Miss Edith Townley of Woolwich and a story of Rectory Place

Now Miss Edith Townley of 13 Rectory Place Woolwich remains a mystery.

Miss Edith, 1917

And that is after my friend Tricia joined in the hunt.

I first came across Miss Edith on a postcard dated 1917 which had just been acquired by David Harrop who knowing my links with Woolwich passed it onto me and I couldn’t resist attempting to find her.*

Tricia also took up the search.

Her grandmother and great grandmother had lived in Rectory Place and so like me there was a connection as she says  “looking at Vincent’s book of Woolwich it states that Rectory Place and the streets to the north of it were built on the Glebe or Rectory land in the 1820's. 

A G.F.S., charirty stall, 1928

The rectory itself was built in the midst of 3 acres of garden, orchard and pasture which has since been considerably curtailed. The remainder of the glebe was advertised to be let.

The first Woolwich bank of which there is any mention was a private concern known as Noaks & Ward and then later as Budgen Ward & Co, and was held in a house in Rectory Place, later occupied by Mr T H Jones and known as Glebe House.

I have tried to search for your Edith Townley on the Electoral Roll but have had no luck. There was no electoral roll books for 1916 & 1917 and of course woman did not finally get the vote until about 1928 and then only if they were over 21. Some women got the vote in 1918 but only if they were over 30 and a home owner.

A church garden party, date unknown

The address for Edith states GFS Lodge which is a Girls Friendly Society which I am guessing is some sort of safe haven for young girls like Edith. Strangely enough I could not find anything for her on the census either.”

Now I had come across the GFS **in connection with some stories I wrote about a Miss Wright who ran a branch of the organisation here in Chorlton-cum-Hardy and the history of the society is well worth a read.***

And a fresh look at the organisation may well bring us closer to Miss Edith.

But for now I will close with another even more personal link between Tricia and Rectory Place because Tricia sent me a picture of “my great uncle known to us as blind uncle Bill although he was baptized as Henry Bertie Schofield Holmes.

He lived with his parents Henry William & Ellen Holmes ( my gt grandparent)  at 31 Rectory Place from early 1900's - 1950ish.

Mr Holmes, date unknown

He used to sit on a chair in St Mary's Passage reading a braille bible and I think passers by would give him money. He wasn't born blind but became blind when he was a young boy after playing cricket in the sun without wearing a hat and apparently got sun stroke.

Whether that was true or not I don't know. My mum said he was a lovely man that was popular with everyone.”

Location; Woolwich, London

Research by Tricia Leslie, 2016







Pictures; postcard to Miss Edith Townley, 1917 courtesy of David Harrop, GFS and Guides’ Stall from the 1928 St Clements’s Bazaar Hand Book courtesy of Ida Bradshaw,  pictures of a garden party organised by the church, date unknown, and picture of Mr Holmes, date unknown from the collection of Tricia Leslie

*So who was Miss Edith Townley of 13 Rectory Place in Woolwich and how did she spend the Christmas of 1917? http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/so-who-was-miss-edith-townley-of-13.html

**The Girls Friendly Society, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Girls%20Friendly%20Society

**The Girls Friendly Society, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Girls%20Friendly%20Society

*** *Girls Friendly Society, http://www.gfsplatform.org.uk/

On finding Miss Wright of Chorlton .............. unlocking a bit more of our history

464 Wilbraham Road, home to Miss Wright circa 1900

Now Miss Wright of Chorlton has been found.

She was and continues to be a clue to the story of the Girls Friendly Society and the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute which have featured in stories over the last few days.*

The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute was based for a while in one of the big houses in St Clements Road and the Girls Friendly Society met there during the early decades of the last century.

In 1928 Miss Wright was the President of the G.F.S. and I always knew that if we could find her we would come to know more about both the society and the Institute.

