Under the gas lamp on High Lane in the summer of 1905

I can see why Cissie decided to send this postcard to her young brother in the August of 1905.

He was staying at the delightfully named Gas Works cottage, Ambleside in Westmoreland and it is more than likely that some of the children staring back at us were known to him.

On the other hand Cissie mentions her uncle so it is just possible the she was just staying in Chorlton at Richmond Road* and choose a picture which she thought would appeal to him.

And there is a lot here which I think would appeal to anyone looking at the postcard today.

We are at the point where St Clements Road, and Manchester Road join High Lane and Edge Lane and the children are gathered underneath one of original gas lamp posts which had been set up in 1875 by the Urban Sanitary Authority which within a year would become the Withington Board of Health with its own administrative headquarters on Lapwing Lane.

And for those really interested, our first domestic gas had been provided by the Stretford Gas Company in 1862 who piped their supplies along Edge Lane, while the following year Manchester Corporation extended its main from Seymour Grove.

All of which is more than a piece of historical trivia because on the promise of cheaper gas supplies from Manchester in 1904 turned the vote for our incorporation into the City.

This was part of “an attractive package” which the Withington Amalgamation League set up in 1902 argued would mean a fall in the rates, bring “libraries, baths, reduction in water and gas rates, lower cemetery charges, music in recreation grounds better fire and police protection more deliveries of letters, technical classes, shares in tramway and electricity profits and the prospect of Ship Canal and School Board rates decreasing.”**

This was for many an offer to good to refuse and one that was shared by the City Council.  At their October meeting in 1903, much was made of the assets that Withington would hand over to the Corporation, including the newly built “hospital to which attracted 20-30 acres of land, ....[and] beyond that land for a smallpox hospital, a field for the extension of the tram services and the sewage farm, 80 acres in extent.”

And as Fletcher Moss pointed out amalgamation would bring Alexandra Park “that large park into the hands of the Council” and furthermore “the Corporation was the largest ratepayer in the Withington district and by far the largest owner of freehold estate with the possible exception of Earl Egerton” which meant they would be no longer paying out rates to Withington UDC.

And it seemed only to get better.  Under the terms of amalgamation all existing staff of the Withington UDC were taken on by the Corporation and “the price and conditions of supply of gas, water and electricity to the inhabitants of Withington shall be the same as those of the citizens of Manchester.  That all future tramways in the district of Withington shall be laid as double lines along carriage ways not less than 32 feet wide between curbs.  That two free libraries and two swimming baths to be established in different parts of Withington within five years..... that for a period of twenty years the rate shall not exceed 4s in the £.”

This was a set of promises which proved enough to clinch the vote for incorporation by 4,086 to 805.

So in the summer of 1905 our children had been residents of the city for just under a year.

Now whether they were out from school at dinner time or a weekend gathering is a bit difficult to say, but the picture looks to have been taken in the morning so maybe it was just that usual gathering of children drawn by the magic of a camera.

But not everyone is that bothered at the presence of the photographer.  To our right the work of loading the carriage outside Stockton Range goes on unabated. I would like to know if the carriage belonged to the residents of number 2.  The property did have both a coach house and a stable, so it is possible that Mr Charles Edwards who lived there may have been planning a journey.

Meanwhile in the distance sitting in the sun in front of the church are a mix of what I take to be a mother, grandmother assorted children and babies in prams.  It is a detail I might have missed if it were not that one of the prams looks remarkably familiar and is very similar to the one that just under 90 years later we would use for our own children.

And all that form Cissie’s postcard.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; from the Lloyd collection and Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, Withington Town Hall, October 16th 1906 m52133, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Richmond Road ran from Manchester Road to Oswald Road
**http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/heres-offer-you-cant-refuse.html

“exercising a rigorous protest against extravagance” ......... The Chorlton Ratepayers Association 1877-?

For over a hundred years we had our own rate payer association.  It may still be going but I can't find an address or a link for it in Chorlton.

But in the 19th century into the 20th ours was pretty active.

They harried the local authorities on issues to do with Chorlton, expressed their opinions to the local newspapers and put up candidates in municipal elections into the 1960s.

And like snow in the winter sun they have vanished.

There will be people who remember the Association may well have been members and might also have the faded minutes of meetings but I have yet to find them.

It was formed in 1877 after the election of the first Local Government Board the year before.  This replaced the old Poor Law committee which had raised a rate and looked after the governance of Chorlton since the 1830s.

Now much of the work of the earlier interested ratepayers here in Chorlton can be read in the minutes of the Vestry or Ratepayers meetings which were held regularly in the school house on the green from 1838. It is fascinating account of the day to day workings of the new poor law system of government.

