Where ever I leave my bike ….. and other pictures

So, take two different days.

Where ever I leave my bike, 2023

Both in Chorlton, but one when the sun shone and the day had promise, and the morning before which was wet, grey, and dismal.

Street confusion, 2023

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; St Clement’s Church, St Clement’s Road and Barlow Moor Road, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

An arch and a heap of gravestones .... April in Chorlton

Location; Chorlton Green

Picture; An arch and a heap of gravestones, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

1, St. Clement’s Road ....... another story from Tony Goulding

 As the 20th century dawned Cavendish House gained a new resident, Abdullah Elias, a shipping merchant in the rather elaborately named “Manchester and Bradford Goods”’ 

 

The Turkish Empire in 1917

The 1901 census shows, Abdullah was born, in 1849 in Baghdad, Iraq in what was then still part of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. He was living with his young wife (30 years younger)(1), Flora and four children; Victor, 7, Lucy, 5, William, 3, and the new-born Victoria. Flora and the three eldest children were also all born in Iraq with only Victoria being born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. (on the 17th June, 1900) The Elias family did not remain long at this address, however, as the 1911 census shows a third daughter, Alexandria, aged 8, born in Sale, Cheshire. She had actually been born in the September quarter of 1902. By the time of her birth the Elias family had relocated coincidentally to Brooklands House, Brooklands, Cheshire -- the former residence, just vacated, of Thomas Seymour and Mary Ann Mead

 Abdullah died on the 30th May, 1911 and was buried in the Jewish section of Manchester’s Southern Cemetery, grave A 3. He left £100, 000 (= £12, 045, 833) at today’s value) to his wife and 5 children. However, he stipulated that should his wife remarry within 15 years she should only receive one shilling. He also expressed a wish that his sons never deal in shares except for cash (2)                         Abdullah was an enthusiastic litigant (3) bringing a number of cases to civil court to defend his trading name from copy-cat companies or to protect his trademarks. He was, however, also involved in a sensational double criminal case. First on the 17th June, 1903 he appeared at Manchester’s Police Court where he was charged, together with his clerk Charles Battatt, with Gross Indecency (the legal code for males engaging in homosexual acts). After being granted bail, he surrendered to the Assize Court on the 10th July, 1903 whereat the grand jury found “no true bill”, the case was dismissed and both defendants were discharged. What followed was the sensational “fallout” when Abdullah and Charles alleged, they were victims of a blackmail conspiracy. (4)  Charges were eventually brought against several individuals; Sion Levy, a former clerk in Abdullah’s employ who was also the brother-in-law of Charles Battatt, Ellyahu Joseph, a business rival, John Reekie a financial backer of Mr. Joseph's, and two aggrieved former domestic servants of Cavendish house, Charlotte Sheppard, a housekeeper, and Katoon Hakak, a maid. As the principals, apart from Sheppard and Reekie were originally from Baghdad, the affair was widely reported in the press as “the Orientals Case”. At the Manchester Assize Court on Saturday, 21st November, 1903, after a trial spread over four days, the jury brought in a verdict of guilty for Levy and Joseph and not guilty for Sheppard and Hakak. The judge, who had previously ruled that Mr. Reekie, although he had acted foolishly, had no case to answer and discharged him, sentenced the two convicted men to two years with hard labour. The coverage of the case is very revealing of the time, while quite blatant racist remarks by the various council were reported verbatim, any mention of the nature of the charge brought against Abdullah and Charles was studiously avoided.

Abdullah had a long business career spanning Manchester and Baghdad maintaining a residence in both cities and travelling frequently between them. He was elected to the Chamber of Commerce of his adopted city on Wednesday the 26th September, 1900. At times he was in business with his younger brother, Meir, with whom he shared Beech Villa, 398, Moss Lane East, Moss Side, Manchester, from 1883 until the turn of the 19th / 20th centuries. Previously they had lived at 40, Clifford Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. The company had offices at Asia House, 82, Princess Street and a large warehouse at 40, Dickinson Street both in Manchester city centre. Abdullah was also one of seven vice-presidents of Manchester’s pioneering Victoria Jewish Memorial Hospital when it opened in 1904.

