Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 26 ........ at Salford Cross in 1875 with Mr Henry Nelson

Now sometimes it is best just to stay with the image and keep the words to the minimum.

The Bulls Head, 1875

The caption just says, “old houses, Salford Cross”  and it was taken by James Mudd in 1875.

I could have gone looking for Mr Mudd but instead looked up Henry Nelson who was running the Bulls Head at 47  Greengate.

He was there in 1871 with his wife Mary and four children.

Only the youngest who was seven had been born in Salford which suggests that sometime between the birth of Sarah in 1857 and Alfred in 1864 the family moved to Salford.

Up to 53 Greengate

And we can be a bit more precise because in 1861 Mr Nelson gave his occupation as "Oastler" and the family address as 33 St Simon Street.

For those wanting even more detail I can tell you that in 1871 his near neighbours were James Major at 51, and the landlord at the Old Shears Head at 53.

The street on the corner was Bull Street which ran down to Duke Street but also gave access to Bull Court which was surrounded by eight properties of which some were back to backs.

And that is enough for now.

Location Salford

Picture; Old houses, Salford Cross, James Mudd, 1876, m79430, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Enu 15 55, Greengate, Salford

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ....... nu 37 Francis Street and that children's charity

Now Francis Street which is off Great Ducie Street is hardly likely to lift the heart of the casual tourist or I suspect anyone.

In the back yard off Francis Street, 1873

True there is a hotel on the corner but the rest stretching out to Charter Street and down to New Bridge Street to the south  is a car park.

And the rest is rather unpromising.

Walk along Francis Street as I did a couple of years ago and you come to a dead end having passed what was more open land and a warehouse which was up for sale.

Of course things may have changed and it is on my to do list to visit with a camera which neatly takes me to this photograph.

Part of the Refuges, circa 1882

It was taken in 1873 from the back yard of a children’s charity.

The charity was the  Manchester & Salford Boys’ & Girls’ Refuges which had been established in 1870 to provide a bed and a meal for destitute boys.

The charity quickly extended its work to include girls as well as boys,and  provide more permanent homes offering training for future careers along with holiday homes.

It also campaigned against some of the worst cases of child exploitation taking negligent parents to court and arguing against the practise of employing young children to sell matches on the streets of the twin cities.

And like other children’s charities it became involved in the migration of young people to Canada.

The organisation is now called the Together Trust, and it is still engaged in the primary role of helping young people.

So given how vital their work was then as now I thought I would offer up the detailed plans of their buildings on Francis Street.

The complex was part home and part industrial school but also included a gymnasium and classrooms given over to training for those who were migrated to Canada.

From 1870 till 1939 many organizations engaged in caring for young people migrated some to Canada and later Australia as well as other parts of the old British Empire.

More of the Refuges, circa 1882

The practice has come in for some criticism and also had its critics at the time and the Manchester & Salford charity stopped earlier than most.

That said there were success stories and these are contained in letters and reports held in the Trust’s archives some of which are regularly featured in their blog.*

Added to which the organization is engaged in some exciting work with local schools aimed at extending our understanding of their work both in the past and today.

This also includes help offered to those who may have had relatives in the care of the Trust and want to trace their story.

All of which brings me back to Francis Street where their main building was situated.

Location; Salford

Picture; the yard of the Manchester & Salford Refuges, 1873, courtesy of the Together Trust,  http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-together-trust.html and details of the buildings from Goads Fire Insurance maps, 1882-1901, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Getting down and dusty, the Together Trust, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/

The stories behind the picture ................... Manchester in the 1870s

Now you know just by looking at the photograph that there is a story here.

And the more you look it is apparent that there will be as many stories as there are people staring back at us.

It starts with those young boys, all in uniform and many holding musical instruments and goes on to the adults.

Their tall hats and beards suggest a date sometime in the 1870s.

Of course we do have to be careful because often the appearance of a person, from their clothes to the style of their hair may reflect the fashions of an early age from which the individual has not moved on from.

Finally there is the banner which is difficult toread but there is enough to suggest a message carrying a high moral tone.

So it might be logical to suppose that this is the youth wing of a religious group and that might takes us to the Salvation Army or the Boys Brigade or any one of a number of others.

The Salvation Army is a candidate in that it was formed in 1865 and just possibly so is the Boy’s Brigade which was established in 1883.

But neither fit the picture.  In the case of the Boys Brigade while the organisation was formed in 1883 in Glasgow it would be a full decade before it took root across the country and I know this is not a group of  Salvation Army, because we are in the back yard of a building belonging to the Manchester & Salford Boys’ and Girl’s Refuges which was established in 1870.