But the new Local Board of Health was something much bigger, covering the four townships of Chorlton, Burnage, Withington and Didsbury.

And befitting this larger municipal enterprise some of the resident set up a Vigilance committee which later changed its name to the “Chorlton-cum-Hardy Ratepayers Association, its object to watch over the interests of the township generally and to take such active measures for the protection and welfare of the ratepayers as may be deemed advisable.”

It met four times a year in the Lloyds Hotel and was open to all rate payers who were prepared to pay the annual subscription of 5s and stump up the entrance fee of 1s which included a copy of the rules.

There was also an executive committee consisting of president, vice president, honorary solicitor, auditor, and honorary secretary and ten members which met more often.

Like all such vigilance committees ours exercised its concerns across the board from the state of the highways, issues of public health and transport to the provision of education.

And of course in the great debate on whether we should vote for incorporation into the city in 1904 the Ratepayers Association had a view and indeed continued to do so after we had become part of Manchester.

In those early years after incorporation one of the main complaints was that as the rates had gone up the promised benefits of a public library and tram service had failed to materialise.

It was according to one correspondant to the Manchester Guardian in 1905  “With such high and increasing rates  after if not on account of amalgamation, we may expect the Council to pay early attention to such requirements for the district as tramway routes, baths, and library, as promised, and also much needed  educational facilities by the speedy errection of the proposed elementary school.”*

And I do have some sympathy with the compliant given that in that May of 1905 the tram service still stopped at West Point**and our first municipal library was not opened for another three years and only then in a converted house on Oswald Road.

Added to this according to Mr Shorrocks the rise in the rates had to be seen against the loss “of cheaper gas, which other districts enjoy, being partly [still]  lighted by Stretford gas which costs more than that of Manchester.”

It had been an issue in the first Manchester Municipal elections after incorporation with the Progressive Party arguing, the advance of “good government” involved “exercising a rigorous protest against extravagance” and “preserving as far as possible the residential character” of Chorlton.***

And like all ratepayer associations I guess those concerns never went away, which I suspect would make them an interesting area of study.

As it is there is little to go on.  In 1911 according to Kemp’s Almanack and Handbook the registered address for our ratepayers association was Albert Harris, Station Approach.

Now this turns out to be one of the many offices for coal merchants by Chorlton railway station, although Albert Harris described himself as “estate agent and coal merchant.”  He lived on Maple Avenue.

Picture; courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, Withington Town Hall, October 16th 1906 m52133,

*J.H.Shorrocks, The Hard Case of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester Guardian May 22, 1905

**where Seymour Grove joins Upper Chorlton Road and Manchester Road

***Election leaflet, the Progressive Party, October 10th 1904

A tram journey, an adventure, and that old Town Hall in West Didsbury

It began as a tram journey and turned into an adventure.

Yesterday I was off to meet up with my old friend David Harrop who has supplied me with pretty much all the images I needed for the new book on Manchester and the Great War.

He was coming back from Oldham so we arranged to meet at Chorlton and travelled the tram to East Didsbury.

And there the journey became the adventure because on an impulse I got off at West Didsbury and wandered over to look at the old Withington Town Hall.

It was built in 1881 for the Withington Local Board of Heath which in 1894 became Withington Urban District Council and covered Chorlton, Burnage, Withington and Didsbury.*

There are still a few bits of evidence of this short lived local authority.

Some of the streets grids still bear the name Withington UDC and out on Chorlton Meadows there are the remains of the sewage works.

But in 1904 the ratepayers of the four townships were offered the chance to become part of the city.  It was an offer they couldn’t refuse and in the January of 1904, they voted to join looking forward to cheaper utility prices the prospect of new municipal libraries and schools.

The Town Hall remained in civic use and there will many who remember visiting the building or attending public meetings upstairs in the large hall.

It is presently the offices of pabla + pabla, solicitors.  Now I always ask the permission of the owners before taking a picture.  It is the polite thing to do and always offers up the chance of a guided tour of the building which is just what I got.  .

And for anyone interested in our municipal past it is all here to see from the council chamber to the doors into the council offices which still retain their original frosted glass each etched with the name of the department, from Water, to Gas and from Rates to Education.

And with their permission I might be back to look at their deeds.

 A everyone knows the deeds of properties  fascinate me partly because they have their own story to tell.

Not bad for one day on the tra.

Location; Withington Town Hall

And coming soon a fuller article in the July edition of Open Up South Manchester

Picture; detail of Withington Town Hall  2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Painting; Withington Town Hall, © 2015 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk


*Withington UDC

Celebrating our Municipal Town Halls part 5 .......... WithingtonTown Hall

Another in the short series celebrating our Municipal Town Halls which focus not only on the grand buildings but also the achievements of local government.