 The Elias family remained in Brooklands until after the First World War. The 1939 register shows Flora (Sarah Flora) living at “Claremont”, 16, Wilbraham Road, Fallowfield, Manchester with two of her unmarried children, William and Lucy. William is shown in the 1933 Kelly’s directory already at this address.

 Only 34 when her husband died, Flora remained a widow for 63 years before passing away in Paris on the 18th August, 1974. She was living at this time at 38, Rue de Charmilles, Geneva, Switzerland. Her estate was valued at £63,396. (= £675,572 today).

 The later records of Flora and her Children show a revealing trait. Whereas, prior to the Second World War, only anglicised first names were used after it they adopted using their Jewish names.  This is shown particularly in their death and probate records.

 Thus: - Flora, became Sarah Flora.

Lucy, became Mersooda Lucy – remained unmarried and, like her mother, died in Paris - at 13, Rue Vineuse on the 26th May, 1986. She left an estate of £257,769 (£772,438).

William became Shlomo William, also not married, he died at The Royal Infirmary, Manchester (Home address, 16, Wilbraham Road) on the 19th February, 1941. His estate was assessed at £94,913- 6s – 4d (£4,899,883 – 63p)

Victor became Eliahoo Victor. He married Elfrida Millicent (Barbara) Dulberg, the divorced wife of Lewis Balcombe of Black Square, Southport, Lancashire, in the June Quarter of 1949 in Manchester. They had one child David William born in Bournemouth, Hampshire in 1950.  Eliahoo Victor died on the 23rd September, 1976 at 24, Glenferness Avenue, Bournemouth. 

The remaining two daughters both married and each had one child. Victoria wed Ivor Gourgey, a Persian carpet merchant, at The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue,

Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue - 1959

Cheetham Hill, Manchester during the September quarter of 1923 with their child, Rachel Delicia, being born in the March quarter of 1925 in the St. George, Hanover Square, registration district of London. (5)  She died on the 24th June, 1985 at 17, Warwick Park, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

      Alexandria appears to have settled in Europe possible with her sister in Paris. She is nowhere to be found in British records, however there is a document online (Issue 73 of The SCRIBE - July 2000) which in a detailed family lineage shows that she married Pierre Beyersdorf and had a son named, Eric. It also states that she died aged 95 in 1997.

After Abdullah and his family moved out, Cavendish House acquired a fresh tenant, Albert Wallace Linford, a “Brewers Manager”, with his wife Annie Mary Harrison (née Nash) and their 4 children. Albert Wallace and Annie Mary both hailed from Southampton, Hampshire. However, Albert was born in the September quarter of 1861 in the Pancras district of London where his father, Henry Albert was a company secretary from Canterbury, Kent. His mother was, London-born, Elizabeth Martha (née Forbes). When he was nine-years-old his father moved with his wife and 7 children (Albert was the only boy with 6 sisters) to take the position as manager of the South Western Hotel on Canute Road, St. Mary’s, Southampton.

Albert Wallace married Annie Mary Harrison Nash on the 30th June, 1887 in Freemantle, Southampton and shortly after moved, with his job, to the Kelvin area of Glasgow. While in Scotland the couple had four children. First born, on Boxing Day, 26th December, 1888 was Elsie Dorothy. Violet Muriel, followed on the 31st May, 1890, however, she lived only a few hours and died the same day. The couple’s first son, Arthur Forbes, was born on the 6th August, 1891. All three of these children were born at 62, West Princess Street, Glasgow. Another two babies were born after the family had moved to Kilmalcom, Renfrewshire, Scotland, Madeline Alberta at “Highfield” on the 16th January, 1895 and Vivian Haldane Bruce, at “St. Leonard’s”, on the 28th March, 1900.

   I can’t be certain when the Linford family moved to Chorlton-cum-Hardy but Albert Wallace appears in the electoral roll, of 1905, for the Stretford division of the South-East Lancashire constituency at 1, St. Clement’s Road. He is still there on the 1909 electoral roll but by the time the 1911 census was taken the family had moved to 15, Oak Avenue, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

15, Oak Avenue - September, 2021

The absence of Albert Wallace from this entry is very revealing. Annie Mary is recorded living with two of her children Elsie Dorothy, a music teacher, and Arthur Forbes, an insurance clerk. After initially describing herself as “married” she subsequently crossed that word out and wrote “widow” above it. In reality, her husband was still alive. The details of his death/probate record may shed some light on this enigma. Albert Wallace passed away on the 9th June, 1913 at Haydock Lodge, Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire. “Haydock Lodge” was a privately run insane asylum. Indeed, he is recorded as a patient there on its census return. His condition is shown as “lunatic at 47” meaning he must have developed symptoms from around 1908. I am led into a very unhistorical speculation that he may have succumbed to the temptation of sampling his company’s product a little too enthusiastically.