Their original purpose was to rescue destitute children from the streets of Manchester and Salford but expanded into a much wider organisation which owned homes, undertook the vocational training of young people and campaigned for better working conditions for those children engaged in a range of exploited labour.

Alongside these activities the charity was also active in the prosecution of parents who were abusive or neglectful, and offered help to others who through bereavement, ill health or unemployment found it difficult to support their children.

Finally like many other children’s charities they migrated some of those in their care to Canada.

In the case of the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges this part of their work lasted just 34 years from 1872 till 1914 in two short periods from 1872-75 and 1883-1914.

The organisation still exists although it is now the Together Trust,  and is based in Cheadle and it is still engaged in the primary role of helping young people.

For me as a historian leaving aside all their good work it is their archive that fascinates me, which includes the records of those who went through the charity including admission books, letters and profiles and photographs.

And as you would expect the archivist of the Trust is very careful about confidentiality and the rights of individuals to their anonymity even a century and bit on from when they were admitted.

That said she regularly features some of the material in the Trust’s blog.*

And that brings me back neatly to our picture which dates from the 1873 and was taken in the back yard of the charity’s building in Strangeways.
Now this I know because I asked the archivist who for good measure supplied the message on the banner which reads Boy's Refuges, Industrial Home, Francis Street, Strangeways.

The rest as they say is for another time.

Picture; resources at the Together Trust, courtesy of the Together Trust,  http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-together-trust.html

*Getting down and dusty, the Together Trust, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/

The lost pubs of Salford ............. 1872

Now one of the things that happen so often in researching old newspapers is you get side tracked.

And so yesterday while continuing to trawl the papers for references to Salford’s children’s charity I happened on this little piece of pub history.*

Now I could begin a search for each but that would draw me away from the work of uncovering the history of the Refuge for the new book, so I won’t.**

Instead I will leave it to others to rummage through their collection of pub books or better still come up with memories of some of those listed in the report.

Location; Salford, 1872





Picture; from the Manchester Weekly Times, January 13 1872


*The Manchester & Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20and%20Salford%20Boys%20and%20Girls%20Refuges

**In the midst of plenty ........ two children sleeping rough “one under a Salford Railway arch and the other below an old staircase in a Deansgate entry” https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/in-midst-of-plenty-two-children.html

Lost and forgotten streets of Salford ... nu 33 Chapel Street and a question

Now I wonder how many people showed an interest in buying this rather run down property.

And there must have been a lot given that according to the for sale sign “this valuable site [was]on sale extending to the river and with a good frontage.”

We are on that bit of Chapel Street just past the Ship Inn.  Directly next to the block on the left was Hatton’s Court which indeed did lead down to the river.

Back in 1849 the building fronting the river was a tannery which by the 1890s was a sugar refinery.

All of which means that there is more to discover.

For now I am fascinated by the Botanic and Porterstores along with the boot maker with the prices on the window.

Location; Salford

Pictures; Chapel Street, R.Pattreioux,m77250, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Who leaves a pair of shoes below the floor boards for 140 years?

Now here is a story that is worth a second showing.

It first appeared in 2013, and involves a pair of Victorian shoes hidden under the floor boards of an old house.

They were found by Alan who has already lent me many picture of his grandmother who grew up and worked around Cobden Street at the beginning of the last century.

Alan’s house was built in the 1870s and so sometime after that a pair of shoes was carefully placed under the floorboards.

All of which is intriguing and reminds me of the story a few years ago of the family who found a brown paper parcel under their floor boards.

This had not seen the light of day for about seventy years and naturally the family speculated on what might be inside the brown paper.

But being mindful of history they took the parcel to the local museum and awaited what might prove a windfall.

The “treasure” could be dated by the outer wrapping which was a sheet from a daily newspaper.  It was light but firm to the touch.

The museum promised a quick response and a little over a day later the expectant family received the phone call, only to discover that the parcel contained a cheese sandwich which may have been left by a workman in the space below the floor, only to have been covered by another workman following the instructions of the boss to lay the floor boards pretty dam quick.

Such are the treasures of history.

Picture; courtesy of Alan.

Down on Regent Road in 1876

Now one day I will go and research W.H. Bailey & Co the Albion Works Regent Road but not today.

The sun is out and the grass needs cutting, so you’ve had it.

Other than to say it is another of those fine adverts from Slater’s Directory of Manchester and Salford.

Brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of old Victorian Adverts [Salford Branch] Membership 1, but open to applications from Neil Simpson, Alan Jennings, Bill Sumner and anyone else with an interest in silly things.

And for those who have looked out of the window and seen the rain coming down like stair rods yesterday the sun shone as I wrote the story!

Picture; advert, from Slater’s Directory of Manchester and Salford, 1876