairly large, and had evidently developed in stages (the map shows two separate boiler houses and two separate engine houses). There was a large reservoir in the grounds (approx. 50 yards by 40), and also a smaller reservoir. The grounds also included gardens and two rows of houses, known as Pooley's Buildings. 

The whole site appears to be enclosed by walls.

To the south west of the mill is a very large house overlooking Cornbrook Park, identifed as 'Pooley's Houses'. 

The Corn Brook passed through the park. A path through the gardens behind the houses led to the mill, passing under King Street by a tunnel. King Street would hardly be a busy thoroughfare, as it only served the barracks, so presumably the tunnel met Messrs Pooley's needs for security and privacy".

Location Cornbrook

Pictures; Pooley's Buildings, 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson and Pooley's Buildings, 1844, from the Manchester & Salford OS, 1844, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*John Pooley and Son, Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/John_Pooley_and_Son

**Manchester Rate Books, 1820-1869

***Slater’s Directory of Manchester & Salford, 1863, 1876, 1911.

The secrets of Mr Pooley’s fine residences in Cornbrook

Now, the casual visitor to Princess Street which is off Chester Road might think there is nothing much here.

Pooley's Buildings, 2018 from St George's Park

But walk past the modern housing, and the site of the old workshops which are under redevelopment and there at the bottom facing St George’s Park  is Pooley’s Buildings, which later became known as Pooley’s
Houses and date back to the earlier 19th century.

They are a particular favourite of Andy Robertson who came across them recently and set a debate going over the two stone inscribed blocks in the wall of the property.

Andy thought the houses dated from 1800, and I think they were actually built in 1820.

Getting closer, 2018

They are on all the maps from the 1840s and early 1850s, but are missing from Greenwood’s map of 1819 and a trawl of the Rate Books shows that they first appear in 1820.

Back then there were six properties listed under Pooley’s Buildings, all of each paid four shillings a week in rent with an annual rateable value of £16 each.

The six tenants were a James Dobar, William Jennings, James Kenyon, George Norris, John Leech and Samuel Johnson.

Pooley's Buildings, 1844

I doubt we will find out much about any of the six, but thirty years later their successors included a Mr James Gregory, who described himself as a manufacturer, William Galloway, iron founder and Charles Hay, wine merchant.

And given the availability of census records and other official documents it should be possible to build a picture of these three.

Judging by the maps of the period they had chosen to rent in a very pleasant spot.  The properties faced north on to a wooded park, stood in extensive grounds, which was bordered by the Corn Brook which ran through Cornbrook Park.

And mindful of the unrest which spilled out only the year before in St Peter’s Field’s leading to the deaths of fifteen innocent people at the hands of Yeomanry, it must have been reassuring for our first residents to know that the Cavalry Barracks were close by.

Of course within twenty years the land to the east and north had been developed with rows of terraced houses while factories, mills and iron works had sprung up along the Duke’s Canal just minutes away from the secluded surroundings of our houses.

But even in 1894 when Cornbrook Park had been lost to more urban sprawl, Pooley’s Buildings still had a large garden with a fair number of trees.

There is still much to uncover about the properties and in time I may get to know more about Mr Pooley whose footprint on the official documents of the period remains non existent.

All I can say with confidence is that by the 1850s his portfolio of properties was extensive, and included buildings on that other Princess Street in town as well as Lloyd Street, Jackson’s Row, Cooper Street, and across Hulme.

Location; Cornbrook

Pictures; Pooley's Buildings, 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson and Pooley's Buildings, 1844, from the Manchester & Salford OS, 1844, courtesy of Digital Archives Association,  http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

The mystery of the War Department Arrows on Pooley’s Houses

Now Andy has become fascinated by Pooley’s Houses.

It is on Princess Street where it meets Chester Road and he has sent me a few pictures he took recently, along with an extract from the OS map of 1849 which shows the building dominating the surrounding area.

In time I will go looking for its history but for now it is the two stone blocks inserted into the wall of the property which fascinates Andy.

He told me, “showed Cathy Pooley's Houses the other day on the way back to Chorlton and she noticed these two stones in the wall about ten yards apart.

Cathy researched them and discovered they are War Department Broad Arrows used from about 1855.

I am not sure if they are in their original positions.

It seems unlikely given the differing stages of erosion, assuming both stones are of the same age.

Only the northern half of Pooleys Houses from the 1849 map survives today”.

So there you have it a mystery begging for an answer.

There will be some one out there who takes up the challenge and recount the history of the two stones, perhaps also suggesting why No 13 and 14 should be so close together.

And that leads to that other question of why one should be so weather beaten and the other almost pristine in its appearance.

Like Any I profess total ignorance and am looking forward to the supporting posts.

These may also shed light on Pooley's Houses, which are equally intriguing..

Location; Princess Street

Tomorrow; Mr Jonathan Pooley, his houses and some who lived there

Pictures; Pooley’s Houses,  and those inscriptions, 2018 from the collection of Andy Robertson