He left a tidy sum of £2,644- 7s in his estate. (£312,000 in today’s value)

 His widow remained in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, latterly at 95, Claude until she died on the 11th September, 1935 after an operation at the Cottage Hospital in Ulverston, Lancashire. Annie Mary Harrison Linford was cremated at the Manchester Crematorium on Friday 13th September, 1935. Curiously the ceremony was arranged through Kendal Milne the department store on Deansgate, Manchester. There are further stories to tell concerning the four children but these will have to wait for another time.

Pictures; Map of Turkish Empire in 1917 By Creator: Unknown, Other Creators: J.R. & C. - https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:3293864, Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Cheetham Hill Road (1959) m 16527 by R. Mizra, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,  http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass,15, Oak Avenue, 2021 from the collection of Tony Goulding.

Notes: -

1) Flora was born as Sarah Flora Bassoos in Baghdad, Iraq, then known as Mesopotamia, on the 15th January, 1877.

2)  Also in his will were a number of clauses detailing his funeral arrangements including a rather quirky demand that there should be at least 40 coaches in attendance.

3) Abdulla even appeared in a court case 9 years 

after his death!

        In December, 1919 there was a case involving the distribution of his late brother’s estate. Meir had pre-deceased his brother dying, in Baghdad on the 16th October, 1910. As he had died intestate under Turkish law which applied at that time his surviving two brothers would each be entitled to one quarter of his estate. The dispute arose over the question whether or not Abdullah becoming a nauralised British subject negated this claim which had passed with his death to his legatees. On the 12th January, 1920, the Chancery Court in Manchester adjudicated in favour of Abdulla’s widow and children.

4) Their conspiracy was possible inspired by the late Victorian case involving Oscar Wilde.

5) In the 1939 Register they appear at a quite prestigious address: - Flat 3, 66, Prince’s Gate, South Kensington, Chelsea, London.

1, St. Clements Road, another story from Tony Goulding

This substantial house on the corner of St Clement’s Road and High Lane has, due to its location, over its lifetime been allocated a number of addresses. 

1, St. Clement’s Road, 1959

Various rate books and census returns have it placed both on High Road and St. Clement’s Road. Further complicating the matter are the facts of St. Clement's Road being formerly known as Church Road and, that the general area was originally, simply referred to as Pitts Brow. 

The house was previously known as “Cavendish House” and dates from before 1871.  It has served as the presbytery for the adjacent Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St. John since 1927.

It was originally, for over two decades, the home of Dr. John Rains and family. The 1891 census showed Charles Henry Watson, a “butter merchant” it was briefly then, until 1900, the residence of Mary Ann Mead the widow of the grocery magnate, Thomas Seymour Mead. 

Dr. John Rains was a doctor in Chorlton-cum-Hardy from at least 1869 when he appears in that year’s rate book in a substantial house with garden and stable which carried a rateable value of £127. He was born in Bonsall, Derbyshire on the 4th March, 1828. He studied for his M.D. at Kings College, Aberdeen and also qualified as a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians by examination of Edinburgh University. He then spent three years continuing his medical training at the Royal School of Medicine, Manchester, (1) where in 1853 he became a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries. In the same year he was elected to the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Newly qualified he was appointed House Surgeon to the Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary. He left this post in the middle of 1855 and removed to 36, Cavendish Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, where he remained until moving to Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1868/9. On the 26th September, 1855 Dr. Rains married Eliza Agnes Clarke of Salford, Lancashire. The couple underwent two wedding ceremonies, firstly at St. Mary’ s Catholic Chapel, Mulberry Street (“The Hidden Gem”) and, after, at the Cathedral, Manchester. From the available records it appears that they only had one child, a son John Evans who was born in the September quarter of 1856. (2) 

 Eliza Agnes, passed away in Cavendish House on the 28th January, 1890. After the death of his wife Dr. Rains moved in with his son and his newly-wedded wife, Louisa Margaret (née Taylor) at 28, Dover Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. On the 24th February, 1893 his only grandchild, John Cyril Taylor Rains, was born. 

