Rediscovering our rural past, Thomas Ellwood and Mrs W C Williamson

We owe a great debt to the historians of the late 19th century who captured the memories of the people who lived in south Manchester when most of it was still countryside.

Thomas Ellwood and Mrs Williamson were working at a time when the rural communities of Chorlton, Burnage, Fallowfield and Rusholme were on the cusp of disappearing.

Within a generation they had all but gone and with it was went a rich storehouse of stories and popular culture.

Today what was left is fast fading from living memory, so with in another decade I doubt that there will be any left who remember the blacksmith on Beech Road or being sent to one of the local farms to collect fresh milk and butter.

This makes it exciting when there comes along an opportunity to give a wider audience the chance to read about that rural past.

Thomas Ellwood lived here in Chorlton and during the winter of 1885 into the spring of ’86 he collected and wrote accounts of Chorlton dating back into the 17th century.

These were published in the South Manchester Gazette and are available in Central Library, but they are on microfilm which makes them a tad more difficult to read.  Some of the articles reappeared in various church magazines but I have yet to find a complete set outside the Gazette.

In the case of Mrs Williamson her work appeared in a slender edition in 1888 and I have only been able to put my hands on one copy again from Central Library.

However Bruce Anderson whose local history site I have mentioned from time to time has digitized his own copy along with a number of other histories of Burnage, Fallowfield and Rusholme and they appear on Rusholme and Victoria Park Archive at  http://rusholmearchive.org/

‘Sketches of Fallowfield and the surrounding Manors, Past & Present’ By Mrs Williamson, “gives a very interesting account of how Fallowfield developed from fields between Rusholme & Withington in the 14th century, gradually becoming a desirable neighbourhood with church, chapel & schools in the third quarter of the 19th century. 

There are three maps, 1818, 1843 and 1885 that illustrate the changes during these years.”

She lived in Fallowfield with her husband, Professor William Crawford Williamson FRS. He was an eminent Victorian scientist who was appointed as the first Professor of Natural History (Geology, Zoology and Botany) at Manchester in 1851. 

Williamson was one of the great Victorian naturalists who knew and actively corresponded with Charles Darwin, Louis Agassiz, T.H. Huxley and other great scientists of the day. 

He also knew John Dalton and famously tended the great man during his final days, feeding him broth and other liquid sustenance. Williamson trained as a doctor and practised as an eye surgeon as well as pursuing his studies in the natural sciences.”

It is a wonderful book because it draws on the memories of those who experienced that rural life, and was a great help to me when writing my own account of Chorlton in the first half of the 19th century.*

And so for anyone wanting a vivid firsthand account of the handloom weavers of Burnage or the rush cart ceremony of Rusholme, Mrs Williamson and Bruce’s site have got to be worth a visit.

*THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy-new.html

Pictures; Chorlton from the collection of Tony Walker, cover of Mrs Williamson's book from the collection of Bruce Anderson

A bit of history …… some wildlife ….. and a walk beside Sale Water Park... not forgetting Mr. Thomas Elwood

Now, I guess most people know that Sale Water Park was created in 1979, runs through Mersey Valley between Sale and Stretford and has that 52-acre artificial lake.

A heron by the water, 2020

And if you have to have a motorway on your doorstep, turning the huge gravel pit created to provide material for that motorway into a gigantic pond is an imaginative trade off.

In places the lake is 90 feet deep, provides opportunities for a variety of water sports, and is a wonderful place to observe all sorts of wildlife.

Our neighbours, Mike and Helen, regularly walk the water and photograph the herons and swans that inhabit the area.

We had been talking recently about their walks and Mike promised to share some of his pictures including these of a heron.  “The two herons are the same bird, in the second shot it has just caught a fish and is about to fly off with a mate.”

The heron ready to fly, 2020

I can’t say I was aware of just how rich the area is in wildlife, and nor did I know the role the waterpark plays in our flood prevention schemes.

So, when the level of the Mersey becomes dangerous, excess water can be released on to the surrounding land. Similar flood prevention schemes are in place at  Chorlton Water Park and in Didsbury.

All of which is very different from when the Mersey would breach its banks and create huge lakes on both sides of the river.

The flood lake, 1963, from a photograph dated 1946

Such floods could be swift and there was often little warning, one of which was so sudden that a farmer just had time to release his horse before seeking refuge in a tree.

The Chorlton historian Thomas Elwood recorded a series of floods during the 1880s.

The first was on December 23rd, 1880, "when the bank beside Barlow Hall was washed away to a length of nearly 100 yards, followed by another on the 29th, when both streams overflowed their banks. 

The last time the weir was over topped, 1915

The next came on February 8th, 1881 when the repairs to the bank were almost completed, but so great was the volume of water coming down the river that the bank again gave way in the same place, and two streams overflowing their banks presented the appearance of one vast and extensive lake”.*

Further floods followed on March 7th and 9th which left a pile of earth from the broken bank on the meadow land to a depth varying from 11 to 3 feet, which eight months later had yet to be cleared.

And a final flood occurred on October 14th “when the brook bank gave way on the village side and the old wooden bridge across the river at Jackson’s Boat was washed away by the swollen stream”.

A more peacful scene, 2020

And so powerful was an earlier water surge, that it destroyed the newly built weir, constructed to protect the viaduct carrying the Duke’s Canal at Stretford.

All of which is in direct contrast to the scene today.

Location; Sale Water Park

Pictures; Sale Water Park, 2020, from the collection of Michael and Helen Kilduff, Higginbotham’s field in flood, J Montgomery 1963, painted from a photograph dated 1946, m800092, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the last time the weir overflowed, 1915 from the Lloyd collection

*Ellwood, Thomas, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, chapter 1, South Manchester Gazette, November 7th, 1885