And yesterday Sandra Hapgood came up with Miss Wright’s story which came to light in the 1934 St.Clement’s church magazine in which “she is mentioned as Branch President Miss Wright of 464 Wilbraham Road (now the RBS)

The Acting Branch President was Mrs Evans of 99 Claude Road [and] in 1934 they met every Thursday in the New School (St. Clements) 7.40 - 9.45pm.”

It may also be that the short description of the "G.F.S" in the magazine was actually written by Miss Wright.

"The long, light evenings have gone, so it was with a certain amount of pleasure that we turn to meetings indoors for our recreation and instruction.

During October, on Thursday evenings, G.F.S members will commence their various activities, including musical drill, country and ballroom dancing, ping-pong and other games, needlework - and chatting by the fire.

The evening of Thursday, October 18th, has been reserved for a Lantern Lecture, to which an invitation has been extended to all. Details of the lecture will be announced nearer the date."**

Looking down Wilbraham Road, circa 1900

Sandra adds "it is signed M.I.W and I thought we had Miss Wright's initials but sadly not. 
M.I.W is Miss Wilson the headmistress of the Infant school at that time.”

Now all of that helps with the Institute which was the home of Mr and Mrs Crowhurst in the 1890's who ran a “Ladies School” there and which may have been rented out to the church by its owner William Batty around 1900.

The house was still listed as a club in 1934 but as the new school had been built on St Clements Road some at least of the events that were hosted there had moved across the way.

All of which for me is a fascinating little bit of our local history more so because it is a bit that now sits very much in the shadows.

So I shall go looking again for Miss Wright, Mrs Evans and the others who will tell me more about the Institute and the G.F.S., which just leaves a thank you to Sandra.

Picture; the corner of Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Roads and Miss Wright’s house, circa 1900 from the Lloyd Collection

*The Girls Friendly Society, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Girls%20Friendly%20Society

**St Clement’s Church Magazine, 1932, courtesy of Sandra Hapgood

Searching for the Girls’ Friendly Society in that big house on St Clements Road in 1911

At a church garden party, date unknown

Now I would dearly like to know lots more about the Girls’ Friendly Society or for that matter the night a chap from the Town Hall came to talk on the sanitation in Manchester to a selected group of earnest young men

Come to think about it I would just love to know all I can about the meetings that went on at the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute which hosted a whole shedful of activities which were run by St Clement's Church.

I  had no idea that the Institute existed and it was only while I was looking for something entirely different on Whitelow Road that I came across a reference to the club on an 1934 map.

And with a bit of digging out of the shadows came the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute which offered a whole range of entertainments and serious events to the parishioners of St Clement's during the early decades of the 20th century.

It was there by 1911 and possibly a full decade before and may have continued until the 1920s.

Just possibly in the garden of the Institute

At the time St Clement's did not have a church hall and so used eight of the rooms in the house leaving three for Samuel Holt and his wife Christina who in 1911 were described as the caretakers.

During that period it offered a whole range of activities from sewing clubs to lectures and according to Ida Bradshaw was pretty much used during the day and the evening.

All of which brings me back to the Girls’ Friendly Society which was a means by which young women, some of whom may have been servants and living away from home could meet and make friends.

Here in Chorlton most homes employed just the one domestic servant who was expected to carry out all the duties of maintaining the house and had little spare time, so I rather think our Friendly Society must have been a life line for some of them.

Sun and strawberries

And I expect some of them went on the one trip I know the Institute organised to Southport in a charabanc.

Of course much of the documentation will have been lost but there may be an odd newspaper story or photograph and perhaps even a stray letter which makes reference to the Institute.

The house dates from around 1881 and was the property of William Batty who rented it out to various tenants of which Mr and Mrs Crowhurst are the most intriguing.

Thomas Messenger Crowhurst described himself as an “artist, art teacher and landscape painter" while his wife ran a “Ladies School” from the house.

Mr Billing and Miss Attwood, 1913

And it may be when they vacated the property Mr Batty offered it to the church.