Dr. John Rains died, at home, on the 12th November, 1896 leaving, at today’s value over £400,000 in his will. He is buried alongside Eliza Agnes in this grave, G2 in the Roman Catholic section of Southern Cemetery, Manchester.

Dr. John and Eliza Agnes’s grave

The next occupier of Cavendish House was Charles Henry Watson who, the rate books show, was a tenant of Dr. Rains and his heirs from 1891 until the 3rd July, 1898.

Charles Henry was born in Walsgrave, Nr. Coventry, Warwickshire during the September quarter of 1863. He was one of the 10 children (8 sons and 2 daughters) of William Watson, a farmer of 416 acres and his wife Emma. The three eldest sons, Charles Henry and his brothers William George and John Alfred, all went to Birmingham to learn the provisions trade. The 1881 census shows them all living together at 100, High Street, Birmingham, Warwickshire.

Charles Henry was still in Birmingham when he married Maria Watson in the December quarter of 1888 but shortly afterwards the couple moved north as their first child, a girl, Marion Dorothy was born in the Moss Side district of Manchester during the December quarter of 1889. Whilst they were residing in Chorlton-cum-Hardy two more children arrived and both were baptised at St. Clement’s Church: a son, William John, and another daughter, Gladys Lillian. They were born on the 12th January, 1892 and the 25th February, 1894, respectively.

Evidence from the rate books indicates that the Watsons left the area in the early summer of 1898 as from the 3rd July that year they show that 1, St. Clement’s Road had a new occupier, Mrs. Mary Ann Mead.

Charles Henry Watson must have been something of a businessman as, on leaving Chorlton-cum-Hardy, he was able to retire at the young age of 35. He is recorded in the census of 1901 as a "retired provision merchant”, living at, New House Park Mansion, St. Peter (rural), St. Albans, Hertfordshire. His large household consisted of him, his wife, Maria, their first child Marion Dorothy a fourth child, Marjorie Phyllis, (born in Hendon, Middlesex in the December quarter of 1898) and no fewer than seven servants. The couple’s two middle children are not with their parents; however, they do appear together, in both the 1901 and 1911 censuses, staying as “visitors” with Thomas Cund (3)   and his freshly married (in 1900) second wife, and former housekeeper, Annie Mary (née Goodwin). In 1901 they were living at Hill Village, Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire and in 1911 they had moved to “Sigglesthorne”, Stoutwood Avenue, Bournemouth, Hampshire. On both occasions also in the household was also Maria’s younger sister, Ethel May, whose rôle may be surmised with reference to an entry in latter census. The census of 1911 had an additional section to record any infirmities in the household, in it the two Watson children were both recorded a little cruelly as “feeble-minded”

Their condition is further illuminated in their entry in the 1939 Register, in which they are recorded as “living on own means” still in Bournemouth, Hampshire but having moved to 29, Tuckton Road. Residing with them were Gladys May. and John William Goodwin (4) who are described as nurses (mental).

Following the Watson’s departure, the next occupant of the house was the recently bereaved Mrs. Mary Ann Mead. She was the widow of Thomas Seymour Mead whom she had married (as his second wife) on the 30th June, 1868 in the parish church of West Lavington, Wiltshire. She was born in this village the daughter of Samuel, a master carpenter and his wife, Emma (née Glass Turner).

Born in Market Lavington, Wiltshire on the 1st March 1841, the son of a shoemaker, Henry, and his wife Harriet (née Mead); the widow of John Stow. In later censuses his father is also described as a “Grocer/Tea Dealer”. As early as 1851 Thomas Seymour was already learning the grocery business as a 10-years-old boy he was living with his widowed grandmother, Lucy, who ran a grocer’s shop in Littleton, West Lavington, Wiltshire with the help of his 15-years-old half-sister, Harriet Stow. 