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 Chorlton along with those of Burnage, Didsbury, and Withington 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 across the district and the attractions of Manchester Corporation all of which I have written about.*

Painting; Withington Town Hall, © 2015 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

* Here’s an offer you can’t refuse, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/heres-offer-you-cant-refuse.html

Here’s an offer you can’t refuse

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 Chorlton along with those of Burnage, Didsbury, and Withington 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.

Now it is one of those places I have passed countless times and even once sat in the great hall during an election meeting in 1987 but at the time never really thought much of it.  I always thought of it as a pale imitation of the Town Hall in Albert Square, but then there was a time I didn’t much care for it either.   Of course I have changed my opinion about both.

In that town hall on Lapwing Lane took place some of the really important debates about the development of the township including the extension of the sewage system, the provision of more schools and of course the amalgamation with the city.

Manchester had been steadily expanding from its creation as a borough in 1838.* So it was natural that those areas to south which included the Withington UDC and Moss Side should at some point look to the advantages of being incorporated. 

For some the advantages were so clear that they openly campaigned for our inclusion.  The Withington Amalgamation League set up in 1902 argued that the rates would fall, and we would gain “libraries, baths, reduction in water and gas rates, lower cemetery charges, music in recreation grounds better fire and police protection more deliveries of letters, technical classes, shares in tramway and electricity profits and the prospect of Ship Canal and School Board rates decreasing.”**

This was for many an offer to good to refuse and one that was shared by the City Council.  At their October meeting in 1903, much was made of the assets that Withington would hand over to the Corporation, including the newly built “hospital to which attracted 20-30 acres of land, ....[and] beyond that land for a smallpox hospital, a field for the extension of the tram services and the sewage farm, 80 acres in extent.”  And as Fletcher Moss pointed out amalgamation would bring Alexandra Park “that large park into the hands of the Council” and furthermore “the Corporation was the largest ratepayer in the Withington district and by far the largest owner of freehold estate with the possible exception of Earl Egerton” which meant they would be no longer paying out rates to Withington UDC.

And it seemed only to get better.  Under the terms of amalgamation all existing staff of the Withington UDC were taken on by the Corporation and “the price and conditions of supply of gas, water and electricity to the inhabitants of Withington shall be the same as those of the citizens of Manchester.  That all future tramways inthe district of Withington shall be laid as double linesalong carriage ways not less than 32 feet wide between curbs.  That two free libraries and two swimming baths to be established in different parts of Withington within five years..... that for a period of twenty years the rate  shall not exceed 4s in the £.”  There was to be a special Withington Committee of the City Council.

Of course there was opposition some of which centred on whether the rate deal could have been improved, and the degree to which the assets were being handed over too cheaply but even these tended to accept that eventual amalgamation was inevitable.

So it fell to the vote of all rate payers which curiously was done by postcard.  “A circular on the subject to be posted to ratepayers on the Thursday of January 21^st, along with a reply postcard to be returned by the morning of the 26^th”which according to one aggrieved letter writer gave only the weekend and the Monday with no public meetings before returning the vote.  This might strike us as an odd way to vote but was the method which had been adopted by the various poor law councils in the townships since 1834.

The result was pretty conclusive with 4,086 voting for incorporation and 805 against.  And in the April of the same year Moss Side UDC also voted by 2,781 to 643to join the city.

Now if like me you enjoy crawling over election results then the first one of the new Chorlton Ward is fascinating.  The story of the campaign including the candidates, their election platforms will come later, but on Tuesday November 1^st 1904 the electors here in Chorlton ward had a choice six candidates for three seats.  The Progressive Party fielded three, the Conservatives two and there was an independent.  In some ways the Progressives were the most interesting and you can read about them at http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/more-reflections-on-international.html

The result was bizarre, because the electors chose one from each of the parties standing, which may reflect the wish to give each party a fair chance which was how one voter told me she would vote in 1982 when all three council seats here in Chorlton were being contested.

Picture; Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, Withington Town Hall, October 16^th 1906 m52133, election result from the collection of Lawrence Beedle

* When it was formed from the city centre, Ardwick, Beswick, Cheetham, Chorlton upon Medlock and Hulme.  And despite being unable to expand to the west because of Salford, took in Harpurhey, Bradford with Beswick and Rusholme in 1885, followed by Blackley, Clayton, Crumpsall, Moston, Newton Heath, Openshaw and West Gorton five years later and Heaton Park in 1903.

**The advantages to be derived by this district becoming amalgamated within the boundaries of the city of Manchester, Withington Amalgamation League, 1903