All of which opens lots of avenues of research possibilities starting with Mr and Mrs Crowhurst, and Mr Holt the caretaker, and Mr Edgar Taylor who in 1910-11 was the Secretary.

He was an accountant, lived on Park Road and may yet yield up some information.

After all we do have one wedding which took place at the church in 1913 and as Miss Vivien Horsfall Attwood was reported as being from a popular and well known family she may well have spent time at the Institute..

Speculation perhaps but worth following up.

Added to which there are the newspapers which might carry stories of events and perhaps even names which could take us even further.

And it may be that a photograph I had long thought was in the grounds of the church could be in the garden of the Institute.

So I rather think we have not heard the last of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute.

Pictures, a garden party, date unknown, and Mr Hugget Billing and Miss Vivien Horsfall Attwood  A Chorlton Wedding, the Manchester Courier, April 17 1913, from the collection of Sally Dervan

Looking for Miss Wright of Chorlton in 1928 ............. and hoping for more stories about the Girls’ Friendly Society on St Clements Road

From the 1928 church Bazaar book

I wonder if I will ever find out anything about Miss Wright, President of the Girls’ Friendly Society.

In the November of 1928 she was on the G.F.S. stall along with fourteen other women at the  Church Bazaar.*

And the reason Miss Wright has attracted my attention is that she may be a clue to finding out more about the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church Institute on St Clements Road.

I fell across the place yesterday and couldn’t resist writing about its history.**

I knew there would be further leads which would help take the story further but sadly so far Miss Wright has proved a blank and I rather think so will most of the names on the list.

A church garden party, date unknown

But I shall continue to search for each of the fifteen and one or two may turn.

The first port of call will be the church magazines for the period and then there is always the chance that the names strike a chord with someone who knew them.

Such are the ways that little bits of our history come back out of the shadows.

And there may just be an outside chance that there will be a reference to their work in the records of the Girls Friendly Society which still exists today.***

It was “was a pioneer youth organisation, founded in England in 1875 and run by women, which still operates in 23 countries. Originally established to protect young working girls, the Society continues to support girls and young women, adapting to the new challenges presented by a changing world.
GFS was officially established on 1st January 1875 by Mary Elizabeth Townsend, an Irish clergyman's daughter married to the wealthy Frederick Townsend.

At the same garden party

She was concerned with the fate of many working-class country girls who left home to take up urban employment. 

Cut off from the support of friends and family, Mrs Townsend's idea was for 'lady' Associates to befriend and guide these girls, who would form the Society's Members. Girls could join GFS from the age of 12, but from 1882 those from the age of 8 could become Candidates, preparing for membership.

By 1925, the Society had 66 Homes and Hostels in England and Wales, workers gathered for Conferences, Retreats and Training Weeks and the first Correspondence Training Course was introduced. Camps were organised for younger Members, the Readers' Union introduced a Certificate of English, and the Migration Department assisted hundreds of members with their travels abroad.”

Much of its work was done through the local parishes relying on local facilities as places of the woman to meet

So I rather think it may well prove a useful starting point for clues to our Institute and of course also offers up a fascinating story in itself.

Only hours after I posted yesterday’s story Nina told me how she had attended the Macclesfield GFS “every Monday and cost 1 penny.”

All of which means we may not discover much more about Miss Wright or the activities of the Institute in that house in St Clements but I rather think it has opened up new stories.

And that can’t be bad.

Pictures; GFS and Guides’ Stall from the 1928 St Clements’s Bazaar Hand Book courtesy of Ida Bradshaw,  and pictures of a garden party organised by the church, date unknown

*Girls Friendly Society, http://www.gfsplatform.org.uk/

**Searching for the Girls’ Friendly Society in that big house on St Clements Road in 1911, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/searching-for-girls-friendly-society-in.html

**Girls Friendly Society, Our History, http://www.gfsplatform.org.uk/our-history.php