Thomas Seymour Mead was already living in Manchester from before the 1861 census which records him as a lodger at 75, Booth Street West, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. Aged 20, he was one of seven young men at that address who were all employed as “grocers”. Possibly they were all at the same shop “Learning the trade”. Thomas Seymour was married twice and each time it was to a lady from the South-West of England. He first travelled south to marry Mary Ann Heiron in Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire on the 7th October, 1862.  After the death of his first wife, most likely during the March quarter of 1863 in Wiltshire, his second marriage took place, as stated above, in West Lavington, Wiltshire on the 30th June, 1868. This marriage record shows he was on his way to develop the chain of grocers which made his fortune his occupation is given as “grocer and tea dealer” with his address being Hulme, Manchester. 

The rate books of the various Manchester area townships document the extent of the T. Seymour Mead grocery empire and reveal how it expanded over time. From the initial shop, in 1862, at 67, Stretford Road, Hulme he first opened another shop further along the same road at No 304, (5)   above which he was residing when the 1871 census was completed. His wife had, by then, given the couple their first child, Harriet Emma Florence. The company then branched out into Chorlton-on-Medlock, to 97, Upper Brook Street. In stages his outlets steadily grew with more shops opening in Hulme and Moss Side as well as moving into the city centre at 7, Piccadilly. Eventually further expansion saw shops opened in the leafier suburbs to the south of Manchester, a shop on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme was followed in turn by shops in Withington and Didsbury.  The shop in Chorlton-cum-Hardy opened at 20, Barlow Moor Road in 1894. 

Barlow Moor Road 1929,  T. Seymour Mead’s shop is the one with the awnings down

Mirroring the development of his business his family also grew though, by the standard of the times, to a quite conservative 6 children. Three of these children had strong connections to Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Two, Clara Maud and Ernest Seymour were christened at Chorlton Road Congregational Church, Old Trafford by Rev. J. A. Macfadyen whose widow later constructed, as his memorial, the church on the corner of Zetland and Barlow Moor Roads, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.  Known, now, as Central Church but it was originally, Macfadyen Memorial Congregational Church. During the family’s brief occupancy of Cavendish House two of the daughters were married in St Clement’s Church. These were Clara Maud (again) and Adeline Daisey whose weddings took place on the 4th January, 1899 and the 3rd May, 1899, respectively.

Thomas Seymour Mead, died on the 16th February, 1898 while at Smedley’s Hydro, Matlock Bank, Derbyshire. At this time the family home was Brooklands House, Brooklands, Cheshire. Thomas left £189,440 – 18s -6d (= £23,811,910 at today’s value) in a will with a codicil which was the subject of a high-profile court case. His daughter, Clara Maud sued the other beneficiaries alleging “undue Influence” and suggesting her father was mentally unfit when he composed the codicil. After the case came before a judge with both parties being represented by leading Q.C.s (one being Edward Carson (6) who also appeared in the Worrall divorce proceedings around the same time) the parties came to a mutually satisfying agreement prior to it being heard. 

Unfortunately, I have, so far been unable to find a trace of Mrs. Mary Ann Mead after the 1900 Electoral roll which puts her still at 1, St. Clement’s Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Pictures, 1, St. Clement’s Road (1959) m 18179 by A.E. Landers and Barlow Moor Road (1929) m17429 (unattributed but known to be by A.H. Clarke) Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,  https://images.manchester.gov.uk/ResultsList.php?session=pass&QueryName=BasicQuery&QueryPage=/index.php?session=pass&Restriction=&StartAt=1&Anywhere=SummaryData|AdmWebMetadata&QueryTerms=m17429&QueryOption=Anywhere  and Dr. John and Eliza Agnes’s grave from the collection of Tony Goulding.

NOTES: -

1) Whilst at this college Dr. Rains was awarded a “certificate of honour” for exemplary conduct and attendance. It was presented on the 7th November, 1851 in the old Manchester town hall on King Street.

2) John Evans pursued a successful career as a solicitor.

3) Thomas Cond was “a little economical with the truth" in his census returns. In 1911, he added 10 years to his length of marriage and he referred to himself in both 1901 and 1911 as a retired farmer despite only having vague connections to agriculture as a milk dealer. He started his working life as a “glass porter” and finished keeping a shop selling beer.

4) John William was the brother of both Annie Mary (Cond) and Ethel May and the father of Gladys May.

5)As well as having 5 house servants, Thomas employed 11 live in assistants and 3 apprentices, one of whom was Walter Turner Draper, his wife’s younger brother later to become a business partner.

6) This was the same man who was the champion of the Ulster Protestants against Home Rule prior to First World War.