A history of Withington in 20 stories …....no. 6 ….. The Withington Four

The two world wars left  their impact across the country in damaged buildings, interrupted lives, and above all in the loss of loved ones.

The graves of Private Bone and Flight Cadet J. Barber, 2020

After the Great War, monuments were commissioned and paid for by local subscription to honour those who went and in particular those who never returned.

And with the end of the Second World War, the same communities added a second list of names.

Most of those who died on active service are buried where they fell, but some who died later from wounds they sustained in the fighting or from other causes were interred in private graves.

Such are the Withington Four who lie in St Paul’s Church on Wilmslow Road in Withington.

Sergeant J.G. Hammond, 2020

Three date from the Great War and the fourth died in 1945.

I came across them by chance, while researching the story of Private Sidney Bone, who grew up in Withington, enlisted in the Seventh City Brigade of the Manchester’s in the November of 1914 and died six year later of wounds he received at the Battle of the Somme.*

He is buried alongside the wall separating the church yard from the Rectory, and beside him is gravestone of J. Barber, “Flight Cadet”, who died on December 3rd, 1918.

And not far away are the graves of Private G.W. Andrews of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry who died on September 22nd, 1919 and Sergeant Joseph Geoffrey Hammond of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who died on January 2nd, 1945.

So far their stories are incomplete, and what there is is patchy, and needs mush more research.

I know that Sergeant Hamond was a wireless operator and was a member of No. 150 Squadron which in 1945  flew Lancaster bombers.

Flight Cadet J.H. Barber, 2020

Flight Cadet J. H. Barber  was with R.A.F. 5th Training Depot Station at Wyton in Cambrideshire, and his family lived on Cross  Street in Didsbury.

Which leaves G.W. Andrews who remains the most elusive of the four.  I know he was 27 when he died in 1919, and that his father is listed as Harry Andrews of Manchester, but apart from his regiment which was the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, that is it.

Not much I know for men who fought for the country and paid the ultimate sacrifice, but it is a start, and I have every confidence that their stories will be added to.




Location; Withington

Pictures;. gravestones of the Withington Four, from the collection of Daniel Daly

A history of Withington in 20 objects …....no. 5 ….. the Town Hall

The story of Withington in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a few paragraphs.

It’s not every day that you get the chance to decide on becoming part of a city.

But that was exactly what happened in the January of 1904, when the ratepayers of Withington along with those of Burnage, Didsbury, and Chorlton-cum-Hardy were asked to take a leap and join the big city neighbour.

We had been part of the Withington Urban District Council since it was set up in 1876 and bits of its legacy are sill knocking around if you know where to look.

Some of the streets grids still bear the name Withington UDC and out by the meadows are the remains of the sewage works, although I have to confess my favourite bit of this long vanished little local authority is Withington Town Hall.

It was built in 1881 for the Withington Local Board of Heath which in 1894 became Withington Urban District Council.

After our vote for incorporation into the City the building remained in public use and I can remember many evenings spent in the great hall, although the details of why I was there have faded.

I wish back then I knew of its proud history and of the discussions which went on over issues like the sewage works down by the Mersey, the provision of new schools and the Library across the Township.

Location; Withington

Painting; Withington Town Hall, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A history of Withington in 20 objects ….... no. 4 ….. the milestone

The story of Withington in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a few paragraphs.

The milestone is just beyond the Red Lion, in front of the old Fire Station.

It records that the distance into Manchester is just 4 miles, and may have been installed by the Turnpike Trust and is now the only remaining one along the road.

Adapted from the new book on the pubs of Withington and Didsbury, published on June 14th, 2019*

Location; Withington

Picture; the milestone, 2019 Peter Topping

*Manchester Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors Didsbury, Peter Topping, Andrew Simpson, 2019 and is is available from www.pubbooks.co.uk and local bookshops.

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A history of Withington in 20 objects …....no. 3 ….. Hough End Hall

The story of Withington in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a couple of paragraphs.

Hough End Hall, 1849

This is Hough End Hall, that Elizabethan manor house.*

 It was in Withington but is so close to the border with Chorlton, that almost every historian since John Booker in 1853 has included it in their accounts of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

It served as a fine home to the grand Mosley family until it was sold to the Egerton’s in the mid 18th century who rented it out to tenant farmers which was its story for 250 or so years.

During the early 20th century its future seemed uncertain, with the Corporation wanting variously to demolish it for a new "super road" or transform it into an arts centre.

It was finally sold to a local Chorlton farmer, who sold it on to a developer, and for a while it was a restatraunt with a brief spell as offices and is now a community centre.

Pictures; Hough End Hall in 1849, from The Family Memoirs, Sir Oswald Mosley, 1849

*Hough End Hall; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Hough%20End%20Hall

A history of Withington in 20 objects …....no. 2 ….. four census returns, one electoral register, three pubs and five beer shops

The story of Withington in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a couple of paragraphs.

Withington in 1854

During its long history Withington remained a small agricultural community until the middle of the 19th century.

Most families earned a living from the land or in related trades, leaving just a handful who described themselves, as “merchants”, professionals or relied on “independent means”.

The earliest population returns were for the year 1774 and record that in Withington there were 71 houses, tenanted by 73 families which amounted to 438 individuals.

Of these 162 were under the age of 15, 58 above 50, fifteen over 60 and nine above 70.

To this can be added the returns for the hamlet of Fallowfield which consisted of 15 houses tenanted by 15 families and totaled just 60 people.

In 1801 the entire township contained 133 houses and 743 inhabitants while a decade later the population had risen by 911 and despite a slight fall in 1821 the trend was ever upwards, and so in 1851 the total number residing in Withington stood at 1,492 occupying 259 properties.

Nor is that quite all, for like the rest of the country the township was divided between those who could vote which amounted to just 61 in 1854, and the rest.

Which just leaves me to conclude that in the same year Withington had 3 pubs, and 5 beer-houses,* but had “no mill or manufactury, no colliery, railway, river or canal”. **

Location; Withington

Picture; Withington village in 1854, from the OS for Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Publicans, inn keepers and beer sellers, taken from the 1851 census for Withington. Bowker, Elizabeth, inn keeper at the Sherwood, Enu 2b 17, Chorlton, John, White Lion, Enu 2c 16, Chorlton, George Enu 2b 19, Garwood, Charles Enu 2c 3, Hampson, Joseph, Enu 2c 18, Sharples, Thomas Enu 2b 22

**Booker, John, Rev., A History of the Chapels of Didsbury & Chorlton, 1857, page 127

A history of Withington in 20 objects ……………….. no. 1 the village green

The story of Withington in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph.

Every community should have a village green, and Withington still has its one. Much to the pride of many in Withington, the township retained the vestiges of its village green long after Didsbury’s green had become an insignificant space in front of two pubs. Today just a small patch of green remains, which fronts the Manchester Cancer Research Centre and looks out towards The Christie, but back in the late 1840s the green bordered the estate of the Hargreaves family who lived at Cotton House and whose grounds included a large fishpond.  Mr. Hargreaves was a merchant with premises at 5 Tib Lane in the city.

Location; Withington



Picture; the village green, Withington, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson